Month: December 2021

By Mark Saldana While 2021 was not the dumpster fire 2020 was, COVID-19 in its variant forms has still remained with us and is on the rise once again. Thankfully, things did improve with multiple vaccines available. As more people got immunized for the virus, the numbers of COVID-19 cases reduced. This allowed for people… Continue reading Mark’s Best of 2021

By Mark Saldana Rating: 4 (Out of 4 Stars) Acclaimed filmmaker Joel Coen tackles Shakespeare and the results are miraculous. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting into when I attended this screening, because Coen, who usually works with his brother Ethan, usually has a penchant for off-beat and idiosyncratic movies, storytelling, and characters.… Continue reading THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) After watching the trailer to this movie, a longtime friend and fellow movie buff griped that this film looks like a television movie of the week. While that description is not completely true, American Underdog comes pretty close to being just that. However, the decent writing,… Continue reading AMERICAN UNDERDOG

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) If one happens to be a fan of time capsule, “ride along,” slice-of-life movies, then Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza is definitely one’s jam. Other similar movies include Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, and George Lucas’ American Graffiti.… Continue reading LICORICE PIZZA

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) Impressing writing, skillful dlrection and an incredible, transcendent performance by Mahershala Ali make Swan Song a must-see science fiction drama. Written and directed by Benjamin Cleary, the film tells the tragic story of a loving and good-hearted man facing his untimely demise due to a terminal… Continue reading SWAN SONG

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) Well, as we have witnessed and experienced during 2020 and 2021, we all know how the people of the world, our leaders, and America have responded to an international pandemic. Filmmaker Adam McKay applies this experience to a fictional scenario involving a comet headed to our… Continue reading DON’T LOOK UP

Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) Much like the first installment of this animated, juke box musical franchise, Sing 2 is simply good, sacharine fun through and through. Both films do not have complex stories or plotting, but that’s okay. The Sing movies just want people to sing, tap their feet and maybe even dance… Continue reading SING 2

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) It would seem that, after the events of The Matrix Revolutions, there would be no way to relaunch this movie franchise. However, thanks to the creativitiy and visionary mind of Lana Wachowski, there is always a way to reboot a movie saga that both celebrates and… Continue reading THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS

By Mark Saldana Rating: 2 (Out of 4 Stars) After Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman: The Golden Circle, director Matthew Vaughn decided to give his latest movie franchise a prequel, which tells the origins of this particular movie universe. I do not know what exactly Vaughn is drinking or consuming, but his ideas for… Continue reading THE KING’S MAN