Movies on plane August 2018 part 2

Watched some more movies on a plane in August, so here are some thoughts...

Sleepless in Seattle
I'm not sure how common or uncommon this is, but I actually saw this film after seeing You've Got Mail. Highly lauded as an early 90's romantic comedy, it certainly has its charm in the ways that writer-director Nora Ephron is so highly capable. As expected, there's lots of great scenework and fun dialogue, particularly the scene with Meg Ryan and Rosie O'Donnell watching a movie. As well, the acting is top-notch, considering the relatively ridiculous central conceit of the show (falling in love over listening to the radio), which is hard to overlook.

However, the film is so effective at being a cute throwback to older Hollywood romance movies it sucked me in enough to suspend my disbelief about basically everything plot-wise after the first 30-minutes of the movie (that kid has god-like powers).

Between the two films, I prefer You've Got Mail, but Sleepless in Seattle is still RECOMMENDED.

The Devil Wears Prada
As another movie I'd heard so much about over the years, I was looking forward to finally watching The Devil Wears Prada. As expected, Meryl Streep created an almost instantly iconic, nuanced, understated and yet larger-than-life character in Miranda Priestly, though based on a real-life counterpart. Anne Hathaway does a largely fine job of holding her own against both Streep and Priestly, but...

Can we talk about how awkwardly this movie is structured / paced, particularly for Hathaway's character Andy Sachs? Don't worry, it's a rhetorical question.

Prada starts simple enough with the disinterested Sachs getting the highly sought-after position, with a natural arc of heading towards the "dark side" as a potential ally / partner to Priestly, but it does so in such an odd path. Basically, Sachs keeps trajecting upwardly, even when screwing up or when things go wrong. For her, it's just up and up and up; though maybe her arc is more like a staircase.

While yes, it makes sense from a story perspective for her to see Priestly's perspective and tease being on the dark side, the film avoids almost any opportunity to really explore the depths and pathos of the consequences of these actions. It misses out two-fold:

1) Exploring Andy's perspective as she goes on this journey. It's just constantly moving onto the next thing, onward and upward. No living in the past, just moving forward. Which makes for an interesting character choice, but also very odd and rather cold; which may be the point, but makes for an odd anchor for the audience, or at least me.
2) Exploring Miranda's perspective, particularly in her one key scene, which serves as the preview of the end of Andy's path if she continues on it.

Neither character really pauses to question what's going on - the plot keeps running forward. And while yes, that's not what this movie is, it would have made for a great opportunity. Instead, the comedy of the film removes any great dramatic beats. Unfortunately, I didn't find the comedy strong enough as a comedy movie.

As such, Prada is only MILDLY RECOMMENDED. The acting, particularly from both Streep and Stanley Tucci, are great, but the plot and general character of Andy Sachs left much to be desired. Note: I haven't read the book, and that the story is apparently based on real life does have some impact on things, I'm sure. I suppose if I viewed this more as a character study than standard story, I'd appreciate it more.

Movies on plane August 2018 part 1

John Wick Chapter 2 
John Wick 1 and 2 are not for me, as much as I'd love to like them.

I have three issues with this one:
1) The assassins (particularly Reeves and Common), and others, are trying too hard to be cool like the opening scene of The Matrix: Reloaded; which is bad.
2) Much as I respect physical actual action, this is just a bunch of Reeves awkwardly bobbing around with a gun near his head. Then when he's close, it's just spin everyone around before popping everyone in the head. Speaking of which...
3) If I wanted to watch Headshots: The Movie, I'd rather watch a "Let's Play" of Goldeneye 64 in Big Head mode on easy difficulty.

There are again teases of an interesting world, but the film follows characters I don't really care about and the most basic, basic, basic, basic story around: mess with John Wick = you die. It was boring and flat. Maybe I'd enjoy it more with a better director?

Unless you enjoyed the first movie, John Wick Chapter 2 is sadly NOT RECOMMENDED, but please go see it anyway and judge for yourself.


Ghost in the Shell
There are actually some decent things good in the film, such as production design, generally costumes and some elements of the story (the metaphysical, the villain mostly).

But there are indeed some problems in the movie, too, particularly with how much they messed with Major's origin and made it such a central point (save it for the second or simplify what was done), adding an origin to Bato's eyes and casting him with a New York accent (or whatever that crappy accent was), not to mention criminally under-utilizing the rest of the Section 9 team. Had the story focused more on them being a solid team, having good banter, but still having political machinations, it would have been better. I'm positive a minor recut of the movie will go a long way.

As for the controversy of the casting and whitewashing, it wasn't an issue to me as she's in a shell - a supposedly generic shell, per the show and mange (another movie fuck-up). Hell, once she got a better idea of her origin, she could have modified her shell for a not-going-to-happen-now sequel. Would giving the role to an Asian actress have been preferred? Absolutely. But her being whitewashed/her identity taken away was part of the story and not a bad idea for a story.

Despite its number of issues, Ghost in the Shell is RECOMMENDED, but maybe just barely. I wish either this version were better or there's a sequel that could show off just how good the property is, but maybe that's what the Stand Alone Complex anime series is for (particularly the second season).


Kong: Skull Island
It's a total B-movie, but hot damn is this fun. Easily my now second favorite movie of the year, considering how underwhelming this year has been (first is Get Out). Kong has some cliches with the 70s setting re: music and the military, but things just work and click due to some excellent direction and editing.

Sure, the characters don't really exist outside maybe Sam Jackson's character, but it's not really the point - Kong is the central figure of the story and he completely owns this movie. We just happen to be seeing Kong through these rando's eyes. Then again, John C Reilly was so much fun!

Also, give the team that brought this Kong to life all of Andy Serkis' future work. This Kong was so much more compelling than Peter Jackson's version, which I've admittedly forgotten. Then again, it may have just been the movie, on the whole.

Either way, I'm completely onboard with the sequel and can't wait. The post-credits sequence is arguably the second best ending of the year (first goes to Split; third may be the post-credits from Spider-man: Homecoming).

Your enjoyment of B-movie cheese may vary, but Kong: Skull Island is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by me. I'm sad I missed out on this in theaters, as I'm sure it'd have been quite the experience.

The Big Sick Review

To get to the point, The Big Sick is a highly enjoyable earnest romantic comedy that does an excellent job of promoting the importance of love in our lives.

Filled with great acting, the cast brings a number of honest moments to life, for better and worse. From awkwardness to tension, the emotions are both real and relatable. The family dynamics are a particular enjoyment.

While the movie does follow an archetypal love story (boy gets girl, etc.) and is very much a relatively youthful "of our time" story (trying to avoid "millennial"), the execution and specific content help Sick stand out. It's very refreshing that the film highlights the value of love and how it's so much more pure than dishonesty, guilt, fear, traditions and societal pressure. When we can learn to love and accept each other, the world is a better place.

Then again, we are just human, as the film so greatly shows.

With plenty of charm and laughs to spare, The Big Sick is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Special props to Ray Romano for stealing so many scenes with his more deadpan delivery, as well as both Kumail and Emily for telling (and in Kumail's case acting in) this story.