Movie Review: The Senior

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The new movie “The Senior” is one of those true sports movies that would have been rejected as a screenplay, were it not for this TRUE story about a 59-year-old man who returned to a college football team to complete his senior year with the team.

The Senior is a good sports story about Mike Flynt (Michael Chiklis), who was thrown out of college and off the football team in his senior year because he was getting in too many fights. In 2007, at age 59, Mike Flynt tried to remove the biggest regret in his life by trying to go back to his alma mater Sul Ross State University in Texas, and finish his college and football career. Amazingly, Mike was able to last through to the 54-player training camp cut-off and make the team.

While Mike was never a starter, he helped the team in practice and had some moments of glory. This story is full of flashbacks where Mike was abused by his overbearing and cruel father. There are also many conflicts with his son and very often his wife (Mary Stuart Masterson), who do not agree with this insane decision to play college football at age 59, understandably, worrying about severe injury. Mike also faces conflicts with some of the players on the team, especially one player who takes every opportunity to try to stop Mike from realizing his dream, including trying to injure him.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for The Senior is a solid 81% and I agree with this opinion and recommend this small, well-acted movie.

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.

Hulu Movie Review: Swiped

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The new Hulu movie “Swiped” is about the career of Whitney Wolfe, who was mostly responsible for the dating apps Tinder and Bumble.

The best part of this story is the real-life battleground of betrayal, bad people, credit stealers, and backstabbers that all of us face in this world, working for companies and trying to make a living. None of this is ever easy for anyone, least of all Whitney Wolfe who, despite her genius, had to live through huge injustice and hardship before hitting it big.

Lily James stars in the lead role as Whitney Wolfe Heard, who, at only age 22, had ambitions to be a very wealthy entrepreneur in charge of her own financial destiny – the perfect workaround from working for other people. Whitney runs into several other entrepreneurs and lands a job at a new startup, attempting to create a dating app for a smartphone. Mainly through Whitney’s great and innovative ideas, the new dating app “Tinder” was created.

Whitney mistakenly has an affair with a new hire who is her boss, and when she breaks up with him, an avalanche of injustice follows. Despite Whitney’s proof of non-stop texting abuse on her phone, she is the one who has to leave the company, even though she is the one who created all of the best ideas for Tinder, including the name of the app. What follows seems like it was the fictional ideas of a screenwriter even though this is a true life story. After a long struggle and legal battles, Whitney started her own company with the help of a wealthy investor and was a self made billionaire in February 2021, when the company went public. Real life stories like this one can inspire anyone who has been through a bad job, or a massive injustice at work.

The Rotten Tomatoes critics giving this good movie a 37% rating are way off, with my rating a solid 85% and a recommendation for a great true-life story about struggle and triumph.