During the winter break that just ended, CootieGirl and I (with occasional guests such as Denis and our son) took advantage of her lightening work schedule to catch up on our movie watching. I saw more movies in the last three weeks than I have the last five months! Let’s talk about them…
Jumanji: The Next Level
In a phrase: I loved it. We all did. It was very similar to the first, but yet was different enough to make it not be a typical duplicate sequel. Kevin Hart, in particular, was fabulous in his much more toned down role, and Jack Black showed off his tremendous versatility. I loved the new characters that were introduced, and I thought it was wise to have the characters playing a completely different game level than what we saw in the first movie. All in all, a fun movie and I will definitely purchase it on Blu-Ray when it comes out.
Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker
I’ll state up front that I fell asleep during the middle of this movie. But I do that in the middle of EVERY Star Wars movie. CootieBoy wasn’t happy (since I was sitting next to him), and kept elbowing me in the side to wake me up. Despite my mini-nap in the middle, I liked the movie just fine. I’m not a Star Wars nut, so I won’t quibble about details like the fact the movie veers away from every plot point The Last Jedi established, diminished certain characters to only walk-ons, or brought back a character that was dead. And I won’t argue about whether or not Kylo Ren is a character that can be redeemed. I watch Star Wars movies as popcorn movies, and as a popcorn movie it was enjoyable. What I saw of it, anyway. 😉
Knives Out
This was a very well done mystery with a pretty incredible cast. I’ve heard a rumor that there are talks about bringing back Daniel Craig’s character for a SERIES of mystery movies. That would be amazing because this movie was FABULOUS. CootieGirl and I saw it and we both really enjoyed its creativity and storytelling. The actors were all fantastic, and it would be very easy to make a series of Benoit Blanc movies in the future. I’d go see them!
JoJo Rabbit
I heard good things about this movie, those good things were entirely true. This is a quirky movie about a little boy in Nazi Germany. He is a faithful Nazi, but quite useless in his Nazi training despite his imaginary best friend being none other than Adolf Hitler himself (played by Taika Watiti, who also directed and wrote this black comedy). When Jojo discovers that his mother is hiding a Jew in the walls of the house, Jojo must decide whether he should be a good Nazi, or a good human being. Skillful and witty, this movie (and ESPECIALLY Roman Griffin Davis in the title role) was much more enjoyable than I expected.
Little Women
I worried about all the praise this movie was getting, but it was all for naught. This movie was FANTASTIC. I had to talk CG into going to see it – she initially balked – but she admitted that she liked it once the closing credits began to roll. ***SPOILER AHEAD – STOP READING THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON’T KNOW HOW THIS BOOK/MOVIE ENDS*** However, I will NEVER forgive her for LAUGHING when Beth died. Really, she was laughing at ME crying when Beth died, but she very inappropriately began laughing nonetheless. Heartless fiend that she is.
We saw some GREAT movies – not a single bad one in the bunch.
In other movie-related news, my Christmas gift to myself was a new 4K Blu-Ray player and soundbar. Our former Blu-Ray player was built into our dying 12-year-old receiver, which needed replacing. I hopped onto the Crutchfields website and located a decently priced soundbar and 4K Blu-Ray player that I shipped to the house just prior to the holidays. It was a joy to toss out that old receiver once and for all! The new soundbar is a JBL with a subwoofer and is pretty terrific, with the receiver functions built into it. I was able to seamless connect the new equipment to my fancy remote control, and ALL IS WELL.
CG’s job is now shut down until at least March, so we have two more months to go see some movies because her weekends are all taken again. Hopefully we can catch some more good ones before they leave the theaters.
