Movie Club Volume 13
Hey,
Time to keep the good times rolling here at Corbin’s Corner and get into another installment of my Movie Club newsletter. I’ve been doing quite a bit of traveling, so I’ve had a lot of time to watch movies on those tiny airplane screens. These are all movies that I’ve seen recently and I wanted to provide my opinions on them. I also included a movie in this list that I’ve seen countless times, but I haven’t seen it in over a decade, so I feel like my perspective has changed on the film. It should be easy to decipher which movie I’m talking about. Hope you all enjoy it.
The Tutor - This is by far one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. There are a few plot twists that are there for the sake of being surprising, a few parts of the story go unexplained, and the movie ends on a bit of a cliffhanger that leaves the door open for a sequel. I hope that sequel is never made.
The Godfather Part II - This movie is two movies in one. One half of the movie is the story of Michael trying to get revenge after surviving an assassination attempt. The other half is about Michael’s father Vito immigrating to the United States and becoming mafioso Don Vito. Both could have been standalone movies and frankly, I would’ve enjoyed them much more as separate films. At times it was hard to follow what was Michael’s story and what was Vito’s story, and it felt like they were combined to delay the inevitable of Michael getting revenge against the people who wronged him. Something bad happens to Michael at the beginning of the movie, and the resolution comes three and a half hours later. I feel like I have to watch the third film to finish out the trilogy, but I’m not looking forward to it.
Fatale - Juxtaposed with The Godfather II, this is a great movie that keeps the plot simple, gets in and out without overstaying its welcome, and kept me surprisingly entertained throughout the movie. I had my reservations about how well Hilary Swank and Michael Ealy would do as the main actors together in this film, but I highly recommend this one. They knocked it out of the park.
The Silence of the Lambs - This was an amazing movie, and I’m kicking myself that I took this long to get to it. The pacing was perfect, the suspense made each scene and line of dialogue feel important, and the ending was the perfect combination of resolution and cliffhanger about what was going to happen in the sequel. This is a masterpiece.
Rudy - I used to watch this movie before every Notre Dame home game while I was in college. It became part of my gameday ritual while living in the dorms, but it was interesting going back and watching this movie almost two decades later. This movie felt triumphant while watching it as a teenage student at Notre Dame, but as an adult, it’s really sad and depressing. Everyone in Rudy’s life doubts his dreams and goals, he has to work twice as hard at both school and football to overcome his shortcomings, and during his journey, he loses both his best friend and his girlfriend. That struggle made the ending sequences very memorable, but for the majority of this two-hour film Rudy takes L after L after L. He ends up proving everyone wrong, but at such a personal cost I wonder if it was even worth it.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania - This was one of the best superhero movies I’ve seen in quite some time because superhero movies have been really bad for quite some time now. I enjoyed the ominous feeling of the movie until we met the film’s villain, and the banter didn’t feel too cringy or contrived. Jonathan Majors’ character was such a pivotal component and I think he did a great job in this movie, but I have no idea what comes next now that he probably won’t be involved going forward due to his legal issues. Lastly, they should rename the movie because The Wasp was such a minor character. I forgot she was even in it until doing this review.
Big Hero 6 - This was one of the best movies, animated or otherwise, I’ve ever seen. It has a great cast of voice actors, the visuals look amazing, and the story has quite an unexpected plot twist. I will be adding any movies or TV shows involving Baymax straight to the top of my list.
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse - I take back everything I said in the Ant-Man paragraph because this is one of the best superhero movies I’ve seen in quite some time. Spoiler alert - I’m usually not a fan of movies that end with “To Be Continued”, but this was so entertaining I didn’t mind it. The soundtrack is amazing, the movie is amazing, and I can’t wait to see what happens next. Also, between this movie and Big Hero 6, I really appreciate different styles of animation and I’m starting to grow tired of the Pixar blueprint.
Barbie - I enjoyed this movie, but it’s way darker than I expected for a Barbie movie. The writing and acting in this film are excellent. The casting is superb too, as I can’t imagine it without the performances of America Ferrera and Ryan Gosling. The movie ends in a way that leaves things up in the air for a sequel, and I think it’s open-ended enough that a future movie could take the plot in literally any direction. Job well done for everyone involved in this.