That Was Something All Right... "Suburbicon"

Suburbicon (2017)

Rated R

Starring Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Oscar Isaac

Directed by George Clooney

The Story:

Things begin to get sinister in an all-white neighborhood in the 50s when the first black family moves in.

George Clooney directs this satire about suburbia... or was it race relations... was it the ideals of the 50s...

What was it exactly?

It was hot garbage, that's what.

Ejected after 20 excruciatingly long, unfunny, and most damning, uninteresting minutes.

Didn't care what was going to happen to the cast or how the movie turned out.

Now that we all know I'm using the Star System in 2019, welcome to the first actual ZERO star review of the year.

May The Fourth Be With You..."Star Wars: The Last Jedi"

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

Rated PG-13

Starring Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill,

Directed by Rian Johnson

The Story:

The one in which we continue to kill off characters to drive the story forward with a new generation of the cast.

Picking up shortly after the The Force Awakens, Rey (Ridley) tries to learn from Master Luke (Hamill) while the rest of the rebellion is trying to survive and outrun the Empire.

It seems like this one took a lot of flack from the fans compared to the previous installment.

I'm not really sure what the beef was.

While not as good as the last one, this one advanced the storylines, although it may have done so in rather expedient fashion.

It seems like a franchise that wants to hurry up and jettison the baggage of the old cast and move on to the new stories, and that's completely fine.

But it's an awful lot like treading water in some ways while also marathon sprinting in the others.

Some storylines that seem mysterious are quickly dissolved with some dialogue or a quick scene.

Others stretch over the entire movie before there is any sort of conclusion.

But everyone will be back in a year or so to see what happens next.

That's Star Wars for you.

Final Grade:  B-

If Only It Were The End... "X-Men: Apocalypse"

X-Men Apocalypse (2016) 

Rated PG-13

Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac, Rose Byrne, Evan Peters, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Lucas Till, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ben Hardy, Alexandra Shipp, Olivia Munn,

Directed by Bryan Singer

The Story:

En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse (Isaac) was the first mutant, he stole his powers from others like him and made himself powerful and immortal. Buried for centuries in Egypt, he is awakened in the 20th century and begins to find his new horsemen, including Magneto (Fassbender), Storm (Shipp), Angel (Hardy) and Psylocke (Munn).  It's up to Professor Xavier (McAvoy), Mystique (Lawrence) and Beast (Hoult) to recruit and lead a new team of X-Men, including Jean Grey (Turner), Cyclops (Sheridan) and Nightcrawler (Smit-McPhee) into battle to save the world

Boring.

No wait, this is a superhero movie...

Super-boring!

The one exception: the Quicksilver (Peters) scene. That's amazing stuff, and I could watch that anytime. I wish they would have done that in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but oh well, too late now.

I'm not trying to pick on Fox and say that the X-Men should move back to Disney so that we can have one cohesive universe...

But if they're listening, they should.

:)

But at least, unlike the Fantastic Four, they've been moderately successful with the movies, especially after rebooting with First Class and Days of Future Past.

I'm not sure what went wrong but I found myself consistently indifferent to this movie.

I wanted to like it, but it seemed to be in a constant state of "there's so much going on, yet nothing's really happening!" for nearly 2 1/2 hours!

So much potential, and instead it's like watching a franchise tread water until they can get to the next movie.

I'm afraid I have to say it, but when I look back on how much I enjoyed this to just about any other film in the X-Men experience, I'm unimpressed.

Plus, take into account how much I love this genre, and what the Marvel Cinematic Universe is doing, so much like Batman vs. Superman, I have to grade accordingly...

Final Grade: D+

Has Nobody Ever Watched 'The Terminator' ?? "Ex Machina"

Ex Machina (2015)

Rated R

Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac

Written and Directed by Alex Garland

The Story:


Caleb (Gleeson) is a winner in his company's ultimate giveaway: a weeklong stay with the reclusive CEO of their company (Isaac). When he arrives, he learns that he's actually there to test whether or not the Artificial Intelligence of Ava (Vikander) could legitimately pass as human. It will be a week that changes everyone, forever.

Well, this was certainly something.

It's a small, character focused driven drama that grabs science fiction by the hand and takes you along for the ride.

The plot is essentially man creates life. And then, oops.

:)

If we're being honest.

It's a quiet, suspenseful, gradual build to the final act, and you can almost tell exactly what is going to happen along the way.

Yet the interaction between the great trio of actors keeps you riveted to the film until the very end.

Which come on people, giving machines artificial intelligence is a bad idea! It never ends well!!

:)

Ex Machina is currently streaming on Amazon Prime as of this writing.

Final Grade: B-

Needs More Channing Tatum... "10 Years"

Has it been 10 years already?

The Story:

It's been 10 years since graduation, and a group of friends returns to celebrate their high school graduation.  Are friends still as tight as they once were?  Do any relationships rekindle or spark out after all this time?  Did everyone really grow up?

Only one way to find out...

Ten Years. 

That's about how long my wife thought this movie lasted. : )

Really, it's just about 100 minutes, but it's 100 minutes of talking heads and lots of different characters taking up screen time.

Whether you connect to any of them or not will depend a lot on the actors in question, and perhaps if they had a story that strikes a chord with your personally, or at least is interesting.

The players:  Jake (Channing Tatum) and his girlfriend arrive, but Jake can't shake his former flame Mary (Rosario Dawson) who arrives to the affair...married.

Marty (Justin Long) and AJ who both are trying to get with the popular girl one more time.

Former bully who decides to mend his ways by apologizing to everyone during the party, repeatedly.

Then there is the boy who made good, Reeves (Oscar Isaac) who went on to become a popular musician thanks in part to a song about a girl (Kate Mara) who he was in love with in school, and still is to this day.


It's a cute film with its heart in the right place, but overly long and a bit boring in many places.

Too much reliance on alcohol to get the party started and keep it going, and most of the conversations shouldn't take all night, but they do.  And as they drag on, so too does the movie.

It could have been shorter, tighter scripted and a much better affair.

My recommendation?

If you want a film that celebrates a 10 Year High School Reunion, check out Grosse Pointe Blanke instead.

: )

Final Grade: C

Would I Own It: Nope