August means lots of action, and fun at the movies. Let’s take a look!
Click here to listen to the weeks preview!
Crazy, Rich Asians
It has been a long time since a true romantic comedy has really been a factor at the box office, but this one is. This is terrific.
This is the story of a crazy rich Asian family and the “normal” woman who is about to marry into it. This is rally creative, and is wonderfully written as it walks the fine line between comedy and parody. This feels very good, and is set in the same manner as rom-coms were years ago. This is not vile, or raunchy at any point. It has a story to tell, and does it well. Incredible use of music, wonderfully filmed in Singapore and just flat out entertaining.
This is a breath of fresh air that virtually anyone can enjoy. Plus, this is right on time and should enjoy strong success right through the early fall, as word of mouth will be big on this.
Crazy, Rich Asians. Really well done!
Alpha
Well, this is a bit different, this is Alpha. If you’ve ever wondered why man and dog get along so well, and how that came to be. This movie gives one possible answer. Should be noted, this is not a true family movie, as this is a bit intense at times. But this is good most of the time.
This takes place 20,000 years ago, where human tribes in Europe are trying survive the conditions, and the general tough life that is the era. As a tribe goes out on the annual hunting mission, one of the young hunters is lost and left for seemingly dead. But Keda does survive and through his fathers previous teachings he attempts to survive and get back to his tribe. He is attacked by wild dogs, one of which he badly wounds, and then nurses back to health and names him, Alpha. And the friendship develops and the long journey begins, together back home.
Full disclosure, this is subtitled, but it’s not a problem, as this is not dialogue heavy. Wonderfully filmed, and easy to watch. A tidy 90 minutes is sufficient here as well. This is good, and interesting and a movie that may not be on your radar, but is a good afternoon at the flicks. And “Chuck The Dog” is outstanding as Alpha. He alone is worth a ticket.
The Meg
Well it’s about time we get a movie like this in the summer theaters. The Meg, is what you would think it would be. It’s campy, it’s parody, and it’s pretty darn entertaining. We need flicks like this to balance out the dark cloud at the movies this summer.
The Meg is about a group of underwater explorers that unearth a gigantic, prehistoric shark like we have never seen. And this thing becomes a big problem. Yes, this is shark movie parody, and yes this is fun and funny at times. Yes, people get eaten, but this is notbloody, or with excessive gore. This is just a a hoot at times, and right on time. But this is also handled so well, that all you see is entertainment on the screen. This does have some moments of SUSpense, but this is not INtense.
I laughed, I cheered, and I enjoyed this glorified Shark Week type of movie. And you will too more than likely. Regardless of what the national critics may say, this is just fun.
Mission Impossible: Fallout
For some reason we just don’t get tired of this Tom Cruise series based on the old TV show of the same name. And this is pretty good.
Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team at the IMF are this time trying to save the world from nuclear attack. This has a great cast, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Henry Cavill, Alec Baldwin, Angela Bassett, Rebecca Ferguson, and Michelle Monaghan. There is plenty of action to go around, and there are some amazing chase scenes that are memorable. This is filmed wonderfully, and set in a beautiful European backdrop for the most part.
This is fun, exciting and has great pace. It may be a bit too long, but what action movie isn’t? For some reason this franchise is aging well. Why? Great cast, and an original premise spawned decades ago, that is holding up against the test of time.
Well Done.
scott@wqmx.com