#2,413: The Last Jedi

The Dinner - ★☆☆☆☆
For a movie with so much going on, not much happens. It’s weird how they landed such good actors for a few roles, then cast the rest with friends of the crew and raffle winners What’s worse, not enough dinner. Fans of The Trip will be expecting to see Steve Coogan pontificating over an absurdly luxurious meal, and in this installment, we barely learn about the line-caught trout.

Table 19 - ★★☆☆☆
Moving along in our tour of disappointing dining (we were hoping to watch a hole week of movies with people eating dinner), this movie is what you might call: not great. Review is one of my very favorite shows in recent memory, and this is directed by one of the creators and director of Review. Andy Daly even has a nice little cameo. Alas, Table 19 has a dearth of acts and a wealth of endings scattered all throughout. It gets better once they escape the horrible wedding, but not by enough.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - ★★★★☆
Wow! Well, this movie is certainly less ‘fun’ than 7. I think that’s fine. 8 both advances the story and checks a dozen boxes of picky complaints people have had about 7 or earlier movies. I once spent a weekend hanging out with Rian Johnson and we talked so much about Brazil – I was so happy for him at all of the nods in this. I mean, it’s practically sacrilege that someone gets a throwaway line and doesn’t use one of the Star Wars Numbers, it’s 27B-6! And the magnifier in the throne room! My biggest disappointment was that the audience in my sold out screening was so quiet. This movie has big surprises!

(Second biggest is I caught on to a thing at the end really early. I bet it's more fun if it blows you away.) sure I’ll be back to see it again next week sometime. Can’t wait!

#2,410: Lady Bird

Bad Genius - ★★★★☆
Mostly great high school heist. The last act drags a little.

The test taking scenes are so much more engaging and suspenseful than anything I’ve seen lately. This would be a great double feature with Justice League for people who are always shouting about the importance of Stakes.

Coco - ★★★½☆
Certainly it fits into my top 50% of Pixar movies. Very glad it wasn’t another sequel. Outstanding third act. Interesting choice to just kill the dog.

FWIW, I saw the version that didn’t have Frozen on Ice at the beginning. Shame that a Pixar short didn’t get made instead.

Lady Bird - ★★★☆☆
In much the same way that a lot of things in the current cultural moment are not about me, I am happy that this exists but I didn't connect with it as well as I did with some other recent high school movies. This isn't how I happened to grow up. Still, I sure liked some of Lady Bird's decisions and definitely disliked others, and I could probably say the same about my high school aged self.

I do feel like I probably need a rewatch to pick up everything Lady Bird was putting down, but also that I'm probably not going to give it one very soon. Alas.

However, this was the best movie I saw this year that was directed by a woman. Of the 90-ish films I’ve logged so far this year, not limited to 2017 releases, I’ve seen 7 directed by women. and 4 of those were documentaries.

#2,407: Justice League

Roman J. Israel, Esq. - ★★★☆☆
Feels a little like Denzel’s Monster, he's out to win some prizes. I kind of wouldn’t’ve minded seeing the ‘before’ picture, where Roman Israel just does a lot of skillful lawyering.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - ★★★½☆
I think this is a movie that wants to remind us to imagine others complexly, and that's a reminder we could really use right now. Maybe all the time, but also right now.

Sometimes, I think I review the advertising instead of the picture. After all, I've probably logged more time watching the trailer for Three Billboards this year than I did watching the film. I'm really glad there was more substance to the movie than what was on display, and that kind of sums up the whole thing.

Justice League - ★★☆☆☆
I try to be an optimist, but DC doesn’t make it easy.

Diana: I like that she spams her finishing move all over the place. It's like the ‘why not start with the giant robot’ problem. But she seems dumber now–like I know we have to keep referring to ‘a pilot she once knew’ because someone in a meeting gave a note that JL should tie into the other movies more, but from her perspective he died a hundred years ago. They only spent a week together. I think it's fair for her to move on.

Superman: Some of the whedonisms were even more jarring than in Avengers because we’ve already established these characters, and Zach Snyder’s Superman isn’t particularly jokey. There’s room for all kinds of supermen, but please pick one.

Most of the time in a Superman movie, there’s never a sense of just how strong he is. Is it difficult to catch a space shuttle? Or to lift an island into space? It's great that we see him casually flying that building around just before doing something he finds difficult.

Also, raising the dead is surprisingly simple!

Flash: He's the fun thing in the movie, much more appropriate as a Whedon-y character. I liked when they did that super-speed scene from X-Men, and the race scene. The first time, at least. Why would you put it in the movie twice?

Cyborg: in the interest of brevity, he sucks.

GL: I was wrong. I thought this movie was going to pull an Iron Man Three-style double bluff where *obviously* Superman comes back, but that distracts all the nerds from the real reveal - The introduction of one of the space heroes halfway through the movie. Preferably a Green Lantern whose interest is piqued by Darkseid’s bad behavior. We had a GL in a flashback, but that’s not the same. I bet he was in an earlier script though. Otherwise, unite the seven what? It's not seas. This is not a movie about the sea. Aquaman, while present, didn't even have a character.

#2,404: Murder on the Orient Express

LBJ - ★★½☆☆
This is the Greatest Hits of Lyndon Johnson. All the things you know about him. All the popular quotes and stories. You’re welcome, high school history teachers.

The Whole Truth - ★½☆☆☆☆
Forgettable despite the barrage of Shocking Twists.

Murder on the Orient Express - ★★½☆☆
It’s still technically period, but the story has been wrung through a modernizer, maybe one borrowed from Guy Ritchie. We’ve got new scenes to demonstrate Poirot’s badassery, and much fancier exteriors. It does make me want to go watch the Lumet version again.

#2,401: Thor: Ragnarok

Happy Death Day - ★★★★☆
Hands down my favorite Blumhouse movie. I was suspicious of another teens + Groundhog Day movie, but ended up totally on board. As a bonus, I’m pretty sure the twists and turns and whodunnits actually DO hang together. It gets so much right that Before I Fall totally wiped out on, and unlike most Blumhouse movies, it resolves the story at the end!

Avengers: Age of Ultron - ★★★☆☆
Just a quick rewatch in eager anticipation of Infinity War. That party scene at the beginning is the kind of scene X-Men fans love to read and will probably never get in film form. Turned it off before the lights-and-noise conclusion.

Thor: Ragnarok - ★★★★☆
This installment feels like it takes place in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy universe as much as the MCU.
• The music’s great.
• Infinite swords is a silly power.
• I kind of felt bad for Karl Urban.
• Even though it’s been revealed since the first teaser trailer, the script totally thinks that it’s going to surprise you with the Hulk.
• How amazing is it that anyone has managed to make a Hulk that is a highlight of every movie he appears in?
• Korg was like a spiteful proof of concept of how The Thing could work on screen.