Tag Archives: Movie Review

The Miracle Club Review

Tags : Movie Review

There’s just one dream for the women of Ballygar to taste freedom: to win a pilgrimage to the sacred French town of Lourdes.

Why did I come to this movie again?

Some friends and I wanted to see a movie, and since The Sound of Freedom was sold out and I’d already seen Indiana Jones twice, we decided to take a chance on this one. We knew nothing going in. I watched the preview and still wasn’t entirely sure what it was about, but it looked cute. (Warning, while there are a few cute moments, this is not a light-hearted film.)

4 of 5

Characters

This film revolves around four women who live or have lived in a small Irish town. One in her 80s, two in their late 50s or early 60s, and one who is probably still in her 20s.

By the end of the movie I understood and mostly liked each character, but it took a while to get there. It’s hard for me to see people who have been close in the past fight, and this film is full of that.

Each of the four characters has a good arc and finds the healing they need instead of the healing they want. The acting was phenomenal.

I didn’t love the husbands in the story. They were all very shallow, two of them so much so that they were unbelievable to me.

4 of 5

Did I care what happened?

Yes, but part of that was because the writers withheld a lot of information from the audience. I mean, it’s a tactic we use to string the audience along with small and enticing hooks. Most of these were about what had happened in the past. The present was pretty self-explanatory, but the past between the women was complicated. Almost overly so.

3 of 5

Plot Holes

This plot felt pretty solid. I don’t remember anything throwing me out of the movie.

What I do remember is being frustrated about the slow leak of information that occurred. I was annoyed about it and so were the people I was with.

4 of 5

How many times did I yawn?

This is not a fast-paced movie. I figured that out in the first few minutes, and so I wasn’t expecting to be on the edge of my seat. A few parts were quite slow.

4 of 5

Cool Factor

This made me want to go to France, so that’s a thing.

I mentioned before, and I’ll say it again, that the acting was excellent.

This story might make you look at your life and the people you’re still angry with about things that happened in the past in a new light.

5 of 5

The End

The end was…I’m not sure. So many hard things came to light during this story that I didn’t go away from the film uplifted. I also wasn’t depressed. Maybe I missed some of the emotions.

The men were predictably thrilled to have their women back but I didn’t believe that they’d actually come to appreciate them, which kind of irked me.

4 of 5

Overall Enjoyment

While I’m glad I saw this film, I won’t see it again. It’s well-written with a spot-on theme of getting what you need instead of what you want that runs through every scene of the movie. A few of the actors deserve awards for their performances.

I still can’t get over the lack of details that this film gave us about some of the characters, especially what they’re doing in the present. Did it matter to the story? Not really, but maybe. That’s what I came away thinking about, and it shouldn’t have been. (This could totally be a me problem.)

If you’re into literary fiction then you’ll probably gobble this one up. Loads of layers and meaning.

4 of 5

Total: 32

That’s a Brown Belt!

White Belt: 1-10
Yellow Belt: 11-19
Purple Belt: 20-25
Green Belt: 26-30
Brown Belt: 31-35
Black Belt: 36-40

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Review

Tags : Movie Review

Archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary artifact that can change the course of history.

Why did I come to this movie again?

I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t super excited to see this film. I love the first and the third movies in the series. The second one is okay. I’ve only seen the fourth one once, and that’s because I thought it was awful. A friend of mine invited me to see this one for free, so I figured, why not?

4 of 5

Characters

The movie starts out as a downer. Indiana is not only old, but somehow empty. His journey is subtle, but good. And it’s something the other characters notice more than I did. The more I think about it, the more I liked it.

Helena, Indiana’s goddaughter, is pretty transparent. She thinks she’s all about the money, but it was easy to see that there was more to it than that. While I liked her, I found her character just a bit flat.

The bad guy was interesting. His final plan wasn’t as cliché as I’d expected, so kudos there.

4 of 5

Did I care what happened?

Yes, but to be honest I got confused as to where we were going and why a few times.

4 of 5

Plot Holes

The actual plot was fine. This is an Indiana Jones movie, after all.

I think my biggest complaint was that they had Indiana’s character doing physical stuff that should have been hard for a 60-ish year-old man. If he had grumbled about the running or the jumping or something it would have been fine, but as far as I remember, it wasn’t mentioned. He didn’t even shake his fist after punching one of the myriad of bad guys he knocked out.

A bunch of little things pulled me out of the story, like how could they sink so fast in the ocean and then be weightless to swim around so easily? Also, that scene took more than 3 minutes. Just how big (or small) is the Mediterranean Sea and now much fuel does a boat that size hold? Stuff like that kept distracting me. Maybe I’m stuck in editing mode for writing, or maybe their writers needed to be a bit more diligent.

3 of 5

How many times did I yawn?

Twice.

Okay, maybe I didn’t yawn, but I got bored during not one but two chase scenes. I realize that these are iconic to the Indiana Jones brand, but I actually rolled my eyes once.

4 of 5

Cool Factor

Having a younger Indiana on screen, courtesy of CGI I assume, was fun. I could barely tell it wasn’t actually a young Harrison Ford, and mostly it was the eyes that gave it away. If they’d kept him farther from the camera, it would have been practically seamless.

I enjoyed the archaeological information, and I thought they did a good job putting this film into 1969.

I thought they went a little overboard with the nostalgia baited snakes and bugs.

3 of 5

The End

I actually loved that Helena, the goddaughter, thwarted Indie’s wishes. She’s smart.

I also liked the very end when Marion asked if he was back.

4 of 5

Overall Enjoyment

My friend told me that a website called this the most okay of the Indiana Jones films. I’d have to agree. There wasn’t as much humor as I expected. The script wasn’t anything special. I felt they sacrificed character development for action.

If I had to rank the entire franchise this would be my order:

Last Crusade

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Dial of Destiny

Temple of Doom

Crystal Skull

So, yeah, this movie was okay. Fun to see in the theaters and a great excuse for popcorn!

4 of 5

Total: 30

That’s a Green Belt!
(Almost a Brown Belt)

White Belt: 1-10
Yellow Belt: 11-19
Purple Belt: 20-25
Green Belt: 26-30
Brown Belt: 31-35
Black Belt: 36-40

Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse Review

Tags : Movie Review

Miles Morales catapults across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. When the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles must redefine what it means to be a hero.

Why did I come to this movie again?

I fell in love with the first movie in this franchise the first time I saw it. We went to an early showing of the film with exactly zero idea of what it was about, except that it was a Spider-man story. We were surprised, but delighted, with it and I’ve been stoked about the second one ever since.

5 of 5

Characters

This was a HUGE cast of characters. Most we had met before, but not all.

For the first part of the film it felt like Gwen was the main character, which I was okay with. However, Miles soon took center stage and we got back to his story.

I was honestly so swept up in what was going on that I didn’t notice anything bad about the characters. Maybe I was too distracted, or maybe they were solid. I really want to see this one again, and if I do, I’ll update this.

5 of 5

Did I care what happened?

Yes.

Like Miles, I was wondering why the others had left him out. Of course I didn’t want all of space and time to collapse, so I was invested in that too.

Having just watch Quantmainia I kept wondering when Kang would pop up. 😊

I LOVED the reveal about Miles. I’d noticed them saying “The one and only Spider-Man” like twenty times, but didn’t think anything of it…until the truth came out.

5 of 5

Plot Holes

Like I always say, this is a superhero film, of course there are plot holes.

I’m going to focus on things that pulled me out of the story.

First, I know Spider-People are tough, but should the Spider-Woman who’s obviously 8-9 months pregnant really be out fighting? What about being a responsible mother?

Second, while I laughed and laughed about Peter Parker’s little girl, she shouldn’t have been anywhere near the fighting. His wife should string him up for that.

Considering Miles has less than two years of Spider-Man experience there’s no way he should have been able to avoid ALL of the Spider-Mans (Spider-People? Web slingers? Help…) that he did. This could have been realistic if they would have focused a little more on how he’d been training. One move on the Bollywood Earth didn’t solidify his web-slinging prowess for me.

I was internally screaming, “You can turn invisible, idiot!” during the big chase scene, but once Miles executed his actual plan, I was like, “Okay, never mind, good job.”

4 of 5

How many times did I yawn?

Not once. The hubby stayed awake the whole time too.

There was just enough down time for me to relax before the action started again.

I’m kind of over teenage hormones/angst, so parts of the beginning seemed to drag for a second, but it wasn’t long and I don’t remember being too annoyed by it.

5 of 5

Cool Factor

Besides a solid story, these films have a unique and awesome style.

We watched the first movie the day before we went to the new one, and I was reminded how much I loved the mix of animation and comic book drawings that the artists used.

The same effects in the new movie felt like they’d been escalated, and there were four times when I thought, “Whoa, that’s a bit much.” Mostly it was because of the psychedelic background art.

4 of 5

The End

Warning: It’s a cliff hanger.

I’d forgotten this was the first of two movies until about five minutes before this one ended. So don’t expect a resolution.

I did like that Miles’ plan, which was pretty good, got thwarted in the cruelest way possible. Nice job, writers. I hate you guys…

5 of 5

Overall Enjoyment

Loved it. Despite some stylistic distractions and a few irresponsible parents, I came away from this movie wanting to see it again right away.

5 of 5

Total: 38

That’s a Black Belt!

White Belt: 1-10
Yellow Belt: 11-19
Purple Belt: 20-25
Green Belt: 26-30
Brown Belt: 31-35
Black Belt: 36-40

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Review

Tags : Movie Review

Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne are dragged into the Quantum Realm, along with Hope’s parents and Scott’s daughter Cassie. Together they must find a way to escape, but what secrets is Hope’s mother hiding? And who is the mysterious Kang?

Why did I come to this movie again?

I waited to watch this one until it was streaming. I really liked the first Ant-Man, but wasn’t super impressed with the second movie. Still, I was ready for a few laughs and some good action.

4 of 5

Characters

I felt like this movie was a little bit bloated in both plot and characters. We had five “main” characters including Scott, Hope, Cassie, Hank, and Janet. Then you throw in Kang and M.O.D.O.K. and then Bill Murray for…fun? There was a lot going on.

Hope’s mom, Janet, carried the “I don’t have time to tell you this horrible thing that happened to me” for waaaaaaaay to long in the film. It got to the point of being frustrating about ten minutes in and it continued until at least halfway through the movie.

The other good guys were fine.

Kang, the bad guy, was pretty scary. I guess. He was mostly interesting because I’d watched the Loki TV show and I knew a little bit about who he was.

What the writers tried to do with M.O.D.O.K. was nice (I guess) but it distracted from the plot. They also used him a cheap comic relief, which didn’t work in my opinion.

3 of 5

Did I care what happened?

While I wasn’t riveted to the screen, I did care what happened. We watched to the end, barely made fun of the show while it was on, and I was invested in how the good guys were going to beat Kang.

4 of 5

Plot Holes

This is a superhero film, of course there are plot holes.

I didn’t love how they started the film. The writers needed a reason for everyone to get sucked into the quantum realm, so they had characters being stupid and unsafe in order to make it happen. You know, so there could be guilt later.

Also, why would Kang let Janet touch his ship if he knew she’d be able to see into his twisted mind? Who were all the humanoids that worked for Kang? Where did they come from?

I hope they have good explanation for Kang being defeated here. He’s supposed to be able to destroy universes and timelines and a handful of rebels and humans take him out? I have a lot of questions.

3 of 5

How many times did I yawn?

The pacing of this film was good enough that I didn’t get bored, although I did look at my phone a few times.

4 of 5

Cool Factor

Everything looked great.

Part of the cool factor for this film was supposed to be the Quantum Realm itself. Maybe I watched this and Guardians 3 too close together, but I felt like the Quantum Realm was just like outer space. They could have plopped Quill and the gang into this movie and it would have worked.

4 of 5

The End

The end worked. The good guys won.

4 of 5

Overall Enjoyment

I’d give this one a shrug and an okay. I didn’t love it, but I also didn’t hate it. I had low expectations because I’d heard it was a hot mess, so I was pleasantly surprised when it was fine.

4 of 5

Total: 30

That’s a Green Belt!

White Belt: 1-10
Yellow Belt: 11-19
Purple Belt: 20-25
Green Belt: 26-30
Brown Belt: 31-35
Black Belt: 36-40