Lost City

 

Lost City is an action adventure comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum. It is the story of grieving romance author, Loretta Sage, who writes about the treasures of ancient cities. When she reluctantly takes on a book tour with her cover model, Alan, she is kidnapped by eccentric billionaire, Abigail Fairfax, who wants her help finding treasures of a lost prehistoric city.

The script was cute with some funny bits. There were great themes around grief, love and authenticity. The plot was entertaining with an engaging and unique plot twist.

Sandra and Channing had strong chemistry and played well off of one another. I liked how this was a strong female-led film. Sandra’s character, Loretta, was fully formed. You were able to see the evolution from a recluse to a confident, brave and adventurous person. 

There was a descent amount of diversity in the casting with the addition of Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Oscar Nuñez. Da'Vine Joy Randolph brought the comedy although her main monologue was really corny and not needed. I didn't love Oscar's role, I thought it was too creepy, but I did love Brad Pitt’s cameo. It was unexpected and he was actually quite funny as well. Daniel Radcliffe is starting to get typecast. I would have liked to see his character in a different light. Overall, the majority of the cast fun to watch but were one dimensional. I would have liked to see a deeper dive on everyone, especially Channing’s character Alan.

In the end, Lost City was a fun movie. Not necessarily one I would watch again, but not a bad choice for a lazy Saturday afternoon. 

Top Gun: Maverick

 

Top Gun: Maverick is the long awaited action sequel to 1986's Top Gun. The film stars Tom Cruise reprising his role as Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell. He’s now a test pilot that has managed to stay in the military while still pushing the envelope for the last three decades. But not everyone wants him to succeed so as a final straw he is sent to the United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program aka "Top Gun", where he must train a group of younger, top in class pilots, for a highly dangerous top secret mission, while also coming to terms with his own past.

Rarely is a sequel, which is made 30+ years after the original even close to as good, but this was an exception to the rule. I was pleasantly surprised with this film. It was the perfect way to bring in the nostalgia of the original in the soundtrack and in parts of plot while also giving a refreshing new story. The film was full of high action sequences and the script was funny but also at times quite emotionally charged. The themes around forgiveness, growth and moving on were also prevalent throughout.

I thought that Tom Cruise did a great job leading this cast which was a mix of seasoned actors and new comers. He picked right up where he left off with Maverick, which was kind of a disappointment that his character hadn’t evolved much over the last 36 years. He was still struggling with letting things go in his past and a lot of his decision making was still career stunting. He and Miles Teller played well off of one another. I have seen Miles in a couple of movies now and can see the range he has. He brought in a quite leadership while also having this underlying anger and trauma of past. He was the perfect casting for the role of Rooster. The character development for Maverick and Rooster was strong and you really felt connected to and wanted to root for them. The rest of the characters in the cast weren't as developed with the majority of them being one dimensional. I would have liked to see a deeper dive on the 10 or so actors that were supposed to be the important pieces to this Top Gun class. Additionally, there was a descent amount of diversity with the extras but the main characters were all white and mostly male. It would have been nice to see a wider difference in ethnicities and genders for the main cast.  

Even with those critiques, Top Gun: Maverick was still one of my favorite movies that has come out this year. I would definitely recommend this film for all. I’d also suggest bringing some tissues as there were quite a few teary moments. And if you haven’t seen the 1986 classic, I would just suggest watching that one first, so that you could fully appreciate all of the call backs from it. 

Senior Year

 

Senior Year is the Netflix produced comedy starring Rebel Wilson. Wilson plays Stephanie, a high school popular girl and head cheerleader who thinks she has her dream life planned out, only to be subjected to a life altering, sabotaging injury that puts her in a coma for 20 years. When she wakes up she has to figure out how she’s going to move forward with her life.

The plot was a cool idea but the script ended up being very predictable and also unrealistic at times. It gave me Never Been Kissed and Easy A vibes. There were funny parts but there were also a lot of awkward, cringey parts and plenty of corny jokes too. I liked the references to the early 2000s with the music, fashion and the homages to Brittany Spears were also cute.

I appreciated the diversity in gender, sexual identity and ethnicity in the casting, however the majority of those minority cast members were one dimensional. I would have liked a deeper dive into those characters stories. Rebel did a great job leading the cast. Her character was complex; a juvenile in a woman’s body, someone who was immature and selfish at times but deep down had a good heart.

Overall Senior Year was an entertaining and heartfelt film with great themes around not letting high school define you, being your authentic self and only caring about what the people who love you think about you. Even though this isn’t a movie I would watch again, it was still a fun mood lifter.