Avengers, Endgame: Thanostradamus As star casts go, Avengers: Endgame runs up a mind-boggling score. Like in theatrical performances, where all characters come on to the stage after the performance to take a bow, Endgame brings them all on screen, even resurrecting the dead, in a show of ultimate strength, before their nemesis is vanquished. Just as it takes two lives to conquer the dark force, the dark force itself needs to be conquered not once but twice. It is ingenious writing, to lay out...

Captain Marvel, Review: Skrull duggery, the Kreeps, a charismatic cat and muddled memories To many Indians, who grew up reading DC comics in the 50s, 60s and 70s, Captain Marvel is a man, and he acquires super-powers upon uttering the magical acronym, SHAZAM: genius of Solomon, strength of Hercules, unbreakable will of Atlas, lightning blasts of Zeus, power of Achilles and speed of Mercury. Named Billy Batson as a human, Captain Marvel’s powers comprised super strength, flight, invulner...

Isle of Dogs, Review: No bow-wows only wow-wows Dog lovers of the world, unite, stop motion—you have everything to keep but your dogs to lose! Imagine a scenario where all the dogs in a city are captured and dropped-off on a deserted island by cable cars, because of a dog flu epidemic. The story is set in Japan, in the dystopian near-future, and a lot of the dialogue and captions/sub-titles are in Nihongo…er…Japanese. But the appeal is universal, both to dog lovers and pet...

Avengers-Infinity War, Review: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust #Book of Common Burial Prayer, 1662: Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life. #‘Ashes to ashes, funk to funky’ Artiste: David Bowie, Album: Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), 1980. From all appearances, a large number of Marvel’s Avengers and their partners in common cause have become ashes by the time the film ends. Whether any of them will be Re...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Mostly what we love about the Super Bowl on TV is the ads, right? Well Scarlett Johansson is giving you one better this Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 5, with a custom TV trailer for her graphic-novel movie-adapt, GHOST IN THE SHELL. The tagline is: “Everything they told her was a lie,” and no small irony she just left her marriage to French actor Roman Dauriac. Maybe it was over their Yummy Pop joint venture of popcorn stores in Fran...

Captain America-Civil War, Review: Danger...Us? Emerging from the 2006 Marvel Comic storyline, Civil War, this is a top heavy assembly, where the heroes get divided into two camps and battle it out, before realising that unity in diversity must come first, and egos should take second billing. It is about two superstars taking opposing, dictatorial stances, but with so many characters doing their bit for the fans, the film is a democratic treatise. Villains, by comparison, are poorly delineate...

The Jungle Book, Review: Unputdownable A fitting tribute to the 1967 version on its golden jubilee, The Jungle Book is unputdownable. You might find differences in the two versions, and in the book itself. Don’t bother comparing. If the smooth-sailing songs make you sing-along (a friend seated on my left just wouldn’t stop), even better. Gaze into the volcanic eyes of the animals, marvel at the resourcefulness of the man-cub, and applaud the imagination of the writer who spun this...

  by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   Though the nickname may be over the top, actor Choi Min-Sik is often called the 'Robert De Niro' of Korea, and with the villain he plays opposite Scarlett Johansson in Luc Besson's box office smash LUCY, you can see why some people would say this of him. Okay, okay, he is much younger (52) and some say better looking than Robert De Niro, but audiences sometimes need a peg to appreciate an international actor. With hi...

Lucy From La Femme Nikita and The Professional to The Fifth Element, writer/director Luc Besson has created some of the toughest, most memorable female action heroes in cinematic history. Meet the latest: Lucy (Scarlett Johansson). Lucy is attractive, not tall, not muscular, with a cutish face, vulnerable, even gullible--An unlikely action hero, an unlikely drug-racket battling, science’s accidental guinea pig who is about to prove unwittingly the theory of an eminent scientist concerni...

Penelope Cruz fans were angered at the premiere of her new movie Vicky Christina Bobby. After some waited almost in hour in the rain, they were not even allowed to watch the Woody Allen directed feature with the cast in attendance. Upon entering the Grand Théâtre Lumière, attendees were directed up the stairs and right out the theatre! They were then taken to an adjacent theatre to see the movie. The funny thing is that not only were “regular” people ushered out, but also famous people li...