REVIEW! - 'BLUE BEETLE' (2023)

'Blue Beetle' (2023)

The reason that this review of “Blue Beetle” is coming so late after the movie’s release is due to the fact that I wasn’t originally going to see it in theaters. Not only am I suffering from superhero fatigue to a certain degree these days, I’m not really interested in films from DC due to how hit-or-miss their films have been in the past. Then, National Cinema Day came around and I figured that for a $4 ticket, this movie would be worth my time.

Then, I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed this movie! DC, why couldn’t you have been making films like this from the beginning!? “Blue Beetle” is an entertaining, action-packed, humorous movie that also happens to have a lot of heart.

The movie tells the story of Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña), a young man who has just graduated college and has returned home to find that his parents are about to lose their house. He gets a low paying job in order to try and make things right, but after a run in with Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine) from Kord Industries, he is given the mysterious and alien Scarab. The device quickly merges with Jaime and the Blue Beetle is born!

Now, Jaime must figure out how to harness the power before Jenny’s evil aunt Victoria (Susan Sarandon can get to him first. She wants the Scarab to power her new OMAC suits at Kord Industries. Jaime must figure out a way to keep his family protected as well once they get into Victoria’s crosshairs.

Xolo Maridueña stars as Jaime Reyes, a.k.a. the Blue Beetle!

Okay, so first thing’s first just to get it out of the way. The movie does NOT break the superhero formula and it even takes more than a few narrative cues from 2015’s “Ant-Man”. Both have characters that once utilized their superhero mantles, a love interest that has a lost parent, and a villain that wants to acquire the superhero’s tech in order to make lots of money. However, the movie utilizes the tried-and-true superhero formula to great effect.

First, it has plenty of action scenes that are fun to watch. With the Blue Beetle suit, Jaime can fly and he can manipulate it to make anything he wants from swords and shields to non-lethal weapons. That is, if he can ever learn to properly communicate with the Scarab in order to control said power.

The second thing this film has going for it is that it has a great sense of humor. More often than not, the jokes land and they usually revolve around Jaime and his family’s reaction to the Blue Beetle powers. I even enjoyed George Lopez as Jaime’s uncle Rudy and that’s saying something as Lopez has never exactly been one of my favorite actors or comedians.

What was surprising about the movie is how much heart the movie has. The DC films have usually ranged from bitchy and moody to downright dumb in the emotional department. Watching how much Jaime cares about his family and the few emotional moments that arrive in the movie’s second half, I’m a little angry that DC wasn’t making more movies like this earlier in the franchise’s history.

At the end of the day, I almost avoided this movie due to DC’s track record. I’m thankful that I ended up watching the movie on the big screen. It is a fun-filled movie that shows DC Films is capable of making fun superhero films. I’m just sad it came so late in the game during a time where most audience members may have already lost interest in the DC film franchise.

'Blue Beetle' is a fun and worthy ride that may be
a little too late for most people to care.

REVIEW! - 'OPPENHEIMER' (2023)

'Oppenheimer' (2023)

“Oppenheimer” is the biopic to end all biopics from Christopher Nolan, the man that not only directed the movie but also wrote the screenplay based on the book “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer”. Nolan tells the story through two perspectives. In the color segments of the movie, we are seeing the movie through the eyes of our titular character, Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) while the black and white segments are through the eyes of the man that would be Oppenheimer’s greatest villain, Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.).

The movie moves backwards and forwards through the narrative’s timeline. Some of it takes place during Oppenheimer’s rise through the Manhattan project while another thread follows Oppenheimer’s security hearing after the war and during the Red Scare. A third thread follows Strauss as he is trying to get confirmed to a cabinet position in President Eisenhower’s administration.

This movie brings the full weight of Nolan’s talents as a filmmaker to the forefront. The movie is shot on film with no extensive CGI shots, including a practical recreation of the Trinity Test, the first time we detonated an atomic bomb. The effect is astounding and great to watch yet while it does capture the full power of what we unleashed, it is also not the highlight of the movie.

The highlight of the movie are the amazing performances throughout. Murphy is on the fast track to win the Academy Award next year for Best Actor. Unless some surprising performance appears over the next four months, I feel like Murphy has this one in the bag as he completely falls into the role of this historical and, at times, controversial character.

Cillian Murphy is the tragic hero of Christopher Nolan's latest epic.

Another Academy Award that may be in the bag is a Best Supporting Actor statue for Robert Downey Jr. This movie proves once again why the actor is one of the best of his generation even before he donned a metal suit for Marvel Studios. Downey Jr. is at the top of his game here as he brings to life the cold, spiteful, grudge-holding Strauss and he truly disappears into the role.

Beyond both Murphy and Downey Jr., all of the actors in the movie give great performances as well. Matt Damon is dependable as ever as General Leslie Groves, the military director of the Manhattan Project. Emily Blunt is also in the running for Best Actress for her performance as Oppenheimer’s wife, Kitty, and Florence Pugh may be in for a nomination for Best Supporting Actress as Oppenheimer’s tortured mistress, Jean Tatlock.

Then, there is Nolan’s storytelling along with the editing skills of Jennifer Lame. Yes, the movie is three hours long but they tell the story at such a brisk and nonlinear pace that I never once felt that the movie was too long or that there were things that the movie didn’t necessarily need. Not only do I think that Nolan will win his first Best Director Oscar, Lame will win for editing and Hoyte van Hoytema will win for his stunning cinematography.

I have yet to find a Nolan film that I didn’t like. I keep waiting for the director to make a movie that doesn’t work for me, but so far he’s on a winning streak that hasn’t stopped yet. “Oppenheimer” may very well be another masterpiece from one of the best directors working in the business today.

Not only is it one of Christopher Nolan's best films,
it is the film to beat for Best Film of 2023!

RETRO REVIEW! - 'HACKERS' (1995)

Hackers (1995)

The computer lingo and imagery in 1995’s “Hackers” admittedly shows us just how much we didn’t know about computers or the internet at the time. Still, as Roger Ebert said in his own review when the film came out, I take the computer stuff in this movie about as seriously as I take the archeology in an Indiana Jones movie. What the film gets right is the cyberpunk hacker culture of the day and it includes likable characters, a delightfully over-the-top villain, and a fun action thriller story.

The movie’s main protagonist is Jonny Lee Miller as Dade Murphy, a.k.a. “Crash Override”, a character that was sentenced to never using a computer until he was 18. That’s because he crashed over 1500 computer systems. Now, he’s been forced to move to New York and soon finds fellow hackers including Jesse Bradford’s Joey, Matthew Lillard’s “Cereal Killer”, Laurence Mason’s “Lord Nikon”, and Renoly Santiago’s “Phantom Phreak”.

He also gets into a rivalry with Angelina Jolie’s Kate Libby, a.k.a. Acid Burn. Soon, though, all the hackers become a target of “The Plague” (Fisher Stevens), a hacker that works for cyber security for a mineral company. He created a worm in order to extort money from the company, but after Joey discovers the “garbage” file that the worm is in, he decides to pin the blame for the worm on Joey and his fellow hackers while Plague eventually escapes with the money along with his accomplice, Margo Wallace (Lorraine Bracco).

Crash Override and his fellow hackers
prepare to take down the Plague in 'Hackers'!

The first thing to note are the likable characters. Miller is great as Crash Override while Jolie shows off her early yet still formidable acting talents as Acid Burn. These two are obvious love interests for each other, but their rivalry also feels real. There is a secret service character named Richard Gil (Wendell Pierce) that gives our hackers some trouble in addition to the Plague. One of the best sequences in the movie is when Crash Override and Acid Burn enter into a competition to see which one can cause more grief for Agent Gil.

Not only are the characters likable, the world they live in is fun to visit as well. Whether they’re at school or at a place where hackers go to hang out and talk shop, you feel like this world is real even though it is over-the-top.

The movie’s music is also worth noting. It is a techno fueled soundtrack and, along with the first “Mortal Kombat” film, it helped raise techno music’s popularity at the time. The music helps sell this crazy techno world that our characters reside in.

Visually speaking, the special-effects featured on the computers are complete nonsense. They’re just made to make you feel like the hackers are diving deep into a computer to retrieve data and information. Surprisingly, these visual effects still work to help sell the story as well even though we now live in a world where people are far more literate when it comes to computers.

The movie didn’t do well when it was released in theaters. It only made $7 million against a $20 million budget and seemed destined to be forgotten. Thankfully, “Hackers” went on to become the cult classic that it deserves to be. The computer lingo and effects may be nothing more than eye candy, but the fun story, interesting world, and great characters keep you engaged in what turns out to be a fun ride straight out of the ‘90s!

A blast from the 1990s that holds up surprisingly well!