Thursday, week #11 of 2021 (3/11 – 3/14/2021): two new movies this week, a drama and a romantic comedy. Am running a bit behind checking out the movie entertainment scene as work — you know, that day job — has been keeping me very busy lately.
It’s good to see new movies continuing to be released in theaters. We still haven’t seen one of the three from last week, but tonight we’re springing for tickets for one of the new ones (we’re still deciding which as this is being written, but leaning toward The Father). By the time this is posted (12:01am Friday 3/12) we’ll have already made our choice.
The Father
Anthony Hopkins is the standout reason to see this film here. He’s a great actor. Does this script about an elderly father facing the ravages of time.
Anticipation: 5/10
Long Weekend
Not much is sticking out in this trailer. Sort of the standard fare rom-com trailer.
Anticipation: 4/10
Which one of these movies most interests you? Wherever you are watching movies this weekend, happy watching to you!
Boogie – R – 1 hr 30 min NO SPOILERS Movie Review Watched in theater Thursday March 4, 2021 AMC Lakewood 12 – Lakewood, Washington 10th new movie seen in theater in 2021
Alfred “Boogie” Chin (Taylor Takahashi) is a talented basketball player that transfers to a school where he can face off against the future NBA phenom “Monk” and his team. Boogie must learn to be a team player, despite being the best player on his “trash” team while also navigating through being an Asian man racially stereotyped as unable to play basketball at a high level.
First, the good: this isn’t a typical sports movie. Always enjoy giving points for creativity. Some of the camera shots like the extreme close-ups on the eyes to measure emotions. The run time is good, it doesn’t hang around too long, but with all the different stories. The fact that two actors named Taylor of opposite sex are romantically involved — admittedly, it’s Taylor and Taylour — is one of those odd IMDB facts that make the movie after the fact a little more enjoyable. We were never bored with the film, because there are so many stories in one. It’s like each scene is introducing another layer upon layer. The setup was good.
The payoff? Not so much.
Yes, now, the not so good. It’s multiple types of movies in one and switches between them often too clumsily: 1) a dramatic character coming of age high school getting a college scholarship because we’re poor story, 2) an interracial romance and all the stupid society acceptance conflicts, 3) an underdog basketball team (David vs. Goliath). The worst sin this movie commits is an ending that just doesn’t resolve everything setup. Heck, it doesn’t even resolve enough of the stories. Everything doesn’t have to be resolved, but major plot points sure do.
Without spoiling, since this is a non-spoiler review, and ending isn’t something in a story, it’s everything. You have to tie up the story we spent an hour and a half watching. The payoff needs to be both satisfying and somewhat surprising. If it’s predictable, cliched, stupid or doesn’t resolve the conflicts, it makes us feel like we were ripped off watching.
I know, I know, it’s the artistic ending. The make you think about everything you watched ending. That works with some stories, but not this one. We touched on this a little bit as we left the theater. Again, when we’re talking a non-spoiler review we can’t tell you specifically what we hated about the ending, but neither of us liked that aspect of the film.
As for the rest of the movie? We were entertained and for a date night, sometimes that’s enough at the movies. We probably are being generous giving this three stars, but it had a lot creative potential, but it’s too many stories in one movie, unfortunately. Maybe catch this on the streaming circuit, but it’s not recommended to see in the theater. The reality is there are better basketball movies, better romances and better high school fish out of water socially acceptance movies (Superbad!).
Rating (out of 5 stars): ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Todd) ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Kara)
When it comes to sports movies, I’d rank interest in basketball somewhere in the middle. It doesn’t have the violence of football or hockey, but is faster paced than baseball. It involves a fewer number of players on an active team than baseball and football, giving that a shortened number of characters. Alas, baseball and basketball have a lot more games in a season than football making a movie covering a season longer.
That’s the sports angle only, now a single player in any sport could be the focus or the coach, which is often what sports movies choose. That’s the case with Boogie, a gifted basketball player.
The coming-of-age story of Alfred “Boogie” Chin, a basketball phenom living in Queens, New York, who dreams of one day playing in the NBA. While his parents pressure him to focus on earning a scholarship to an elite college, Boogie must find a way to navigate a new girlfriend, high school, on-court rivals and the burden of expectation.
Based on the trailer and description, this seems to check off multiple drama and entertainment boxes: a coming of age story, a gifted athlete, social and cultural opposition. By the time you read this FIRST LOOK we will have seen the movie already, as we’re watching this on Thursday 3/4 at the theater. It is after this was written, so we can only speculate how much we’re looking forward to seeing it.
We chose to see this before the other two new movies in theaters: Chaos Walking and Raya and the Last Dragon because this seemed like the film most likely to be of interest to both us. Kara isn’t really interested in the other two that much, but I’m also interested, perhaps mores in Chaos Walking, but this one could be good. Are you planning on seeing Boogie in theaters, waiting for it to come out on streaming or going to pass?
Boogie is available in theaters as of March 4, 2021.
Wednesday, week #10 of 2021 (3/5 – 3/7/2021): three movies.
Say that again with some emphasis: three movies!
That’s how many are opening in theaters this weekend. What has largely been a case of one here, one there, we’re finally getting more several movies screening.
Given one of them is also showing on Disney+ as part of their Disney+ Premium experience (see: ), but this probably won’t that much impact on theaters. We saw this last weekend with Tom & Jerry. People will go to the theaters even if they can still watch it at home. Have always thought that the whole day and date ruins box office receipts is overstated. You can’t get the theater experience (easily) at home. Yes, it can be done, if you have your own home theater room, but watching movies on your TV screen — even a large one — isn’t the same as watching in theaters.
We won’t be paying the premium $30 fee to watch this on Disney+, no more than we did for Mulan.
Anticipation: 4/10
Boogie
This has been getting a lot of preview love in theaters. Basketball sports story of a talented Asian player who is being racially stereotyped.
Maybe it’s from seeing the previews so many times, but I’m interested. The last basketball-related movie we saw was the one with Ben Affleck as an alcoholic coach of a young basketball team. This seems to center more specifically on one player.
Anticipation: 6/10
Chaos Walking
Wherever you are watching movies this weekend, happy watching to you!
Movies, Movies, Movies 