Movie Reviews

2019 Movie Review Recap

Julie Gilbert Action Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Horror, Movie Reviews, mystery, scifi, Star Wars ,

*Disclaimer:

The ratings given here are based upon my gut feelings now. They may differ slightly from what was given in a review written a few days after seeing the movie.

Introduction:

This year featured everything from my first official horror movie to the end of several eras of movies (Marvel and Star Wars). Oh, I’m sure they will release more titles, but they’ve at least ended their most ambitious story arcs. Both ended on decently strong notes.

Movies I saw in 2019 (and Off-the-Cuff Ratings and brief comments)

Welcome to Marwen (Seen on 1/1/19): 3.5/5 Stars – A unique experience. Shows a man’s interesting way of healing from a hate crime.

Glass (1/17/19): 3.5/5 Stars – Strange. Violent. Not exactly uplifting, but Samuel L. Jackson is awesome.

The Upside (1/18/19): 3.5/5 Stars – Has some not-so-great lessons, but overall is an uplifting tale about living with paralysis.

Lego Movie 2 (2/7/19): 4/5 Stars – You have to appreciate the ridiculousness of these movies to appreciate them.

Alita: Battle Angel (2/15/19; 2/28/19): 4.5/5 Stars – Fun. Action-packed. Amusing as she gets used to life.

Cold Pursuit (2/19/19): 4/5 Stars – Dark. About what you’d expect from the trailers. Stars Liam Neeson.

How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World (2/21/19): 5/5 Stars – Lovely music. Nicely wraps up the story. Oh, they’ll probably make another since it made money, but it could safely end here.

Fighting With My Family (3/5/19): 5/5 Stars – A surprisingly good tale of following one’s dream. Tells the origin story of the wrestler named Paige.

Captain Marvel (3/7/19): 4.5/5 Stars – A fun comic book hero movie. She’s definitely overpowered, but it’s all good. There are decent fights and background.

Nancy Drew: The Hidden Staircase (3/15/19): 4/5 Stars – A good but generally forgettable Nancy Drew story. Stars Sophia Lillis

Captive State (3/19/19): 3.5/5 Stars – A rather dull, dark post-apocalyptic, scifi mix.

Unplanned (3/29/19): 5/5 Stars – A hard-hitting, behind-the-scenes of a woman who went from running an abortion clinic to being rather outspoken about the evils of the practice.

Shazam! (4/4/19): 4.5/5 Stars – Fun, surprisingly good comic book hero movie. A foster kid becomes a comic book hero and saves the world.

Hellboy 2 (4/11/19): 4/5 Stars – Surprisingly good, lighthearted, bloody comic-book movie.

Avengers: End Game (4/25/19;4/29/19): 4.5/5 Stars – An action-packed, satisfying part II movie. It wraps up a decade of Marvel movies. They confused some stuff with the timetravel line by the ending they chose for Captain America, but whatever.

Pokemon: Detective Pikachu (5/9/19): 4/5 Stars – Surprisingly good. I’m not a Pokemon fan. I was a little too old when it had its hay-day. I’m also not a Ryan Reynolds fan. He usually picks ridiculous characters. At least Pikachu’s adorable.

Godzilla: King of Monsters (5/22/19): 4/5 Stars – The fights were great. Not exactly going to make my top 100 list, but it was decent.

Aladdin (Disney reboot with people; 5/29/19): 3.5/5 Stars – It won’t ever hold a candle to the animated classic, but it’s all right. Disney essentially takes its own story and smacks it with Bollywood style.

Dark Phoenix (6/6/19): 4/5 Stars – Standard hero going to the dark side story.

Secret Life of Pets 2 (6/11/19; 6/25/19): 4.5/5 Stars – It was cute. I think my favorite minor character was Cotton, the Sheep. It goes up half a star just because of that part with Gigit becoming a cat and riding a Roomba.

Men in Black 4 (6/14/19; 6/21/19) – 4.5/5 Stars – Fun return to a classic universe. It’s a decent reboot.

Shaft (6/17/19): 3.5/5 Stars – Action-packed.

Spider-Man: Far From Home (7/2/19;7/17/19): 4.5/5 Stars – Peter Parker struggles with the mantle of being a hero in the post-End Game world.

Stuber (7/11/19): 3.5/5 Stars – Silly story of a cop and an uber driver going on a grand cop caper.

The Lion King (7/18/19): 4/5 Stars – Another of Disney’s bid to cash in on its own classic tale by switching animation over to CGI. It was visually beautiful, but not enough changed to make it awesome in its own right.  

Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw (8/6/19): 4.5/5 Stars – Nice action thriller. End of the world coming if they don’t stop it. Dangerous tech needs to stay out of the bad guys hands.

The Matrix (20th anniversary) (9/3/19): 4/5 Stars – I hadn’t seen the movie in a very long time. It was nice to revisit.

Angel Has Fallen (9/6/19): 4/5 Stars – A secret service agent is framed for trying to kill the president. He has to do his job while running from killers and cops.

IT Chapter Two (9/11/19): 3.5/5 Stars – Well acted, but disturbing horror story. I have serious reservations about the messages this movie sent.

Rambo: Last Blood (9/20/19): 3.5/5 Stars – Bloody. End fight was awesome. Rest was kind of just an excuse to get there.

Joker (10/8/19): 3.5/5 Stars – Well-acted, but highly disturbing take on the Joker’s origin story.

Gemini Man (10/16/19): 4/5 Stars – Will Smith gets a CGI facelift to fight himself for 2 hrs.

Zombieland 2 (10/18/19): 4/5 Stars – A faithful sequel to the original Zombieland. Ridiculous with all its rules. Not a deep thinker.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (10/21/19): 4/5 Stars – A largely unnecessary sequel, but a decent movie.

Black and Blue (10/25/19): 4/5 Stars – A rookie cop sees something she shouldn’t, gets it on video, and now both cops and drug runners are after her.

Terminator: Dark Fate (11/1/19): 4/5 Stars – I don’t know enough about the franchise to know how this rewrites things. As a standalone movie, it’s okay. Action scenes are great.

Charlie’s Angels (11/15/19): 4/5 Stars – Standard Girl-Power action thriller.

Frozen 2 (11/21/19): 5/5 Stars – Fantastic part 2 of the Frozen tale.

Knives Out (12/10/19): 4/5 Stars – A great whodunnit that would be even better if I gave 1 crap about the characters.

Jumanji: The Next Level (12/13/19): 5/5 Stars – Excellent sequel. It hits all the right ridiculous notes while still weaving in a feel-good story.

Star Wars Ep IX: The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19): 4.5/5 Stars – A satisfying conclusion to the long Skywalker Saga. I have some reservations about their choices, but it’s still a fun, entertaining movie.

Conclusion:

I went to the movie theaters 46 times in 2019. Thank goodness for A-List. I’ll break the titles down into categories in a second post tomorrow. The end of the year was pretty strong. Haven’t really looked at what’s coming in 2020, but maybe I’ll also prep a list of stuff I want to see. Overall, it’s been a great year for movies.

Associate links to follow…

Note: I’m starting to use a few ad sites for audiobooks, so codes are disappearing quickly.

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything. That will change very soon.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

Spoilers and Reflections for Star Wars Ep 9: The Rise of Skywalker

Julie Gilbert Action Adventure, Movie Reviews, scifi, Star Wars ,
cool promo pic for the movie

Spoiler warning. If you haven’t seen Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, this will either tick you off or not make any sort of sense.

Star Wars Movies in Order from Least Favorite to Favorite

Jeremy Jahns asked that question. I answered it, but I’m not sure I answered the same as I’m going to here.

Revenge of the Sith, Attack of the Clones, The Last Jedi, The Phantom Menace, The Empire Strikes Back, A New Hope, The Rise of Skywalker, The Force Awakens, Return of the Jedi.

Comments about the order:

  • Revenge of the Sith ended on a really dark note, and they missed a huge opportunity for Padme’s death. She just gave up felt like a lame excuse of a reason to off her.
  • Attack of the Clones had some important plot development, but it also had a lot of political mumbo jumbo that stunk. I hate politics in real life… why would I want to watch it unfold in my fantasy?
  • The Last Jedi had porgs, which were a huge redeeming value, but it felt like half a story.
  • The Phantom Menace at least had a hugely awesome lightsaber battle and 20 minutes of awesome fighting at the end. I’m going to purposefully ignore the Gungan battle scene…that was the only unawesome part. Favorite moment is still the scaling of the palace walls with ascension guns.
  • The Empire Strikes Back was awesome but ends on a really dark note. It doesn’t feel complete.
  • A New Hope is classic Star Wars and a self-contained story.
  • The Rise of Skywalker brings the story to a close. You can nitpick a lot of stuff, but it does a pretty good job of gathering all the flapping threads and tying them off.
  • The Force Awakens has the advantage of being like A New Hope since it’s essentially that with a different cast. It breathes new life into the saga after a long, long time.
  • Return of the Jedi was a fine end to the story. You could have stopped there with a “they lived happily ever after.”

Spoilers from Star Wars 9:

  • Old school people took a backseat. Star Wars has always had a lot of characters. The old school ones were there for great cameos, but they didn’t fulfill much more of a role than that. I get it, the whole passing on the torch and so forth, but if you’re gonna have them present, you might as well make them a tad more integral.
  • They didn’t end up doing much with the dynamics between Rey, Finn, and Poe. There was some bickering, but I expected more speeches. Rose shows up for a few scenes but very much in cameo mode. They started to have that go somewhere, but this movie, she was sidelined.
  • Rey’s overpowered. It doesn’t bother me. It bothered me that her lightsabers were able to withstand that kind of lightning. It just wrecked a fleet…and now two puny lightsabers are okay? I’d have believed it more if it was just her…like the purity/goodness in her standing strong. I guess visually, it looks cooler with the lightsabers, but even if she did something to them to make it more powerful, it would have been a tad more believable. Scifi should break laws of physics where needed, but it should also strive to explain when it’s gonna go all rogue on us.
  • The end makes me appreciate that fight scene in The Last Jedi a little more. I may actually enjoy TLJ a lot more now that I have the option of watching Ep IX soon thereafter. It might be nice to do the whole trilogy someday.
  • I loved the fact that they made us think that Chewie died by Rey’s hand for a time. That was awesome. It’s a tad disturbing that once they learned it was a different transport, Rey turned 100% okay with it. Doesn’t change the fact that it still blew up and people died.
  • I enjoyed the explanation for the connection between Ben and Rey. Finally, something made sense. Their ability to pass objects and affect things in each others’ surroundings was downright cool.
  • Ben’s death was unnecessary. They passed life energy back and forth like a ping-pong ball in this movie. The snake healing part was awesome and panned out later. Rey stabbing then saving Ben made sense. Even him saving her made sense. Him dying for it doesn’t make sense. It’s not like he’s a threat to her power. If they didn’t go the whole YA romance thing. There’s a lot of room for them to have been allies, friends, maybe even lovers in time.
  • Ben and Rey’s kiss was okay, but I also feel like the only reason for it was to make it YA friendly. I would have believed it more if it were on the forehead, like sibling love not romantic love. They were essentially functioning as a unit at the end, two halves of the same. I think that’s how it was explained anyway.
  • Rey taking on the mantle of Skywalker at the end fits and is nostalgic for the audience, but it doesn’t make much sense from her point of view. Unless there was a lot in between that we didn’t see, like her essentially having a lot of heart-to-hearts with Leia and feeling like her daughter or something, I’m not getting a clearcut reason for her to do that. She has a name, albeit an infamous one. I guess that would be enough to legally change it, but she could also own it. Probably safer for her to be a Skywalker.
  • The scenes with Rey’s parents drop a few thought bombs on the audience. Palpatine had a kid? Since when. I like the twist, but it’s very much got the feel of a hail mary thanks to a “shoot, we wrote ourselves into a corner” moment. Also, if Palpatine had those kind of resources, I don’t believe they wouldn’t have been able to find Rey as a kid. He pretty much could have just Force whammied his son and his son’s wife if he wanted to.
  • Speaking of Force whammying, Palpatine’s also overpowered. Twice now (three times?), we get awesome fight scenes that end with the moral choice to stand for good and *POW*, bad guy pulls the gloves off and zaps the good guys. Game over. Until the power of love fights back.

Conclusion:

The Rise of Skywalker is certainly worth watching. It’s an entertaining battle of good vs. evil and a satisfying conclusion to the Disneyfied Star Wars trilogy.

Associate links to follow…

Note: I’m starting to use a few ad sites for audiobooks, so codes are disappearing quickly.

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything. That will change very soon.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

4.5/5 Stars: Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker

Julie Gilbert Action Adventure, Movie Reviews, scifi, Star Wars , , , , , ,
Promo pic for the movie

Starring: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver

Also Featuring: John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Billy Dee Williams, Keri Russell, Naomi Ackie, Anthony Daniels, Kelly Marie Tran, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher

*I will attempt to keep spoiler-free until after the ads

*I may write a separate post with discussion/ reaction to various spoilers

Summary:

A satisfying conclusion to Disney’s Star Wars trilogy if you don’t think about how Disneyfied it’s become. That’s difficult, but if you can accept it for what it is, it’s still a fun story and a good movie. Reviews are looking polarized because if you try to compare it to classic Star Wars, it’s going to fall short.

The galaxy’s in trouble. Rey, Finn, Princess Leia, and Poe Dameron are trying like heck to save it … again. This picks up some unknown time after The Last Jedi ended. Maybe the book gives some more insight into that, I don’t know. I never made it through the novelization of The Last Jedi. Palpatine’s back (that’s not a spoiler, it’s in the trailer) and ready to unleash something big. The good guys need to find the way to the Emperor’s base and destroy his weapon before it kills them. So, ya know, standard Star Warsy plot.

Additional Comments:

  • Plot 4/5 stars: The events definitely had a scattered feel to them. I’ll expand more in the spoiler section.
  • Humor 4/5: I didn’t feel like there were as many lighthearted moments as in some of the other movies, but the ones here worked very well as usual.
  • Characters 4/5: The new crew (Rey, Finn, and Poe) are back. They play their roles. There’s not much in the way of character development for them. I think the person who did the most developing was Kylo Ren. Chewie’s back but in a very minor role.
  • They managed to have 1 scene where they stuck in a porg. Mission accomplished Disney. You can now sell more merchandise. I love porgs.
  • The Millennium Falcon has seen some stuff. Like a lot of hard stuff.
  • I wish BB-8 had a more prominent role.
  • Rey’s pretty overpowered, but I think that’s the point. Finn and Poe are very much background.

Conclusion:

The Rise of Skywalker hits enough satisfying notes to be considered a success in my book. It passes the “entertain me” test. The heroes are likable. The action’s decent, though there’s at least one lightsaber fight that kinda dragged on and on.

Only books 1-3 are available on audiobook.

Associate links to follow…

Note: I’m starting to use a few ad sites for audiobooks, so codes are disappearing quickly.

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything. That will change very soon.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

Spoiler Section:

  • The opening crawl had me worried. First, it was scattered. Second, “The dead speak!” has campy written all over it. I know Star Wars can be campy sometimes, a lot of the time, but it still had me worried.
  • The Scavenger Hunt nature of the plot was unnecessary. I feel like several planets’ worth of stuff could have safely been removed.
  • Hux’s reason for being a traitor kinda stunk. If he was gonna flip, having a complete turnaround in thoughts would have been helpful. Not just a juvenile “he must lose” reasoning.

More spoilers to come in a separate post. This one is looking kinda bulky.

Movie Reviews 4/5 Stars: Knives Out

Julie Gilbert Movie Reviews , , ,
movie poster

*will attempt to keep spoiler free until after ads

Starring:

Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Adams, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Christopher Plummer

Summary:

On the surface, a Clue-like whodunnit. Deeper a twisty tale of murder and family mayhem. Deeper still a tedious social commentary. Don’t go too deep! And you will enjoy it.

Additional Comments:

  • Star-studded cast. Well acted.
  • Characters were delightfully 2-D. Marta’s a saint. The family members to a man or woman are selfish, manipulative, back-stabbing jerks pretty much without one redeeming quality. Except Nana.
  • The music is weird but fitting. The beginning shots are going for the creepy, Hound of the Baskervilles, vibe. 
  • The detective was well acted but the lines he was given are long-winded and full of babbles. By design.
  • Would be more satisfying if 90% of the characters were even remotely likeable.
  • I appreciate the number of twists they went for, but knowing they sought to throw you made it predictable in most spots.

Conclusion: 

An interesting movie to watch. Won’t ever make it to my top 20, but it passes the entertain-me test.

Associate links to follow…

Note: I’m starting to use a few ad sites for audiobooks, so codes are disappearing quickly.

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything. That will change very soon.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

Spoilers:

  • Marta’s inability to lie was fantastic.
  • I have a feeling there are a few families in the world that can relate.
  • The subtle bit about nobody in the family knowing where Marta is from was interesting. They said at least 3 different countries.
  • The little Tie-in’s like the trick knife comment and the coffee mug were nice touches.
  • kind of wish Marta has at least some flaws so she could be more realistic.
  • The tricking Ransom into a confession thing was nice… predictable but nice.

5/5 Stars: Frozen 2 (is Fantastic)

Julie Gilbert children's, Family, Fantasy, Movie Reviews , , , , ,
I can only assume a standard promo pic…captures the main characters well.

Starring: Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff

Summary:

Picking up where Frozen left us, Arendelle is peaceful and happy. Then, Queen Elsa starts hearing a voice calling to her and feels compelled to investigate. Mysterious forces drive the people out of the city after Elsa inadvertently awakens something powerful. Her sister, Anna won’t let her run off alone, so Kristoff, Sven (the Reindeer), and Olaf (the comic relief snowman) get caught up in the adventure as well.

Additional Comments:

  • Songs 4/5 Stars: Some of the songs are wonderful. Some are kind of just there because it’s a musical, so pretty much every emotion needs a song.
  • Plot 4.5/5 Stars: It’s super predictable, yet it works.
  • Comic Relief 5/5 Stars: Spoiler section with specifics after ads.
  • The heartfelt moments between the sisters works.
  • There’s a lot in here to love for everybody.
  • The performances and animation are high quality.
  • The tie-in to the first movie is far from subtle, but it’s also not overbearing.

Conclusion:

Find an excuse to go see this movie. You don’t need to have seen the first recently to enjoy it, but it would help if you’ve seen it once upon a time. Not sure if the big screen experience is better than it would be from the comforts of home, but I suspect a lot of people will be doing both (seeing now and buying a dvd/ bluray later…or waiting for Disney + to have it).

Associate links to follow…

Note: I’m starting to use a few ad sites for audiobooks, so codes are disappearing quickly.

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything. That will change very soon.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

Spoiler Section:

  • Humor is spot on.
  • Highlights: Olaf telling stories. Oh my goodness, he’s deliciously terrible at it. The experience is like watching a five-year-old who has to pee tell a tale.
  • Curse Disney and their need to make something so freaking cute in every movie. This time, the award for cutest thing, probably will have to buy as a plushie, is the Fire Spirit. The thing didn’t even had any lines but literally and figuratively lit up the screen every time it showed it’s tiny, adorable salamander like face.
  • The beginning scene with Anna and Elsa as kids listening to their father tell a story was awesome. Young Anna carries the same essence as her future self. She’s also adorable.
  • Even Kristoff’s bungling of the proposal until the end is predictable but still works out well.
  • Elsa’s fight with the water spirit was pretty sweet.
  • It follows classic storytelling arcs, including some pretty dark points.

4/5 Stars Charlie’s Angels 2019

Julie Gilbert Action Adventure, Movie Reviews, thriller , , ,
Standard promo pic I grabbed off Google.

Directed by Elizabeth Banks.

Starring: Ella Balinska, Kristen Stewart, and Naomi Scott

Summary:

Standard girl-power sort of action flick. Premise is that the next high-tech gadget ready to light up the world has a flaw, meaning it could be turned into a weapon. Contrary to many action flicks, I don’t think it’s the blow-up-the-world type. It’s more of a perfect-assassin’s-tool.

Additional Comments:

– 95% of the soundtrack is pop-esque. I appreciated the fact that occasionally the music matched the country. It might have done so more often and I just didn’t catch it. Haven’t downloaded it yet, but I got a code from an AMC promo. I enjoyed most of the music.

– I liked that they attempted some interesting twists.

– Pretty sure it involved some cursing, but it didn’t rely on hard language to carry a non-existent plot, which I appreciated.

– Aside: I did not remember Scott was also Princess Jasmine in the latest Disney money grab reboot of one of its classic animated movies.

– Plot 3.5/5: I’m pretty sure it’s on par with most action movies. Lots of sleek tech, people trying to kill the heroines, fighting, etc. Strangely, all the globetrotting slowed the movie down.

– Characters 4/5: The trio of leading ladies works with the stereotypes. You have a tough girl (Jane Kano played by Ella Balinska), the maverick (Sabina Wilson played by Kristen Stewart), and the newbie (Elena Houghlin played by Naomi Scott). Incidentally, there is decent character development which I appreciate. Also, Kristen Stewart successfully rocks the short hair look as Sabina.

– A few scenes probably could have been safely cut, but it’s still entertaining overall.

– The movie has a strong, over-the-top, feminist message that sort of backfires. It might have been a better show if it had a good balance of characters.

– Passes the Entertain-me test.

Conclusion:

Not bad for a reboot. It’s a fun movie to see in theaters with the larger-than-life screens. Most action movies miss something when they’re played back on a itty-bitty phone screen. A home theater system might suffice. Charlie’s Angels is worth seeing once on a big screen and maybe once later on Netflix or TV.

Associate links to follow…

Note: I’m starting to use a few ad sites for audiobooks, so codes are disappearing quickly.

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything. That will change very soon.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

4/5 Stars Terminator: Dark Fate

Julie Gilbert Action Adventure, Movie Reviews, scifi , , , , , , ,
general movie poster (I always assume they want it published everywhere because it’s free advertising for them.)

*I’ll attempt to keep Spoiler Free until after ads

Starring:

Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mackenzie Davis, Gabriel Luna, Natalia Reyes

Summary:

Grace (Mackenzie Davis) and a fancy model of a Terminator (Gabriel Luna) both get sent back in time. Grace is an augmented super soldier sent from a grim future. Her orders are to protect Dani Ramos at all costs. The Terminator played by Luna has orders to kill Dani.

Disclaimer:

I have not seen any of the other Terminator movies, so I can’t compare to how it lines up with them. I’m making my observations as if it were any other movie.

Additional Comments:

  • They used flashbacks to good effect. I enjoyed the fact that they would show you a scene and it would give you one perspective but later they show you a little more of that scene so that you gain more info (big reveals). They’re predictable reveals but still satisfying.
  • Even for an action movie there’s a lot of fight scenes. The nearly non-stop nature of the action makes the slow parts a tad more painful though.
  • Character development might be nearly nonexistent but it doesn’t necessarily have to be there. (Dani might be the exception.) Everybody else is set in their ways: good, bad, tough, etc.
  • Humor is few and far between but awesome when it lands.
  • Story 4/5: Predictable but still entertaining.
  • Random observation: Either Linda Hamilton and Natalia Reyes are super small or Mackenzie Davis is really tall.
  • Recommended: Watch on a big screen. The action will be more satisfying that way.
  • I’m wondering how many cars were destroyed CGI style and how many were KO’d for real. The budget must have been out the roof if any of that was real.
  • Would I see it again? Maybe. Not exactly a deep thinker of a movie, but it ticks off the entertaining button.

Conclusion:

The movie passes my bar: “entertain me while I’m watching you”. It’s worth seeing on a big screen because it relies heavily on the action movie money makers – car chases and fight scenes.

Associate links to follow…

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

Spoiler Section:

  • I have a problem with stories that involve time-travel in general, but the story won’t work without that aspect. It’s still satisfying that Grace is able to save the woman who saved her. There’s a nice cycle to the end moment with Sarah and Dani watching young Grace from afar. Hard to remember sometimes that the timetravel bit was only supposed to be 22 years.
  • Dani’s pain over losing her family isn’t really felt. That might be because she’s consumed by surviving, but one can pretty easily forget that her brother died with her and her father died earlier that morning. She is probably the character who undergoes the most development start to finish.
  • I was surprised by how much the trailer focused on the first section of the movie. It’s always intriguing to see how trailers line up with the finished product.
  • Funny Moments:
    • Sarah: “Doesn’t she realize you weigh 400 lbs?”
    • Terminator (Schwarzenegger): “And I’m extremely funny.” (deadpan delivery)
    • Grace: “If you’re Mother Mary, why do I still want to beat the **** out of you?”

Movie Review 4/5 Stars: Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

Julie Gilbert Family, Movie Reviews , , , ,
Promo pic…I’m guessing origin was Michelle Pfeiffer’s site.

Starring Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Harris Dickenson

*May be spoilers in discussion

Summary:

A completely superfluous sequel that still ticks off the will-entertain-you-for-2-hours box. Aurora (Elle Fanning) is engaged to Prince Phillip (Harris Dickenson). True love at last and all that rot, or is it?

Additional Comments:

  • Story 4/5: The queen’s diabolical plan is intriguing to watch unfold. They had to pull a few eye-roll-worthy story contortions to let things end just the way they wanted, but it worked out in the end.
  • About a half hour of the movie could have been skipped completely.
  • The song Sound of War would fit parts of the movie perfectly.
  • Humor 3/5: Sadly, lacking overall.
  • Visuals 4/5: It looks pretty if you’re into that weird candy-coated look that Disney has become super fond of in the last decade.
  • The exploration of the dark fae reminds me of the new How to Train Your Dragons movie. The scene has the same feel.
  • I don’t even think it’s a matter of falling short of great expectations. The movie’s just largely forgettable. I saw it Monday and literally almost forgot to review it today. I still give it 4 stars because I was entertained at the time (and I’m mentally comparing this to The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, which I generously gave 3.5/5 stars to.)

Conclusion:

If you’re a huge Angelina Jolie fan or even Michelle Pfeiffer or Elle Fanning, you may enjoy seeing your favorite at work in this fantasy. It’s certainly not the best or worst movie I’ve seen this year, though I doubt that was the ringing endorsement they hoped for.

Associate links to follow…

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

Movie Reviews 4.5/5 Stars: Black and Blue

Julie Gilbert drama, Movie Reviews , , ,
movie promo pic; found it on google

Starring Naomi Harris, Tyrese Gibson, and Frank Grillo

*will try to keep it spoiler free
Summary:

After more than a decade away, an army vet returns to her home city of New Orleans to become a cop. The rookie cop hardly recognizes the place. Corruption runs rampant. She accidentally captures a crooked cop murder some drug dealers on a body cam. 90% of the movie consists of her either just trying to stay alive or planning how to get the footage uploaded into the system. Complicating matters is the fact that the crooked cop lies to the drug dealer’s boss, getting him to put a hit on her.

Additional Comments:

– Story 4/5: Simplistic but compelling. They had to do some story working to make sure our heroine stayed in danger for the duration, but it worked well enough.
– Characters 4.5/5: Much of the movie hinges on the dynamics of a young black cop just trying to do her job while a more senior cop insists on convincing her she’s blue now (not back). Don’t remember much about the other characters. Alicia West (Naomi Harris) comes across as a young woman just trying to do the right thing.
– Soundtrack 4/5: The beginning rap song fits very well, setting the tone for the rest of the movie. Beyond that, the music consists of “chase scene” type, drum heavy scores. It’s all right but not exactly one you’d want to rush out to buy.
– Content Warnings: Some strong language. Violence, including a character getting beaten.- You could probably take this as light or deep as you want in terms of messages to be found here. I like keeping it simple: good vs evil.- It passes my “entertain me while I’m here” test. I missed a few crucial minutes by having to use the restroom, but I’m not sure it’s worth seeing twice on a big screen.

Conclusion:

If you’re looking for a decent thriller and willing to overlook some things that needed to happen to keep the plot moving, you should consider this.

Associate links to follow…

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.

Movie Reviews 4/5 Stars: Gemini Man

Julie Gilbert Action Adventure, Movie Reviews, scifi ,
Movie promo poster for Gemini Man.

Starring: Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, and Benedict Wong

*mild spoilers possible

Summary:

An excuse for Will Smith to fight a younger, CGI version of himself. Henry Brogan, an elite assassin, just wants to retire, but his government handlers aren’t thrilled with that idea. They send the best of the best to kill him. Surprise, it’s his clone.

Additional Comments:

  • If they truly wanted him dead, a little cyanide in a drink among friends woulda done the trick but that would have taken away the excuse to make the movie.
  • Also, these days, they coulda sent a drone to bury him with a missile. Oh, probably not subtle, but neither is sending a team of assassins.
  • Danny (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Baron (Benedict Wong) are both fun characters, but the movie could probably have happened without them. Baron had most of the funny lines.
  • Computer graphics had some shining moments and some missed opportunities.
  • My criteria for most movies is entertain me. I gave the movie 4 stars because it accomplished that objective.
  • Action 4/5: The motorcycle chase was exciting. The last battle was cool.
  • Script 3.5/5: I may be unduly biased by reading the negative critics views, but the script itself isn’t exactly something to rave over.
  • I have serious issues with the way they handled the depictions of the science. For the record, you cannot get full DNA workups done in 2 hours, no matter who you’re paying and no matter how much. (Unless that part of science has taken some quantum leaps in the last 7 years, I’ve done those tests and it takes 1-2 days minimum. Even working around the clock, the actual test runtime is probably 12 ish hrs.)

Conclusion:

The movie may be suffering under the weight of its own expectations. It was okay, but it could have been more in so many ways.

Associate links to follow…

Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything.

New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong.

Shadow Council Book 2: Revenge Makes it Sweeter – A midnight summons calls FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek into a fight for a young girl’s life.

Shadow Council Book 3: Christmas Makes it Chaos – The FBI agent gets a strange ally in the quest to prevent chaos from rocking a lot of people’s holiday season.

Shadow Council Book 4: Treachery Makes it Tense – The agent and the assassin have to team up if they want to survive.

Shadow Council is also available as a ~13 hr bundle.

The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.

If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.

Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.

Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…

Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.