Sunday, April 29, 2018

Movies of the Month {April}

Even though we were gone on our road trip for the first week of the month and in Boston for another week, we did our darnedest to take advantage of our MoviePass membership. Call me frugal (or even cheap... hey, ain't no shame - I own that title), but if we are paying $9.95 a person a month, I want to make sure we are getting our moneys worth! {FYI - On Tuesdays, our local theater movie tickets are discounted for $7 a piece, but otherwise the cheapest you can find is $10.70 for a matinee... which means if you go to more than one movie a month you are technically saving money!}


So, let's get into it already, shall we?! I mean, that's why you are visiting the blog today, right?! You all are sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to get our thoughts on the movies we saw... I guess you can call us the new Siskel and Ebert!


Blockers

The hubby and I saw the preview for this one a couple weeks ago and both chuckled a few times so figured it was worth heading to the theater to check out. With all of the van issues we had (in case you missed it, while on our three week road trip we ended up having to get it towed three times and at the end of the trip we actually had to rent a Uhaul and tow the van back down to Oceanside from the San Francisco area to get back home in time before leaving for Boston), we figured we needed some laughs. I was slightly worried that this would be a movie that "wasted" all of its good laughs and showed them all during the previews, but the hubby and I were both pleasantly surprised. We both laughed quite a bit (and what was even more amazing was there were two white-haired grandmas in the row in front of us who were busting a gut the entire time, which made us laugh even harder). Comedies are normally not the genre of movie I "have to" see in the theater, so I might be bias, but I'd say this is more of a rental. Don't get me wrong, we both enjoyed it, but there wasn't anything that required it to be seen on the BIG screen (like crazy awesome special effects or anything like that).

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The Miracle Season

I saw this was one on my own. It was the last day it was showing near us so I figured I'd hit it up while the hubby was working. In case you didn't hear about this movie (it didn't get a ton of press around here so it's very possible you didn't), it's an inspiring story about a volleyball team that rallies to the state championship after their star player is tragically killed. I was expecting your typical underdog type movie (which it sort of was), but the fact that it's based on a true story (and that at the end they showed pictures and videos from the real people involved) made it that much better. I don't know if it was due to the fact that I was overly tired from our last month of travel or was extra emotional from the Boston Marathon or if it was because the story somewhat reminded me of a friend who was killed in 2004, but whatever the case it had me feeling ALL THE FEELS... I wouldn't say it is an amazing film, but it tugs on the heart strings and leaves you with smile. I don't think it's a must-see (especially in the theater), but for YA drama it has a lot of heart and decent sports action.

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Isle of Dogs

The hubby LOVES Wes Anderson (like legitimacy loves him!), so when I saw the preview for this one a few months back I was stoked to tell him about it. It hit the theaters while we were out of town, but once we got back it was the first movie he wanted to see. We didn't realize beforehand, but this film is all done with stop-motion, which, in my mind, makes it that much more impressive (can you even imagine how long it takes to film a snippet of the movie?!)! It is crazy, but after a few minutes you sort of forget that the characters are talking dogs. The voices are from the standard Wes Anderson crew (Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, etc), but they really do seem to fit each pup and its personality. I'll be honest, I haven't looked at the reviews so I'm not 100% sure how the Japanese feels about the movie. I wouldn't say it's racist, but there were some parts that seemed to play into cultural stereotypes. Even still, both the hubby and I really enjoyed this one and I'm sure the DVD will end up in our collection once it comes out (just like all of the other Wes Anderson films)!

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I Feel Pretty

Let me preface this by saying I love Amy Schumer! I went in wanting to LOVE this movie. I thought it could be all about body positivity, learning to love yourself, etc. And although there were glimmers of that throughout the movie (and there were definitely some funny parts), I was left feeling a little sad. At times I felt like her weight/ body was truly being laughed at instead of being celebrated. In the end, as I'm sure you can guess, she realizes that she had the confidence within herself the whole time (and that she can still love herself while working to become a better version of herself), but there were parts here and there that made me cringe. Amy's character was way too shallow for me to really root for and I was left feeling like the movie just missed the mark. I wouldn't say I hated it, but I had high expectations of what it could be and I walked out of the theater feeling disappointed that it was a misfire for me (and maybe that was my fault for expecting more than a typical rom-com filled with cliches and some humor sprinkled throughout, but I was really puling for it!).

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Ready Player One

I had actually heard about this one a few months back when I was asking for book recommendations and a few folks mentioned the title. When they explained what it was, I decided Sci-Fi wasn't really my thing so opted against grabbing it from the library. The hubby and I saw the trailer for this one a couple months back, and although I passed on the book, I figured I could spend a couple hours watching the movie (especially since Steven Spielberg was the director and he normally puts out some legit films). Like I said, Sci-Fi isn't really my jam, but surprisingly I really enjoyed this one. I'm not much of a gamer, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to follow everything (and some stuff may have went over my head), but for the most part it was entertaining even if you aren't normally a part of that world. I really enjoyed all of the retro nostalgia throughout the film too. It's pretty crazy how much CG was used (and how fast paced everything was), but I was still engaged and drawn into the Oasis world. Now I think I might need to go back and read the book (because, if I'm being honest, I think books are 99.95% of the time better than the movies so I bet the book is worth the read).

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A Quiet Place

The hubby wanted to see this one and promised (after hearing feedback from others) that it wasn't scary... just suspenseful (because I do NOT do scary movies). I had seen some previews for it, so sort of knew the premise (creatures attacked when they heard sound). I have to say, I went in with fairly high expectations because a lot of folks I had talked to said they really liked it. And although I did enjoy it (I felt like it was an original idea, the lack of dialog was interesting while still keeping you engaged, etc), I had a HUGE issue with the movie... I felt as though the previews I had seen gave away too much of the movie. For example, there were a couple suspenseful parts where it seems like one of the characters may have been attacked, but yet I remember seeing a preview with said character in a different scene, which tells me they didn't die... With those unintentional spoilers I was left slightly disappointed because I couldn't fully buy in to the suspense.

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And with that our April movies have come to an end. This month was definitely fewer films than the previous couple but that's because the first week of the month we were still on our road trip and then we were in Boston for a long weekend as well. I was able to see 6 movies while the hubby saw 4. Even still, with our MoviePass membership, my movies cost approximately $1.66 a viewing and the hubby's were $2.49 - still a MAJOR savings compared to actual box office prices!

What was the last movie you saw in the theater?

1 comment:

Anne said...

Holy moley! We were living in Iowa City the year that Caroline was killed, and it was awful. I knew and worked with people whose kids knew her, played with her, etc. She was so, so loved. And such a wonderful person. I'm so glad they made this movie - I wish more people knew this story!