Movie

Second Act (2018)

Second Act

Second Act (2018)

Director:

Peter Segal

Starring:

Jennifer Lopez

Vanessa Hudgens

Leah Remini

Plot:

A big box store worker reinvents her life and her life-story and shows Madison Avenue what street smarts can do.

Review:

Second Act reminded me of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter is Dead in that we had someone conning their way into a job they weren’t qualified for, but actually it turned out that they were. There were fewer moments of Lopez’s character floundering, which felt a bit unrealistic. The fact that the only person that suspected she was inexperienced and lying was her enemy was a bit contrived. I did like the fact that she made a very public reveal because it meant that she kept all the power and not her enemy.

There was some Working Girl vibes as well here, but Working Girl did it much better. The addition of Hudgens character being her daughter that she had to give up was too much for me. It made everything too pat and I could have done without it.

All in all Second Act was an entertaining movie with an overall premise I enjoyed that just needed a little editing.

3/5

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018)

Into the Spiderverse

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018)

Director:

Bob Persichetti

Peter Ramsey

Rodney Rothman

Starring:

Shameik Moore

Jake Johnson

Hailee Steinfeld

Mahershala Ali

Lily Tomlin

John Mulaney

Chris Pine

Nicholas Cage

Kimiko Glenn

Katheryn Hahn

Plot:

Teen Miles Morales becomes Spider-Man of his reality, crossing his path with five counterparts from other dimensions to stop a threat for all realities.

Review:

I was told by the entire world to watch this movie, which I’m grateful for because I had not even heard of it until my Twitter blew up about it and suddenly people who couldn’t agree on anything were agreeing this movie was amazing.

Sadly, I had to wait until Red Box got it, but then I ended up buying it immediately because damnit, it is just that good.

Miles Morales, Shameik Moore, is a teenager just starting a new preppy school and life kind of sucks right now in an angsty teenage way. Then, when he’s getting his groove back, a spider bites him and his super powered existence begins.

Just when things are starting to look up, the original Spider-Man is going to teach him everything he needs to know, things again get shaken up, and he’s all on his own. His father has made it clear that he’s not a Spider-Man fan, but I truly believe if Miles had gone to him it would have been alright. He was clearly a supportive father that loved his son deeply, though, he probably wouldn’t have let him participate in the whole multiverse thing.

I bet if he’d told his dad his dad would have insisted he go and do the thingie that had to be done with the goober and he would have died instead of who died and we still would have had a Spider-Man origin story, but damn this one was SO much better than that.

Anyway, I love that Miles has a loving and supportive mother and father. I do wonder if his dad figured out who he was there at the end. Lily Tomlin as Aunt May is something I had no idea the world needed until now and I hope she is in future movies because she was great.

Have I mentioned the art? Holy fucking shit it was incredible. It was mind boggling good. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something that looked so amazing, definitely not a full length movie. It was just…hold on I need to go watch it again.

If you haven’t seen Into the Spiderverse for whatever reason, watch it. It deserved every award it received, it deserved all the hype, it was so.good.

5/5

Aquaman (2018)

Aquaman

Aquaman (2018)

Director:

James Wan

Starring:

Jason Momoa

Amber Heard

Nicole Kidman

Dolph Lundgren

Plot:

Arthur Curry, the human-born heir to the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, goes on a quest to prevent a war between the worlds of ocean and land.

Review:

I went in with no expectations for this movie. I’d only watched one trailer, that I didn’t really remember, but I had several people tell me this and Wonder Woman were signaling DC finally coming into their own. I don’t know what the hell movie they were watching but I personally felt that Aquaman was hot garbage.

How many times did something explode into people interrupting a moment? Like four times! How many times did a guitar riff play when Aquaman said some one line? I think another four times, in like the first half hour. The CG hair was super distracting, especially on Dolph Lundgren. The movie was way too long. The plot boring and super, super predictable but not in a fun way. There was nothing fun about this movie.

Maybe if you’re a huge Aquaman fan you enjoyed how close to the comics the villains costumes supposedly were. I’ve never read an Aquaman comic so I couldn’t take Manta Ray seriously. And every time they said Ocean Master I snorted.

I just…I can’t with DC. After watching Captain Marvel and Into the Spiderverse it’s like they aren’t anywhere in the same league and I can’t help but compare them. Marvel has had a plan since day one and it freaking shows. The DC universe makes the X-Men universe look simple. I just don’t know what the fuck was going on in the greater world and universe and honestly I don’t care.

I wasn’t invested in any of the relationships in this movie which made the over two hour movie drag into eternity. There was no chemistry between any of the actors, though Nicole Kidman, god love her, tried. I just couldn’t with anyone here and have no idea what the fuck people were raving about with this movie.

1/5

Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey

Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)

Director:

Peter Hewitt

Starring:

Keanu Reeves

Alex Winter

William Sadler

Plot:

A tyrant from the future creates evil android doubles of Bill and Ted and sends them back to eliminate the originals.

Review:

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure is still fairly fresh in my mind, but the movies are SO different I’m not sure you’d be that lost if you’d never seen the first.

Bill and Ted still have their princesses, they are still pretty stagnant in life, and their band is still what kicks off a future utopia.

Unknown to them evil robot doppelgangers have been sent back in time to stop them so that the future can be less excellent and much more serious and boring. What ensues is a seriously trippy bizarre trip through hell limbo with Death.

The ending is what you’d expect and shows the beginnings of their band. It’s funny and optimistic and sometimes exactly what you need.

BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER!

4/5

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

Crimes of GRindelwald

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

Director:

David Yates

Starring:

Eddie Redmayne

Katherine Waterston

Dan Fogler

Plot:

The second installment of the “Fantastic Beasts” series featuring the adventures of Magizoologist Newt Scamander.

Review:

I was…not really impressed by this. To be honest, I watched it a few weeks ago and I barely remember it. I remember being disappointed. My sister is a HUGE Harry Potter fan and really liked it, so maybe I was over hyped? I don’t know.

Newt was disappointing. Dumbledore was really disappointing. All the romance relationships were disappointing. Tina was the only person I don’t remember being disappointed in and I could have just forgotten something.

It was just…not what I was hoping for? Even though I wasn’t hoping for anything. I don’t know, it just wasn’t for me and not really anything I would recommend.

2/5