Day: April 20, 2019

Shazam! is Super!

Shazam! movie review 3SMReviews.com

The review:

I think the one-two punch of David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! is Asher Angel’s depiction of an abandoned kid searching for his mother plus Zachary Levi’s grown-man youthful exuberance. Add in Jack Dylan Grazer as the guy who’s super excited to suddenly be friends with a superhero and you have a sweet-natured comedy with more than the usual amount of feels.* While some plot points fall apart upon reflection, it’s an enjoyable and does not feel overly long 132 minutes.

The verdict: Recommended

Cost: $8.00
Where watched: St. Johns Twin Cinema with Matt (who rarely watches films from the DCEU, but who also enjoyed it.)

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*Which is not to say that some Red Shirts (a.k.a. minor characters) don’t die in some ways that might be overly gruesome and/or scary to the under 13 set.

Shazam! movie review 3SMReviews.com

Someone Great: Not So Great.

Or: There’s a Difference Between a Romantic Comedy and a Comedy

(That difference, as you might guess, is the presence of romance.)

Someone Great movie review

The review:

Jennifer Kaytin Robinson has crafted a nice duel portrait of (1)female friendship and (2)the end of a relationship, and there are things to like about Someone Great.* But it doesn’t really have a lot going for it, and it pretty easily slid into that category of movie I recommend for people to watch when they have the flu. There were way too many flashback—all more or less framed in the same way—and I think the forgettable title name** sets the stage for the forgettable nature of the movie.***

The verdict:

Skip. Unless perhaps you have the flu?

Cost: Netflix monthly charge ($8.99)
Where watched: at home

Consider watching instead:

Further sentences:

*The easy friendship between Gina Rodriguez, DeWanda Wise, and Brittany Snow, the montage of getting ready to go out, the zany last day scenario.
**True story: I made all the visuals for this post using the name Someone Like You, which is a 2001 Ashley Judd comedy that I found forgettable, but which is based on a book called Animal Husbandry which is a MUCH better title and which I quite liked.
**It’s another one of those movies called “romantic comedies” but which is not actually a romantic comedy, but a comedic female friendship movie. Ibiza (also a Netflix film) was similar, except it did have some romance. This was all breakup, no romance. I’m all for comedic female friendship movies. But don’t call them romantic comedies.

Someone Great movie review

The Great Race: Avoids Many Pitfalls of Aging Movies (and is funny)

The Great Race movie review

The review:

I’d not seen Blake Edwards’s The Great Race since I was a child; it was interesting to see the scenes I remembered in context* and I was happy that this managed to have aged almost 55 years and yet is nearly totally free of cringe-worthy moments.** It’s also hilarious (Jack Lemmon is the main carrier of this torch) and though its nearly three-hour run time means it does eventually drag, it has an overture and intermission included in those 160 minutes.*** Overall, it’s a fun intergenerational film, especially if your generations tilt toward the advanced ages, though kids would probably like parts of it too.

The verdict: Good

Cost: free via White Elephant Gift Exchange
Where watched: at home with the mothers and aunts

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*Tony Curtis’ teeth and eyes sparkling in a “dream boat” way and the best pie fight in the history of cinema were the most prominent, but some of the landscapes felt very familiar, too.
**It’s not overtly racist (though that Indian-chase scene is a bit iffy), Natalie Wood playing a suffragette means that it doesn’t come off as terribly sexist (though I’m sure some of the suffragette stuff was “funnier” in the original) and though there’s a drunken crown price who veers dangerously close to a “light in the loafers” stereotype, most of his behavior can be chalked up to alcohol consumption and not same-sex proclivities.
***Unlike, say, a certain seminal superhero movie released in April, 2019.

The Great Race movie review