Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

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.

Get Out

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Who knew that Jordan Peele could write and direct a horror-thriller that brilliantly skewers race relations in modern America?  Well I am here to tell you that he can AND he did!  Get Out is highly entertaining and heart-pounding from beginning to end.  Daniel Kaluuya plays Chris, a sensitive black man who  agrees to accompany his white girlfriend to her family’s estate for the weekend.  Chris  find some creepy goings on as the parents (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) and perhaps even his girlfriend, may have sinister intentions.  Peele’s script is top-notch and infused with wit and unexpected but welcome humor.  Chris’s best friend played by Lil Rey Howery is a delight as the TSA agent who doesn’t give up on his friend.  If Alfred Hitchcock were alive today, this is the kind of movie he might have made.  Well done Mr. Peele!

OSCAR PREDICTIONS

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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!

Hidden Figures

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This movie definitely deserves the Oscar buzz it is getting.  Those of you who have been reading this blog know that I love movies based on true stories, and this was no exception.  Did you know that African American women contributed to the NASA space program in the early 1960s?  I sure didn’t!  This movie explores the lives of three ground-breaking women who did just that.  Janelle Monae plays Mary Jackson, who became NASA’s first Black engineer.  Ocatavia Spenser plays Dorothy Vaughn who became the first Black female supervisor and one of the first female supervisors at NASA.  The meat of the story though is Taraji P. Henson’s Katherine Johnson, the mathematician par excellence who calculated trajectories for the Mercury Program, as well as Apollo 11 and Apollo 13. Kevin Costner also gives a  good performance as the director of the Space Task Group.  Jim Parsons appears as an engineer who, like all too many, resented and mistrusted the presence of a woman in the previously male only group of engineers and math whizzes; but comes to value her intelligence and hard work in the end.  This is a moving story about some amazing women who didn’t let anyone stand in their way.  I hope you get a chance to see this spectacular movie!

John Wick Chapter 2

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Are you tired of movies where the hero kills hundreds of people in every possible way imaginable, is shot at as many times and is barely hurt, and all done by an actor who barely speaks wooden lines?  If not, do I have the movie for you!  I notice that “John Wick” is getting decent reviews elsewhere but  can’t recommend it, even though I enjoyed the first one.  Keanu Reeves stars as yet another hit man trying unsuccessfully to retire.  The bright spot in the movie is Ian McShane who once again plays Winston, a  suave and sophisticated owner of a hotel that caters to the criminal elite.  Lance Reddick also shines as the hotel desk clerk with a soft spot for dogs.  You really won’t see anything new in this movie, but I suppose sometimes we all yearn for the familiar.