James McAvoy

Penelope (2006)


Penelope (2006)

Director:

Mark Palansky

Starring:

Christina Ricci

James McAvoy

Reese Witherspoon

Plot:

A modern romantic tale about a young aristocratic heiress born under a curse that can only be broken when she finds true love with “one who will accept her as one of their own.”

Review:

Penelope, Christina Ricci, is the first girl to be born on her father’s side since they were cursed because a dude was a douche bag. She needed a blue blood to love her as is, which apparently is hard when your nose is a snout.

The movie is adorable and I really like it, but it’s also super sad because how could her mother not love her as is? What about her father? Come on! Their daughter is brilliant and nice and funny and because of her nose they can’t accept her? Shit parents.

A matchmaker is hired to find someone to love her and proceeds to fail completely. Poor Penelope is locked in her parent’s house her entire life and finally, after so many rejections, runs away. She sees the city outside of her house for the first time and has fun. People like her, of course, and then she runs out of money, so she sells pictures of herself and the entire city falls in love.

Anyway, there is of course a cute guy, James McAvoy. His life is a mess and he’s not a blue blood and he falls for her. Things happen, but they end up together and it’s super happy.

I love this movie because it’s sweet and cute and funny. It’s just a nice movie that makes me happy.

5/5

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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)


The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

Director:

Andrew Adamson

Starring:

Tilda Swinton

Georgie Henley

William Moseley

Skandar Keyes

Anna Popplewell

James McAvoy

Plot:

Four kids travel through a wardrobe to the land of Narnia and learn of their destiny to free it with the guidance of a mystical lion.

Review:

I saw this in theaters. I was a bit apprehensive because I loved the book series as a child, but I ended up loving this and was excited for the series. I ended up hating the next movies, and I’ll probably not watch them again to write a review.

Anyway, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the story of four children escaping a world war to a house in the country. Unbeknown to them the house holds a portal to a magical world. It’s a sweet and amazing story, with father Christmas, a talking Lion that will save them all, and an evil white witch.

This is a children’s movie. You could talk about the heavy Christian symbolism and the lack of any racial representation, and it does, actually, bother me more watching it older, but it’s a kids movie. Kids save the day. Kids rule the world. It’s a fun movie, though, not as enjoyable as it once was.

3/5

Atomic Blonde (2017)

Atomic Blonde (2017)

Director:

David Leitch

Starring:

Charlize Theron

James McAvoy

John Goodman

Plot:

An undercover MI6 agent is sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents.

Review:

Charlize Theron is gorgeous and this movie showed that off even as it beat the crap out of her. The movie was a spy thriller with more than your usual action moments for that genre, which I appreciated. Theron took on the KGB, MI6, random Germans, pretty much anyone you can think of she beat the crap out of them. I really liked that even with all that going on it showed her getting tired and slowing down. She wasn’t just a machine that kept going.

I also really liked that while she used her sexuality she didn’t rely on it and it wasn’t the main weapon in her arsenal. She was smart and methodical and she trusted no one.

I was surprised by the ending and enjoyed it. A few people have said they thought it cheapened the deeper lesson that the movie was trying to teach, but if there was a deeper lesson it was lost on me so I didn’t feel that way.

I liked the movie a lot and I hope that we get to continue to see Charlize Theron in action type roles.

4/5

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

x-men-apocalypse

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

Director:

Bryan Singer

Starring:

James McAvoy

Michael Fassbender

Jennifer Lawrence

Plot:

After the re-emergence of the world’s first mutant, world-destroyer Apocalypse, the X-Men must unite to defeat his extinction level plan.

Review:

The X-Men movies have gotten to be about as confusing as the X-Men comics. With the last movie the timeline was changed so I guess the first movies no longer matter, so the fact that Mystic, Lawrence, was going to become bad is no longer true? Maybe? I’m not sure and I don’t know if she is either which makes the ending a bit weird.

It’s probably best to completely forget the movies that don’t have McAvoy and the others in them because who the hell knows where they come into play if at all.

X-Men Apocalypse was fun, though it bounced around a lot and I was never quite sure where we were time wise. Quicksilver, Evan Peters, was again my favorite part even though I’ve seen a gif of his main scene several times at this point.

The ending was pretty massive, destruction on a worldwide scale, so it will be interesting to see what happens in the next movie. However, this franchise barely registers with me now so it’s not something I’m dying to see.

3/5

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

x-men

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Director:

Bryan Singer

Starring:

Patrick Stewart

Hugh Jackman

Ian McKellen

James McAvoy

Plot:

The X-Men send Wolverine to the past in a desperate effort to change history and prevent an event that results in doom for both humans and mutants.

Review:

I knew nothing about the Days of Future Past story line from the comics or the TV show so I went in with no expectations. My husband use to watch the TV show so was really hoping for more Bishop. Oh well.

There were a couple new X-Men in the future, and in the case of Bishop there was no explanation of his powers. Quicksilver was probably the best part of the movie. Loved the scene with him in the kitchen, the music reminded me of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The movie ended up being a reset switch. Everything that has happened in the movies up until now we don’t even know if it happened. Everyone that died is back, the world is all hunky dory.

I call bullshit. There is no way humans would be ok with mutants after one tries to kill the president, brings a whole stadium to the white house, and is only stopped when another mutant stops him. They don’t even get to imprison the mutant that tried to kill the president because another powerful mutant lets him go.

Even with the unlikely ending I liked the movie. Didn’t love it, don’t need to own it, but I liked it.

3/5