November 11, 2016, - 4:26 pm
Weekend Box Office: Arrival (Pretentious, OVERRATED!), Almost Christmas
So we’re into November and, usually, at this time of year, the movies are supposed to get better. Right now, it seems like it’s just hype getting bigger. (I did not see “Shut In,” which was not screened for critics and didn’t have any nearby early showings–both bad signs.)
* Arrival – Rated PG-13: This movie is waaaay overrated. Liberal movie critics are falling all over themselves to gush about this nothing movie. Don’t believe the hype. In fact, it’s a crappy movie. This movie emperor wears no clothing. It’s long, slow, and boring, and nothing really ever happens. I never thought I’d hate an aliens-from-space movie, but this managed to induce me to that state. This is how liberals idealize dealing with aliens and fellow humans. It’s soooo pretentious. And so dumb. It will also be confusing to most moviegoers.
This is a snoozefest chick flick parading as something else. If you enjoy constant flashbacks to a single mother playing with and lamenting over her young daughter who died of cancer, then this is for you. For everyone else, this is a dud.
And there are a couple of cheap tricks used at the end of the movie to explain what is unexplainable. It doesn’t pass the smell test. I felt ripped off. On top of that, the script hides the relationship between some of the characters. Like I said, the whole thing makes for a confusing ending for the average moviegoer. It’s almost like you need a movie whisperer or a Cliffs Notes aide to help you figure it.
The story: twelve pod-style spaceships from outer space land all over the world. Well, they don’t really “land,” so much as they hover. There’s one hovering over a field in the United States. U.S. government officials can’t communicate with the aliens aboard the pods because they can’t understand the alien language, which is essentially a bunch of pictures that look like puffs of smoke in the shapes of circles.
Amy Adams plays the aforementioned single mother of the young daughter who died of cancer. She’s a linguistics professor who is recruited by the feds to go to the alien pod over the U.S. and try to figure out their language. This is necessary to tell the aliens we are peaceful and to find out if the aliens are peaceful (and why they are here). There, she and a physicist (Jeremy Renner) try to communicate with the aliens.
The movie is supposed to be a statement on miscommunications between humans. It’s a “statement” I could do without. There’s nothing enlightening or the very least interesting here. Anyone who says otherwise is delusional or a pretentious, phony intellectual.
ONE MARX PLUS ONE MICHELLE LAVAUGHN ROBINSON HUSSEIN OBAMA IDI AMIN DADA DON’T LET THE DOOR AT 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE HIT YA ON THE WAY OUT ON JANUARY 20TH
Watch the trailer . . .
* Almost Christmas – Rated PG-13: It seems every year around this time, there is a dopey movie about a dysfunctional large family that gets together for Christmas while feuding, hiding secrets, and ultimately making amends toward a happy ending. I usually hate these movies because they’re mostly incredibly dumb. Often these movies feature a Black family with a typical racist caricature: the token moronic idiot White character–usually a girlfriend or husband or something. This one is the Black family version, and this time around the White dummy is a campaign manager to one of the characters. In this, the White idiot wasn’t as stupid as usual and is very minor to the movie. That said, I enjoyed this movie and laughed a lot. It was very funny and could’ve been any family, Black or White.
A couple of caveats: one star of the movie is America-hating shoulder-chip wearer Danny Glover. Also, it features the forever annoying Mo’Nique. And you know what I always say about her: we need less Nique, not Mo. In this, though, she was well cast. And the movie features the ever-hilarious J.B. Smoove (who made me laugh endlessly as Leon in “Curb Your Enthusiasm”).
The story: Everyone in a large family–and their spouses and kids–return home for Christmas with their widowed father (Glover). They are constantly feuding, and their father has to constantly lecture them that they just need to get along for five days–the five days leading up to and including Christmas. But, of course, they don’t listen. There are the two feuding sisters. One sister is a single mother whose old high school suitor wants to romance her again, but she’s not interested. The other sister is married to Lonnie (Smoove), a former pro-basketball player who can’t move past his glory years in sports. And there are two sons. One of them is a star college football player who pops too many pills. The other is running for Congress and is married with two Youtube-video-obsessed kids. Finally, there is the aunt (Mo’Nique), a back-up singer who can’t cook. She is the sister of Glover’s deceased wife.
This isn’t a “great” movie. Not even close or even in the same galaxy. And there’s nothing new in it. The stuff in here has been done to death, frankly. But, still, I couldn’t stop laughing (even though some laughs came cheaply) and was entertained.
ONE REAGAN
Watch the trailer . . .
I agree about Arrival. In fact this lover of science fiction actually closed my eyes twice because it made me sleepy. The story is not unique, however, the writer needed to cut about twenty minutes. FOrest Whitaker was wasted as a one dimensional person.
SPOILER ALERT- giving her the gift of non linear thought and then saying humanity needed to work together so they can help the aliens 3,000 years in the future. Seemed to come of to hokey.
Glen Benjamin on November 12, 2016 at 8:31 am