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.
