Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

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I may not be Groot, but I know an entertaining movie when I see one!  If you liked the first “Guardian of the Galaxy” movie, you will not be disappointed with this second installment.  All the characters you loved in the first movie are back:  Chris Pratt as Quill, still playing music from the 80’s on his cassette player, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, who may or may not have feelings for Quill, Dave Bautista as Drax, who has no social filter and Bradley Cooper voicing Rocket, the weapon toting raccoon. The new characters are excellent additions, especially Kurt Russell as Ego, who claims to be Quill’s dad and a god.  There are few actors around today who could pull that combination off, and thankfully Kurt is one of them.  There are a lot of explosions of course and plenty of action.  There is also a killer sound track full of songs like “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac, “Brandy” by Looking Glass, “Come a Little Bit Closer” by Jay and the Americans and a timely placed “Father and Son” by Cat Stevens.  I loved Groot’s character in the first movie but Baby Groot is so adorable even the villains can’t bring themselves to kill him.  If you are looking for an entertaining way to spend a few hours, you can’t go wrong with this movie.  By the way, like all Marvel movies, stay to the very end of the credits for a preview and a surprise.

Beauty and the Beast

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Well, they did it!  They actually remade a beloved classic that is worthy of becoming a classic  itself!  The dazzling special effects are eye popping (even more so in 3D)!  The enchanting rendition of “Be My Guest” was enhanced by the voice of Ewan McGregor who was wonderful as Lumiere.  Emma Watson made a perfect Belle, pretty, fiesty and compassionate.  Dan Stevens is seamless as the gruff Beast who just longs for love…. and finally earns it.  Other notable cast members include Emma Thompson, Ian McKellan, Josh Gad and Kevin Kline.  Gaston, the man you love to hate, is played to narcissistic perfection by Luke Evans. I must admit that I thought I would hate anyone other than Angela Lansbury singing “Beauty and the Beast” but Emma Thompson’s rendition had just the right amount of pathos and sweetness.  There is room on your DVD shelf (if people even have such a thing anymore) for the animated and live action versions of Beauty and the Beast.

The Great Wall

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The Great Wall finds Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal as European mercenaries who come to China in search of black powder.  They discover that the Great Wall was built, not as a defense against other people, but to protect the country from nasty monsters who attack every sixty years.  The special effects were excellent, and the visuals were impressive, but I  found the whole movie a little silly.  My apologies to Matt Damon, who I like as Jason Bourne,  but I felt he seemed too nice to be a mercenary.  Willem Defoe is also featured.  The movie was directed by the great Chinese director Yimou Zhang and I understand that it was his first English-language production and the largest film shot entirely in China.  I would be willing to give Zhang another try because the scope and breadth of the scenery was pretty amazing.  I just hope that next time he has a better script and  a main character portrayed by a more credible actor for that sort of role.

FANTASTIC BEASTS and Where to Find Them

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Harry Potter fans are in for a treat with this movie!  I saw Fantastic Beasts today in 3D and I would highly recommend you do the same if you can.  The  creatures are everything I expected them to be, magical, colorful, imaginative and cute.  Eddie Redmayne is delightful as shy, nerdy Newt Scamander who collects magical animals from all over the world and keeps them in a very roomy satchel.  The surprise to me though was non-mag ( American word for muggles) baker Jacob Kowalski, played by Dan Fogler, who accidentally gets involved in some classic wrong suitcase shenanigans.  There is a dark side to this movie in the form of Colin Farrell and a child who is trying to suppress his/her magical side with tragic results.  There is also a budding romance that I hope gets explored in the next movie (I believe a total of 5 are planned).  SMALL SPOILER ALERT:  I do want to give you a heads up on a fun cameo.  I  think without this heads up you might miss him – I only spotted this famous actor because I read about his cameo on line.  Anyway, see if you can spot Johnny Depp —  let me know if you do.

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.