Netflix Friday - Volume 8

Some Netflix film tips for the weekend! And there is something for everyone, since I picked a movie for all the different genres.

Action: Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Following the Normandy Landings, a groups of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper (Matt Damon) whose brothers have been killed in action.

Drama: Lion (2016)
A five-year-old Indian boy is adopted by an Australian couple (Nicole Kidman, David Wenham) after getting lost hundreds of kilometers from home. 25 years later, he (Dev Patel) sets out to find his lost family.

Comedy: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
King Arthur (Graham Chapman) and his Knights of the Round Table embark on a surreal, low-budget search for the Holy Grail, encountering many, very silly obstacles.

Animation: Kung Fu Panda (2008)
The Dragon Warrior has to clash against the savage Tai Lung as China’s fate hangs in the balance. However, the Dragon Warrior mantle is supposedly mistaken to be bestowed upon an obese panda (Jack Black) who is a novice in martial arts.

Romance: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018)
Lara Jean (Lana Condor) is a teenage girl whose secret love letters are exposed and wreak havoc on her love life.

Horror: Christine (1983)
A nerdish boy buys a strange car with an evil mind of its own and his nature starts to change to reflect it.

Science Fiction: Jurassic Park (1993)
A pragmatic paleontologist (Sam Neill) visiting an almost complete theme park is tasked with protecting a couple of kids after a power failure causes the park’s cloned dinosaurs to run loose.

Crime: Django Unchained (2012)
With the help of a German bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz), a freed slave (Jamie Foxx) sets out to rescue his wife (Kerry Washington) from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Thriller: The Da Vinci Code (2006)
A murder inside the Louvre, and clues in Da Vinci paintings, lead to the discovery of a religious mystery protected by a secret society for two thousand years, which could shake the foundations of Christianity.

Documentary: Virunga (2014)
A team of brace individuals risk their lives to protect the last mountain gorillas.

Family: The Karate Kid (1984)
A boy (Ralph Macchio) and his mother move to California for a new job. He struggles to fit in, as a group of karate students starts to bully him for dating a rich girl (Elizabeth Shue) from their clique. It’s up to the Japanse landlord Miyagi (Pat Morita) to teach him karate.

Top 5 Thursday: Good Movies with Terrible Endings

Nothing can ruin an otherwise great night out at the movies like an ending that undoes all of the goodwill the film had built up. Movies that would have been perfect, if they had just changed the ending. Here are five good films with terrible endings. *SPOILERS*

5. Signs
I love “Signs”, it’s probably my second favorite of all of Shyamalan’s films. The ending just doesn’t make sense. The aliens, which were supposed to be intelligent, invade Earth and reveal their weakness: water. So they choose to invade a world composed majority of water?

4. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The movie is perfectly hilarious and funny, up until the ending. The police arrive, tell the Pythons they've run out of money and arrest them. It’s like they ran out of ideas. It’s just way to silly, even for Monty Python.

3. I Am Legend
While “I Am Legend” deviates from its original source material, the movie exchanges a brilliant twist for a standard Hollywood ending. Instead of Will Smith coming to the realization that he’s the real monster in the movie, he sacrifices himself for the sake of humanity. Oh, what could’ve been?

2. The Forgotten
The Forgotten” follows a Telly who is desperately trying to find her son. The premise? No one believes her when she tells them she has a son, not even her own husband. Viewers will wonder whether Telly is absolutely crazy? Perhaps there’s a government cover up, or something even more sinister going on. But no one would be able to predict the ending that came about, and for all the wrong reasons. Aliens. Yes, aliens abducted her son.

1. The Devil’s Advocate
Milton is revealed to be Lucifer and Kevin is his son. Kevin destroys his father’s plan by killing himself. The story itself rewinds and Kevin returns to the film’s first scenes, where he makes a different choice. What? Why? It ruined the movie for me.

They Almost Made the Top 5: Superman

Movie Favorites: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Synopsis: King Arthur and his knights embark on a low-budget search for the Grail, encountering many very silly obstacles.

 

Unique Selling Point: The story about King Arthur and his knight, told the Monty Python way. Their humor is clever, intelligent and out of the ordinary. No one tells a joke like a Python does.

Most Valuable Player: Graham Chapman carries the film as the baffled but brave King Arthur.

Best Moment: Fighting the black knight. “It’s just a flesh wound”