Movie Reviews

Ready Player One (2018)


Ready Player One (2018)

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Starring:

Ty Sheridan

Olivia Cooke

Ben Mendelsohn

Lena Waithe

Mark Rylance

Plot:

When the creator of a virtual reality world called the OASIS dies, he releases a video in which he challenges all OASIS users to find his Easter Egg, which will give the finder his fortune.

Review:

I read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline back in 2011 when it came out and I freaking loved it. I gave it to my dad as a Christmas gift that year and everything. Sure it was packed full of 80s references but it was fun! I will judge all VR by the VR in the game and it will probably never live up to that in my lifetime. I never went back and read it again, even though I own it on hardback, and after watching the movie I’ve realized it did not age well.

Wade Watts, Ty Sheridan, lives in the stacks in Columbus, OH. His parents are dead and his aunt is “raising” him, her abusive boyfriend is clearly the priority though. Wade spends all of his time in the OASIS, which is the VR world. That’s where everyone lives. Wade doesn’t seem to have a job or go to school instead he is a gunter, he hunts for Easter eggs to unlock the dead creator of the OASIS billions.

Wade is a pretty one note character, there is almost no depth here. He lives and breathes Halliday, Mark Rylance, and everything that Halliday loved so that he can win the contest. Somehow, even after thirty years or so, Wade figures it all out and against all odds wins.

Naturally, there’s a girl, Olivia Cooke. There’s a romance here, but you never really figure out why Samantha likes him. She seems to have more depth than him, she wants more, and is leading a resistance or something, and yet she falls for the nerd that can’t tell you anything about the real world. It’s very wish fulfillment and disappointing.

Visually, the movie is shot beautifully, of course, Steven Spielberg. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really save the movie for me. It was nice to hear the random 80s theme song notes every now and then too. It’s just…the world has changed since this book came out. I’ve changed. Seeing a white boy with no thought to anything outside of old pop culture just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

There were lots of changes from the book, there would have to be in something like this, however, I felt like most of the changes were not for the better. All in all, it was a pretty disappointing movie and I’m kind of scared to ever go back and read the book.

2/5

When We First Met (2018)

When We First Met (2018)

Director:

Ari Sandel

Starring:

Adam Devine

Alexandra Daddario

Shelley Hennig

Plot:

Noah spends the perfect first night with Avery, the girl of his dreams, but gets relegated to the friend zone. He spends the next three years wondering what went wrong – until he gets the unexpected chance to travel back in time and change that night – and his fate – over and over again.

Review:

We’ve got another Netflix movie that’s dealing with time travel and douche bags that “learn” the wrong lesson. A “nice guy” became friends with a girl but felt he deserved more so through a magical photo booth he gets lots of do overs. Eventually he realizes that his true love was her friend after all.

This movie made me furious. I’m assuming since it wasn’t funny at all that it was a romance and not a romcom, but this was a shit romance. In Groundhog Day Bill Murray realizes that Andie MacDowell isn’t a prize to be won, he learns how to love himself. In this movie Noah, Adam Devine, does not learn these things. He continues to act like a woman is a prize to be conned into dating him.

After failing to manipulate his way into getting the woman that he felt he deserved he realizes that they don’t work together. Instead of taking that realization and learning from it, learning to live his life and be himself, he decides that he had it wrong all along. The universe wasn’t trying to get him together with Alexandra Daddario it was trying to get him together with her roommate, Shelley Hennig. That is not growth at all.

I absolutely hate the “nice guy” trope. Nobody wants to be with that guy not because they’re “nice” but because they suck. They feel like they deserve a woman for reasons. They put in the work, they were witty and funny and laughed at their jokes, the woman owes them now. At the very least she should put out. Fuck that incel shit.

What the hell is going on at Netflix? Between this movie and Set it Up I have no hope for any future romance releases by them, unless they’re holiday related. Though dear god I hope they don’t fuck up any future holiday releases. Seriously, Netflix get your shit together. Why are you having such a hard time with romance?

1/5

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)


Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Director:

Peyton Reed

Starring:

Paul Rudd

Evangeline Lily

Michael Peña

Michael Douglas

Michele Pfeiffer

Laurence Fishburne

Hannah John-Kamen

Plot:

As Scott Lang balances being both a Super Hero and a father, Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym present an urgent new mission that finds the Ant-Man fighting alongside The Wasp to uncover secrets from their past.

Review:

Clearly the person to see here is the Wasp, Evangeline Lily. Sure Ant-Man, Paul Rudd, is the known hero, but come on, Wasp is where it’s at. She kicks ass, keeps her cool in all situations, makes the right decisions, and is smart enough to keep up with her genius father. She is the total package.

Ant-Man who?

Oh yeah, Paul Rudd, America’s sweetheart, a man who is both hilarious and attractive (though sadly no ab scenes in this movie), the man my husband has a crush on, one of the titular characters of the movie. The hero that’s on a first name basis with Captain America, Cap, Steve Rogers. The adorable father or an impossibly precocious little girl.

Ant-Man.

Together the two work well. Wasp is the brain, Ant-Man the heart. I did feel that Ant-Man wasn’t as smart as he was in the first movie. He’s not an idiot, but he’s definitely outshone in the brains department and they didn’t really give him an opportunity to display his smarts.

Michael Peña had an opportunity to tell another story, which I loved and it was great to see the other side characters from the first movie have their moment. I love Hannah John-Kamen from Killjoys so I was happy to see her here.

SPOILERS!!!

What I liked most about the Ghost was that her ending is really unknown. Like Nebula from the Guardians of the Galaxy, she’s still alive and her future motivations are unclear. Is she going to return to being an assassin? Is she never going to be seen again? Is she going to be a hero now? We don’t know! It’s nice to not end the movie with killing the villain.

I do wish we’d had more of the beautiful and talented Michele Pfeiffer, and with that first end credit scene we have no idea what’s going to happen and if we’ll see her again. She has powers, she’s smart, who knows??

That first end credit scene…damn. I’m more excited than ever to see what happens next in the Marvel universe. They have been on a roll lately and while Ant-Man and the Wasp wasn’t amazing, probably not in my top five favorite Marvel movies, it’s still a solid addition to the series and brings me a female hero that I absolutely love.

4.5/5

The Incredibles 2 (2018)


The Incredibles 2 (2018)

Director:

Brad Bird

Starring:

Holly Hunter

Craig T. Nelson

Sarah Vowell

Huck Milner

Samuel L. Jackson

Plot:

Bob Parr (Mr. Incredible) is left to care for the kids while Helen (Elastigirl) is out saving the world.

Review:

This is the first movie I took my daughter to see in theaters, because of that I did miss parts of the movie because I was focusing more on her and she does not know how to plan a bathroom break lol.

The Parr family is back and just as good as before, even after such a long break. This time around instead of a husband trying to relive the glory days he’s trying to take over the job of mom so that Elastigirl, Holly Hunter, can prove to the world that supers deserve to be able to fight crime.

I loved that Elastigirl got her chance to shine. She’s smart and capable and a total badass. In the first movie she was mostly a mom, just trying to keep everyone safe and on track, while Mr. Incredible, Craig T. Nelson, got to go out and save the day. She saved him, which was nice, but it was more of a mom thing than a superhero thing. In 2 she gets to have that superhero spotlight and you see why she was a beloved hero.

Mr. Incredible was very much in the traditional father role in the first movie. He went to work, backed up his wife’s parenting decisions (when he wasn’t accidently undermining them), and tried to find ways to hold on to his hero persona. The role reversal in The Incredibles 2 was a relief. He started out dismissive of what his wife did, learned he was wrong, and figured out the best way for him to handle things. He loved his kids and of course rose to the occasion.

Naturally, it took the whole family to save the world from the villain. We also got to see a whole new group of superheros as well as the most important superhero of all, Frozone! He’s my daughter’s favorite so she was super excited when he showed up.

There were some dark moments, but I wouldn’t say as dark as Toy Story 3, and a very long warning at the beginning about possible seizures, still I had no problem with my four year old watching the movie.

5/5

Letters to Juliet (2010)


Letters to Juliet (2010)

Director:

Gary Winick

Starring:

Amanda Seyfried

Gael Garcia Bernal

Vanessa Redgrave

Christopher Egan

Plot:

Sophie dreams of becoming a writer and travels to Verona, Italy where she meets the “Secretaries of Juliet”.

Review:

I was in the mood for a light Romance and this just popped up on Amazon Prime movies so I figured why not. I watched this years ago and remember it being really romantic. I’m not sure what I watched all those years ago but I did not feel much romance. Maybe I was in the wrong mood?

The setting and plot are all super romantic, Italy, finding a long lost love, but the two young leads had almost no chemistry. They also just sort of happened. Amanda Seyfried’s character was engaged, her fiancé was just sort of there, it was clear they weren’t working. She argued with Christopher Egan’s character a lot, he was a pessimistic ass, but it’s okay because he’s a lawyer for human rights. It was all just sort of eh.

The best part was the ending. Finally, all the passion and chemistry I expected made itself known, though, Seyfried was a bit flat in the buildup. Whatever, it was something sweet to have on in the background.

3/5