Movie Diary
It's interesting to think about the career that Ryan Reynolds has had, how long he's been around and how any times I kinda thought he'd peaked, and then he came back bigger. He was one of the guys from "Two Guys, A Girl And A Pizza Place," then he was Van Wilder, then he was in a few forgettable blockbusters like The Proposal and Safe House, then he disappeared for a few years only to finally wind up with a pretty ideal starring vehicle in Deadpool. But Deadpool lays on the Reynolds snark and schtick a little too thick sometimes, I feel like this movie is a better use of him because it's a more straightforward action flick with another foulmouthed star, Samuel L. Jackson, as his foil, it's pretty enjoyable.
b) Girls Trip
This was very good, although like Bridesmaids I kinda felt like the big pee/poop-themed scene felt like kind of an unnecessary over-the-top moment to make the statement that women can make gross bawdy laugh-out-loud comedies too. Also one of the most amusing things about the whole movie for me was that Queen Latifah's character was a once respectable journalist who'd been reduced to writing celebrity clickbait to get out of debt.
Fifth Element is one of those movies that my wife watches a lot that I respect as a unique movie that manages to stand out in the samey field of space operas, but I kind of find it grating and don't enjoy watching it. Still I kind of wanted to root for Luc Besson to kind of build on that and do another space epic well, and Valerian mostly feels like a missed opportunity that continues Dane DeHaan's string of flops, he and Cara Delevigne look less like movie stars and more like sickly wet rats in this movie. But there is an entertainingly goofy sequence in the middle of the movie where Ethan Hawke as Jolly The Pimp introduces them to a shapeshifting poledancer played by Rihanna.
d) The House
I should have known that Chance The Rapper was taking his hero worship of Kanye West too far when he started championing subpar Will Ferrell movies. This isn't bad, really, but it was interesting to see Ferrell and Amy Poehler just kind of clock in as the protagonists who are only intermittently funny and basically let a large supporting cast of mid-level comedy stars headed by Jason Mantzoukas really do all the heavy lifting.
I like how this reboot series has been executed, it does the 'start over from the beginning' prequel idea better than a lot of franchises have attempted. That said, I don't think any of the subsequent movies have been able to equal how well Rise of the Planet of the Apes was executed and now it kinda feels like I'd like to get on with it and see them redo the stories of the Charlton Heston movies.
One of the best movies I've seen recently was Happy Death Day, which was kind of a 'horror Groundhog Day' where a girl who's a freshman in college lives the day she's murdered over and over. So I was curious to see this movie, which came out a few months earlier and is similar, except it's about a girl who's a senior in high school, and dies in a car crash in the day she has to repeat, and it's more of an introspective drama than a horror movie. There was a lot I liked about the storytelling and the performances, but the ending was really just not good and felt like it didn't have the poignance they thought it would.
g) Deep
My kid found this movie about an octopus on Netflix, it's kind of offbrand Finding Nemo but still pretty good, I feel like there's always more room for animated films about ocean life because there's so many cool colorful species that you can turn into characters.
The fact that I couldn't remember who the star of this movie was and figured it was probably John Krasinski makes me really feel bad for Jason Sudeikis, who I usually like, but this was really a bland movie.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 10:27 AM.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
Post a Comment