Movie: Book Club Director: Bill Holderman Writers: Bill Holderman and Erin Simms Cast: Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen,
IMDB DESCRIPTION: Four lifelong friends have their lives forever changed after reading 50 Shades of Grey in their monthly book club.
REVIEW: Amazing cast!!! I just have to put that out there right from the start. This is a comedy, which is obvious if you’ve seen the trailer, but it’s so much more than just a comedy! The script dives into some pretty serious topics too; grief from the lose of a spouse, retirement, adult children who end up parenting their parents, dating in your later years, and the cause and effect of life choices!
I definitely recommend this one. I laughed so hard and truly enjoyed the wonderful characters these talented women brought to life.
Now, the real question… who wants to start a book club with me?!?! I’m ready to commit to a night a month to discussing books and drinking wine!
So, have you seen Book Club? Have you read Fifty Shades Of Grey? If you answered yes, to either of these questions, what did you think? Please share your thoughts!
TV Series: Life Sentence (Season 1) Creators: Erin Cardillo and Richard Keith Stars: Lucy Hale, Elliot Knight, Jayson Blair, Brooke Lyons, and Carlos PenaVega
Blurb: When Stella finds out her terminal cancer is cured, she must learn to live with all the choices she made when deciding to live like she was dying.
Storyline: Stella (Lucy Hale) has lived the last 8 years of her life making every day count. 8 years ago, she was diagnosed with cancer, but when she finds out that her cancer has been cured, she struggles to make some life choices. How do you make choices when there isn’t a weight on your shoulders anymore?
My 2 Cents: OK Lucy Hale… I’m a fan. Having known Hale only from Pretty Little Liars, I was glad to see her in something a bit more serious. Something that could challenge her acting abilities. Life Sentence is a fun, yet serious, dramedy (drama/comedy) that touches on topics such as cancer, mixed marriages, discovering yourself, sexuality, and marital affairs.
No, cancer isn’t funny… but, in the context of a young girl who discovers her new-found life, the series creators have found a way to make all of life’s ups and downs entertaining. I laughed. I cried. I was disgusted and pissed off. To say that I was emotionally involved by the end of the season would be correct. Sadly, I have learned that there will be no season two as the CW canceled the show. So, I guess if you’re just looking for a short commitment… with minimual time investment… you should binge watch Life Sentence on Netflix, but be prepared for all the feels.
You can watch the official season one trailer here:
Blurb: International art dealer Ron Hall must befriend a dangerous homeless man in order to save his struggling marriage to his wife, a woman whose dreams will lead all three of them on the journey of their lives.
Storyline: Ron Hall lost track of what matters most in life. It took an affair, a confession, a dream and an unlikely friendship with a homeless man to help him remember. From the outside, Ron Hall’s seemingly charmed life looked pretty perfect: He had a flourishing art business, a beautiful wife, two fine teen children and an amazing 15,000 square foot house in Fort Worth, Texas. But appearances can be deceptive.
Director: Michael Carney Writers:Michael Carney, Alexander Foard, and Ron Hall (screenplay) | Ron Hall, Denver Moore, and Lynn Vincent (book)
Based on a true story, Same Kind of Different as Me will bring you to tears, so make sure to have some tissues on hand when you watch it.
I hadn’t heard of the film until sitting on the airplane (it seems I watch most of my films while flying), but it had Renee Zellweger in it so I hit play. It is definitely a film driven by the story and the acting. There are no crazy expensive special effects to keep you entertained and in awe. The story is strong… heart wrenching… and an important one to be told! The acting is perfect in every way.
Denver (played by Djimon Hounsou) is a homeless man who through fate is befriended by, Debbie, a wealthy white woman (played by Renee Zellweger) and reluctantly, Ron, her husband (played by Greg Kinnear). Where their journey through friendship takes them and how they grow as they learn more about one another is beautiful. I won’t give away the ending, or spoil the story for you, but if you’re in the mood to watch something truly beautiful… something with a message… something that isn’t just pure entertainment, then I suggest renting this one.
Molly’s Game – The true story of Molly Bloom, on Olympic-class skier who ran the world’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game and became an FBI target.
I picked this movie simply because the “movie poster” looked interesting! If it were a book (as I’ve recently discovered it is) I would have picked it for the cover. Not knowing anything about it, and without watching the preview, I jumped right in.
Jessica Chastain (see her IMDB page here) was wonderful as Molly Bloom! I can’t imagine they could have cast it any better. When I looked up pictures of the real Molly Bloom, I was pleasantly surprised to see Chastain actually does somewhat resemble her.
I’m not going to lie, I have since read reviews that say the book is so much better than the movie. Yes, I plan to buy the book and read it promptly.
Have you seen Molly’s Game? If so, what did you think?
Maze Runner: The Death Cure – Young hero Thomas (played by Dylan O’Brien) embarks on a mission to find a cure for a deadly disease known as “The Flare”.
Let me start by saying that I LOVED the first movie in this series. With that said, I sat through this movie going, “Wait, what? Did I miss something?’ I felt completely lost, as if huge chunks of the story had been left out – skipped – or just deleted in editing.
Sure, there were some pretty awesome action sequences, but the story left me feeling disappointed and counting the minutes of my life that I’ll never get back.
Side note… Barry Pepper (as Vince) was awesome! Seriously Barry, where have you been? Hollywood needs to cast you more!!!
Upgrade – Set in the near-future, technology controls nearly all aspects of life. But when Grey (played by Logan Marshall-Green), a self-identified technophobe, has his world turned upside down, his only hope for revenge is an experimental computer chip implant called Stem (voice by Simon Maiden).
I wasn’t expecting any more than an action-packed movie along the lines of the Bourne movies (which I loved), but I ended up loving this movie for a completely different reason. It’s not all action and drama! It’s filled with laughs, which considering how dark the film is was very unexpected. Leigh Whannell, the film’s director, has packed this film full of drama, shock, action, and even some heartbreak. There’s never a dull moment as the film has you on the edge of your seat the entire time!
I can’t end this review without saying that Logan Marshall-Green was perfectly cast. PERFECTLY cast. He made the characters inner struggle believable in exactly the way this film needed. You feel for his character, you’re angry with him, grieving with him, and want him to win even if it means doing unspeakable things.
All I See Is You – A blind woman’s relationship with her husband changes when she regains her sight and discovers disturbing details about themselves.
Ok… wow! This movie did not go the way I expected it to at all! I’m glad I didn’t look at the IMDB reviews before deciding to watch this movie. Directed by Marc Forster, the subpar 5/10 rating given as an IMBD viewer average did not at all reflect my view of the film.
I felt like Blake Lively did a wonderful job playing the blind unsuspecting woman in love and pulled no punches when she regained her sight and took back her Independence. Jason Clarke, as the husband, was loving and caring, but we quickly find out he has a lack of confidence and possible abandonment issues that lead to a dark side I didn’t expect to see. He plays the jealous, suspecting husband perfectly.
Recommendation – take the time to watch! When you do, let me know what you think.
AMAZON DESCRIPTION: The #1 national bestseller for Stephen King’s rabid fans, Cujo “hits the jugular” (The New York Times) with the story of a friendly Saint Bernard that is bitten by a sick bat. Get ready to meet the most hideous menace ever to savage the flesh and devour the mind.
Outside a peaceful town in central Maine, a monster is waiting. Cujo is a two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard, the best friend Brett Camber has ever had. One day, Cujo chases a rabbit into a cave inhabited by sick bats and emerges as something new altogether.
Meanwhile, Vic and Donna Trenton, and their young son Tad, move to Maine. They are seeking peace and quiet, but life in this small town is not what it seems. As Tad tries to fend off the terror that comes to him at night from his bedroom closet, and as Vic and Donna face their own nightmare of a marriage on the rocks, there is no way they can know that a monster, infinitely sinister, waits in the daylight.
What happens to Cujo, how he becomes a horrifying vortex inescapably drawing in all the people around him, makes for one of the most heart-stopping novels Stephen King has ever written. “A genuine page-turner that grabs you and holds you and won’t let go” (Chattanooga Times), Cujo will forever change how you view man’s best friend.
WRITING: When you pick up a Stephen King book you know exactly what you’re going to get… AMAZING! Now, Cujo isn’t my favorite of King’s novels… but I loved it… and I hated it… I think I have a love/hate relationship with Cujo, mainly because it makes me feel ALL THE FEELS! It had me on the edge of my seat the whole time and when Donna Trenton is stuck in the car fighting for her life and the life of Tat, her little boy, Cujo becomes the monster that nightmares are made of. The thought of Cujo wakes you up at night in a cold sweat.
STORY: Like pretty much all of Stephen King’s books, Cujo had a slow start for me, but once the story got going it was a page turner. I had a hard time putting it down. I wanted… needed to know what would happen next, who Cujo would go after and if they would survive. Stephen King has a way of making you relate to his characters… care for them… and then he rips them away showing you how truly unfair and unexpected life can be. If this story doesn’t tear at your heartstrings, shock you to your core, and leave you feeling depleted and saddened then I’m not sure what else would.
CHARACTERS: Stephen King is known for his amazingly complex characters, and this book delivers, to include Cujo. A dog as a lead character could have been a disaster in the hands of any other author, but not for Stephen King. Cujo left me with conflicting emotions. His life… his story was bittersweet. As an animal lover, I found it hard to read some of the more gruesome parts. The pain, corruption, and changes that Cujo had to endure was painful to read, especially since they all stemmed from something so out of his control… a minor incident that led to so much pain.
APPEARANCE: My copy of Cujo is an old one… the cover isn’t particularly great, but Stephen King’s name is on the front so the cover doesn’t really matter. If you like Stephen King’s writing, like I do, you’ll read just about anything he makes available.
MY FAVORITE QUOTE: “…Wife, that’s fine. But you’re gone at work, even when you’re home you’re gone at work so much. Mother, that’s fine, too. But there’s a little less of it every year, because every year the world gets another little slice of him.” This has to be one of my favorite quotes from Cujo. As a mother I can totally relate. I feel the world taking my kids away from me, one tiny sliver at a time year-by-year. I know it has to happen, they have to grow up and become independent adults. I just wish it didn’t have to happen so quickly.
WANT TO SEE THE MOVIE? While Donna and Vic Trenton struggle to save their rocky marriage, their son Tad befriends the loveable 200-lb St. Bernard who belongs to their mechanic. But what they don’t realize is that a bat bite has transformed Cujo from a docile pup to a vicious killer.
Nostalgia – Directed by Mark Pellington, Nostalgia is a mosaic of stories about love and loss, exploring our relationship to the objects, artifacts, and memories that shape our lives.
I knew nothing about this movie when I hit play, sitting on the plane waiting for my flight to take off. I had no expectations other than to be entertained. I felt like the cast held up their end of the deal… they were beautifully tragic. Although it was an extremely talented cast (Hugo Armstrong, Shinelle Azoroh, Annalise Basso, Ellen Burstyn, Arye Gross, Jon Hamm, Catherine Keener, Lindsey Kraft, and so many others), but unfortunately, the story/script left little to be desired (for me). I’m still trying to figure out the film’s message, other than ‘what’s important to you is junk to everyone you leave behind when you die.’
I can recognize that there were some though-provoking concepts/topics brought up in the film, but it was to spliced and diced to make a coherent film.
Just my two cents. If you saw it, what did you think?
Blade Runner 2049 – A young blade runner’s discovery of a long-buried secret leads him to track down former blade runner Rick Deckard (played by Harrison Ford), who’s been missing for thirty years.
I can’t say I loved this one, but I definitely enjoyed it. It had the gritty feel of the original Blade Runner and Ryan Gosling was perfectly cast as ‘K’! With that said, the computer graphics really bothered me, pulling me out of the film and back to reality all to often. I was on the edge of my seat, waiting for Harrison Ford’s character, Rick Deckard, to make his appearance. When he did – the story blended the two films together perfectly. I was excited, devastated, angry, and a slew of other emotions as K learned the secrets the film has to offer.
The ending definitely leaves the door open for another sequel. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but that’s Hollywood for you… if it’s making money keep squeezing it!
TV Series: Life Sentence (Season 1)
Blurb:
TITLE: Cujo
Nina Soden 