Mission Impossible rogue nation: movie review

Tags

Mission Impossible, movie, postaday2015, reviews

  
My daughter, husband and I went to see Mission Impossible without our son this time, he had to work unfortunately. We, on the other hand, not having to work, got to go and we loved it. The lady in the picture, her name is Isla, she is one heck of a fighter, agent, assasin, and all around secret operative. I loved her, she gave Ethan Hunt a run for his money, almost as much as the bad guy did throughout the movie.

  
What makes Mission Impossible so enjoyable, at least for me, is not Tom Cruise, but the entire gang and their intricate dance throughout the movie. During certain parts of the movie I kept thinking “thank goodness for Simon Peg” He keeps the stress level down to manageable, because without his many moments of levity, I couldn’t take the non-stop adrenaline rush of Tom’s crazy stunts. I don’t know if being aware of Tom’s personal involvement in each of his insanely dangerous stunts makes it easier or more difficult to watch. Intellectually I know Tom survived all of them because I have seen him doing the press junket, but while I was watching the airplane take off, the high speed motorcycle chase, the underwater sequence an even the wild car chase, I held my breath more than once.

All I can say is that Tom Cruise knows how to do action movies, go and see it, you won’t be disappointed. 

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: a movie review

Tags

movies, postaday2015, reviews



My husband and I went to see the sequel in the theater as opposed to waiting for the DVD as we did the first time around and we LOVED it. The reason why we made sure to see it in the theater is because when we saw the first one at home, we had regretted not seeing it at the theater in the first place. By seeing it at the theater we truly had the privilege of experiencing the beauty of India on the wide screen and it was incredible.  Speaking of the wide screen, the theater that we went to was not our usual theater, this one had the most amazing seats, they were full sized plush reclining chairs, we were so comfortable, it definitely increased our viewing enjoyment.

What can I say about the movie? The entire gang was here and on fire; Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Judi Dench and everyone else made us care, made us a little sad and a little nervous for their well-being, made us happy and excited for them and even made us get exasperated from time to time. Newcomer Richard Gere was a gem, superbly dashing and mysterious, but with a hint of bad boy even at his age, he definitely has not lost it from his youth.

I can’t think of a single negative; there were elephants, beautiful fabrics, gorgeous markets full of brightly colored fruits and vegetables, goats and cows in the streets, beautiful villas, open air little houses and young people everywhere, representing vivacity, energy and hope 

The best part of the movie was all of the love that was obvious everywhere in all of its diverse expressions. We came out of the movie lighter and with smiles on our faces, that’s always the sign of a wonderful movie.

Gone Girl : a movie review

Tags

Gone Girl, movie, postaday2015, reviews

Our son rented three movies last night with Gone Girl being one of them. We didn’t see it at the movies even though it was getting all sorts of great movie reviews and press, it wasn’t our type of movie worthy of the cinema experience, we always knew that we would wait for it on DVD. Well now that we have seen it; OMG. Disturbing isn’t sufficient enough of a word, I can’t think of the right word that explains the entire range of emotion that we felt as we were watching this movie. It was the three of us; my husband, our daughter and myself; our son had gone out, he’ll watch it later, but the three of us did not move once, we were transfixed by the story, the narrative and the suspense.

I came into the movie knowing that the wife hadn’t been murdered and that the husband was being set up, but even knowing that, the movie was insanely suspenseful. The acting was topnotch, Rosamund Pike truly deserved to be nominated and Ben Affleck should have been nominated for his role as well, at least that’s what I believe; another one who acted wonderfully was the actress who played the twin sister Margo, I really liked her and I loved their relationship as twins, it was so down to earth and real.

I couldn’t help but think at one point, how or where did the author create this person and this scenario in their imagination? The psychotic nature of the villain, the pieces of the puzzle, the manipulative relationship between the wife and her parents, at some point I was thinking that the immensely intelligent wife had far too much time on her hands, all of that power that could have been dedicated to good, but instead was siphoned off to selfish, narcissitic and nefarious purposes. When I compare this story with my own novel, The Chic Bootlegger, which may skirt around the boundaries of the law, but is still so completely innocent; I worry that my readers may get bored because there is no way as much depth or intensity as Gone Girl. What I need to remember I guess is that these are two different genres and my brain isn’t wired to produce psychological thrillers such as this, the author is one heck of an expert into the deranged person’s pysche.

Wow is about all that I can say right now after watching some excellent and twisted storytelling. 

Jupiter Descending: a movie review

Tags

Jupiter Ascending, movie, postaday215, reviews

Remember when I wrote about the movie Strange Magic and how my husband walked out because it so wasn’t what we had imagined it was going to be and we needed some good old fashioned science fiction and adventure. Well today we got exactly what the doctor ordered. Outer space, aliens, explanations about our origins, intergalactic travel and danger, high speed chases, great gadgets and more.

I know that the critics have complained about the plot and storyline, but I didn’t care, the visual ride was simply amazing. The dresses that they put on Mila Kunis were breathtaking as were the costumes the royal family wore out in space. Back on Earth, the aerial scenes involving Channing Tatum, Jupiter (Mila Kunis) and his gravity boots; all that I could think of was that it looked like a high speed ice dance routine played out in the Chicago sky. He, using his gravity boots as high speed skates, twirled Jupiter (Mila Kunis) around his back and the rest of his body and at one point it looked as if they were executing the Death Spiral move which is a real move for Ice Dancers; it was incredible.

I couldn’t handle gravity boots, my horrible clumsiness would guarantee me a long stay in the hospital after many mishaps with my gravity boots gone amok. At the end however we see Channing Tatum’s character be reunited with his wings, he lost them due to a dishonorable discharge from the alien military, and wings I could see myself doing. That would be AWESOME.

I kept thinking of Vincent van Gogh, my favorite painter, each time we came up close to Jupiter the planet with its gaseous outer atmosphere; it seemed filled with the thick, brush strokes which always seem full of movement in many of van Gogh’s priceless tableaux.

I loved the focus on all of the character’s eyes; Mila Kunis as Jupiter with her big dark soulful eyes, Channing Tatum as Kaine and his superior Springer with their almost canine yellowish glint to their normal eyes, it was so well done, one second at certain angles you saw the golden glint and then when they shifted their stance, it disappeared, it was cool.

There were so many issues taken up within the back story and plot line; each of them interesting, greed, entitlement, consumption, commodities,
capitalism, origins, there could be argued far too many to make for a coherent story, but I don’t care. I loved the almost two hours of escapism that I had with this movie.

Fury: a movie review

Tags

Fury, movie, postaday2015, reviews

My husband and I watched the movie “Fury” on Directv and it was an excellent portrayal of war; all of the ugly, scary parts of war. The setting was perfect; rainy, grey and muddy throughout the entire movie. I don’t think that I noticed any blue sky at all. At the end of the movie I felt worn and tired even though I didn’t do anything. The director David Ayer also wrote the movie and I think that he created a portrait of World War II that needed to be seen because that war has long been romanticized and I think that even if we define a war as just, we should never ever forget the horror and the ugliness that by necessity originates in war.

I couldn’t help but put myself in the tank with the youngest soldier, who was all of eighteen and had only been in the war eight weeks, sitting on my couch with Jack curled up on my lap, I was thinking that “okay, I have had enough now, I don’t want to do this anymore” Those poor soldiers who spent years fighting the Germans from Africa, France, Belgium and finally in Germany herself and still the Germans wouldn’t quit; they didn’t have my luxury of turning off the war.

That took me to the recent wars that we have had, Iraq and Afghanistan and our poor soldiers who have faced three, four, five deployments and I don’t know how they do it.

There was one of the last scenes, where a German sniper took aim and fatally shot Brad Pitt who would not go down without a fight and I couldn’t help but think of “American Sniper” and the blowback that Michael Moore received when he tweeted about how his uncle had been killed by a sniper during World War II and he was taught that snipers were cowards. Well in this movie the sniper who killed our “hero” Brad Pitt was the enemy and I could see where Michael Moore was coming from and the context of his family’s experience.

I hate war. You would think that humanity after thousands of years would have evolved by now and it is so disappointing that we have not.

The Maze Runner: a movie review

Tags

movies, postaday2014, reviews, shoes

Today my husband, our son and I went to see The Maze Runner. We weren’t sure what to expect because I have noticed that as of late, the previews have poorly reflected what any movie might be about and so I went into the movie with an open mind waiting for what the story was to unfold.

Before leaving the house, I decided since it was a gorgeous sunny day and we are in October primo fall fashion season, that I would break out my new shoes that my mother got me at the Retail Outlet Mall that we had taken our French friends back in the beginning of September.

I love them!

Back to the movie, we all liked it though it was a muted like. I think that our son thought that it was a little obvious in certain parts. I went along for the ride as I usually do, but I am getting a little tired of the dystopia vision that has graced the movie screens as of late.

In terms of story line, I felt that the movie was a complete psychological and sociological study of crisis management and threat assessment strategies. Basically the habitat was started with one, the future leader of the young men whose name is Alby, and each month one more boy was added, which led to the eventual Lord of the Flies situation, that of course burned itself out, but not before inflicting the necessary psychological scars and maturation in the process. Fast foward to 3 years later and we find the young men operating as a cohesive unit with a few common sense rules to hold them together safely and soundly.

When the new young man arrives, he is different from the others, in that he is curious about the maze that surrounds the glade and wants to find a way out, he has no interest in the status quo. This is in and of itself a wedge issue between some of the original group and the new boy whose name is Thomas. He isn’t effected by the same mindset as the others because he enters their world not having had to work very hard and fight for the security and the safety of the balance that has finally been achieved. You can understand how quite a few would be hesitant to try anything that could lay to waste everything that had been painstakingly built.

What we learn in the end is that this maze is a test because the world and those who ran it have failed mankind and they felt forced to subject the new crop of youngsters to the insane and deadly test to weed out the weak and grow the next generation of tougher and more resilient people.

We are left with the set up for a Maze Runner II and if this one does well, we will see what tests the powers that be determine for the next round.

I’ll be ready for a new ride, though it would be nice is it gets a little more uplifting the next time around.

The Giver: a movie review

Tags

movie, postaday2014, reviews

My husband, our son and I went to see The Giver after we had enjoyed lunch at Arby’s. We had not read the book or even heard of it, but something like that would never stop us from seeing a movie. The story seemed very interesting and that is all that we need, something to lead us away to another land for a few hours.

The idea for the movie/book/story is that at some point the community elders came together and decided that in order to have lasting peace, emotions needed to be taken out of the equation and the past was no longer needed; only one special person would be the carrier of the memories of mankind and there would always be a Giver of the memories and a Receiver of the memories in training; their function was to use the knowledge to give council but still keep the memories secret from the rest of the community.

The idea, given what is going on the world as I write this, can be sort of seductive, are we really mature enough to have all of the technology and sophisticated weaponry without blowing up the world all around us since we can’t keep our fear, prejudices and hatred in check?

The movie does show that without emotion, we get rid of the hate and prejudice, we get rid of inequality, starvation and poverty, but we also get rid of laughter, love, music and art. We may be safe and secure, but we are also colorless and unimaginative. Is life worth living if you can’t feel anything real, is being safe and bland all that we can allow ourselves or are we able to get better?

We enjoyed the movie and it does make you think.

Lucy: a movie review

Tags

movies, postaday2014, reviews

I have a confession to make. It was only when we arrived home from having seen Lucy early this afternoon, that I went online to see what the reviews had to say. Apparently others are far more demanding than either myself or my husband; but there is a common thread between the “experts” and us, Scarlett Johansson is an amazing actress. Her face is so expressive, she can communicate a myriad of emotions with her eyebrows, lips, eyes and position of her head. We were focused on her throughout the movie.

The premiss of the movie was very interesting and very ambitious, but Luc Besson fell into the trap of not having the story idea gel with the other practical realities of the surrounding background. That doesn’t mean that my husband and I did not enjoy ourselves, au contraire we enjoyed it very much. I got to be “in France” for a brief moment and my ears heard a good bit of French, so I was very happy. Paris wasn’t completely destroyed and the world was not under threat of annihilation for a change. Home runs in my book.

If you don’t make it out to the theater for this one; don’t worry, viewing it when it comes out on Red Box will be just as enjoyable.

Earth to Echo: a movie review

Tags

Earth to Echo, movies, posraday2014, reviews

My husband and I went to see Earth to Echo and it was adorable! I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did; I always love movies, but sometimes you go in knowing that you only want to escape so when you are really pulled into the movie, the characters and the action, it feels great.

My husband and I felt the homage to Stephen Speilberg and George Lucas during the entire movie; kids are the best. When and where do we lose that special and unique curiosity that is part of the childhood experience? I know that there are some who never lose it, but they are so incredibly rare. I think that part of the reason that movies like E.T, Star Wars, Super 8 and Earth to Echo are so successful is that these movies remind adults of what it was to be young, hopeful, adventurous and  courageous.

Echo, the center of attention, made me think of R2-D2’s baby brother with his beeps and whistles. I wanted to bring him home with me, not because of anything that Echo could do, but because Echo was so darn cute.

My husband and I were so charmed by the movie, its message, its heart and its innocence, that we talked about the movie the whole drive home. I remember feeling the same way after Super 8; I love movies that are hopeful and uplifting and when they are that way because kids are driving the story, even better.

Maleficent: movie review

Tags

Maleficent, movie, postaday2014, reviews

Guess what?! My husband and I really enjoyed Maleficent; shocking I know!.
Angelina Jolie was amazing in the movie; she dominated the film completely. I have read other reviews and many of the critics see her performance as both a positive and a negative; that by being such a strong presence she doesn’t allow other components to shine or have as much of an impact that they perhaps should have had; but the critics blamed the director, not Angelina Jolie. I didn’t really see any negative aspect to the movie; the director told a good story; my husband and I understood what the director had in mind; Maleficent has been misunderstood for all of these years. We see Maleficent’s evolution as a character during the entire movie; she isn’t a one note creature; she is complicated, full of emotion and passion. We see that in her relationships within the fairy world and with her relations in the human world.

My husband and I particularly liked Maleficent’s relationship with her aide, Diaval a crow, but in human form was quite witty and entertaining, their banter was very funny. My favorite part was when we get to see Maleficent and Diaval interact with the baby Aurora and then toddler Aurora; I had a smile the entire time.

Aurora was brilliantly played by Elle Fanning; she glowed and embodied light and radiance. You could see how the animals and everyone could just fall in love with her.

I did like the message within he movie for little ones to pick up; you shouldn’t be mean to people because they are different, stealing is bad, hatred and revenge are bad, forgiveness is wonderful and love can fix things.

I’m glad that we went to see Maleficent; we had a nice afternoon of entertainment.