Hospital Bed Movie Reviews
Jan. 10th, 2024 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cjlasky7When you're trapped in a hospital bed and hooked up to a heart monitor, you have plenty of time to watch movies on the little TV attached to your food table. I watched five(!) movies in between blood pressure measurements, blood extractions and little jaunts around the hallways with a physical therapist.
So here is my quintet of capsule reviews:
Elemental is Pixar writer/director Peter Sohn's tribute to his Korean immigrant parents; so I kinda hate to say that the whole "immigrant experience" aspect of the movie didn't hold my interest. We've seen the "daughter caught between heritage and her own path" done better in Moana; I found the Mom's old world superstitions more annoying than charming; and Ashba (the Dad) just seemed like a jerk. (I also thought the urban melting pot of Element City was a lesser version of Zootopia.)
The love story was okay, even though Wade was something of a... drip. (Sorry.) But I loved some of the visual flourishes: Wade taking Amber underwater to see the vivisteria; Wade literally starting the Wave at the stadium, and all the details in the family's shop. Not bad, but it didn't tug my heartstrings in the usual Pixar way. (All right--the father/daughter exchange of bows at end did get to me a little...)
Super Mario Brothers was a LOT better than the live-action disaster of a few decades back; animation is the perfect medium for Mario and Luigi's candy-colored video game universe and the script was just smart enough to give the various iconic characters room to stretch out and get laughs. Chris Pratt and Charlie Day were merely adequate as the brothers, but they had great backup from Seth Rogan as a peevish Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as DK's cranky dad, Anya Taylor-Joy as a feisty Princess Peach and especially Jack Black as the lovesick supervillain. (His simple but passionate ode to PP might even get an Oscar nod!)
Even better: Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is an IP-driven movie perfectly disguised as an original fantasy adventure. If you didn't know the source material, you'd be impressed by the world building and the well-defined central characters. Not a dud performance in the bunch: Chris Pine as the world-weary thief with a heart of gold; Michelle Rodriguez as his loyal barbarian sidekick; Justice Smith as the second-rate wizard; and Hugh Grant, in yet another terrific turn as a thoroughly charming and despicable asshole. Witty yet heartfelt script, stuffed with references to the game; but really, you don't need to know D&D to enjoy this. (Needs a sequel!)
The Matrix: Resurrections isn't so much a new Matrix movie as a commentary on the Matrix phenomenon by one of its creators. (And if Lana Wachowski wants to comment on her great creation, who are we to call it "a footnote" or "derivative"?) The first part of the movie was fun meta hijinks, as video game genius Thomas Anderson (Keanu) was forced by corporate master Warner Brothers (heh) to consider programming a sequel to his best selling trilogy (guess). There was a hilarious brainstorming session at video game HQ, where truly awful sequel ideas and corporate buzzwords were thrown at an increasingly nauseous Keanu.
Once Thomas took the red pill again, though, it was pretty much standard Matrix gravity-defying, kung fu action. Jonathon Groff and Yahya Abdul-Mateen were fine as new incarnations of Agent Smith and Morpheus, and Neil Patrick Harris NPH-ed all over the place as Thomas' suspiciously reassuring therapist. But the meta stuff felt fresher to me, an attempt to give the Matrix a modern context in an age it sort of helped create. (Still...it was great seeing Carrie Anne Moss shake off her blue pill fantasy and kick ass as Trinity again.)
Finally, I think Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania got a bit of a raw deal from the critics. Is it perfect? No. But the relationships between parents and children (Hank/Janet and Hope, Scott and Cassie) were well served here and Jonathan Majors was a truly fearsome Kang. (Too bad he turned out to be a creep.) Could it have been a little less Star Wars-y? Sure. But who says these characters don't work in a more elaborate sci-fi context? Do we miss Michael Pena's Luis that much? (I don't.) Is developing the love story between Scott and Hope that important? (It's never worked for me.) So, yeah, even though this was wildly different from the first two movies, it had enough of what worked in those first two movies to be entertaining. JMO.
So here is my quintet of capsule reviews:
Elemental is Pixar writer/director Peter Sohn's tribute to his Korean immigrant parents; so I kinda hate to say that the whole "immigrant experience" aspect of the movie didn't hold my interest. We've seen the "daughter caught between heritage and her own path" done better in Moana; I found the Mom's old world superstitions more annoying than charming; and Ashba (the Dad) just seemed like a jerk. (I also thought the urban melting pot of Element City was a lesser version of Zootopia.)
The love story was okay, even though Wade was something of a... drip. (Sorry.) But I loved some of the visual flourishes: Wade taking Amber underwater to see the vivisteria; Wade literally starting the Wave at the stadium, and all the details in the family's shop. Not bad, but it didn't tug my heartstrings in the usual Pixar way. (All right--the father/daughter exchange of bows at end did get to me a little...)
Super Mario Brothers was a LOT better than the live-action disaster of a few decades back; animation is the perfect medium for Mario and Luigi's candy-colored video game universe and the script was just smart enough to give the various iconic characters room to stretch out and get laughs. Chris Pratt and Charlie Day were merely adequate as the brothers, but they had great backup from Seth Rogan as a peevish Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as DK's cranky dad, Anya Taylor-Joy as a feisty Princess Peach and especially Jack Black as the lovesick supervillain. (His simple but passionate ode to PP might even get an Oscar nod!)
Even better: Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is an IP-driven movie perfectly disguised as an original fantasy adventure. If you didn't know the source material, you'd be impressed by the world building and the well-defined central characters. Not a dud performance in the bunch: Chris Pine as the world-weary thief with a heart of gold; Michelle Rodriguez as his loyal barbarian sidekick; Justice Smith as the second-rate wizard; and Hugh Grant, in yet another terrific turn as a thoroughly charming and despicable asshole. Witty yet heartfelt script, stuffed with references to the game; but really, you don't need to know D&D to enjoy this. (Needs a sequel!)
The Matrix: Resurrections isn't so much a new Matrix movie as a commentary on the Matrix phenomenon by one of its creators. (And if Lana Wachowski wants to comment on her great creation, who are we to call it "a footnote" or "derivative"?) The first part of the movie was fun meta hijinks, as video game genius Thomas Anderson (Keanu) was forced by corporate master Warner Brothers (heh) to consider programming a sequel to his best selling trilogy (guess). There was a hilarious brainstorming session at video game HQ, where truly awful sequel ideas and corporate buzzwords were thrown at an increasingly nauseous Keanu.
Once Thomas took the red pill again, though, it was pretty much standard Matrix gravity-defying, kung fu action. Jonathon Groff and Yahya Abdul-Mateen were fine as new incarnations of Agent Smith and Morpheus, and Neil Patrick Harris NPH-ed all over the place as Thomas' suspiciously reassuring therapist. But the meta stuff felt fresher to me, an attempt to give the Matrix a modern context in an age it sort of helped create. (Still...it was great seeing Carrie Anne Moss shake off her blue pill fantasy and kick ass as Trinity again.)
Finally, I think Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania got a bit of a raw deal from the critics. Is it perfect? No. But the relationships between parents and children (Hank/Janet and Hope, Scott and Cassie) were well served here and Jonathan Majors was a truly fearsome Kang. (Too bad he turned out to be a creep.) Could it have been a little less Star Wars-y? Sure. But who says these characters don't work in a more elaborate sci-fi context? Do we miss Michael Pena's Luis that much? (I don't.) Is developing the love story between Scott and Hope that important? (It's never worked for me.) So, yeah, even though this was wildly different from the first two movies, it had enough of what worked in those first two movies to be entertaining. JMO.
