Baby Driver is this summer's surprise blockbuster

Movie Title:  
Baby Driver

Grade:  A

Rating:   R, 113 minutes

In a Nutshell:  This musical masterpiece moves fast and with infectious style.  It’s fresh and furious fun. 

Director Edgar Wright delivers a smart, cool, funny, and brilliant movie.

Uplifting theme: 

• “Everybody wants happiness; nobody wants pain, but you can’t have a rainbow without a little rain.”
• “Do you have a lucky soundtrack?” – Buddy (Jon Hamm)
•  Music, sound, language, love

Things I liked:

• The opening sequence was awesome.  Almost immediately after that is another scene that is pure magic while the opening credits roll.  Pay attention to the graffiti on the walls during that scene for some fun Easter eggs.
• The camera work is amazing.  Perfection.
• The talented cast nails it with fantastic acting.  I liked Ansel Elgort in a lot of his former roles in movies, but I really loved him in this one.  He shines, even among greats like Oscar winners Kevin Spacey and Jamie Foxx.
• I first fell in love with the lovely Lily James in Cinderella. I'll watch any movie with her in it.
• The action sequences are unbelievable.  I caught myself holding my breath several times.  The stunt team deserves an Oscar.
• The soundtrack is awesome, although has a lot of explicit language. Baby Driver (Music from the Motion Picture) [Explicit].  It’s not just great music, but each song serves a purpose for a specific moment in the film.  I loved that the closing song was Simon & Garfunkel’s Baby Driver.  Of course!  I used to listen to that song all of the time growing up.  I thought that album was awesome.
• This film has GOT to be nominated for an Oscar in sound or mixing or something.  It is noticeably excellent.  There are fantastic rhythms and songs constantly…so much so that some people are actually calling this movie a musical. You’ll be humming and tapping your toes the entire time.  This movie will make you want to dance and drive really fast.
• I’ve heard that there was some CGI, but everything looks super real.
• It’s not predictable.  Thank you!
• It’s not a sequel to anything.  Thank you!
• My father-in-law had Tinnitus and now my husband is getting it.  It’s fascinating how sound, music, and language play such an important part in this movie.  My niece married a man who is deaf, so we’ve all been learning sign language.  It’s used in the movie with subtitles.
• You KNOW Mike Meyers/Austin Powers masks are going to do really well in sales now.
• Great transitions and editing.
• Baby and Deborah almost always wear black and white, while the others in the cast wear color, illustrating that their love is timeless and clear.
• Apparently, Jon Hamm’s role was written just for him.  Jamie Foxx said about Jon Hamm, “He’s too handsome.” 

Things I didn’t like:

• I only saw the trailer once.  That goes to show you that marketing doesn’t make a movie great.  This movie is great with very little marketing.
• I wish we could have heard Lily James sing more!  I love her!

• SPOILER: There didn’t seem to be enough substance in the romance for Deborah to make the choices she did.

Funny lines:

• “Am I  being monitored for quality assurance?” – Deborah (Lily James)
• “This here is JD.  He put the invasion in Asian.” – Doc (Kevin Spacey)
• “Not groovy, JD.  Not groovy at all.” – Bats (Jamie Foxx)
• “I got different ipods for different days and moods.” – Baby

“So you’re in a pink and sparkly mood?” – Deborah

“I am now.” – Baby

• “Have we met?” – bad guy

“Are you alive?” – Bats

“Yeah” – bad guy

“Then I guess we haven’t met.” – Bats

• “You rob to support a drug habit.  I do drugs to support a robbing habit.” – Bats
• “Not a chauffeur.  Note.” – Deborah
• “Don’t ever quote lines from Monsters, Inc..  It ticks me off.” - Doc

Tips for parents: 

• LOTS of profanity and F-bombs in word and song.
• LOTS of violence, shooting, gory deaths, blood.
• You find yourself rooting for criminals.
• Derogatory slurs for policemen.

MOVIE REVIEW MOM

@trinaboice 

Cars 3 has heart and impressive animation

Movie Title:  Cars 3 (Theatrical)

Grade:  B+

Rating:   G, 109 minutes

In a Nutshell:  This family-friendly flick is the third installment in the Cars franchise.  By the way, the Cars ride at California Adventures next to Disneyland in California is really great.  You’ll need to race over there first thing in the morning to get a Fast Pass. They have done a really good job creating a Cars area too. 

Uplifting theme: 

• “You can’t turn back the clock, but you can wind it up again.” – Mater (Larry the Cable Guy)                 
• “Don’t feel failure.  Be afraid of not having the chance!” – Sally (Bonnie Hunt)
• “Try something new.” – Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson)
• “You can use anything negative as fuel to push through to the positive.” – Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo)
• “The truth is always quicker.” – old car (What’s his name?)
• Believe in yourself.

Things I liked:

• The animation is extremely impressive.
• The training sequences were pretty cute.
• A lot of really beautiful landscapes and environments.
• It earns its Pixar magic in the Third Act.  Very sweet.
• Parents and grandparents might be able to relate to the feeling of aging and being  past their prime, like Lightning McQueen feels.  There is a positive lesson here for all of us old farts.
• It’s great to hear John Ratzenburger’s voice again. Other familiar, favorite voice talents include Cheech Marin, Tony Shalhoub, Bonnie Hunt, Kerry Washington, Nathan Fillion, Bob Costas, and of course, Owen Wilson.

Things I didn’t like:

• The story is very similar to the first movie in that an old driver (Doc Hudson) has-been tries to make a comeback.
• How many kids (which is the target audience) are going to be able to relate to a midlife crisis?
• There is a LOT of time spent racing.  That might lose the interest of some little girls.
• Despite being a racing moving, it's a little slow-moving.  Ironic, eh?
• There isn't as much humor as the first movie.

Trivia:

• Paul Newman was the original voice of Doc Hudson.  They used some of the unused audio clips from the first movie to add his voice to this film after his death.  By the way, did you know Paul Newman was a race car driver for many years?
• Mack drives through Arlo’s family farm, which was shown in Pixar’s movie The Good Dinosaur.
• One of the new racers whose number is 31 is sponsored by Triple Dent Gum, which was the gum commercial that annoyed Anger in the movie Inside Out.
• The only other Pixar film to have a 3^rd movie installment is Toy Story.
• All three Cars movies came out around the same time as Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
• Look closely and you’ll see a Pizza Planet truck from Toy Story during the demolition scene.

Funny lines:

• “Life’s a beach and then you drive.” – Lighning McQueen

Tips for parents: 

• This is very safe for children of all ages.  There is no profanity or anything inappropriate. 
• There are some car crashes.

Want to catch up on the first two movies in this franchise? 
Cars
Cars 2


@trinaboice 

Transformers 5 chooses special effects over substance

Movie Title:   Transformers: The Last Knight

Grade:  C

Rating:  PG-13

In a Nutshell:  Michael Bay says this is his last Transformers movie.  Even fans hope that's true. This Transformers blockbuster franchise seems to have fizzled, disappointing movie-goers with a weak story and paper-thin characters.  

Having spent 260 million dollars on the film, Director Michael Bay seems to have chosen special effects over substance. If you have kids who love the auto-bot franchise, they'll still be entertained.

Uplifting theme: 

• “Without sacrifice, there can be no victory.” –  – Sir Edmund Burton (Anthony Hopkins)
• “Funny what you can do when what depends on you is all you have.” – Izabella (Isabela Moner)
• “We all want to believe we can be heroes in our own lives.” – Vivian Wembley (Laura Haddock)
• “Magic does exist.” – Sir Edmund Burton

Things I liked:

• Anthony Hopkins is always great.  I loved his beautiful British home in the film. There's also a lovely British cathedral that gets painfully destroyed by Transformers destruction.
• You get to visit Stonehenge...sort of. He wanted to set off an explosion at the real site, but was denied, so he had to create a set that looks like the real thing. Seeing it was on my Bucket List and I finally visited the site a couple of years ago. Very cool!

• I appreciated some of the slow-motion scenes.  One of my complaints from the previous films in the Transformers franchise was that the action sequences were so fast and jumbled that it was difficult to actually see what was happening.
• I thought “Canopy” was a cool Transformers that I would liked to have seen longer.
• I love Stanley Tucci in anything. I almost didn't recognize him as Merlin.
• TONS of action sequences and you get to see a lot of your past favorite transformers, as well as some interesting new ones.
• Mark Wahlberg works pretty doggone hard in this flick.
• Laura Haddock is the newest beauty to save the world, but with a higher IQ than her gorgeous predecessors.

Things I didn’t like:

• The very first scene features England in the Dark Ages when some knights were fighting.  The CGI fire looks totally fake and so I worried that the whole film would have terrible special effects.  It definitely got better.  By the way, King Arthur (Liam Garrigan) looks like Josh Groban.
• The legendary Merlin the Magician is a drunkard, intended for comic relief, but the jokes fall flat. 
• I definitely appreciate humor in movies, but most of it doesn’t land in this one.  The jokes fly pretty fast, but land with a thud.
• If you’re hoping to see Optimist Prime, you’ll be disappointed with his little screen time.
• I’m sure Michael Bay thought that a new twist to spruce up this installment of the franchise would be to throw a bunch of foul-mouthed kids in it.  Nope. They were all super annoying.
• Like the other Transformers movies, it’s often difficult to understand what everyone says because of their garbled voices or due to all of the background noise.
• It drove me nuts that Izabella had carefully placed strands of hair down her face in every scene. I just wanted to comb it back sometimes. It seemed super manipulative.
• Girl power!  Um...like every other movie lately.
• The aspect ratios kept switching around, which was super distracting.
• The movie contradicts itself constantly.  For example, we're supposed to believe the world is in chaos, yet Vivian has time to play polo in an idyllic British field before teaching children in a museum.
• Product placement that features Mark Walhberg drinking a Bud Light, just like in the last Transformers' installment.
• Some of the edits are too fast and choppy.
• The little leprechaun robot is a C3PO rip-off.  Even one of the transformers points it out.

Funny lines:

• “You get back in your hole and think about what you did.” – Cade Yeager
• “Love that guy.  Goosebumps every time.” – Transformer with a Cockney accent  (What's his name?)
• “So, is this a kidnapping situation or her first transformer experience?” – Cade
• “A mojito needs ice.  Ice!  We are not animals!” – Agent Simmons (John Turturro) 

Tips for parents: 

• Lots and LOTS of destruction and fighting.
• There is a lot of profanity…in fact, a surprising amount of it.  What makes it even worse is that it comes out of the mouths of children and even Sir Anthony Hopkins, both equally disappointing.

@trinaboice 

The Mummy unwraps a sexy monster to introduce a new Universal Studio Dark Universe

Movie Title: 
The Mummy (2017)

Grade:  B

Rating:  PG-13, 120 minutes

In a Nutshell: Universal Studio’s Dark Universe presents a sexy, new mummy that hopes to kick-start a new universe of monster movies. It drops a lot of hints of what’s to come.

The film's tagline, "Welcome to a new world of gods and monsters," is a quote from the 1935 Bride of Frankenstein...soon to be remade by Universal Studios.

Critics are picking this origin movie apart, but it's fine for a summer popcorn flick that'll entertain you plenty in air conditioning.   

Uplifting theme: 

• “Death is the doorway to new life.  We live today.  We shall live again. In many forms shall we return.” Egyptian prayer of resurrection
• “The past cannot remain buried forever.” – Dr. Henry Jekyll (Russell Crowe)
• “Where’s your sense of adventure?” – Nick Morton (Tom Cruise)
• Good vs. evil. 

                                                         

Things I liked:

• Tom Cruise is incredibly dedicated and hard-working in this film.  He takes a serious beating in almost every scene and just keeps going and going like the Energizer Bunny.  He said in an interview with Regal movie theater about the film, “The sets are magnificent.  They’re beautiful.  They’re haunting” and then later, “It’s a helluva lot of fun.” 
• Sophia Boutella is really great as a seductive female mummy.  We’ll see her again soon in Atomic Blonde: The Coldest City.
• Russell Crowe’s character was a surprise to me, but a pleasant one.  We’re sure to see more of him in this role. No spoiler!  I want you to be surprised too!
• It’s better in 3D.
• I liked the little details, such as Ahmanet’s blue, cracked fingernails.
• Some of the set pieces are pretty cool and the special effects are impressive.
• Lots of fun jumps and scares.
• I liked Annabelle Wallis a lot.  Unfortunately, she played a damsel in distress in almost every scene, but she was still pretty to watch.
•  There is a welcome sense of humor.
• The zero gravity scene in the airplane was really good.  Apparently, it took 64 takes and most of the crew got nauseous, except for Tom Cruise and Annabelle Wallis.
• The next time you're at Universal Studios, be sure to watch their hilarious and informative "Horror Make-up Show."

Things I didn’t like:

• There are a lot of exposition scenes.  They're necessary, although a bit annoying.
• Jake Johnson was a mildly entertaining sidekick, although sometimes an odd addition.  Tom Cruise was funnier than the designated comic relief.

·   The film feels like action sequence, explanation scene, action sequence, explanation scene, etc.

• No end-of-credits scenes.  Drats.  Marvel rocks at those.
• Camel spiders.  EEEEK!
• Tom Cruise plays a protagonist who isn’t really a stellar hero.  He’s a flawed man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time .  His set of moral standards is questionable.  For example, Jenny yells, “You stole from me!” and his justification that he is still a good person is, “But I didn’t lie!”
•  Did you ever see the first trailer?  Tom Cruise lets out this extremely unpleasant, high-pitched scream that seems to have been replaced in the film, thank goodness. 

Funny lines:

• “We are not looters.  We are liberators of precious antiquities.” – Nick Morton (Tom Cruise)
• “I’m sorry.  We’re just never going to happen.  It’s not me.  It’s you.” – Nick Morton
• “Wow!  That was intense.” – Chris Vail (Jake Johnson)

Interesting lines:

• This is not a tomb.  It’s a prison.” – Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis)
• “There are worse fates than death.” – Ahmanet
• “Evil never rests.” – Dr. Henry Jekyll
• “Sometimes it does take a monster to fight a monster.” –Dr. Henry Jekyll

Tips for parents: 

• This probably should have been a Rated R movie.  There is a lot of sexual innuendo, but more than that.  There are some kinky moments and bare naked moments of Tom Cruise (covering his middle parts), and a naked side shot of Sophia Boutella. 
• There are a ton of bloody, gory, fighting, destructive scenes.
• There is talk of an affair.
• Some profanity.
• Lots of dead bodies, scary mummies, and high body count.

                                            @trinaboice 

Wonder Woman is wonderful

Movie Title:  Wonder Woman

Grade:  A-

Rating: PG-13, 141 minutes

In a Nutshell: I used to watch Wonder Woman on TV back when I was a little girl.  I loved it.  I thought she was beautiful, kind, and strong.  As a little girl, it made me feel like I could do almost anything. Yep, this superhero movie is about female empowerment, but it has a lot more than that.

I don’t know why it has taken this long to bring Wonder Woman to the Big Screen.  Maybe we were waiting for the perfect Gal Gadot.

This fun action flick has just the right amount of humor and Justice League magic.  Warner Brothers gives us an extremely entertaining summer popcorn blockbuster that gives Marvel a run for its money.  It’s part of a set up for Justice League and a planned trilogy for Wonder Woman.

Uplifting theme: 

• “If you see something wrong happening in the word, you can either do nothing or you can do something." - Steve Trevor (Chris Pine)
• “What one does, when faced with the truth, is more difficult than you would think.” – Diana/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot)
• “It is our sacred duty to defend the world.” –  Diana/Wonder Woman
• "Everyone is fighting their own battles, Diana, just as you're fighting yours." - Sameer
• “A promise is unbreakable.” - Diana
• "Only love can truly save the world." - Diana
• Love vs. hate, peace vs. war, humanity

Things I liked:

• Gal Gadot and Chris Pine are both gorgeous and awesome.  As Chris Pine’s character explains, “I am above average.”  Gal Gadot has the perfect accent to sound exotic.  As Sameer says about her, “OMG, that is a work of art.”  Eye candy for everyone.
• Great female stunt work.
• Some cool and fun slow-motion, as well as sped-up action sequences.
• Female director Patty Jenkins was going to film Wonder Woman back in 2005, but she became pregnant and the project was put on hold.  She said she was thrilled to be able to pick up the project again, because it was the movie she had been wanting to make her whole life.  She’s the first woman to direct a superhero film with a female protagonist.  We haven’t seen a female superhero since Electra in 2005.  It’s about time, right?
• Most of the CGI is very good, although it becomes a bit heavy towards the end.  Gal Gadot was actually 5 months pregnant during some of the filming, so they put green screen on her belly so they could remove the baby bump during post-production.
• I love it when the directors and producers put themselves in small cameo performances in their own films.  In this case, producer Zack Snyder shows up as a World War I soldier.
• Did you know this movie has been banned in Lebanon?  Gal Gadot is Israeli and even served in the military.
• Ah, romance.  I love that both Diana and Steve learn from each other and make one another better.
• I wish I had one of those truth lassos.
• It was cool to see the symbolism of light and color illustrated in man's world and that of Themyscera.
• The soundtrack was noticeably good.

Things I didn’t like:

• There are a couple of long, explanatory scenes to help you understand what’s going on.
• I wish Lynda Carter, the first TV Wonder Woman, could have made a cameo performance.  Apparently, she sings in cabarets and couldn’t fit it into her schedule.  She definitely should have made the time for her fans.
• The villain was pretty weak.

Interesting lines:

• “You let this little thing tell you what to do?” – Diana/Wonder Woman talking about Chris Pine’s watch.
• “You know that if you choose to leave, you may never return.” – Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen)

“Who would I be if I stayed?” – Diana

• “What kind of weapon kills innocents?” – Diana

“In this war, every kind.” – Steve Trevor
* "I believe in love." - Diana

Funny lines:

• “How could a woman ever possibly fight in this?” – Diana

“Fight?  We use our principles.  Although, I’m not opposed to using fisty cuffs, should the need arise.” – Etta (Lucy Davis)

• “Please put down the sword.” – Steve

“It doesn’t go with the outfit.” – Etta

• “Welcome to jolly ‘ole London!” – Steve

“It’s hideous!” – Diana

“Yeah, it’s not for everyone.” – Steve

• “You’re a man.” – Diana

“Yeah. I mean, don’t I look like one?” – Steve

• “Stand back!  Or maybe not.” – Steve
• “I’m both frightened and aroused.” – Sameer  (Said Taghmaoui)
• “You should be very proud!” – Diana after she tastes a vendor’s ice cream.  I feel that way about great ice cream too.
• “May we get what we want.  May we get what we need. But may we never get what we deserve.”  - men's toast at campfire

Tips for parents: 

• I love that the heroine is good.  She's someone I wouldn't mind my daughters emulating...if I had daughters.  I guess she's someone I wouldn't mind my sons marrying.  :)
• You see a LOT of Chris Pine…bare naked after a bath while he covers his junk with his hands.
• A man and woman close the door and a sexual romp is implied.
• Lots of violence, destruction, and explosions.
• At 141 minutes, it’s a long movie that a lot of little ones won’t be able to sit through.
• In the comics, the war is WWII, but the director chose to highlight WWI in the movie.  Parents might need to explain the differences between those two wars.