Get ready to laugh as the father-daughter movie reviewers can't help but fight about their favorite flicks.
Green vs Green
Black Panther Wakanda Forever
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Black Adam
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Halloween Ends
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The Woman King
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Nope
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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
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Spider-man - No Way Home
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Eternals
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Dune
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Halloween Kills
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Black Widow
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Doctor Sleep
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Ad Astra
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IT Chapter Two
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Avengers Endgame
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Captain Marvel
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Alita: Battle Angel
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Aquaman
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Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
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Halloween
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Venom
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The Predator
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Ant-Man and The Wasp
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Solo: A Star Wars Story
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Deadpool 2
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Infinity War: Avengers
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Shape of Water
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The Last Jedi
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Ghost in the Shell
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Nocturnal Animals
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Blair Witch
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Batman v Superman -
Dawn of the Justice League |
Age of Ultron
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Ex Machina
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Interstellar
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The Giver
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Under the Skin
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The Green vs Green Movie Reviewers
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Lloyd A. Green
Writer, videographer and avid movie watcher. "I have been watching the big screen all my life. Some might say it's an addiction. I say it's a calling." |
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Danielle Green
Psychologist, bookaholic and film fanatic. "Some people need drugs to get high. I just need CGI, fast paced action and a good plot." |
Two bonus reviews from Lloyd A. Green of two of his favorite movies
Ruby Sparks - The Book?
One would think that dreaming up a mate would be a lot simpler than finding a real one. Calvin finds the opposite to be true in this sometimes, black comedy-fantasy.
This 2012 film called Ruby Sparks is about a novelist with writer's block. He has coasted on the success of a book he wrote when he was nineteen but ten years later, inspiration continues to elude him. His psychiatrist suggests that Calvin write about the woman he has been dreaming about nightly. As he begins, this woman of his dreams, shows up, suddenly living in his apartment. The more he writes about her, the more he thinks that he is in control of the situation. But poor Calvin wanted a "real" woman and that's where his good times and unexpectedly, his problems start.
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A real woman, with real emotions, seems to be more than the novelist can handle. At first, his easy solution is to, "do a rewrite." As he soon finds, life is never that simple.
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As crazy as this all sounds, the main characters, Zoe Kazan (Ruby) and Paul Dano (Calvin), do an excellent job in convincing the audience that there is more than one way to find love. Even if one of the partner's is imaginary. Or is she?
****** Spoiler Alert. Do not read below unless you've seen the movie ********
On the surface, this quirky film seems to be about a guy who creates and attempts to control a girl through some magic from an alternate reality. Not so. Notice that Calvin is using an old-fashion typewriter throughout his antics with Ruby. It is not until he begins to write the book The Girlfriend, that he is suddenly using a laptop as most writer's would. His choice of writing instrument is important because it gives us a clue to the truth. From the very beginning of the film, to point just before Calvin is reading his new novel at the book signing, we have been "watching" his book The Girlfriend. The seemingly impossible magic that the viewer witnesses, is actually the creative writing of the author, Calvin,
The overall theme remains. Calvin has a lot of issues dealing with people in general and woman he'd like to be close to specifically. The writing of the book acts as a kind of a catharsis which assists him in understanding more about himself. Whether this "book therapy" helps him to more effectively relate to the new person he meets at the end of the film remains to be seem.
************** End of Spoiler Alert ****************
As impressed as I was with this film, I was delighted to find out that Zoe Kazan herself wrote the screenplay. Another fact is that the two lead characters have been dating each other since 2007.
Some credit must also be given to Anette Bening, Antonio Banderes, Eliott Gould and Chris Messina for adding texture to this film but well deserved applause goes to Ms. Kazan and Mr. Dano who superbly makes us believe that wherever the heart goes, there will always be magic. I can easily give this movie five out of five stars.
****** Spoiler Alert. Do not read below unless you've seen the movie ********
On the surface, this quirky film seems to be about a guy who creates and attempts to control a girl through some magic from an alternate reality. Not so. Notice that Calvin is using an old-fashion typewriter throughout his antics with Ruby. It is not until he begins to write the book The Girlfriend, that he is suddenly using a laptop as most writer's would. His choice of writing instrument is important because it gives us a clue to the truth. From the very beginning of the film, to point just before Calvin is reading his new novel at the book signing, we have been "watching" his book The Girlfriend. The seemingly impossible magic that the viewer witnesses, is actually the creative writing of the author, Calvin,
The overall theme remains. Calvin has a lot of issues dealing with people in general and woman he'd like to be close to specifically. The writing of the book acts as a kind of a catharsis which assists him in understanding more about himself. Whether this "book therapy" helps him to more effectively relate to the new person he meets at the end of the film remains to be seem.
************** End of Spoiler Alert ****************
As impressed as I was with this film, I was delighted to find out that Zoe Kazan herself wrote the screenplay. Another fact is that the two lead characters have been dating each other since 2007.
Some credit must also be given to Anette Bening, Antonio Banderes, Eliott Gould and Chris Messina for adding texture to this film but well deserved applause goes to Ms. Kazan and Mr. Dano who superbly makes us believe that wherever the heart goes, there will always be magic. I can easily give this movie five out of five stars.
Ender's Game - Lost Hope of Mankind
Lost hope of Mankind should have been the title of this movie.
I imagine that it was extremely difficult to decide how to depict the main character “Ender” as a killer. Having a young boy who assumes that the best way to prevent future fights with other people (or species) is to possibly annihilate them from existence, might be hard to swallow. I understood from the onset that depicting this unsettling trait in a ten-year old boy would be tricky at best because if the actions were displayed too harshly, there would not only be no sympathy for the character but the film might also be rated as one that children really should not see.
The best-selling book, by Orson Scott Card, takes the time to make the reader appreciate the struggle that Ender is going through, which brings him to these life changing decisions. The film, on the other hand, is very good at stating the facts that move the story along but it unfortunately does not take the time to develop relationships or reasons for cause and effect as the movie quickly proceeds forward to the "next chapter.”
As one of those who have read the books (I have thoroughly enjoyed the four-book Audible set), I was excited to see the characters from book one come to life on the big screen. To my sadness, that was about as far as the excitement went. I felt as if the filmmaker sat down and said, “We are now on chapter seven, so we must have scenes on apprehension about the battle room and strategies on how to defeat Ender’s opponents.” The dazzling special effects might draw you in for the moment but that’s where it ends. Prior to the excitement, if there had been proper character development, one might even empathize with the friends and the villian.
Example: When a member of Ender’s team gets “frozen,” the moviegoer should have some feeling about that particular character. Instead, the focus stays on Ender with the feeling that everyone else is secondary. You find yourself not appreciating the other characters because you don’t know them. This is what I mean by Lost Hope for Mankind. Lost hope for all but Ender as far as this movie is concerned.
What I did like was the game play-dream sequence during which Ender discovers his psychic connection with the alien beings. The pretty young female seems to be his sister Valentine, who is showing him the way towards understanding. In fact, this is Jane, who does not appear in the stories until later on in Ender’s life.
Regardless of my negative views, I am looking forward to the sequel film, Speaker for the Dead. Even if the book is not followed closely, I believe there will at least be good storytelling with hidden twists that are alive in the Ender Universe. Perhaps with the tying of the first movie with the second, more understanding of what the filmmaker was trying to portray will come through, but I doubt it.