At the Movies: Movie Review: ***^Anaconda (2025)

 A sort of a remake of the Anaconda movie of 1997 with Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez with cameo roles.  Four childhood friends decide to rekindle their passions of youth, and make an Anaconda movie.  Ronald (Paul Rudd) recruits his friends to travel to the Amazon to make a movie, telling them he has the right to Anaconda, their favorite movie as youth.  He recruits his best friend, Doug (Jack Black) and old crush, Claire (Thandiwe Newton) and Kenny (Steve Zahn) to run the camera and technical stuff.  They are on their way to Brazil where they meet snake handler, Santiago (Selton Mello) who is obsessed with his snake.  However Ana Almeida (Daniela Melchior) high jacks their boat, with them on it and recording their movie on the way.  

There is a really creepy scene with the snake.  Santiago holds it in Ronald's face, an he reacts, and kills the snake.  Santiago leaves the boat to find a new snake; the new snake gets him instead however.  Now the snake has a taste for people and is after them.  Worse yet, Ana is a smuggler of gold.  Of course the snake gets her.  And in truth Ronald does not own the rights to Anaconda, as those who do, show up making their own movie.  But that doesn't last long as the anaconda destroys their set and is after them as well.  It doesn't discriminate.  Amidst the chaos our four are trying to get away, but Doug gets devoured by the snake, and somehow spit up hole.  He appears dead.  They rap him in a pig so as to create a diversion and they can get away.  They put a squirrel in his mouth.  However he is not dead and the snake is boring down on him.  He runs, eventually the snake gets the pig and not him.

This movie has some funny parts.  The characters run away a lot and seem to run in a funny manner.  The four rekindle their relationship and form a stronger bond.  And Doug gets to make the wedding video for Claire and Ronald.  

Robin Williams Movie Review: *** Jack (1996)

 The premise of this movie is a child has a strange ailment which causes his cells to magture 4x faster than normal.  Jack Powell (Robin Williams) is ten with the body of a 40 year old, with shaving and everythig.  His mother (Diane Lane) is very protective, but finally convinced to allow him to go to school.  Father (Brian Kerwin) is more open to the idea.  You can imagine someone with a 40 yo body attending elementary school.  The other kids, initially don't treat him very well, but he is tall when when they play basketball he finds a niche, and begins to fit in.  He actually makes a few friends, Louise, Edward, John-John, George and Johnny (Adam Zolotin, Todd Bosley, Seth Smith, Mario Yedidia and Jer Adrienne Elliott.). They invite Jack to their tree house.  Before Jack went to school, he had a private tutor (Bill Cosby),  The tutor comes to the tree house has well, and the tree falls.  I didn't understand the motivation for having th tutor in the tree house.  It didn't make sense to me.  Jack has some difficulty navigating his world looking like an adult.  He makes a pass at his teacher (Jennifer Lopez) and is rejected.  His life spirals down and he quits school until his friends convince him to come back.

Enjoyable but I didn't understand the tutor character.  Seems the motivation was off.

In Theaters: **^ Second Act (2018)

***^ Second Act  (2018)  This movie stars Jennifer Lopez as a successful assistant manager at a store, but gets overlooked for a promotion because she does not have a college degree.  Her friends son creates a new persona for her, with diploma and history using the internet, and she is offered a position at a prestigious company.  She takes the job after being humiliated by her new boss.  And so begins a life of deceit.  She takes a task to develop a new line of cosmetic which is more “green.” Against the boss’ daughter who is just revamping the old line.  During the competition, it is discovered that the daughter (Vanessa Hudgens) is actually her own biological daughter she gave up for adoption many years ago.  She forms a quick relationship; but how will it survive when it becomes clear that her education and resume is all fraud.  This movie is actually very good but it is their playing light of the use of cuss words that keeps me from giving it higher marks.  If you are trying to keep your kids from cussing don’t take them to this movie.

Movie Review: ***^Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)

This movie has a way of putting things in perspective.  It makes a point at the beginning that Continental Drift was caused by the squirrel and his nut.  It is really pretty cute the way they start with a big view of the things going on, and then get to the specifics with the mammoth family, his saber tiger friend and the sloth.  These three, along with the sloth's grandmother, are set adrift on an iceberg in the ocean.  They are headed for adventure as the meet up with a pirate ship, captained by a cranky monkey with sharp claws.  This movie is about fatherhood, and finding romance in unusual places.  It is also again about loyalty, and being loyal to the right thing.
Ray Romano as Manny (The Mammoth)
John Leguizamo as Sid, the sloth
Denis Leary as Diego, the saber tooth
Peter Dinklage as Captain Gutt, the cranky monkey
Wanda Sykes as Granny
Jennifer Lopez as Shira, the saber tooth female
Queen Latifah as Elie, Manny's wife
Keke Palmer as Peaches, Manny and Ellie's daughter

Movie Review: ***Ice Age Collision Course (2016)

This is a the fifth in a series of Ice Age movies.  In this movie our Ice Age friends are faced with an asteroid headed to earth with sure extinction results as happened with the dinosaurs before.  This time the mammals are headed for destruction, but a sort of adventurer weasel, Buck (Simon Pegg) has figured out that they are doomed if they don't do anything.  This is a show also about relationship.  Our mammoth family (Ray Romano and Queen Latifah) is facing a daughter (Keke Palmer) getting married to a strange mammoth (Adam Devine), the saber teeth tiger (John Leguizamo and Jennifer Lopez) decide to have a baby, the sloth meets someone, the grandma sloth finds true love.  This movie is underscored with the nut chasing what ever it is, who gets in a space ship and knocks all the planets and everything around.  This character has been featured in many cartoons.
I took three boys, Skylar is three, he laughed the most, Jessi 6 says he was just angry, and Tony was mildly amused.  There were a couple spots of potty humor, but it didn't overwhelm the story.