Review: “Ghostbusters: Afterlife’s Sequel. Frozen Empire”★★★

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife ” was directed by Jason Reitman, whose father, Ivan Reitman, directed the first two films in the 1980s and was in line to take over the third. After many years, following many more studio notes, a new director, Paul Feig, was brought in and the third film became a female-led reboot. 

Before it was even released, the reboot became the target of trolls and racists, a casualty of the culture wars. But, like the pesky apparitions that haunt this series, profitable franchises (and even barely profitable ones) rarely truly die in Hollywood, and “Ghostbusters” is simply too silly, too smart about the comedy-sci-fi fantasy genre being potentially lucrative to stay buried for too long. 

Nearly 40 years after “Ghostbusters” became a huge hit - one that launched a lucrative franchise that spanned film and video games, Sony is proving that the “Ghostbusters” story doesn't have to be a relic of the past. 

–“The Ghostbusters: Afterlife” the second-to-last big-screen installment of the sci-fi comedy, grossed $44 million in its domestic box office debut, - a solid start in unpredictable pandemic times. 

In scenes in which the director, Gil Keenan, who wrote the script with Jason Reitman, ponders what it would feel like to let the dead dematerialize forever, the film seems to be asking its fans if they are prepared to release Peter Venkman, the parapsychologist played by Bill Murray, from the pursuit of the dead when it is clear that his soul is not. 

“The Ghostbusters: Afterlife” featured the estranged daughter of Harold Ramis' Egon Spengler, a single mother named Callie (Carrie Coon) and her teenage children Phoebe (McKenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard). After the death of their paterfamilias, the family fended off his killer, the dusty Sumerian Gozer, with the help of a high school psychics teacher named Gary (Paul Rudd) two young friends, Luck (Celesta O' Connor) and Podcast (Logan Kim) - yes Podcast; and first generation Ghostbusters, Ray Stantz (Dan Akroyd) Winston Zeddmore (Ernie Hudson) Dr. Venkman (Bill Murray) and the sassy secretary, Janine (Annie Potts). 

Whatever element of entrepreneurialism there once was in the Ghostbusters franchise has long since been exorcised, but that's okay: Hollywood assumes that audiences no longer want to be surprised, and it's probably right. 2016's all-female “Ghostbusters” wasn't all bad, but it got caught in the crossfire of the culture war, while the 2021 reboot “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” looked like a mash-up of the original 1984 film and the ‘Stranger Things’ TV series, and did well enough to spawn a sequel: ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.’ The new film is professionally made, well acted, quite entertaining, and possesses no earthly reason to exist other than the care and feeding of intellectual property. 

Review: “Argylle”★★★

Director Mathew Vaughn is known for directing action thrillers, as well as producing films alongside fellow director Guy Ritchie. The success of "Lock and Stock" (1998) and "Snatch" (Pigs and Diamonds, 2000) encouraged Vaughn to make the leap to directing with "Laker Cake" (Organized Crime, 2004), a mafia thriller in which he ran the risk of staying in the shadow of his friend was then when he decided to venture into fantasy cinema with 'Stardust' (2007) the brilliant adaptation of a story by Neil Gaiman which was followed by a superhero action comedy (Kick Ass: Shut up Kick Ass, 2010) and the film X-men: First Generation (2011) one of the best superhero movies. 

This would help turn another stylish Mark Millar comic into a franchise for the director of Kingsman: Secret Service: The Golden Circle, The King's Man and now 'Argylle' (2024) a spy novel, which has been a colossal and lumbering misfire structured as a cross between a Matryoshka doll full of shocking revelations and a partially undone knitted piece, resembling the rejected and incoherent cuts of the Kingsman series.

The narrative is driven by the question of who manipulates whom, though ultimately it's easiest to conclude that the script manipulates the viewer, in the film Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) is in the midst of writing the fifth volume of a series called: "Argylle," but the film begins with another quick bait-and-switch: a brief segment starring Henry Cavill as Aubrey Cavill as Aubrey Argylle, the Bond-like hero of Elly Conway's novels, and his villainous opponent, a faux-Bond played by pop star Dua Lipa. 

All this explains to some extent the puzzling existence of "Argylle" Conway, in fact: she has also been tricked: she is actually Aidan's colleague, a real spy named Rachel Kyle who was brainwashed by members of the Division, pretending to be Conway's parents, into her false identity as a novelist, and wrote her novels based on details of her own siege as a spy named Rachel Kyle, memories she had apparently repressed after an accident. 

The clues were all there: not only does "R Kelly" sound a bit like Argylle, but the last four letters of Argylle (and Kelly) spell "Elly" backwards. We can suspect why Elly Conway essentially wrote homoerotic fan fiction about herself by making her protagonist and her partner - boyfriend both male characters at a later date. The point is that Elly was always Argylle. 

This theoretically could be a fun movie, but it's all so self-conscious and self-admiring, with key action sequences turned null and void by being played on two levels, the imaginary and the real, so they cancel each other out, then the Argyllle book series 2 and 3 are highly arguable, - only one thought comes to mind: the series could be done much better. 

Argylle opens at the box office to mixed reviews and grossing $18 million, whereas Apple company has been releasing original films since 2019 and the production house won the Oscar for Best Picture with "CODA" in 2021, Apple has only recently released its own big-budget productions. The first two, Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" and Ridley Scott's "Napoleon," have been relatively successful. 

"Killers of the Flower Moon," although it has not been as profitable, grossing $156 million worldwide, was one of the most lauded films of 2023 and was nominated for 10 Oscars. "Napoleon," released in November, has grossed $219 million worldwide, meaning it hasn't been profitable either. However, both have boosted Apple's reputation and prestige, but the same has not been true of "Argylle," perhaps because it is a complicated thriller featuring performances by Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell and Henry Cavill. 

Note: "Argylle" was released with the idea of starting a new franchise, but controversy arose when Taylor Swift was rumored to be involved, as many diamonds and cats appear in the film: Despite Internet rumors. Swift had nothing to do with the movie. 

Review: “Gran Turismo” ★★

Since the late '90s the "Gran Turismo" racing games for Play Station have grossed billions of dollars rivaling some movie franchises at the box office, Neill Blookamp (the director of District 9 and Chapie) delivers a commercial film based on the true story of Jann Mardenborough a "Gran Turismo" enthusiast who became a professional racing driver by signing a contract with the automotive brand Nissan.

Mardenborough's leap from the video game, which is more of a pixelated simulator project to professional circuit racing competitions was an effective advertisement for Gran Turismo to something more than a game, but Jann's transition was not all smooth for director Neill Blookamp's challenge, Jann (Archie Madekwe) a teenager from Cardiff (Wales) faces an apprenticeship on the racetrack, the story of this driver is also the story of a young man proving his worth to his family and other skeptics.

The film begins by resembling video game levels as Jann races around the world to get his contract with Nissan, in the early sequences we see how Jann's father (Djimon Honsou) talks to him about how in the world of video games there is no future and takes him to a railroad yard, Jann eventually wins a contest held by Nissan to recruit their promising "Gran Turismo" players - His mother played by Geri Halliwell Horner, is a bit more encouraging, eventually Jann wins a position in the company's racing academy overseen by a tough engineer, Jack (David Harbour) and a virtuoso marketer, Danny (Orlando Bloom). Once again Jann exceeds expectations and beats out a more TV-ready competitor for the chance to compete professionally.

In his next race as Mardenborough's real-life driver did in 2015, there is no shortage of training and competition, what follows is a formulaic sports story, against all odds, that touches on all genres and clichés (on-track rivalries, raiding outsiders, tensions between private lines and public personas, ecstatic highs, tragic lows, and inevitable third-act resurrections) while conversing a spark of invention, thanks to the peculiar virtual/physical dichotomies of Mardenborough's story about this central paradox, Blookamp visually blurs the line between simulated and "real" racing throughout when young Jann is playing in his room and the graphics conjure a virtual vehicle around him turning his house into a racetrack. Later, when he hits the road, the real world is reimagined as a game replete with flashing graphics ("2nd place," "Goal reached!") glitches and familiar console views reminiscent of the clever visual loops in Jon S. Baird's recent Tetris film.

At first glance the story Based on Jann a young Cardiff Wales is a story of a video gamer turned racing driver, which may seem like a left turn for a filmmaker whose career has been built on fantasy and adventure and how his video game prowess is positioning him on the best racing circuits. While the narrative roots may be "real" this is essentially The Last Starfighter with fast cars, rather than spaceships. Unsurprisingly, Speed Racer (the manga/anime hit that the Wachowskis adapted to the screen in 2008) gets a cheeky name revision. To what seems a bit unoriginal, however, for "Gran Turismo" fans it's a good time to dust off that steering wheel and get back into the simulator.

Review: “Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom” ★★★★

In the second release of Aquaman directed by James Wan has become a new top box office film for DC, this has maintained high expectations for upcoming releases, such as Superman Legacy, which has a 2025 release date, this was confirmed by the new CEO of DC Studios James Gunn.

"Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" is the sequel starring Jason Momoa where he teams up with Patrick Wilson who stars as the villain Orm in the first movie. Also Black Manta (Yaya Abdul-Mateen II) returns stronger than before.

The release of Aquaman caps a difficult and transitional year for DC superhero films filled with box office disappointments. The film was expected to open between $32 million and $42 million but was estimated at $28 million by Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. also had a No. 2 movie of the weekend, "Wonka" and one of the top holiday releases, "The Color Purple" a buffet of big movies that theaters badly needed especially without any new Walt Disney Company or Paramount films. On Monday, Warner Bros will likely hold 3 spots in the top 5.

It's never good for Hollywood or movie theaters when Christmas Eve falls on a weekend day, but the last time Christmas fell on a Monday, in 2017 "Star Wars The Last Jedi" dominated the four-day charts with $71.5 million in its second weekend.

The latest chapter in the current iteration of the DC Comics Universe got off to a less than splashy start, with $13.7 million opening day grosses at 3,706 locations thanks to screenings in large-format theaters like IMAX.

If we add to this news of a production with many problems (including those from Variety) growing rumors of superhero fatigue and poor viewer response, as indicated by a b-grade from research firm Cinema Score, there is little expectation that "The Lost Kingdom" will achieve a multiplier 5 times that of the original "Aquaman" film, with $355 million in North America and over $1 billion worldwide.

In spite of expectations, "Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom" is a recommended sequel for fans of the DC Universe. It has incredible visual effects that make it appealing to all audiences and an action-packed story for Warner Bros and the DC Universe, is a smooth ride with more to come as the third part of Aquaman, which is still possible and expected to be starring Jason Momoa again.