Sunday, January 9, 2022

600th Review!! Spider-Man: No Way Home









Spider-Man: No Way Home


Release Date: 16th December 2021 - Australia


Production Companies
Columbia Pictures (presents)
Marvel Studios
Pascal Pictures

Distribution
Sony Pictures Australia


Genre: Action

Rating: M

Runtime: 148 minutes


Budget: $200,000,000

Box Office Gross: $1,952,723,719 (Worldwide)


Plot Summary
With the truth of Spider-
Man's identity revealed
to the public, Peter Parker
turns to Doctor Strange for
help. Their attempt to make
everyone forget that Peter
Parker is Spider-Man goes
wrong, resulting in
Spider-Man's archenemies
from other worlds wreaking
havoc, forcing him to
discover what it means
to be Spider-Man.


Cast
Tom Holland - Peter Parker/
Spider-Man
Zendaya - MJ
Benedict Cumberbatch - Doctor Strange
Jacob Batalon - Ned Leeds
Alfred Molina - Dr. Otto
Octavius/Dr. Octopus
Willem Dafoe - Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin
Jamie Foxx - Max Dillon/Electro
Rhys Ifans - Dr. Curt Connors/Lizard
Thomas Haden Church - Flint Marko/Sandman
Marisa Tomei - May Parker
Jon Favreau - Happy Hogan
J.K. Simmons - J. Jonah Jameson
Benedict Wong - Wong
Tony Revolori - Flash Thompson
Tobey Maguire - Peter
Parker/Spider-Man
Andrew Garfield - Peter Parker/Spider-Man
Angourie Rice - Betty Brant
Arian Moayed - Agent Cleary
Paula Newsome - MIT Assistant Vice Chancellor
Hannibal Buress - Coach Wilson
Martin Starr - Mr. Harrington
Haroon Khan - Apprentice
J.B. Smoove - Mr. Dell
Mary Rivera - Ned's Lola
Gary Weeks - Agent Foster
Charlie Cox - Matt Murdock (Cameo)
Tom Hardy - Eddie Brock/Venom (Cameo) (Uncredited)
Cristo Fernández - Bartender

Crew
Director - Jon Watts
Based on the Marvel Comic Book -
Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Writers - Chris McKenna and
Erik Sommers
Associate Producer/First Assistant Director -
David H. Venghaus Jr.
Executive Producers - Victoria Alonso,
Avi Arad, Louis D'Esposito,
Rachel O'Connor and Matt Tolmach
Executive Producer/Production Manager -
JoAnn Perritano
Producers - Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal
Co-Producers - Mitchell Bell and
Chris Buongiorno
Casting Directors - Sarah Finn and
Chris Zaragoza
Production Designer - Darren Gilford
Head of Visual Development - Ryan Meinerding
Concept Artists - Sean Hargreaves,
Marek Orkon, Andrew Reeder,
Nathan Schroeder, Henrik Tamm and
Maciej Kuciara
Visual Development Concept Illustrators -
Rodney Fuentebella, Ian Joyner,
Jerad Marantiz, Josh Nizzi and
Phil Saunders
Supervising Art Director - David Scott
Art Director: Additional Photography -
Clint Wallace
Set Decorators - Rosemary Brandenburg
and Emmanuelle Hoessly
Supervising Prop Master: Marvel Studios -
Russell Bobbitt
Costume Designer - Sanja Milkovic Hays
Specialty Costume Supervisor - Russell Shinkle
Hair Department Head - Linda D. Flowers
Director of Photography - Mauro Fiore
First Assistant Director: Additional Photography -
Jeff Okabayashi
Second Unit Director/Stunt Coordinator -
George Cottle
Fight Coordinator - Jackson Spidell
Helicopter Pilot - Cliff Fleming
Special Effects Supervisor - Daniel Sudick
Visual Effects Supervisor - Kelly Port
Visual Effects Supervisor: SPI - Chris Waegner
Visual Effects Supervisor: Digital Domain -
Scott Edelstein
Visual Effects Producer - Julia Neighly
Animation Supervisor: Luma Pictures -
Raphael A. Pimentel
Editors - Leigh Folsom Boyd and Jeffrey Ford
Supervising Sound Editors - Steve Ticknor
and Vanessa Lapato
Sound Designer/Temp Re-Recording Mixer -
Chris Diebold
Sound Designer/Re-Recording Mixer -
Tony Lamberti
Sound Designer - Ken McGill
Sound Mixer - Willie D. Burton
Sound Mixer: Additional Photography -
Lee Orloff
Re-Recording Mixer - Kevin O'Connell
Foley Artists - Gary A. Hecker
and Adam DeCoster
Music - Michael Giacchino
Theme Music Composer: "Doc Ock Is Born",
"Enter the Goblin" and "Spider-Man
Main Title" - Danny Elfman
Theme Music Composer: "Main Title"
and "Young Peter" - James Horner
Music Supervisor - Dave Jordan


Review
Hello, filmgoers. My blog has reached its 600th review!! Enjoy! SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME is darker and hilarious, carries more emotional baggage than its predecessors, and has loads of fanservice to entertain the fans. It is an out-of-this-world experience with a plot concept similar to the idea used in the animated movie Into the Spider-Versewhich has that distinction. Though it's not the first Spider-Man film to tackle a thing about the multiverse, I love it when the film expands the scope of the franchise by showing that there are more than two worlds that have collided with the current cinematic universe of Spider-Man. Director Jon Watts gave us a film that not even the Russo brothers could outdo anything they've accomplished for the MCU.

I love the action sequences of the movie, which are incredible and noteworthy. I admire the chemistry between Tom Holland and Zendaya, which is fittingly romantic for both of them. It's nice to see some old faces in this movie; actors like Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Jamie Foxx, Rhys Ifans and Thomas Haden Church return as Spider-Man's previous archfoes from the pre-MCU offerings. Even J.K. Simmons reprises his role as J. Jonah Jameson from the Sam Raimi trilogy after appearing in the mid-credits scene of Far from Home.

Audiences immediately clapped and cheered in excitement when Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield returned as both Raimi/Webb interpretations of Peter Parker, which they knew the whole time they set afoot on NO WAY HOME. I won't tell you how exactly they appear. It's a secret, and I'm not supposed to reveal it to any of you.

Out of all the live-action offerings, it is the best Spider-Man movie I've seen in cinemas. Though close to beating Into the Spider-Verse, it remains the franchise's second-best feature. Still, it surpasses the previous high expectations from Far from Home. I highly recommend it to those who previously experienced the character in the Raimi and Webb adaptations.

Star rating: (10/10) Best Movie Ever

Saturday, January 8, 2022

In Memory of Sidney Poitier (1927-2022)










Sidney Poitier (1927-2022)

African-American actor Sidney Poitier, known for breaking through Hollywood's racial barriers and being the first black actor to win an Oscar, passed away on January 7th, 2022. He was 94 years old. Without Sidney Poitier, all of this would have been possible if he hadn't become an inspiration to many black performers who would do big things like Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Whoopi Goldberg, Halle Berry and others.

Poitier was born in Miami and is the son of Bahamian tomato farmers. His father, Reginald, didn't expect him to live as he was only two months premature from birth and had brought home a shoebox to bury him if he died. But Sidney did survive and was raised in the Bahamas on Cat Island before moving to the U.S. at age 15. Poitier joined the American Negro Theatre in Harlem, and though it took him a while to adjust to his film career, he landed his first speaking role in "No Way Out" in 1950. Poitier garnered his first Best Actor Oscar nomination in 1959 for "The Defiant Ones", starring opposite Tony Curtis as both escaped prisoners working together to survive and stay free. Six years later, for his performance as handyman Homer Smith in the comedy-drama "Lilies of the Field", Poitier became the first African-American actor to win an Oscar. Before he died, he was the oldest living actor to win an Oscar. Because of this, the role remains his most memorable and has the most powerful social impact. In 1967, he was in the mystery drama "In the Heat of the Night", playing a homicide detective, Virgil Tibbs, who had to deal with bigotry. Other of his groundbreaking roles include his character befriending a blind girl in "A Patch of Blue", an English teacher in "To Sir, with Love", and a doctor trying to persuade the parents to accept him in marrying their daughter in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner".

In the late 1970s, Poitier scaled back his acting and turned his attention to directing in films for Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, like "Uptown Saturday Night" in 1974 and "Stir Crazy" in 1980. After nearly a decade, Sidney returned to acting in films and television like 1988's "Shoot to Thrill" with Tom Berenger and the 1992 crime comedy "Sneakers" in an ensemble cast with actors like Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley and James Earl Jones. Sidney Poitier was friends with a young, talented actor, River Phoenix, before his untimely death in 1993. Phoenix appeared with Poitier in his two final theatrical movies, including when they shared the screen in the 1988 thriller "Little Nikita" and again in "Sneakers".

Beyond his acting, Poitier worked as a Civil Rights activist who joined Dr. Martin Luther King in his historic 1963 movement in Washington, D.C. For a decade, he was a bonafide ambassador, and from 1997 to 2007, he served as the Bahamas' ambassador to Japan. He received many honours, including a Lifetime Achievement award from the American Film Institute and an Honorary Award Oscar in 2001 for "his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and a human being". Poitier even earned a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II of Britain in 1974. In 2009, he was awarded the highest honour for an American civilian, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, given by the first African-American President, Barack Obama.

Here are a few clips of his movies that highlight his screen presence. Such as the iconic line he uttered from his unforgettable role in "In the Heat of the Night".