When I wait such a long time to write about movies I’ve seen, you’ll get a post like this where it’s concise and quick thoughts….great for this generation’s super-short attention spans!
Trainwreck (2015)
Saw this on July 18, 2015 at the Pacific Theaters at Americana.
If you like Amy Schumer as Larry & I do, then you’ll love Trainwreck. If you have no idea who Amy Schumer is, you’ll still love this movie. Amy plays a woman who doesn’t have the most lasting of relationships, primarily due to her monogamous-fearing father’s influence. Yet she finds an unexpected match in Bill Hader’s celebrity sports physician. Cue hijinxs and hilarity. It really is funny and you get to see a smokin’ hot John Cena’s hot ass, a lot (in the beginning). It’s quite a sight.
I almost posted a GIF that would have been a bit NSFW…
Also hilarious is Tilda Swinton who is UNRECOGNIZABLE as the editor of the magazine Amy works at called S’Nuff. Yeah, it’s a horrible place and she’s a horrible person, but also hilarious in that way that you find sociopathic people you don’t have to be around hilarious.
Ant-Man (2015)
Saw this on July 19, 2015 at the Vista Theater.
The next installment in the ever-growing list of Marvel movies, Ant-Man ended up being quite a lot of fun and for me, a lot more fun than Avengers 2: Blow Shit Up. Paul Rudd is just amazing and awesome as the main character. Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lilly also are introduced into the universe as a father-daughter team who are geniuses behind the technology and willing to do what it takes to prevent anyone else from having the super technology to become an “Ant-Man,” including recruiting Rudd to stop a villainous upstart, Corey Stoll’s “Yellow Jacket,” from selling it to Hydra. It’s a funny and action-packed movie and well worth your time. At the end there’s a snippet including Captain America, so of course that is always a win-win in my book. Are the Marvel movies getting tiresome? Kinda. But this one managed to keep things interesting. I’m hopeful that the Cap movies continue to be awesome, but I’m almost dreading the next Avengers. Guess we’ll see how things turn out in 3 years or so.
Mr. Holmes (2015)
Saw this on July 26, 2015 at Pacific Theaters at Americana.
Far from the typical summer movie blockbuster fare, but kind of refreshing too. Mr. Holmes tells the story about Sherlock Holmes’ (Ian McKellan) last case, both at the time it happened as well as his attempts to recall the details while struggling with the onset of dementia. Ian McKellan’s performance is amazing as when he’s showing us his fight to remember, you really begin to wonder if he himself is that old and frail. But then you see the confidence of his younger self and it’s like, DAMN. This man is amazing. You might think that this movie is all about solving his last mystery, but it ends up being much more than that. Sherlock Holmes’ housekeeper and her son are living with him in his secluded home and they end up needing each other as he struggles to remember and they look for a place to call home. There’s even a third story woven in in which Sherlock visits Hiroshima to find a plant that may hold the cure to his dementia but instead finds something else entirely. It’s a very well-made movie and like I said, a breath of fresh air between the many “summer movies” being released. Which brings me to my final movie for today….!
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
Saw this on August 1, 2015 at Krikorian Theaters in Monrovia
Did it sound like I don’t like summer blockbuster movies just then? That’s the farthest thing from the truth, it’s just that sometimes it is nice to watch something quite pleasant and not rattling your eardrums to the core. ANYWAY, Mission: Impossible!!! This series keeps on delivering great movies (Ghost Protocol was probably my favorite) and in Rogue Nation, they manage to keep showing audiences what fun an action movie can be. Of course the world is in peril yet again as Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise – who is so charismatic it’s hard to believe he’s the same guy from Scientology) discovers that there’s a big bad “Syndicate” out there that’s just as smart and capable as the IMF. Out-witted at every turn from the very start, Ethan gets put on the run, even by the CIA, as he has to get some of his skilled friends and fellow spies to help him figure out just what’s going on. We go to Austria, Casablanca, and London for some ridiculously stunning set pieces and throughout, you really aren’t quite sure who can be trusted. I thought the trailer had given away most of the movie….and I was not right. So that’s a great thing in it’s favor as you are left guessing for pretty much the entire movie. Tangent: this is the first movie I’ve seen at the Krikorian in Monrovia in a while and the LFX theater we were in for this was simply stunning. They have a Dolby Atmos sound system as well as leather seating and a giant (but not IMAX) screen and it made for a thrilling experience. Hope that the Pacific here in Glendale upgrades one of their theaters to this as it’s amazing.
Movie Rankings, 2015 Summer Edition….
We’ve managed to see quite a few movies this summer, and I’m finding that this numerically ranked system doesn’t seem to really work anymore for me. So how about some categorized listings instead?
Loved Them – Highly Recommended and You Should See Them NOW!
- Inside Out
- Jurassic World
- Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
- Trainwreck
Great Flicks, If You’re Buying What They’re Selling
- Ex Machina
- Ant-Man
- Pitch Perfect 2
- Mr. Holmes
- San Andreas
- Terminator: Genisys
- Tomorrowland