Movie Review: Captain Phillips (2013)

 This movie is the retelling of the Somali pirate takeover of the ship Maersk Alabama.  Tom Hanks portrays Captain Richard Phillips and Barkhad Abdi the Captain Muse of the pirate skiff.  The defensive things the large cargo ship did in attempts to keep the pirates at bay were very interesting.  The use of hoses all around the ship and turning back and forth to knock the pirate skiff away.  However in this case the pirates did make it onboard.  Most of the crew hid, but the captain and a few of the crew were captured.  There were threats of murder, but in actuality no member of the crew was killed.  The pirates on board ship lasted a day.  The crew managed to capture Captain Muse, but in the exchange they were able to kidnap Captain Phillips and leave in the life boat.  The pirate goal is to make it to Somalia where they can hide and force an exchange for the Captain of $10 million.

They make progress but are intercepted by a U.S. Navy Destroyer.  After this they are at a standoff.  This movie comes to its tragic conclusion.  The Navy orders in the Navy Seals, and then it is just a matter of time.

Movie Review: ****The Terminal (2004)

 When you are stranded in an airport and your visa is no longer valid because your country is no more due to a coup.  Viktor Navorski finds himself in this predicament.  He may not enter the U.S. and he may not return home.  Because of the coup his passport is no longer valid.  So he lives at the airport.  At first he returns carts to collect a few coins with which to feed himself.  He befriends Enrique Cruz (Diego Luna) who is a food service worker and provides meals in exchange for help meeting an immigration officer, Dolores Torres (Zoe Zaldaña).  The conflict in this story is created by Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci) who is the head of the U.S. Customs and seems to take pride in causing grief for Navorski.  Navorski also meets and woos a flight attendant, Amelia Warren (Katherine Zeta-Jones).  He also befriends Gupta Rajan (Kumar Pallana) who is a janitor, but in actuality is an illegal immigrant.  A theme is why does Navorski want to visit America.  Dixon wants to find out, and even interrogates Warren to find out.  Finally Navorski reveals he wants to get the signature of a jazz musician.  

A funny part of the show is that Navorski actually gets a job in the airport working construction.  He build a fountain and does many different tasks.  

Political issues finally resolve, and Dixon tells him he can go home; but not enter the United States.  Dixon sys he will persecute his friends if he does not go strait home.  Rajan gives himself up to convince him to finish his dream.  He does this, and then returns to catch a flight home.  

This story follow rather loosely the story of Mehran Nasseri who lived in the Paris airport for 18 years.  This is a good show telling the human spirit and the will to survive in difficult circumstances.

Animated Movie Review: ****Robots (2005)

 A movie about what happens when profit is your bottom line rather than helping people.  Madame Gasket (Jim Broadbent) is intent on melting all the old bots so as to make a money.  Her son, Rachet (Greg Kinnear) has become head of the Robot factory, Bigweld Enterprises taking over for the inventor Bigweld, (Mel Brooks).  Rachet is evil and arrogant and takes pride in sending robots to the scrap heap which his mother runs.  They are going to be so rich; until Rodney Copperbottom (Ewan McGregor) and his friends arrive.   Rodney is intent on seeing Bigweld to share his inventions.  However Bigweld has been put to pasture playing with dominoes.  So Rodney decides to take on Gasket and Rachet with his friends.  Sometimes you need some good friend to stick to your dream.  Halle Berry portrays Cappy, a business executive who sees merit in Rodney's ideas.  Robin Williams plays Fender, Rodney's friend, and discovers the real motive of Gasket and Rachet.  Robin uses his voice talents to bring the character to life.  And Amanda Bynes portrays Piper who is Fender's sister.  She and Cappy play a big part in defeating the robots of Rachet.

fun show showing us a different world, very human like but robots.

Animated Movie Review: ****Wild Robot (2024)

 This is an excellent movie about motherly love; even if you are a robot.  Roz (Lupita Nyong'o) is a robot that somehow is misdelivered to an island with no human inhabitants.  She seeks her mission, and finally finds it with being the mother to a gosling, Brightbill (Kit connor).  The other animals are wary of Roz, and anything she deals with as they are weird.  Roz however befriends a fox, Fink (Pedro Pascal).  He gives her instruction on how to raise a gosling.  Of course the hard parts are how to teach the goosling to swim and to fly.  Brightbill makes it on the annual migration.  Roz should return home to the factory, her mission complete.  However she wants to stay and make sure her gosling makes it back safe.

During this time there is a crisis in the forest with exceptional cold.  Roz brings all the animals into her home she she keeps a nice fire.  They fight and argue, but eventually learn to get along.

The day the geese return, Brightbill amongst them, the robot factory finally discover Roz, and they want her back to harvest her memories.  She has rewritten her own programming.  These leads to a large battle between the robot recovery team and the animals.  She finally agrees to go back, so as to save all the animals.  

Mark Hamill has a role as the bear who helps the animals live together in peace.

I like the relationships in this movie.  Animals who are traditional enemies learn to get along.  And a robot learns love, as does a gosling.

Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

 This is a very good Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) movie except for just before the end.  Indiana Jones is in pursuit of the Dial of Destiny, as is Dr. Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelson).  Voller is a Nazi who wants to go back in time and effect a different result to the war.  His men are unscrupulous.  They seem to kill people right and left.   They are trying to get a piece of the devise from Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), Dr. Jones' god daughter.  She knows that her father gave the piece to him to destroy it.  Of course Dr. Jones did not destroy it, but has stored it safely in the university vaults.  Helena gets the device, and is away with it, leaving Dr. Jones to deal with the peopler chasing her.  They both get away in the end.  They all end up in Morocco, where Helena is selling her piece.  In all the action Voller ends up with the piece.  Helena has a young friend, Teddy (Ethann Isidore) she rescued from the streets when he tried to steal her purse.  

The next stop is scuba diving in order to find the other piece.  Of course our villains show up just as they are finding it.  More murders take place, Dr. Jones' friend Renaldo (Antonio Banderas).  The the hel of dynamite they are able to get away and then decipher the clue which leads them to caves in Cicily.  In the end Voller comes away with both pieces and puts them together.  He then calculates how to go back in time to 1939 as he intends to kill Hitler, thus freeing Germany from him, so they can win the war.  Dr. Jones tases him that his calculations are wrong--and in fact they are.  They over shot their time and end up in the Roman Greek war long ago.  Having gone back in time in an airplane, they meet Archimedes (Nasser Memarzia), the inventor of the Dial of Destiny, who then took it apart so it couldn't be used.  He is the only person who could help them get back to their own time.

Now the part I don't like.  Suddenly Dr. Jones wants to stay in the past.  Helena punches him in the jaw to knock him out and the take him back.  I do not think there was motivation for Dr. Jones to stay nor for Helena to knock him out.

Karen Allen as Marion and John Rhys-Davies as Sallah have cameo parts.  They were both in the first Indiana Jones.

Movie Review: ***^ Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)

 Jack (Nicholas Hoult) is a farm boy, who saves a monk by trading his horse for magic beans.  However his uncle throws the beans out, disappointed in him.  One of them grows, and the others Jack recovers.  The princess, Princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) who is not looking forward to her arranged marriage, and is seeking adventures, happens upon Jack when she sees his light.  She ends up going to the giant kingdom in Jack's house as it grows on the top of the bean stalk.  Jack fell down and is discovered at the bottom of the bean stalk by the king (Ian McShane) the next day.  

Jack becomes part of the group sent to rescue the princess.  The group includes Roderick (Stanley Tucci) who is the princess' intended.  It also includes Elmont (Ewan McGregor) a loyal captain of the guard.  When they encounter the giants, things do not go well for those seeking the princess.  Roderick does several treacherous things which eliminate some of the guards.  However when the giants are upon him, he removes a crown from his bag, placing it on his head, and claims to be the king of the giants.  He proposes leading them to earth to conquer first the kingdom of the princess, but then all the kingdoms.  Feast tonight (on the captured men) and war tomorrow.  

Roderick discovers Jack is the person with the beans and takes them from him; but doesn't get one.  Roderick's treachery becomes known to the company of men, as well as his desires to help the giants conquer the kingdom.  Jack is the only one nt captured, and helps them escape after killing the cook who was preparing Elmont for dinner.  They also are able to kill another giant, using bees and a sudden drop off.   Elmont is going back to get the crown from Roderick, and Jack and the princess escape down the bean stalk.  When the king sees proof of giants--the giant who fell--he order the bean stalk chopped down, even with his daughter on the other side.  Ghe ride the bean stalk to the ground and are able to land not dead.  This thwarted the giants as they have no way down.  However the betrayed roderick, seeking to get the crown from him.  Elmont and Roderick fight, resulting in Roderick's death, but the giants snatch the body before Elmont can get the crown.  One of the giants is king, but they cannot get down as the stalk is chopped.

However the discover Rodericks beans, and quickly use them to create a bridge to earth.  

There is enough action and enough romance in this movie to make it enjoyable.  It is rated PG13.  It is currently available on Netflix.  

Marvel Movie Review: ***Eternals (2021)

 Definitely not Marvel's beat work, very slow moving and too many poses.  Its not that you fight well but have to look good fighting.  This movie has lots of intrigue and twists as the Eternals battle the Deviants, a battle that has been going on for millennia. However by the end the eternals are also battling their own leadership as earth is scheduled for destruction.  

• 

  Gemma Chan

  Sersi. Eternal
• 

  Richard Madden

  Ikaris. Eternal
• 

  Angelina Jolie

  Thena. Eternal
• 

  Salma Hayek

  Ajak. Eternal
• 

  Kit Harington

  Dane Whitman.  Human
• 

  Kumail Nanjiani

  Kingo. Eternal
• 

  Lia McHugh

  Sprite. Eternal
• 

  Brian Tyree Henry

  Phastos.  Eternal
• 

  Lauren Ridloff

  Makkari.  Eternal
• 

  Barry Keoghan

  Druig. Eternal

• 

  Ma Dong-seok

  Gilgamesh

  (as Don Lee).  Eternal
• 

  Harish Patel

  Karun. Eternal

 I don't know if you can tell but this probably my least favorite Marvel movie.