National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

By Poppy Sachen

Hello BUGS, are you excited for the holiday season?

If you're celebrating Christmas this year, I'd recommend watching the 1989 hit movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Christmas Vacation is a comedic, PG-13, holiday film directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik. The film is based around Christmas-time, featuring Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and his quest to have the most perfect Christmas with his family. But things quickly go awry as more and more things begin to go comically wrong, yet they still have their family.

Christmas Vacation made over $71.3 million at its original 1989 release, and the film is still a holiday classic to this day!

Happy Holidays BUGS!

Books=Movies

By August Miller & Fia Sghari

Hi Bugs, welcome to the second publication of the year! This month we are going to do books that are movies so kick back and enjoy!

"Welcome to The Hunger Games!" Hearing this, you might imagine people fighting over a cheeseburger or a hotdog but it's SO much more than that.

The Hunger Games (Book 1) is about a girl named Katniss Everdeen who lives in District 12, and the districts get wealthier when the number gets smaller. Only, once a year, in every district in the remnants of North America, a game called The Hunger Games happens. This game requires that every district participates in it by sending 2 children (1 boy and 1 girl) to the Capitol and they fight each other to the death. Will Katniss and a new friend named Peeta survive or will they be slaughtered by the other districts in the end?

The Hunger Games series has 3 books that are in order chronologically, with two more prequels that have sold over 100 million copies worldwide! If that seems like a lot, note that it was a huge hit in the mid 2010’s.

So, how did the movies based on all of the books perform? According to Rotten Tomatoes, a website that takes all the reviews ever written about a movie and assigns it an average score, gave all of the movies from the Hunger Games series a "FRESH" score! (Anything over 60% is considered fresh)

The Hunger Games - Released in 2012, grossed $695 million dollars!!! Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - Released in 2013, grossed $865 million. Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 - Released in 2014, grossed $755 million. Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 - Released in 2015, grossed $661 million. Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes - Released in 2023, grossed $348 million. Rotten Tomatoes Score: 64%

The next movie, “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,” comes out in 2026. Fortunately for you, the book is already out--so if you would like to know what happens, or you are wondering what you should read or watch first, give it a try.

Wondering if you should start with the books or the movies first? Since all the books are out, read them first before the last movie comes out. Gear up and get ready to read then watch a whole series! You won't regret it!

Wicked: For Good -- is it actually good?

By Kimberly Nazario Markus

Let me preface by clarifying that I will not be posting any spoilers. This will simply be a critique of the release schedule and production for the movie, Wicked: For Good.

For context, Wicked: For Good is the movie sequel to Wicked, which released in November 2024. Both movies focus on the plot of the popular Broadway play of the same name, splitting the two acts of the play into two movies.

The play was made infamous by Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel's performances in the early 2000s. It is known for its jaw-dropping staging of the song, Defying Gravity, where an actress will "fly" and belt out complex vocals. The play is also known for its comedic script despite the dark undertones, as well as its association with The Wizard of Oz. The play itself is not the original story--all of the lore stems from a book, titled Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, which was published in 1995. The book attempts to give an origin story to the people of Oz, acting as a prequel to the events of The Wizard of Oz. It is a classic example of fanfiction turned famous.

What fell flat:

For a movie that was so hyped up, it's shocking to see how much of it didn't live up to expectations. The sequel seems to have thrown aside some of the side characters that seemed to be crucial to the development of the plot, and it emphasizes Glinda's experiences a little too much.

It also wasn't until well after I watched it that I learned there's meant to be a 4-year gap between the events in the first movie and the events in the sequel. Not once was that made clear to the audience. If that had been better communicated, I likely would have had a different perspective of the events of the plot. Instead, some events felt strange and rushed through.

What went well:

The movie did a great job casting its leads. Ariana Grande pulls at the heart strings in her performance of Glinda, and Cynthia Erivo embodies the role of Elphaba so perfectly that it's hard to imagine anyone else doing it. I absolutely loved Ethan Slater's performance of the Tin Man, which felt like an impressive upgrade to his Bok character. However, my most favorite actor in the film will always go to the fabulous Jeff Goldblum. He's just too funny!

Outside of the actors, I loved analyzing the complexity of humanity through these characters. Glinda reminds us that everyone is flawed, even when their heart is in the right place. Elphaba shows us that not all conflicts should be overcome through a fight. The music adds another layer to everything, helping audiences understand the characters' inner thinking and decision-making.

It also goes without saying that the costuming and set design for the film was flawless. I dream of wearing Glinda's gowns someday. The color grading of the sets felt appropriate and enticing. The sets were elaborate and engaging. It's a world I dream of entering someday.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. I would be more interested in watching both movies back to back rather than taking a long gap between the two. One thing is for sure: I cannot stop listening to the combined soundtracks.

So, is Wicked: For Good actually good? While I seem to think so, that's up to you to decide.

ALL ABOUT AVATAR

By Auggie Miller & Baxter Bell

Hi BUGS and Welcome back! It’s A.D (Not short for ACDC), Awesomeman, and Mr. Bob. This is our first time doing this… so enjoy what we wrote about these movies!

Overall, we’d like to talk about the new movie, Avatar: Fire and Ash! This movie has amazing prequels, Avatar (2009), and Avatar: Way of Water (2022). So, let's review its prequels!

First, let's go over Avatar (2009)! According to the Avatar website, this movie takes place in the year 2154 and is about saving Earth's energy crisis by mining a rare mineral on a distant far away moon called Pandora. The indigenous lifeforms of Pandora are stopping that from happening by attacking the humans because the humans harm the environment very negatively so they can find the well needed ore. Jake Sully, a former marine, is constantly transferred back and forth from his human body and the genetically grown body of an Avatar to get the mineral on Pandora, but he is faced with setbacks and realizes some important things along the way. In this wonderful sci-fi/fantasy movie, you see breathtaking moments and realize the beauty of Pandora, and witness the battle that decides the fate of a world! According to Box Office data, Avatar has grossed $2,923,710,708 worldwide! That's a lot of money compared to other famous movies, proving its remarkability.

This brings us to the second Avatar movie, The Way of Water (2022), directed by James Cameron. According to Box Office data, Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) has made $2,343,068,977– that is third place, only behind Avengers: Endgame and the first Avatar (2009). Here are the main characters from the movie Jake Sully, Neytiri, Kiri, Quaritch, Ronal, Tonowari, General Frances Ardmore, Dr Ian, Garvin Mick, Scoresby, Spider Neteyam, Lo'ak, Tuktirey, Tsireya and Aonung these people are all important people in the movie the main characters being Jake Sully General Frances Ardmore Kiri and Lo'ak these people are all part of the family ccording to the Avatar website, the second movie is about the humans coming back and Jake Sully not wanting to endanger the forest Navi. As a result, he and his family seek refuge with the water Navi. This is a recent movie, as it was made in 2020. However, it took 13 years to make! The Way of Water (2022) was a nominee for the 2023 Academy Award for Best Picture, Production Design, and Sound. Overall, they won the 2023 Academy Award for Visual Effects.

The third movie hasn’t come out yet, but here’s a preview of what it will be about. According to the Avatar website,, Avatar: Fire and Ash is going to be about new Navi that live in a fiery climate. They and the humans are going to get the same thing that they want from the previous movie: Jake Sully! Take a deep dive into Pandora and witness breathtaking moments and big battles ready to be fought. According to Medium,, Avatar: Fire and Ash is estimated to gross at least $1.8 billion worldwide! The movie is going to come out on December 19, 2025, so get ready, set, watch!

JAWS

By Poppy Sachen

Did you know that Jaws was one of Steven Spielberg's biggest films? The movie I’m going to be talking about is the 1975 hit movie Jaws.

Jaws was directed by Steven Spielberg and was in production for 159 days, wildly exceeding their planned schedule. This was due to the trouble of many, many malfunctions with the huge mechanical shark they called ¨Bruce¨going into the Atlantic ocean.

Jaws went about $5 million dollars over budget. Steven Spielberg had stated, "I truly believed that Jaws would be the last movie I would ever be given to direct.” But really, it was the one that had started it all with the film making over $470 million dollars at its release.

Jaws had, in a way, traumatized many of the people that made the film because of how much stress, anxiety and panic it created to make the film. However, the making of the film also allowed some fun on-set times. Jaws is known for its masterful suspense and most iconic way of introducing and creating a blueprint and acts as a model for the future high achieving, big studio films after Jaws.

Jaws won 3 Academy Awards: Best Original Score, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound. Jaws also won a grammy for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special in 1976.

Overall, Jaws is a world-class classic film. I highly recommend watching it if you haven't already. I hope this interested you and thanks for reading this article!

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