Star Wars – The Force Awakens Movie Review

I was very excited that J.J. Abrams was chosen to direct the new Star Wars movie – Star Wars – The Force Awakens. I am a Trekkie also and though it took me a little while to embrace the new Spock, I really liked both of the J.J. Abrams directed new Star Trek movies.

As for Star Wars, I still remember being in grammar school when the pre-movie marketing began for the original movie Star Wars (A New Hope) – Soooooo exciting! Such an amazing thing for a little boy to experience. I remember waiting in a very long line to see the movie. Wow!!

When they decided to create the next set 20+ years later, I was very excited that they were going back to the amazing world that George Lucas created. So much fun to see Obi Wan Kenobi in his prime. There were parts that I like more than others but all and all I thought they were great! They did a really good job at telling their own stories and while staying true to the original movies and bridged the old and new very well.

Ok.. Star Wars – The Force Awakens. I really wanted to love it and I expect that I will love the next one…I thought that I might watch it a second time before writing this review but I decided to write now and then watch again and see if I wanted to write an addendum.

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Top 10 Wedding Movie Favorites

OK, Here we go. My Top 10 Favorite Wedding-themed movies. It is very interesting I think that many movies, at least love stories with happy endings end in a wedding. A sort of long time cultural institution of a love story happy ending. They meet each other, struggle along the way and end up together at the end, not just dating or hanging out but the true love, grow old together, life-time commitment that is symbolized with a wedding scene. By the way, while on the wedding theme, a little shameless shoutout – if you are in and around the Southern California area and are looking for a great wedding photographer, check out my friends at Aliso Viejo Wedding Photography.. They’ll hook you up!

And, I’m back…Originally, I was going to do a whole top 10 starting with #10 and working up to the big reveal of #1. I may go that way again later but in this case we are going for the unordered list and let you sort according to preference. Quite honestly I am sure that there are lots of great wedding-themed movies so I will probably do one or more follow-on posts but here is, I think a good starting top-10 list.

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Victor Frankenstein Review

Saw Victor Frankenstein tonight with Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy. Thought it was good! It was a nice twist – telling of a very old and much told tale. Pretty strong performances by the two main stars of the film as well as from Andrew Scott, who has been showing up a lot lately. The feel of the movie reminded me of the Sherlock Homes movies with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Not as clever but stylistically reminiscent. The tale is told from the perspective of Igor played by Daniel Radcliffe. There are many things I liked about the story of Igor’s friendship with Victor Frankenstein. The movie was pretty short as some movies go so they had to tell a lot of story and develop all of the characters in a pretty short time frame. All and all satisfying though I would be interested in seeing a director’s cut some time.

Last Weekend Movie Report

Last weekend I saw 2 movies – one in the theater, one at home.. Theater choice was The Hunger Games, Mocking Jay Part 2. Not super impressed.. pretty predictable.. I guess I really just didn’t care that much by the end… There was one pretty cool underground action-thriller scene!! So, there wast that.

I liked the first two movies in the series the best. Did not love the first movie when I saw it in the theater – Was not expecting the dark edge and kids killing each other as I had not read the book. Enjoyed it much more the second and or third time seeing the movie and was able to appreciate more of the created dystopian world and the introduction of the characters and good performances by a very talented ensemble cast. The “Games” part of the second movie with more competitor character development, the introduction of Philip Seymour Hoffman and the revolutionary plotting was interesting and satisfying. The third movie was just dark and not very fun… accepted it, much like Part 1 of the last Harry Potter book, figuring that it might resolve out in a great way in the last movie, which I felt was definitely accomplished in the Harry Potter franchise. Oh well…

My Amazon home choice was better. Saw Dear White People. Pretty fresh…exploring the college energy world of racial politics, beliefs, habits of thinking and how a group of young characters figured out how they should or would like to think, feel and behave within the cultural milieu. Specifically Black/White focused, I thought it was a well-written, competently acted film that looked at how young adults in a mixed racial community experience deal with both historically inherited and current experiences of racial identity, and inter-racial life.

Can’t get away from Movies

Just a quick note as I begin moving down the road of this site! Starting as a blog and we will see where it goes. It is kind of amazing how many movies are made and how many we all have seen. I guess I have read a lot of books but I am pretty sure that I have seen way more movies in my lifetime.

There are some movies that I am not satisfied with and lots more that I will probably never watch but there are also some amazing movies that have touched, inspired, motivated me and others and what an amazing thing that we have so many opportunities to see so many movies!

What a fascinating art form. Writers create characters and stories and then such a huge investment of money, time, resources, talent, skills, professions, etc… that are brought in to create the magic and bring the storytellers’ vision to reality!

And then, there are those of us who are not involved in the making of the magic but are enthralled by it, support and fund it and invest so much of our time and money in participating as a viewer, discusser, blogger, etc… What a crazy phenomenal process that so many of us are involved with.

I am still working out what exactly my plans are for this site but I am excited for how it will evolve. I will probably pick themes and explore them within different movie portrayals but that is one of the amazing things about movies.. there is so much to talk about. Hope you enjoy this site as it unfolds and evolves.