The Olive Opinion

  Scream was a franchise that originally made meta commentary on horror movies, then on happenings in pop culture, and eventually on franchises, sometimes even making certain aspects of movies today the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....