MOVIE REVIEWS

Greta

The new Greta is a nice and tidy attempt to scare you, and for the most part this is compelling.  This stars Chloe Grace Moretz, whom I really like and is a fine young actress, she stars as.  This also stars Isabelle Hupport as the insanely mentally twisted, Greta.  She is a very lonely upper middle aged woman who lures young women into her life, and eventually stalks, and then kidnaps them to  hold them as a kind of "daughter" figure.

This has a strong hint of  the Stephen King classic, Misery in it, as Greta is a demented woman bent on being horrible, and doing unspeakable things to people for her own gratification.  This has some originality, but not enough. The story is predictable, and you are way ahead of it most of the time.  

But our principles are strong and give good performances, even if what they are dealing with is mostly rehashed.  This is suspenseful at times, and entertaining as well.  Short and sweet too at an hour 38, it ends when you are ready for it to.

 

Fighting With My Family

Here comes one of the best surprises in a long time at the movies.   This is the true story of "Paige" and her rise to fame in the WWE, opening the door for other women to get better chances in wrestling.  This is certainly a story none of us has seen before, and that always scores points with me.

This is an interesting story that you need no knowledge professional wrestling to understand what is going on here.  And that is the movies absolute strength.  This is loaded with cameos from that world and that's fun too.  This is funny, and this is entertaining.  This is well cast, paced nicely and overall just fun.   Vince Vaughn is great here as a real guy, reinventing his career and he is terrific!

This is simply good cold weather fun.  Take your favorite wrestling fan and go see it. 


The Lego Movie 2

Not to really belabor this point, this movie is mildly fun, and  not nearly as original as the first one, or as a few of the spin-offs that have come from this.  It is fun to hear some of the snappy pop culture humor, and tons of your favorite stars voicing a bevy of Lego characters.  But this concept is limited, and  we may ave seen the best shot this franchise dish out with the original.



Cold Pursuit

Here comes Liam Neeson again with a well timed mid winter action movie.  This formula has done well for Neeson with the Taken franchise and others.  Make action movies that are released when the box office competition is low, and the return can be high.

Problem is, over the years, they all have started to look the same with little variance.  And no one is questioning the acting ability of Neeson, but how much longer are we to believe he can still mow down legions of bad guys at his age.


What Men Want

Didn't we go down this path a few years ago with Mel Gibson?  Isn't this about the same flick were one can hear the inner, private thoughts of the opposite sex?

Well, yes, and I guess turn around is fair play, but there is not a great deal, if any originality here. I like  Taraji P. Henson, I sometimes wish her projects were better.


The Prodigy

Mid winter horror flick.  There's a reason they keep making movies where a kid is possessed and causing a whole lot of problems.   They work.  

They have for a long time now, and this will find a following.