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Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Here Is Another Chance To Delve Deep Into Your Imagination
In 1922, T. S. Eliot wrote :a poem called "The Wasteland" and the concepts of this poems suddenly appeared in numerous writings of many famous authors. Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Hawthorne, and many others told us what Elliot told us, in the poem: that through greed, lust, and anger, the human race is turning the Earth into a Wasteland. In the Original Wonder Woman, Aries, prior to Elliot's poem, (during Would War I) sees this problem, and as a result wants to destroy the human race. Wonder Woman believes despite the fact that humans are terrible, there is something good about humans and fights Aries to save the human race. ("It is not about what you deserve, it's about what you believe, and I believe in love"). In the end of that movie, Wonder Woman stays with the human race in order to help humanity with its problems. Fast forward to 1984, and this movie. Another character like Aries, has created a stone, that will grant wishes to the humans. That character knows that humans will have wishes that are very short sighted and that the wishes coming true will turn into a terrible situations. The stone also enables the person to retract their wish. The Stone falls into the hands of someone who can broadcast its power all aver the world, so everyone can have a wish come true. This movie climaxes around the question of whether, people around the world, including Wonder Woman herself, will be strong enough to let go of the things they wished for. These are thought provoking concepts for one to think about.
Harvey (1950)
A Feel Good Movie
As the movie begins you may see it as a comedy. As you watch the early scenes you see the possible comedy at the expense of someone who may not be in control of himself. As the story moves on you begin to see the impact this person has on others and the person is so positive that it is infectious.
The story focuses on Elwood Dowd played by Jimmy Stewart, who has a friend. Some people see Elwood as having a problem, centering on his friend. But the story also presents startling possibilities. The possibilities become more the focus of the movie as we begin to get to know Elwood better. In the end this movie makes one feel good. . .
Annie Hall (1977)
Not Funny. Not Entertaining, A Little Warm Hearted
This is a slightly warmhearted story of a person eventually breaking out of some personal issues for the sake of love. However, the movie is not funny and has little entertainment value, except for what I point out in the.first sentence.
There is a possibility that my thinking was influenced by the fact this was the movie the followed the prior year Academy Award winner. For me this would be more than a let down, and more of a fall-off-the-cliff down when compared to that often televised movie that has 7 sequels to date. Chances are you might be familiar with that movie, "Rocky".
Musically this was in a word, terrible, Annie Hall who is played by Diane Keaton, is a singer, who sings some of the worst music ever written. If they cut those songs out of the movie, it would have been a better movie,
The movie focuses on Alvie Singer who is played by Woody Allen, This person is breathtakingly self centered. He is also the character that lives the over-examined life The more I watched this, the less I cared about him. Again, my thinking about this lead character, might be influenced by the fact this movie followed Rocky as the Academy Award winner.
I saw this movie on TV decades ago, but could not make it through to the end. I bought a copy of the DVD, decades ago, but never watched it. Considering someone gave this movie an Academy Award, as "Best Picture", I watched it completely last evening.. Chances are, I will never watch this again.
Dirty Dancing (1987)
A Story Hidden In Plain Sight of The Viewer
The music was fantastic, especially the climactic song, "The Time of My Life". The movie title does mention something that is a small portion of the movie, "Dirty Dancing".
The movie is a form of romantic story of two dance partners, that fall in love with one another. The courage of one of these two (Baby played by Jennifer Grey) causes the other (johnny Castle played by Patrick Swayze) to show his courage at the end.
But the dance in the climax is the key part of the story. This dance and the dance moves were worked on all summer by the couple in secret. For Johnny Castle the Dance is who he is and who he has been throughout the movie. For Baby, however, this dance is who she has been in secret.
In everyone's eyes, up to this point in the movie, Baby or Frances is a terribly shy and very untalented young innocent girl. However, Johnny Castle knows who she really is and enables her to show her talent off in the climactic dance to the astonishment of her family and others. This scene with the great song at the end makes the movie a pretty good experience.
Family Ties: The Real Thing: Part 2 (1985)
From Alex's View
I watched this episode and saw Alex's view of it.
A romantic story of a girl Ellen, who has two pursuers, Alex and Dennis.
Ellen has accepted Dennis' Marriage proposal and is planning to marry him immediately, that weekend in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. So she is taking a train that night to Lancaster.
We did not see Dennis' view of the situation.
When Alex drives 7 hours across two states to try to beat Ellen's train into Lancaster, he believes that all he needs to do is tell Ellen how he feels, because he has not yet done so. Somehow Alex telling Ellen that he loves her, will change everything.
However, prior to that Alex also had thoughts of enjoying a big gathering that night of the Economics Faculty in a Tuxedo with another girl, his girlfriend Trish, and forgetting all about Ellen.
Actually neither of those results are realistic.
If you watch this, think about how this situation looks from the unseen and unheard Dennis' view.
This episode also gave us the often heard song "At This Moment" by Billy Vera and The Beaters which was a good song..
17 Again (2009)
Don't Blow It
This movie is being shown on cable quite a lot lately. It is not very funny, although it can make a person chuckle one or two times. Mostly the comedy is slapstick, a nonsensical, so, I would not recommend it a a comedy. This is really more of a feel good movie and it does have a pretty good feel good message.
If you regret your life,
chances are you will make the same decisions if you had to do it over again, so do not spend your life regretting what you have or have not got.
Regretting your life will cause you to mess up your life and make decisions that leave you unhappy.
The feel good portion of this movie is summed up in the final scene when the main character's friend give him a gift of a whistle, which ties into the fact that he has landed a job as the high school basketball coach, but also ties into the fact that he has messed up his life by regretting his decisions. Now the main character gets a second chance so he is told "Dont blow it.".
Every Which Way But Loose (1978)
Not hilarious but it has some comedy and a bit more realism
As a comedy this movie leaves a little to be desired. It has some comedy, most especially fights with bikers and actions of an orangutan. It has some realism, as well, in numerous places in the movie, most especially the ending. It is basically entertaining, despite not being real funny.
All of the things that were entertaining in this movie were emphasised far more in the sequel, "Any Which Way You Can".
So, I recommend to see that one, first.
The Bling Ring (2013)
The Successful Vapid Attracts the Attention of the Not So Sucessful Vapid
Based on the publicity and the advertising, you may think this movie is about Emma Watson and her girlfriends.
This movie is focused on the character Marc played by Israel Broussard,
Emma Watson is Nicolette and very much a side character, if that. Although some of the comedy is focused on her and her mother played by Leslie Mann. .
This movie shows a relationship that Marc had with his morally bankrupt girlfriend, from his viewpoint. It also shows the influence that couple's stealing had over the other morally bankrupt kids in the movie. It also shows how far off, Nicolette's mother is in understanding or communicating with her daughters.
It deals with an interesting view of the vapid, and self-centeredness between super vapid - self centered celebrities and these identically vapid and self centered kids who are focused on them, and ironically stealing from them.
The Director (Ms. Copula) focused some of the shots on things like, Lindsay Lohan having her first name in neon lights, on her mirror in her house,
and
Paris Hilton having pictures of herself on her numerous pillows throughout her house.
The Director also seemed to make a statement by showing numerous shots of Security personnel watching these kids "in the act" on Security cameras. The statement was something to the effect of, these stars are so selfish and have so many possessions that if they did not have security cameras, they would never know someone was stealing from them!
Put another way, they never missed the stolen items.
Sexy?
Yeah, there are sexy teenage girls in the movie, and the moral bankruptcy of the pretty girls, does have some shock value and I am not just talking about stealing in saying that.
But all in all, it really makes a person sad to see what happens here, in what could
be one of the most depressing movies ever made.
Happy Death Day 2 U (2019)
A Fair Sequel But With Far More Complex Plot Lines And Missing Life Lessons
It is hard to review this movie, without considering the original on which this movie was based: "Happy Death Day".
However, in a similarity to Happy Death Day, revisiting Groundhog Day, this movie attempts to revisit "Back To The Future" in some way. However, whatever it tried to do in that respect was pretty difficult to understand. There are many scientific and physics concepts discussed during this movie. As with Back To The Future, one moral of the movie seemed to be: when scientist break something important, they feel a moral obligation to strive through all difficulty to fix that something.
Back To The Future had other important life lessons, that were more central to the success of that movie. Those were missing from this movie. Groundhog Day, and Happy Death Day had great life lessons, that were also not at the center of this movie, if present at all.
This movie presented a major choice for the main character "Tree" to decide on before the ending. I understood the powerful conflict that choice related to. I understand how some people may have chosen differently. That choice represented the main positive for the movie, and to tell the truth
I liked the ending,
It was the main thing to like in this movie.
.
Flashdance (1983)
A Good Message About Following Your Dream
This musical movie shows several unsuccessful people who had dreams that they eventually gave up on. We see a cook, who wishes to become a comedian and follows his dream to Los Angeles only who have his dream crushed. We also see a skater who follows her dream to skate in a big show, but falls several times causing her to give up on her dream.
We also see Hanna a former ballerina who never became the star, and is mentoring a young lady named Alex. Alex is played by Jennifer Beals, and is a welder working for Nick (Michael Nouri). Alex also works as a FlashDancer in a bar at night, expressing herself in various costume dances,to music in front of a large appreciative audience.
As Nick gets involved with Alex we find out her dream is to become a ballerina, but she has no ballerina training and is fearful of the judgment and possible rejection in auditing for a ballerina company. She also saw dreams of her friends being crushed by reality, and feels it will happen to her. There is a quite a internal struggle within Alex regarding the audition for the Ballerina company.
The power of Music is a key element in the movie. Alex's father once told her, "if you close your eyes you can see the music". This statement is key in the outcome in the movie. This meaning music can make you see, feel and sometimes do powerful things. There is an important scene done to the song "What A Feeling" a powerful uplifiting song.
Glass (2019)
Be Prepared To Be Surprised
I saw the advertising for the movie, and felt it was going to be a movie about the battle between David Dunn, The Hero and the Beast identity of "The Split" who would be the bad guy. The start and a large portion of the movie focuses on this, issue.
One could say the success of this movie was mainly due to a great advertising campaign. The advertising focused on the aforementioned battle, and under emphasised another struggle taking place during this movie. That other Struggle relates to the name of the movie, and another character in this movie. That struggle which is evident throughout the movie has a surprise secret motive, that comes to light near the end. That other struggle will surprise you will not see the ending hich is the response to the other struggle, coming.
The Breakfast Club (1985)
When John Hughes Writes a Movie He is Sometimes Very Understated
John Hughes wrote this movie, This movie is very serious, Five teenagers spend a day in detention, and at the beginning they do not know how similar they are. They discover by the end, they are all similar, despite being parts of differing social groups in the school.
Claire, (the Princess) played by Molly Ringwald and Bender (the Criminal) played by Judd Nelson belong to social groups that are the farthest apart from each other. Alison, (the Basket Case) played by Ally Sheedy is highly attracted to one of the guys in detention by can not get him to notice her, Brian (the Brain, played by Anthony Michael Hall) puts the words to almost all of the feeling.s in the detention room The target of Alison's interest is Andy (The Athlete) played by Emilio Estevez.
Claire sees what is going on, with Alison and decides to give Alison a solution to her problem with Andy, and at the end, Andy and Alison are a couple.
This decision on Claire's part is brought on by Brian, when he asks, "What's gonna happen on Monday? Will we still be friends?" That questions causes Bender to shellshock Claire with a loud, "As far as you and I ever walking down the hall together, you can forget about it!" Which causes Claire to cry and later to look at her life. You might be able to tell at that point she makes the decision she no longer cares what her friends in her social group think at all!. Later, after helping Alison, Claire takes charge and moves on Bender, and Bender responds favorably.
And Brian explains the meaning of the movie with the Letter at the end.
Happy Death Day (2017)
A Great Story of Personal Growth Combined With a Murder Mystery
This movie is a revisit to the 1993 movie "Groundhog Day" and improved with a murder mystery. Tree is the main character and is murdered at the end of the day on her birthday, and she relives her birthday/deathday everyday. She is murdered by someone wearing a mask. She believes she has to solve her murder to end this reliving the day loop. she is stuck in.
She is a real jerk at the start of the movie. She has a long list of possible suspects, for her murder because she is such a jerk. As we watch her relive the day over and over again, she begins to see what a jerk she is and why someone wants her dead. She also starts to grow into a good person.
She eventually discovers who she wants to be, and who she wants to be with. She eventually sees all of the people she is involved with, and sees how to change their view of her. Finally she figures out who the real killer is, and how the murder is taking place,
and
Well you know.
Creed (2015)
Retread The Original Rocky For the Second Time But It Works Again
Creed is the 7th installment in the Rocky franchise. This time we follow Apollo Creed's son, Adonis Creed. He appears lost at the start of the movie, as he tries to make a name for himself in a boxing gym.
Adonis seeks help in Philadelphia from Rocky Balboa, whom he calls "Unc". Rocky refuses, but eventually takes the kid under his wing and trains him, similar to the way he was trained. Rocky shows his intellect here, far more than in Rocky V when he managed another fighter. For that matter, although his intellect was prevalent in Rocky Balboa. in Creed, Rocky shows his intellect more than ever.
What does Rocky get smarter as he gets older?
Most significant for me, is that he takes Adonis to the Front Street Gym, where I used to box, when it was under another name. Adonis gets a girlfriend during the movie, also. Rocky has his own battles to deal with as he has a cancer issue, that does not appear resolved at the end.
This climaxes with a fight between Adonis and the champ. of the light heavyweight division. They gave that a touch of Hollywood, and a touch realism at the same time. This complete with very inspiring music, made this worth watching and even buying the DVD.
Magnum P.I. (2018)
Give It A Chance
I used to watch Magnum religiously as I wanted to look like Tom Selleck and felt he was not very hard to imitate.
I noted he was usually at odds with Jonathan Higgins, an uptight guy, who controlled the Masters estate and the two dogs, Zeus and Apollo. Now Higgins is a woman. This creates a new dynamic.
Higgins and Magnum had a lot of verbal sparring, in the old Magnum PI, but now, in the new show, you wonder, if there is something going on underneath.
Moonlighting did this, also, in a similar way, and sure enough, a number of episodes into the series, there was something going on underneath. .
So, will Ms. Higgins and the new Magnum ever get together; or will they just continue this verbal sparring till the show is cancelled?
Give it a chance, and find out.
. .
A Simple Favor (2018)
Fantastic Plot
This is a simple review of "A Simple Favor". It is simply one of the most complex and well written plots I ever saw. It has many twists and turns and keeps the viewer guessing from the beginning, to the end.
The movie does NOT have some standards for successful movies:
Great inspirational music (In Rocky movies, Karate Kid movies and many other movies - but - Not Here in "A Simple Favor")
Tremendous cheering and big crowd for the protagonists (In Rocky movies, Karate Kid movies and many other movies - but - Not Here in "A Simple Favor")
Easily Identified Hero In many many movies - But not in A Simple Favor
Great Drama - Well it has Drama - But I have seen more Dramatic Stories
But it has a Fantastic and intriguing plot and some comedic items as well,
La La Land (2016)
It was supposed to have great music but, it falls a little short
Since this movie won two Academy Awards and two Golden Globes for the music, I expected to be devastated by the musical score.
Musically, it has some nice songs, but, it did not come close to:
"The Holiday", "Rocky", "Secretariat", "Superman", "Wonder Woman" and I could name many more.
It was more on the order of Moulin Rouge, but even there, musically, it still fell very far short.
Story wise, it left, more than a lot to be desired.
First, the ending is more like a David Lynch movie and leaves one wondering where the dream ends and the reality is. That is not a major negative, but it is a little annoying.
Then of course there is a lot of the story left out near the end, so, it again leaves one wondering, if this is reality...how did we get here. I wanted to see the rest of the story that was left out near the end.
Then of course the ending is not motivational, rather it is more,
...
realistic
and
the movie sets us up for something magical, that we were hoping to be wonderful. In other words, the ending is a let down from the direction the movie was heading.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
The Ugly Side of Humanity
This is an ugly movie about the ugly side of human existence. The movie is based around a character bent on revenge, that in her mind is taking the form of justice. The hero of the movie is someone I could not stand and the story recounts how much good luck she has in being vengeful.
As far as comedy is concerned...this is not a comedy, very far from it.
As far as drama is concerned it takes the reverse sexist direction of Wonder Woman to an extreme indicating men are a waste. A very ugly movie.
Happy Accidents (2000)
Great Concept, and Even Better Climax
Movies are often about the Climax or Ending, and this is no exception. The story is about the life of Ruby (Marissa Tomei) and Sam (Denofreo) and their on again off again romance. It was written and put together in a most intelligent way, that gets a viewer to a climactic ending. It clues the viewer in little by little until we get to the ending. Each clue opens your mind. Or one can take another look at the clues in a way that explains them differently.
Like Ruby who is looking at a photograph in the climactic scene, on a certain intersection of two familiar streets,
we are never certain of what we are dealing with...
until the final shot in the movie...
which is of that particular photograph,
which puts the movie together and makes it clear to the viewer,
as it did to Ruby.
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)
Follow a Nice Couple, Worth Following... And Some Gum
I have bought the DVD and watched this at least 25 times, since I first saw it on cable last fall. I found this to be a tremendous feel good movie. I also listen to the music quite often, and really liked "Last Words" by the Real Tuesday Weld and Ottoman by Vampire Weekend. There are some other songs that are good in the movie, and they fit the mood of the movie, with the music.
I saw many episodes of "Two Broke Girls", and I have seen the "Thor" movies and used to wonder why Cat Dennings is famous. I now know why she is famous. She is adorable in this movie. Her smile absolutely rocks the screen. When you meet her character Norah Silverberg, you quickly see she is about loyalty and self sacrifice. Norah is far from the wise cracking woman Cat plays on Two Broke Girls. When you get to know Norah, it makes a person want her to come out on top, somehow.
Nick is played by Michael Cera who attempts to add some comedy to the movie. Then there is Ari Gaynor playing Caroline. She represents a lot of the comedy in the movie and she delivers all the way through the movie. Some people reviewing this have said, Ari steals the show, but, there are some gross things that take place with her also.
The movie also features Nick's gay friends Dev and Thom (Rafi Gavron and Arron Woo) who ironically show far more sense about girls and women than Nick does.
Best of all is where the movie goes with Tris who is played very well by Alexis Dziena. I don't often comment on acting, but Alexis can express more with the look on her face than most actresses can.
There is also a piece of gum in the movie, that makes it through from early in the movie to the end.
All and All This movie is a Feel Good Experience.
.
Tank Girl (1995)
Back in 1995 I was Lookinng For A Sexy Movie and I Found It But Not The Way I Expected
It was a Sunday in April 1995, and that I would find this Tank Girl Movie I saw advertised. I though Tank Girl being a bad ass woman would also be sexy, as I was into that sort of thing. I had to drive about 30 miles to find a theatre that still had it, and finally I found one in another State. Obviously this being a couple weeks after Tank Girl came out, this meant the movie did not do well.
I watch Tank Girl and did not realize I was watching the same Lori Petty who played "Kit" the sister of the Baseball Star in "A League Of Our Own". Despite being a badass chick who always rode a Tank, Tank Girl herself was far from sexy. The hair the, tattoos, and the way she dressed, and other things about her were just too manly to be sexy,to me. The movie also interjected Cartoons of Tank Girl throughout, that at times were sexy, but most of the time were not.
The movie was really not very entertaining either and featured the typical cliché bad guys, who were, about as predictable as watching clock movement. This movie did not feature any deep thinking, or any original ideas, and was simply meant to entertain us with snappy and sometimes "Off The Wall" one liners from the Tank Girl throughout, which gets old after a while. There is also interspecies issues in the movie, and the less I think about those...the better.
I was kind of falling asleep in the theatre. when I noticed that one of women in the movie was changing, that being Jet Girl played by Naomi Watts (with dark hair). At that point without giving too much away, Jet Girl goes from a mumbling, mousy under-confident, and quite unattractive, glasses wearing woman to extremely sweet looking and pretty and at that very same moment...
shockingly sadistic and brutal.
This contrasting change-over that indicates the prettier, the more brutal, was very shocking and for me super sexy!
Jet Girl's changeover is the one thing, I will always remember about this movie.
All the Money in the World (2017)
It Will Keep You On The Edge of Your Seat
This movie has a lot of tension and drama that will keep you on the edge of your seat. It recounts the true event of a kidnapping of a billionaire's grandson, and what takes place because of it.
Parts of the movie might lead you to think it is drawing to a close, but it continues several times after points like that.
There is a disclaimer indicating that some of the events were made up for dramatic effect, so I don't know how much is true, or even realistic.
It also has many scenes that teach about the various methods of making money. This movie may also teach about why people may not to make money.
Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)
Similar To Other Pitch Perfects But, Missing Something
The women of Pitch Perfect are in this movie, but some of the great things about the first two are missing. Anna Kendrick rocks the screen again with her fantastic smile. There are some good songs in it for, example the song "Freedom". But the great appeal of Pitch Perfect is missing somewhere. It is replaced by stories of women having difficulty dealing with being out of College.
There is also a bad sub plot about Fat Amy effectively being...super girl when in a fight. This simply does not work and is hardly believable, entertaining or even interesting. As with the first two, the music still is the reason to watch this, but it is not a good as the music in the first two.
Wonder (2017)
Very Positive
This movie is an attempt to give you two hours of uplift. It is the story of August Pullman as he enters school for the first time in his life in the fifth grade. The reason he is entering school in the fifth grade is that his mother has home schooled him until 5th grade. The reason for him being home schooled, is that he was born with a deformed face and his parents were afraid of him having to deal with other children.
As the story continues, he suffers through some heartbreak dealing with being around other children and their cruel comments.
Eventually he adjusts and develops a series of friends and we get an unexplained and somewhat unrealistic but very positive ending. The movie also brings up Precepts and their value in life.
One of the Precepts:
"When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind."
-Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
harkens back to a comment from Elwood P. Dowd of "Harvey".
""In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."
The movie is a positive experience and may not appeal to everyone.
The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)
You might know the unsurprising ending, but it is worth a view
This is the movie about Charles Dickens and how he wrote "A Christmas Carol". It may or may not be a realistic version of the events.
A Christmas Carol for those who have not seen it, is an very uplifting story of an odious self centered miser who is visited by four ghosts one Christmas eve, and as a result has a change of heart and changes things around him.
Most probably have seen some movie version of "A Christmas Carol". Or perhaps some might have read the book. To some degree this movie brings up many familiar lines from those movies and the book, and you see those lines originating. You see the things happening that inspired Dickens to write the book and how they reflect the theme of the book. You even see some of Scrooge in Dickens, and like a Christmas Carol, you see a change in Dickens' heart which gets you to the ending of A Christmas Carol.
Therefore like A Christmas Carol, this is an uplifting story. Although you might see the ending coming.