Movie Review: Avengers: Infinity War

One thing I did not know about this movie at first was that this is a 2 part story and the conclusion will be released next summer.

I had to admire the screenwriting involved with this huge movie because a writer or a team of writers had to come up with a story that had to include just about all the Marvel Comic characters from the last 15 years and even some new ones we have not seen before. The entire cast of the "Guardian's of the Galaxy" are also in this film, adding even more of a challenge to fit everybody into this 2 1/2 hour movie. The story reminded me of many other Marvel movies in the past, somewhat complex and disjointed and the computerized special effects were as good as I have seen in all of the other movies like this. There is a giant battle at the end of this movie that was the most elaborate end of movie battle for a Marvel movie in recent memory and overall this film has all of the action and special effects that just about all fans of this franchise will appreciate. I did not like the ending however, because of the way it leaves the audience completely hanging and I thought that part could have been handled better. This movie left me wondering about the conclusion next year and thinking about the huge amount of money and the number of movies that have been generated all due to Marvel comic book characters. At this point it has to surpass even Star Wars.

I thought this was a good action movie, not a great one and I do recommend it.

Movie Review: You Were Never Really Here

With rare exception with some movies like Gladiator in 2000, Joaquin Phoenix has been making low budget art movies throughout his career. Most of this is admirable because its obvious that he is not interested in the money, only the art form of making movies. His new movie "You Were Never Really Here" is another example of one his art movies and this film is unusual in many ways including the story telling and the over the top method of showing flashbacks to explain the action and the main character's abusive childhood.

Like the recent movie Traffik this film deals with the tragedy of human trafficking. Joaquin portrays a man whose job it is to find young girls who have been abducted and return them to their families. This story is about one abduction that becomes far more involved and violent than others he has done in the past, although the details on the reasons behind why all of this is happening is never explained. In other reviews I have done in this blog in the past, I have said several times that its one thing try something new but if that idea is too off the wall or doesn't make sense, then this is not a movie I will review positively. You Were Never Really Here is pretty close to going off course but for the most part, the movie made sense and was not too strange to give a negative review.

I give a marginal recommendation to You Were Never Really Here.

Movie Review: I Feel Pretty

It all starts with a logline: "A woman with low self esteem hits her head and suddenly thinks she is extremely attractive". This idea is simple, brilliant and perfect for Amy Schumer, who has made a huge career out of self deprecating comedy and now with her third movie "I Feel Pretty".

Why the ratings for this movie are so low I have no idea because I thought this was a very solid comedy that in the end had a very strong message. There were several laugh out loud moments in this movie not only for me but for several other people in the audience, which is always the most important test of any comedy.

This is Amy Schumer's third movie, her first "Trainwreck" was very good and her second movie, "Snatched" did not work. There were moments in this film where I was impressed with Schumer's acting as I was with her acting in Trainwreck. She is one of the few comedic actresses who can be funny with her eyes by just looking at the camera. I have seen this innate ability in very few other actors including Will Farrell, Steve Martin and the late John Candy.

The message of this movie through the transformation of Renee played by Schumer from someone who hates herself to after a head injury to someone who loves herself I thought was very strongly portrayed in this film. There is a scene in this movie that for me stood out the most - when a salesperson in a clothing store went out of her way to go over to Schumer and knock her down by telling her that she would have to go online to find her size. People like this are everywhere in life; callous, diseased people who believe they can be the judge over someone they don't know and in many cases over someone who is obviously hurting. There are many people like this in this story, as Renee works for a high fashion makeup company. For me the best message in this film is why do so many of us give others the power to judge us. Why is the opinion of others, even total strangers so important to so many of us, even to the point of hating ourselves.

This movie also stars Michelle Williams in what I think is her first comedy performance and Lauren Hutton who is the creator of the fictional fashion company and I thought both were very good in their roles. Renee's friends are played by Saturday Night Live cast member Aidy Bryant and Busy Phillips who were also very good in their roles as well providing some funny moments in this movie.

I thought Renee's transition to a likable self hating person to someone who became an egomaniacal jerk due to her head injury was another very important message in this film - the message being love yourself but show respect to those around you, especially your friends.

I thought I Feel Pretty is the best comedy of 2018 and I recommend it. Once again the critics are very wrong about this very solid comedy.

Movie Review: Traffik

I can only assume that the reason for the title of the new movie "Traffik" being spelled with a K so it wont be confused with the movie Traffic that won won 4 Academy Awards in 2001. Assuming this was the reason, I would have called this movie Trafficking because of what this movie is all about - Human Trafficking.

The ratings for Traffik on rotten tomatoes are very low at 24% and most of the reviews are saying that this movie is exploitative of the 150 billion dollar business of human trafficking that is a world wide epidemic. My review is that this movie has too many scenes that we have all seen before and does not have that many new ideas, but I did not think this film is exploitative.

Traffik stars Paula Patton and Omar Epps who were both effective in their roles within a story that I thought achieved its goal to be an engaging thriller. Unlike Rotten Tomatoes I am giving this movie a score of 50% mainly because of the lack of original content. For this main reason, I give Traffik only a marginal recommendation.

Movie Review: The Miracle Season

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for the new movie "The Miracle Season" are only 44% and once again the critics are wrong. I thought this was an outstanding real life sports movie, one of the best I have ever seen.

Over the years in my experience, the most successful sports movies are true stories and The Miracle Season is an amazing true story about a girls high school volleyball team from Iowa City Iowa in 2011. This movie stars Helen Hunt as the coach of the team and William Hurt as the father a standout high school girl volleyball player who is tragically killed when she loses control of her moped. I wondered how any father of a child could have survived what he went through losing his daughter in a tragic accident and then his wife to cancer some weeks later. The grief he must have endured is beyond belief.

The miracle here is how the young girls came back from their overwhelming grief of their star player Caroline "Line" Found - who has the most unusual last name I have ever heard about. The first challenge was even being able to play Volleyball again much less coming so far back to win a state championship. I thought the acting was outstanding throughout this film. Of course this is a tearjerker type of story, but how could it not be, considering that this is true story about a true life tragedy and a group of athletes who overcame their grief to win a championship.

I thought this movie was very well done and I recommend it, despite the critics, who are once again, very wrong.

Movie Review: Rampage

Most movies that involve huge creatures that have grown because of a nuclear incident or because of some DNA experiment rely on the audience to suspend all sense of common sense to believe what is happening on the screen. In my experience the enjoyment of a movie like this is dependent many times on how much we have to suspend our thinking for two hours.

The new movie "Rampage" starring Duane Johnson requires a great deal of common sense suspension and because of this at least for me, the special effects were not enough to offset some of the downright stupid things that happen in this movie. For instance, there is a giant gorilla, wolf and alligator in this movie and for some reason massive rockets and non-stop machine gun fire cannot kill any of them. Regardless of how these 3 animals got to be so huge, there is no way any of them could stay alive if they were ever hit with any kind of an explosive rocket - much less many hundreds of bullets. This is also confirmed later in the movie were we see what does injure them, which adds to the nonsensical action during the final sequences of this film. When you have to forego this much common sense for a science fiction action movie, the amount of eye rolling becomes too much to continue to enjoy the story. For this reason, I cannot recommend Rampage. This movie might be a good to see for a young child who is less than 10 years old, but for the rest of us, it should be missed.

Movie Review: Beirut

The main thing that stood out about this movie for me was seeing the bombed out disastrous city of Beirut Lebanon in the early 70's and 80's. Within all scenes of this film it was amazing to see the shape this city has probably always been in - due to never ending wars that have gone on for decades. As far as the movie and the plot that involved CIA agents and a kidnapping, I did not see anything in this story that was significant enough or something I have not seen before. The star of this movie is John Hamm in the first movie I can remember where he is the lead actor and I thought his performance was very good.

Unfortunately this movie was too run of the mill to recommend, despite the relatively high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.

Movie Review: Blockers

The new movie "Blockers" is about 3 parents trying to stop their daughters from having sex on prom night. Obviously this movie is trying to be a raunchy comedy, but for me it did not work, because it was not funny enough. Also, the raunchy parts were too disgusting and too raunchy and this included a rectal beer chugging event and way too much vomiting. Why do people in Hollywood think that people in the real world find vomiting funny? Its not funny, never has been.

John Cena is a bright spot in this film and its amazing to see a professional wrestler have some natural comedy talent. However, I am surprised he did not have pride enough to reject that beer chugging scene, that was disgusting and way over the top.

There was some laughs in the theater I was in, but not nearly enough to recommend this below average comedy. Why the Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this movie are so high - 83% is a mystery to me - just like some other movies that have been rated high lately that I thought were bad movies.

Movie Review: Chappaquiddick

The movie "Chappaquiddick", which is about the accidental drowning in July 1969 of Mary Jo Kopechne. For me this story created many more questions than the it answered.

While sitting through this historic two hours I wondered why Ted Kennedy, played by Jason Clarke would ever even consider running for President in 1972 when his last remaining brother Bobby Kennedy was assassinated and his older brother John Kennedy was assassinated when he was president v5 years earlier? Why would Ted Kennedy think that he would not also be assassinated either while running or if he got elected President - even if there was no such thing as the Kennedy curse? The reason why this is so significant is because Ted Kennedy's desire to please his father, played in this movie by Bruce Dern, and run for President is entirely the reason for the long list of irresponsible and stupid decisions he made after driving over a bridge with a young woman in the passenger seat. As was shown in this film, some of the things Kennedy did after the accident were understandable, but by his own admission most of the things he did, including waiting 10 hours to report the accident to the police made no sense at all and are downright criminal acts. What followed was lying to the press and the police about almost everything including stating that Kennedy received a concussion during the accident when he was not injured.

What this movie also clearly shows is the rights of the rich and very privileged like the Kennedy family is entirely different than any other normal person in this country. Within hours of this tragedy, Kennedy had an army of lawyers and helpers with hundreds of contacts who were helping Kennedy clean up all the mistakes he made after Kopechne drowned and then ran from the scene of the accident. Many of the mistakes Kennedy made were out of sheer shock and panic, like any other person, but ultimately many of his terrible mistakes were because on his worries about his family name, his desire to run for president and because of his father.

One wonders about how accurate the depiction of Ted Kennedy's emotional reaction in the aftermath of this horrible tragedy that to me seemed uncaring and wooden. Kennedy seemed to only care about himself and almost never about this poor young woman, played very well by Kate Mara, who drowned. What the world does know is that Ted Kennedy was an alcoholic most of his life and this is very understandable considering the guilt he must have felt about this horrible incident in the prime of his life. Kennedy also had a very tortured personal life, including his wife Joan who was also an alcoholic and they divorced in 1983.

I thought the acting was very good throughout this movie and a standout was Bruce Dern who at age 82 looks more like 100 in his role as Joseph Kennedy. I thought it was quite ironic that this incident in July 1969 happened around the time of the first moon landing, given that the main catalyst for the landing was John F. Kennedy some 9 years earlier. The actor who played Ted Kennedy was born one day before this incident occurred and I thought that was another significant irony.

There is no doubt that this movie does not paint a good picture of Ted Kennedy concerning this tragedy and I wondered if the Kennedy family have stopped previous attempts to produce a film about Chappaquiddick in the past.

I thought Chappaquiddick was well done and is a good movie about an important moment in American history.

Movie Review: A Quiet Place

A new idea. This is the problem with screenwriting because very often it seems that every idea or story has already been done. The new movie "A Quiet Place" is an exception because something like this has never been done before. The idea behind this science fiction horror movie is a genius idea. "Aliens have taken over the earth and they will not know you are there so they can kill you, unless you make a sound". Because of this new and very smart idea, this movie is the first ever "mostly" silent horror film. More impressive is that the screenplay was co-written and directed by the star, John Krasinski. Also unusual here is that the two main stars of this movie are married, John Krasinski and his wife Emily Blunt. I cannot remember the last time that has happened in any movie I have ever seen.

From the start this story takes us into the dark and depressing world of a family with 3 kids who can only communicate with sign language because if they make any sound at all they may be killed instantly by an alien creature that looks like a large brown flower that opens up showing a huge number of teeth with a skeletal lizard-like body. The killing is instantaneous because these alien creatures are so fast and vicious.

There are understandable rituals that we see with this family and routines they have created for emergencies, but what did not make sense to me is why any of them would ever risk going outdoors. What even makes less sense to me is that in some scenes the children are walking outside by themselves. Clearly this is done for dramatic effect, foregoing any reality about what any parent would allow under such extreme life and death conditions.

The rotten tomatoes ratings on this movie are very high, currently 96%, but my rating would be around 80% mainly because of the logistical problems. I was happy to see absolutely no smoking in this movie, unfortunately a rare occurrence today. I thought the acting was outstanding and this movie proves that acting in a film is more about showing than telling and a look in an eye, sweat and panic is not something that ever needs to be spoken.

I thought this movie was very good and I do recommend it.