Author: James Hathaway

Good morning all!

We are all packed and about to leave for the airport and our flight home to San Francisco this afternoon.  It has been a wonderful summer!

Please see below a special single movie review.  This film is so good we didn’t want to wait.  We will be busy with mail, packages, unpacking and a backlog of activities so we decided this movie is worthy of its own posting.

Let us know what you think.  We send you all our best wishes!!  J&J

BlacKkKlansman

Talk about timely!  Coinciding with the Washington DC march yesterday and the one year anniversary of Charlottesville, this brilliant movie by Spike Lee is sure to be nominated for several awards when the season comes around.  It already won the Grand Prix at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival!

It is intelligent and provocative.  It is intense and carefully based on true events.  It is deliberately a dark comedy in contrast to the absurd reality.

The acting is paramount in the success of this production.  Leading man John David Washington and Adam Driver give great performances.  Alec Baldwin, Robert John Burke are also excellent.  It was also great seeing Harry Belafonte in a bit role.

Audiences and critics agree this is great film making.  The genre is noted as Biography, Drama, Comedy, Crime.  It is Rated R for strong language throughout, including racial epithets and disturbing /violent material and some sexual references.  We feel viewers should be at least 14 years old unless they are well aware of current and historical racism.

Run time is 135 minutes.  DO NOT MISS THIS MOVIE!

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Spy Who Dumped Me

This film is…goofy, surprisingly funny, clever, jarring and ultimately still goofy.  Best friends Audrey and Morgan stumble onto an international conspiracy that takes them on a wild ride to Europe.

The acting is quite good for the most part.  Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon are perfect as the American want-to-be-spies.  Sam Heughan and Justin Theroux play the professional operatives.  Other notable actors include: Ivanna Sakhno, Gillian Anderdson, Kev Adams, Hasan Minhaj, Genevieve Mc Carthy, Lolly Adefope and Paul Riser.

Audiences and Critics have been all over the board on this one.  We decided the acting quality and the delightful story line was quite good and worth the look.  Mind you it drifts from time to time but overall it is well acted and well produced.

It is rated R for violence (a lot of violence), language, some crude sexual material and graphic nudity.  That said, it is listed as an Action & Adventure, Comedy.  The run time is a whopping 116 minutes.  It is NOT suitable for children.

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Eighth Grade

It is the perfect time to write this review.  The venue last night, Ruyi, a family favorite Chinese/Japanese Restaurant in the Potawatomie Casino where the family got together for dinner, a little gambling and a chat about the movie.  The group included Great Grandparents, Kay and Howard, daughter Jennifer and husband Matthew, John and Jim, and nephew Aaron.

The obvious topic was about the newly released film Eighth Grade.  The banter immediately shifted to the fact that the film could not be seen by the youngsters whom the film was based on, Eighth Graders!

In prepping for this writing, we discovered A24, the movie’s distributor offered free screening of the film to all teenagers…AUGUST 8th in ONE theater in each state, ratings waived!

In Wisconsin, that theater was in Mequon (where our family lives), 7:00 PM.

In California, that theater was the recently renovated and reinvented as an entertainment complex, Alamo Drafthouse Mission in San Francisco, 7:40 PM.

All that said, we found the film to be pretty much on target.  It was fair, realistic, authentic, relatable and a heartwarming reminder to all of us what 8th Grade is/was like.

It has a compact cast.  Elsie Fisher plays the lead Kayla.  Josh Hamilton is the single Dad.  Emily Robinson, Jake Ryan, Daniel Zolghadri, Fred Hechinger and several more play the young students.

Critics and audiences give this film very high scores.  That said, many friends and fellow travelers think it is much ado about nothing.  We think it is a valuable reminder of what it was like for each of us, empathize with those growing through it now, and the comfort we’ll never have those feelings again.

It’s rated R for language and some sexual content.  It is listed as a comedy and runs 94 minutes.

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The Meg

The Meg stands for Megalodon, a prehistoric ‘super shark’ that was bigger, faster, smarter than today’s sharks.  We were surprised to learn the first tier Director, Jon Turteltaub of National Treasure and the author Dean Georgaris of the Lara Croft franchise collaborated with Warner Bros. Pictures in creating this film.

We are pretty sure the film was crafted to become a global release given its list of stars.  Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Winston Chao, Page Kennedy, Jessica McName, Olafur Darris Olafsson, Robert Taylor, Sophia Cai, Masi Oka and Cliff Curtis.

It was filmed initially in London and later in Hawaii.  Audiences are all over the board on this movie.  The super shark is really the star here.  The story drifts from one shark cliche to the next.  It turns quite gruesome and violent.  It becomes mostly predictable, almost slap stick in the last third.  Time will tell the fate of this one.

It is rated PG-13 for action/peril, bloody images and some language.  We do not recommend this film for younger viewers.  It is listed as Action & Adventure, Horror (It is!), Science Fiction & Fantasy.  The run time is 114 minutes.

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Christopher Robin

This is an interesting twist in the Winnie the Pooh series of movies.  Mostly because the focus is not so much on Pooh as it is on Christopher Robin, now an adult with an important business responsibility.  It toggles back and forth between Pooh’s world and Christopher Robin’s world.

The cast is talented.  Ewan McGregor plays Christopher Robin, Jim Cummings is Pooh.  Peter Garrett is Rabbit and Toby Jones plays both Piglet and Owl.  Brad Garrett is Eeyore.  Bronte Carmichael plays Madelline Robin and Wyatt Dean Hall plays Roo.

Reviews have been mixed.  We enjoyed it and found it to be pleasant, creative in the way it bridged adult and children’s subject matter.

It is rated PG for some action.  (We’re not sure what that meant.)  It is appropriately listed as Action & Adventure, Comedy, Kids & Family.  The run time is 2 hours.

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The Darkest Minds

This film has an odd but uniquely poignant message.  Suddenly the world’s teens develop new and varied abilities that are viewed by the government as a threat, prompting detainment camps and such.  It’s an extreme concept.  It is also creative, challenging and often quite dark.

The predominately young cast is quite impressive. Amandla Stenberg and Harris Dickinson give solid lead performances along with Mark O’Brien and Patrick Gibson.  Also noteworthy are Skylan Brooks and McCarrie McCausland as youngsters with unique powers.

What is challenging to follow as a viewer is whose bad, good and otherwise.  That varies wildly.  It’s both unique and confusing at the same time.  Our guess is this will be appealing to audiences and we are likely to see a sequel or two.

Reviews have been tepid at best.  We liked it and think the messaging and undercurrent deserve consideration.  It is rated PG-13 for violence, disturbing images and thematic elements.  It is listed as a Mystery & Suspense, Science Fiction/Fantasy.  Run time is 105 minutes.

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Three Identical Strangers

How often is a documentary film interesting and compelling and intriguing all at the same time?  It’s also thought provoking and shocking concurrently.

We won’t give away the story but consider this:  it is a true story about identical triplets given up for adoption at birth.  Two decades later they are reunited.

What is fascinating is the story behind the story.  The three brothers, Robert Shafran, Edward Galland and David Kellman play themselves (though one is shown in archive footage only).

This film has already received global attention along with a fair amount of disturbing repercussions.  It is rated PG-13 for some mature thematic material.  It is listed as a Documentary with a run time of 96 minutes.

Be warned, some of the subject matter is intense and difficult to watch.  Nonetheless if this movie is appealing to you, we encourage your viewing.  It’s about real people, their incredible life experiences and the potential impact for all of us.

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Hi Everyone!!

Lots to share today.  We safely returned to the lake from our road trip this last Sunday.  1349 miles in six nights, 7 days.

It was a great trip with good weather, relatively mild temps, lots of discoveries, incredible land and water scapes.  Above average food and lots of friendly people.

Since we are current on the movie front, there wasn’t much out there to see while on the road.  That said, we did pick up a few movies this week.  All three are good and worthy of an audience.

Enjoy,  J&J

Don’t Worry, He Wont Get Far on Foot

This is an unusual film about unusual people with some serious issues, mostly alcohol.  It hosts a great cast including Joaquin Phoenix, Jonah Hill, Rooney Mara and Jack Black.  There is not a lot to like about these characters but oddly enough there is compelling material here to give one pause for contemplation.

That said, there is not a lot to like about this film.  It is an unpleasant topic with unpleasant characters.  Yes, life sometimes delivers horrible circumstances to some people.  That shouldn’t be a license to be mean, cynical or abusive.

It’s rated R for language throughout, sexual content, some nudity and alcohol abuse.  It is listed as a drama/comedy (but we did not find much to laugh about).  It is absolutely NOT appropriate for younger viewers.  The run time is 113 minutes.

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Mission: Impossible Fallout

The Mission: Impossible movies have been a long time popular series, beyond popular with the public for good reason.  The title alone speaks volumes to audiences.  Now after listening for more, Fallout, the sixth film of the franchise delivers its biggest, boldest, intensity from beginning to end.

The 12 leading characters are played by a who’s who of films.  Tom Cruise of course is the leader of the pack.  Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Cavill, Vanessa Kirby, Sean Harris, Michele Monaghan, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Angela Basset, Wes Bentley, Alec Baldwin, Alix Benezech, Frederick Schmidt and Joey Ansah fill the leading characters, good, bad and otherwise.

The good news is it’s a great story at a great time played by a great cast with a talented production team.  There is just enough new, mostly action sequences, to rally audiences.

We cannot imagine how this film was rated PG-13 given the level of violence, extensive sequences of intense violence and its strong language.  Most critics liked/loved this film more than we did, so we will leave it to audiences to make their own conclusions.

It’s listed as an Action & Adventure, Drama, Mystery & Suspense.  It runs a hefty 147 minutes.

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Blindspotting

Rarely does a film speak with such integrity, raw truth, insight and honesty about cultural reality.  It’s not perfect but it is laser focused on the impact of modern gentrification and its fallout on racial dynamics.

Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal are terrific as the leading characters.  Oh, by the way, they also produced the film and wrote the screenplay!  The next dozen actors are equally effective in their roles.

Make no mistake, this film is provocative by design.  It’s set in Oakland, CA.  It is also about friendship, trust, identity, and family.

It is Rated R for language, some brutal violence, sexual references and drug use.  It is listed as a Comedy, Drama running 95 minutes.  We were surprised to be only two people in an audience of five.    We will predict now there will be Oscar nominations for this film.  Stay tuned.

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