MOVIE - 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

R (1:55)
Wide release 12/1/17 (But hard to find around here)

Viewed January 11, 2018
IMBd: 8.2

RT Critic:  92   Audience:  87
Critic's Consensus:  Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri deftly balances black comedy against searing drama -- and draws unforgettable performances from its veteran cast along the way.

Cag:  5.5 Incredible acting

Directed by Martin McDonagh (who also wrote it)

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Peter Dinklage

My comments:  I snorted, I rolled my eyes, I got sad twinges in my stomach, I laughed, I was horrified, and I was constantly surprised.  Now that's a movie that takes you through efery emotion like you are on a short but sweet roller coaster ride.  I must admit the opening bars -- or even more than just the opening bars -- made me cringe.  It was opera; shrill, screechy opera.  My muscles were tense from the onset and I'm so glad that the rest of the music was totally acceptable after that bad start.  This was an amazing movie, with actors and actresses that have earned my standing ovation.  So many emotions, and they all rang true!  Definitely a winner.  There was one side story that was harder than I would've guessed at this pint in my life would be quite as difficult as it was, which brought back Steve' battle 17 years ago.  That was a little hard.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI is a darkly comic drama from Academy Award winner Martin McDonagh (IN BRUGES). After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes (Academy Award winner Frances McDormand) makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Academy Award nominee Woody Harrelson), the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), an immature mother's boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated.

MOVIE - The Glass Castle

PG-13, (2:07)

Wide release 8/11/2017

Viewed 8/26/17

RT Critic:  51  Audience:  72
Critic's Consensus:  The Glass Castle has an affecting real-life story and a hard-working cast in its corner, but they aren't enough to outweigh a fundamentally misguided approach to the material.

Cag:  5.5

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton

Lionsgate

Based on the memoir by Jeanette Walls 

Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, Naomi Watts

My comments:  Terrific movie.  Based on the book which is based on the memoir of Jeanette Walls.  Didn't read the book, though I contemplated doing so several times.  What a beautifully told, sad, exhilarating, painful and joyous story.  Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts were brilliant.  I particularly liked the way that the story was told with three different sets of actors depicting three different time periods, flashing back and forwards, showing the full and total picture of what it would have been like to be in this family's shoes.  During the end credits, photos of the real people were shown and labeled, putting a crowning touch on a really good couple of hours.  Alcoholism is a horrible disease....

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Chronicling the adventures of an eccentric, resilient and tight-knit family, THE GLASS CASTLE is a remarkable story of unconditional love. Oscar (R) winner Brie Larson brings Jeannette Walls's best-selling memoir to life as a young woman who, influenced by the joyfully wild nature of her deeply dysfunctional father (Woody Harrelson), found the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.

MOVIE - Triple 9

(R) 1:55

Wide release 2/26/16

Viewed Tuesday, 3/1/16 at ElCon with Sheila

RT Critic:  54  Audience:  50
Critic's Consensus:  Triple 9's pulpy potboiler thrills don't quite live up to the ferocious talents of its cast, but the film's efficient, solidly crafted genre fun is often enough to balance its troublesome flaws.

Cag: 4 - this was a good movie, had to pay close attention to "get" it all (I hate that I love dark, gritty, full-of-murder books and movies)

Directed by John Hillcoat

Open Road Films

Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Kate Winslet, Chiwetei Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie

My comments: Very entertaining, once you got past two things.  One: very, VERY violent. Two: shows the "underbelly" of cities in the US in a really shocking way.  Even though I was aware of gloom, gangs,guns, drugs, darkness, crazy people this really, REALLY showed it - too well.  It was really unsettling.  The story was intricate and interesting.  You had to pay attention.  It wasn't until the drive home afterward that something said at the very beginning of the film was remembered and made sense (the three in the car were talking about their upcoming heist, and the guy in the back seat said he didn't worry about Marcus, but wasn't sure about the "other guy."  I'm glad I remembered that later!  (It always amazes me how Woody Harrelson totally takes on a role - he definitely becomes the perosn he's portraying.  He was great!)

RT Summary:  In TRIPLE NINE, a crew of dirty cops is blackmailed by the Russian mob to execute a virtually impossible heist and the only way to pull it off is to manufacture a 999, police code for "officer down." Their plan is turned upside down when the unsuspecting rookie they set up to die foils the attack, triggering a breakneck action-packed finale tangled with double-crosses, greed and revenge.

MOVIE - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

PG-13 (2:16)

Wide Release 11/20/15

Viewed at ElCon

RT Critic:  70  Audience:  70

Cag:  2/ It was okay, but just barely....more BLEH!

Directed by Francis Lawrence

Lionsgate Films

Based on the book by Suzanne Collins

Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson, Julianne Moore, Liam Hemsworth

My comments:  Total disappointment.  I hated the last book in this series, and didn't like the movie at all.  I'm still so disappointed in the casting pf Peta - don't like him at all, practically not charisma with Katniss at all.

MOVIE: Hunger Games: Catching Fire

PG-13 (2:26)

Widely released 11/22/2013 

RT Critic: 89 Audience: 93
cag:  2 / it was okay 

Directed by Francis Lawrence

Lionsgate Films
based on the book by Suzanne Collins

Actors: Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Liam Hemsworth

Rotten Tomatoes:  THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE begins as Katniss Everdeen has returned home safe after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games along with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark. Winning means that they must turn around and leave their family and close friends, embarking on a "Victor's Tour" of the districts. Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control as President Snow prepares the 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Quarter Quell) - a competition that could change Panem forever.

My comments:  I really liked the Hunger Games book, and enjoyed the movie.  I did not like the story of Catching Fire very much, and that feeling didn't change with the viewing of this movie.  The story paralleled the book quite well, I think,  but it wasn't one of those two-plus hour movies that flew by.  The main characters were very watchable, very likable (Woody Harrelson was really good), the movie was good. Okay.  It dragged in places.  My opinion, only.  I will go see the third movie when it comes out, but I liked the third book even less than the second, so I'm not "dying" to see it....