Alien: Covenant

I walked into the theater last night with a little bit of trepidation.  I love the 1979 classic Alien because it scared me (I actually screamed out loud while watching it on TV) but I didn't especially like the 2012 installment Prometheus because it confused me and left too many questions unanswered.  Alien: Covenant skillfully combines elements from both movies and it was better than I expected.   Ten years after the events of Prometheus (and eighteen years before the events of Alien) a spaceship is traveling to the remote planet Origae-6 with thousands of colonists in stasis when the ship is damaged by a flare.  A synthetic android named Walter (Michael Fassbender) wakes up the crew but the captain is killed in the incident.  After the ship is stabilized, the crew picks up a radio transmission from a planet compatible with life that is much closer than Origae-6.  Acting Captain Oram (Billy Crudup) makes the decision to make a detour to the planet to investigate against the objections of Daniels (Katherine Waterston).  As they explore the planet, two crewmembers are "infected" with a spore resulting in aliens exploding from their chests which attack the rest of the crew.  They are rescued by the android David (Michael Fassbender) who has been living on the planet since the events of Prometheus.  There are scenes which expand upon the mythology of Prometheus but it ultimately becomes an intense, exciting, and bloody chase as the expendable crewmembers succumb one by one to the aliens until an epic confrontation aboard the ship.  Fassbender gives a brilliant performance as both of the androids because he imbues each character with subtle differences and some of the best scenes in the movie feature interactions between the two.  I'm not a huge fan of Waterston but she also delivers in this role.  The scenery on the planet is incredible (It was filmed at Milford Sound in New Zealand just weeks before I visited).  I liked the special effects with the aliens and the score is very effective at conveying a mood of terror.  It has flaws (there are still a lot of unanswered questions) but I think it is the best movie since the original and I definitely recommend it to fans of the franchise.

The Will Rogers Follies at PTC

Because I have a rush pass to Pioneer Theatre, I can see the current production any time I want.  I planned to see The Will Rogers Follies on four different occasions but something always came up to change my plans (mostly spontaneous invitations to do other things).  I finally made it to the show last night and it was just delightful.  This extravagant musical tells the life story of Will Rogers (David M. Lutken), America's favorite humorist, as if it were a big song and dance production by Florenz Ziegfeld.  Rogers performs rope tricks, has a little bit of fun with politics (it is rather eerie how much the political situation today resembles that of Herbert Hoover), and sings and dances with a bevy of high-kicking showgirls.  Of course there are a few occasional comments from Mr. Ziegfeld himself (the voice of Donny Osmond) with suggestions to make the show more interesting for the audience, such as moving his wedding to Betty Blake (Lisa Brescia) to the end of Act 1 even though they had four children by this point in the story!  Lutken does an amazing job delivering bits of homespun wisdom (and he's not too shabby with a rope, either).  All of the big song and dance numbers are quite spectacular led by Ziegfeld's Favorite, Chryssie Whitehead, and an incredibly talented ensemble of dancers.  I was especially impressed with "Our Favorite Son."  The wranglers, who are very easy on the eyes, also really impressed me in "Give a Man Enough Rope."  The four children, Kimball Stinger, Ava Hoekstra, Nathan Eliason, and Mila Belle Howells, are absolutely adorable and just about steal every scene they are in.  Finally, the costumes are incredible!  It is worth the price of admission just for the costumes alone; however, there are lots of reasons why you should go see this show and the most important one is that it is just so much fun!  It runs at PTC until Saturday (go here for tickets).

Note:  Kudos to PTC for such a great season!  I have enjoyed every production immensely (I think my favorite would have to be King Charles III) and I am looking forward to next season as well (especially Bright Star).

Everything, Everything

Last night my friend invited me to an advance screening of the movie Everything, Everything.  Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Nicola Yoon, it tells the story of Maddy Whittier (Amandla Stenberg), a 18-year-old girl with a disease called severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) which means she is never allowed to leave the inside of her house.  She is resigned to her fate and passes her time reading and taking architecture classes online.  One day her life changes when Olly Bright (Nick Robinson) moves next door and tries to befriend her through her window.  They begin communicating and, suddenly, Maddy is no longer content with her confined life inside.  She convinces her nurse to let Olly inside and she learns that he is just as isolated as she is because of an alcoholic father.  They fall in love and Maddy decides to risk her life to be with Olly because love is everything.  Everything.  This movie really works because both of the lead actors are so charismatic and they have great chemistry with each other.  In fact, I found their entire relationship to be incredibly sweet and, more importantly, authentic.  Having the two of them actually speak to each other inside of Maddy's architectural models when they are texting is a very clever and effective device.   I also found the relationship between Maddy and her mother (Anika Noni Rose) to be very compelling and Rose gives an affecting performance as a woman so afraid to lose her daughter that she becomes obsessed with her care.  Sometimes movies about teens with illnesses can be very melodramatic but the filmmakers did everything right in this movie.  I never felt sorry for Maddy because she didn't wallow in self-pity and I loved the scenes of her exploring the outside world for the first time.  Finally, the soundtrack is just about perfect.  I loved this movie and I highly recommend seeing it when it hits theaters on Friday!

Rugby!

This summer, instead of playing baseball, Sean has decided to play rugby!  He has been going to practices for the past few weeks and the season officially starts next Saturday.  I can hardly wait to watch him play because I've heard a rumor that he is fast!

I guess I better learn a little bit about rugby!

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

Guy Ritchie is a very idiosyncratic director.  All of his movies feature frenetic action sequences with pulse-pounding music underneath them and his protagonists are street-smart wise-cracking hoodlums with a crew of sidekicks.  This worked for me in both of his Sherlock Holmes movies and these elements are what worked for me in his new movie, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.  However, instead of his usual formula which would have made the story of Arthur into an entertaining movie, Ritchie added some strange elements of fantasy which made it into a convoluted and bloated mess.  The movie opens with a bewildering CGI battle sequence featuring giant elephants, under the control of the wizard Mordred, attacking King Uther Pendragon (Eric Bana).  We learn that the King's brother Vortigen (Jude Law) is in league with Mordred and when the wizard is ultimately killed, Vortigen takes matters into his own hands and kills Uther himself to seize the throne (gaining power by a blood sacrifice to a strange octopus-like creature).  Uther's young son escapes to Londinium where he is raised in a brothel, becoming the aforementioned wise-cracking thug with his crew of misfits.  Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) is eventually reunited with Uther's sword Excalibur, captured by Vortigen, and rescued by a witch who can control animals (Astrid Berges-Frisbey).  Arthur must learn to control Excalibur, in a strange sequence featuring rodent-like creatures, and then face Vortigen (who has made another blood sacrifice to the strange octopus) in an ultimate show-down involving a giant snake.  I really liked the music, the fun interactions between Arthur and his crew (who eventually become the Knights of the Round Table at the end of the movie), the stylized fight sequences between the crew and Vortigen's soldiers (known as blacklegs), and Jude Law's portrayal of Vortigen.  But it seems like Ritchie didn't know what kind of movie he was making with the inclusion of these ridiculous CGI fantasy sequences filled with monsters.  This movie is incredibly disjointed and confusing and I definitely recommend giving it a miss.

Note:  I am 0-2 in my movie selections this weekend.  I find it interesting that aside from Logan and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, I have been very underwhelmed by Hollywood blockbusters this year.  My favorites so far have all been independent films.