Dustin Cabeal 8/21/23 Dustin Cabeal 8/21/23

Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

By Dustin Cabeal

As a lifelong fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, most people expect me to be tired of the franchise or, worse yet, hate every new iteration of the franchise. And while I have been that person for other franchises, I have found it to be a waste of energy and passion. There is, in fact, only one iteration of the TMNT that I have not enjoyed or consumed, and that was the terrible Michael Bay live-action films. There was no greater joy for me than the sequel succeeding in ending the live-action reboot. The one lasting effect that the Bay live-action films have had is the infusion of hip-hop into the franchise, or rather, a more mainstream approach to hip-hop/rap, having moved away from songs about the Turtles or Ninjas… for the most part.

To get it out of the way, I just love the Ninja Turtles. I love seeing what they’ll do with them, how they’ll tweak them and change them, and for some reason, it doesn't corrupt my childhood memories of the animated series and pretending to be Donatello with my three friends making out the rest of the Turtles. It was an amazing feeling to watch this new version with my sons and see them enjoy what’s already their second Ninja Turtle franchise.

Hunter Patrick 5/18/18 Hunter Patrick 5/18/18

Review: Deadpool 2

By Hunter T. Patrick

The biggest question asked is how this movie compares to the first. The first Deadpool was phenomenal and was a thing of beauty of the cinematography and wonderful directing. From the opening moments of Deadpool 2 did I feel this isn’t better, but worse. That thought did not last long as after a few minutes in full of jokes and typical Deadpool fun did the movie take a huge turn right before the opening credits. The first Deadpool lacked something I felt that defines the character, and after that scene in Deadpool 2, I knew they cracked what makes Deadpool Deadpool. Deadpool 1 is a phenomenal movie, but in comparison, Deadpool 2 is a phenomenal Deadpool movie. Deadpool 1 is better, but Deadpool 2 is better for the character and that makes it special.

Hunter Patrick 4/28/18 Hunter Patrick 4/28/18

Review: Avengers: Infinity War

By Hunter T. Patrick

This review For Avengers: Infinity War contains minimal spoilers if you do not want to find out that Batman saves the day at the end of this movie then read another review or see the movie.

Ten years in the making indeed. The 19th installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has finally been released. No one would have ever thought the first Avengers movie would ever be made, or even succeed. Avengers brings together six superheroes, four with their own franchise, all for an epic movie. Infinity War’s marketing campaign mentions how there are 23 heroes in this movie. Is that a little too much? Some will say yes. Luckily the movie manages them all with ease (but do not expect all of them to play an equal role).

Kelly Gaines 3/19/18 Kelly Gaines 3/19/18

Review: Batman: Gotham by Gaslight

By Kelly Gaines

Gotham by Gaslight is the feature-length ‘Elseworlds’ movie that nobody asked for. For anyone not familiar with DC’s Elseworlds, they’re similar to the Marvel ‘What If’ titles. The short non-canonical stories range from funny to disturbing and change time, place, and sometimes even species of classic DC characters. Gotham by Gaslight asks one question: what would it be like if Jack the Ripper killed in Gotham? Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle, Commissioner Gordon, and a host of other well known Batman characters are transported to the 1880’s. Here, Bruce Wayne looks to fund the first Gotham’s World Fair in hopes of bringing some light to Gotham. Unfortunately, the killing spree of Jack the Ripper pulls Bruce’s attention in another direction. Despite the time warp and serial killer addition, the Gotham in Gaslight is familiar- grime, gore, darkness, and masked vigilante justice. Is the concept intriguing? Sure. Was the original comic a good read? Yes. Was the movie good? No.

Robert Ramos 3/9/18 Robert Ramos 3/9/18

Review: Gintama

By Robert Ramos

I spent countless hours and many days figuring out how to go about reviewing the live-action rendition of my all-time favorite anime. Should I go about it as an ultimate fanboy? Or, maybe, go in as unbiased critic? How I ever should I step into the realm of reviewing after being gone for so long? OH FUCK WHAT DO I DO!? Spoiler: I fanboy the shit out of this review. Sorry. So how did this movie fair out as a live-action flick of a beloved anime/manga? Let’s find out, shall we?

Dustin Cabeal 2/8/18 Dustin Cabeal 2/8/18

Review: Reset (2017)

By Dustin Cabeal

Reset isn’t quite a time travel movie, and it isn’t quite a parallel earth movie, but it does find a way to be a little bit of both. The story follows a science team that is studying time travel. Unfortunately, for them, the American’s are interested in their research after failing on their own and ending up with a ton of people going crazy and dying.

Dustin Cabeal 1/19/18 Dustin Cabeal 1/19/18

Review: Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold

By Dustin Cabeal

It’s been a long while since I sat down and reviewed a WB Animation title. I usually skip anything Scooby-Doo! but when my toddler saw Batman on the cover and held the DVD case with a tight grip… well, let’s just say I knew I’d be watching this Scooby Doo/Batman team up.

Dustin Cabeal 6/30/17 Dustin Cabeal 6/30/17

Review: In This Corner of the World

By Dustin Cabeal

Animated movies from Japan tend to be amazing from a story and film perspective. Not because I’m biased, while I do love animated films in general, I will always prefer 2-D animation. No, the real reason is that it is 2-D animation and the bulk of the world has moved on from caring about the art form. It’s a shame, but because of that stories like In This Corner of the World aren’t held to the same storytelling restraints that most films are nor are they pigeonholed into tropes like anime. Simply put, Is This Corner of the World only works in this format because it’s allowed to create a new storytelling narrative that doesn’t rely on the three-act structure or any other structure that you’d associate with Japan.

Dustin Cabeal 2/8/17 Dustin Cabeal 2/8/17

Review: Justice League Dark

By Dustin Cabeal

My Twitter profile picture should give you a general idea of my excitement for this film and for writing this review of it. The animated DC films as of late have been underwhelming. Part of me wants to say, “I’m glad they exist,” but then the other part of me has a hard justifying them when I don’t even want to show them to my child in the future.

Dustin Cabeal 1/2/17 Dustin Cabeal 1/2/17

Review: Sausage Party

By Dustin Cabeal

As a stay at home dad, watching movies has become a luxury to me. The simple fact is that 2016 saw the least amount of movies I’ve watched in a year. That blew my mind until I went through a list of all the releases and saw the amount of utter garbage that was released. Recently though I saw a couple of CG movies that I had wanted to see and Sausage Party was on the top of that list.

Dustin Cabeal 11/24/16 Dustin Cabeal 11/24/16

Review: Doctor Strange

By Dustin Cabeal

Finally finding the time to see Doctor Strange I felt the overwhelming need to review the film. I’ve had an interest in this film since its announcement and casting because A) I like Benedict Cumberbatch and B) I wanted to see who Marvel would handle an unknown character in their cinema universe.

Dustin Cabeal 10/17/16 Dustin Cabeal 10/17/16

Review: Shin Godzilla

By Dustin Cabeal

Take a journey with me. Back in 1998, the American film industry launched its first attempt at Godzilla. The producers of such blockbusters as Independence Day were behind the production and a soundtrack that remains as one of the best, was produced to support the film. The film was going to be huge, and I’m sure they meant every pun they said when promoting it. The film released, and it was terrible. Godzilla looked like a dickhead, he couldn’t catch a cab, and everyone overlooked the fact that the French were A) running secret operation in New York City and that B) the French were the ones to be following Godzilla’s birth? It was just a piss poor way to explain Jean Reno’s thick French accent and “military” training.

Patrick Larose 10/17/16 Patrick Larose 10/17/16

Review: Luke Cage E.04 – “Step in the Arena”

By Patrick Larose

Luke Cage’s history of a comic book character was born from the popularization of the Blaxploitation film genre during the 1970s. A bunch of white dudes caught on by how popular these action movies made by black people and starring black people were getting that they saw a new market to, well, exploit.

Dustin Cabeal 10/6/16 Dustin Cabeal 10/6/16

Review: X-Men: Apocalypse

By Dustin Cabeal

I’ve never called out someone else’s review in one of my reviews before. It’s tacky and pointless, but when you’re the only quote on the movie box, and you’ve dubbed this movie, “One of the coolest superhero movies of the decade”; I have to wonder what fucking movie you watched. To quickly sum up what you can expect from this film: everything Bryan Singer has ever done in an X-Men movie. The buildup is the same, the pacing the same. The really bad attempts at comedy… sadly still there.