The Mandalorian: Chapter One (Spoiler Free) Review

The Mandalorian: Chapter One 

Director: Dave Filoni

Writers: Jon Favreau (Creator) 

Starring: Pedro Pascal, Omid Abtahi, Mark Boone Junior

The moment has arrived Disney+ is here! Which means… The Mandalorian is here for our viewing pleasure! Or well an episode is, sorry binge watchers we’re going to have to go at this one episode at a time. You could wait to binge, but honestly DON’T! This 40-minute show will give you those warm Star Wars sensations we all love with a cliffhanger that will make your jaw drop! I’m not using a figure of speech here guys, my jaw literally dropped! 

Director Dave Filoni and Writer/Creator Jon Favreau do a wonderful job of building this small part of the Star Wars universe so that the whole show feels familiar and new all at the same time. The visuals and overall vibe of the show make it feel like you are watching one of the movies while at the same time introducing new characters and worlds to sink our teeth into. 

The only (sort of) spoiler I’m going to put in here… that honestly isn’t really a spoiler, but don’t be overly excited for an opening crawl, sorry friends. While I love the crawl too, these episodes are around 40 minutes and time is too precious for the crawl. Once the episode gets going though, you don’t even notice it missing so I’m cool with its absenteeism. We still get some cool Star Wars editing tricks and overall vibes throughout, including a little comedy at the poor droids expense. 

Even though this episode had a lot of good moments in the short amount of time, it’s really all about the ending. I’m sure no one saw it coming and thanks to that massive cliffhanger, I’m going to be chomping at the bit to see what comes next! The second episode will be out Friday, November 15^th. And now we wait.

If you have watched the episode, what did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Just so everyone is aware, I’m going to include the episode release dates:

Episode 1: Tuesday, November 12^th (like seriously watch it already)

Episode 2: Friday, November 15^th

Episode 3: Friday, November 22^nd

Episode 4: Friday, November 29^th

Episode 5: Friday, December 6^th

Episode 6: Friday, December 13^th

Episode 7: Wednesday, December 18^th (psst this is the week The Rise of Skywalker comes out)

Episode 8: Friday, December 27^th

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Spider-Man: Homecoming (Spoiler Free) Review

 Spider-Man: Homecoming (Spoiler Free)

Director: Jon Watts

Writer: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley

Cast: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier

Synopsis: Several months after the events of Captain America: Civil War, Peter Parker, with the help of his mentor Tony Stark, tries to balance his life as an ordinary high school student in Queens, New York City while fighting crime as his superhero alter ego Spider-Man as a new threat, the Vulture, emerges.

Review: The Marvel Cinematic Universe done did Spidey right! The tone of this movie is so uplifting compared to the heavy/dark comic movies we have been getting as of late. Walking out of this movie felt almost refreshing, much like how we all felt walking out of the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. First things first though, I have to give a huge shout out to the writers and the director of this movie. Thank You! Thank you for not making us sit through another movie where we had to watch Uncle Ben die or Peter get bit by a spider, not even a flashback.  That time was giving a better purpose to tell this story. So again, I say thank you.

The story isn’t the only part of this movie that makes it great though, the casting for this movie was spot on. To start, Tom Holland has a very good chance at becoming the best Spider-Man ever. This has to be the closest rendition of Spider-Man to the actual comics that we have ever seen on the big screen.  To top it off the chemistry between Tom Holland, Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau, as Happy Hogan, was great. The relationship between the three is so relatable at times that it is pretty dang hard to not get some serious feels for Peter Parker.  That being said, I am one of those people that believe the villain makes the superhero. Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes (A.K.A The Vulture) really took this character and gave it wings. Yes, I’m sure you saw what I did there. Moving on, Keaton took a villain that could have turned out to be extremely lame and made it work. Toomes perfectly fits under the classification of “The hero of his own story” and it flat out works. While there isn’t as much air time as you would expect for Tony Stark or Adrian Toomes, it really helps the story take the time to show this as a Peter Parker/Spider-Man movie.  Also, Peter’s friend Ned is a hoot and a half. Actually, in all honesty, I feel like Ned is the character that represents how we all would react in this situation, down right giddy and filled with really random questions.

All in all, this movie really is just a good time. While, I’m not ready to pick between it and Sam Raimi’s 2004 Spider-Man 2, this one definitely belongs in the conversation. Over all, the characters and the story told makes this move shine bright, nothing was held back in the fights and the emotions were real every step of the way.  It is going to be a lot of fun to watch Peter Parker grow up in this world of superheroes. This movie is absolutely a must see!

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The Jungle Book - Box Office Review

The older some of us get the more opportunities there are to see stories from our childhood adapted to live action adventures. The “Jungle Book” (originally an animated Disney film made in 1967) has endured decades to maintain a special place in the hearts of all of us who remember our first time experiencing this fun adventure. The idea of taking animals who talk and creating a believable world where man can coexist in live action is quite the challenge so let’s dive in and take a look at my thoughts on “The Jungle Book” by Jon Favreau…

I will be honest as I always am when reviewing these films. I was excited to see this film. It was in my Top 10 most anticipated films of the year. However, I am a professional so I’m able to take a step back to examine the aspects of film making from a non biased view point, even though I was already inclined to believe it would be excellent. This film didn’t disappoint me at all. The story, classic. The adaption, superb. The voice actors, spot on. The computer generated imaging, beyond excellent. There is so much to enjoy in this film.

First, since this is a live action film I appreciated the time and attention to detail that went into making the visual world this film inhabits. You might believe that the time they spent working on this film was probably beautiful and torturous because of the wild jungle setting we see on screen. Well, the CGI (computer generated images) used in this film was revolutionary. We see a jungle but they made this film on a stage in California. This is the most ground breaking technology used for film to date. So when you see this, remember, this jungle was created, probably, on an Apple Computer. Amazing. 

Next, how do we bring these animated animals to life? You hire some of the most talented actors alive to come and do voice work for you. This is exactly what Disney did. The characters personalities jump to life because the skill of the actors voicing these characters is unbelievable. Jon Favreau must be one of the most agreeable directors in hollywood to have a career of working with so many talented people. This film is stacked with talent and I recommend you clink the link to view the IMDB page on all the talent in this film. There’s way too many to mention, so I recommend you do visit their page. 

However, the story will hinge on who you cast to be the “man cub” raised by wolves with the power to create “mans red fire” and Neel Sethi knocked it out of the park. Enter an actor who’s first major film role is this film. This kid was acting on green screens and when you consider how lovable his character is while knowing he’s got no real previous acting experience… WOW! I was not expecting his performance to impact me as much as it did. This kid did exactly what was needed for the film and that won me over.

“The Jungle Book” is in theaters now! I give this film all the bananas and fire that King Louie will want. And if you’re a fan of the original and some of those songs, you won’t be disappointed. This is a must see big screen film! If you can still see it on IMAX, do it. If not, still go see it. It’s a great movie for a date, or just a casual matinee viewing. GO SEE THIS FILM!

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