The new movie “Bad Times at the El Royale” tries very hard to be different and it does succeed in being different. I have never seen a movie like this that starts with Hotel with a red line that runs through it dividing its location in half between a Nevada section and a California section. Unfortunately the movie is way too long – over two hours, when the entire story could have been told in 90 minutes. The conclusion and the addition of a character outside of the hotel contains too many loose ends and in the end does not make enough sense.

This film stars Jeff Bridges, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Chris Hemsworth with a cameo by Nick Offerman. I thought the acting was good throughout the strange story. The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this movie is a solid 72% with 7.5 on IMDB, but I give this movie a marginal recommendation because it was too long and too boring in several areas.

The new documentary “Free Solo” is about mountain climber Alex Honnold, who is the greatest free mountain climber in the world. The term “free climber” means that the climber climbs a mountain or large rock without any ropes or even a parachute. Why something like this would not even include using a parachute is a mystery to anyone who would never understand people who risk their lives like this. Of all mountain climbers, less than 1% free climb, because it is so dangerous. Many free climbers have fallen to their death in this sport, especially during the last few years.

In the entire history of climbing the famous rock formation El Capitan, nobody has ever climbed it without ropes. This one task is the central point of this documentary and the main goal in life for Honnold. This movie is also about the very unusual life of Alex Honnold, who dropped out of college at the age of 19, to pursue the life of a professional mountain climber. I thought that the one thing lacking in this film is how exactly Alex makes money from this profession, but I assumed its mostly from endorsements for mountain climbing products. Honnold travels the country risking his life climbing mountains and living in a Van and from his attitude about life and his complete lack of all fear, due to a brain abnormality we learn about during an MRI he receives in the film. Honnold’s entire existence is only about feeling alive by taking huge risks with this life. The problem with successful climbers like Honnold is that they inspire other young people to take the same risks, without anywhere near the same level of talent and many of them will be killed. The other problem with risk taking like this is that just because your successful 100 times or 1000 times, all it takes is one gust of wind and one mistake and your life is over in an instant. This is the same issue with Tom Cruise and the huge risks he takes with all of the Mission Impossible movies – all it takes is one small miscalculation and your life is over. Is it worth it?

The majority of this movie are about the practice runs Honnold takes on El Capitan with ropes to master the many different areas of the rock that are the most difficult to traverse. Most fascinating are the artistic and complex body and hand movements that Alex perfects to get past areas of the mountain that seem impossible to climb – until the end of the documentary when he takes the ultimate risk of his life and tries to climb the rock with no ropes.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Free Solo are a perfect 100% and as documentaries go, I agree with this rating. I highly recommend this movie.

While watching the very good new movie “First Man” about Neil Armstrong, I remember wondering why the story of this great American was not made into a movie 30 or 40 years ago, especially considering that the first moon landing happened almost 50 years ago. Hollywood decided in 1995 to make the movie about a failed moon mission Apollo 13 where 3 astronauts were very close to losing their lives when an explosion happened in their capsule – why not make a movie about this successful mission? It is impossible to not have great respect for all the astronauts who risked and gave their lives, especially in the 1960’s when the risks of space travel and a trip to the moon were at their highest.

Since the 1960’s a total of 20 NASA astronauts have lost their lives, including 3 astronauts who died in a fire inside their space capsule in the early stage of the Apollo missions. There were so many things that could have gone wrong in the incredibly risky ventures of both the Gemini and Apollo missions that eventually led to the moon. Due to the high level of danger involved, the courage of those who risked their lives was the most impressive part of human beings landing on the moon in July 1969. It is understandable that the cost and risk of death was so great that NASA decided to never go to the moon again, after the last Apollo Mission in 1972, with Apollo 17. I was most impressed with this film when it showed the small and dark environment of the space capsules and the extreme vibrations involved when the rocket takes off into space. Due to these vibrations, its hard to believe that so many more explosions and accidents did not occur, considering the millions of parts that were involved for each space flight. During all of the Apollo Missions to the moon, Apollo 13 being the only failure, one can easily imagine the many ways all of or some of the astronauts could have been killed, and this even included being stranded on the moon forever.

Ryan Gosling stars as Neil Armstrong, playing this this part wooden, almost emotionless, which was the personality of Neil Armstrong and one of the reasons why he was chosen to be an Astronaut in the first place. In order to fly missions as dangerous as all the astronauts did in the 1960’s being able to stay calm in an inevitable crisis was paramount. Gosling also looks like Neil Armstrong who died in 2012 of a heart ailment and I thought it was a shame that he was not alive to see this very good movie about his life and trip to the moon. Armstrong’s wife was played by Claire Foy, who does an acting job so outstanding, she will probably receive an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress.

First Man is one of the best movies of 2018 almost a guarantee to receive and Academy Award nomination for best picture and it receives my highest recommendation.