Superman (2025)

I grew up on Christopher Reeve's Superman, loved the caped hero the most out of the Saturday morning's Justice League ensemble, used to throw myself off the verandah, arms forward, in an effort to fly, and still get excited every time there is a reboot, sequel, update, or new actor cast in the role, but something feels really off about this James Gunn movie, which awkwardly blends cartoony, goofy kiddie stuff (repetitive — really repetitive — Superdog cuteness, for example) with deeply disturbing real-world issues (genocide, beheadings, mass death, and war), and what makes it worse is that the whole movie is populated with only deeply unlikeable characters — Lois and Clark, as presented here, unfortunately included. 

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

The Menu (2022)

What a great idea to pit artist - those that serve up their creations - against art lovers - those that take this creativity, eat it up and either appreciate it or spit it out -- and how clever to do that in a kitchen where the artist, the chef, exerts tight artistic control (and so is particularly vulnerable to criticism) and where so much hyperbolic reality tv is set and where the discussion of food art has reached such a fever pitch that it simply begs to be lampooned, but the concept sags like a failed souffle at about the third course where a rush of ideas - the need to be not just clever about art but also woke about metoo and world finance - turns a sharp satirical observation about art into an uncentred all-out food fight.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEW

Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)

The Giant Slayer story I remember was about a false hero talking about flies, not giants, when he boasted he'd downed six, and the Beanstalk story was a fairytale involving a cow sale and just one giant with a keen sense of smell, but this movie's hybrid Beanstalk/Slayer story — too gory for kids, only mildly entertaining for adults — mixes Giant Slayer mythology with modern flourishes and features myriad giants - cartoony Fraggle Rock ogre-ones, not real people-split-camera ones, for some reason.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEW

X-men: First Class (2011)

This episode of the X-men franchise goes back to 1962 to explain Professor Xavier's love-hate relationship with Magneto (they used to be buddies) and calms down the fever-pitch energy attained over the course of the original three X-men movies while still delivering the themes and set-pieces expected of the series.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS