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A Christmas Story Christmas (2022)
An unexpected delight
I didn't think this sequel would be worthy of the title, "A Christmas Story" but I was wrong. After seeing the rave reviews my friends were giving it, I finally gave in and was pleasantly surprised, taken back to the first time I ever saw the original so many years ago. So much fun, and thankfully, lots of fresh ideas to go along with the nostalgia. I got to catch up with characters I remember, meet some new neighborhood misfits, and see the fruition of good and bad relationships from so long ago. And the phrase, "triple dog dare you" is used just as cunningly as it was when the characters were kids. You'll love it. Merry Christmas.
The Vanicent Landing (2019)
Decent short!
Great cinematography and an effective score are the icing on the cake for this short, which has plenty of twists and turns and a 5.1 surround sound design.
The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot (2018)
Slow, plodding, unnecessary mess
I wanted this movie to be fun to watch, but instead what I got was a slow, poorly paced, poorly written, poorly directed waste of two hours.
I thought, Sam Elliot? WIN. Ron Livingston? WIN. An Oscar nominated visual effects artist? WIN. But I was the loser when I hit "play".
The death of Hitler is barely a scene, although the leading up to it is long and drawn out, almost confusingly so. The death of Bigfoot is an awkward afterthought, and the Bigfoot itself may be the worst costume design in my memory. There's a box in the movie that makes repeated appearances to much grandiosity, but the content are never revealed to us, so we never know this all-important secret he's been hiding away. I'm sure the director likes the subterfuge, but as a viewer it seems pedantic.
The movie seems to serve as a metaphor for an aging Sam Elliot whose past is an ongoing source of grief and consternation, much like the foreign object that's lodged into his shoe. At the end when the object is finally removed, the metaphor seemingly runs full circle and Sam's life can move forward without the impediments he's held so closely.
This movie was that foreign object in my shoe. I'm glad I got it out. I was seriously uncomfortable for the time it was stuck there, which miraculously was 1 hour and 38 minutes - the exact run time of this irredeemable mess.
Jax in Love (2017)
Full of twists!
This short movie makes me never want to talk a stranger again. Writer and actress Rakefet Abergel inserts her unique personality into a creepy tale full of unexpected twists. Her character reminds me of Kathy Bates' character in "Misery", Annie Wilkes. Production value is fantastic - a great short horror tale!
Wonder Woman (2017)
The "Best DC film" doesn't make it a good film
(Spoilers)
The film starts off great. Diana's origin story and her life on Paradise Island is well told, and the unexpected casting of Robin Wright made me excited to see this film. Even Chris Pine's entrance into the film is good; but then they leave the island, and all of their great storytelling goes in the garbage can.
The screenplay and characters from that point on are recycled from other films. The only thing that separated the antagonist in Wonder Woman and Darth Vader from Star Wars is a breathing problem and a glowing sword. I like Gadot better than I thought I would, and the effects are cool, but the screenplay simply sucks. Wonder Woman becomes a weakened "fish out of water" story for way too long, and the love story seems forced and thrown in at the last minute.
I know I'm going to fork over more cash for Justice League, but so far in hindsight, not one of the DC movies has deserved a penny of my money.
The Grey (2011)
Destined for the $5.00 bin
Possible mild spoiler alert:
Liam Neeson is a better actor than this. This movie was a formulaic, "phoned-in" script (with plenty of dumb mistakes if you're looking for a new drinking game). The ending was equally ridiculous and formulaic. The only ridiculous thing they didn't do was bare their chests, which I fully expected.
Liam Neeson plays a sharpshooter for a oil drilling company in the arctic somewhere, who protects the men from preying wolves. On furlough, their plane goes down in the heart of wolf country and the survivors soon realize that the plane crash may have been the more humane death, after wolves start to pick off the men one by one.
The movie is paced well, but the emotion among comrades is forced and the writers should really have done a little more research into wolf behavior, survivalist strategies and what kind of bullets a rifle uses.