Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016)

Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016)

7/10

Starring

Renee Zellweger

Colin Firth

Patrick Dempsey

Directed by Sharon Maguire

This new addition to the Bridget Jones franchise is worth it, especially considering the twelve-year gap between this movie and the second movie in the franchise. I was worried when I heard that Hugh Grant would not be part of the cast. The second movie, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), wasn’t as impressive as the first, Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), but I still enjoyed seeing the trio back at it.
Hugh Grant has always played the role of the villain, Daniel Cleaver, in both earlier movies, so when this movie came out without Daniel, I was worried about what direction the movie would take with the new addition to the cast, Patrick Dempsey.

What I’ve always loved about Bridget Jones movies is the free flow of events and how they try to make the incidents occur in ways that feel natural, yet too silly to be true. That free flow was restricted in the second movie, and Hugh Grant’s character seemed unreal and more annoying than he was in the first.
Another reason this movie was done well is that the producers did something smart—they brought back Sharon Maguire, who directed the first movie.

Sharon is the best person for this franchise if they decide to make a fourth Bridget Jones movie. She’s close to the characters, as the book the movie is based on was written by her close friend Helen Fielding, and one of the characters is based on her.

Patrick Dempsey’s character, Jack, didn’t play a bad guy role. His role in this movie is more of a good match against Colin Firth’s character, Mark Darcy, and his portrayal was well done.

While the movie is going on, you can feel Mark having the upper hand as Bridget’s soulmate, but the introduction of Jack will make you start guessing.

The movie plot starts with Bridget turning 43 and being alone. She and Mark broke up, and Mark is now married. The two see each other again at the funeral of Daniel Cleaver (which is the writers’ way of killing off the character), and Bridget struggles to maintain her composure upon seeing Mark.

Her friend feels sorry for her and takes her camping at a concert, where she runs into Jack, who helps her out of the mud. She runs into him again when she mistakenly enters his tent. Sparks start to fly, and they have sex. When she wakes up and doesn’t see him in the tent, she leaves.
Back home, some days later, Bridget is invited to be a godmother, and Mark has been asked to be the godfather to Jude’s child. Mark tells her that he and his wife are planning on getting a divorce, and later on, they have sex.

Bridget doesn’t want to start things back up with Mark again, so she distances herself from him. Things would have been fine here, but Bridget discovers she’s pregnant. Since she slept with two men within days of each other, she has no idea who the father might be.

The whole journey of discovering the father and how Bridget handles the two men is worth seeing in this classy romantic comedy. I wouldn’t mind seeing a fourth part if they decide to make one, as long as they keep Sharon Maguire as the director.

I have to add, as much as I appreciate and commend Sharon Maguire work here, there are times in this movie where the pacing is a bit uneven and does not flow like that of the first movie. 

As it is a romantic comedy about two soulmates, the plot can be pretty predictable. And even though Jack’s character brings some intrigue, the emotional stakes never really hit as hard as they should, as you keep believing that the movie will end up the way it should.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

6/10

Starring

Eva Green

Directed by Tim Burton

Since Alice in Wonderland (2010), Tim Burton’s gothic style hasn’t hit a home run in a while. But this movie, which may not be a huge financial success, at least broke even and was a good effort by the director.

The movie has a lot of questionable characters, many loose ends, and more of an anticlimactic narrative style. But the cinematic art, CGI, and cinematography are in a class of their own, making up big time for the flaws the movie presents.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a dark fantasy movie based on the 2011 book of the same name by Ransom Riggs. This dark adventure movie will warm your eyes with entertainment as Tim Burton weaves the story well enough that you won’t notice the drops in excitement or the long waits before something thrilling happens again.

When it comes to the characters in this movie, I’ll have to say there were many that kept my eyes intrigued. Eva Green, as always, dominates the screen with her style. She has a gothic queen aura that fits her role perfectly.
To get a feel of her gothic presence, there’s another Burton film she was in, Dark Shadows (2012) (although I’d strongly advise against seeing it), and her role as a spiritualist in the now-cancelled TV series Penny Dreadful.

Whether the movie did justice to the book, I can’t say—I haven’t read it. What I do know is that the movie did a good job, especially with the child actors. Three of them I’ve seen in other films, while the rest were new to me.
The movie did have some weak fight scenes when the children had to step up to save their caregivers. However, there was an awesome scene towards the end when one of the peculiar children raised an army of fighting skeletons to take down huge, monstrous creatures.

Altogether, I’d say this movie is well-packaged to deliver all forms of entertainment to the viewer.

The movie plot centers around a grandfather and his grandson. He tells the child many stories about monsters and his wonderful adventures where he met peculiar children, all under the care of Miss Peregrine. Now grown up, the grandson believes his grandpa was hallucinating all those years.

One day, as a teenager, Jacob is on his way to visit his grandpa when he gets a call from him. His grandpa is acting out, claiming the monster is coming for him. Jacob asks his grandpa, Abe, if he’s taken his medicine, a question Abe brushes aside. When Jacob arrives, he finds the house in disarray and soon spots his grandpa on the ground in the woods, away from his home, dead with his eyes missing.

In his dying breath, his grandpa asks him to find Miss Peregrine (played by Eva Green, who resides in Wales) and warn her that they are coming for her and the children.

Jacob convinces his therapist and parents to let him go to Wales with his father to get closure. When he gets there and locates the home his grandpa always talked about, Jacob finds it was destroyed in 1943 during World War II.

But he soon discovers small children and even teenagers like him, who claim they’ve come to take him to Miss Peregrine and their home. He follows them and discovers a home that looks similar to the one he saw earlier, destroyed. He realizes he’s stepped into a time loop and is no longer in 2016 but back in 1943.

He soon meets Miss Peregrine and learns about the horror and evil that plague the peculiar children—and his place among them.

A good movie—one I enjoyed every moment of. Dark enough to remain captivating, with beautiful cinematic art to keep you entertained.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

5/10

Starring

Tom Cruise

Cobie Smulders

Directed by Edward wick

Unlike the first movie, Jack Reacher (2012), which was worth seeing when you get the chance, this movie is worth avoiding.
The name Never Go Back is exactly what you should do—see the first and don’t look back for seconds. These movies are based on several Jack Reacher books by author Lee Child.

The first movie was a financial success, and it was fun to watch, with nice action scenes. This sequel, however, has had bad reviews from audiences and critics alike. I have no idea if it will be a commercial success, but these movies won’t become a successful franchise like Cruise’s Mission: Impossible series. When you start to wonder, “What went wrong with this movie?” you’ll be amazed at the list you can come up with. The action scenes lacked enthusiasm, the plot—which you’d expect to be at least better than the first—is nowhere close, and the supporting cast did nothing for this movie the way Robert Duvall did for the first.

The writers decided to give the lead character, Reacher, an emotional side. If you’re a fan of action flicks, you’ll know that never works out the way you plan, especially when the movie is about a character who acts without emotions. In this sequel, Reacher is asking a lady out on a date and has to care for a 15-year-old who claims to be his daughter.

With all these emotions in the air, we have a Jack who is hindered by them, making him less effective. His lack of effectiveness made the movie drag endlessly. I also had an issue with Jack’s brushes with the military—his escape scenes weren’t slick enough for a character of his caliber.

The movie plot starts with Jack (Tom Cruise) helping the military bust up a human trafficking ring. He’s been in constant contact with Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders), whom he asked out, hoping to start some form of relationship.

Major Turner gets mixed up in a conspiracy involving missing weapons and drug deals, which gets her arrested a day before Reacher travels to meet her.

Reacher also learns that day that a woman has filed a lawsuit against him for child support, claiming Reacher is the father of her 15-year-old daughter.

This movie won’t make as much money as the first, and as I said above, I’d advise anyone to save their money and skip this one.