Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

Office Christmas Party

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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

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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.

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.

Arrival

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Arrival, starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, will not be everyone’s cup of tea.  In a sea of  super hero and action movies, it is relatively subdued and almost quiet in tone.  The story involves some unnamed aliens who come to earth and stay put in their impenetrable spaceships.  We don’t know their language and they do not know ours.  Do they come in peace?  Are they here to invade us?  We don’t know because we can not understand each other.  This is where Amy Adams comes in.  Her character is a language expert and she has been tasked with figuring out how to communicate with these potential invaders.  Jeremy Renner is the scientist who has been assigned to help her. What I didn’t expect was an Inception-like ending.  When the movie is over, you will be wondering, what just happened here?  If you have been reading my reviews these past 8 months, you know I love movies that make me think or leave me wondering.  Arrival does just that.  With all the political overtones of the past election, this movie also gives me hope for the future – these days,  a rare and welcome  distraction indeed.

Dr. Strange

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Benedict Cumberbatch is the perfect person to play Dr. Strange.  Stephen Strange is a gifted and arrogant surgeon whose hands are damaged in a horrible car accident.  When medical science can not help him, he travels East looking for a mystical cure and finds much more.  Through the teachings of Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One, he learns to channel his inner strength to become a powerful sorcerer.  If this doesn’t sound like your average Marvel super hero, you are right,  and that is why I loved this movie!  I watched it in 3D and I recommend that you do the same.  The special effects are incredible.  Let me know what  you think about a surreal scene showing Dr. Strange’s hands turning into something freaky and fascinating.  I have become a little jaded about superhero movies.  They almost seem to have been made on an assembly line and one is as good as another.  At last, a super hero movie that is different, smart, funny and action-packed, all at the same time.  There is one thing this movie has in common with all Marvel super hero  movies; stay until the end of the credits.  Apparently Dr. Strange is going to be paired in a future move with my former favorite Marvel hero (You will see who I mean in the credits).  I can’t wait to see what marvels are in store for Dr. Strange and we movie fans!