Movie Review: ***^The Light Between Oceans

I have been a long time writing a review about this movie.  This is a movie about love, and love tested.  Sometimes it is amazing what a love can survive.  After WWI Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender) takes a job at a remote light house.  This job takes him to a beautiful island, but away from society.  The prospects become more tolerable when he falls in love with the woman, Isabel Graysmark (Alicia Vikander) and the marry.  However they are not as lucky in having babies.  Living away from others, there is no medical care other than what they give each other.  The first pregnancy is miscarried, and the second stillborn.  (This reminded me so much of my marriage to Sheri, after the same results with our first two pregnancies.  In our case this was followed by six beautiful babies and one beautiful adopted baby.)  While they are still grieving, a boat washes up to shore.  In the boat the discover a deceased man, with a baby, maybe six months.  Just a bit older than theirs.  Isabel still has milk and nurses the baby, and quickly falls in love.  A plan is hatched to adopt the baby, first by Isabel, who convinces her husband to go along.  Her husband is the employee, and falsifies his daily log, and removes the marker from their own baby's grave.  There baby is now this new baby.  And this has the makings of a really bad adoption story.  A couple things do them in in their plot, but mostly Tom's conscious.  When he meets the mother (Rachel Weisz) of their child, he is at a crisis.  He reveals enough to give himself away, and he does everything he can to absolve his wife of any guilt.  His wife is angry at him for giving their "child" away.  this is where the testing of their love takes place.  Can love last such a struggle?
This movie gives many beautiful scenes, with a troubling plot.  It had to end badly.

Movie Review: Jason Bourne (2016)

This movie is the fifth of a series.  It has a way of rehashing the same formula, but also keeping the story line interesting.  This movie brings back Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, a man trained as a killing machine by the government, but who has rejected the program.  However he is always seen as a liability, and subject to government attempts to put him down.  In this case he is drawn into the fray, as someone else, Nicky Parsons (Julie Stiles) hacks into the CIA computer and steals the information about Bourne.  It is assumed Bourne is behind the break in, and that he intends to release the information to embarrass the CIA.  CIA Director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) brings in an asset (Vincent Cassel) to take care of Bourne.  He also is going to use him to take care of Aaron Kalloor (Riz Ahmed) a computer mogul who is reneging on an agreement to put a back door in his computer soft ware so the CIA can access everybody's information.  Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander) is a CIA computer specialist, but she plays a much bigger roll in the end as she attempts to befriend Bourne.  Hair raising finish to this movie, with a little twist dangling for the next in the series.
I didn't find a great theme or moral, just action from start to finish to keep you entertained and jumping.  I think Sheri likes this type of movie more than I.

Movie Review: ***^Seventh Son

This movie is based on the characters of the book "The Spook's Apprentice" by Joseph Delaney.  This is the only book in the series I have read, although there are many more, and much of the movie must have been from the sequel books, as it wasn't in the book I read.  Jeff Bridges portrays the Spook, Gregory.  Julianne Moore portrays the wicked witch, who once loved the Spook.  The Apprentice, Tom Ward is portrayed be Ben Barnes.  The niece of the evil witch, Alice,  is portrayed by Alicia Vikander.  The jest of the movie is the witch escapes years of captivity by the Spook because of the blood moon which has arrived, restoring her powers.  She kills the first apprentice, and creates a need for a new apprentice.  However, they have to hurry as in a week the witch will regain all her powers and be unstoppable.  Alice is caught between, spying for the witch, but also loving Tom.  She betrays them both, stealing a witch's amulet from Tom, which was given to him by his mother, a good witch, but then in the end, stealing it back from the wicked witch.
This is a classic good vs. evil, with witches that change into dragons or other evil creatures thrown in.  It makes for some good fun.