Movie Review: ***^ The Super Mario Brothers Movie (2023)

 Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are plumbers in Brooklyn.  They get sucked through a pipe to mushroom land.  They go separate routes.  Mario meets Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) who takes him to Princess Peach's (Anya Taylor-Joy) castle.  Luigi ends up in the dark kingdom which is under Bowser's (Jack Black) control.  Bowser has threatened Princess Peach that she must marry him or he will destroy her kingdom.  Mario and the princess team up to rescue Luigi and confront Bowser.  They recruit Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) and his army to help.  They are taking a short cut, but Bowser expects this and ambushes them.  The rainbow road is partially destroyed and Kong and Mario fall into the ocean and are swallowed by an eel.  They escape and get to Peach's castle during the wedding ceremony between Peach and Bowser.  The wedding thwarted Bowser launches a rocket against the mushroom kingdom.  Mario diverts it into a pipe where it explodes and sucks Bowser and everyone to Brooklyn.  Bowser is terrorizing Brooklyn until Marion and Luigi use invincibility stars to defeat Bowser and his minions.  Peach uses a blue mushroom to shrink Bowser who is captured in a bottle.

This is the first animated feature to gross over $1 billion.  There must be many, many Mario players who were immediate fans.  The movie follows the game fairly well.  The movie is a project from Nintendo and Illumination.  

In Theaters: ***^ The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026)

 This is a movie more enjoyable to kids than adults.  It is very much like playing the game, at least in terms of the music and some of the graphics.  However it does add a plot.  Rosalina, Prince of the Star land (Brie Larsen) is captured by Bowser's son (Benny Safdie).  His goal is to free his father so they can rule the universe together.  She appeals to her long forgotten younger sister, Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy for help, and she turns to Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day).  They want to use Rosalina's star power to power their doomsday weapon.  This movie is about sisterly love, as well as brotherly love.  And finally father an son love.  However it is when Bowser (Jack Black) realizes his circle includes his friends too that things begin to change.

***The New Mutants (2020)

 I think this is the least enjoyed of the mutant franchise; as manifested by its poor showing at the box office.  The plot is not very much like the other movies in this franchise.  Dani Moonstar wakes up one morning in a locked facility, her hands cuffed to the wall.  Dr. Reyes releases her and then she is introduced to four other residents.  They all have special mutant skills, but all have their own demons.  Rahne is a werewolf type being, Illyana can go across dimension and controls a magical sword and dragon, Sam has super speed and project himself into the air, Roberto can control solar energy, which makes him very, very hot at times.  The skill of Dani is not yet defined.  However after she arrives everyone is having lifelike dreams.  They in fact are real dreams of their worst fear or experience.  Dr. Reyes appears to be the only staff on site.  She too has a power to manipulate energy to make protective fields around herself or others.  She has put such a force field around the school so no one can escape.  

Finally Dr. Reyes gets the order to put Dani down as the decide there is no way to control her power.  this is when all havoc breaks loss.

This movie is much more like a horror movie than an action movie like the other X-Men movie.  And of course the elephant in the room is the first openly gay relationship in an X-Men movie.  This is likely why it did so poorly at the box office; This and bring released during COVID.

	Maisie Williams	...	Rahne Sinclair
	Anya Taylor-Joy	...	Illyana Rasputin
	Charlie Heaton	...	Sam Guthrie
	Alice Braga	...	Dr. Reyes
	Blu Hunt	...	Dani Moonstar
	Henrique Zaga	...	Roberto da Costa (as Henry Zaga)

Movie Review: ***Split (2016)

***Split (2016)  This movie is a bit slow for a Shyamalan, but our villain, superhero is well done.  When he starts bouncing between personalities is when the acting is really noted.  A person with multiple personalities kidnaps three young woman.  James McAvoy portrays our split personality.  Betty Buckley who is just a bit too trusting but suspects something is wrong.  Anya Taylor-Joy portrays a young lady who appeals to the child of “Split.”  This movie is headed for a tragedy from the beginning.  I must admit, I prefer the sequel, “Glass.”