I watched 11 movies in the month of February. Time for me to give my thoughts on each of these movies. My five favorite will move onto my year end movie rankings. Which movies will make the cut and which will not? Let's find out!
The 11 movies I watched in the month of February:
Fried Green Tomatoes
Split
Sunshine Cleaning
Arrival
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Edition
The Babadook
Milk
The First Purge
Blade Runner 2049
The Four Falls of Buffalo
Gerald's Game
Not moving on:
The Babadook
I saw this movie back when it first came out and I didn't really care for it. I decided to come back and watch it again, this time as a parent, to see if I would like it any better. I don't. The movie was not scary in the slightest bit. Maybe I was looking at it from too much of a "real world" perspective. I'm someone who looks for logical explanations for things. Everything seemed so random in this movie. I kept thinking "why is this happening?" and there were never really any answers. Plus I didn't find it scary at all. I've given it two chances now. Guess this movie just is not for me.
Blade Runner 2049
This is the second time I've watched this movie. I thought it was okay the first time. I thought it was okay the second time. In fact, I may have found it worse this time around. The first time, it caught me by surprise with its slick visual and artistic style. This time, I knew what to expect coming in. It was up to the story to impress me. And it didn't. The shell of a great movie is here. Maybe if they trimmed off a good 30 minutes or so.
The First Purge
I was planning to watch all the Purge movies in chronological order - not the order they were released but the order of the lore of the series. This movie might have discouraged me from doing so. It's so bad. I know it is considered one of the worst in the series, and I know it can only go up from here, but I'm going to need a month to recover from this before I watch another Purge movie. Good thing it wasn't the first movie actually released because if this was people's introduction to the series, it would have ended right then and there.
Sunshine Cleaning
I feel like I should have liked this movie more than I did. It was one of the first movies me and my wife watched together back in like 2009. I remember liking the movie, but it never really stuck with me. The same thing happened this time, too. I watched the movie and I liked it. And this was just three weeks ago or so. But do I remember anything about it? No. It's one of those movies that is in one ear and out the other for me. Which is too bad because I feel like it probably resonates with a lot of people out there. I'm just not one of them.
Split
This movie was super close to moving on if only because of the performance of James McAvoy. I can't put my finger on it, but as much as I did enjoy this movie it feels incomplete for some reason. Like the ending is unsatisfying. I know that leaving an audience wanting more is generally a good thing, but in this case it was not. I kept wondering - what exactly is the point here? It feels like just a part of a movie. Which is a shame because the premise of the action is really good. I need to watch Glass someday but I hear that it is not good.
Arrival
I've watched this movie twice, and I've liked it both times, but I've never been like "oh my god this is the best movie ever!!" or anything like that. I decided to rewatch it just for the heck of it, and I found that I still feel the same way. Seeing it through the lens of a parent (knowing what happens to Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner's daughter) is hard and adds some emotional heft. I think I may have shed a tear or two watching this. I still think while it is a good movie it is not a great one. It feels like the movie is missing a certain "something" that I can't put my finger on that would really push it over the top.
Moving on:
Gerald's Game
I watched this movie a few years ago when it first came out, and I remember being pleasantly surprised by it. I decided to come back to it this year to see if it was still good. Yup, it was still good. Usually I don't like "inner monologue" type stories where the character is arguing with themselves through actual conversations on the screen, but it works well here. The way the conversations lead to clues (like finding the cup of water, etc) I found to be quite clever. The part where she escapes and pulls the skin off her hand is one of the best gross out scenes I've seen in a movie like this in recent memory. I like it. The movie also tackles themes that may make a lot of people uncomfortable. If you can get past that, this was a pretty good movie that movies along at a fast pace.
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Edition
I'm continuing to slowly watch all the extended editions of these movies. I watched one in December. I watched one in February. I'm hoping to watch the last one in March. What can I say about Lord of the Rings? It's a great series. The Two Towers has never been my favorite entry in the series, but compared to everything else I watched this month it is a slam dunk to make my top 5.
Milk
I haven't seen this movie in ages. I decided to fire it up on a whim since I always see it on my movie shelf every time I look over there. It's always the first thing I see for some reason. I turned it on and had a pretty good time with the movie. It's a fun look at an important part of history. I have no idea if it is historically accurate or not, but it is an entertaining movie that takes place during the hippy era in San Francisco, an era which was always interested me for some reason. It follows the story of Harvey Milk as he fights to work hard for gay rights and gays being accepted by society. Again, no idea if it is historically accurate or not, but it does make for a good movie that moves along pretty quickly.
Fried Green Tomatoes
To be honest it was between this movie and Arrival or Split when I was deciding what would be the last movie to move on. I decided on this one. It's a good movie and it kept me a little more interested and engaged than those other two. However I feel as if it missed the mark to make an emotional connection with me for some reason. I feel as if this movie was supposed to be a tearjerker, but it just wasn't working for me. I was still able to appreciate the story of the movie though, and how it is like traveling back in time to a period in history (the 1920s) that is not covered much in film. Both this movie and Milk have this going for it. I don't know if you can call either one a period piece, but I'm going to go with that anyway.
The Four Falls of Buffalo
This was a fun little documentary about a period in football that I am fairly unfamiliar with - Buffalo and their 4 straight Super Bowl losses in the early 90s. I didn't start following football till a little later in the 90s, so I found it to be pretty interesting watching this little bit of history that I just missed out on. If you are a football fan, this is a must watch. The stuff about Don Beebe chasing down Leon Lett was my favorite part of the documentary, and then him going on after four losses to finally win one with Green Bay. I loved that, and it made me shed a tear. Haha.
--
BOOM! With these 5 movies advancing, here is a look at the top 10. 2 months down, 10 to go! At the end, we'll have 60 movies - 5 from each month that move on. And then I will determine my favorite. Admittedly, this was not a great month for movies and I doubt anything from February has a shot to win.
Old
A Star is Born
Mystic River
Legends of the Fall
Cloverfield
Gerald's Game
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Edition
Milk
Fried Green Tomatoes
The Four Falls of Buffalo
For a look at my January ranking, click
>HERE<
No comments:
Post a Comment