Haven't posted in a while. A short run through:
Blockers: Very fun and delightful movie. Good cast, the jokes land. Ike Barinholtz is one to watch. He has been stealing the show in a lot of movies lately. 3/5
Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom: I enjoyed some of the visuals that JA Bayona employed. The movie looked gorgeous, no doubt about that. However, it is the rest of it that doesn't work. Once they moved out of Isla Nublar, the movie went downhill pretty quickly. It became a haunted house generic thriller..but with dinosaurs. The scale of it was lost. It did not work for me at all, the last hour or so of the movie, basically the whole second act and climax. JA Bayona should continue to make blockbusters, because he shoots them with a great eye. That is the most positive takeaway from this. 1.5/5
Ready Player One: I had a lot of fun watching this. I liked the book as well. They changed considerably, but I liked it throughout. Spielberg showing all the new kids how to make a proper blockbuster, one that looks good, is shot with style and has got heart. Iron Giant vs Mecha-Godzilla, The first race for the first key, King Kong and T-Rex, The Shining. 4/5
Set It Up: This is such a sugary, traditional rom com, that was a staple in the 90s, and it is absolutely a delight...is there someone in the world cuter than Zoey Deutch? I just love her too damn much. Lucy Liu, it was so good to see her in a movie again. I had such a crush on her during the Charlie's Angels days (I was just entering my teens then). She was great here. A very enjoyable movie, even for cynics and apathetic people like me. 3.5/5
Ocean's 8: This is a really fun and breezy movie. At no time did I feel bored or pining to check the clock. There is an admirable attempt to ape the style that Soderbergh brought to the original trilogy, but it doesn't reach those lofty standards. The story and con is very straightforward, with very few a-ha moments. To me a good heist movie makes your jaw drop with its ending or makes you nod approvingly, as you see the machinations revealed, and even you, a omnipresent viewer, is conned. This one elicited little of that.
However, the cast is superb. Sandra Bullock is an able substitute for George Clooney and I really liked the chemistry between her and Cate Blanchett. The Pitt-Clooney dynamic was taken over by two leading ladies that are more than capable of the task. The next one that stood out, and possibly is the show stealer, is Anne Hathaway. She went all in. Hammed it up to 11 and it worked. Just as Andy Garcia was reserved and all rage beneath the surface (like Al Pacino in Godfather Part II), Anne Hathaway went in the other direction. And it fit so well. She was great and she got to play up her hotness, which she doesn't do very often.
The rest of the gang is made up for terrific members, especially Mindy Kaling and Sarah Paulson, two greats. I was not aware of Awkwafina before this movie but she surprised me. Rihanna was playing herself, expect the hacker part. HBC, do I need to extol her greatness?
In summary: a fun time pass caper movie, with a good cast which I would like to see more of, but well short of the brilliant Ocean's Eleven. 3/5
Thoroughbreds: Fucking rich white people. Olivia Cooke is terrific, and Anya Taylor-Joy keeps on impressing. A slow build thriller plus very dark comedy, which goes in some unexpected places. 4/5
Pacific Rim: Uprising: Apart from John Boyega this movie had 0 energy or charisma in it. No other new additions to the cast had any sort of personality other than the stock character traits right out of Screenwriter's Handbook Chapter 1. Charlie Hunnam, Ron Perlman and Oscar winning director Guillermo del Toro sat this one out. Good move. How generic or bland can you be? 1.5/5
Tomb Raider: I finished Rise of the Tomb Raider recently. It ain't no Uncharted, but it was a fun game. This movie was a competent action movie. Alicia Vikander is good. Walton 'Boyd Crowder' Goggins is wasted in a stock villain role. I am sure I will forget this movie soon. A time pass, nothing else. 2.5/5
Gringo: It borrows a lot from Tarantino's 90s movies in terms of character and plot (right down to starting in media res), and also from Guy Ritchie's earlier classics, Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels --- plus, strangely, the Bob De Niro classic Midnight Run, however it is not as funny, or engaging, as it would like to be.
The plot is chockfull of narrative contrivances and characters right out of a 90s crime movie, but none of it is very original. While being derivative isn't the biggest of sins (it is up there, tho, right next to being dull --- which this movie is NOT. Let's be clear: this movie is not boring, quite the contrary, it's very breezy, being filled with so much plot), but that is unfortunately the only quality I can associate with this movie. It did have its moments (the first half when everything is being set up is not terrible), but overall it left me feeling as if I had seen much better versions of this movie before. The second half, where most movies falter, is also the weakest for this one. The long drawn game is not very interesting. There's no element of intrigue or surprise.
The cast is brilliant with Joel Edgerton as a smarmy, bonafide asshole and Charlize Theron as a foul mouthed executive (I do have a thing for women who swear, I dunno why, but I like it) were the highlights for me. David Oyelowo was reliably good in the lead role, but sadly Thandie Newton and Amanda Seyfried (what was her character!?) were somewhat wasted in thankless roles.
It is good that we keep getting original movies, not beholden to franchises or brand recognition, having to have multimillion dollar budgets which are virtually impossible to return profits on in this climate of "watch what you know", but it would be great if they were better. 2.5/5
