Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

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Colin Firth could read from a phonebook (do they even still have those?) and make it sound high class, but even he wasn’t quite enough to make the “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” a worthy sequel to the first movie, partly because he’s hardly in it in an effective way.  The Golden Circle misses out on being as entertaining as the first one for several reasons.  First of all, why put Jeff Bridges, Halle Berry (two Academy award winning actors), Michael Gambon and Channing Tatum in a movie and not give them much to do?  Their appearances were short lived and inconsequential.  That was very perplexing.  Also, I found Elton John’s story line (he has been kidnapped) rather sad and seedy instead of humorous and campy.  On a positive note, Pedro Pascal, a fan favorite from Game of Thrones, gets to ham it up as an American agent who uses a lasso instead of a gun.  Mark Strong returns and gives the the best performance as “Merlin.” He is the only surviving member (along with Eggsy played by Taron Egerton) of the Kingsman after their headquarters is blown up by  Julianne Moore in a rather unbelievable plot device.  She  is great, as the over-the-top villain named Poppy, an evil pharmaceutical maker (okay, that’s not a stretch)  who also makes a killer hamburger.  This is not a bad movie, in fact, if you loved the original Kingsman, I think you will like this one.   It does have a few laughs and the kind of over-the-top cartoonish violence that you would expect from such a movie.  if you go, you will be entertained, just not as much as you were with the first one!

mother!

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I am not one to give you spoilers, so don’t read this review if you do not want a little hint as to what this movie is about.  That said, I can guarantee that you will be totally confused without this hint.  I went to this movie without knowing that the whole thing was an allegory.   Knowing this upfront would have helped me get at least a little grasp of what was going on. I thought from the trailers that I would be seeing a kind of updated Rosemary’s Baby. I think the trailers were misleading. Ready?  Here it is, your hint….the movie is an allegory for Mother Earth and the first book of The Bible.  Each character, outside of Mother herself, represents a character in the Bible.  I could readily discern Mother Earth, God, Jesus, Adam, Eve, Cain and Able.  There are probably a lot more, but those are the ones I figured out.  Even knowing this, “Mother” is bewildering.  The cinematography is great, but that just isn’t enough.  Jennifer Lawrence is very subdued as a newlywed who is married to a writer.  They live in a gigantic, creepy house in the middle of nowhere.  Ed Harris and Michelle Pfieffer are spooky as a couple who appear out of nowhere and are inexplicably invited by Jennifer’s husband, Javier Bardem, to stay with them.  Things only get weirder, as more and more odd things happen, and crowds of people arrive in increasingly complex scenarios .  By the end of the movie, it seems as if the whole of humanity is living, loving and fighting in that house.  Will you like this movie?  I really don’t think many people will like it.  It is a brutal roller coaster of perplexing  allegories and people doing things that just don’t make any sense.  I am not giving it a rotten apple only because the performances are excellent, and I love Ed Harris and Javier Bardem.  But I think you will be happy to have missed this one.

It

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The town of Derry, Maine seems like one of those quaint, old-fashioned places where Floyd the Barber might cut your hair or Sheriff Taylor might help you get a cat out of a tree.  But things are not all as they seem.  Kids mysteriously disappear at a rate of 6 times the national average. No one seems to care, or even notice, outside of a few “missing” posters around town.  What is going on?  The story, in case you didn’t know, starts with the disappearance of little Georgie Denbrough, chasing a paper boat down the street during a storm, watching in dismay as it slips into a rain gutter.  As he looks, the creepy face of the ‘dancing circus clown,’ who calls  himself Pennywise appears, luring the unsuspecting innocent closer and closer until…..  Cut to Georgie’s brother Bill and his group of friends.  They are all kind of nerdy, and each one of them has been bullied or abused in some way, They have become their own band of brothers, including a brave young girl who has faced her own bad home life.  They call themselves The Loser’s Club.  As they head into summer vacation, they all begin to have terrifying visions of the creepy, malevolent Pennywise.  The friends face up to the local school bullies and defeat them, discovering strength in their friendship and support.  After sharing their experiences, they realize that they must band together to face and overcome their worst fears- the only way to defeat the evil clown. I really liked this movie.  First of all it is funny, and I wasn’t expecting that.  Also, this movie is sweet and endearing because of the Losers who all work together to help each other; and learn the power and value of friendship and loyalty.  Last of all, this movie definitely earned its R rating.  Bill Skarsgard is deliciously creepy as the clown who haunts the sewers of Derry.  However, do not go to this movie expecting to see a simple horror movie, this movie is much more than that.

Logan Lucky

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Imagine you are watching an Ocean’s Eleven movie.  Now take out George Clooney and Brad Pitt and put in Adam Driver and Channing Tatum.  Instead of  Damon, replace with a tattooed and thick southern accented Daniel Craig ( I am not kidding).  Instead of the Bellaggio the target is the Charlotte Motor Speedway.   Throw in a jailbreak, a kiddie beauty pageant, a tetanus shot, an artificial limb and a couple of bags of gummy bears and you have this mildly amusing redneck heist movie directed by Steven Soderbergh.  I found this movie in the same vein as “The Hitman’s Body Guard”  Both movies are mildly funny and provided a teacher  ready to return to work a little mindless entertainment.

Wind River

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“Wind River” opens with an intense moment: a young girl running barefoot in the bleak Wyoming snow.  During the course of this engaging movie, we find out who she is, where she is, and why she is running.  This is a great crime drama, along the lines of “Hell or High Water”.  Taylor Sheridan wrote  both movies and has tried his hand at directing this one.  What a great job at that!  This is a character driven drama with gut wrenching performances by Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Gil Birmingham, Graham Greene and Jon Bernthal.  Something horrific has happened on the Wind River Reservation and rookie FBI agent Olsen teams with game tracker Renner who is haunted by a past tragedy.  There are no annoying subplots or even periods or comic relief, just a well-told story.  If you liked “Hell or High Water” you are going to enjoy this one too.  Don’t look for a sweet happy ending, as this movie will show us, on the reservation there are no happy endings, only a kind of redemption.  This is a little Indie movie though, so if you want to see it on a big screen (and you really should) HURRY!