The Viewing Files: 365 Movies in 365 Days - Week Thirty Eight/Nine

The month is running by and I'm neck deep in movies.  All the movies.  Movies, Movies, Movies.

And... deep breath, followed by endless crying...

Mary Queen of Scots
Starring: Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie
Original release: 2018
Synopsis: Mary returns to Scotland only to find that the Scots don't really need or want her.

I love me a good historical movie and this one was actually too bad.  

Sure they get the odd detail wrong and add in things that never, ever happened and yet it succeeds on the whole on getting the point across.  Which basically is that Mary really was way in over her head.

Aquaman
Starring: Jason Momoa
Original release: 2018
Synopsis: Arthur Curry, the human-born heir to the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, goes on a quest to prevent a war between the worlds of ocean and land. 

Even Jason couldn't really save this movie for me.

I went in expecting a loner hero type movie who is all gruff and manly but slowly comes around to his true destiny and came out with... what exactly?  A love story between a human and a nonhuman that was totally not necessary to the plot, lots and lots of action on land and Aquaman as a hero with annoying redhead sidekick slash romantic interest.  Basically not the movie I signed up for.

Sigh... what could have been.

Mortal Engines
Starring: Some girl
Original release: 2018
Synopsis: In a post-apocalyptic world where cities ride on wheels and consume each other to survive, two people try to stop a conspiracy. 

So kind of meh that I can't even really remember what it was about.  And doesn't that just kind of tell you everything right there.

Bumblebee
Starring: Hailee Steinfeld
Original release: 2018
Synopsis: A teenage girl finds a car that isn't quite what it seems to be.

He's a cute VW car that's actually a robot and he communicates via his car radio.  You've kind of got me right there.  Finally the real star of the Transformers franchise gets his own movie.

It's not a great movie (why oh why did they have to do the dead parent thing?  Couldn't she have just be an Emo girl who actually liked her stepdad etc?) but it's an entertaining movie if you take out the sap.

We all need a Bubblebee in our lives.

Captain Marvel
Starring: Brie Larson
Original release: 2019
Synopsis: Carol Danvers becomes one of the universe's most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races. 

 

Good in places and boring in others.

Maybe not the superhero movie for me.

IO
Starring: Mystery girl
Original release: 2019
Synopsis: As a young scientist searches for a way to save a dying Earth, she finds a connection with a man who's racing to catch the last shuttle off the planet. 

One of those independent movies made on a budget with people you don't know.

It's not terrible... but it's hard to say if it's good.  Lets just say that the idea and some of conceptions were definitely interesting and good but that the story headed in a direction that was just plain weird.

Green Book
Starring: Viggo Morensen, Mahershala Ali  
Original release: 2018
Synopsis: A working-class Italian-American bouncer becomes the driver of an African-American classical pianist on a tour of venues through the 1960s American South.

Everybody loves it.  Everybody hates it. 

In the end, for me, this was a movie about two men from very different worlds who form a relationship that changes them both.  It's a story of friendship and racism and family and music.

Sometimes it can be that simple and that complicated.

Hachi: A Dog's Tale
Starring: Richard Gere and the cutest dog
Original release: 2009
Synopsis: A college professor bonds with an abandoned dog he takes into his home. 

*Sob*

You're gonna need tissues.

*Sob, Sob*

Lots and lots of tissues.

*Sob, Sob, Sob*

Basically this was just me crying uncontrollably for about 3/4 of the movie.

Instant Family
Starring: Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne
Original release: 2018
Synopsis: A couple find themselves in over their heads when they become foster parents.

Sappy and sentimental as hell and yet it kind of works thanks to some of the humour.