Raymond Ocdol
Civil War Review

I really did not know what to expect from this movie, I'd seen the trailers and like most people I was pretty fixated on why a 2nd American Civil war was happening. The western forces of California and Texas? The Florida Alliance? A third term president of the loyalist states. Some pretty interesting choices for factions of a 2nd American Civil War and if you were thinking would dive much into this you would be wrong. Civil War is fundamentally about a civil war occurring in the modern USA, journalism specifically war journalism and the people on the ground. We follow a group of journalists as they make their way to DC. Our lead is Kirsten Dunst as Lee a war photographer, followed by Wagner Moura as Joel her college, Stephen McKinley Henderson as Sammy as their old mentor and Cailee Spaeny as Jessie as an aspiring photographer who tags along. Kirsten Dunst is quite the battle hardened pro while Cailee Spaeny's Jessie is the extremely green newcomer and a good part of the movie is Jessie learning the ropes.

Civil War Review
Raymond Ocdol
Top Games 2023

Really wised i got around to playing more this year on top of the giant backlog. Though I did play some other things besides WoW:Dragonflight. My GOTY is below plus some other highlights

Top Games 2023
Movie Review
Raymond Ocdol
Top Movies 2023

My Top 10 Movies for 2023 plus some special mentions at the end.

Top Movies 2023
Raymond Ocdol
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and ...

It's been quite a while since the YA craze and the last Hunger Games movie but here we are 2023 and a new movie, a prequel, the origin story of the main villain. The Hunger Games series were some of the better movies to come out of the YA craze, the quality was a bit un even especially at the end with Mockingjay being split into 2 part but overall solid movies.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Raymond Ocdol
A Haunting in Venice Review

A Haunting in Venice is Third movie is Kenneth Branagh's Poirot movie series, coming just a year after Death on the Nile though I think that movie got caught up in the Fox acquisition and the pandemic. Personally I thought Murder on the Orient Express was decent, Death on the Nile not so much, serviceable but not great for this third I did not have high hopes. Anyway turns out this movie is pretty good and is the best one out of the three.

A Haunting in Venice Review
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Glass (2019) Review

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Glass (2019) Review

Short Version

Glass starts off pretty promising continuing both the stories of Split and Unbreakable but cracks start to show as the movie progresses with one particular character's behavior being very off. James McAvoy is the MVP once again with all the personalities of the horde but it's nice to see Bruce Willis back, Sam Jackson is pretty good once he finally shows up in the movie and my personal favorite would be David Dunn's son who is played by the same actor as in Unbreakable. The action is decent though depending if you care or notice how the budget may have limited the number of locations and when Bruce Willis is using a stunt double. Despite the movie being called Glass, Mr. Glass himself is largely absent till midway through the movie. The ending is understandable but is quite unsatisfying and the very end scene is a bit strange. 

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Ocean's 8 Review

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Ocean's 8 Review

I'm actually not super familiar with the Ocean's Franchise outside of seeing Oceans 11 on TV when I was younger. I never saw the sequels but from what I have heard they are decent and the fact that a trilogy was made implies that the oceans franchise was fairly popular. Fast forward to 2018 and we have Oceans 8 a sequel/reboot though mostly a sequel. Now I am definitely not in the target market for this but I enjoy a good heist movie and with the trailers being alright I thought there could be some potential here.

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Solo: A Star Wars Story Review

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Solo: A Star Wars Story Review

I’m pickin’ up my blaster

Put it on my side

I’m jumpin’ in my Falcon

Wookie at my side

My initial expectations for Solo a Star Wars Story were quite low, after hearing about the troubled production and not being the most exciting things in the world. Then the early reviews started rolling in and they were mostly positive though there were a few saying that it was generic. So going in I expected at least a well-made movie with my biggest fears being that this would just be a by the book and uninspired. Turns out the movie is pretty good, its very solid for the most part but by the end does leave you wanting. The comparison I would give would be Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest aka the second one. I thought Dead Man's chest was a solid movie again not the best but for anyone who has seen the movie it definitely leaves you wanting.

Batman TV Spots

I saw this TV Spot for Batman Begins on Reddit. As the thread implies it makes Batman Begins look like a Nicholas Sparks movie.

There was Another TV Spot for ABC Family posted in the thread which was edited in a similar way.

So I decided to see if I could edit something similar together using a more contemporary song and footage from Batman vs Superman. The result is below... warning its a bit louder than the other spots



Creed Review

Creed is a Sequel and Reboot of the popular Rocky Franchise. Ill be honest I have never finished a Rocky Movie I have seen clips from various movies and tried to watch the first Rocky movie before I saw Creed but did not make to end. There has been quite a bit of buzz surrounding Creed, early reviews were favorable and Michael B Jordan is an upcoming talent so my expectations going in were fairly high despite not being too familiar with the Rocky Franchise.

Fortunately Creed is a fantastic movie, it not perfect no movie it but it comes together very well and is executed very well on all fronts. Starting with the cast Michael B Jordan is great as Adonis "Donny" Creed showing the conflict in his character as he reconciles never knowing his father, wanting to follow in his footsteps but also wanting to carve out his own legacy. Sylvester Stallone returns as Rocky Balboa giving a tremendous performance that is receiving Oscar buzz. Then there is Tessa Thompson as Bianca, Creed's love interest who is a great character. She is a bit under utilized at the end but nonetheless a solid performance and a character who developed and not defined by Adonis.

Admittedly the plot is a bit cliché, Adonis Creed wants to follow his father's footsteps, meets Rocky who decides to train him. He has to train, does some boxing etc. etc. its not super original but its very well done. The highlight of the movie for me is the Rocky Adonis dynamic and the surrogate family that is created between Rocky, Adonis and Bianca that comes together through the movie. Rocky had everything and in a way lost everything, his wife is dead, his son does not live in Philly but he finds a new family is Adonis and Bianca and something new to live for in training Adonis. Like wise Adonis has his inner conflict in defining himself and finds this new surrogate family and Support system with Bianca and Rocky. Bianca has a bit of an arc as well and great challenge to overcome and reconcile but this is unfortunately put on the back burner around the third act.

While I find the character dynamics to be the best part of the movie, it is not slouch in other areas. The boxing looks great and is put together very well. Michael B Jordan is pretty believable as a boxer and his opponents are just as capable and look the part. The cinematography is also really well done showcasing a modern Philadelphia and how its changed from the original Rocky movie(I did get through enough of Rocky 1 to see the city). There are a lot of call backs and references to older films and it definitely feels like a lived in believable world.

It all comes together so well and the end result is one of the best movies of the year. Compared to the other Boxing Movie that came out this year Southpaw, Creed is by far a superior movie and I though southpaw was pretty decent. But where southpaw succeeds as a decent boxing/sports movie Creed succeed as a great movies in general. Sure it’s a boxing movie but it’s a about more than just boxing. It's about the characters and how they grow, find each other and help each other overcome their challenges. Overall Creed is a great movie, one of the best of the year and you should definitely go see it.

9/10

 

Other Musings

A lot of the movie and its marketing is about how a name does not define a person in this case Adonis Creed should not be defined by his father's legacy. Michael B Jordan shares his name (save for the B) with the greatest basketball player of all time.

Michael B Jordan Reunites with Wood Harris in this movie. Both played characters in the best show ever The Wire. Michael B Jordan Played Drug Dealer Wallace while Wood Harris plays Avon Barksdale, a drug Kingpin.

 

 

Disclosure: The company is work for has Roadshow Films as a client who are the distributors for CREED. I work on this account and worked on the campaign for this movie, I also saw this courtesy of Roadshow at a Roadshow screening before general release. 

raymondocdol.com