Alien Covenant

Plot: Covenant is a space ship that encounters the monster from Alien. It takes time to realize the seriousness of the threat, and that not everyone is on the same side.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: It starts as a Sci-Fi, and a pretty good one. About half way through we meet the monster, and it gets creepy and scary. 

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup

Directed by: Ridley Scott

Written by: Jack Paglen, Michael Green, John Logan, Dante Harper, based on characters from the other Alien movies. 

The Visuals: .Good special effects throughout. I liked some of the spaceship shots. The monster shots are creepy too. 

Rating: 2.0 stars: .

More: I saw it on a plane. It might have been better on a big screen. Certainly scarier.

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The Wizard of Lies

Plot: The Wizard of Lies is a docudrama about Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme that defrauded 65 million from investors.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Fine acting by DeNiro and a straight-forward cut presentation of the story make this easy to follow and constantly interesting. 

Cast: Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer, 

Directed by: Berry Levinson

Written by: Same Levinson, John Burnham Schwartz, Samuel Baum based on the book by Diana Henriques

The Visuals: . 

Rating: 2.5 stars: 

More: .

Even More: .

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The Disaster Artist

Plot: The Disaster Artist shows the real story of the making of The Room. All the cast and actors are portrayed. The film highlights the strangeness of writer/producer Tommy Wiseau(James Franco). It highlights his friendship wiht actor Mark Sestero (Dave Franco), and shows the entire film making process. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: The Disaster Movie is surprisingly interesting despite the unlikely story. It is animated by James Franco's larger than life portrait of Wiseau. In all the good scenes Bissell is doing something weird. Mark enables Bissell's excesses and represents the audience perspective.

I have never seen The Room. I am sure I'd have enjoyed The Disaster Artist  more if I had. 

Cast: Dave Franco, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Ari Graynor

Directed by: James Franco

Written by: Scott Neustadter, Michael Weber; based on the book by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell, The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made

Rating: 2.5 stars: 

More: Dave Franco is the brother of James Franco

Even More: The closing credits compare the film's version of the movie with the original. They worked hard to be exact.

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Murder on the Orient Express

Plot: Detective Hercule Perot (Kenneth Branagh) is on a train across Europe in the 1940's when there is a murder. Someone on the train must have done it, and Hercule interviews everyone. It turns out people are not quite who they seemed. Of course Perot solves it in the end.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: The characters are colorful, and the visual are cool. The plot was a little too twisted for me. I think it would have helped to read the book.

Kenneth Branagh's Perot is not that likable, but he his acting is excellent. It is fun to see so many other big actors playing small parts. 

Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer

Directed by: Kenneth Branagh

Written by: Michael Green based on the novel by Agatha Christie

The Visuals: Nothing special, except for Hercule Perot's mustache which is occasionally cool and always distracting

Rating: 2.0 stars: I was satisfied by my experience because of the weird characters, but overall it was just OK. 

Justice League

Plot: Evil demon Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) comes to earth and steal a magic mother box from the Amazons. Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and Batman (Ben Affleck) realize this might be the end of world, and try to assemble superheroes to fight back. This includes Aquaman (Jason Momoa) who also had their magic mother box stolen from Atlantis, and Flash (Ezra Miller) who is an unemployed twenty something, and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) who was turned into a cyborg by his Dad (Joe Morton) using yet another magic mother box. Once they get the band back together, they fight Steppenwolf, but they are not strong enough, so decide to raise Superman (Henry Cavill) from the dead. Since Superman is in the movie poster, it is not a spoiler that shows up. The whole group undertakes the final battle.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Justice League is spotty. It has cool parts and cheesy parts. Somethings make sense, but there is a lot of mumbo-jumbo magic. Too much magic can be boring. The villain, Steppenwolf, is monotonous and has a generic backstory. He is also too cartoony.

With the exception of Batman, the villain and superheroes have inexplicable, over-the-top powers. Powers so great that they are not interesting. However, director Snyder kept the fights interesting with some variety.

The movie is worst when Superman is on the screen. Can't stand Henry Cavill. It's best when the Flash is there. We need more Ezra Miller.

Gal Gadot is OK, but her part is smaller and less interesting than in Wonder Woman. Ben Affleck is the cornerstone of the movie. He is not the coolest Batman. (I liked Val Kilmer best.) Aquaman/Momoa provided some one liners, but was barely in the plot. 

Cast: Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Joe Morton

Directed by: Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon for the reshoots

Written by: Eleven people!

The Music: Mostly orchestral music by Danny Elfman -- good music. I loved and then bought the opening song, "Everybody Knows" song by Sigrid; originally by Leonard Cohen. Director Snyder had a Leonard Cohen song in Watchman too.  

The Visuals: I like the scenes of Batman and Gotham City. These had some style. I liked the Amazons riding on horses too. I did not care for the final battle, which seemed too animated. 

Rating: 2.0 stars: Spotty, but worth watching

More: Josh Whedon was writing for the movie, and then was tapped to finish the movie in post production. Josh supposedly is responsible for lighter tone.

Even More: Below is a drawing of Steppenwolf from the comic. A steppenwolf is German for  "plateau wolf," that is, a coyote.

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Thor: Ragnarok

Plot: Thor (Chris Hemsworth) wakes up trapped by evil giant Surtur, after he escapes he goes to Asgard and finds Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Loki is impersonating Odin (Anthony Hopkins) who is now on Earth. Thor goes to earth and (after a scene with Dr Strange) finds Oden, who tells him his older sister Hela (Cate Blanchett) is returning to Asgard to take over, and then Oden turns to smoke & floats away. Thor tries to return to Asgard but is captured by Scraper 142  (Tessa Thompson) and fights in gladiator games where he meets Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). They steal a ship and go to Asgard where they face a final battle with Hela.  [imdb]   [photos]

Review: Very entertaining. Familiar and likable characters are in new situations that are dramatic and still humorous. The light tone makes this easy-to-watch and fun. The light tone did not subtracted from seriousness, because the tone is so light. Seriously, there was no message or satire here, only escapist entertainment.

I liked how they kept some of the apocalyptic elements of the Ragnarok story. I once read a book of Norse mythology, and I liked the Ragnarok story about how the gods knew their world was going to end, but had to let it play out. 

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson, Mark Ruffalo. 

Directed by: Taika Waititi

Written by: Eric Pearson, Craig Kule and Chrisopher Yost

The Music: Orchestrial music by Mark Mothersbaugh; generally pretty good, but I'm not going to down load any. 

The Visuals: I liked Cate Blanchett's headpiece, especially when it fanned out. I thought the Hulk was well animated too, especially Mark Ruffalo's expressions. I did not like the flaming giant Surtur. 

Rating: 3.5 stars: Fun to watch. The tone of the movie is the winning aspect. Not too serious, but still keeps moving. 

More: Director Waititi, who made indie movies and directed several Flight of the Concord's episodes said the movie:

It's about a guy trying to get home because there's someone in his house, and he's got to sort that out. And along the way he's got his annoying brother, a drunk chick, and some bipolar kid with him.

Even More: There are two Easter Eggs in the end credits, so stay 'til the end.

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Only the Brave

Plot: Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin) is the supervisor of the Granite Mountain Hot Shots who fight fires near Prescott Arizona and the rest of the west. Opening scene show him recruiting new firefighters and getting certified as Hot Shots. We follow the Hot Shots home and meet their wives including Amada Marsh (Jennifer Connelly). As the season progresses, we get fire fighter action scenes, and this leads to the ending twist.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Fire fighting movies have natural tension, and the fire scenes are the best in the film. Most of the movie is sleepy slow, and the dialog sucks.

I liked Miles Teller as the new guy, and Jennifer Connelly as Eric's wife. Jeff Bridges was laughable as the old guy fire chief.

The twist ending elevates the movie, and after it happens, I could see several of the other scenes were there to set it up. 

Cast: Josh Brolin, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, Jeff Bridges

Directed by: Joseph Kosinski

Written by: Ken Nolan and Eric Warren Singer

The Music: There was a lot of silence and the music was low key strings and synthesizers. Kind of like the music at a wake.

The Visuals: The fire scenes were realistic. I hated the flaming bear. The bears was way cooler when Josh Brolin described it then when they actually showed it. I still don't understand what happened when the burning trees fell into the Grand Canyon. 

Rating: 1.5 stars: While parts deserved 2 stars, I am disgruntled as I write this. 

More: The real Granite Mountain Hot Shots

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