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Reviews
Oppenheimer (2023)
Spectacular
This is the best movie of I've ever seen. Beautiful score, superb performances, a masterful piece of cinematic art. I was worried about a three hour movie but not a second was wasted. There was nothing self-indulgent and nothing over-wrought. There were blessedly no modern political lessons. It was historically portrayed. OMG Emily Blunt had me wanting to jump from my seat in awe and admiration of her character. RDJ was brilliant and the evolution of his character something amazing to witness. We see the naïveté of brilliant scientists, the depravity of politicians, the heart wrenching reality of not being able to put the atomic bomb genie back in the bottle. Do not miss seeing this movie in the theater. Find the biggest screen with the best sound system. It's worth it.
The Queen's Gambit (2020)
Spectacular
Every single thing about this series is absolutely spectacular. I cannot believe it took me so long to discover it. Binged in two evenings. The story is creative. The cast is phenomenal. The sets and cinematography and wardrobes are literally perfect. It's a simple story beautifully told. Every scene gives us littles glimpses into Beth and we come to really care about her while she comes to care about the people in her life. When Benny calls her at the end, and all her boys are there helping, my heart just melted. What I absolutely appreciated is that it was just a story. There was zero moralizing. Sure, there was commentary but no one tried to beat us over the head with political statements. What a fabulous show!
How It Ends (2018)
Liked it. I don't understand the poor reviews.
It's a decent flick. Not spectacular but pretty good as apocalypse movies go. Felt real for the most part. Not gritty and grim like The Road, but fairly plausible. And the people complaining about no ending have me baffled. It ends and one is left with a good idea about what comes next. Acting is good enough. Writing is fair. Well filmed and good CGI. A few plot holes but it's not hard to overlook. Nothing outrageously unbelievable. On a Sunday afternoon, pop some corn, poor a soda, grab a blanket and settle in for acceptable entertainment. If some world ending thing happens, this seems about right for how it might feel.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)
Don't listen to Rotten Tomatoes critics, they're wrong.
This is a fantastic movie. After watching and rewatching all our favorite fantasy epics throughout stupid covid, we stumbled across this and I cannot believe we haven't seen it before. It's intense, with great music, a great cast, a cool story and really likable, wonderfully masculine characters. If you're an Anglophile and you like fight scenes, you'll like this movie. I suppose the RT professional critics didn't like it because there isn't a single woke thing about it. Maybe that's why I'm overjoyed.
Earth to Echo (2014)
Unwatchable
Terrible. I've only ever left the theater for two movies before (The Gods Must Be Crazy and The Thin Red Line). Now make it three. The stupid found footage shaky camera thing is just awful. All the jiggling around made me nauseous. My kids seem to like the movie well enough. But I'm sitting in the theater lobby steaming that I spent any money on this horrible film. I understood from the trailer that the movie would be trying the ET and Goonies genre. But I didn't expect it to suck out loud. Plus the actors aren't very good. Just plain bad acting. If we are supposed to think any of these kids are cute then it failed. Not cute. Just predictable with flat lines. The Echo character isn't even that cute. Plus the premise is stupid. It seems like whoever wrote it didn't try that hard. Ack. Whatever.