Chuck's Movie Breakdown

           Hey guys, Chuck here, and this is my review of Power Rangers Cosmic Fury, the newest season of the long-running series Power Rangers.  This marks the thirtieth season overall, and is a part of the thirtieth anniversary celebration of the Power Rangers.  The main team of Rangers are carried over from Dino Fury , with Hunter Deno, Russell Curry, Tessa Rao, Chance Perez, Jordon Fite, and Kai Moya all reprising their roles as Amelia, Zayto, Izzy, Javi, Aiyon, and Ollie. Promoted from supporting cast to main cast this season is Jacqueline Joe as Fern, and joining the cast is David Yost as Billy Cranston, reprising his role from previous outings of the Power Rangers franchise.           So, the season starts off on the planet Zordnia, with the Dino Fury Rangers deeply entrenched in a battle against the Lord Zedd and his new army, which comes courtesy of a partnership with Bajilla, who is the CEO of the Squid Ink ...

        Hey guys, Chuck here. Saw X, the tenth film in the ongoing horror franchise Saw , is now in theaters. I got the chance to check it out, and it's actually really good. Possibly one of the best in the franchise. The latest chapter is, once again, produced by Lionsgate Films and Twisted Pictures, and sees the return of Saw VI and Saw 3D director and long-time franchise editor Kevin Greutert, as well as the return of screenwriters Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger, who have been writing these movies since the 2017 film Jigsaw. And, of course, longtime franchise composer Charlie Clouser also returns, and it's great hearing his music, especially the iconic theme "Hello Zepp."        Now, it should be noted that this movie is set between the events of the original Saw and Saw II,  so characters like John Kramer and Amanda Young are both still alive, and both Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith reprise their roles from the previous movies in the fra...

         Hey guys, Chuck here, and just threw years after the success of Now You See Me, Summit Entertainment returned for a sequel. Directed by G.I. Joe: Retaliation director Jon M. Chu, Now You See Me 2 sees the returns of cast members Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman, who are joined by newcomers Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Radcliffe, Jay Chou, Sanaa Lathan, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, and Tsai Chin.          The movie opens with a flashback to the night of Lionel Shrike's accident, and we see him ensuring his son, Dylan, that things will be okay. All the while, Thaddeus Bradley is on television reporting on Lionel's attempt to escape from a safe dropped into the East River. And, of course, we all know the rest. Cut to eighteenth months after the events of the first movie, and the Horsemen are growing restless, with J. Daniel Atlas going straight to who he believes is the Eye, only to be t...

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Over the years, we've talked about movies that feature magic in its most fantastic depictions, whether it's the magic of the Wizarding World, or the magic of the Christmas spirit. But, I realized we've never talked about staged magic. You know, the kind of things people pay to see performed on stage, with various tricks to fool the eye. Interestingly enough, one of my favorite movies of 2013 was centered on a quartet of skilled magicians using their skills to screw over the wealthy and give their money to those in need.          This is my review of the movie Now You See Me, directed by Louis Leterrier, and starring Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Mélanie Laurent, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher, Michael Caine, Common, and Morgan Freeman.          The movie, as I mentioned, centers on four street magicians: the arrogant illusionist J. Daniel Atlas, the hypnotist and mentali...

          Hey guys, Chuck here. When the BBC revived the beloved sci-fi series Doctor Who in 2005, it took the world by storm, with the Tenth Doctor era and Eleventh Doctor era both cementing the show's success. Unfortunately, we now come to a pair of divisive eras of modern Doctor Who, those of the Twelfth Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi, and the Thirteenth Doctor, played by Jodie Whitaker.         Now I, personally, have no issues with either of these two versions of the Doctor. However, I do see the criticisms lobbied against them. And some of this can be owed to several factors, including the writing from the showrunners of these two versions of the Doctor. The Twelfth Doctor era was under returning showrunner Steven Moffat, whilst the Thirteenth Doctor era was under new showrunner Chris Chibnall. Now, while the writing for the Twelfth Doctor felt consistent with what we'd gotten previously, the writing for the Thirteenth Doctor is w...

          Hey guys, Chuck here. The new movie Expend4bles is the fourth film in the action movie franchise The Expendables, and is very much a case of all style with limited substance. The movie is directed by Scott Waugh, and sees the returns of Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, and Randy Couture, who are joined by newcomers like Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Andy Garcia, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Megan Fox, Levy Tran, and Jacob Scipio.         The movie sees the team known as the Expendables going on a mission to recover a set of detonators being stolen from a general in Libya by a terrorist named Rahmat, who is said to be working for a dangerous individual referred to as Ocelot. So, it's up to Barney Ross, Lee Christmas, Toll Road, and Gunner Jensen, along with new Expendables like Lash, Gina, Easy Day, and Galan to save the world from World War III.           Okay, so the story almost feels stand...

           Hey guys, Chuck here, and we're back talking about Doctor Who. And, today, we're focusing on the eras of two Doctors: the Tenth Doctor, played by David Tennant, and the Eleventh Doctor, played by Matt Smith. The Tenth Doctor era was overseen by Russell T. Davies, while the Eleventh Doctor era was overseen by Steven Moffat, and includes the series' fiftieth anniversary special, where both actors would appear together. But, we'll talk about that another time.          Anyway, during the Tenth Doctor era, we saw the returns of some iconic Doctor Who foes   like the Cybermen, the Sontarans, the Macra, and of course the Daleks and their creator Davros. And, along with them, we saw the returns of the Master, and eventually the Time Lords as well. And I will at that both Derek Jacobi and John Simm were excellent as two different incarnations of the Master. And, I will get into more detail about Timothy Dalton as Rassilon wh...

          Hey guys, Chuck here. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem . Now, it took me a while to finally check this one out in the theaters, but I'm glad I finally did. This was a really fun, really funny, really cute movie that definitely does the Ninja Turtles justice. The movie was co-written and co-produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and features a stacked cast, which includes Micha Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, John Cena, Giancarlo Esposito, Ice Cube, Paul Rudd, and Ayo Edebiri.          The movie, of course, tells the story of the Ninja Turtles, and how green ooze from TCRI was spilled in the sewers of New York, and the turtles were mutated by the ooze, and trained by a rat named Splinter in the art of ninjutsu. However, the twist is that the ooze was created by Baxter Stockman, who sought to use it to create a mutant army. And, we see said mutants being led by Superfly, ...

         Hey guys, Chuck here, and it's been too long since I did an Old vs. New , so I thought I'd make one on two very different adaptations of A Series of Unfortunate Events . Based on the book series by Lemony Snicket (pen name for author Daniel Handler), this franchise tells the story of orphaned siblings Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire and their various run-ins with a villainous stage actor named Count Olaf, who seels their vast fortune. Filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld was involved with the development of both adaptations of the books, in the forms of a 2004 movie released by Paramount, DreamWorks, and Nickelodeon, and a 2017 series released by Netflix. Sonnenfeld would direct multiple episodes of the series, while the movie would be directed by Brad Silberling.          Both adaptations do a good job of adapting the books, but which one is better overall? Let's break them down to find out.            ...

         Hey guys, Chuck here, and I just got out of seeing the new movie A Haunting in Venice. Based on the Agatha Christie novel Halowe'en Party, this movie is the third chapter in Kenneth Branagh's films with Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, serving as sequel to both 2017's Murder on the Orient Express and 2022's Death on the Nile. In addition to returning as director, Branagh also reprises his role of Poirot for the third time. Joining him is yet another all-star cast, including Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan, Michelle Yeoh, Kyle Allen, Camille Cottin, Jude Hill, Emma Laird, Kelly Reilly, Ali Khan, and Riccardo Scamarcio.         Now, something to note is that, much like with Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, A Haunting in Venice is still a murder mystery. However, the movie goes a step further by delving into the realm of supernatural horror, which is something that the brilliant Poirot has not gone up against yet in this...

        Hey guys, Chuck here, and after looking at the Twilight series , I feel like I need to look at something more for me. So, today, I'm taking a look at a film series with arguably one of the most badass action movie titles ever: The Expendables.  The series has seen three entries released so far, with a fourth due for release soon, and each one has featured cast members Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Randy Couture, and Dolph Lundgren. Additional cast members throughout the films had included the following: Terry Crews, Jet Li, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Charisma Carpenter, Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Liam Hemsworth, Yu Nan, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, Harrison Ford, Kelsey Grammer, Mel Gibson, Wesley Snipes, Antonio Banderas, Ronda Rousey, Kellan Lutz, Glen Powell, and Victor Ortiz. And one thing worth noting is that The Expendables marked the first big screen movie that Arnold Schwarzenegger would appear in...

        Hey guys, Chuck here, and I hope you all appreciate what I do here at Chuck's Movie Breakdown, because sometimes it ain't a picnic. Don't get me wrong, I love talking movies, television series, video games, and anime, because those are some of the things I love the most.         But, every now and again, you find that one film series that you don't like, you know many others don't like, but you have to review it anyway, because so many reviewers have done it, so it's practically a rite of passage as a reviewer. So, with that in mind, let's talk about Twilight.        Based on the book series by Stephanie Meyer, Twilight is a five-film series that consists of the following films: 2008's Twilight directed by Catherine Hardwick, 2009's New Moon directed by Christ Weitz, 2010's Eclipse directed by David Slade, and the 2011-2012 two parter Breaking Dawn directed by Bill Condon.         The serie...

         Hey guys, Chuck here. In the entertainment industry, whenever one studio has something popular, other studios will make the effort to have something similar to capture the same success as the succeeding studio. For example, in the late '90s, when Kids' WB and 4Kids Entertainment began airing their English dub of Pokémon, Fox Kids and Saban would follow suit with an English dub of Digimon, an anime that focuses on seven kids at summer camp that get sucked into the Digital World, where they meet the Digimon (Digital Monsters) and befriend several of them. And unlike Pokémon, which was ongoing and a constant journey, Digimon had a story to it, with a beginning, middle, and ending. On top of that, Digimon had genuine character development with its lead characters over the course of its season.          But, after the success of Pokémon: The First Movie at the box office in 1999, Fox saw a potential marketing opportunity to put Digim...

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Now, as I've said in the past, I'm a big fan of anime. And one of my favorite anime series is One Piece by Eiichiro Oda. But, when I heard that Netflix was working on a live-action streaming series based on One Piece, I was a bit concerned, as this was the same Netflix that brought us Adam Wingard's live-action Death Note movie, as well as the live-action Cowboy Bebop series with John Cho as Spike Spiegel. Not to say I didn't like either of those titles, to be clear, but clearly the animes of Death Note and Cowboy Bebop were far better. But, when I saw that both critics and audiences liked the live-action One Piece ? I knew I had to see it for myself.          Now, one of my biggest concerns was that the creators of this series would merely take Eiichiro Oda's work and use it as a thin veil to cover a Pirates of the Caribbean clone. But, no, that's definitely not the case, as Matt Owens and Steven Maed...