Movies

Aladdin (2019) Movie Review

 in Movies by
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*Header image from IMDB.com

Summary

“A street rat frees a genie from a lamp, granting all of his wishes and transforming himself into a charming prince in order to marry a beautiful princess. But soon, an evil sorcerer becomes hell-bent on securing the lamp for his own sinister purposes.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

I was pretty disappointed with this movie to be blunt. When I saw the first trailer for it I was a little iffy already but because it looked, visually, beautiful I hoped that it would get better. Then the movie came out and I didn’t hear much about it anywhere. Some of the soundtrack songs came up on Spotify at some point and I was cringing at the auto-tuning. It hurt my musical soul.

Visually, it was gorgeous.

Something about this movie was gorgeous. I mean it was colorful and lots of fantastical elements. It was based on a animation so that’s expected but it really did have some gorgeous moments. But to me, that was the only thing that it had that was good.

The music was….painful.

The songs are classic. I grew up with Aladdin and all of the other classic Disney animations and then this just destroyed it. Will Smith doesn’t really sing and they autotuned the hell out of him and everyone else. It just killed it honestly. I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t really notice it because music producers have gotten much better at autotuning but if you really know what you look for you can’t miss it. So that just killed the soundtrack for me.

The story-line was cringy as live action.

I’m not sure what it was about it because as far as I remember the story line was pretty much the same, but it was quite cringy to watch as live action. There was nothing new, just rehashing the old story as live action. And to me it was just awkward to watch. Not awkward as in inappropriate but it just seemed like the directors were trying to make the live action as the animation and it didn’t work.

Disney needs to stop with this live action stuff.

I love animations and I love live action as well. Some of these live action movies have been fantastic but with so many of the classics being made into live action now they’re doing it too fast. They’re making these movies for the sake of making them and to get more money.

The movie felt rushed. The animations were meh, the story was meh, the music was meh, the cast was meh. Honestly, I’m glad I watched it on my computer because I was able to skip through parts because it was just…crap.

I know that some people really liked it and it’s one to add to the collection, but I just couldn’t get into it and enjoy it.

Happy Watching!

Top 10 Spooky Watches on Netflix

 in Holiday / Movies / TV by

It’s SPOOKY SEASON which means it’s the time to watch the ghostly and scary. Netflix has a fantastic collection of scary movies for ones which are kid appropriate to ones that…the little ones certainly should not be around for. We have the B-rated horror movies to some classics as well as those gruesome ones (not my cup of tea) that make you wonder if you should have eaten dinner.

However, here’s a list of my top 10 spooky watches which are on Netflix that are a mix of spooky to a ‘burning-calories-because-my-heart-is-racing’. Enjoy!

1. The Haunting of Hill House

2. American Horror Story (All Seasons)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9KZr2Vn7CQ

3. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybKUX6thF8Q&t=18s

4. The Conjuring

5. Gerald’s Game

6. The Mist

7. Scream

8. The Silence

9. Train to Busan

10. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOGc7CYm4pY

What Movies/TV Shows to Watch Out For in 2019

 in Books / Books-to-Movie / Movies by

With the summer rapidly approaching, a bunch of awesome new movies, and TV shows, are on the horizon!

Check out these few that I think will be some fantastic adaptations of a book to a movie, with a few I’m just interested in.

1. We Have Always Lived In The Castle – May

Based on the Shirley Jackson novel (which I just finished – review coming soon), I’m super excited about this one!

 

2. Good Omen – May

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJoR4vlIIs

 

3. The Sun Is Also A Star – May

 

4. Artemis Fowl – August

5. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark – August

 

6. It: Chapter 2 – September

 

7. The Goldfinch – October

 

8. Cats (2019) – December

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bumblebee (2018) [Movie Review]

 in Movies by

Starring

Hailee Steinfeld – Charlie
Jorge Lendeborg Jr. – Memo
John Cena – Agent Burns

Summary

“On the run in the year of 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie, on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken.”

Imdb.com

Review

I haven’t been to the movie theatre in ages and so my mom kicked my father and I out yesterday to go see a movie, and this was the choice! As a massive Transformers fan, I have been really excited for this movie since the teaser trailer came out a while ago! I didn’t grow up with the original TV show, which was from the 80’s, but after I saw the first Transformers movie so many years back, I dipped into the original show and it is so cute. It’s just such a classic – that an the original G.I. Joe.

My first draw to this movie was the fact that it was harping back to the original show and man, was it!

So like the original TV show!
Instead of the Transformers being completely realistic in the way that the new ones are, these ones really harped back to the original Autobots and Decepticons, with Optimus Prime being his well known square self and even some of the classic bad guys like Soundwave and Cassettes.

Really did only focus on Bumblebee.
As you can tell with the title, this movie was all going to be about Bee, which was good but I also wanted more. With the opening scene on Cybertron and seeing all of the original Transformers, I wanted to see more of them, but sadly they were not a big part in the movie. So I really hope that they make some more in a similar style to this one, going back to the original Transformers design, because I think that it could be so well done! Don’t get me wrong, I love the new designs in the movies, but this was just something special.

Simple story and not too over the top with the action.
With some of the newer TF movies, like The Last Knight, it’s action from the moment the movie starts all the way to the end. This one had so much more going on. You really saw a beautiful connection between Charlie and Bee, which was so wonderful. Bee has always been this sweet autobot who is also a badass, but in this one, you really understood the connection possible between the Autobots and Humans which you never got from the other movies. Of course you had the traditional epic ‘bot fight scenes, but it wasn’t as much non-stop action as before as there was a deeper story here.

A few continuity issues – I really hope they clarify!
As was stated in The Last Knight, the Autobots supposedly first came to Earth at the time of Merlin, the Wizard, and before then. Then Bumblebee came to earth during WWI, but in this movie it was supposedly his first time coming to earth in 1987. So it seems to be that timelines aren’t lining up which has been bothering me. It can be fixed, such as sending the Autobots away, like they came and left and then returned. But that was a big stand out to me. Also, not exactly continuity, but it was a little unclear that Bee had lost his memory in this movie because I was confused why he wasn’t doing his job and suddenly it became clear he had no memory. Maybe I wasn’t pay attention well enough but that confused me just a little.

Overall, one of the best Transformers movies.
Honestly I adored this movie. It was so well done visually, the music was really good too. It was such a throwback to the 80’s and 90’s with the time period and just so well done. It was so like the original show which I really liked. The animations weren’t perfect in the sense that they weren’t realistically melded into the world, especially seen with the opening scenes on Cybertron, but it was done in this ‘cartoon’ kind of style. It was realistic with it paying homage to the old show, which I really did adore.

This one gets 4/5 teacups.

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018) [Netflix Movie Review] 5

 in Books-to-Movie / Movies by

Starring
Christian Bale – Bagheera
Cate Blanchett – Kaa
Benedict Cumberbatch – Shere Khan
Rohan Chand – Mowgli

Summary
“A human child raised by wolves must face off against a menacing tiger named Shere Khan, as well as his own origins”
-From IMDB.com

Review

So I have been sooooo excited for this movie from when I saw the trailer a few months back. It just looked so epic and so beautiful and the music used in the trailer just caught my attention and had me watching the trailer over and over. So, I was literally counting down the days until December 7th and the release on Netflix.

I’m honestly quite impressed with some of the things that Netflix has been releasing recently. They’ve been high quality and really well done. So clearly Netflix is doing incredibly well!

Rohan Chand as “Mowgli” in the Netflix film “Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle”

Beautiful visuals!
The visuals in this movie were incredible. There were a few moments that the animations were…not perfect, but it didn’t really bother me because it gave it that story book quality. It wasn’t too fluid that it was like a real life movie, but it was fluid enough that it looked real with it harping back to it’s origins.

Darker than I thought.
If you’re looking for another retelling of The Jungle Book, then this isn’t really it. This movie was quite dark, definitely for older viewers. There was violence and such, so if your little one likes The Jungle Book, this isn’t really on the same level as it. It covers some darker issues and some of the scenarios were quite dark! 

“We look into their eyes as we kill them, so the soul doesn’t depart alone.”

Bagheera

A retelling of a classic – with a new twist.
So this really was a retelling of the classic story with a few changes. There was no King Louis and there were no songs like were in the original story. It was another angle on the life of Mowgli, something a little more realistic with a twist of colonialism In a way.

Baloo…a little creepy!
I always loved Baloo as he’s such a cuddly character in the story, but in this one, it looked like Baloo had been to war and back and was a little worse for wear. He just looked so much rougher than the others and I wasn’t expecting that as he’s just the cuddliest one in the original, so that was a different twist 

Incredible voice actors!
I really did enjoy the actors that they chose for the voices! They fit well and Benedict Cumberbatch has completely nailed this evil kind of voice. 10/10~

Overall I highly recommend.
This was an absolutely fantastic movie and I do recommend. It isn’t totally heartwarming and I was crying, I’ll say that. But it was such a beautiful watch. The story was incredible, the visuals amazing and overall it was just such a ride! As someone who grew up with the originals, I’m loving all of these retelling’s of classics from when I was a child. They’re just enough more mature to really draw me in again, but harp back to my childhood enough to remind me of the original story!

5 teacups
This show gets 5 out of 5 teaups!

 Happy Watching!