Civil War

On a recent plane trip I watched Civil War. When I originally saw the trailer for it months ago, it looked promising, but it ended up being a stink sandwich. 

I thought this movie was PG-13, but after the 20th F-bomb I realized it was not. The concept behind the movie of a civil war breaking out in the US had so much potential, but they never explained how it happened. Just vague references. Viewers would be much more interested if they got some details as to what happened. Well, maybe they did explain it later in the movie, but I ended up fast forwarding several scenes because it was so slow.

I had so many problems with this movie. Here is a random list of things that come to mind. 

1. Kirsten Dunst- I didn't like anything about her character. I understand she is a veteran photographer who has seen horrible things and is under a lot of stress, but I grew tired of seeing close ups of her sad, depressed face over and over throughout the entire film.

2. Every one of the photographers/reporters in this movie except Stephen McKinley Henderson just bugged me so bad. I really didn't care what happened to them. I'm sure there are many cool professional photographers, but I wouldn't want to hang around any of the ones portrayed in this movie.

3. Jesse Plemons was a great bad guy in Breaking Bad and he was intimidating as an unpredictable militia member in this movie, but why did they have him wearing those stupid red glasses? It was so distracting. He may as well have worn a white ballerina tutu over his uniform.

4. These reporters were supposed to be working for Reuters but never communicated with their employer. It was like they just went on a depressing apocalyptic camping trip for a week. 

5. There were several scenes when they were not just observing and documenting military campaigns, but were actually along side the soldiers who were in battle. It's like the military had practiced with them being there like they were part of a swat team. It was so fake as they'd turn around a corner and snap pictures at people firing guns at them. 

6. The young photographer girl was taking pictures with a 35MM film camera and winding her film between each shot. I understand that many professional photographers appreciate old school technology, but when you are trying to get footage of a war on the front lines, are you really going to limit your pictures to 36 exposures per roll? How did she develop her pictures?

7. I just did not like this movie. It had so much potential, but I couldn't take it seriously, especially after the final scene when the photographers join the attack on the White House and the President. 

I'm sure I will be accused of being simple minded and not appreciating the deeper stuff this movie had to offer, but I felt like the title was clickbait and it was more a focus on how cool reporters/photographers are. I  can only give it 6 generous stars. 

Reviews of The Last 5 Movies I've seen

Many years ago, watching and reviewing movies was an exciting hobby. Today it is drudgery and reminds me of how it felt when you got behind on homework in a class. Each time I watch another movie it adds to the burden of having to report on it. Nobody reads blogs anymore, but I will still share my brief opinion of the movies I watch here. Since my last post, I've seen 4 movies and as usual, I will rank them from worst to best. 

A Quiet Place: Day One- This is a prequel in the series. It was kind of nice to get an insight as to how the original invasion took place, but overall, the movie was kind of boring. The acting was fine, but it was very slow and I almost fell asleep a time or two. My least favorite thing about this movie was that I could only eat my popcorn during scary loud scenes since so much of the movie takes place in absolute silence and everyone could hear you reaching in the container and chewing during the quiet scenes. I give it 6.2 stars. 

Twisters- This reboot had some interesting scenes, but was too fake. Apparently during tornado season, you can follow and drive up inside of tornados every day of the week and on some days, you have to choose between multiple ones. It was ok, but I can't say I enjoyed it enough to recommend it to anyone. 6.4 stars

Arthur The King- I would not have gone to see this in a theater, but I did catch it on a long flight. I'm not usually a big fan of Mark Wahlberg's acting skills, but this was one of his more convincing portrayals and his character felt real. It's more of a family friendly film about a dog that a team of endurance athletes encounter, who ends up helping them on their race. It's based on a true story and I give it 6.6 stars.

Argyle- I was really looking forward to this movie. It has a great cast and I thought I knew what it would be about from the movie trailers, but it had some unexpected surprises. It wasn't as good as I had hoped, but ironically, I enjoyed it more than the other previously mentioned movies even though the critics were of the opinion that it was the weakest of the 4. I still give it 6.7 stars.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga- This movie did not perform well in theaters. I'm a huge fan of Mad Max Fury Road, so when I saw George Miller was doing a prequel about the back story of Furiosa, I was excited to see this. It had a similar look and feel to Fury Road, but relied on too much CGI. It was not quite as good as a Fury Road, but I enjoyed Chris Hemsworth as a villain and was really surprised more people didn't like this movie as much as I did. I give it 7.7 stars and it was by far my favorite movie of these five.

5 More Movie Reviews

Here is a brief summary of the movies I've seen over the last month. I'm ranking them in the order of how much I enjoyed them from the most to least. I know that some of these ranking may be controversial, but I'm sticking with my ranks.

The Fall Guy- I was not expecting much from this action/rom-com, but I was pleasantly surprised. The thing that did it for me was the humor. There were enough funny and amusing parts, that I'd actually classify it as a comedy, more than an action film. It was a nice ode to all the stuntmen who don't get enough credit for making movies better. I also enjoyed Ryan Gosling performance. I give it 7.6 stars.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes- There have sure been a lot of these movies since the original 1968 film with Charleton Heston.  I wasn't very excited to see another one, but the thing that really kept my attention were the visual effects. This installment seemed to focus much more on the ape characters and their interactions, but there were eventually some human characters. I was fascinated with all the CGI detail and I give it 7.5 stars.

The Iron Claw- I wanted to like this more. I grew up watching the Von Erich brothers wrestle, so I had specific expectations of what they would look like. My biggest hang up was the fact that they used average size actors to portray some big athletes. The acting was very good, and I'll be the first to admit that they all got in great shape for their roles, but I could just not look past Kerry Von Erich, who was 6' 2" and about 260 pounds, who had a similar physique to the Ultimate Warrior, being played by a Jeremy Allen White who is about 5' 7". That's like Kevin Hart portraying Shaquile O'Neal in a movie. The same goes for Zach Efron and the other actors. This film is not a pick me up sports movie, but is instead loaded with tragedy. Aside from my prejudice against the actor's size, I had previously seen a documentary about the family, which was more thorough and accurate, so I felt a little let down and only give it 7 stars.

The Boys in the Boat- Everybody loves an inspiring sports movie where the underdogs come out on top, espceially when it's based on a true story, but I felt this movie was just a little flat. I couldn't put my finger on why. Maybe because it was rowing instead of a more popular sport, or the depressing back drop of depression times. They did a good job with the "old-timey" setting, wardrobe, props, etc. I hardly recognized Joel Edgerton, and it made me realize that he's a pretty versatile actor. It was a nice feel-good movie, but I never felt myself pulling for the characters like you do with Rocky, Creed, Rudy, etc., so I only give it  6.8 stars.

Godzilla Minus 1- Did I say there were a lot of Planet of the Apes movies? There are even more Godzilla movies. I'm not a Godzilla fan but liked the effects of Kong: Skull Island when it came out years ago. I had no interest in seeing this, but I heard so many people singing it's praises. Even people who did not like sci-fi or creature movies were raving about the back story and how good this was. I saw it on Netflix last night and must have had too high of expectations. I felt it was slow and kind of boring. I acutally bumped up the speed to 1.25 because there were so many slow pauses and long dramatic stares in this movie. I think I would have liked it more in Japanese with subtitles, becasue the dubbing into Enlish made the dialogue sound kind of corny. This may have been one of the best Godzilla movies of all time, but I guess I'm not a Godzilla guy since I only give it 6.6 stars.

Dune Part 2

Dune part 2 did not dissapoint. I give it 8.4 stars. (And you thought my reviews coudn't get any shorter)

The Last 3 Movies I've seen in Haiku form

 The Shift-

Film from VidAngel

Sci Fi Religion Hybrid

Not bad but not great

6.6 Stars

The Flash-

Time Travel Movie

Liked it more than expected

Keaton was nice touch

6.8 Stars

Sound of Freedom-

Serious Drama

Depressing Subject Matter

Cavizel was good

7.3 stars