Avengers: Infinity Wars

Avengers: Infinity Wars is the movie that all Marvel films have been leading up to, and the film that all Marvel fans were left in shock after seeing. The Avengers team up once again against Thanos who is on his mission of collecting all six Infinity Stones. The movie begins with him having one stone already in his possession, and then we follow him as he collects all the others, one by one.

I know what you're thinking. OMG Hayley, we've been waiting for this review. The movie has been out for weeks! All I can say is, I'm sorry, but if you people would have let me get a movie ticket before they were all sold out, you wouldn't have had to wait! MoviePass doesn't let me buy early remember?! But anyway, let's continue with the important information here...I absolutely loved this movie. I do not profess to be a huge comic book nerd, or a huge Marvel follower, but I know enough and I've seen enough Marvel films to follow the story line. I know we've seen Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy previously and that he collected his first stone from Zandar right before we see the Guardians for the first time. Ever since then we have been waiting for him to continue on his mission, and we were not let down by his path to destruction.

Now, I do not want to give too much away in case there are readers who have not yet seen the movie, but I will say that there will be a sequel to Infinity Wars. The sequel is set to be released next year. The reason for this is quite clear if you've seen the film. Basically, Thanos is not dead, some Avengers are, and the remaining Avengers need to stop him. There are some clues as to how he will be stopped, but if this film has shown us anything it's that Marvel has a few tricks up their sleeves.

This movie is big on battles, and small on plot construction, but this didn't bother me. All previous Marvel films have given us the plot we needed, and now it came down to stopping the threat. We jump around from group to group a few times: Iron Man is with Dr. Strange and Spidey, Thor is with Rocket and Groot,  Captain America is with Black Panther and Vision, etc. There's a lot of super heroes in this and I won't name them all. Each group faces their own challenges here and I felt like Marvel did a great job of jumping from one to another. In this 2 hour and 40 minute movie, I never once felt like it was boring or dragging. I was entranced with the battles and hoping against all hope that the Avengers would come out on top, as all super hero movies normally do. Marvel took me on a thrill ride, and left me in stunned amazement.

Avengers: Infinity Wars has an 8.9/10 on iMDB and a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes for an audience score, and I have to agree with those ratings. I would see this movie again and again even though I was slightly heartbroken in the end. I know that Marvel will make it up to me though...or they'll get a nasty email about how they've ruined my young life!

There is a cut scene at the very end of the credits and I had to have a friend explain it to me (thank you kind soul, you know who you are). We see Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), who is the person responsible for creating the Avengers in the beginning, and he sends out an SOS to someone we have never met before. To me, the SOS to this shape below, wasn't helpful:

Apparently, this is the symbol for Captain Marvel. I kid you not...Marvel studios has a Captain Marvel...and it's a woman. So let's just say a woman will save the day...as we always do...muah. You're welcome.

Life of the Party

Life of the Party is Melissa McCarthy's newest comedy about a woman that decides to go back to college to finish her degree following a divorce from her husband. Her daughter is also finishing her final year of college, and is shocked to hear that she will now be graduating with her mother.

I have always been a fan of Melissa McCarthy's movies. She has had her ups and downs for sure, and I do not believe that this was one of her bests, but it definitely wasn't her worst either. There are some very funny moments in this film. One that I got a kick out of is her daughter's reaction to hearing that her mom is going to graduate alongside her. Molly Gordon who plays McCarthy's daughter has the perfect reaction of shock and horror. I thought it was hilarious.

This is not a laugh out loud for two straight hours movie. There was really only one scene where I really laughed near the point of tears, but I did catch all the smaller ha-ha moments. Reviewers on IMDb are saying that this is hard to watch and that it's not at all funny. I honestly don't know what they were watching, or maybe they missed the small jokes. Life of the Party has a 5.1/10 right now on IMDb. It just came out this week, so that rating could change and I think it should go up by a bit. Maybe a 6/10 tops. I'd go again just to see the one really funny moment. McCarthy and Maya Rudolph are perfect together. They play best friends in the film and every scene with the two of them together was fantastic.

The best part of the film was watching Gordon's character go from the OMG-my-mom-is-at-my-college-and-is-an-embarrassment kid, to the OMG-my-mom-is-an-amazing-woman-that-deserves-to-be-happy kid. The relationship between them goes from the regular mom and daughter relationship to an even better relationship where Gordon realizes how strong her mom really is. Every woman deserves an education and she deserves to do what makes her happy. McCarthy's character never finished college because she got pregnant and her husband decided that his education was more important than hers. It's sad that any woman would have to leave school for that reason, but it happens all the time, and this movie shows that it is possible to go back. Even if it means embarrassing your daughter for a few weeks. :)

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.