Change Your Image
![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTg1NTAxOTY0MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwODM0NTEwMDE@._V1_SY100_SX100_.jpg)
TxMike
Reviews
Mean Girls (2024)
Calling someone stupid doesn't make you smarter.
I didn't expect to like this movie. It was a free rental DVD from my public library. I recall the original "Mean Girls" from 20 years earlier, where Lindsay Lohan as a real teenager played teenager Cady, and for me it was just so-so. Even though most of the main characters are the same, and Tina Fey was involved in writing both of them, for me this 2024 version is a much better movie.
It is a movie where you need to go back and re-watch the opening scene. Two of the students are in a garage, playing music and singing a song "Cautionary Tale", which it turns out is a one-song synopsis of the whole movie. Then, as the garage door opens we see a scene representing Kenya, with Angourie Rice as Cady Heron sitting in the weeds adjacent to a narrow dirt road, singing her song, which ends with the phrase "My limit doesn't exist." Which also ties into the solution to the question in the Mathlete competition near the end of the movie.
The whole movie is clever movie-making. It is funny without being slapstick. It is a musical of sorts, with several characters breaking out in song at appropriate times. Without hitting the audience too hard across the head, the overall message is that calling someone stupid does not make you smarter, and calling someone ugly doesn't make you prettier.
The setting is Illinois but it was shot in New Jersey. Cady is home schooled, her mother is a Scientist in Kenya, but takes a job at Northwestern University mostly to give her daughter a more normal teenage experience.
I did not know who Reneé Rapp was until I watched this movie. She plays the second main character, Regina George. She is an exceptional young actress, she plays the "plastic" Regina just right, but she is an even more exceptional singer. I am a musician, I am typically hard on actors who try to sing, but Rapp is the real deal.
So yes, I enjoyed this movie and will likely watch it again. It's IMDb rating is a bit low, don't know why.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)
Loosely based on real WW2 operations, to neutralize Nazi U-Boats.
Ever since I heard about this movie, and watched the trailer, I was anxious to see it. Having done so now I have come away a bit disappointed. The first half, the set-up for the unofficial mission, was most interesting. As Guy Ritchie movie-making would have it, the second half contains lots of fighting and killing. The second half is not as entertaining as I hoped.
The film is very loosely based on the book of the same name by war journalist Damien Lewis (not the actor, Damian Lewis) that narrates the recently declassified history of Winston Churchill's Special Operations Executive, a top-secret department tasked with developing a fighting force trained in irregular warfare tactics to operate behind German lines and confuse, disrupt, terrorize, exhaust, and demoralize Hitler and his thugs. Their methodology included all sorts of things one really isn't supposed to do in war: assassinations, black operations, bribery, corruption, money laundering, and other, well, ungentlemanly things.
It is well documented that during the first years of the war it was difficult to get food, troops, and other supplies to England and Europe by ship because of the German U-Boats that sank so many vessels. This movie is based on a plan to disrupt that by sinking (or stealing) the U-Boat supply ship.
Good actors, good filming and editing, it was just a bit of a disappointment overall. Extensive shooting and killing scenes are not as interesting as the filmmaker thinks it would be.
At home, on DVD from my public library.
Madame Web (2024)
When it ended my wife said, "That is a pretty entertaining movie."
Again a movie is hit by rogue voters, as I write this a full 25% of the IMDb ratings are "1". Which of course is ridiculous. They vote it "1" just because they can with no repercussions. While the movie has story-telling flaws and some flow issues it definitely has some entertainment value.
The story starts in 1973, an obviously pregnant young woman explorer is in the forests of Peru, hunting for a very rare spider. It is believed that this particular spider has almost magical qualities and the young woman has a very particular reason to be risking her life. We don't find out those details until near the end of the movie.
Then the time switches to 2003, 30 years later. Dakota Johnson is 30-ish Cassandra Webb, a paramedic in New York City. We soon realize that she is the baby that was born to the explorer in the quest for the spider. Then we also learn that she had an encounter with the spider that gave her certain clairvoyant abilities, namely the ability to visualize things before they happen.
Some of the details of the story and the motivations of the bad guy get jumbled a bit but the story arc is Cassandra learning how to use her powers productively. The story includes a trio of teenage girls who are being hunted for what it seems they might do in the future. While they are critical to the story I found their behaviors a bit frustrating. You know, the old trope, tell teenagers exactly what to do and then they do just the opposite when left alone.
So, while this movie doesn't deserve a very high rating it does have some entertainment value. My wife and I watched it at home, on DVD from our public library.
Lawmen: Bass Reeves (2023)
David Oyelowo is good as lawman Bass Reeves.
The story here starts in the 1800s, the Civil Ear, David Oyelowo is
Bass Reeves. He is with his owner during a battle, by default is forced into battle for survival. After the war he gets his freedom and eventually works his way into law enforcement.
This is a very good series, well cast and well told. My only issue with it is how long it is. Told in eight episodes, the total running time is right at six hours. That is because the story is told very deliberately. This is not a surprise when we find out one of the producers is Taylor Sheridan of the Yellowstone series and a western themed movie or two.
Because of its length I skipped around a bit, watching parts of several of the DVDs in the set I got from my public library. Oyelowo is very good in the tile role and the series is very well made, I just don't have the patience to spend six hours on the story of a lawman.
Boy Kills World (2023)
I really wanted to like this, but ...
I generally like strange, off-beat movies. Not as a steady diet of viewing but on occasion just to experience something different. That is the mood I had when I went into viewing this one, on BluRay from my public library.
As the director says in the disc extras, he grew up as a computer gamer and wanted this movie to have that type of look and action. I am not a gamer, I don't see the allure, I like to do real things. So it is not surprise, after the fact, that I never could get into this movie. I didn't identify any characters I liked, I didn't enjoy the action filled with gratuitous violence and blood.
So for me, it is a big miss, I do not rate it very highly.
The Family Plan (2023)
Former assassin tries to suppress his past.
Mark Wahlberg is Dan Morgan, living a good suburban life with a nice family, married with two teenagers. Michelle Monaghan is his wife, Jessica Morgan. Things have been going great for a few years, then social media interferes. They are out at night in a public place, feeling amorous and making out, some guy takes their photo, or maybe a video, and live streams it. That is all it took for Dan's enemies to find out where he was.
He was prepared for that possible eventuality, gets what he needs and quickly hustles the others into the family car. His explanation? An impromptu vacation to Las Vegas. The complicating matter, you see, is he had never told his wife that he had once been an assassin. And that he had enemies.
This is not a particular novel premise, still, on paper it had decent possibilities for an entertaining family comedy. Plus they hired some pretty good actors. The trouble is the script is not particularly interesting and from where I sat it didn't seem very well directed. So all the way through it is hit or miss. Mostly, for me, a miss.
Plus, when there isn't a particularly novel story, like here, everything is brought to a head with shooting, lots and lots of shooting. Can you get more unimaginative than that?
My wife and I watched it at home, streaming. While it was somewhat entertaining in total it isn't a very good movie. I would not want to watch it again.
Betty's Bad Luck in Love (2024)
Is bad luck inevitable, or can you overcome it?
The story starts 20 years earlier than present time, when Betty and her friend are teenagers at school. They are sitting at a table outside when the boy Betty has a crush on comes by. A jealous girl comes by and puts a "hex" on Betty, forever she will have bad luck with all her boyfriends.
Twenty years later in New York City (actually shot in British Columbia) Laci J Mailey is Betty. She lives in 4B. She is thriving as a risk assessment professional but has a long string of failed relationships. She really believes in the hex put on her all those years ago.
So most of the story here is Betty battling the hex but in essence she is allowing herself to be doomed by her belief in it. It comes to a head when she meets the ideal guy, a news photographer, Marco Grazzini as Alex, who moves in above her in 5B. As they get closer Betty finds ways to sabotage the relationship. Until a revelation when she and her best friend look up the girl who put the hex on her.
My wife and I shared the same take, this is NOT one of the better Hallmark movies. It comes across as a low budget movie which is a bit overly silly in some places and the script is marginal at best. But it also isn't any worse than a typical rom-com TV show, just a bit longer.
At home, on DVD from our public library.
Freelance (2023)
Politics in S. America, I was entertained more than I expected.
I watch a lot of movies that might be considered 'marginal', for two main reasons. I am retired so I have lots of time to spare and I enjoy observing how the movie-making process delivers a movie that I can watch in my own living room. Plus, because they are all free rentals from my public library. So I guess that makes three reasons.
I read the summary for this movie and it seemed pretty cheesy, so I was prepared to just waste most of 2 hours. I came away pleasantly surprised at how entertaining it is. To be fair, mostly implausible, but it contains a shred of reality. Perhaps more real than we want to believe. That less-developed countries, like the fictional Palonia here in S. America, can be manipulated by big business looking for their resources and hiring mercenaries to accomplish the overthrow of a government.
The script is inventive and funny, but the effectiveness of the movie is because of the three main actors. John Cena as
Mason Pettits, former special ops man who was injured in his last mission and is now a lawyer, and is hired to accompany and protect a famous journalist. Alison Brie as the journalist, Claire Wellington, and the best one of the bunch, Juan Pablo Raba as the dictator, Venegas.
At home, on DVD.
Origin (2023)
One woman's quest to make sense of Trayvon Martin killing.
In February 2012 teenager Trayvon Martin was assaulted and killed on his way home from the convenience store because he looked suspicious. A black female author was asked to write an article, presumably to address what many considered simple racism, Martin was killed because he was black.
Instead she decided to look deeper, a lot deeper. Including traveling abroad. The research for her eventual book, upon which this movie is based, led her to examine the caste system which is present in many forms across many civilizations.
Definition: Caste - a social hierarchy that assigns a person or group a social class or standing based on their ancestry and ideas of "purity" and "pollution". It's a traditional practice that's rooted in the political, social, cultural, and economic structures of some religions or cultures. In Hinduism, castes are hereditary social classes that limit the occupations of their members and their interactions with other castes.
Clearly this does not separate people by race or skin color but by long-standing prejudices. In the USA the caste system assigned blacks, most of whom are direct descendants of slaves, to a lower standing. Even in my own lifetime I recall businesses having a separate entrance for blacks, separate water fountains, separate schools, and many hotels prohibited blacks from staying there. In this movie an incident is depicted where a little league baseball team with only one black kid goes to a community pool to celebrate their victory and the black kid is not allowed to swim. The pool manager says something to the effect that if he were to jump in, the pool would have to be closed and disinfected.
A good bit of time is also spent in India where the caste system is still very strict and those in the lowest of the social order have to clean cesspools by hand and have no hope of ever rising above that.
A very interesting and thought-provoking movie. My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library.
One Life (2023)
What an 'army of ordinary people' can accomplish.
This is a true story of real events in Prague right before the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939 to start what became WW2. Nick Winton was a London businessman visiting Prague in 1938, what he witnessed floored him. Hundreds of people, including small children, barely surviving in squalor. He asked "How can we get them all to safety in England?" He was told it could not be done.
This is the story of what Nick did, with the help of many others that he recruited. The number of children directly rescued is 669. But it is estimated that 6000 people are alive today as a result of Nick's efforts.
This is a very good movie, not only is the story an important one, it uses top-notch actors and is made very well, alternating between 1930s England and Prague, and 1987 and 1988 England. It shows how otherwise ordinary people can band together to accomplish extraordinary things.
My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library.
Immaculate (2024)
Religious theme horror story set in an Italian convent.
I like Sydney Sweeney, she is attractive but more and more is showing her acting chops. Here she also is a producer, and she stars as Cecilia, a young Michigan girl who recovered from a frozen lake near-death experience. She has decided, now that her own little church community has become defunct, to become a Catholic nun and travel to a convent in Italy.
I don't usually watch horror movies, they rarely interest me and I went into this one unsure. But with Sweeney I figured I'd give it a try. Aside from extended scenes of too long episodes of screaming, for the most part it kept my interest.
CAUTION - FOLLOWING ARE SPOILERS...
Cecilia wasn't there long before she started witnessing very strange things. Some may have been dreams, others maybe not. Shortly, in spite of never having been with a man they find out she is pregnant. With the doctor even affirming that her virginity was intact when she arrived. So naturally the other nuns began to think it was going to be a modern day virgin birth, perhaps a new coming of Christ.
But the truth is they had an original spike from the crucifixion and it had very slight traces of blood residue. So they built a lab and had been experimenting with the goal to impregnate an innocent young nun to produce a new Christ clone.
In the end, after several struggles and a few deaths Cecilia goes through the catacombs to find a way out, her water had broken, now she delivered a "baby." They only show us a blurred image on the ground but the noises coming from it are not a human baby. My best interpretation is that she delivered a devil child and had to make sure it didn't survive.
At home, on DVD from my public library. My wife skipped, not her kind of movie.
My Spy The Eternal City (2024)
Mixed bag, some drama but too silly for my tastes.
I watched the 2020 version of "My Spy" and enjoyed it a lot as fun entertainment. This one features JJ and Sophie again, she is now 14, and the story involves a school chorus that gets an invitation to perform in Rome at the Vatican. There are of course crooks, pretty much the same type of crooks we always see in movies like this. There is the suspicion that small, portable nuclear devices will be detonated during the crowded celebration.
On the positive side I enjoyed all the main characters and most of the scenery is very attractive. One of my favorites over the years has been Anna Faris and I almost didn't recognize her as the brown-haired crooked mastermind. But overall I was disappointed with the whole movie. The writing is very uneven, while plenty of it is nice and tame, there are also sections with unnecessarily rude language. Then there are the scenes that are designed to be funny but I didn't find them funny at all.
I watched the whole thing but never really got invested in the story. It just didn't come across as a very good movie.
At home, streaming on Amazon Prime.
Lessons in Chemistry (2023)
Elizabeth Zott hosts "Supper at Six."
I like this series, to me it is almost flawless in the story arc and how it depicts the realities of the times. Here is why my connection to the show is so strong.
First, I am a Chemist (retired now) and I really enjoy spending time in the kitchen and experimenting with new things. My wife is grateful, she doesn't have to cook much at all and she enjoys my cooking.
However, going back farther in time, I started my career as a Chemist in a lab back in the 1960s. Yes, a few years after this 1950s story but with many of the same issues. In a large research lab we had no female Chemists, we had female lab technicians. When a female engineer needed to do work in the plant she had to get special permission from the plant manager to wear pants. In general female employees of all ranks were expected to wear dresses or skirts.
Then there is the case of my beloved high school Chemistry teacher. She finished college in the late 1940s, right after the war, she was bright and diligent but could not get a job as a Chemist, men were hired for those jobs. So she did what Elizabeth Zott did, found something else. In her case it was teaching high school Chemistry. And I do recall that she also included some cooking hints.
It makes me wonder how the younger generation react to a show like "Lessons in Chemistry", maybe they think it is exaggerated fiction. It is NOT, it very closely parallels what the scientific world really was like the 1950s and 1960s.
I really enjoyed Brie Larson's characterization of Elizabeth Zott, and the other actors are fine too. Kudos to Lewis Pullman, I had never seen him in a real featured role and he is really good.
For me, one of the best mini-series I have watched, interesting and entertaining from the first episode to the last. My wife and I watched it at home, two episodes a night for four consecutive nights. She read the source book first, as usual there are changes but she enjoyed the 8-part series as much as she enjoyed the book.
Land of Bad (2024)
Damn good military movie, good resolution.
This involves a "war" that is not really a war. It is the Philippines, a team of four is assembled for a nighttime helicopter para drop. Their mission is to encounter a known criminal and either capture him or neutralize him.
Not part of the air drop, Russell Crowe is in the key role as an Air Force Captain. He is an old-timer but still only a Captain, probably because he has a tendency to buck authority when he feels a need. His job is to work as a remote drone operator, and the arrange for additional air strikes when necessary. So he basically has a desk job, but a critical one.
Nothing about the mission on the ground goes right and it quickly turns into a rescue mission. The Captain ends up playing the most critical role in achieving a rescue in a very difficult situation.
There is a good human interest element, the youngest of the strike mission is also the most inexperienced and the other members treat him as such. But he experiences the most personal growth and ultimately is the key person on the ground to facilitate the rescue.
Even though he is now 60, and about 200 pounds overweight, Crowe shows that he is still one of the best in the acting profession. He is really good here.
My wife and I watched it at home, streaming. We found it to be a bit better than would have settled for. In some ways it has a "Top Gun: Maverick" feel to it, the way things develop and the rescue is facilitated.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)
Welcome to Hollow Earth, perhaps Kong's new home?
By now these Godzilla and Kong movies are just trying to do one thing ... make a profit. Which is understandable, writers, actors, and post-production specialists need work to pay their bills.
While there are several human-centered stories, the main focus is the mostly unexplored Hollow Earth where mysterious signals are originating. The main portal (similar to wormholes in the universe) is in Barbados and when their special craft makes it down there we see a beautiful world full of greenery and unique animal species. But more important a previously unknown indigenous people, and some previously unknown ape-like species. (I found myself wondering, where do the light and shadows come from?)
The human interest stories are fine but the real focus is on the giants, mostly Kong and the apes trying to kill him. There is a bit about Godzilla, he pretty much destroys most of Rome before he curls up for a nap in the coliseum, but he seems mostly a distraction.
Everything is so far-fetched with action overload that after a while I found myself a bit glazed over. I can't help watching them but I really hope this is the last one.
The sound track is remarkably good, it gives your home theater surround sound and subwoofer quite a workout. At home on DVD from my public library, my wife skipped, she has watched enough of these sorts of movies.
Finding You (2020)
Violinist goes to Ireland to find her musical voice.
This movie stars Nashville native Rose Reid (20 during shooting) as violinist Finley Sinclair. As the movie starts she has an audition for a music school but is turned down. (Not shown in the movie, but included in the trailer, she is told her playing is technically good but it lacks emotion.)
Her brother had gone to Ireland for a semester of study so she decides to follow in his footsteps, the host family was still willing and, in fact, now owned and operated a bed-N-breakfast hotel near Dublin.
Part of the story involves Canadian actor Jedidiah Goodacre (30 during shooting) as Beckett Rush who happens to be a star of a series of action movies and very popular with the younger girls. He by chance is seated next to Finley on the flight over, she had no idea who he was until she noticed his picture on the cover of the in-flight magazine. There is friction right away which, in this type of movie, means they will become love interests.
As the script also dictates they also end up staying at the same place so there is plenty of time for interactions. Although he is successful and wealthy, his father manager is a thorn, looking forward to more roles and income at the expense of his son's happiness.
The movie is interesting (thanks Emily and David for the recommendation) and entertaining but at almost two hours is a bit long. It drags some in the second half due to several issues being addressed, including a dying older woman trying to reconcile with her younger sister and Finley facilitating it.
The trip to Ireland was fruitful for Finley in several ways, one was getting with an older Irish fiddler who helped her find her musical voice. Plus Ireland is beautiful and the cinematography accentuated that.
At home, streaming on Prime.
Irish Wish (2024)
Irish love story with a supernatural element.
I would consider this Lindsay Lohan's return to legitimate entertaining movies. She has had a very rocky road since her turns as a young actress in such movies as "The Parent Trap" and "Freaky Friday". In this one she is also an Executive Producer. It is a clean movie and in many respects made along the lines of a typical Hallmark Movie.
She plays Maddie Kelly, a writer who mostly works as an editor for a popular writer. They get a chance to go to Ireland for a wedding and, while she is walking around the beautiful countryside, comes upon a stone bench. It turns out to have some magical powers, someone appears and is able to grant her wish.
The wish, instead of making everything better, ends up doing the opposite. So, much of the second half of the movie is making things right.
Honestly, I didn't expect this to be good, my wife and I only watched it because the first movie we started wasn't good at all. We were surprised, pleasantly, it is a more interesting and entertaining movie than we expected. Lohan, now in her late 30s, is good.
At home, streaming.
Nowhere Special (2020)
Single dad's efferts to find a new home for his 4-yr-old son.
This is an interesting movie. Nothing much happens, it is a situation and character study, rooted in reality.
The writer director read in the news about a situation. A man had a small child and the mother had abandoned them. Then the man learned he had an advancing form of brain cancer and he had only a few months to live. Thus he needed to find suitable adoptive parents for his young child, with the help of local agencies.
He was unable to find out any more than was reported in the news, because of privacy laws. So starting with what he knew, he fashioned a fictional story on the subject.
The movie was shot in Northern Ireland, in the Belfast area. The father, John, is a 30-something window washer, mostly hired by homeowners with multi story homes that require ladder and squeegee to wash the windows. He has an old car and gets about with extension ladders secured to the roof. His Russian wife had abandoned them when the baby was only a few months old.
His young son is 4-yr-old Michael, a very bright boy, not fully understanding the situation.
My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library. It is an interesting watch, mainly seeing how John processed all the information and the types of families that were seeking to adopt.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)
A continuation, and bringing back a few original cast members.
This newest installment of the "Ghostbusters" series features mostly younger generation actors. However they are able to bring back many of the original cast, at least among those who survived. It was especially nice to see Bill Murray back.
For me the most interesting was Mckenna Grace as Phoebe Spengler. The young actress got onto my personal radar when she was about 10, starring in "Gifted" where she played a Mathematics prodigy with a very ordinary single dad, after her Mathematics genius mother died young.
Here she is a teenager just getting her skills honed as a Ghostbuster but she is still too young. However in the end she manages to provide the key assistance that enables them to capture the new "Frozen Empire" ghost.
All in all a nicely entertaining fluff of a movie for anyone who has an appreciation of the older GB movies. My wife and I watched it at home on BluRay.
The "extras" are interesting, instead of trying to use the original Station 8 in New York City, they created an exact replica on a sound stage in Los Angeles, and used blue screen on the outside to make it look like it was in New York.
The Long Game (2023)
Based on the true story of unlikely golf champions in the 1950s.
I enjoyed this movie. I was predisposed to because of the parallels in my own life in the 1950s in a small southern town. The nearest golf course was 30 miles away so I built my own clubs from old broom sticks and pieces of 2X4 lumber. I built a small course in our long back yard. At one point my dad bought me a 9-iron and a few real balls. Finally in 1962 I made it to the course, I played with a borrowed set of clubs, it was the beginning of 60+ years of golf for me.
So these rural Texas kids, of Mexican parents, had a similar affinity for the game. Five of them worked as caddies at the local "whites only" country club. But they wanted to play the game so they spent leisure time crafting their own rough golf course, using balls they scavenged after hours and discarded golf clubs.
A new school superintendent who loved golf showed up for the new school year, he too of Mexican ancestry, found out about the five boys, and began the quest to form them into real golfers. Plus dealing with the racism of the time and overcoming it to grow into fine young men.
While the characters and the story are true the screenplay was built from a book written after extensive research and interviews. So it is authentic to the real 1950s story but of course includes fictionalized scenes and dialog to make it an entertaining movie. Much of the movie was shot in the nearby towns of Smithville and Bastrop in the areas west of Houston.
It is a well-crafted and entertaining movie. My wife and I, both avid golfers, enjoyed it, streaming at home.
The Beekeeper (2024)
Clever movie, the beekeeper protects the hide.
The opening of this movie, before any action begins, we are treated to a pictorial review of the types of bees and the role of each, to keep the hive running smoothly. Then we see newspaper headlines of killer wasps invading beehives to upset the status. This in fact is what the movie is about, instead of focusing on real bees it involves the smooth functioning of society as if it were a giant beehive, and the killer wasps are the scammers who illegally take advantage of others.
Jason Statham is a producer and stars as Adam Clay, retired member of an organization that is underground and unofficial, they call them the "beekeepers". Only a few in the CIA and the FBI even know about them. Their job, when called upon, is to take out people who are wasps in society, where normal rules of justice have failed.
Clay has retired to a life of actual beekeeping. The opening scene has him going into a barn to trap then destroy a hive of killer wasps as a foreshadowing of what the rest of the movie is about. He presses himself into action when an older woman, someone he is very attached to, takes her own life after being scammed and all her accounts drained, including a $2Million charity account she was administering.
Statham is very good in this role. Think Leon the Professional or The Equalizer but taken to an even more lethal level. For the action junkies there are several explosions and lots and lots of shooting and killing. A bit too much at times, but most of us can make exceptions when the good guy is hunting down the really bad guys in our world.
My wife and I watched it at home, streaming on Prime.
Ordinary Angels (2024)
Based on real people and their story, a very sick little girl needs a village of help.
The Louisville, Kentucky area, the events depicted here start in 1993 and extend into 1994. Snippets as the credits roll show us glimpses of the real people and some of the activities depicted in the movie and some closer to the present. As often happens some things were changed for dramatic (movie-making) effect but the core story is factual.
Hilary Swank is good as Sharon, the woman with serious, unresolved issues, mostly a result of her frequent binge drinking. She has long contended she is NOT an alcoholic but has to come to grips with reality. Her core motivation to help strangers is part of her helping herself. She enters their lives when they need it the most.
Strongman and star as "Reacher", Alan Ritchson is the dad, Ed. He is required to be understated and diligent, but also tender to his two young daughters. He plays the part very authentically. He doesn't want help, he is a proud, hard-working man, but Sharon is the type that seldom takes "no" for an answer. (One of the daughters is played by a very young actress named Skywalker. I'd love to know the story behind her name.)
The core story is, after Ed's wife died his 5-yr-old daughter was diagnosed with a serious illness that would require a liver transplant. Ed was already deep in debt and it was only to mount up further. He is a good man but didn't see a way ahead, Sharon was the one who took control and helped him accomplish the impossible.
It was also nice to see veteran Nancy Travis as the grandmother
Barbara. It isn't a large role but it is important and she is effective.
Good movie. While it has a faith-based element, it is more about friendship and how people banding together can solve the seeming impossible problems.
My wife and I watched it on DVD from our public library.
Space Cadet (2024)
Florida girl who grew up longing to go into space.
There are always people who go into a movie like this only to find flaws. That is why it has an unusually low rating, about 20% of the votes are "1" which makes no sense at all. It is more likely a "5" or a "6", compared to other goofy comedies. Yes, there are many flaws, the situations are implausible, the resolution at the end is implausible, but this movie was not made to be a realistic Astronaut training movie. It was made just to simply try to entertain and it does that pretty well. Just light entertainment, nothing more.
Cute Emma Roberts, now in her 30s, also produced this movie and stars as Rex Simpson. She grew up with a close bond with her mother, together they fanaticized about Rex becoming an Astronaut some day and explore space. Mom has died and Rex does odd jobs, like bartending and working with her dad in a fake haunted house business.
At her 10-year class reunion the old classmates expected Rex to be riding high, she had established a reputation for being inventive and solving difficult problems. But her mother's death short-circuited everything. So she decided to put herself out there, she became interested in a new class of "Ascans", the code word for Astronaut candidates.
But her good friend throws her a big curve when asked to proofread the application, adding in a number of fake credentials. Rex was accepted but didn't understand why. Until she was already at NASA.
Yes, the whole thing is implausible. However if one can get past that and just see where it goes, there is a fair amount of entertainment as we see how Rex handles all the new experiences.
My wife and I watched it at home, streaming on Prime.
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Blockbuster style telling of the Dune and Spice story.
I read some of the Dune writings way back when I was a lad but I don't remember much about the world depicted there. I read a few reviews of this movie and invariably there are a few who refuse to take this movie on its own and feel obligated to compare it to the book(s). And complain about what was left out, or what was changed. That is a totally nonproductive exercise, books are books and movies are movies, each should be considered on their own merits.
Having said that, I suspect this 2-part modern Dune movie is a real treat for die-hard fans. I am not a die-hard fan, I appreciate the stories for their place in literary history, and for their influence on stories and movies that came after it. So, not being a big fan just means that most of the locations, characters, and controversies are lost on me. I can't care about what I don't understand.
Dune, a far-away planet, is of interest only for "Spice." This Spice is not what we think of when flavoring our foods, it is considered the most valuable substance in the universe and it is mined in a hot and most inhospitable planet in a distant star system. Not the least of which are very large and fast Sand Worms, some over 400 meters long, that detect rhythmic sound in its search for its next meal. But as always when a valuable substance is at stake warring factions get into combats for it. "He who controls the Spice, controls the Universe."
I enjoyed the approximate 2 1/2 hour movie, that I watched at home on DVD from my public library, over two evenings. I had fun with the characters and the action. Lots of violence, lots of explosions. I have a sound system with a high-quality subwoofer and in certain scenes it rocked my viewing room.
A Family Affair (2024)
Reasonably interesting drama of a May-October relationship.
Nicole Kidman, judging solely by the expensive LA-area home of hers, is successful author Brooke Harwood. Her husband passed away some 11 years earlier and she is living a mostly quiet life with a 24-yr-old daughter who has moved back in while trying to get her movie or TV production career energized.
Her daughter works as an assistant for an often juvenile, demanding, and entitled actor, played by Zac Efron as Chris Cole. Strictly by accident Chris meets Brooke, not even knowing who she is. He is smitten, even though later the two characters say that he is 16 years younger than Brooke. (In real life Kidman is 21 years older than Efron.)
The daughter is played by Joey King as Zara Ford. King is one of the better actresses of her generation and her role here is no exception. In fact, even though Kidman and Efron are the bigger stars, and much of the focus in on their budding relationship, the story is more Zara's story. She knows Chris very well and she desperately wants to convince her mother that he is not good for her. Zara's character arc is to respect her mother and her choices.
The whole movie is more about Zara than anything else.
Also in a very good role is veteran Kathy Bates as the grandma,
Leila Ford. She has a special relationship with Zara and is instrumental in helping her face reality.
My wife and I watched it streaming, it is a better movie than we thought it was going to be.