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Despicable Me 4 movie review: Watch it or skip it?

Verdict: SKIP IT!

Rating: 6.5/10

I really wanted to like this movie but it was pretty disappointing. The movie didn’t have much of a story and the scenes felt like they were all over the place. The laugh out loud moments were too far and few between. I feel like they relied too much on the minions slapstick comedy as opposed to focusing on character development and creating funny scenarios in the storyline.

The villain was forgettable and not too impressive. The entire time it felt like there was nothing at stake. The only motivation for the villain was petty revenge. The thing that put me off the most in this movie was Gru’s switch from a heel to a babyface. It just doesn’t suit him or create funny moments. Gru is much funnier being the sarcastic wisecracking villain you love, not this tame neutered family man. He’s much funnier popping kid’s balloons and melting their ice cream then running around trying to please everyone.

I do admit though that him now being a family man makes sense in the continuity of the story, however it does nothing to improve the comedic scenes of the storyline which is why we all watch these movies in the first place.

I gave this movie a 6.5/10. It’s not a good movie, but not a terrible one either. I feel that this movie was the weakest of the four and that this series has ran its course with nothing else left to offer. In my opinion, save your money and wait for this to come out on streaming.

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"Avengers: Endgame" movie review: Watch it or skip it?

Avengers Endgame was a good movie. I don’t know what it could’ve done differently. It had action, comedy, drama, and big surprises. Everyone had a chance to get their story told on screen and be the main focus. I did feel though that sometimes the movie did drag on a little, but it was necessary to get the characters emotions across.

          For some reason I could not stand any scene with Captain Marvel. She just had this intense arrogance about her that rubbed me the wrong way, considering every other character was already fully developed by the time she arrives onto the scene. The story was great, it had the perfect blend of comedy, and drama that just kept things flowing. Although whenever it came to the drama, I did get a little bored. I love drama, but these moments just felt like they were taking forever.

          Also, I feel the battle scenes could’ve been more intense. They were too far and few in between. I enjoyed the ending, it brought closure whether you liked it or not. I feel with movies like these, movies that bring an end to something that has been built up over soo many years, is always going to give you a sense of dissatisfaction. I don’t know if it’s because of the sadness that it’s all over, or maybe the story didn’t play out how you wanted too. I don’t know where that feeling comes from, but this gave that to me.

          I don’t really have to say whether you should watch it or skip it because unless you’re living under a rock, you’ve either watched it or are going to watch it.

I gave this movie an 8/10. It was a good movie, but I felt Infinity Wars was better in terms of delivery, battle scenes and excitement. Check it out for yourself.

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UFC on ESPN+ 10 results: Dos Anjos submits Kevin Lee in the 4th rd!

The two traded hard kicks early on. They are swinging for the fences. I feel Lee is getting the better of these exchanges. He is using his hands to setup the take down attempts. Nothing happening, Dos Anjos scores a late take down but I don’t think it was enough. I give the 1st rd. to Lee. In the 2nd rd. Lee kept trying to go for the take downs over and over but couldn’t complete them. All Lee is doing is keeping Dos Anjos against the fence. I just don’t know what his game plan is. He keeps going for unsuccessful take downs and gassing himself out. Every time they break Dos Anjos catches him with big shots. Dos Anjos keeps looking like the fresher fighter. Kevin Lee lands a leg kick to the groin. Kevin Lee looks tired. Dos Anjos taking advantage, Kevin Lee shoots for another unsuccessful take down and ends up with Dos Anjos in mount. Dos Anjos catches him him in an arm triangle, Kevin Lee taps!

Dos Anjos def Kevin Lee by submission via Arm Triangle at 03:47 of the 4th rd.

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Felicia Spencer Chokes out Megan Anderson in her UFC Debut!

The round started with the two featherweights meeting in the center and Megan tagging her with 2 good straight rights. Megan clearly had the advantage in the stand up department. Felicia recognized that she was losing the stand up battle and used her grappling to push Megan up against the fence and eventually getting the take down. Felicia soon took Megan’s back but was unable to sink the choke in. Felicia moved into mount which gave Megan just enough space to try and stand up, but in doing so gave up her back again. Felicia then proceeded to soften up Megan with ground and pound before sinking in the choke. This time it’s in! Megan taps! Felicia Spencer remains undefeated!

Felicia Spencer wins via Rear Naked Choke at 03:24 of the 1st rd.

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John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum: Watch it or skip it?

The movie started right where the last one ended. There was no time wasted and we jumped right into the action. If you’re a fan of action movies, this is for you. The movie moved along quickly. The story was there but it was barely holding everything together. Mainly this movie was about great shootouts, and fight choreography, mixed in with small moments of dialogue to keep the party going.

          The shootouts were great! The fight choreography was also great... in the beginning. Then something happened halfway through where it felt like the fight choreography was happening in slow motion. It was very noticeable, to the point where the fighting was starting to get predictable. What I mean by that is that the fights started to become less fluid. In Jackie Chan’s films everything is high speed, tight, and fluid. Here it felt a little clunky, as if the actors were waiting to get punched or thrown.

          One of the strong points of this movie were it’s sets. Every set was full of color, and detail. What I mean by detail is that every theme looked just right. If you take a moment to look at all of the objects on set, or the buildings, everything looked like it belonged. It was perfect no matter what location John Wick was. One second, it’s dark and seedy, then next the screen is filled with bright and warm colors. They did a great job creating themes based on the locations.

          So, should you watch it or skip it? If you like action movies with crazy shootouts and fights, little to no story line then I’d say WATCH IT! This movie is definitely for you. I give it a solid 7/10. Would I buy it? nah. Would I rent it to see it again? Definitely.

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UFC 237: Namajunas vs Andrade

What a crazy night of fights!

 UFC 237: Namajunas vs Andrade took place on May 11, 2019 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

 It was a bad night for the Brazilians, they went 1-5 on the main card. But man did the main event make up for it.

 Bethe Correia lost by armbar in the third round in which was a very close contested fight.

 Thiago Alves faced Laureano Staropoli which went the distance in favor of Staropoli. In the first round Staropoli was mixing it up well, throwing kicks, elbows, and constantly switching stances. Alves looked as if he didn’t know when to throw and had trouble reading Staropoli. I gave that 1st round to Staropoli. Alves opened up much more in the second, being the aggressor but Staropoli was game and refused to back down.

I though Alves landed the better shots and did enough to take that round. In the third Staropoli turned up the pressure and was winning all of the striking exchanges up until Alves landed some bombs and a knee to the face that dropped Staropoli. Based on damage I though that last minute flurry was enough to give Alves the round. The judges thought otherwise, scoring the bout 30-27, 30-27, and 29-28 awarding Staropoli the win.

 Next up was Alexander Volkanovski vs Jose Aldo in what I was sure was going to be an exciting fight. Alexander Volkanovski looked sensational in his last fight against Mendes, knocking him out in a slugfest. The round started with Aldo taking the center of the octagon and refusing to back down. Volkanovski, although not landing big shots, was just outworking Aldo in what would be the theme of the fight. Volkanovski stayed in the pocket, landed good leg kicks, and basically neutralized Aldo’s offense.

Aldo did land some good body shots, but was basically head hunting, meanwhile Volkanovski was racking up points, putting Aldo up against the fence and at one point landing 10 hard knees in a row to Aldo’s thighs. This was a clean sweep for Volkanovski as he earned a unanimous 30-27 on the judge’s scorecards. During the post-fight interview, he made his case to fight for the title next saying he is the only undefeated fighter in the top three.

 Next up was Anderson Silva vs Jared Cannonier. The fight started off with Jared Cannonier looking tentative. He wasn’t pulling the trigger, meanwhile Anderson was making good reads and throwing flashy kicks and good body shots. But then out of nowhere Cannonier landed a hard-inside leg kick which sent Silva down to the canvas wincing in pain. Cannonier went to follow up with some ground and pound but never got the chance as Herb Dean stepped in and saved Silva.

Cannonier stopped Silva via TKO in the first round. Afterwards Cannonier couldn’t really give a post-fight interview due to the intensity of the boos from the Brazilian fans. Silva later stated that during training his knee was already not doing that well and Cannonier put the stamp on that injury when he landed that inside leg kick. The commentators said that most likely something tore.

 Now we have our Main Event. “Thug” Rose Namajunas vs Jessica Andrade. The first five minutes was just a masterclass performance by Rose. She was too quick and too creative. She kept landing the same jab over and over at will, cutting Andrade open in the first minute of the first round. She was landing kicks, hooks, jabs, and dropped Andrade with a knee to the face. Andrade went for her signature slam, but Rose countered with an armbar attempt. It looked like Andrade wasn’t going to last long if she kept taking punishment like that.

          The second round started with more of the same, Rose dominating the standup by controlling the distance. Andrade went for the same slam and KO’d Rose!! When hoisted up, rose went for the same defense by going for a submission but Andrade adjusted and Rose made the mistake of not letting go, causing her to get piledriven on to her neck, instantly knocking her out. The Brazilian crowd went nuts as all of their fighters before this lost on the main card. The replay was horrible as it showed Rose landing directly on her head. Afterwards Rose said she was relieved to have a huge pressure off her. Andrade def. Rose Namajunas via Slam KO in the second round to become the new UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion!

 All in all, I was excited and anxious to see Aldo and Silva fight. Aldo just couldn’t pull the trigger, waited to long and got outpointed. Silva, I thought looked great but unfortunately the night was cut short by what I hope is not a career ending injury. The main event made up for the earlier fights that didn’t live up to the hype in a crazy come from behind victory by Jessica Andrade slamming KO of Rose Namajunas to capture the title. All in all, I think the main event was definitely worth the price of PPV.

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"Pokémon Detective Pikachu" movie review: Watch it or skip it?

The movie starts off with instant action and comedy. It is hard to believe that this movie is only rated PG. Ryan Reynolds knocked it out of the park as the voice of Pikachu. It had comedy almost every second of the movie. Not only was there plenty of verbal comedy, but there was also a ton of great physical comedy too. You can thank the funny looking Pokémon for that.

The film didn’t have an extremely deep story, but at the same time it didn’t feel like it needed one. They make up for the lack of story with great settings, think night time Tokyo neon lights, stunning special effects, and great feelings of nostalgia if you grew up watching, playing, or trading Pokémon. This movie is witty enough to be great for adults, yet tame enough to let your kids enjoy it with you. There wasn’t one person in the theater who wasn’t laughing.

So, should you watch it or skip it? If you grew up with Pokémon or just want to take the kid’s out this weekend, watch it! It blew my expectations out of the water, and for that I give this movie a solid 8/10.

I know we are all accustomed to end credit scenes, but don’t stick around waiting for one because this movie doesn’t have any.

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Dustin Poirer defeats Max Holloway in a slugfest!

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The fight began with Poirer showing that their was a clear power difference early on. Holloway got stunned 4 times in the first two rounds, and by the second round he had already absorbed the 2nd most significant strikes out of all of his 20 UFC fights. Poirer looked like he was slowing down in the 3rd but came back in the end with the more powerful punches. Don’t get me wrong, Holloway kept the pressure and was also landing but it just seemed that his punches weren’t doing as much damage as Poirers. Dustin Poirer took the unanimous decision on all three judges scorecards to win the lightweight title.

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Adesanya beats Gastelum to capture the Middleweight title!

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Rd. 1. In the opening of the first round, Israel is staying at kicking distance and picking his shots. Adesanya landed a good kick to the body. Gastelum keeps chasing Adesanya but not able to land cleanly. Adesanya got clipped! He got caught with a clean left hook! Gastelum being patient now. Gastelum is throwing heat now. Adesanya looks tentative. 2 minutes to go. They’re trading shots now but no one is landing clean. End of the round.

I have it 10-9 Gastelum

Rd. 2. They rush out to the center. Adesanya landed that nice leg kick to the body again. Kelvin is having a hard time getting on the inside. Gastelum landed a nice left hook. OH! Adesanya got tagged. Another left hook by Gastelum. Adesanya with the inside leg kick. Gastelum is keeping the pressure on him. OH!! Adesanya knocks down Gastelum! and Gastelum is back on his feet! Adesanya looking more confident now. Gastelum looking a little more sloppy. Gastelum getting tagged! again and again! One minute left. Kelvin got tagged again! They’re both trading shots now. Gastelum goes for the takedown, Adesanya defends! End of the 2nd Rd.

I have it 10-9 Adesanya.

3rd Rd. Both men just circling each other for the first minute. Adesanya clinches and gets Gastelum with a knee. They break. Another body kick landed by Adesanya. WOW! Tremendous exchange on both sides. Adesanya catches Gastelum with a straight right. Gastelum back with a right hook of his own. Gastelum looking tired. Gastelum lands a takedown. Adesanya gets to the fence and back up to his feet. Adesanya with a superman punch. End of the 3rd.

I gave that round to Adesanya. 10-9

Rd 4 was crazy both men almost finished each other but I felt Gastelum landed the better shots. almost finishing Adesanya in the last minute.

10-9 Adesanya

5th Rd.. Both men came out trying to finish the fight. Both got knocked down, the heart in these men is crazy.. I gave it to Adesanya, he almost finished Gastelum multiple times. WOW! it’s really close to getting stopped! I gave that to Adesanya.

10-8 Adesanya.

The official winner and NEW Interim Middleweight Champion ISRAEL ADESANYA!

Wow! What a fight! Fight of the year!

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T.J. Dillashaw releases video statement after receiving a two-year suspension by USADA for EPO!

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"Hellboy" movie review: Watch it or skip it?

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Hellboy is a reboot of the 2004 film with the same name. I have got to say, it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. I probably wouldn’t take kids to see it because although it looks obviously fake, there is a lot of gore in the movie. Think heads being cracked open, people being ripped apart. The film felt a little cheesy. The lines felt like I’ve heard them before in every other action comedy I have ever seen. Also, I noticed that the rock soundtrack sounded like they didn’t leave any budget for some good sounding music.

          The movie itself was fun. Lots of action scenes, some comedy that is funny at times and cringey at others. There wasn’t much of a story though, and things felt like they were dragging along a bit. Also, I didn’t really know the characters which didn’t help me with trying to figure out what was going on, so I feel you need to maybe read up a little on the comics to be up to speed.

          I really enjoyed the tone of the sets, whether it was the streets of Tijuana, dark, seedy and filled with neon accents. Or the hills of England, the movie did a great job with their sets. One thing I did not like was how fake some of the characters looked, it felt distracting at times. Hellboy looked pretty badass, so did some of the villains, but a lot of the no name characters looked like they were put together last minute by the special effects team.

          My conclusion, this movie was not better than the 2004 original. The acting felt like people went over the top when trying to be cool and witty, the comedy was a mix of laugh out loud moments mixed in with I feel bad for them for trying that joke. The main characters looked cool, then the special effects budget ran out for everybody else. The action scenes were enjoyable, but there was no one great climactic moment. The story moved slow at times, and it was a little predictable.

          So, should you watch it or skip it? I’m torn on this one. I’d say if you liked the original, watch it. If you don’t care for Hellboy and you’re expecting a great movie, SKIP IT! All in all, this just felt like a sloppy reuse of movie clichés. Even with all of these small flaws I thought it was a fun movie. Would I watch this again? No. Did I regret watching it? Kind of. If you enjoyed the 2004 movie, I would check this out just to judge for yourself. My Final Score: 6/10.

          Don’t forget to stick around for 2 End Credit Scenes. One happens midway through the credits which is pretty funny and worth sticking around for. The last one is at the end of the final credits which sets up a possible sequel. If you didn’t like the movie much, then you can probably skip the 2nd End credits scene.

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Conor McGregor retires!

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Conor McGregor has announced his retirement today. He made the same announcement a few years ago as a negotiating tactic so it is hard to tell if this is real.

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Conor McGregor retires!

Conor McGregor just announced his retirement a today. He made the same announcement a few years ago as a negotiating tactic so it is hard to tell if this is real or not.

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"Us" movie review: Watch it or skip it?

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Where do I start with this review? This has got to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life, and I have watched a lot of movies. I came into this movie excited, and wanting to be scared which isn’t hard to do. The first 20 minutes or so were great. The sets and wardrobe were full of vibrant colors, the soundtrack was good (only in the beginning, more on that later), the acting was great and the jokes seemed organic. The buildup in the beginning was very suspenseful, not relying on cheap jump scares at all. And then things to a turn for the worse…. way worse!

The shadowy figures finally made their appearance in the movie, everything is still suspenseful and the action scenes are playing out beautifully, and then the shadows start talking. I’m thinking what the hell is going on? Is this supposed to be scary? What they’re saying makes no sense and isn’t relevant in the slightest. Scene after scene is happening with no direction, no explanation, and no real purpose. The suspense is gone, and it is replaced with mindless screaming and action scenes which are not scary at all, it’s just feels stupid. Kind of like the action scenes from “The Purge”, a lot of things happening and people screaming, but at the same time nothing is happening, nothing is moving the story along.

It seems like the villains in the movie can’t make up their mind on what they’re trying to accomplish. Do they want the family dead or not? And then the jokes in which everyone was laughing at in the first 20 minutes in the movie disappeared, and was replaced with dialogue that just kept getting cheesier and cheesier. I just didn’t know what they were trying to do with this movie. I kept waiting for it to get better but it just kept getting worse and worse. The plot was non existent.

The villains would corner their victims, and not kill them when they had the opportunity, they would just act like they’re trying to hurt them, make a few creepy faces and stupid noises and then just let them go. This happened over and over until it got soo tiresome that you just wanted something, anything significant to happen. When people died, you could care less because they felt like expendable characters. And the whole time your watching the film, your waiting for the film to give you a clue as to what is happening and why. And then the soundtrack started sounding weird, not scary, just weird. As if they just asked a random five year old off the street to pick what they would think of as creepy music to go with the movie.

Then there were symbols that not only had no meaning but felt stupid, think bunnies and weird wanna be scary but still childish music. You’ll see. The ending of the film reminded me of some of M. Night Shyamalan’s not so good endings. There was a twist, but it just leaves you scratching your head in confusion, and feeling anger because it makes zero sense and doesn’t explain anything about the previous 2 hours you just witnessed. Then we go back to this game of “I wanna kill you, but I don’t wanna kill you!, I just wanna freak you out a little and carelessly give you the upper hand when I didn’t need to”. During these final scenes there were so many WTF moments, that reminded you that you were watching a movie because it was not believable at all.

My conclusion, the beginning was an awesome buildup to what could've been a great movie. Action scenes were happening that kept you interested to see what happens next. Then what happens next is the same tireless cat and mouse game over and over. In the midst of all this you’re still waiting for an explanation that never comes, and witness a twist that doesn’t make sense. The movie is over and you come to the realization that you just wasted 2 hours of your life and that the best thing about the movie was the trailer.

Horror fans won’t like this, drama fan’s won’t like this, and the casual movie goer will definitely not like this.

So should you Watch it or skip it? I say save your money and skip this movie. You couldn’t pay me to watch this movie again. Final Score: 3/10

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"Wonder Park" movie review: Watch it or skip it?

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First off, let me say that I should’ve done some research before picking this week’s movie. With Captain Marvel still playing in Dolby Atmos and Imax, I just chose whatever was going to be premiering on one of the bigger screens today. This movie was a complete mess and I regret watching it! With that out of the way, let’s get to it. My review.

 The movie started off great, it had humor, adventure, great animation. But 10 minutes in I realized this was not a kid’s movie that even adults can enjoy. I would recommend this if you have kids 6 and under. Any older and I think they will be extremely bored. Okay, so where do we start? The movie is filled with played out clichés. A kid’s imaginary place, a sick parent, the kid growing up and abandoning the imaginary place, being sad, coming back to the imaginary place, finds happiness in the imaginary place and everything else in her life falls into place.

 The animation was done extremely well, it had that Toy Story type of feel but more realistic. There was so much attention to detail that I could even see all of the wrinkles in the animal’s noses. It was a colorful movie, but it didn’t look as aesthetically pleasing as Coco. The jokes were ok, I chuckled a few times. But they weren’t as clever as some of the jokes as let’s say The Emperor’s New Groove (old school reference), Shrek, or The Lego Movie. The one thing it did have going for it was physical comedy in the form of the habits and sounds the animal characters made, (random bouts of narcolepsy, snorting).

 The story was pretty weak, it was all over the place and the transitions were really clunky. One minute the story is taking place in the kid’s household and on the street with all the neighborhood kids, and the next minute were surrounded by a bunch of wimpy animals who are extremely sensitive to everything and have very little real personality that translates to laughs or emotional investment. At the end of the movie I felt like I just wasted an hour and a half of my life. Someone waiting for the restroom in the lobby even told my girlfriend “This movie was the dumbest thing I have ever seen!, I go to a lot of these with my kids and they’re usually good, but this was just dumb!” I felt the same way because I usually enjoy movies like Minions, Lego Movie, Inside out, etc.., but this had nothing to offer.

 Long story short, the plot was all over the place, the transitions from scene to scene were clunky, the jokes fell flat, and the movie had no sense of direction.

 So should you watch it or skip it? I would skip it. Even if you have a toddler, skip this movie. You are not going to laugh, you are not going to cry, you are not going to care. This is the type of movie you play for your kid’s (2-6yr) when it’s on Netflix while you’re doing chores.

Final Score: 3/10

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Avangers: Endgame Official Trailer #2 is Here!

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