The Rider is an interesting movie that tells its story in a new and original manner, written and directed by Chloe Zhao.

We get three characters who are basically playing themselves in this film.  Brady Jandreau played Brady Blackburn, a rodeo cowboy who had a horrible head injury that causes him have to give up bronco busting.  Tim Jandreau, Brady’s real life father, played Tim Blackburn, Brady’s hard boiled father.  Lilly Jandreau, Brady’s real life sister, played Lilly Blackburn, Brady’s sister who has Asperger’s Syndrome.  We also have Lane Scott who played himself as a bull rider who was in an accident and has become a paraplegic.

Because of these inexperienced actors who are playing characters that are basically themselves, the film has a distinct realness to it.  There is definitely a truth to it- especially with the relationship between Brady and Lilly.  She does not feel like she is saying lines at all.  I wonder if they allowed them to just react as brother and sister in the situation without an specific dialogue.  It certainly feels that way.

I kept thinking about the 2008 movie The Wrestler as I was watching this movie.  There is a connection between the movies.  Both characters are struggling to move on with their lives after a health issue takes away what they love to do.  There are family issues involved as well.  Both films have that real feel to the filming and has that independent touches to it.

There were some truly amazing scenes focusing on Brady’s ability to train/break horses and the film allows this skill to play out.  It was some of my favorite scenes in the film.  We see how important of a relationship Brady has with the horses that he works with.

I did enjoy this movie very much.  The cinematography is beautiful and the pain of the loss of what Brady loves is something we can all relate to.  There are too many puke scenes, though (I hate those).

4 stars

This was a film that I was anxious to see in theaters, but it never came around this area of the country.  I had heard a lot of positives about it, so I started watching for it on the different streaming services.  Finally, it arrived on Amazon Prime so I rented it and gave it a watch.

Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Amanda (Olivia Cooke) were childhood friends who had grown apart.  However, they reconnected later in life and bonded over their individual lack of emotions and the troublesome nature of Lily’s nasty step-father Mark (Paul Sparks).  Amanda floats the idea of getting rid of Mark in a permanent manner, and the girls try to convince low level crook Tim (Anton Yelchin) to help them do it.

The most interesting part of this film is the performance of Olivia Cooke and how she portrayed this sociopath, Amanda,  Amanda tells Lily that she does not feel joy or sadness, that those emotions are something foreign to her.  Working her way through life without these basic human emotions is a fascinating character trait that you would think would make someone a rotten human being and yet you can see how human Amanda is despite the way that she acts.  It is clear that she cares about Lily, but in a way that is not the way we are used to.

Lily is actually more rotten of a person as she hides her own feelings and actions from her family and even from Olivia.  She has many of the same tendencies of Amanda, but she does it for more selfish reasons.  Everything seems to be about her.

It was both great and sad seeing Anton Yelchin on the screen again.  This was, I believe, his final performance before his tragic accidental death.  The young actor had a bright future ahead of him and, to prove that, he was great in this role as Tim, a small time thug who was not sure of what to make of these two girls.

This movie is dark and violent, and shines a light on some characters who are anything but likeable.  Honestly, the sociopath Amanda might be the character most worth rooting for in this film.  The way the girls react with one another and the rest of the characters is fascinating and shows how a psychological character drama can be done well.  This one may not be for everyone, but if you like a dark tale of flawed characters who may not always make the best choices, Thoroughbreds is one you may want to check out.

3.6 stars

2028.  Los Angeles.  Riots.  Trouble all around.  What do the criminal types do when they are injured?  Why, if they are a member, they head to Hotel Artemis where they get patched up and saved, but make sure you follow the rules.

This movie feels like the concept of the Continental from the John Wick series of movies, though the film does not feel like a John Wick movie.  Honestly, it was like this took place in the same universe as John Wick, but without the amount of action.

We meet several characters who have been admitted to Hotel Artemis where The Nurse (Jodie Foster) runs the hotel and helps patch up the guests using high tech futuristic medical supplies.  Everest (Dave Bautista) is her bodyguard/handyman/assistant health care provider who is loyal to The Nurse.

Other characters who are admitted to Hotel Artemis include Waikiki (Sterling K. Brown) and his brother Honolulu (Brian Tyree Henry) who are fresh off a bank robbery, Nice (Sofia Boutella) who has her own mission, Acapulco (Charlie Day) who is a big mouthed jerk, Morgan (Jenny Slate) a cop with a connection to The Nurse, and The Wolf King (Jeff Goldblum) who actually owns the place.

Jeff Goldblum really made the movie better the minute he arrived.  Goldblum has quite the presence and you can feel it here.  His scenes with Jodie Foster were some of the best of the movie.

The strength of the movie is definitely the characters and the interactions between the characters.  I loved the scenes with Jodie Foster and Dave Bautista.  Bautista has really come into his own as an actor and I can’t wait to see his next role.

The story itself though is not as strong in Hotel Artemis as it could have been.  The story felt very isolated, almost as if it were a group of smaller scenes pasted together without enough connection.

There was some action, but not nearly as much as I would have expected.  There is an action hallway scene with Sofia Boutella which was solid, and Bautista had a few moments, but that was about it.  The film is more about the dialogue and the connection with the characters.  Some of the characters work better than the others.

This feels as if the concept of the film was greater than what we got, but I did like the fact that we got a group of interesting characters who were interacting with one another.  Another borderline film that I am recommending.

3.1 stars

I had not seen this when it first came out because it just did not interest me.  This was a remake of a movie from 1987 with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn (which I have never seen) and I had heard a lot of negatives from the critics about the film.  That does not usually prevent me from going to a film, but the scheduling of seeing this is what kept me away.

Today, however, I had an open spot in the afternoon and Overboard fit into my schedule so I decided to give it a chance.

And it was better than I thought.

Honestly, the film started off and I was not a fan.  I really disliked the character of Leonardo (Eugenio Derbez) and I was ready to check out of the film.  I actually even considered leaving early.

And I found it pretty unrealistic that Kate (Anna Faris) would put this man through such a travesty of pretending to be his wife.  It reeked of fraud and kidnapping and so I found it to be a really rotten thing. Add to that that the kids were involved too and I was having trouble with the plot.

Then something odd happened.  I started to enjoy the story.

Sure, it was predictable as heck.  There were no surprises or twists along the way.  Exactly what you would expect to happen, happened.

But I found the story to have some charm that I did not anticipate.

I think most of the credit for that goes to Eugenio Derbez and Anna Faris.  They were very strong and charming together.  I liked them as a couple and I was able to get past the idea that she was basically cruelly condemning this man to a life that is not his own because of their connection.  The sweetness of the pairing overcame the weakness of the story.

Yes, the movie itself is not that great, but I found it to be a sweet film.  I am not sure that the film needed to be remade.  I have some problems with the ending of the movie especially SPOILERS how quickly and easily Leo forgives Kate, but I really enjoyed the two of them together.  I liked a bunch of the secondary characters and Kate’s three girls were cute and funny.  There was heart in this movie and I did not expect that.  It turns out that, after the first 15-25 minutes of the movie (which was terrible), Overboard really came around and made me happy that I found time to see it.

3 stars

Hereditary is the latest horror film to come out, directed by first-time full lenght feature director Ari Aster, and Aster does a great job creating a tone/mood of this movie that is distinctly scary.  There are legitimately multiple moments in this movie that completely creeped me out.

The film starts out with the death of Annie’s (Toni Collette) mother.  They had an estranged relationship for years because of a history of issues between them.  Unfortunately, after the death, Annie begins to have problems, hearing things and sleepwalking, which lead to question about what was happening.

I don’t want to go into too much details because of spoilers, but I can say that the cast of this movie was brilliant.  Lots of people have been pointing out Toni Collette’s performance as one of the best performances so far this year, and that is most definitely correct, but her performance would not be as strong if she did not have the equally wondrous work of Alex Wolff, who plays her son Peter.  Wolff is outstanding here and brings a level of emotion and anxiety unlike we have ever seen from him.

We also have great performances from Milly Shapiro, who plays Collette’s daughter Charlie, and Gabriel Byrne who is the father of this family.  The cast does a ton of heavy lifting in this story, and stand out among any aspect of Hereditary.

The film does start pretty slowly, but it was necessary to do it that way.  The early part of the film does feel poorly paced, but it does pick up as the film progressed so that when that first major shocking event takes place, the film is in high gear the rest of the way.

I was fully engaged in the film and the horrific scenes were shocking and disturbing.  The film was becoming a classic horror movie with some really scary moments that were sticking with me.

Then, the ending.  Without spoiling anything, I have to say that I really disliked the end of this movie.  The final five-ten minutes changed my perception of the entire film.  At one point, I was thinking that they were going one way, but, instead, they chose a path that I found too cliche and disappointing.  While the ending may not have completely ruined what had come before, I was severely disappointed with how they chose to end this film that had been so well done up until that point.

So this film is a really great film, but I do not agree with the hyperbole that I have heard that this movie is this generation’s Exorcist.  The ending just does not allow it to step up to that mantel, though it was definitely on the way to that for much of the film.  Toni Collette is undeniably brilliant with her role and she is equally matched by young Alex Wolff.

3.75 stars

The latest of the Ocean’s franchise came out this weekend, with a new cast featuring all females.  Thankfully, this film does not cause the stir that Ghostbusters did a few years ago and that is probably thanks to the strength of the cast.

While, unfortunately, Ocean’s 8 is not a full out smash, it has definite moments that are fun and entertaining.

Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), Danny Ocean’s sister, has spent the last five years in prison, planning on the perfect heist and every detail that needed to be determined.  Once out, she goes about recruiting a team of females to pull off this heist of a $150 million dollar diamond necklace.

The cast is a strong point of the film.  Cate Blanchett played Debbie’s friend Lou and Cate is her normal great self.  Helena Bonham Carter is solid playing the oddball fashion dresser Rose Weil.  Rhianna was good (certainly better than Battleship) as Nine Ball, the computer hacker.

Still, the actress who stole every scene she was in was easily Anne Hathaway playing actress Daphne Kluger.  Hathaway was always engaging and brought a great energy to this character.  I thought she was absolutely the best part of the film.

Now, I did find much of the movie dull, especially the first half.  The second half of the film did pick up and begin to feel more interesting to me, but that first half was so boring that I was actively thinking about other things.

The heist itself had its moments, but I have always found fault with the Ocean’s franchise because these heists require so much suspension of disbelief that it stretches credibility.  Here, there were a couple of “wrinkles” thrown into the crime, but they seemed to be handled so expertly that they just did not provide any sort of stakes or dangers for the characters.  I never once doubted that they would succeed in the heist.

Ocean’s 8 is breezy, light-weight and slim in story and characterization among many of the female characters.  Outside of Bullock, Hathaway and Blanchett, these characters are fairly one note.  They do their part of the heist and not much more.

This is another example of a film that is basically so so, despite a tremendous cast.  I did like the familial bond between Debbie and her “dead” brother Danny, and I would have enjoyed more of that.  There are major plot holes that are filled too easily, keeping from there being any real tension in plot.  Ocean’s 8 is a film that is showing you a heist and how they pull it off.  If that is enough for you, there is some goodness in here.  If you want more from you movies, this one might be lacking.

2.9 stars

Okay, I was never a huge fan of Jackass, but that show is considerably more preferable than this mess.

The stunts carried out by the Jackass crew have basically been replaced with some people falling down.  Then, some other people fall down.  And then someone gets hit in the nuts…and fall down.

Get it?

Add to that the fact that they tried to add in a story and wanted the Jackass crew to be actors.  Who thought that would go over well?

Johnny Knoxville played D.C., whom we first meet as an older grandfather babysitting his granddaughter and telling her stories about his time running an amusement park called Action Point.  At Action Point, there were no rules and the park allowed the constantly drunk patrons to do whatever they wanted, putting themselves and others into danger.

Fun, huh?

Then, D.C.’s daughter came to stay with him for the summer and they have problems. There are some problems that are talked about by the daughter involving her mother’s boyfriend wanting to become her guardian, but that was all we got out of that storyline…talk.  We never met the mother or the boyfriend and we barely get any development on that story.

We actually have more development on the desire to go to a Clash concert.

The acting is atrocious.  The dialogue is ridiculous.  and all of that could be excused if the film was funny, but… people fall down.  Ha Ha Ha?

Plus, our heroes are shown stealing lumber from another amusement park, drinking and doing drugs, getting cocaine in the cotton candy and it is all meant to be laughed off.  None of it was funny.  It was actually sad that anyone believed that it was funny.

There was a beer drinking bear, though.  Why?  Not sure.

This was a terrible movie and a new contender for worst film of 2018.  It’s still early folks, but I’m willing to bet that Action Point will find a place of (dis)honor on the list of worst of the year.

0.63 stars

Another reason why I will never be in this situation.  Adrift on the ocean is something that I will never have happen to me, because I will be landlocked as much as possible.

Adrift is based on a true story of Richard Sharp (Sam Claflin) and Tami Oldham (Shailene Woodley), a recently united couple who were to sail a friend’s ship back to San Diego for them but, along the way, they encounter a hurricane which wrecks the boat and puts them in jeopardy.  At this point, the film becomes about survival.

The story is told by interspersing flashbacks to see how the two main characters get together and how they fall in love with the present survival tale on the remains of the boat.

How effective this movie will be depends solely on how much you connect to the two characters.  If you do not buy their relationship, then the movie will certainly sink for you.  I enjoyed the relationship between them and I thought both Woodley and Claflin did a solid job creating a reason for me to care about them.  That was hurdle number one.

Hurdle number two is to make sure that the scenes that they flash back to in the narrative are as enjoyable and as important as the life and death scenes from the boat.  I would say that this was a hit and miss.  At times, the scenes from the flashbacks were not as impactful or as engaging as the scenes on the boat, and, a few times, when the film went to the flashback, it slowed its pacing down too much.  There are certainly strong flashback scenes as well that were very effective in telling the narrative.

Hurdle number three is how do you make this kind of film, a story that we have seen many times, different than all the others and worthy of its place in the genre.  This is another area that this film struggles in until the very end, where a very effective and emotional plot point occurs that changes everything that you have seen up until that moment.  I will not spoil it because I really appreciated the aspect and I hope you all go in to the story without the spoiler.

That would mean that you would have to avoid the true story that this film is based on, but it is worth it if you can do it.

The film looks wonderful, with the expansive blues of the water, the sunsets of “red” and the dramatic dangers of the hurricane. There are some excellent shots portraying each of these and helps to elevate the film beyond just another lost at sea film.

This is one of Shailene Woodley’s best performances, certainly better than anything we saw in the Divergent trilogy.  She brings the goods here and the chemistry between her and Claflin makes them easy to root for and to fear for.

The film may have dragged a bit too long in the middle or some of the flashback sequences could have been edited down, but otherwise, Adrift is a solid movie with an exceptional ending and decent performances among its leads.

3.3 stars

Who knew a documentary about Ruth Bader Ginsburg would be so darn entertaining?

RBG is a documentary focusing on the life and career of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, showing the 84 year old woman in a light you might not have expected.

Quiet and serious, Ginsburg has become a champion of women’s rights, anti-bigotry in all of its shades, gender discrimination and a dissenting opinion on a Supreme Court that has moved in a much more conservative direction since her nomination by President Bill Clinton.

And yet, she has also become a pop culture icon as the Notorious RBG, with t-shirts and tattoos displaying her likeness while Kate McKinnon portrays her on SNL.

By the way, easily my favorite part of this entire documentary was when they showed Ginsburg the clips of McKinnon at the Weekend Update desk portraying Ginsburg and given another “Gins-BURN!”  There was just something epic about Ruth Bader Ginsburg laughing and giggling at the clip.  Each time they showed her laughing, I got a big smile on my face.  She found the imitation funny, though RBG admitted that McKinnon’s impersonation was nothing like her.

The documentary also told a great story about RBG’s husband, Martin Ginsburg, and placed him as the most supportive husband ever.  Everything that had to do with Ruth and Martin was just tremendously awesome and loving.  I could have heard much more about them together.  It is great that these people who seem to be opposites in many way were able to find one another and to have such a happy life.

And such an inspiring story.  When I saw her working out, doing things that I am not sure I could do any more, I have to say I was amazed.  She was doing those planks like a damn pro.  The film does a great job of showing us the glimpse inside the icon, and showing us what is inside the woman who is such a force on the bench.

I was surprised how much I truly enjoyed this movie.  I thought it might be a little dull, but I never once felt that I wasn’t completely engaged and drawn into the story being presented of a woman about whom I knew very little.

4 stars

I have been dealing with a nagging cough, and, unfortunately, that might have colored my thoughts on the new science fiction film, Upgrade.  It was okay, but I had heard a lot of real positives about the film and it felt like a B-grade sci-fi film with a very good ending.

In a near future world, Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) winds up paralyzed after a mugging where his wife winds up murdered.  However, Grey had just met a man named Eron (Harrison Gilbertson) who has a piece of technology called Stem that would allow Grey to walk again.  What Grey did not know was that Stem (voiced by Simon Maiden) would begin talking to him inside his head and was able to get Grey to do things he could not do before.

This revenge movie is pretty typical of the genre.  Grey, with his new skills and abilities, takes off to find and kill the people who were responsible for the murder of his wife.  None of that is new.  The technology in his head talking to him reminds one of Jarvis from the Iron Man movies.  Stem being able to control his arms is similar to Hardcore Henry.  As I said, there is not a ton of new here.

Yet, Logan Marshall-Green does a very good job as Grey, the angry man who struggles with his conscience for the violence against these people and the questionable manner in which he and Stem go about their mission.  There was some real emotional depth to the violence, which was brutal at times, in the scenes.

Without spoiling it, I did enjoy the very end scene.  I had not seen it coming and I liked where it was going to take the film. It was an ending that then made you reconsider what you had seen up to it, and that kind of situation is always welcomed.

However, up to that point, much of the film felt predictable and even a little dull.  It did feel long, despite it only being in the 96 minute range, but that could be because of the cough that I was struggling with.  I would not be opposed to seeing Upgrade again when I was in a more healthy state.  For now, it was a decent B-movie feeling flick with a solid performance and some distinctly horror-like images.  The ending was very strong and helped reinvigorate the film from a fairly run of the mill beginning.

3.2 stars