Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

Avengers: Infinity War

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This is 160 minutes of movie jam-packed with every possible thing you could ever want in a super hero movie.  First of all, want to see your favorite Marvel character?   Everyone from Teenage Groot and Dr. Strange to Vision and Black Panther are here.  Want to see epic batles?  You will  see several, including an amazingly complex one that threatens Wakanda.    Do you love witty banter?  The script writers have your back.  Long for a terrible villian who is complicated by a twisted reality in which he feels he is doing the universe a favor by almost destroying it?  Josh Brolin’s Thanos will  not disappoint you.  One concern I would have about this much anticiapted movie would be for people who haven’t been following these movies in the Marvel Universe.  You are going to be confused by the myriad of characters who are all following threads that started in their various earlier movies.  But don’t worry too much, the screenwriters have tied together a pretty cogent, understandable story. It was fun to see the Avengers meet the Gauardians of the Galaxy for the first time.  I loved seeing Bruce Banner have a problem turning into the Hulk.  There is also a cute cameo by Peter Dinklage as a rather large dwarf. ********** SPOILER ALERT**********  This is a very ejoyable movie, but be warned, there are  major characer deaths that will upset some fans.  In fact, the end of this movie will leave some of you very unsatisfied and disillusioned.  But don’t be downhearted, this is only the first half of Infinity Wars.  The conclusion will be released in March 2019.  I have a feeling that all will be put right in the Avengers Universe (and Marvel’s future money earnings).

Isle of Dogs

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Do you like quirky movies? Do you enjoy stop-motion animation?  Do you long for movies that are so original that you can’t quite guess where they are going?  Well, me too!  That is why I enjoy movies written and directed by Wes Anderson.  “Isle of Dogs” has a simple premise.  It is about 20 years in the future and an outbreak of canine flu has caused the Mayor (whose family has a long history of anti-dog activities!) to exile all of the dogs of  Megasaki to an island reserved for trash.  Atari, a young boy who is his ward, flies to the island to rescue his dog, Spots.  Once there, he is joined by a pack of abandoned dogs, who have interesting stories, and who decide to help him find his dog.  Unusual hijinks follow, which include uncovering a government conspiracy, robotic bloodhounds, cannibal dogs, and incredilble cricus-like tricks.  The dogs come across as very realistic, as if they are behaving just like you would expect them to if they could talk.  It doesn’t hurt that they are voiced by the likes of Bill Murray, Brian Cranston and Edward Norton, just to name a few.  Many people may be tempted to bring kids to see this. but I wouldn’t recomend it.  Not because it is scary or violent, but the themes may be difficult to understand. The action is slow, but there are plenty of visuals to delight and most of the dialogue is witty and droll.  If you enjoyed “The Fantastic Mr. Fox,” I think you will enjoy this cute, bizarre and creative little movie.

A Quiet Place

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Finally after a short string of less than great movies, John Krasinski and his wife, Emily Blunt, star in a horror movie that is tense, suspenseful, but not chock full of cliche!  Krasinski also directed and co-wrote “A Quiet Place,” which reminded me alot of movies like “Cloverfield” and “Signs”.  However, this movie has a creative spin that you just don’t expect in today’s movies.  There is very little dialogue spoken, because to do so, means instant death!  Apparently some strange alien creatures have come to earth.  They can’t see and are outfitted with inpenetrable armour, but they have supersensitive hearing.  As long as you stay quiet, you are safe.  Speak, or make more than the tiniest noise, and you will find how fast these creatures can move to where you are!  In this day and age of super special effects and unending noise, it is kind of nice to watch a movie where you must be focused on the screen.  Look down at your phone and you might miss a key scene or cue.  The quietness of the movie (there are sounds and a bit of dialogue) will not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I think you should give it a chance.  I almost gave “A Quiet Place”  a golden apple but I didn’t care for one key scene, even though I understand the reasons for it.  If you are looking for a quiet, tense little triller, look no further!

Ready Player One

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The year is 2045 in Columbus, Ohio.  Overpopulation has made housing space so limited people live in “The Stacks,” a labyrinth of trailers and cars stacked on top of each other – looking somewhat like a skyscraper junkyard.  To escape their humdrum lives, everyone spends as much time as possible in The OASIS a virtual reality universe.  The co-creator of this multimillion dollar world (Mark Rylance, as always, a wonderful addition to any movie) has died, but has left his fortune to the winner of a contest who can enter the OASIS and successfully solve three challenges to win the keys to the prize.  (There’s a but in the challenge and prize…think of Willie Wonka).  The evil CEO of IOI, an evil company, wants to win the prize and gain control of the OASIS and it’s incredible wealth.  A teenage gamer named Wade (Tye Sheridan) and his band of on-line friends race the clock to win the prize and beat the evil  CEO, who will stop at nothing to win the game. The story plays out in a virtual world of amazing diversity and a wealth of tidbits that will have anyone who’s lived since Atari first started video games remembering when.  How can you not love a movie that is chock full of cultural references from the 1970s and 1980s?  You will need to see this movie several times to catch them all including The Shining, Duran Duran, Say Anthing, The Iron Giant, Krull, the Bee Gees, Chucky and Back to the Future.  The movie is visualy stunning and the sequences in the virtual world seem very real.  Simon Pegg makes an appearance as a surprise character that I quite enjoyed.  Steven Speilberg does a great job with Ernest Cline’s best seller and has created a wonderful movie experience.  After a sreies of not-so-impressive movies, it’s nice to see one I can recommend to everyone!

Unsane

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If you thought that a move directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Claire Foy might be interesting and at the very least, well-done…..you would be sadly mistaken.  This is actually one of the worst  movies I have seen this year.  There are many reasons for this, but number one is the ridiculous and even laughable script.  Don’t worry that I am giving you spoilers because this movie spoils itself.  After it comes to HBO, Showtime, Netflix or whatever  though, I suggest a drinking game.  Take a drink everytime something improbable happens and you will be drunk in no time!  A few of the ridiculous plot holes:  a fully  functioning mental facility that doesn’t have anyone watching the wards at night, tricks people into admitting themselves, has men and women sleeping in the same open room, puts someone in charge of handing out meds after he accidently (but really intentionally) gives our heroine the wrong drugs causing her to hallucinate, and has unused padded cells in the darkened basement that no one monitors.   The ‘action’ involves Claire, a cubicle drone who had moved 400 miles to Pennsylvania to avoid a stalker.  She is tricked into admitting herself to a psychiatric hospital and ends up trapped there…along with her stalker (there is a PLETHORA of inconsistencies and improbabilities with this thread alone).  Throw in a nurse that makes Nurse Ratchet look like Mother Teresa, 5 or 6 other inmates, a handful of orderlies, one doctor and one administrator-in a facility that pretends to be a full mental heath facility.  When she temporarily gets away, she runs through endless, darkened hallways with not a soul to be seen.  The movie was filmed on an iPhone, and you can tell it was!  I could go on, but I don’t really want to.  If you’re taking a  film course and want to see what to avoid in making your first cinematic effort, this is a good teaching experience!! Otherwise, save your money for  a good book!