Chuck's Movie Breakdown

        Hey guys, Chuck here, and today, I want to discuss Secret Invasion, a Marvel Studios streaming series produced for Disney+, and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Emilia Clarke, Don Cheadle, Cobie Smulders, Charlayne Woodard, Martin Freeman, and Kingsley Ben-Adir.         So, the series centers on Nick Fury, who is caught in a situation where a sect of Skrulls, who lost faith in Fury after he disappeared during the Blip and left the planet after the death of Tony Stark, slowly taking over human society here on Earth. Leading these Skrulls is Garvik, who was once a protege to both Fury and Talos, but has grotto become resentful of both. Also, Talos' daughter, G'iah, is involved and working with Garvik as well.          One of the series' underlying mysteries is who is, in fact, a Skrull in disguise. Not gonna spoil anything, but two prominent MCU characters are revealed to have been replaced by Skrulls...

        Hey guys, Chuck here, and in terms of the genre of historical fiction, one gaming franchise has been among the most popular franchise to tackle historical fiction. That franchise is, of course, Assassin's Creed.   Released in 2007 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the original Assassin's Creed was revolutionary in it's storytelling and gameplay mechanics, and in each new iteration of the franchise, the concept just keeps on evolving in bolder new directions. Although, some aspects of a few of the games are a bit off-putting, such as the inclusion of micro transactions.            Now, what's interesting about the origins of the creation of Assassin's Creed is that it started initially as a planned entry in another prominent Ubisoft franchise, Prince of Persia.  Originally, what eventually became Assassin's Creed was pitched as a game called Prince of Persia: Assassin, where players would take control of an assass...

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Oppenheimer is the newest film from writer-director Christopher Nolan, and is produced by his production company Syncopy. The film marks the first time since Insomnia with Al Pacino and Robin Williams that Nolan has produced a film with an R-rating, and is the first Nolan film I, myself, saw in a theater in eleven years, with the last one being The Dark Knight Rises .          So, the movie tells the story of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, and it tells the many aspects of his life both before and after the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. This includes his time abroad, his various associations with many scientists across the world, including Albert Einstein, his affair with Jean Tatlock, his ties with many members of the Communist Party, his marriage to his wife Katherine, and the years put into developing and building the atomic bomb in a race against the Nazis. And, while not shown in the fi...

          Hey guys, Chuck here, and one of the more bizarre films to have spawned a franchise was 2013's Sharknado.  Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, these movies ran for six consecutive years on Syfy, and were very popular with each new entry. Why? Because the concept of the franchise was stupid and ridiculous.           The concept of the films is that, somehow, tornadoes are forming, predominantly near bodies of water, and are filling up with sharks. Yep, you heard me right, sharks in tornadoes. Hence the name Sharknado.  The first movie in the franchise was a low-budget B-movie set in Los Angeles, and had our unlikely heroes of Fin Shepherd, his ex-wife April Wexler, their two kids Claudia and Matt, and Fin's friends Nova Clarke and Baz Hogan. And let's just say that actual science wasn't a factor in this movie, as Matt gets the idea to use propane tanks and road flares to create makeshift bombs to drop into the Sharkn...

         Alright guys, here we are. My review of Kingdom Hearts III, released in January 2019 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, is the long-awaited third main title in the Kingdom Hearts franchise by Disney and Square Enix. The game acts as a conclusion to the Dark Seeker storyline in the franchise, and as such features every hero and villain introduced in the franchise up to this point.          So, as the player, we once again take control of Sora, who has lost his strength during the events of Dream Drop Distance.  His first stop, along with Donald and Goofy, is the world of Olympus, where our trio teams up with Hercules to stop an attack on Thebes by a combination of the Heartless and the four Titans: Lava Titan, Wind Titan, Rock Titan, and Ice Titan. The Titans, of course, were unleashed by Hades, who is now making his ultimate attack on Olympus, his previous schemes involving Terra, Cloud, and Auron all having backfired on him, n...

         Hey guys, Chuck here, and you know something? Every generation has that one cartoon series that everyone falls in love with at once. Some past examples include the likes of The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, The Jetsons, Looney Tunes, G.I. Joe, Transformers, Animaniacs, Pokémon, and the list goes on. But, in the mid 2000's one Nickelodeon show was created that would transcend the generations, and would inspire fans for future generations to come. It was popular when it aired, gained new life on Netflix, and is honestly the most beloved Nicktoon of all time. I am, of course, talking about Avatar: The Last Airbender.         Airing from February 2005 up through July 2008, Avatar is one of those once-in-a-lifetime animated series that can truly be called a masterpiece. Only running for three seasons, this was one of those series that had a definitive story that had a beginning and a conclusion. Outside of a majority of anime, that is a rarity...

         Hey guys, Chuck here, and yes, I am aware of the ongoing strike happening against the major film studios, television networks, and streaming services. The strike, which is being done by the Writers Guild (WGA) and the Screen Actor's Guild (SAG-AFTRA) marks the first time that BOTH guilds have been in a unified strike since the '60s. And, as far as the reason for the strike? Proper compensation, specifically residuals, and protections against artificial intelligence-based plagiarism (both writing and likeness of actors).           As a film/television reviewer, I fall under the category of journalism, which is independent of either guild. So, I will only give credit to actors, writers, and directors of films I review during the duration of the strike and not mention any of the studios backing these movies. I will keep doing what I do, which is reviewing movies and shows for you, my readers. I fully support everyone and what ...

         Hey guys, Chuck here, and it fascinates me just how much Pirates of the Caribbean influenced pop culture throughout the 2010's. For example, in 2013, Ubisoft released the game Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, which is my personal favorite game in the Assassin's Creed franchise. The game is set in the Golden Age of Piracy, and focuses on Edward Kenway, a privateer turned pirate, who later joins the Assassin's brotherhood. Also, two television series centered on pirates went on the air in 2014. The first was a nine-episode NBC series called Crossbones, which told a fictional "what-if" story of how Blackbeard, played in the series by John Malkovich, didn't die and was instead in hiding as the commodore of a secluded island community in the year 1729. The second was the Starz original series Black Sails, which came courtesy of executive producer Michael Bay, and served as a sort-of prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel Treasure Island....

          Hey guys, Chuck here, and yes. Disney and Bruckheimer did, indeed, make a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Yeah, it's pretty much well known that, outside of the franchise's hardcore fans, most people who have enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise are pretty much checked out of the series after watching At World's End.  However, since the franchise was Disney's biggest moneymaker, alongside Pixar, it made sense that Disney would want to make another movie. I mean, think about it, Marvel Studios projects at the time were still being released through Paramount Pictures, Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm was still a year-and-a-half away, and the live-action remakes hadn't become a staple of the studio yet, despite 2010's Alice in Wonderland taking in over a billion at the worldwide box office. So, a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie made sense for Disney in 2011.           So, for this Fourth entry, the sto...

         Hey guys, Chuck here. The ending of Dead Man's Chest set up for the third movie to wrap up the story that began in Dead Man's Chest.  This third film from Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, would see all of the key players from the previous films return, including Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport, Jonathan Pryce, Kevin R. McNally, Naomie Harris, Stellan Skarsgard, Bill Nighy, and Geoffrey Rush, with one major newcomer being Chow Yun-Fat. Gore Verbinski returns to direct, with Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio writing once again.          So, At World's End opens in Port Royal, where several individuals convicted of piracy or assisting those convicted of piracy are being hanged. One of those being hanged, a little boy, holds a coin in his hand, and begins singing the song "Hoist the Colours," joined by everyone else in the courtyard. Apparently, this singing was exac...