Boogie ⭐️⭐️⭐️

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)

Opening 3-5-2021 in Theaters: Raya and the Last Dragon, Boogie, Chaos Walking

Theaters: 3/5/2021
+ Disney+ premium ($30)

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.

Raya and the Last Dragon
FIRST LOOK

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!

8 Movies COMING TO THEATERS in March 2021

Theaters/HBO Max: Mar 31

Month #3 in 2021 looks a lot different now than it did six months ago, even more so a year ago. Last year who can forget the event that first started shutting down theaters (hint). We were in Vegas at the time and it was strange seeing the strip shut down.

Streaming movies would be the only place new movies could be seen for almost six months. Then they opened for a couple months only to close again in November. Theaters in our area reopened at the beginning of February and we were able to watch 9 movies in theaters last month.

This month Coming 2 America has been picked up by Amazon Prime and will start streaming to Prime Video subscribers on March 5. Raya and The Last Dragon is borrowing a page from the book of Disney+ Premium ($30 extra charge) on Disney+ and Warner Bros. has two more movies coming out both in theaters and on HBO Max including Godzilla vs. Kong.

For historical reference, we’re including the films originally planned for this month, delays and reschedules dates when available as of this writing.

We’re also including some notable streaming releases, but this list isn’t meant to be all-inclusive. Weekly on Thursdays usually we post a “WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND” list covering streaming in more depth.

2021 Theater Releases
JAN | FEB | MAR

If you’d like to see an UPDATED list of all movies released in 2021 click here (post will be continually updated throughout 2021).

All March 2021 movie release dates unless otherwise indicated are for the United States, the release dates in other countries can/may/will vary.

MARCH 2021 (8 movies)

• Boogie (March 5)
• Chaos Walking (delayed, moved from Jan 22 to March 5)
• Raya And The Last Dragon (Mar 5)
• The Many Saints of Newark (Mar 12) – also on HBO Max
• Long Weekend (Mar 12)
• The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Mar 19) [LIMITED]
• Nobody (Mar 26)
• Godzilla vs. Kong (Mar 31) – also on HBO Max
  
  STREAMING PREMIERE
• Moxie (Mar 3) – Netflix
• The Spongebob Movie: Sponge On The Run – VOD/PVOD (Mar 4)
• Coming 2 America (Mar 4) – Amazon Prime Video
• Boss Level (Mar 4) – Hulu
• Cherry (Mar 12) – Apple TV+
• Yes, Day (Mar 12) – Netflix
• Operation Varsity Blues (Mar 17) – Netflix
• Zach Snyder’s Justice League: The Director’s Cut (Mar 18) – HBO Max
• A Week Away (Mar 26) – Netflix
  
  DELAYED/MOVED
  • Ghostbusters: Afterlife (delayed, moved from Mar 5 to Nov 11)
  • Tomb Raider 2 (delayed, moved from Mar 19 to “TBA 2021”)
  • Morbius (delayed, move from Mar 19 to January 21, 2022)
  • The Boss Baby 2 (delayed, moved from Mar 26 to Sep 17)

Boogie
(Mar 5)

Chaos Walking
(Mar 5)

Raya And The Last Dragon
(Mar 5)

The Many Saints of Newark
(Mar 12)
also on HBO Max

Long Weekend
(Mar 12)

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
(Mar 19)
[LIMITED]

Godzilla vs. Kong
(Mar 26)

Nobody
(Mar 26)

Which of these movies, if any, are you looking forward to seeing?

Of the list of movies above released or delayed, what are you most looking forward to seeing? Are you going to wait for these movies to come to streaming or venture into theaters? If you’re still in a holding pattern, it’s all good. Let’s chat about it in the comments.

As always, wishing you all happy viewing, whatever you’re watching!

Land ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Land – PG-13 – 1 hr 29 min
NO SPOILERS Movie Review
Watched in theater Friday February 26, 2021
AMC Southcenter 16 – Tukwila, Washington
9th new movie seen in theater in 2021

After a tragic personal loss, Edee resigns herself to a remote cabin in the woods where she intends to cut herself literally off from the world. It will be her against herself and nature. She goes against advice and doesn’t even leave herself a vehicle — and then winter and nature sets in.

This story somewhat reminded us in a way of another Nomadland, only in this film mother nature is a cruel adversary, whereas the other film is more about a woman choosing to live in a van and move from city to city in a nomadic lifestyle. Both protagonists seem to want to live alone, but Edee finds loneliness harder to escape. Also, Edee needs help to survive in the wilderness alone. Help to make sure she can eat and stave off the elements and wild animals.

At one point in the story I wanted to yell at Edee for her extreme naivete, her stupidity, rather, for not realizing how harsh the wilderness can be. I mean she thought she could survive in the middle of nowhere in a remote cabin on canned food? She didn’t know how to fish or hunt, she couldn’t even chop her own wood for fire. Come on.

Alas, the main character’s weaknesses and the fact that we don’t really understand why she’s doing this, keeps it entertaining. We want to know what was so bad in her life — besides the loss of her family — that would make her want to give up civilization to live as a hermit in the woods.

So many missed opportunities with sound. There is one scene early on when we think the scary sounds of nature will come into play, but that fear is never played upon again. There’s also an encounter with wildlife that I expected to come up again, but that is yet another scene that doesn’t get any payoff. It’s one thing to show us a conflict, but to never provide any sort of resolution later is frustrating. It’s like, why did they show us this in the story? There were several moments like this in the film.

The run time is not too bad, but if some of the redundant scenes were clipped, maybe 15 more minutes — like how many times cutting wood or going outside and looking at the majestic surroundings do we need? — then this would have improved the pacing.

As we left the theater, Kara and I spoke about the film and how it compared to another film with “land” in the title: Nomadland.

Kara felt this was pretty much a tie with Nomadland for her rating. I thought this was stronger on story and characterization. The cinematography in Nomadland was superior, but I go to movies to be told a story, not primarily watch a cool photoshoot. Yes, I like creative filmography, but I need a good story wrapped around or within it. This one had a stronger story, deeper characterization and invoked deeper emotions.

The downsides are slow pacing, the fact that it takes way too long to understand the main character’s motivations. The conclusion is very good, but by the time we get there, we are somewhat exhausted by what seem like too many unwise decisions. For these reasons, it’s not recommended.

Rating (out of 5 stars): ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Todd) ⭐️⭐️½ (Kara)

Tom and Jerry ⭐️⭐️½

Tom and Jerry – PG – 1 hr 41 min
NO SPOILERS Movie Review
Watched in theater Friday February 26, 2021
AMC Lakewood Mall 12 – Lakewood, Washington
8th new movie seen in theater in 2021

Tomcat rides into town on a train and then runs into Kayla (Chloe Grace Moretz) on her bike. Kayla is heading to a job interview at a hotel and decides to steal the resume of a much more qualified applicant. She gets the job and is soon tasked with helping the hotel rid itself of Jerry Mouse so VIP guests Ben and Preeta have their wedding go off without problems. Only, with Tom and Jerry fighting everywhere, that will be no easy task.

Tom and Jerry are like the Road Runner and Wyle E. Coyote cat and mouse combatants. Tom forever wants to catch the much smarter mouse, Jerry. This is one of those live action for everything except animals that are all animated. This is a bit distracting at first, but we get used to it. Also, outputting for me was neither Tom or Jerry speaking, while other animals speak. And then Tom sings at one point? What?

The central wedding story was cliched and tiresome. It was there simply as a vehicle so we could see Tom and Jerry complicate the proceedings. Michael Pena’s character Terrence Mendoza was the hotel’s one-dimensional conniving event manager. His accent seemed forced and phony to me.

Despite a rather large audience, nobody was laughing or even chuckling in the theater. We talked in our just left the theater video that the movie was a little too old for children and too juvenile for adults. It’s in the middle where movies without audiences go to die.

It’s not a bad or good movie. It’s just … there. It’s the type of film families want to take their kids out of the house to see — despite being available on HBO Max — but like noticed upon leaving the fairly decent-sized audience, there were people at the back of the theater on their cell phones. Yeah, that about it sums up the interest.

I hope Space Jam with Lebron James is (a lot) better than this!

Rating (out of 5 stars): ⭐️⭐️½ (Todd) ⭐️⭐️½ (Kara)

Nomadland ⭐️⭐️½

Nomadland – R – 1 hr 48 min – IMAX
NO SPOILERS Movie Review
Watched in theater Tuesday February 23, 2021
AMC Kent Station 14 – Kent, Washington
7th new movie seen in theater in 2021 (1st IMAX)

Fern’s husband of 30+ years dies of cancer. Then Empire falls, the only small Nevada town they have known and loved, a victim of a defunct sheetrock business that kept the town alive. Fern now decides to wander the countryside, living the nomad’s life.

The first half of this movie is very slow. To the point that I kept thinking of an alternate film title “Nostoryland” Alas, it’s more of a deep character study than a typical film with a plot and much excitement happening. Things do happen to Fern, but they are on a more subtle level. We see her involvement as an Amazon seasonal worker, for example. We see her meet a roaming nomad group. We see people “down the road” as the nomad saying goes.

We saw this in IMAX, it was our first movie in this format in 2021 and first since seeing Tenet, I believe. At first it didn’t seem like this was a movie that IMAX treatment would benefit, but the gorgeous cinematography and crisp three dimensional sound made us feel at times that we were traveling the countryside living the life of a nomad, too. Various places Fern makes a sojourn, we also visit. The IMAX experience is quite effective.

The second half of the movie felt almost like a different story. Much more happens, conflicts develop and other characters enter Fern’s life in a way that reshapes her actions and movements.

This is also available for streaming on Hulu,. We saw it first all the way through in the theater, but I started to watch it on Hulu and didn’t get into it. As we watched this I was reminded why the movie theater experience is better suited for these type of films, the ones where you don’t really know what to expect and just let go from distractions and let what is on the gigantic screen soak in.

Watch us leave the theater and our raw comments about the film below. Non-spoiler..

In the end, this movie was a mixed experience. If you’re planning to see it and the IMAX experience is available, that is vastly superior to watching it on Hulu, but that isn’t a recommendation. I wish the first part was shorter, yielding to the much better second part. Kara felt stronger about this one than me. You can hear her specific remarks on the video, which surprised me.

If you’re looking for a mesmerizing story, that’s not here, but if you want to experience a little bit of what it’s like just getting in a van and traveling from place to place, meeting new people, seeing picturesque places, then this might be of interest.

Oscar bait? Absolutely. Kara was entertained and at times I was too, but it was more the visuals than the story. As a character study, it’s too lethargic and feels a bit aimless and depressing. And yet there is a freshness to it, like the smell of nature when you first wake up outside vs. being cooped up inside a home in the city. Still, I wanted Fern to settle down somewhere, and that was the underlying draw: could she? Nomads just keep traveling down the road.

Rating (out of 5 stars): ⭐️⭐️½ (Todd) ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Kara)

Opening 2-26-2021 in Theaters: Tom and Jerry

Theaters: 2/26/2021

Wednesday, week #9 of 2021 (2/26 – 2/28/2021)

Another week with only one wide release movie in theaters. This one, like last week’s Nomadland, is also being released on streaming as well as in theaters. Tom and Jerry will join Wonder Woman: 1984, The Little Things and Judas and the Black Messiah as the 4th of 17 movies Warner Bros. is planning on releasing day and date throughout 2021.

Tom and Jerry

If you want to watch a bunch of Tom and Jerry cartoons to prepare for the live action + animated hybrid, HBO Max has a wide selection available. Later this year, another Space Jam is coming, this time starring Lebron James instead of Michael Jordan, mixing Bugs Bunny and friends with a live action basketball adventure.

I have mixed feelings on this one. The trailer is promising and I’m a huge fan of older cartoons but will admit not watching much of this one. We might come out of this loving it or, well, who knows?

Anticipation: 5/10

Some folks we know have commented that they are very interested in seeing this. We hope it’s a fun watch! Wherever you are watching movies, happy watching to you!

Fatale ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Fatale – R – 1 hr 42 min
NO SPOILERS Movie Review
Watched in theater Wednesday February 17, 2021
AMC Lakewood 12 – Lakewood, Washington
6th new movie seen in theater in 2021

Derrick Tyler (Michael Ealy) feeling like his marriage is getting stale tries to get the spark back with his real estate wife (Damaris Lewis). She encourages him to go to Vegas for a bachelor party. Reluctantly, he agrees only to cheat on her with an enigmatic, sexy woman named Valerie Quinlan (Hilary Swank) he meets at a bar.

The next morning, Derrick heads home, trying again to get his marriage back on track. All seems well until a home invasion turns violent. Derrick gets into a violent struggle with a masked intruder. The investigator, turns out to be none other than Valerie Quinlan. And now the real tension begins.

Loved the setup for this film, which creates multiple flawed characters. From there the plot twists and turns and there is the early surprise and revelation that creates a ton of tension. Then it sort of goes off the rails a bit, soon stretching credibility. The middle act I didn’t care as much for, but then the third act pulls a lot of it back together and it ends wrapping it all up.

Acting is good, particularly Swank as an recovering alcoholic character that wants desperately to reunite with her son and appears on the edge of sanity. Her detective skills are strong, but her personal choices have compromised her abilities. It’s a deeper character and one that Swank pulls off well. She’s really good in this, despite a script which goes too far in some areas, making her character seem a little cartoonish at times.

The main character has many flaws but his actions also are suspect at times. It begins with his cheating, which was cleverly woven into the plot, but his reaction when he finds out what his wife has been up to is a bit puzzling and hypocritical. Sure, it’s plausible, but it makes his character much less sympathetic to viewers.

The final important character is Derrick’s business partner. We don’t get to know enough about him for his important involvement in the story. His character comes across more as a plot device than a logical progression to the story.

Sound effects were good, but the scoring was somewhat unremarkable. There are places more music could have been used effectively where instead there is just empty silence. The cinematography is average. Nothing elaborate or unusual camera-wise, which might have added a little more style to the pic and enhanced some of the middle act scenes which weren’t as thrilling as the opening scenes.

We both liked this one. It kept our interest and had us talking as we left the theater, see our reaction in the video below.

A gutty, gritty (at times) thriller that shows off Swank’s versatility, but is marred by a few eyeroll moments in the plot. The pacing lags a bit in the middle, but overall is decent. We both found this to be one of the better movies that can still be seen in some theaters and is widely available on VOD. You might want to give this a look when it shows up on streaming, but we’re not recommending otherwise.

Rating (out of 5 stars): ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Todd) ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ (Kara)

Opening 2-18-2021 in Theaters: Nomadland

Theaters: 2/18/2021

Wednesday, week #8 of 2021 (2/18 – 2/21/2021)

Only one new movie being released in theaters this week, courtesy of Fox Searchlight. We’re still catching up with movies released to theaters since Christmas, but we’re getting close to seeing them all.

The trailer for Nomadland starts with a bunch of accolades from screening on various film festivals.

Nomadland

I’ve watched the trailer a few times but still am not completely sure what this film is about. It seems to be one of those, “you just have to watch the movie to understand” trailers, I guess.

Accordingly, since I don’t care too much for the vagueness of the trailer, this gets pretty low on my anticipation to want to see it. Feel about this almost like Land, which released last week in theaters. Haven’t seen that one yet, either.

Anticipation: 2/10

Are you looking forward to seeing any/all of these movies? Wherever you are watching movies, happy watching to you!

News Of The World ⭐️⭐️

News Of The World – PG-13 – 1 hr 58 min
NO SPOILERS Movie Review
Watched in theater Monday February 15, 2021
AMC Lakewood 12 – Lakewood, Washington
5th new movie seen in theater in 2021

Tom Hanks plays Captain. Kidd, a walking, talking Google News of the 1870s. He travels from town to town reading newspapers to groups of people. After one of his news readings, he runs into a hanged black man in the woods and a young, scared girl left alone.

He takes the girl who speaks a foreign language into town, along with her papers, trying to figure out the plan. He learns from the officials that he must wait three months for the emissary to return and “pick up the strays.” He thinks about waiting it out and then ultimately decides he’ll take her to family some 400 miles away through unfriendly territory.

This is one of those stories about a trip from one place to another with obstacles thrown at the main characters along the way. These range from violent dust storms, to conflicts to a pedophile cowboy and his clan to a town fixated around one dominant owner.

Through it all, we’re reminded that if it wasn’t for Tom Hanks, this movie would be kind of predictable and boring. As stated in our video below, it’s almost like the screenwriter just threw ideas at the wall until somebody said, “hey, that might be cool to do”

Originally released in theaters on Christmas day, we finally had a chance to see this in theaters this week. Underwhelmed by the story, but it was a different period piece than Hanks normally does anyway. He is playing the same good guy with almost zero flaws character. Last time I saw him, he was in Greyhound and before that Mister Rogers. This role isn’t stretching Hanks very far from his familiar zone, but it’s something to see him in the wild, wild west.

The ending is one of the better parts. If you can hold out that long through the adventure, there is a worthwhile payoff. Sadly, we have to wait this long to learn more about Captain Kidd to take him out of being a fairly one-dimensional character. The rest of the movie has suspect pacing, a mostly forgettable score and a few WTF moments. The dust scene where they need a horse and the girl just gets them one induces an immediate eyeroll.

Kara didn’t agree with me about Tom Hanks making this movie more entertaining. If it had been a lesser actor, I’d have rated this at least a half star lower.

Even so, neither of us were that thrilled with this one. These remain challenging times for new movies in theaters. Not recommended.

Rating (out of 5 stars): ⭐️⭐️ (Todd) ⭐️⭐️ (Kara)