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(11/14/19 5:17am)
“One Piece” is a classic ongoing Japanese fantasy action manga series chronicling the adventures of the Straw Hat pirates as they journey across a ridiculous world in search of thrills and treasures. At the same time, “One Piece” is also one of the most profitable media franchises of all time, stretching across manga, anime, games and films. “One Piece: Stampede,” which was released Oct. 24, is the fourteenth feature film in the “One Piece” film series and serves as a commemoration of the animated series’ twentieth anniversary. Though a bit light in plot and rather poorly constructed, “Stampede” is sure to please established fans as a celebration of the series history with more than a few fun tricks up its sleeves.
(10/11/19 6:51pm)
“Joker” entered theaters Friday with considerable fanfare — the film had an award-winning premiere at the Venice Film Festival, various media outlets have been speculating as to its potential cultural impact for a month and some law enforcement agencies have assessed extremist threats of violence inspired by the film’s release. Such an exaggerated and motley pedigree would normally precede a film worthy of some sort of strongly-worded review, but the only words that appropriately describe “Joker” are synonyms for “mild.”
(06/11/19 12:57pm)
“Brightburn,” a new superhero-horror film which hit theaters May 24, riffs on the classic origin story of the iconic American hero Superman. The film’s initial marketing was heavily centered around the involvement of its producer, James Gunn, because of his high-profile relationship to more traditional superhero media — he directed the first two “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies and was on board for a third at the time. Gunn’s involvement with “Brightburn” comes as no surprise, as the film was written by his brother and his cousin, Brian and Mark Gunn, although the film itself is not remensciscent of any of James Gunn’s own filmography. “Brightburn” is simply a lame horror flick not nearly worth the outsized marketing profile circumstances afforded it.
(04/11/19 1:31am)
DC Comics and Warner Bros. Pictures are not particularly interested in a single cohesive direction for the DC Extended Universe, seeing as their most recent film lineup includes last December’s CGI fish-man epic “Aquaman” as well as the announcement that a morose, demented Joker film will be released later in 2019. “Shazam!,” which hit theaters April 5, reflects this attitude in that it feels like a callback to an earlier era of superhero films, before the development of shared cinematic universes. It’s reminiscent of a time when superhero films were independent projects — neither devoted to world-building for future films nor themselves dependent on the world-building of those that came before it.
(03/12/19 2:53pm)
“Shadow” is a six-hour eight-episode Netflix series — the studio’s first from a South African television studio with a South African cast. The action-thriller series landed on Netflix March 8. It’s certainly encouraging to see a relatively small and underrepresented area make a global media debut, but it’s nevertheless important to prevent this fact from unnecessarily clouding the way that this show is received. The reality that “Shadow” is a deeply amateur project, one with far more heart than brains.
(02/19/19 12:51am)
“Battle Angel Alita,” known in Japan as “Gunnm,” was a classic cyberpunk manga series published from 1990 to 1995. The series was episodic, chronicling various segments of the titular character Alita’s years-long journey of battle and self-discovery. Endeavoring to adapt part of the vast story into a film is certainly ambitious and necessitates a substantial level of skill — a level that is not on display in the new film “Alita: Battle Angel.”
(02/13/19 3:06am)
When “The Lego Movie” premiered in 2014, general expectations were dismissive and cynical. Animated movies centered around children’s toys and licensed merchandise are typically cheap, disposable fodder destined to either fill space on television channels or distract children on long car rides. But “The Lego Movie” shattered the mold with hilarious writing, creative visuals and an earnest appreciation of child’s play. As a direct sequel to the surprising favorite, “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” is saddled with expectations in the opposite direction. Although it fails to reach the spectacular heights of its predecessor, “The Lego Movie 2” is a fun and uniquely appealing movie in its own right.
(12/14/18 6:03pm)
After nine years of dormancy, the venerable “Rocky” sports film franchise was revived with a spinoff sequel in 2015, “Creed,” in which Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) sought the help of former series protagonist Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) in following in the footsteps of his deceased father, former heavyweight boxing champion Apollo Creed. This more sober but still exhilarating entry into the franchise was propelled by great writing, stellar choreography, wonderful performances and above all, a keen understanding of the “Rocky” legacy, and the film earned immense critical praise. “Creed” put a great amount of effort into proving worthy of carrying the torch handed down by the “Rocky” series, but the sequel, “Creed II,” almost seems to be trying now to hand the torch right back.
(12/21/18 4:49pm)
“Ramen Shop,” originally released under the title “Ramen Teh,” is a Japanese-Singaporean-French film submitted to the Virginia Film Festival for consideration for Best Narrative Feature. As far as narratives go, the film is rather cliché and simple but will at least be enjoyable for anyone looking for a quick bite of Singaporean culture.
(11/16/18 10:03pm)
“Overlord” is a painful movie to watch — specifically, the pain emanates from the chest, as the viewer’s heart desperately pounds against the ribcage. “Overlord” successfully blends the best aspects of raw war films and big-budget horror flicks, blitzing the senses with an incredible combo of pulse-pounding action and nail-biting frights.
(07/27/18 4:42am)
Making a new “Jurassic Park” movie has proven to be a lot like genetically engineering a dinosaur. A team of creators seeks to revive a majestic entity from a previous era, so they acquire the entity’s basic materials and recreate it as best as they can.
(03/30/18 3:09am)
Imagine sitting in a movie theater back in 2013 and having a giant robot fist crash through the screen. That was “Pacific Rim,” a sci-fi action movie about giant robots tasked with fighting giant monsters — tacky and senseless, but regardless the kind of hard-hitting and unique spectacle that one can’t help but marvel at. But the new sequel, “Pacific Rim Uprising,” is the kind of lame follow-up that can only sit in the first film’s giant robot shadow.
(03/21/18 4:49am)
The long-running classic “Tomb Raider” franchise is an action-adventure video game series inspired by the Indiana Jones movies. In 2013, the series was rebooted with “Tomb Raider,” a video game, which inspired the live-action movie now in theaters also called “Tomb Raider.”
(03/01/18 6:59am)
Marvel Studios continues to achieve incredible success in movies, but the same cannot quite be said of their comics. The year 2017 was particularly notorious for the company, as comic book sales declined and a PR crisis seemed to break out every month.
(02/22/18 6:47am)
It’s tempting to settle for celebrating the fact that “Black Panther” exists at all. Even before the Marvel Cinematic Universe accelerated the release of superhero movies, there was a solid selection of revered comic book movies featuring white heroes. Consequently, there have always been fewer movies with black heroes, and almost never as well received or fondly remembered. On timing alone, “Black Panther” is a milestone as the last solo live-action superhero movie to feature a hero of African descent, not counting “Hancock” from 2008 or “Blade: Trinity” from 2004.
(11/21/17 5:01am)
“Justice League” has its moments — some wonderfully impactful action snapshots, some truly memorable lines, some joyously humorous gags. Yes, “Justice League” has excellent, enjoyable moments. But a movie is not merely a collection of moments. Movies have plots, characters, structure, competent visual design and writing — all things that “Justice League” sorely lacks.
(11/13/17 5:09am)
“Blade of the Immortal” (“Mugen no Jūnin”) — directed by the venerable and eccentric filmmaker Takashi Miike — is a Japanese film adaptation of a manga series of the same name which first serialized in 1993. Miike has been directing for over 26 years, and though his filmography includes some light-hearted fare like farcical musical comedy and kids’ shows, he is most well known for his penchant for extreme violence and his ceaseless output. Both of these themes are apparent in “Blade of the Immortal,” which has been proudly advertised as his 100th film.
(10/27/17 3:28am)
The Tuesday Evening Concert Series continues to bring some of the finest classical chamber musicians to Charlottesville. This week, Russian-American violinist Yevgeny Kutik and American pianist Spencer Myer teamed up to deliver a series of duets for a strong audience in Old Cabell Hall with the Maurice Amado Foundation as Principal Underwriter.
(10/24/17 3:21am)
Flashback to 2014 — four live-action films based on Marvel comics are released by three different studios. Rival company DC Comics on the other hand hasn’t had anything to offer since the previous year’s “Man of Steel,” but rumors were aplenty with plans to compete with Marvel.
(10/16/17 2:50am)
“The Foreigner” is not a Jackie Chan movie. Chan does star as the titular foreigner Ngoc Minh Quan — a British expat from China with a bloody past. But Chan is famous for his impressive library of light-hearted kung fu flicks. “The Foreigner,” on the other hand, has more in common with darker action movies like “Taken.” The film is also not a “Jackie Chan movie” in the sense that it belongs just as much to Chan’s co-star, Pierce Brosnan, who plays Irish deputy minister and former Irish Republican Army leader Liam Hennessy.