‘Avengers: Endgame’ Film Review (Spoiler-Filled)

Grade: A-

Now that ‘Avengers: Endgame’ has had a good, albeit successful run in theaters for a few weeks, and the spoiler ban has been lifted, I have felt the need to go into detail about ‘Avengers: Endgame’. Being that this review is filled with spoilers, those who still have yet to see this epic conclusion to Marvel’s ‘Infinity Saga’ should turn back and come here afterward; otherwise, you can keep going.

‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Film Review

Grade: B-

The time has come! Ten years of superhero movies, and it has officially come to this! While ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ is no doubt making box-office records, I am thinking of ways to describe my experience without giving much away. In case you were worried, I will not dive into spoilers (Maybe once the hype dies down, I will issue a spoiler-filled review). Instead, you will be treated to a premise and mainly thoughts. 

‘Isle of Dogs’ Film Review

Grade: B-

Whether you love or hate him, there is no denying that Wes Anderson is one of the most unusual, and artistic directors working on the Indie scene. From 1996’s ‘Bottle Rocket’ to 2014’s ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’, Anderson has brought a quirky sense of charm to each and every one of his films. One could argue that he relies mainly on style over substance. ‘Isle of Dogs’ is definitely an admiration of animation (and possibly more detailed and less stoic than his first animated feature, ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’), yet story-wise, it takes some time to immerse yourself in such beauty.

‘Rough Night’ Film Review

Grade: C

Throughout its marketing run, ‘Rough Night’ was compared to the late 90’s dark comedy ‘Very Bad Things’, which had the same concept about a bachelor (or in this case, bachelorette) party gone wrong. I have never watched the Peter Berg film, but know and understand why so many people are making comparisons. It even had elements of ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ (a comedy about pretending a dead guy was still alive) for good measure. With its marketing, ‘Rough Night’ has also been compared to raunchy comedies, such as, ‘The Hangover’ and ‘Bridesmaids’. (Which, if you do the math, you get an unrelated trilogy of booze and semi gross-out humor.) However, the reception upon ‘Rough Night’s release has been mixed; add to the disappointing box-office returns over the weekend, and you are none the wiser. From day one, it seemed that this female-led comedy was doomed to fail. Surprisingly, it’s not as terrible as most would think.

‘Rough Night’ – written by Paul W. Downs (who plays in this movie as Scarlett Johansson’s character’s fiance) and Lucia Aniello (who also directs this R-rated comedy) of ‘Broad City’ – is a comedy that plays as either hit or miss, proving the argument that this particular genre is “subjective”, as many would say about film in general. You’re either going to laugh your ass off at each and every penis joke that gets uttered by these ladies, or you will cringe over the sight of Johansson and friends attempting to get rid of a male stripper’s recently deceased body, with images of a bloody mess to add injury to insult. (Don’t worry, this is not a spoiler! It is part of ‘Rough Night’s concept.) I honestly found ‘Rough Night’ to be fun when it needed to be, despite not being what is expected.

‘Sing’ Film Review

Grade: D+

Illumination Entertainment has failed this year with their box-office hit, yet shameful film, ‘The Secret Life of Pets’. With ‘Sing’, it looks like they may still have some of that charm that has made ‘Despicable Me’, ‘Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax’, and ‘Minions’ animated masterpieces; except the only problem is unlike those films, ‘Sing’ is a clunky mess that hasn’t figured out a way to set up what could be lovable characters that could instantly become action figures and toys to fill up the rooms of children everywhere. (It’s possible this movie is succeeding at the box-office based on Christmas returns, so toys are sure to happen.) If ‘Zootopia’ meshed with the likes of ‘America’s Got Talent’, and ‘American Idol’, we would have ‘Sing’. Despite the title, ‘Sing’ is less of a musical, and more of a comedy in the style of ‘Noises Off!’ and ‘Footlight Frenzy’, wherein everything on stage that could go wrong does, and it’s up to the director/manager/host to keep everything together while the cast/variety of talent deals with problems of their own.

‘The Jungle Book’ Film Review.

Score: 3.5 out of 5

This is film review 15

The jungle has never been brighter, the story has never been more mature, and the effects are quite decent in Disney’s ‘The Jungle Book.’ Jon Favreau – who you may know as the director of ‘Iron Man’ 1 & 2 and ‘Chef’, which he took the main role as a struggling cook – has given us his vision of not only the Rudyard Kipling books, but the original animated Disney movie which showed us a positive dancing blue bear named Baloo who became friends with a stubborn, yet cheerful man-cub named Mowgli. In this film, Mowgli is played by Neel Sethi, who is almost comparable to the animated man-cub. Sadly, his performance is disappointing; his delivery starts off as a boy who can’t project or scream when a bear wakes him up.