By: Cade Sullivan & Joe Briseno

*Note: This article contains spoilers

‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ marks the return of our favorite crime-fighting turtles back to the big screen. Unlike other TMNT films of the past that struggled with finding its identity, this film knows exactly what it wants to be. This movie is an entertaining time for all ages, a modern story of teenage life and brotherhood with a few elements of fiction to make it original.

The story follows four familiar faces in Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael. The turtles meet a girl named April O’Neal, who gives the teens a shot at becoming heroes if they can take down a mysterious mutant named “Superfly”.

This film does a great job with balancing action with comedy, as the Turtles’ witty banter keeps the intense fight scenes light and funny. The pacing here is consistent, and we never once felt like the movie dragged on or outlived its welcome.

‘Mutant Mayhem’ does a great job of including real-life human elements to its story, one of those being April’s anxiety about being in front of a camera. April had an unfortunate incident happen to her while she was on camera for her high school, which caused her to never want to talk in front of a camera again. However, this changes when the villain Superfly attacks New York. April runs to the local news station and pleads her case that the turtles aren’t villains. Her passionate words change New York’s perception of our shelled heroes, and soon the turtles are able to defeat Superfly with the help of New York citizens.

Another human element to this story was Splinter’s unwillingness to let his kids go. I’m sure parents can relate to this one; Splinter wants to keep his boys safe and is distrustful of the human world. It’s only after hearing Superfly saying that his way is the only way, something Splinter told his boys before, that he realizes the error of his ways. Splinter then apologizes, stating he trusts his boys, and allows them to go to high school in New York.

‘Mutant Mayhem’ brings the turtles to life with a unique animation style, which makes them appear as genuine creatures rather than ugly hyper realistic CGI. The film’s cinematography impresses with an active moving camera that gives new angles to fight sequences. Vibrant colors mix with dull ones, giving the animation further layers and originality.

‘Mutant Mayhem’ may be a lot different than what we’ve previously seen from the Turtles, but the brothers’ personalities are here to stay with Leonardo’s leadership and commitment to his brothers, Donatello’s intelligence and dry wit, Michelangelo’s humor and innocence, and Raphael’s hotheadedness and determination. The Turtles are played by actual teenage actors who voice their characters authentically. This is a far cry from past TMNT productions where adults voice acted in these roles. New and old characters make their way into the story, some to be recognized and others to establish their place in the new era of TMNT.

The film’s soundtrack combines nostalgic 90s tunes with new age techno tracks. This mix of songs complement the film’s fresh energy and enhances action sequences and emotional moments. Sound design is crisp and well-done, helping to further immerse viewers in the Turtle’s world. Care and attention to detail in terms of audio  heightens both the action sequences and the overall experience.

‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ is an exhilarating and action-packed cinematic adventure that captures the essence of our beloved turtles. With its engaging plot, fantastic visual effects, well-developed characters, and a great soundtrack, it’s a must-see for enthusiasts of the TMNT franchise. The film skillfully strikes a balance between honoring the Turtles’ roots and introducing fresh elements, which provides an enjoyable experience for both newcomers and long-time fans. So grab your popcorn, get comfortable, and prepare for an awesome, shell-shocking adventure!

Overall, we give the movie 4/5 stars. You can watch ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ on Paramount+.

By: Judah Gregory

*Note: This article contains spoilers

‘Hustle’ is a movie produced by Adam Sandler, Lebron James, and Maverick Carter that was created on June 3, 2022. The movie is about Stanley Beren (played by Adam Sandler), who is an NBA scout for the Dallas Mavericks, trying to recruit prospects for their franchise. But the general manager overrides and vetoes everything he does with prospects and actually threatens to fire him when the general manager messes up the draft and picks someone who Stanley didn’t advise. This is when we meet the main character, Bo Cruz, played by real NBA player Juan Hernangomez.

Bo lives in Spain with his mother and daughter. He doesn’t actually play basketball professionally for their country but makes money off pickup games at the park when Stanley, who happens to be there, is scouting. Stanley sees how good he is and immediately tries to talk to him, but his limited Spanish made him say something weird to him and made Bo walk off. But him being a scout, he followed Bo to his house, where he met his mom and daughter, and ended up convincing Bo to play with the promise of money and getting his family out of Spain.

This is where the antagonist for Bo is Kermit Wilts, played by real NBA rookie of the year Anthony Edwards. This part of the movie everyone loves because Edwards played his part very well and already talks trash in games, so in the movie he said some crazy things. But they first met at a pickup game just to showcase their talents, and Kermit dominated the game while Bo underperformed, played pretty badly, and was basically shut down due to the trash talk of Kermit.

I like this part because it shows how, in basically every sport, letting someone talk trash to you can take you out of your game and put you out, so you have to be mentally ready, and that’s the same advice Stanley gave him to use.

Kermit and Bo would meet two other times, and in their second meeting, they were playing at a combine in front of thousands of people, and Bo took his mother and daughter to help him perform better, but when Kermit’s regular trash talk didn’t work (because he saw his daughter), and blocked Bo’s shots out the stands, he then waved at his daughter. He takes another loss but actually isn’t upset, and his performance in the game already brought scouts so that he would be able to declare for the NBA draft.

The third and final time they meet is in the NBA, where the movie ends at the tip-off to start the game.

I like this movie because it’s about basketball, and in the movie, it shows one of the routes to the NBA which is the international one. The acting for the movie, I think, is good, with Anthony Edwards playing the main antagonist, which was good for the movie and definitely was my favorite character. Since there have definitely been worse basketball movies, I think this one is worth watching.

Overall, I would give this movie a 8/10. You can watch ‘Hustle’ on Netflix.

By: Chloe Rocha

*Note: This article contains spoilers and deals with mental health issues including suicide

This article is a movie review on ‘All The Bright Places’ directed by Brett Haley. This movie was originally a book by Jennifer Niven, but was turned into a movie in 2020. The movie follows the story of two individuals; one being Theodore Finch, who is diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

In my opinion, Justice Smith who played Finch did a really good job at representing someone who would have bipolar disorder, shown by his experienced manic episodes and depressive period.

The other individual that the movie follows is Violet Markey, played by Elle Fanning. At the beginning of the movie you see Finch on a run and he comes across Violet standing on the ledge of a bridge looking down. The first thought that came to mind was that Violet may be depressed and is thinking about taking her life.

It is later revealed that she was on that bridge because that was where her sister Eleanor passed away at the age of 18 in a car accident 9 months prior. Violet was in the car when they crashed and she only suffered minor injuries but unfortunately Eleanor lost her life.

Throughout the movie the two are partnered together for a class project where the objective is to discover the “natural wonders” of their home state Indiana. While on their adventures they begin to develop feelings for each other and Finch helps Violet find happiness again after the loss of her sister. On the other hand, Finch begins to spiral out of control and eventually takes his own life at the end of the movie by drowning in a lake that is known to have no bottom, other wise known as “the blue hole”.

I really enjoyed this movie and have yet to read the book, but I have liked this movie for a long time and have rewatched it multiple times. I do recommend this movie, but in my opinion, you can either really like it or not care for it, so there is a select few that may enjoy it just as much as I do even though it’s not the typical “happy ever after” ending that you usually see in movies. This movie takes on serious topics about mental health and in my opinion is more realistic because in life it’s not always a happy ending and this movie showed that.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to the 988 Suicide & Prevention Lifeline site for a list of additional resources

By: Abisola Dosunmu

*Note: This article contains spoilers

‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ is a movie adaptation of Casey McQuiston’s bestselling original novel. It was released on August 11, 2023, on Amazon Prime. The movie recently reached No. 1 on Prime due to its popularity.

It featured two talented actors starring as the main leads: Taylor Zakhar Perez playing Alex Claremont-Diaz, the first son of the first female president, and Nicholas Galitzine playing Henry Fox, the prince of Britain. They meet, they cause an international scandal concerning a lot of cake during a very public royal wedding, and somewhere in the months of forced – then not so forced – contact to perform damage control, they slowly fall in love. But before that?

The ocean that separates those two couldn’t be wider, according to Alex. Alex has had a problem with Henry ever since he brushed him off at the Olympics, while Henry was just trying to grieve his dead father. This plot point doesn’t change much in the movie, however, the friendship part of their relationship felt rushed, rather than the natural progression and banter that was seen in the book. Understandable, the directors had to smush the entire book into a two hour movie, which meant some parts had to be entirely cut out from the movie, as it is with most movie adaptations. However, the movie would have been better if it was fleshed out in a six part series, rather than a two hour movie.

One thing I liked in the movie was the chemistry between the two male leads, Taylor and Nicholas. They really brought the characters Henry and Alex to life, the charisma and the banter between the two characters was very entertaining to watch. The movie wouldn’t have been half as enjoyable to watch without these two.

Still, the heart of the novel, ‘Red White & Royal Blue’, remains entirely the same in the movie. It reads like a corny romcom on the pages, but the actors and directors really brought the lightness and humor of it to life on screen.

For more information, please visit:

• https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/red-white-and-royal-blue-review-prime-video-gay-romance-1234804922/?scrlybrkr=f20c5174
• https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/aug/13/red-white-royal-blue-review-enemies-become-lovers-in-super-slick-queer-romance-casey-mcquiston

By: Mushtaq Yonis

*Note: This article contains spoilers

‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ is a sequel to ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’, a film based on Miles Morales as Spider-Man. This film stars Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Jake Johnson, and more. It’s directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson. The plot revolves around Miles Morales as he journeys through alternate dimensions and teams up with other Spider-People to stop a new villain and to save his family!

Miles Morales is a 15-year-old sophomore in high school who was bitten by a radioactive spider and was Brooklyn’s one and only spider man for a year.

‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ was probably one of the best animation movies I have watched before, the way they animated Hobie or Spider-Punk was incredible. Animators typically change poses and details every second frame but for Hobie his pose changed every third frame making it different from the characters around him.

I also love how they added characters from ‘Spider Man: Into the Spider- Verse’ to this new movie, like Peter Porker, Penni Parker, Peter B. Parker, Noir, Gwen, Spider Man 2099 etc.

We also saw some new characters/Spidermen in this movie as well, we’ve seen Ben Reilly or Scarlet Spider, Pavitr Prabhakar, Hobie or Spider-Punk etc. There’s a lot more we’ve seen when Miles visited the Spider-Society and having to fight the Spider Society in order to go home.

One thing I’ve wanted to talk about was the soundtrack for this movie, which was released by Metro Boomin and had features from Swae Lee, Lil Wayne, Offset, ASAP Rocky, Roisee, Future, Lil Uzi Vert, JID, James Blake Nav, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Ei8ht, Don Toliver, Wizkid, Beam, Toian, Coi Leray, 21 Savage, 2 Chainz, and Nas. The professional Rating for this Album 6.4/10 but for me I’ll give it a 7.5/10. My favorite song from this movie wasn’t in the album, which is “Mona Lisa” by Dominic Fike. It was played while Gwen was visiting Miles and they were swinging through the city of NYC.

If you haven’t watched the movie yet I highly recommend you to watch it! It’s still playing in theaters so make sure you watch it!

By: Mushtaq Yonis & Ajmal Abdirahman

1. ‘Weightlifting Kim Bok joo’

This k-drama is a must see. If you’re looking for a light hearted k-drama to watch we recommend this to you! It’s a romcom between 2 college students named Kim Bok Joo and Nam Joon-hyung. Kim Bok Joo is a part of the weightlifting club at her university while Nam Joon-hyung is all about swimming, they both meet by unexpected situations.

2. ‘The Penthouse: War in Life’

As its title implies, this k-drama tells the story of the lives of wealthy elites of South Korea who all reside in the “Hera Palace”. This luxury apartment has many secrets that would ruin the lives of anyone who stayed there. In order to protect their reputation, the people living there would do anything, to the point of doing questionable things.

3. ‘Crash Landing on You’

A strong wind caused an accident during paragliding, causing Yoon Se-ri to land in North Korea as an emergency. While there, she meets Ri Jeong-hyeok, a North Korean soldier. As Yoon Se-ri spends more time with Ri Jeong-hyeok, a romance develops between them as they both attempt to bring Yoon Se-ri back to South Korea.

4. ‘Flower of Evil’

The drama revolves around the relationship between Baek Hee-sung and Cha Ji-won. The couple has a daughter who makes them an ideal family, but Baek Hee-sung is hiding a shameful and cruel past behind his stolen identity.

5. I’t’s Okay to Not Be Okay’

A psychiatric worker named Moon Gang Tae meets a successful children’s book writer named Ko Moon-young. Ko Moon-young is diagnosed with having antisocial personality disorder. During the drama, the two heal each other’s emotional wounds.

6. ‘True Beauty’

‘True Beauty’ is a k-drama about a girl named, Jugyeong whose life changes as she learns how to use makeup after being bullied because of her ugly looks. She goes to great lengths to never be seen without makeup. But when a guy from her school does, named Suho, she thinks it’s the end of the world. The drama introduces another guy from her school, Han Seo Joon who has a rocky past with Suho. It’s a romantic comedy and every episode is very exciting with new plot twists!

7. ‘The Glory’

‘The Glory’ is a thriller k-drama about a young woman named Dong-eun. Who was brutally bullied when she was younger to the point where she had to drop out of school. She wants to get revenge on the people who ruined her life and make them pay for their crimes. The plot, the acting and cinematography are top notch. Each episode hooks you in and there’s never a boring moment! This drama is a very intense watch and is actually based on real events.

8. ‘Sweet Home’

‘Sweet Home’ is an apocalyptic horror k-drama about humans turning into monsters. The main character is a troubled teen named Hyun and he is a high school student. He lost his family in a horrible accident, and now he moves into an apartment alone. Strange things start to happen at his new home, and Hyun must face a new terrible reality where these monsters are trying to wipe out every human in their path. With the residents of his apartment building they fight to survive these monsters. This drama is based on a webtoon, and is highly enjoyable. With many insane twists and turns.

9. ‘Start Up’

‘Start Up’ is a drama about a group of young people in the world of startup companies. The main character, Seo Dal-mi decides to drop out of university and do part time work to achieve her dream of becoming an entrepreneur similar to Steve Jobs. Along the way she meets another young wanna-be entrepreneur named Nam Do San who also wants to achieve great things. The two, along with many others, learn that the business world is hard and things can be successful but fail in a matter of seconds. The story is very enjoyable, making watchers feel many different emotions, like sadness, happiness and a feeling of inspiration. This drama is very beautiful and it teaches that it’s okay to take risks in life even if you get hurt, you take it as a learning experience.

By: Rose Ramadan and Thea Berg

* Note: This article contains spoilers

Many movies have been made throughout the years. They range from all different genres and all different story lines. Some are good, some are bad. All are different. Since there is such a wide range of movies, this article will focus on our all time favorite genre: romance.

What makes a good romance movie? In our thoughts, a good romance movie is made from three major components.

Number one, how the main characters meet. There are many different ways for characters to meet: through friends, online, in person. By far, in person is the best way. Blind dates and online don’t seem as romantic.

Number two, the story line. Of course there has to be some type of drama in the movies, either a love triangle or some type of accident.

Number three, a happy ending. After all other components, a happy ending is mandatory to enjoy a romance movie.

The number one favorite movie of the romance genre in our opinion is ‘The Notebook’. This movie follows a plot of two characters who meet and fall in love fast. Their love lasts for a summer; three short months, but it is full of long adventures. They are deeply in love. However, Allie, the main character, leaves for college, leaving behind her true love. In college, she meets a man and falls in love with him and gets engaged. Seven years have passed since she saw her summer love, but once they meet again, it’s like they were in love just yesterday.

This movie has an amazing ending, with the two lovers falling back in love and living their lives how they had always dreamed. The ending is super sad, however, for Allie suffers through dementia and forgets her true love. With their strong love and connection, however, they remember each other at the end and die happily together.

Another amazing romance movie is ‘Titanic’. This movie includes so many amazing components, however, it ends without the happy ending all viewers crave. Rose and Jack fall in love on the Titanic on their way to the United States. Jack is poor and alone, escaping the harshness of his hometown. Rose is rich and lives with her family, who she plans to escape to be with Jack. Once the Titanic splits, the lovebirds try to stay together and alive. However, there isn’t enough space for both of them to survive so Jack ends up dying, leaving Rose heartbroken in the middle of the ocean.

Another romance movie we love is ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’. This movie is about a girl named Andie who works at ‘Composure’ magazine. She wants to write articles about politics and important things, but her boss has other ideas. She wants her to write about love, shoes, boys, etc. She comes up with an article idea after her friend gets dumped for being too clingy. She decides to find a guy and do everything she can to get him to dump her in 10 days. She does anything any guy doesn’t like, such as being too clingy, or too emotional. When she is picking out a guy to test this on, Ben gets a bet to make a girl fall in love with him in 10 days by his coworkers. She chooses Ben for her article without him knowing, and he chooses to make her fall in love with him…without her knowing.

Throughout the 10 days they go through a roller coaster in their relationship. All sorts of crazy things happen between them. She is starting to get annoyed because he is not seeming to lose interest, and he notices she is taking awhile to fall in love with him.

Towards the end of the 10 days they go to Staten Island to visit Ben’s family, while they are there they both fall in love with each other’s true selves. After the 10 days are up they are both at a jewelry show and their secrets are revealed by each other’s bosses. Both of them are mad and Andie storms out. When she is running off to find somewhere else to write articles Ben chases her down and confesses his love. She goes back and finds new places to write about politics and further her relationship with Ben.

There are many more romance movies we could write about, but we will keep it to these three classics, our all time favorites.

By: Joseph Nelson

On May 5th, 2023, James Gunn ends one of his most successful trilogies. Marvel’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ trilogy started in 2014 when the group of misfits would take the theaters by storm, breaking their box office records of that year. The movie was so successful that we got to see a sequel 3 years later with ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’. The sequel would go on to also break box office records and solidify ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ as one of Hollywood’s best superhero movies.

6 years later, Marvel fans received dozens of content and movies that molds the plot for the third installment of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. The audience loved it! With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 82% and a 95% from audience scores. James Gunn’s final send off of his 9 year Marvel project was the best work he has done for the Marvel franchise yet.

Many fans will claim that Marvels recent projects have been pretty meh. But after leaving the theater, those same fans will go on the internet to make videos and talk about how great of an emotional rollercoaster it was for them. Unlike many final Marvel installments, it is hard to find any criticism towards the film as the news filled their headlines with praises and put the film in the best light that they could.

It was truly shown on the big screen that he wanted to end the Guardians of the Galaxy on his own terms. When asked in an interview how he felt about his project finally sunsetting he said “[S]ad and proud.., But I feel like we did what we set out to do and I don’t think we could have done it much better than how we did it.”

Now, like many Marvel installments, just because the main series movies are over doesn’t mean that this will be the last time we will see these misfits on the big screen as Marvel has a tendency to include cameos in their main series films like the Avengers movies.

Overall, it was a bittersweet ending to the movie series that we have come to love and adore and it will be interesting to see what Marvel does next.

For more information, please visit:

• https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/movies/james-gunn-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-3.html