Five Movies I Recently Watched But Never Reviewed

Here it is, my shameful post where I combine multiple reviews into one because I’m so behind with writing reviews that the following movies aren’t even relevant anymore. Like, all of these movies here are pretty much forgotten, and that includes all those thoughts I had about them that I could have mentioned in my reviews. But now though, for the purpose of this post, with that very redundant title, I will try to remember at least a few things for their mini-reviews.

For those who don’t know, I rarely do these types of combined review posts. It’s just not my thing. I don’t like them, I don’t really like writing them and it just doesn’t really fit my vibe. I like reading these types of posts though, and I enjoy monthly movie recaps other bloggers do, but when I think about writing a 5in1 review post for my blog, I cringe inside. I know, I’m weird, I’ve accepted this a long time ago and the solution has been just to go with the weird. Anyway, you can now imagine how difficult this post is for me.  And since I need to get these few opinions I have in regards to these movies out before I go insane, I’m going to go against my own stubbornness and do a 5in1 review post.

PS: For some odd reason all the following movies have 4 cup ratings, which was not planned but turns out I’m crap at writing reviews for movies I’ve rated 4 cups to. You learn something new every day!

BRIDGET JONES’S BABY (2016)

After I missed out on seeing this one on the big screen, no particular reason behind that mistake, I saw it as the first movie of 2017 – and it was pretty darn good! There were Bridget Jones worthy awkward cringe moments, there were laughs, there was Colin Firth looking all dapper and cute, and the plot and the screenplay actually made quite a lot of sense. What I remember fondly about the film is the first act, which I think was the strongest part of the movie, especially when drunk Bridget was looking for her friend on the camping site and walked into Patrick Dempsey’s tent. Hilarious. Then the movie started to drag for me, not that it wasn’t funny, which it was, but looking back now, three months later, I hardly remember the second half.

The funniest moments from the movie that have stayed with me is the first half of the movie, then the birthing class scenes where Colin and Patrick were thought to be a gay couple (best!) and the infamous scene where both men were caring Bridget in the end of the movie. So yes, the movie has some classic moments that will be remembered, but I wouldn’t put it on the same pedestal as the first movie. Sorry, but nothing will ever come close to the first movie in terms of laughs. But a nice try though.

HACKSAW RIDGE (2016)

Part of me was very hesitant to go into a Mel Gibson movie with Andrew Garfield – like those two are not a combination I would think greatly of in my mind. But many praised it and I was curious to see how well the war sequences were shot. So I sat down, watched it, got passed the awkwardness of Garfield’s accent, and fell in love with Hacksaw Ridge during its second half.

For those who haven’t seen the movie yet, I recommend pushing through the opening. It’s not a bad opening for a war movie but it’s not as strong as its second half. It is important though because it introduces us our main character and since we get to know him so well, we are very aware of his decisions and bravery during the second half. Which is why I’m going to say that Gibson did a good job with Hacksaw Ridge in terms of character building but he did an amazing job with the war sequences.

One of my all time favourite war scenes, like for many others, is the opening of Saving Private Ryan – the beach scene is brutal, it is random, violent and simply put, horrific. Hacksaw Ridge managed to have the same kind of effect with its own sequence, bullets flying around, the chaos, the randomness. There was this one moment where a soldier’s helmet stopped a bullet, and he took the helmet off to look at it, and got shot in the head. It was beautiful in its ugliness. Plus, for what it’s worth, even though I’m not religious, this movie still appealed to me with its idealism – I know, I’m shocked as well.

HIDDEN FIGURES (2016)

Alright, here is another award worthy movie and one of two movies in this list that carry a strong significance in terms of racism. Part of the reason why I never reviewed this movie, and I remember this reason well, is the fact that while its message was strong and powerful, the movie didn’t give the kind of punch it needed to. It sort of fell flat, which is something that is hard to admit, but it didn’t have that wow-moment I could grab onto, that stand-out scene where you felt the change. It was all sort of muted.

The performances by all the actors were great though, I love all the leading ladies, Taraji P. Henson looked amazing, Octavia Spencer was great as always and Janelle Monae is simply put a gorgeous woman inside and out. Hidden Figures looked great, it introduced a great topic and it had very powerful themes throughout the movie, not just racism but also sexism, and for that, its importance, I praise it. I just wish that it had given me that one scene to carry with me as a reminder that it all made a difference.

THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN (2016)

My most anticipated teen comedy last year, since it was literally the only one to come out!?, was high in my to-watch-list and I’d like to say the wait was completely worth it. But I can’t really say I loved it from start to finish because there were moments where I thought it was all a little shaky and problematic. At the end of the day though, The Edge of Seventeen was one of those strong teen comedies that will remain in my favourites because there aren’t many of them out there anymore. We used to get two or three big teen comedies a year, there were even these horrible Disney ones that I watched for no apparent reason, but now it’s all either comic book movies, remakes/revivals/sequels or trash comedies. What do teenage girls watch nowadays? Netflix?

But the point is, The Edge of Seventeen visits the good old John Hughes times and it is sharp and witty. It’s only downside is the plot and the fact that it creates a stupid conflict to teach the main character a lesson. It’s no Mean Girls or Easy A type of lesson because the setting is all wrong and doesn’t feel natural, but there are things that feel authentic and cool. Woody Harrelson’s character is amazing, Hailee Steinfeld gives a good performance despite how her character is written, and Hayden Szeto’s Erwin steals the show with his charismatic performance. So it’s a win overall even though there are some things The Edge of Seventeen gets wrong.

MOONLIGHT (2016)

Long and hard I thought about writing a review of Moonlight. It was a good movie, it was the best movie to win the Best Picture Oscar… but it was not the strongest movie I saw from last year. And I know I will get yelled at by some, but I thought Arrival was better, and ultimately, I think Manchester By the Sea should have won the Best Picture. Go ahead, be mad at me but that’s how I feel at this moment, keeping in mind that I still have no interest in seeing La La Land and I’ve yet to watch High and Hell Water, Fences and Lion. Anyway, it’s not a discussion about the awards, which I think are pointless in the long run anyway, it’s about Moonlight and its significance to the movie industry and to the world.

The movie itself packed a lot of quiet thought, it was subtle and full of meaning. It was loud while it was quiet, and similar to Manchester by the Sea, it took me to an emotional place where I don’t want to go often. Being gay and being black must be the hardest deck of cards a man or a woman could be dealt. Yet being white and being straight is automatically a privilege, and the world shouldn’t be like that. To have a movie that showcases the difficulties, on such an emotional level, and to have such a movie win the biggest award, is amazing, and I’m so proud of everyone involved.

At the end of the day though, Moonlight faces the same problem I had with Hidden Figures, and while both movies throw a lot of punches, none of them quite hit the mark. The pain I felt didn’t go deep enough, it didn’t burn a hole in my soul but I wish it did. Plus, as someone pointed out (who it was I don’t remember but feel free to comment down below if it was you, so I could link your review!), Moonlight had multiple endings before it actually ended and it’s the best way to describe this movie. It constantly threw us into conclusions, while still continuing on with itself, and it was hard to get back into it after so many endings. Plus there’s the irony of the real ending being so abrupt that it didn’t feel like the end at all. It was like…

I bet you all have seen most of these movies so let me know what you think of them down in the comments. I love when you guys leave me comments, even though I suck at commenting myself.. I’m the worst.