By: Eva Olson

*Contains Spoilers*

The new Marvel series ‘Moon Knight’ premiered on March 30th, 2022, with a single episode. This show stars Oscar Isaac as Steven Grant. ‘Moon Knight’ follows the journey of Steven Grant, who lives in London, and works at a museum gift shop. But, he has a separate personality, Marc Spector. Steven blacks out when Marc is in control of his body and often wakes up with blood on his hands. He soon discovers Marc is the avatar of the Egyptian god of the moon, Khonsu.

This show’s special effects and costumes are very well done and unique in my opinion. This show is very visually appealing. The setting in Egypt was captivating and I loved how they incorporated the moon into the background. I thought it was really interesting how they used different costumes for Marc and Steven to show their different personalities.

‘Moon Knight’ is like the other Marvel miniseries ‘Wanda Vision’ in the sense that you don’t know or understand much at first, and it is very confusing but, as you continue to watch it makes more sense. This makes the show very interesting and intriguing and makes it hard to wait for a new episode to come out. It also makes it entertaining to try and predict what will happen next.

There are only five out of six episodes out so far, but I love it and wish it was a longer series. The 4th episode, was left on a huge cliffhanger/big reveal. You don’t really need prior knowledge of any Marvel movies or shows to understand this.

Overall, I really like this show and would recommend it to any Marvel fans or action fans. I would give ‘Moon Knight’ a 5/5 star rating. It is available to watch only on Disney+.

Netflix has a wide variety of movies, TV-shows, documentaries, anime, and Netflix Originals. Here are some of my favorites that I recommend you watch: 

1. ‘Bridgerton’- This series is created by Chris Van Dusen. The first season of the show follows Daphne Bridgerton, the daughter of the most powerful Bridgerton family. She makes her debut in front of the Queen of London hoping to find a marriage partner. The second season follows Lord Anthony Bridgerton, the eldest and the Viscount of the family who sets out to find a suitable wife.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpv7ayf_tyE

2. ‘Ginny and Georgia’ – This is a Netflix Original about a family of three: Ginny, Georgia, and Austin Miller who move to a new town. Georgia is the mother of Ginny, who she had when she was a teenager, and then she had Austin a couple of years later. The series follows the secrets Georgia keeps, and how Ginny and Austin struggle to adjust to moving into a new town and school 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e34_mMhe4WQ

3. ‘Dynasty’ – This show is about Fallon Carrington, a rich businesswoman who is hoping to take over her father’s company as COO. But instead of a promotion, she was surprised with a new stepmother, who works at her father’s company, and who her father gave the COO promotion to.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq0soWMpkv8

4. ‘All American’ – The show is inspired by a true story of NFL Super Bowl Champion, Spencer Paysinger. The show is about a young high school football player named Spencer James, from Crenshaw, whose dreams are to play in the NFL. He got offered the opportunity of a lifetime by a Beverly Hill’s coach to come to play for him, and he will help him get to the NFL and become an All American.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIaujmoukqU

5. ‘One Day at a Time’ – This show follows a Cuban family of a divorced military mom, her teenage daughter, and son, and their Grandma living  in the same house battling their daily life. This is one of the network shows that got cancelled and then then picked up by Netflix. It is now cancelled by Netflix though too.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vynbZLtqOiE

By: Caelyn Hippen

As a kid, I was a big Disney fan. I always would ask for the new Disney movie coming out, and was a different Disney princess for Halloween every year. From all the Disney movies I have seen, I’ve always wondered which were the most popular, or which ones did other people like as well? From an article by Joe Allan, on Themanual.com, here are the top 5 rated Disney movies:

5. ‘Hercules’

This movie from 1997 was rated 74% and was 93 minutes long.

‘Hercules’ is an imaginative story about the Greek gods. This story includes Hades, Zeus, Hera, Hercules, and mentions of other gods and goddesses.

4. ‘The Lion King’

This movie from 1994 was rated an 88% and is 89 minutes long

‘The Lion King’ is a story set in an African kingdom called the Pride Lands. The story is about a young lion cub who wants to be a great king one day. Unfortunate things happen to his family, and he is forced to leave his home if he wants to survive. Soon, his past catches up to him and he is forced to make a decision for not only himself, but his family and friends.

3. ‘Mulan’

This movie from 1998 was rated 71% and is 88 minutes long.

‘Mulan’ is a unique story about a young girl who enlists in the army as her father. Women are not allowed to be in the army at the time, but she is determined to keep her father safe by enlisting herself. She tries her best to keep this large secret safe, but ultimately fails. She tries to earn back the trust of her new friends and family, by showing them how strong she really is.

2. ‘Tarzan’

This movie from 1999 was rated 79% and is 88 minutes long.

‘Tarzan’ has always been one of my favorite Disney movies. Set in the Jungle of Africa, Tarzan is a man raised by gorillas after his parents were killed by a jaguar when he was a baby. The story is built around his coming of age when people come to the island. He has never seen people before, so this raises the question of how he wants his future to happen. Will he go back to England with the new people or stay with the only family he has ever known?

1. ‘Aladdin’

This movie from 1992 was rated 86% and is 90 minutes long.

‘Aladdin’ is a very interesting movie set in a city called Agrabah. The story is about a thief who always seems to be running from the police and, ultimately, jail. He meets the princess one day in the city, and quickly falls for her. He is then tricked into a horrible situation that lands him with a genie on his side. He promises to set the genie free for his 3rd wish, but as time goes on, Aladdin becomes more needy for whatever the genie can give him. Will Aladdin stay loyal to the genie or think of himself first?

For more information, please visit:

• https://www.themanual.com/culture/best-disney-movies-of-all-time/

By: Liv Miller

This year was the 94th annual Academy Awards. Each year the Oscars is broadcasted worldwide celebrating and giving recognition to the best films of the year, and the people behind them.

This year’s Oscars were pretty eventful, I mean, just ask anyone. First, let us address the elephant in the room, because I’m sure if you hear anyone talking about this year’s Oscars, there’s a pretty good chance this event is the topic of discussion: Will Smith. If you were tuning in on your television this year you saw it all go down live, but if not I will give you a breakdown of the events.

Chris Rock, who is an famous actor and comedian, gets up to present an award, but not before he cracks a few jokes. Now, it is not uncommon for celebrities to jab at other celebrities through some light hearted comedy, especially at award shows. But for Chris Rock, these jokes seemed to come back and slap him in the face, literally.

When on stage, Chris happened to make a joke about Will Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The joke that was made poked fun at the fact that Jada had recently shaved her head. Something that Chris did not know, was that Jada allegedly made this decision because she had been struggling with alopecia, a disease that makes your hair fall out. After the joke was made, the camera panned over to Will and Jada, who appeared to be rolling her eyes.

We then see Will walk up on stage making his way to Chris, where he then hits Chris then proceeds to walk away and down back to his seat. Chris seemed to keep his composure despite the fact he just got slapped in the face by Will Smith. When Chris tries to move on we hear Will from the audience yell, “Keep my wife’s name out of your ***** mouth!”

This series of events continues to confuse the audience and the viewers for the next remaining hours of the show, leaving people not knowing whether or not it was all a joke or not. Later in the show, we see Will Smith on stage again, only this time to receive the Oscar for best actor in the film ‘King Richard’.

Will Smith later took to Instagram to issue a public apology to Chris Rock, the Academy Awards, and the film crew for ‘King Richard’. The lengthy apology consisted of Smith saying, “My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was inexcusable.” As well as “Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear, and I reacted emotionally.”

Chris Rock turned down the opportunity to press charges, but Will still managed to suffer the consequences of his actions. The academy has made the decision to ban Will from attending the Oscars for 10 years, though he will keep his recently earned award.

By: Reed Morris

The Background

Netflix has become a household name for most of the western world. With almost 200 million subscribers worldwide, it’s no surprise that the company is leading the world in paid video streaming. Recently however, Netflix’s throne atop the mountain of the streaming giants has begun to teeter. More and more of Netflix’s market share has started to slip away to other services such as: Amazon’s ‘Prime Video’, Disney+, Apple TV+, Hulu, and HBO Max. This shift of market share was expected, but Netflix just might not be able to keep up.

The Paradigm Shift

While Netflix has been in the lead for years now, the content that consumers are looking for has started to change. In the past, most streaming services focused on recycled content. Netflix and other streaming services have focused their money and resources on licensing and advertising, which in itself cost a lot of money. The problem for Netflix is that this model of streaming is becoming more and more outdated. Most new content seen on streaming services is shifting towards original productions.

Netflix has seen many large successes in original content such as shows like ‘Outer Banks’ and ‘Squid Game’, but those were extremely viral outliers. Most of Netflix’s original content goes mostly unseen or ignored. The biggest problem for Netflix, regarding original content, is the cost. The cost to write, produce, and finish a TV show or movie well exceeds the amount of money needed to buy the licensing rights to a TV show or movie that already exists.

The Competition

The main reason Netflix doesn’t have a huge chance at staying atop the streaming throne is due to who they’re competing with. While Netflix is currently valued at a market cap of $166 Billion, it’s competing against global tech conglomerates such as Apple, valued at $2.8 Trillion, and Amazon, valued at $1.65 Trillion, as well as entertainment superpower Disney, valued at a more manageable $253.9 Billion. Netflix does not stand any sort of chance against companies with such unimaginably deep pockets.

The Rise of Amazon Prime Video

As of March 2022, Amazon has struck a deal with the massive production company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) to purchase the company for $8.5 Billion. This buyout brings up a lot of questions about anti-trust, and extreme monopolistic behaviors in itself, but that’s a problem for another day.

This buyout by Amazon is a huge threat to Netflix and every other streaming platform out there. Not only does the acquisition of a professional and self sustainable film studio give Amazon a huge advantage over other services, they also carried over all of the intellectual property owned by MGM. This includes franchises such as James Bond, Rocky, and Stargate. Similarly, a myriad of other iconic films and TV shows were acquired through the buyout. Amazon, a trillion dollar company, can now produce large amounts of quality original content for both streaming and theaters, cementing Amazon’s place as a future leader in the streaming industry.

The Future

Like most other massive corporate buyouts, a lot of ethics and legalities are brought into question. Even though the FTC has yet to rubber stamp the acquisition, based on similar (questionably monopolistic) buyouts earlier this year, they won’t have a problem in doing so. If it does go through, Amazon will start to pump out more and more original content for consumers to watch. Unless Netflix can pull off something similar, their throne at the top will be toppled, and Amazon Prime Video will take the throne as the new King.

By: Eva Olson

‘Say Anything’ is a late 80’s rom-com starring John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler and Ione Skye as Diane Court. This movie is about Lloyd and Diane’s journey and the struggles of having Diane’s possessive single father always on their backs and doubting them.

This movie was very funny, mainly because of Lloyd. He found a way to make jokes during even the most serious scenes. One of my favorite scenes was when Lloyd had dinner with Diane’s father and his friends.

I really liked Lloyd and Diane’s dynamic and how Diane was kind of hesitant at first about Lloyd, but he was so persistent and eventually won her over.

All the characters were super funny too, including Lloyd’s friends. I really liked the cast and thought it was cool that both Joan and John Cusack were in the movie and played siblings (because they’re siblings in real life).

The plot was very entertaining because of all of the conflict surrounding Diane’s father. It was interesting to see how their relationship changed throughout the movie, because at the beginning they would tell each other absolutely everything but in the end, Diane finds out her father has been hiding something huge from her.

I loved being able to finally watch the famous boombox scene that has been referenced in so many other shows and movies. In this scene they are broken up and Lloyd stands outside Diane’s window blasting music while she’s trying to sleep.

Overall, I enjoyed watching this movie and thought it was really good. I recommend this movie to anyone who’s a fan of 80’s movies and rom-coms. I really liked how they ended the movie making it so you could imagine what was going to happen. I would give this movie a 4⁄5 star rating. You can watch this movie on HBO Max.

By: Abdihakim Mohamoud

The reimagining of the popular ’90s sitcom ‘The Fresh Prince’ has taken thousands of fans by surprise. Although the original show was a comedy, the new ‘Bel Air’ show takes a darker, more intense take on ‘The Fresh Prince’.

Here are some of the key differences between the two shows, and how they compare to each other.

The reboot, which was inspired by a fan-made trailer of what ‘The Fresh Prince’ would look like today, takes the original sitcom to dramatic heights. One of the main differences is the newer shower digging deeper into Will’s past, and explores his life back in Philadelphia. ‘Bel-Air’ gives viewers a significant reason for his leaving Philadelphia; he was involved in a gunfight which led to a gang leader threatening him. This forced Will to leave Philadelphia and move in with his uncle and aunt in Bel-Air.

Another key difference between ‘Bel-Air’ and ‘The Fresh Prince’ was how Carlton is/was portrayed. In the original show, Carlton was a harmless character, however, in the reboot, Carlton is one of the antagonists. In the first few episodes, Carlton is intent on embarrassing Will, as he humiliates him in front of the entire school. Carlton also becomes incredibly jealous about Will and his uncle Philip Banks’s relationship, because Philip is his actual father.

All in all, the newer, more dramatic version of ‘The Fresh Prince’ has major differences from the original show. Carlton becomes an antagonist and the show digs deep into Will’s previous life back home. The show was criticized by fans at first, claiming that it was unnecessary for one of the most influential shows of all time to be remade. However, after a few episodes, fans quickly realized how different the show was, yet equally as enjoyable.

For more information, please visit:

• https://younghollywood.com/scene/the-5-key-differences-between-bel-air-and-the-fresh-p rince.html
• https://ew.com/tv/fresh-prince-vs-bel-air-character-differences/
• https://www.inquirer.com/news/bel-air-reboot-peacock-fresh-prince-will-smith-20220211 .html

By: Liv Miller

‘In The Heights’ is a musical drama that was released in 2021. It is based off of the Broadway musical written by Lin Manuel Miranda, in which its first performance was put on back in July of 2005. After the musical was a huge success on Broadway, Lin Manuel had the idea to bring it to the big screen.

Some background information on this movie is that ‘In The Heights’ takes place in a community in Manhattan called “Washington Heights” where its population is mainly Latina/Latino. The movie follows certain people in this community, and their lives, family, jobs, dreams, and what they want for themselves in the future.

This movie is very cultural based, and highlights Latino culture through certain styles of music and dance. It also tries to highlight the struggles of a minority community and how they are limited by where they come from and how little opportunities they are given by being a part of that community.

I don’t want to give away much about the movie in my review but I liked how the writers made you feel like you really knew the characters. I got pulled into their stories by the music and by how all of their relationships were written and portrayed. The characters mainly communicated their struggles in the songs which I liked. The writers did a good job with making the viewers invested in the story and feel like they are also a part of the community that is featured in the “heights”. The way the characters all interacted like a family made me sympathize with them and connect with the characters more.

I noticed that at the beginning of the movie most of the characters either were struggling with achieving their goals, didn’t know what their goals/dreams were, or hadn’t made an effort to achieve them yet. Throughout the movie I saw each character gain a better understanding of their dreams, and by the end saw a majority of the characters happy with how their life had turned out.

Overall, I really liked the movie. It was cool to watch because it centered around a type of community that’s never really been highlighted in other musicals and films. I liked that the storyline was very realistic and it’s based off of a real place and real issues that are happening in certain communities. I also liked the music and dance styles they included in the movie, because it highlighted the culture of the people this story was about, instead of just having the classic music and dance styles typically used in other musicals.

If you want to see ‘In The Heights’ it is available on Hulu and HBO Max.

By: Samera Adam

Ava DuVernay produced, co-wrote, and directed ‘When They See Us’, a four-part Netflix original crime drama miniseries that premiered on May 31, 2019. It is based on the 1989 Central Park jogger case and follows the lives and families of the five Black male suspects. The five were wrongfully convicted and prosecuted for the rape and abuse of a white woman in New York City.

The show starts off with the 5 main characters Raymond, Kevin, Korey, Yusef, and Antron hanging around in their neighborhood of Harlem. At this point of the story none of them have met yet, except for the 2 best friends Yusuf and Korey. It continues with them and their different friend groups all heading for Central Park after sunset. They didn’t know that by going to the park, they were walking into trouble.

Instantly, when the groups got to the park, policemen surround the boys, and the groups they were with. The majority of the boys were able to run away but Antron and Raymond were tackled down. While Kevin, the tiniest one, was beaten with a helmet. The 3 boys were then taken to the precinct where they were interrogated for hours.

Korey and Yusuf thought that they had gotten away; they were wrong.

Days later, Yusuf and Korey were stopped by a group of policemen walking back home. Yusuf “fit the description” so was taken for questioning. The police officer then told Korey he could leave unless he just wanted to tag along and keep his friend company. Which as a loyal friend, he did. 

During the long period that they were interrogated, they all somehow told the cops what they wanted to hear (some were told to do so by family or lawyers), as a group of scared teens will do. They were then recorded and they played their fake confessions in court where they were taken to trial.

The show then continues with all their different experiences with being incarcerated and finally getting freed after the actual rapist came out with the truth.

By: Ava Olson

This movie, starring Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne (Batman), follows his journey of training with Ra’s Al Guhl and the League of Shadows then leaving to try and help Gotham. This movie shows his backstory including how he gets his suit and how and why he becomes Batman.

I really enjoyed how much we learned about Bruce Wayne and his struggles throughout this movie, like his childhood trauma. It was cool to see how he got his suit and batmobile and why he chose the bat as his symbol.

I liked how the movie really showed that Batman was still learning and getting the hang of being Batman. He still made mistakes along the way and took a lot of risks.

The main villain in this movie was Scarecrow, played by Cillian Murphy. He did a great job and I thought his weapon, the psychedelic drug that causes people to experience their deepest traumas, was very interesting and unique.

The plot was very engaging and had many different layers to it. It kept me intrigued throughout the whole film and I never felt bored. I found all the different characters very compelling and I thought the casting was pretty well done.

The visual effects look a little funny watching it today because of how much we’ve improved with them, but they were good for their time. I loved watching this and seeing all the differences between all the different Batman’s including the newest one starring Robert Pattinson.

Overall, I liked this movie and thought it did a great job of showing people Batman’s backstory. This movie is the first of the Christoper Nolan Batman movies so you don’t need to watch anything beforehand to understand it. I would recommend this to any action movie fan or people who want to know more about Batman. I would give this movie 3.5/5 stars. You can watch this movie on Netflix or HBO Max.