movies that I enjoyed -- 2019

Colette - Haven't seen Keira Knightley since The Imitation Game (2014). This is one of those movies that small cinemas will generally show, which is a shame. The story revolves around the real life character of  Colette, a french author, and for the most part, based on this, led a very colorful life. Despite her husband screwing her over. The two main actors put in great performances.  Dominic West's character is rather pompous and self-indulgent. Locking her in her room until she produced pages. Very Good.

Green Book – This is a simple story that doesn't overcomplicate things. Both the main actors do justice to the characters they're playing. Viggo Mortensen puts in a good performance as Tony Lip. Either he's been letting himself go, or he purposely put on some weight. I'd say he put on weight just for this. As for Mahershala Ali, he's doing pretty good. New season of True Detective. Not bad if you can get it. Hope it stands up to the previous seasons. Very Good.

A Star Is Born - This will be short and sweet. Bradley Cooper needs to find some more projects to direct. Lady Gaga needs to do more acting. Lots to like here. Performances all round are great. And Sam (Wade Garrett) Elliott is in it. Thumbs up there. Excellent.

Bohemian Rhapsody - Let's get this out of the way first. Mike Myers? I think the writers got a little creative there. While the story only offers a small insight into Freddy Mercury's life, what stands out is Rami Malek's performance. If gold stars were being handed out, he'd be at the top of the list. Very Good!

Captain Marvel – 1995 – interesting. It's a little confusing to start, but settles down. And when Carol Danvers starts kicking butt, this is when the story kicks into full-throttle. Thanos might well find himself in trouble. Or there could be a new villain. Very Good.

Avengers: Endgame - Back to the Future and Alan Silvestri. What more could you want? The writing, the music, the characters. It all works. It's all on point. How everything is brought together in this is just awesome. Was there a post credits scene? Didn't make it to the end. Looking forward to what Marvel are going to bring to the table in the future. Most Excellent!

Godzilla: King of the Monsters - Trying to avoid anything about any movie or TV show these days is pretty difficult to do. Internet and all. Word of mouth. Media. SPOILERS may or may not occur. Five years. That's a long time to wait for a sequel. The first one had issues. Not enough Godzilla. Fight scenes taking place in the dark. Let's start with the good. Far more monsters. Godzilla's had what looks like a bit of a revamp. He appears faster, and he looks a little different. Spikes on his back look different. Actual Godzilla music. I have this music, so I recognized it straight away. More fight scenes. Let's head into the story choices. One of the main characters instigates what happens because of a loss in the family. Causing hundreds of thousands to die because of a death?!!! And she's working with the villain to a certain degree. And his reasoning behind his actions is never really gone into great depth. Humans are bad. Let's wipe them out. What? Let's talk about the fight scenes. Still difficult to see what the heck's going on. King Ghidorah's from space. Why not show him coming from space, like the originals? Not just talking and explaining. Despite all this. It has its moments. I do hope the third one isn't just going to be Godzilla vs King Kong which sounds ridiculous. Hopefully they'll team up because of a new threat. Good!

Toy Story 4 - Okay, this movie is one o f those that's definitely going to have its haters and lovers. I mean, how long's it been since Toy Story 3 came out? Quite a while ago. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, what's going on with all these sequels, Pixar? I get it, I really do, the bigwigs sitting at the desk, doing the numbers, and saying one word. PROFIT. I know, it's a business. But even so, where is the originality, the ceativity, the storytelling that you guys were (are) famous for? Where's it all gone? Dried up? Can't be bothered? Now that I've got that out of the way, this is good for the most part. It has its moments. It's nice seeing all the characters back together. And I do like the story, maybe, possibly even more than the third one. To a certain degree. Due to how this story plays out, certain characters are left out, mainly the original bunch, which is fine, to some extent, this is all about Woody, and the others get a backseat. Where's Buzz? Now, I do hope this is the last one. And that this brings closure to these characters. However, that shouldn't stop Pixar from doing more shorts. It's definitely worth watching. The animation is amazing, together with the music, and Duke Caboom should get his own show. Very Good!

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - No spoilers here. I didn't enjoy The Last Jedi. Couldn't wait for it to finish. It just felt wrong on a lot of levels. But opinions vary. So I was hesitant to watch this, but since JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio were in charge, thought I'd give it a spin. While some will argue that there are a lack of character arcs here, and not a lot of character growth, I think they did a pretty good job, considering what they had to follow on from. As someone who grew up with the original trilogy. That's the original trilogy without all the added nonsense. When are you guys going to release them unchanged on blu-ray? This was a fitting conclusion to the overall story. On a side note, I haven't watched The Mandalorian, but Disney should consider doing more live action TV series. There are a lot of novels, comics, videogames to pull from. Then you have all the characters in the movies. Stormtroopers. X-wing pilots. What about a series about an X-Wing squadron? What about a series about a tie-fighter pilot? What about a series that takes place on Tatooine? Very Good!