John Wick (2014)

I got the DVD out of the library in preparation for John Wick 3.  (I’ll be seeing John Wick Chapter 2 in the next few days.)  the story is very action oriented.  There‘s an XKCD where two characters are discussing Summer blockbusters.  One laments that there haven’t been any good action films.  At best, the films were at least 60% non-action.  While John Wick isn’t River Tam Beats Up Everyone, it’s probably the closest I’ve seen so far.

The movie starts with the title character grieving for the loss of his wife.  In anticipation of her death, Helen Wick arranged to have a puppy named Daisy delivered to John after her death.  She knew that the only other thing in this world that he paid attention to was his car.  The puppy would allow him to have someone there for him as he grieved.

Enter Iosef Tarasov.  He’s the entitled son of mob boss Viggo Tarasov.  When Iosef sees Johns nice, shiny car, Iosef wants it.  John rebukes Iosef, which ;leads to Iosef breaking into John’s house one night.  Iosef steals the car and kills Daisy.   Normally, this might be the end of the story, but John Wick used to work for Viggo as a hit man.  As Viggo points out, John’s not the bogeyman.  He’s the one you send after the bogeyman.  That’s who Iosef pissed off.

The rest of the movie is John seeking revenge on Iosef.  Viggo tries desperately to protect his son, including putting out a $2,000,000 bounty on John’s head.  Viggo has essentially sentenced his entire organization to death.  Anyone who gets in John’s way is shot.  Both of the people who take the contract also end up dead, even though one is John’s friend.  (I suspect that John Wick will be the only one who will make his way to Chapter 2.)

The world that John lived in is pretty complete.  There’s even a cleaning crew that takes ‘dinner reservations’ when bodies need to be disposed of.  Services are paid for in gold coins.  There’s even a hotel where hit men can rest without fear of being killed.

I suppose if you’re going to do a movie like this, you’d better do it well.  I didn’t really have many issues with the movie that weren’t to be expected.  Yes, it’s cliché when one person manages to kill dozens of armed people that are chasing him, but John Wick is supposed to be that good.  I was a little surprised that he didn’t sleep with a gun under his pillow.  (Granted, he wasn’t expecting someone to break into his house, but still…)

My only other question deals with the end of the movie and I’ll probably have it answered shortly.  I don’t want to ask it here so as to not potentially ruin the ending.  However, I may ask it in the next review if the answer isn’t clear.

I would say watch this movie only if you like very violent stories.  Consider the death count.

IMDb page

Aquaman (2018)

I remember watching Heroes and thinking how awesome the superpowers were.  People could fly or read minds.  Everything was extremely useful.  No one had a really crappy superpower.  Some of them came close towards the end.  But, there was no one that had, say, the ability to press clothing as their power.  It’s like, “Great.  Hiro can travel through time and Claire can regenerate.  On the bright side, at least I never have to buy an iron.”

I kind of wonder if Aquaman started out as a conversation along those lines.  Don’t get me wrong.  Being able to talk to fish might be cool and all, but I think the novelty might wear off after a while.  I’d also never be able to enjoy salmon again.  I went into the movie wondering what the most recent take on the character would look like.

It looks a lot like National Treasure.  Think about it:  A man of important lineage has to go on a hunt for a special item/set of items while being chased by a bad guy.  If he gets the item, which we know he will, it will alter the course of events, presumably for the better.

That’s basically it.  If you’ve seen the coming attractions, you know the plotline.  Aquaman, a.k.a. Arthur Curry, was born to a land-dwelling father and a sea-dwelling queen.  He eventually has to reconcile his aquatic heritage by defeating his half-brother.  To do so, he must find a special trident.

Sure, there are some great fight scenes and the CGI was at least halfway decent.  (Although, there were a few shots that looked a little off to me.)  Still, it wasn’t a great movie.  It was almost like it was written by a brooding teenager.  The movie wants to be taken seriously, but anyone trying to take the movie seriously is like, “Nope.”

One thing that kept bothering me was Arthur’s trident.  What’s wrong with the trident?  It has five points.  Aren’t tridents, by definition, supposed to have three points?  Every time I saw it, it stood out.  I think it was supposed to look cool or something.

That was the thing. The movie seemed to be all show and spectacle.  There seemed to be very little substance.  The movie was an excuse to string together scenery, CGI and fight scenes.  It was enjoyable, but it was the least enjoyable of the superhero movies so far.  I’m kind of hoping that if Aquaman comes back to the big screen, it’s part of the Justice League.  It’s going to take a while to write a better standalone movie for him.

IMDb page

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

A few months ago, my mother found out about a program called Moviepass.  It allows you to watch movies, in a theater, for $9.95 per month.  It’s somewhat complicated and the details really aren’t important right now.  What’s important was that my parents and I all signed up last week.  Our first movie?  Murder on the Orient Express.  We needed something that we’d all agree on, which basically meant this or The Man Who Invented Christmas.

The movie is based on the Agatha Christie novel, as you might expect.  It starts with Hercule Poirot in Jerusalem solving a crime by proving it wasn’t any of the three main suspects.  He ends up on the Orient Express through a friend that works on the train.  It isn’t long before the train finds itself snowed in…and with a murder victim.

You’d think it would be easy.  The train is trapped between towns, making escape difficult.  It should just be a matter of figuring out who’s connected to the victim.  Well, it turns out that most of the other passengers had some connection to him.  You see, Edward Ratchett kidnapped a child who subsequently died.  If a suspect didn’t know the child, they at least knew someone who knew the child or the family.  What we get is a moderate procedural.  Poirot asks questions of the suspects and gathers clues.  At the end of the movie, he’s able to gather everyone together and work out the solution.

Having the movie on a train does make for cramped quarters.  Everyone has a room and a narrow hallway to pass each other.  This makes for the use of a few overhead shots.  There were also a few times where I noticed the use of a wide-angle lens.  (It tended to be evident as much with motion as it did with people sitting on the edge of the frame.)

The pacing seemed a little slow to me.  It’s not to say that it dragged at all, but there were times that I was wondering when the next bit of action was coming.  I don’t know that anything could have been cut.  It just seemed drawn out.  I think this has more to do with what I’m used to than anything else.  The accents tended to be more of a problem for me.  There were one or two scenes where subtitles might have helped, but it didn’t really stop me from following the movie.

I think this is one of those movies that most people will be able to judge for themselves whether or not they’ll like it.  Agatha Christie is well known, as are many of the actors.  There didn’t seem to be many surprises.  From what I’ve read, the movie follows the novel pretty closely with one or two exceptions.  I would say that if you do go to see the movie, it’s probably going to be either because you like Christie or you’re going to see it with a group, like I did.  Not being someone who’s read her work, I’d say that it’s middle of the road.  It’s enjoyable, but had it not been for Moviepass, I probably would have waited for this movie to become available on Netflix.

IMDb page

Finding Nemo (2003)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Marlin and Coral, two clownfish, are going to be parents. They have several hundred baby clownfish on the way and Marlin wants to name half Marlin Jr. and the other half Coral Jr. They’ve just moved into a great neighborhood and have great neighbors. Unfortunately, a big fish comes along and eats Coral and all but one of the eggs. Marlin names the one remaining fish Nemo, which is what Coral had wanted.

The next scene is Marlin getting Nemo ready for school. Marlin is understandably protective of Nemo. Nemo is his only child and has a lame fin, too. (Marlin tells Nemo that it’s his ‘lucky’ fin.) It’s a tense moment for Marlin having to let go, but Nemo’s excited. He can’t wait to get out and see things. The trouble is that Nemo’s going to a part of the ocean that Marlin considers dangerous. Marlin arrives just in time to see Nemo heading out towards a boat.

This is where the action begins. Nemo, in an act of defiance, goes all the way out to the boat to show everyone that he can do it. On the way back, he gets captured by a diver. Everyone else manages to get to safety, but Marlin has lost his son. He has to go and find him. Along the way, he meets a blue fish named Dory. (Yes, she’s a natural blue.) Dory’s a little forgetful. She thinks it runs in the family, but she can’t really remember that far back. Either way, Marlin and Dory have a long journey ahead of them. They find the dentist’s mask. Since Dory can read, they know where to go. Figuring out how to get there is a different story. They are able to ask directions and don’t waste too much time getting to where they have to go.

Nemo wakes up to find himself in a tank at a dentist’s office. (The dentist is also the diver that captured him.) He meets the dentist’s other fish, which were all bought. To make matters worse, Nemo isn’t staying for very long. Nemo is to be presented to the dentist’s niece as a birthday present at the end of the week. The girl has a reputation as a fish killer. The dentist props up a picture of the girl for the fish to see and in it, there’s the fish she got as last year’s gift – floating in the bag she got it in! Now, the pressure’s really on to get out. An angelfish by the name of Gil is the established leader of the fish tank. The others inhabiting the tank are Bloat, Peach, Bubbles, Deb, and Jacques. They all have to work to get Nemo out. (Hopefully, they can get out, too, but Nemo’s the one with the deadline.) Gil has a trick or two up his sleve, but getting out won’t be easy.

The movie’s rated G and 100 minutes in length. Despite the rating, you might want to consider before you take young children. As I mentioned, Coral and most of the eggs are eaten. You don’t actually see this happen, but you’ll probably have to explain why they’re gone. Marlin also faces some troubles on his way to find Nemo, including a shark that’s out to get him. (The shark is part of an AA-type support group for sharks who don’t want to eat fish.) I don’t know that it will necessarily scare or upset a child, but it’s something to consider.

It should be an enjoyable movie for children and the adults that take them. I’m an adult and enjoyed it on my own. (I rented it from Netflix.) My brother has also seen it and enjoyed the animation. (He has an interest in art and CG.) The animation alone will make watching this movie enjoyable. The DVD that I got from Netflix had a behind-the-scenes feature that you should watch. It shows how the movie was made and what went into the animation.

The only thing that I didn’t like about the DVD was that in order to see the deleted scenes, you had to go through the audio commentary. I didn’t see any way to watch them separately. One of the great things about DVD is the ability to add such features. I still liked it. I have to give this movie five stars.

IMDb page

Odd Thomas (2013)

I have a lot of movies in my Netflix queue.  As in 446, not including those that aren’t available on DVD at the moment.  Some of them, I’m saving because they are or were available for streaming.  I’m not sure about the rest.  As I was going through the titles in my queue, I came across Odd Thomas.  It had been there for a few months.  I’m not sure how I found it, but it looked like one of the better selections.

The movie is based on a series of books by Dean Koontz.  It’s about a man actually named Odd Thomas.  He can see dead people and he is of the mind that he should do something about it.  The movie starts with Odd helping a recently deceased woman get her killer arrested.  He happens to be friends with Police Chief Wyatt Porter.  Helping Odd is Stormy Llewellyn, who manages an ice cream shop at the mall.

Odd knows that something big is coming.  He’s tipped off by the presence of bodachs, which are ghostly beings that seem to come around when someone important is about to die.  Not every death attracts one, but the presence of several dozen gets Odd’s attention.  He’s never seen that many at once.  (By the way, he’s the only one that can see them.)  Odd doesn’t know exactly what’s going to happen, but he‘s given clues in the forms of dreams and hallucinations.

Fortunately, I didn’t seen much in the Netflix reviews comparing the movie with other media, not that I read a lot of reviews before watching a movie.  There’s always that temptation to compare the movie to something else.  (“If you liked the Dead Zone…”)  Yes, there is a reference to The Sixth Sense, but it’s not really harped upon.

Yes, this is a scary movie.  Netflix has it listed as NR, but IMDb has a self-applied PG-13 for the movie.  I don’t think this is a movie for children, mainly because of the bodachs.  This could give a young child nightmares, as they’re basically very scary.  They’re seen following people and occasionally possessing someone.

I think most adults will be able to handle the movie and even enjoy it.  I know my parents are often turned off by anything paranormal at first, even though they’ve enjoyed similar movies.  I’d be interested in reading the books.  This isn’t to see how closely the movie follows them, but rather to see more of the story.  I’m surprised that I haven’t seen more about the movie or the books.  Granted, I haven’t been watching movies in the theater much lately, but I’d think with a name like Koontz, someone would have mentioned this to me.