The Light Between Oceans

The Light Between Oceans is the fictional period drama set in post-World War I Australia. It is an incredibly emotionally charged story of a man and his wife who find a baby on their isolated shores.

Even though the film was about 30-45 minutes too long, what I really enjoyed were the cinematic, beautiful landscapes, the plot and above all, the acting from Michael Fassbender as Tom Sherbourne, Alicia Vikander as his wife, Isabel Graysmark Sherbourne, and Rachel Weisz as Hannah Roennfeldt. The way these characters interacted with one another was mesmerizing.

If you are looking for a dramatic tear-jerker I’d recommend checking this one out.

The Illusionist

Another 11 year old movie that I didn’t catch when it first came out but decided to give it a shot, thus wrapping up my magician themed movie watching marathon. 

What I liked about The Illusionist was the acting and the plot twist toward the end. What I didn’t like were the costumes, most of my distaste was for Edward Norton’s ridiculous mustache. There also felt to be a lack of necessary character development earlier on in the movie, which made it difficult for me to really connect and feel engaged with leads in this film. 

Additionally, the ending was cliched; the way it was wrapped up in a pretty little bow. It definitely lacked the desired climax that I was hoping for. All in all, it wasn’t a complete waste of time but definitely not a movie that I would seek to see again.

The Prestige

I can’t believe it has taken me 11 years to watch The Prestige. It’s the story of rivaling magicians who would do anything to one up each other. The magicians are played by a much younger looking Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, who still miraculously looks the same. 

This was a well-acted film with a really unique plot and great a script. The movie kept me engaged all the way to the end, were some twists and turns popped up. It was a interesting and unpredictable story, which I greatly appreciated and enjoyed. 

For those like me who missed this one I’d definitely recommend checking it out.

Annabelle

I’m not a huge fan of scary movies but I decided to give Annabelle a shot because it was during the day and I was surrounded by family.

What I found out very quickly with this movie was that where it lacked in fear it made up for in utter ridiculousness. The script was unrealistic, the villain looked like a complete joke and it was terribly filmed. The cuts and edits were choppy as if this were an amateur film and not a motion picture shown all over the world. 

Overall it was a huge disappointment so save your time and skip this one.

Serena

I had hopes that Serena might be a good movie because Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence were the leads, however to my dismay, the movie was complete disappointment and a waste of 2 hours of my life. 

I knew it was going to be a problem within the first 15 minutes but I decided to push through since I was already in it. The main issues that I came across was that there is a huge gap in the plot when it came to answering some of the more simple background questions and the character development was almost nonexistent. 

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence did well with the little that they had and the cinematography was beautiful, with the landscapes and locations, however even these things couldn’t save this movie. I’d say avoid this one at all costs.

Sully

The first time I watched Sully I fell asleep on it. It's the type of movie you really have to sit through and pay attention to so it couldn’t really hold my attention at the time. I decided to give it another shot and I’m glad I did.

It was actually a very emotionally charged and an incredibly portrayed depiction of Captain Sully and what he did to save 155 people with his “water landing” on the Hudson back in 2009. 

Everyone knows the story of how he saved their lives with that landing but what I didn’t know was how many other people contributed to the saving of the airline passengers on hat cold winters day. If it weren’t for all of the men and women who helped those people, they could have easily died of hypothermia in that water. I also didn’t know how much scrutiny Sully encountered from The National Transportation Safety Board. 

Overall the acting was phenomenal, especially from Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart. The script was pretty dialogue heavy but the plot was interesting and all in all it was a very well made film.  

Gia

Gia was a made for TV HBO movie that is almost 20 years old. I was always curious about seeing this film but never got around to it until now. Gia is the story of the first supermodel, Gia Carangi. It shows her childhood, living in a broken home, her rise to stardom in the modeling industry, her dramatic fall and subsequent death due to drug abuse.

Angelina Jolie was the lead and she resembled Gia pretty well. I thought that her portrayal of Gia as troubled, obsessive, rebellious and, dangerous was also signature Jolie. Even through the plot was interesting and the acting was pretty good, it was slow moving and lacked a certain level of character development to really bring me in and keep me engaged all the way through. In the end, this is not a movie that I would be interested in seeing a second time.

The Danish Girl

The Danish Girl was an incredible film loosely based on the lives and marriage of Danish artists Einar and Gerda Wegener. When Einar made the brave transition to become a woman, Lili Elbe, she became one of the few pioneers for transgender awareness in the 1920’s. Her story is one that still inspires people to this day.

The character development and script were remarkable but what was the most moving about this film was the actor’s portrayals of these emotionally complicated characters. The passion and depth that that these two actors, Eddie Redmayne as Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe and Alicia Vikander as Gerda Wegener, were able to evoke was brilliant and quite mesmerizing. 

The Oscar buzz that this movie and these actors received was well deserved. Eddie and Alicia are quickly becoming a couple of my favorites to see onscreen. Both have had quite a few great movies as of late and this is just another added to their resume. I’d definitely recommend checking this one out. 

Split

Split seemed like a really interesting idea with a great actor at the helm, James McAvoy. Unfortunately, this psychological horror-thriller film couldn’t hold up to my expectations.

It is supposed to be the sequel to Unbroken but you wouldn’t have known that going in nor did it give any hints to that until the very end. James McAvoy’s acting was superb but even his acting couldn’t save this movie. The end was incredibly unrealistic and just straight up bizarre.

I should have known better, it was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The only movies that I have ever liked from him are some of this earlier works, The Sixth Sense and Signs. After that everything just gets really peculiar, downright unsatisfying and a complete waste of time. If only I had paid attention to who directed the film, I could have saved two hours of my life. 

The Runaways

The Runways is the biographical story of Joan Jett and the formation of The Runways, the first all-girls punk rock band. The leads in the movie were Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett, Dakota Fanning as Cherie Curry and Michael Shannon as Kim Fowley.

Though a bit long and dragged out at times, I thought that the story was intriguing and kept my attention for the majority of the movie. Additionally, the acting from the lead cast and the cinematography were great. I also recognized and rather enjoyed the soundtrack.  Overall I found this to be quite an entertaining movie.

Room

The drama, Room, was the fictional story of a boy and his mother who lived in a small shed that they called “Room”.

The plot was unique but a bit drawn out. I felt like the movie was about 30 minutes too long. 

What I did really enjoy was the character development. It was constructed very well, with the primary two actors in this role, Bri Larson as Ma and Jacob Trembla as Jack, giving extremely compelling performances. It’s clear why both actors received so much critical acclaim and why Bri won the Best Actress Academy Award & the Golden Globes.

If you are looking for a drama that keeps you guessing, with some great performances, I’d say check it out.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is the historical western drama that details the last year of Jesse James life and his relationship with Robert Ford, his admirer, turned murderer.  

Brad Pitt did a great job playing the ruthless yet mentally tormented Jesse James and Casey Affleck did a great job paying the socially awkward Robert Ford.

The plot at times was slow and by the end you just want it to wrap up; there was a long wait for the inevitable. Even though it did drag on a bit toward the end,  I did enjoy the character development and the narration, which helped to keep me mostly engaged.

I'm on the fence about giving this one a hard no, but I know I wouldn't watch this movie a second time.

Children of Men

Children of Men is about a dystopian, not so distant, future were women have become infertile, causing the entire world to revolt and London had turned into a militaristic state. At a certain point a miracle happens so Theo Faron, played by Clive Owen, gets tasked to protect someone on their journey away from imminent danger.

I’m not a huge fan of this type of movie because of how dark and depressing they get. However, with that being said, even though the plot caused a lot of anxiety, it did still keep me engaged, and there were some great acting performances from Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

I probably won't watch this one again, but if you are a fan of these types of movies, then you will enjoy this one.