The past month I’ve seen a lot of movies thanks to traveling and catching up on Tivo after travel was completed. Thought I’d jot down some thoughts for anyone interested.
1) The Favourite – I wasn’t going to watch this movie since I saw “The Lobster,” which was made by the same director. I hated “The Lobster” and consider it to be one of the worst movies ever made (even my independent-movie loving husband hated it and apologized for picking it when the closing credits began to roll). My loathing for “Lobster” is so strong that when I saw “Favourite” was also by him, I vowed not to watch it, even if it did star Olivia Colman, an actress I adore. But it was available to watch on the plane ride home from London a couple weeks ago, and so with more than a little dread I hit “play.”
It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Infinitely better than “Lobster,” to say the least (not a hard accomplishment). Olivia Colman WAS fabulous and deserved her Oscar for Best Actress. Was the movie good though? I don’t think so, but my dislike of the director’s other movie most likely influences my opinion of his movies for life.
2. Bad Times at the El Royale – I am not sure what I was expecting with this movie. I knew nothing of the plot other than some folks all arrive at a motel at the same time and it doesn’t go well. Having said that, Jon Hamm was good, Chris Hemsworth departed from his normal hero roles, and Cynthia Erivo was the best part of the movie, IMO. Worth seeing? Sure – but only if you can see it for free on streaming.
3. Crazy Rich Asians – y’all. I LOVED this movie. I loved everything about it and am so happy I finally got around to seeing it. Henry Golding is GORGEOUS, Constance Wu was amazing and gave a greatly emotional and nuanced performance, and even though the story is one that has been told many times before (interfering mother does not like son’s choice for life partner), it was told really, really well. And that wedding ceremony? Perhaps the most gorgeous looking movie wedding I’ve seen in a movie. I’ll be buying this one on Blu-Ray at some point, for sure.
4. Robin Hood – I like Taron Egerton a lot, but this movie was a miss in almost every way. It took so long to get going that I fell asleep at some point and then woke up just in time for the big battle at the end – and didn’t feel like I missed anything important during my nap.
5. Hallmark Channel’s “Love Takes Flight” – I won’t be reviewing it, but let me just say I LOVED this Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. I found very little at fault with it, almost no nitpicks, and loved the entire cast. The little girl ESPECIALLY impressed me because a lot of the young Hallmark actors are still so obviously learning their craft. The little girl from “Love Takes Flight” was perfect. I also loved Tom Thon, who played the grandfather. SO SO good and he needs to be in more Hallmark movies! As for where it lands in my ranking spreadsheet, the interesting thing to note is that when you look at raw score, it’s my third favorite movie of 2019. But because I use weighted scoring, it ended up at #6 for the year because the areas it earned the highest points had lower weights to them. You can see where it sits in the rankings by visiting my Hallmark Movie Rankings If you are a Hallmark movie fan and haven’t watch it yet, go find it and watch it!
6. Hereditary – it’s not often that a movie freaks me out. I can’t even remember the last time a movie freaked me out. Well, actually I can. It was this past weekend watching “Hereditary.” Y’all – that movie was crazy. Everyone in the cast was outstanding, but the standout was definitely Alex Wolff, who played the son. The movie starts with the family mourning the death of their matriarch, but bad things begin to happen to the family, and it all quickly falls apart. And the poor son, it falls apart the most for him. Alex Wolff was superb and played “tortured soul” really, really well. Toni Collette was also amazing to behold – and her portrayal of a grieving woman descending into madness was terrifying even moreso than the terror/horror plot itself. And in the end the movie in general really freaked me out (although the very last scene took me from shock and awe into “really? this is how it is ending?”). Worth seeing? Sure – but leave the lights on in your house if you decide to watch it at night.
7. Avengers: Endgame – and last but not least, the culmination of over 10 years of movie watching for me. The last big battle against Thanos finally occurred and did not disappoint. Despite two similar plotholes for two different characters that I cannot wrap my head around (and nor can anyone I’ve talked to about it), I can still say that “Endgame” was a very satisfying end to my decade of Marvel movie fandom. I laughed, I cried, I will be buying this on Blu-Ray as soon as the super-special-version-of-some-kind gets released. Winners for me were Josh Brolin, Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans, in that order. Brolin, in particular, blew me away. A+ movie. I’ve seen it twice already and MIGHT just go see it a third time if the opportunity arises.
