Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

Downton Abbey

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This movie is a love letter to the fans of the original PBS series.  It has everything we would want, and maybe even a little more.  It’s 1927 and the Crawley family is back along with their beloved staff as they prepare for a visit from King George and Queen Mary.  Every character has a story line of some kind, as everyone plays their part to help make the visit a success.  Jim Carter (Carson), as always, brings a dignity to the whole house as he is persuaded to leave retired life for a few days to get the house, and downstairs staff, in spit-spot shape.  He manages it all in spite of the arrival of the most obnoxious set of Royal Household staff, arrogant and disdainful of their country contemporaries. This gives Mr. and Mrs. Bates (Brendan Coyle and Joanne Frogget) a wonderful story line that involves some ingenuity and a great deal of nerve, that I absolutely loved!  There are several budding romances, and some in the most unlikely places, and even a couple of new stories.  Happy to say that Maggie Smith is back as Lady Violet, the Dowager Countess, and as deliciously snarky as ever.  Everything is done perfectly – script, settings, costumes, and witty, witty banter.  There is humor and warmth, intrigue and all the bits of the long gone life of the  country gentry of pre-World War II Britain that continue to fascinate modern folk. If you didn’t watch Downton Abbey at all, I think you will still find much to hold your interest and even entrance you, for the movie can stand on its own. This is for the fans, though, and I must say I enjoyed this immensely.   “I am an expert in every matter,” says Violet at one point.  I assume she means the quality of movies too, and who am I am to disagree with a Dowager Countess?

Angel Has Fallen

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Here’s a simplistic assessment of a very simplistic movie. It’s awful! Gerard Butler plays a not very convincing Secret Service agent named Mike Banning.  His latest assignment is to protect the President while he is fishing. Morgan Freeman plays President Trumbull. He is way more believable in that role.  Some very bad people try to assassinate the president with hundreds of tiny drones, but although they wipe out virtually the entire protection force, luckily he is saved by Banning.  But, the President is in a coma and Banning is seriously injured.  Instead of congratulations, the FBI accuses him of attempted murder on ludicrous, planted evidence that even the most incompetent police, much less the FBI, Secret Service and DC Metro Police, would not fall for.  But as in many of these stories, cinematic or televised, the bad guys have all the best tech, weapons, tactics and performance, while the good guys are easily fooled, arrogant, presumpuous dupes. Banning must now escape the hospital and figure out who set him up (this is no mystery, you will know who it is in the first 15 minutes).  The rest of the movie is just plain silly and full of cliche after cliche.  You could drive a truck through the plot holes. The action is inconsistent, contrived and pays little inclination towards sensibility-even allowing for the suspension of disbelief movies like this require. It’s just shoot ’em up, nothing more.  It’s tired movie making, and has little inspiration or creativity. Nick Nolte shows up as Banning’s estranged  dad, a grizzled old Vietnam tunnel rat who is living off the grid with more explosive weaponry than a good sized National Guard armory.  He puts a little life into his role, but there really isn’t much to go on.  I  expected a movie in the vein of “The Fugitive”, “Minority Report”, “Shooter” or even the Jason Bourne movies.  The hero accused of a crime he/she didn’t commit has been a staple of Hollywood since “The 39 Steps”came out in 1935!  This movie, however, may kill the entire genre.  I really can’t recommend this one, but if you do go, wait until a few of the credits have passed for a little post-credit scene – it is the only part of the movie that I hope you get a chance to see.

It 2

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The endearing members of the Losers’ Club are back and all grown up in ‘It 2.’ The long awaited sequel, though not quite as good as the original, is still a very good movie!  The movie begins 27 years after the young Losers vanquished the dancing clown, forever they thought. They nearly all leave town and in leaving, forget everything that had happened.  But now, with the town of Derry experiencing, yet again, a spate of killings and child disappearances, the one remaining friend must act.  Mike (Isiah Mustafa) has never left the town and has spent the last 27 years researching the history of the murderous clown. He believes he has discovered a way to destroy Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard) once and for all.  Mike calls all of the friends, who now can’t remember much of what happened all those years ago, back to Derry.  There is ill-fated Stan (Andy Bean), wise-cracking Richie (Bill Hader), novelist and now stutter-free Bill (James McAvoy), Ben (Jay Ryan) who has grown into quite a stud, thoughtful, hypocondriac Eddie (James Ransone) and kind hearted Bev (Jessica Chastain) who all must stand together to face their fears and save their town – and perhaps themselves.  The adult versions of the charactters are not as endearing as their younger selves, but they all bring heart to their roles.  I was especially impressed with Bill Hader.  He is definitely growing as a dramatic actor. Those of you who have read the book, may be disappointed that some of the events do not make it into the film; but even at 2 hours and 45 minutes, the movie could not possibly have included it all. But what it includes is frightening and suspenseful. As in Part One, the production values are excellent and the atmosphere suitably foreboding. I won’t say anything about what changes! However, I am not spoiling the movie by telling you that Stephen King does have a pretty good cameo in this one.  I found this movie terrifying, so much so that I had to close my eyes during a few scenes.  But in the end, isn’t that what makes a good Stephen King novel, and movie?

Lawrence of Arabia

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Wow! they don’t make them any more like this 3 hour and 40 minute epic that details the true events in the life of British officer T. E. Lawrence during World War I.  This movie won 7 Oscars in 1962 and totally deserved each and every one.  For some reason, I had never seen the whole movie.  So when I had the opportunity to see it this week at Arundel Mills Mall, I jumped at the chance.   You are probably wondering what is so great about a movie that needs almost 4 hours (it went by really fast)  to tell its story?    The plot revolves around T. E. Lawrence, an eccentric British officer who speaks seven languages and is a Middle Eastern scholar.  He is seconded to the British Arab Office to observe the Bedouin tribes that Prince (later King) Feisal is trying to unite to take their land back from the Western powers.  But, this is happening during the First  World  War,  and the British want to use the Arab forces to tie down, or even  defeat, the Ottoman Turks, who are allied with Germany.  Lawrence ends up with the unenviable task of uniting scattered and warring Arab tribes so that they can contribute to this  strategy.  He does it by sheer force of will and example.  In the end, he discovers  more  about himself  than he  likely wanted to. That he is able to achieve so much, feel so much and think so much, all through the force of his personality, is brilliantly portrayed  by Peter O’Toole in his very first major movie.  His portrayal of the quirky, often  misunderstood, but driven and tortured genius and leader is superb!  He is supported by such acting heavy weights as Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Jose Ferrar, Claude Rains, Jack Hawkins and the great Sir Alec Guiness.  Even if you have  never heard of these amazing actors, you will want to see more of them after the movie is over.  Everything about this movie is epic- and it all works.  The editing, costumes, scenery, writing and directing- it is all there and more so, especially Maurice Jarre’s marvelous and inspiring score. Even though it was just in the theatres for one night, I highly recommend that you purchase the DVD or see if it is offered on any of the streaming or pay services.  It is totally worth it.

Ready or Not

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This was a waste of an afternoon as far as I am concerned. This is one of those movies that look waaaaay better in the trailer than they actually do in the theatre.  The trailer made this movie sound like a sophisticated dark comedy.  Well……… The plot involves a woman who is told on her wedding night that she will have to play one game of hide and seek before she will be an  official part of the family.  The tiny little complication is that if she is found before dawn, the family will kill her. Apparently they are under some kind of curse.  If she isn’t killed, they will all die.  Everyone from the sweet adorable kids to the taciturn granny is out to get our heroine (Samara Weaving) with everything from a cross bow to a shot gun. But even once she realizes her situation, she is remarkably unable to adjust and do anything really effective to help herself.  She can take a remarkable amount of injury, more than would have realistically allowed her to keep going.  And every time she gets in serious straits, there is always some unlikely occurrence that let’s her escape.  Let’s not even go into how the film ends.  It is simply ridiculous. I think I would have liked this movie more if the comedy had been more  evident. The violence is pretty extreme too, which I didn’t expect.  Anyway, my advice is to wait until this one is on a smaller screen- maybe it would be more enjoyable in that venue.