Easter Parade (1948)
I wish the Blu Ray had this cover

I wish the Blu Ray had this cover

Easter Parade (1948)

Director:

Charles Walters

Starring:

Judy Garland

Fred Astaire

Peter Lawford

Plot:

A nightclub performer hires a naive chorus girl to become his new dance partner to make his former partner jealous and to prove he can make any partner a star.

Review:

This is basically a dancing My Fair Lady, well more focused on dancing. Love Fred Astaire and Judy Garland and this is one of my favorite musicals.

Judy Garland’s character naturally falls in love with Fred Astaire, though, I’ll be honest I was always more into Peter Lawford.

Watching it again for the first time in years I was actually a little disappointed in Garland’s character. I wish she hadn’t fallen in love with him so quickly. That’s just my modern femaleness getting in the way. Just have to turn off my brain and absorb the romance, pretty music, and awesome hats. Love the clothes in this movie.

I liked how fiery she was at the end. I like my women with a temper. She also goes after him and doesn’t let him get away, so she wasn’t a damsel in distress, she got her man.

5/5

Thankless in Death By: J.D. Robb

Thankless in death

Thankless in Death By: J.D. Robb

Plot:

Lieutenant Eve Dallas has plenty to be grateful for this season. Hosting Roarke’s big Irish family for the holiday may be challenging, but it’s a joyful improvement on her own dark childhood. Other couples aren’t as lucky as Eve and Roarke. The Reinholds, for example, are lying in their home stabbed and bludgeoned almost beyond recognition. Those who knew them are stunned—and heartbroken by the evidence that they were murdered by their own son. Twenty-six-year-old Jerry hadn’t made a great impression on the bosses who fired him or the girlfriend who dumped him—but they didn’t think he was capable of this. Turns out Jerry is not only capable of brutality but taking a liking to it. With the money he’s stolen from his parents and a long list of grievances, he intends to finally make his mark on the world. Eve and her team already know the who, how, and why of this murder. What they need to pinpoint is where Jerry’s going to strike next.

Review:

I’ve been reading cozy mysteries lately so this was sometime a gruesome shock. Not all of her books are this graphic,but because of my recent reading history it was made even more shocking.

I was pretty tense throughout and couldn’t understand why Eve was missing what I thought were obvious cues as to the bad guys motives and next victim. It was pretty rough.

Story was good, Eve didn’t seem as clairvoyant like she sometimes does, and bad guy was sick.

4/5

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015)

hot-tub-time-machine-2-trailer

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015)

Director:

Steve Pink

Starring:

Rob Corddry

Craig Robinson

Clark Duke

Plot:

When Lou finds himself in trouble, Nick and Jacob fire up the hot tub time machine in an attempt to get back to the past. But they inadvertently land in the future with Adam Jr. Now they have to alter the future in order to save the past – which is really the present.

Review:

Stupid.

 

I guess I should say more than that?

 

I laughed a couple times. Maybe once every forty-five minutes.

I hate Rob Corddry’s character, but then I hated his character in the first one. I dislike the endings in both of these movies and I hate that randomly the ending from the first one will pop in my mind and I find myself trying to figure out a legitimate way for an idiot to create google. He had money and a basic idea but absolutely no idea how to execute, I guess that could be all you would need. Ahhhhh!!! I’m doing it again. That has taken up too much brain power because I disappear down a rabbit hole of little things that would get in the way.

Anyway, I liked that the future was impacted by how horrible Lou’s character was. It was a pretty awful future. I hate that these guys rarely learn anything and that at the end of the movie they just continue doing what they were doing, except Craig Robinson’s character. I dislike it when stupid characters don’t learn, I guess it’s too true to life for me.

The trailer made this movie seem more interesting than it was. I didn’t hate the movie but it was not worth wasting your time on.

2/5

The Thin Man By: Dashiell Hammett

The Thin Man

The Thin Man By: Dashiell Hammett

Plot:

Nick and Nora Charles are Hammett’s most enchanting creations, a rich, glamorous couple who solve homicides in between wisecracks and martinis. At once knowing and unabashedly romantic, The Thin Man is a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners.

Review:

I was looking for a mystery solved by a married couple and Nick and Nora were what came up when I searched. I liked the Maltese Falcon, years ago when I read it, and I’ve always wanted to read more Dashiell Hammett, so decided why not? Sadly it didn’t quiet scratch that itch.

Nick was definitely the main character in this story, with Nora being barely more than a side character. She did overhear some information that helped solve the mystery, but I was disappointed in her small role in the story. Since it was written in the thirties I shouldn’t have expected anything more, but I was, I think I’m going to try one of the movies and see if they’re better.

The language was really interesting and at times confusing since I’m not up on my thirties slang. By the end of the book I understood what was going on, but there were some parts in the beginning where I thought I was reading in a foreign language. Times have changed a lot, at least where it applies to language.

For the most part I enjoyed the story, I wasn’t able to guess who done it, though I did figure out a part of the story involving the murder that wasn’t revealed until the end. My main complaints were the depiction of women in the story, but that’s just the way things were back then.

3/5

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

The-Avengers-2

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Director:

Joss Whedon

Starring:

Robert Downey Jr.

Chris Evans

Chris Hemsworth

Mark Ruffalo

Scarlett Johansson

Jeremy Renner

Plot:

When Tony Stark and Bruce Banner try to jump-start a dormant peacekeeping program called Ultron, things go horribly wrong and it’s up to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to stop the villainous Ultron from enacting his terrible plans.

Review:

Am I getting too old for Marvel movies? Please god noooooooo!!!!! The very idea is horrible and makes me sad, but apart from Guardians of the Galaxy the last 3 Marvel movies I haven’t loved, honestly I don’t even like Iron Man 3.

With Avengers I feel like Whedon was given this list of things that had to be done in this movie to set up the next ones and didn’t get to tell a full story. This movie felt like filler more than a true addition to the series.

I didn’t like the beginning, you were thrown into the middle of a battle, which is fine, but the explanation as to why wasn’t very satisfying. The action was hardly perceivable with all the quick cuts and I wonder if they were trying to cut time by doing that.

The middle and end were much better but still not as satisfying as I was hoping for. Ultron was a some what interesting villain in that you got to see what would happen if you gave a smart teenager with daddy issues lots of power.

The Prophet was cool, though Thor’s explanation as to why he must be created was hardly more than him saying, “Because.”

I thought they did a poor job showing the Avengers as a team and friends. I think the Captain America language ribbing was supposed to help with that, but it wasn’t enough to convey teamwork and one comment too much and reached annoying.

All in all, I was disappointed. It was an alright movie but not close to the best Marvel movie.

3/5