Movie Reviews from Chris

★ 1/2   out of  ★ ★ ★ ★ Mulan (2020) Runtime: 115 minutes  MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence Have the filmmakers forgotten to put human emotion, comedic side characters and respect to the Chinese culture in their newest live-adaption Mulan? Mulan is, at best, wooden, but part of me insists that it wasn't a terribly bad film. It's something that looks visually stunning, has great messages but is overall unappealing and odd. Mulan's story follows more or less of the original animated version's - A young Chinese maiden is informed that a war will be starting soon and each family has to send a male to join the battle. However, seeing her ailing father, Mulan decides to inherit his sword and disguise herself as a boy with the name Hua Jun, to be drafted into the war and save her father. One of the main problems about Mulan is that it lacks human emotion and a character arc. There is no psychological or emotional torture to the character, and there is nothin...

★★★   out of ★★★★ Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) Runtime: 117 minutes MPAA: Rated PG for frenetic sequences of animated action violence, thematic elements, and mild language. I can't believe I'm telling you this now. I missed the movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in theatres when it was still playing in 2018. Three years later, I finally got to see this animation from Sony Pictures Animation. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is admirable, but mistaken. Let me explain. Teenager Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a smart teenager from Brooklyn, is forced to apply in an elite New York boarding school. While struggling to find his place in life, school, friends and family, Miles gets bitten by a radioactive spider during one of his adventurous trips to an abandoned subway tunnel. He gains powers like the original Spider-Man. However, he has some newfound abilities - will not spoil - and meet multiple other Spider-Men-and-Women like him, coming from multiple ...

★★ ★  out of ★★★★ Batman Begins (2005) Runtime: 140 minutes MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense action violence, disturbing images and some thematic elements. Batman Begins is enjoyable, but far from great. At its best, Batman Begins a deep, dark psychological superhero movie that establishes the important story before getting into action sequences and mind challenges. However, the main flaw of "Begins" is that it builds up quite a few interesting narrative developments and characters, but alas, not all of them arrive. A re-boot of the Batman series, preceded by the depressing and torturing Batman & Robin from director Joel Schumacher, Nolan's Batman Begins explores the billionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), whom after his parents death, relocated to Asia to be mentored by Henry Ducard (Liam Neeson) and Ra's Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe). However, Bruce learns that Ducard has been planning to wipe out Gotham, so he leaves Asia and heads back home. Back home, Bruce faces and...

★★ ★ 1/2  out of ★★★★ The Pianist (2002) Runtime: 150 minutes MPAA: Rated R for violence and brief strong language. Tragedy ensues, as  Władysław Szpilman (Adrien Brody) is newly separated from his family. The Pianist is a melancholic and agonizing tale of the incredible survival of the famous Polish pianist  Władysław Szpilman. Though it starts rather slow and not exactly engaging, it becomes more compelling and shocking, thanks to its vivid depiction of the cruel treatment of Jews, and the psychological effects of war. The Pianist is the actual story of  Władysław Szpilman,  who in the 1930s, was widely regarded as the most acclaimed piano player throughout Poland. At the emergence of the Second World War, however, Szpilman and his family become subject to anti-Jewish laws imposed by the conquering Germans. By the early 1940s, Szpilman endures the Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw and then suffers the tragedy of his...

★★ ★ 1/2  out of ★★★★ The Big Sick (2017) Runtime: 120 minutes MPAA: Rated R for language including some sexual references. Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani) spills the beans about dating a white girl to his brother, but his brothers advises him to stop the relationship, because of their culture. As for the rest of the people sitting in the restaurant, don't worry. They hate terrorists. After a series of disappointing and inconsistent comedies I've watched, The Big Sick is a huge sigh of relief. Co-writer Kumail Nanjiani, who plays himself in this film, takes us into a part of his life - the part where he was struggling to be a stand-up comedian and the part where he met his current wife, Emily V. Gordon, and the various cultures and familial relations he had to break. It is very consistent with laughs but takes a little break towards the last half of the film, to introduce to the viewers his tragedy. In The Big Sick, Kumail is trying to make a living as a stand-up comic in Chicago, as...

★★ out of ★★★★ Frozen II (2019) Runtime: 103 minutes. MPAA: Rated PG for action/peril and some thematic elements. Don't get your hopes too high, Elsa. This is about as bright as Frozen II gets. Frozen II is a technical wonder, visually striking, and vividly colorful, but among those shining snow flakes and diamond-like ice, it gets lost in a misguided and predictable narrative. There were many moments where I wanted to like the film. Ultimately, my hopes were brought down as I endured many long and boring scenes I already got the answer to.  I can describe it as a mindless experience but eye candy . Set three years after the events of the first film Frozen, Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven, embark on a journey beyond their kingdom of Arendelle to an enchanted forest. There, they discover the origin of Elsa's magical powers and save their kingdom after a mysterious voice calls out to Elsa. To your surprise, I wasn't very interested to the sequel of Frozen. I even misse...

★ ★ ★ 1/2  out of  ★ ★ ★ ★ Tangled (2010) Runtime: 100 minutes MPAA: Rated PG for brief mild violence. One of the most iconic scenes, where Rapunzel (voiced by talented singer Mandy Moore) finally sees the lights and answers her lifelong question, along with Flynn (voiced by the to-be Shazam Zachary Levi). When Tangled was first released, I popped in to see what was going on with this film. At first, I thought that it was very long-drawn, boring, not memorable and the ending felt very unsatisfying. I even resorted to watching Frozen multiple times and trying to memorize the songs like 'Let It Go'. Those were the days. Upon re-watching Tangled ten years later, I got to finally realize how wrong I was. Unlike Frozen, which now I feel is over-rated and quite generic, Tangled is charming, energetic, magical and is so entertaining with its sometimes quirky and also human-like characters. Besides that, audiences will leave the theater with the songs running in their heads, whil...