Weekend movie review: Eddie the Eagle

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When it comes to watching movies, I have to be in a certain mood for certain genres. Say, if I'm in the mood for a documentary, a rom-com won't satisfy, no matter how satisfying it might be if I were in a rom-com mood. Many times my husband and I have let a Netflix DVD sit on the shelf for weeks because we're just not in the mood for drama or perhaps historical fiction despite wanting to see the movie at some point.

One genre I'm always up for, though, always in the mood to watch is the feel-good, root-for-the-underdog genre. Which I'm pretty sure isn't, technically, a movie genre. But it's one of my favorite sorts of films, especially if it's based on a real-life wanna-be winner and has a fair sprinkling of humor and sweetness flavoring the inspirational tale being told.

eddie the eagle

EDDIE THE EAGLE, starring Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman, with delightful secondary stars — including Christopher Walken in a brief but key part — is exactly that sort of film.

Egerton plays Michael "Eddie" Edwards, a quirky, committed, and seemingly fearless young British lad who was determined...

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Weekend movie review: The 33

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Most folks recall that in 2010, thirty-three miners were trapped for an excruciating — for themselves as well as their families — 69 days in a collapsed mine in Chile. Most folks recall the miraculous ending to the ordeal, too.

Knowing how the story plays out detracts not one bit from the drama of THE 33, the film based on the inspirational story.

the 33 movie poster 

Director Patricia Riggen did an impressive job bringing to life the miners' horrifying ordeal, based on a screenplay by Miko Alanne and Craig Borten. And the actors portraying the miners, their families, and the men who worked diligently to free the men from their potential grave 200 stories...

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Weekend movie review: Secret in Their Eyes

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The movie SECRET IN THEIR EYES is about a lot of things. It's about a team of investigators working diligently to nab terrorists following the September 11 tragedy. A team that ends up involved in and forever changed by investigating the heinous rape and murder of the daughter of one of their own.

Secret in Their Eyes DVD

It's also about unrequited romance. And choices. And loss and regrets and revenge and the...

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Weekend movie review: Disney's The Jungle Book

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I bristle a bit when I hear that a beloved film is being remade. So when I saw sometime back that THE JUNGLE BOOK, the fabulous Disney film that was one of the very first Disney films I shared with my oldest grandson (second only to MARY POPPINS), I worried. I worried Mowgli — whom my grandson adored — wouldn't be the same. That the adorable elephant walk scene my grandson and I reenacted again and again wouldn't be the same. That Baloo and his scratchin' while singing Bare Necessities wouldn't be the same.

 the jungle book 2016

And I was right. It's all very different in this new version of THE JUNGLE BOOK. Because it's live action. No colorfully drawn chimps or...

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Saturday movie review: A Royal Night Out

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When I watch films billed as "based on a true story," I figure the full film is pretty much, as noted, true. With a few dramatic or comedic liberties taken, of course. I assume it tells the complete story.

When I watch films marked as "based on actual events," though, I usually spend a fair amount of time considering which scenes might be true, which might not. Which are the actual events. Usually. Yet while enjoying A ROYAL NIGHT OUT — a movie supposedly based on actual events — I didn't. Because the rom-com drama was such fun, I simply didn't want to know in the midst of its magic what truly happened, what was screwball silliness or romantic dreaminess added for cinematic effect.

a royal night out movie

I certainly did wonder afterward, I assure you. Even did a wee bit of research before embarking on writing this review. (More on that later.) See, A ROYAL NIGHT OUT is "the untold story of Princesses...

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Saturday movie review: Man Up

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We're taught that one shouldn't judge a book by its cover. I learned last week that the same should be said for movie titles — don't judge the film by its title.

If I had given in to my initial reaction to this week's film, MAN UP, based on its title, I would have missed out on a sweet, silly-yet-smart romantic comedy. The only thing that saved me from scrolling on by MAN UP while searching through Netflix was Lake Bell, whose understated, self-deprecating sense of humor always makes me chuckle.

man up movie poster

In the screwball comedy with an ill-fitting title, Bell stars as 34-year-old Nancy, who's single and

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Saturday movie review: Mississippi Grind

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Road movies wherein a couple of characters hop in a car (or plane or train or other automobile) and go through life-changing experiences together can be a fun journey for movie lovers who join them for the ride. Road films of late, though, often have a distasteful potty humor bent to them, which — call me prude, if you must — I don't consider much fun.

Yet road movies need not resort to toilet talk and trickery if the characters on the road to self-discovery are well-written, multidimensional folks doing their best to keep their dirty laundry sealed up in the heavy baggage they lug about. And if those characters have a reasonable — not raunchy — sense of humor regarding the secrets they're keeping from themselves as well as their travel buddies, all the better.

mississippi grind movie

The characters in MISSISSIPPI GRIND are all that and more. The independent film stars Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn as...

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