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

4 More Movie Summaries

I've seen four movies since my last post, and as usual, here is my short take on each, ranked from best to worst. 

Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes- This prequel to the Hunger Games tells the story of the early years of President Snow. I enjoyed this more than I expected. I always enjoy movies where the main characters have to fight against a corrput and powerful system that controls them. Towards the end of the movie, when he goes to a military academy, I was a little distracted since I thought the main character looked like Eminem with his short haircut. Overall, it was good, but it's definitely a dark and depressing tragedy. I give it 7.3 stars.

The Creator- This futuristic science fiction movie covers the topic of man vs AI/robots, as many other prior movies have. I liked this flm. It was directed by Gareth Edwards who also directed Rogue One, and I recognized several similarities between the two films. The acting and special effects were good and I give it 7.2 stars.

A Haunting in Venice- I have really enjoyed all of Kenneth Brannagh's Poirot movies. The previews made this one look more like a dark horror movie since it takes place on Halloween, but it definitely turns into a mystery. I liked it, but not quite as much as the prior two installments. I still give it 6.7 stars.

Lady Ballers- I thought I would be entertained by a film that satirizes men abusing women's sports, cancel culture, and extreme wokeness, but this movie was horrible. The concept had potential, but no subtlety. It felt like it was written by a 5th grade boy who watched a bunch of Adam Sandler movies, then tried to copy their formulas. The problem was, this was not funny. Aside from the many political pundits making cameos in the film, the only actor I recognized was Tyler Fischer who is a hillarious impressionist, but he was limited with what he could do with his character. I consider myself to be fairly conservative, but I was embarrased by this. I was also surprised for how much The Daily Wire bashes Hollywood, and claims to be pro- family, how much crude and raunchy humor it contained. I give it 4.6 stars. My message to the Daily Wire- Don't quit your day job.