Little [2019] review

If you're unfamiliar, the basic concept is that Regina Hall's character of Jordan gets a spell/curse put on her by a random little girl and she wakes up 13 years old again.  The intent of the movie is that hilarity will ensure as Jordan has to navigate life as an adult trapped in a child's body.  It's kind of like A Christmas Carol where adult Jordan is Scrooge and she gets a chance to re-learn a lesson that she didn't quite learn when she was young - that just because you were treated poorly as a child doesn't give you the right to treat people poorly when you're an adult and have money and power.  

Personally, I'm not a huge Regina Hall fan.  I didn't like her character in "Girls Trip" or this movie.  Obviously, you're not supposed to like her character, but I suppose you're supposed to sympathize with her.  In the end, I didn't really find that the case.  

As a comedy, thankfully there were some funny parts where I laughed out loud.  This was mostly thanks to Issa Rae who played adult Jordan's assistant, and Marsai Martin who played the young Jordan.  There's one or two tiny heartfelt moments, but they don't involve the main character, just a side character named Isaac that I later learned actually has real talent and was cast as the voice of young Simba in Favreau's The Lion King.

Overall, I get what this movie was going for, but the execution was lacking and the writing could have been better.  There was some tone issues where serious parts played more silly so therefore they didn't feel grounded in reality.  A better utilization of sound would have helped as some scenes felt devoid of any background music at all.  There were also moments that were supposed to play for physical comedy that just came off as mean spirited.  Lastly, there were two scenes with a child flirting with an adult where the first one was tongue in cheek, but the second was kind of uncomfortable.  

Twins [1988] review

Schwarzenegger and DeVito do not disappoint in what I consider a classic late 80s comedy.  Schwarzenegger naivety in the real world pairs perfectly with DeVito's abuse of it.  They balance each other out thematically, and almost comedically with Schwarzenegger taking the burden in the beginning and DeVito more in the middle with his side hustle.  In the final third of the film when it becomes more about family, the laughs do decrease dramatically so we can have a heartfelt ending.  I would have appreciated if they could have kept the laughs going, but I understand that the tone has to switch when things get serious so it feels like there are actual stakes.  (A similar thing happens in "Knocked Up")  Kelly Preston and Chloe Webb, playing the female co-stars, don't get too much time to shine as the movie focuses on the twins.  Maybe they could have been incorporated more in the final act instead of being sidelined but I'm not sure how you execute it without it feeling silly. 

Overall, the movie still holds up after 30+ years.  With rumbles of a possible remake staring Momoa & Dinklage, I think you may insult a lot of people making Momoa the "perfect human" and Dinklage the "genetic defect" so I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to swap the roles and change up the jokes completely.  In recent roles, Momoa tends to be more silly while Dinklage is more serious, so I think it would work.  It would would be interesting to watch if they did something different and didn't just rehash the original, in my opinion.

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood [2019] review

Walking out of the theater, I felt that I kind of got it, but I kind of didn't.  I talked it over with my wife on the way home and then I watched the RedLetterMedia review and understood what they were going for and it made a little more sense.

I don't want to spoil anyone, but if you're going to see this, I think it would help having a general knowledge of the real world events involving Charles Manson and Sharon Tate.  Detailed knowledge isn't crucial but the movie assumes you have some knowledge, because it won't be explained to you.  Those real life events serve as the movie's backdrop and what's at the forefront is story of Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Pitt).  From there, this movie is essentially Tarantino's take on a fairy-tale. 

The acting in this movie does not disappoint even when it's meant to be on display due to the meta nature when the movie is a film within a film.  The line between the actor's reality and our reality is walked with precision and expertise.  There are a few scenes that go on a little long where I was wondering what the point was, but I chalked it up to quality time spent with these characters so we end up caring about them, otherwise the final act wouldn't work. 

Also, I learned that from the aforementioned review that Tarantino took a lot of time to re-create 1960s Hollywood and use a minimum about of digital effects as possible.  Personally, I guess it felt like 1960s Hollywood, but as a non native I didn't appreciate it as much as maybe a native would.  I know "La La Land" got a lot of praise for its treatment of Hollywood and since I don't have that extensive background of that area and/or era, it was just that - background.  I cared more about the characters and plot than I did about Cliff driving around for 5 minutes.  Although, it was nice to see the driving and feel the time it took to get from point A to point B instead of it feeling like insta-travel.

Overall, this wasn't my favorite Tarantino film, but I have a good appreciation for it.  I loved the scenes where he expertly created tension as those sucked me in and had me at the edge of my seat.  He does that very well and the payoff definitely comes later so you have to have the patience for it going in hence why I didn't see this movie opening weekend and waited until I was prepared to go on the journey.

Aquaman [2018] review

Surprisingly, I enjoyed this movie.  There are some character name drops early in the film before you're introduced to said character which may cause confusion, but thankfully there is a scene that helps clear it up.  Specifically, late in the first act, a certain sequence flips back and forth between the past and the present which was welcome to give the audience background on how Arthur was trained and which character(s) is aligned with which people.  I'm also glad Mera name drops a certain character which lets us know when this movie takes place in the timeline of recent DC films.

With that said, there were other character names mentioned in reference to family trees and who was related to whom which I was a little lost on, but I'm sure a second watch would help clear that up.  I got the general gist and that was fine.  I'm glad there was an actual story and not just action scene after action scene.  I did like the way scenes were shot when there was action.  Getting that full 360 view worked well and made most scene flow.

I do admit that I did have to google, "Is Aqauman bulletproof?" as I didn't realize he was nor did I understand why certain characters needed water to breath, but I guess since they've never been on land before that they were out of their element.  This works at the time, but there were some inconsistencies that are kind of ignored in the final act.

But overall, it wasn't too campy, the tone was consistent with a good mix of seriousness and humor throughout.  There were a lot of set pieces with different rulers and such, again a little confusing on first watch keeping all of it straight when this was my first introduction to this world, but upon second watch I think things will make more sense.

The Predator [2018] review

I'm trying to think of something positive to say, but this movie was a mess. Nothing was explained / made much sense, everyone was over acting, Olivia Munn continues to showcase her lack of acting ability and also happens to be a combat biologist?, the main cast's plot armor was strong until the third act, the Predator dogs really had no point, and the mcguffin at the end to set up a sequel?...it was just a hot mess. There was an excessive amount of cursing that didn't bother me too much probably because the script/acting was so bad. I didn't mind the gore but the way it was used in the first movie was like, "Oh I can't believe they just killed [blank]; no one is safe." Well, spoiler alert, it turns out in this movie that everyone was safe until the third act so no stakes equals weak movie. Of the Predator franchise, I'd probably rank this one as the worst.

Orange is the New Black [2019] Seventh and Final Season review

In the extras section there is a 19 minute farewell video where the writer/creator of this show, Jenji Kohan, said this show was never about women in a prison, but it's essentially a social commentary on what's currently happening in the world and her soapbox to get the conversation going.  So with that said, I'm kind of glad it's over as it feels like, especially in the later seasons, that the message became the priority. It's not like it was too preachy or anything. The message was powerful and I get it, but at the same time I need a good story. There would be episodes, especially early on where an episode would end and I'd be like, "That's it? What happened after that?" and it would never be revisited again or it would be revisited in a later season when it served the message and not the story that was referenced so long ago that it's already been forgotten.

As for this final season, I was mostly okay with it. I defintiely thought it was a stronger season compared to most, but I probably should have re-watched season 6 first. Anyway, there were a few moments where it felt like it dragged, especially when focusing on the detainees verses the inmates, but I think the show did a decent enough job to give us a balance of the characters we cared about while they hammered their message home.

Kate Mulgrew (Red), Uzo Aduba (Suzanne), Danielle Brooks (Taystee), Adrienne C. Moore (Cindy), and Selenis Leyva (Mendoza) are the real stars of this show and they all gave great performances this final season. Special shout out to the writers for taking the characters of Caputo and Fig (Nick Sandow & Alysia Reiner) who I never thought I would give a shit about, and keep us interested in their story. Personally, I'd love to see a cut of this entire series without Piper (and Alex), or at least a diminished role, as I think the show would have highly benefited with their storyline as the minimal as possible.

Tomb Raider [2018] review

This movie was a hot mess.  There were many scenes that simply added nothing to the plot and many things that simply made no sense.  1 out of 5 stars.

So Lara's profession is a struggling bike messenger because she doesn't believe in herself or something?  Or maybe she's refusing to take on the responsibility of her father's large company?  And she didn't go to college because?  Either way, the movie opens with her boxing, losing, talking to a friend, and it's never mentioned again.  We later get some flashbacks of her doing archery as a kid.  So apparently these scenes serve the purpose to show the audience that she's in really good shape and she can take a beating I guess.

Then we have a bike race scene where it's a modern version of fox hunting and she's the fox, ha...ha...!?  Anyway, she gets arrested because it's illegal and she gets bailed out by some woman who runs her father's company.  We finally get some backstory about Lara, her father, and now the movie is setting up the actual plot of the movie.  By the way, the movie has a cold open with a male voice narrating about some ancient tomb.  That entire dialogue is repeated again here.  Why though?  Also, we learn her father has been missing for seven years and she finds his hidden workshop with a video camera not plugged in that has enough battery power to still work?

Another pointless scene is Lara trading in her father's necklace at a pawn shop run by Nick Frost.  So far the movie has been semi serious with little to no jokes or humor.  Now, for no reason, this pawnbroker is supposed to be the comic relief?  Also, her father owns a huge company.  She couldn't borrow money from it/them?

So now that Lara has money from the pawnshop, she heads to some Asian country because she found an email/picture of a boat that her father used before he disappeared.  She naively trusts the wrong person and gets her backpack stolen.  We have another chase scene where she gets it back and inadvertently meets the son of the boat owner she was originally looking for.  Now, the picture showed a boat and she found what appeared to be the same boat.  If Lara's father and the boat owner's father disappeared with that boat 7 years ago, how is that boat still around?  

It's now essentially an hour into the movie, and we're finally on the boat to find Lara's father or find the Mcguffin on the movie -- some demon queen's tomb because remember "Tomb" raider.  The boat hits some rocks during a storm and both Lara and the boat owner are washed up on an island run by Walton Goggins and a band of mercenaries.  Goggins character Vogel is on a mission to find the tomb and reveals that he killed her father and the boat owners father although he was lying about Lara's father.  After she escapes, she finds her father semi crazy but brings him back to reality.  He reveals that he can't let Vogel find the tomb as it would unless hell on earth and he's been secretly throwing him off the trail for years.  Lara reveals she brought his research to the island and we have a very "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade" moment.

Somehow the mercenaries find Lara and her father, and Lara is forced to solve a puzzle to open the way into the tomb.  Finally, something is happening in this movie and with 40 minutes left we finally get to see what has been set up since the beginning of the film - the actual tomb.  So after a couple red shirt deaths and puzzle solving, they find the tomb and discover that this queen had a disease and isolated herself so others wouldn't get the disease.  So when Vogel's men try to move her, one of them gets infected and the disease kills him within seconds.  Lara's father gets infected battling an infected mercenary and decides to blow himself and the tomb up.  Lara defeats Vogel in hand to hand combat and escapes with the help of the boat owner and others that have been trapped on the island who were forced into slavery by Vogel and his men.

Earlier, Vogel had called a helicopter to get off the island, so all the survivors pile in and leave I guess?!  Lara returns home to finally sign the paperwork that she owns the company and gives power of attorney to the woman that bailed her out earlier.  She then realizes too late that Vogel's employer was a subsidary of her father's company therefore Vogel was working for the woman that she just gave power of attorney to.  So Lara, who has been praised as the smart Croft the entire film is not smart at all.

Then for no reason we get the final pointless scene of Lara revisiting the pawn shop, getting her necklace back and buying her iconic guns that she uses and the movie ends.