Holiday Epic Funtime

JUSTICE LEAGUE

ACTION/ADVENTURE

PLOT:    The origin of the team of the Justice League.

                Superman is dead and Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) decides to collect of people with superpowers to stop the herald of Darkside, Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) from retrieving the three Mother Boxes to destroy the world.   The superheroes are: Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), The Flash, (Ezra Miller) Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and Aquaman (Jason Momoa).  For those who think this is the Dark Knight, it isn’t!!  It is a lighter tone.  The movie was much longer but the studio; Warner Brothers edited it to two hours.  It may feel rushed by it just may have been cut for time.  The team has great chemistry but the villain not so much.  Fans know who Steppenwolf is but many people do not.  The Flash and Aquaman are the highlights of the film.  They are heroic and humorous.  If you see this movie DO NOT rush out when the credits start rolling!  There are two post-credit scenes  you want to see.  Marvel films does this post-credits scenes all the time, but now DC is doing it . 

THE STAR

ANIMATED

PLOT:  The telling of first Christmas with animals.

              There have been many films of the first Christmas from the animal’s point of view but this is well-made and heartfelt.   Many celebrities used their voices to this film but what makes it good is that it is funny and the animals are cute.  It is for children as well as adults.  I believe it will be a classic years to come.  If you can, please watch it!!!

MARSHALL

BIOGRAPHY/DRAMA

PLOT:   A young and only lawyer of NAACP and one of his famous cases.

               Chadwick Boseman loves bio films.  He was baseball great Jackie Robinson and the Godfather of Soul James Brown now he plays Thurgood Marshall.  He is a young lawyer who helps black people trying to get a fair trial.  In one case a blonde upper class beauty Kate Hudson is attacked by a black man Sterling K. Brown.  Marshall and his assistant Sam Friedman (Josh Gad) who is his lawyers.  You figure out the outcome before the movie is over but the acting is excellent from all the leads.  Hudson and Gad known for comedy are fantastic.  The movie did not do very well in theaters but I hope in video for it is outstanding.  Actor Boseman will be in the highly anticipated movie Black Panther.

MURDER OF THE ORIENT EXPRESS

MYSTERY

PLOT:  Remake of 1974 film of the same name.

                Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) is a retired detective boards a train and Samuel Ratchett (Johnny Depp) is murdered.  He solves it but it is a somber conclusion.  Branagh isn’t just an actor but a director and he is very good at it!  It is well made and beautiful to look at.    The cast is not just A-list in popularity but talent as well.   Judi Dench (M from the James Bond films), Willem Dafoe (Spiderman, John Wick), Derek Jacobi (I Claudius, Gladiator) and Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens). The trailer seemed it would be lightweight-it wasn’t.  It is always welcome to see a good who dunnit in the midst of action packed superheroes.