Movie Reviews

Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)

Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)

Director:

Julien Temple

Writers:

Julie Brown

Charlie Coffey

Terrance E. McNally

Starring:

Geena Davis

Jeff Goldblum

Damon Wayans

Jim Carrey

Julie Brown

Michael McKean

Charles Rocket

Blurb:

A Southern California girl befriends three furry aliens after their spaceship lands in her swimming pool.

Review:

Earth Girls Are Easy is the epitome of an 80s movie on steroids. It’s got the fashion, it’s got the music, it’s got young, sexy Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. Plus, Jim Carey before anyone knew him and Damon Wayans early in his movie career. It is so crazy and ridiculous it was not a surprise to learn that there were issues behind to scenes with the director.

Valerie, Geena Davis, discovers that her long-term boyfriend/fiancé has been having sex with women that weren’t her. She reacts how every woman would. She “sings” while destroying all of his stuff around the house. She smashes his Commodore PC with a bowling ball rolled down skis. Thankfully for her, horny aliens spot her the next day, sunbathing and crash land on Earth.

The aliens are covered in fur and don’t initially speak English, but after hours of watching TV and gallons of Nair, they’re mostly assimilated into the local culture. Mac, Wiploc, and Zeebo are revealed to be young, attractive men with the hair removed. They have incredibly long tongues and a love touch that consumes the person they touch with affection. They are definitely compatible with humans, and sex with them seems to be out of this world. *smirk* Basically, human men would not stand a chance if these aliens decided to take over.

Thankfully(?), that’s not their end goal. They just want their ship dried out and ready to take off, which happens after a few musical numbers, armed robbery, arrests, and a close encounter with a medical professional. As they fly off, Valerie fights off the love touched advances of her ex to tell Mac she wants to go with him. Since he’s her, Mr. Right, he, of course, takes her. I assume that Wiploc and Zeebo continue to be sexually frustrated until they make it back to their homeworld since Valeria cock blocked them at every opportunity.

4/5

The Good Liar (2019)

The Good Liar (2019)

Director:

Bill Condon

Writer:

Jeffrey Hatcher

Starring:

Helen Mirren

Ian McKellen

Russell Tovey

Jim Carter

Blurb:

Consummate con man Roy Courtnay has set his sights on his latest mark: the recently widowed Betty McLeish, worth millions. But this time, what should have been a simple swindle escalates into a cat-and-mouse game with the ultimate stakes.

Review:

**Trigger warning for rape**

I’ve had The Good Liar on my to-watch list on HBO for a while. Mainly because I love Helen Mirren, and with the inclusion of Ian McKellen, I knew the movie had to be good. I was not wrong.

You discover fairly quickly that McKellen’s character is a con man. It takes you a little bit longer to learn just how far he’s willing to take it. I was shocked to see it, but it made the twist at the end absolutely believable.

Mirren’s character, Betty, came off as smart and capable. She seemed to be looking more for companionship than love. She wasn’t a pushover, but she was trusting. Still, I loved that she noticed when he slipped up in his con. It was always little things that could easily be explained away, but she noticed them. She was sharp.

I won’t reveal the twist, but I definitely didn’t see it coming. The ending was a great payoff after the twist was revealed, too, so things weren’t ended on a sour note. The Good Liar was an entertaining film that I’m glad I could take the time to watch.

4/5

Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021)

Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021)

Director:

Josh Greenbaum

Writers:

Annie Mumolo

Kristen Wiig

Starring:

Kristen Wiig

Annie Mumolo

Jamie Dornan

Blurb:

Lifelong friends Barb and Star embark on the adventure of a lifetime when they decide to leave their small Midwestern town for the first time – ever.

Review:

At this point in quarantine, I’m starved for new entertainment. Disney+ TV shows are nice, but I need movies. Movies that I enjoy. Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar hit that mark and then some. It was over the top hilarious, and I can’t count the number of times I laughed out loud.

Barb and Star, Annie Mumolo, and Kristen Wiig, are able to maintain the heaviest Midwest accent out there with ease. They lean hard into the stereotype, and just when it could get boring, they throw you for a loop by doing something completely unexpected. All the while, taking it in stride like it was no big deal. The comfort they have with who they are and the fact that they don’t try to change their base selves is perfect.

The movie is about them getting their groove back, so to say. They’re in a rut after losing both of their husbands. When they were young, they were fun-loving and spontaneous, and that’s missing from their lives.

Barb and Star isn’t just about them rediscovering themselves. There is a mass murder plot and a romance. Seriously, the film has it all, and yet it doesn’t feel like it’s trying to accomplish too much. It doesn’t feel rushed and hits all the comedy beats. I hope to see more from Wiig and Mumolo in the future. They seem like a match made in heaven.

I watched this movie through Amazon’s Prime video rental.

4/5

To All the Boys I’ve Loved: Always and Forever (2021)

To All the Boys: Always and Forever (2021)

Netflix Movie

Director:

Michael Fimognari

Writers:

Katie Lovejoy

Starring:

Lana Condor

Noah Centineo

Blurb:

Continuing the romantic life of the teenage girl and facing her good and hard times with her friends and family.

Thoughts:

I’m going to do thoughts instead of a review for Always and Forever. For me, there is a difference. I try to be more objective with a review. Not so much with just my thoughts.

Everyone in this movie is beautiful and perfect, inside and out, which was sweet. It’s the end of the trilogy, but it was more like a giant epilogue for the other movies, which was boring.

There is almost no conflict. Nothing new is really introduced, nothing that makes a huge impact at least. I guess you could argue that Peter’s relationship with his dad is new, but that literally takes place in the last twenty or so minutes of the movie. There’s the college selection, but you always knew that was coming. They’re in high school and wealthy. It was assumed they were going to college. The father gets married in the end, but he’d already started dating someone in the last movie, so you knew he’d moved on from Lara Jean’s mother.

If you’re a super-fan of the characters, then Always and Forever was made for you. Which, of course, you’re watching the third movie in a series, naturally you’re going to love the characters. What I’m saying is, there is nothing new here. So if that’s what you’re looking for, then you’re not getting it.

I didn’t expect it to go past high school, but I don’t get the same closure from finishing high school as I’ve gotten older. High school was never a be all end all for me. It was something I had to get through. So, I’m setting expectations.

What is it with the jocks now getting into Ivy League schools? This happened in Always and Forever and The Kissing Booth. While Peter has never seemed more than average intelligence, the Kissing Booth’s dude always came off as a little below average. Yet, there they are in Harvard and Stanford. I guess we’re no longer pretending you get into those schools on merit alone? The bad guys are no longer the ones that buy their way into the schools, it’s now the good guys too?

It’s possible I was in the wrong mood for Always and Forever. I wasn’t in any kind mood at all, so who knows. I love each of the actors in the movie, and I’m looking forward to more from them. I’m just not sure this movie needed to be made.

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Recently, for an unknown reason, I organized all of my movies by release year. It worked out to around three-hundred and seventy movies. I ended up purging a few older Disney movies available on Disney+ that I didn’t feel the need to own anymore. Still, that’s a lot of movies.

I tend only to buy movies when I really like them. Sometimes if it’s a movie I liked and I find it cheap. Those movies tend to be digital, though. I’m hoping to find movies that I can get rid of, for space reasons. Because of my buying strategy, I don’t expect to find many.

My oldest movie is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which came out in 1937. Followed by The Wizard of Oz and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I want to make a blog post about each movie, but I might combine movie posts. If I’ve just got a couple of sentences worth of thoughts, I don’t see the point in posting. More than likely, I’ll end up varying because some movies I will have stronger opinions on.

I don’t know what spurred on this desire. At first, the compiling of the list was just out of curiosity. It’s not something I’ve ever thought about, and I wanted to know. Once the spreadsheet was created, it felt only natural to watch them all. So that’s what I will be doing in 2021. I doubt that I’ll do it all in one year, it will depend on the year, but my plan is to watch the movies in order with no jumping. At least now I won’t have to agonize over what to watch.