As the summer season comes to a close, it’s time for me to talk about the movies I saw in the past few months.  There really wasn’t a whole lot of movies this summer that I wanted to see, so this blog may be a bit on the short side.  I’ll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum, but there might be a few here and there, so you’ve been warned.  OK, let’s get started!

Solo: A Star Wars Story

I actually really liked this movie.  A lot better than The Last Jedi anyway.  Which is a shame because I hear this movie bombed.  Oh well.  I thought it was entertaining and that’s all that matters to me in a movie anyway.  I think it’s funny that they made a movie from one line in one of the classic films.  You know how in the old Star Wars, Han Solo says something like, “The Millennium Falcon did the Cassel (sp?) run in 12 parsecs.”  Well they made a movie out of that.  Well, OK, it was a little more than that.  They also showed how Solo met Chewbacca and Lando and how he got the Millennium Falcon.  Speaking of Lando, did you know that I got to meet the original Lando, Billy Dee Williams, at PAX West one year?  That was pretty cool.  The Han Solo movie also had one of the funniest restaurant promotions.  Denny’s partnered with the movie to make Solo themed menu items, although it was just some pancakes and a spicy burger called a “laser blast” burger or something.  You could also get a special cup for your drink that had the Millennium Falcon as the lid.  I got the one that had Lando on it since I met him.

The Incredibles 2

Just another great Pixar movie.  I had to see this one since I reviewed the LEGO The Incredibles game, but I would’ve seen it regardless.  Definitely one of the better movies this summer.

Ant-Man and The Wasp

I enjoyed the first Ant Man movie as it was more humorous and lighthearted than other Marvel movies.  This one was the same, but I didn’t like it as much.  First of all, you had to remember a lot from the first movie and the last time I saw the original was when it was in theaters, so my memory was a bit fuzzy as to who was who and what happened.  Also, the movie got a little weird.  I know that you have to suspend your disbelief in these superhero movies, but when they pull stuff out of their butt like, “Oh I can rearrange atoms with my glowy fingers now that I’ve been stuck in the subatomic world.  How?  Oh I just adapted.”  Yeah OK.  So I was just a bit disappointed with this one.

Rifftrax: Krull

So my most favorite TV show in the whole wide world is Mystery Science Theater 3000.  And many of the folks who worked on that show now do Rifftrax, and sometimes they show their stuff in theaters.  I try to go to them unless they’re redoing old MST3K stuff.  Tickets cost a bit more, so I have to be selective.  Anyway, the movie they riffed this time was Krull, an old fantasy movie from the 80’s.  I remember seeing commercials for it when I was a kid, and I do remember the boomerang star weapon.  I know I didn’t see the movie in theaters as a kid, but I might’ve tried to watch some of it on HBO and got bored of it.  I seem to remember action figures being made, but maybe that was just my imagination.  I do know they made an arcade game out of it, as I saw it a few times on Starcade.  Anyway, the movie was a lot cheesier than I remember, and the folks at Rifftrax barely saved it!

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

So every summer there is at least one movie that I just didn’t manage to see, even though I wanted to.  And that was the Jurassic World sequel.  It just gets harder and harder to see movies in theaters anymore, and the movie theaters themselves don’t help.  I don’t know about where you live, but most of the theaters where I’m at have redone all their theaters to have bigger, reclining seats.  Which is nice and all, but it means less seats in the theater and more chances for them to sell out.  So if you don’t get your tickets early online, you may not get a seat.  Which would be fine except they charge a fee if you buy tickets online.  Movie tickets are getting expensive enough as it is.  I used to be able to go to matinee movies, but my work schedule makes it hard to do that anymore either.  So yeah, movie theaters aren’t helping themselves with that seat thing.  I hate it, but I’ll probably just watch the Jurassic World sequel on Netflix.  This whole seat thing worries me about seeing movies more than 3-D movies did!

Netflix

Speaking of Netflix, I did catch a few Netflix movies this summer that stuck out in my mind, so I thought I’d conclude by going over those.  Black Panther was pretty good.  I’m glad it didn’t get very political until the very end.  I didn’t like Ready Player One that much.  You can cram as many cameos and references in a movie, but if it has a dumb plot and crappy visuals, it’s still not going to be good.  Also saw the new Tomb Raider movie.  It was fun, but a bit slow at first.  You certainly had to suspend your disbelief that Lara Croft could do all these superhuman feats without dying.  But it is a movie based on a video game after all.  The lady who played Lara Croft was super fit, though.  They should’ve called the movie “Lara Croft Ate Her Spinach.”  Although I’m sure some movie magic was still present since I doubt she could really pull herself up an airplane falling down a waterfall with only one arm, even if she was really strong.

And those are all the movies I saw this summer!  Let me know what you think of them and tell me which movies YOU saw this summer!  Any upcoming movies I should know about?  Later!  –Cary

Tags: Movies with Children