Honestly, after last weekend’s marathon of movies from the Sundance Film Festival, I thought I might be too burnt out to watch anything this past weekend. I am a fool. Of course I was in the mood for movies!
The Rip – The fact that Ben Afflek and Matt Damon’s friendship has endured this long really makes my heart happy. Ben’s partners may come and go, but Matt will always be there. Anyway, through their production company, the two find themselves working together again on a tactical narcotics team as detectives. With the recent death of their captain, no overtime, and a late night call on a stash house with a smaller “rip,’ things naturally escalate when it turns out to big a really freaking big stash of cash in this house. Trying to keep things low-key raises everyones’ suspicions on each other, each one thinking they are trying to steal the money. Though I know stuff like this happens, it’s crazy to me how it can. Once the action ramps up in the final act, this movie really impressed me. I hope these two do projects together forever.
Death on the Nile – I haven’t seen this Agatha Christie adaptation since it was released in theaters back in 2022. It’s crazy how much of this star-studded cast is very problematic now. But, if you can overlook the personal lives of these stars, at it’s core, it’s a fun whodunnit whose main murderer maybe isn’t as much of a surprise as it could be. Still, it’s fun to see all of these different characters interact in such tight quarters, and I am never usually that successful at working through all of the red herrings, so I love these kinds of movies. It was fun to get my movie club’s perspective on it, as well. Overall, they felt there were some holes, but not enough to make the viewing experience an unenjoyable one. I really do hope Kenneth Branaugh wants to make more!
Send Help – With trying to squeeze in eight movies last weekend, it meant that I could not see this highly anticipated Sam Raimi horror-comedy. It was worth the wait! And the critcs have it right, too. My sister and brother-in-law saw it opening weekend and seemed uncomfortable when talking about it. That made me nervous it was going to be too scary, but I have no clue what their gripes were with it because I enjoyed it so much. As a big fan of both Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, seeing them work off of each other in many unhinged ways made this so fun to watch. Perhaps at the end there was maybe just one scene too many trying to tackle the same thing, but my wide smile and laughter says “who cares.” I don’t know that this will win any awards, but I hope people don’t forget about how fun this is.