OWEN WILSON and LARRY THE CABLE GUY return to the Disney*Pixar franchise with CARS 3, and it's a welcome change. Whereas CARS 2 seemed like a political message with existing CARS characters shoe-horned into it for delivery, CARS 3 is a natural progression of the character development begun in the first film.

Lightning McQueen (WILSON) has had a stellar career as a racer, sometimes winning, sometimes placing. But suddenly he finds himself up against newer, younger models that are engineered for greater speed and precision. As he pushes himself to beat them (and fails), his longtime racing rivals begin to go into retirement, usually at the request of their sponsors. Unwilling to be put out to pasture against his will, Lightning is determined to beat the latest challenger who has been taking his lead, Jackson Storm (ARMIE HAMMER), and ends his season on what seems certain a career ending crash.

Let me preface this review by sharing my relationship with the original movie, CARS. My college dorm room featured a movie poster, stuffed Lightning McQueen, desk-sized talking Lightning McQueen, CARS Uno, and six different plastic “CARS” cars on my desk. I’ve seen the movie so many times, I can quote the entire thing, beginning to end. I also own the entire soundtrack. I still get emotional when watching the final race scene when Lightning saves The King, forfeiting the race. So it’s safe to say that maybe, just maybe, I’m a little obsessed. It’s in my top four favorite Disney/Pixar computer animated movies (right up there with TANGLED, ZOOTOPIA, and UP).

I can't imagine there are many readers that aren’t familiar with BAMBI and its tragic elements. I have only seen it a couple of times since I was child. Sure, I remembered most of the story beats, if you will, yet the stunning animation surprised me.  This is a film released 75 years ago. We are the talking the dawn of color movies, yet the images are better realized than many modern  animated features. Modern films created by computers look gorgeous and may seem more realistic, but there is an ethereal beauty to BAMBI no computer can match.

Directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot, WONDER WOMAN was a movie that many people across the globe had waited their entire lives for.

And it did not disappoint.

Once the lights dimmed and the film rolled, fans were on the edge of their seats in anticipation of what they were about to see. With a screenplay by Allan Heinberg and the story developed by Heinberg, Zack Snyder, and Jason Fuchs, WONDER WOMAN offered up a lot of great moments.

So what were some of the best sequences in a movie filled with action, intensity, and heart? Check out the video below to find out!

Geoff Johns is a tease.

A big part of marketing is to get people talking about your brand. When Heroic Hollywood posted a "5 Best Superman Moments" list, Johns took to twitter with a response:

Get ready to revise your list. https://t.co/lnOMdXYJ58

— Geoff Johns (@geoffjohns) June 9, 2017

It's no secret that Superman will be making a return in JUSTICE LEAGUE, but we have no idea how much he'll be involved in the film. Based on Johns' tweet, we expect that Superman's first appearance will be fan service on an epic scale.

Super Hero movies have been around for nearly 40 years, as many refer to Richard Donner's Superman starting it all. Which, given Superman's importance in the comic book genre, is appropriate.

But that was 1978 and this is 2017. So much has changed as we are now in a golden age of super heroes on film. A time when 3 or 4 movies based on a comic book super hero are released in any given year with more being planned. Studios have created timelines to plot out the next great super hero movie. And while there has been a wide range of super hero movies over the years, there was something different that occured a couple weekends ago:

WONDER WOMAN.

Recently, articles have been seeping out onto the internet, looking to capitalize on the success of Wonder Woman.

Normally this wouldn't be a bad thing. Looking for newsworthy tidbits, and analyzing them is what we do in this industry. Unfortunately there's a culture being built around toxicity; blogs saying anything for that elusive 'click' that's so important to increase web traffic.

So naturally, as I predicted, someone has taken what was a cute (and innocent) scene and erected it into something more for shock value.

WONDER WOMAN sent a flying knee kick to the box office this weekend as it shattered windows and expectations, charging towards a potential $100 million weekend.

As it continues to pull in rave reviews from nearly everyone there doesn't seem to be a lot of criticism about the influence this movie gets from its predecessor's. I'm speaking about MAN OF STEEL and BATMAN V SUPERMAN. Here is a quick rundown of what people were angered about in regards to those Zack Snyder directed movies:

Gal Gadot wasn’t a household name in the United States, even after appearing in three THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS films. She will be now, as the eminently likable star of WONDER WOMAN and the first person to overcome the many deficiencies of Zach Snyder.

Top 5 Gambling Movies

The list of casino movies is long and will continue to increase with new movies on the rise. Among the ones that make a thoroughly good viewing, covering a range of gambling aspects, I would select five. Let’s take a quick look at each one of them to find out why these are the top 5 casino movies of all time.

It's been a really bad year for marketing ideas that hit all the wrong notes. From Nivea's "White is Purity" advertisements to Kendall Jenner's Pepsi Protest Spot, 2017 seems to have adopted the motto, "It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time."

The latest good idea / immediate backlash plan comes from Austin, Texas, where the Alamo Drafthouse theater has decided to celebrate Girl Power by holding a "Women Only" (to include men who identify as women, the theater has clarified) screening of the upcoming WONDER WOMAN film, Title IX be damned. The exclusion of the Y-Chromosome (or ignoring the possession of one) extends not just to the audience, but will, as the theater's invitation states, include everyone in the theatre working that screening.

NEW YORK, NY – May 18, 2017 – Bleecker Street & LD Entertainment have joined forces with AT&T THANKS, Regal Cinemas and MovieTickets.com to bring the true life story, MEGAN LEAVEY, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite to service members ahead of the June 9, 2017 nationwide release of the film.

AT&T THANKS, Regal Cinemas and MovieTickets.com will generously sponsor over 190 screenings of the film on May 30^th as part of National Military Appreciation Month at participating Regal Cinemas. Active and retired service members will be invited to attend a free screening of the film in advance through AT&T THANKS and Regal Cinemas. MovieTickets.com will facilitate ticket fulfillment.

From Entertainment Weekly:

The New Mutants, the long anticipated X-Men spinoff movie, is going to be a comic book film that goes in an unusual direction. “We are making a full-fledged horror movie set within the X-Men universe,” director Josh Boone says. “There are no costumes. There are no supervillains. We’re trying to do something very, very different.”

Game of Thrones‘ Maisie Williams has been cast in the role of Wolfsbane and Split actress Anya Taylor-Joy as Magik. Sources close to the production say that Henry Zaga, seen most recently in 13 Reasons Why (where he played Tony’s boyfriend, Brad), will soon be announced in the role of Sunspot. (Unconfirmed chatter has it that Rosario Dawson is currently in talks as well.)

(image left: "Bomb Defusal Puzzle" (CC BY-SA 2.0) by dvanzuijlekom )

It’s the final reel, and it’s all come down to this. Our central protagonist, quirkily handsome hero or feisty-smart heroine, hunched pensively over a suspicious device, pliers in hand as the camera draws in on a digital readout, a counter clicking down to an ominous conclusion.

All the car chases, gunfights, romantic sub-plots and montaged flashbacks lead up to this moment, the plot carefully (or not so carefully) engineered to guide the characters here, for the final telling of their story, a frozen moment of suspense where a single action will dictate consequence.

“So… Do I cut the red wire, or is it the green?”

ALIEN: COVENANT is the next installment in what has become the ALIEN Prequel series. Taking place in the year 2104 (roughly ten years after Ridley Scott’s PROMETHEUS occurs) it is supposed to bring us closer to the starting point of ALIEN, which starts around 2122. How much closer it brings us is sort of a conundrum for me, because with roughly 18 years left in the time line gap, some major questions still need to be answered for me. I would say would take at least one more movie, maybe two.

I will do my best not to give away any spoilers here.

Photo: "Superman Through the Ages" (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Helgi Halldórsson/Freddi
 

Ahead of this year’s long-awaited JUSTICE LEAGUE movie, which features yet another appearance for Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel, we’re here to take a quick look at the few men lucky enough to pull on those famous red underpants for either TV or the silver screen.

The storied history of the Superman character now spans over 80 years, and it’s safe to say there have been quite a few portrayals during that time. Originally conceived by writer Jerry Siegel and illustrator Joe Shuster as a comic book strip, it took a little over a decade before Superman made the all-important leap into the world of cinema.

Let me get something off my chest right from the start: all reviews are not created equally. A boutique website like CriticalBlast.com is typically invited to attend a press screening 1 to 10 days in advance and our reviews are subject to an embargo until the day of release. I’m fine with that, for the most part. Sure the site would get more hits if we were among the very first to get our article up, but there’s a decent percentage of moviegoers who can be swayed by reviews and word-of-mouth buzz, to both the benefit and detriment of the film. The benefits are most obvious around Oscar time, when films nobody’s even heard of are suddenly everyone’s darlings, and the opposite effect is often seen when a mediocre film gets savaged in reviews and the director takes to social media like a petulant little…well, like Donald Trump.

During the Star Wars Celebration, Rian Johnson and Kathleen Kennedy revealed a poster for the movie which may have revealed the relationship between Luke and Rey.

And that's not even the big news!

A lot of questions were asked during the panel but nobody had to answer any hard pressing questions, other than Josh Gad jokingly asking Daisy Ridley and BB-8 who Rey is related to. Before they left the stage though, Rian played a teaser for the audience that went a little something like this...

ENTER THE WARRIORS GATE is a certifiable bomb. It probably won't even score above 30% on Rotten Tomatoes. As a matter of fact it already opened in China to a paltry $3.2 million; which means I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Luc Besson made this movie for me.

A trailer for the movie, whose most recognizable actor isn't even its main character, takes us on a journey that gamers would appreciate.

Just read the plot synopsis so you understand what I mean:

The Internet is buzzing today with the release of the trailer for perhaps the least anticipated film from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: THOR RAGNAROK.

So before we tell you about it. why don't you just watch it for yourself?

The first thing I have to ask is: Did Thor really just pull a record-scratch/freeze-frame meme to introduce his trailer? Seriously? Who knew Thor was that up on his 4chan? He may be a God of Thunder in Asgard, but he's a full-on /b/tard when he's slumming it in Midgard.

The next thing I want to know is what makes Hela so worthy to be able to pick up Mjolnir? Okay, technically she didn't "pick it up" so much as caught it in mid-flight, but still.

And finally -- "He's a friend from work?" What, The Avengers is just another day at the office for the Norse god?