Sunday, December 31, 2017

December Movie Reviews

*****  Exceptional
****    Great
***      OK
**        So So
*          Blah

Amreeka is about a Palestinian mother who moves with her son to America for a better life. The first half hour or so is about their life in the Middle East with security checkpoints, surrounded by poverty, and really ugly landscape. I know this is homeland for many, but eeeewww! what a bleak place to live devoid of color and beauty. The rest of the movie is about the culture shock (it's snowing when they get there) and struggles they face in a new country riddled with anti-Middle Eastern sentiment. It was really good. ****

Beatrix at Dinner The DVD cover calls it "A Sharply Funny Comedy"...? What? The summary makes it sound like some hilarious ruse where there is a laugh a minute. Even the cover photos have all actors smiling and laughing. Someone totally missed the point or the cover writer didn't watch the movie! It is about a Mexican-American masseuse, Beatrix (Selma Hayek), who does various energy modalities and has a gift for healing. She works with cancer patients and on the side has a massage practice that caters to rich people. One of her clients (Connie Britton) has an appointment right before an important dinner party with her husband's sleazy business associates. Beatrix's car won't start so the rich lady invites her stay for dinner...? That seemed really unrealistic. They do keep saying how the masseuse is more like a family friend since she helped heal the daughter who had cancer, but still unrealistic. I know if I were in her shoes I'd feel very uncomfortable as a freeloader, not dressed appropriately, etc. The dinner guests show up, talk about raping lands and making mega bucks at the expense of the environment and indigenous people, show off their African safari kills, and even ask Beatrix to re-fill their drinks assuming she is the help. John Lithgow's character makes one want to vomit he is so vile. Beatrix is pretty brazen in her opinions, lets them know how disgusting their business dealings and recreational activities are. It was a very uncomfortable movie right to the end. Definitely NOT a comedy. Excellent performances by all. ***

Be Somebody is about teen idol Jordan Jaye who gets left behind when he leaves his tour bus unbeknowst to his managers and handlers. A few of his fan recognize him and the chase begins. He comes across pizza delivery girl getting gas at a gas station who dashes him away and he spends the weekend with her on vacation from his world tour. It was a sweet friendship/love story. Really stupid title. ***

Bokeh is about an American couple who go to Iceland for vacation only to wake up one morning and everyone has disappeared! The city is empty. The infrastructure is still working: lights, water, electricity, for a while anyway. Cars abandoned in the middle of the road are still in drive, no one answering their cell phones, internet still working, but no activity since the day before. Eventually they realize they are alone. He tries seeing the positive side of their situation while she is stressed, homesick, negative and religious. She was raised by a Christian minister so her outlook is decidedly apocalyptic. Is it the rapture? She is bent on trying to make sense and find meaning. Are they the only ones on earth not "chosen"? Are they bad? Why were they left and not others? Trying to make sense of a senseless predicament only adds to her negative attitude. It was a little slow, lacking in budget, and lacking in plot diversions that would make it more interesting.  Iceland looks beautiful. I constantly wondered how they rid this town of people so they could film. Total silence. ***

The Book of Henry This was a truly odd story that veered dramatically away from the expected. I anticipated a cliché plot: intellectually-gifted boy who does everything for his mother finds out the neighbor girl (Maddie Ziegler from Dance Moms growing up fast) is being molested by her step-father (Dean Norris) who is the police commissioner with a lot of high-powered friends, concocts some wise plan to bring justice to the situation, everyone lives happily ever after.  Jeez, it took a turn for the worst right in the middle of the movie. Totally unexpected. So weird and discombobulating, but continued with the real theme. (Sorry I don't want to divulge too much). Most performances were great. Naomi Watts was the mother. Maddie Ziegler dances in a talent show, but her acting skills were wanting. The little brother was so adorable. ***

Brave is a Disney cartoon about a little Viking girl with a Scottish accent who doesn't want to follow tradition and be betrothed to the highest bidder. So she buys a spell from a witch to change her stubborn, traditional mother and her mother ends up being turned into a bear. The cute little girl with the wild red hair is adorable. Nothing special about the cartoon unlike some Disney animated cartoons. Kids would like it. **

Collateral Beauty is about a man (Will Smith) head of a tech company who espouses the universal truths of how humans all want love, need more time, and fear death. If business appeals to these basic human needs, success happens. His six year old daughter dies and he's drowning in grief, unable to function daily at work or in life.  He spends his days at a dog park staring aimlessly and his nights holed up in his dark apartment writing angry letters to death, time and love. His business partners/associates (Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, and Michael Pena) need his major stock holder status to be able to function before the business goes belly up. When his lack of effort puts everyone's job at risk they devise a plan. First, they hire a private detective to watch him in order to find evidence of a mental breakdown and his letter writing activities are discovered. They hire three actors to represent death (Ellen Mirren), love (Keira Knightly) and time (Jacob Latimore) to confront him. To add complexity to the storyline, each of the actors is paired with an associate who is having his or her own issue with love, time or death. It was very interesting. All great performances and all-star cast. ****

Colossal with Anne Hathaway as an unemployed alcoholic who moves to her parents' empty home after her boyfriend kicks her out of their apartment. She runs into an old classmate who hires her as a waitress in his bar where she continues to stay up all night getting drunk. And that's where it stopped being somewhat sane. She can go to a park at 8:05am in the morning, hung over, and somehow, magically, a monster appears in South Korea killing everyone. It's controlled by her. She steps into the playground and she's stepping on the city buildings of Seoul. Yeah, I have no idea what this movie was really about. Someone told me with sci-fi you have to be willing to suspend realism and accept the weirdness as if it is normal. Hmmm...probably why I hate sci-fi. I kept hoping something would eventually make sense or there would be an obvious metaphor so I kept watching, but nothing. *

Everything Everything is about a seventeen year old girl who has some weird disease that makes all germs life threatening so she has lived her whole life in a sterile environment never leaving the house. She dreams of swimming in the ocean. Cute boy moves in next door and makes her question her very bland existence.  The story had an enormous amount of potential, but failed miserably at delivery. Everything, everything was wrong with it. First, if the main character has to narrate (with illustrations!) for fear the audience won't get it, then something is wrong with the script. Most of performances weren't very good, very staged, lacking in proper interpretation of the situation, lacking in human emotion and passion, bland like robot people. I'm going to blame this on the bad direction and possibly inexperienced actors.  The characters were poorly developed which contributed to the boring performances and so many of the scenes were unrealistic. How does a secluded teenager qualify for a credit card? She starts getting deliveries from online stores and the mother's response is, "Oh, that's such a nice sweater on you." Really? Who the fuck is paying for it? How does she get on an airplane when she can't possibly have proper identification? All this sidelining to keep the plot interesting was a waste of energy when someone should have instead have spent more time developing the story and characters. The dialogue was cliché and lacked passion. So many scenes that should have been poignant or moving missed the mark. Even with all my negative criticism, it was a great story. Just disappointing in presentation.  **

50 to 1 is about a long-shot race horse who somehow qualifies for the Kentucky Derby and then wins it. Based on a true story, it was a pretty clean-cut story that seemed like an after-school special. I figured they'd throw some God talk in there, but it didn't get that mushy. ***

Ghost in the Shell is a sci-fi about a futuristic Japan and robotic enhancements to humans. The latest advancement is adding human brains to robotic bodies to be used as advanced weapons. Major (Scarlett Johansson) is the first successful experiment and she was programmed to believe she was a terrorist attack victim who was saved through technology. Later she finds out she was a runaway living underground, protesting the evils of technology, kidnapped by a tech corporation, and had her brain removed. Great performances. Really awesome futuristic sets. But I'm not a sci-fi fan...too much science for me. Sci-fi fans would love it. ***

Gifted is about a precocious little girl who is very smart living with her uncle because her highly-intelligent mathematician mother committed suicide. He's trying to give her a chance to be a normal kid and sends her to public school. Her boredom gets her in trouble causing the powers that be to call her grandmother who sues for custody. It was a fairly predictable plot. One turn of events was unrealistic, but they must have thought that was a good idea to add some drama. Great performances by Chris Evans and Octavia Spencer. ***

Hunt for the Wilder People is a New Zealand film about a delinquent foster child who goes to live with two country people on their farm on the edge of the Bush. The woman is welcoming, loving, has a habit of giving homes to all kinds of strays, and composes individualized birthday songs while playing along on her little portable piano. Very sweet. Her companion is a grumpy old man who doesn't want to be bothered. After a tragedy, the government comes to get the boy to take him to juvie jail (he's been through all the foster homes that will take him) and he's not having it, running into the Bush with his dog Tupac followed the police, the military and everyone else hunting him for the reward. It was delightful and heart-warming with many LOL moments due to the outstanding writing. The kid was adorable. ****

The Keeping Room  is a near-the-end-of-the Civil War western about three Southern women, two sisters and a slave, living alone on a farm trying to survive. Two Union degenerates find their farm and the fun begins. It's very violent, but realistic. Excellent performances. What a horrible time to live especially for women. ***

Kidnap  Halle Berry's six-year old son is kidnapped from a park while she talks on her cell phone. She tears off after them, loses her phone in the chase so she can't call for help, speeding down the freeway following them for fear if she loses the car, she'll lose her son forever. In the chase they leave a wake of car accidents and general damage. She is in a car accident no less than three times as the chase ensues, still able to walk after each one, unrealistic, but really good or the story might have ended too soon. Then she runs out of gas, but the fun doesn't stop there! Never a dull moment. ****

Maggie's Plan is about a woman who wants to get pregnant but doesn't want the drama of a relationship. Then she falls in love with a married man who isn't happy in his marriage, he leaves his wife, they have a child, and then she starts falling OUT of love with him. This is where I got bored. I guess she talks the ex-wife into trying to take him back, but I was too bored to care and turned it off. *

Nina is about Nina Simone, mostly her last eight years. She was a mess. Great performances. Zoe Saldana was superb and unrecognizable. Excellent music. ****

Personal Shopper is about a woman (Kristen Stewart) who is a personal shopper to a celebrity living in Paris. She's also a medium waiting for her dead twin brother to prove there is life after death. Yeah, I know. It was very weird and Kristen as usual is exceptionally tormented. She's really good at playing tormented, but it makes one wonder if she can do anything else. **

Planet of the Apes  I have never seen this series. The first, released in 1968, is definitely dated with obnoxious 1960s horror music, really bad melodramatic performances focusing on emotional exaggeration rather than real human behavior and dialogue, bad scriptwriting, bad everything. I know it's a classic, and yes, I admit once again I have no patience for most outdated 1970s movies especially when the make-up and costumes were so unrealistic. *

Repo Man 1980s movie with Emilio Estevan. I used to think he was cute all dressed up in his Miami Vice suits, but I must have been too young to realize what a horrible actor he is. It was about a kid becoming a repo man and some alien driving around wreaking havoc. The FBI are in pursuit so they place an order to have the alien's car repossessed. It was incredibly stupid. Harry Dean Stanton was great. He's a perfect sleazy sales guy. *

Rise of the Planet of the Apes I hated the above 1968 Planet of the Apes but someone told me the new series is better. Hmmm...it's the prequel addressing how these apes became smart : they were lab animals for an experimental Alzheimer's drug. Great storyline! The special effects were more realistic as the apes didn't look like they were just humans with masks. It was all pretty creepy. Great storyline, but I just can't get into sci-fi. **

The Sea of Trees is a very haunting, poetic story about a man's journey to the suicide forest of Japan.  After Arthur (Matthew McConaughey) arrives and finds a suitable place to die, begins to take the pills, he sees another person walking, lost, trying to find his way out of the forest to get back to his family. Arthur stops what he is doing and tries to help, but they stumble deeper into the trees, falling off cliffs, whisked away in  flash floods, while encountering dead bodies around every corner. We get flashbacks on why he's there. Excellent movie on human relations, life, death, spirituality. This forest in Japan really exists and averages 207 suicides a year. Some people change their minds and walk out. I think it would be really weird to want to commit suicide surrounded by dead and rotting bodies. I kept wondering, Don't they smell? Still, it was a very thought-provoking movie. ****

The Show was about a reality TV show host (Josh Duhamel). During one of those bachelor finales as the bachelor selects the woman he will marry, the other girl shoots him then shoots herself. Josh has a bit of a meltdown deciding he's tired of mindless, exploitive television. After much discussion on liability and the assisted suicide legislation, his producers decide to create a show where people commit suicide on camera. He decides suicide might have a higher purpose and agrees to host if they sell suicide as a celebration of life. Yeah, the justification is a little bent.  During one taping the audience gets a little bored with a death-by-car-exhaust because it's taking so long so they opt to fake the woman's death on camera and have her die for real backstage. Unfortunately, she changes her mind! Oops! She tries to fight her way out of the car but Josh pushes her back in. She turns off the ignition, but he crawls in and turns it back on effectively murdering her for the good of the show. It's all out of control. A janitor at the television studio (Giancarlo Esposito) who is working two jobs trying to support his family, loses both jobs - one of them because Josh is an ass, and opts to go on the show so we follow his story throughout the movie watching him struggle to find work and keep his house which is in foreclosure. The theme is interesting and so true - society is hateful and cruel and loves seeing misery. It's good for ratings. Watching the audience cheer was disturbing. Great performances and great ending, but very gruesome. I almost turned it off a couple times. There is just no valid reason for suicide and so many of the contestants were leaving behind children thinking their monetary winnings would give the kids a better life...? Without their parents? Nope. Not buying that. ***

Southside with You is about Barack and Michelle Obama's first date. It's amazing a president  and his wife can have such huge popular appeal that Hollywood would make a movie about their first date! The best president and first lady ever. I miss them. ***

Ten Cloverfield Lane During some kind of catastrophic power grid failure, Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) took off down the highway after breaking up with her boyfriend. She gets in an accident and wakes up in an underground bunker out in the middle of farm land built by a crazed, temperamental, touchy doomsday survivalist, Howard [John Goodman], who tells her the world has ended. He's not sure if it's Russians or aliens or whatever, but the air is contaminated and they will be living for the next year or two underground away  from danger. She's not having it. I think being chained to the wall gives her pause. He tells her she needs to be less combative, and a lot more grateful as he saved her life from certain doom. Emmett, a young man, is also with them and can attest to the atomic flash of light he saw before entering the bunker. Still not convinced, she attempts a breakout only to be met at the door by a screaming woman with blisters all over her face so she begins to believe his story. Just when they start to settle in and accept their fate, a discovery makes her a nonbeliever again and she convinces Emmett to help her escape. They make a plan and even build a HAZMAT suit out of a shower curtain just in case, but it all goes wrong when Howard gets suspicious. It's a wonderful plot as it bounces the audience back and forth between believing and not believing and not really sure what to believe right to the end. Outstanding performances. Great soundtrack. Title graphics at the beginning were wonderful and the title repeat near the end was awesome. I appreciate a movie where someone took the time to pay attention to details. Excellent story. Outstanding, unexpected ending. Loved it. *****

Trading Christmas I ran out of movies on Christmas eve, took the DVDs I already watched to the library return bin and as I'm putting them in, my hand caught on someone's returned DVD...I took it home!  I figured the library wasn't going to be open for a few days so why not. I needed a movie. Yes, I steal stuff from the library.  LOL! I'm always saying how some films are "Hallmark movies" as a somewhat negative criticism. Well, this one WAS a Hallmark movie. It was good. Very clean cut G rating. It's about a widow who's college student daughter decides not to come home for Christmas for the first time and instead goes to Arizona with her boyfriend. The mother decides she'll surprise her daughter in Boston (not knowing she left) and does a house trade with a man. The woman's best friend decides to surprise her friend who she thinks is alone for the holidays and ends up staying at the house with the home swapper. The man's brother in Boston checks on his brother's condo when the security alarm goes off and they meet. Romance is all over the place....based on a romance book. It was sweet. Yes, I returned it to the bin the next morning. ***

Unconditional Love was a movie about a frumpy housewife (Kathy Bates) who never takes risks and her love for crooner Victor Fox (Jonathan Pryce) who sings Barry Manilow songs (I was humming Manilow songs all night!). Her husband (Dan Akroyd) decides he wants more adventure in his life and leaves her. She wins tickets to a talk show to meet Victor Fox but he is murdered enroute. She decides be risky, to go to England to sob at his funeral and meets his valet (long-time secret gay lover, the ever-charming Rupert Everett) . It was funny and sweet with LOL moments. Then it got a little goofy. Great characters and great cameos by Julie Andrews and Barry Manilow. ***


Watchtower is a foreign film with English subtitles out of Turkey about a man who lost his wife and baby in a car accident. He takes a job as a solitary guard for a lookout post watching the forests for fires. A pregnant young woman leaves college to work for a bus station near this watchtower. Later we find out the reason she left was because she is pregnant with her uncle's child after being molested while living with him and his family. She has the baby one day while working at the bus station diner. That was probably the most interesting [bizarre] childbirth scene I've ever seen! She leaves the baby out by the garbage and starts walking, stumbling, blood all over her skirt, in pain and in a daze. Our watchtower guard just happened to be at the restaurant eating and sees all this going on. He finds her walking, escorts her to the watchtower for some R&R, makes her comfortable...dilly dallies. I kept screaming, THE BABY!! GET THE BABY! HURRY UP before a dog eats it! Just when I didn't think I could handle the tension any long, he does run down the mountain to retrieve the baby. It was interesting for sure with themes of guilt and conscience. I think I'd love a job being a fire guard living in a tiny cabin on top of a mountain. Beautiful scenery. Tolerable performances.  There were some extra long unnecessary views of uninteresting stuff. Not ever sure of the point for such stagnation, but I find that common foreign films. ***

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