Tag Archives: Joseph Quinn

The Fantastic Four: First Steps – Movie Review

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TL;DR – The best Fantastic Four film by a country mile.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

The Fantastic Four in a row.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps Review –

Well, it is time for another try at bringing the Fantastic Four to life. This would make it the third reboot of the franchise in my time. To catch you up, I liked the camp fun of Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, but it has been decades since I watched them, so I am not sure how well they have aged. But also, 2016’s Fantastic Four was an amazingly cast failure at almost every level. Which gives us a wide range to be working with even before we take into consideration the current rocky ground the MCU is standing on. But there is always time to find your feet, and I hope that today is that time as we dive headfirst into Phase 6. 


So, to set the scene, we are on Earth, but not as we know it because this is Earth-828, and four years ago, a tragic accident in space created heroes by cosmically changing their DNA. Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal) who can stretch his body, his wife Sue Storm / Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby) who can manipulate light, her brother Johnny Storm / Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) who can turn into flames, and good friend Ben Grimm / The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) has turned into rock. Their emergence has changed the world, but for their family, the only thing that matters is that Sue is pregnant. It is a moment that brings them all together, which is when a harbinger of doom arrives in the sky. The Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) announces to the world that it has been chosen for destruction at the hands of Galactus (Ralph Ineson). The Fantastic Four want to save Earth, but what happens when the price of salvation is too high?

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Tension That Kept You On The Edge Of Your Seat In 2024!

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Well, we have looked at Action, then Emotion and swung wildly across the spectrum to Fun, and now we are completing that trifecta by looking at Tension. Tension is one of the most challenging facets of filmmaking because it requires the script, direction, acting, and editing to all work in tandem to evoke the perfect pace. If just one part of that group misses, then an essential part of the film falls apart.

In 2024, we continued to see some excellent use of tension to build mystery, to be the harbinger of the coming dread, or even to tick the clock of inevitability.   

Our Highly Commended Films in 2024 are: Abigail, Force of Nature, Kill, The Moogai & Turtles All the Way Down
Our Highly Commended TV in 2024 are: Black Doves, The Diplomat, Dune Prophecy & The Lord of the Rings

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Gladiator II – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It has a strong cast, all the bombast you need, and a solid narrative. It is just frustrating that it has these creative choices throughout that just rip you out of the film.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film

The Battle of Numidia.

Gladiator II Review –

Well, 2024 has been the year of the legacy sequel, with Alien: Romulus, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,  Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and Twisters all trying their hands on it to a mixed success. The next cab off the rank might have the most significant legacy of them all, or at least the most attempts in the past to make a sequel because there have been many. But it has been 24 years since our last outing of Gladiator, and we have to ask, was this the film we needed, or should it have stayed contained in the past?

So, to set the scene, it has been 20 years since the death of Marcus Aurelius, and Maximus Decimus Meridius’s slaying of Commodus did not bring about the grand return of the Republic. Instead, it drove it deeper into tyranny. Rome is now ruled by the Twin Emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger), who care more for blood and entertainment than the people’s health and happiness. Looking to secure their reign, they lashed out at any place defying the Empire using their dutiful general Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal). The last free city on the Mediterranean was in Numidia, where a young man (Paul Mescal) and his wife, Arishat (Yuval Gonen), live. It is a pitched battle, but the Romans win, and the young man who is versed in Roman poetry is carted off to die in the games after watching his wife fall to an arrow. But he stubbornly refuses to die in the arena, which brings the attention of Macrinus (Denzel Washington), who has the want to change his position, and now he has the means.

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A Quiet Place: Day One – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A gripping work that holds onto you from those first minutes and never lets up as the world collapses around it.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this movie.

The Aliens arrive in the sky.

A Quiet Place: Day One Review –

It is time to step back into this universe that oscillates between complete quiet and a riot of explosions. I fundamentally enjoyed both A Quiet Place and its follow-up, A Quiet Place Part II. However, both of those films looked at how this apocalypse would affect a small town. It is now time to take this roadshow to a large city, which is, in fact, one of the largest cities in the world, and see just what would happen.

Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) lives in a hospice counting down her days on earth through the prism of forced poetry when one of the nurses, Reuben (Alex Wolff), convinces her and her support cat Frodo (Schnitzel & Nico) to come into New York City to see a play. While there, the puppet show had to be finished early because something was going down in New York, and the Hospice wanted them all home, which was when the first explosion hit.

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