Movie Review: **** The Proposal (2009)

 In this movie Sandra Bullock plays the boss, Margaret Tate, and Ryan Reynolds the executive secretary, Andrew Paxton.  Tate has been holding him back not wanting to lose his skills and his hard work.  He has been there for three years.  However when immigration shows up, (Tate is from Canada) Tate hatches a scheme to marry Paxton.  He goes along, but he was scheduled to be in Alaska for the 90th birthday of his grandmother (Betty White), so they travel to meet his parents.  For her side she has no family.

Tate gets caught up in the idea of having family again.  And they bit by bit start to create a romance.  However when it comes time for the actual wedding, Tate admits what she has done, and is headed back to New York where she will be deported.  Paxton tries to catch the plane before she leaves but fails to do so, and has to travel to New York to propose.  She has gone from the mean boss to someone who is finally real.

Pretty fun movie.  Paxton's family has a large estate in remote Alaska.  At one point an eagle catches the dog.  Tate throws her phone and the eagle drops the dog, but makes off with her phone.  She will be out of touch with work. 

 

Movie Review: ***^ If (2024)

 IF stands for Imaginary Friend.  The story of this movie is all the IFs are eventually forgotten.  Their children eventually grow older and forget aboyt them.  Bea (Cailey Fleming) is 12.  Her mother became ill and passed away.  She is now with her paternal grandmother (Fiona Shaw) as her father (John Krasinski) is in need of heart surgery.  Upstairs from her grandmother's apartment she discovers some interewsting creatures, IFs.  Cal (Ryan Reynolds) is trying to help IFs find new children.  Blue (voice Steve Carrel) is purple and Blossom (voice (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) is like a dancing bee.  They recruit Bea to help them find matches.  At first they have poor success; but then start getting IFs back with their previous children.  But the person in need of an IF is Bea herself.  

This movie is written and directed by John Krasinski.  It is about navigating life when things do not always go right, when we have trauma.  The story is about out there but works in the end.

Disney Movie Review: **** Free Guy (2021)

Free Guy is based on characters from a computer game, non-player characters or NPCs.  And what happens when one of those characters wants a girl.  Guy (Ryan Reynolds) is a teller in a bank that gets robbed everyday.  But one day he sees a girl, Molotovgirl/Millie (Jodie Comer) and goes after her.  She tells him he would need a score of 100 to come after her; So he goes about raising his score by doing good things rather than bad.   Keys (Joe Keery) and Millie are partners as they try to discover how their original code is being used in the game Free Town.  The discover that Guy has become a living AI.  The boss, Antwan (Taika Waititi) of course doesn't want them to be able to prove that he used their code to make his game.  The Free city world is at stake and Guy takes it upon himself to rescue them.  

This is the first movie to come out by Disney post Covid

Movie Review: ***^ X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

X-Men series 

Stryker (Danny Huston) is determined to put together the best strike tam, using mutants.  However with this, behind the scenes he is determined to harvest the powers of all the best mutants, and make a super mutant.  This is how Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is created.  However Wolverine/Logan (Hugh Jackman) is the key.  His brother Victor (Liev Schrieber) is pursuing him with this goal in mind.  Although it seems he is just wanting Logan back in the game and is willing to kill people to have his way.  In the end, he is coming for Victor and Stryker (the brains behind everything.). 

Too much violence for my tastes.

Christmas Carol Movie Review: ****Spirited (2022)

 This version of Christmas Carol is available on Apple TV.  It is a musical version and some of the songs are very catch.  Here is a unique take on "A Christmas Carol" from the view point of the ghosts and what goes into making a good changing intervention; even for unredeemable persons.  Big twist towards the end in the version which I will not reveal.  The plot centers around converting an unredeemable, Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds) into a better person.  Christmas Present (Will Ferrell), Past (Sunita Mani), Yet-to-Come (Loren Woods) and Jacob Marley (Patrick Page) all embark on this endeavor.  Briggs' decisions and ruthless business nature are ruining his niece, Wren (Marlow Barkley) his administrative assistant, Kimberly (Octavia Spencer) and his brother Owen (Joe Tippet) with his ruthless win-at-all-cost nature.  He was very callous at his sister's death.  He is a very hard nut to crack.  

In Theaters: Pokemon Detective Pikachu***

Pikachu Detective:  I must admit I was disappointed here.  I am not sure why.  I think mostly it is because I had Avenger expectations and this movie is more along the lines of Goosebumps.  Lots of cute Pokemon characters, and a twisty plot, but that isn’t enough for a good movie.  This movie is just mediocre.