Spider-Man: Far from Home: Movie Review

Hello, readers!

We’re back today with a brand-new movie review: Spider-Man: Far from Home, which made its theatrical debut on July 2nd.

Directed by Jon Watts and starring Tom Holland in his 5th (yes, 5th) time as the titular web-slinger, this film follows Peter Parker post-Endgame while he tries to juggle being both Spider-Man and a normal 16-year-old kid all at the same time.

If you have not seen the film and do not want to be spoiled but do want to know if it’s worth seeing: Yes. A resounding yes.

Now, for the love of Peter Parker, shoo.

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT.

(THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO TURN BACK.)

Still with me? Ok, here we go…

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Signed, Sealed Delivered: The Road Less Traveled (2018) – Movie Review

Hello again, dear readers!

Today we’ll be talking about the latest installment in my favorite Hallmark movie series ever – Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Road Less Traveled.

If you’re not familiar with the sheer awesomeness that is SSD, check out my review of Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Higher Ground for a #POstables crash course. If you’re just trying to keep the viewing order straight, it’s as follows:

Signed, Sealed, Delivered (2013) – Pilot episode

Signed, Sealed, Delivered (2014) – Television series

Signed, Sealed, Delivered for Christmas (2014) – 1st film on the then-newly rebranded Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: From Paris with Love (2015)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Truth Be Told (2015)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Impossible Dream (2015)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: From the Heart (2016)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: One in a Million (2016)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Lost Without You (2016)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Higher Ground (2017)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Home Again (2017)

Signed, Sealed Delivered: The Road Less Traveled (2018)

This latest postal mystery takes place shortly after Home Again (which I somehow missed reviewing, although I’ve seen it many times since the premiere last year), and has our intrepid POstables on a road trip.

The Postables take a road trip in an old Winnebago in order to track down a small boy who they fear may have been kidnapped. The discovery of a 1980’s era instant camera and the unusual photographs it contains, send our team on a wild ride across Colorado using the pictures as a guide.

One thing I absolutely LOVE about this series is not only the dead letter (or in this case, camera) mysteries, but the relationships between our core characters. As of The Road Less Traveled, Shane & Oliver are in a committed relationship and Norman & Rita are busily planning their wedding (which will be shown in the next movie, currently being filmed in Canada).  Both couples hit a minor speedbump in their relationships (Norman & Rita’s being Norman’s insecurity and Shane & Oliver’s being a secret Shane had been keeping), but through love, trust, & communication resolve their issues well before the end of the film.

Written by Brandi Harkonen, who has co-written & produced many of the past SSD movies with series creator, Martha Williamson, Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Road Less Traveled is a wonderful addition to the series beloved by #POstables the world over. There are callbacks to prior films, parallels between the postal mystery & the POstables personal relationships, and many lessons to be learned in each of these wonderful shows & films. For a deeper look at the messages hidden in the film, I highly recommend checking out the Alameda & Downing blog, the ‘official’ source of all things SSD.

FINAL RATING: 4 1/2 SPORKS

The movie that’s currently being filmed is the last one that’s been ordered, so show your support by Follow Martha, Brandi & the cast on Twitter @MarthaMoonwater, @BrandiHarkonen, @Eric_Mabius, @kristintbooth, @geoffgustafson, & @RealCrystalLowe, Tweet along using the hashtag #POstables, and letting @hallmarkmovie, @MichelleVicary, & @billabbottHC that you want more SSD!

Wonder Woman (2017) – Movie Review

Hello again, readers! Today I’ll actually be reviewing something current – Wonder Woman (2017)!

Directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot as the titular character, Wonder Woman tells the origin story of Amazonian princess/ Justice League member Diana of Themyscira, who leaves her home to go rescue humanity from Ares, the Greek god of war.

Aided by Captain Steve Trevor of British Intelligence (Chris Pine), Diana heads to the front lines of World War I.

While the movie is far from flawless, it’s the best DC comic-based film I’ve seen in a long time.  Gal Gadot was the best part of Batman vs Superman (for a film titled that there was very little versus going on) and continues to be the perfect Diana Prince/Wonder Woman.  She portrays the badassedness of Wonder Woman combined with the naivete of someone who’s literally lived on an island full of women her entire life perfectly and Chris Pine is fantastic as Steve Trevor.

Like i said though, the film isn’t flawless. For a huge blockbuster film, the CGI is actually not that great, which honestly shocked me. There were a few plot points that kind of annoyed me, and I really felt that David Thewlis was miscast. While he’s a wonderful actor and I love him as Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter series, I just wasn’t feeling him in this film.

Is it worth seeing on the big screen? Absolutely. It’s actually a very good film and made me excited for Justice League.

Final rating: 3 3/4 Sporks of Truth

Rent (2005) – Movie Review

Hello from a (way too) long hiatus, readers!

Life has been crazy, but hopefully we’ll get back to regular reviews soon – We’re gearing up for the Louisiana Book Festival here in October and have an amazing YA lineup so far, so I’ll be reading & reviewing like crazy in the upcoming months!

In the meantime, I just finished watching Rent (2005) and need to get some feels out – so here we go!

Rent, based off of the Broadway play of the same name by the late, great Jonathan Larson, is a 2005 film directed by Chris Columbus, written by Stephen Chbosky (who wrote the AMAZING The Perks of Being a Wallflower book and film screenplay, in addition to directing the film) and starring Anthony Rapp as Mark, Adam Pascal as Roger, Jesse L. Martin as Collins, Idina Menzel as Maureen, Wilson Jermaine Heredia as Angel, and Taye Diggs as Benny (all reprising their roles from the original Broadway play), along with Rent newcomers Rosario Dawson as Mimi and Tracie Thoms as Joanne (who went on to reprise her role in the final Broadway cast). The play (and subsequently, the movie), which is based on Puccini’s play La Boheme, centers around a Bohemian group of friends dealing with life, loss, love, and AIDS in the late 80’s/early 90’s East Village of New York City.

The only way I really can describe this movie is that it’s wonderful – the story is wonderful, the music is wonderful, the cast is wonderful – overall it’s a beautiful film. It’s emotional, powerful, gritty, raw… You can really feel what the characters are going through, especially throughout the musical numbers. I love the fact that most of the original cast reprised their roles, so I almost feel like I get to see the play in its original incarnation, although there’s obviously been some changes made for film. You can really tell that the actors love and understand their characters and therefore give their hearts and souls to their performances.

There’s so many great songs on the Rent movie soundtrack that it’s impossible to pick a favorite. Seasons of Love, Rent, Light My Candle, Out Tonight, La Vie Boheme, What You Own, No Day But Today… The soundtrack is so diverse with powerful rock anthems and softer ballads all blending seamlessly to create the perfect rock opera. It’s definitely worth buying the full 2-disc soundtrack as opposed to the 1-disc “selections from” album.

I’ve seen the film & listened to the soundtrack tons of times over the past 12 years, but both never cease to move me. I can’t help but sing along as I watch and the alternate ending to the film makes me cry every time I watch it in the deleted scenes.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to go watch the “What You Own” scene again. I can’t help but make “aww” noises when Mark & Roger reunite and bro-hug it out.

Thank you, Jonathan Larson.

FINAL RATING: 5 Bohemian Sporks

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Higher Ground – Movie Review

It’s no secret to people that know me that I have a fierce love of Hallmark Channel original movies. This holds especially true for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries’ series Signed, Sealed, Delivered, written & produced by Martha Williamson (who also wrote & produced the CBS series Touched by an Angel).

Starting with a 2-hour pilot film and a 10-episode TV series before switching formats to a 2-hour film series, Signed, Sealed, Delivered is about 4 USPS employees who make up the team that work in the Dead Letter Office (DLO) department of the Denver, CO main branch. The team consists of section leader Oliver O’Toole (Eric Mabius), technophile Shane McInerney (Kristin Booth), postal history buff Norman Dorman (Geoff Gustafson), and Eidetiker Rita Haywith (Crystal Lowe), collectively known as the POstables (which is also the name of the fandom).

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Higher Ground is the 8th film following the pilot & television series, and since each film frequently calls back to prior films & series episodes I highly recommend that one go back & watch them all in order, which is as follows:

Signed, Sealed, Delivered (2013) – Pilot episode

Signed, Sealed, Delivered (2014) – Television series

Signed, Sealed, Delivered for Christmas (2014) – 1st film on the then-newly rebranded Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: From Paris with Love (2015)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Truth Be Told (2015)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Impossible Dream (2015)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: From the Heart (2016)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: One in a Million (2016)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Lost Without You (2016)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Higher Ground (2017)

In Higher Ground the POstables find themselves in posession of a love letter written by a blues singer named Gabe, who was displaced from New Orleans during hurricane Katrina and relocated to Denver, to a woman named Hattie, the owner of a blues club in New Orleans.

Being from south Louisiana and actually having gone through Hurricane Katrina (although being an hour northwest of New Orleans I wasn’t involved in the levee breach & subsequent flooding there), I felt a personal attachment to Gabe’s story, both by actually being in New Orleans when evacuations started before Katrina hit and having gone through the Louisiana flooding in August of 2016.

Martha handles Gabe & Hattie’s story with such grace – showing what it truly was like for people who went through Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans while still maintaining the humor and spirit that POstables around the world have come to expect from our favorite Hallmark series.

Of course, SSD is about way more than just the dead letter mysteries – while fun, the real beauty of the series is about the POstables themselves and the relationships between them. As of the beginning of Higher Ground Norman & Rita have been dating for a year (although they had carried torches for each other for a lot longer than that) and Shane & Oliver are on the verge of romance themselves. (Again, watch from the beginning to enjoy the progression of their relationships and the character growth!)

Without giving anything away (because you really do need to need to watch it for yourself), I will say that I was crying within the first 30 seconds and at various points throughout Higher Ground. The last 15 minutes were utter perfection and has been the culmination of years’ worth of work on part of Martha and the cast, and years’ worth of patience from POstables all over!

Luckily we get 3 more SSD films this year. I know this POstable is eagerly awaiting the next chapter!

Final rating for Higher Ground: 5 Sporks (that hopefully don’t get lost in the mail)

Follow Martha & the cast on Twitter @MarthaMoonwater, @Eric_Mabius, @kristintbooth, @geoffgustafson, & @RealCrystalLowe, Tweet along using the hashtag #POstables, and for all things Signed, Sealed, Delivered check out the Alameda & Downing blog, which is run by Chandel Charles, the POstable fandom’s (un)official section leader!

Deadpool – Review

Greetings from onboard the beautiful Carnival Triumph, readers! By the time you read this I’ll be back in the US, but I’m currently on a much-needed cruise vacation to Cozumel & Progreso, Mexico.  It’s a beautifully warm evening out on the Lido deck, with  Avengers: Age of Ultron  just having wrapped up and X-Men: Apocalypse starting in about 45 minutes – just enough time to grab a drink and settle myself into a chair to write a quick review.

Today’s review was originally going to be about Doctor Strange, which I saw in theaters a few weeks ago, but last night I saw Deadpool for the first time at the Seaside Theater on the Lido deck of the ship, and I can’t not talk about this movie.  I know, I know, I’ve been living under a rock if I hadn’t seen Deadpool until now, but in my defense, I did buy it on Black Friday with the full intention of watching it as soon as it came in.

Firstly, the opening credits – best. Opening. Credits. EVER. In lieu of traditional credits that list the director, actors, producers, writers, etc, the credits are completely smart-assy. Starring “God’s Perfect Idiot”, “A Hot Chick”, and “A British Villain”, Produced by “Asshats”, and written by “The Real Heroes Here” are just a few examples from the hilarious opening credits. It really sets the tone of the film.

The film opens with Deadpool, played by Ryan Reynolds reprising his role from X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in a taxi on his way to confront a man named Francis.  After a (really quite awesome) fight scene, Deadpool stops the film in order to give us his origin story.

Just when things are going right in his life, mercenary Wade Wilson finds out he has stage 4, untreatable cancer.  In desperation, he agrees to become part of an experiment in order to unlock his recessive mutant genes to give him superpowers, in turn curing his cancer and allowing him to live his life with his fiancee’ (played by Morena Baccarin).

We find out later that unlike in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Deadpool wasn’t created as a government experiment – the facility that was creating mutants was selling the newly-created mutants to the highest unscrupulous bidder, essentially selling them into slavery. After being mutated, which leaves him horribly disfigured, then getting told the entire nefarious plan by Francis – who goes by Ajax – Wade manages to escape and spends the next year tracking Francis’ entire organization, which leads up to the big showdown finale.

There’s a cameo from Colossus and another X-men trainee I’ve honestly never heard of, a ton of fourth-wall breaking, with Deadpool talking directly to the audience, making in-jokes and references to other Marvel films, and even making a joke about the atrociousness that was The Green Lantern. (I’m glad Reynolds is able to laugh about it now, ‘cause no one was laughing during The Green Lantern.)

The nudity is gratuitous – we’re given more than just a glimpse of Ryan Reynold’s spectacularly sculpted rear, along with female frontal nudity, multiple sex scenes, more F-bombs than I was able to count, and a fair share of adult jokes.

Deadpool definitely earns its R rating – this isn’t your teenage cousin’s Marvel superhero movie, but it’s done well, which proves that Marvel definitely can release edgier films.

Final rating: 4 sporks

Slither (2006) – Movie Review

​At a friend’s suggestion, I recently watched 2006’s Slither, starring Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, and Michael Rooker. I’d never heard of Slither until my friend had suggested it (although I really like Nathan Fillion), so before viewing I thought it was about snakes or something.

I was wrong.

Basically Critters meets Alien meets Night of the Living Dead, Slither is about a small town that gets taken over by aliens. It all starts when Grant Grant (Rooker) runs across a meteorite that has landed in the woods.  (And yes, the character’s name is actually Grant Grant. His parents were either lazy or cruel.) Because curiosity killed the cat (and in this case also the dog, the cow, the deer, the sheep, etc.) he decides to check out the hatched egg-looking meteorite and gets jabbed in the chest by a barb and taken over by an alien parasite, eventually turning him into King Koopa from the Super Mario Bros movie. (Seriously, that’s what he reminded me of toward the end there.) He ‘infects’ a woman that he had run into at a bar the night he was taken over and basically turns her into a giant slug-like alien baby factory.  The alien slug babies start to infect the townsfolk by squirming their way into their mouths, taking over their brains and turning them into zombie-like creatures – leaving only Grant’s wife, Starla (Banks), Police Chief Bill Pardy (Fillion), and a teenage townie named Kylie to battle the collective – because apparently they all have Grant’s memories, so if you kill the Grant monster, the rest of them will follow suit. The big climactic scene had some sort of weird assimilation/orgy thing going on, so that plot point actually did kind of made sense rather than feeling like a cop-out.

There were a few points thoughout where I had to go, “REALLY? Come on, now!” but otherwise it was highly entertaining with just the right amount of ‘ew’/creep factor.

Final rating: 4 Sporks

Any thoughts? Sound off in the comments below!