The Digital Movie Collector

World of Jumanji Jumanji was first introduced to us in 1981 with Robbin Williams as a board game. The premise a player would enter the game world just by playing the game. The game characters could also enter our world when played. In 2005, the franchise was expanded to include Zathura the space version of the world. In 2017 Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the game was found again but realizing it was outdated as a board game, the board game changed during the movie to become a video game with Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, and Kevin Hart as the games avatars. The 2017 was received so well, Jumanji: The Next Level was released in 2019 bringing back Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, and Kevin Hart as the games avatars. I highly suspect there will be a future installment of the movie so I am just reviewing the current movie in this post. Review The movie was good but I felt the first was a little better. I think I laughed more at my son watching the movie th...

Skywalker Saga Since seeing Rise of the Skywalker, I had been debating on whether to review all the Star Wars movies or limit the review to the numbered movies. With shows like Mandalorian, Rebels, and Clone Wars adding to the current canon expanded universe, I decided to limit this review. There may be spoilers in the previous movies but I will try to make the Rise of the Skywalker review spoiler free. The Phantom Menace Love or hate the prequel trilogy, this movie brought us back to the Star Wars universe 16 years after Return of the Jedi. Liam Neeson's Qui-Gon Jinn was by far my favorite character in this movie. I understand the need to kill of this character for the story but I often wonder what would have happened to the series if he had remained alive. One could also wonder if Qui-Gon had taught Anikin if he would have chosen the dark side. I did find the story interesting not from the invasion of Naboo but more from how Palpatine manipulated events that would start...

Not My Usual Movie Dora and the Lost City of Gold is not a typically movie I would pick up but a good friend of mine suggested it. My kids watch Dora The Explorer a little when they were growing up so I was a little familiar with the characters. We are seeing more live action movies get their source material from animated TV shows or movies. A true sign of the times that there are very few original stories out there. I shudder at the idea of someone making a live action Barney (the dinosaur) movie unless they made it into a horror movie. Review Similar to Frozen 2, the movie has matured from the source material to make it for the children who watched the original TV show. I thought they did a very good job of incorporating the TV show mythology into the movie. The movie is a bit slow (for lack of a better word) during the first half of the movie but if you stick with it, it does not disappoint. In the end, I was okay with adding this movie into my collection. Rating I would r...

Live Action? I am not sure Disney ever marketed this movies as live action. I had to watch one of the bonus features to determine there is actually one shot in the movie that is real and not computer generated. Jon Favreau is an amazing director and after the Jungle Book, it would make sense to give him this movie to remake. Let us not forget they brought back James Earl Jones to reprise his role as Mufasa. Review Getting past the fact the movie is almost complete create with computer animation, the movie keeps close as possible to the original movie. So much in fact, I found myself wanting to put the animated audio track with this movie. I have a good ear for voice actors and honestly found myself missing the original voice cast. Even James Earl Jones sounded old and not the powerful voice from the animated movie. Was the movie good? Yes because it did not change too much from the original which was very good. Will the movie spark a new generation of Lion King watchers? I wo...

Long Wait It has been six years since the first Frozen movie came out. My daughter enjoyed the movie so much that her and her boyfriend (now fiancé) dress up as Elsa and Olaf for Halloween. The movie actually has a joke or two about the long wait for a sequel. Was it worth the wait though? Review The movie does take into account how those who loved the original movie are now older. The story is told with more adult themes. The beginning of this one is a little slower to capture your attention but as the movie progresses, it gets better. The movie does answers some major questions. The original movie is slightly better overall but the ending of the second movie might be slight better than the first. I did enjoy the movie especially since I was able to watch it with my daughter and her fiancé.  Rating I would rate this a HD movie. It is worth getting in HD under $15 if possible being a Disney movie. I will update when I purchase my copy.

Streaming Services With Apple TV+ and Disney+ just launching this month, I thought is might be good to do a post on streaming services. I am going to limit my reviews to what I feel are the major streaming services as there are literally hundreds of services out there specific to networks and content. Some would question that with plans less than $10 per month, why would you want to buy digital content anymore.  I learned this lesson the hard way many years ago with Netflix. My son enjoys the TV series Psych so I had bought the DVDs when they went on sale. He has watched the series at least six times on Netflix before I decided to sell the DVDs since we had only watch a few episodes on them since I had owned the series. Less than a year later, Netflix dropped the series and we ended up buying the complete DVD series again just in time for it to land on Amazon Prime. Lesson learned. If the streaming service does not own the rights they must pay for the rights to stream it...

Not Another Alligator Movie There have been many alligator movies in my lifetime anyways. I have to admit it has been a while since there has been one dedicated to alligators only. Rampage had a crocodile plus a wolf and gorilla so it does not count. It has been 20 years since the original Lake Placid movie was released so at least they are not saturating the market at this time. Review I was a little interested in seeing this movie. When I finally did, it met my expectations. Was it almost completely predictable? Yes but so are almost all other monster/thriller movies. If you look at the movie as simple entertainment then you won't be disappointed. If you are looking for realism then you will be disappointed in several scenes. The only part of this movie that was a complete disappointment was the ending. Don't get me wrong. The ending was expected but it abruptly ended. I would have enjoyed another five to ten minutes to see some resolution and not just make assumptions ...

Something Seasonal For the Halloween season, I watched all five Underworld movies in the month of October. I could have crammed them in one day but it was enjoyable to watch them without rushing through them. I have commented to many that Underworld is the adult version of Twilight. Basically, the series has more fights and less teenage romance. Twilight throws out that vampires can be killed by sunlight so they can go to high school but I will leave the rest of my thoughts about that series for another time. Underworld One of the reasons I decided to watch the series again was because I was given a copy of Underworld (unrated). Surprisingly, the unrated did add a little to the story expanding Erika's point of view but that was it. You can tell where the unrated scenes began as most times, it felt disconnected from the movie. The added story was not an improvement over the original but is worth a watch once. Underworld is probably one of the few DVDs that I watch all the ...

The Dream By now you should realized that I really enjoy watching movies. My dream of a home theater started many years ago with a 27" tube TV and a surround sound system connected to my VCR. The dream was short lived when we moved to our current house. It was fun while it lasted. Fast forward to the kids and wife moving out and a huge digital movie collection. What is a single person suppose to do. Going to the movies is expensive. Sure you can get a 75" 4K TV for $1000 on sale but you really don't get the full theater affect with crystal sharp images. Granted with some of the motion of these new movies, you need good HD quality to make sense of the scenes that are always being shaken in action movies but what about the classic movies that have not been seen on the big screen for so long. Ingredients The new dream started with the Amazon Prime Day sale with a 1080p projector on sale for $50. Going through a closet, we add a full size bed sheet that hasn't ...

Where is J? Emma Thompson is the only character from the previous Men In Black movies that make an appearance. I have to admit I was not thrilled seeing Men In Black without Smith and Jones. I wasn't sure how the movie would be with a new cast and location. Don't get me wrong, it is a great cast and was one of the only reasons I was planning to watch this movie.  Men In Black International introduces new characters and new places but don't expect to see Agent J or Agent K. One has to wonder if they are planning to make more MIB International movies and how long will they try to milk the series by changing the cast. The movie does provide some interesting cast including Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Chris Hemsworth, and Tessa Thompson. Chris and Tessa have worked together on Thor Ragnarok which I believe was the best of the Thor movies. Review I had waited a while to watch this movie as my expectations were low. I was pleasantly surprised this movie was much better t...

Another Dog Movie With superheros calming down after Avengers Endgame and Spider-Man Far From Home, we find ourselves back to another dog movie. The movie industry finds something that sells and makes nothing but these types of movies until the next big thing shows up that breaks the mold, I mean the box office records. Not to be confused with A Dog's Way Home, A Dog's Journey is the actual sequel to A Dog's Purpose following the adventures of Bailey as he is reincarnated into a new dog after each life trying to find his purpose. Review If you have not watched A Dog's Purpose, you probably should not watch this movie as you will be completely confused as to what is going on. Well, you will at least be a little confused and will definitely miss the meaning at the end of the movie. I admit that the first movie was an emotional movie for me to watch for many reasons but I think it affect many the same way. This movie still invokes emotion but I think I have been ...

Blast From The Past This is a movie from 1994 but still a good movie. I was able to convert my old DVD to a digital copy. Surprisingly, this 20th Century Fox does not currently support Movies Anywhere. The cast includes Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tia Carrere, and the late Bill Paxton. Movie is also directed by James Cameron. Movie Review Some of the special effects are dated but still pretty good. I have a new perspective on the story with my current relationship status. This has many classic Schwarzenegger action scenes but also includes a romantic story with comedy not found in many of his other films. If you are feeling nostalgia or just want a good action/comedy, I recommend giving this film a watch. Rating I would give this a solid SD rating since it is an older film. It is definitely worth converting your DVD to digital for $2. I did convert my DVD to digital for $2. I was tempted to spring for the $5 upgrade to HDX but I am cheap and rarely have ...

Something New I was able to get the only digital copy Family Video had this week for John Wick 3. Unlike normal digital codes that have a long string of letters and number, this one primarily a QR code. I did some research on Lionsgate new Lionsgate VIP app. Even with as many digital codes that I have redeemed, I was a little hesitant in picking this one up but I decided it would be worth it if it worked. The VIP app does not have a profile and does not appear to link to any retailer in the settings. At this point, I was already committed to redeeming the code as Family Video does not offer refunds with digital codes. Using the app, I scanned the QR code providing me the redemption information for the digital movie. It then asked which retailer I wished to redeem the movie on and I was grateful to see Vudu was on the list along with Google, iTunes, and several others. After selecting Vudu, it asked me to login to my Vudu account before adding the movie to my collection. My in...

History I picked up the first Secret Life of Pets movie when the digital code was very cheap. I believe it was a 2 for $5 at the time. The movie was better than I expected. Being a completist with may things, I felt the need to pick up Secret Life of Pets 2 to complete the collection. It helped that it came out the same time as Godzilla: King of the Monsters.  Review Patton Oswalt is a great comedic actor and voice actor. His most famous voice acting being Ratatouille. Who could resist watching his character meet Harrison Ford's serious character in this movie. Harrison's character reminded me a lot of his character in Six Days Seven Nights. I was actually surprised that this was only part of the movie. There is a second story happening at the same time. Both stories merge about a two thirds of the way through in a satisfying way. I have to admit, I initially put on the movie to test out my affordable theater room that I plan to post about soon. The movie's story ...

History Godzilla has been a franchise since 1954. At the end of the film, there is a in memory of Yoshimitsu Banno and Haruo Nakajima. Yoshimitsu was a director of several original Godzilla movies. Haruo was the actor who played Godzilla in twelve consecutive films. Both passed away in 2017.  As I child, I remember watching the old Godzilla movies on TV. There was a very loose story that required Godzilla to come in and battle another titan threatening the world. In retrospect, it was similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with only one "hero" battling every type of monster including a robot version of Godzilla. Only in the 1998 movie and a brief animated series has Godzilla's appearance ever been altered. Review Watching the trailer, I was expecting the movie to be like the old films with a majority of Godzilla's rogues gallery appearing. I was surprised when the story focused on a family who were affected by the 2014 Godzilla movie. I'll save you the...

Review My Tolkien movie review already discussed movies based on actual events so I will not repeat that in this post. This movie does look at faith and the possibility of miracles. I admit that there were a scene or two in the beginning that made me question my purchase of this movie but I continued to watch. I was glad I did continue to watch. I admit there might have been an emotional moment or two. Be sure to have the tissue box available for some viewers. In the scenes that made me question my purchase, I found myself not liking two of the main characters. As the movie progresses, we find out why these scenes are necessary for the story. I was questioning Topher Grace as the Pastor in the movie but after watching the movie, he was an appropriate actor for this part. Chrissy Metz does an amazing job in the movie as the devout mother who is strong in her faith. I am not giving anything away since you can see this in the trailer for the film. There are many more extraordin...

History It should be mentioned that movies based on history add drama here and there for effect. If we judge a movie based on history as being history, we would be as disappointed as my brother who hates these movies. Although, I think my brother and those like him might like Peter Jackson's "They Shall Not Grow Old" movie where the movie is restored historical film with colorization and voice overs by the men that were there. I have not seen this film but it is on my list to see. I originally did not include a History section to this film but did some additional research because I knew C. S. Lewis and Tolkien knew each other in real life. I was curious if a character in the movie was C. S. Lewis or if they simply left C. S. Lewis out of the film. Review Tolkien reminded a lot of Dead Poets Society. The trials of life between a fellowship of friends as they are growing up. The movie is neither fast paced nor extremely slow. It is paced precisely as a wizard would te...

History Hobbs & Shaw is the ninth full length movie in the Fast & Furious universe and the first to not have Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) in even a cameo role. Hobbs character was first introduced in the Fast Five and has continued to be a character in the three sequel movies. Shaw character was first introduced in a cameo role in Fast and Furious 6 and has continued to be a character in the two sequel movies. The Fast & Furious movies are about fast cars and family. Review If you go into the movie expecting a lot of car racing or looking for Dominic to make a cameo appearance, you will be disappointed. The movie does have a few chase scenes but the heart of the movie is about family and how two people who can't stand each other have to work together to save the world. There is a lot of humor in this movie. I very much enjoyed watching the film with my son who was laughed through most of the movie. I would say Hobbs & Shaw is the humor in the Fast & Furiou...

Vudu Movie Count I reached a milestone this week with my primary retailer Vudu. I officially reached 1000 movies. It should be noted that Vudu considers collections like all four Indiana Jones movies as a single movie in it's count so I reached 1000 a while ago. At the time of this post between iTunes, Google, and Vudu, I currently have 1050 different movies in the cloud. With the "official" Vudu count, I thought it was an appropriate time for Part 2 of my Collection or Addition post. Good vs Bad I have picked up many movies that were on sale that I thought would be good. Only after finally sitting down and watching them did I realize that I might have been better off with a couple dollar rental vs even a $5 UHD copy because it was a good deal. As I have reached this milestone in Vudu, I am starting to view some of my collection as just an addiction. Note that I said some of my collection. I still have several good or even great movies that I am glad are in the...

Jason Momoa I remember the first time seeing Jason Momoa play Ronon Dex on Stargate: Atlantis. I recently bing watched Game of Thrones. Most probably are trying to forget his Conan the Barbarian even though I thought it was pretty good. When I first saw that he was going to play Aquaman, I felt they could have not chosen a better actor for the part. Now to get in trouble with all the Jason Momoa fans. All these characters are the same brooding, muscle bound characters that are street smart but sometimes oblivious to everything else. Either he has been typecast or that is the range of his acting. At least Braven, his character was slightly different but not much. Don't get me wrong. Jason Momoa will probably go down as the the one true Aquaman just like Christopher Reeve will be known for Superman and Hugh Jackman will be known for Wolverine. I would just like to see him show more acting range. Movie Review Aquaman is one of the top two DCU movies out there. Many argue whi...

Free Movie Now that I have your attention. Last of the Dogmen is an old movie. It came out in 1995. Why do you ask would I do a movie review on such an old movie? Because it was a very good movie. I have been looking for this movie to be digital for a very long time but you will not find it on Amazon, Google, iTunes, Microsoft, or Vudu. You are probably asking yourself why would I include a movie review for a movie you cannot buy digitally? The answer is simple. I found it today on YouTube. Yes, a full movie with no commercials on YouTube ( https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=97CZvKgvqnA ). Movie Review I find myself watching this movie over and over again. It has action, mystery, and romance. It’s plot is similar To Dances with Wolves that came out in 1990 but this movie is set in much in 1995. I feel the movie stands the test of time since it is a story that does not rely on special affects. Granted the cars are old but not obviously old and no one uses cell phones. I feel it is a movi...

At The Movies I don't know about you but it appears that the movie industry has superhero or dog movies breaking sales records. Not that I am complaining. I enjoy a good superhero movie because it is usually a lot of action, a decent story, and you can watch it with kids (most times) without worrying about profanity or explicit scenes. Dog movies are good as well but are generally better when you have someone to watch them with you. Dog movies make you feel for the dog during the movie so the movie can end with you emotional at the end (most times happy). Movie Review I am old enough to remember Homeward Bound and other dog movies from...a while ago. I was expecting the plot to be nearly identical to these older movies. I admit it was similar but definitely more differences than similarities. It does look like Sony's digital effects department was focused on Spider-Man Far From Home vs this movie which detracted a little from the enjoyment of the movie but I completely un...

Disney Live Action Like Maleficent, Disney added Dumbo to its live action movie remakes. I use Maleficent as a comparison since Dumbo is also taken from a different point of view than the animated movie was original from. I was not sure I was ever going to watch this movie unless it came on Netflix or Amazon Prime. As luck would have it, I received a free movie rental from Family Video.  You can imagine the staff's surprise when I actually rented a movie vs buying the digital copy. I thought it an appropriate use of the free rental since I own most of the movies I would normally watch and was curious because of the cast. Again we can question my movie collection vs addition in another post. I am starting to question it myself. Movie Review My personal opinion is that a Tim Burton movie will either be good or not. The one thing is the movie will not be anything that you would expect. I will give him credit for telling Dumbo from a plausible angle. Some parts with an extrem...

History Escape Plan: The Extractors is the third movie in Sylvester Stallone's Escape Plan franchise. The first included Arnold Schwarzenegger and was a fairly good movie. This may explain why the first movie was in the theaters while 2 and 3 were relegated to direct to disc/digital releases. Arnold does not return in either 2 or 3 but we do get Dave Bautista best know for playing Drax in the MCU movies. The first two movies deal with Sylvester's character getting out of super max prisons. The third focuses on him breaking into one to rescue people. Review My first warning sign should have been the direct to disc release. My second should have been the $10 for UHD digital copy. My third came watching the movie and there was nearly 2 minutes of every company that produced the film. I watched the trailer and had high hopes but like Escape Plan 2, the movie fell short of my expectations. The part I most enjoyed about the first movie was how Sylvester's character would an...

End of Phase 3 Spider-Man: Far From Home is the end of the MCU phase 3 movies. With the last few movies from Marvel being almost as dark as the DC movies (to steal a quote from Deadpool), this was the perfect movie to end phase 3 and start phase 4 based on the final end credit scene. I was surprised by the movie coming out on a Tuesday. I was even more surprised that AMC kept their $5 ticket price for stubs members making this the perfect night to see the movie where I live. Review Since the last few MCU movies were full of tragedies, I thoroughly enjoyed this much needed light hearted movie where we can enjoy the character developments and much needed humor. I say humor with confidence as the entire theater were laughing through most of the movie. The scene with Hulk throwing Loki around Stark Tower in Avengers was the last time I had heard this much laughter from a theater crowd. I loved story as well. I was impressed how they tied the story into several other movies in the...

History Looks like we are seeing another sequel that is based on a movie from over 20 years ago. Blade Runner's sequel was at least in theaters. Backdraft's sequel went directly to Blu-Ray, DVD, and digital. It is now on Netflix for those who are curious for those who were fans of the original movie but do not want to pay to watch the sequel. Backdraft 2 is Movies Anywhere compatible if you do decide to add this movie to your collection. Backdraft 2 is based on the life of Stephen McCaffry's son (Sean) years after the original movie. Stephen McCaffry was played by Kurt Russell. Review I did enjoy the sequel bringing back Donal Sutherland and William Baldwin to reprise their roles from the first movie. The plot drew some aspects from the original but still remained its own movie. I do feel like this movie is worth at least one watch from those who were fans of the original. Special affects in this movie were on pare with the original movie but I think that added to the...

History I was surprised that this is a remake that was inspired by the life a Philippe Pozzo di Borgo. Like we (most Americans) would have watched the original movie based on a French person. My brother is very vocal about the liberties taken with movies that use the “based on a true story” tag. I think he would be less offended if they just started using the “inspired by a true story” tag. I blame it on the American English language because of how we have different meanings for the same words. Movie Review I saw a 10 minute free preview of this movie before buying it.  I was hooked by the preview and knew I wanted to add this to my digital collection.  Regardless of you thoughts of movies inspired by true stories, I believe this is a good story. Often we go see a movie to escape our lives. A few come along that help us escape and also allow us to reflect on our lives. It’s A Wonderful Life is the most iconic movies that I believe has this affect. I feel The Upside also do...

History M. Night Shyamalan has made many movies that provide plot twists that are unusual. Unbreakable and Split are two such examples that surprisingly become part of the same universe. Unbreakable was released in 2000 by Walt Disney Studios. Split was released in 2017 by Universal Pictures. Glass is the third movie in the trilogy distributed jointly by Universal and Disney. M. Night Shyamalan’s movies were pretty reliable in the 1990s and early 2000s with movies like The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village. The Last Airbender in 2010 was horrible. With a rich story from the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, M. Night managed to destroy over 8 hours of great story telling by condensing it into a 103 minute movie. Not to mention how the characters names were mispronounce throughout the film. I could spend an entire post on how that movie destroyed a live action series. My children convinced me to purchase Split. I admit at the time of this post, I have yet to...

History The X-Men franchise has been licensed under 20th Century Fox and has not been under the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Dark Phoenix is the last movie produced before the merger with Disney who now have all but the Spiderman franchise currently under Sony. This means that we may see a nearly complete MCU with nearly all licensed characters under one company. Many rich stories could be told staying closer to the source material. Secret Wars might now be an option. The House of M might be another. We will have to wait and see what Disney has in store for us in the years to come. Rumor has it that Deadpool and Venom will remain outside of the MCU. Days of Future past was an excellent comic that was adapted with the available licensed characters. The movie was good even though it did go far off the original story. With Hugh Jackman hanging up his claws after Logan, one wondered what an X-Men movie would be like without at least a cameo form our favorite mutant. I do not cons...

DC Animated Movies Historically, DC animated movies have been some of the best story telling for their heroes. These movies are direct to disc and digital release. Most of this I attribute to Bruce Timm as producer and amazing voice talents like Kevin Conroy who has done the voice of Batman for decades. I will typically recommend these DC animated movies as a must see or own. Movie Review If you watch the trailer, none of this should be a spoiler for you. This movie is a cross over with our current time's Justice League and 31st century Legion of Super-Heroes. I very much enjoyed hearing voices of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman from the Justice League animated TV series. This was one of the most positive aspects of this movie.  Jessica Cruz is the new Green Lantern who has an interesting back story. I prefer Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern but it would not make sense with this story. The movie had all the pieces that I should enjoy for a Justice League movie but I fou...

Live Action Disney first remade their classic animation movies into live action with 101 Dalmatians in 1996. It was not until Maleficent 2014 that it became an annual event. Maleficent was a different take on the classic animated movie and did well with the change. It was not until Beauty and the Beast in 2017 that the live action movie stayed very close to the original animated movie. Disney appears to be keeping close to this new formula and has several more live action movies in the works. Movie Review Aladdin does stay as true to the original animated movie as possible. Many criticize Will Smith on taking up the iconic Robin Williams genie role but they have obviously not seen the movie. I give Will Smith credit for trying to take on the role in the first place. No one could replace Robin Williams so Will does not even try. He keeps true to the heart of the character while making this live action version his own. Music is keep to these animated movies and three classic songs ...

Summary How to Train Your Dragon: Hidden World is the third and final movie of this trilogy that also include several TV episodes that can be found on Netflix. In the first movie, we find Hiccup trying to become a dragon slayer using his mind instead of his lack of brawn. In his attempt to impress his father the chieftain, he injures a rare Night Fury dragon who he later befriends and names Toothless. The two become friends and teach everyone Vikings and dragons can work together rather than be friends. In the second movie, we find our heroes trying to protect their dragons and other dragons from a villain who is trying to capture all the dragons and make them into an army. Hiccup also is trying to learn what it means to be a leader. His father is killed during the final battle and he is forced to become a leader. Movie Review This movie is a satisfying conclusion to the series. It has ranges of emotion throughout the film. Most of the characters have evolved during their jou...

Movie Review - Spoiler Free I will try to keep this a spoiler free review. First, I would like to applaud Disney/Marvel for making a movie over the 2 hour limit that most movies have kept themselves to lately. The movie would have felt rushed if it was only 2 hours. The movie starts out appropriately timed to the events of Avengers: Infinity War. The movie kept you emotional invested throughout the entire movie. There was some predictability with the story but for the most part, I was able to enjoy the ride without knowing what would happen next. This to me made the movie extremely enjoyable. We get see how the characters deal with the aftermath of the Infinity War and what their options are moving forward. Each character was given their opportunity on screen during the movie. This is obviously easier to do since there are fewer characters after the events of Infinity War. I felt that many characters had an appropriate conclusion to their stories. The movie did leave me with a couple ...

Shazam vs Captain Marvel My cousin had a hard time understanding why Captain Marvel was a female in the recent Marvel movie when that was the original name for Shazam. It was difficult to explain that while Shazam initially used to be called Captain Marvel when we grew up, Marvel actually trademarked the name preventing DC from using the name. This made for an interesting point throughout the Shazam movie as characters searched for a name to call our new hero. Movie Review I admit that I was not looking forward to seeing this movie. I felt DC was going to make it into what I called a "dumb" comedy. I was not a fan of Zachary Levi playing the hero Shazam. The trailers made the body suit seem ridiculous on him. I understand finding someone with the body of Dwayne Johnson who could accurately portray a 14 year old in a superhero body might be difficult. Wait, Dwayne Johnson could do it but I guess he will be playing Black Adam in a later movie. Don't get me wrong, ...

Not Another Transformer Movie Now that I have your attention. This is the sixth live action Transformers movie. Initially designed as a prequel, Bumblebee grossed the least of the six movies domestically but it also had the smallest budget. Where the movie differed was that is did extremely well outside of the US.  Although several elements of the movie allow it to be a prequel, it was later declared a reboot of the franchise. Whether or not it the movie did well enough for Paramount to create additional movies like this one is up for debate. Personally, I hope they do. I am a huge Generation One (G1) Transformer fan. This movie gave me everything I had hoped for in the first five movies. Until this one, I would have said the the original 1984 animated Transformers The Movie was the best. If you have not seen it, I recommend you watch it before seeing Bumblebee so that you can appreciate at least one scene a little more. It is still up for debate if Bumblebee has dethroned th...

New Releases Online If you have a Movies Anywhere account (see  digital locker post ), you can get digital copies of your Movies Anywhere (MA) selection from the cheapest retailer and it will go into your favorite retailers list. New releases this week include: Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse (MA) - $20 UHD (FandangoNow, iTunes, Google, Microsoft, Vudu) or $20 HDX (Amazon) Mary Poppins Returns (MA) - $20 HDX (Amazon, FandangoNow, Google, Microsoft, Vudu) or $20 HDX (iTunes) Ben Is Back - $15 UHD (FandangoNow, Google, iTunes, Vudu) or $15 HDX (Amazon, Microsoft) Favourite - $10 UHD (iTunes, Vudu) or $15 UHD (FandangoNow, Google) or $10 HDX (Amazon) or $15 HDX (Microsoft) Digital Codes at Family Video Family Video ( Findlay ) has limited copies of  Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse . They are planning to have Aquaman next week and Bumblebee in two weeks.  Be sure to check with your local store about reserving digital codes for new releases.  ...