James Mangold

In an animal-centric retelling of the classic tale of Oliver Twist, a lonely kitten named Oliver is taken into a band of dogs led by the charismatic Dodger and helps try to pay off their owner Fagin's debts to an evil loan shark named Sykes. However, Oliver is adopted by a young girl named Jenny, who is in turn captured by Sykes in order to be held for ransom, leading to a rescue attempt by the animals to save their new friend.

I've always had a soft spot for Oliver and Company; while not all the characters are necessarily unique, the ones that are -- such as Billy Joel's Dodger and Cheech Marin's Tito, who steals every scene he's in -- make the film what it is. While it isn't the most original of stories, it doesn't overstay its welcome and runs for a good 74-minute runtime, making it a pretty short and easy watch. It's also got some good songs, especially the classic "Why Should I Worry?" It's not a groundbreaking Disney release by any means, but it's definitely a fun and rewatchable one that has stood the test of time. Definitely recommended.

Content Concerns: Nothing too objectionable, although there is a real sense of stakes in the film, something not really commonplace in Disney movies.

(July 30, 2023)… (mere)

Indiana Jones has retired from his professor job when he is pulled into a tumultuous adventure after his goddaughter Helena draws him into the midst of a scheme to rebuild the Dial of Archimedes, a device believed to hold the key to time travel. Hotly pursued by former Nazi Voller, Indy, Helena, and a batch of both new and familiar faces rush to solve the puzzle around Archimedes's Dial and keep it from the Nazis' grasp in the final chapter of the Indiana Jones series.

Coming into the film, with a barrage of negative critic reviews hanging overhead, I told myself that I couldn't expect a film that comes close to touching the original trilogy of Indiana Jones. And while I don't think this film does that, it comes nearly as close as you could in my book (in all honestly, it might notch in ever so slightly above Temple of Doom, but that's coming from both personal preference and with not having seen the 1984 film in such a long time). The Dial of Destiny, though, did really everything one can expect it to. It knows when and how to make subtle tips of the fedora to the original films while also venturing into a new world for the franchise as we step into the tail end of the 1960s, moving into the '70s. While it remains to be seen if it has the lasting effect of the other films in the series, it definitely is a worthwhile fun time and experience at the movies, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The story works really well, and the performances are very solid all around; Harrison Ford and Mads Mikkelsen are always nice to say, and the rest of the supporting cast did their jobs very well. The biggest critiques I have seen are mostly absent in my own thoughts: Indy's character isn't pushed to the side to favor Helena really at all, and the story (whose third act has been deemed as rather poor) is very strong; people seem to forget that this is the same series where we've got the Ark of the Covenant unleashing the wrath of God on Nazis, people getting sacrificed to pagan gods by having their hearts ripped out (with them living by the way), and a centuries-old knight possessing eternal life through the Holy Grail. The story is not at all misplaced in the lore, and I think it knocks it out of the park in terms of the scale of it all. It really is as good as I think it possibly could have been, and it is one I imagine I will watch many more times over the years (and possibly could warrant a higher rating). Highly recommended to fans of the franchise; it is a solid send-off to one of the greatest action-adventure film series of all time.

Content Concerns: There is a surprising amount of violence in the film; not necessarily surprising for the franchise, as it isn't quite as graphic as other installments, but a bit of a shock considering it's a Disney film in 2023. We see a lot of characters get killed from gunshots, explosions, and other methods, and many times they are innocent civilians merely getting caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is also a bit of war violence (both modernized and more traditional), and we see some characters getting speared with harpoons and other flying projectiles with a bit of a passing glance of blood. There are also around 15-20 uses of vulgarity ("d-mn" and "h-ll" interchangeably, with the latter being repeated in a protest-like chant at one point).

(June 30, 2023)… (mere)