This was more touching than I expected it to be. It was not a laugh a minute comedy, but did showcase a group of friends using a game of tag to stay in each others lives.
The videos at the end show the real life men this movie is based on. Showing that part of the mall scene was based directly on real life events.
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Ed Helms, Jake Johnson, LilRel Howery, Jon Hamm, Annabelle Wallis, Isla Fisher, Hannibal Buress, Nora Dunn, Leslie Bibb, Rashida Jones
I am not sure how I feel about this one. This is another movie you can take a face value – the events happened as we see them – or there is mental illness involved along the maternal line. Making just about everyone in the movie an unreliable narrator.
Hereditary is a slow burn, atmospheric piece. Definitely some WTF moments in the movie.
We start with the funeral of Annie’s mother. Someone she was not close to. After an accident and another funeral, events begin to spiral out of control.
During the course of the movie, we learn her mother had Disassociative Identity Disorder and Dementia. Her brother killed himself as a teenager. Her daughter has something going on. She herself slept walked and almost killed her kids a few years ago. All of this makes Annie and her kids unreliable narrators.
I prefer to think Annie experienced a psychotic break instead of the devil-cult ending we get.
Starring: Toni Collette, Milly Shapiro, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd
Deadpool 2 opens funnily enough. Until the fridging of a character from the first movie. There were jokes throughout the movie of hack or lazy writers, but using this trope as a character motivation is the laziest low hanging fruit.
Thankfully the rest of the movie made up for this. I was worried that all the trailers held all the comedy, but there was plenty to go around.
The introduction of Cable, Domino, and Shatterstar really bring into focus the possibilities of an X-Force movie.
But the real star of the movie was Peter. Not Colossus. Peter with the mustache. The level of heroics he showed while having no powers were inspiring.
Starring: Josh Brolin, Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Zazie Beetz, Brianna Hildebrand, Bill Skarsgård, T.J. Miller, Terry Crews, Rob Delaney, Julian Dennison, Lewis Tan, Jack Kesy, Eddie Marsan, Shioli Kutsuna, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, Stefan Kapicic, Brad Pitt
Avengers: Infinity War brings together the world we were introduced to in 2008 with Iron Man.
Characters from all but one movie are weaved in and out of the story. We get some funny. Some sad. Some angering. Some real sad.
If you have read the Infinity Gauntlet story, you have an idea where this story is headed.
I cannot stress enough that you should watch this in the theater.
I have watched this two times so far and the emotional beats hit me both times.
Watching Dr. Strange interact with Iron Man and Spider-Manwas a high light. But the true team-up to end all team-ups: Thor, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot (teenage version).
Avengers: Infinity War is a long movie. And it is weaving several simultaneous story beats. From a fight in Wakanda to one on Titan to Knowhere. But none of the story elements drag on or are shorted. And all are needed for plot.
There is only one post-credit scene at the end of a very long list of contributors. It is not essential, but a nice easter egg for a future movie.
I am amazed that Marvel Studios has been able to create a series of movies tied to each other with various themes that work together as well as they do. Not all of their movies have been huge hits (Iron Man 2, Thor 2 – imo) But they have all had a certain level of quality. This may have come at the expense of some directors’ creativity, but Marvel Studios has not let me down yet.
Starring: … Practically everyone from previous MCU movies. Check out IMDB for the full list.
