Category Archives: Romance

Movie Review: A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

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The new movie “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” is another example of an innovative idea, never been done before, trying to be groundbreaking over a good story, good screenplay, excellent dialogue, or great new film.

This idea about a rental car company that only has defunct Saturn cars (the company went out of business in 2009), with a GPS device that leads people to portals where they can revisit different parts of their lives, is one of the craziest I have ever seen. This movie stars Colin Farrell as David and Margot Robbie as Sarah who meet at a wedding, then part ways, and then, due to the GPS in their rented Saturn cars, meet again, and make stops as they drive, visiting doors that are standing in the middle of nowhere that are portals to significant times in their lives. This is a somewhat interesting new idea, that just does not work as a movie, much like last year’s Tom Hanks movie “Here,” which has a similar concept that also did not work. Aside from the new concept not working, this movie is just way too boring in too many areas.

The good parts of this mostly failed movie are at the end when both characters talk about their previous painful relationship breakups and heartache, reminding all of us that, hand in hand with love and relationships, comes the potential for huge risk both financially and emotionally.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating of 37% is very accurate this time around and I agree with this rating. One has to acknowledge the risk of a new idea like this, but in the end, the entire concept just did not work. This one is a solid pass.

Movie Review: Honey Don’t

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It is not often that a bad movie is released that is directed or written by either Joel or Ethan Coen. Unfortunately, this is the case with the new and very strange film “Honey Don’t”. This movie has three major stars, Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, and Chris Evans, who probably all took their roles only for the opportunity to work with the Coen brothers, regardless of the quality of the story or screenplay.

The erratic, haphazard story of the strangely titled Honey Don’t is about a private investigator Honey O’Donahue, played by Qualley, who investigates a series of murders in the depressing town of Bakersfield, California ( this movie was shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico). As she investigates the different murders, while visiting a series of broken-down locations and homes, even more killings occur, some of them extremely violent, where most of the killings seem to be excuses to keep the audience from dozing off, as most of this movie is very boring.

I was surprised someone as talented and funny as Aubrey Plaza took this role as a police officer, as there are several shockingly raunchy scenes with Margaret Qualley and an extremely violent scene with Qualley later in the movie. What were these two up-and-coming actors thinking, taking bad roles in a bad movie with horrific scenes like these?

Chris Evans plays a local, perverted evangelist, Reverend Drew Devlin, in a role he will likely regret later in his career. The problem with clout in Hollywood is that a famous and respected director or writer can create a bad project and still attract named actors. The worst example of this is last year’s disaster, “Megalopolis”, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who spent 124 million dollars of his own money to make one of the worst movies ever produced.

This movie is categorized as a dark comedy, which is used as an excuse for some of the insane and disturbing scenes. There is nothing funny here, within a film that really has no plot and no reason for existing. I agree with the very low ratings of 47% on Rotten Tomatoes and do not recommend this movie.

Movie Review: Together

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The standout issue with the new horror movie “Together” is that its premise and special effects represent a brand-new idea that has never been done before in a film.

A married couple, Tim and Millie, played by real-life couple Dave Franco and Allison Brie, move to the country and on a hiking trip find themselves infected by supernatural water, which tries to physically connect them together.

The remainder of this movie is about conflicts in Tim and Millie’s relationship and horrific scenes where the two of them are like magnets trying to pull themselves apart from each other. There is a side story where another teacher in the school where Millie teaches is familiar with this water and videos are seen of ceremonies where this teacher is trying to bond with his partner, who it seems, passed away some time ago. For this part of the story, not enough is explained, suggesting that perhaps these people are aliens who might have infected the area with this body-bonding water. In the end, we never find out the origin of this supernatural water.

There are the typical gross-out scenes that are common with physical horror movies like this one; most are well done, especially when they show the combining of body parts. The ending was no surprise, and overall, I give this movie a very mild recommendation only because of some of the originality.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating of 94% is way too high, with my rating around 75% and small thumbs up.