October Movie Reviews

*****  Exceptional

****    Great

***      OK

**        So So

*          Blah

Absolutely Fabulous was absolutely the worst! Incredibly stupid British comedy. I think British stupid comedy is worse than American. I could never tolerate all those Austin Powers movies either. I lasted about ten minutes. *

Allied is about a French Resistance woman (Marion Cotillard) and a Canadian Intelligence Officer (Brad Pitt) who meet in Casablanca during WWII to assassinate a German officer. They fall in love, have a baby, then his commanders inform him his wife might be a German spy. He doesn't know if it's for real or if they are testing him and his loyalty. Very good. Excellent performances. Outstanding costumes. Great photography. This was quality Brad Pitt which has been missing for a long time. ****

All Nighter is about an awkward banjo-playing boyfriend (Emile Hirsch) who has little ambition and a whole lot of love for his girlfriend. He meets her dad (J.K. Simmons) at dinner and fails miserably every time he opens his mouth. Six months later dad shows up at his apartment looking for his daughter only to find they broke up months before. He enlists the ex-boyfriend to help find her, searching Los Angeles while following leads from one place to another all night long. It was rather entertaining and sweet. Performances were great. ***

Amateur Night was about a clean-cut, straight-up, unemployed father-to-be architect (Jason Biggs) who needs a job to pay for the hospital bills. He answers an ad for a delivery man job and ends up delivering hookers to their jobs. It's a comedy.  ***

Annie 1981 with Carol Burnett who is outstanding and hilarious. Also with Bernadette Peters, Ann Reinking, Tim Curry and Albert Finney. Excellent version, exceptional music, outstanding performances by all. That cute little Aileen Quinn is a perfect Annie. I've seen this move a dozen times but it's been a long time. I love a classic that stands the test of time. *****

Beauty and the Beast The one with real people and lots of well-known actors and actresses like Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci, Emma Watson, Josh Gad, Kevin Kline. I didn't realize I've never even seen the cartoon. This was typical Disney: beautiful sets, great music, classic plot. Loved it. ****

Black Beauty I thought Black Beauty was shipped to India, in a shipwreck, on an island, and rescued by a kid...or something. This was the life of a horse and the horse narrates (with Alan Cummings' voice). It was a sweet story. The horse was spectacular. Kids would love it. ***

Closure is about a young African-American woman who was adopted as a baby by a couple  who adopted eight (?) others. At the time doctors thought she would never walk and didn't know how extensive her disabilities would be. She ended up being a basketball player! She started asking questions about her birth family when she was about 12 and begins searching when she was about 25 years old. All she has to go on is a short summary given to her adopted parents when they adopted her with their last names obscured with white out. It was superb. Very moving. ****

The Comedian stars Robert DeNiro as an aging comedian who was once a popular sit-com star a character he can't shake no matter where he goes. After assaulting an audience member and spending time in prison, he does community service in a soup kitchen where he meets Harmony (Leslie Mann). It's a quirky non-love story. All-star cast with Danny DeVito, Edie Falco, Charles Grodin, Cloris Leachman, Patti Lupone and Harvey Keitel. Even Billy Crystal makes an appearance. Great scenes of rainy, snowy New York City with a jazz soundtrack. ***

Do You Take This Man is about a gay couple getting married and the 24 hours before the wedding as they find out things about each other they didn't know, question issues of trust,  feelings of stress and wondering  how to make it work. It's very sweet and romantic. ***

Equals was very interesting. It's a futuristic, sci-fi about a community devoid of emotion. There is some indication there was a big nuclear explosion or some catastrophe that changed civilization. There are now two areas, one with the Equals where no one feels anything and the other called the province (?) where hoodlums and those emotional people live. If you contract SOS and start feeling emotions, you are doomed. The "disease" has stages. Early stages and you are prescribed an inhibitor, later stages and you are carted off to the DEM to be exterminated. There are "hidders" people who are afflicted who pretend they are not, but if anyone sees signs of emotion in anyone they are to report them. Then there are "couplers"...no one is allowed to touch so sex is out of the question. Lots of people who become emotional don't understand their feelings and think they are doomed so they commit suicide. One man who has beautiful blue eyes (Nicholas Hoult) begins feeling emotions and starts noticing a woman (Kristen Stewart) who seems to react to things although secretly. Mesmerized, he starts following her around. They begin meeting in secret. It was rather interesting. Stewart is always really good at acting tormented so this was a perfect role for her. The photography was great with zoom-ins on emotional body language, especially eyes. The climax is edge-of-your-seat suspenseful. ****

Final Girl is a bizarre story about four teenage psychopaths who have been murdering women by hunting them through the woods. Veronica (Abigail Breslin) has been trained since a young girl to take them down. Not sure of the timeline here...if these boys have been murdering for the last twelve years and they are still in high school...hmmm... Anyway Breslin is kick ass and turns the tables on them by hunting them through the woods. It's gory...and strange. ***

Gremlins What a weird movie! It starts out feeling like a children's movie with kids and cute stuffed-animal looking creatures that coo and sing. Then it all goes wrong when they turn into these evil little beasts with fangs, red eyes and claws. Very violent. Then the girl tells why she hates Christmas - her father dressed in a Santa suit, thought he'd surprise them by crawling down the chimney with toys, and broke his neck...they found him a few days later when he began to smell. GOOD GOD! Definitely not a children's movie! And there was absolutely no reason for that story. So weird. Substandard performances by all. **

I'm Not Ashamed is the story of Rachel Joy Scott, the Christian girl who was killed at Columbine High School who professed her faith right to the last moment of life. Sweet story, all God-talk and cultish. I think kids who are in pain migrate toward something outside themselves that will give them strength and hope, and therefore, they are the most impressionable and easy conversion targets. I know I was as a teenager. Religion is all about how to survive suffering, or more importantly, how to make sense of and accept suffering. The lead actress was really outstanding. Some of the script was cliché and tired, but it was a good movie. Mass murders are senseless and it gets really tiring to hear how everyone should pray for the victims and their families as if that really does anything to promote change. The world sucks right now in so many ways with so much hate, disrespect, and apathy. ***

Into the Forest is a futuristic apocalyptic movie about a man and his two daughters (Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood) who are living up the woods somewhere, three days walk from town. The power grid goes out, no gas, no internet, no cell phone. They stock up on food and have chickens, but why they never fixed the roof which drips water constantly I can't figure out. Then the father has a chainsaw accident and dies. The girls are on their own but learn through books how to identify plants, herbs, etc and learn to store food. A sleazy man shows up for some drama. It was a nice movie about sisterly devotion and dedication. Yay, girl power! ****

Jack Reacher I've never been a Tom Cruise fan, but the sequel of this movie looked interesting so I ordered both. It's about an ex-military police officer highly trained who goes off the grid, but somehow knows when he is needed. I like a character with superpowers and this guy can take out a whole group of men in a matter of minutes. That was fun. And the character has moral conviction - another trait I admire - battling corruption and sleaziness. The story was OK although a little unbelievable, the dialogue was at times unrealistic with long dramatic speeches, the performances were adequate, the chase scenes with that Camaro were really good. Robert DeNiro has a small role and he was great. ***

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back This one had a slightly more interesting story centered on government and military corruption. And a kid to add some intrigue and emotion. They sure did run a lot in this movie, all the time. It was exhausting. I just don't care for Tom Cruise. ***

Keeping Up with the Joneses is about a middle class couple (Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher) living on the perfect cul-de-sac working their mundane jobs, living their mundane lives and then the new neighbors (Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot) move in. Can Hamm and Gadot be any more gorgeous?  The neighbors can't help but watch them and feel envious at their romance and supposedly exciting jobs until they start acting suspicious...like spies. It was cute and funny and I could look at Jon Hamm for hours without getting bored. ***

Patriot's Day was about the Boston Marathon bombing. All-star cast with Mark Walberg, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon and others. Excellent story. Great music. Superb performances. During the bombing scenes it was like horror movie music. ****

Silence is about the last Christian missionaries in Japan during the 1600s and the persecution of Japanese Christians who converted. Adam Driver was rocking some serious cheekbones. Both he and Andrew McCarthy must have lost a lot of weight to play those parts. The story was very disturbing. The martyrdom of Christians was ruthless and exceedingly torturous. The Christian devotion shown right to the end is zealous and ignorant. Beautiful scenery, excellent performances, disturbing story. ***

The Space Between Us was about a kid born on a space station on Mars and because his fetal development took place in zero gravity, he is incompatible with Earth. So he's stuck. At age 16 he meets a girl online who is on Earth, and with a photo of his mother and father decides he wants to risk his life, go the Earth to meet the girl and find his dad. It was a sweet story and fun to see him amazed by Earth since we all take it for granted. Some of the lines of teenage love were a little corny, but I think kids are corny anyway. ***

Split was about this guy (James McAvoy) who has 23 split personalities and he kidnaps three teenage girls. Two are debutante types and the third is strangely anti-social and odd. She gives us flashbacks of past trauma incited by present trauma, but her story is unclear to the end.  Psycho-thriller. McAvoy was outstanding. Betty Buckley played his therapist. ***

Whiskey Tango Fox Trot is about a reporter (Tina Fey) stuck in a rut in NYC and opts to take an assignment in Afghanistan. It was an interesting drama with humor thrown in for fun. There are scary people in the world. ***

The Wiz Live! is a live television production of the Broadway musical The Wiz from 2015. All-star cast: Mary J. Blige, Queen Latifah, Amber Riley, David Alan Grier, Ne-Yo, Uzo Aduba, and Stephanie Mills came back as Auntie Em. The sweet thing who played Dorothy had an outstanding voice and spirit. I had no idea that Uzo Aduba could sing that well. I loved the 1978 movie with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson and I used to have the soundtrack.  One of my favorite songs, if not my favorite song of all time is "Home." Excellent. Loved the "Making of the Wiz Live" bonus. And then I watched it all again...*****

The Zookeeper's Wife is about how the Zabinska family, owners of the Warsaw Zoo after the zoo was destroyed and the animals shipped off or killed by the Germans, started a pig farm as a cover to smuggle Jews out of the Warsaw Ghetto. Excellent story, great performances. I hated Jessica Chastain's fake accent...it just seemed wrong, but other than that it was excellent. All and anything could be forgiven with one glimpse of those snuggly white lion cubs. ****