The Lego Batman Movie

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The story is sweet and touching without being overly emotional, and manages to fit in so many quotable jokes and memorable moments. I never thought hearing Batman’s password (Iron Man Sucks) would make me laugh out loud.

They actually reference all of Batman from the silly TV show of the 60’s, the bam and kapow that pop up in the comics when he hits someone, his dark night trilogy, you name it it’s here… and sometimes they’d even play some footage!

The action sequences are dazzling in general, let alone for an animated film. The jokes land so well and then some. The film has a lot of heart. The voice performances are truly fantastic, with Arnett really giving it his all, as expected.

The Lego Batman was a funny, satisfactory and amusing movie.

John Wick Chapter 2

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If you want to see a film where everyone Keanu meets, he kills, this is for you. Wick is brought back to the hit-man game (albeit reluctantly) and ends up quite brutally murdering well over 100 people in the process.
John Wick wants to live in peace, and leave the life of a hit-man behind him, but because he is such a legend in the business, and not many professional killers can top him, Wick finds himself pulled back in. I don’t want to give anything away, but let me tell  you – you’ll get your money’s worth.
Recognizing that the Continental, a New York hotel for bad guys, run by my favorite actor Ian Mc Shane as Winston. was effectively what distinguished “John Wick” from nearly all the other revenge sagas out there expands the homicidal fraternity beyond a single New York hotel to an international organization governed by its own sort of omertà.
Rule No. 1, “No blood on Continental grounds,” serves to protect bitter rivals.
Rule No. 2, “Every marker must be honored,” explains why Wick can’t retire just yet: In order to leave the organization, he pledged to fulfill one last favor when asked. And now, his marker has come due.
John Wick: Chapter 2 is not a boring sitting, If you like nonstop violence, yes, pencil this in.

The Eagle Huntress

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“It’s not a choice, it’s a calling that has to be in your blood.” Aisholpan’s father, Nurgaiv.

THE EAGLE HUNTRESS is both a girl power story and a powerful father-daughter drama. Its hero is 13 year old Aisholpan, from Asia’s Altai Mountains, the first female Kazakh in twelve generations to be an eagle huntress.

The Eagle Huntress is so beautifully shot you’d book passage to visit this isolated world in Mongolia by the China border. Director Otto Bell said, “It’s not the end of the world, but you can see it from there.” The nomadic tribe that gives us Aisolpan is so loving and innocent as to make us wonder what our modern technology has taken from us.

Silence

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SILENCE isn’t a film that’s going to appeal to a lot of people and I’m sure some will find the subject and its questioning of faith to be something they won’t want to sit through.
Priests Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garupe (Adam Driver) travel to Japan where they are looking for their mentor Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) who is said to have turned his back on God. Ferreira was there to teach the Japanese people Christianity but soon the Japan Shogunate began killing the missionaries as well as their own peasants. It neglected to show that in Spain and Portugal at that very same time there was an Inquisition going on with equal cruelty and murder towards Jews and Protestants.

Martin Scorsese’s Silence is one of those films that will stick with you for a very long time after you view it. There are some brutal scenes to watch and they’re absolutely haunting. There are many parts where this film challenges you with intelligent questions about religion and faith. The whole film as an extremely poetic journey about religion and how far would you go for your faith and is it worth it?

Be prepared to set aside time for reflection and discussion … you may even discover some surprises in your views and beliefs. Is there no God and will our prayers only be met by silence? Remember there are no atheists in hell.

Jackie

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Usually I don’t notice the soundtrack to a movie. However this time it is a funeral dirge played too loud throughout the movie and is quite depressing. An average score plods along without you noticing it, a great one is capable of producing goose bumps and being forever linked in your memory with the film itself. This one was a complete failure that time after time pulled me out of the movie and made it difficult to concentrate on what was going on.
There are two different movies going on here. Millennials watching this picture will by far hail it as a masterful Oscar contender, in particular noting the performance of Natalie Portman. However if you’re a baby boomer like myself who was aware of the events as they unfolded on November 22nd, 1963, the movie, dare I say it, is almost a sinful revision of history. One glaring omission is during the final leg of the funeral procession with the caisson carrying the casket of the president, young John-John saluted and brought a grief stricken nation to tears with his innocence.