Hidden Figures (2016): Review

This movie was absolutely fantastic and I recommend it to everyone who enjoys a quality film. It had a good script, was well cast and acted, and had some tension and excitement to it. Even thought I knew what was going to happen as it is based on true life events, I was still interested and riveted about what would happen next. It has been a while since I saw a family friend movie that was so well done and that I enjoyed as much as this one and the fact that it is based on real life events just makes it even better. I was hoping that this movie would be good but it definitely exceeded my hopes.



Hidden Figures is a movies based on the book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly. The movie follows three of the amazing women in the book Katherine G. Johnson, played by Taraji P. Henson; Dorothy Vaughn, played by Viola Davis; and Mary Jackson, played by Janelle Monae, who were amazing mathematical minds that worked for NASA during the space race of the early 1960s. During this time women, especially African-American women were fighting for their rightful place among the men in the mathematical, engineering, and early computer fields. Also staring; Kevin Costner as Al Harrison; Jim Parsons as Paul Stafford; Kirstin Dunst as Vivian Mitchell; and Glen Powell as John Glenn.

This movie was based on all three of the women's stories but it seemed to focus mainly on Katherine and then Dorothy's journey, with Mary thrown in for a little extra. The other characters where there to show some of what these women were facing as working mothers and community members.  Although the movie was great and I look forward to watching it gain there was no real development of the characters, especially the supporting characters to the main three. There was some of how these women were pushing for rights and to be treated for the intelligent people that they were but it did so in a family friendly way and the focus was more on the space race and what happened then the emotional struggles. That being said it did show the discrimination and segregation but again in family friendly film kinda way.



Overall, I really enjoyed the film and even some of the not the best but okay CGI didn't bother me. It was not big on the CGI but I did not find any of it distracting or really obvious. The outer space could have been done much more big budget but the fact that most of the shots were tighter into camera worked.

The casting was spot on for me and I do not think I would have enjoyed the movie or felt invested in the story if the cast didn't pull me in. There were a few that were not suburb, like Dunst, but she was alright. It would have been nice to have more connection to the families of these women and I feel like it would have worked better to cut out more of the non work scenes as there wasn't enough time to really develop these relationships as the main focus was on these women as intelligent NASA employees and not mothers (which is perfectly fine for me).

As I said, I look forward to watching this movie again and will probably read the book as I want to learn about the fourth women featured in it that didn't make it into the movie. If you have read it let me know if it is worth a look.

My Rating = 3+

Passengers (2016): Review

I have been looking forward to seeing Passengers since I saw the first trailer months again and went to see the earliest showing I was able. I am very glad to say that this movie met my expectations and that I really enjoyed it. I was apprehensive a bit as when I am expecting good things from a movie I tend to be disappointed, but the acting abilities of Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence were up to the challenge of keeping me engaged and enjoying this movie. I am sure it will become of the movie I watch on rotation in the upcoming years and I am already hoping that others will want to go see it as I want to see it again.



Passengers is a movie that takes places in the future on the space ship Avalon. Where 5000 passengers have been placed in sleep pods during their planned 120 year trip to a new planet which they will be colonizing. Thirty years into their journey the space ship experiences some problems and two space pods end up opening. These pods belong to engineer Jim Preston, played by Chris Pratt, and writer Aurora Lane, played by Jennifer Lawrence. The question is are they able to to come to terms with waking up early and dealing with malfunctions that are occurring within the ship? How will they handle being the only two people awake with ninety more years until the reach their destination. Also included in the cast are Arthur, played by Michael Sheen, and Gus, played by Lawrence Fishburne.

As this movie is dependent on a very small cast it is very important that all the characters are likable and able to hold up the movie, and I am happy to say that all of the cast were well selected and did a great job. I liked all of the characters and was able to follow the emotional journey of them. I like Pratt and Lawrence as actors and their ability to get me to care about them and what is going on makes the movie. There are many movies out there that are simplistic in plot, like this one, but where the main actor or actors cannot hold up the movie and are not able to make me care.  There was great chemistry between Pratt and Lawrence and Sheen and Fishburne added a dynamic that helped the story along without taking away from the connection between the main two.



Although this movie is set in the vastness of space it is still very much character driven. The plot is very simplistic and not a lot happens but it is all about what is going on with the characters, both intra and inter personally. Although there were parts that were spoiled by knowing who was in the movie and seeing parts of the trailers that let me know certain key things were coming I still enjoyed the journey and wanting to see how things would play out. This is not a complex movie and it doesn't have any huge action sequences but it kept a good pace and it worked for me.

The CGI was good overall and I always love it when space is done in a way that looks gorgeous. This film was able to pull it off for me. Even the spaceship didn't look jarring and blended with the rest of the CGI. The only thing that looked obviously CGI was the zero g but this is something that few movies have been able to do well. It is hard to fake zero gravity realness for me, especially as I have seen footage of astronauts in real life zero g. It is hard to fake weightlessness and the hair is always wrong. However I enjoyed how they did the water. I didn't see this in 3D as I didn't want to wait for the later showing but think that this is one of the movies where it would be beneficial. My favorite way to use 3D is by things floating and seeing things far away in the distance, which as a space movie it has.




Overall there is nothing super special about the plot of this movie but it was enjoyable and kept me engaged throughout the whole thing. If you enjoy movies with good chemistry/ banter between the characters and that the plot keeps movie (although it is obvious and not complicated at all) it is worth seeing. Don't expect lots of action as this is not that kind of big budget movie.

My Rating: 3

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016): Review

This weekend I was excited for the new Jack Reacher movie because I like the original one, but alas I was extremely disappointed in this movie. I was really bad, and in short it is not worth paying the money to see in the theatres. I opted to go to the 2D version of this movie and am glad that I made this decisions because I didn't spend more money on it.  What was really disappointing was this movie could have been a lot better but it just was too predictable and bland and it didn't seem to care if there was any chemistry between any of the characters.



In this second Jack Reacher, you have Tom Cruise as the title character, a ex Army Major who has become a drifter who find himself getting involved in situations that he doesn't like and where he thinks things "don't add up."  He becomes involved via phone with Major Turner, played by Cobie Smulders, and as he is planning to visit her in Washington DC, he discovers that she has been arrested for Espionage. He gets pulled into this plot of her being set up and the main antagonist for Reacher is another ex military called The Hunter, played by Patrick Heusinger, who decides that even though he is being hired to take care of Hunter and Reacher he really wants to best Reacher. Also involved are Espin, played by Aldris Hodge; Samantha, played by Danika Yarosh; and Sgt. Leach, played by Madalyn Horcher.

As I stated this movie was bad, the plot was pretty straight forward and the things that were suppose to be surprises are drawn out like they should be suspenseful, were pretty basic, and were nothing special and I didn't experience any suspense during them. This doesn't make a movie bad or unenjoyable for me, per say, but this movie had no chemistry between the main characters. The movies is set up to have this intense flirtation between Reacher and Turner (that is why he is coming to DC) but she doesn't really emote anything at all and there is no zing or underlying tension between them. This is what was required to make a bland or generic movie enjoyable for me, good chemistry between the character or charisma of individual characters. It was also very forced between Reacher and The Hunter but they seemed to just be going through the motions then having this true competition between them. I don't think there was any need to add the Samantha plotline. I understand that the filmmakers were trying to give some intrigue into his past and give Reacher something else to care about but for me it doesn't work.  Saying all that, there were some enjoyable actors. I did think there was chemistry and potential with supporting characters like Espin, there was a little (and I mean just a little) question about which way he would go, and especially Sgt. Leach. She was the best part of the whole movie for me and I liked the development of her character, even thought she was only on screen for a few minutes in total.

I started out this movie being disappointed because the scene in the trailer in the diner was the very beginning of the movie and there was no explanation of how this occurred. I think that more about this story would have been more interesting. I wanted to see this and definitely would have liked more development of the situations where Reacher and Turner were involved before they finally come together in Washington DC.



The cinematography was similar as with the original Jack Reacher (2012), so no surprises there. The movie continues to have the fight sequences that I hate, where it is tight up fights where it is difficult to see what is going on. There is also a lot of running, I mean actually running in this movie. I would have liked a change up of the type of action sequences but in this movie we really only get running.

So overall, I was extremely underwhelmed with this movie. I didn't hate it but it was just unremarkable in anyway. It is fine and I would probably watch it on television but isn't worth paying money to see.

My Rating: 1