The Olive Opinion

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...

  'NO! Brendan Fraser is not in Lee Cronin's The Mummy' was Lee Cronin's response to the audiences coming out of advance screenings expecting it to be a continuation of that franchise. Yes, they are in development on that project, but it just got announced, and no official confirmation has happened yet. Somehow, a bunch of people going to watch this have no comprehension of how much time it takes to make a movie before putting it on the big screen. This is also a New Line/Warner Bros. feature, with no connection to the Universal monsters of it all, so they can do whatever they want with a concept, idea, or character because it's in the public domain.  With that said, this version of the mummy is directed by Lee Cronin, which is very much part of this movie's marketing. For those wondering who this director is, he is best known for directing the most recent Evil Dead Rise movie, which I have not seen. After watching this and learning that Sam Raimi is returni...

  There had been a lot of discourse about the photos from Zendaya and Robert Pattinson filming in New York last year that ended up becoming The Drama, a new A24 feature that became April's most curious choice amid a bloated lead-up to the summer movie season. Some of us are concerned this may be an award push for Zendaya. Much of the film carries a lot of weight, aside from what looks like a budding romance between Emma and Charlie, but it is indeed a dark comedy; the comedy is debatable, in my opinion, with two specific messages muddled together.  What I think was unexpected, which can come across as jarring for some viewers, is that The Drama very much relies on the fact that conflicting views on a controversial opinion can affect relationships. I think that mentioning that in this review will already change the perception of this film in general (if you haven't seen it and are here to read my take on it), but it is very hard to review this film without at least acknowl...

  Can the box office be saved? Project Hail Mary is, well... a Hail Mary in itself to revitalize exceptional box office for a stacked year of movies, but can Ryan Gosling stick a landing without Barbie on his side, or have another flop on his hands despite it being another worthwhile addition to his repertoire? With this adaptation of the sci-fi bestseller, the author of The Martian brings another space-adventure story about a lonely astronaut.  The adaptation centers on Rylan Grace, a scientist and teacher who is hired to figure out what is causing the Sun and other stars in the nearby solar system to dim, as if they were ill, a development that could lead to Earth's extinction. He is sent to space on a mission to figure out why one of these stars is not affected by this space disease and meets an unlikely friend along the way. With a lack of a serious tone in how I presented that summary, which is the opposite of what marketing is for, is the best way I can explain the plot....

  Pixar has never shied away from themes that make one ponder, especially as of late, to broaden its audience, even if some of these audiences don't seem interested or just blame it on not knowing the movie existed in the first place. Hoppers, I hope you do not suffer this fate, similar to last year's Elio, where the story is as bold as its animation.  This Pixar feature centers on Mabel, an animal activist from birth, a passion that leads her to a rivalry with the Mayor of the fictional Beavertown, who wants to build a new freeway at the expense of the lake where her grandmother used to teach about the wonders of nature. Caught between wondering where the animals had gone from this lake, she also learns of a secret experiment her professor is conducting in college of putting their consciousness into life-like animal robots as a way of making species anthropology easier. She defies her professor and puts on a beaver suit to bring animals back to the lake and avoid further high...

  Scream was a franchise that originally made meta commentary on horror movies, then on happenings in pop culture, and eventually on franchises, sometimes even making certain aspects of movies today the butt of the joke. But to make previous entries the butt of a joke is that a tad too far from a franchise that is currently under heat at the box office for many political reasons, or will it be free publicity at this point?  With Scream in the headlines this week, I want to remind people who click this review link that they will only get a review, unfortunately. There's a line in this movie that states that Sidney is past her prime as the Final Girl, hinting at a past perception that the franchise needed to move on past the original characters. With a lot of seemingly good ideas and concepts that were used here, I think it's time to say that the issue here is that Ghostface is getting past its prime and becoming the butt of its own joke.  The script is not the stronge...

There's this idea of romance you would expect from Victorian age books, especially after the likes of Jane Austen or even from Julia Quinn's more modern Bridgerton books. Romance is making a big comeback these last few years, and there are a few authors to blame for this resurgence, but a lot of the expectations from these spicy novels are causing excitement with the target audience for this all-new adaptation of Wuthering Heights .  The quotation marks used indicate that Emerald Fennell is not making a faithful adaptation of Emily Brontë's seminal novel, and that is true. The main premise promises the gothic setting and design teased in the marketing, along with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in the lead roles, which might be influencing a cinematic event. Readers of the source material who know the tale of Wuthering Heights are used to the many adaptations of the novel, which have failed to capture the full story. They will be disappointed again here.  First and foremos...

  Everybody has a lot of opinions about the current state of Marvel Studios' projects, in terms of their content volume and the quality of the writing. I have probably mentioned superhero fatigue on this blog before and how, over the years, I haven't felt it personally as much as most people do, but I have always been an advocate for something different. Wonder Man fulfills that need within the superhero genre by blending into subgenres, much like WandaVision did.  Marvel is learning its lesson not to always go big with Wonder Man , specifically by following a grounded story of Simon Williams, an aspiring actor who happens to run into MCU fan favorite Trevor Slattery to audition for a superhero role. Do remember that this is still an MCU show, so expect meta references about superheroes and the often felt fatigue around that topic, presented in a way that applies to a world where enhanced beings exist and how that affects the entertainment world.  However, the ...

  The number of movies I was catching up on this month is crazy, but luckily I got the chance to see an advance screening of a pretty anticipated horror title by the great Sam Raimi. Send Help centers around an underestimated accountant who is marooned on an island with her new, young, frat-boy of a boss.  With a horror twist, it reads more like a story about a woman coming into her own, trying to prove her worth to her boss, especially after being promised the executive job. But this only lasts for the first 10 minutes. And then it gets pretty gnarly when the plane crashes. Despite being an R-rated movie, we were leaning into Raimi's horror, which we are very much used to. There wasn't really much he was dealing with that was anything new or interesting, compared to his previous work in horror.  There were tones that strayed from the film's main genre, which confused me. Especially after they are marooned, both Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien's characters are ins...

  Since its the end of year, I decided to make a list of my favorite movies this year. This would also be a good opportunity to talk about movies I didn't review this year, considering I only started updating my blog a few months ago. To remind you, these are MY FAVORITES from this year of what moved me and what has been stuck in my head and have convinced me to watch more than once. Everyone is entitled to your opinion or what your rankings are but these are mine.  10. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey   This was a movie that a lot of people were not big fan of when it came out. The concept was outlandish. Kogonada decided to make a very Americanized version of a Studio Ghibili movie. But that was not the reason why people did not like it. At least I don't think it is. I think people were expecting this to be a date movie, a rom-com of sorts but like Materialists, this was almost the antithesis of that expectation. The idea of trying to get two people together through a very ...

  James Cameron's behemoth of a passion project returns, this time with a shorter time between the sequels. Avatar: Fire and Ash is seen as Disney's last Hail Mary for 2025 after a very slow year at the box office, but will it be as successful as the previous two? Both movies had earned over 2 billion dollars, but for this sequel to follow suit wouldn't be worth the gamble.  It is not because the sequel's quality is subpar. In fact, Cameron continues to solidify that the Avatar franchise is the most visually stunning of them all, given how much work Cameron and the rest of Lightstorm, along with the outsourced animators, have done over the last 15 years. To comprehend that 90 percent of the film is CGI and that it still looks so realistic is amazing. The fight sequences were exciting. Evoking fear during beautiful sequences is only something Cameron can do and is known for. Certain characters were also given interesting arcs, especially Neytiri, who is finally given muc...

  The number of times I have seen this trailer in the last two months shows that movie theaters wanted it tattooed in the back of people's minds. Plus, with the Sydney Sweeney controversies going on, it was just free publicity at this point. Based on the bestselling book series by Freida McFadden, this was an adaptation of The Housemaid , a book I have seen in almost every bookstore but have never read. I was never interested in its premise.  Lionsgate, however, has more confidence in this film than anyone else, despite not having a true box-office hit in years. They aim to possibly create a new lukewarm franchise here with Sydney Sweeney at its front, at a time of her career that is mostly boiled down to her perhaps aalleged political ties after the infamous American Eagle ad. But the main appeal of The Housemaid is not its titular star but rather everybody else involved. It may bode well with Paul Feig, but no one else in this first film could return for a potential sequel....

  When Rian Johnson decided to write whodunnits, I somehow knew we were in for a treat. Knives Out was the embodiment of sweater weather, especially with Chris Evans wearing one so well in the first one. Then, spawned a franchise inspired by murder mysteries like Agatha Christie, and the films starred top-billed actors playing asshole actors. No one has done it better than Rian Johnson, who writes and directs these movies, and this third installment continues to solidify that Johnson knows what he is doing. Wake Up Dead Man, the third installment, now owned by Netflix, will tonally and aesthetically remind fans of the first movie and of how picturesque Johnson's directing is, unlike Glass Onion. Reflecting on the pandemic, when Glass Onion premiered on Netflix, I had one specific opinion: I was disappointed I couldn't watch it in theaters. Years later, I also did not particularly enjoy it because it decided to go for a much brandier, flashier, summer sequel to the fall, pumpkin...

  I still remember how I had a very different opinion on Zootopia when it first released almost 10 years ago. Among them was that it was not the most inventive movie, but boy, was I wrong. As I grew older, my appreciation for the ambition that the animated behemoth became was unprecedented and everyone agreed. Simply said, it is one of my favorite of the new Disney movies. Zootopia 2 is releasing during a time when Disney is officially standing on thin ice. For the first time in 10-plus years, Disney is not the highest-grossing studio in Hollywood, which is why the reliance on sequels of beloved films have been the recent output as of late because it is a plan executives think it's best for revenue, but is still not catching the eyes of certain House of Mouse boycotters. But is Zootopia 2 another cash grab sequel in the churning franchise machine that is Disney? It has been unpredictable these days, with moviegoers actively not being appealed to most of the Disney outings especiall...

  The Wicked musical has been a Broadway staple for almost 22 years now. Since the adaptation that graced our screens, Wicked is now a global phenomenon, satisfying fans of the original show as well as introducing the origin of these characters to an all-new audience. The cast members were already famous before the movie was released, but they will be remembered for their portrayal of these characters for a very long time.  The time has arrived for the awaited sequel, Wicked For Good . With the first movie covering the story of the first act of the play, this sequel covers, you would have guessed, the second act. As someone who has seen the original show once, and I think a fair number of people share this opinion, is that the second act isn't as strong as the first. It was a surprise to hear that Jon M. Chu was going to split the musical into two movies, and we couldn't help but think it could be a bad idea. When the movie came out last year, M. Chu managed to tell a very m...