Movie

The Secret Life of Pets (2016)

the-secret-life-of-pets

The Secret Life of Pets (2016)

Director:

Chris Renaud

Yarrow Cheney

Starring:

Louis C. K.

Eric Stonestreet

Kevin Hart

Plot:

The quiet life of a terrier named Max is upended when his owner takes in Duke, a stray whom Max instantly dislikes.

Review:

Talk about a bait and switch. The trailer for this movie was basically just the first few minutes which ended up not being an accurate depiction of what the entire film would be about. So glad that I didn’t take my daughter to see this or that we didn’t purchase it someone else did.

Instead of being more of the animals doing silly ridiculous things we got to watch a whiny dog that didn’t want to share his owner come to grips with the fact that he was no longer an only child. It wasn’t funny and neither of the main dogs was likeable.

The side story of the friends trying to find them was really the only entertaining part but it wasn’t enough to change my opinion of the movie.

At least my daughter (3) seemed to like it.

2/5

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

rogue-one

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Director:

Gareth Edwards

Starring:

Felicity Jones

Diego Luna

Alan Tudyk

Donnie Yen

Plot:

The Rebel Alliance makes a risky move to steal the plans for the Death Star, setting up the epic saga to follow.

Review:

When I first left this movie I wasn’t sure what I felt about it. I liked it but unlike my husband I wasn’t prepared to use the word love in my opinion. Even now I’m not sure exactly where it lies in my Star Wars order, but I do know I really liked it. In fact the more I think about it the more I do.

This is not a normal Star Wars story and I knew that going in. I was able to avoid spoilers but based on my own Star Wars knowledge I had a good idea what was going to happen and I was right. Still I loved the fact that this movie showed a different side of the universe.

The story wasn’t about heroes given clear good versus bad choices. It was about the people in the trenches, the ones that have to make the difficult decisions. It forced you to think. I liked that and thought it was about time you saw the darker side of the war, but even though it was darker there was never a loss of hope.

Negative wise there were a few lines that I thought were super cheesy and couldn’t keep my eyes from rolling. There was also a Vader scene that was clearly them just checking a box that I could have done without. I also wish the speech that Jyn, Felicity Jones, gave was given by Mon Mothma, Genevieve O’Reilly. I understand why it wasn’t, the movie is about Jyn not Mon, but I thought it made more sense for her character to be giving it.

I really want to watch this again, and again, and again. I liked the story, but I didn’t like the characters that much, and I want to know if that ultimately matters.

4.5/5

Pete’s Christmas (2013)

petes-christmas

Pete’s Christmas (2013)

Director:

Nisha Ganatra

Starring:

Zachary Gordon

Molly Parker

Rick Roberts

Plot:

A put-upon teen finds himself reliving the same miserable Christmas day over and over again.

Review:

I’m really not looking forward to the teenage years if this and YA books are any indication. Maybe I can get rid of my kids when they reach that age.

Anyway, this was a classic repeating day movie, only this time it’s a stupid teenage boy re-living the worst Christmas of his life. It takes him a lot self-pity boring days before he finally starts to try and make the day better. It takes him a while to figure out that he can even change things. It’s ridiculous.

The new neighbor kid is of course a cute girl and he eventually ends up telling her everything and she accepts it. Days will pass and it will cut to them talking and she always knows what’s happening. It didn’t really make sense because at that point he’d be spending a lot of time telling her what was going on, but whatever.

Movie was eh, Christmas was a big part of it, but definitely not getting put into my rotation.

This Christmas movie was brought to you by Wal-Mart

3/5

Merry Friggin’ Christmas (2014)

merry-friggin-christmas

Merry Friggin’ Christmas (2014)

Director:

Tristram Shapeero

Starring:

Robin Williams

Joel McHale

Lauren Graham

Plot:

Boyd Mitchler and his family must spend Christmas with his estranged family of misfits. Upon realizing that he left all his son’s gifts at home, he hits the road with his dad in an attempt to make the 8-hour round trip before sunrise.

Review:

I should have realized this wasn’t going to be a lite, happy, Christmas comedy. The title should have clued me in but I was looking for something new that wasn’t overly sentimental and I thought this would be perfect. Instead it was super depressing.

This was one of Robin Williams last movies and that makes it all the more sad.

Fairly certain I didn’t laugh or even smile throughout. It was all about a screwed up family that was supposed to come together at Christmas or just overcome some of their issues but I didn’t feel like that’s what happened. Instead each new revelation about the dad just made me wonder why he was a part of anyone’s life.

Would not recommend if you’re looking for a good Christmas movie.

2/5

Bad Moms (2016)

bad-moms

Bad Moms (2016)

Director:

Jon Lucas

Scott Moore

Starring:

Mila Kunis

Kathryn Hahn

Kristen Bell

Plot:

When three overworked and under-appreciated moms are pushed beyond their limits, they ditch their conventional responsibilities for a jolt of long overdue freedom, fun, and comedic self-indulgence.

Review:

I thought this was going to be a movie about a mom deciding to stop being “perfect” and that’s what it was mainly, but there was a whole side story about her getting a divorce and then an evil PTA mom that was just a huge downer. I get that there needed to be conflict but the dad was a total douche to the point where you couldn’t figure out why she’d ever been with him and the PTA mom was a conniving bitch. I also thought that Kunis let her kids walk all over her.

I wanted to like this movie so much and there were parts that I did, but overall I don’t get the hype. There was just too much side story negativity.

Oh and when she had sex with the one dude and he asked to go down on her again all I could do was roll my eyes. I kept waiting for her to wake up. It was too over the top.

The whole job thing was also really stupid too.

I really think the movie would have been better if it had been about real moms and not rich women. I feel like they missed out on so many stresses of motherhood.

2.5/5