Bohemian Rhapsody

RATINGS

IMDB: 8.4

MY RATING: 7

GENERAL INFORMATION

Release Info: 2 November 2018
   Lynnhaven Mall AMC 23 Nov 2018

Genre: Biography, Drama, Music
Director: Bryan Singer
Writer: Anthony McCarten and Peter Morgan
Running Time: 2 Hours and 14 min

Staring: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton and Gwilym Lee

Rating? PG-13

SPOILERS? NO

STORYLINE

A chronicle of the years leading up toQueen's legendary appearance at the Live Aid concert in 1985.

MY REVIEW

This was a good movie. Don't get me wrong in the rating of 7. It was good, but it could have been better. The theme should have earned this an R. They just slightly touched on the the heart of Freddie Mercury; drug use, homosexuality, multiple sex partners, etc. If you didn't sing along then you're dead inside!

What I DID LIKE about this movie:

• Rami Malek did an amazing job playing Freddie. (Thanks to Canadian Marc Martel for lending his voice to the icon himself). He only resembles Freddie on a very base level, but he did a wonderful job with his manner and his body language. It was perfection. Love!
• The music- All EPIC!
• I did like the story itself. I am a huge fan of beginning at the end and ending at the beginning if that makes sense. 
• Favorite scene: The part where Ray Foster (Mike Myers) tells the boys that Bohemian Rhapsody is NOT the type of song that kids will sing along to in their cars. All I could see was the scene in Waynes World and smile.

What I DID NOT LIKE about this movie:

• This was not the movie that it COULD have been. It truly needed an R rating to really bring Freddie to the big screen.  This was a sugar-coated pretty story that could. All surface, not a great deal of substance.
• This movie was touted as a biopic. This was not the case. This was a retelling of a story with edits and modifications that were made to make the movie watchable and less "controversial."

On a more personal note..... 

A SnapChat Selfie, a New Car and a New Shot for the Blog!

The Imposter

GENERAL INFORMATION

Release Info: 24 August 2012
     Netflix 23 September 2016

Writer and Director: Bart Layton
Running Time: 99 Minutes

Staring:  Carey Gibson (The Sister), Beverly Dollarhide (The Mother), Nancy Fisher (Special Agent) and Frederic Bourdin (The Imposter). There are several appearances of other family members as well.

Rating? R (For Language Only)

SPOILERS? YES, but not enough to NOT WATCH!

REVIEWS

IMDB: 7.5 of 10

MY RATING: 9

STORYLINE

A documentary centered on a young man in Spain who claims to a grieving Texas Family that he is their 16-year-ld son who has been missing for 3 years.

MY REVIEW

I cannot believe how emotional I got watching this movie. I literally cried at one point. I think it hit home specially for me because I WAS kid in Texas at the time when this happened. It was 13 June 1994 and I remember watching news stories about the missing boy from San Antonio. I was on summer break from West Texas A&M University at the time, a sophomore and a girl in my dorm wing was from there and we talked a lot about this. It's captivating and damn near chilling how this IMPOSTER could have fooled so many people for so long. I guess when your child goes missing, you're willing to believe the improbable, much less the impossible. This was a damn good documentary.

What I DID LIKE about this movie:

• Director Bart Layton made the impossible task of selecting specific pieces of interviews with various people at random times seen well collated and maintained the flow of the documentary with such aplomb!
• It's fascinating to see/hear about these events in such detail FROM BOTH SIDES! 
• I love the way the film was structured. As you are watching, you feel the sense of urgency and wonder along with the Special Agents, family members and this Frederic pretending to be this poor missing boy.

What I DID NOT LIKE about this movie:

• So many questions left unanswered. Loose ends are left so entirely loose that I cannot forgive!!

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Spotlight

GENERAL INFORMATION

Release Info: 25 November 2016
      Netflix 12 September 2016

Director: Tom McCarthy
Writer: Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy
Running Time: 128 Minutes

Staring:  Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Stanley Tucci and John Slattery

Rating? R

SPOILERS? YES, but it's not really a deal breaker.

REVIEWS

IMDB: 8.1 of 10

MY RATING: 8

STORYLINE

When the Boston Globe's tenacious "Spotlight" team of reporters delves into allegations of abuse in the Catholic Church, their year-long investigation uncovers a decades-long cover-up at the highest levels of Boston's religious, legal, and government establishment, touching off a wave of revelations around the world.

MY REVIEW

Director Tom McCarthy you may know from appearances Pixels, 2012, The Lovely Bones, and The Little Fockers. His directorial history is much shorter. This is a grand slam for him in my eyes. He did an amazing job telling the story along with the co-writer John Singer. This was a daunting story to tell and needed to be told.

What I DID LIKE about this movie:

• This is a haunting movie. It stays with you for hours after the movie is over. There is no doubt in my mind why this movie won Best Picture. This unnerving and makes one question so many things about life in general.
• This is direction and writing done to the best of their abilities. This story is told in cinematic brilliance.  
• Whoever casted this ensemble did something that I never thought could be done. Batman, Leiv Schreiber, the girl from the Notebook and The grey haired guy from Mad Men.. I would have never thought that this group would be put into the same movie, much less create a cast that REALLY WORKED! They were amazing together. A true group of characters that were believable and true to form.

What I DID NOT LIKE about this movie:

• Could have used a little more Boston accents! :)

On a more personal note..... I had SOO much fun today with some of the girls from my last job! Me, Taylor, Chris and Ami went to a place called Breakout. It's a situational game where they lock you in a room with clues and a ton of locked doors, cases, drawers, etc and you have to connect the clues and figure out how to ESCAPE! The thing is, you only have 60 minutes to get out. WE DID IT!! With 5 minutes to spare! Baby Dexter Morgan helped me with some drawings this afternoon. I finished one that I was working on with the Moai of Easter Island. It's one of the places that I would love to go to someday!!

Carl Panzram: The Spirit of Hatred and Vengeance

GENERAL INFORMATION

Release Info: 2011
     Netflix 21 August 2016

Director: John Borowski
Running Time: 81 Minutes

Rating? Unrated

SPOILERS? Nope

REVIEWS

IMDB: 6.4 of 10

MY RATING: 7

STORYLINE

This documentary examines the live of serial killer and rapist Carl Panzram who lived from 1891 to 1930. It examines how his life hardened him into a psychotic murderer. It also examines how a prison guard named Henry Lesser forged a friendship with him and encouraged him to write an autobiography.

MY REVIEW

I absolutely love Crime Documentaries, and with the amount that I watch on Netflix, the recommendations it gives to me occasionally are pretty awesome. So when this one was suggested, I was happy to watch. It's intriguing and disturbing all at the same time. Definitely unique to say the least and one of the least known serial killers of the 20th century. I had;t heard of this guy until this movie! This is insane that had it not been for the prison guard, Henry Lesser, sneaking him paper and pencils, this story may have never been told. Lost forever!!

What I DID LIKE about this movie:

• I think that John Borowski did a pretty awesome job with this documentary.  I loved his with on the H.H. Holmes Documentary. I think he did well fleshing out the story with such disparate and hard to prove information. Carl Panzram's writings were bog on stories and low on the details that could prove too much. Borowski did a lot of digging to find what he did. Great job!! This guy was a sadistic rapist from his youth in reform school. 
• This story is disturbingly relevant. It's a good study on man's inhumanity to man. The hunan race is failing to see what could happen if people like this are not taken into consideration early on. I don't know what we could have done to prevent this, but still should have been on the radar.

What I DID NOT LIKE about this movie:

• i get the face that they were trying to tell a story, but the dramatic, or, OVER-dramatic reenactments were at times laughable. They were pretty amusing though!!

On a more personal note..... Super good day today!! Started out this morning and took a few selfies on Snapchat!! I LOVE THOSE THINGS!! Then, off to the mall with my BFF Missy!! We had some lovely Coconut Caramel Macchiato's and then to the Limited, Old Navy and Bath and Body Works!! A tiny lunch, then back to my house and made steaks on the grill! 

             Love, Michelle

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Whitey

GENERAL INFORMATION

Release Info: 27 June 2014
     Netflix 12 July 2016

Director: Joe Berlinger
Running Time: 1 Hour and 47 Minutes

Rating? R

SPOILERS? NO

REVIEWS

IMDB: 6.8 of 10

MY RATING: 8

STORYLINE

This documentary captures the sensational trial of infamous gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger, using the legal proceedings as a springboard to explore allegations of corruption within the highest levels of law enforcement. Embedded for months with Federal Prosecutors, retired FBI and State Police, victims, lawyers, gangsters and journalists, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Joe Berlinger examines Bulger's relationship with the FBI and Department of Justice that allowed him to reign over a criminal empire in Boston for decades. Pulling back the curtain on long-held Bulger mythology, the film challenges conventional wisdom by detailing shocking, new allegations. With unprecedented access, Berlinger's latest crime documentary offers a universal tale of human frailty, opportunism, deception, and the often elusive nature of truth and justice.

MY REVIEW

I have always been interested in crime and this story has always been one that has stuck out and in the since he was caught for good in 2011, it's been in the news again. This is a pretty brilliant documentary. The fact that he was the second most wanted fugitive next to Osama Bin Laden is just incredible!

What I DID LIKE about this movie:

• It was filmed in an artistic less-newsy way that I really appreciated. Although it's packed with information, it's done in a very intense way so that all of the data is shared quickly and in easy to digest segments.
• The interviews- wow, just wow!
• Hearing a lot of data about the Top Echelon Criminal Informant Program (TECIP) and rare footage of Joe Valachi

What I DID NOT LIKE about this movie:

• Although there was lots of background on Irish Crime in Boston and I would definitely like to see more, the movie was very densely packed with information and at some points it was too much.
• A lot of conjecture on whether Whitey was an informant or not with not a lot of evidence either way.

On a more personal note..... I was feeling very classic today with my black hair, red lips, black and white clothes and pearls. Maybe a little Audrey? Also, the 3D Printer is pretty much running at full speed these days. The Terminator head came out pretty good even taking 40+ hours to complete. Paint went on nicely! AND, lastly, I had two friends birthdays this week, Chris and Billy. I made these little gems.. Peach cake with Vanilla Peach frosting and little blue sugar crystals.

The Big Short

GENERAL INFORMATION
Release Info: 23 December 2015
I watched this on 30 January 2016
Running Time: 2 Hours and 10 Minutes
Staring:  Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt
Rating? R
SPOILERS? YES, 
but it won't matter. You should see this!

REVIEWS
IMDB: 7.9 of 10
MY RATING: 9

STORYLINE

Four denizens in the world of high finance predict the credit and housing bubble collapse of the mid-2000s, and decide to take on the big banks for their greed and lack of foresight.

MY REVIEW:

This is an amazing movie. There is nothing small about this BIG Movie at all! I really knew very little about the subprime mortgage crisis that pretty much drowned the banking industry in 2007-2008, but this helped me understand the whole thing in a most entertaining method! 

This story is told in some very unique ways that not only keep you interested but allow you to be entertained! The idea of breaking the fourth wall by allowing models in bathtubs and celebrity chefs accompanied by singers to deliver additional little pieces of data to assist in your understanding of the heftier buts was brilliant! Its filled with cuts, slow-motion, monologues, flashbacks, foreshadowing and just amazing cinematography!

The acting is stellar from the stars to the bit players. They aren't just playing a role, they embody characters during a remarkable time in history. Steve Carrell plays against character and he's perfect! His character, Mark Baum, is much like the boss from that television series. However, in "The Big Short", he plays it straight. He is a boss of a fund under the umbrella of Morgan Stanley (but it's not Morgan Stanley, and his team likes to point out), and he is on a mission to bring down banks, to show them up, and to prove he's been right about the financial warning signs. He is betting against the hand that feeds him, Morgan Stanley.

I preferred Christian Bale's performance as Michael Burry, an unselfconscious, manic math genius. I haven't seen that frightening look in Bale's eyes since "American Psycho", but this time he's only killing the mortgage backed securities market. Meanwhile, Brad Pitt, under- playing another disaffected former banker, Brad Rickert, helps two friends make millions while they bet against terrible investments, or "play short" the mortgage market. His backstory is revealed steadily and in a way that makes us wonder why he briefly got back into the investment "game." Even Ryan Gosling makes his mark in this star-studded cast playing the prescient "Jared Vennett." Remember, all the characters in the film are based on real people. And that is what makes it so remarkable.

The other major players in the film are Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley, and a slew of investment houses who at best ignore the coming financial crisis or at worst, colluded in its creation. From the realtors selling the mortgages, to the banks loaning at subprime, to the banks bundling the worthless packages, they were all making too much money to want to stop. This is exactly the kind of over-exuberance that occurred in the 1920s stock market crash, but few payed attention then or in 2007.

"The Big Short" is a dramatized film of true events. And to make sure we understand, the actors break the fourth wall several times to tell us what part is true to the detail and what part is fictionalized to make it more dramatic. But if you are still incredulous, read the book. The events are all sadly true, and we are still paying for it.

On a personal note: I made a pretty awesome Happy Holidays card from the kids this year!!

Black Mass

GENERAL INFORMATION

Release Info: 18 Sept 2015

Director: Scott Cooper
Writer: Mark Mallouk and Jezz Butterworth
Running Time: 122 Minutes

Staring:   Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson and many more!

Rating? R

SPOILERS? NO

REVIEWS

IMDB: 7.7 of 10  / /  Rotten Tomatoes: Critics-76%, Audience- 77%

MY RATING: 9

STORYLINE

The true story of James "Whitey" Bulger, the brother of a state senator and the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston, who became an FBI Informant to take down a Mafia family invading his turf.

MY REVIEW

The movie is BASED on facts. There is a documentary out called "Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger" that I suggest you see BEFORE you see the movie. (Click HERE to read my review of the Documentary.)

Excellent. GO SO THIS MOVIE!

What I DID LIKE about this movie:

• Johnny Depp IS amazing in this movie. He truly transformed into James Bulger with the unnerving yellowed smokers tooth and odd blue eyes. He was the star of this movie, hands down. 
• The cinematography and the script are pure gold. I feel like the entire cast made their part in making this a very well done movie.

What I DID NOT LIKE about this movie:

• Characters- Johnny Depp's Whitey Bulger is really the entertainment value here. The remaining characters are really nothing special, no real value to build development for me at all. I could really have cared less for these people. 
• This movie attempts to cover too much ground to smash into a tight 122 minutes.

On a more personal note..... Look who we met today!?!? This is going to be out new little one! His name is a tie currently between Dexter Morgan and Tyrannosaurus Rex. I hope Jinx is okay with this when we bring him home in a few days!!

Breaking the Maya Code

GENERAL INFORMATION
Release Info: 2008 Made for TV
Running Time: 1 Hour and 56 Minutes
Staring:  Documentary
Rating? Unrated
SPOILERS? YES

REVIEWS
IMDB: 7.5 of 10 Link
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics: N/A Audience: 75%
MY RATING: 10 of 10! Awesome

MY REVIEW:
Okay, full disclosure, I am a HUGE history and documentary nerd, so I went into this movie, knowing, neigh, believing that I would not only love it but learn something amazing. I was not disappointed.

Since, there is not really a plot-line, there can be no spoilers.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the film narrated by CCH Pounder. She lent a true voice to the production. I had read some about the Maya culture and knew that the Spanish had done some damage to their culture, but I had no idea the amount of information that was lost due to the Spanish conquest and their fervent religious beliefs.

The watcher begins with a guided informational  brief of the history of the Maya culture and their complicated artistic hieroglyphic, or glyphic, writing. Beginning in 1181, when an Englishman began to photograph the glyphs leading to more and more students of the culture into a desire to KNOW what it said.

Many years passed with very little understanding of the Maya language culminating in the greatest of all collaborative works that I have ever seen. The group of researchers were able to decode the Maya language and glyph system and reunite the modern Maya with their historic language.

I wholeheartedly give this documentary a full 10 Stars on the Michelle Scale of 1 through 10.

American Sniper

GENERAL INFORMATION
Release Info: 16 Jan 2015
Running Time: 133 Minutes
Staring:  Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, etc.
Rating? R
SPOILERS? NO

REVIEWS
IMDB: 7.4 of 10 Link
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics: 73% Audience: 86% Link

MY RATING: 8 of 10

MY REVIEW:
I give the movie an 8. The MOVIE. Bradley Cooper does an amazing job of playing deceased Navy Seal Chris Kyle. This may be the single greatest role that I have ever seen him take on. The "war" scenes feel true and real and really show the "dirty" side of war to the masses who have never seen the military life. This movie was well written, well acted, and emotional. I can remember a few times sitting in the theater that I realized I was gripping the arms of my seat so hard that my fingertips were falling asleep.

I am not addressing any controversy surrounding Chris Kyle in this post. The man served his country and is due his reverence for doing so.

The Imitation Game

GENERAL INFORMATION
Release Info: 25 Dec 2014
Running Time: 114 Minutes
Staring:  Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightly, Matthew Goode...
Rating? PG-13
SPOILERS? YES

REVIEWS
IMDB: 8.1 of 10
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics: 89% Audience: 92%
MY RATING: 10 of 10! Perfection!

MY REVIEW:
X\As a student of History, I've come across the name Alan Turing on multiple occasions and with each one, I am saddened to hear of the atrocities done to him. {Read about him here at Biography.com} I had to wipe the tears away more than once in this movie.

Back to the movie, it was a masterpiece. The story of the Enigma has been told a few times.. {Enigma-2001, All the Queen's Men- 2001 and U-571-2000}  Alan Turing was brilliant and Benedict Cumberbatch plays him to perfection.

This film speaks to the early days when Prof. Turing was recruited as a last resort to end the war. The movie spends the majority of the time watching him crack the code and build a special relationship with Joan Clarke, played by Keira Knightly. It was in Turing's brilliance that the code was cracked and then the second act hits like a bomb as you see Turing exposed as a homosexual and at the time, it was a crime in England and he was rewarded for his efforts to save England and all of the other Allies with Chemical Castration in lieu of prison. The film ends with what those of us who know about Turing was the end of something amazing.

See this movie. I cannot give a strong enough reccomendation!

Jersey Boys

GENERAL INFORMATION
Release Date: 20 June 2014
Running Time: 134 Minutes
Staring:  John Llyod Young, Erich Bergen, Michael Lomeda, etc.
Rating? R
SPOILERS? NO

REVIEWS
IMDB: 6.9 of 10 Link
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics: 52% Audience: 63% Link
MY RATING: 8

MY REVIEW:
This was a brilliant movie that took a hard look a the cost of fame and the pain that comes from being famous.

I thought I knew the story of the Four Seasons and Frankie Valli but BOW was I wrong. This was an amazing telling of the dramas that the young boys went through.

I never knew much about the Broadway musical until hearing about this movie. I went with an older girl friend to see it after work and it was awesome.

John Lloyd Young, the guy who played Frankie Valli was really good. AND he sings! Great period piece and wonderful artistic direction. Funny and dramatic at the same time. NOW, I want to see the play!

The Galapagos Affair

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden

GENERAL INFORMATION
Release Info: 24 April 2014
Running Time: 120 Minutes
Staring:  Documentary
Rating? Unrated
SPOILERS? YES

REVIEWS
IMDB: 6.8 of 10
MY RATING: 8 of 10

MY REVIEW:
First of all, a quick overview of the story that this documentary covers. It begins in 1929 when two Germans looking for their personal Eden arrived on the island in the Galapagos called Floreana. More Straunch and Dr. Friedrich Ritter had enough with civilization and isolated themselves from the world. in 1932, some of their letters home made it to the German papers and they began to get other land squatters on Floreana. The Wittmers arrived soon.. Heinz and his pregnant wife Margret and their sickly son Henry. Next arrived a self-proclaimed Baroness and her two man minions with their ideas of taking over the island. That's when it all went crazy.

The documentary is filled with family photos and videos taken by the families on Floreana as well as passing ships and their interactions with the families on Floreana. It's full of intrigue and mystery, missing people, murder... and many more things that make this documentary very difficult to turn away from. I was mesmerized by the story. It's interesting and a very good way to spend a little time.

Moneyball

GENERAL INFORMATION
Release Info: 23 Sep 2011
Running Time: 133 Minutes
Staring:  Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill
Rating? PG-13
SPOILERS? Not Really

REVIEWS
IMDB: 7.6 of 10
MY RATING: 8

MY REVIEW:
I have to sat this was a really good movie.  For a sports biography, I have to say, I was surprised.

Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane with superior acting ability. The bio pic was well written and interesting. Before this movie, I had really little understanding of this aspect of the baseball game. This was new to me and I found it to be quite intriguing.

I think this movie will even appeal to the non-sports fans. It's more about ones personal fight inside themselves and his struggle to maintain his life and family.

Princess Kaiulani

GENERAL INFORMATION
Release Info: 14 May 2010
Running Time: 97 Minutes
Staring:  Q'orianka Kilcher, Barry Pepper Shaun Evans
Rating? PG
SPOILERS? Not if you know history

REVIEWS
IMDB: 6.1 of 10
MY RATING: 3

STORYLINE
The story of a Hawaiian Princess' attempt to maintain the independence of the island against the threat of American Colonization.

MY REVIEW:
It's not a bad bio-pic, and I wouldn't exactly call it a biography. It was close and a little one-sided. They got at least one of the big points right, Princess Ka'iulani was a real person. She was brave, charming and smart. Some of the other pieces were true as well, she was educated in England and did visit President Cleveland. Yes, her family was suppressed when the US took over Hawaii. She tried, in vain, to help her country and people.

As much as she failed in this valiant attempt, she did at least delay the inevitable. She was ill for a very long time and died in her 20's.

I wish they would have stopped trying to tell the story that they wish would have been and stuck to the facts.