Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

See How They Run

By Leave a Comment

Apple Rating:

What a gem.  If you liked Knives Out, Clue, and Murder By Death, this is the movie for you!  The story takes place in 1950’s London.  In the story, some producers have decided to make a movie version of Agatha Christie’s play ‘The Mouse Trap’ (which is still running in London after more than 50 years, by the way).  The cast of characters include a despised director ( Adrian Brody), a rookie constable (Saoirse Ronan, as an innocent appearing but smarter-than-you-thought PC Stalker, the rookie detective who  steals the show!) and an alcoholic world weary detective (Sam Rockwell).  The movie has to be delayed when a member of the cast is murdered!  Some of my favorite suspects included Shirley Henderson (remember her as Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter series?), David Oyelowo and Ruth Wilson.  This is all very tongue-in-cheek and includes puns, play on words, literary allusions and the breaking of the fourth wall.  I also enjoyed the references to 50’s movies.  One highlight is an appearance by Agatha Christie herself and a trippy take on the old mystery trope “The butler did it.”  This is another movie that won’t be around in theatres long , so if you want to see it in a theatre, stop reading this review and get going!  You will be glad you did!

Minions: The Rise of Gru

By Leave a Comment

Apple Rating:

First of all, I am a Minions fan.  They are cute, lovable, yellow, banana lovin’ and loyal.  Their gibberish, as well as their antics, always put a smile on my face.  That being said, I didn’t like this one as well as the past Minions movies.  At first I couldn’t understand what the problem was.  They are still entertaining and the movie contains a few hilarious moments (especially on a plane) involving those cute yellow-skinned rascals!  And then I had an epiphany!  It is the Minions that make the movie.  Every time the movie was about Gru, I felt my interest wavering.  The scenes with Gru were not funny (to me anyway) and I kept on waiting for the Minions to reappear.  The Gru of Despicable Me (which I loved) is just not the same without Agnes and her siblings.  This younger, awkward, Gru comes across as just plain tedious.  So if you ignore the scenes about Gru, you may end up enjoying this movie.

Ghostbusters Afterlife

By Leave a Comment

Apple Rating:

Do the following words mean anything to you: Spengler, Ecto 1, Shandor, Muncher, Keymaster, or Zuul? If so, I have just the movie for you! If you have no idea what any of those words mean, I think you would enjoy this movie anyway. “Ghostbusters Afterlife” is chock full of references and homages to the original movie, while at the same time adding new life into the Ghostbusters franchise. The newest spectre seekers are played by some up and coming youngsters: Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things and It, as Trevor), Mckenna Grace (as Phoebe), Celeste O’Connor and Logan Kim (Podcast). Trevor and Grace are siblings who are dragged to the middle of nowhere to live in a spooky old house inherited by their mom (Carrie Coon). Her father, who she hates for having essentially abandoned her as a child, left it to her. Circumstances force them to move out west! Unbeknownst to them, their grandfather was Egon Spengler, one of the original Ghostbusters (played back then by Harold Ramis). The plot follows the kids and their friends – Podcast is especially fun – as they try to figure out why various strange phenomena are occurring in their small, seemingly boring, town. Strange sounds, daily earthquakes, and other spooky things are happening. Paul Rudd plays a disaffected teacher who has lost interest in the job. He shows his summer school students some very inappropriate movies. But ultra-smart Phoebe connects with him when she finds he is an ameteur siesmologist. They start investigating the reasons for the unnatural quakes; while Trevor and Podcast track other sources and clues. There are a lot of little sub stories, and plenty of references and humor that come along the way. And it all adds up to some special arrivals who “help” the kids save the planet.   By the way,stay to the very end to see a spoiler for a sequel, perhaps.  SPOILER ALERT: It has been all over the internet that some of the characters from the original 1984 movie show up in this one, and they do! If you are a fan, you will be satisfied and a little moved by the end of it all. There’s more than enough to entertain fans at any level.

Zombieland : Double Tap

By Leave a Comment

Apple Rating:

Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg and Abigail Breslin are back in fine form as our favorite zombie killers (Yes, I love Walking Dead, Shaun of the Dead, and even Night of the Living Dead, so no disrespect).  This time our intrepid companions face some new versions of old threats.  There are still the slow-moving, dumb zombies – the Homers. But there are mutated quicker and smarter zombies – the Hawkings and even worse, the Ninjas, nicknamed the T-800, who are smart and relentless.  If that weren’t enough, Columbus (Eisenberg) has caused Wichita (Stone) to leave when he professes his love for her.  Then Little Rock (Breslin) runs away with a peace-loving hippy named Berkley (Avan Jogia).  This causes Wichita to come back and with Tallahassee (Harrelson) they drive off on an expedition that takes them from their comfy home in the White House to Graceland to the hippy paradise of Babylon.  On their way, they meet some new characters. One is played by Zoey Deutch as Madison, the blonde (of course) dim bulb who has survived the apocalypse by living in a freezer. Rosario Dawson is Nevada, and runs the Hound Dog Hotel near Graceland which holds all the Elvis memorabilia from his old homestead. But Abuquerque and Flagstaff ( Luke Wilson and Michael Middleditch) earn a New Character award from me as two partners at the hotel who have an uncanny resemblance to Tallahassee and Columbus. And they haven’t even gotten to Babylon yet! Are you a little confused? Don’t worry. There is so much action, you just have to see it to get it. Once you get into the flow, it will all be clear. This movie is everything that made the first Zombieland so endearing.  If you loved the first one, you will not be disappointed. Stay for one of the best post-credit scenes ever and you will be pleasantly surprised by a great cameo.  Not only that, but there is a very short after all the credits scene that is just fun.  Zombies might be gross, disgusting and undead, but Zombieland is anything but.  A real treat!!

Good Boys

By Leave a Comment

Apple Rating:

“Good Boys” is the story of three friends, Max, Lucas and Thor, who are going into sixth grade and trying to figure out how to kiss girls so that Max can have success at his first kissing party.  They decide to use Max’s dad’s drone to observe some neighbor girls.  Max has been strongly warned not to touch it.  And….you know what’s going to happen! The rest of the movie has the three boys making some extremely bad descisons; which include skipping school, drinking beer, locking a policeman in a store, wrecking the drone, and beating up some Frat boys.  There is a hilarious sequence involving Stephen Merchant and a “CPR doll.”  The boys ( Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams and Brady Noon) are likable and amazingly believable as sixth graders trying to navigate the beginnings of puberty. As someone who has been teaching middle school for 32 years, I found the performances surprisingly realistic.  There is also a timely message about how you can be friends with people who may have different interests than you do.  I was prepared to think this was a dumb movie, but I ended up laughing throughout and actually enjoyed myself.