The Olive Opinion

  Unlike most animated studios, DreamWorks has been adopting the animation style popularized by the Sony Spider-Verse movies, which seems to be translating well with audiences, especially with films like their previous outing, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and Netflix's infamous K-pop Demon Hunters. The studio has now returned with yet another original project that has been buzzed about for months, centered on friendship, the 90s, and Filipino folklore, all wrapped together.  Forgotten Island is a literal mixtape of those aforementioned elements, wrapped into a vibrant and gorgeously animated feature that proves itself to be more than just its marketing campaign. Centered on two longtime friends, Jo and Raisa, who are grappling to keep their friendship alive. This leaves them lost in a fantastical, otherworldly setting that proves the folklore and mythology stories Jo's grandmother told them when they were kids to be true.  This feature, although targeted at kids, as most...

  Some say movies like Bend It Like Beckham , decades ago, or more recently Never Have I Ever , made promising progress in South Asian representation in Hollywood. Best Of The Best makes it very clear that the hunger for this representation is present and can be expressed in ways that could build recognition for creatives.  Lena Khan, who directed several TV episodes and is best known for her work with Maitreyi Ramakrishnan on the breakout show that made her the recognizable face we all know and love, helms this Netflix film to flesh out the world of a very prominent competitive culture in American universities: Bollywood Fusion dance teams. Against the backdrop of UCLA, two childhood friends, Maya (Ramakrishnan) and Anjali, played by newcomer Priyanka Kedia, join the dance team and become deeply involved in the South Asian culture it embraces.  The film very much portrays that culture within every college these days that has a South Asian Student Association (SASA), as...

  The beloved video game franchise has been adapted into several movies and TV shows countless times in the last 20 years, and none have really pleased fans or casual viewers alike. You'd think they would stop, but they never gave up on it. Now, with Zach Cregger at the helm, Sony has brought back Resident Evil with the intention of possibly revitalizing the franchise in hopes of being considered part of not only the current horror renaissance but also the slew of successful video game adaptations.  Cregger, director of The Barbarian and Weapons , intended to create an experience with his third outing that might recreate the feeling of a bystander watching someone else play the games. He also uses his filmmaking and writing styles to create a fresh take on the otherworldly world-building that has become integral to video games and the survival-horror subgenre.  He manages to do it extremely well, with the intention of certain shots conveying the POV in PlayStation singl...

  So what happens when you put Dinosaurs attacking suburban America in the 80's? I think J.J. Abrams and David Robert Mitchell have your answer. The End of Oak Street is the last movie of the summer, in hopes of competing with the very prominent and popular choices that audiences would rather flock to see in cinemas. The concept of this film is interesting, as Anne Hathaway (in her fourth feature this year) and Ewan McGregor are suburban parents, with their two kids played by Maisy Stella and Christian Convery, who are facing difficulties in their nuclear family dynamic and are forced to survive as their street is transported to the age of the dinosaurs. A concept that, personally, intrigued me before I ever watched a trailer.  Unfortunately, the film seems to be living in an era when the 80s were cool again, but it is instead a reminder that maybe that trend has officially run its course. There have been several TV shows and movies that used the 80's to possibly kickstart wha...

  If anyone had asked 10 years ago whether a Camp Rock sequel would ever happen, I would have said it wouldn't be right to make another without Demi Lovato or the Jonas Brothers, despite their personal relationships with each other and with Disney. Now, 19 years since the movie that spawned cringe-worthy memes and made Lovato the superstar she is now, she returns WITH the Jonas Brothers to produce an all-new generation of the franchise.  Camp Rock 3 now focuses on new characters attending the iconic camp and finding themselves in an opportunity to be Connect 3's (The literal fictional equivalent of the Jonas Brothers, if anyone forgot) new opening act. This Disney Channel sequel closely follows the original film's familiar plot structure, from its musical elements to the Final Jam, which serves as a turning point for these characters to fully realize themselves in their subsequent arcs and learn lessons along the way. Liamani Segura, who plays the main role as Sage, is a s...

  Yes, we get a whole month with not only Tom Holland but also Zendaya and Jon Bernthal in the fourth (yes, we are making waves here) Spider-Man sequel. This has been a long time coming, as Marvel and Sony's once rocky but stable relationship would follow up on the event that was Spider-Man: No Way Home , which brought back past Spider-Man actors to interact in a Multiverse-esque adventure. Luckily, Tom Holland returns as the iconic webslinger in an all-new chapter of his life and hopefully for the MCU as well.  Spider-Man: Brand New Day is set 4 years after No Way Home , where Peter Parker is very much alone after the spell made by Doctor Strange to have everyone, including his loved ones, forget who he is. At the height of being the comic-accurate friendly neighborhood superhero ways, some very critical fans of this iteration of the character will also be pleased that Peter Parker is indeed very depressed and very broke. When faced with a mysterious threat, Peter is also go...

  The phenomenon is here. The movie everyone has been waiting for (maybe some people aren't), by the world-acclaimed director Christopher Nolan, returns with his latest feature, The Odyssey , adapting one of the oldest epic poems to the big screen. There has been a lot of talk around this movie, from its use of IMAX cameras to its overall tone to the ethnically blind casting and whether it was meant to be watched on the big screen, as Nolan intended.  The Odyssey , if anyone isn't aware yet, tells the tale of Odysseus's attempts to return home with his crew after the siege of Troy, an event also recounted in another of Homer's epics, The Iliad, which is set during the Trojan War. As they return, they face various obstacles rooted in Greek mythology. With a more realistic take that leans into realism, Nolan depicts what I personally consider fantasy as something that might have occurred in history, rather than even questioning the involvement of the gods and the magic th...

  She's back! Enola Holmes returns in this all-new sequel to one of Netflix's most successful franchises, which also features Millie Bobby Brown. With most of the main cast returning and the plot set entirely in Malta, this threequel sees Enola now marrying Louise Partridge's Tewksbury, the slow-burn budding romance the franchise had been building towards. Unaware of how much they are adapting from Nancy Springer's book series, does this new installment live up to the expectations set by its well-received predecessors?  Enola is facing her greatest challenge yet. Marriage! And that is ultimately compounded by the disappearance of her more famous sibling, Sherlock Holmes. But boy, does the script immediately try to get to its point: not to spend time in Victorian London, but in Malta. The film has a considerably shorter runtime than the previous films, which I immediately found suspicious, and I later learned that they changed directors, which seemed to answer some of th...

  After The Summer I Turned Pretty ended, it seems Amazon Prime was banking on another romance hit for their streaming service, and they have found it. The Off Campus phenomenon is what everyone is talking about. Authored by Elle Kennedy, this first season adapts the first book, focusing on the fake-relationship trope between Hannah, an aspiring composer, and Garrett, the star hockey player on the college team.  Personally, the idea of this show did not appeal to me. From the outside perspective, it was another scandalous, almost trashy romance show that seemed to make a relationship unnecessarily messy to make the plot interesting. Based on that sentiment, it seemed that Off Campus was also capitalizing on the more problematic aspects of romance outlets that have been exciting audiences today.  However, I finally tuned in to the show a month after its release, and it does prove itself not only entertaining but also offering real, healthy ways of approaching several of ...

  James Gunn continues to build a new and improved DC universe, especially after the success of Superman . Seemingly continuing to build the super family first, he now brings Supergirl to the screen after teasing her at the end of the David Corenswet-led  Superman , with expectations that it will specifically adapt the " Woman of Tomorrow " version of the character from the famous Tom King comic book miniseries. Was bringing Supergirl to the fold of a very fragile restart of the DC universe going to excite audiences enough to watch this?  Supergirl , like I said, is adapting an iteration of the character that proved to be a bold take on the Girl of Steel and has grown into one of the most iconic comic book series of all time. Director Craig Gillespie and up-and-coming screenwriter Ana Nogueira are very loosely inspired by the source material, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Fans of the comic book can go either way, seeing a new iteration of that alr...

  It has been 30 years since Pixar began gracing our screens with some of the best animation and created the Toy Story Franchise. We all thought they would have ended the franchise with the third one back in 2010. But then came another, which seemed to have surprised the general public with how relevant the sequel would be, and if we really needed it, and it went on to make a billion dollars. Similar discourse occurred when it was announced there would be a fifth.  The fifth entry features a more timely conversation with our iconic, lifelike toys as they face their greatest threat yet: technology. When Bonnie is handed her first Lilypad (basically an iPad to avoid trademark issues), will she want to play with toys again? With that at hand, there seems to be a random storyline of Buzz Lightyear toys roaming around to find... purpose? That's all I'll say about the sequel without giving anything away.  But this sequel, formidably, is much better than the fourth, even though ...

  The horror renaissance continues, and in celebration of Pride Month, Neon finally releases the film we've been waiting for. Leviticus' dark take on a coming-of-age queer romance through a supernatural horror lens is something audiences might want right now. With the two genres experiencing an unprecedented resurgence, does this plot manage to create its own space as iconic or as fodder before the resurgence runs its course?  Leviticus centers around two young boys in a heavily religious rural Australian town, and as a form of conversion therapy, queer kids are faced with a ritual that engages their confusion and sexuality with fear. At first, the film seems like your average forbidden-love story, with stolen glances, a secret hideout, and some teenage jealousy. 20 to 30 minutes in, that does take a turn, but rather in the sense of finding its balance, it manages to seamlessly let you go with where it is heading when we, as an audience, are facing the complexities of these y...

  Steven Spielberg is posing the question not of whether we are alone in the universe, but rather of whether we know we aren't. Disclosure Day is Spielberg's return to the sci-fi genre, with a top-billed cast meant to be seen on the big screen. With the intentionally mysterious marketing, it was at times both hard and easy to tell what the plot was aiming for. The main question was which perspective it intended to illuminate, especially in historical cases dismissed as mere conspiracy theories.  Without giving too much away, the film revolves around Josh O'Connor and Emily Blunt's characters, (as well as I think everyone's characters, from the likes of Colin Firth, Eve Hewston and Colman Domingo) caught in a race to reveal a specific truth, sparking a debate of withholding the truth to avoid mass public, or considering the inherent fear of admitting the truth, whatever that may be, in themselves. In the wake of it, creating a plot that questions, and to some extent...

In a heap of nostalgia that comes into play when going to theaters these days, Masters of the Universe leans into it the most as it tries to bring the power of He-Man back to the silver screen (once again) with a bigger budget and up-and-coming actors. This will be Amazon MGM's next attempt at creating a hit in the multiplex after what Project Hail Mary ended up becoming, this time partnering with Mattel to create yet another adaptation of the famous toy line/80's cartoon.  The movie centers on the lost Prince Adam, stranded on Earth, as he tries to find his way back to Eternia to fulfill his destiny, save his parents, and defeat the maniacal Skeletor. In finding the Sword of Grayskull, he has to embrace his power while also convincing the people, whether in Eternia or on Earth, that he is the lost prince and has a destiny for more in an '80s-inspired fantasy realm than his forced life in a cubicle     Masters Of The Universe very much tries to be Barbie for men, but that...

  Despite being produced by the Duffer Brothers and looking like a retirement home version of Stranger Things, The Boroughs are so much more than that. Personally, I was not a big fan of their latest outing, Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen, so I didn't bother finishing it. I was having high hopes for this, as it seemed to be leaning into a weird but Spielbergian style of sci-fi thriller with a couple involved in 'saving the world'.  I was right, that was exactly what The Boroughs were. It centers on Alfred Molina's Sam Cooper, who is recently widowed, and is thrust into this retirement/old folks home neighborhood, and he meets a bunch of his neighbors that he is abrasive with at first, until they all part of a conspiracy that specifically happened in Sam's house with the previous owners that sparks a thrilling mystery that everyone is playing off as dementia spells.  This leans into the wonder and fantasy of it all in the sci-fi genre. So, consider all the ins...

  It has been 7 years since a Star Wars movie graced the silver screen, with Lucasfilm going through significant turmoil within Disney to create the next theatrical release that would bring fans back to support the franchise that had seemingly turned against it after The Rise of Skywalker, and, to some degree, rightfully so. Since then, Lucasfilm has been relying on Disney+ for its content output, and their most successful of the bunch is The Mandalorian, centered on Din Djarin, a bounty hunter who comes across a baby Jedi, Grogu, and they go on adventures together.  It seems almost odd that after what Disney+ has been doing with the Marvel franchise, Disney decided to have their first Star Wars in nearly a decade to be a continuation of a hit Disney+ show, relying on the fact that everyone had seen The Mandalorian TV show, despite Grogu toys being as profitable as Stitch at this point. All of us have been on the edge of our seats, wondering if this can turn Star Wars fans' fa...

2 decades later, The Devil Wears Prada has a cult following, not only for its campy aspects but also for its specific take on motivation in the workplace, how one is perceived when their life is consumed by work, and the consequences that bring to their personal life. There have been many ways in which people who have seen the 2006 film have been inspired by a work ethic, because it made such an impact on the professional zeitgeist. It was not surprising when they announced they were developing a sequel outside the confines of the novel it was originally based on, and, of course, leaning into the nostalgia bait. The sequel not only needed to live up to the predecessor but also make an impact; it needed a reason to exist, especially when many other sequels to franchises that started 10 to 20 years ago barely spark a conversation worth having.  What I can say is that The Devil Wears Prada 2 has a message, a specific one that involves saving the art form, from this movie's c...

Michael Jackson was and sometimes even still is a cultural phenomenon, and there has been a lot of chatter around this biopic on the King of Pop, from legal issues, to reshoots and delays, all have finally culminated in what we would hope to consider to be the first blockbuster of the summer movie season. Out of the gate, from the trailers, this seemed promising, but we weren't sure how much of Michael's life, struggles, and success would be featured on screen and how audiences would react to celebrating as well as negating certain things that occurred within the Jackson family.  Overall, I would say this biopic was a good time at the theater. It does not let up from emotional punches to its musical sequences. It was very refreshing to watch this with an active crowd who were true fans of Michael Jackson; it was almost endearing to see them celebrate, laughing, crying, and singing along to the movie. I do think that the movie does manage to do a good job in creating that atmos...