Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

I will admit that while I'm a fan of Star Wars, I thought Disney was going a little too overboard in their Star Wars film announcements. Surely even hardcore Star Wars fans would eventually get tired of ALL the Star Wars films headed their way.

Of course Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the beginning of proving me wrong. The film is directed by Gareth Edwards and one of the main things that made me incredibly happy was the diversity.

Anyway, this particular story takes place between Episode 3 and Episode 4. The Empire has completed a new weapon capable of destroying entire planets. Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) has had some disagreements with the rebel alliance and is now fighting the Imperial Army with some others in a more extreme manner.

Fifteen years before, Gerrera rescued Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) after her father is captured by the Imperial Army. Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) used to work for the Army, and is needed once again to help make the Death Star. That's not a spoiler and you know it! Jyn receives a hologram message from her father telling her of a deadly flaw in the Death Star and encourages her to steal the plans so that it may be destroyed. If you've seen Episode 4, you know how the Death Star is destroyed.

The story revolves around Jyn and her fight to prove that she and her father's message can be trusted. While she is not able to convince everyone, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), the reprogrammed enforcer droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), a blind warrior-monk Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen), his companion Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen), and a former Imperial pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) join her in infiltrating the Imperial base and obtaining the plans.

Let me once again celebrate all the names I just listed and the fact that they are all people of color! Anyway, while the characters are cool it is a little hard to keep track of all the new characters we are introduced to since obviously we have never met them before. Jones and Luna are great as the leads and it's nice to see their relationship develop albeit a bit quickly. Tudyk, as always, steals the scenes whenever his droid is there and Yen is kick butt and funny.

We do get some glimpses into some members of the Imperial Army as well. Some we have seen in the previous films and some new ones as well and while essential to the story, I honestly can't tell them apart from one another. Watching the film I knew who was who, but visually only.

While there are some good action sequences, I felt the film jumped from moment to moment probably to keep the film within an acceptable run time. This in turn, causes some moments to be cut short while giving the film a frenetic feeling.

Overall though Rogue One is a good film. The action sequences are awesome. It is also weirdly fun getting to see in detail how the planets are destroyed. In Episode 4, a planet blows up as soon as it is hit, but here we see that it is a slower, more painful process.

I have heard said that this is the greatest of all the Star Wars films and while I would not go that far, it was enjoyable. It can't be compared to the other films easily as it is it's own stand alone story. We don't know these characters, but we root for them all the same. These are neither Sith nor Jedi, just members of the galaxy who want to make sure the Imperial Army is destroyed.

This is an action film through and through. There is no unexpected plot twist, although the ending is quite surprising. It is an extension of the Star Wars story and fans will appreciate the nods to the previous films.

It is cool as well to see that the Rebel alliance is not perfect. Jyn doesn't want to join the alliance at first. Some are extremists, others are willing to give up as soon as things get difficult. They disagree on many things. They have done horrible things in the name of the Alliance. Still this is an accurate representation of war.

Rogue One is a good Star Wars film. It isn't great, but it is cool to get a glimpse into what the Rebels had to do in order to destroy the Death Star. Some want more lightsaber battles, others are happy with the result. I say watch it and decide for yourself.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

James Stewart (center) in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life

I have heard about It's A Wonderful Life for years, but had never seen it. I finally gave it a chance a couple of nights ago. The film is directed by Frank Capra and stars James Stewart.

The film is based on a novel The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern and it shows the audience that while life may not go as planned, we all have wonderful lives.

In addition to directing the film, Capra produced it and wrote it with two other people. It was a flop when it initially premiered, but over the years has gained a following.

Cover for It's' a Wonderful Life

The film is long and filled with quite a bit of innuendos. This caught me off guard simply because of the time when it was written. Of course the main drive of this film is to leave the audiences in better spirits and it does.

This was my first time watching James Stewart and he does a good job. He carries the film as he is in it pretty much from beginning to end and his character goes through some rough moments. He starts off as a man dreaming of leaving his small town. to not getting to leave, to everything going to heck and in his most vulnerable moments he begins to think the unthinkable.

James Stewart and Donna Reed have great chemistry together as the main characters in the film. Lionel Barrymore plays Henry Potter, the richest man in town. He is the villain who only cares about getting all the money he can get his hands on, and Barrymore is as cold as they come.

Donna Reed is wonderful as Mary Hatch, the woman who has always loved George Bailey. The rest of the cast does a great job as well.

Scene from It's A Wonderful Life

Yes the film is long, but it gives us nothing but important information. All is revealed at the end.

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Growing up in the nineties, I only thought one version of this film existed. Of course I am referring to the remake starring Mara Wilson.

Well, it turns out I was wrong as I found out many years later. The original film actually premiered in the summer of 1947. Miracle on 34th Street is one of the greatest Christmas films to ever be made. It is sweet but not overly so. It is funny, charming and engaging. It is a work of art. It captures the Christmas spirit and makes you wish the world was truly like the one portrayed here.

I never saw the remake, but my favorite online critic Nostalgia Critic emphasized the importance of sticking to the original. Of course I am still curious about the remake mainly due to my childhood dream of seeing it, but I can not imagine it being this good. While this film focuses on Santa Claus, I did not bother me as much as other films that do so.

Santa Claus is real and that is all that needs to be said about him. If any of you doubt his existence, watch this film and see for yourself. Portrayed by Edmund Gwenn there has never been a finer Kris Kringle on film.

The real miracle occurs when Santa Claus proves to a little girl who has been taught to think logically all her life that he is the real deal.

The best thing about this film is that it proves how awful Christmas commercialism is and when we put our thoughts and efforts into battling this, we might be able to actually achieve it.

The film opens on Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The hired Santa is drunk and Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara) quickly replaces him with the man offering advice who goes by the name Kris Kringle.

Mr. Kringle turns Doris's life upside down and consequently that of her daughter Susie (Natalie Wood) and their neighbor Fred Gailey (John Payne). The movie is worth the watch so that is all I will reveal. Hopefully I have convinced you to give it a watch.

George Seaton directs the film based on a novel and not only is it directed well, the performances are phenomenal. 

Edmund Gwenn is adorable and John Payne and Maureen O'Hara balance each other out perfectly. Natalie Wood is great at portraying a child wise beyond her years, but is still able to capture the childlike innocence all children have regardless of what they are taught to believe.

The Little Prince (2015)

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote a novella that captured the imagination of many readers. It is about a prince who lives on his own asteroid when a rose begins growing and demanding more attention than he can give. He decides to leave and he comes across other asteroids each inhabited by an adult who has forgotten what it is like to be a child. He eventually makes his way to Earth where he befriends a fox and an aviator in the Sahara. The Little Prince cannot live on Earth for long and makes a deathly bargain with a snake so he may return to his asteroid. The aviator touched by what he learned from the Prince decides to turn their encounter into a book.

Now you can watch the book come to life. The film is currently streaming on Netflix and it is not quite what I expected. The film is a combination of animation and stop motion and is absolutely gorgeous. The voice acting is also strong. However, I was curious as to how you can adapt such a short, philosophical novella into a full length feature. The answer: by making it a story within a story. The aviator is still telling his story, but you get to see him and his interactions with the world after his experiences as opposed to just reading about them. It works well actually.

The film opens in a world much different than that if the little prince's. The Little Girl (Mackenzie Foy) is preparing to become as an efficient adult as her Mother (Rachel McAdams). The world in which the Little Girl and the Mother live in is extremely bland and predictable. The Mother has planned out every minute if every day so her daughter can grow up o be a great adult. The Little Girl lives this life not knowing any other way to be.

She meets her neighbor the Aviator (Jeff Bridges) and he shares with her the story he has written about his life with the Little Prince. It is when we enter the world of the story that the animation turns to stop motion. It is in these moments that the novel truly comes to life.

These are also the most beautiful moments from the film  visually. We see the Little Prince tame the Fox who I was surprised to find out is voiced by James Franco.

This film is a good one. To see the two worlds parallel one another with the aviator tying them together is satisfying. The characters are fleshed out and you are dragged through a visual wonderland. The aviator becomes a friend to both, first because the Little Prince asks for a sheep, second because he sees the Little Girl needs one. I was not a fan of the novella when I first read it and when I read it again I appreciated it more, but seeing it I truly love the message it is trying to state. The Little Girl is able to relate to the Aviator more than she has been able to with anyone else. The Little Prince teaches her to see more than what she is being taught.

While I did like the film in its entirety, I will say the last third of the film is not as strong. When she is close to losing the Aviator, the Little Girl hops on his plane in search of the Little Prince. The Aviator is dying and she wants to reassure him that the Little Prince made it back without incident to his asteroid. She ends up on an asteroid that did not exist before. Here there are no children, the adults work all day and the stars are locked up. Shocked to find the Prince is an adult and working as a janitor, the Little Girl knows she has to help the prince remember everything. She is able to restore everything to the way it should be.

It is a happy ending. Still, this part of the film is not as strong as its former parts. Its fun to see how the characters the Little Prince encountered are getting on in this world, but these are not people we care about.

Dr. Strange (2016)

It is no secret that I am not a huge fan of superhero movies. Sure, a lot of them are fun, but for the most part I find them to be highly overrated and would rather invest my time in something else. Unless of course there is a standout performance in the film like that of Tom Hiddleston's Loki. I can entertain myself whenever he is onscreen, but otherwise I find myself counting down the minutes until he's the main focus again.

Dr. Strange was filled with cool graphics and introduces us to another rich, overly sarcastic character who will hopefully take Robert Downey Jr.'s place. (There is nothing wrong with Downey Jr., his performances have gotten formulaic and I am getting sick of him playing the same character film after film).

Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is one of the best (if not the best) neurosurgeon in the world. After getting into an automobile accident, his hands become damaged and there is no way to repair them. This leads him to the Himalayas where he begins training under the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton). He begins to learn ways to transport himself between dimensions; yield weapons; and control time.

The villain in Dr. Strange is named Kaecilius, (Mads Mikkelsen) a former student of the Ancient One who wants to harness the power of the dark dimension. He is cool, but there is nothing particularly memorable about him.

Dr. Strange has a dynamic cast: Chiwetel Eljiofor, Rachel McAdams, and Benedict Wong. Of course, all the actors mentioned thus far give great performances, but there is nothing particularly interesting about any of them. McAdams is Dr. Strange's ex-girlfriend who can not seem to let him go despite the fact that he does not treat her well. Wong is the token Asian guy. Eljiofor has the most to do after Cumberbatch, but his arc was sloppy.

Cumberbatch was delightful as the titular character. He was sarcastic, but was able to bring in the subtle nuances of the character as well. Cumberbatch also has great chemistry with Swinton and the scenes they have together are some of the more interesting to watch.

Marvel has gotten a reputation of being the fun, dynamic movie studio and this film, like the others, does have its light hearted moments. Although, I will say that some of the comedic moments in this film felt forced. It also seemed to take itself more seriously than other Marvel films, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

The problem with that is the film seems to be struggling with the direction it wants to go in. Wong is the one who handles the comedic moments the best. He got the most laughs. Everyone else tries to deliver the funnier lines, but they struggle with the moodiness of their characters.

Dr. Strange is a cool character and I am looking forward to seeing him in future Marvel films. The special effects in the film are awesome. One of the coolest scenes is when Strange fights Kaecillius in the mirror dimension and you see time space being bent in strange and fantastical ways during the battle.

This was a good film, but not a great, memorable one. Cumberbatch is great though and I am sure he will bring an awesome dynamic to any of the other Marvel characters he meets.

A Monster in Paris (2011)

3.5/5 Stars

I was hesitant to get into the film at first, but once I did I ended up enjoying it. A Monster in Paris is set in the early 1900s and draws a lot of its inspiration from silent and classic films of the era. The film focuses on the friendship between Lucille (Vanessa Paradis) and a giant flea who sings beautifully (Julian Lennon).

The film is visually gorgeous and the characters are charming. It is also a musical, and the numbers are engaging and fun. The final chase scene is forced however. It is a children's film though, and there are definitely worse things out there.