Movie - Five Feet Apart

PG-13 (1:56)

Wide release March 15, 2019: Streaming 6/11/19

Viewed April 6, 2019 with Ella Bella

IMBd: 7.2

RT Critic:  55  Audience:   79

Critic's Consensus:  Elevated considerably by Haley Lu Richardson's performance but bogged down by clichés, Five Feet Apart doesn't tug at the heartstrings quite as deftly as it should.

Cag:  4 Liked more than I care to admit, despite the tears....

Directed by Justin Baldoni

CBS Films

Based on the book by Rachael Lippincott

Haley Lou Richardson, Cole Sprouse

My comments:  I did not...I repeat I did NOT want to go see this movie, but Laura didn't want to either, so guess who took the person who really, really wanted to see it?  I knew it would be a tearjerker and I certainly wasn't wrong.  First half of the movie was great, learned a lot about cystic fibrosis.  I greatly enjoyed the splendid cast.  The second half of the movie is when all the tearjerking started.  Very poignant.  You could hear the sniffling and nose blowing throughout the theater.  Ella grabbed my hand many times.  She tried not to sob.  She'd read the book, so she knew what was going to happen and when I asked she said the movie was following the book fairly well.  I learned a lot, shed tears I did not want to shed, and was left terribly depressed.  How to rate?  Tough.  If I went with my emotions it would be very low, but it was well-done and memorable with terrific acting.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Seventeen-year-old Stella spends most of her time in the hospital as a cystic fibrosis patient. Her life is full of routines, boundaries and self-control all of which get put to the test when she meets Will, an impossibly charming teen who has the same illness. There's an instant flirtation, through restrictions dictate that they must maintain a safe distance between them. As their connection intensifies, so does the temptation to throw the rules out the window and embrace that attraction.

MOVIE - Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

R (1:51)

Wide release 3/4/15

Viewed opening day at The Roadhouse

RT Critic: 61   Audience:  65
Critic's Consensus:  While WTF is far from FUBAR, Tina Fey and Martin Freeman are just barely enough to overcome the picture's glib predictability and limited worldview  And my reaction to this consensus?  You guys have seen too many movies....or we're looking at different criteria completely!
Cag:  5/ Loved it

Directed by Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Paramount Pictures

Based on the memoir by Kim Barker

Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Billie Bob Thornton, Alfred Molina, Josh Charles

My comments:  I very much enjoyed this movie.  Although Barker is smart, she is impetuous and flawed - which makes her very, very REAL.  This movie is full of humor with opportunities for deep thinking, admiration, and lot of questioning.  Afghanistan!  The Taliban!  The media.....(Silly me, it wasn't until my ride home, along Grant, that I realized what the title meant.  Duh.)

Fandango Summary:  Eager for a new professional challenge, TV reporter Kim Baker (Tina Fey) decides to serve as a foreign correspondent in Afghanistan, where she is embedded with a Marine unit. During her time abroad, she is forced to contend with a fiery U.S. general (Billy Bob Thornton), and befriends a fellow reporter (Margot Robbie) and a British photographer (Martin Freeman). Alfred Molina, Josh Charles, andChristopher Abbott co-star. Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot was adapted from journalist Kim Barker's memoir The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

MOVIE - Wild

R (1:55)

12/3/14 Limited release

Viewed 1/13/15 at Roadhouse all by my lonesome

RT Critic: 91   Audience:  82  

Cag:  5/Terrific movie

Directed by Jean -Marc Vallee

20th Century Fox

Based on the book by Cheryl Strayed

Reese Witherspoon

My comments:   I saw this on Tuesday night, tossed and turned all night thinking about it, and couldn't get it out of my head the next day.  For me, the overall theme is how powerfully the many different ways we grieve play out.  I hadn't read the book, though I was always drawn to it.  And I wonder how Cheryl Strayed is dealing with her grief....her decisions....and her life, now.  Her unbelievable determination was/is so amazing.

RT: Summary:  With the dissolution of her marriage and the death of her mother, Cheryl Strayed has lost all hope. After years of reckless, destructive behavior, she makes a rash decision. With absolutely no experience, driven only by sheer determination, Cheryl hikes more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, alone. WILD powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddens, strengthens, and ultimately heals her.

MOVIE - Gone Girl

R (2:25)

Wide release 10/3/2014

Viewed 10/6/2014 at ElCon with Sheila, Connie, & Gwen

RT Critic:  87  Audience:  91

Cag:  5/It was a really well-done movie

Directed by David Fincher

20th Century Fox

Based on the book by Gillian Flynn.  My review here.

Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Tyler Perry, Neil Patrick Harris, 

My comments: I liked the movie more than I liked the book (a bit unusual....). I considered Nick Dunne a jerk-of-an-idiot in the book, and I considered Amy Dunne a psychopath.  I felt a little better...though not much....of Nick in the movie, and considered Amy even crazier than in the book.  You had to like Nick, because no matter how sleezy a character Ben Affleckk could ever play I'd HAVE to root for him.  So I wonder how I would have felt with another actor portraying Nick?  Both Affleck and Pike (as well as Perry, Harris, and Carrie Coon, who plays Nick's twin sister Margo) were terrific.

RT Summary:  GONE GIRL - directed by David Fincher and based upon the global bestseller by Gillian Flynn - unearths the secrets at the heart of a modern marriage. On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) reports that his beautiful wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick's portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?

MOVIE - The Maze Runner

PG-13 (1:54)

Wide release 9/19/2014

Viewed 9/21/14 at Park Place

RT Critic: 63  Audience: 81

Cag:  3/I liked it

Directed by Wes Ball

20th Century Fox
From the book by James Dasher.  See my review here.

Dylan O'Brien, Thomas Sangster, Will Poulter

My comments:  I read the book when it first came out - about five years ago.  I thought I remembered a lot of it, but watching the movie was almost (but not quite) like I'd never read it.  I don't know if that's good or bad.  I was entertained by the film, that's for sure, and will definitely go to see the sequel, apparently coming out next year.

RT Summary:  When Thomas wakes up trapped in a massive maze with a group of other boys, he has no memory of the outside world other than strange dreams about a mysterious organization known as W.C.K.D. Only by piecing together fragments of his past with clues he discovers in the maze can Thomas hope to uncover his true purpose and a way to escape. Based upon the best-selling novel by James Dashner

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. 

MOVIE - Winter's Tale

PG-13 (2:09)

Wide release 2/14/14

Viewed with Fran at the Orleans on Feb. 16, 2014

RT Critic: 13 Audience: 50

Cag: 1-Nope, didn't do it for me at all

Directed by Akiva Goldman

Warner Brothers Pictures

Colin Farrell, William Hurt, Russell Crowe

My comments: Colin Farrell did the best he could with this material. When the movie was over I looked at Fran and said, "Well that was stupid," and she burst out laughing.  She'd been holding it in, too.   I wanted to like it, I truly did.  But it just didn't work.  That flying horse just took the cake....  (I'm betting this did okay as a fantasy book.  It didn't translate well into a movie.)  PeterTraver's Rolling Stone review is right on perfect! (See below)

Fandango review:  One night in early 20th-century New York, master thief Peter Lake (Colin Farrell) breaks into a Central Park mansion -- and quickly has his heart stolen by its occupant, Beverly Penn (Jessica Brown Findlay). Unfortunately, their love is star-crossed; she is dying from consumption, and he is marked for death by his demonic former mentor, Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe). Peter battles the forces of time and darkness to save Beverly, even as Pearly does everything in his power to defeat Peter.

By Peter Travers

February 14, 2014

A kick in the ass to Valentine's Day and the very notion of a satisfying Somewhere In Time kind of romantic wallow at the movies. What happens to Mark Helprin's 1983 bestseller at the hands of Hollywood is a crying shame. In his feature directing debut, Oscar-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind), creates a beautiful mess, an embarrassment of epic proportions. On deck is a supernatural love story that spans a century and even death, Colin Farrell—sporting the epitome of a bad haircut stars as Peter Lake. He's the son of immigrant parents who use a makeshift basket to send him ashore like an infant Moses at Ellis Island in 1895. By 1916, Peter is a thief, running from gangland boss Pearly Soames (a scowling Russell Crowe shouting in an indecipherable Irish brogue) with the help of a flying white horse. Hand to God, I'm not making this up. Pearly's scarred face morphs into demon shape when he's really pissed, which is often. His tantrums prompt a visit to the underground lair of Lucifer (Will Smith, following After Earth with another howling fiasco). But Lucifer won't interfere with Pearly's hunt for Peter who has now fallen hard for Beverly Penn, the dying daughter of a publishing tycoon (William Hurt). Findlay, the late Lady Sybil of Downton Abbey (let's hope she didn't leave that classic series for this!), has a breathtaking beauty that helps you suspend disbelief. But, sorry, not to this extent. Peter and Beverly's night of sexual union – her first and last – ends with an ageless Peter being swept into present-day New York where fate has him intervene in the life of a journalist (Jennifer Connolly) and her dying daughter. And then Eva Marie Saint, 89, shows up playing a figure from the past. And a star twinkles in the sky (could it be Beverly?). We're told in voiceover that everything is part of a grand pattern that we may one day understand. I'm calling bullshit. Winter's Tale is preposterous twaddle. Use it as a date movie only if you don't love the one you're with.

MOVIE - The Book Thief

PG-13 (2:05)

Limited Release 11/8/2013

Viewed 1/27/2014 at Crossroads

RT Critic: 50 Audience: 79

Cag:  4.5 Liked it a lot

Directed by Brian Percival

20th Century Fox

Actors:  Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, Sophie Nelisse

Reviews:  Based on the beloved international bestselling book, The Book Thief tells the story of an extraordinary, spirited young girl sent to live with a foster family in WWII Germany. Intrigued by the only book she brought with her, she begins collecting books as she finds them. With the help of her new parents and a secret guest under the stairs, she learns to read and creates a magical world that inspires them all.

My comments:  This is one of those movies that makes a lasting impression.  The story, about how Hitler and WWII affected the German population, was incredibly powerful and well-told.  The acting (and the choices of those actors) was exquisite.  I have put off reading this book - mainly because it's so dense - but have heard nothing but good reviews and high praise for it.  The actress who plays Lisl, Sophie Nelisse, is mesmerizing - she is absolutely beautiful, innocent-looking, and an incredible actress (especially for one so young).  Geoffrey Rush is so perfect as "Papa," and their relationship in wonderfully believable.  The character of "Mama" and Emily Watson's performance of it - well - I was incredibly impressed.  Two words.  Stunning.  Sad.

MOVIE - The Mortal Instrument: City of Bones

PG-13 (2:10)

Wide Release /23/2013

I saw it after school Wed 11/6/13 at Crossroads

RT Critic: 12 Audience: 65

Cag: 3 liked it, Very entertaining, and I loved watching this group of actors

Directed by Harald Zwart

Sony Pictures

Based on the YA book by Cassandra Clare

My comments:  I found the lead male, Jamie Campbell Bower, fascinating to watch, and when Jonathan Rhys-Myers appeared, I was quite pleased!  I'd heard the plot was difficult to understand, but I didn't find that at all.  Maybe I've read enough YA stories of this sort, but I can't think of a single questions I have about what happened or why.  I loved the creepy shape-changing into demonic characters!  If a second movie is not made - because of bad reviews - I'll have to read the second book, because I really do want to know what happens next!

Fandango synopsis:  Set in contemporary New York City, a seemingly ordinary teenager, Clary Fray (Lily Collins), discovers she is the descendant of a line of Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of young half-angel warriors locked in an ancient battle to protect our world from demons. After the disappearance of her mother (Lena Headey), Clary must join forces with a group of Shadowhunters, who introduce her to a dangerous alternate New York called Downworld, filled with demons, warlocks, vampires, werewolves and other deadly creatures. Based on the worldwide best-selling book series.

MOVIE - The Attack

R (1:42)

Limited release 6/21/2013

Viewed with Sheila at the Loft on 8/22/2013

RT Critic: 91 Audience:  79

Cag:   2/it was okay 

In Hebrew with subtitles

Based on the book of the same title by Yasmina Khadra

Directed by Zlad Doueiri

Cohen Media Group

Rotten Tomatoes summary:  Amin Jaafari (Ali Suliman, Paradise Now) is an Israeli Palestinian surgeon, fully assimilated into Tel Aviv society. He has a loving wife, an exemplary career, and many Jewish friends. But his picture perfect life is turned upside down after a suicide bombing in a restaurant leaves nineteen dead, and the Israeli police inform him that his wife, Sihem (Reymonde Amsellem, Lebanon) who also died in the explosion, was responsible. Convinced of her innocence, Amin abandons the relative security of his adopted homeland and enters the Palestinian territories in pursuit of the truth. Once there, he finds himself in ever more dangerous places and situations. Determined, he presses on seeking answers to questions he never thought he would be asking.

My comments:  I loved the book - I read it when it first came out.  The movie left me with a totally different feeling.  At the end of the book, I think I understood how Jaafari felt.  Not at the end of the movie.  I can't understand his lack of conscience, it left me feeling empty and bereft.  It was a really tough movie, anyways.  

MOVIE: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Loved the book, quite liked the movie
Released 2/12/10
PG (2:00)
4/28/10 at Crossroads with Fran
RT: 50 cag: 77
Director: Chris Columbus (I love that 1492 Pictures is his company)

(includes Pierce Brosnan, Catherine Keener, and Uma Thurman among its credits)

Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief has been a huge hit in my classroom for the last few years. The first book in a series of five about a contemporary boy who was fathered by Poseidon, we switch back and forth between a "real" contemporary world and gods and creatures from Greek mythology.

Percy Jackson has known nothing of his paternal side, known nothing other than he struggles in school because of ADHD and dyslexia. Then, one day in his early teens, his life rapidly changes with the entrance of centaurs and Olympic gods and nasty scary creatures who are all out to get him. He is taken to "Camp Half Blood" where his background is explained and he is immediately forced into a quest to find Zeus' lightning bolt, which Zeus thinks Percy stole. Along with his "protector" and a new female half-blood "warrior" like himself, they set off on a trip across America looking for the pearls that will allow them to leave the underworld, which will be their final destination. They have crazy, interesting, and just-a-bit scary adventures along the way.

I really enjoyed it. It was long, but the time passed quickly. My friend, Fran, who had not read the book and does not like fantasy/scary movies was less impressed. She was a good sport, though, and indulged me. Off to another movie tomorrow night!