The Film: The great Sir Kenneth Branagh is well-known for his multiple Shakespeare adaptations that have included “Henry V,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” and “Hamlet” (the film I credit with making me fall in love with The Bard in the first place). Having not adapted a Shakespeare play since 2006’s “As You Like It,” Branagh has instead been filling his time with a variety of projects that includes “Thor,” “Cinderella,” and “Murder on the Orient Express.” However, his latest brings him back to the realm of the great author, not in the form of a play adaptation, but rather a film entitled “All is True” that explores the last few years of Shakespeare’s life. It may not have been what most were hop
The Film: Over the course of 65 years, the “Godzilla” franchise has certainly seen its ups and downs. The original 1954 film is a decent monster flick (“kaiju”) that, while somewhat cheesy in this day and age, still holds up as a classic, with the multitude of films that followed (i.e. “Godzilla vs…”) having a solid fanbase. However, in more recent years, the films have taken an obvious turn for the worse. The 1998 “Godzilla” is constantly criticized as being a big mistake, while the less said about the disastrous 2014 reboot, the better. With this in mind, you would think a sequel to the 2014 film would be another big mistake for the franchise, but because it made some money, you knew it wa
The Show: Last season, “The Flash” managed to deliver another stunning arc that utilized the show’s incredible ability to combine action, drama, sci-fi, comedy, and even a little romance into one of the best superhero shows on television. What was also rather impressive was that they finally managed to move past having the main villain being an evil speedster, and instead gave us what could be considered an even more challenging foe, “The Thinker.” As it was at the end of season four, the question heading into the new season was whether or not they’d be able to come up with another villain just as intriguing, so as to keep the show fresh and interesting. Well, now Season Five has come and go
The Film: When it comes to the great directors of Japanese cinema, it’s a shame that the great Yasujiro Ozu has never really become a household name, at least not as much as Akira Kurosawa. Mainly known for directing small, “slice-of-life” films, Ozu’s work may not have been the grand pictures that directors like Kurosawa, Inagaki, or Kobayashi worked on, but they still left just as big a mark as the rest. Right before he made what is arguably his most well-known film, the marvelous and heart-breaking “Tokyo Story,” he directed a small domestic drama called “The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice,” which attempts to tackle various issues of marriage. With the film being newly-released on Blu-ray
The Film: Anyone growing up in the ‘90s certainly remembers the phenomenon that is Pokémon. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but suddenly there were video games, trading cards, and an animated television show that everyone was talking about. While it was insanely popular, with several animated films following the show, it’s somewhat strange that a live-action movie wasn’t attempted during the height of its popularity. Whether studios just didn’t want to take the plunge, or thought it just couldn’t work, such a film has always seemed like a natural progression of the phenomenon, which brings us all the way to 2019 where Warner Bros. and director Rob Letterman have decided to risk it by mixin