Thoughts on 5 Films

1. 6 Underground - This is extremely "my shit". I swear sometimes Michael Bay makes movies just to make me smile. This movie is just bat-shit insane and I loved every minute of it (as you can see from my previous post of my Best Films of 2019 post. For the record, I highly doubt it will be on my list once I've seen everything I want to see). There are two (minor) issues I have with the movie - one, I'm not the biggest Ryan Reynolds fan (he's wonderful in Deadpool and I think I liked him once before but I can't remember what movie). I would have loved this movie even more if it starred someone I enjoyed more. And two, *spoiler, but who cares, it's a Michael Bay movie*, my favorite actor in the whole movie fuckin' dies in the first action sequence. There's a huge success with the actresses in the movie, though. I didn't think I could possibly love Melanie Laurent any more than I already do, but the fact that she even agreed to be in a Michael Bay movie, and she seemed like she was having the time of her life - I'm officially head over heels. And Adria Arjona is absolutely fucking stunning. As a group, the 6 actors all work really well together. I would love to watch endless sequels.

2. The Peanut Butter Falcon - Absolutely adorable movie (and another one that made it to my Best of list, but probably won't be there for long). I really hope it's time everyone forgives Shia? I think he's redeemed himself. I've adored him for many years (since he was in one of my all-time favorite indie movies A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. He's incredible in it.). He's one of those actors that has such an interesting presence on-screen. And it seems completely natural. The movie is a really cute story about a young man with Down Syndrome who is stuck in a retirement facility because he's part of "the system" (and the system sucks), who dreams of going to wrestling school to be trained by his favorite wrestler. He escapes the facility and the adventure begins. I really liked Dakota Johnson in this, which is great because I want to like her (she was just so awful in those 50 Shades movies). She seems sweet. There is really great chemistry between her and Shia. It's just one of those movies that you'll smile all the way through.

3. Ad Astra - This is a two-parter for me. The first part is practically sublime. I was in awe. Then, as the second part begins, it quickly turns into the most boring, mind-numbing, repetitive, predictable garbage. I mean, it's harsh to call it garbage, because it's still extraordinary to look at, but the story is just...UGH. It reminds me a little bit of the tv show The First with Sean Penn (anyone else watch that? no? such a shame, it was pretty good) because it deals more with the psychology of space travel instead of the science of it, and the pace of it is pretty similar. Overall, I did like the movie - it's a solid 3 star movie, but it just starts off so, so, great and then quickly goes nowhere. I will say, though, Brad Pitt, at 56, can get it. He looks just as good as he did in Se7en and that came out 25 fucking years ago! That scene when he has that white long sleeve t-shirt on, I almost died. I don't know why guys wear anything other than a white t-shirt, honestly. Between this and Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood, it would seem my crush on Brad is back in full-force.

4. Brittany Runs a Marathon - Cute, inspirational story about getting your shit together. I think anyone can relate - even if you can't relate directly to the weight part, it's about getting healthy and taking control of your life. I'm not going to pretend that I can relate to her particular weight issue because I am in the opposite category - as in I'm under-weight. I fully admit that it's far more acceptable in our society to be too thin (even if it's just as unhealthy), however, I don't think I've ever gone through a day of human interaction without someone mentioning my weight to me ("oh my god you're so skinny!", "do you eat?", "you need to eat something", "ugh I wish I could eat what you're eating", "you're only eating a salad? no wonder you're so skinny", and my personal favorite is from my mother "what if you get Cancer? you won't be able to handle chemo unless you have some fat on you"). It's exhausting. Anyway, I think this movie will stick with me for a little while - and hopefully motivate my lazy ass to take care of myself. Also, the "Debbie does" joke made me laugh out loud. I'm still laughing just thinking about it. Jillian Bell is a delight.

5. It: Chapter Two - Quite possibly the longest movie of my life. It's also extremely terrible. After an hour and a half, I thought to myself, "well, this is really bad, but it will be over soon", only to realize that I still had another hour and 20 minutes!! I LOST MY SHIT. What? Who had the terrible idea to make this movie almost 3 HOURS LONG? I can't believe I'm complaining about a movie starring James McAvoy being too long, but even he couldn't save this atrocity. I honestly can't even say one nice thing about it. The plot is ridiculous, it's not even close to being scary, the themes are cliche, the dialogue is extremely cheesy and overall it's just a terrible, terrible movie (how many times can I write "terrible" in one paragraph?). I didn't really enjoy the first one, but I didn't think it was terrible (5, apparently). It was just kind of dull and not as great as everyone made it out to be. This movie, though, is complete garbage. I'm done even thinking about it. I'm officially wiping it from my memory.