Chuck's Movie Breakdown

         Hey guys, Chuck here, and this year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the hit BBC series Doctor Who.  And to commemorate this landmark anniversary, I'll be taking a look at the modern era of Doctor Who heading back to 2005.           Written and produced by Russell T. Davies, the revival of Doctor Who started off with the Ninth Doctor era, which only lasted for a single season. Starring as the Doctor in his ninth incarnation was Christopher Eccleston, who of course would also be known for roles on television series like Heroes  and films like G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.  Billie Piper, who was an actress and singer, was cast as the Doctor's Companion for the season, Rose Tyler. Also seen frequently throughout the season are Rose's mother, Jackie, and Rose's boyfriend, Mickey. There would be an episode where the Doctor and Rose would visit a point in the past where Rose's father, Pete, sadly passed away in a h...

        Hey guys, Chuck here, and I just finished watching the new Disney movie Peter Pan & Wendy, based on the story of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, and a live-action retelling of the Disney animated film of the same name. So, in that regard, the story is pretty much on par with every single adaptation of the Peter Pan story. Wendy, John, and Michael, children of George and Mary Darling, meet Peter Pan and Tinker Bell  one night, and the two of them take the Darling children to Neverland. It's here where they encounter mermaids, the Lost Children, Tiger Lily and the island Natives, and of course a band of cutthroat pirates led by the notorious Captain Hook. So, of you've seen any version of Peter Pan, be it the original Disney version, the Mary Martin version, the 2014 live television version with Allison Williams and Christopher Walken, or the 2003 version with Jeremy Sumpter and Jason Isaacs, the story is pretty much the same and doesn't change much outside ...

           Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, it's recently been announced that Warner Bros. is producing a streaming series based on the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling, and it will be released on their platform Max (the rebranded HBO Max). And, it's also been announced that, for some reason, Stephanie Meyer's novel series Twilight is also getting series adaptation for a currently unknown network/streaming platform. This, on top of already announced adaptations of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians,  Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black's The Spiderwick Chronicles, Christopher Paolini's  The Inheritance Cycle,  and R.L. Stein's Goosebumps, all coming to Disney+, as well as C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia , which is being produced for Netflix.           Okay, we're all seeing a pattern here. Yes, studios are now taking book series and adapting them for television instead of film. And for some, including P...

            Hey guys, Chuck here, and it's finally here. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always , the thirtieth anniversary special of the Power Rangers franchise, is currently streaming on Netflix. I just finished watching it, and I'm here with my thoughts on this landmark special.           So, we open with the six Mighty Morphin Rangers in a fight against Robo-Rita, a robotic version of Rita Repulsa, and her Putty Patrollers. As she casts a lethal spell at Billy, Trini leaps in front of the spell, sacrificing her life. After the battle, Billy and Zack debate on whether to reveal the truth to Trini's daughter Minh, who overhears that her mother is dead because of Robo-Rita.          One year passes, and Minh has been training, hoping to join in the fight against Robo-Rita. Zack, her guardian, is adamantly against it, as he wants her to be safe. However, at the cemetery, Zack and Minh spot the...

         Hey guys, Chuck here, and with baseball season in full swing (as of the writing of this review), I thought it would be neat to take a look at one of my favorite baseball movies growing up: Disney's Angels in the Outfield.          Released in 1994, this movie centers on Roger, a pre-teen in Anaheim, California, who was taken away from his father by the court, and all of this after his mother passed away. Currently living in a short-term foster home run by Maggie Nelson, Roger spends his free time riding his bicycle around Anaheim Stadium, home of his favorite baseball team the California Angels (currently the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim), with his best friend and bunkmate at the foster home JP. One afternoon, Roger and JP return from a ride and Maggie tells Roger he has a visitor. Heading into the house, Roger sees his father waiting for him. Roger's father has come to tell Roger he's heading up North to finalize some release ...

         Hey guys, Chuck here, and we're back with more Kingdom Hearts . After the release of Kingdom Hearts II, Disney and Square Enix releases a trio of games designed to expand the lore of the series. One of the games 358/2 Days, we've discussed previously. Today, we'll be taking a look at the other two games in that set: Birth by Sleep for the PlayStation Portable and Re:Coded on the Nintendo DS.           So, Birth by Sleep is a prequel game set ten years before the events of the original Kingdom Hearts.  Ultimately, this means that there are no Heartless, no Nobodies, and no Organization XIII. However, we do have our three playable characters of Terra, Ventus, and Aqua. Now, all three of them visit the various worlds of the game, and all three have different experiences in each world. But, here's how I'd classify them: Ventus, or Ven for short, is the centerpiece of the story, meaning that everything going on centers on h...

       Hey guys, Chuck here, and hooo boy! Did the team at Lucasfilm come to play this weekend. So,.for those who don't know, Star Wars Celebration was going on in Europe this weekend, and in addition to several new trailers for projects like Ahsoka and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, we got announcements of three, count 'em, THREE new Star Wars movies. And a whole lot of other Star Wars announcements.         So, what new Star Wars movies are we getting? Well, James Mangold, director of the aforementioned Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, is set to write and direct a new film called Dawn of the Jedi, which will be set in an early point in the timeline approximately 25,000 years before the Skywalker Saga and explore the beginning of the Jedi Order. Okay, that's pretty cool. Also, Dave Filoni, who has been instrumental in such series as The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and the upcoming Ahsoka series, is also set to write and...

         Hey guys, Chuck here. With just a month until the release of the next film in the nearly endless Fast & Furious franchise, Fast X,  I'm taking a look at a Netflix animated series for kids that is set in the world of the Fast & Furious movies. Produced by DreamWorks Animation, Fast & Furious: Spy Racers ran from December 2019 through December 2021, and focused on a young group of street racers as they are recruited to travel around the globe to stop a ring of international criminals who are deep in the world of car culture.          So, the central character of the series is Tony Toretto, who is the younger cousin of film series protagonist Dominic Toretto. Tony's crew consists of drivers Cisco and Echo, as well as tech genius Frostee. After losing a street race, Tony reunites with Dom, who gets grabbed by men in a black van. Tony and his crew chase after him, only to learn that they were being tested by a govern...

          Hey guys, Chuck here, and this is my review of the brand new film from Universal, Illumination, and Nintendo: The Super Mario Bros. Movie.  Based on Nintendo's world-famous game franchise, this marks the second feature film based on Super Mario Bros. in thirty years.         So, the movie centers on brothers Mario and Luigi, who gets sucked through a tube and into a unique world. Whilst Luigi gets taken in to a dark land, only to be captured by the forces of the evil Bowser, Mario ends up in the Mushroom Kingdom, where a local named Toad takes Mario to Princess Peach. Peach, along with Mario and Toad, teams up with the Kongs to take down Bowser, rescue Luigi, and save the world.         Okay, so the animation in this movie is fantastic. Not only does it feel exactly like the video game, but the variety of scenic elements and characters featured throughout the games are present in the movie. Bob-Omb...

         Hey guys, Chuck here, and to kick off the month of April, I wanted to take a look at two Disney animated films that weren't box office hits for the studio upon initial release in theaters, but are being celebrated twenty years later as films that everyone got wrong the first time, and are now enjoying fanbases that weren't really as massive then as they are now. And those movies are Atlantis: The Lost Empire , directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, and Treasure Planet, directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. Released one year apart from each other, these were attempts from veteran animation directors to do something different for Disney. In the case of Atlantis, it was to tell an epic Jules Verne esque adventure with the artist style of Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, and with Treasure Planet, it was to take Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of Treasure Island and tell it as a sci-fi adventure.         So, let's start off...