Wednesday, October 1, 2025

The Napa Boys (2025): Movie Review

                                                                                  


Jim's review

The Napa Boys had potential yet was wasted for disgusting gags and stupid jokes!

1 out of 10 stars



Movie plot:
In the tradition of American Pie, Lord of the Rings, and Wet Hot American Summer comes a new installment in a beloved IP franchise: The Napa Boys are back - and for the first time, in this anarchic alt-comedy spoof.







Swiped (2025) Movie Review

      Toronto International Film Festival Selection 2025                                         


Jim's Review

Whitney Wolf ( Lily James) goes on journey to self reflection and success and finds herself in a difficult position herself as an innovator in a male dominated social media world.

She gets her big break as co founder of Tinder which quickly almost destroys her mentally. 

She ends up starting successful app Bumble which leads to her success and lesson she learned along the way to make changes in the dating app world

8 out of 10 stars

Movie plot

"Swiped" is 2025 biographical drama that chronicles the life of Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder of Bumble, highlighting her journey through the male dominated tech industry and her experiences with dating apps like TInder.






Captain America Brave New World (2025): Movie Review

                                                                    



Jim's Review

Captain America Sam Wilson has the shield and the responsibility and this is not easy for him to handle at times.

Samuel Sterns is back for more devious plan that will affect President Ross (Harrison Ford)

The epic battle in the end is interesting and mostly revealed in the trailer.

6 out of 10 stars


Movie plot:



"Captain America: Brave New World" follows Sam Wilson as the new Captain America, navigating international incidents and an assassination attempt on President RossThe plot involves a global power struggle over a new material called Adamantium, stolen from a Celestial hatching. Sam must uncover a nefarious plot involving the material and a mind-controlling villain named Samuel Sterns (who is also connected to President Ross's transformation into Red Hulk). 




Fantastic Four First Steps (2025): Movie Review

            Marvellous, Mystical and Mesmerizing!                                          



Jim's Review

Fantastic Four is back with a new characters and storyline that is simply marvelous!

9 out of 10 stars




Movie plot
Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and the Thing face their most daunting challenge yet as they defend Earth from Galactus and Silver Surfer.






Jurassic World Rebirth (2025): Movie Review

                                                                              


Jim's Review

Jurassic World is back with a new vision and more dangerous dinosaurs on the loose.

9 out of 10 stars





Movie plot:
A new era is born. This summer, three years after the Jurassic World trilogy concluded with each film surpassing $1 billion at the global box office, the enduring Jurassic series evolves in an ingenious new direction with Jurassic World Rebirth. Anchored by iconic action superstar Scarlett Johansson, Emmy and SAG nominee Jonathan Bailey and two-time Oscar® winner Mahershala Ali, this action-packed new chapter sees an extraction team race to the most dangerous place on Earth, an island research facility for the original Jurassic Park, inhabited by the worst of the worst that were left behind. Also starring acclaimed international stars Rupert Friend and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, the film is directed by dynamic visualist Gareth Edwards (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) from a script by original Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp. Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, the planet’s ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs. Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived. The three most colossal creatures across land, sea and air within that tropical biosphere hold, in their DNA, the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind. Academy Award® nominee Johansson plays skilled covert operations expert Zora Bennett, contracted to lead a skilled team on a top-secret mission to secure the genetic material. When Zora’s operation intersects with a civilian family whose boating expedition was capsized by marauding aquatic dinos, they all find themselves stranded on a forbidden island that had once housed an undisclosed research facility for Jurassic Park. There, in a terrain populated by dinosaurs of vastly different species, they come face-to-face with a sinister, shocking discovery that has been hidden from the world for decades. Ali is Duncan Kincaid, Zora’s most trusted team member; Critics Choice and Olivier Award winner Jonathan Bailey (Wicked, Bridgerton) plays paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis; Emmy nominee Rupert Friend (Homeland, Obi-Wan Kenobi) appears as Big Pharma representative Martin Krebs and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Lincoln Lawyer, Murder on the Orient Express) plays Reuben Delgado, the father of the shipwrecked civilian family. The cast includes Luna Blaise (Manifest), David Iacono (The Summer I Turned Pretty) and Audrina Miranda (Lopez vs. Lopez) as Reuben’s family. The film also features, as members of Zora and Krebs’ crews, Philippine Velge (Station Eleven), Bechir Sylvain (BMF) and Ed Skrein (Deadpool). Jurassic World Rebirth is directed by BAFTA winner Edwards from a script by Koepp (War of the Worlds), based on characters created by Michael Crichton. The film is produced by Oscar® nominee Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley, both longtime Jurassic franchise producers and of last summer’s blockbuster, Twisters. The film is executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Denis L. Stewart and Jim Spencer.







Thunderbolts* (2025) Movie Review

                                                                    




Jim's Review

A ragtag team is formed with Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Buck Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian ( David Harbour ), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen ), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko  ) and John Walker (Wyatt Russell  ) are brought together by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine ( Julia Luis Dryfuss) to fight each other or for other more interesting reasons! more on that later.

The are an unlikely team in the beginning fighting each other then band together to fight Valentina and the Sentry (Lewis Pullman) which is an ongoing battle. In the end the * is explained.

8 out of 10 stars




Movie plot





The movie "Thunderbolts*" centers on a team of reformed antiheroes – Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, Taskmaster, and John Walker – brought together by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. They are tasked with dangerous missions, but find themselves entangled in a death trap orchestrated by Valentina, forcing them to confront their pasts. The team must decide if they will succumb to their dysfunctional nature or find redemption and unite as a team. 








 

Thursday, August 14, 2025

Behind The Mask: Book Review

                                                                     


Jim's Review

Tremendous insight in goaltenders between the pipes who led their teams to success and dealt with their own issue and demons in times where the help was not available as it is now.

10 out of 10 stars


About book

A dozen incredible stories about hockey’s legendary goalies, on and off the ice—including Carey Price, Marc-André Fleury, Roberto Luongo, and Henrik Lundqvist.

“Hockey goaltenders have forever been thought of as unique, eccentric, weird and wacky. Also misunderstood. Randi Druzin’s Behind the Mask is a fascinating examination of a dozen of those who have played the position at the highest levels. This well-researched and well-written book is revealing and delightful at the same time.”—Roy MacGregor

While his teammates rush up the ice in a coordinated attack, the goalie is alone in his net. And when the play turns back toward him, he's prepared to step in front of a frozen rubber disc traveling 100 miles an hour. He's the last line of defense in a pitched battle. The goalie stands apart, on and off the ice. Like the relief pitcher in baseball and the place kicker in football, he is a maverick.

Behind the Mask profiles 12 legendary NHL goalies, emphasizing the traits that make each one unique. It blends accounts of the goalies on-ice exploits with anecdotes about their lives off the ice information gleaned from archival research as well as interviews with teammates, family members and the goalies themselves.

The careers here cover the last half-century of professional hockey from the personal struggles of Roger Crozier and Ed Giacomin on their way to stardom in the 1960s, to the recent brilliance of Carey Price, whose character blends stoicism with a deep warmth and pride in his Indigenous background.

Told with author Randi Druzin’s trademark mix of knowledge and wit, Behind the Mask has all the insight and color to make it a bestseller like her previous book on NHL goalies, Between the Pipes.

Hockey goalies profiled include:

  • Roger Crozier, Detroit Red Wings / Buffalo Sabres
  • Rogie Vachon, Los Angeles Kings
  • Gerry Cheevers, Boston Bruins
  • Ed Giacomin, New York Rangers
  • Tony Esposito, Chicago Black Hawks
  • Vladislav Tretiak, Soviet Red Army
  • Mike Palmateer, Toronto Maple Leafs
  • Grant Fuhr, Edmonton Oilers
  • Roberto Luongo, Vancouver Canucks
  • Marc-André Fleury, Pittsburgh Penguins / Vegas Golden Knights
  • Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers
  • Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens