Dunkirk (2017)

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Written by: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Fionn Whitehead, Tom Hardy, Aneurin Barnard, Harry Styles, & Kenneth Branagh




This film was meant for 70mm IMAX cameras.

This film gives a glimpse into the Battle of Dunkirk from land, sea, and air.  Each of these settings has its own story to tell on how these men survived the horrors of being surrounded by the German during World War II.

Film technical wise, it was amazing.  The colors and lack of CGI, but rather physical explosions and cardboard cutouts to enhance the amount of men were nostalgic to the art of filmmaking.  Plus, giving an excerpt into the stories of these men from various angles created an in-depth look at WWII.

But...

Due to the focus and determination to make the film a masterpiece aesthetically, "Dunkirk," in the end, lacked emotion without a main character to follow.  Instead the film, as mentioned above, is spread out amongst three settings: the sea, the land, and the air.  As an audience member, you get to see the actors combat their mortality through these settings, but without much of backstory nor a good amount of dialogue, you don't really get a sense of who these men are.  They are just men fighting a war and trying to survive.

Even though the characters have no emotional connection to the audience, the actors still show amazing performances.  The most surprising is Harry Styles, who I thought was only going to have one line, but actually was in a good chunk of the film.  He definitely earned his part with showing the appropriate expressions and acting skills to enhance the severity of the Battle of Dunkirk.

All in all, 4 popcorns.

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War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

Directed by:  Matt Reeves

Written by: Mark Bomback & Matt Reeves

Starring: Andy Serkis & Woody Harrelson





Um, where is Andy Serkis' Academy Award?

Cesar (Serkis) just wants peace between the apes and humans.  But after Koba started a war in the last film, Cesar feels that it is his job to find a place where him and the other apes can be safe.  But when his family is threatened, Cesar decides to finish the war and avenge the apes for their struggle.

This was the best Planet of the Apes movie yet (in terms of the recent films.  I never saw the 60's versions.).

Once again Serkis performs fantastically as Cesar with his human like qualities and strong persona that carries through into the audience.  In addition, Harrelson does the same.  Finally both of these actors are being realized for their greatness!

The storyline this time is complete and you feel satisfied with the ending.  It does make me wonder though if they will continue the series and do a remake of Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" film in the early 2000s starring Mark Wahlberg.  I hope they do, especially with Matt Reeves as the director.

There is much else to say about the film.  Storyline is great.  CGI is great.  Film tech stuff is great.  The characters and acting is great.  It is a great film.  5 popcorns.

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Girls Trip (2017)

Directed by: Malcolm D. Lee

Written by: Erica Rivinoja, Kenya Barris, & Tracy Oliver

Starring: Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, & Tiffany Haddish



Okay, I'm going to be perfectly honest and this is probably not the most popular opinion, but I didn't like this film.

Ryan Pierce (Hall), a successful author and businesswoman, in an effort to get to hang out with her girls again, decides to be the key note speaker at an Essence Festival in New Orleans.  As the four reconnect, secrets come out and the women need to figure out if they have outgrown their friends and if it's time to worry about themselves.

While I was in the theater, I felt awkward.  Everyone was cracking up and I was just sitting there with a small smirk.  I don't know why.  There were funny hilarious scenes, but I just wasn't into it.  There was a lot of crude jokes and I guess that isn't my scene.

The person though that made the film was Haddish.  Her character, Dina, outshined the rest of the women and stood out as the one to watch in Hollywood.  She was amazing and funny with her comedic nature coming forth.

To be honest, I am getting a little tired of Regina Hall always playing the one that has love problems and the damsel in distress, yet strong woman.  I've seen this character portrayed by her, it feels like a million times, but probably it has only been a few times.  Can't someone else play that character?

Film wise, there were a few editing errors, but nothing major.

So all in all, you'll like it if you like sexual and/or crude humor.  If you like other kids of comedy, you probably won't like it.  3 popcorns.

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Despicable Me 3 (2017)

Directed by: Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin, & Eric Guillon

Written by: Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio

Starring: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, & Trey Parker




The last time we saw Gru (Carell) was when he was marrying Lucy (Wiig).  Married and happy with their three little girls, Gru and Lucy have tougher challenges to face as they are both fired from the Anti-Villan League (AVL).  Interestingly enough, Gru is contacted by his long lost twin brother Dru (Carell) who explains that being a villain is in their blood.  Can Gru overcome his new hero persona and become a villain again or is Lucy's influence too strong for him to ever go back to the dark side?

It was a cute movie.  I say better than the second film, but not better than the first.

Of course the animation was great.  I didn't see any problems, but the story was just meh.  I did really like the villain this time though: Balthazar Bratt (Parker) and his backstory from the 80s.  He pretty much made the film, in my opinion, more than Dru.

So for adults I would say it's an okay film.  For kids, they loved it.  They were laughing through the whole thing, mostly with Balthazar Bratt and the minions.

3 popcorns.

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Wish Upon (2017)

Directed by: John R. Leonetti

Written by: Barbara Marshall

Starring: Joey King, Ryan Phillippe, & Ki Hong Lee




Clare (King) ends up with this Chinese music box given to her by her father, Jonathan (Phillippe).  After reading the box, she sees that she can make seven wishes.  But after a few wishes, she notices that everyone she loves is starting to die.  Is it connected to the music box?  And if so, can she stop making wishes to save the ones she love.

I was so entertained by this film even though it was kind of predictable.

The movie basically has this overall theme of be careful what you wish for, original right?  King as well as her costars make the film feel more like a thriller than a horror film, but the horror comes from the Final Destination type deaths that come with each wish.

I liked the backstory given with the music box as well as how literal the wishes were.  Plus everything she wished for is typical for a teenager to wish for.  It's a great little horror flick that will entertain you and give you the creeps from the graphic deaths.  The film as a whole was a little predictable, but still good overall.  4 popcorns.

The Big Sick (2017)

Directed by: Michael Showalter

Written by: Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani

Starring: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, & Ray Romano




In this true romantic comedy, Kumail (played by himself) and Emily (Kazan) fall in love and break up due to cultural differences.  But once Emily comes on with a lung infection, Kumail is called to check up on her and realizes that despite cultural differences, he still loves her.  Unfortunately, Emily's parents, Beth (Hunter) and Terry (Romano), feel that even so, they broke up and he is unwanted at the hospital.  Will Kumail be able to win his way back to Emily as well as her parents' hearts or will he have to conform to Pakistani culture and have an arranged marriage?

In the film, the story and characters play an intricate similarity to Aziz Ansari's Master of None.  This occurs for the first half of the film, but can Kumail help that this is what happened in his real life?  Probably not.  There is a lot of back and forth about Pakistani and Caucasian cultural differences, which eventually leads to their break up.  But once Emily lands in the hospital, the film takes a shift away from the popular Netflix show and into its own entity.

Hunter and Romano play a great older couple with older couple problems despite having to hold it all together for their daughter.  Both are expressive and add greatly to the story providing great chemistry together, with Nanijiani and Kazan as well as some comedic laughs.

As for the film technicalities there were some cinematography, editing, and continuity problems that were too noticeable in my opinion.  If it's noticeable, I have to talk about it.  A lot of the shots were with no cuts/long takes with a lot of focus in and focus out on who is talking rather than just cutting to a different medium or close up shot.  Most of the time, they were successful, but there were a few times that they should have just had everyone in focus or staged the actors in a different way, because someone ended up being out of focus or the cameraman was too slow to focus on the person talking at the right moment.

Additionally, the editing was lazy.  There were some scenes that had the sound and picture out of sync mostly because they kept doing reaction shots rather than focusing on medium shots of the person talking.  So what I mean is if I'm talking to someone, the camera is focused on the other person while my back is showing to see their reaction.  But in this film, when they did this, the person talking did not look like they were talking in the shot a.k.a. no jaw movement or it was out of sync with what it should be.  Now I can't judge the editor.  It could have been the cinematographer or the director that gave them too few shots to work with.  Or then again, the editor could have poor decision making skills.

Lastly, there was some continuity problems too such as with Holly Hunter's glasses being tangled in one shot with her necklace and then the next, it was untangled with her in the same pose.  Poor observing on their part.

So because of all this it came out to 4 popcorns. The story is a 5, but due to technical errors the film got bumped down to a 4.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Directed by: Jon Watts

Written by: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, John Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, & Erik Sommers

Starring: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, & Robert Downey Jr.




Tom Holland was made to play Spider-Man.

Continuing after Captain America: Civil War, Peter Parker goes back to his teenage life in Queens, hoping and expecting to be used again for another Avenger mission.  But after several reach out attempts, Parker decides to become the friendly neighborhood super hero and keep his own town safe, but still secretly hoping for a top super secret mission.  While patrolling the city, he finds several robbers using alien made weapons.  Feeling that it is his duty to help, he gets more involved with these robbers than he should have and runs into difficulties that a teenager shouldn't face.

Let's start with Tom Holland.  To me, he is the best Spider-Man yet.  Compared to Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield, Holland really captivates audiences with his teenage persona, while the other two seemed too old.  Holland is awkward, talks too much, and tries to be cool to impress a girl.  He has everything that makes a teenager and also plays out situations as well as experiences as a teenager would.

In addition, Jacob Batalon, who plays Ned, and Zendaya, who plays Michelle, have great chemistry with Holland and also play teenagers well.  Probably because being a teenager wasn't all that long ago.

Michael Keaton always plays a perfect villain.  In this film, Keaton plays the Vulture, who has a hidden agenda that I will not disclose because it's a spoiler. 😛 But just know, he's great.

What I really like about the film is that they had diversity.  The film didn't consist of only white actors.  The love interest was African American.  Best friend?  Filipino.  Aunt?  Italian.  Bully?  Indian.  It's so great to finally see more ethnicities on screen that represent what makes New York...well, America great.

Also, the film had a moral.  Who doesn't love a moral to the story?  But I'm not going to get into the moral of the story because it's a spoiler.  If you really want to know, you can comment on the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/poppinmovies/) or Twitter/Instagram (@poppinmovies) and we'll talk about it.

There weren't many negatives in this film of positives.  The CGI was a little wonky in places, but not very noticeable.  And the ending ending was terrible.

So there are three endings.  The first is the ending to the movie.  The second is after the beautiful credits that have all the animation involved.  That ending is good, though a little confusing about why Keaton says what he says.  As for the ending after the regular credits, I was disappointed.  It's better to not watch those, but if you can't resist, just know, that you will be disappointed too, but might have a good laugh.

But other than that, best Spidy film to date.  5 popcorns.

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Beatriz at Dinner (2017)

Directed by: Miguel Arteta

Written by: Mike White

Starring: Salma Hayek, John Lithgow, & Connie Britton




When Beatriz's (Hayek) car breaks down while doing a masseuse job, she ends up having dinner with her client's rich friends.  While at dinner, she realizes the differences between her and them.

This movie had so much potential through most of the film and just fell flat at the end.

Salma Hayek gave a great performance.  She shows what her character is thinking just from her face. Her facial expressions exhibit great sorrow and hatred towards those she's conversing with.

Britton and Lithgow also give great performances, which show the false compassion and utter arrogance assumed by the rich.

Another positive, besides the performances, is the moral of the story.  I took it to be the rich get richer off the suffering of others.  The film shows through magnificent writing the racial differences between being white versus Latino.  In addition, the film also shows socioeconomic differences in attitude and recreational activities as well as what each type of person holds dear whether it be money or love.

But towards the end, the film falls apart and becomes a confusing mess.  It seemed like Wright didn't know how to end the dinner and just tried to tie it all together with showing the differences of the rich and poor in another way.  It didn't work.  3 popcorns.

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The Beguiled (2017)

Directed by: Sofia Coppola

Written by: Sofia Coppola & Thomas Cullinan (novel)

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, & Colin Farrell



When Corporal John McBurney (Farrell), a Yankee, gets injured during the Civil War, he comes across a young girl named Amy (Oona Laurence), who takes him to an all girls' school to heal.  While there, romantic flings start with several women who all eventually turn on McBurney due to false intentions.

Best thing about this film was Marie played by Addison Riecke.  She was super cute and eased any tension that the film held with her cute face and acting skills.

Other than that the film sucked.  Yup, I said it.  It was terrible.  For 3/4s of the film, I was falling asleep.  There was nothing happening except everyone falling for the Yankee.  There was no action, no drama, barely any romance.  Ugh, I was dying.

Finally, towards the end it got interesting, but the way the film ended seemed like a bad choice.  But then again, I'm sure that's how the book ended.  Note to self: don't read the book.

2 popcorns, only because of good cinematography and that cute little girl.

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Baby Driver (2017)

Directed by: Edgar Wright

Written by: Edgar Wright

Starring: Ansel Elgort




Baby (Elgort) has dedicated himself to a life of crime to pay off his debts.  When he's all paid up, he plans on leaving the group, but Doc (Kevin Spacy) makes sure he cannot quit.  Combating his conscience, Baby needs to decide whether he can continue doing this life of crime or finally make a life for himself.

With fantastic music leading the way, Wright delivers an action packed film generating the question: is money all that matters?  Wright gives this great cast contrasting views on life and brings forth the reality that it can be very difficult to get out of bad situations.

Now I've seen Elgot in a couple of other movies and have liked him thus far.  My only complaint was that he was a crappy runner.  After seeing this film, he definitely improved on the speed and cool jumps, but his running form is a little strange.  But hey, who am I to judge?  I can't run, but I'm just saying it's something I noticed.

I overall like everything about this film.  The chemistry between Elgort and all the other actors is obvious.  Plus the music always seemed to coordinate with what was occurring and being inferred within the film.  But, I didn't think it was 5 popcorns.  I'm giving it 4, because to me, it isn't a "must see," it's a "you should see it because it's pretty good, but if you miss it, it's okay kind of film."  Not sure why.  I think it's because the film can be compared with other crime films whether the main actor has doubts about doing crime.  It doesn't feel fresh, but it is right?  With all the driving?  You decide.

4 popcorns.

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The House (2017)

Directed by: Andrew Jay Cohen

Written by: Brendan O'Brien & Andrew Jay Cohen

Starring: Will Ferrell & Amy Poehler




When a scholarship that Scott (Ferrell) and Kate (Poehler) are counting on for their daughter falls through, both realize that their daughter may not go to college due to them having no back-up plan.  In order to avoid disappointing Alex (Ryan Simpkins), Scott and Kate along with their friend Frank (Jason Mantzoukas), open up an casino in order to win enough money to send Alex to college.

To begin, was Amy Poehler even in this movie because Will Ferrell stole the show.  I never really liked Poehler.  For some reason, I don't think she is very funny.  In all other movies and television shows that she's done, it seems that there is someone there to outshine her and it happened again with Ferrell.  Even Mantzoukas was funnier.  Poehler gave an average performance with her not even being in competition with her cast mates.

Overall, the film was okay.  There were some funny parts, but I think the trailer really gave the film this hype that it could almost live up to.  Ferrell and Mantzoukas bring the film to life with their awkward performances of trying to imitate Casino gangsters.  Poehler seems tacked on with her lines just supporting Ferrell's.

3 popcorns.

*** Make sure to follow me to get a first look as to whether the film is worth it.  Click on "follow" in the left hand column.