The reason why I admired this movie was because it was successful at creating something new, namely a farce that for the most part was funny enough and worked for most of the film, which in my experience is very rare. The story of this film I have never seen before. Four couples meet for normal game night and the following night one of their friends come up with a new game that involves someone being kidnapped and the couples have to find their location. Unfortunately, something very dangerous and real happens and for a while they all think they are playing a game never realizing they are in grave danger. All this comes off very well, with some amusing but not laugh out loud dialogue and physical comedy.

Game Night stars Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman, and they are both funny and effective in their roles. This movie is both unusual and entertaining and I do recommend it.

Common sense is a fundamental “must have” within any screenplay. Common sense is the glue that holds a scene and ultimately an entire 100 page movie script together. Things have to make sense and people have to do what they would normally do within a situation, otherwise the entire story falls apart very quickly. Given all of this, where is the common sense in the movie “Annihilation”? There is an area within a swamp, somewhere in the United States where something they all call a “shimmer” has appeared. Over months and perhaps years scientists and soldiers have gone into the shimmer to find out what is happening inside and almost none of them have returned. If this is the case, then why did the government decide to send in 5 women to figure out the shimmer, rather than tanks and an army of 500 soldiers? For me, this is when the movie ended, because in real life a decision like this would never have been made. In another scene, after one of the women in Natalie Portman’s party is killed by some kind of alien bear, she goes off by herself to find out if she has really been killed and might somehow still be alive. No way something this stupid happens in real life. Another woman was just killed by a giant alien bear and now Portman’s character goes off by herself, not taking her 3 armed friends with her to see what happened? This is of course ridiculous.

The acting in this movie starring Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh was good enough and the special effects were OK, despite the dark rainy environment. For me the scene at the end involving Portman’s husband did not add up, considering the story up to that point. Due to all of these problems, I cannot recommend this movie .

Two years ago at the Academy Awards there was a boycott, because nobody black was nominated for anything. Last year the movie Moonlight won best picture, even though it was nowhere near the best picture. This year the movie Get Out is nominated for on for the 9 best pictures of the year, leaving out a great film, Molly’s Game. Get Out is at best a below average B movie and has no business being nominated for best picture in any year. This year the movie Black Panther is the first Marvel movie with only black actors playing the main parts. The pendulum has swung and in the case of Black Panther which is a good Marvel comics movie, this is a good thing that has happened to the movie industry. Over time, movies should be judged and made for only one reason, a screenwriter slaved over a script for over a year, re-wrote it many times until it was perfect and a great story was eventually told on a movie screen.

For all the critics who think Black Panther is a masterpiece or a great movie, I disagree with that assessment. Black Panther is one of the better Marvel comic movies that has been made in recent years, but it is not a great movie. The story follows the same Marvel pattern with a big action payoff at the end, and the story meanders somewhat around the middle but in the end holds your attention enough so you are interested in what happens when the story concludes.

The acting in this film is very good, including Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Forest Whitaker, Lupita Nyongo and Martin Freeman as the only white actor in this movie. I also thought the special effects and the science was very well done. I recommend this movie for all fans of Marvel or action movies, but do not expect Black Panther to be great, just very good.