Quick Movie Review

Girl on the Train (2016, USA) | Rating: 2.5/5
Originally, I was supposed to see this movie with Buonaventura who actually read the book, but our schedules didn't work out for us to do it and the movie left the theater. I know the book was highly praised by the masses and people claimed that this would be the next Gone Girl, which is one reason I wanted to watch it. The preview seemed like a predictable suspense mystery sort of thing, but according to Buonaventura, it was not...at least in the book. I don't know how the book compares to the movie and most likely I will never find out for myself like I did with Gone Girl. I feel like this movie could have been better, but the story just drags and drags and the characters simply aren't that interesting. I almost wonder if the book is the same way. Even though I thought the story was boring, I was still curious who committed the crime in the end.



The Beauty Inside (2015, South Korea) | Rating: 4/5
Lately, I've been absolutely terrible about watching Asian movies from my job as well as dramas, if you haven't noticed, which is quite a shame. There was one day I managed to get through three Asian titles in one day and all three have surprised me with its content. Normally love stories can be very generic and formulaic no matter the country (at least when it comes to American and Asian films), but this love story had a twist to it. The story follows Woo-jin who has a special condition. Everyday he wakes up in a different body varying from age, race, gender, and everything in between. This becomes a problem for him when he falls in love with a furniture dealer. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of the romantic genre unless it has some sort of tragedy, horror, or gender defying take on it. I guess you can say that the whole story revolves around love transcending age, race, and gender, which is quite beautiful and perhaps difficult. I loved watching Woo-jin and Hong Yi-soo trying to connect from beginning to end in their own ways. It's very entertaining and sometimes heartbreaking.



The Great Hypnotist (2014, China) | Rating: 3.5/5
This is one of the other subtitled/Asian movies that I watched along with Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?. The cover was rather mesmerizing, the story sounded interesting, and I hadn't seen a Chinese movie in quite some time. When the story began, I didn't know what to think. We're introduced to a hypnotherapist and a woman dealing with some inner turmoil. There's a lot of conversation that goes on between them and I couldn't quite hook myself into the story. In other words, the story starts off really slow and it depends on dialogue. I don't have a problem with slow developing stories, but it has to feel like there's progress. Fortunately, something did click with me and the movie and my attention was hooked to what's going in the patients head. There's a few twists and turns that occur that really made the movie worthwhile, despite my attention going in and out throughout this movie. I think things could've been done a little better, but I really love the dynamics between the characters, the visuals, especially during the hypnosis moments, are beautiful, and it has some cool moments that reminded me of Inception, which is a good thing.



Queen of Katwe (2016, USA) | Rating: 3.5/5
I don't think I heard too much about this movie, despite it starring the fabulous Lupita Nyong'o and talented David Oyelowo. The little praise I did hear and the cast made me interested in checking out this movie. Plus, I like chess and I try to watch these black centric movies. The movie is quite lengthy, but it is a biopic of an Ugandan female chess player and her personal journey and struggles. I enjoyed watching her relationship with Oyelowo's character, Robert Katende, as she learns the game of chess and beating out all the boys in this elaborate mind game. There's a lot of ups and downs that occur, but overall it gives an encouraging, heartwarming feeling in the end, especially when you watch the actors interact with their real life counterparts in the credits.



Loving (2016, USA) | Rating: 3.5/5
Thanks to commercials and a little bit of the Academy Awards, this movie slowly appeared on my radar, especially seeing/hearing that my favorite badass lady from Preacher was starring in this historical movie. The movie is about the real life Loving couple. That's their actual last name, which I think is pretty cool and appropriate. Anyway, the story is about Mildred and Richard Loving and their fight for legal interracial marriage in their state. The format of this movie is kinda different than most biographies I've seen. There's no backstory on how they met or chronicling their relationship to the point of marriage. No, this movie jumps right into the meat and potatoes of the problem with them getting married and the police persecuting them for their union. It was eye opening to see this couple struggle to hide their relationship, raise a family while being separated, and just exist in this harsh world with such a dumb law. Although it took some adjusting, I appreciated the change in format for this biography. It was definitely different, even though I kinda would've liked to know a little backstory on our couple, but it was nice that they focused on the law instead of their love, which was obvious and apparent throughout their struggle.