Diary of a Movie Lover

Add caption  I get emotional every single time I watch an episode of NBC's This Is Us. It's a phenomenal show with an amazing cast that always leaves you wanting more after every episode. Season 2 has been such a ride and even though we still don't know how Jack dies, focusing on Kate, Kevin and Randall in the last three episodes have been awesome. The 2 episodes leading to this week's mid-season finale were darker and more emotional than the others. The story lines are getting more complex and real. So far, they've talked about racism and addiction.  Kevin's episode was where Justin Hartley really showed his skills and I couldn't get enough of him. That episode alone deserves to get him an Emmy nomination. In last night's episode, Jack & Randall visit Howard University and Randall is excited to be around people like him but is a little embarrassed to introduce his father to his friends. Jack calls him out during the drive home and Randall te...

Image via imdb.com   After the events of the first film, Brad (Will Ferrell) and Dusty (Mark Wahlberg) decide to have a "together Christmas " with their fathers, Don (Jon Lithgow) and Kurt (Mel Gibson). Dusty wants to get along with his step-daughter and he keeps getting criticized by his father Kurt while trying to handle co-parenting in a proper way. Dusty and Brad somehow convince themselves that they are best friends but eventually end up at each other's throats before the end of the film. Image via imdb.com    The first film was alright and I'm a huge fan of Mark Wahlberg but this sequel failed in more ways than one. His chemistry co-star Will Ferrell is fantastic but it wasn't as hilarious as they were aiming for it to be. It had the potential to be funnier but the plot was too thin and empty. It lacked humor and had bad jokes and dialogues that made the film boring. The first film wasn't fantastic either, but it was way better than this. ...

Image via Imdb.com      Directed & written by Ghanian filmmaker, Shirley Frimpong-Manso, Potato Potahto follows the life of divorced couple, Lulu (Joselyn Dumas) and Tony (O.C. Ukeje) who decide to share equal space in their ex-matrimonial home soon after they get a divorce. They discover that the agreement wouldn't be easy to follow as they become competitive and implore different tactics that take the situation from bad to worse.     I was excited to see Potato Potahto after seeing the trailer mostly because it starred a few actors that I really liked and I was interested in the story. The plot was nice and a bit different from the regular Rom-coms. Although the story isn't so original, they executed it in an almost perfect way. I loved the characters and the cast did an awesome job by bringing them to life. The set looked nice and the soundtrack was perfect. I also loved the fact that the dialogue wasn't so cliche. No movie is without ...

Image via imdb.com     The Punisher is a Marvel character who uses murder, kidnapping, extortion and torture in his campaign against crime. Jon Bernthal was introduced as The Punisher/Frank Castle in the second season of Daredevil when he waged a war against the people responsible for the murder of his wife and two kids. He discovers that the death of his family was part of a larger conspiracy and together with former NSA Analyst, David Lieberman, they try to take down and expose those involved.  To be honest, I had very little hope for The Punisher mostly because Marvel hasn't really come through with their other TV shows. Let's not even talk about how disappointing Iron Fist , Defenders and Inhumans were. Dardevil is alright but I definitely didn't enjoy it as much as The Punisher . I didn't want to expect something amazing but I was pleasantly surprised by the way it turned out. It started a bit slow with Frank thinking his war against those that killed ...

The nominees for the 2018 NAACP Image awards were released last night with 23 nominations for Netflix, 17 for OWN and 10 for Universal Pictures. ‪HBO's Insecure & OWN's QueenSugar leads the pack with 8 nods while FOX's Empire & ABC's Blackish have 6 each.‬ The award is set to take place on January 15, 2018 and will be hosted by Anthony Anderson. The award celebrates the achievements of people of color in the fields of Television, Music, Film and Literature. Individuals and groups who promote social justice will also be honored. Here are the list of nominees from TV and Motion Picture; TELEVISION Comedy Series "Ballers" (HBO) "black-ish" ( ABC ) "Dear White People" (Netflix) "Insecure" (HBO) "Survivor's Remorse" (Starz) Actor in a comedy series Anthony Anderson - "black-ish" (ABC) Aziz Ansari - "Master of None" (Netflix) Dwayne Johnson - "Ballers" (HBO) Keegan...

Image via imdb.com     Bruce Wayne ( Ben Affleck ) enlists the help of Diana Prince ( Gal Gadot ) to face an oncoming invasion. Together, they recruit Aquaman (Jason Momoa ), Cyborg ( Ray Fisher ) and The Flash ( Ezra Miller ) to help take down Steppenwolf and stop him from destroying the earth. So, I was really looking forward to seeing Justice League and hoping it wasn't going to be as terrible as Batman Vs. Superman . To be honest, I didn't really like Wonder Woman so I wasn't expecting too much from this film. The acting was really good and the chemistry between the cast was superb. I was mostly into J ason Momoa as Aquaman and I can't wait for his solo film. There was nothing remarkable about the action scenes but they were  entertaining and fun to watch. I loved every scene with Superman ( Henry Cavill ) although, it was obvious that his mustache was digitally erased. Image via imdb.com     Ezra Miller as The Flash was alright, but I fo...

Image via TVline.com In the last episode, we found out that Quinn was kidnapped on her wedding day and QPA, Olivia and Jake have been searching for her all over the city. It was revealed in this episode that Olivia's father, Eli was responsible for taking her and planned to use her as leverage for his freedom and Dinosaur bones. Yes, you read that right! Dinosaur bones. Olivia tries to seek advice from her mother who tells her to let Eli kill the very pregnant Quinn to which Olivia angrily stormed out of the apartment. "All your problems go away if this bitch dies. You let the clock run out, and you do nothing." After a meeting with Olivia's secretary, Lucy, Curtis ends up dead and Lucy calls Jake to say "It's done". Is Lucy part of Jake's extra curricular activities? Over a glass of wine, Olivia admitted to Jake how tired she was of the never ending games with her father and Jake replied that she needs to get rid of him.  ...

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! Throughout this season, Laurel, Michaela, Frank, Asher and Oliver have been cooking up a plan to expose Luarel's father and they had been teasing with flash forwards like they always do that there was going to be a death and Luarel was going to wake up in the hospital asking for her baby.  The episode starts with a flash forward of Oliver on the phone as he steps out of the elevator and walks into Teegan's office to find everyone covered in blood with a body on the floor. They flash back to 24 hours earlier with Connor storming to Laurel's house to confront them about the the plan to take down Antares. He threatens to tell Annalise and provoked Frank who attempts to choke him but is stopped by the rest of the gang. He mistakenly hits Laurel's belly and she's briefly in pain. Annalise gets stuck on the elevator on her way to her hotel room and she finds Bonnie waiting for her at the door. Bonnie apologizes but Annalise confesses...

Image via TVline.com WARNING!! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!     Okay guys! I'm still in shock from watching that finale and still struggling to accept what happened. At the end of the fourth season of NBC's The Blacklist, Reddington lost his resources and his relationship with Liz was finally revealed. This season, there was a little bit of tension between the father in-law & son in-law duo, Red & Tom as the latter tried to find out the truth about a suitcase of bones handed over to him by Mr. Kaplan. They both have a very weird relationship which panned out throughout the episode. Tom gets shot, Reddington tends to his gunshot wound, Tom goes off with the suitcase and Red tries to find him, again. Even with the flashbacks, I didn't expect Tom to be gone this soon. For some reason, I felt he was immortal because he has been able to get himself out of the worst situations. In this episode alone, he survived a gun shot to his shoulder before giving up in the ho...

Image via imdb.com Murder On The Orient Express is based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie about a murder which takes place on a train. In the winter of 1933, Detective Hercules Poirot ( Kenneth Branagh ) solves a complicated case in Jerusalem and after this, he plans to take a break from his work. On his way to Istanbul, he meets his friend, Bouc ( Tom Bateman ), who is also the director of the Orient Express. Poirot is in a hurry to return to London to help solve a case so Bouc offers him a place on the Orient Express. An avalanche derails the train as it passes through mountains and they discover that someone has been murdered.  It's left to the detective to solve the case by questioning the 13 passengers/suspects and follow the clues to find the murderer before the local authorities arrive and possibly arrest the wrong person.  Image via imdb.com Going into the theater, I had no knowledge of the story or read the source material so I wa...

Image via TVLine.com Marvel's Inhumans is finally over! After Maximus's (Iwan Rheon) coup in the first episode, the members of the royal family were scattered all over Earth. They finally reunited and teleported back to Attilan to stop Maximus. He had always resented his brother Black Bolt (Anson Mounth) and the fact that he didn't have any powers made the situation worse.  Maximus revealed his plan which included leading Attilan into a war with Earth and when Black Bolt is about to kill him, he tells him that if he dies, the protective dome surrounding Attilan would fall. After so much hullabaloo, the citizens of Attilan are led to Earth by the members of the Royal family to start a new life. Although, Black Bolt doesn't go with everyone claiming he had to take care of his brother before leaving. He finds out that Maximus manipulated him into killing their parents by faking a royal decree saying Black Bolt needed to be lobotomized. When the young Black Bolt goes ...

Image via imdb.com Idahosa Trails is a faith based film about an American journalist, Thomas Book (David Schifter) who set out to interview the deceased preacher Benson Idahosa in Benin City, Nigeria. This journey leads him to a few discoveries about himself and the archbishop.  I was actually looking forward to seeing Idahosa Trails mostly because it had to do with Benin City but it fell flat in more ways than one and I wish I never saw it. It was boring and filled with so many unnecessary scenes that lasted longer that they were supposed to. I didn't like the cast and I don't think David Schifter was the right person for this role. role. It also felt like Kunle Idowu was doing too much. I love Osas Ajibade but there was something really off about her acting because she looked really stiff. It seemed like she was counting her words.  Image via imdb.com I liked the fact that they used a lot of Benin songs in the soundtrack but the film still felt really dull. I kept...

Image via imdb.com     The BBC One Miniseries has Game of Throne's Kit Harrington as one of its creators and it is based on the 1605 London Gunpowder plot which was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of Catholics led by Robert Catesby. The plan was to blow up the Palace of Westminster during the state opening of the parliament. An anonymous letter was sent to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, warning him to avoid the House of Lords. It was made public and this led to a search on November 5. Guy Fawkes was left to set off the fuse but he was caught in the last moment. The other conspirators were either killed resisting arrest or convicted and executed.      The first episode of Gun Powder left an impression in me, especially with the gruesome killings which, according to the show ignited Robert Catesby's gunpowder plot. After watching the execution of his aunt and a priest, he swore to re...

Image via imdb.com     After the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, and four years after the events of Thor: The Dark World, Thor and Loki find out that they have an evil sister, Hela (Cate Blanchett) who is planning on taking over the throne in Asgard. Thor is held captive on the planet Sakaar and without his hammer, must win a gladiatorial fight against his former ally and fellow Avenger, Hulk. He assembles a team (made up of Hulk, Valkeriye, Thor, and Loki) to stop Hela and the impending Ragnarok, the doom of the Asgardian civilization.  Image via imdb.com    Marvel never disappoints when it comes to movies and with Thor, everything was on point. The cinematography was perfect and the action scenes were incredible. I must say, Hela is one of the best MCU villain and Cate Blanchett carried this role so well. She looked sexy and evil at the same time. Tessa Thompson was the perfect pick for Valkeriye and I'm really looking forward to seeing more ...

Image via tvline,com    I've been a huge fan of Shameless since its premiere in 2011 and after the roller coaster that was last season, I was really anticipating its return. Last season, Kevin and Veronica lost their bar to Svetlana, Lip is working on his sobriety and working two jobs and Fiona bought an apartment building. They all inherited a bag of crystal meth from Monica's stash after she died last season and Carl is helping his siblings sell the drugs.  Fiona buried hers and Liam's share of the meth with Monica's body and by the beginning of the episode, she's telling Lip how much she wants a real man and is done with having meaningless sex with men from tinder. Fiona is now a land lady and she's trying to get her life in order. She has really come a long way and I'm glad she's finally winning.  Image via tvline.com Frank is always up to no good but it seems like smoking half of Monica's meth and giving the rest to the needy ma...