Ricki and the Flash

I'm not sure why I wanted to watch this movie so much.  Maybe that it had to do with rock musicians?  Or that Meryl Streep was playing one in it?  Maybe it was just that I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Streep plays a woman who gave up everything for her dream of being a rock-and-roll star, which never really happened.  She never seems to have quite gotten over that dream and still plays in her local bar, where she is the “star.”  But to her family, she is someone who ran out and left them to fend for themselves.  So, when there are family problems and she returns home to help, everyone tries to make nice, but she is definitely not welcomed with open arms and the tension just builds and builds.  The more she realizes what she’s done to their lives, the more intense everything becomes.  It was a lot of family drama, but in a way, felt very real and like it could all happen to anyone.  I thought Meryl Streep did a good job, but overall, I’d say the movie was just alright.

The Intouchables

I don't normally watch many foreign films, but this one was highly recommended to me by a friend of mine, so I gave it a shot.  I’m glad I did, because I did enjoy it.  Driss is an ex-con from the projects who manages to get hired to care after a French aristocrat who has become a quadriplegic after a paragliding accident.  They are about as opposite a pair as you could imagine, but somehow, their friendship evolves and there is an unbreakable connection formed that totally works.  Through all of their adventures together, they both learn a lot about life, preconceptions and working through adversity in all shapes and forms.  After watching this, I feel like I may have, too.  It was definitely worth watching!

Trainwreck

What an appropriate title for this movie – Trainwreck – because it was one!  It was a mess.  I’m not even sure what I was expecting, but this wasn’t it!  Amy Schumer plays a woman who doesn’t think monogamy is possible and seems to want to sleep with as many men as possible without ever having a real connection to any of them.  She doesn’t even know what it is to have a normal relationship with someone who likes her for “her” and who she really is.  There were a few funny lines, but every scene just seemed to go on longer than it should.  There were also a lot of crude and vulgar jokes that weren’t really that funny.  I don’t know why Hollywood thinks this is humor anymore!  The movie tries to go from dumb to being serious and heartfelt when she finally meets a good guy and realizes maybe that’s not the worst thing in the world, but it doesn’t really succeed.  It was over 2 hours long and it’s sad that the best thing about the movie was LeBron James – and I don’t even like him!  Overall, this movie is almost a complete waste of time and has the perfect title!  I’d skip it!!!

The Gift

This was one of those movies that makes you think about how much you really know people.  Even if you think you do, you may not at all.  It also shows that your past can have a way of catching up with you, even if you've tried to leave it all behind or start a new life.  This was definitely a creepy, intense thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat the whole movie!  Jason Bateman plays Simon, a man who has just moved with his wife back to where he grew up and runs into a guy named Gordon that he went to high school with, who wants to catch up on their lives and be friends.  That's all good and well, but it starts getting uncomfortable when "Gordo" starts showing up a little too often and strange things start happening to where they can't decide if they should be afraid or if they're all just paranoid.  And that is where everything starts unraveling for Simon.  Who is Gordo, really?  And who is Simon, really?  I liked that it wasn't that far-fetched or over-the-top.  Everything in the movie could easily happen, so maybe that made it feel even more "real" watching it all.  It was a good movie, but may not have been the best movie to watch just before going to bed, though!!!

The Gift


Creepy – that’s a good word to describe this film that you may not have heard of.  Jason Bateman plays a regular guy named Simon, who with his wife, Robyn, moved back to his home town for a new job.  Along the way he meets a childhood friend named Gordo.  Gordo the weirdo.  And that’s where the story gets interesting.  This film is a psychological thriller that kept me very involved and wondering who or what was around the corner.  Gordo is making his presence known in Simon’s and Robyn’s life but why? Why is Gordo always there? Why is he always dropping off presents for them? What is it about Gordo that just gives you the chills every time you see him?  There is a huge twist at the end of the movie that will take you aback.  Not to spoil anything – but it left me wondering – who is the bad guy? One of the tag lines for this movie is, “the sins of your past will become your present.”  Just because you’ve forgotten what you may have done doesn’t mean the other person has!  Check it out!

Glen Campbell . . . I’ll Be Me


This is a beautiful documentary about Glen Campbell and his farewell tour after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.  The Campbell family opened up their lives while they toured with Glen for 151 dates over a year and a half of doing concerts.  They gave us an insight into what their lives and Glen’s life is like living with this awful disease.  They are very open and honest about the slow decline of Glen’s memory and we get to see how a worldwide star struggles with his highs and lows.  One thing that just amazes me – he may forget the lyrics, he may forget names and people, but he didn’t forget how to play guitar.  If you were in any of those audiences – you still would’ve been at a great concert because his love of his music still came through when everything else was fading.  Truly a film I really enjoyed, even with tears in my eyes.

 

San Andreas


This movie has got to be the end all to disaster movies!  Get ready to shake, rattle and roll as you go on a rollercoaster of craziness with this movie! A 9.0 earthquake has struck California along the San Andreas fault and all h@ll has broken loose!  Buildings are collapsing, explosions, tsunamis, cats and dogs living together! (had to throw that in for all you Ghostbusters fans!) But the fault has opened up and it’s swallowing everything whole and we need a hero to save the world!  Dat da da daaa  – in comes our hero – Duwayne Johnson to save humanity or at least his ex-wife and daughter.  In all seriousness – don’t take this movie seriously.  It was so over the top - I mean really – can a boat get enough power to crest over the top of a tsunami?  If you’re looking for a movie that’s full of CGI effects and a whirlwind of crazy stunts – this is the one.  I didn’t mind going along for the ride though because overall, it was fun and worth 2 hours of my time.

 

Southpaw

It was nice to finally watch a movie that felt like a real “movie” to me!  Jake Gyllenhaal plays a champion boxer that is on top of the world and then out of nowhere, has a tragedy suddenly tear his life apart.  After losing everything important to him, he must find a way to deal with it all and make his way out of the depths to which his life has sunken.  It reminded me of the Rocky movies with him having to overcome some obstacle to get back on top, but felt more realistic with the real-life things he had to get past and work through.  There was a lot more blood, language, and violence than those movies, too, but that seemed to make it a stronger movie rather than take away from it.  I guess I would call the movie this generation’s Rocky.  It was definitely worth watching!

Pixels

I loved this movie!  It was silly, but it was just so, so, SOOOO ridiculous that it was funny!  If you don’t worry about how unrealistic it is, it’s a blast!  The Earth is being attacked from space by aliens using code from arcade games of the 80s that was sent out in a capsule back in the day.  The only way we can fight them is with people that know how they think – the arcade game champions from 1982, of course!  They were the unpopular nerds and geeks when they were gaming, but now they have the chance to save the world!!!  It’s like all of the arcade games have come to life and need to be beaten in order to win the battle.  It was great seeing Pac-Man, Centipede, Galaga, and Donkey Kong again, among others from that time.  I’ve been pretty disappointed with Adam Sandler’s movies lately, but I really enjoyed this one!