I Feel Pretty

I Feel Pretty is about a woman named Renee Bennett (Amy Schumer) who lacks any confidence in herself due to her looks and the way she thinks society views her. After she falls and hits her head, however, he wakes believing she is the most beautiful woman in the world, and nothing can bring her down, except for hitting her head again...

I Feel Pretty is the Freaky Friday of 2018. It's a feel good movie that has a powerful message for any and all women in this world. I'm used to Schumer being the hilarious comic that she is, but this was different. This movie had its funny moments, but that wasn't the purpose of the film. The purpose was to tell every woman that she is beautiful and you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to simply by believing in yourself.

Every girl, whether she is big or small, heavy or skinny, has that one crack in self-esteem. There is something wrong with all of us, at least in our own heads. My eyes have dark circles under them, my hair looks bad today, this shirt makes me feel fat. These are all mental perceptions that we put on ourselves, but does the person across the room see them? Probably not, but we let ourselves believe that they do, and therefore we lack the confidence we need to control any or all situations.

I Feel Pretty spoke to me pretty deeply, and I won't lie, I teared up a bit. I have always been the bigger girl. I have hips and I have curves, and I've always let those curves bring me down. I still remember breaking down in tears when my dad was joking around with me saying you got the family figure. He was right, and I let my lack of confidence break me. But here I now stand (or sit currently), a 26 year old, dog-mom to 2, successful woman who bought her own house at age 25 and is making her life be everything that she wants it to be. I am Me and I am strong, and I am beautiful. Society can view me differently if they so choose, but that won't determine how I see myself.

There's a quote that I heard a couple years ago that has really stuck with me. It is credited to have been said by Dr. Seuss, but there is no written evidence to prove that. The quote says, "Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." I hope that any woman that reads this blog and that sees this movie really hears what that quote is saying, and that you choose to live by it, as I have.

Anyone that rates this movie as low as a 1 or 3 (yes I mean you IMDb reviewers!) should be ashamed of themselves.  I'm sorry this isn't a funny comedy for you and that you somehow missed the important message it's trying to tell. You're probably the cause of women feeling like dirt. Tell me...do you have anything better to do than review movies all day? Or do you just enjoy tearing down scores to movies so that women won't see them? Get a real job....

Super Troopers 2

The Super Troopers are brought back to the force with the intention of settling a border dispute between Canada and the USA. The dispute gets put on hole when the troopers discover hidden contraband that is trying to be discreetly smuggled into the USA territory.

I have never seen the first Super Troopers movie, but a lot of my friends had so they wanted my opinion on this one. Since I have not seen the first, I did not get any of the references to it. Also, I'm not really interested in stupid humor movies. I don't find them funny in most cases. In Super Troopers 2, I did laugh at some of the jokes, but I did not full out laugh or laugh until I cried. I didn't notice anyone in the theater laughing that hard either. It was ok, but I have seen much funnier movies.

I also found this one hard to understand at times. The troopers think it's very funny to impersonate the Canadian accent, and sometimes this was true, but other times not so much. I found it hard to understand what they were saying and because of this I didn't get the joke. Others in the theater got it, but not me. 

This movie is getting very good reviews. It has a 7.3/10 on IMDb in fact. I think that the score is so high simply because people love the original film. It's like a reunion between the watchers and the troopers, and I didn't get the invite. Maybe I just need to watch the original movie, but I don't really want to and I don't really think I'll enjoy it. Basically, if you loved the first, you'll love this one. If you didn't see the first, you'll be like it was alright, but I don't need to watch it again. 

Watch at your own risk I suppose...

Rampage

Rampage is about three animals that are infected by a dangerous pathogen and then try to destroy Chicago. It is up to a primatologist and a geneticist to stop them. This movie is based around the old video game of the same name.

So I went to see this movie because it was one that everyone was interested in seeing (at least in my friend group). All the guys were excited because they used to play the game. They were all like "omg Rampage, yay!" Well, I just want to say to all of them, "thank you for wasting an hour and a half of my life." It started alright, but after about five minutes I was bored. I couldn't help but look at the Rock and think that he was the less exciting, more buff version, of Chris Pratt in Jurassic World. I almost felt like I was in Jurassic Park except they were apes instead of dinosaurs.

Believe me, that was only the beginning. The CGI people should be ashamed of themselves. Was that a toy car I saw at the end? I swear I saw a toy car drive up to the fake, giant ape at the end. This is 2018 people, you can do better than that!

I never played Rampage the game, and I don't have any interest in it now. Especially after learning that the game is just a beat-em-up kind of game. There's no story line in it, which may be why this movie was so predictable. Animals become dangerous mutants that go attack a city, and then the primatologist in charge of the ape has to save the day. That's it. Same old story as every other movie these days.

Hard pass on this one guys. There's better movies in the theater!

Truth or Dare

Truth or Dare is about six friends that take a trip to Mexico and play what they believe will be a harmless game of truth or dare. They are wrong.

This is Lucy Hale's most recent film. You probably recognize her from Pretty Little Liars or her singing career. I loved Hale in Pretty Little Liars, but in this movie...I should've stayed home. All the best scenes were in the preview, and while the ending wasn't super predictable, it was really stupid. Hale goes from this decent human being that would put the world above her own needs, to a girl that chooses herself over anyone else.

Truth or Dare was supposed to be a horror movie. I expected to be scared or to jump occasionally. I didn't, and in fact I was more bored than anything else. It was like a domino effect; one after the other they all started to die. I just kept sitting there waiting for the next kill. Some of the deaths were hard to watch as well (but I don't like gore or anything close to it). Really the only thing I did like about this movie was learning the backstory to why this was happening and how they could stop it, but that whole portion started about an hour in or more. It only showed up with about a half hour left and then it felt rushed because there were only a few kids left, and they didn't want to die.

If I was you, I would pass on Truth or Dare completely. Maybe wait for it to be on Netflix? That way you can start it and then stop it when you get bored. Believe me, you will not be the only one.

Blockers

Blockers is about three parents that find out about a sex pact their daughters have planned for prom night, and their struggle to stop them before it's too late.

This film has a very slow start. It was awhile before I laughed really hard at the jokes, but once they got going it was great. The middle of the movie is hilarious, and John Cena is the star of the show. Who knew John Cena had jokes?! He was definitely the funniest parent in this movie, and probably the most relatable as well. He's the father that is so completely in denial that he comes up with all other excuses, even if they don't make sense. Then, when he comes to terms with it, he's the father that will stop at nothing to save his daughter from a terrible mistake.

The end of the movie was very predictable as well. When we first hear about the sex pact plan the girls are all at lunch planning it. Two of the girls are in a relationship, but one of them isn't happy in her relationship, and the third (John Cena's daughter) just picks a random guy (who happens to be the school drug supplier). So, from the start you're thinking why would these girls have sex with random people at such a young age? Well, they don't. Not all of them at least, and I'm glad they don't. The last thing we all need is a movie telling girls in high school that it's OK to sleep with random guys you don't know. But, because of this random sex pact they come up with, you know how it's going to end.

I did enjoy the movie and I would see it again (with Movie Pass). I would not pay to see this movie twice. While it did make me laugh, it was not as funny as previous movies I've seen this year, and it didn't keep me laughing from start to end. I feel like the 6.6/10 on IMDb is a little high honestly, but the 50% on rotten tomatoes makes sense. Blockers has its good and its bad, but its still worth seeing if you are looking for a funny movie right now.

Ready Player One

Ready Player One is about a world where everyone lives to play the virtual reality game called OASIS. When the creator of OASIS dies, however, he leaves a hidden Easter egg, and three keys that are needed to find the egg. He challenges everyone to find this Easter egg, and once they do, they will be given his OASIS fortune and complete control of the future of the company.

Steven Spielberg has done it again. I wasn't sure what this movie was all about since I never read the book, but I was pleasantly surprised. The movie kept my attention throughout the entire 2 hours and 20 minutes. I was trying to figure out the clues along with Parzival (Tye Sheridan), and I was rooting for him the whole time. There was a great mix of real life along with the virtual reality world. We got to see both worlds and how Parzival/Wade (his name in real life) learned how to live outside the game. So often these days we see people engulfed in video games to the point that they forget how to live. In this future reality, that's exactly how it was. Everyone was a gamer and no one wanted to live in the real world, and because of this the real world is a dark, wasteland of what it once was. Wade figures out that gaming isn't everything, and yes, love is what brings him back to the real world.

This film is getting great reviews and I have to agree with them. I enjoyed the majority of the movie. I only got tired of it when it started getting all cheesy in the last 10 minutes. That's when I started to think OK let's end this, and luckily I didn't have to wait long. Other than that, it was great. The animation was awesome, the story was awesome, and I now want to read the book. I'm especially glad that there was a hidden meaning to the whole plot, and I hope that other people see it too. It would be nice if we all could turn off our video games once in awhile and come back to the real world. There's a lot of stuff going on outside of our TV screens and our Playstation's and Xbox's. Sometimes it feels like people forget that, and I really hope that we don't end up like the world depicted in Ready Player One.

A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place is about a world terrorized by monsters that hunt by sound, and the family that lives in silence to survive. Written, directed, and performed by John Krasinski, A Quiet Place is not one to miss.

I was on the edge of my seat from the very beginning. Almost the entire movie is set in silence. They can't speak out loud, they can't walk on creaky floorboards, they can't even listen to music out loud. Because of all this silence, I felt like I also had to be quiet. I could hear every breath I took, and every gasp that escaped my mouth. When they were internally screaming, I was internally screaming with them. I felt like I was there with the actors, and like I was being hunted along with them.

There wasn't one moment in the entire movie where I was unhappy, or felt like something could have been done better. Props to John Krasinski because this film deserves some kind of award. To be in every aspect of the film making, from writing it to acting it out, he did a phenomenal job. All of the actors were fantastic actually. Millicent Simmonds, who plays Regan Abbott (the daughter), will go on from this movie into a great career as an actress. She has been deaf since infancy, and this role was perfectly matched for her, but I can see her being a role model to other deaf people.

Please see this movie. Don't turn it down because you don't like scary movies. This is pure suspense, and it's only 90 minutes long! It's amazing how much they fit into that short of a film, and I never once thought it needed to end. I was drawn in the whole time and did not want it to end. I can see why some people would think it's stupid. Who gets pregnant in a world where you can't make any sound? But really, if that's the only complaint, my response is: it's a movie. You can't have a movie without a plotline, and Krasinski is a genius to come up with a sightless alien-creature that hunts by sound. I hope he writes a sequel or just any other movie because I will be one of the first people in line to see it.

Acrimony

Acrimony is about a once loyal wife, that upon divorcing her husband, is enraged by the life he has made her live and his past deceit. She decides to take the law into her own hands, and harasses her ex-husband and his new fiance.

Unless you really feel the need to see this movie, I'd stay away. It seemed to start out good. We see Melinda (Taraji P. Henson) receiving the court decision that she get help from a psychologist. The psychologist then asks her to give us the whole story. Melinda begins the story back when she met Robert in college, and Henson narrates it. I liked how they got us into the story, but I did not like how it continued after that. For the entire movie, Taraji Henson is the narrator. She comes in every so often to move us forward in the story. I didn't go to this movie expecting a documentary-type story, where a narrator has to keep us informed, but that's what I got.

Before I went to see this movie, I thought I might be able to relate to this woman. It seemed like she was cheated on or that she was married to a horrible man and that's why she was so angry. I'd be pretty angry too! This is not the case. Sure, he's not the greatest man. He refuses to get a real job for 18 years and he's dedicating his life to an idea about a battery that recharges itself. He wants nothing more than to sell this battery idea to a big company, and doesn't care that Melinda has to pay all the bills. But, she's the fool that believed he would change. She's the one that stands by him and blows all her money on him when everyone told her not to, even after he cheated on her. Then, she's the one that decides enough is enough and divorces him. It's not his fault that his battery finally sells after their divorce. It's hers for not believing in him when she needed to the most.

Her anger verges on psychopathic. In fact, the psychologist asks her if she's ever heard of dissociative identity disorder (multiple personalities). Her brutality when she feels she's been wronged is unbelievable, and she can't just let it go. She has to act on it, which leads to the ending of the movie, where she takes actions into her own hands, and it doesn't end well. Also, the ending was super lame. Instead of there being any conversation, there was loud music over it all and we just watched it unfold. Then, to top it all off, they didn't even use a stunt double, or if they did the stunt double should never act again. I'm almost positive that Melinda's "double" was a dummy. For reals? A dummy....did we have a small budget? You must have because I noticed every green screen you dropped in this film. Nice try though.

So yeah, please don't waste your time here unless you need to. It's a waste of 2 hours of your time, and it feels never ending. Don't do it.