Tag: Rated PG-13

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2 Stars

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026)

Not too long a time ago, in a galaxy not far away, The Mandalorian TV show was to Disney+ what Stranger Things was to Netflix.

With both shows being part of the select few I have had time to watch over the years (I really need to get going on season two of Andor), these two shows did manage to have their first seasons be borderline brilliant, only to falter in their third. Various ingredients were added to each (including the superfluous Boba Fett series), but at least The Mandalorian ended its TV run after the third season. Well, until now.

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3 1/2 Stars

The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026)

When The Devil Wears Prada came out in 2006, I had just graduated from high school.

Looking back, the reason I never got around to seeing the film in the theater was a mixture of work (had to save up before college, obviously), still being under the spell of Roger Ebert (who did not like the original much), virtually no knowledge of fashion magazines, and other forgotten factors that led me to simply never seeing the films until…honestly, a few years ago. 

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2 Stars

Michael (2026)

As Michael started, I found myself guessing I knew no more than approximately 20% about the King of Pop. 

By the end, I would bump that up to roughly 25-30%.

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3 1/2 Stars

You, Me, & Tuscany (2026)

At some point, Netflix has really cornered the market on rom coms (more quantity-wise, not entirely quality-wise).

With an infinite amount in their library, a fair amount of these Netflix original rom-coms also have to do with exotic travel (the most recent one I remember seeing was People We Meet on Vacation). Looking back, the last of this type I remember seeing in the theater (not including last year’s regrettable A Big Bold Beautiful Journey) was 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians. Sufficite to say, these varieties of rom com getaways are rare in the theater setting, which is why I was surprised to hear about You, Me, & Tuscany, a film coated with everything those predictable Netflix movies are known for,…but is that a bad thing?

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4 Stars

Project Hail Mary (2026)

I hold no secrets when I state that no other subject in school was more frustrating to me than science.

Whether it was my plant being the only one in class that didn’t grow, having two friends who were no help at all in dissecting a frog in middle school (looking at you, Scott and Steve), or just having too many bits of information going over my head without any chance to catch up, it was the subject that eluded me. This is all the more reason why it is rare for a film like Project Hail Mary to come along, as it is rare for a film to make me wish I were truly adept at science.

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3 1/2 Stars

Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)

Looking back at my Letterboxd ratings of the first two Avatar films, I realize that there is a slight decline. 

That is not at all to say that “The King of the World,” James Cameron, is losing his touch as a filmmaker. His original world-building of Pandora and the Na’vi is so mesmerizing to see that it is becoming redundant to say so. In Avatar: Fire and Ash, the tradition of outdoing the previous film with truly special effects continues. The problem, as has been stated, is the writing (which is also by Cameron).

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Mark's 21st Century Movie Milestones Movies

Number 3…

I know, I know. This is three movies instead of one.

Yet as the very overused meme would say, “one does not simply pick one of the films in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.”

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Mark's 21st Century Movie Milestones

Number 4…

Of all the 25 films I have on my list, none has me more at a loss for words than 2011’s The Tree of Life.

I recently tried watching it (my Blu-ray got busted up halfway through, so it looks as though I will need to get the Criterion Collection version after all), but it was enough to remember two things: This is one of the most visually stunning films in my lifetime, and I am still not entirely sure what to make of it.

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3 Stars

Wicked: For Good (2025)

At the end of my review of the first Wicked film, I mentioned how I worried about the fact that, as someone who grew up a fan of the musical, the best songs were always in the first half. That is not to say that the second half hasn’t got its share of good tunes, but it is hard to compete against the likes of “Defying Gravity”, “Dancing through Life”, and “Popular” (which I did a spot on lip sync version to as a camp counselor this past summer. Just saying.)

Now, after a yearlong intermission, we are back in Oz with Wicked: For Good, and I regret to say that my fears were realized: It was not just the songs that did not live up to the first half, but the second half as a whole. 

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5 Stars

Hamnet (2025)

By the time her film Nomadland (2020) had won her Best Picture and Best Director Oscars, Chloé Zhao had already finished her attempt at a superhero film, Eternals (2021), considered by many to be one of the most inferior in the MCU library (I know it is not good, but it is not near as bad as some of the others).

I never once thought to blame her for that and knew that her next film would demonstrate she is still a bona fide talented filmmaker. Well, I was more than correct, because after seeing Hamnet (her fifth feature film in ten years), she exceeded my expectations as someone who is truly a cinematic poet.

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