Tag: mildly recommended

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Tarot

Tarot

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Don’t break the rules.  If you do, there will be consequences.  Horrific consequences.  This simple premise is often used by horror movies because it’s so easy to grasp.  Bad judgment is quickly rewarded with a gruesome outcome.  It also builds anticipation in the audience from the get-go.  Those horny kids who engage in premarital sex?  A maniac will kill them for their immoral behavior.  You played with a Ouija board?  Sorry, it wasn’t just a game and an actual demon has plans for you now.  You cheated death?  Death isn’t happy and will be working overtime to correct things.  You played truth or dare with a stranger?  Tough break because playing games with strangers is just wrong, wrong, wrong.

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Kung Fu Panda 4

Kung Fu Panda 4

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In Kung Fu Panda 4, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) tells Po (Jack Black) that he must relinquish the title of Dragon Warrior and find a replacement so that he can become the Spiritual Leader of the Valley.  (You may recall that in the first movie, Master Oogway held that position and passed away after choosing Po as the Dragon Warrior.)  While Shifu insists Po needs to accept his new role in order to continue growing, Po actively resists the change.  Like anyone who has spent a long time doing things himself, he is uncomfortable with being promoted to “management”.  He loves fighting injustice and hanging with the Furious Five and doesn’t want to give either of them up for a role that he doesn’t understand.  (To its credit, the movie does a decent job explaining just what a manager–or Spiritual Leader–actually does.)

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The Boys in the Boat

The Boys in the Boat

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The Boys in the Boat tells the story of the eight-man junior varsity rowing crew from the University of Washington who, against all odds, made it all the way to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.  As you may recall, this was the same Olympics where Jesse Owens won four gold medals and single-handedly dealt a crushing blow to the Nazi belief in Aryan supremacy.  I wasn’t aware that the American rowing crew also took home the gold at that same event, but since the movie establishes that it’s an inspirational sports movie from the outset, I was certain that they would triumph in the end.  The only questions remaining were who these boys are and how they would get to that point.

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The Marsh King's Daughter

The Marsh King’s Daughter

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There’s a key moment in The Marsh King’s Daughter, when Jacob (Ben Mendelssohn) hands his daughter Helena (Brooklynn Prince) a rifle and tells her to shoot a female wolf.  She takes aim but hesitates because a wolf cub is pawing at the ground.  Both wolves are starving, Jacob explains.  Helena lowers the rifle and asks, “What will become of the cub?”  Jacob says that the cub will starve and die, and tells her again to shoot the wolf.  Helena lowers the rifle once more, and the wolf edges closer.  Jacob grabs the rifle and shoots the wolf and its cub.  “You must always protect your family,” he tells her.  The next morning Helena scratches that message on a piece of wood that we later learn is a punishment pit.  Jacob has thrown her down there so that she will not make that mistake of choosing anything over the family ever again.  What Helena doesn’t know is that her “family” is built upon a monstrous lie, one that her father has spun to rationalize how he treats them.

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Skinamarink

Skinamarink

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Skinamarink does something that I found uncanny.  It reminded me of what it was like to wander around the house late at night as a child while my parents were asleep or otherwise preoccupied.  There’s the sound of bare feet on carpet, lights being flicked on, the muted rush of water from the toilet.  It also captures all the different sources of light that keep the fuzzy darkness at bay, from the blare of ceiling lights, a solitary night light shining in a hallway and shimmering television screens.  Within this nocturnal landscape, pajama-clad children play with toys in their rooms, in hallways or wherever the mood strikes.  The movie captures all of these moments brilliantly.

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Dumb Money

Dumb Money

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Is there anything more pernicious than a hedge fund?  I’m not a financial guru, but I wouldn’t be off base if I characterized the way these organizations make money for their investors as being destructive.  The news is littered with accounts of a hedge fund buying a company, loading it up with debt while siphoning off profits until the enterprise eventually implodes.  If this is the American dream, please wake me up.

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The Last Voyage of the Demeter

The Last Voyage of the Demeter

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If you’re familiar with the mythology of Dracula, you already know the fate of the Demeter and its doomed crew going into this movie.  The ship left Romania bound for England, encountered fierce storms and a strange man on board and the crew disappearing one by one.  When the Demeter reaches shore, the crew are nowhere to be found.  The ship’s undead cargo, Dracula, wisely disembarked for London long before he could be discovered amidst the shattered remains of the ship.

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny aspires to be a satisfying final chapter for Indiana Jones character.  You may remember that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull basically did the exact same thing back in 2008.  That entry introduced a son of Indiana Jones who presumably would take over the series for his father.  Unfortunately, even though that movie was financially successful, it was not well received by the fans.  Alas, the torch was not passed and fifteen years later Harrison Ford is back one last time to close the book on Indiana Jones for good.

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The Boogeyman

The Boogeyman

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As far as horror movie cold openings go, The Boogeyman has a brief yet effective one.  A toddler is crying in her crib while something that sounds like a wet bag of bones lets itself into her room.  A few seconds later, there’s a slashing sound, a spray of blood and the child is silent.  (The movie is rated PG-13, so nothing graphic is depicted throughout the movie.)  Who, or what, killed the child?  The answer to that question arrives soon enough, and to nobody’s surprise it is The Boogeyman.  

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