At the Movies: ****^Wicked: For Good (2025)

 Family night at the movies last Tuesday.  We took the entire row with all of us.  This movie is Act II of the Wicked musical.  The music and acting are great.  I had forgotten that NessaRose (Marissa Bode) was considered a wicked which.  She is Elphaba's (Cynthia Erivo) sister.  The public relations boss Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) has labeled Elphaba the Wicked Witch.  Meanwhile Glinda (Ariana Grande) is labeled the good witch.  Then there are the men.  Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) is Captain of the guard.  He loves Elphaba but cannot find her.  He is to arrest her for wicked deeds with regards to animal rights.  Boq (Ethan Slater) loves Glinda; but Nessarose loves him.  Nessarose casts a spell on him so he will love her, but it goes wrong and shrinks his heart.  To save him Elphaba turns him into a tin man.  At the wedding of Glinda and Fiyero, Elphaba frees all the animals the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) has in cages.  It destroys the wedding, but Fiyero discovers where Elphaba is living and puts her in a castle.   Madame Morrible causes a tornado which brings Dorothy's house to land on Nessarose.  When they are to arrest Elphaba, Fiyero saves her, but the guards turn on Fiyero and beat him up.  Elphaba changes him to a scarecrow so he will not feel pain.  Dorothy, the cowardly lion, the Tin Man and Scarecrow are tasked by the Wizard to kill the Wicked Witch.  They seem to do this, but instead the Scarecrow and Elphaba are seen crossing the desert out of Oz.  Of course Glinda and Elphaba meet before Dorothy throws water on elphaba, and sing of their undying relationship, "For Good."  This is the showstopper song and it is great to hear it.  

We really enjoyed this movie.  It is not the best movie I have ever seen, but it is good.

Musical Movie Review: *****Wicked (2024)

 Some movies are jest fun to watch, and this is one.  Can we accept things that are different--a woman who is green, animals talking and teaching, a woman who wears a different hat; and what is popularity, and friendship, are the themes of this movie.  You add in the defense of animal rights, a love triangle and a young sister in a wheel chair who wants to stand on her own and you have the makings of a great movie.  The music is superb.  My only complaint is that the story was not concluded but presented only the first act.  We have to wait for the second act.

Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba

Ariana Grande as Galinda/Glinda

Jeff Goldblum as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible 

Marissa Bode as Nessarose

Jonathan Bailey as Prince Flyero

Ethan Slater as Boq

Peter Dinklage as Dr. Dillamond (voice)

Movie Review: ****^Thor Ragnarok (2017)

Lots of interesting action in this movie, and lots of heroes.  Hela (Cate Blanchett) is back.  She is the oldest daughter of Odin (Anthony Hopkins), and served at his side during Odin's warring period.  However as Odin became more peaceful, and Hela wished to continue warring, she was confined.  Now she is back, and the first thing she does is destroy Thor's hammer and then banish Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to a throw away world.  There Loki takes up politics, and Thor becomes a gladiator and set to face The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).  The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) of the games likes his champion and makes sure Hulk wins.  But the Hulk takes Thor to his room, where Thor plans his escape with Hulk and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) his captor, who is also from Asgard.  They refuse, but he leaves anyway, towards Hulk's space ship to get off the planet.  Hulk follows him.  Hulk has been the Hulk steady for over two years, but in the spacecraft he hears the voice of Natasha Romanoff, and converts to Bruce Banner.  Then Loki and Valkyrie also show up, but they need a better vessel to get through a worm hole, and Loki helps them steal a vessel, but he has turning over Thor on his mind.  This is thwarted, and he is left with the escaping slaves of the planet.  Thor makes it back to Asgard, just in time, as Hela has control, and is about to wrest the sword controlling the bridge from Heimdall (Idris Elba).  This paves the way to a great struggle.  Hela is just too powerful, except for maybe against, Surtur, who according to prophesy will destroy Asgard.
This movie takes a plot change at the end, and desperate measure are needed to rescue the people of Asgard.
Tony and I saw this, and we had a good time.  Loved the action, and the characters, and also the banter between Thor and Hulk.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ****Jurassic Park (1993)

This is an intriguing movie.  My grandson is into dinosaur movies.  I don't think this was the right one.  The beginning of this movie is all cute, but the Tyrannosaurus Rex gets lose, and it is no longer a kids movie.  I mean, how do you explain a man in the dinosaur mouth to your grandson.  But this movie has great action, in addition to the cute dinosaurs.  And the kids are rescued which is the important part.  Man, who ever knew dinosaurs could be so nasty.  I guess we all do, but we have never seen it.  This movie stars Sam Neill and Laura Dern as dinosaur experts, Jeff Goldblum as the probability expert, Richard Attenborough as the owner, Bob Peck as the animal hunter, Samuel Jackson as a computer tech, and Wayne Knight as the geek/bad guy who turns of the power to the fences and lets the havoc lose.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR KIDS

Movie Review: ***^Silverado

Silverado is a good western, made after westerns were popular.  Because of that it had to be twice as good, and it lived up to its billing.  It stars a quartet of heroes taking on a land baron and his sheriff and deputies.   The quartet are made up of two brothers Emmett (Scott Glen) and Jake (Kevin Costner), a drifter with a past, Paden (Kevin Klein) and an African America traveling to join his family, Mal (Danny Glover).  This movie has its share of violence and killing, but also has a few tender moments.  The brothers are visiting their sister to say goodbye before they try their luck in California.  While there old feuds, as well as their getting in the middle of a land war.  Mal's father is killed by the same land war, while Paden is hired by the side perpetuating the problem.  Sherriff Cobb (Brian Dennehy) perpetuates the negative situation.  Everyone is effected.  Emmett and Jake see their family effected, brother-in-law shot and nephew kidnapped.  As mentioned Mal's father is killed in efforts to run him off his land.  His sister becomes an ally.  Paden sees what is going on, but worries about his friend, Stella (Linda Hunt) who will get hurt if he takes action.  A gambler "Slick" (Jeff Goldblum) befriend's Mel's sister, but is no an ally.
This movie has good action, and it entertains, which is its motive.