I won’t need to be neuralysed to forget Men in Black: International; it’s completely forgettable on its own, which is a shame because I’m a huge fan of practically everyone involved.

With X-Men: Apocalyse and now Dark Phoenix, it is clear that the X-Men franchise, which once set the tone for the genre, has been surpassed by nearly everyone else. It’s a sad sight to see.

Pride Month is about more than wearing rainbow T-shirts from Target and walking in parades. There are so many more impactful ways to support the community. Perhaps the most natural way actors and other theatre artists like us can show our support is by seeking out LGBTQIA media that contributes to much-needed representation.

Musical biopics are highly formulaic and while Rocketman doesn’t reinvent the formula, it has enough flare and personality to make it stand out and not be derivative.

I enjoyed 2014’s Godzilla when it came out. This is a major step down. Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a series of amazing visuals shots that brings practically nothing else to the table.

Aladdin is not a whole new world. It’s also not an outright disaster, which is damning with faint praise. It brings very little of anything new to the table. There were some elements that make me laugh and chuckle to myself and that were enjoyable, but there were just as many elements that fell flat and didn’t work.

“Lights. Curtain. Action!”

Besides being a bad pun, this silly play on words has begun to feel like an all too poignant reality when looking at the shows currently running on Broadway. One of the major draws of Broadway is the creativity and effort that goes into every stage of producing a show; from writing, to set, to costume, to lights, everything takes thought and effort to make it looks as seamless and magical as it does once it hits the stage.

Opening in Toronto is the new project by Kenneth Branagh, All is True the dark story of William Shakespeare’s last three years as a brooding, introspective retired poet.  Shakespeare, of course, is immortal as a storyteller, but Branagh’s film reminds us that Shakespeare, himself, was a story.  

John. Wick. Baba Yaga. The man you send to kill the boogeyman. A former assassin who got sucked back into the criminal world because someone stole his car and killed the dog that his dead wife had got him to help him grieve. Who knew when we were first introduced to this simple but effective action movie premise that we were going to be treated to the best action franchise of the decade? John Wick set the stage, but John Wick: Chapter 2 took it to a whole other level in 2017. That film expanded the horizons of the world we were introduced to in the first film. Now, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum has arrived and while it does expand the scope of the Wide World of Wick some, it is more interested in exploring the studio space that has been created for it. No, really Baby, explore the space!

We open on a city of ashes. Tyrion walks in disbelief through the ruins of King’s Landing with Davos and Jon.  It’s quiet and tense, with only the occasional shocked citizen wandering around aimlessly. The production team did an excellent job creating the atmosphere and tension here.

Netflix’s new film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile starring Zac Efron and Lily Collins was highly anticipated and somewhat controversial. The story follows the persecution of Theodore Bundy, infamous 1970’s serial killer. As the film was released, so were the opinions of a multitude of viewers speaking out against the sensationalization of the horrific story. Many feel that the film is evoking sympathy for a man that would later confess to 30 murders.

Pokémon was a phenomenon of the 90s that came in just as I was ageing out of the target demo it was aimed at. Because of that, I’ve never fully understood the craze or the appeal of them, but I know it is a beloved thing of many a person’s childhood, even if I was largely dismissive of it for the more than 20 years it’s been around now. I openly made fun of my friends who lost their minds over Pokémon Go a few years ago.

We open on Varys writing a scroll. He is sending out ravens to Daenerys is devastated by the fact that word of Jon’s heritage is becoming more well known. She perceives it as a betrayal and executes Varys.  At the beginning of the series, it felt like the Spider had only been out for himself, but he really has done everything he could for the good of the realm and for the good of everyone around him. 

The cast of television’s number one comedy, “The Big Bang Theory” filmed their last show on April 30, 2019. The following morning they arrived together at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to make history. Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Keley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch put their handprints and signed their names in wet cement.

This episode deals with the aftermath of the Battle of Winterfell. The first ten minutes are a funeral pyre, where we say goodbye to Edd, Lyanna Mormont, Jorah the Andal, Ser Beric, as well as the hundreds of others who died fighting the army of the dead.

The day after attending the movie premiere of the newest Marvel Studios’ AVENGERS: ENDGAME, legendary film critic Leonard Maltin was invited to introduce the cast and discuss the movie in the courtyard of the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California. He shared his thoughts about the movie before introducing actors Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, along with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige.

Fire and blood.

These are the words of House Targaryen. They are also the best description to the majority of this episode. It is almost entirely action, with hardly any dialogue.

A satisfying conclusion often seems like is one of the most elusive things in entertainment. A memorable quote from the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail says, “Everything ends badly, otherwise it wouldn’t end.” More often than not, franchises tend to burnout and lose steam. TV shows run for more seasons than they should, movie franchises keep going for no apparent reason other than the studio does not want to relinquish a tent pole intellectual property. The bottom dollar often trumps creative integrity.