The IMDb message boards are being shut down this month, and personally, I am glad.
I unregistered from the board years ago because I was tired of reading conspiracy theories, racism and sexism, hatred of EVERY movie and TV show, and other juvenile and unrelated content. The nonsense far overshadowed the legitimate commentary and questions. I was fine with someone stating that he didn't like a show, and telling legitimate reasons why, but that has seldom happened in the past decade.
The immature posters were also a reason why I started writing my own movie commentaries here. https://www.moviefone.com/2017/02/03...essage-boards/
I want to warn you that Hacksaw Ridge lives up to its name--it is disturbingly violent, especially the scenes with the flame throwers, one of which begins the movie.
It's also an incredibly well-done movie and I wanted to applaud at the end.
This is the story of a man named Desmond Doss, who joined the Army during World War II as a conscientious objector, with the intention of being a medic. During a battle on Okinawa, when the American troops had retreated, he stayed on the field, dragging wounded soldiers, both American and a few Japanese, to safety. He gets them down over the side of a cliff by dropping them slowly on a rope.
Although not for young children, I would recommend this movie to everyone.
I thought The Space Between Us was going to be a teen romance. Instead, it's the ultimate conspiracy theory movie, and I was very disappointed. It's about a boy who was secretly raised on Mars after his mother died in childbirth and none of the other astronauts told NASA on Earth that his mother was pregnant on the journey there. As a teen he befriends a girl on Earth with whom he is corresponding.
The boy, Gardiner, eventually comes to Earth and meets the girl, Tulsa. Then they go on the run because he is very ill.
There were so many plot holes! Like all conspiracy theories, I can't believe that everyone who knew about him over the years ever kept quiet about it. How did Gardner and Tulsa learn about each other to begin corresponding? Why was there no time lag during their face-to-face discussions? Maybe these questions were answered in scenes that were deleted.
The most annoying detail of all? For the first time ever, I saw a typo in the closing credits of the cast list! It reads "Sarah's Bother," when it should have read "Sarah's Brother."
I finally figured out what movie this reminded me of. It's Capricorn One from the 1970s, which is about astronauts on the run from killers in the desert. Both movies even feature an old crop dusting plane.
Another stereotypical Oscar contender: slow, confusing, overly long, with no likable characters. Manchester by the Sea was, of course, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, but did not win.
Casey Affleck plays Lee, a man who is awarded custody of his 16-year-old nephew after the boy's father's (Lee's brother) dies of congestive heart failure. Both brothers have had their wives leave them.
The plot is confusing as it bounces back and forth in time. Lee is a cold character, and I wonder if he has Asperger's, although it is never mentioned. He can't even figure out why his nephew suddenly bursts into tears one night.
I am glad I saw it in a second-run theater on its cheap day. I was not impressed.
Table 19 is a dramedy about a group of people who meet at a wedding reception. You never do figure out how some of these people know the bride or groom. The only actors you will recognize are Lisa Kudrow and Craig Robinson; the others were all new to me.
I think this movie might have worked better if it had been a low-key dry British-made comedy. It just had that "feel."
For what it's worth, I have never been to a wedding reception that had assigned seating.
Even though Lion was a little slow and overlong, I enjoyed it very much. It's a physically beautiful movie. Also, Dev Patel looks much better with long hair, and for once he wasn't playing the geeky nervous character he usually plays.
This is the true story of a little boy named Saroo in India who gets separated from his brother and ends up in the streets of Calcutta. He and another boy are eventually adopted by a couple in Tasmania (the wife is played by Nicole Kidman, who you will barely recognize). As an adult, Saroo used Google Maps and spent months poring over satellite views of India trying to see if anything matched up with what little he remembered of his original home.
In many ways, the story is similar to Slumdog Millionaire, although Lion is a true story. It has a sad ending, but not for the reason you think it will be.
I haven't read the book The Shack, so I don't know how the movie compares to it. The story is about a man named Mac who visits a magical place and meets God the "father", God the son (Jesus), and a third whom I assume is supposed to be the Holy Spirit.
Mac's youngest daughter has been killed by a psychopath (hence the PG-13 rating), and months later, on a snowy day, he gets an unsigned note in his mailbox inviting him to the cabin in the woods where his daughter's clothing and blood were found. He goes there but it is abandoned and falls asleep. When he awakens he begins to wander around outside and meets a young Semitic-looking man who invites him to another part of the forest, where it is a beautiful sunny day.
God, who calls herself Papa, is played by Viola Davis, an overweight black woman who has been in just about everything lately. Her son is the young man that Mac been in the woods. Another young woman is very wise (can't remember her name). The three help Mac come to terms with the death of his daughter.
The film is kind of slow and overlong. You figure out the mystery of the summer forest quickly.
I can't describe this as a fundamentalist Christian movie like I've complained about the previous ones, especially since there are references to the Trinity and the Holy Spirit. Surprisingly, there hasn't been any outcry about Viola Davis as Papa, and in fact they joke about her physical appearance in the movie.
I have now seen three dog stories that are supposed to be family films, Marley and Me, Max and A Dog's Purpose. Although suitable for older children, these films are too traumatic for very young children. Heck, they traumatized me!
The latest, A Dog's Purpose, is a lovely story about a dog that keeps getting reincarnated and living with new masters, from the 1960s to today. Each time he is a different breed, and one time he is a female. The 1970s story, about a K9 German Shepherd working with the Chicago Police, is the saddest segment of the movie. I liked the 1980s-1990s story about the couple and their growing family the best.
When I saw the trailer for Life, I at first thought I was watching previews of the new Alien movie. Life is pretty much a copy of plots of the various Alien movies, not much original in it. I saw it only because I like actor Jake Gyllenhaal, who is the star but doesn't seem to show much interest in his character.
The other detail that annoyed me was all the references to, and lines stolen from, Apollo 13. Life even used Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" song, which was prominent in A13.
Unforgettable is the story of a new fiancee being harassed by both the ex-wife and the ex-boyfriend. Of course, the fiancee (Rosario Dawson) has secrets of her own which she has been unable to divulge to her boyfriend. If she'd told him about the ex-boyfriend at the beginning, none of the rest of the movie would have happened.
And you guess in advance who's ringing the doorbell at the end of the movie, even before Dawson opens the door.
This is basically a violent Lifetime movie.
Linear Mode
