Netflix Friday - Volume 41

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

Action: John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)
After returning to the criminal underworld to repay a debt, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) discovers that a large bounty has been put on his life.
 

Drama: The Dig (2021)
An archaeologist (Ralph Fiennes) embarks on the historically important excavation of Sutton Hoo in 1938.
 

Comedy: Vacation (2015)
Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) takes his own family on a road trip to “Walley World” in order to spice things up with his wife (Christina Applegate) and reconnect with his sons.
 

Animation: The Lorax (2012)
A 12-year-old boy (Zac Efron) searches for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl of his dreams (Taylor Swift). To find it he must discover the story of the Lorax (Danny DeVito), the grumpy yet charming creature who fights to protect his world.
 

Romance: Eat Pray Love (2010)
A married woman (Julia Roberts) realizes how unhappy her marriage really is, and that her life needs to go in a different direction. After a painful divorce, she takes off on a round0the-world journey to ‘find herself’.
 

Horror: Bone Tomahawk (2015)
In the dying days of the old west, an elderly sheriff (Kurt Russell) and his posse set out to rescue their town’s doctor from cannibalistic cave dwellers.
 

Science Fiction: Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)
A prince of the mythical world starts a rebellion against humanity in order to rule the Earth, and Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and his team must fight to stop him from locating the all-powerful Golden Army.
 

Crime: Den of Thieves (2018)
An elite unit of the LA County Sheriff’s Dept. and the state’s most successful bank robbery crew clash as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank.
 

Thriller: The Glass House (2001)
An orphaned teeneager (Leelee Sobieski) s taken in by a Malibu couple (Diane Lane, Stellan Skarsgård) but discovers they aren’t the caring friends they seemed to be.
 

Documentary: Creating the Queen’s Gambit (2021)
It’s not about a game, it’s about the cost of genius. Take a deeper look into how Scott Frank, Anya Taylor-Joy, and the team behind “The Queen’s Gambit” brought this acclaimed series to life.
 

Family: Penguin Bloom (2021)
A family takes in an injured Magpie that makes a profound difference in their lives.

100 Movie Challenge 2016 - # 118: Vacation

Director: John Francis Daley
Genre: Adventure/ Comedy
Runtime: 99 minutes
Year: 2015
Starring: Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Chris Hemsworth, Leslie mann, Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Charlie Day, Ron Livingston, Norman Reedus, Keegan-Michael Key, Regina Hall, Kaitlin Olson, Michael Peña

Description: Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) takes his own family on a road trip to "Walley World" in order to spice things up with his wife (Christina Applegate) and reconnect with his sons.

Review: We live in a time of reboots and remakes. Superhero franchises, foreign films get an American version and classics are remade. Within the comedy genre there are also some popular films that need a modern touch. “Vacation” is one of them. It’s technically not a remake, but “Vacation” is feeding of its original version from 1983.
Rusty sees that his wife is unhappy and he is worried about the continued bickering between his two sons. The solution: a family road trip to an amusement park.
In the original film the characters where family people, with whom you could identify and you would sympathize with. This doesn’t go for this film. The characters lack depth and it’s hard to feel for them. The humor is at times fun, but it’s mostly juvenile jokes. The movie does have humor, some situation are really funny. The Seal song “Kiss from a Rose” is a funny recurring joke for example. And the guide they meet on the way, that is played by Charlie Day was hilarious. And some thumbs up for the cameos, Chris Hemsworth and Chevy Chase. But they just take it too far sometimes, which makes it unbelievable.
Overall, this comedy does make you laugh but isn’t of a high level. The original 1983 film is far superior, but “Vacation” is fun for one night.

Rating: 2,5/ 5

Movie Trailer Sunday (189)

Here are this weeks trailers.

Vacation

Description: Following in his father's footsteps and hoping for some much-needed family bonding, a grown-up Rusty Griswold (Helms) surprises his wife, Debbie (Applegate), and their two sons with a cross-country trip back to America's "favorite family fun park," Walley World.

Director: John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein

Starring: Christina Applegate, Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Michael Pena, Ed Helms, Chris Hemsworth, Charlie Day, Skyler Gisondo, Steele Stebbins, Regina Hall Keegan-Michael Key

Trailer: Trailer "Vacation"

Comment: I love the Original movie with Chevy Chase, so I hope this is just as funny. One plus is Chris Hemsworth, shirtless....

Ricki and the Flash

Description: A musician (Meryl Streep) who gave up everything for her dream of rock-and-roll stardom returns home, looking to make things right with her family.

Director: Jonathan Demme

Starring: Kevin Kline, Meryl Streep, Sebastian Stan, Mamie Gummer, Audra McDonald, Rick Springfield

Trailer: Trailer "Ricki and the Flash"

Comment: Meryl Streep as a rock star? Why not?

Absolutely Anything

Description: A group of eccentric aliens confer a human being (Simon Pegg) with the power to do absolutely anything, as an experiment.

Director: Terry Jones

Starring: Terry Jones, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin, Robin Williams, Eddie Izzard, Simon Pegg, Joanna Lumley, Rob Riggle, Sanjeev Bhaskar

Trailer: Trailer "Absolutely Anything"

Comment: Made by the guys fo Monty Pyhting with the guys from Monty Python and starring Simon Pegg. Can't go wrong...

Hungry Hearts

Description: The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.

Director: Saverio Costanzo

Starring: Adam Driver, Alba Rohrwacher, Roberta Maxwell

Trailer: Trailer "Hungry Hearts"

Comment: This looks absolutely amazing...

Unexpected

Description: An inner-city high school teacher (Cobie Smulders) discovers she is pregnant at the same time as one of her most promising students and the two develop an unlikely friendship while struggling to navigate their unexpected pregnancies.

Director: Kris Swanberg

Starring: Cobie Smulders, Elizabeth McGovern, Anders Holm, Gail Bean

Trailer: Trailer "Unexpected"

Comment: One word: yeah! Can't wait to see this!