I’m back! I ended up skipping last month’s edition of “Movies Coming Soon” because procrastination got in the way. :S This is late too, but there are some really great movies coming out this month that I want to talk about, so I’m getting this out before it makes no more sense to publish it.
Movies I will watch:
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Dec 14)
I am not an enormous Star Wars fan, but I do enjoy the films. The rapturous reactions have gotten me really excited for the apparently twisty turns coming up! Where we left off in The Force Awakens, Rey has just found Luke, Finn was in a coma, and Kylo Ren either slinked off to nurse his wounds, or was stranded on a planet being destroyed by a volcanic eruption (can’t remember). I’m not super sure what happens in The Last Jedi except that Rey goes to find Luke to ask him to help the Resistance, and then she undergoes training by him, even though Luke is very reluctant to be bothered. Elsewhere in the galaxy, the Resistance continues. Anyway, I’ll find out soon myself (if I don’t manage to avoid spoilers first)!
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (Dec 21)
I’ve mentioned previously how much Jumanji meant to me as the great mystery of my childhood for the longest time, so Hollywood doing a remake/sequel feels a little sacrilegious. Nevertheless, if you look at the movie on its own and overlook the fact that it is a remake/sequel, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle looks like an action comedy, pure and simple. Any movie about a group of four high school stereotypes (the nerds, the jock, the bimbo popular girl) turned into the Rock, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart and Jack Black can’t possibly be anything but funny, whether it is connected to Jumanji or not, so I’m definitely watching it.
The Greatest Showman (Dec 28)
I like upbeat musicals. And The Greatest Showman is a musical about how P.T. Barnum came up with the travelling circus and brought together a whole bunch of society misfits to bring joy to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. I’m not sure that the history of the circus is this bright and positive — actually, I know for a fact it isn’t — but I don’t know if P.T. Barnum himself was ever involved in being a shitty circus owner. Until I read reputable articles proving otherwise, I will go watch this film and appreciate it in the spirit that it was made. Or I’ll still go watch it and be disappointed at how they revised history. Whatever it is, Hugh Jackman is at his most charismatic when singing and dancing (just look at him hosting the Oscars!), and I want to watch him do that. (Fun fact: He has a background in musical theatre and acted in musicals before going to Hollywood.) It’ll also be the first time we see Zac Efron singing and dancing since High School Musical.
Movies I will skip:
Paddington 2 (Dec 7)
Paddington is now settled in with the Brown family and is a beloved member of the community. He wants to buy a unique pop-up book for his Aunt Lucy’s 100th birthday, but it’s stolen and he has to unmask the thief.
I like Paddington Bear, but that doesn’t mean I’ll want to watch movies about him. It’s a little too family-friendly for my tastes right now. (Not that I want to watch a serial-killing Paddington Bear, or an R-rated Paddington movie. Look, I just have no interest, ok?)
Nevertheless, the film looks quaint, with very Wes Anderson film visuals and clear references to The Grand Budapest Hotel. Seeing Hugh Grant play a master of disguise is pretty comical too. When I arrive at the state of mind where I want to watch such family-friendly movies, I’m sure I’ll enjoy it very much.
Wonder (Dec 14)
Wonder is about a boy with facial deformities who is entering fifth grade and attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time. Because children can be mean and cruel when they aren’t taught better, he is bullied, but he also finds friends who love him despite his differences. Magical and heartwarming things happen.
I get the moral of the story, but for the same reasons I’m not watching Paddington, I won’t watch Wonder. Everyone else, go for it!
Ferdinand (Dec 21)
A gentle bull who loves smelling flowers and not fighting is taken away from his (human) family to be a fighting bull. He escapes with a bunch of newfound animal friends and undertakes a life-changing journey to go home.
Not my type of movie. Looks a little lame to me, but that’s cause I find the way they talk unfunny. American humour is hit-and-miss that way for me.
Pitch Perfect 3 (Dec 21)
I’ve never been into the Pitch Perfect series about a group of girls, led by Anna Kendrick, who join an acapella group. (It could have been about a group of guys joining an acapella group and I still wouldn’t have been keen.) In this third installment, the girls have entered the working world, but they miss their glory days of being close friends singing together and winning championships, and are back for a last hurrah to perform for the troops overseas. More singing competitions ensue.
Yeah, I’m really not into it.
Movies that look really good and that I would watch, if I didn’t have other things I would rather be doing instead:
A Taxi Driver (Dec 7)
It’s a Korean movie based on a true story about an uprising in the ’80s which the Korean government suppressed and prevented the press from reporting about it, and how a Korean taxi driver picks up a German journalist and brings him into the restricted zone where the government was oppressing its people. The journalist’s reports then woke the rest of the country and the world to the illegal actions of the government.
A bonus in the movie’s favour is the German journalist being played by Thomas Krestchmann, whom I’ve liked ever since I saw him in Peter Jackson’s King Kong and realised he looked a lot like Faramir in The Lord of the Rings movies. But it looks heartwrenching, and the kind of movie where not all of the main cast of characters make it out alive, which is partly why I’m hesitating. The other part of my hesitation is because I’m lazy; and between going home to read and sleep or staying out after work to watch a movie I’m in two minds about, I really would rather go home to read and sleep. So there it is.