Geostorm

 Less exciting than a few rounds of Wordstack with adverts.

I was kind of hoping the storm would come....

Stowaway

 Netflix must pay loads of cash to get big talents to do small projects.

Stowaway wasn't a bad movie; it wasn't good enough for the talent.

Pretty standard plot; pretty meh special effects; pretty predictable ending; pretty flat writing.

I knew from the beginning that not everyone would make it and I knew who was going to be the one to accept the sacrifice.

Anna Kendrick did a great job being Anna Kendrick. It would have been nice to have her sing a little though.

Daniel Dea Kim and Tony Collet did a great job being tense and pensive.

Cloverfield Paradox

 The real paradox is why they keep making Cloverfield movies.....

The first one was fine as far as found footage Kaju movies go.

The second one, while for the life of me I cannot see the tie in, was actually pretty good. It really should not be a Cloverfield movie.

This last one was just pants. There are some touching moments and sparks of good acting, but they get lost in the derivative plot, poor writing, and underwhelming set pieces.

At least this one had a giant monster...

Maybe they will make one more to explain how all the Cloverfields tie together; sadly it will probably be pants.

Battleship

 Terrible. Boring plot, bad acting, and not enough explosions.

I cannot see how it has anything to do with Hasboro's game other than being boring and tedious.

OK there is a minor plot point about using grid coordinates, a battleship, and lots of boats sinking, but that does not make for "based on".

Utter tosh!! I saw it for free on Netflix and want my money back!

Turning Red

 Pixar hit it out of the park again.

Aside from Cars, and associated spin offs, do those guys ever miss the mark.

This was a fun and sensitive take on one of the messy times in a kids life and a parents too.

Raya and the Last Dragon (Drive In Version)

One of the local restaurants is offering Drive In movies to stay afloat. It is a brilliant idea they are in a giant business park with tons of parking. They charge $25 per car and almost everyone orders food.

H saw the advertisement and saw that they were screening Raya and the Last Dragon. K was up for it and I was feeling like a drive-in was within COVID safety limits. Besides who doesn't like going to the drive-in?

The set up was decent. They had a big blow-up screen and a digital project that made for a sharp enough picture. The sound was broadcast over the radio, so if your car's sound system was up to snuff you could get good sound sound. (We had the IONQ which, while not having the Dolby sub-woofer equipped 10 speaker sound system of the bus, provided a pleasant listening experience.) We did luck out in that we were not parked behind one of the many large SUVs in attendance. The IONQ would not have provided a clear view of the screen with one of them parked in front of it.

The movie itself was a solid Disney animated princess movie. It combined the best parts of the new princess tropes. Raya is strong, capable, and independent. The movie does a good job of staying true to Asian cultures. The animation is fantastic. The action scenes are excellent and on par with the ones in the live action Mulan. The comic relief is just right. The one thing that sets Raya apart from other animated princess movies is that it is not a musical. There are no big songs. It is much more like Brave in that respect.

My only criticism of the movie is that it does not spend enough time on character building. We only get very superficial glances at the main characters. There is more to explore between Raya and her frenemy. There is also a more to know about the last dragon.

The food was also excellent. I got some kicking chicken tacos and classically good tater tots with the perfect amount of grease. H got a gluten free chicken pizza with a "you would know it wasn't gluten" crust and the perfect amount of hot spice.

It was a perfect way to spend a COVID evening out.

Live Action Mulan

While I was really looking forward to seeing the new take on Mulan, I was not going to pay a $30 overcharge to watch a movie at home given the ridiculous abundance of distractions already on offer across the spectrum of video sources available to me. It just does not make sense. (I would pay $5-$10 to rent a movie.)

Now it is free for Disney+ subscribers and we got to watch it. We is not exactly correct... I was the only one who really watched it. H and K were not keen on the "action movie" vibe of the whole thing.

I will say that Mulan does take much more liberty with the original that the other live action adaptations.

From my point of view, the choices they made greatly improved upon the movie.

The animated version is fine and the songs are cute, but it is definitely a kids movies. The animated version does have a strong girl message behind it, but it also muddies it all up with a needless love story.

The live action movie is better for dropping the songs, the silly dragon, and the love story. What is left over is a powerful story of a young woman finding her voice and her power without the help of some man. This Mulan is strong, courageous and foolish. However, she has the wherewithal to own up to her mistakes and the confidence to choose the middle path.

The action sequences are spectacles. They are sumptuous. The whole movie is visually spectacular.

It is a shame that COVID stopped it from being seen on the big screen. In a theater, it would have been a much more thrilling experience.

Even at home on a 40+" TV with surround sound it was a fun way to spend a couple of hours.