Terrible Plan! Movie Reviews

What I liked: Probably the best part of this movie was watching it was a bunch of math majors. They were so excited about every bit of math that appeared. It was moderately disconcerting because I think this may be vaguely reminiscent of how I act when I watch science movies. The reason the math majors were so excited was this movie was the story of one of the most intriguing and possibly one of the greatest modern mathematicians: Srinivasa Ramanujan. He was a relatively uneducated man living in India who remarkably independently developed known theorems and discovered new mathematical theorems. I know virtually nothing about this guy but am assured by long and complicated (and enthusiastic) explanations that he was an continues to be hugely influential on theoretical mathematics. I assure you that theoretical mathematics is a useful thing for stuff like data encryption and GPS and outer space and that it is not equivalent to hypothetical and absurd answers to math questions that are t...

What I liked: This was an excellent drama. It won best picture at the Academy Awards last year. Like The Artist, I am in full agreement with the Academy. I like fun movies, I liked to be entertained; entertain me well enough and I forgive most problems and go home happy. Generally, that is the end of it. 2-3 hours of fun, I think about it long enough to write a review and move on. Spotlight is a reminder that film can be substantial, something meant to be thought about. Spotlight is a great drama but it achieves more. Spotlight tells the story of the investigative journalists who broke the story of the Catholic priest child abuse scandal from the early 2000's. The writers do an impressive job presenting the events almost like a dramatized documentary. They avoid the low hanging fruit of villainizing individuals (it is still clear that there are individuals who will have much to answer for) or organized religion and approach the much harder questions. Questions about shared respons...

What I liked: I liked the ghostbusters. All the characters were unique. And funny. And better developed than their 1980's counterparts. I especially loved the techy and the subway lady. I liked the cameos from almost everyone and everything from the original movie. They were fun for those of us who loved the original and not distracting if you hadn't seen it (who has not seen the original Ghostbusters? I mean honestly!). I liked the first ghost, that whole situation reminded me both of the Winchester Mystery House and of Lockwood and Co. I liked the crazy inventions, and felt like cheering when they got to use their gadgets in the show down, which also reminded me of Lockwood. I liked that the special effects haven't actually improved since the '80s. I liked the Chinese food delivery guy. I loved them clearing out their lab at the university, it is a short scene but seemed oddly familiar. I liked the credits. What I didn't: I don't know how I felt about the ghos...

What I liked: I should start this review with the admission that there was a really long line at the drive in so I missed about the first 40 minutes of the movie. It is entirely possible that the plot made more sense than I thought or that the characters actually did know each other before deciding to bop out into the jungle and jump off cliffs together. I kind of like the thought that maybe they didn't. They were just cruising along through the Congo Jungle, Heart of Darkness style, and decided it was the perfect opportunity for some very intense off roading. It is also possible that in the first 40 minutes they all took an animal training and wilderness survival course together. I like to think that they were all just born with the innate ability to battle gorillas, out swim crocodiles and hippos, run with stampeding gnu's, and suture wounds using army ants. That being the case they should probably shoot for their own show on cable, possibly join a special ops team. One thing...

What I liked: I liked the little tie ins to the older movies and the show especially how the opening refers to the crew's life as "episodic." They also did a good job of acknowledging the Spock actor's death, it was a nice touch. Also the ever present "I'm a doctor not a..." I liked the motorcycle chase, I can't really say why you would have a motor cycle in space especially one that still has wheels instead of some kind of levitation system, or why a centuries old motorbike would still be in working order, but it was fun anyway. I liked the sticky foam. A gun fight on top of a moving train is a staple of classic movies. How can one improve on that? Why, a gun fight atop a moving space ship of course. I love that they pulled an attack of the killer tomatoes, that isn't really an often repeated troupe. Absurd as it was it is pretty invigorating. The grew dynamics were mostly spot on and the tracking device dialog was great. I liked the space stati...

What I liked: Let's get this out of the way first. If for some reason I cannot obtain the batmobile I want to drive Jason Bourne's car. Or maybe I want his car for daytime driving and save the batmobile for evenings and special occasions. If the car is too expensive I will settle for just the tires which seem to be pretty much everything proof. No, he didn't drive backwards off a building this time but he did have enough serious collisions to more than compensate. The sedan fared quite well considering it was going up against a tank. I really appreciated that all the hacker commands were readily intelligible and consisted of a single line "decrypt files, remove firewall, authorize my fake passport." If you thought Jack Ryan's hacking was good in shadow recruit (he hacked a very secure computer using an electrical outlet), you will be terrified to know the secure computer could be hacked using a cell phone in the same building. Wires are for wimps. Take that Et...

What I liked: I like dinosaurs. I still like dinosaurs after this movie. I like that they specifically introduced dinosaurs with the best people eating potential regardless of plot, biology, or previous story line. I like that the Spinosaurus' nose is the exact right size to snuffle inside a downed airplane in search of juicy people snacks. I like that the Spinosaurus' response to biting an airplane in half is not "that wasn't delicious" but "I wonder if there are tiny bits of delicious inside." I like that the paleontologists had a 3D printed model of a velociraptor nose and that they learned how to play it and that they could play it correctly to communicate with the raptors. When I try speaking another language that, you know is designed for human mouths, it comes out all gibberish. When I try playing any instrument, it comes out sounding like a slide whistle (this could be one of the reasons that I favor the slide whistle). These protagonists success...