With June wrapping up, I thought it was a good time to talk about some movies I’ve watched recently! I watch a lot of movies, but I haven’t had a chance to talk about the ones I’ve seen, so I am going to go through the movies I watched in the past 2 months and give a few thoughts on each.
One new thing that my family started this summer was something we are calling The Kevin Bacon Challenge. I’m sure many of you have heard of the 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon. This is the idea that you can take any actor, and it will only take 6 or fewer connections of actors in movies to reach Kevin Bacon. Our challenge was that each movie we watched next had to share an actor from the previous movie. While we have not continued this with every movie we have watched, it has been a fun challenge that has led us to some movies we might not have watched as soon otherwise.
Now without further adieu, here are the movies I watched!
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (May 9)
While I love the first Pirates movie, and have seen it 1000 times, I never continued on with the series until now. This was the last movie I watched during the school semester, and it was really fun to watch it with a bunch of my friends. Elizabeth and Will are some of my favorite fictional characters, and I love their relationship. The plot is super interesting, and I love the new characters like Davy Jones and Bootstrap Bill. The one downside for me was that the ending did not wrap everything up, and I haven’t watched the third movie yet so I still don’t know what happens!
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/2
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (May 12)
This was the first movie of my summer, and the kickoff of the Kevin Bacon Challenge. I knew very little going into this movie, and was very pleasantly surprised! There are a ton of big name British actors, and Dev Patel is hilarious. The setting and characters are great, with the plot being slightly predictable.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (May 13)
We followed by immediately watching the sequel, which I will admit makes it difficult for me to distinguish some details between the two. This one features an wedding which is always a bonus in my book, while maintaining the same charm of the first movie.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Monsoon Wedding (May 16)
This movie was very different from many movies I have seen before, and I ended up really enjoying it! All of the family interactions were so realistic, and the atmosphere was very beautiful.
Kevin Bacon Link: Lillete Dubey
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (May 19)
While I will agree with many people that this is not my favorite Indiana Jones movie, the second installment in the franchise is still a great movie. I watched this movie recently with two of my friends, and I did not hesitate to watch it again in less than a year. Willie is still super annoying, and there are some problematic elements to racial depictions, but overall it is a really fun and good movie. I also recently watched a pretty interesting video pointing out some of the positive aspects of the “bad” Indy movies, which I’ll link here if any of you are interested. I don’t agree with all of the points but it is an interesting watch.
Kevin Bacon Connection: Roshan Seth
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
Blade Runner (May 26)
Continuing the trend of Harrison Ford movies, and starting a trend of post-apocalyptic futuristic movies of the summer was this classic which I can’t believe I hadn’t watched before. Honestly, I was underwhelmed by it, especially because it is so hyped among sci-fi movies. The set design and overall aesthetic of the movie was very cool, and was definitely an influence on other movies, but the plot was somewhat lacking, and I never felt like I truly understood the world. While I know movies don’t need to hold your hand towards understanding the point, this was too confusing for me to fully appreciate it.
Kevin Bacon Connection: Harrison Ford
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Solo: A Star Wars Story (May 31/June 5)
The first movie in theaters! I went to see this with a friend, and both of us went in very worried, but were both very pleasantly surprised! I thought that it was really fun, which is what a Star Wars movie should be. Combining Star Wars with a heist movie is all you needed to sell me on the movie, and the addition of good action, awesome costumes, and good characters both new and old made it a solid part of the universe. I must say I was not as big a fan of L3 as I wanted to be, and Star Wars needs to learn to cast women who don’t all look the same in leading roles, but I honestly don’t understand all of the hate for this movie. I actually watched this movie again in theaters with my family, which I don’t think I have ever done before.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
Coco (June 3)
I knew I was going to like Coco when it came out, but I never got around to watching it until it was put on Netflix in June. I am very glad I watched it, and hoo boy you will cry. It has all of the charming characters and brilliant worldbuilding that Pixar always nails, and some beautiful songs. As someone whose two most important things are probably family and music, the plot and message of this film was incredibly touching, and made it instantly rise up among my favorite Pixar movies.
Kevin Bacon Connection: Edward James Olmos (from Blade Runner)
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Running Man (June 8)
Is this movie ridiculous? Yes. Did I love it? Also yes. This movie was a great combination of hilarious, and painfully relevant, and it was very interesting to see how the people of the 80s looked at how the future (or the present now). I couldn’t help but compare this to Blade Runner since they are both from the 1980s showing the 2010s as a weird futuristic world. I think I prefer the humor and more optimistic ending of Running Man.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Incredibles (June 13)
In anticipation of the sequel coming out, even though I probably won’t see it for a while, my family decided to rewatch The Incredibles. This is my favorite Pixar movie, because it is a brilliant superhero movie, and an incredibly realistic portrayal of a family. The characters are great, and the animation has held up super (he he) well. I have said it before and I will say it again: The Incredibles is a perfect film. I really hope the sequel lives up to my impossibly high standards. Bonus, the shorts on the DVD are also very good.
Kevin Bacon Connection: John Ratzenberger (from Coco)
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Raising Arizona (June 16)
I probably would not have watched this movie if it wasn’t for our challenge, but I’m really glad I did! Nicholas Cage is a controversial actor, but I really liked him in this, and the chase scene in the middle was top notch. It had a surprising amount of heart for what appeared at first to be a standard comedy. I may have to check out more of the Coen Brothers work in the future.
Kevin Bacon Connection: Holly Hunter
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
V for Vendetta (June 21)
Since it was going off of Netflix soon, my Mom wanted all of us to watch V for Vendetta, and I’m really glad that we did. Natalie Portman has been my favorite actress ever since I watched the Star Wars prequels way back in the day, and she is excellent in this. Hugo Weaving also does an incredible job, especially since he cannot use any facial expressions. Just like some of the other previous movies, this has a dark look at our future, one that is eerily foreseeable. This is just a very well done movie, that I thought about long after it ended.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
Ghostbusters (June 22)
Can you believe that I have never seen the original Ghostbusters? I watched the 2016 movie a few months after it came out, but only watched this one just now. I really liked it, and understand why it is considered a classic. It did suffer a bit from being from the 80s, as many of Venkman’s lines and actions are quite unacceptable and made the movie suffer in my opinion. My favorite character was definitely Stantz, as I am a huge Dan Aykroyd fan.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Truman Show (June 23)
Another rewatch, I haven’t seen this movie since senior year of high school, and it is still quite good. All of the actors do a really good job, and it strikes a perfect balance between being serious and humorous. It is a very solid film, and I have very few issues with it.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
Casino Royale (June 24)
This is actually the only James Bond movie I have ever seen. I tried to watch it a few years ago, but stopped part way through because it was too violent and also it was very late at night. The second time around it is still quite violent, but I enjoyed it more this time. The action scenes were very well done, and I liked the characters of Vesper and M, but Bond himself annoyed me, and the long poker scenes were confusing and dull. I may try watching more Bond films, but I don’t see myself returning to this one any time soon.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Thor: Ragnarok (June 25)
This was not a full watch, as I saw the tail end of the movie as I was getting home from work. After a very long and difficult day, this is just what I needed to cheer me up. Ragnarok is not only my favorite superhero movie, but one of my favorite movies ever. It is action packed, and character rich, but doesn’t forget that superhero movies are also supposed to be funny and fun. If Taika Waititi directed every Marvel movie from now on I would not complain.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Mary Poppins (June 27)
The last movie of the month was another partial watch of Mary Poppins, though I did watch all but maybe 20 minutes of it. It has been several years since I watched it, but I can still sing every single word, and enjoyed it immensely. What stood out to me this time around was how funny some of the interludes between songs are, and Step in Time still remains my favorite song.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
And that is all of the movies I watched for the last two months! Now that I am working a more regular schedule, and started watching Parks and Rec again, I probably won’t be watching as many movies, but I will be back in a month or two with more mini movie reviews!
Note: Yes, I realize this is being posted on August 1st, I typed this up and then never finished it. My July and August movies should be posted at the end of August!
Fiction Falcon 