MOVIE - Avengers: Infinity War

PG-13 (2:36)

Wide release 4/27/18

Viewed 8/5/18, the last week on the big screen, at the cheap theater in Harrisburg (Colonial Four, I think)
IMBd:  

RT Critic:  83    Audience:  91
Critic's Consensus:  Avengers: Infinity War ably juggles a dizzying array of MCU heroes in the fight against their gravest threat yet, and the result is a thrilling, emotionally resonant blockbuster that (mostly) realizes its gargantuan ambitions.

Cag:  4.5 It was really, really good

Directed by Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Walt Disney Pictures

Robert Downey, Jr; Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson; Benedict Cumberbash, Don Cheadle; Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Zoe Saldana, Chris Pratt, Josh Brolin; Paul Bettany, Peter Dinklage

My comments:    A REALLY good movie, though I'm not sure how to take the ending.  What will come next?  What CAN come next?  So much humor, and of course a lot of action.  The special effects were quite amazing, and I loved seeing so many of the Marvel characters making an appearance (it must have cost a small fortune to make).  How do you make a movie like this?  The list of credits was incredible - I wonder how many people it took to create this?  Names just roll and roll.....and so much of the audience stays because they know there'll be some sort of scene at the very end of them.  And there was.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  The mad titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) begins his hunt for the most powerful objects in the universe, the Infinity Stones, in Marvel Studios' highly anticipated Avengers: Infinity War. With the Space Stone, given by Loki (Tom Hiddleston), and the Power Stone, Thanos sends (Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian to retrieve the Time Strone from Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), sends Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive) to retrieve the Mind Stone from Vision (Paul Bettany). Meanwhile, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) meets up with Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and sorcerers Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Wong (Benedict Wong). With help from Peter Parker (Tom Holland), A.K.A. Spider-Man, Stark and Strange join forces together and agree to stop Thanos. In space, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) also joins forces with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Groot (Vin Diesel), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), and Gamora (Zoe Saldana), the daughter of Thanos who warns Thor of his power. Thor travels away to defeat Thanos with Rocket and Groot while the other Guardians join forces with Stark, Strange, and Parker. In Wakanda, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and his team, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), War Machine (Don Cheadle), and Bruce Banner to protect Vision and the Mind Stone in his forehead. With protection given from King T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), A.K.A. Black Panther, and his Wakandan army, Thanos will come for everyone to destroy half the universe.

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 - Labor Day

PG-13 (1:51)

Wide release 1/31/14

Viewed at Century Gateway 12 on Sunday afternoon, 3/16/14

RT Critics: 31  Audience: 58

Cag: 4/Liked it a lot

Directed by Jason Reitman

Paramount Pictures

Josh Brolin, Kate Winslet

My comments:  What do the critics know?  I liked it.  It was slow in places, but the tension built and built, the charisma between the two adult leads was lovely, and the part of 7th-grade Henry was played perfectly.  I loved the special touches added to make Frank's personality show through - the way he treated the neighbor-boy with cerebral palsy, his cooking and baking talents, his love of baseball.....  I couldn't wait to see the end credits, because the scenery was all Massachusetts - even though it was set in New Hampshire.  I've been down those roads before, I've seen those houses on those quiet streets - and sure enough, it was Massachusetts.  It couldn't have been anywhere else!

Reviews:  "Labor Day" centers on 13-year-old Henry Wheeler, who struggles to be the man of his house and care for his reclusive mother Adele while confronting all the pangs of adolescence. On a back-to-school shopping trip, Henry and his mother encounter Frank Chambers, a man both intimidating and clearly in need of help, who convinces them to take him into their home and later is revealed to be an escaped convict. The events of this long Labor Day weekend will shape them for the rest of their lives.