All I See Is You…If You Like…

If you like…artsy sound and visuals, mystery, love stories run amok, getting a bird’s eye view of Bangkok, then you will…no, Cee cannot bring herself to say “you will like All I See Is You.” Kay has not seen it yet, and given her busy schedule, Cee advises that she doesn’t bother. Having said that, though, Blake Lively and Jason Clarke are really good in their roles.

Gina-Blake is blind from a car crash that we experience in flashbacks. Suddenly she’s able to get a cornea transplant and she can see again. Her new sight changes her into a completely different person. From plain and simple and in love with her husband, she becomes a wild, sexy teenager, chafing against James-Jason’s desire to tame her. She begins to lose her sight again and therein lies the mystery. Except that it’s solved in five minutes and what follows is so cliché that it’s boring. And the end…oh my.

So…watch this movie if you want to see Bangkok, if you like artsy, unconventional film directing (by Marc Forster of World War Z and lots of other very good films), and if you like the two main actors. Otherwise, Cee is afraid she must agree with some of the remarks on Rotten Tomatoes. Susan Granger – “This tepid psychodrama suffers from a weak script with an absurd conclusion.” John Lui: “While this has interesting moments, Forster seems unable to follow the story into as deep or dark a place as it should go and the ambiguity in the storytelling is unwarranted and frustrating to witness.”

Mother! – If You Like…

…if you like the bizarre, then you will like Mother! Great acting from Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Ed Harris, as you would expect. The theme has been used before, but never in such an extreme way (you’ll see what we mean when you get to the end). The trailer says, “A couple’s relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence.” And at first, as the movie unravels, it’s a slow exploration of their rather odd relationship and the majestic old house the wife is renovating. He’s a writer, so in the beginning we forgive his quirks. Kay’s son (Cee’s grandson) fell asleep during the first half and, as he describes it, woke up to “world war three.” That’s a good description of what happens. The action ramps up to the absurd. Unlike Jay, neither Kay nor Cee could fall asleep, however. The oddities, the bizarre situations, the setting and the acting held our attention. We did guess where it was going, but that didn’t mean we weren’t mesmerized. So – if you want a wild ride, a fairly slow climb to the top of the roller coaster and then a dive with lots of ups and downs and craziness, you’ll have fun watching Mother!

For those of you who like deep meaning, you’ll find plenty to explore.

If You Like: Mark Felt…

…If you like history and based-on-fact movies, you will like Mark Felt. If you are as old as Cee, you’ll remember the Watergate and Iran/Contra Affair as if it were yesterday! If you’re as young as Kay, you’ll remember the events as part of the United States of America history. You might recall the informant known as “Deep Throat” who helped the journalists, Woodward and Bernstein, bring down the Nixon administration in the U.S. (Remember the movie All the President’s Men? Same history!) For over thirty years after Nixon resigned and the scandal had died away, no one knew that retired FBI Director Mark Felt was actually “Deep Throat.” There were rumours, of course, but he didn’t confirm his role until 2005. Liam Neeson is a great actor and he does a fabulous job as Mark Felt. He even looks like Felt’s Wikipedia picture! The story is fascinating, a glimpse into that time from another perspective. Mark Felt, as portrayed in the movie, was a dedicated agent who believed in the right and, indeed the responsibility, of the FBI to remain neutral from politics. He believed neutrality was the only path to objectively hunting down criminal activity. Mark Felt, the movie, seems even more relevant today. Kaycee predict you will like the film!

If You Like: Jo Nesbo’s The Snowman

If you like reading Jo Nesbo, then you’ll like The Snowman. Nesbo is a Norwegian best-selling author of crime novels, particularly the Harry Hole series. His plots are always complex and suspenseful, often with many layers and a twist (or two). The movie does the book justice. You definitely have to pay attention; there are lots of characters and plot twists. If you don’t know Harry Hole, you’ll be catching up on his odd quirks, too, which adds to the story.  Michael Fassbender does a great job in the role and is just how I pictured Harry. The setting of Oslo is spectacular. Some of Movie Junkie’s clients have said they didn’t like it, but Kaycee think that’s because they expected a class horror. This movie is a psychological thriller, with some gruesome scenes, but it’s not a horror. Some critics have called it “serviceable” but others say “watchable.” So the movie might not win awards, but Cee really liked it because she’s a huge Jo Nesbo fan. If you’re one those, you might like The Snowman a lot too. Or you’ll just have fun guessing who the perp is and watching Harry Hole.

If You Like: Thank You For Your Service…

If you like stories about war heroes, then you will like Thank You For Your Service. The movie centres on soldiers who have returned from the war in Iraq and their troubled adjustment to ordinary life. Nothing is sugar-coated or glorified. Kaycee liked that aspect very much. It’s a film to watch for both people who like history and action,  as well as those who like character development. Miles Teller is stunning in the lead role. The trailer gets it right: “A group of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq struggle to integrate back into family and civilian life, while living with the memory of a war that threatens to destroy them long after they’ve left the battlefield.” PS Jason Hall – who was Devon MacLeish in Buffy and the Vampire Slayer – also wrote the screenplay for American Sniper. He wrote and directed Thank You For Your Service, based on the book by David Finkel.

Come in to Movie Junkie, where everybody knows your name and what kind of movies you like! (Plus they’ll get you to try something different now and then.)

If You Like…A Place Where Everybody Knows Your Name…

…then you will like renting your movies from Movie Junkie! We thought it was worth repeating. If you like movies, but don’t want to stream illegally or have them lying around afterward collecting dust, or you don’t want to pay the cable companies an enormous amount of money, come to Movie Junkie. Mary and Kristen (aka Kay) will get to know you and your likes and dislikes, but they’ll also nudge you into trying some new gems.

For instance, The Killing of A Sacred Deer is worth watching for the mesmerizing performances. Here’s what the trailer on IMDB says: “Steven, a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behavior of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.” What they don’t tell you is that the film is weird, absorbing, a psychological thriller, with acting by Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman and Barry Keoghan that will have you staring at the screen despite the strangeness.

It’s also useful to know that the film was based on the Greek Myth, when King Agamemnon is forced to make a terrible sacrifice. We love this line from Robbie Collin, film critic: Sacred Deer “…slinks around your subconscious like a hungry panther, sniffing out soft bits to nip.”

American Made: If You Like…

…well, Tom Cruise, first of all. K does not, so she and C differ a bit on this one. C cannot get over the time she shook Tom’s hand at the Toronto International Film Festival. His eyes, she says, over and over again…

Anyway, back to American Made. Kaycee did have to admit it’s a good movie (despite or because of the Cruise factor, depending on you POV). It’s based on the true story of Barry Seal, an American pilot who became a drug-runner for the CIA in the 1980’s. Eventually the operation would become known as the Iran-Contra Affair. If you like history, you’ll like American Made, and if you like excitement and action, you’ll also like American Made. Yet it has a taste of character, too, with Barry Seal’s likeable personality gaining sympathy as a person who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and just made the best of it. He was a wheeler and a dealer, a crook ultimately, but somehow we have sympathy for him. The movie doesn’t go too deep, but it has high entertainment value.

Megan Leavey: If You Like

…stories based on true accounts of heroic actions, then you will like Megan Leavey. The title character is a young Marine corporal who has some issues of her own (at least in the movie version), which help her to understand and bond with a difficult-to-manage military combat dog. Rex is a gifted bomb-sniffing German Shepherd whose unique skills are paired with a somewhat grumpy personality.  Of course the movie is a Hollywood version of reality, but it’s well done. A frightening firefight; the PTSD Leavey suffers on her return – all depicted extremely well. Great acting by Kate Mara and a fabulous turn by Edie Falco as her difficult mother. This movie is heartwarming as well as inspiring!

Flatliners: If You Like…

…science fiction that crosses over into horror now and then for some good old-fashioned jolts of fear, then you’ll like the newly minted Flatliners. This is a decent remake that will appeal to mid/later teens and twenty-somethings. Those who have a nostalgia for the original might also like it. The acting is perhaps not as stellar as the original (how can you top Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts?…though Kiefer does have a minor role in the new one). Ellen Page is pretty great, however, and the special effects add to the startle factor.

The movie does have a moral to it, too, which appeals to most everyone.

 

 

 

Brawl in Cell Block 99: If You Like…

…Vince Vaughn. Extreme, pointless violence. Vince Vaughn. Grunts, Sling-blade talk, mushed-up body parts. Vince Vaughn. Revenge movies. Vince Vaughn. Then you might like Brawl. Seriously, many critics loved it. Kay and Cee did not. Jonathan Pile said: After a slow start, “the film starts to mutate from the gritty drama of its first hour, to a balls-out, grindhouse-inspired thrill-ride, where arms can be snapped in two and Don Johnson is a sadistic prison warden.” Jeanette Catsoulis in the NY Times, said, “Bradley, stripped to a single, galvanizing intention — to save his kidnapped wife (Jennifer Carpenter) and unborn daughter by killing a high-value inmate — never loses our sympathy.” Kay says it’s so over-the-top it’s ridiculous. Cee says it’s boring and icky. But hey, somebody out there likes it. Owen Gleiberman said: “…an audience of Euro swells in tuxedoes and five-inch heels gave the movie, and its star, a standing ovation. They were applauding the film’s — and Vaughn’s — conviction, as well as the vise-like grip of its how-dark-is-this-gonna-get? suspense.”

There you go. Kaycee doesn’t always get it right.