Movie Reviews

Oceans 8 (2018)


Oceans 8 (2018)

Director:

Gary Ross

Starring:

Sandra Bullock

Cate Blanchett

Anne Hathaway

Helena Bonham Carter

Mindy Kaling

Rihanna

Awkwafina

Sarah Paulson

Plot:

Debbie Ocean gathers an all-female crew to attempt an impossible heist at New York City’s yearly Met Gala.

Review:

I’m a fan of the Ocean’s movies, and all the women in this movie, so I was really excited when it came out. After finally getting to see it I’m very happy with how it turned out.

Sandra Bullock is finally out of prison and she has learned all the wrong lessons. Or maybe the right ones, depending on who you are. She knows exactly what she needs to do to pull off the perfect jewel heist and maybe get some revenge in the process.

In true Ocean’s movie style, everyone is beautiful, the setting it ostentatious, and there’s a twist at the end. I loved it, more please.

I would have loved a bit more background on the characters. They were all so interesting. Sadly, I’m not sure if we’re going to get a sequel, which is a huge bummer. Seriously, Hollywood why would you not want to put all these women in another movie together?

4/5

Tag (2018)

Tag (2018)

Director:

Jeff Tomsic

Starring:

Jeremy Renner

Ed Helms

Jake Johnson

Jon Hamm

Hannibal Buress

Isla Fisher

Plot:

A small group of former classmates organize an elaborate, annual game of tag that requires some to travel all over the country.

Review:

This movie would have been better if it hadn’t been based on a true story. It was wild and crazy until the end where I assume it took a real world turn and then it became depressing and negated all of the fun from the first two thirds.

So five friends have held on to their childhood by setting aside the entire month of May to keep playing a game of tag. They live in separate parts of the country and are adults so they never know when someone is going to show up and tag them. This is definitely something that only works unless you all live in the same town or are wealthy enough to do a lot of traveling. If you were poor you would basically always be excluded or always be it. Which is why it would have been more fun if this wasn’t real world.

Anyway, one of their friends has never been it. I kept waiting for it to be revealed that he was a secret agent, but apparently he’s just that good. You actually never learn what he is so maybe he is a spy.

Hijinks ensue as the friends fight to finally catch him until we discover that one of the friends has cancer and is probably going to die. The movie ends without letting you know if he lives which probably means that he’s dead, which is the worst note to end what was otherwise an entertaining comedy. A comedy that involved lots of outlandish disguises, a fake pregnancy, and a ruined wedding. Seriously, why did they have to include the cancer? Why couldn’t they have kept it all up with the outlandishness?

2/5

Book Club (2018)


Book Club (2018)

Director:

Bill Holderman

Starring:

Diane Keaton

Jane Fonda

Candice Bergman

Mary Steenburgen

Plot:

Four lifelong friends have their lives forever changed after reading 50 Shades of Grey in their monthly book club.

Review:

I find it incredible that four friends have managed to hold a book club for so long. I think they said forty years but I could be off. That’s amazing.

Each of the women were unique in their current relationship status, all believable though somewhat out there, and all at a crossroads. Really, the fact that they were reading the 50 Shades trilogy had very little to do with the story and seems like someone just thought it would be funny for older women to be reading it.

The movie was sweet and I really enjoyed it, but it wasn’t one that stuck with me afterwards. I really appreciated watching a romance that wasn’t staring the typical young white woman, though, the only real change was the age of the women. However, there aren’t many romance movies with women of a certain age so that was a welcome change. Maybe as I get older it will resonate with me more. As is it’s definitely something I would recommend, but not a movie I would re-watch frequently.

4/5

Victoria and Abdul (2017)


Victoria and Abdul (2017)

Director:

Stephen Frears

Starring:

Judi Dench

Ali Fazal

Plot:

Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim.

Review:

I was unaware of Queen Victoria’s relationship and fascination with India before this movie. It was quiet eye opening, though, it’s very obvious that the movie paints things in a very positive light for the queen, though, not actually the country.

Queen Victoria, Judi Dench, is bored with life and basically waiting to die. She hates her children and honestly seems to hate everything about her life but food. Until, one day, Abdul, Ali Fazal, shows up to present a mujer (?) to her. It’s a gold coin.

Fascinated by him, she ends up seemingly becoming obsessed with India. She hires him to teach her everything and finds a new purpose in life. The people around her, especially her son and the heir, are not very thrilled about that, but she’s the queen so they have to get over it.

Judi Dench was amazing, of course, and the story was interesting, but the pacing was kind of off. At first it seemed like this was all happening within a matter of months, but it actually happened over a period of years, but I only know that because of Wikipedia. I feel like they could have done a better job of showing the passage of time instead of trying to make Queen Victoria look like a fat, doddering old person.

Victoria and Abdul was mildly entertaining and presented a new story about an interesting monarch, but it went out of its way to show the titular people in a flattering light.

3/5

Girls Trip (2017)


Girls Trip (2017)

Director:

Malcolm D. Lee

Starring:

Regina Hall

Queen Latifah

Jada Pinkett Smith

Tiffany Haddish

Plot:

When four lifelong friends travel to New Orleans for the annual Essence Festival, sisterhoods are rekindled, wild sides are rediscovered, and there’s enough dancing, drinking, brawling, and romancing to make the Big Easy blush.

Review:

Regina Hall has her life together. Dubbed the new coming of Oprah she sells books and a lifestyle stating that women can have it all and that she is proof. Work hard, play hard, love hard. Everything is perfect.

Of course it’s not. Life is never perfect and people who try to sell that are, duh, selling something.

Deciding that what she really needs is to hook back up with her friends she invites them all to the Essence Festival in New Orleans and she rediscovers what really matters in life. Along the way they drink a ton of booze, ogle a lot of men, fight, make up, and just have a great time together.

This movie was great. It showed so well what it’s like when a bunch of women get together, without being degrading or disparaging. It was raunchy but the jokes were funny and not normally made at someone’s expense. I really enjoyed it.

4.5/5