I saw a number of popcorn fare on my flights to and from San Diego, the selection wasn't great:
1. Tag
The idea of this movie is funnier than the film itself.
An oddball group of stereotypes (corporate guy, stoner, straight-laced guy, token black friend, competitive outsider) who were childhood buddies maintain their relationship through an elaborate game of tag that is played annually during the month of May.
The one guy who is never tagged essentially rips off the action sequences from the Sherlock Holmes series directed by Guy Ritchie where he freezes time and analyzes the situation before supernaturally escaping any potential entrapment.
The cast tries its best to keep things light but the premise is so flimsy that they really don't have a lot to work with. It valiantly tries to hold my attention until about 2/3 of the way through when the whole thing falls apart and tries to be maudlin, preachy and sentimental for no particular reason IMO.
Seeing as they have so little to go on, they also introduce a childhood love triangle that never seems particularly interesting nor convincing and is resolved in convenient fashion with no hard feelings.
The credits are kind of funny because they show footage of the actual people that inspired the film.
2. Deadpool 2
This was a re-watch, but I was surprised how much I enjoyed it.
It's very difficult to follow-up an origin superhero movie but it managed to do so and be very funny doing it. Cable's straight man actually works really well alongside Ryan Reynolds. It's quite remarkable how Brolin manages to play both Cable and Thanos without them seeing identical - though Deadpool does call him Thanos on at least one occasion.
There are a lot of little details that are easy to miss which to me emphasizes the care that went into making the film. It's also pretty uproarious how much Deadpool makes fun of the X-Men series on an ongoing basis, and I appreciate the odd Canadian reference.
Yes, some jokes from the first film are repeated for fan service, but there was enough that was different for me to enjoy it. They do a good job of patiently setting up jokes for later on and the whole X Force team sequence was well-executed.
The plot and character development are tangential for this film, and there's enough fourth-wall admitting of this fact that they can get away with it.
If you don't like sarcasm or Ryan Reynolds or low-brow humour, this movie is not for you.
As it stands, I've enjoyed so few comedies released within the last little while that this one stands out.
3. Ready Player One
I also enjoyed this film better the second time around. Probably because it is a bit of a chaotic muddle at times on screen, with all of the CGI frying your corneas as you desperately try to keep track of the wealth of pop culture references. You end up missing out on some of the simple joy of the film.
It's a Spielberg movie for sure, but it's reminiscent of what he did in the 1980s, where unpopular kids would overcome impossible odds and obstacles in a manner that would probably terrify you as responsible adults if you ever stop to think about it (e.g. E.T., Gremlins, Goonies, Back to the Future).
Thus, it's committing that horrible crime of inducing nostalgia, but I maintain that there's a lack of pure childhood escapism from time to time in our modern films, sacrificed in the name of realism and dramatic impact. I think the main reason why Stranger Things was so popular is that it also appealed on this level.
The protagonists were likable enough, and Mark Rylance did such a great job as the nerd creator of the artificial world. It's actually a surprisingly challenging character to pull off IMO, because of the character's lack of social graces and Asperger spectrum qualities. Sure, the villains were almost comically one-dimensionally inept and evil, but that is consistent with the genre.
If you don't care about the 1980s or nerd culture in any way, you likely will not like this film as much, as it really does beat you over the head with the pop culture references.
A more astute film critic would rightly say that this is essentially cheating, as you're relying on other people's work to create an emotional bond with the audience (which is my beef with excessive sampling of popular riffs in modern music). But I'll hypocritically allow it in my case, because it worked.
Ultimately it's very faithful to the book in this manner, even if the references are dramatically altered (e.g. Rush limited to a single poster, no references to D&D modules in the film).
Spielberg was apparently careful to remove most of the references to his own work that took place in the book, so as to avoid seeming self-serving, which is admirable to some degree. In a way, Spielberg's dramatic successes probably interfered with some people's enjoyment and analysis of the film, because it would be measured in part against those films and not more properly against the work he did earlier in his career.
In the end, you find yourself rooting for the good-natured kid and his tough girlfriend and his band of intrepid friends, despite the fact that you know how the movie is going to end. Sure, there's some loose social commentary on net neutrality and the capitalization of the internet, but I'd suggest that you ignore that ham-fisted messaging and just enjoy the ride.
