2018 – The Year of The Movie!

For Christmas last year, my lovely wife gave me a MoviePass card. For a while, I could see a movie every day! My mission was “to see a LOT” – for at least as long as the pass holds up. It didn’t last through May. I haven’t been able to see a film that I wanted to see with the pass since June. However, before then I saw many, and decided to take a swipe at being a critic. That turned into a “Oscars game” where I made an effort to see all, and write a review for all the movies nominated for the Best Picture category, then make my own picks prior to the awards show.  For years I have used the FLIXSTER app just to see the aggregated critic and user ratings from Rotten Tomatoes before deciding to spend my time and money on a film. I never read a review prior to watching, but often I read a few after to see what the justifications are. I continued this approach, integrating it into what I’ve written here. How did I do in the Oscars game? See for yourself…

My All-Time Favorite Films are:


All my reviews are below (click on the picture to read):

Ready Player One

Ready Player One

Unlike most of my other reviews, this one contains spoilers for the book and movie. I’m pretty angry and I need to crap out some examples.  This movie is extremely difficult to be objective about. I might give it a higher rating if I had not read and loved the book.

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Lady Bird

Lady Bird

My Rating: Teen angst. It's been done a million times. No, really, probably more than a million. From every Disney and Nickelodeon television show ever created, to all 50 years of Hollywood's productions I've been around for. Some are more...

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The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water has what I would dearly like to see more of from Hollywood: It has creative originality that isn’t afraid to punch your right in the face with its humor and bold handling of the human condition. I have to say, I think Michael Shannon absolutely steals the movie.

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Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour was the antithesis of Dunkirk. All character. All acting and story and about a man of deep character going through a transformation. After leaving the theater, having written the Dunkirk review just the day before, I had the great “if only” fantasy. If only I could take both films, mash them together, and edit the crap out of them – wow, what a movie that would be.

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Dunkirk

Dunkirk

I can understand why Dunkirk is nominated for best picture. It captures the mood and feel of a desperate situation in history as well as any movie ever has. The movie is fraught with tension and, I assume, is accurate enough, because with my knowledge of the war I was able to suspend my disbelief without conscious effort. There are two aspects that prevent me from saying it is great…

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Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

With all this accolade for the acting in the film, why such a low rating for a best picture nominee? I was entertained. I laughed at the jokes. I admired the characters and how they were played. It is because I walked out of the theater with three things really bothering me…

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Get Out

Get Out

Get Out is a slow cooked meal. It take’s some time to get things right, and then everything falls apart into surprisingly delicious pieces. What begins as…

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I loved BB! Support an old soldier and buy it!



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