February 2018 In Movies

"The Shape of Water"
This quirky retread of The Creature from the Black Lagoon went on to be nominated, and won, Best Picture of the Year. The other movies were too dower. The film is about a comely woman employee at a lab who falls for a captured mutant sea monster. The art inspired one of the great shipping artists. It seems to pay homage to old films as well. It is a period piece set in the 1960s. The bad guy chews scenery, and his fingers, literally. The woman is mute. The woman's landlord is closeted. It is really Oscar bait for sure.

"The Post"
This odd prequel to All the President's Men is a Spielberg attempt to get yet another Oscar to go with his other ones. At times a pedantic slog, but the awards show likes that. Funniest mess up they did not notice, no way could the spy have used a modern photocopier to copy those 'Pentagon Papers', as all they had in 1971 or so was the blue ink 'mimeograph' copiers. The Xerox company would not exist until 1978. Also the trucks were the wrong color for the Post at the time. Despite that, the acting was solid, and it got some Oscars.

"Cloverfield Paradox"
This Netflix movie surprised by appearing the week of the Super Bowl, but it was mostly a pedestrian Alien 3/Life rip off, with some wrap around extra dull stuff about Cloverfield tossed in. It might have been better as just an Alien rip off, just like Cloverfield Lane would have been better as just 'The Cellar'. Yawn.

"The Greatest Showman"
This movie proves 'there is an Oscar movie born every minute' as Hugh Jackman plays PT Barnum, and the story adds a forced stage singer love interest, who was not really like that. Also newspapers didn't look like that in the period. Musical elements were fun though and the heart wrenching song about the disenchanted circus actress who longed to be someone special was nice.

"Marvel's Black Panther"
Coming off the 'implied risk' of DC making a Wonder Woman flick, already in production Marvel film Black Panther tackled the first black superhero movie, especially after WW made a ton of money on the other side. So basically it is not offensive to call it 'The Lion King' meets Hamlet, but odd that TLK is a Hamlet movie (and a wee bit of Othello). The Panther mus claim the kingdom after the death of his Father, but a cousin from the past comes to claim the throne for his own. It had everyone going "Wakanda forever!" in malls, and played for an amazing several months, actually butting up with 'Avengers Infinity War', its own sequel, in May! Fantasy place Wakanda seems a kind of super advanced Congo. No Oscar bait here, but a lot of fun.

"Annihilation"
A space rock crashes into New England beach area causing a bizarre fractal world to break into the universe, so a team of people are sent in, and don't come out, causing them to send in another. This bizarre little scifi horror movie is actually awesome, but disappeared quickly because of bad timing. It had the feel of big ideas, and discovery, and had mutations run amok as a theme. The idea of an alien 'invasion' where the creature just wants to 'exist' is interesting. Just so happens, his arrival is destroying the area. Worth a blu ray release buy.

See my reviews on WeirdKitty07 on YouTube.