themovieparadise

I didn't really know much about Blindspotting before I went to go see it. I had seen the trailer a couple of times, but I didn't have the strongest sense of what the film was actually about. I went and saw Blindspotting as part of my new initiative to see a new movie in theaters every Saturday morning. It gives me an excuse to go see movies that aren't the big blockbusters that I've been looking forward to for months and months, and Blindspotting certainly fits that bill. It centers around two friends, Collin (Daveed Diggs) and Miles (Rafael Casal), who reach a bit of a crossroads as Collin is finishing up his probation and begins to reassess whether Miles is really a healthy person to keep in his life going forward. Blindspotting does a really great job in balancing comedy and drama, as it tells the story of these characters while also hinting at larger issues that surround them. Through some really creative and innovative techniques, Blindspotting works as a non-confrontational social commentary, with the development of its characters being at its forefront...

Ever since Jaws came out in 1975, the movie-going audience has had a fascination with sharks. Every time a shark movie comes out, it seems like people flock to go see it. I don't know if people are collectively hoping each film will be as good as Jaws, or if people are just drawn to sharks, but there seems to be worldwide anticipation every time a new shark movie is coming out. Nowadays, there are really only two kinds of shark movies that are made. You have the serious thrillers like The Shallows, and then you have the absurdly ridiculous ones such as the Sharknado films. And when the trailers for The Meg came out, a lot of people thought it would be almost in the vein of a Sharknado movie. I personally thought it looked more like it was going to be just plain dumb instead of being dumb fun, but I know a lot of anticipation surrounded this film. So I went and saw it, and I didn't like it but I also didn't hate it. The problem with The Meg is that it doesn't know which of these two types of shark movies it wants to be. Sometimes it wants to just be big zany fun, and then sometimes it tries to be uber serious with narrative building and character development. The Meg has a real identity crisis, and it would have been for the better if it had just picked one and stuck with it...

The story of the Hundred Acre Wood with Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh is timeless. In some form or another, everyone knows about the world of Winnie the Pooh, and that's why the marketing for Disney's Christopher Robin has been so interesting. It features Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rouge!) as a grown up Christopher Robin who has a wife (Hayley Atwell, Captain America: The First Avenger) and a daughter (Bronte Carmichael, The Darkest Hour). And when he becomes too focused on work and loses sight of what is truly important in life, Winnie the Pooh (Jim Cummings) then enters the fold. I think the trailers for Christopher Robin have been excellent. Not only have they played on nostalgia, but they've had so much heart and charm to them. I never thought that a Winnie the Pooh movie would become one of my most anticipated films of the summer, but Christopher Robin sure did. So I went into the movie really excited for it, and Christopher Robin is a good movie. It's pretty paint-by-the-numbers in terms of its narrative--you can pretty much tell exactly how it's going to go just based off of the trailers--but Ewan McGregor gives a great performance, and the film has an abundance of heart and charm...