Pokemon: Detective Pikachu

I’ll admit, there was a phase in my life where I was really into Pokémon. More the trading card and card game aspects as opposed to the anime, films and the large library of video games. Still that was years ago and I lost interest in the franchise as a whole. What that means is I never played the detective Pikachu games. But I have seen the Detective Pikachu movie, which is what this is about.

Whilst I’m aware there have been plenty of Pokémon movies, this is the first I’m aware of that was produced in English. It’s also the first Nintendo Movie since Super Mario Brothers, The First Live Action Pokémon Film, and the first Pokémon film distributed theatrically in the US since 2003. Not to say Pokémon has been dormant since then, not with the thousands of Pokémon games that seem to come out all at once and introduce new and ever sillier looking Pokémon.

But I digress, I’ve never played Detective Pikachu, but I thought the concept was interesting enough that I decided to give it a watch.

Alex Rider Retrospective - Season 1 Episodes 3-4

We’re back with Alex Rider, and thusfar with them having to integrate elements of Stormbreaker into to plot to make it make sense, not much has actually happened, but it’s time to get back to the business of spy business

Rage4Media #85 - Space Jam: A New Legacy (4Media Reviews 8th Anniversary)

It’s been a full year since I last did a rage review. Am I becoming a calmer and more rational person? No, I’m just very busy and don’t have the time to invest in longer reviews, especially since I’m instead doing longer series retrospectives as well. Hence the more erratic schedule of late for which I apologise. That and I choose to reserve my anger for media that really deserves it.

Yes, you will do nicely.

In spite of the fact that Disney owns… almost everything under the sun they’ve shown some restraint when it comes to self-indulgent crossovers. Not to say they’re non-existent, there’s a whole Simpson’s Marvel Crossover and the Ducktales Reboot has references to all the Disney afternoon cartoons, oh and there’s some minor references in Free Guy, but nothing quite at the same spectacle as having say a whole bunch of their properties show up in Lego form. [Editors note: This was written before the Chip and Dale movie came out]

When it comes to self-indulgent crossovers, Warner Brothers is King. The Lego Movie and its sequel are prime examples of the kind of thing I’m talking about, it’s not surprising they were the ones who did the adaptation of Ready: Player One. A story built on the premise of a self-indulgent crossover. But of all the self-indulgent crossovers, none are as big or as self-indulgent as… wait, Space Jam 2?

There have been attempts to get a sequel to Space Jam off the ground since the first one’s success. It was announced in the 2010s that a new basketball super-star LeBron James would be the basketballer in the film. But what really kicked off production for the film was the launch of the streaming service HBOMax. A Streaming service that holds most of the Warner Brothers films.

The original Space Jam was a feature length version of a shoe commercial, so the idea was formed to make a feature length HBOMax commercial for its sequel. Or at least that’s how I envision it was conceived. I can’t imagine it was because they thought they could make an entertaining movie from this idea.

So how bad is this film? Well, let’s take a look.

Alex Rider Retrospective - Season 1 Episodes 1-2

So you remember Stormbreaker?

I suspect some of you wish you could forget. I reviewed it twice (here and here) A movie that was intended to start a franchise but delivered its material in such a way that it became self-parody. It was over-the-top, ludicrous and diverged from its source material in frustrating ways but I still ended up kinda liking it.  

I’m not exactly surprised that the franchise it hoped to spawn didn’t materialise, its launch in America was badly managed by the Weinstein Company.

Enter Amazon to give the idea of an adaptation a second wind. They greenlit a series for their streaming service, starting this time with the second book in the series, Point Blanc, and incorporating elements of Stormbreaker into it rather than adapting Stormbreaker again, a wise decision, all things considered.

For reasons I don’t really understand whilst the series debuted on Amazon’s Prime Video it was later moved to the ad-enabled IMDb TV (now VeeTee), where its second season also debuted.

I have read the Point Blanc Novel but not recently, so I’ll be judging this show on its own merits, whilst making only vague reference to the book.

Pixar Playlist #22 - Onward

It’s been a while since we did a Pixar Playlist, it’s time to Move Onward

This film is something to me because it’s the last film I saw before everything got shut down due to the Covid-19 outbreak. I was originally going to see the Vin Diesel outing Bloodsport when the cinemas shut.

What that means is that the film didn’t do very well at the Box Office, making $114m or thereabouts over its measly 2-week run. The film did better on Video on Demand, and helped boost a recently launched Disney Plus in the US, it took a while longer to come into the UK.

Dan Scallon is the head of this project and based the idea on his own life story and relationship with his brother. Scallon’s last Credited Pixar Film was Monsters University but we won’t hold that against him.

Netflix (HBO Max) Retrospective: Titans Season 2 Episodes 12-13

After a month-long break, we’re back with Titans and we last had 2 of the series’ stronger episodes back-to-back, can it end on a strong note, let’s find out

Disney Channel Musical Month - High School Musical 2

We conclude our look at Disney Channel Musicals with the High School Musical that doesn’t take place at High School, High School Musical 2.

High School Musical has been the benchmark for Disney Channel Musicals since its inception. It was one of the most successful original movies Disney ever produced for the Disney Channel, so High School Musical 2 had a lot to live up to. And looking at the figures it succeeded, it was and still is the most commercially successful Disney Channel Movie produced, with a song from the soundtrack peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. The success was so wide-felt that its sequel went for a cinematic release with a bigger budget.

Does it hold up? Let’s take a look.