Movie

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

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

The American President (1995)


The American President (1995)

Director:

Rob Reiner

Starring:

Michael Douglas

Annette Bening

Plot:

Comedy-drama about a widowed U.S. President and a lobbyist who fall in love. It’s all above-board, but “politics is perception”, and sparks fly anyway.

Review:

The world was a different place when this was written. Kind of. I mean, yeah, the environment and guns were still a huge issues, but we actually thought they could be solved. We were innocent.

In the past I’ve liked this movie. It’s from Aaron Sorkin, so it definitely idealizes the American government but it’s also much more believable than the movie Dave. Now, though, it’s depressing to watch. It’s really impossible to watch and ignore the politics of everything and just take it as a romance. He’s the president, she’s a lobbyist. The politics are enmeshed in everything.

Maybe in another time I’ll be able to watch this again and enjoy it. I really hope so, I used to love re-watching West Wing. My heart just can’t handle it right now.

4/5

 

Deadpool 2 (2018)


Deadpool 2 (2018)

Director:

David Leitch

Starring:

Ryan Reynolds

Josh Brolin

Morena Baccarin

Julian Dennison

Zazie Beetz

Brianna Hildebrand

Stefan Kapicic

Plot:

Foul-mouthed mutant mercenary Wade Wilson (AKA. Deadpool), brings together a team of fellow mutant rogues to protect a young boy with supernatural abilities from the brutal, time-traveling cyborg, Cable.

Review:

This is one of those rare instances when the sequel is better than the original. I loved the first Deadpool movie, but this just about blew it out of the water, and I haven’t even seen the unrated cut yet.

Holy shit, the music, the jokes, the action! It was all spot on. I seriously can’t think of a single complaint and hope to god that Deadpool 3 and X-Force can live up to what Deadpool 2 has done.

Ryan Reynolds, Deadpool, kills all the bad guys, except one. Unfortunately that one ends up destroying all of Reynolds happiness. Due to his mutant ability he is unable to kill himself and finds himself at a loose end. He tries to be an X-Men and that fails. He tries to make his own team, that does not work as planned. Eventually, it takes a time traveling Josh Brolin to tell him his path back into the arms of his love. It’s beautiful.

In a year where we’ve had the fucking amazing Black Panther, Deadpool earns it’s position right up there with it. So good.

5/5