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Shmee Checks In For The Big Sick!

Imagine you find the love of your life, but then during your first real fight, this person ends up in a coma.  Sounds pretty funny right? … right?  Well that is the basis for The Big Sick.  Which is a semi-autobiographical story about how Kumail Nanjiani met his wife.  It fits very much in the  mold of Judd Apatow’s patented dramedy.  Which is to say it is pretty good.

Apparently this all started because Apatow and Nanjiani were on the ‘You Made It Weird’ podcast together, and Apatow convinced Nanjiana that his story would make for a good movie.  Of course Apatow would produce since funny people getting kind of sad is his bread and butter, and here we are.  I have to admit it is a pretty touching movie, so Apatow knows his business.

The actors are all equally funny and sad.  I think Kumail is on the verge of becoming a big star.  He has great comedic timing, and he is very relatable.  I would watch him in another couple dozen films.  I hadn’t recognized the actor that played his would be wife, Zoe Kazan, but apparently she has been in a lot of stuff, and she is very talented.  Even if she is in a coma for a lot of The Big Sick.

Amazon has gone to work making sure that they have plenty of movies for their service, and The Big Sick shows that all that work is paying off.  I would have expected this movie to make a bigger splash this awards season, but a lot of non-comedies are filling up the comedy nominations this year, so The Big Sick and others are being left out.  Which is kind of a shame.  Anyway, if you have Amazon Prime, The Big Sick is a worthwhile film, and another hit added to Apatow’s already large collection.

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Shmee Discovers The Shape Of Water!

If you know me, or have been reading this site for a while you know that I love Guillermo del Toro‘s work, so there was no chance I was not going to see his latest film, The Shape of Water.  Like almost all his movies it is visually stunning, but it also has a lot of heart to go with that visual splendor.  There is no better purveyor of adult fairy tales than Mr. del Toro.

If you have heard anything about The Shape of Water than you know it is about a mute woman (Sally Hawkins) who falls in love with a fish-man/monster (Doug Jones) in a secret government lab, and for most movies that would be enough, but there are so many little things that go along with the main plot that fill in this film’s world beautifully.  Things I will not spoil for you.

In del Toro’s movies it is never a surprise that the monster of the movie isn’t really the monster, and that is true here as well.  What is surprise is how easy it is to empathize with Doug Jones’ fish-man.  The character is beautifully brought to life and somehow feels completely normal in the strange world that is being shown on the screen.  Sally Hawkins somehow makes her love of this ‘being’ believable.  The rest of the cast is fantastic as well, but with the likes of Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Richard Jenkins that is hardly a surprise.

While the story and the acting are fantastic, half of the reason to see a del Toro movie is because he will always show you something incredible.  He has a unique visual flair, and he keeps finding new wonderful things to show us.  He also loves to use extremes.  There are no half measures, while the movie is sweet and tender, the violence is graphic and harsh.  The Shape of Water is rated ‘R’ for a reason.  All the reasons.

The Shape of Water is a delightfully strange tale, and it is a perfect film for a weirdo like me.  It will take more than a little graphic violence and some nudity to keep me from succumbing to The Shape of Water’s charms.  Apparently I am not the only one because The Shape of Water earned Guillermo del Toro his first Golden Globe for directing.  An award that was well deserved.

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Shmee Falls In To The Stardew Valley!

I bought Stardew Valley on a whim.  Something cute to play between other games I thought.  I was so naïve.  The game is supper addicting.  You will start to play, thinking to yourself, “I will just play for a couple of in game days.”, and then before you know it you have lost an entire real life day.  The thing is, I am not even sure that it is fun, but there are so many little things to do that it digs its hooks in very quickly.

In Stardew Valley you play as a young city person who’s Grandfather has passed away and left you a run down farm.  He wants you to tend to it, so that you can escape the modern rat race.  Apparently this appeals to you, so you leave the city, head to Stardew Valley, and start up your farm.

It is all so simple at first.  You spend you money on seeds, then you water your seeds, and then you sell your plants, but then hey, you can go fishing.  If you want better farming equipment you will need copper and iron, so you better check out the old mine.  There are monsters in the mine, so you will need a sword.  Did you know that you can become friends with the townspeople?  You can, and it speeds it along if you buy them gifts.  They also have birthdays, so better not miss those.  It goes on and on like this.  There are also some very weird things that happen, which is great because it adds to the ‘fun’.

Nothing Stardew Valley does is complex, and obviously Nintendo has owned the lowkey farming sim for years with the Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing franchises, but this gives the rest of us a chance to relax and water a bunch of sunflowers then give them to townspeople who rarely give you anything in return.  Not that I am angry.

If you want something simple, yet engaging, and if you have more self control than me, something you can play for a few minute here and there, Stardew Valley is a great choice.  It is now out on just about every gaming platform known to man, so there is almost no excuse not to play it, except maybe not wanting to dream about your next potato crop.

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Jumanji Welcomed Shmee To The Jungle!

It has been over twenty years since the original Jumanji came out, and if you are studio executive it has been killing you that such a successful movie didn’t get a sequel.  That changes now!  Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is out in theaters!  Despite the fact this movie was obviously concocted in a boardroom, it is pretty good.  It is not great by any stretch of the imagination, but much better than it probably should have been.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle takes place some time after the original, and the cursed board game has changed itself in to a video game because it figures out that kids like video games better.  Enter the standard squad of teenagers: The Jock, The Nerd, The Hot Girl, and Smart Girl.  They all get detention for various reason, and then instead of doing the work they were told to do, they play a video game, Jumanji.  Of course they all get sucked up inside it, and then hilarious body swapping action packed hijinks ensue.

It is clear this script was not written by Shakespeare, but it gets the job done.  It even makes sense.  Which is kind of a minor miracle.  The only problem I had with it is the strangely high number of penis jokes.  While at least one was a given since there is a teenage girl trapped in Jack Black’s body, it seemed like it was the go to joke if there was ever a lull.  Also, the joke that the girl character wouldn’t be wearing enough clothing in the jungle because she is based off 90’s Lara Croft is funny, but then it seems to undermine itself by gawking at her anyway.

The casting has executive hit list all over it.  You need Dwayne Johnson because he guarantees a $50 Million opening weekend.  Hopefully Kevin Hart will bring in the African American crowd, and Jack Black is always good at selling jokes even if they are poorly written.  Then you need a woman who is popular enough that people recognize her, but not so popular that you need to pay her a lot of money.  Amy Pond Karen Gillan will do perfectly!  Thankfully all these people are also very talented, and they do a good job with what they are given.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was never going to be a classic, but if we are honest with our childhood selves, neither was the original, so this is a pretty good follow up.  I am sure that we will not have to wait another twenty years for a sequel to this flick.  Once it comes out to Netflix/Video Rental it is well worth watching, or if you are a Movie Pass card holder like me there are worse things in the theaters right now.  In other words, Sony’s executive team got the job done.

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Wolverine Sings And Dances In The Greatest Showman!

We know that Hugh Jackman is a long time song and dance man, and that he will usually jump at the chance to be in a big budget musical, so it is no surprise that he excels in The Greatest Showman.  What is a surprise is that while the music was fabulous almost no effort was put in to making the story around the music coherent.

The Greatest Showman is a tale about how P.T. Barnum rose from rags to riches selling tickets to see his ‘wonders’.  Almost all of which were either exaggerations at best, or out and out lies at worst, but of course it was all in the name of entertainment, so it was okay.

The Greatest Showman is a mostly a feel good film about empowerment, and how Barnum gave a stage to people who would have otherwise been cast to the shadows.  Of course it leaves out the part were he leased slaves, he couldn’t buy them since his show was based in New York, a free state, or that he barely paid or mistreated the rest.  Not the you should ever go to biopic looking for historical accuracy, but The Greatest Showman doesn’t even try.  All this movie wants to be is an uplifting film with great music, and the music is what you are coming for.

Every time someone opens their mouth a catchy tune comes out, and the dance numbers are all magical.  They got such good performers to be in the movie, that even though no time is wasted on character development, you feel emotional every time a song is getting to its peak.  There are no major misses on The Greatest Showman’s soundtrack.

If you are wondering if The Greatest Showman is for you, just ask yourself, “Do I like musicals?”  If the answer is ‘yes’, you will probably love it.  If the answer is ‘no’, than there is nothing in The Greatest Showman to change your mind.  It is a movie filled with wonderful musical numbers and little else, but based off what I saw in the theater, it knows its audience well, and they were thrilled by it.  Even I was swept up by its charms, but much like P.T. Barnum, charm is all there is.