October 9th, 2017

Having seen Jake recently in Stronger, I am reminded here that he is a versatile actor.  Here is a boxer at the top of his game, but growing longer in the tooth.  He is taking worse beatings and his Wife (Rachel McAdams) is concerned.  He has an entourage and all the trimmings and uses the rage inside him to fuel his athlete ability.   Then disaster strikes and he loses everything, in every way that a man can lose it all.   The story then becomes one of redemption and fighting back from your demons and yourself.   This movie I cheered for, and I was air punching right along with the fighter himself.   It is well done, like a Rocky before it, and follows along the tried path with other boxing movies.  Worth a viewing if you choose to keep Netflix.

Ah Blade Runner 2049, the new Denis Villeneuve film that is a sequel to the original first from Ridley Scott back in 1982.   This movie takes the original premise and then builds on it.   The plot is thick and you need to pay attention, and that is harder than it seems with all the scenes on the screen.  Magnificent scenes of cities and garbage dumps and inside vast buildings with cool views and cold visuals.   The rain, the snow, the environment draws you in to this futuristic world.

Mr Villenueve again is creating a film I know that I will need to re-view and re-visit.  He layers the story, and takes his time in a film over 2.5 hours long.   Parts are slow and you wish would move faster.  Still you stay with it.  We were in an IMAX film filled with people at noon today.   No one was leaving, no one was talking.   There is an Oscar for production design here.  There is some startling CGI, and on the whole a movie that did not disappoint for me.  Girlfriend disagreed and did not like it, nor feel compelled to see it again.  She had seen the original Director’s Cut, but it does not grab her.  For me there are deep themes that stay with me, and I will think on for a few days ahead, and even more so when I can read and share with others (like Prometheus) when everyone has seen the film.  I won’t be giving away any spoilers.

So a thumbs up for me who is target audience for this film (one who saw the original years ago and really liked it) and who came in with some higher expectations — I am thankful for not reading about this one too much.  Still trailers can be a bad thing, as there are points in the movie when I was anxious to see the trailer shown part already (like Gosling and Ford meeting to talk) but which the film approached from a different angle.   So see this film, and make up your own mind — and then we can talk!  I give away nothing by telling about a trailer scene, which is fair game in my opinion, and has been in the public eye for months now.