Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

Snatched

By Leave a Comment

Apple Rating:

Amy Schumer is a funny lady.  Goldie Hawn is a funny lady.  Snatched, not so much.  It did have a few amusing moments, but I guess I expected more humor out of a comedy.    Amy plays  Emily Middleton who is dumped by her boyfriend right before they are set to take a vacation to Ecuador.  Goldie plays her mother, who Amy talks into going in place of her boyfriend.  However, she really isn’t given any good dialogue.  Still, it was nice seeing her back on the big screen.   The only part of the movie that really made me laugh out loud concerned Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack, but their appearance in the movie was too brief!  I am not saying you shouldn’t see it, but there are better movies out there (Guardians of the Galaxy for example) that will make you laugh more.

The Lost City of Z

By Leave a Comment

Apple Rating:

A movie about British explorer Percy Fawcett sounds like a good idea on paper.  This guy was a geographer, artillery officer, cartographer, archaeologist and explorer.  He distinguished himself in WWI even though he was almost 50 years old and he led an expedition into the heart of the Amazon when he was 56. Wow, what a guy!  Doesn’t this sound like it would make an exciting movie, kind of in the vein of Indiana Jones, perhaps?  Well you would be wrong.  The story is excruciating slow, with little tension or suspense.  The cinematography, scenery, costumes are all first rate, and you do get a sense of what an extraordinary individual Fawcett was.  ******SPOILER ALERT******  I was  not satisfied with the ending.  No one knows how Percy Fawcett dies, and their speculative ending seems contrived.  Why  not just end the movie when he and his son are on the train and tell us in the post script about some of the various theories about what happened to him.  I read about these on line and many of them are more interesting than the ending the writer came up with.    All in all, I wouldn’t advise seeing this one in the theater.  Wait until it is on Netflix and watch it in several sittings.  I think that would be way more satisfying.

OSCAR PREDICTIONS

By 2 Comments

Apple Rating:

Everyone who knows me, knows I LOVE movies.  I have been watching the yearly Academy Awards since I was five.  Well, I didn’t watch but would stay up listening in my room while I was supposed to be asleep.   Since my teens, I have been predicting the winners in the main categories.  I usually do a pretty good job if I do say so myself.  The following predictions are not necessarily who I think should win, just who I think will win.  Here we go……

BEST PICTURE:  La La Land will get this one.  I have seen most of the best pictures, and this one is the most original of the bunch.

BEST DIRECTOR:  Damien Chazellle for La La Land

BEST ACTRESS:  Emma Stone

BEST ACTOR:  This is a hard one to predict.  I believe Viggo Mortensen has an outside chance, but I think it might go to Denzel Washington.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:  Viola Davis

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:  Mahershala Ali

BEST ANIMATED MOVIE:  Zootopia

ORIGINAL SONG:  City of Stars from La La Land

ORIGINAL SCORE:  La La Land

What do you think?  I would love to hear your thoughts and predictions!

Office Christmas Party

By Leave a Comment

Apple Rating:

This is a very hard movie to rate.  I love Jason Bateman and I did laugh off and on through out Christmas Office Party.   However, it is super light weight and  predictable.  If you are looking for some fluff to take a break from holiday shopping, by all means, take a seat.  However, most people can just wait until it is on Netflix.    The plot involves Jason Bateman and T.J. Miller trying to throw an epic party to attract a huge client who may save the company from being shut down.  Jennifer Aniston, Olivia Munn, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell,  and Rob Corddry, among others, are also featured.  If you love watching  a white female pimp wearing corn rows, people accidentally ingesting cocaine, an Uber driver’s first day on the job and Jennifer Aniston making a little girl cry, this is the movie for you!  I do like the comedic chemistry between Jason Bateman and Jennifer Anniston.  They were both great in “Horrible Bosses” but this movie just isn’t as good.

Allied

By Leave a Comment

Apple Rating:

This movie has all the makings of a majestic classic.  It starts out in the country of Morocco during WWII.  The two lead characters, played by Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, are reminiscent of Rick and Ilsa from the Oscar winning Casablanca.  The costumes are great, the scenery lush, and the cinematography breathtaking.  And yet…..this movie missed as far as I am concerned.  I expected so much more than an average spy story, one without much of a story!  Brad Pitt is some kind of British spy, born in Canada who is pretending to be French.  Marion Cotillard is also a spy.  They are thrown together in order to assassinate a high ranking Nazi and in the process fall in love and get married.  I have read the there was a real-life romance involved in the making of this movie that might have been one of the causes of the Jolie-Pitt break  up.  If this is true (and I have my doubts), the chemistry between the two of them is a mystery to me as I really didn’t find the romance on screen believable.  The writing was also pedestrian at best.  The “surprise” ending can be guessed at least a half an  hour before it happens.  I am  not saying that you shouldn’t see this movie, but if you don’t go to many movies, I would skip this one and see Fantastic Beasts or Dr. Strange instead.