When Edge of Tomorrow first started, it looked like it was going to be yet another CGI/Transformers/Schwarzeneggar war movie and I wondered if my time would be wasted. It wasn't.
Although I never figured out at the beginning why Tom Cruise's character was sent as an infantryman to a battle with aliens when he had no experience being with ground troops, as the movie progressed I really began to enjoy it. The plot was unusual and intriguing.
My only other complaint besides the opening regards the sound effects. You'd think the producers would have spent the money to record new sounds. Instead, you will recognize ALL of the sound effects, and they will leave you shaking your head in annoyance. Edge has been called a cross between Groundhog Day and the Aliens movies. It is very much both.
I don't know if Divergent qualifies as a blockbuster or not. Even though it opened in March, it was still playing at a few second-run theaters this week. However, it never had the publicity that the Twilight or Hunger Games or especially the Harry Potter movies had.
And yet, out of all of them, I enjoyed this one the most. It had a 70s feel at times and I felt more empathy toward the characters than I had felt in the other movies. Now I am tempted to read the Divergent books, a feeling I didn't get after watching the other aforementioned ones.
What was really surprising was this. I saw the movie at Danbarry Dollar Saver Cinema in South Dayton. This particular omniplex has bigger screens than the Danbarrys in Cincinnati do, and the screen is brighter. It was a Tuesday afternoon, albeit during the summer and Tuesday is bargain day, $1.75, but there were at least 30 people for that screening. Seeing a movie with a large crowd on a big screen months after it was released was very nice. I think that was another reason I got the 70s vibe, because seeing a movie long after its initial opening is something I miss doing.
As for the plot? It's about a girl who must choose which faction in post-apocalypse Chicago she will spend her life. During a few scenes in the movie, I imagined that this is what the Harry Potter movies would have looked like if they'd been directed by John Hughes! There was even a character that looked like John Cusack!
I keep seeing movies with international casts. And I keep seeing movies that have Indian characters.
The latest is The Hundred-Foot Journey, about two competing family-owned restaurants in a small town in a France, one with classical French cuisine, the other with Indian cuisine. I enjoyed this movie very much. It was a light and pleasant comedy/drama.
You must not see this on an empty stomach. The entire movie is about food!
Into the Storm is a cross between The Day After Tomorrow and a bunch of contemporary weather chaser reality shows. I can't say if I enjoyed this movie or not. There were two scenes of people getting sucked into tornadoes that were very disturbing. Also, TDAT is one of my all-time favorite movies so it's hard for me to watch something that imitates it without laughing or cringing.
I would like to see more movies that are family oriented, just good stories about every day people. I don't need action films with super heroes or science fiction or studies in four letter words. I just cancelled NetFlix as it was becoming harder and harder to select a good movie.
The Identical is an odd combination of Elvis movie parody and religious film. Even so, I really enjoyed it! And the music is wonderful! If there is a soundtrack I might buy one. The Identical is an alternate universe tale of identical twin brothers separated at birth, both of whom have a talent for singing both rockabilly and gospel. Oh, and they are brunettes with pompadours and they speak with a smoky twang. The movie has all original songs and takes place from the '30s to the '70s.
The story is slow at times and weirdly edited in places. Verne Troyer (AKA Mini-Me) shows up toward the end. Some subplots take forever, others are over in just a few seconds.
If I Stay is different from what the previews showed. I thought it would be another teen angst story. Rather, it is more like a punk rock musical version of The Lovely Bones. The music in the story is good but not that memorable and in fact is distracting from the storyline at times.
What is the story? A comatose teenage cellist is reviewing her life while she is unconscious. If I Stay competes with The Lovely Bones as the most depressing movie I have ever seen.
If I Stay is different from what the previews showed. I thought it would be another teen angst story. Rather, it is more like a punk rock musical version of The Lovely Bones. The music in the story is good but not that memorable and in fact is distracting from the storyline at times.
What is the story? A comatose teenage cellist is reviewing her life while she is unconscious. If I Stay competes with The Lovely Bones as the most depressing movie I have ever seen.
And who wants to watch a depressing movie? I read the book "The Lovely Bones" and thought it was awful.
When the Game Stands Tall is a high school football movie that stars Jim Caviezel, Laura Dern and Michael Chiklis. It's another movie whose trailers don't tell you anything. The previews make it look like another gung-ho underdog sports film.
But this movie isn't about underdogs. The team, the De La Salle Spartans of California, won 151 games in a row and then lost a few. The previews never say why. Since this is a true story, I guess the creators assumed everyone knew the back story, but I didn't. The reason is that the coach had a stroke and then one of its players was shot to death. The movie is about the players and their families coping with this.
My notes:
1. The high school is Catholic, but that is never really mentioned.
2. Since it's a private high school, it can recruit players from anywhere, and some of the other high schools complain. I was confused by this. Here in Cincinnati, the Catholic boys' Moeller High School has been doing this for decades and no one says a word. Is this practice uncommon?
3. The film is rated PG: no smoking, drinking, sex, cursing, nudity, etc. However, the sounds of the players running into each other during the games is brutal and made me nauseated!
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