Saturday, July 30, 2016

Bad Moms








If you’ve been stressed and are looking for a chance to laugh, hysterically, then I exort you to rush out and see Writers/Directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore’s Bad Moms.

If you’re fortunate enough to attend with a large audience, you’ll, also, enjoy the cheers and clapping of other audience members for this, the funniest comedy of the year, so far.

Mila Kunis plays Amy, a mother whose life is totally absorbed by running her household, raising her children (Oona Laurence and Emjay Anthony) and holding down a job while her worthless husband (David Walton) masturbates to an online stripper.


With her children’s school under the thumb of the ultra-strict PTA president (Christina Applegate), Amy can take the pressure no more and rebels from her duties along with newfound friends played by Kathryn Hahn and Kristen Bell.


The subsequent antics of the trio are laugh-out-loud fun, though they are all superb, I have to give a special shout out to Kristen Bell for playing a wallflower, put-upon wife so magnificently.
 
The script is not only laugh-filled, but poignant and real, as well.  This is comedy at its best.

I give Bad Moms a 4.9 out of 5.

Jason Bourne











There are only a few scenes to catch one’s breath in Writer/Director Paul Greengrass’s taut, action thriller Jason Bourne.
In a year when sequels have, for the large part, not been delivering the impact of the original works, Jason Bourne has all the impact of its predecessors…plus the welcome addition of the fabulous Alicia Vikander.

Though non-viewers of the previous Bourne films might be a bit in the dark on the background of some of the franchise’s characters, they will, soon, be swept up in the pulsing action beautifully hyped by the music of composers David Buckley and John Powell.



The beauty of Greengrass’s direction, as opposed to some of the recent action thrillers, is that the viewer always knows who Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd’s camera is following no matter how much action is going on.



Matt Damon, Alicia Vikander, Tommy Lee Jones, Julia Stiles and Vincent Cassel are all at the top of their game.
 
If you like thrillers, you’ll really like this film.  If you like Bourne thrillers, you’ll love it.

I give Jason Bourne a 4.6 out of 5.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie













Director Mandie Fletcher’s Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is absolutely silly and, sometimes, absolutely ridiculous, but, mostly, it’s absolutely a lot of fun!

If you are not familiar with Writer/Actress Jennifer Saunders and her Co-Star Joanna Lumley, whose British TV comedy show ran, intermittently, from 1992 to 2012, or might  not like John Waters’ movies or RuPaul, you probably won’t find this your cup of tea.  But, if any of those are your fancy, you’ll enjoy this bit of nonsense.

Saunders’ Edinda is frightened of being fat and old.  She and Lumley’s Patsy are on the hunt for escaping irrelevance and finding solvency.  Edina’s attempt to become model Kate Moss’s PR Agent lands Moss in the Thames, where she is lost and presumed dead.  Edina and Patsy escape to the Riviera in an attempt to find Patsy a rich husband, who might help them out of their mess.  What they find is even better.

If for nothing else, Saunders’ and Lumley’s willingness to be make fun of themselves at a time when other older actresses are moaning about not having parts to play earns them big kudos for getting their own movie made.

I give Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie a 3.4 out of 5.