Category Archives: Drama

Movie Review: Project Hail Mary

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The new movie “Project Hail Mary” is one of the most unusual science fiction movies involving Space Travel, about a microscopic virus that is degrading all stars in our known universe, except for one, which is 11 light-years away. The science that follows implies that reaching this healthy star, which is 11 light-years away, is possible, but based on current technology, traveling at light speed is nowhere near possible. Due to this traveling at light speed issue, the plausibility of this story is reduced. Perhaps the screenwriter or director should have changed the timeline so that this story takes place fifty or one hundred years in the future – when maybe mankind can travel at the speed of light.

The majority of this story involves the science of Microbiology, which is the profession of the main character Ryland Grace, played very well by Ryan Gosling, and his unlikely addition to a mission with two other astronauts to reach this one star so far away. After some tragic events that happen when one of the “million things that can go wrong” with space travel, and putting the astronauts in long-term comas for the many years-long trip, Ryland becomes friends with an alien fellow astronaut, who is on the exact same mission for his species. Ryland calls his friend Rocky, and their interactions and humor are some of the best parts of this movie. The middle part of this movie does seem to have too much story filler, making this film too long at 2 hours, 36 minutes. Some of this filler is boring and slow at times, and this would be a better movie with some simple and obvious cuts.

German actor Sandra Hüller as commander Eva Stratt is very good in her role as the head of the NASA “Hail Mary” mission to save the world. She is always in a subdued and dire mood throughout this movie, realizing that the odds of success are so low. The contrast between her extremely serious character and her scenes with Gosling’s with his easy going humorous personality are very well done. She also has a very surprising Karaoke scene, in the middle of this story, showing off her singing skills.

The ending was more about fooling the audience with a conclusion that was not expected, rather than ending this story in a more logical way.

This is the second science fiction movie produced from a novel written by Andy Weir, the first The Martian was released in 2015 and was also a very good film. This movie is based on Weir’s second book Project Hail Mary.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Project Hail Mary are extremely high at 95%, with my rating at 85% and a solid recommendation.

Movie Review: Reminders of Him

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The new movie “Reminders of Him” is receiving low Rotten Tomatoes ratings from the critics of 59%. The reason is that this is a tearjerker-type movie that we have seen before, about a young woman, Kenna, who is driving a car while drunk and getting into an accident with her boyfriend, Scotty, and he dies from his injuries. Even though the accident was not specifically caused by her being drunk, she is sent to jail for seven years, then has a child in prison, and once released, the story begins about her life of squalor and wondering if she will ever see her child again. This story is based on the best-selling book Reminders of Him by Coleen Hoover.

The critics are mostly trashing this movie, mainly because it lacks an original, tragic, tear-jerker story idea, but they overlook the very good messages this story conveys. If you ever drink and drive and someone dies, you will go to jail. Driving is never something to take for granted. When you drive, your life is in your own hands and the hands of someone else who might make a tragic mistake. There are always two sides to a story, and in the case of this film, Scotty’s parents, played by Bradley Whitford and Lauren Graham, hate Kenna, played by Maika Monroe. This is because they do not know the full story of what happened the day their son was killed in a car accident when Kenna was driving.

The acting in this film is very good, including Tyriq Withers, who plays Ledger Ward, Scotty’s best friend, who becomes involved with Kenna and eventually helps Kenna to see her daughter again.

Once again, the critics missed the mark with their opinions of this solid story with a 59% rating. My rating is 80% and a strong recommendation to see this movie.

Movie Review: The Bride!

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The movie “The Bride of Frankenstein” was released in 1935, directed by James Whale, starring Boris Karloff as Frankenstein and Elsa Lanchester as the Bride. This new version, written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, is much different from the original and has way too many “let’s be different, strange, and crazy” dialogue, action, and acting scenes, which is the unfortunate new direction for too many movies released in the last few years.

“The Bride!” stars Jessie Buckley as Ida, who will definitely win the Best Actress Oscar next week for “Hamnet” and is now in great demand due to her great performance. However, in my opinion, this was not a good role for a film scheduled to release right before you win an Oscar. While there are moments that require great acting ability in this film, the story is too insane, weird, disturbing, and in too many areas disgusting, making it surprising that anyone in this well-known cast agreed to act in this movie.

The Bride! also stars Christian Bale as Frank, Annette Bening as Dr. Euphronius, with Penélope Cruz and Peter Sarsgaard (Maggie Gyllenhaal’s husband) as two police officers who are searching for Frank and Ida during the second half of this movie. Why these well-known actors read the script and agreed to act in this movie is a mystery. This is simply not a good movie.

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s brother Jake Gyllenhaal plays a 1930’s famous actor/singer, Ronnie Reed, who is a favorite of both Ida and Frank as they attend several movie musicals starring Reed, adding another dimension of weird and strange to this already crazy enough movie.

The low Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this movie of 60% are both understandable and correct. This was a hard 2-hour film to sit through, and looking at my watch was a big part of this experience. I agree with the mostly bad critical reviews and do not recommend this film. I hope that the weird and different new trend in movies eventually goes away and things get back to normal.