MOVIE - Only the Brave

My Halloween Night movie, haven't missed one in 15 years!
PG-13 

Wide release 10/20/17

Viewed 10/31/17 at Carlisle 8
IMBd:  8.1/10

RT Critic:  90  Audience:   93
Critic's Consensus:  Only the Brave's impressive veteran cast and affecting fact-based story add up to a no-frills drama that's just as stolidly powerful as the real-life heroes it honors.

Cag:  5/ Story was so well done, acting was superb, and nothing was nicey-nicey cleaned up

Directed by Joseph Kosinki

Studio:  Columbia Pictures

Josh Brolin, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connely, Jeff Bridges

My comments:  What a powerful, well done movie, a lovely tribute to the Granite Mountain Hotshots of Prescott, Arizona. It would be a terrible shock to go to the movie without having a clue about the ending and even then, of course, it's hard to conceive.  What brave, honorable, hard-working men.  Men with families, senses of humor, dedication.  The actors that portrayed them did a wonderful job.  I've been to and through Prescott (Press-kit) many, many times; the first one with Steve and the kids when we left Jerome and twisted around and around the mountains, not knowing where we'd end up.  It was Prescott.  The last time I was there was almost exactly two years ago, on my way home for a letterboxing event in Lake Havasu.  I remember I woke up to snow and hightailed it back to Tucson without looking for a single letterbox!
     How, I wonder, did they film the forest fire scenes?  It looks like it was filmed in and around Santa Fe.  The ferocious flames were unbelievable, and made what happens so, so real and terrifying.  Incredible movie-making.  So hard to rate this film!

RT/ IMDb Summary:   Granite Mountain Hotshots, is the heroic story of one unit of local firefighters that through hope, determination, sacrifice, and the drive to protect families, communities, and our country become one of the most elite firefighting teams in the country. As most of us run from danger, they run toward it--they watch over our lives, our homes, everything we hold dear, as they forge a unique brotherhood that comes into focus with one fateful fire.

MOVIE - Hell or High Water

R (1:42)

Limited release 8/12/16

Viewed Sunday morning, (a great time to see a movie!) 9/11/16 at Park Place

RT Critic: 98   Audience:  90
Critic's Consensus:   Hell or High Water offers a solidly crafted, well-acted Western heist thriller that eschews mindless gunplay in favor of confident pacing and full-bodied characters.

Cag:  I'm going to go all out and give this a 6/Awesome, this was a wow movie, one that I won't forget.  Chris Pine (not one of my previous faves) was SO good, as was Ben Foster, who played his brother.  They made it seem real. And I'll take Jeff Bridges playing any part any day....

Directed by David Mackenzie

Film 44

Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges

My comments:  This was a terrific movie.  Incredible acting from all four of the major players.  Intriguing, gut-wrenching storyline.  West Texas/Oklahoma/New Mexican real towns (I just traveled through some of them, so I know they're depicted completely correctly).  Humor.  Love.  Family ties.  Conservatism vs. Liberalism.  Big guy vs. Little guy.  Rich vs. poor.  Powerful and powerless.  Overwhelming sadness and jubilant yeeha moments.  Everything done right....

IMBd Summary:  Two brothers -- Toby, a straight-living, divorced father trying to make a better life for his sons; and Tanner, a short-tempered ex-con with a loose trigger finger -- come together to rob branch after branch of the bank that is foreclosing on their family land. The hold-ups are part of a last-ditch scheme to take back a future that powerful forces beyond their control have stolen from under their feet. Vengeance seems to be theirs until they find themselves in the crosshairs of a relentless, foul-mouthed Texas Ranger looking for one last triumph on the eve of his retirement. As the brothers plot a final bank heist to complete their plan, a showdown looms at the crossroads where the last honest law man and a pair of brothers with nothing to live for except family collide.

MOVIE - The Giver

PG-13 (1:40)
Wide Release 8/15/14
Viewed at El Con with Sheila 8/17/14
RT Critic: 32   Audience: 68
cag: 4.5/Liked it a whole lot
Directed by Philip Noyce
The Weinstein Company]
from the book by Lois Lowry

Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgard

My thoughts:  If you're the kind of person that gets upset because there are a lot of changes from the book, you're probably going to be a bit disappointed in this movie.  There were definitely changes, but they all worked.  In the previews I couldn't help be sneer a little because it seems that they had added some sort of love interest for Jonas.  Considering the direction they took with the ending, it all worked perfectly.  Good movie.  Excellent, actually.  And I love the different actors that played the different parts.  The only questions I have, the only problem with it as I left the theater, was that the Meryl Streep character also seemed to have all the memories.  My problem was not that she had them, that no reference had been made to this fact.
          When the movie was over, a young couple sitting behind us made the comment that it was a little slow in places.  There was no slowness for me.  Granted, I've read the book seven or eight times at least so it was interesting to see all the wonderful changes and additions.  The story is certainly no supposed to be action-filled.  It is nothing like Hunger Games or Divergent.  The giver is the predecessor to all the current dystopian stories.  And I love and admire it as such.
          I've heard that Lois Lowry is quite satisfied with the end product.  If she is, so am I!

RT Summary:  The haunting story of THE GIVER centers on Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), a young man who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Yet as he begins to spend time with The Giver (Jeff Bridges), who is the sole keeper of all the community's memories, Jonas quickly begins to discover the dark and deadly truths of his community's secret past. With this newfound power of knowledge, he realizes that the stakes are higher than imagined - a matter of life and death for himself and those he loves most. At extreme odds, Jonas knows that he must escape their world to protect them all - a challenge that no one has ever succeeded at before. THE GIVER is based on Lois Lowry's beloved young adult novel of the same name, which was the winner the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.