Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children

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This is the best movie Tim Burton has made in a while.  If you read Random Rigg’s book, I don’t think you will be disappointed.  In fact, this is one of the very few cases I can think of where I enjoyed the movie more than the book.  The  author had an original  idea.  He collected old photographs and decided to use them as a guide to tell his story.  The book is full of quirky pictures and many of them are brought to life in this movie.  Eva Green is wonderful as Miss Peregrine, an Ymbryne who can change into a falcon and protects the peculiar children.  Their peculiarities are just the kind of thing that Burton is good at filming. Hugh stores bees in his stomach and can command them when released.  Olive can control air and must wear weighted shoes to keep her from floating away.  Horace can project his dreams for the entertainment of the other children who are all safe living in a time loop, reliving the same day in 1943 over and over again.  I am not even going to try to explain the plot, as it is extremely complicated, so no worry for spoilers.  I wouldn’t take younger children to see this one.  There are several pretty gruesome scenes, including some eyeball munching monsters who are under the direction of the always watchable Samuel L. Jackson. Allison Janney and Terence Stamp round out a solid cast.

The Wrath of Khan

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In celebration of Star Trek’s 50 year anniversary, many theaters are holding special showings of the original Star Trek movies.  The best of these, in my opinion, is “The Wrath of Khan,” which I had the pleasure of viewing at a special event showing this past weekend.  This was a director’s cut and also included a short subject about the making of the movie.  I hadn’t seen this movie since it first came out in 1982, and thought I might find it trite and out of touch.  I was pleasantly surprised and  I thoroughly enjoyed this one.  There are many things to admire here.  Nicholas Meyer deftly directs these old veteran actors, and recognized that the original movie was far too effects driven, and concentrated more on character, then and plot development.  The story is simple.  15 years ago, Kirk marooned Khan ( played delightfully hammy by Ricardo Montalban) on a planet in the Ceti Alpha system after he tried to take over the Enterprise and dispose of Kirk and his crew.  Khan and a few loyal crewmen were given the chance to start over on an undeveloped planet.  However, a cosmic disaster renders the planet almost inhabitable and Khan’s wife and many of his people are killed. Khan is obsessed with the idea that Kirk never checked back to see what had happened after he left Khan on the planet, and he harbors an increasing hatred of Kirk, and his desire to destroy Kirk consumes him.  When Paul Winfeld and Walter Koenig land on the planet by mistake, Khan and his people capture them and use some nasty local fauna to control them and get a hold of a dangerous device.  Then the struggle is on between them over control of this potentially devastating weapon.  Of course, part of the fun is listening to these two arch enemies try to outmaneuver each other. What is truly amazing, and not often heard of in  movies made today, Kirk and Khan never meet face to face.  This plot device really enhances the movie, as they both use their brains, instead of brawn to defeat each other. The movie ends with a gut-wrenching sacrifice, one that sets up a three movie arc that is most certainly the best three of the six ‘classic crew’ Star Trek movies.  The special effects are minimal, just like on the T.V. show, and that suits this movie just fine.  If you like the new Star Trek reboots, and have never seen the older originals, this one is definitely worth your time!

The Magnificent Seven

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I am starting this review with a shout out to  the Cinemark Theatre in Hanover, Maryland.  I asked if they would be willing to donate an item to my school as a student reward and they countered with a donation of 30!  I appreciate the generosity and support of education.  Now on to the review.  If you are a fan of the original Seven Samurai or the previous Magnificent Seven starring Yul Brenner and Steve McQueen, you will not be disappointed in this new remake.   Denzel Washington plays the bounty hunter who agrees to help a young widow whose town is being taken over by a sleaze bucket played by Peter Sarsgaard.  I was charmed by Haley Bennett and hope to see her in more movies in the future.  Denzel never disappoints and he doesn’t here.  Chris Pratt provides some laugh out loud comedy relief.  Do not go to this movie if you are squeamish about violence.  This movie has a higher body count than I have seen in recent years.  That being said, it was a diverting and well-done movie.  I doubt if you will be sorry you went and you will definitely be entertained.

Mechanic: Resurrection

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Sorry Jason Statham fans, but his movie has the honor of being the first Rotten Apple I have seen since I started this blog over six months ago.  The writing is sub par, the acting nonexistant and the action very pedestrian.  Jason plays a “mechanic,” or hired hit man, who staged his own death so that he can have a quiet, ordinary life in Rio.  Of course, he gets pulled back in because of an implausiable plot device involving Jessica Alba as the least convincing orphanage worker I have ever seen in a movie.  Of course, there was the obligatory and completely  unnecessary shot of her swimming underwater.  The highlight of the movie was when Statham shot and killed a whole clown car full of bad guys lurking on a boat.  In other words, I would skip this one!

Sully

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Clint Eastwood has come a long way.  Whatever you think about him as a person, you have to admit he knows what he is doing.  This is a well made and very informative movie.  It tells the story of Chesley Sullenburger, the heroic airline pilot who made an emergency landing on the Hudson River.  The fact that eveyone survived this water landing is well known.  What is not common knowledge ( at least to me) is the scruntity Sully was under while his actions were investigated.  Did he recklessly endanger the passengers on this plane or were his actions indeed heroic?  As always, Tom Hanks is excellent as this stoic, unassuming man who feels he was just doing his job and is uncomfortable with the media attention.  Aaron Eckhart was a surprise in the role of a co-pilot who sticks by his captain and never second guesses his decisions.  This is the kind of movie some people are going to feel is too boring, and that would be a shame.  I think everyone shoould see this movie about an ordinary man who does an extraordinary thing.