Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)

Directed by: Joachim Ronning & Espen Sandberg

Written by: Jeff Nathanson & Terry Rossio

Starring: Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Geoffrey Rush, Brenton Thwaites, & Kaya Scodelario




Depp is back as Captain Jack Sparrow in this ride-like movie.  Sparrow is on the run from Captain Salazar (Bardem), the dead man that rules the sea.  Salazar is on a quest to get revenge on Sparrow since Salazar and his crew were destroyed by Sparrow when he was young and new captain.  Meanwhile, Will Turner's (Orlando Bloom) son, Henry (Thwaites), is on a quest for Poseidon's trident that is supposedly able to break any and all curses on the sea. In order to find it though he needs a girl, Carina (Scodelario) and a Sparrow.

It wasn't a terrible film.  The film kept the audience entertained and didn't have any dragging parts.

The only issue I had was with a scene between Captain Barbosa (Rush) and Carina, which seemed odd.  I can't tell you much since it contains spoilers.

The film felt like a ride because of how many adventurous parts there are.  The dynamic between Kaya and Brenton worked well and imitated Bloom's and Keira Knightly's performance way back when.

Probably the best part of the whole film was the ending.  If you do intend to see it, make sure to stay until after the credits.  Just like the previous films, there is another scene.

4 popcorns.

Alien: Covenant (2017)

Directed by: Ridley Scott

Written by: Jack Paglen (story), Michael Green (story), John Logan, & Dante Harper

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, & Billy Crudup





In order to create a new civilization, a large group of colonists, embryos, and a crew voyage to a new planet.  On their way, their ship becomes damaged and the crew must awake to fix it.  While doing so, they receive an interesting transmission that peaks their curiosity of a new planet that they never discovered before and is closer.  The captain, Oram (Crudup) decides it is best to travel to this planet despite Daniels' (Waterston), his second in command, protests.  On this new planet, they discover that they are not alone.

I had not watched the previous Alien movies, but this film provided enough information for me to catch up.  But, for those that did watch the previous movies, the beginning dragged from what I heard.  It took too long for the crew to discover the aliens, but to me, it provided essential backstory, especially since I hadn't seen an Alien film before.

On another note, Michael Fassbender.  When he first appeared, I was very apprehensive about his character since he plays a robot.  It was difficult to imagine him as a robot, but he grew on me.

Overall, not too bad, but just be aware of the two notes above.  4 popcorns.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)

Directed by: Guy Ritchie

Written by: Joby Harold, Guy Ritchie, Lionel Wigram, & David Dobkin (story)

Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law, & Astrid Bergés-Frisbey



Wow, what a movie.

Before going to see this film, I thought it was going to suck.  Suck bad.  But, luckily, I was way off.

In England, way back when, mages and humans lived together, but once Arthur's (Hunnam) uncle takes power, the world is thrown off balance.  It is Arthur's right to fix it although he does not want to be king.

This is definitely a Guy Ritchie film.  I have only ever seen one other Guy Ritchie film, which was a short "Star."  His movies have a tendency to be fast paced with some experimental editing in between.  This film captures that and makes you feel eager and excited for more.  There were various scenes that because of the type of camera work and editing, did not feel like a boring Medieval film in the slightest.

In addition, Hunnam makes a great Arthur.  He's sarcastic and witty, but contains the qualities that a leader would.  They picked the best person to play him.  Pretty much all the characters were spot on.  5 popcorns.

The Dinner (2017)

Directed by: Oren Moverman

Written by; Oren Moverman & Herman Koch (novel)

Starring: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, & Rebecca Hall




Paul (Coogan) begins the film by narrating his dislike for going to dinner with his brother, mostly due to his dislike of his brother, Stan (Gere), who is running for Governor.  Nevertheless, he decides to go to dinner with his wife.  The dinner seems like an awkward family affair, but really Stan wants to discuss the trouble that their sons have gotten themselves into.

I walked out after an hour.  Here's why:

1) Steve Coogan.  He is just not a relatable main character.  It was hard to like him and on the contrary, I disliked him.  The whole story was from his point of view, which made it difficult to follow.

2) Too many subject areas.  The film kept jumping around trying to find itself.  It would talk about the sons, then racism, then mental illness, and so on.  It's like pick a topic and stick with it.  I can't stand when they have multiple ones because the film then seems so disorganized and makes it difficult to follow and keep me interested.

3) Sound.  Usually in films, the actors' voices are the loudest and then other noises like footsteps or putting down fine china is in the background.  I don't know if it was the theater I was in or it was the sound mixing, but everything sounded loud from the voices to just clanking glasses.  It was so distracting.

4) Dissolves.  Because of all the different topics, whenever a new topic would come up there would be a dissolve.  It was annoying.

5) Pacing.  The film dragged also.  There were parts that could have been eliminated all together that would have saved time and money.

Perhaps the book is better.  Don't go see it.  1 Kernel.

Gifted (2017)

Directed by: Marc Webb

Written by: Tom Flynn

Starring: Chris Evans, McKenna Grace, Lindsay Duncan, Jenny Slate, & Octavia Spencer



This film needs more publicity.

Mary (Grace) is a math genius.  When she enters public school, her teacher Bonnie Stevenson (Slate) realizes this and feels that the best thing for Mary is to go to a school for the gifted.  When she brings this up to Frank (Evans), Mary's uncle, he turns down this option in order to ensure that Mary has a normal life.  But word gets out to Mary's grandmother Evelyn (Duncan) about her gift and in order to ensure that Mary fulfills her potential, Evelyn begins a custody battle.

This film had me bawling...mainly due to Grace's performance.  It was spectacular how she was able to act as a genius, a sarcastic kid, and a loving scared child throughout the film.  She is definitely one to watch.

Usually, I'm not a fan of Evans mainly because I don't like Captain America, but when he makes movies apart from the Marvel universe, he's also spectacular.  In this role as Frank, he seems like he's given up on life, but keeps going for Mary and because of this you just fall in love with him.

Anyway, this film is seriously underrated and should be promoted more.  5 popcorns.

The Circle (2017)

Directed by: James Ponsoldt

Written by: James Ponsoldt & Dave Eggers

Starring: Emma Watson & Tom Hanks




So in the first 10 minutes of the film, the person I went with fell asleep.  Yeah, what does that tell you?

Mae Holland (Watson) finally lands her dream job at the Circle, which is basically Google gone wrong.  The Circle believes that everyone should be watched all the time in order to make society a better place and Holland, unfortunately, gets roped into this philosophy.  But as she moves up in rank, her real life, without all this technology, begins to fall apart and she needs to consider whether it is all worth it.

The film has a great premise, but falls short of fulfilling it.  Plus, it is difficult to sympathize with the main character due to many audience members seeing technology as a positive, but it has a limit.  Today, many people still value their privacy, so with Mae going towards the opposite side of this opinion, it feels as if she did not grow as a character.

In addition, Hanks character, I'm guessing, is supposed to be the villain, but the film doesn't recognize this.  It just shows him as her boss.  I suppose what I'm trying to say is that the film has stakes that are not emphasized enough for the audience to care about what happens to any of the characters.

Hence the 1 popcorn.  Watson, stick to Beauty and the Beast.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Directed by: James Gunn

Written by: James Gunn & a lot of other people

Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, & Bradley Cooper






Rather than going my usual Sunday morning, I made an exception and went Friday night for this Marvel sequel.

The film continues where it left off in the first film.  After establishing their reputation, the guardians have been hired to protect these powerful batteries.  Unfortunately, after Rocket (Cooper) steals some, their group starts falling apart as they get bounties on their heads.  Luckily for them, Ego (Kurt Russell) saves them and reveals that he is the father of Peter Quill (Pratt).  He then wants to bond with his son and get to know him, but not everyone is so sure that his intentions are true.

This film was just as good as the first.  But you're probably wondering: why the 4 popcorns?  Well it isn't 5 due to some pacing issues.  There were a few scenes that seemed to drag on, but they added to the story nonetheless.

Despite that though, there are so many other good scenes.  For instance, the tape scene, or the beginning scene with Groot (Diesel) dancing, all the scenes with Drax (Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Kiementieff), the ending, and probably some more that I forgot.

It is definitely an entertaining film, but you should know that despite being about Quill's relationship with his father, the main premise is about family for all the characters, therefore there are not as many scenes with Pratt as there were in the first film.  Also, of course, stay until the end of the credits.

4 popcorns.