Weekend Movie Review

Well, in a strange twist of fate I watched nothing at the theaters this weekend! A travesty! Instead, I watched four pretty dang good movies off of some different streaming platforms!

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Book Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

It’s felt like it’s been a while since I wrote a book review, but I promise I’m reading! In fact, I’ve just finished the young adult novel, We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. It reminded me a bit of Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver, but you’ll have to read to find out why I think that. In the meantime, here’s my high level review of the novel.

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One of Us is Lying – Series Review

Having just read Karen McManus’ book last year, this series adaptation of One of Us is Lying came as a bit of a surprise! Really, I only knew about it roughly a month beforehand and that was only because my issue of Entertainment Weekly told me about it! But anyways, I was really interested to see how this story adapted to the screen, and luckily, it didn’t disappoint.

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Book Review: Midnight Sun by Trish Cook

Well, this might be a first. I was under the impression that the 2018 movie, Midnight Sun, was based off of a book given the fact that I’ve seen this book around since I saw the movie. Sometimes that happens where I don’t realize a film or show is based off of a book until after the fact. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be picking up a book that is based off of a film?! Also, please let me know if I’m wrong, but from what I can tell, the film version of this story is actually based off of a 2006 Japanese film called A Song to the Sun. Crazy!

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Book Review: Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

It’s been quite some time since I’ve sat down and read a John Green novel, but my curiosity finally won out and I borrowed Turtles All the Way Down from my aunt. When I first read a blurb about this book, it sounded intriguing but not necessarily something I was interested in reading at the time. I truthfully can’t tell you what’s changed in the four-ish years to suddenly make me want to read this, but I did, and I’m glad for it.

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Weekend Movies in Review

Not an over-achieving weekend in movie viewing, but it was no less enjoyable. Some new and some old titles to get me through, but I’ve got the next week off so expect another review before next week!

Blindspotting – Now, I know this 2018 film just got adapted into a show, but I don’t know that I ever plan on watching it. With that being said, I was interested in seeing this film because of the friendship and working relationship between stars, Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal. I’ve seen them both in separate projects and different roles, but it appears these two are a big part of each others lives. I also learned that this film was sort of a love letter to their hometown of Oakland, California while also paying special attention to the gentrification of the area. In this fictional story, Collin is struggling through his last three days of probation when he witnesses a police officer gun down a fleeing black man. From there, his friendship with Miles is put to the test. I wasn’t quite sure how to take this film. There were a good deal of funny moments, but the serious ones were very serious. It was strange to flip-flop my mindset almost without warning. It was an interesting experience, but not a story I’d like to explore further with the show.

The Kissing Booth 3 – Good lord! This teenage trilogy is over! For something that started off so good, it’s sort of crazy to see how bad the last two installments were. While not quite as long as its predecessor, it was still painfully long. And the three main characters are some of the most frustrating characters I’ve ever seen on screen! They are bougie, selfish, and completely unaware of how much life they still have to live. I think you could safely make some correct assumptions about how Elle’s journey is going to turn out, but the film does succeed in making you really guess for it along the way. Her level of procrastination gave me some anxiety, and she shed more tears than I probably have in the last decade (I have a soul, I promise). Her best friend Lee was equally as irritating and supremely immature. And on top of that, Lee’s brother and Elle’s boyfriend, Noah is an extreme hypocrite that can’t seem to figure out anything on his own. This movie will make you want to scream into a pillow, but just get some solace knowing it’s the last one. I know I will.

Free Guy – I feel like this film has been advertised non-stop since it was supposed to hit theaters last year, some I’m somewhat relieved that it finally came out! I’m even more relieved that the trailers didn’t spoil this fun adventure! In fact, I was really nervous about that, but they managed to keep the action constant, the characters interesting, and the dialogue funny. I mean, I didn’t really catch myself laughing out loud a lot, but I know I had a doofy grin on my face most of the time. Ryan Reynolds plays a background character in a video game, living the same mundane story day in and day out until one day, he doesn’t. That’s a pretty fun time, but there’s also some pretty high stakes from our real life “players,” which keeps this film from being ridiculous. They also managed to get some really fun and hilarious cameos in there. While I really liked this film, I think video game lovers would like this even more! I’d say Free Guy was worth the wait!

On the Road – Since I’ve got some premium Amazon Prime channels for a little while longer, I decided to catch this drama I’d only learned about a few months ago. Seeing Garrett Hedlund in Mosaic really intrigued me to see what else he had on his resume, and the cast of this film really stood out. With that being said, it’s not the most spectacular drama I’ve ever seen. Sal is our narrator who meets car thief and carefree character Dean. Dean’s got lots of lovers and lives life by the seat of his pants in the 1940s, while he inspires Sal’s writings. I should have known that this film wouldn’t totally click with me based off of the time period, but like I said, the cast was enough to get me to watch. Perhaps some were underutilized, but all in all, it was also just a clunky story. At least it wasn’t filled with flashbacks. I think that could have made it unbearably confusing when it was already confusing enough. This movie is not for everyone, but a solid drama is nice every once in a while.