Sandra Bullock Movie Review: ***^ Speed (1994)

 Speed is a wild ride.  It is rated R as it has too mch f'ing.  It does have some memorial characters.  Annie (Sandra Bullock) is a bus passenger, who grabs the wheel when the driver is shot.  Jack Traven (Keanu Reevs) is a bomb specialist with LAPD.  Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper) is the bomber.  He ius Ex bomb squad police who retired when fingers blown off; but not happy with his severance.  Harry (Jeff Daniels) is Traven's partner.  He does not survive as a bomb explodes when they go to Payne's home.  Not all of this is realistic; especially driving the bus through town and keeping it above 50 mph.  If it goes below 50 a bomb will explode.  Lots of action and lots of peril.  

Movie Review: ***^ Premonition (2007)

 Now this is a movie based on confusion.  Linda Hanson (Sandra Bullock) is informed by a police officer that her husband, Jim Hanson (Julian McMahon) has passed away in a car accident.  But then when she wakes the next morning he is alive.  And then his funeral comes, and she is not willing to accept that he is dead, so she insists on seeing him in the casket, to discover he was decapitated.  But then he is alive again the next day.  She ends up being hauled away to a mental hospital, but then he is alive again.  She begins to realize she is not living her days in order.  She figures what day she is at, and on what day her husband dies.  The only one who understands her "premonition" is a minister.  Her daughter, Megan (Shyann McClure) shows up with cuts and scars one day.  But later she lives the day of her running through a glass window.  She has another daughter, Bridgette (Courtney Taylor Burness).  She discovers that her husband was a flirt, Claire (Amber Valletta) which he hopes becomes more.  She gets to the point of reconciling with her husband and talking to him about things; before it is too late.  She also has a very opinionated mother who takes care of the kids frequently.  Joanne (Kate Nelligan) is worried about her daughter and arranges for her to go into a mental hospital.  Linda's good friend Annie (Nia Long) is also involved in this.  She even goes to where her husband is going to crash.  He leaves early for work on the day of the crash, and she misses the chance to keep him home, wo she follows.  She finally gets him on the phone, after he told the flirt it was a no go.  She asks hi to turn around, and in doing so a truck crashes with his vehicle.  We see her several months later, and she is now pregnant with their third child.

Short Film Movie Review: **** Aningaaq (2013)

 This short films shows the other side of a radio call made in the movie Gravity.  Dr. Stone (Sandra Bullock) places a call for help from space.  She connects with an Inuit fisherman, Aningaaq (Orto Ignatiussen).  They do not speak the same language, but they make a a human connection.  Stone is sure her situation is hopeless and she is going to die today.  The other astronauts with have all died.  They connect over the sounds of the dogs, who don't bark but howl.  They also connect over the cry of a baby.  Aningaaq is preoccupied with having to put his old, sick dog down, and Stone with her own death.  They both benefit from support, but the connection doesn't last, and the last we hear is the report of the rifle as it takes the life of the dog.

Very well done.  Film is by Jonás Cuarón, the son of the director Alfonso Cuarón of Gravity.  Jonás helped write the movie Gravity with his father.  

Sandra Bullock Movie Review: **** Gravity (2013)

 When everything goes wrong that possible can go wrong on a space mission, this is the movie.  This movie is very intense, as the space craft is subject to a massive space debris collision.  The ship is torn apart, and so our two surviving astronauts must space walk to a space station, with depleting oxygen.  One (George Clooney) gives himself up to get the other (Sandra Bullock) to the station.  It is not in much better shape.  She boards a vehicle to get away, but it gets caught on wires and a chute.  She finally gets free, but discovers no gas.  When things are desperate she reaches out and talks with an Inuit.  Even though she can't communicate she gets hope from a baby crying, and from the dogs howling.  She is ready to give up, but with the help of the ghost of Clooney, she burns the gas reserved for breaking to get free.  She is headed for the Chinese space station.  She gets there but the debris also gets there.  She pretty much falls to earth.

This movie is very tense as lives are in danger through out.  It does show the need for connection and the will to survive.  The special effects are great.  I do not know how they replica zero gravity and the spinning and everything.  I would recommend it to others.  

Sandra Bullock Movie Review: ****Miss Congeniality (2000)

This is a very funny movie with enough action to keep it very interesting.  Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) is an FBI agent who goes undercover at the Miss USA pageant as a bomb threat has been made.  Her partner is running the operation, agent Matthews (Benjamin Bratt). Victor Melling (Michael Caine) is brought in to make Gracie seem plausible as a contestant.  The pageant hosts are Kathy Morningside (Candice Bergen) and Stan Fields (William Shatner).   Miss Rhode Island (Heather Burns) plays prominently as Gracie's friend and is very funny.  What would be your ideal date?  "April 25th because its not too cold and not too hot."  That really cracks me up.  I like the personalities of the characters.  Bullock is very fun, as are the contestants.  I very much recommend this movie.  The fight over the crown at the end is pretty funny as well.

Sandra Bullock Movies

Sandra Bullock has been in movies for sometime.  I really enjoy seeing her in the movies.  This list contains her movies that are not rated "R".  Some years she was in three or four movies, a testament to her maketability as an actress and the characters she builds.  

Love Potion #9 (1992)

The Thing Called Love (1993)

Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993)

***^ Speed (1994) with Keanu Reeves, Jeff Daniels, Dennis Hopper

**** The Net (1995) When your identiy is stolen by the internet

**** While You were Sleeping. (1995). Love story

Love and War (1996)

Speed 2 (1997)

 ***^ Hope Floats (1998)

**** Pratical Magic (1998). A good Halloween movie about siblings who are witches

The Prince of Egypt (1998). Animated story of Moses

Forces of Nature (1999)

28 Days (2000)

**** The Lakehouse (2000) Love story with Keanu Reeves and a time shift of two years, and a dog.

**** Miss Congeniality (2000)

Lisa Picard Is Famous (2000)

Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood (2002)

2 Weeks Notice (2002)

Miss Congeniality 2 (2005)

***^ Premonition (2007). Julian McMahon portrays her husband

**** The Proposal (2009)

All About Steve (2009)

***^ Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011). 9/11 movie

**** Gravity (2013)

****^ Aningaaq (2013)

****^ The Blind Side (2014) Very good football movie

*^ Minions (2015) Animated feature I didn't care for

*** Bird in a Cage (2018). Netflix scifi movie

Oceans's 8 (2018)

The Lost City (2022)

Tom Hanks Movie Review: ***^Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)

 This is a different kind of Tom Hanks movie.  Tom Hanks dies at 9-11, and the movie focuses on his son, Oskar (Thomas Horn) and wife (Sandra Bullock) dealing with the loss.  Oskar's grandmother (Zoe Caldwell) gives some support.  Oskar find a key, and consequently is on a mission to find where the key fits.  It says Black on the key, so he wants to see everybody with the last name of Black in New York.  This is a big chore for someone with post traumatic anxiety.  He is eventually joined by his grandmother's renter, who is likely his grandfather (Max von Sydow).  He tells his story of 9-11.  His father called, but he didn't pick up, and then the building fell.  

This movie explores 9-11 in the effect it had on family members of those who were murdered.  

Netflix Movie: ***Bird In a Cage (2018)

*** Bird in a Cage  (2018 Netflix)  There is something out there that if you see it you will be compelled to commit suicide.  Your only hope is to make sure you don’t see whatever it is.  So you use cover all the windows, and beyond that you always wear a blindfold.  However, when other persons show up whose mission it is to make you see whatever it might be, then it is just a matter of time until everyone will be dead.  However there is some hope, a place you have contacted over the CB band radio.  However the journey is perilous.  A couple who did not make it, Tom (Trevante Rhodes) who for a time had made a partnership with Malorie (Sandra Bullock).  They have two children, one Malorie’s and the other of a friend who did not make it.  Douglas (John Malkovich) was the most wary of strangers.  But even he did not make it.  Tom dies as they are leaving, making it possible for Malorie to get to the river and into a boat, which they must navigate blind folded.  All goes well, until they were almost dumped by the current, but their food supply went overboard.  The must go to land to find supplies, and this is really tense.  Not only is there hazards, but the entity seems to know your friends and tries to call you and confuse you.    The thing is never just seen, just leaves that blow in the air, and the birds in a box that get really excited when the thing is close.  Never is a monster worse than the one you never see.  Great fun but too much swearing and violence.  Sheri and I watched this by ourselves when everyone was gone as we didn’t want everyone to see.  I love Sandra Bullock in just about any roll.

Movie Review: ***^Hope Floats (1998)

This is a very good character study, which starts with the premise, what if your best friend, and your husband, expose that they are having an affair on national television in some kind of talk show.  Can it get any worse than that?  This movie shows that it can, but then hope floats and things start turning around.  I must admit this is not my favorite Sandra Bullock film.  It is a bit too slow.  Birdee (Sandra Bullock) and Matisse (Harry Connick Jr.) have something going, but it really develops slowly, and by the end of the movie is still just in its starting stages.  The relationship that needs to resolve is that between Birdee and her daughter (Mae Whitman).  She is always waiting for father to pick her up, and blames the relationship mess on her mother.  The finally begin to crawl out of a hole, but it is interesting how this is done.  Grandma (Ramona Calvert) has a very big roll in keeping everything going.

Movie Review: ***^Hope Floats (1998)

This movie excites me as it is a Sandra Bullock movie.  However, in this movie the worst possible thing that could happen does.  Birdee (Bullock) is at a talk show, where her best friend reveals to her that she and Birdee's husband are having an affair, and he now wants to be with her.  Birdee goes home, and confronts her humiliation.  Birdee's mother (Gena Rowlands) is determined to get her daughter up off the floor by reintroducing her to an old friend Justin Matisse (Harry Connick Jr.).  The focus of the film is the change in the family relationship.  One of the most touching aspects is when Birdee explains to her mother what she liked about her husband.
The movie ends with not everything resolved, but with Hope beginning to float after a long winter.  I like Bullock, and Connick is also very good.  A movie like this is built on relationships.  It makes you want to scream to see a family destroyed due to some selfishness.  However, family lives own.

Movie Review: ****While You Were Sleeping (1995)

This is another three-way love story.  Lucy (Sandra Bullock) lives a lonely life as a ticket taker at the train station.  She sees a handsome man everyday, and develops a crush on him.  When that man, Peter (Peter Gallagher) is mugged and pushed upon the tracks, she rescues him at peril to her own life.  He is still in a coma from bonking his head in the fall.  She goes the the hospital, and at what point she murmurs of her intent to marry him.  From there she is taken as his fiance, even though they have never met.  His family takes her in.  She is captivated by there love, and is hesitant to tell the truth.  Peter's brother Jack (Bill Pullman) is suspicious.  However at the same time he discovers a flame for her, and she discovers the same.  When Peter wakes, despite not knowing her, he re-proposes to Lucy.  the wedding is on.  Sandra really loves the brother, but doesn't see a way out.  Not until wedding day, does she finally reveal she was never the Peter's fiance.  The real fiance also shows up at the wedding.  Lucy sneaks away, only to be confronted by Jack the next day at work, coming with a wedding ring.

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 "While You Were Sleeping" has Sandra Bullock in it.  It is a 1995 movie.  She works at a ticket window of a train.   She has a crush on a man she sees everyday.He falls on the track, and she saves his life.  However to see him at the hospital, she has to be a relative, and so becomes his fiance.  In truth she has never met him.  He is in a coma, and in the mean time she is taken in by his family.  This puts her in line with his brother, with whom she falls in love.  I really like Sandra Bullock, and this movie really displays her charm.  She is an incredible actress, when given the right venue, and this story is a true romantic comedy and the right venue forher..

Movie Review: **** Practical Magic (1998)

Here is a very good Halloween themed show.  Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman) come from a family of witches, with a particular curse that if they love men, that man is destined to die.  And so they do their best not to fall in love, including wishing (or casting a spell) for the impossible, or picking someone who is terribly evil you couldn't fall in love with him.  All this works to a degree, until Sally does fall in love, and after having two children, her husband is killed by a truck.  In the meantime, Gillian picks an abuser, and Sally goes to rescue her, killing gillian's boyfriend in the process.  They cast a spell to bring him back, and he comes back as a ghost haunting them.  In the end he inhabits Gillian, and only bringing the community together are they able to save her, and send the ex on his way.
This movie has sisterly and motherly affection, as well as romantic relationships.  It has some scary scenes.  It also puts in some unneeded drinking and partying.  It also deals with relationships with those who are different.  The community has always been down on them as witches, but in the end the make amends.

Movie Review: ****The Lake House (2006)

Dr. Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) lives at a new lake house, which was the former residence of Alex Wyler (Keanu Reeves) and was designed by Alex' estranged father, Simon Wyler (Christopher Plummer).  Some how, the star corresponding through two years of time, Forster being two years ahead of Alex Wyler.  This difference in time streams makes for an interesting show, and an interesting plot twist.  This is one of those shows which leaves any sane person crying, and then crying some more when you don't think you could.  A dog is the character which somehow is in both time streams.

Movie Review: *^Minions (2015)

This movie sets out to tell us where the Minions come from, who play an important part in the "Despicable Me" movies.  Tony loved it.  But as for my part, I hated it.  I suggested we leave to Sheri, but Tony was having fun.  However he wasn't able to tell me why he liked it.  I think the producers had attention issues because the movie kept jumping form here to there without very clear connection between the plot pieces.  Sandra Bullock voiced the master criminal Scarlet Overkill.  This whole movie was just that, overkill.

Movie Review: ****The Net (1995)

The Net, (1995) This is a very intense movie.  It sparks the question, what happens if those who run the internet turn against the people they are serving?  Could they really take away someone’s identity and replace her with someone else?  Identity theft is such a big deal it makes this movie all the move relevant.    Sandra Bullock stars as Angela Bennett who works as a computer programmer, and whose mother has Alzheimers.  When Bennett comes upon a conspiracy plot of computer program company manipulating security so the government is forced to buy their product,; and then they will have complete control of the internet.  She makes her discovery known, and sets herself up as a target.  There are attempts made against her life, and against her identity.  Her existence is erased and she is given a different name, someone with a criminal past and who is wanted. 

The only way to restore her existence is to use her computer skills to go after those who are doing this to her. 

Things I didn’t like, the computers screens appeared to melt form a virus.  I didn’t know they did that.  Also the bad guys weren’t very well prepared.  However this is a good tense filled movie lots of fun.

Movie Review: ****^The Blind Side (2009)

For this movie Sandra Bullock won the Oscar for best actress.  In watching the movie you can see why.  This movie tells the early story of Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), and NFL football player.  Through his youth he was in and out of foster care as his mother had a drug problem.  He would generally run away from home.  However he did get a scholarship to a Catholic school, based on his size.  He was going to sleep outside the gym one evening, when Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) invited him home to spend the night with her family.  She then invited him for Thanksgiving.  Over the objection of some of her friends, and neighbors, he becomes a part of her family.
He initially struggles at football, because he doesn't want to hurt anyone.  However, Tuohy takes him aside, and explains how he has to protect his back side.  He overcomes his fear, and becomes an all-American football player, recruited by many colleges.  However he cannot take a scholarship to a major school without raising his grades.  A tutor is hired, (Kathy Bates) who likes Mississippi.  His new parents also went there.  He chooses Mississippi but not without NCAA investigation.  He has to get some things strait in his mind, and goes home, to birth neighborhood.  He has a run-in with a relative.  Tuohy comes looking for him, and this individual threatens her son.  She starts to walk away, then turns around and lets him know she is packing and she has her son's blind side.  It is a cool seen.  Oher passes his NCAA interview as he says he wants to go to Mississippi because it is his family school.