Movies Watched in 2017

2017/01/02
@home on DVD from library
with Kendra and Katy

Amusing enough. Not great, but good for a laugh.

2017/01/08
@home on DVD from library
with Kendra and Katy

Enjoyable retelling of the Jungle Book story, with crazy believable computer animations and fun updates of the songs.

2017/01/22
@home on DVD from library
with Kendra

Good and creepy. Ties back the original, but not a clone. Disturbing and scary.

2017/01/22
@home on DVD from library
with Kendra

It was OK. A lot of jumping around, trying to tell too much story in a short time. Some pretty ridiculous pieces, too. Superman's interaction with Lex could have easily circumvented the battle with Batman, but whatever, I guess.

2017/02/04
@Alamo w/ Kendra

Entertaining historical telling of an aspect of the space race involving the importance of the black women working there and their competence with math and calculations. Way more interesting than that description makes it sound.

2017/02/04
@home on DVD from library
w/ Kendra and her dad

Boring. For all the action it had, it was boring. Action dragged on and was ridiculous (like a swat car easily knocking cars out of the way without taking any damage.) The computer tracking portions were equally ridiculous, with the technology being overpowered when the story called for it, but then being worthless when the story needed it to be. The story was confusing and dumb and so much of it was pointless.

2017/02/12
@home on DVD from library
with Kendra
Still a good movie. A little contrived on why they were fighting, but forgivable.

2017/02/13
@home on DVD from library
with Kendra
Still kinda meh with a weak story. Great special effects, but some of the fight sequences with jumping characters looked like they were swinging on wires. Also, dragged on and kinda boring at the end. Quicksilver, though, zoom!

2017/02/18
@home on DVD from library
with Kendra

Great modern spy movie with tons of action, great comedy, and interesting plot. Would love a sequel.

2017/02/19
@home on DVD from library
with Kendra

Wow, so amazingly painful, right from the start. Aggravating and annoying behavior masquerading as "comedy". Terrible.

2017/05/xx
@home on DVD from library
with Katy and Kendra

A surreal adventure of a new kid at a strange middle school with his friend. Some of his art is incorporated as cartoons interacting with him throughout. Clever with comically good and bad guys.

2017/05/xx
@home on DVD from library
with Katy and Kendra

Still enjoyable. Some of the parts I had issue with from before were resolved in this second watching, like why he carried the eye for the duration of the film.

2017/05/10
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10
with Dave Stein, Matt Pasztor, and Rob Karmes

Hilarious sequel that captured the enjoyment of the original. Great story, special effects, and comedy.

2017/05/13
@Peoria, IL Holiday Inn Express before Xcel Regionals
on Disney Channel
with Katy and Kendra

Still a fun take on the super hero movies. No capes!

2017/05/15
@home on DVD from Library
with Kendra

Funny and entertaining Disney movie. Nothing all that innovative, but well done and enjoyable all the same.

2017/05/17
@home on DVD from library.
with Kendra

So, I didn't know much about Hellboy before the movie, and it ended up being "OK". It seemed like they were trying to fit too much into too little time, but it also felt long. Rushed, confusing, and "why didn't they just do this earlier" kind of ending. Glad I saw it, but I think I am more interested in checking out the comic.

2017/05/21
@home on DVD from library
With Katy and Kendra

Enjoyable enough for a kids movie.

2017/05/26
@home on Blueray
with Katy and Kendra
I enjoyed it again and Katy liked it.

2017/05/31
@home on DVD from library

Slow-burning horror, but that also made it feel slow and boring at times. Worth the watch, but wouldn't need to see it again. If it was an option, I'd have ranked this 6.5.

2017/06/06
@home on DVD from library
with Kendra

Eh, it was OK. It had a good concept, done poorly. Lots of predictable stuff, but then elements that were obvious weren't followed up on.

2017/06/07
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10
with Matt Pasztor and Kevin Brown

Awesome. Great action, great story. First DC movie I really liked since Batman Begins and the Dark Knight.

2017/06/08
@home on DVD from library
with Kendra

Was this the greatest movie ever? Well, no. But, it was much funnier than expected and had me laughing for a good deal of it.

2017/06/08
@home on DVD from library
with Kendra and Katy

An OK kids movie. Nothing special, but not painful to watch. Some funny parts to make it worthwhile.

2017/07/08
@Dave's on BlueRay
w/ Dave

Creepy, scary, funny. A nice, original concept for a scary movie.

2017/07/13
@Kalamazoo 10
w/ Rob

Fun, funny, and entertaining Spider-man movie. Glad that he gets to be in the MCU. Looking forward to more.

2017/08/21
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - Theater 2
via MoviePass

Noticed a bit of obvious CGI this time, but still mostly impressive. Liked that the Marvel intro is now scenes from their movies instead of flipping comic pages, that they have enough to do that.

And, yes, Cap, I think my patience was rewarded both times.

2017/08/08
@home on DVD from library
Tense thriller with a story that kept me engaged. Very interested in what the final scene implies.

2017/08/19
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - Theater 9, Row 3, Seat 4
via MoviePass
Low dialog, compelling telling of several stories revolving around the evacuation at Dunkirk. The timing of the events isn't consistent in the three stories, making it confusing to follow. Additionally, several of the characters resemble each other, due to uniforms, making it additionally tricky to keep track of what is going on.

That said, it was a good story. The hopelessness and desperation of trying to escape was well conveyed.

2017/08/20
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - Theater 9, Row 3, Seat 3
via MoviePass

Generic, forgettable, mediocre action flick.

2017/08/22
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - Theater 4
via MoviePass
w/ Dave Stein

A movie that was confused about what it wanted to be. Was it a serious action flick, or a jokey, over-the-top buddy flick? Even though it had some amusing parts and some great action scenes, it tried to be both and wasn't that great.

It also was too long and could have benefitted from some serious editing. Something closer to 90 minutes would have worked better.

2017/08/25
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - Theater 6 - row 4 (felt a bit too close still)
via MoviePass

Good stunt driving, action movie. The story was decent, but some sudden uncharacteristic decisions by the characters near the end brought it down.

2017/08/27
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - Theater 6
via MoviePass

Back in the theaters after 37 years for the classics reshowing. Still funny, and was fun to hear other people laughing at this classic again.

The classics series intro was a fun bit of trivia as well.

2017/09/01
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - Theater 1, row 6 (maybe just a row too far)
via MoviePass

A murder mystery on a Native American reservation in Wyoming. I liked the tracking and the logical deductions. Content was depressing, but in a good way.

2017/09/02
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - Theater 5 (noisy ambient noise), row 4
Via MoviePass

I watched the 40th anniversary re-release of this movie, with a series of interviews with directors who were inspired by this movie, so it almost doesn't feel fair to rate this movie after seeing how much influence it had.

Clearly, a big focus of this movie was the special effects and, even 40 years later, these special effects are still impressive; I don't doubt the existence of the flying saucers in the movie and it is not some poorly done green screen. These special effects demonstrated what was possible in the movies.

While the special effects were impressive, the movie itself was actually pretty boring. An unnecessarily slow pace combined with trying to understand the motivations of the aliens and the characters as well as hoping to see the resolution of the various story elements and being disappointed brought the movie down for me. While I'm happy I got to see this landmark film, I'd never want to watch it again.

2017/09/03
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - theater 6, row 5
Via MoviePass

Part of the Cinema Classics that Goodrich shows every Sunday and Wednesday, I had the opportunity to see this movie from 1992 in the theater.

Deeper than a typical western, the hero is reluctant, a retired bandit who had been redeemed by his now dead wife. Needing money for his family, he agrees to take up a bounty on a couple of men who cut up a whore.

I appreciated the details in this one. The characters have other things going on in their lives and are not single-handedly devoted to this one conflict. You see a mindset change when one of the characters subtly starts doing something he had not been throughout the movie and know something is coming. And, I loved how the speech on what is important for shooting a man is demonstrated later on by a different character. Bringing in a character and building him up as tough only to be dealt with quickly and roughly really helps build up the main villain as hard to deal with.

Additionally, the killing is much more realistic than is normally in movies. It weighs on the characters, even if they feel the dead man deserves it.

2017/09/04
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - theater 9, row 4
Via MoviePass

A clever heist movie. Builds up the characters to not be totally despicable and likeable, so you feel you can root for their success.

2017/09/05
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - theater 10, row 5
Via MoviePass

An OK scary movie. Too much build up, without enough explanation. Some is explained very late in the movie, but it really belonged earlier. Also, it really isn't clear what the evil entity is doing, and why it chooses to act in some cases, but then not do anything later. Not terrible, but ultimately forgettable.

2017/09/08
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - theater 10, row 5
Via MoviePass

So, the clown is creepy, and there are some scenes that are intense, but I never really felt it was that scary. It also suffered from the typical horror movie problem of wondering why the behavior of the monster changes. Obviously, the easy answer is because the script calls for it, but it lacks in in-story explanation. Same to be said for the kids deciding that they need to stick together, and then, almost seemingly on purpose, run away from each other at every turn.

The story of the kids becoming friends and doing things together was interesting and well done. However, their interactions with literally everyone else in town was over-the-top ridiculous. That all adults were cartoonish villains, and the bullies were over the top aggressive and everywhere, just made it hard to believe. It would have been appropriate if this had been a kids movie, but with an R rating, that clearly was not the intent.

Finally, it didn't help that pretty much every scene of interest was already shown in the trailers. These might have bumped the scare factor, but expecting them took all of the suspense away.

A bummer, cause I was looking forward to this one, but it really had me waiting for it to just end by the cliched finish.

2017/09/10
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - theater 8, row 5
Via MoviePass

A princess rebels and we get to see her day covertly touring the city of Rome. It had its share of comedy, and the interaction of the characters kept it entertaining throughout. If modern "romantic comedies" were more in this style, I think I'd be more inclined to watch them. I also appreciate the realism, in that sometimes things don't work out perfectly happy in the end.

2017/09/15
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - theater 4, row 4
Via MoviePass

This was super weird. Trailers made me think it was a horror movie, and it kind of feels like one at points, but I don't think it really is. Tons of symbolism, and clearly an allegory, but parts of the symbolism were hard to fit with the characters. At least it was thought provoking, but don't go expecting horror.

2017/09/16
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - theater 7, row 4
Via MoviePass

A revenge fantasy come true. Decent action and decent plot.

2017/09/17
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - theater 9, row 4
Via MoviePass

This was a fantastic depiction of the events of the Russian Revolution as seen from the eyes of the people affected by it. In short, Dr. Zhivago got a pretty raw deal, as well as most of the Russians. It is concerning how quickly even a little bit of power goes to the head of those who wield it.

The romance of the story is tragic, and not completely a pure thing. For instance, Zhivago's wife is devoted, loyal, and loving, yet he cheats on her. Regardless, the characters do what they must to survive in a dreadful time and it is compelling to watch.

2017/09/22
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - theater 9, row 3
Via MoviePass

What can be said about this movie? Though it was only 92 minutes, it felt like an eternity. If I was dying, I would watch this movie over and over, filling every minute of my day with it, like Dunbar from Catch-22, making my last moments seemingly last forever. The pacing was poor, with some elements getting too much screen time, and other, more interesting parts mostly being ignored.

Not really very scary, though there were a couple of jump scares that managed to actually startle me. The imagery used was good at being disturbing, but often created more questions than it answered. The story was not really captivating and the characters were terrible.

Sometimes, in horror movies, it is easy to look at a mistake the characters make, or some action they should take and wonder "why don't they just" do something obvious. This movie did a good job of showing why these scenes are often not included, as they were laughably terrible. Trying to delete their accounts, they failed with generic errors. When looking at the code, they see it is magical. Ugh. When confronted by police and the dean of the school, she says she cannot get control of her account, and they offer no assistance, though you'd expect the police department and the IT department of the university to at least be interested in trying something. The most ridiculous part of this was when the dean sat our heroine down and said, "Even if you don't have access and can't remove the video, or delete your account, I'm getting a lot of pressure from the students, so I'm going to have to suspend you for the rest of the semester." Lol. Then, it goes on to have a mostly typical horror movie ending.

Of course, it also suffered from the typical horror movie "whys" as well, like, for instance, why were only some of the friends on her friend list targeted, but not the others? Why could some unfriend her, but others not? Maybe they were closer, real friends? Who cares?

The real tragedy with this movie was that I appreciated the concept. The graphical social media element built into some scenes of the movie was cleverly done. The idea of modern witch was clever. Truly, I am inspired to take the general idea and try to work it into a better story myself. It was an interesting enough concept, maybe it would have been better to not try to tell it as a typical horror story, but a supernatural drama?

The only redeeming quality this movie could have had was that I was going to watch with my pal, Dave, and we could have mocked it together. Unfortunately, there was unexpected traffic, so I was left to deal with the suffering alone.

2017/09/23
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - theater 1, row 4
Via MoviePass

What an epic start to a great movie. It reminded me of the old school James Bond openings, but with modern effects and action. Really, the entirety of the Kingsman movies are the updated Roger Moore era James Bond films and I couldn't be happier. I definitely enjoy the Daniel Craig Bond, but there is definitely room for this style of spy movie as well.

After the great start, it continued strong. Action packed, funny, and over-the-top, it developed its story and villain and as well as new allies to the Kingsman seamlessly.

I appreciated Eggsy's relationship with his girlfriend. To me, it softened the poor lesson at the end of the first movie of seeing sex as a reward by making her more of a person than simply a trophy.

If I had to find fault, the climax felt weak, especially in comparison to the epic battles fought prior in the movie. Especially the needless sacrifice, considering they supposedly had equipment to detect and avoid the predicament. Additionally, it felt all too easy once they arrived at the final battle.

The villain was clearly evil, but also with a purpose, though it was selfish and for personal gain. The introduction of the secondary villain that would push for the more dire consequences of the evil plot escalated the stakes to a level approaching that of the first movie and made for an unexpected surprise. 8/10

2017/09/24
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - theater 4, row 5
Via MoviePass

This movie won the Academy Award for cinematography and it shows. The scenery of the French Riviera is shown throughout and is done beautifully.

This was a romantic thriller by Alfred Hitchcock. It was amusing enough, but not the caliber of movie that I normally associate with Hitchcock.

The romance was odd and seemed to really be one-sided, with Francie pursuing relentlessly, and John never really seeming all the interested.

The mystery portion wasn't all the convincing, either. The limited number of characters in the movie makes it a pretty easy guess. The behaviour of the police, first chasing him for so long, then letting him go didn't make much sense, or at least why so much time was spent developing the chase only to have it not matter.

Still, it was a decent watch, and it was fun to see an older film on the big screen. 6/10

2017/09/29
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - theater 4, row 5
Via MoviePass

Our protagonist is a criminal, and one that made a big, negative impact by transporting drugs, guns, and contras. Yet, the character is separated from these actions and is presented as a decent, likable family man. Despite myself, I found that I was rooting for his criminal exploits to succeed. In the end, though, crime doesn't pay, and I am content with that.

Based on a true story, it was interesting to see how it worked itself into the events that were occurring in the late 70's and early 80's. It humanized some of the well-known names from that time, again glossing over their terrible aspects.

Dealing with success was a funny theme. The storing of tons of cash, as well as the local investments, community improvements, and in-laws added to the story.

Though the laughs and charm is front and center, there is a tragic tale throughout. A man, bored with his hum-drum life as an airline pilot, makes one decision that could be seen as patriotic, but leads to a bunch of developments that seem inescapable. 8/10

2017/09/30
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - theater 7, row 2
Via MoviePass

This was a remake of a movie from 1990 that I only thought was OK. Hopefully, I thought, they will add to the original story and improve upon it. Instead, they just retold the original story with new characters.

The concept and story was fine for a movie in 1990, but didn't really work for me now. I had a hard time believing that there was no research done anywhere on near-death experiences available online that they could have referenced instead of making it up as they went along. And, why are they special? No one that has had a NDE has woken up with improved abilities, nor were haunted.

And, their planning was terrible. That it was such an ordeal to resuscitate the person every time makes you wonder how these fools ever got into medical school in the first place, since that they kept undergoing their procedure was clearly a sign that they were all stupid.

Realism in little areas annoyed me a bit, too. For example, they needed to do chest compressions every time, and a ton of them, and that they never broke any ribs was hard to swallow.

Not really scary, the "sins" they were being punished for were weak, and just a rehashing of the original movie had me waiting for the movie to be done. Better than "Friend Request" but let's not pretend that is high praise. 5/10

2017/10/01
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - theater 8, row 2
w/ Dave S.
Via MoviePass, part of Flashback Cinema series

A classic western from 1959 about a murderer being held in a small town until the marshal could come collect him and the gang that wants to free him.

It is clearly a movie from a different era, where even a western needed to have a musical number shoved into it. Regardless, it was enjoyable, if somewhat long.

The characters were clever and the interactions between them were engaging and interesting. It had sufficient action via shoot-em-ups as well as comedy that didn't feel forced. The love interest felt a bit tacked on, but not terribly so.

I also enjoyed that the protagonists weren't untouchable; they made mistakes and sometimes the bad guys got the jump on them or outsmarted them.

Why it was called Rio Bravo, "Brave River," is beyond me. Maybe it just sounded sufficiently "western" at the time. Always nice to see some of these old ones on the big screen. 7/10

2017/10/08
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - theater 3, row 2
Via MoviePass and Flashback Cinema

When I first saw this one in theaters, back in 1997, I thought it was great, except for the annoying DJ played by Chris Tucker. I hated that character. So, imagine my surprise when, this time, I found the movie to be pretty meh, but the DJ character was OK.

Generic, poorly thought out action flick, with weak action and rubber-masked aliens. The reasons why things are happening and the motivations of the villains are confusing. Just a bunch of poorly thought out events happening one after another. 6/10

2017/10/09
@Goodrich Kalamazoo 10 - theater 5, row 5
Via MoviePass

This was a fun, interesting story revisiting the world of Bladerunner full of impressive imagery and special effects, marred by a number of scenarios that didn't have a satisfactory reason behind them and an unsatisfying conclusion. 7/10

2017/10/13
@Celebration! Cinema Crossroads
Via MoviePass
w/ Dave S.

A ridiculous, fun time. Groundhog Day mixed with slasher flick. Funny, suspense, and character growth. Who could ask for more? 8/10