Movie Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

I must admit, I enjoyed the books more than the movie.  I think the movie is not going to be a trilogy like the books.  It did not follow the books true to form, but does give us the world, three level of beings in addition to regular humans, peculiars, wights and hollowghasts.  The wights are determined to seek immortality, but to do so they must harness the force of embrynes (a peculiar who can make time loops, and turn into birds.)  Hollowghasts are primitive creatures, who were once peculiars, but a failed experiment turned them into monsters.  However they eventually develop into wights.  Each peculiar was their own skill which is very interesting.  Jake (Asa Butterfield), who can see hollowghasts, but didn't even know what they were a few days ago, finds the loop of Miss Peregrine (Eva Green), at the request of his grandfather, who informed him of the peculiars, his friends, just before he passed away.  Jake does find the loop, and the peculiar children.  However an evil wight has followd him, Barron (Samuel Jackson), who is also a shape shifter.  He had pretended to be the psychiatrist, and then a bird study man, and followed Jake to the peculiars.  He sets in motion the collapse of the time loop, and kidnaps Miss Peregrine.  Jake befriends Emma Bloom (Ella Purnell) who is lighter than air, and can control air.  (This is different than the book where he falls in love with the fire girl.)
The group of peculiars follow Barron to rescue their embryne.  Samuel Jackson plays his character too light hearted.  Their are classic struggles, and Barron makes fun of them.  I didn't find his character believable.  This show features direct fighting, unlike the book.  The hollowghasts are invisible to all except Jake.  However the throw snow on them and make them visible.  This way they can have a fair fight.
Even though the movie is not as well done as the books, it is entertaining none the less.  Based on the books by Ransom Riggs.  Tim Burton directed.

Movie Review: ****James Bond, Casino Royale (2006)

Casino Royale is the twenty-first in the James Bond series.  Although the twenty-first movie it is set as being the first mission for James Bond.  Daniel Craig portrays Bond for the first time.  He has the task of bankrupting a known terrorist through a high stakes poker game.  Bond came through, escaping an attempt on his life by poisoning.   But then the movie keeps going.  Bond has to chase after his partner, financier Vanessa Lynd (Eva Green) in the games.  She is stolen by Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) but he drops her down on the road, and Bond crashes missing her.  Then they are both captured and tortured.  They want the account and the pass code where the millions have been sent.  Then the movie gets more confusing.  Someone breaks in and kills the torturers and their guards and Bond and Lynd are freed.  Bond swears his love and resigns fro the secret service.  But then his love steals all the money, making Bond think he was moving. it to a British account.  She ends up getting murdered by the person who compromised her.  It then seems we have another ending, but Bond uses her phone to track down the cul;prit, so it ends with Bond shooting him.   It left me a bit confused at the end.  It is based on the Ian Fleming book of the same name. 

The tool of torture at the end appears very gruesome, and Bond is hit several times while Lynd is tortured in the next room.  This movie has a different feel.  It is a bit darker.  There is no Q.  M is again Judi Dench.  Samantha Bond is again Miss Moneypenny.  The intro at the beginning is different. Instead of showing women it shows Bond being violent.  At the first of the movie we have Bond in a chase scene climbing a tall building under construction and fighting on a crane.  Very intense with a fear of falling.  Updated 12/5/2025.