10s Movie Review - Book Club

Director: Bill Holderman
Genre: Comedy/ Drama/ Romance
Runtime: 104 minutes
Year: 2018
Starring: Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Andy Garcia, Craig T. Nelson, Don Johnson, Richard Dreyfuss, Alicia Silverstone, Ed Begley Jr., Wallace Shaw

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2023 MOVIE CHALLENGE.
WEEK 4: A MOVIE WITH A MAINLY FEMALE CAST
 
Description: Four lifelong friends have their lives forever changed after reading “50 Shades of Grey” in their monthly book club.

Review: The modern mature woman isn’t sitting home alone drinking tea surrounded by cats, but she’s active, worldly and has a healthy appetite for love and sex. The classic TV-series “The Golden Girls” already showed us this many years ago.

In “Book Club” we meet four long time friends, who started a book club when they were in college and are still standing strong. Amon them are Diane, who lost her husband a year ago and is now constantly checked on by her overprotective daughters, when she meets a charming pilote that sweeps her off of her feet. Vivian, a successful hotel owner who has never married and has no intention to, until she encounters an old flame. Sharon, a federal judge, who has no love life whatsoever, after her divorce many years ago, when she discovers online dating. And Carol, who has been married for many years and is missing the spark in her relationship. The four women decide to read “50 Shades of Grey” for their book club, which will forever change their lives.

I love stories about book clubs, people talking about books and learning from them in their real life. “50 Shades of Grey” is not the kind of book to read for a book club in my opinion, because it’s so bad. Especially for this group of book veterans. And it feels a bit outdated, they should have done this movie when the books weren’t turned into movies yet (which are equally terrible, probably even worse). That’s why I have always loved “The Jane Austen Book Club”, these people read actual good books and discuss them in depth. In “Book Club” they whole element of the book club is just a fraction of it all. And even though I did enjoy the characters and their individual story, I would have preferred there to be more book discussions between the women. They hardly talk about the book.

They missed the mark on this and it was released at the wrong moment.

Rating: 2 / 5

Movies to Look Forward to - August 2018

July was surprising unspectacular movie wise. But a lot to look forward to in August!

August 2nd – Mission: Impossible - Fallout
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett, Alec Baldwin, Wes Bentley
Description: Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time after a mission gone wrong.

August 2nd – The Darkest Minds
Director: Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Starring: Bradley Whitford, Mandy Moore, Gwendoline Christie, Amandla Stenberg, Wallace Langham, Harris Dickinson, Golden Brooks, Wade Williams
Description: Imprisoned by an adult world that now fears everyone under 18, a group of teens form a resistance group to fight back and reclaim control of their future.

August 9th – The Meg
Director: John Turteltaub
Starring: Jason Statham, Ruby Rose, Cliff Curtis, Rainn Wilson
Description: After escaping an attack by what he claims was a 70-foot shark, Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) must confront his fears to save those trapped in a sunken submersible.

August 9th – Under the Silver Lake
Director: David Robert Mitchell
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough, Topher Grace, Sydney Sweeney, Jimmi Simpson
Description: A man (Andrew Garfield) becomes obsessed with the strange circumstances of a billionaire mogul's murder and the kidnapping of a girl.

August 9th – Whitney
Director: Kevin MacDonald
Starring: Whitney Houston, Bobby Kristina Brown, Bobbi Brown, Cissy Houston, Clive Davis
Description: An in-depth look at the life and music of Whitney Houston

August 23rd – Book Club
Director: Bill Holderman
Starring: Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen, Andy Garcia, Craig T. Nelson, Don Johnson, Alicia Silverstone, Richard Dreyfuss, Ed Begley Jr., Wallace Shawn
Description: Four lifelong friends have their lives forever changed after reading 50 Shades of Grey in their monthly book club.

August 23rd – The Happytime Murders
Director: Brian Henson
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Elizabeth Banks, Maya Rudolph, Joel McHale
Description: When the puppet cast of an '80s children's TV show begins to get murdered one by one, a disgraced LAPD detective-turned-private eye puppet takes on the case.

August 30th – BlackKklansman
Director: Spike Lee
Starring: Adam Driver, Topher Grace, Alec Baldwin, John David Washington
Description: Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), an African-American police officer from Colorado, successfully managed to infiltrate the local Ku Klux Klan and became the head of the local chapter.