Most everyone is using one extremely fitting word to describe Thor:Ragnarok: fun.  From start to finish, the third film in the Thor series is just a tremendously enjoyable ride full f humor, action, wonderfully weird characters and fun.

Taika Waititi, director of What We Do in the Shadows and The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, brings so much of his own directorial style into Thor: Ragnarok that it is amazing that Marvel Studios, a studio that has had some directors have had issues with in the past, apparently allowed his such free reign to create a Thor movie unlike any other Thor movie before it, while still honoring what had come prior.

Thor (Chris Hemsworth) returns to Asgard to find his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) ruling in the place of Odin (Anthony Hopkins).  Thor forces Loki to show him what he had done to Odin, and this winds up releasing the Goddess of Death Hela (Cate Blanchett), who has returned to claim Asgard as her own.  Thor gets banished and winds up on Sakaar, a planet run by the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), and ends up in Grandmaster’s Contest of Champions vs. the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo)

There are so many wonderful parts to Thor: Ragnarok that it is difficult to hit them all.  Chris Hemsworth is remarkable as Thor and he is allowed to show what an exceptional comedic actor that he is in this film.  He delivers his lines with the perfect timing and stands out.  The relationship with Thor and Loki, perhaps the most complicated relationship in the MCU, continues to be at the center of this movie, and each scene between Hensworth and Hiddleston shows how much chemistry they have with one another and how important they are to one another.

Mark Ruffalo is fantastic as Hulk/Bruce Banner.  He brings believable differences between the two characters (the ultimate Jekyll and Hyde combo).  This is the first time we can really see his work in the Hulk too, since we get a Hulk that can talk and communicate, even if that communication is like a 2-year old.  The Hulk is brilliantly portrayed as the monstrous rage beast, but also as someone who is lonely and wants a friend.  And Banner shows his heroic side despite his own continuing fears of being lost within the Hulk persona.  Plus, the Hulk/Thor hoss fight was brutally awesome.

There are a ton of great new characters here as well.    Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie is kick ass and brings as much to this role as you could possibly bring.  The flashbacks of the Valkyries battle with Hela, which looked as if it were a painting- a work of art, brought this character an importance that was unexpected.  Jeff Goldblum was doing his very best Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster. I sat in the theater waiting for the film to start thinking about the world I live in– where I was about to see a major motion picture that was going to feature the Grandmaster.  Amazing, and Goldblum was a riot.  Taika Waititi himself had a great knew role as the rock creature Korg, who was continually funny.  Karl Urban as Skurge the Executioner had an unexpectedly strong character arc as well, playing Hela’s right hand man.

Without going into spoilers, the ending sequence in Asgard was as surprising and original of an ending we have seen in the MCU.  It ranks up there with “I have come to bargain” of Dr. Strange fame in subversive finales in the super hero genre.

Speaking of Dr. Strange, it is known that Benedict Cumberbatch is in the film, and Ragnarok actually took the post credit scene from Dr. Strange where Thor is enjoying a beer and wove it into Ragnarok’s narrative seamlessly.  Cumberbatch’s role is basically a cameo, but it is an amazing one and worth a mention.

There are also a few cameos on Asgard that I won’t spoil that are perfect.

Some people have claimed that this movie is without stakes, but I disagree.  We have major Thor characters in this film die as well as the unbelievable ending that completely shakes up Thor’s corner of the MCU.  Plus, with the Tesseract making its presence known once again, it beautifully sets up this film’s connection to Avengers: Infinity War and Thanos’s ultimate arrival.

The film flows beautifully and the pacing is great.  You never feel bored during the film because you have something new to laugh at.  The colors are something different for Thor than any past Thor movies.  The color scheme is more like the Guardians of the Galaxy than Thor.  Perhaps this is the color palate that the MCU Cosmic films are all going to adapt.  If that is the case, I am all for it.

There may have been a couple of scenes where the green screen stood out too much (particularly with the Thor/Loki/Odin scene), but that was a minor quip.  Most of this film is wonderfully put together and the CGI was well done.

I still think this is one step behind Logan as the best comic movie of the year, but it is in the discussion.  Thor: Ragnarok is laugh out loud funny while taking the character of Thor is a different direction and installing in him a freshness that the character truly needed.  Plus, a new haircut.

4.9 stars

I wanted no part of this one.

I did not like any of the trailers for The Mountain Between Us and the story just did not appeal to me.  Nothing against Idris Elba and Kate Winslet, whom I enjoy, but I just did not want to see it.  Then, when the reviews came out and they were basically panning the film, it reaffirmed my choice.

However, I have gone to other movies that I did not want to see, so my lack of seeing this movie also was about scheduling.  There were times when it was showing that I just was unavailable for or going to something else.  It felt like the perfect storm.

However, I found a gap in my schedule and it happened to be playing so I decided to go ahead and see the film, with full knowledge that my expectations were very low.  And. much like other times when you go with expectations very low, the movie doesn’t seem to be as bad as you expected.

Again, let me stress this, The Mountain Between Us is not a good movie, by any stretch.  I just did not hate it as much as I anticipated.

Kate Winslet played Alex Martin, who is desperately trying to get home for her wedding, but her flight is cancelled because of incoming bad weather.  Idris Elba’s Dr. Ben Bass was in the same boat, trying to get to a patient.  The twosome got together and decided to try to head around the airport by renting a two seat plane, piloted by Beau Bridges.

I bet you see where this is heading.

Bridges has some kind of stroke (or something) while flying and the plane crashes in the mountains, leaving Ben and Alex (and Bridge’s dog, named Dog) to try to survive the snowy mountaintop and the dangers of Mother Nature.

If this would have just settled on being a survival movie, then it might have been passable, although, honestly, some of the worst parts of this movie dealt with the survival aspects.  We’ll come back to that.  The problem was this movie decided to turn itself into a love story as well between Elba and Winslet, and it devolved into so much melodrama that you can hardly stand it.

Not only that, but Elba and Winslet did not have much, if any, chemistry on screen.  I mean, both actors did what they could, but the script just did not give them anything.  The performances by the two lead actors are reasonable, but these characters just were not worthy of the acting chops these two stellar actors possess.

Now, back to the survival parts.  I did not believe that they were ever in real jeopardy, nor did I believe that either character felt as if they were in any danger.  Even though they talked about dying and the dangers around them, I never bought the feeling of stakes between the characters.  We see only the minimal amount of effects of the surroundings on Ben and Alex.  At one point, Alex falls through the ice into the water, and she is in there for several seconds until Ben can pull her free.  He rushed her off to the cabin that he had just conveniently found to warm her up and give her a makeshift IV.  No consequences for Alex for spending that time in the water.  Neither character lost any toes or fingers, despite the hours they spent walking through knee deep snow.

They also always seemed to be finding supplies or shelter or whatever they needed just in the nick of time.  I was sure that they would be eating that dog before too long, but they never got to that point in desperation.

The passage of time was also out of whack here.  There is no way to gauge how long they were out there until Alex specifically says it.

Then, the ending, without spoiling it, it barf-tacular.  The film is pretty predictable so just think about how a melodramatic movie where the two heroes survive the outdoors might end up and you would probably be able to guess how this one ended up.

Positives.  Well, Idris Elba and Kate Winslet are very likable actors and you want to root for them.  They give good performances for what they were given.  The film has beautiful shots of the snow covered mountains and the outdoors.  Plus, the film was not as terrible as I thought it was going to be.

This felt much like a Lifetime movie with big name stars.  Had I not gone to this, I would not have missed much. But I did, and so I would rate this…

2.4 stars

PTSD is explored in the new war movie that really focuses on the aftermath of the situations the soldiers are placed in.  Based on a true story, this film has some powerful moments when looking at the lives of these three soldiers returning from Iraq.

Unfortunately, the film only does an okay job of making connections with the audience with those characters.

Adam Schumann (Miles Teller), Solo (Beulah Koale) and Billy Waller (Joe Cole) are returning from Iraq after a tragic event cost the life of their SFC James Doster (Brad Beyer).  Dealing with guilt, the memories of what had happened and serious cases of PTSD, the three friends struggle to adapt to life back in the US and to try and find help for their conditions.

The strongest aspect of this film is the deplorable manner that these men are treated by our government and the health care community.  These veterans had to desperately seek help from anyone able to give it, only to find more red tape and lack of empathy.  Even those who are empathetic to the soldiers’ cases are limited by time and what they can actually do.

Coupled that with the terrible stresses connected to PTSD, the film shows a dramatic image of three damaged soldiers, even heroes, who can’t seem to get proper care or help despite their terms of service to our country.  This should really be a national shame to the United States that something like this is allowed to go on.

However, as a movie, Thank You For Your Service has some flaws.  I could have used some more connections shown me to build the relationship between these three men.  There are some scenes, but not enough to really draw me into their stories.  Several of the scenes are spoken about instead being shown to us and that just is never a solid way to run a movie.

Second, some of the soldiers’ relationships outside of their unit were weaker and that did not make me connect emotionally when some of them started to fall apart.  I did like the relationship between Miles Teller and Haley Bennett though, as that relationship truly felt real and loving.  The other two relationships did not receive any screen time at all and it did not draw me in like Teller and Bennett’s relationship does.

Amy Schumer is in this movie as well in a rare dramatic role.  She is not on screen for long, but she was decent.  I spent most of the time trying to convince myself that it was her hidden under the dark hair that she now had.

I think I would rather had more outrage against the system that the film seems to start with, but discarded for nonsensical plots such as a drug/arms dealer story.  While there are good moments, the film does feel a tad too forgettable and not the powerful social message that it could have been.

3.4 stars

You wouldn’t think that a film with the names of the Coen Brothers, George Clooney, Matt Dmon and Julianne Moore could fail, would you.  Well, Suburbicon is the proof that it can.

Set in an all white community in the 1950s, Matt Damon played Gardner Lodge, who apparently was having problems with local gangsters over money that he owed, and was hoping to protect his family.  However, truth was that the film is truly about an insurance fraud case and a murder.

Now, the movie’s trailers sold me one aspect of this movie and it misdirected me into believing one thought of Suburbicon.  It made Matt Damon look like the hero of the story. This is absolutely not the case.  In fact, Gardner Lodge is one of the least likable protagonists we have had come along in a while.

Honestly, the only character that had any redeeming quality here at all was Nicky (Noah Jupe), Lodge’s son.  This character was solid and does a great job in the movie giving the audience someone to root for.  Noah Jupe is excellent in the role as well.  2017 has seen a group of tremendous child actors plying their wares on screen, and Jupe is just the latest.

However, there is one massive problem with Suburbicon.  The film feels like it is two completely different movies with completely different tones, because the story involving Lodge and the insurance fraud is just one part of the film, and it is not even the part that the film begins with.

The film actually kicks off with the first part involved in a story of a family of African-Americans who moved into the all-white neighborhood, and how the white community responded in the unfortunately typical racist fashion.  Yet, these scenes have almost nothing to do with the main story of Gardner Lodge and the death of his wife (played by Julianne Moore), outside of happening next door.  Because of the separation of these stories and their distinctively contradictory tones, this whole racial story feels more like a distraction than it is an integral part of the movie.  In fact, Gardner uses what is going on next door as a literal distraction to accomplish much of what he does.  That diminished the potentially powerful message the film may have been trying to show.

Then, the film does not commit enough to making the main story a dark comedy.  There are some comedic moments, but there is nothing to really support the over-the-top situation that these characters find themselves in.  Because of that, the film does not feel very funny.

The actors all do a decent job, as no one is terrible.  Matt Damon and Julianne Moore are okay, probably because their characters are lacking depth.  We know very little about these two (three people…as Julianne Moore played twin sisters Rose and Margaret) and we know even less about the relationship between them.  We are told some history of them, but honestly the first 15-20 minutes of this part of the story I spent trying to figure out the connections of these characters.

Oscar Isaacs appeared and brought some much needed energy to a story that was quickly becoming boring, but he did not last long on screen.

Director George Clooney may have tried to cram too much into this film, which made it feel like a mishmash of too many types of film.  There might have been a good movie to be had if he would have focused on one aspect only and not tried to make, at least, two different movies.  Suburbicon had some moments where it showed what it could have been, but the sum of its parts does not add up to a good movie.

2.45 stars

SPOILERS

I am leading off the review with the spoiler tag because most of my thoughts on this movie deal with spoilers, so I am going to warn those of you who may want to see this very good movie, you may want to skip down to the end to see the star rating instead of reading the review.

You’ve been warned.

I did not know this was a true story.

That would have changed my viewing of the film.  It certainly would have changed my viewing of the film if I had known the tragic results of this true story.

Only the Brave tells the story of a group of local fire fighters who are trying to become a “Hotshots” unit.  The Hotshot units are groups who go ahead of fires and set their own controlled fires to burn away areas where the fire may go to find “fuel.”  It is an extremely dangerous job and this is the story of this group of real life heroes.

The film focuses on the Hotshot crew who would become known as the Granite Mountain Hotshots.  They became an elite firefighting unit, one of the top units in the country until, in 2013, a fire that seemed like it was no big deal sprung up and killed the entire unit, save one lone survivor.

This is the spoiler I was referring to as I had no idea that the entire unit was going to die.  I will tell you that I started picking up on some of the foreshadowing going on in the movie that led me to believe that either the character played by Josh Brolin or the character played by Miles Teller would not survive the film.  I had no idea the extent of the loss that I was going to get.

Brolin played “Supe” Eric Marsh, who was in charge of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, and who takes Miles Teller’s character, “Donut” Brendan McDonough, under his wing.  Brendan was a drug addict who was trying to put together his life after the birth of his baby daughter, and he applied to join the crew.  We find out later in the film that Marsh had had the same kind of issues in his past and that he saw himself in Brendan.

We get the most development from these two characters, and many of the other Granite Mountain Hotshots were left to be simply side characters.  An exception to this was Taylor Kitsch’s Chris MacKenzie, who had an interesting character to play and had a very engaging relationship develop with Brendan.  Otherwise, we got characters that were in the orbit of Marsh, such as his wife Amanda (Jennifer Connolly) and Duane (Jeff Bridges) as a family friend.  Connolly, in particular, gave a very strong performance here and the side story line of wanting to start a family was a realistic and honest portrayal.

The film also did not shy away from looking at how challenging o life this was, not only for the fire fighters, but also for the families of these men.  Balancing out the heroic deeds of these fire fighters with the fear that they may, one day, not return was at the forefront of the film, and becomes even more dramatic when that very instant happens.

In fact, I was ill-prepared for the finale of this film, and the fact that 19 of the 20 fire fighters in the Granite Mountain Hotshots died in this fire hit me hard.  These men were so skilled that it made it difficult to believe that they would all pay such an ultimate price.  I was prepared for one of the main characters to die, but I was not ready for such a tragic ending.

The film does a tremendous job of showing how these men become a family and how their own families form a support system for each other.  I can’t imagine what it must be like for these wives, family members, sons and daughters to face the possibility of losing their husbands, sons or fathers with each fire.  It cannot be a simple existence.

The scenes of the fires are so well done that it makes you wonder if they were actually setting forests on fire to get their shots.  The CGI was intensive and extremely well done and truly created the continued threat that hung over the heads of this crew.

Unfortunately, there was only so much time on the screen and many of the characters got shorted.  Many of them blended together and it was difficult to tell them apart at times.  Another issue with the film was there really was not that much of a plot there.  It felt more like a series of life events strung together until the final fire scene arrived.

Because of that lack of through line, the film felt too long at times.  I believe they could have dropped a few scenes, or blended a few of them together to help with that sense.

I am glad that I did not know the true story going in because I feel that my lack of knowledge helped ignite my emotional reaction to the final scenes.  I am not sure I would have been as struck if I knew they all were going to die.

The ensemble is very strong and the CGI is top notch.  I even liked the flaming bear.  The film has its share of flaws, but the trip was a hot one.

3.85 stars

Geostorm is a big ol’dumb disaster movie that is desperately predictable, has a plot full of massive holes, and has absolutely nothing new to bring to the disaster movie genre.

And yet, I did not hate it.

Don’t misunderstand me, this is a bad movie.  There are so many things wrong with it that I would never recommend that you go see it.  However, I did find myself somewhat entertained by the film, whether it was on purpose or accidentally.

And I have a feeling that after seeing the travesty that was The Snowman on Friday that this couldn’t help but be better.

Gerard Butler played Jake Lawson, one of the great scientists of the world, who created the space station known as Dutch Boy.  Dutch Boy was put in place as an unprecedented step by the countries of the world in an attempt to save the world from the extreme weather that had swept the earth and was killing millions of people.

However, Jake was anything but a team player and his attitude got him replaced by his own brother, Max (Jim Sturgess).  Three years later, someone sabotaged the Dutch Boy causing some of the drastic weather patterns to return that would require the assistance of Jake once again.

As Jake headed out to the space station, Max used his secret dalliance with Secret Service Agent Sarah Wilson (Abby Cornish) and a hacker friend (Adepero Oduye) to try and solve the mystery of who sabotaged the station.

By the way, this was the second movie in two days that I immediately picked the guilty person out as soon as that person walked onto the screen.  No spoilers, but you really shouldn’t need any to figure it out.

Gerard Butler has never come across to me as a genius scientist.  Maybe the dude who gave that genius scientist a swirly or a wedgie, but not the actual scientist.  He played the role as an action hero who coincidentally had some important smart line to say.  Of course, by this point, I had shut off my brain, so the lack of proper casting did not bother me.

I loved Secret Service Agent Sarah Wilson, who was both the most kick-ass and the absolute worst Secret Service agent of all time.  She allowed her secret relationship with Max to completely taint her job and put the president at risk.  Still, everything turned out fine so.. there is that.

The ending of this movie was so predictable, I bet I could have told it to you before the end of the first act of the film.  Maybe earlier.

And yet, I found myself entertained by the film.  Perhaps the fact that I went into this film expecting it to be nothing but a steaming pile of crap helped.  The fact that the film was mildly above the steaming pile of crap status helped elevate it in my eyes.  I never once enjoyed a trailer that I had seen for Geostorm and it was one that I was not looking forward to at all.  I think that may have helped my acceptance of this movie.

Geostorm is never going to win any awards.  It is a profoundly stupid movie that requires the audience to shut off their brains and hopes that they just keep shoving popcorn into their faces.  Don’t expect to engage the grey matter in Geostorm.  If you can do that, there is an unexpected amount of big and dumb explosive fun to be had.  It’s not a good movie, but I had more fun that I ever thought that I would.

2.6 stars

I had been excited about this film.  The trailers made The Snowman look like an exciting, thrill ride with a mysterious killer.

Instead, we got a dull, insipid piece of crap.

How disappointing.

I had seen the Rotten Tomatoes score prior to going, and knew it was low, but I did avoid the reviews because I had hoped that maybe the film would be better than it seemed.

Nope.  Just garbage.

Michael Fassbender played Harry Hole… let me say that again… his character’s name is actually Harry Hole.  Harry is a drunk, waking up in locations around the city with empty Vodka bottles in his hand.  His life is a mess, but apparently, he was a great detective/cop at one point.  Not that we see this ever… and I mean ever.  Instead, we are told once… and only once.  Any way, he becomes involved in a case where a serial killer is killing people and then is leaving a snowman behind at the crime scene.

The story becomes needlessly convoluted and yet completely idiotic.  There are so many failures in this plot, with massive plot holes and lack of character motivation.

Let’s start with the unfortunately named Harry Hole.  We know almost zero about him.  We know the basic fact that he is a drunk, but other than that, we know of no reason why to cheer him on, outside of the fact that he is Michael Fassbender and the lead of the movie.  Fassbender is capable of some great performances, however, this is not one of them.  I don’t know if he knew how bad this was and just phoned it in, but he is sincerely unremarkable.

There is a solid cast here, but there is nothing notable about any of the performances.  No one elevated the material from the shit stain that it was.

I have made this complaint before, but the SECOND the character who was eventually revealed to be the killer walked into the scene, I knew he was the Snowman.  No mystery about it…no doubt in my head.  Whenever a film is so painfully obvious, it is a clear sign that the film is poor.

However, Harry Hole could not see the clear signs as he continued to investigate the case.  I am not sure why people seemed to think this character was more than just another drunk cop.

There was a strange and pointless cameo with Val Kilmer.  Kilmer’s voice was dubbed, and dubbed poorly.  Why was it dubbed?  I did not know.  What I did know was I saw zero reason for this character to be in the movie.  You could have easily edited the scenes with Kilmer in them out of the film without losing anything.  I even thought that perhaps I dozed through part of his scenes because I did not know what the importance of them were.

Oh, and J.K. Simmons is in this movie too.  He played a character named Arve Stop and, from what I can tell, his only purpose in the movie is to be a red herring.  There are several “characters” that are there to be red herrings, simple plot devices.

Now, let’s talk a minute about the third act conclusion.  The first two acts were boring, but the third act was so inanely stupid and insulting that it made me desperate to see the film end.  There were literally several times where I laughed out loud in moments that the film meant to be suspenseful.  Not a good sign.

This movie was adapted from Jo Nesbø’s best selling novel, but I am guessing that there are MAJOR parts of the story left out, because the film does not make much sense and feels like a sketch of a film. Tomas Alfredson, the director of the great tense thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, doesn’t come anywhere near that classic with this steaming pile of crap.

Such a tremendous disappointment.  One of the worst films of the year.  At first, I was going to give this around 1.2 stars, but, upon reflection, I realized this film did not deserve such a high star rating.  If I thought about it more, it might have gone lower yet.  But for now…

0.9 stars

This documentary was quite engaging as it deals with perhaps the most famous scene in movie history and its effects on the film world in general.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho was a departure for the acclaimed director and it caused plenty of shock and disbelief.  Much of the reason for that reaction was a scene about a third of the way through the movie where the star of the movie, Vivian Leigh, is murdered while taking a shower.

People did not see it coming.  The beginning of Psycho focused on Marian Crane, the character Leigh played, but it was all a red herring…a joke (as Hitchcock himself put it) on the audience, bringing the true story of Psycho to the forefront.

This documentary by Alexandre O. Philippe really hits its stride when it is dealing with the specifics on how the scene was shot and why Hitchcock did certain things and what they were meant to show.  Many big name stars appear in the documentary to espouse their own personal feelings about the scene.  These celebs include Jamie Lee Curtis, Peter Bogdanovich, Elijah Wood, Guillermo del Toro, and Eli Roth.

The title of the film is a reference to the 78 camera set-ups and 52 edits over the course of 3 minutes it took to finish the scene.  If you are someone who enjoys the process it takes to create a movie scene, or someone interested in breaking down the parts of an iconic film scene, then this documentary is for you.  Being a fan of Hitchcock, I enjoyed the film and I also appreciated the allusions to other Hitchcock films in comparison.

4 stars