Written by Wayne Townsend

The 57th feature-length Disney film is a sequel to 2012 Wreck-it Ralph. A quick recap, the antagonist of a 1980’s arcade video game Ralph, discovers he isn’t merely a bad guy of a video game, but someone who has feelings and has been misunderstood by the other character’s that inhabit the central repository they retreat to after the video arcade closes for the evening. Six years into their friendship, Vanellope von Schweetz, star of her own game, existence is threatened due to the fact her game is broken, and the proprietor of the arcade is unwilling to pay for the replacement part. This motivates Ralph to venture onto the internet to search for the part when they find out it’s available on eBay. This is when the movie takes off. Product placement runs amok, an adept metaphor of internet usage. Disney reminds us that they own everything, Marvel Studios, Pixar, Star Wars, The Muppets just to name a few, with some characters from their respective universes, make an appearance. Yoda, R2D2, Ironman, are only a few. Every Disney princess appears with the voice talents of the original actresses reprising their roles. Ralph and Vanellope land into an internet racing game that Vanellope becomes enthralled with, but Ralph is afraid of due to the violent landscape. Internet controlled characters can “die,” but since Ralph and Vanellope are merely video game code, their deaths would be permanent. Vanellope wants to stay, but Ralph wants to get the part and return to the rote routine that the two of them have lived since the end of the first movie. This the main conflict of the film, Vanellope realizes the nature of their friendship will forever be changed and is sadden at the fact her decision may end her relationship with Ralph as suffers from insecurities as he sees her as his only. Mayhem ensues, as Ralph infects the internet game with a virus he obtained from the “dark web.” The depiction of Ralph descent to the place where shadowy figures live, (actual bugs represent the viruses) is just what an imaginative person would dream up if one had to visualize a computer “infection.” Ralph Breaks the Internet in a film that deals with the changing dynamic of friendship when one party wants to change the direction of their life, in this case, a career change, that forces the other to decide if the relationship can remain intact now that the parameters have been irrevocably altered. A life lesson all humans have faced at one time or other. Rated PG, this would be a good way for parents to explain how to deal with the emotions their child would feel when faced with a similar moment. For this, and for fear Disney has (probably) replaced “Big Brother,” Ralph Breaks the Internet receives 3 out of 5.

Written by Wayne Townsend

Overlord is a 2018 film from Paramount Studios made by Bad Robot Production, J.J. Abrams company. This is an essential note because of Abrams’ love of the macabre. The dark turn of the most recent Star Wars entries attests to this. Overlord is an example of what happens when a major Hollywood studio throws 38 million dollars into a horror film, a great ‘B’ movie. This film takes a page from Robert Rodriguez’ From Dusk till Dawn inasmuch as it starts as one film and morphs into something else. In Overlord (Operation Overlord was the Allied code name for the D-Day invasion of France on June 6, 1944), US Army paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Corp where assigned to blow up a radio tower the night before the invasion to cripple the Nazi communications ability. The plane was shot out the sky in a chillingly realistic recreation of how such an event may have occurred. Lost, cut off from his unit, and having missed the drop zone, private Ed Boyce, played by Jovan Adepo of the film Fences in a star-making performance, tries to avoid Nazi kill squads as he figures out his next move. He hooks up with the demolition expert recently assigned to his unit, corporal Ford, played by Wyatt Russell, son of Kurt and Goldie, and three other soldiers and they proceed to accomplish the mission. The first 2/3rd of this movie is strictly a war film, one of the best in recent memory. All the drama and tension of the task at hand, ensuring the success of the D-Day invasion, is palpable. The group makes it to the town where the radio tower is located, only to find it overrun by German troops. The soldiers proceed with the mission with the help of a local French woman, a victim of Nazi atrocities, including being raped repeatedly by the Nazi commandant. Her parents, her aunt, and most of the residents of the town were all subjected to Nazi scientific experiments conducted in a laboratory Boyce stumbles upon when he yet again, gets separated from the group. This is the left-turn found in all B movies. The lab is designed to create the infamous, and never dying conspiracy theory of Nazi super-soldiers, with mixed results. The monsters become uncontrollable, and mayhem ensues. This shift is what turns this into a horror movie instead of a war film and why it is a very entertaining. Director Julius Avery accomplishes this course change so seamlessly, it’s almost believable that such laboratory could have existed. The acting is excellent, not the over-the-top melodrama often associated with genre films, and the directing style of Avery, moving from 3rd to 1st person POV and back, was video game perfect. I enjoyed this film and you will too, no matter which genre of film you prefer, 3 ½ out of 5.