The Peanuts Movie

Good grief, this is such a cute film! That's the most obvious take-away after seeing The Peanuts Movie, which I've personally been looking forward to ever since I saw this incredibly adorable teaser trailer over a year ago. The respectful style of animation that mimics the original art from Charles Schultz is such a wonderful melding of traditional artwork with modern CGI that I had a feeling this might be a great introduction to the Peanuts world for kids who may not have been exposed to it previously. Still, it's always a bit of a gamble when going into a revitalized property that was so nostalgic and beloved to so many. For every The Lego Movie there's an equal and opposite The Smurfs or Garfield that keeps us from getting completely on board with something like The Peanuts Movie. Thankfully for us, this is one of the good ones.

Goosebumps

Full disclosure - I am a former Goosebumps fanboy. As a kid, I used to drool over the latest Goosebumps book cover until I finally had an opportunity to get one from the book fair at my elementary school. I went so far as to write a fan letter to R.L. Stine, who sent back a very sweet form letter to all of his fans, with what I always hoped was his real signature at the bottom (though it was probably a stamp or something). It even inspired me to write my first novel back in fifth grade, brilliantly titled "The House That Threw Up"... though it was probably equally inspired by the Goosebumps parody series (that lasted all of two installments), Gooflumps. Yeah, that's really what it was called. Even those ridiculous books have a bit of nostalgia for me, but they were nothing compared to my love for the Goosebumps series. With all that in mind, I went into this film hoping for nothing but a fun time with a few childhood memories brought to life. And thankfully it more-or-less succeeded.

Rocky III

FlashBack Friday is upon us again! Sorry for the inconsistency, but I should still be able fit these all in before the release of Creed on Thanksgiving weekend. If the last review was a surprise due to my lack of exposure to the material, the opposite may be true with Rocky III. I watched this movie constantly as a kid, and could probably quote most of the lines from memory. Having said that, it has been around a decade since I'd last seen it, so the possibility of it not living up to my nostalgic memories was a bit of a concern going in. Luckily, there was also a lot of emotional depth that I didn't remember as well, so things actually evened out rather nicely. From here on, my prediction for this review is... SPOILERS! And also talking about what's good and bad... you know, normal review stuff.

Rocky II

Welcome back to FlashBack Friday where I'm covering all of the Rocky films leading up to the upcoming release of Creed! Last time was a glowing review of the original Rocky film, but I did mention that despite its iconic status I wasn't as familiar with it as a kid. Well, if I was unfamiliar with the first Rocky film before revisiting it a few years ago, it's been so long since seeing Rocky II that this might as well have been my first time. I had so few memories associated with this one that I really wasn't sure what to expect, but I knew from its reputation that it didn't quite live up to the first movie. With that, let's get into the plot of the film (and though it might go without saying, SPOILER ALERT from here on out!).

Rocky

Welcome back to FlashBack Friday! It's been a little while since I've done one of these, and while I was hesitant to commit to the Rocky series with another installment of the Star Wars franchise so near in the future, I figured there was room to do both! For the next six weeks, I'll be covering another Rocky movie until the release of the upcoming Creed on November 25th. My childhood was riddled with movie franchises, from Indiana Jones to Jurassic Park (both of which I've covered on previous FlashBack Fridays), but Rocky was just as influential to me as either of those. Surprisingly enough, most of my childhood memories are from the third and fourth installments in the series. Though I definitely remember seeing the first Rocky on multiple occasions, I think it was just a little too talky for me at the time to really get into. This suited me perfectly, however, as I came into this movie as an older person with a built-in love for the character and a taste in movies that has matured exponentially over the years. While it wasn't the most exciting of the series, my older self was able to more fully appreciate this low budget character drama in a completely different way. As usual in these FlashBack Friday reviews, a SPOILER ALERT is in full effect from here on out!