What a great documentary this was.

Louis Theroux created the documentary investigating the Church of Scientology and the infamous head of the organization David Miscavige.  Theroux and his deadpan reactions perfectly displays the craziness of the situations that he found himself in.

Is the Church of Scientology a real religion or a cult?  The jury is still out on that one, but this documentary certainly brings the idea to the front.

My Scientology Movie is extremely funny and shows members of the Church doing amazingly unbelievable things.  The denials for any sort of interview, the compound protected by flashing lights and wire fences and the use of Scientologists to “squirrel bust” the opposition.

Theroux brings several former Scientologists who have left the religion into the film to help explain the interior workings of the Church of Scientology.  Marty Rathbun was a high ranking member when he left the church and he was an amazing character in this film.  His reactions were compelling as you could see him struggle with the thoughts of what he went through as well as things that he may have done.

The documentary also cast two actors for “re-creations” of events that, according to Rathburn, happened.  The film cast an actor to play the role of David Miscavige as well as an actor to play Tom Cruise, the most famous of the Church of Scientology members.  The actor who played Miscavige was Andrew Perez and he had a couple of scenes set up by the documentary that were just transcendent.  Cruise was played by Rob Alter, but Cruise had less to do in the documentary than Miscavige.

The casting of these two actors was one of the most interesting parts of the film, as we see Marty explain to the actors exactly how these people would act by using old archival footage of Nightline with Ted Koppel as well as an interview with Tom Cruise.

The sessions of Scientology were extremely fascinating as well, seemingly as much as an acting course as anything else.  Or was it brainwashing?  Hard to say, but Marty certainly reacted in a dramatic way.

The relationship between Theroux and Marty was very telling as well.  Every time Theroux tried to go deeper and get Marty to look at things he may have done, Marty rejected it and fought back.

There is a great scene outside of the Church’s compound between Theroux and one of the Scientologists arguing about a road that had been closed and whether or not anyone had the right to be there.  It was funny and jaw dropping at the same time.  The fact that the Scientologist was also filming a documentary and had a camera pointing at Theroux every time they were confronting him was a little crazy.

Th documentary was very entertaining and made me wonder about a religion that I really knew little about.  I knew that science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard founded the religion and that Tom Cruise (and John Travolta, I believe) are among the members, but a lot of the rest of this was new information and very intriguing.

4.5 stars

I think that there was a story that had some potential in this film.  Unfortunately, it seemed to get lost among the sermonizing.

The Shack tells the story of Mac (Sam Worthington) and his family, who take a camping trip.  Mac’s wife Nan (Radha Mitchell) could not go along so it was just Mac and his three kids.  And everything seems to be going well.  The family had met several other families and were having a good time roasting marshmallows and canoeing on the lake.  However, when Mac’s attention is drawn away because of an accident on the lake, his youngest daughter Missy (Amélie Eve) is snatched by a man and kidnapped.

FBI agents were called in and they discovered a shack in the mountain where the bloody dress of little Missy found.  Struck with grief, Mac withdraws from himself and dives into depression.  A mysterious letter is found in his mail box, offering an invitation from “Papa” (the name that his wife used to refer to God) for Mac to return to the shack where his daughter died.

As I said, I think there could have been a story here that was worth telling, but the movie really gets bogged down when Mac heads back to the cabin and meets Papa (Octavia Spencer), Jesus (Aviv Alush) and Sarayu (Sumire Matsubara).  I think this film needed to be more mysterious or needed to allow the audience to determine what was going on.  Instead, every little bit is dropped right at the viewers’ feet and explained in the manner the film wanted you to think.  There is little room for interpretation or judgement here.  I did actually enjoy some of the philosophy presented almost like a new-age dogma, but I didn’t need it pounded over my head.

The acting was, at best, average.  The kid actors were not very good, in particular the young actor who played Mac as a kid.  They had him try to do more than he should in several early scenes which set a tone in the movie.  Worthington has seen better days.  The only standout was Octavia Spencer, who sold her character completely and was always entertaining no matter what was happening.  Aviv Alush was an interesting take on Jesus as well.  I could have enjoyed the character as one of the more original takes on Jesus, if the film didn’t feel the need to double down on message.

There is a distinct problem with these faith-based movies.  The problem is that the film makers are so determined to get their religious message across that they forget to tell an engaging and entertaining story.  The Shack had what could have been that story that pulled you into the movie, but it was overwhelmed with the takeaway.

The film even started off by setting up a seriously tragic backstory for Mac, involving an abusive and alcoholic father.  Unfortunately, that plotline is severely dropped and only touched upon later in the film.  Mac is made to do several things in this heavenly cabin in the woods that make little sense.  Maybe that is why they insist on telling us their message constantly.  The entire section with Alice Braga was ridiculous.

By the end of The Shack (which took forever- way too long of a film), I was tired of the film, which is a shame, because I truly think that there was something in the movie that could have been shaped into an entertaining film.  Unfortunately, the message seemed to overpower everything else.

2 stars

Everyone’s favorite simian monster is back and he is now HUGE!

King Kong makes his way back to the big screen in Kong: Skull Island, the next step in creating a Monster Cinematic Universe to include Godzilla.  One of those future films is rumored to be a slugfest between Kong and Godzilla.  To make that a reasonable fight, Kong had to be bigger.  Now he is.

Kong: Skull Island serves as a re-introduction of King Kong to the world at large, while changing the ever familiar story of a doomed ape at the top of the Empire State Building.

This time, in the early 1970s in the final days of the Vietnam War, an expedition, led by Bill Randa (John Goodman), is formed to go an investigate the newly discovered Skull Island.  Randa recruits tracker James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) to help make their way across the island.  Randa’s true goal is to discover proof that monsters exist.

Accompanying Randa is a military troop under the direction of Col. Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), a man fresh off of a mission during the Vietnam War, who was unhappy that the US walked away.  Also joining the crew was war photographer Mason Weaver (Brie Larson).

The group fly their helicopters through the deadly storms that surround Skull Island, keeping it isolated from the world at large, and plan on dropping bombs on the island to gain seismic information.  Little did they know that their bombs would attract the island’s protector, Kong, who laid waste to the helicopters and many of the crew.  Packard became obsessed with killing Kong, despite the information provided by Hank Marlow (John C. Reilly), a soldier who was accidentally stranded on Skull Island in World War II and who had lived here since.  Marlow told the group that Kong was like the island’s God and he was there to protect the island from the lizard creatures that lurked below the surface.

Kong: Skull Island has its positives and negatives to it.  Unlike the new Godzilla movie, Kong is front and center in the film.  We are treated to multiple scenes throughout the movie of Kong fighting, crushing monsters and just being awesome.  This was in stark contrast to the Godzilla movie, which seemed to feature Godzilla’s conflicts off screen until the film’s finale.  More Kong is a good thing, as the look of the monster is simply amazing.  The CGI is impressive and does not disappoint.  The scene of Kong crushing the helicopters was remarkable and the Kong actions scenes following that one were very exciting and tension filled.

The film was beautiful to look at.  It certainly caught the feeling of Apocalypse Now, a film that was clearly an inspiration for the imagery and the marketing of Kong: Skull Island.  The shots of Kong standing before the setting sun are spectacular and the beauty of Skull Island was not lost on director Jordan Vogt-Roberts.

However, the film was lacking in several key aspects.  One, major problem with Kong: Skull Island was the humans were just cardboard cutouts that were nothing more than disposable characters.  Samuel L. Jackson’s character was reduced to the basic revenges-seeking military guy.  Tom Hiddleston’s tracker character was all over the place, being very inconsistent in his actions.  Brie Larson was there to snap pictures and try to connect with Kong because, I guess, Kong has always had a soft spot for pretty blondes.  The remainder of the army platoon that was led by Jackson hit every stereotypical army platoon character possible and were barely distinguishable from one another.  John Reilly’s character was better- with more of a story behind him, but he was so weird that it was hard to feel any sort of connection to him.  All of these characters were, at best, inconsistent.

Then, making it worse, some of the dialogue of the film was just terrible.  I don’t think human beings talk like these characters talked at all.  It was very noticeable several times and served to take me out of the film.

Finally, there were a couple of action set pieces (one in particular that takes place in a boneyard) that is so stupid in just about every aspect that it really damages this film.  It’s one thing to have a film with weak characters, but if those characters are now doing stupid things, well… then you  have some problems.

Still, there is no denying that there is a charm to this film because it knows what it is and does not try to be more than that.  This is a giant monster movie where your main monster is your quasi-heroic one and there is a lot of fun action nonsense.  The performances of the human actors were fine, though the characterization of what they were given was lacking.  Hiddleston and Larson are likeable actors so they are likeable on screen, despite not being much more than a two-dimension creation.

Don’t forget as well to sit through the credits because there is a post credit scene that was fun and hinted at what may be ahead for this franchise.

In the end, I enjoyed Kong: Skull Island.  It was not a great movie, but it was good, especially if you approach it with the idea that this was never going to compete for an Oscar.  This is a fun, popcorn movie that rebrands King Kong for a bright future.

3.6 stars

This is what it would be like if Groundhog’s Day were a teen angst drama set in high school  rather than a comedy.

Based on a successful YA novel, Before I Fall had a few moments, but they were few and far between as I saw a screen full of unlikable characters who I was constantly told about instead of seeing for myself.

The story itself made little sense and the characters made even less.

Sam (Zoey Deutch) was stuck.  She found herself repeating the same day again and again, a day that ended in tragedy no matter what she would do.  Whether it the car crash that she and her BFFs get into or the suicide of bullied victim Juliet (Elena Kampouris), the day ended terribly.  Sam tried to do whatever she could to see that the day would stop repeating.

As she went along, she came to the belief that she was not the best of person and that she is as responsible as anyone for the tragedy that goes on around her.

The film’s overuse of exposition to explain the behaviors of Sam, Juliet and, especially Sam’s friend and biggest asshole in the film Lindsay (Halston Sage). I’m not sure if Lindsay was supposed to be some one the audience rooted for, but I just found myself calling her all kinds of names. I am still not sure that Lindsay learned any kind of lesson in the movie or made any sort of character progression.  Apparently some bed wetting incident when she was in 5th grade lead to the formation of who she would become.  They had made mention of this 5th grade incident earlier in the film and I thought they were building it up to something powerful.  Instead, it was urination.

Yes, I know there was more than that, but none of it excuses Lindsay’s poor behavior and nor does it explain why Sam, who was also tormented by Lindsay during that fateful 5th grade year, becomes her closest friend.  None of the motivation made any sense.

I could see Juliet getting to a place where she was suicidal, because it looked as if she had been picked on and verbally abused for years.  However, the movie went out of its way to make Juliet look like an oddball, someone who you could expect top be picked on.  The problem with that is all kinds of girls are tormented by bullies in high school.  They do not have to be that different for it to happen.  I think the film made her into this weirdo looking girl allow the audience to understand why your main protagonist and her friends are so cruel to the helpless girl.  It provided a very surface reason and that is a very negative message to be sending.  If Juliet wasn’t portrayed as a crazy teen, then the bullying would have been considerably more powerful.  Of course, then you could not cheer for our attractive lead characters.

I have to say, I was also distracted through the film any time Sam’s little sister was on screen because she looked so much like Jacob Tremblay from Room.  I actually had to look closely to make sure that it wasn’t Jacob with his long hair again.  I found out later that this was actually Jacob’s sister Erica (who was also in the Bye Bye Man).

Coming back to the movie, we had every conceivable teen angst plot here and none of them felt like they mattered at all.  I did not believe that someone like Sam would participate in the bullying or would even like Lindsay.  I did not believe the day when Sam went all dark and emo because it did not matter.  I did not believe her relationship with the popular kid (Kian Lawley).  There was a random lesbian plot point with Liv Hewson (who is excellent in Santa Clarita Diet) that had nothing to do with the story at all.

And there were plot holes galore.  One big one that involved the suicide of Juliet that truly made no sense.

Plus, there was no reason why Sam was the person going through this day.  They tried to show her as a problem child, but I didn’t believe that at all either.

Then we kept hearing about all these past events that shaped these characters, but all that was talk.  None of them felt important enough for them to show us so I dismissed all of them.

This was very disposable and dull, taking an important subject matter (harassment/bullying) and downplaying it.  None of the character motivations made any sense and there were few characters worth rooting for.  This idea worked so much better when it was a comedy starring Bill Murray.  It did not work at all as a drama featuring rotten teenagers.

2 stars

Anna Kendrick heads to the wedding of her ex-boyfriend’s sister in the new film Table 19.  She finds herself assigned to the worst table at the reception with a crew of misfits and unwanted guests.

Craig Robinson and Lisa Kudrow are a married couple having relationship troubles.  June Squibb played an old nanny of the bride who cannot believe that she was placed on the bad table.  Stephen Merchant was a “successful” businessman who was allowed to come to the wedding from the halfway house and Tony Revolori is a high schooler looking for love at the wedding.

I found this to be funny.  I liked the actors involved in the film, but , yes, there was nothing really new here.  The six guests sit at this table and interact with one another.  Anna Kendrick’s character was meant to be our main protagonist but she was kind of unlikable for much of the film.   However, we discover the reason why she is so unlikable and it made a lot of sense to me.

There was a lot of childish activity going on here too.  There are a lot of mean spirited moments in the film, but I found the humor enjoyable and that helps.

I don’t have much else to say about this. Table 19 is a disposable film that was a good time passer.  I liked it enough.

3.3 stars

Okay, let me be honest. The only reason that I watched this movie was because I was waiting to see Logan and this fit the time frame perfectly.  I was not going to watch it otherwise.

It was okay.

Bodi (Luke Wilson) wants to be a musician, but his father (JK Simmons) wants him to follow in his footsteps as a guard dog protecting the sheep village from the wolves.  Taking his chance to become a musician, Bodi meets famous rock star Angus Scattergood (Eddie Izzard) who is having trouble creating a new song and Bodi becomes his muse.

There is nothing special about Rock Dog, but it was an okay film.  It is a solid little family movie.  It is predictable, for sure.  The writing is pretty basic.  The characters are okay.  I liked Angus, though he is pretty cliche.

The voice acting was decent.  JK Simmons is always great.  Luke Wilson is good.  Eddie Izzard does a great job as the rocking cat.  Lewis Black is always good and this is no exception as he played one of the head wolves.  Plus, Jorge Garcia is in here!  Jorge, Hurley from LOST, is one of my favorite people and he is always a wonderful person.

The music was okay.  I did not hate anything involved in this movie.  It just is not anything special.

The thing is… I really thought this was going to be bad, and it was acceptable.  I don’t have much else to say about it.  If you have kids, Rock Dog is a good film to pass the time with, which is exactly what I did.

2.7 stars

I’m not crying…I’m not crying.

I am going to my very best to not spoil anything from this brilliant, epic movie.  I went into Logan with sky high expectations and no foreknowledge of what was going to happen.  I had seen the trailers (which were brilliant, in particular the piece of ART that the Johnny Cash “Hurt” trailer was) but I did not know what would happen.  I had some suspicions, but nothing had been confirmed.  And you should do anything you can to avoid spoilers.  Logan is worth it.  This film exceeded every expectation I had and then some.  It is the best film I have seen so far in 2017 and I might even go as far as to say it is the best X-Men movie ever.  It is certainly the Wolverine movie that we have always wanted.

That’s to say that it is violent, bloody, full of curse words and full of emotion and heart and moments that proves the joys of being alive.  It is an exceptionally human story about a few mutants facing challenges of a world that still is not sure how to handle them.  And so much amazing action.

You know from the trailers that Logan (Hugh Jackman) and Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) meet up with a young girl named Laura (Dafne Keen) and they go on the run to avoid a group of mercenaries named the Reavers, led by Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook).  And that is all you need to know about the plot.

Logan takes the comic book movie genre and turns it on its head.  Honestly, this is more of a western than a comic book movie.

I cannot come up with enough superlatives to express my opinions on Hugh Jackman’s performance as Logan.  If this is truly his final appearance as Logan, then he absolutely could not have gone out with a better film.  He was utterly brilliant throughout this entire film.  I would venture to say that this is Hugh Jackman’s greatest performance, not just as Logan, but in his entire career.  The pain and humanity and loss shown by Jackman in every scene was balanced only by the people who Logan clearly cared for.

The relationships of this movie were perfectly done.  Logan and Charles.  Logan and Caliban (Stephen Merchant).  Logan and Laura.  Laura and Charles.  Every one of these relationships were special, bringing life to each character.  We see our old favorites in completely different light and the new characters were wonderful as well.

Young Dafne Keen does such an amazing job in this movie, with the few lines of dialogue that she has, in revealing the thoughts and feelings of X-23.  The expressions of this girl told as much as any line of dialogue and she delivered an excellent performance here.  You probably just seen the “I See Child Actor” Award winner for the year end awards with Keen.  If there is a better performance this year then its is going to have to be one hell of a performance.

Patrick Stewart has never given a better performance either.  Stewart has announced that he is retiring from the role of Professor Charles Xavier and I can understand why.  There is no way that he will ever get a juicier script for this character than the Logan script.  Despite the age, the pain and the tribulations of Charles Xavier, he brought the wisdom and the emotion to this character, providing the initial connective tissue between Laura and Logan.

And Stephen Merchant’s Caliban was great as well.

I keep using the word emotion, and that is one of the major keys to this amazing movie.  You feel for these people and you care about the pain that they are clearly suffering.  There are such stakes in this film, more so than many comic book movies.

As I mentioned before, Logan is a violent and brutal movie that deserves its R rating.  However, despite all the blood and the numerous F-bombs that are dropped, none of that felt shoehorned in.  The film felt as if it deserved every drop of blood and every curse word.  They earned those with the story.  The movie creators did not say, “Okay, so it is rated R so lets throw a swear word in here.”  Every curse word fit the story that was being told.  There was purpose to everything that was done.

James Mangold directed Logan which is his second film involving this character (The Wolverine being the first).  He delivered a beautiful tone and feel for this movie.  I worried that the first trailer (the Johnny Cash “Hurt” one) was giving us a tone that I really wanted, but they would suddenly bring us garbage like Deadpool with his mouth sewn shut.  That did not happen.  The tone of this movie fit perfectly with that first trailer.

This is also a wonderful example how a super hero movie can be dark and moody without sacrificing the humor and the fun.  Logan had several moments of true laughter in it, despite the drastic circumstances that the characters found themselves in.  These moments of humor were just one more layer of humanity brought by this brilliant film.

Plus, there is no post-credit scene, but there is a pre-movie scene.  Yes, you heard me.  There is a scene, an absolutely unbelievable scene, before the Logan movie begins.  It was epic.  You 100% do not want to be late arriving for Logan because there is a major treat for the audience before Logan starts.

Logan feels like a small, independent movie and it has so many emotions behind it that I can hardly believe how great this film was.  I loved it so much.  I cannot wait to see it again.

5 stars

So this past Wednesday, I was on my phone, checking the showtimes for the movies coming out this weekend on my Cinemark app.  I saw a film called Collide, and I had no idea what it was.  I had never seen or heard of it before.

I immediately assumed it was one of the foreign language films that Cinemark shows, but I noticed that Nicholas Hoult (Beast from the X-Men movies) was in it, so that blew the “it’s from India” theory.

I investigated further.  This is when I saw that Anthony Hopkins was also listed as a star.  What?  Anthony Hopkins is a huge star.  Why hadn’t I heard of this movie.  With all the movies that I see in a year, I see a ton of trailers before the film and I had never even once seen one for Collide.  The trailer was on the app so I clicked on it, curious.  And then, who did I see?  Sir Ben Kingsley!  By the time I realize that Rogue One star Felicity Jones was also in this film, I was already confused as can be.

The next day, i am watching Collioder Movie Talk and they are doing their “Opening this Week” segment and Collide comes up.  Panelist and director Jon Schnepp joked about how that was the very first time that he had heard about the film and that Collider had done more to promote the film with that very segment than the entire movie company had done.

So I knew it wasn’t just me.  This was a bad sign.  Because usually when a movie company thinks thye have got a great film, they are anxious for people to see it.  Marvel released to critics and special screenings Captain America: Civil War months before the movie was scheduled to be released because they knew word of mouth would be tremendous.

On the flip side, FOX refused to screen Fantastic Four until just before the release date despite a hunger for the film.  It gives a bad message when the studios try to hide the film from critics.  It means they do not have any confidence in the film.Of course, with Fant4stic, I did see plenty of trailers for the movie.  Collide…not a one.

What did that mean?  The film had what should have been a great cast, but there was zero marketing for it.  It made me think that this one would not be any good.

Guess what?  I know now why they did not promote this film.  It was awful.

Collide was meant to be a love story between Casey (Nicholas Hoult) and Juliette (Felicity Jones), who meet in a club. Problem… Casey works for a criminal stealing cars.  The criminal was Ben Kinsley, as over-the-top as he has ever been.  I have no idea what he was going for with this characterization.  Anyway, back to Casey and Juliette, it turned out that Casey left the criminal life behind him for her, but she had some kind of nondescript kidney disease that was going to kill her.  Casey got back into the life of crime in order to pay for an operation for Juliette.  The job?  Hijack a truck from Anthony Hopkins that was filled with cocaine inside golf balls and a lot of money.

From there, the film got stupid.

There were so many problems with this movie.  Casey is shot at so many times, but is never hit with any bullet (maybe grazed once…) that it was Stormtroopers level of incompetence.  Hopkins’ thugs seemed to be able to arrive immediately wherever Casey was no matter how fast he had driven.  Remember the last Fast and the Furious movie where Jason Statham was always arriving no matter where in the world Vin Diesel was?  This is just like that only with less star power.

The chemistry between Casey and Juliette was non-existent and the acting was atrocious.  Felicity Jones is a much better actress than this performance indicates.  She was way better not only in Rogue One, but also A Monster Calls.  What happened here?

And Anthony Hopkins is about as unwatchable as I have ever seen him.  I hope he got a really nice fat paycheck for this role, because this was horrible.

The film was a short 99 minutes, but it felt like an eternity.  It is nothing but shaky car chase scenes or Nicholas Hoult running through gunfire.  It made me wonder if this one was connected to Unbreakable as well.  It is nice though that not one bystander was hurt in all of the hail of bullets or flipping cars.

The dialogue was just laughable at times.  Anthony Hopkins was legitimately rambling several times.

Enough about this stinker.  Word had it that this had been sitting on a shelf somewhere for a couple of years.  The biggest crime is that it did not stay there.  Who wanted this released?  It couldn’t have been the studio, because they did not give even one iota of care for promoting it.  I can’t believe that any of the actors wanted this to see the light of day because they look terrible in it.  And the audiences won’t care about it, as there were three others in the theater I saw it in on Saturday at 2 PM.

0.9 stars

Jordan Peele, from the sketch comedy team of Key and Peele, makes his directorial debut in this horror film, and the debut is an impressive one.  With the exception of Split, horror movies have not had a great start to 2017 after an outstanding 2016, but perhaps this is a film that can reverse that trend.

In Get Out, African-American Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and his Caucasian girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) are on their way to visit her parents, but Chris is nervous because she has not told her parents about Chris being black.  Despite her insistence that her parents would not have a problem with Chris, he is still worried about it.  When they arrive, Chris immediately starts feeling uneasy and uncomfortable with her father Dean (Bradley Whitford) and mother Missy (Catherine Keener) and that did not change when Missy offers to hypnotize Chris to help him stop smoking.

After a weird encounter with Missy one late night, Chris believes that she had, indeed, hypnotized him.  Things only got weirder as the Armitages throw a party with a crew of white people, making Chris even more on edge.  The appearance of another African-American at the party (Lakeith Stanfield) does nothing to assuage his concerns as the man acted extremely off-kilter.

As he starts to put the solution together on what was happening here, Chris begins to discover that there are way more sinister things going on with the Armitages than he ever would have guessed.

This film was extremely creepy and created a tone of suspense that carried throughout the film.  Some of the scenes were cringe-worthy, in a good way, as I found myself squirming in my seat once or twice.  There was one scene in particular that reminded me of a “nightmare juice” scene from Agents of SHIELD that was really difficult to watch.

Despite the uncomfortable moments, Get Out had its share of very funny scenes as well.  Jordan Peele showed his comedic side for years in his partnership with Keegan-Michael Key, and that side shone through several times in Get Out.  Now, some of the humor in the film felt a little forced, as if it did not fit and it was being shoehorned into the movie, however, the scenes with Chris’s friend Rob (“Lil Rel” Howery), a TSA security guard who is house sitting for Chris, were some of the best examples of humor in the film.

There were, as well, several moments of subtle satire in the film, dealing with the racial implications of the story.  The subtlety of these scenes were very solid, and I found myself laughing several times (though others in my theater did not seem to be finding it as funny as I did).  Peele wrapped the satire of the film within the social commentary that is in effect in Get Out.  They fit together seamlessly.

The performances were all excellent.  Daniel Kaluuya was just exceptional as Chris.  We see his entire gamut of emotions, from fear to confusion to anger.  You relate to him immediately, and you cannot help but root for him.  Allison Williams is great as Rose too.  They have a strong chemistry that helped carry the film for much of the early run.  Chris and Rose appeared to be a perfect couple and you wanted them to work out.  Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener were amazingly creepy and kept you off balance for much of the film.  Another standout performance was from Betty Gabriel, who played the “housekeeper” Georgina.  You could never tell what was going on with this woman and she had some of the best facial acting from the film.  Because of these performances, you as an audience member felt that tension, almost a paranoia, about what exactly was going on there.

The ending of the film was surprisingly effective, and I thought it was heading one way when it took a different path.  I appreciated the end of the film, but I might have liked something more.

There were some initial pacing issues, as the first part of the film did move kind of slowly, and not all of the humor fit.  Despite that, there was a ton to enjoy here.  Jordan Peele showed himself a skillful director and certainly told an original and creative story, something that we could use more of in Hollywood today.

4.4 stars