Some movies

Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse: At first, I thought the animation was off. Then I started to get into it. The movie did start with Spider-Gwen playing drums. How could it not be good? The movie was any even bigger mashup of animations styles and different spider-beings. It did feel that it was a little bit long in the middle.  I did love the build up to the cliffhanger at the end.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: The mario movie was ok. There were plenty of nods to parts from the video game. I would have more use of the Mario theme (but there were plenty of bits from other parts of it.) The movie was not great, but it wasn't horrible.

Elemental: This is a brilliantly animated movie with a fairly pedestrian story. It would be great to explore additional adventures in this world of "elements". How is it that fire and water can touch without going up in steam? How do the different elements get along. There seems to be a hierarchy with water dominating, and fire near the bottom. (Fires "dream" ends up leaving the fire community to do water-people art.) The story was a bitty, especially considering how great the world was done. 

Decameron: An Italian interpretation of an Italian work. There are some interesting tales in here with a good deal of raunchiness.

American Beauty: This is primarily the story of a man's midlife crisis. He has many struggles with his family and career. There are plenty of parts that are relatable, though other parts are very extreme. His wife and daughter also have their own struggles. Rather than help each other out, they are all criticizing and not helping each other. However, in crisis, they realize there is love. I wanted to not like it due to some of the content, but it was well made.

Ratatouille: A rat is a great cook. However, he is a rat. He teams up with a man to show him how to cook. They help revive a dying restaurant, much to the consternation of the guy that is set to inherit it. (He is using it as a commodity empire.) However, it turns out that the true heir is present. It is a well done food movie.

Dune: Dark and boring. This is dark even when it is not dark.

The Batman: Dark and not so boring. Closer to Nolan than Time Burton, but not quite as good. 

Sing 2:  A well done jukebox musical.