Hugh Jackman gives long-time X-fans a bloody and emotional farewell in 'Logan'

The X-Men were my first foray into the vast world of Marvel and superheroes in general; Wolverine was always my favorite hero out of that team. Seeing Hugh Jackman portray the honorable and aggressive anti-hero has been great since the first film in 2000 and his performances only got better through the years. The last time we saw Logan was 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past, where we got a glance at the razor-clawed antihero's time traveling exploits during the 70's. His actions produced a pretty future for the X-men. This movie gives us a deeper glance into that future...and it's not pretty by any means.

The film opens in 2029, where Logan is not the man we once knew; hiding in plain sight as a grizzled, down-and-out limo driver to make a living. From ferrying drunk girls to bachelorette parties and frat boys around Vegas, it's clear this hero is no longer super. He carries around a pint of bottle of booze, drowning in liquor each day and looking purely exhausted. It's not the Logan we have known and loved for years. At least, until someone crosses him and the claws pop out. Logan takes more of a beating than he did before, but is lethal as ever by taking body parts and killing vagrants. It turns out that the future is a dark time for mutants, especially for those who are left. There aren't many left. And those who are still alive and kicking are barely surviving and in bad shape. Patrick Stewart's Charles Xavier is frail and fights to make sense of the world around him because of some sort of degenerative brain disease. Logan looks after him while hiding out in the Mexican Desert.

But they can't stay hidden forever as Logan is tracked down by a woman, requesting the former X-Man to take her and her daughter (Dafne Keen) to a special location. We all know she doesn't make it, but the girl, a feral-looking mute girl, makes her way to the Desert. Evil follows her as group of bounty hunters under the payroll of an evil scientist named Dr. Rice (Richard E. Grant). That's where we find that this girl has her own set of adamantium claws similar to Logan's and she is a part of a new line of mutants. Our heroes have to protect her from Rice's henchmen and deliver her to a mutant rendezvous near the Canadian border.

Essentially, Logan is a high-octane road movie, but it is a dark one. This makeshift family-on-the-lamb, with Xavier as the sickly, slightly senile grandfather; Logan as the reluctant hero; and Dafne Keen's Laura as the endangered child they must protect in order to give their lives meaning again and atone for their past sins. Xavier and Logan both have their sins to atone for; driving the emotional train for audiences, not knowing how far it will go. This movie was a deep cut into the father-son relationship between Xavier and Logan as Logan does his best not to care too much, Xavier tries to break through his shell to make him see what he's always missed out on. Director James Mangold shoots the film as a grundgy, gritty palette. There is not a lot of hope in this movie and, for once, the world is not on the line. This movie is about saving one special - and very, very violent child. With Laura having mutant physical gifts similar to Logan's, there is a melancholy to their relationship. She represents what Logan never slowed down to have and he struggles the whole movie to embrace her role in his life. The loner has to finally learn how to put someone before himself. As typical as that sounds, the emotional delivery is what works well enough to cause audiences to get choked up.

I'll admit that I did get choked up at how well executed this movie was. Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman showed that the strings were taken off for this film, displaying the fun they had playing off of each other, the comedic moments to balance out the seriousness, and the emotions they caused us to feel. This Rated-R installment into the X-men franchise is the Wolverine movie we, as fans, deserved. Hugh Jackman definitely saved their best for last. Thank you, Hugh and Patrick.

Marvel's Intergalactic family of Outlaws return in new 'Guardians' trailer

No one expected Guardians of the Galaxy to be the hit that it was in 2014 as Marvel banked on another relatively unknown property to sell to audiences. We all bought in and became Hooked on a Feeling with the surprise hit. This summer, the Guardians are back and from the new trailer, it looks like we're in for more characters, worlds, but the same that we came to love from the first film all to Fleetwood Mac's '70s hit "The Chain".

Set two-to-three months after the events of the first film, the Guardians of the Galaxy travel throughout the cosmos and struggle to keep their newfound family together, while helping Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) learn more about his true parentage.

From the line up, it looks like the family has gotten bigger beyond the key members with Ravagers leader, Yondu (Michael Rooker), Gamora's estranged sister, Nebula (Karen Gillan), and newcomer, Mantis (Pom Klementieff). Drax (Dave Batista) looks to be flexing more of his comedic muscles along with Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper). Let's not forget that adorable tree-like humanoid, Baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel). We don't know who the Guardians are fighting against but Marvel needs to leave some surprises for us. One thing they didn't keep hidden was Kurt Russell's role as Ego, Peter Quill's father!

Judging from the two songs that we have gotten in the previews, we should also prepare for another awesome soundtrack in this installment.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 flies into theaters on May 5, 2017.

Surprises abound and an epic mix-up highlight Oscars

Well, I'm sure everyone has heard about the major Oscars flub that made Steve Harvey's Miss Universe mistake look like a small error. But let's not try and let that overshadow the rest of the ceremony. Overall, I think the awards were decent this year; Jimmy Kimmel did a fair job but I don't expect him to return next year.

Now, I'm not going to cover all of the awards that were presented and awarded over the near four-hour show so I'll just be hitting the major awards. I was not surprised by most of the winners except for possibly one but I'll get to that later. Unfortunately, I was not able to review all of the movies that were nominated from my blog; however, I did see a fair amount of them (eight out of the nine Best Picture nominees)! So let's begin!

Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali, Moonlight

The first time I saw Mahershala Ali was during his time on the Netflix series, House of Cards. Even for the small time he was on there, I was impressed with the energy he brought to the political drama. Watching Moonlight, his character, Juan, was someone that a young man could look up to. Juan was very grounded and completely believable; a person that you could walk by every day and not notice them unless they were in your life. Ali showed a great understanding of his character, embodied him, and earned his award.










Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, Fences

I've always been a fan of Viola Davis' work and her commitment to her characters. Sunday marked her third nomination for an Academy Award and she finally earned it. Davis' work as Rose Maxson was emotional and powerful, making you root for her character as the story unfolded. To me, Davis was one of the prime reasons Fences is recognized as one of the best films of 2016.





Best Actor: Casey Affleck, Manchester By The Sea

Out of all of the Best Picture nominees, Manchester By The Sea wasn't my absolute favorite, but I could see why it was nominated. Affleck played Lee Chandler, a sullen and quiet janitor, who is called back home after his brother's death. It's definitely one of those films that pulls at your heart strings and keeps pulling as the film progresses and the story unfolds. This has to be one of the best roles that I've seen from the younger Affleck and I hope to see more. Maybe that explains the beard...



Best Actress: Emma Stone,  La La Land

La La Land is one of my favorite movies of the last year and Miss Stone is one of the reasons why. As an actress herself, she was perfect for the role of Mia, an aspiring actress in the film. Emma Stone has a classic Hollywood aura to her in this 21st century world and it shined through in this award winning film. All of her acting muscles were flexed in this movie and it really shined: acting, dancing, singing. I'm expecting more great things from her in the coming years.








Best Director: Damien Chazelle, La La Land

Like the Best Picture award, this award gave me some trouble because of the nominations. I believed they all deserved it for the wonderful, creative movies they led. In the end, Damien Chazelle became the youngest person to win the Best Director award for his work on the love note to Hollywood, La La Land. I haven't had a chance to watch his previous directorial venture, Whiplash, but I'm already expecting great things from it. Chazelle's direction of Gosling and Stone and coursing through their love for each other and their dreams helped guide this movie to its success.



Best Picture: Moonlight

Now, this award was hard to determine for me. Out of all the nominations, each one had a case on why they deserved the award. La La Land was my favorite going in and when they were announced, I was happy but also not really impressed. Until the crew reached the podium to reveal that Moonlight, my second pick and the one film that I thought could topple La La Land was announced as the actual winner. A mix-up with the award cards caused the confusion but in the end, the award ended up in the deserving hands of the cast. If you haven't seen Moonlight, you have an opportunity as the film will be more widely released after their Best Picture win.

Moonlight also took home the awards for Best Adapted Screenplay. La La Land won other awards in Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Song with "City of Stars". And the DCEU actually won an award in Best Makeup and Hairstyling for Suicide Squad. Seriously, Suicide Squad won an Academy Award! What a time to be a movie and superhero fan!

That's my recap of the Oscars. I wish I could get through all the awards but who knows how long that would take! If you want to leave any comments, please do! I would love to read them!

Until next time, guys!

'Avengers: Infinity War' First Look

As filming and production wraps up on DC's Justice League, Marvel Studios has begun production and filming for the next Avengers film. If you have been following Marvel Studios since the beginning, you understand that this is not just a movie; this will be an event that culminates a ten-year journey.

This behind-the-scenes looks doesn't thankfully reveal too much but it's enough to make fans happy. From seeing Robert Downey Jr, Tom Holland and Chris Pratt in a shot together to hearing Kevin Feige explaining the bare bones set up for the Infinity War by looking at the big picture and how we arrived here starting from 2008's Iron Man.

We started from there and journeyed into different times and worlds with characters like Captain America, Thor, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. One connecting thread throughout all of the films has been the Infinity Stones that have been spread about the movies over the years and the looming threat that was introduced originally in The Avengers: The Mad God, Thanos. Hearing from the directing duo of the Russo brothers, the world is vulnerable after the events of Civil War and no one owning the name of The Avengers. From what the Marvel team has stated, Thanos will be unlike any other villain that the heroes have encountered. How this all comes together, reuniting the team, will be an amazing experience.

Plus, The Avengers will meet and join forces with The Guardians of the Galaxy! What more can we ask for?!

Avengers: Infinity War will be shooting back-to-back with a direct sequel; an untitled fourth Avengers film scheduled to be released on May, 3, 2019.

Avengers: Infinity War is scheduled for release on May 4, 2018.

Keanu Reeves doubles down on stylized action in 'John Wick: Chapter 2'

In 2014, Keanu Reeves made a return to theaters in an under-the-radar action film, John Wick. I've never been a huge fan of Reeves' films based on his acting, but that might be more of the roles he has played before. This film definitely fits with Keanu and unexpectedly launched a franchise as the lethal hitman. John Wick: Chapter 2 just takes what it did in the original and turns the dial up a few more notches. There shouldn't be any complaints about that at all.

Reeves returns as the legendary hitman who wiped out an untold number of Russian goons because one of them made the mistake of killing his dog, effectively bringing him back to the world he left. After retiring once again, Wick is forced out of retirement to honor a debt to a backstabbing, eccentric Italian boss (Riccardo Scamarcio) who wants to take control of an underground guild of assassins. This sequel takes us deeper into the world that we can affectionately call the Wickverse as we learn more about the secret world of professional killers and the rules they adhere to (I know! Actual rules or guidelines!). This is what makes this universe more intriguing and richer than the usual assassin orgy film.

Keanu Reeves easily slips back into the career-revitalizing role like John wearing one of his lethal tailored suits. This hero is like a haunted warrior that was dropped in the 21st century, not wanting to become the killer he once was in the memory of his dead wife (Michelle Moynahan). In the end, he can't deny what is in his blood and that's being a killer. Despite the fact that John embraced the peaceful life, he found out that he can't ignore what's in his blood as he is hunted down by the world's best assassins. While John is used being on his own, in that situation, he always needs a little help. Ian McShane's brilliant manager of the Continental, Winston, was amazing as always. Keanu's mini-Matrix reunion with Laurence Fishburne was well worth the wait. Fishburne's character had a little more depth than I thought as The Bowery King, charisma dripping out of each line that he spoke.

If you loved John Wick for the action, you will not be disappointed by this sequel. The gun-fu, martial arts style fighting does not fade into the story. John Wick proves that he is not the man you want to betray and this is the movie series that you can't ignore anymore.

Super Bowl Movie Spots

Hello again everyone! I'm sorry about the semi-hiatus but I'm squeezing in time to update my blog and provide you all with some good movie reviews and preparing for what's to come in the next few months. I do have a review for the movie Split which will be posted later this week.

In the meantime, let's get to it!

I'm sure everyone witnessed The Big Game last weekend with the Patriots and the Falcons. While the game was better than I initially thought (having family around definitely helped things out), I was mostly there to see the commercials...mainly the movie TV spots. Most of the spots gave us a new look at movies that are coming up in the next month and some we can't wait until the summer to see.

First up, Scarlett Johansson is a high-tech assassin in the big screen adaptation of Ghost in the Shell.

Optimus Prime fights against Bumblebee in Transformers: The Last Knight

The beach has never been safer with Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron leading Baywatch.

Logan goes full savage in Hugh Jackman's final run in Logan.

It's time to sail the seas again with Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tails.

Dominic Torretto goes rogue and battles his former family in The Fate of The Furious.

Finally, your favorite team of intergalactic A-holes are back in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

So which one are you all most excited about?

Vin Diesel delivers outrageous fun in 'Return of Xander Cage'

15 years ago, hot after the success of The Fast and The Furious, Vin Diesel starred in xXx; an action-adventure spy flick about an extreme daredevil being recruited by the CIA. When Diesel wouldn't return for the sequel, Ice Cube stepped in to take over in the disappointing xXx: State of the Union. Twelve years later, Vin Diesel made his return in typical Diesel fashion: high-action, stunt-fueled adventure.

xXx: Return of Xander Cage finds ex-xXx operative Xander Cage (Diesel), who faked his death, living in self-imposed exile in the Dominican Republic. After a team of four skilled individuals led by Xiang (Donnie Yen) infiltrate the CIA in order to retrieve "Pandora's Box", a device that is capable of controlling satellites to crash at specific locations. When one of these satellites causes the apparent death of agent Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson), Cage is recruited once again by the CIA to return to active service to retrieve the device. While Cage could take this team on his own, he chooses to assemble his own team of maniacs to combat this team. Cage recruits sharpshooter Adele Wolff (Orange is the New Black's Ruby Rose), DJ Harvard "Nicks" Zhou (Kris Wu), and getaway driver maniac Tennyson (Rory McCann).

While we have seen different sides of Vin Diesel over the years, he seems most at home flexing his muscles in action flicks like this. There isn't much more to be taken out beyond the momentary skills  CGI-assisted stunts. I mean, Cage's motorcycle sprouts fins and becomes a jet ski capable of skimming across a tidal wave during a chase sequence. Let's get real: we're not here for a deep story. Watching Vin Diesel facing off with Donnie Yen is entertaining enough to keep fans interested during the middle of the movie.

Xander Cage is loud and a little over the top, playing to the strength of Diesel's character and, in turn, targeting the strengths of its audience. Most people who want to see this film were either fans of the first two, fans of Vin Diesel, or just wanted an action-film where audiences can check their brains at the door before sitting down. Director D.J. Caruso tailored his vision of the film around the likability of the leading man, encouraging Diesel to have fun with it (which he did). As a result, Xander Cage crackles with surprising enjoyable energy and playfulness that is often missing from the brooding, high-octane action fare that fans have got used to in recent years.

In the end, you can't expect more or less from a film that introduces the central character base-jumping from a radio tower only to land atop a pair of skis, gliding through the thick of the jungle just because he can. As preposterous as that sounds, it's a hell of a ride nonetheless.