The Bobbs Beat: Movies with Peter

--> Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 3 ½ stars The original Jurassic Park is one of my all time favorite movies of all time, and the ultimate summer movie. The OG park was a frightening, heartfelt, intellectual, thrill ride that took movie going experience to a whole new level. That movie remained popular in theatres for months, and was a global sensation. All that said, that type of Jurassic Park movie experience can never be replicated and I thought the first Jurassic World took a pretty good stab getting close to what made the OG JP great. It lacked the intellect and layered characters of the original, but captured the wonder and awe of a world with dinosaurs and added something new with a real working theme park. Even though I highly enjoyed Jurassic World, my expectations were pretty low for Fallen Kingdom. The trailers didn’t grab me and the whole plot point of militarizing dinosaurs, first introduced in Jurassic World, is pretty dumb. However, I was pleasant...

Solo: A Star Wars Story 2 1/2 stars It’s pretty hard for me not to be excited about a Star Wars movie, but this movie was very, very average. I didn’t have super high hopes for this film after hearing about the troubles on set, but the preview made it look like a fun Ocean’s 11-style heist movie with some familiar characters. The problem is there isn’t enough heisting and it’s not that fun. The heists seemed a bit bland, no overly complex plans or decoy switcheroos. They seemed too easy. And the action sequences were pretty forgettable. Even if you didn’t like the Last Jedi, it had spectacular action beats. The millennium falcon chase through the crystal salt mines in TLJ in particular stood out to me. But in this, the chase scenes are almost uneventful and straightforward. All the actors are fine, Donald Glover is stand out for me, but I didn’t find any of them particularly funny or engaging. Overall the movie is fine, but pretty disappointing for a STAR WAR. Hopefully Episode ...

Avengers: Infinity War 4 ½ stars The sheer scale of this movie is mind-blowing. The fact that they were able to take so many characters, from totally different stories and worlds, and were able to interweave them into a one film and hit all the necessary plot points and action sequences, is amazing. If you’re Marvel movie fan, this movie really pays off with great depictions of all your favorite characters. Dr. Strange, Spiderman and the guardians were standouts for me. It’s clear the Russo brothers really understand the different characters and how to best use them. My only criticism is that the film doesn’t have the same emotional resolve as Captain America: Civil War. And I think Thanos wasn’t as frightening or evil as previous films and the previews had portrayed him. I didn’t mind the performance but it was different than what I was expecting. A lot of how this film will be perceived depends on how Avengers 4 wraps up; but it leaves me with even more anticipation for the ...

  Ready Player One: 3 ½ stars I didn’t love the book but I thought the premise and world made for a fun, easy read. For the most part, I thought the movie did a pretty good job with the changes to the story it made. I enjoyed the addition of TJ Miller’s character Irok (best designed avatar by far) and most of the challenges were more exciting and cinematic friendly. The easter egg clues and narrative was a little more concise, even if it doesn’t totally make sense at times. And I thought the CGI avatars were going to annoy me, but I got used to them for the most part. If anything, a lot of the real world parts seemed unrealistic and less developed. The future metropolis of Columbus, Ohio seems to be a bunch of empty streets and alleyways. And there were some plotholes involving the “sting” operation the characters concoct. All in all, I thought the movie was on par with the book, an entertaining and fast-moving story, but nothing groundbreaking and it’s better if you don’t ...

Best Picture Oscar Nominees Ranked: I've ranked my Oscar Nominees for this year, I still haven't seen Room or Bridge of Spies but the rest are up here! I was pleasantly surprised that they all were worthwhile and didn't seem too oscar-baity. #1 Mad Max: Fury Road This movie is so unlike anything you would think of when you think of an Oscar-nominated film. Well, it does have Tom Hardy in it, but he's arguably not even the main character. Chances are you've probably heard already how amazing this movie is from someone who loved it, and they are right. It definitely has a TON of action but it all works together with the stylistic editing and thematic set pieces to bring you a coherent and enjoyable story. I like the dialogue (as limited as it is) and I would say it has pretty solid character development (Mainly between Max and Furiousa). Acting wise, I personally think Nicholas Hoult is the standout in the film and the false idol worshipping war pup. And Charliz...

So this year I didn't make it out to the theatre as much as I would have liked. The main reason for this is that I'm living in a Spanish-speaking country and almost all the movies at the one movie theatre are only in the dubbed format. While I'm at the point I can follow a movie in Spanish, it can be difficult to enjoy it. However, there were some exceptions, I saw Avengers and Paranorman at a theatre in Spanish and still throughly enjoyed them. I also saw them in English later on DVD and enjoyed them even more. Also I haven't been able to find a few movies on watchable quality DVD yet (notably Wreck-it-Ralph, Django Unchained and Skyfall) but of the plethora of movies I have seen this year, here is my top 5. The Avengers While far from being perfect, this movie is too much fun. Joss Whedon does a great job of balancing the characters and never loses their humanity. While there are some plot holes (Why did Loki want to get captured again) I was having too much fu...

I just watched Battle: Los Angeles, and even with low expectations I was disappointed. The movie was almost as bad as Battleship. Why can't Hollywood do aliens right anymore? How did we go from Independence Day to Battleship: Los Angeles (not a typo). The last few have been pretty terrible. Recent Alien Attack Movies: Best: District 9 So maybe District 9 doesn't actually count as an Alien "attack" movie, but it's definitely the best and most original and intelligent alien movie to come along in recent years. Transformers In general, movies probably shouldn't be based off of Hasbro toys, but the first Transformers movie pulls it of. The actual transforming effects were done amazingly on film. From the first scene when the chopper transforms into a badass decepticon, with all the parts moving around and weapons popping out, it's a visual feast. The plot and dialogue of the movie is silly, but likable underdog Shia Labeouf holds (Shia!...