Tag Archives: movie review

How to pick a movie

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For my 40th birthday last month, my wife gifted me a movie obligation. She booked a movie theater and invited our friends to a private showing of a movie of my choice. I have no doubt she had the best of intentions with this kind and thoughtful gift. But now I have the burden of choosing a movie to watch, not just by myself or with the two of us at home, but on the big screen with a group of our friends. And my mom. And maybe our son. It’s a big decision.

Those who know me well know that it’s probably going to be that movie. You know the one. That one that’s been my favorite for decades, that I haven’t gotten to see on the big screen in over 30 years. One that had a very particular connection between my dad and I. The one that helped cement my love of cinema, that has my favorite moment in my favorite scene of all time. Directed by my favorite director and scored by my favorite composer. That one.

Or, it could be that other one. Everyone who knows me knows that other one. That one that’s almost 10 years old now, that felt made just for me, that spoke to the very soul of who I am, who I want to be, and how I define myself. You know the one. That one that underperformed at the box office and quietly disappeared, which I may never get the chance to see on the big screen again. The one I carry a piece of around with me at all times. How could I say no to that one?

There are some rules, of course, both written and unwritten. The theater is booked for 2.5 hours, so no Lord of the Rings marathons. It has to be either something currently showing or something I own on DVD. But beyond that, I have the opinions of a dozen or so other people to consider.

Do I pick a crowd-pleaser? Something I know everyone will like? It’s mostly a group of Millennials and GenX, so there are some obvious ones in there. I could do Back to the Future or The Princess Bride or Jurassic Park, something everyone has seen a million times and knows all the dialogue to. But my mom will also be there, and I should modulate my pick to align with her sensibilities (keep the sex and nudity to a minimum). And what about our 6-year-old son? He’s not specifically invited, and we’ve got a babysitter available, but I’d hate to leave him out. There are a million movies that could work for my friends, my mom, and our son, but they’re all things that most people will probably have watched a million times. And while I could watch The Little Mermaid any day of the week, that doesn’t feel special enough for the event.

Or I could say the hell with everybody else and just pick something for me. I could even broaden some horizons in the process. Why not Apocalypse Now: Redux? Other than the nudity and the running length, I mean. Schindler’s List? It’s the greatest film ever made, but boy would that be a terrible thing to subject your friends to. Ok, how about My Dinner with Andre? Nothing like inviting your friends to watch a movie that put you to sleep the first time you saw it. I adore A Prairie Home Companion, and that would be something different for sure. I know one person who would love to see Geostorm on the big screen again, but it’s not fair to pick a movie just for the two of us. Something weird with subtitles? Brotherhood of the Wolf. The Philosophers would be a fantastic pick, but I don’t know that anyone would appreciate it as much as I would. And there aren’t many feelings worse than showing something you love to people you care about and not getting the reaction you hoped for.

I could do something I love to watch and have seen a million times without getting tired of it. I could do Twister. I love Twister so much. Or Independence Day. How about The Muppet Christmas Carol? Who cares if it’s August? Pirates of the Caribbean? I’d really rather watch At World’s End, but that’s over the running time. Maybe Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, one of my dad’s favorites. Or Serenity? I’ve managed to see that a bunch of times on the big screen, though. If we’re aiming for things the kiddo can watch, I couldn’t go wrong with WALL-E or Ratatouille. Then again, seeing Speed Racer on the big screen again would be a trip.

Then there’s always Star Wars. But which one? Return of the Jedi is my favorite, but A New Hope is the one people would expect. Rogue One would be a great standalone choice. Or, since it’s for my 40th birthday, I could go with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It is, after all, the movie that made my mom go into labor with me. Or I could go with a classic that I love, something like High Noon, or Duck Soup, or City Lights. I could go musical. Something more modern like Moulin Rouge or an older favorite like Singin’ in the Rain.

Maybe what I really want is to watch the Bluey episode “The Sign” four times in a row…

You see my dilemma? I’ve got a big decision to make, and one that’ll affect several hours of my friends’ lives. It’s my birthday party, and I really can pick whatever I want, but I can’t just think of myself. And there are just so many choices. But we all know it’ll be that one. You know the one. Who am I trying to kid? It was always going to be that one.

Unless, of course, it’s that other one…

Review: Avengers: Infinity War

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avengers_infinity_war_posterIt’s tough to form an opinion on Avengers: Infinity War. As the culmination of 10 years and 18 movies of building the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s more of an event than a film, certainly the most anticipated movie of the year, and probably the most hyped since Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Everything has been building to this, a chance for all (or most) of the characters we’ve come to know and love so far to come together to face the villain that’s been teased since the first Avengers movie. Of course, we’ve been through this before in 2012, though on a smaller scale, with that first joining of Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but things have grown so much since then. The scale of Infinity War is such that it’s easy to lose track of the fact that you’re still watching a movie, and a movie that just happens to be the first of two Avengers films a year apart which were filmed back-to-back. Occasionally, Infinity War forgets that, itself, getting lost to exposition or action that feels more like setup for the future rather than its own moviegoing experience. It hops from moment to moment with a feeling of inevitability, as though this was the predestined conclusion rather than a natural or organic culmination of everything that came before. But oh, those inevitable moments are still spectacular, thrilling, funny, and emotional, and when people look back on this Marvel Cinematic Universe experiment, Infinity War will be one of the defining pieces of the grand whole.

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Review: Murder on the Orient Express

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Everyone has their pop culture blind spots. Some people have never seen Star Wars or read Harry Potter or watched an episode of Seinfeld. (All of those are unforgivable and if they apply to you I demand that you take immediate steps to rectify the situation!… Just kidding… sort of.) One of mine is Agatha Christie. I have never read any of her books nor seen any of the film or TV adaptations of her works in their entirety (I have seen part of Witness for the Prosecution). In fact, the most exposure I’ve had to Agatha Christie is that episode of Doctor Who in which the Doctor and Donna Noble solve a mystery with Christie’s help and end up fighting a giant wasp. But her legacy of tightly-constructed mysteries, brilliant detectives, compelling characters, and her sprawling influence on books, film, and TV for the last hundred years or so is simply inescapable, and I know that some of my very favorite works owe her a huge debt. So it was that I went into the new version of Murder on the Orient Express without any Christie-related baggage, lacking any devotion to a previous adaptation of the story or to the original source novel. In the end I found it to be fully enjoyable, with a compelling mystery highlighted by a fantastic cast who are clearly having a great time, set against a sumptuous and lavish backdrop, all solidly anchored by director and leading man Kenneth Branagh.

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4 Things I liked, and 1 Thing I didn’t, about Thor: Ragnarok

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Thor: Ragnarok is a blast. It’s Thor’s best solo outing thus far, and one of the most fun Marvel movies yet. It may not be the most emotional movie in the MCU, nor does it pack the biggest punch despite the two heavy hitters Thor and Hulk leading the way, but it’s stylish, hilarious, and unique. Ragnarok may have been one of the Marvel “Phase 3” films I was looking forward to the least, but it has rapidly become one of my favorites and I can’t wait to see it again. Overall, I’d give it a solid A-, but instead of writing a normal review I’m instead going to give you 5 Things from Thor: Ragnarok that made a difference to me, good or bad. I might work this format into future reviews, or try to use it to take care of some of my review backlog. In this case, I’ve got 4 Things I liked about Thor: Ragnarok and 1 Thing I didn’t like. Read on, and let me know if you agree with any of my picks, or what you liked or disliked about the God of Thunder’s latest adventure.

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So, about the ending to Baby Driver…

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I really enjoyed Baby Driver. Edgar Wright delivered a tightly crafted, exquisitely choreographed thrill ride of a movie, with a killer soundtrack and some of the best action sequences of the year. I loved the eccentric characters, the chemistry between Ansel Elgort’s Baby and Lily James’ Debora in particular, although at times it felt like it was trying a little too hard to be a Tarantino film, particularly with bits of the dialogue. I’m still amazed by the intricacy of the filming and post production work required to make each moment of the film move in rhythm with whatever song happens to be playing on Baby’s iPod. Baby Driver was a solid A film for me, and I look forward to seeing it again as I know I’ll pick up on many details I missed the first time.

However, I find myself still hung up on Baby Driver’s ending. (Spoilers below, obviously!) Continue reading →

Review: Spider-Man: Homecoming

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It’s been a long time since we had a good Spider-Man movie, 13 long years in fact. Since Spider-Man 2 back in 2004, a masterpiece of the superhero genre that still stands up as one of the best of all time, we’ve had several attempts to keep the web-slinger going. Spider-Man 3 was a complete mess, overloaded with villains and led by a far-too-old Tobey Maguire, not to mention the horrific emo dance sequence, while the Amazing Spider-Man pair of films tried too hard to update the series for “modern sensibilities” (whatever that means) and the results were uninspired and extremely dull. I’d come to believe that as long as Sony still held the rights to the wall-crawler, one of my favorite comic book heroes, we’d be doomed to mediocre reboot after mediocre reboot, never again having a Spider-Man movie worthy of the name.

So imagine my surprise when a deal was reached between Sony and Marvel/Disney and Spider-Man wound up being one of the best parts of Captain America: Civil War. And now here we are, with Tom Holland’s first full outing in the famous red and blue spider suit, and the results are pretty impressive. Spider-Man: Homecoming is naturally the best Spider-Man movie in 13 years, although that’s really not saying much. It’s a lot of fun, one of the funniest movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it gets a lot of things right. It’s not perhaps the home run one might be hoping for, but it’s solidly in the top half of MCU films, getting a lot about the character of Peter Parker right, while managing to tie in cleverly with the larger universe of films. Oh, and Tony Stark is in it, getting a little redemption after his last outing in Civil War.

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Review: Wonder Woman

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I almost never root for a movie to fail with critics or at the box office. Hundreds of people work on movies, and regardless of my personal tastes or filmmaking trends I would like to see come to an end I wouldn’t wish failure on all of the artists involved in creating a film. On the other hand, I occasionally find myself rooting for a film to succeed, sometimes even in spite of my own feelings about the film itself, because that film’s success might have a positive impact on the film industry or the world as a whole. And so, I find myself absolutely thrilled with Wonder Woman’s reception, both its strong showing at the box office and it’s nearly universal praise among critics and audiences. The feminist in me knows what it means for a studio to release a big budget superhero film with a female director and have it be such a smash hit, and the film fan in me loves that the DC Universe has finally found some heart and joy after their recent misfires. Having said all of that, while I may be wholeheartedly cheering for Wonder Woman, and while I think it is an excellent film, it didn’t resonate with me as fully as I had hoped.

Some Mild Spoilers Below

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Review: Gravity

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Gravity, despite pulling aspects from a variety of familiar film styles, is a movie that feels unique, which is something with great appeal to me these days. It has much in common with Open Water, the 2003 film about a couple who are left behind while scuba diving, but it also borrows heavily from a variety of disaster movies where people are trapped or stranded and have to improvise a way to survive. And of course, it has a lot in common with Apollo 13, including the use of Ed Harris as the voice of mission control. (It even blatantly steals and idea from WALL-E and contains obvious references to Star Wars and Alien.) But its tone is drastically different from all of those films. Where those movies have a frantic aspect to them, with every moment devoted to the heroes solving the next problem or overcoming the next obstacle, Gravity has a peacefulness to it that sets it apart. And while there are moments of terror and suspense, the calm peaceful moments are what will stick with you after you’ve left the theater. Continue reading →