Charlie’s Angels wasn’t that bad. I’ve never been a fan of the franchise but I personally liked this one the best.
Kristen Stewart was pretty darn good. Normally all I see is Bella Swan but not once during this did I see her that way. She really had a spark to her.
The plot was pretty predictable but the acting made up for it. There were some funny moments and little things passed around that gave you the essence of humor, not the slap stick in your face kind.
There were a few twists that I didn’t see coming and that pleased me. All in all, it was decent. I would probably list this as a curl up on the couch and watch kind of movie but I did see it in Dolby Surround and it sounded great. So if you’re really into how the movie sounds and feels, check out the Dolby version.
Grade: B-
About The Peetimes:Happy Friday folks, I’m working on the Peetimes right now, check back in about 30 minutes.
Creator and developer of the RunPee app. When something doesn’t work right in the app it’s pretty much his fault. 🙂
Aspiring author. Would like to finish his “Zombie Revelations” trilogy if he could break away for working on RunPee and the cottage he’s building for RunPee Mom.
JoJo Rabbit shocked me. I hadn’t heard a peep about it, knew nothing going into it…and walked out in love with what I had just seen.
This movie was a work of art. Hollywood produces some great flicks to amuse us, and some not so great ones, ones where people can just get paid. JoJo Rabbit told a story from a perspective that hasn’t been done to my knowledge and was masterfully produced.
Every single character in this movie had that certain spark that’s hard to come across anymore…no matter if they were good or bad or ugly. These actors did something amazing, each and everyone of them.
This is something I thought I’d never say: Hitler was my favorite. OMG, every moment of his screen time had me in stitches!! This spin on him was so perfect that I’m going to watch it again. I’m going back tonight just to enjoy it.
Grade: A+
About The Peetimes:So much happens in tiny bursts that Peetimes were incredibly hard to find. It was hard to duplicate them for you. I was able to give you a sense of what’s happening, but the body language in this movie was very poignant and said so much in itself.
Rated (PG-13) for mature thematic content, some disturbing images, violence, and language
Genres: Comedy, Drama, War
Read also Golden Man’s Movie Review of JoJo Rabbit, and check out the interesting comments going on! Did you realize there is an entire “Funny Hitler” movie genre, oddly enough? Remember, three of anything makes a collection:
RunPee.com owes RunPee Sis a huge debt of gratitude. She sees any movie needed with no complaints and has done so for ten years (even basing Thanksgiving and Christmas family festivities around the seeing films). In 2015 Sis ran the entire RunPee enterprise herself, while RunPee Dan, Jilly and Mom went traipsing off to Europe. Sis is the spider in the web holding the RunPee family together — besides being a funny, well rounded person, and a joyous pleasure to be around. Her favorite films start and end with horror (which thank goodness she’s happy to see, since most of us don’t have the stomach for it) — but also likes silly comedies, sad dramas, and musicals of all types. If you’ve used a Peetime for a scary film, you probably have RunPee Sis to thank for it.
Favorite movie genre: Horror, horror, and more horror. The more disturbing, the better. Period.
Please don’t read this review if you haven’t seen Terminator: Dark Fate yet. You’ve now been warned.
So, I did a story where I neatly ranked every Terminator film from 1984 through 2015, and they slot themselves perfectly by year. As in the first being the best, T2 coming close on its heels…and then each one a little (or a lot) less good than the one before.
Now I have a big decision to make. Where does T6: Dark Fate (“no dark fate but what we make”) fit in? And what about that short-lived but underappreciated two season TV show, The Sarah Connor Chronicles? Now I have to rethink the whole thing. Way to mess up my ranking order, Hollywood.
Talking Dark Fate
Man, the fans loved it. Whoo-ee! Me, I like some things they did and am pissed off about the rest.
LIKED: Grace the augmented human was wonderful. She stole the movie and our hearts. Too bad this was a re-tread of the plot in Terminator: Salvation. I’ll return to this thought.
ALSO LIKED: Carl the Drapery Terminator. What does an out of work T-800 do? T2 established they can’t self-terminate. So once he fulfills his mission, the cyborg creates a family and a business, and sends encrypted messages to former nemesis Sarah. Why does he bother? He must have felt bad about things and joined the human race. Like Spike in the Buffy series, he grew his own conscience. I’m fine with this — actually, more than fine….really happy, actually. I never expected this plot pivot and find it super charming.
So, yes, Mackenzie Davis as Grace was the main reason this film is so good. But having JUST watched the entire series for my ranking post, I’m annoyed that Grace, the augmented human-Terminator hybrid, is a retread of the Sam Worthington plot in T4: Salvation. T4 actually picks up quite well where T3: Rise of the Machines leaves off, with a pregnant Kate and the other remnants of humanity eeking out a post-Judgement Day life. I’m not sure why we had to have another go at an “augmented human” plot.
All I can think is Linda Hamilton wanted to return before her T-3 cannon “death” and the producers felt a soft reboot was the way to go…and — bonus — liked the idea they ran with in Salvation. So, a soft sort of re-telling had to happen to bring back Sarah. (And if you saw Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, you’d see another way to side-step this pesky issue, using time travel to just skip right over the…um…cancer.)
But, as I mentioned above, we are dealing with TIME TRAVEL in this franchise. There could have been many ways to bring Sarah back without ditching the storylines in T3 and 4. (Forget 5. That was entirely unnecessary). We could have also added Grace without ditching the 1-4 film cannon.
Although…I’m not certain at this point what’s considered cannon in this franchise anymore, or if we are to accept three or more timelines.
(REALLY, STOP READING NOW IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN TERMINATOR: DARK FATE.)
Hasta La Vista, John Connor?
So, there’s my main beef. John Connor. Remember him? Well, forget about everything that mattered since 1991, because he’s unceremoniously offed in the first few minutes of Dark Fate.
That’s right. John’s gone. Out of nowhere, on a lovely beach. Poof.
What was the point of making me care about everything that came before? (Yes — I’m angry.)
I guess it’s better than where they took John Connor in 2015s T: Genisys, which insulted everything ever done before and pissed all over the fanbase…seriously, who though that was a fine idea? Does anyone even remember what happened in Genisys, even just a scant few years ago? Do you?
More Pissy Thoughts
Lastly, I was rather bored by the new, spiffy Terminator in this outing, which was a real shame, in spite of Gabriel Luna’s earnest attempts to make it work. He just wasn’t as amusing as Robert Patrick’s T-1000. The Rev-9 was…made of tar? And had a skeletal drone? Was that really the best the writers could come up with over the last decade of thinking about this?
This just should have been better and more up to date, like something using nanotechnology. Or a pure internet-based intelligence that hunts and kills using our world-spanning interconnected cyber systems, tracking you like the “God’s Eye” in the Fast & Furious franchise. (If the F&F movies could come up with something more exciting, you know there’s trouble.)
Think about it. The liquid metal special effects looked better in 1991 than the the tar special effects in 2019.
Moving on.
Dark Fate: Girl Power Version
So, some gal in Mexico steps up as the new savior. Okay. Fine already. She’s not a womb; she’s the real deal. At least the real deal-to-be.
Except Dani’s kind of boring. I can’t remember a single significant moment she had. Do you?
Come with her if you want to live.
Sarah Connor…is back
And the long awaited return of Sarah? Of Linda Hamilton reprising the iconic role?
Well, for one thing, she needs to lay off the cigarettes, since her vocal cords are shot. And she’s really, REALLY bitter. Not that I wouldn’t be too, after running away from several Terminators, losing her lover, losing her son, getting locked down in a facility for the criminally insane, and being wanted — apparently — in all 50 states.
Hamilton does a great job in the role, fitting easily back into her Sarah Connor persona, but it kind of hurt to see how awful life treated her character, and how little she had left to live for. She is brittle, and so, so damaged. It’s got to suck when an ex-Terminator who killed your son has a nice home, a good job and loving family, and you’re alone and on the run…with nothing but hardship and a lifetime of regrets. While the Terminator franchise depicts an apocalyptic near-future and isn’t intended to be a happy story, it’s just not fun to see characters you care about living in such pain for so long. No wonder Sarah drinks herself to sleep every night.
At least she was up to date enough on her film history to realize the first “death” of the Rev-9 was bogus. That made me smile. Linda Hamilton wasn’t married to James Cameron for nothing.
I’m going to go back to the John thing. I understand it’s cool to see a woman herself being the hope of humanity vs a just another Mother Mary, but there really was no need to off poor John. It actually makes me angry that I cared about the series at all. It retroactively makes the first two wonderful Terminator movies pointless.
So, I had to see Dark Fate again
I saw Dark Fate twice to see if I’m just being too picky about all this. Well…the answer is no. I’m not. Right now I feel betrayed, like I did with Aliens 3, when they unceremoniously killed off Newt and Hicks. That STILL bothers me, and I can’t really appreciate this new Terminator entry until I come to terms with what they’ve done.
I’ll say this: Dark Fate is probably the third best Terminator film, but not as good as the Terminator TV series. Damning with faint praise?
It seems like it, but honestly, in spite of my annoyance, Dark Fate really is a good movie. I’d say it’s the 3rd best effort, and the TV show is the 4th.
Human or not, she kicked some serious machine butt.
Judgement Day: Now What?
One final thing. It does seem the Terminator franchise posits that we’re going to have an AI apocalypse, in any possible timeline, no matter how we try to prevent it. Skynet, Cyberdyne, Legion, Google, whatever. As Thanos would say: Judgement Day is… inevitable.
Co-Creator of RunPee, Chief of Operations, Content Director, and Managing Editor. RunPee Jilly likes galaxy-spanning sci fi, superhero sagas, fantasy films, YA dystopians, action thrillers, chick flicks, and zany comedies, in that order…and possesses an inspiringly small bladder. In fact, that little bladder sparked the creation of RunPee. (Good thing she’s learned to hold it.)
Mirren and McKellen are the Crown Jewels of British drama. Seeing them together is a treat which I can’t believe has been so long coming. Then there is Russell Tovey, who has got hours of TV screen time racked up on this side of the pond and should be in a lot more films as well.
The story itself rattles along at a fine old pace and the flashback scenes show there is a lot more going on behind how the characters are behaving and what they are saying. As Betty (Mirren) says at the end, “it’s deeper than it looks,” especially if all you’ve seen are the trailers!
Grade: B+
About The Peetimes:This genre of movie thrives on leading the viewer astray, and it is easy to lose track if you’re not paying attention. However, I think I’ve got some Peetimes that can be easily summed up or don’t really drive the story along.
Former teacher, lecturer, homelessness administrator, pharmacy dispenser now happily retired, happily married, and a very happy granddad. I live next to the Mersey but on the side Daniel Craig and Taron Egerton come from rather than the side the Beatles came from!
Disney has finally given in to the demands of countless children, and made a sequel to their hit film Frozen. I already have my tickets and will be seeing it opening weekend with my girlfriend, the world’s biggest Olaf fan. (No, seriously. I can’t sleep at night anymore because of all the stuffed snowmen staring at me.) In-between the two films, Anna, Elsa, and Olaf have had a few adventures you may not know about. So in case you’re a completist like me, here’s some Frozen adventures you may have missed.
Frozen Fever
This seven minute short debuted in theaters in front of Disney’s live-action Cinderella in 2015. Elsa tries to give Anna a surprise birthday party. However, Elsa has caught a cold, and with every sneeze she produces a bunch of “Snowgies” — adorable snowball-like creatures — who begin dismantling the decorations. The cartoon features a catchy new song: “Making Today a Perfect Day.”
Frozen Fever can be found here:
Available for purchase on most major streaming sites like Amazon and iTunes.
Available as an extra on the Cinderella Blu-ray and DVD.
Available as part of the Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection on DVD/Blu-ray combo pack or streaming. (There’s also a funny Tangled short in that collection.)
Lego Frozen Northern Lights
Frozen gets the Lego treatment in this four-episode TV miniseries. Elsa and Anna journey to find the Northern Lights, which are invisible from their home of Arendelle.
This appears to be available for free on YouTube, with each of the four episodes running about 6 minutes.
Olaf’s Frozen Adventure
This twenty-one minute cartoon debuted in theaters in front of Pixar’s Coco.
Unfortunately, many audience members didn’t come prepared to see Olaf, and didn’t like waiting nearly half an hour for their Coco feature to start.
The cartoon was eventually moved to play after the feature, and then removed completely and made available on streaming sites.
During the first Christmas since the gates reopened, Olaf tries to help Elsa and Anna start some new holiday traditions, by finding out how the residents of Arendelle celebrate.
This is available on Blu-ray, DVD, or from major streaming sites like Amazon and iTunes. It comes with six classic Disney winter/holiday-themed shorts.
Don’t hold it in. Let it go. With the RunPee app, you don’t have to wait for the credits to go to the bathroom. We’ll tell you the best times to go so you won’t miss the best parts of the movie. And we always have Peetimes for the latest movies like Playing With Fire, Arctic Dogs, and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. You can also keep up with the latest movie news and reviews by following us on Twitter @RunPee and liking us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/RunPee/).
I give high marks to this movie for the recognition it gives to the first responders out there risking their lives for us. And to show our younger generation that not all heroes wear spandex.
Playing with Fire itself is a decent movie. I think the target audience is the kiddies between six and twelve who’ll enjoy the bathroom humor, watching things get set on fire, and things crashing.
Parents will have a few laugh out loud moments, especially when John Leguizamo is reciting quotes from history. I especially liked Keegan Michael Key’s character, who showed a surprising range of emotions.
I did have one, ‘what were they thinking?’ moment when John Cena’s character was out in the woods taking a dump, while holding a three-year-old little girl in front of him. Really! Granted, he did have pine fronds covering his parts — but why would anyone think this was funny, and better yet — why was it even needed? I could almost feel the uncomfortableness coming from the adults in the audience. No one was laughing. Poor little Zoey; it seems she was only included in the cast for the bathroom humor.
Despite that one scene, I’m giving Playing with Fire a solid B.
Grade: B
About The Peetimes:This was an easy film for Peetimes, even though there’s plenty of action. I included a 3rd Peetime as an Emergency, since it comes so near the end of the movie, but it will save you from long bathroom lines after the film.
RunPee Mom is our emotional bedrock. Without her, RunPee never would have lasted a decade as an app (which is since the dawn of time in internet years). She’s our biggest cheerleader and an unending source of unconditional love. She works cheerfully and tirelessly, seeing any movie we ask of her, writing interesting reviews, and being our…well…MOM. Her genres of choice: kiddie flicks, animated movies, emotional dramas, historical features, war films, diverse biographies, and even dense, diabolically plotted thrillers. She knows more about famous and infamous figures in history than said figures probably knew about themselves. She’s the Quiz Manager for the RunPee.com blog, and our resident movie celebrity/trivia expert. If you’ve taken a RunPee Quiz, you’ve most likely been given a virtual hug by RunPee Mom.
Although I’m a fan of director Taika Waititi, the first trailer for Jojo Rabbit didn’t inspire much confidence. The scene of an imaginary Hitler comforting a ten-year-old boy fell pretty flat. Waititi isn’t the first person to mine World War II for laughs. Charlie Chaplin, Mel Brooks, and the TV show Hogan’s Heroes have made light of Hitler and the Nazis. Does Waititi find new ground to cover? Oh yes. And thankfully, there’s more to the film than hinted at in the trailer.
Roman Griffin Davis plays Jojo, a German Bart Simpson, whose imaginary friend is Adolph Hitler. Jojo is full of patriotism and fanaticism. Like most young boys, he does not want to admit he has anything as tender as a heart, but his innocence betrays him.
Waititi himself plays Hitler, and portrays him as absurd, funny…and scary. He brings the same comedic sensibility to this role as he does to Korg in the MCU films.
The imaginary friend aspect leads to some great moments of physical comedy, such as what Jojo imagines Hitler eats or how he has Hitler exit a scene. Hitler does not become a sympathetic figure like I was concerned he might. Instead, he remains mostly a figure of ridicule….taken seriously by Jojo, much less so by the audience. By his final scene, Jojo has seen the monstrous side of Hitler more than once.
Sam Rockwell plays the worst soldier/Nazi in the world. The fact that he is put in charge of a camp full of children is both hilarious and terrifying. At this point, we are going to have to deal with the fact that Rockwell is going to be a contender for Best Supporting Actor nearly every year for the foreseeable future. If he got a nomination for playing W in Vice last year, he’s got a shot at Oscar gold again for playing yet another bad boy misfit. (One who has a memorable and redemptive final scene.)
Scarlett Johansson is also probably in the Oscar race for Best Actress (or Best Supporting Actress, depending on Oscar politics) for her role as Jojo’s mother. Her zest for life recalls characters like Maude from Harold and Maude or Anthony Quinn’s Zorba.
Thomasin McKenzie, who was so good in last year’s Leave No Trace, plays a Jew Jojo’s mother is sheltering. McKenzie continues to do stunning work as a young actress.
Archie Yates plays Jojo’s buddy Yorki. Yates is effortlessly funny and a total scene stealer. I hope to see more of him in the future.
Although it’s rare for younger male actors to be nominated, Davis could receive a Best Actor nomination for his role as Jojo. His face is so expressive. He carries a lot of the film. He plays a complex character. And he captures the essence of childhood without being cutesy, cloying, or manipulative.
Jojo Rabbit exists in its own universe, combining the madcap comedy of a Mel Brooks film with something more emotional and dramatic. It’s rare for a comedic film to make it to the Oscars, however, this one will probably get a Best Picture nomination. It has already won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Since 2011, every People’s Choice Award winner has gotten a Best Picture nom. This one certainly deserves consideration.
Grade: A-
Fortunately, JoJo Rabbit just went into wide release so we now have Peetimes for it on the RunPee App. We also have Peetimes for all the major releases like Doctor Sleep, Midway, Last Christmas, and over a thousand more films. Never miss the best parts of a movie when you use the RunPee app. You can also keep up with the latest movie news and reviews by following us on Twitter @RunPee and liking us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/RunPee/).
Sorry to say: this movie doesn’t live up to the true events it attempts to depict. Unless you feel you must see the battle events on the big screen, this movie is better suited to DVD/streaming…in 2 or 3 months when it’s available.
To be sure, there’s plenty of explosions, bombs dropping, explosions, aerial dog fights, explosions, plane crashes, explosions,… 😉 That aspect of the movie doesn’t fail, except that it honestly gets a little redundant. (I wonder how many minutes of the movie were focused on closeups of Dick Best as he dive bombed — too many for sure.)
Where the movie falls short of it’s target, is in character development. And I mean all of it. There wasn’t a single character that had any sort of depth.
Historically, I know the US Navy winning the Battle of Midway wasn’t just one miracle, it was several miracles. In the movie they tell us that, but we never really feel it. The story just doesn’t connect the dots in the way it should have. I’m not saying this is easy, but with a budget like this movie had there’s no excuse for not having a better script.
Grade: D+
About The Peetimes:I managed to find 4 good Peetimes and would recommend the 3rd one. There are no battle scenes in any of the Peetimes.
Creator and developer of the RunPee app. When something doesn’t work right in the app it’s pretty much his fault. 🙂
Aspiring author. Would like to finish his “Zombie Revelations” trilogy if he could break away for working on RunPee and the cottage he’s building for RunPee Mom.
This movie caters to a particular audience because it’s almost a textbook for its genre — rom-com. If you enjoy this genre, this movie will press all your buttons.
By “textbook,” I don’t mean this is a dull movie. On the contrary, it’s packed with sarcastic British humor. You will laugh at least once.
I don’t want to say the plot is not important to this genre in general, but let’s face it; it’s just not. The story pretty much follows the same structure from a grand scheme for rom-com. I mean, the name is self-explanatory — it’s a love story that will make you laugh along the way.
The nickname of this genre should be “painkiller”. It’s supposed to make you feel better afterward, and that’s exactly what this movie does. You will walk out of the theater feeling healed and brain-washed by George Micheal’s “Last Christmas”.
Oh yes, and the actors and actresses did a good job; the directing was adequate, the pacing was about right, and… “the lighting was crap”. You will get it. 🙂
This was a nice way to spend an hour and (nearly) three quarters. Lots of lovely visuals, chemistry between the cast, and a few thrills thrown in for good measure.
I’m not sure how much of the visuals are CGI, but a good proportion of them are. Nothing in London is taller than the Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster. (Big Ben for you non-pedants!) The air is quite clear, and there wasn’t one aeroplane, so there couldn’t be much live footage. Also the actual ballooning was done in the Midlands so they wouldn’t accidentally splash down in the Thames. Still, it was all very pretty and nicely done.
The cast seemed to work well together, but then Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne proved they can work together on The Theory Of Everything.
One slight niggle is that Himesh Patel seems to have a lot of presence in the publicity but his actual screen time is quite low, perchance a case of cashing in on the success of Yesterday?
The thrills come from the fact that it is a (partly true) story of the early days of aviation meteorology, when they didn’t know how atmospheric pressure, temperature, and content varied when you went so far up, but I’ll say no more on that subject.
It deserves to be seen at least once on the big screen to appreciate the visuals, but it will have a longer life as a passably pleasing way of passing a wet Sunday afternoon.
Grade: B
About The Peetimes:This movie has some stunning scenery, and a lot of it. I did my best to avoid the pretty bits in the Peetimes.
Former teacher, lecturer, homelessness administrator, pharmacy dispenser now happily retired, happily married, and a very happy granddad. I live next to the Mersey but on the side Daniel Craig and Taron Egerton come from rather than the side the Beatles came from!
Charlie’s Angels wasn’t that bad. I’ve never been a fan of the franchise but I personally liked this one the best.
