Movie Review: ****^Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)

 We return to the universe of Harry Potter but again before Harry Potter is born.  This movie takes place in the period leading up to WWII.  Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) is on the rise.  He is absolved of wrong doing and is running for leader of the international magical world.  It is up to Dumbledore (Jude Law) and his cohorts to stop him.  This group includes Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), his brother Theseus Scamander (Callum Turner), Lally Hicks (Jessica Williams), Bunty Broadacre (Victoria Yeates), Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam) and the muggle, Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler).  Each has his own reason for being involved.  Kama to avenge his sister's death, Bunty is Scamander's assistant, Kowalski hopes to rescue his girl, Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol) and Dumbledore to remove the pact he made with Grindelwald when he was a youth.  Hicks is a new character in this movie and is recruiting by Dumbledore to combat the rising evil.  

Also in the mix is the history of Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) who is an Obscurus a powerful magical being who formed only under certain emotional conditions.  Turns out Credence is the son of Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth (Richard Coyle).  The plot revolves around the Qilin, a magical creature who can see the soul and suggest who is most worthy to lead.  Grindelwald captured one with the help of Credence, and has killed it and brought it back to life in a manipulated state.  However the Qilin has a twin, that Scamander protects.  How can the surviving twin arrive at the ceremony; and Gindelwald be exposed.  Credence calls him out, and Grindelwald attempts to kill him, while Dumbledore and Aberforth defend.  The crossing curses free Dumbledore from his previous pact.  Grindelwald escapes, but the world gets a better leader.  They all meet again at the Kowalski's bakery shop in New York for the wedding of Queenie and Kowalski, with Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) in attendance who Scamander has missed.

Movie Review: Star Wars: Rogue One

This is the hot movie of the Christmas season this year, and so we ventured.  I had a great time, although there were some poorly written scenes.  The story line is great, telling the story of the spies who retrieved the plans for the Death Star.  In the first Star Wars we get a hit of this movie, when the general says, "Many died to retrieve these plans."  So this movie gives us the heroic stories of those many dying.  Jyn (Felicity Jones) is the daughter of the man (Mads Mikkelsen) developing the plans for the death star.  He was forced to by the empire, particularly Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn).  However he has deliberately put a flaw into the design.  Getting the idea of that design flaw to others however is difficult.  His daughter, in the meantime has been in hiding since she was a girl.  However, the Alliance contacts her by breaking her our of prison where she was under a different name.  She agrees to go with a small crew, because it will mean seeing her father, and proving he is not the terrible man everyone makes him out to be.  However the Captain of the mission, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) has special orders to kill her father if they can reach him.  In the meantime the death star is operational, and used on a target where it is feared there is an imperial pilot turned against the empire.  He was sent with a message from Jyn's father.  So the adventure goes.  they go to an Imperial communications hub to retrieve the death star plans, which are needed to know how to destroy it.  however Krennic is also headed there.  Soon the death star follows.  A raging battle follows, with our heroes trying to get the plans out of the communications base.  Now for the pieces I felt were contrived.  They had to retrieve the actual plans from a tall tower, and they have to climb up this when the power goes out.  Then Jyn has to reset the satellite dish, and has to go out on the eat of the tower to do this, where she is vulnerable to laser fire.  Why couldn't the control be some place convenient?  However I must say this is a movie I will see again.   Also interesting characters were Chirrut Umwe (Donnie Yen) and Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang) both Rogue Warriors.  A new droid, K2SO (Alan Tudyk) is an imperial protocol droid now helping the Alliance.
At the end of this story, the first Star Wars story (episode IV) is set up.

Movie Review: ****James Bond, Casino Royale (2006)

Casino Royale is the twenty-first in the James Bond series.  Although the twenty-first movie it is set as being the first mission for James Bond.  Daniel Craig portrays Bond for the first time.  He has the task of bankrupting a known terrorist through a high stakes poker game.  Bond came through, escaping an attempt on his life by poisoning.   But then the movie keeps going.  Bond has to chase after his partner, financier Vanessa Lynd (Eva Green) in the games.  She is stolen by Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) but he drops her down on the road, and Bond crashes missing her.  Then they are both captured and tortured.  They want the account and the pass code where the millions have been sent.  Then the movie gets more confusing.  Someone breaks in and kills the torturers and their guards and Bond and Lynd are freed.  Bond swears his love and resigns fro the secret service.  But then his love steals all the money, making Bond think he was moving. it to a British account.  She ends up getting murdered by the person who compromised her.  It then seems we have another ending, but Bond uses her phone to track down the cul;prit, so it ends with Bond shooting him.   It left me a bit confused at the end.  It is based on the Ian Fleming book of the same name. 

The tool of torture at the end appears very gruesome, and Bond is hit several times while Lynd is tortured in the next room.  This movie has a different feel.  It is a bit darker.  There is no Q.  M is again Judi Dench.  Samantha Bond is again Miss Moneypenny.  The intro at the beginning is different. Instead of showing women it shows Bond being violent.  At the first of the movie we have Bond in a chase scene climbing a tall building under construction and fighting on a crane.  Very intense with a fear of falling.  Updated 12/5/2025.