While a 65% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes suggests a movie should be checked out, sometimes you wonder why the score isn’t higher. Allied, the Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, The Walk) World War II love story set in Casablanca and London about two intelligence officers from opposite sides of the world says a lot. The movie has been loosely referred to as Mr. and Mrs. Smith (because of Brad Pitt) meets Casablanca. While I understand the reference, this is far from the truth. I was not too fond of either of these other movies. While I did not particularly like either of those movies, I enjoyed Allied.
Category Archives: Romance
The Light Between Oceans (2016)
The Light Between Oceans was a flawed movie that is likely to bore many, if not most, of its moviegoers. This was evidenced by the guy sitting behind me who was sawing logs for the entire second half. But I am a sucker for broken relationship movies caused by some strife, and that’s what I got here. The only thing I knew about this movie was that it was about a couple living on a small island while he managed a lighthouse and that they found a baby in a boat they took as their own after she suffered a series of miscarriages. I wish I had gone in knowing nothing about this movie.
All I needed to know was that it was a heavy drama, that it featured one of my favorite actors (Michael Fassbender – Shame, Steve Jobs), one of the following great actresses of our time who arrived on the scene with two massive performances in 2015 (Alicia Vikander – Ex Machina, The Other Danish Girl), and the director of one of my favorite movies of all-time (Derek Cianfrance – Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines). That enough would have gotten me in the theater. That is enough for me to give this a positive review despite a story that had much promise but had some uneven turns, ultimately leading to characters making decisions that didn’t make much sense. What I loved most about this movie (which will be the focus of this review) is how two different people can face the same ethical dilemma and how the decision can eat one person up so much that they almost can’t live with themselves. In contrast, the other person can continue living their life peacefully as if the decision they had to make was whether to have sausage or pepperoni on their pizza the night before.
Me Before You (2016)
I saw Me Before You back in 1991. It was called Dying Young, and Julia Roberts was the star. It stunk. I am entirely joking, but I promised myself I would use this as the first line of this review, regardless. The truth is I didn’t see Dying Young until 2005. That part is true, but the real truth is that these movies aren’t even in the same league. Dying Young wasn’t as poor as I thought, but I don’t remember much about it. On the other hand, Me Before You was an incredibly profound movie I will remember for years. It is also a movie that showcased Emilia Clarke’s range (HBO’s Game of Thrones) and firmly planted her as a leading actress for the next 10-15 years. The film also introduced Sam Claflin to the rest of the world, who had not seen The Hunger Games franchise, where he played the role of Finnick. Before I get into the nuts and bolts of this review, I want to state that every aspect of this tear-jerker blew me away. While it was designed to tug at our heartstrings, it felt completely authentic. It was carried by a superb performance by Clarke and backed up heavily by Claflin, who did just enough to play second fiddle. I remember seeing Brooklyn last year. Brooklyn was a movie that I adored, but I couldn’t understand it when I could hear the sniffling and see the watery eyes of all those sitting near me. In Me Before You, I understood it completely. There are a few quick and funny tidbits related to this movie that I thought I’d share:
- I thought this was another movie based on a Nicholas Sparks book.
- I kept getting this movie confused with Love & Friendship, the Jane Austin novel adapted for the big screen that came out around the same time as Me Before You. But, as I look at these two movies now, the only comparison was that I was convinced I wouldn’t see either film at the time of their release.
- I talked to a coworker about Me Before You, and she spoiled the movie. She told me she didn’t want to ruin it for me, but she proceeded to do just that.
She told me how the movie ended, and I didn’t stop her from doing so. It turns out she never actually saw this movie, but her cousin told her everything she then repeated to me. I look back on that conversation, and I can’t be upset that she ruined it for me because if she hadn’t broached the topic with me in the first place, I might not have seen it and almost certainly would not have seen it on the big screen. I am so glad that I saw it in the theater. It was easily the most moving movie of the first half of 2016 and one in what is now looking like a poor year that likely will hold its spot on my Top 10 Movies of 2016 list.
Escobar: Paradise Lost (2015)
I cannot help comparing Escobar: Paradise Lost to Leonardo DiCaprio’s The Beach. There were quite a few similarities and also quite a few differences. I’ll start with the differences first. Except for The Man in the Iron Mask (which wasn’t promoted as a blockbuster), The Beach was DiCaprio’s first marketed movie since Titanic. It had a massive promotional campaign and was expected to vault DiCaprio even further as Hollywood’s next leading man. I had huge hopes for The Beach and liked it. Unfortunately, the movie was panned by audiences and critics alike. But before I get pounced on for enjoying it, please note that I saw this movie when I was about 24. That is my defense. I cannot defend the actions where I have watched the movie about three times since then. But I like the idea of a paradise that’s too good to be true and a lead character suddenly so far over his head that he has no means of getting out. This was a similarity to the much less marketed Escobar: Paradise Lost, a movie that received mixed reviews but, for the most part, had as many people who didn’t like the film as it had people who did.
Sleeping With Other People (2015)
Sleeping With Other People was the fifth movie I saw over 48 hours. The Finest Hours, Anomalisa, 45 Years, and Love & Mercy were the others. While The Finest Hours was entertaining and was an excellent movie to see on the big screen in 3D, the only movie of the five that I enjoyed was Love & Mercy. As much as I disliked most of Anomalisa and 45 Years, the worst of the five movies was Sleeping With Other People. I am a big of Jason Sudeikis (We’re the Millers, Hall Pass). I liked him a lot on Saturday Night Live and thought that he had a fantastic start to his movie career, and sometimes, he can make you laugh out loud with his humor. At least for now, I think he needs to stick to strictly doing “funny” comedies. Sleeping With Other People was a comedy that was not funny and played like a dramedy more than any other Sudeikis movie I am familiar with. Likewise, this has also been classified as a romance, which I find sad and a discredit to the genre. I hated the premise of this movie and felt that it was tough for me to relate to, either on a personal level or how I observed those close to me. Perhaps this is the lifestyle for many people, but I don’t see it in my life. I didn’t know if I was supposed to take this movie seriously or if this was just supposed to be a fun 90 minutes. In either case, it failed. I neither enjoyed myself nor even laughed one time.