Seen Any Good Movies Lately?

Though we’re not avid television watchers except maybe the evening news, we really enjoy watching movies. Dramas, documentaries, mystery/suspense, some fantasy. and, yes, even some rom-coms float my boat. I also enjoy musicals, but usually have to see them alone (if you catch my drift). I tend to avoid horror and movies that employ excessive and/or gratuitous violence and I’m not a big fan of the anime or martial arts genres.

We’ve recently seen several movies on the ‘big screen’ as well as on our 42” bedroom TV. Typically, at the end of our day after dinner, clean-up, and a game of cards, we retire to our room and watch something on the tube. We don’t have cable, so we rely on streaming platforms for our entertainment… Prime Video, Netflix and one other that changes after the free trial is up or for a month when something of interest is showing.

We also head to our local movie theater at Sam’s Town rather often lately where seniors pay $5/each for admission for first-run movies. Of course, the jumbo popcorn and diet coke cost $15, but hey, it’s entertainment AND dinner. The theaters are mostly empty which we like, but wonder how long they’ll continue to thrive. Note that our rating system is highly subjective. 5-stars are hard to come by… think Schindler’s List or Sophie’s Choice.

On the rom-com scene, we recently watched Ticket to Paradise. My appraisal: predictable, silly but it starred Julia Roberts and George Clooney. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re in dire need of a Roberts/Clooney fix. It was a free release on Peacock, so we subscribed for a month at $4.99 (some ads, but not obsessive or obtrusive) to watch it. It still wasn’t a bargain. 2 stars only because of the cast.

Then there was Nope, the new Jordan Peele movie, also on Peacock and well worth our monthly fee. It’s a thriller, not a psychological horror movie like Peele’s last movie, Get Out (which we didn’t see). It’s very suspenseful with enough comic relief to keep your head from exploding. We rate it 4 stars for a unique plot, good acting and good entertainment.

We saw Top Gun: Maverick on the big screen. Tom Cruise returns 35 years older as a crackerjack albeit rebellious test pilot recruited to train a group of young pilots for a special mission. We watched the original 1986 Top Gun movie before heading to the theater. Most sequels aren’t all that good and we were prepared for a letdown. What a surprise… it was great! Full of action, spectacular aerial scenes, a reasonable plot and enough character interaction/tension to keep it interesting. We recommend it if you like action films. 4-stars for entertainment and special effects

Tár, the story of conductor/composer Lydia Tar stars Cate Blanchett. It’s up for six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actress and just won three Golden Globe awards. It’s just been released for free on Peacock and we were near the end of our one-month subscription, so decided to watch it. I’m sure Tár’s life story is poignant, but after a rough workday (yes, we have those once in a while), we were both falling asleep after 30 minutes. We plan to give it another try when we’re not as tired. No rating on this until we actually watch the whole movie.

A Man Called Otto with Tom Hanks was predictable, but we really enjoyed it. I particularly loved Hanks’ constant, old man frown. Bring your tissues. 4-stars… good story and it stars Tom Hanks.

Avatar – Way of the Water – We really loved the first Avatar movie and re-watched it recently before seeing the sequel. After 10 years of waiting for the sequel, we were not all that impressed although the rest of the world evidently was. Ticket sales surpassed $1.5 billion in January, making it the 10th highest-grossing film of all time. The storyline was pretty mediocre, but the special effects were absolutely stunning. We paid an extra $3.25/pp and watched it in 3-D. We could have saved the $6.50 and been just as happy. It’s a 4-star movie because of the special effects

The Woman King starring Viola Davis was well-done and we were surprised it received no award nominations. The narrative is somewhat based on the real history of the 18th century Dahomey all-female military regiment. Davis, as always, is excellent. We give it a 4-star rating.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, a good mystery with Daniel Craig as the I-can-figure-out-anything Detective Benoit and Ed Norton as Miles Bron, the eccentric, billionaire antagonist. 3.5 stars for good entertainment.

Yet to see… Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, The Fabelmans, Elvis, The Whale and a re-watch of Tár. So much to do, so little time!

Any good movie recommendations for us? Let us hear from you.