Tag: Carl Lumbly

Captain America: Brave New World (2025) | REVIEW

Red Hulk (Harrison Ford) hulking out in CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD — PHOTO: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Directed by Julius Onah — Screenplay by Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson, Julius Onah, and Peter Glanz.

Despite the huge success of Deadpool & Wolverine last year, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in an unsteady moment currently due to an inundation of Disney+ series, and several rushed and poorly received films. In the post-Avengers: Endgame era, Marvel Studios still needs to get back on track, and, unfortunately, Captain America: Brave New World isn’t the film to do that. Though it’s not the worst film in the connected universe of films, I believe that it is, however, a lower-tier MCU film that feels messy, tinkered with, and sometimes even soulless. This is despite the fact that certain elements and scenes are quite satisfying. Although Marvel die-hards will probably still have a decent-enough time with it, but outside of the massive Red Hulk sequence teased in the marketing, the film arguably fails to justify its existence on the big screen. 

Continue reading “Captain America: Brave New World (2025) | REVIEW” →

REVIEW: Doctor Sleep (2019)

Theatrical Release Poster – Warner Bros. Pictures

The following is a review of Doctor Sleep — Directed by Mike Flanagan.

How do you please the fans of two very different masters of storytelling (i.e. Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick) when the storytellers’ understanding of The Shining differs so much that the author, Stephen King, once disowned director Stanley Kubrick’s extremely popular adaptation? How do you continue the story of The Shining on the big screen, when King and Kubrick’s endings are in conflict with each other? Those questions made the adaptation of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, a sequel to his hit novel The Shining, an incredibly daunting task exactly because audiences would expect it to also be a sequel to Kubrick’s beloved masterpiece. Mike Flanagan, a promising horror filmmaker who adapted Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game into a terrific Netflix film, was eventually chosen for the difficult task. Ultimately, I think Flanagan, who both wrote, directed, and edited Doctor Sleep, did an outstanding job. Flanagan has confidently united two clashing visions in this quite satisfying, but undeniably unnecessary sequel. Continue reading “REVIEW: Doctor Sleep (2019)” →