Countdown to the Oscars!

So, it’s been over a month since my last entry and between then and now I have seen A LOT of movies. Unfortunately, I haven’t watched any more best picture nominees since then… I tried to watch `Phantom Thread` but failed. I’m a little disappointed in PT Anderson. I really wanted to like that film but I just couldn’t get into it. I’m still hoping to watch `Call Me By Your Name`.

The Oscars are on Sunday and I couldn’t be more excited! It’s like the super bowl for film buffs like me. I usually fill out a ballot the day of and I will to post it in here too so we can see how many of my favorites won.

The 2 movies I was able to see in the theater recently were `Black Panther` and `Game Night`. I enjoyed both very much. Here are my thoughts:

Black Panther (RT 97%)

Cut to the chase: Takes place after `Captain America: Civil War` and focuses on Black Panther as he returns home to Wakanda to take his place as King only to face an enemy who challenges him for the throne.

Although I am a huge Marvel fan I actually never knew much about Black Panther until I saw `CA Civil War` but he has to be one of the most underrated superhero’s in the Marvel universe. The story reminded me of Lion King in a sense except the villain was way more complex than Scar and had a valid motive. In my opinion, he is the best MCU villain yet surpassing Loki.

To give a little bit of a summary, Black Panther(AKA T'Challa) comes home to take his place as the ruler of Wakanda- which is a technologically advanced nation in Africa. They have developed their technological advancements by using a substance called vibranium. The virbranium is so powerful that they disguise Wakunda to be a remote third world country to avoid suspicion and protect their secret. Another man named Erik finds out their secret and comes from the US (specifically Oakland, CA) to challenge him. He wants to take their vibranium and distribute it to people of African descent around the world so they could use it to conquer their oppressors. I don’t want to ruin anything but obviously Black Panther does not support the idea and so a conflict ensues. This movie stands alone so you don't really need to have seen all the Marvel movies to watch it.

When I went to the theaters to see this I actually had a weird experience. We saw it the weekend after Valentine’s Day so I’m not sure if it was just because the Florida shooting was so fresh at the time or if it was a racial thing but as I looked around the lobby and in the theater, it was swarming with cops. Along with it being 3 days after the Florida shooting it was also the opening weekend for Black Panther. In a highly populated white city I wouldn’t be surprised if they had the cops there because they were afraid the movie would cause violence just because it is a movie with mostly black actors. I really hope that is not the case but at the same time I didn’t see any cops when I went to see `Game Night` less than a week later. If anything, it made me nervous that something was going to happen. Throughout the whole movie, anytime anyone got up in the theater I was a little on edge and it wasn’t at all because of the movie, it was because of all the cops walking around the theater.

Also, the white guy 2 seats down had the most annoying laugh and was so loud to the point that I don’t think someone can laugh like that without trying. He also had some really “thought provoking” criticism to say about the movie to his black friend sitting next to me. Apparently despite all the chuckling he did he did not like the movie or the characters and one quote from him was “the editing was confusing” (?What?) Also, you could tell his friend next to me really enjoyed it and kept defending the movie only to be shot down by his friend every time. I felt like saying something… like “were you this disappointed in `The Avengers` or was that movie ok cause it had a sufficient amount of white people in it?” Maybe he was so confused because his biases couldn’t keep all the black characters straight in his head. Either way, I was so uncomfortable and felt really bad for his friend who clearly connected with and liked the movie. It was a great movie and this guy had no clue what he was talking about.

I really loved this film despite all the cops and the ignorant guy with the loud laugh and am SO stoked for Infinity War to come out in a month!! 

Game Night (RT 82%)

Cut to the chase: A comedy that is centered around a group of friends who have a game night that goes wrong, or does it?

I was really skeptical of this one when I first saw the trailer for it but it exceeded my expectations. Jason Bateman was hilarious, so was Rachel McAdams and they made a really funny couple. This movie is about a very competitive group of friends who host frequent game nights. When Jason Bateman’s successful and wealthy brother comes into town he offers to host a game night that they all will remember. It is set up in a murder mystery dinner party style and he lets them know that they won’t know what is real and what is fake. Then these guys bust in the door and kidnap him while the friends all watch assuming it is part of the game. No one truly knows what is real and what is fake until the very end. I felt like I was laughing throughout the whole thing, it was one of the best comedies I’ve seen in a while.  It made me really want to host a murder mystery dinner party, who is down to come?

We saw this one on Thursday night before it was released and the theater was pretty much empty. It was easy to select our seats since none were taken but when we showed up we noticed one of the only other guys in the theater decided to pick his seat right next to us. He looked hella weird and I don’t know why he couldn’t have picked a seat one down from us or in any of the other hundred seats available. Guess all the weirdos come out for the Thursday 10pm showings. We ended up picking different seats since the entire theater was empty so it wasn’t a big deal. It was just so weird that when he went to reserve his tickets he saw 2 seats that were taken and out of all the rest of the open seats he decided that he wanted the one right next to us, no buffer seat or anything. Nevertheless, if you have extra money and feel like going to see a lighthearted movie go out and see it! Otherwise you can wait for it to come out to DVD or streaming or whatever people refer to that as now.

That’s all I got for you for this entry! Hopefully I can see `Call Me By Your Name` in time for the Oscars. If I do I will review it in my next entry along with my Oscar ballot on Sunday. I am SO excited for the Oscars and am still rooting for Lady Bird as best picture all the way! Fingers crossed…