Will Smith

4/5 Stars Bad Boys for Life

Julie Gilbert Action Adventure, Movie Reviews, thriller , ,
promo pic for the movie

Starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence

Summary:

Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett, veteran cops go up against a drug cartel. Marcus just wants to retire and enjoy the good life, but he come back to help when it becomes clear somebody’s out to kill his former partner, Mike.

Additional Comments:

  • Action packed
  • I enjoyed the fact that there was a decent plot with some twists for the MCs to encounter
  • Will Smith and Martin Lawrence make a good team.
  • Most of the funny parts were in the trailer. That’s neither here nor there, but it would have been more fun to discover some of the gems.
  • The cops have some cool tech toys.
  • The bad guy was a tad overpowered but it made for good movie.
  • Content warning: strong language, pervasive violence
  • I have not watched the others in the series.

Conclusion:

Not every action movie must be seen on a big screen, but this is one where I do think the bigger screen enhances the experience.

Associate links to follow…

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

Nonfiction:
5 Steps to Surviving Chemistry – A primer for chemistry students. Breaks down concepts into simple terms. 

5 Steps to Better Blurbs – A book for writers looking to improve their book descriptions

Movie Review 3.5/5 Stars: Spies in Disguise

Julie Gilbert Family, Fantasy, Movie Reviews , ,
promo pic for the movie.

Starring Will Smith and Tom Holland and Ben Mendelsohn

Summary:

The worlds greatest spy, Lance Sterling (Will Smith), gets framed for stealing dangerous tech. His only chance to catch the real bad guy and clear his name is turning to Walter Beckett (Tom Holland), a disgraced guy from the gadgets lab.

Additional Comments:

  • There are moments so stupid it hurts to watch, but overall, there’s a weird charm to the movie.
  • It’s definitely got some Hollywood preaching going on in there. Can’t we all just get along? Fire fighting fire makes a bigger fire, etc. Bad guys are people too.
  • They went all Disney on Beckett’s mother. Kinda uncalled for.
  • I get it’s a kid’s movie, but the humor is more juvenile than most animated flicks. More about pratfalls and potty humor than anything else.
  • Flip side, there were some genuinely hilarious moments. My favorite moment was the subtitle from Lovey (I was aiming for your face.)
  • Is it worth seeing? Yes, but I’d say moreso if you have somebody who falls in the target group of about 10-12 years old.
  • Is it worth seeing twice? Nope.
  • Am I glad I saw it? Jury’s still out on that one.

Conclusion:

Harmless kiddie flick about Will Smith being turned into a pigeon.

Associate links to follow…

Note: I’m starting to use a few ad sites for audiobooks, so codes are disappearing quickly.

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything. That will change very soon.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

Movie Reviews 4/5 Stars: Gemini Man

Julie Gilbert Action Adventure, Movie Reviews, scifi ,
Movie promo poster for Gemini Man.

Starring: Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, and Benedict Wong

*mild spoilers possible

Summary:

An excuse for Will Smith to fight a younger, CGI version of himself. Henry Brogan, an elite assassin, just wants to retire, but his government handlers aren’t thrilled with that idea. They send the best of the best to kill him. Surprise, it’s his clone.

Additional Comments:

  • If they truly wanted him dead, a little cyanide in a drink among friends woulda done the trick but that would have taken away the excuse to make the movie.
  • Also, these days, they coulda sent a drone to bury him with a missile. Oh, probably not subtle, but neither is sending a team of assassins.
  • Danny (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Baron (Benedict Wong) are both fun characters, but the movie could probably have happened without them. Baron had most of the funny lines.
  • Computer graphics had some shining moments and some missed opportunities.
  • My criteria for most movies is entertain me. I gave the movie 4 stars because it accomplished that objective.
  • Action 4/5: The motorcycle chase was exciting. The last battle was cool.
  • Script 3.5/5: I may be unduly biased by reading the negative critics views, but the script itself isn’t exactly something to rave over.
  • I have serious issues with the way they handled the depictions of the science. For the record, you cannot get full DNA workups done in 2 hours, no matter who you’re paying and no matter how much. (Unless that part of science has taken some quantum leaps in the last 7 years, I’ve done those tests and it takes 1-2 days minimum. Even working around the clock, the actual test runtime is probably 12 ish hrs.)

Conclusion:

The movie may be suffering under the weight of its own expectations. It was okay, but it could have been more in so many ways.

Associate links to follow…

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

3.5/5 Stars: Disney’s 2019 Aladdin Reboot

Julie Gilbert children's, Family, Fantasy , , ,
standard movie poster

Summary:

A poor boy with a pure heart finds a magic lamp and wishes himself into a prince so he can see the Sultan’s daughter, Princess Jasmine.

Additional Comments:

  • A valiant effort for rebooting a classic tale.
  • I still think the animated version is better, but they handled the beloved story with love.
  • Casting fit pretty well, though personally I think Naomi Scott had a stronger singing voice than Mena Massoud. They both did fine though. Will Smith put in an admirable performance as the genie. Nasim Pedrad gave life to a new character, Dalia, handmaiden to the princess. She was hilarious. Hands-down, my favorite new character. Alan Tudyk also did a nice job with Iago.
  • Comparison to the old version: I miss Gilbert Godfried’s Iago and Robin Williams’s genie. The new ones were fine but just not the same.
  • They definitely added some new songs and overall smacked the production with Bollywood style. They also kept some of the old classics and the basics of the storyline. I hadn’t seen the animated one in forever, so I forgot how things played out.
  • Were the additions worth it? Not really. They’re fine, but the movie doesn’t come close to the wow factor I had as a kid. That could partly be because I’m not a kid anymore, but I’m left with a feeling of “yeah, it was good.” Maybe the issues is my expectations were too high because the original left a very high bar to reach.

Conclusion:

Decent in its own right, but I’m still not convinced Disney needs to keep digging into its archives to find worthy stories to tell.

Associate links to follow…

Amazon Prime

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.


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