Flatliners is dead on arrival

Movie Title:  Flatliners

Grade:  D+

Rating: PG-13, 108 minutes

In a Nutshell: I really liked the original Flatliners movie with 1990 Kevin Bacon, so I was interested to see how this remake would compare.   

I was pleased to see Keifer Sutherland appear in this movie, since he was in the original, although his role is much different. 
Speaking of the original, it’s better.

Uplifting theme: 

• I liked the phrase “dialogue of human knowledge” that Kiefer Sutherland’s character talked about.
• Life, death, and somewhere in between.
• Take responsibility for your actions.  The message at the end is explained by one of the characters when she says, "It's not enough to apologize.  We have to face up to what we've done and then forgive ourselves."
• Restitution for wrongs committed in the past.

Things I liked:

• I liked the idea of exploring near death experiences, but the film goes into a jump-scare horror genre, rather than taking a deeper philosophical approach.
• SPOILER:  Ellen Page is fun to watch in anything, so I was surprised that she actually dies half-way through the movie, leaving us with characters that aren’t as interesting.

Things I didn’t like:

·   It tries to be a thriller-horror movie, as well as a medical thriller, but the mixture is very messy and makes the flow of the movie die.

• Stupid sound effects.
• It never explains certain aspects of the plot, like how the med students are able to be physically touched by their hallucinations.  

Tips for parents: 

• Deadly car crash.
• Creepy jumps and scares.
• Med students volunteer to die.  Make sure your kids know that is extremely dangerous and stupid!
• Pre-marital sex.
• A girl flips the bird.
• Some profanity.

Be sure to check out the original Flatliners 

MOVIE REVIEW MOM

@trinaboice 

Patriot's Day honors Boston's courage and compassion

Movie Title:   Patriot's Day

Grade:  B+

Rating:  R, 130 minutes

In a Nutshell: I love Boston.  I've been there several times and would eagerly go there again tomorrow.  It’s a modern city dripping in history. 

This powerful film offers a respectful look at Boston’s finest who responded to terrorism at the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.   

“Two people took several days and weeks to plan out hate, but love responded in an instant.” – Interview with Patrick Downes

Uplifting theme: 

• Dedicated to all those who showed courage, compassion, and dedication during this terrible period in Boston’s history.
• Civic pride, teamwork, community
• Love vs. hate
• Good vs. evil
• Boston strong!
• “Always have hope.  Be confident that good always defeats bad.” – Dun Meng

Things I liked:

• The entire cast does a great job providing Boston accents and tributes to people we enjoy getting to know.
• Mark Wahlberg gives a dynamic performance as Sgt. Tommy Saunders.
• It’s always a pleasure to see J.K. Simmons, John Goodman, and Kevin Bacon.  I adore them all.
• You get to see real footage of the aftermath.
• Great aerial shots of Boston.
• Fans of Supergirl: Season 1 [Blu-ray], Melissa Benoist, will be happy to see her, although not happy to see her play the wife of a deluded terrorist.
• I loved the real photos and information at the end. The video footage of Patrick Downes running the race after his surgery really touched me.

Things I didn’t like:

•  Does anyone in Boston know how to speak a single sentence without using the F-bomb? 

Interesting lines:

• “Do not Mirandize.”   -  It's interesting and frightening that a decision could be made to deny an American citizen of his individual liberties.
• “Not what you were expecting, huh Comish? – lady cop

“It never is.” – Commisioner Ed Davis (John Goodman)

• “For a Muslim woman, marriage is a lilting dance of duality: strength and submission, beautiful, selfless, rapturous love of two masters, the carnal and the divine.” – Katherine Russell

Funny lines:

• “Give ‘em hell, brother!” – a guy who throw a sledge hammer out his front door to help the cops.
• ‘I gotta F***n quit smoking.” – Sgt. Jeffrey Pugliese (J.K. Simmons)
• “I’ll tell ya that boat ain’t gonna float.” – cop after a bunch of other cops shot a ton of bullet holes in it. 

Tips for parents: 

• There is a lot of blood, gore, and violence.
• You see several people do drugs.
• A gazillion F-bombs and other profanity.
• It's important to point out to your kids that Dzhokhar's friends were arrested for seeing evidence, but not turning it over to the police and obstructing the bombing investigation.

UPDATE as of 2/1/2017
A Boston Marathon bombing survivor plans to marry the fireman who rescued her, several media outlets report. “In the hospital, my mom tried to set me up with him,” Roseann Sdoiasaid. “She was like, ‘Oh, did you see that firefighter? He’s so cute.’ And I was like, ‘Mom, I just got blown up.’ ” Sdoia and her new fiancé, Mike Materia, will participate in the annual Empire State Building Marathon to help raise money for the Challenged Athletes Foundation. Materia comforted Sdoia on the ride to Massachusetts General Hospital in a police vehicle on the day of the bombing. “I asked him if I was going to die. And he told me that I was going to be OK, that I only had a flesh wound,” she told reporters. “He’s seen me on my worst day.” The couple had their first date in June 2013. He proposed last month.

@trinaboice 

The Darkness is full of every scary cliche

Movie Title:      The Darkness

Grade:   D for doesn't bring anything new to the horror genre

Rating:   PG-13, 1 hour 32 minutes

In a Nutshell:  Nothing new here, folks, but if you’re like my son who loves to watch silly -scary movies with his friends once they hit Netflix, you’ll get a kick out of this one while you munch on popcorn.

Uplifting theme: 

• Lesson learned: don’t steal things from national parks.
• “The world is filled with things we simply can’t explain.” – Wendy Richards
• “Sometimes the answer you’re looking for comes from where you’re not looking.” – Simon Richards (Paul Reiser)

Things I liked:

• You get to see the evil creatures.  Yay.
• Fans of Agents of Shield will enjoy seeing Min-Na Wen as Wendy Richards.
• I live a few blocks from a street named Anasazi, as Southern Nevada was first inhabited by that tribe.  The movie uses Anasazi lore to build the story.
• I like that they tried to make the house seem really lived in and not just a set.  For example, there are tons of boxes in the garage, like at my house!  I loved their pretty kitchen cabinets.

Things I didn’t like:

• Who the heck is Jenny?  SPOILER ALERT:  We never get to find out.
• Full of scary movie clichés like lights that don’t work when you need them to, thunder at night, mopey teenager, a scary scene that turns into “just a dream”, and some typical jumps and scares.
• The ending is pretty anti-climactic.
• Teresa Morales (Alma Martinez) uses divining rods to locate the evil spirits.  When I was in San Antonio, I saw several ghost hunter tour groups wandering around town with those. The tourists loved every minute.
• Sometimes there are Spanish subtitles, but not always.  You’ll hear Teresa and Gloria yell “No pertenecen a esta casa!” a lot at the evil ones.   It means “You don’t belong to this house!”  “Salgan de aqui!” means “Leave here!”
• I’ve always loved Kevin Bacon, but he kind of looks a little creepy himself in this movie and he's not supposed to be the scary guy!  I'm surprised he agreed to be in this cheesy movie. Then again, did you ever see Tremors ?
• Peter Taylor and his wife Bronny (what kind of a name is that?!) discuss a previous affair he had.  He lamely defends himself by saying “The affair didn’t mean anything.”   Why do men think their wives will accept that as a valid excuse as if that makes everything fine?   Infidelity means everything in a marriage.  I was impressed with his wife when, later, she said “We deserve a happy ending, Peter.  I forgive you.”   
• Peter makes fun of his wife for wanting a Bible to look for answers or comfort.  He explains to her that you can’t find them in hotels anymore because people might be offended if there is only one religion represented by the hotel.  She says “Jesus!” and he replies, “Not any more.”
• This movie reminded me a lot of the last Poltergeist movie.
• Autism plays a big role in the plot.  Parents of autistic children might not like what is said about autism.
• The way you learn about the Anasazi mythology is when the characters watch YouTube videos....over and over again.

Funny lines:

•  “You’ve got stellar capacity!” – Simon Richards (Paul Reiser)

Interesting lines:

• “Dark forces exist everywhere.” -  (Ilza Rosario)
• “Demons bring out the darkness in people.” – Teresa Morales  (Alma Martinez)

Tips for parents:   

• There is discussion of an affair and infidelity.
• Bronny Taylor (Radha Mitchell) drinks a lot of Vodka to drown her sorrows.
• 1 F-bomb, some other profanity.
• Young children will be scared of the evil ones.  There is a scene with blood dripping down walls that will scare them, as well as creepy hand prints that appear.

May R.I.P.D rest in peace

 
Think Men in Black, Ghostbusters, and Ghost all mixed together.  Add in Jeff Bridges as a crusty old law man from the 1800’s (Roy), Ryan Reynolds as a rookie cop who is killed before he can right a wrong, and a go-go boot wearing Proctor (Mary-Louise Parker) somewhere in limbo and you’ve got R.I.P.D.   Oh yeah, and Kevin Bacon.  We’re always only 6 degrees away from Kevin Bacon.

R.I.P.D duals the “Rest In Peace Department” against the “dead-os” in this CGI-filled comedy action film that takes place in modern-day Boston.  The dead-os have a cartoony feel to them and the film falls short of the magic found in other movies where earthlings are oblivious to the supernatural threats around them.

Kind of a “universe protection program”, the R.I.P.D mission is to capture dead-os and send them where they belong.  Nick (the corrupt cop who dies) is taken to a sterile afterlife police department where Steely Dan is always playing because “it relaxes people.”  From there he is sent back to earth to bag dead-os.  These undead hardly compete with their counterparts in this summer’s blockbuster World War Z. 

Jeff Bridges’ old coot character has some fun lines like “She billy-goated me” when Mary-Louise Parker bites his gruffy beard, calling his Asian helper “Panda Express”, and “Boody Hoo” when he’s trying to get his young partner to man up, but his mouth sounded like it was full of chewing tobacco the entire time and I wished he would just spit and get it over with. 

Fenway Park, the Boston Commonwealth, and Boston’s Finest in uniform were proudly shown off, as well as cannolis from Mike’s Pastry shop, a popular bakery I visited a couple of years ago when I was in town.  I absolutely love Boston.  How does that merchandising work anyway?  A bottle of Fresca almost overshadowed Mary-Louise Parker in her introductory scene.  And what about all that cumin?  It was Indian food and spices which transformed the dead-o’s from regular-looking citizens into Saturday morning monsters.

One of the running gags in the film is that living humans perceive Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds to be a gorgeous blonde and an old Asian man.  The audience laughed every time at the ridiculous duo, but they were also looking at their cell phones and watches as the movie slugged along for 96 minutes.  Mary-Louise Parker's Botox is still full strength in Red 2, but she steals some scenes in that fun flick.

This supernatural movie is rated PG-13 for violence (mostly bloodless) and a heck of a lot of potty-mouths, mostly Jeff Bridges’.   The movie had its amusing moments, but my mind often wandered and thought my long laundry list of things I needed to get done as soon as the movie was over.  May this movie R.I.P.

Grade = C+