Life of the Party (2018)

Life of the Party (2018)

4/10

Starring

Melissa McCarthy

Gillian Jacobs

Maya Rudolph

Julie Bowen

Directed by Ben Falcone

Life of the Party is not that much of a good movie to the point that it will be hard to recommend that you go see it, except you are a Melissa McCarthy fan. Even if you are, this movie didn’t hit home for me in the funny meter until like seventy-five minutes in.

The movie is directed by Ben Falcone and written by Falcone and Melissa McCarthy. It is also the third movie they have worked on together including Tammy (2014) and The Boss (2016). The acting in this movie may have been good, but the story was nowhere near being focused towards entertaining the audience.

Packaged very much like a B-movie whose idea of comedy is misinformed statistics about what people find funny now-a-days, Life of the Party lacked life in itself.

The movie is about a mother and wife, Deanna Miles (Melissa McCarthy) who found out her husband has been having an affair and he is leaving her for his new catch. This happened way early in the movie as I guess the pair writers wanted to focus more on Deanna’s life back in the university rather than she and her husband falling out of love.

The idea of focusing on her life in the university at first seemed like a great idea, until she re-enrolled in her daughter’s university and what seemed like a great idea became oddly weird too fast. Deanna dropped out because she and her husband decided that financially it will be best if he completed and she going back to finish much later. Now that he is leaving her, she decided to go get her degree and have something for herself.

In the university Deanna made friends with her daughter’s friends and as expected it wasn’t difficult to be welcomed amongst the group, because nobody will be mean to their friend’s mother. I like the chemistry between mother and daughter in the movie, as the writing pair tried to make the movie as realistic as they can.

Deanna got involved with a guy in the university (whose real life back home was the only thrilling shocker this movie delivered), was doing well in her studies and was welcomed as an official member of her group.

The movie’s antics and parties were the ones that will make you wish they did better in the portrayal of all this. For me the one thing that stood out for me as being funny was Deanna’s friend Christine (Maya Rudolph).

The movie did do well in the box-office. Which may be another reason the two could be making another movie. For me this like The Boss (2016) is not a good comedy, but it is a far better movie to digest than The Boss (2016) was.

Incredibles 2 (2018)

Incredibles 2 (2018)

7/10

Starring the voices of

Craig T. Nelson

Holly Hunter

Sarah Vowell

Huck Milner

Samuel L. Jackson

Directed by Brad Bird

It has been fourteen years since we last saw the Parr family suit-up to save the world and their family life. They, back in 2004 showed us how strong they are together when they are up against any menacing force.

Now after the last incident in The Incredibles (2004) which left us wondering what The Underminer was all about, this sequel picks up from that point.

Brad Bird delivers a stunner of a sequel, even though it is not as superb as the first The Incredibles (2004). He pulled out a deep family comedy with enough action to keep you entertained. He also went one step further in character development for each member of the Parr family (except Dash). The script works, as it keeps you entertained when Bob took on the family side of things and Helen was out there being the hero the world needs.

Incredibles 2 is Disney/Pixar twentieth feature animated movie and it is quite long in comparison to the other Pixar movies.

As said, the movie follows up on the events from the last movie as the Parr family now goes up against The Underminer and in doing so, they caused a lot of havoc.

This brings back the voice of those asking for the supers to be barred from using their powers. After a bad handling of the aftermath of the issues, the Parr had to get their acts right as the government will no longer be taking care of their relocation anymore.

Forced to accept the fact that they will have to get jobs and get things right, Frozone shows up telling them he was approached by a man who wants to change things. The new helper wants Elastigirl to be the new face of the superhero world as he wants to rebrand them.

Bob not so cool with the idea now must stay home with the kids while the Mrs. is out there saving the world (I’m sure you saw all this in the trailer).

Her world saving, and job gave the family enough money to get on with their life although her world saving was not as interesting as watching Bob being at home.

We saw Jack-Jack show off his swiss army knife of powers. He can change form, turn to a monster, set his whole body a blaze, travel through dimensions, ability to hear from another dimension, multiply, shoot beams from his eyes and much more.

The movie’s villain is actually a waste called Screenslaver, I preferred the villain from the last movie.

The movie animation is just as amazing as I expected, and I had some amazing nostalgia hearing some of the voices I knew. The movie may not be in par with The Incredibles (2004) as that movie had more focus on the thrill than the comedy, here the movie is more on the comedy than the thrill.

Dash was more like just a hang around Bird didn’t know what to do with. Unlike the others he had less to say and very little screen time. His character was at a point in the movie just a hindrance to fun from my view. Even with that, the movie is a great follow up and I will be looking forward to how the Parr family square up against their next foe, now that they can be.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

6/10

Starring

Chris Pratt

Bryce Dallas Howard

Rafe Spall

Justice Smith

Directed by J. A. Bayona

The new Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom movie reminds me much like every other Jurassic Park movie created after the first (Jurassic Park in 1993) directed by Steven Spielberg. Each of those movies were good, but not great like the first Jurassic Park.

In the first two additions (Jurassic Park 2 and 3) things were coasting and the movie was more like things the producers wished they could have included to the first Jurassic Park movie.

In this continuation series, my biggest issues are additional long conversations and build-ups to what we were all waiting for, the dinosaurs getting totally out of control. Instead of adding a new spin to the plot the last two movies have been same old tale, different cast.

In Fallen Kingdom – again, although when watching I was hoping it will not be – they “villains” are planning on making a new dinosaur by merging the DNA from the Indominus Rex from the Jurassic World (2015) with that of the last living Velociraptor.

Yes, the movie is dealing with the same further mutation of the mutated dinosaurs that all the movies have been about. There is nothing new to add, just a lengthy buildup like I said and some video clips of the past showing how raptors can be controlled.

The movie also decided to put you on the edge of what is to come by dropping clues and employing some no needed tactic to warn you of the danger ahead, this ended up being just too boring to be applauded.

So, the dead Indomius Rex DNA was harvested and by fooling Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) from the first movie our new idiot financier wants to weaponize these creatures with his new hybrid. Selling them to the highest bidder and taken care of anyone in his path towards this financial breakthrough he envisions.

The island where the dinosaurs were, was going to be overturn by a volcano and our cruel financier and all round bad guy fooled the beloved duo into helping him capture some of the dinosaurs with the lie of moving them to another island.

Before you can get to the part of the thrill and excitement you will must wait for over eighty minutes before the dinosaurs break loose.

The movie seems to be on a path towards a financial profit for Universal and I’m sure a third part is already being done. Universal went all in when it came to the marketing and production of this movie, pumping over $350 million way more than the first movie and if things go the way of the first movie it will be another big pay day.

Sadly though, the movie is just there and I hope the third part will have more to add to this already exhausting plotline.