Jungle Cruise

I pretty much had to see the movie Jungle Cruise because it is based on one of the few rides at Disneyland that I will willingly go on!  I saw it last night at a Thursday preview and I really enjoyed it.  At the height of World War I, Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) finds an artifact that leads to the Tree of Life which, according to legend, has powerful healing powers.  She and her fastidious brother McGregor (Jack Whitehall) travel to Brazil and hire a reluctant Captain Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson) to take them down the Amazon River in his dilapidated steamboat to find it.  They have a series of misadventures involving heat, wild animals, cannibals, and treacherous rapids but they are also being pursued by an ancient conquistador (Edgar Ramirez) who is trying to undo a curse that has kept him in the jungle for hundreds of years and a German aristocrat (Jesse Plemons) who wants to use the power to win the war.  Many of the action sequences feature very obvious (and subpar) CGI but they are certainly entertaining and exciting.  Johnson and Blunt are fantastic and have great chemistry, especially with their back-and-forth bickering (but not when their relationship inevitably turns romantic).  All of Frank's groan-worthy puns are so much fun because they reminded me of the ride at Disneyland.  Whitehall provides a lot of comic relief and, while McGregor's backstory might divide critics and audiences, I found it to be very affecting.  Ramirez is suitably creepy as Aguirre but I found the story of the Spanish conquistador to be very convoluted.  Plemons steals the show as the bombastic Prince Joachim and I laughed out loud at many of his over-the-top antics.  I also enjoyed the music by James Newton Howard and, rather unusually, Metallica (an instrumental version of "Nothing Else Matters" is used in a key scene and I think it is very effective).  This is not a masterpiece but it is a fun summer blockbuster that most will probably enjoy and I definitely recommend it.

Note:  This reminded me a lot of The Mummy, one of my favorite action movies, because they both feature smart, capable, and adventurous female characters (and they both have fun scenes involving library ladders).

The Magical Music of Harry Potter at Deer Valley

Last night I got to experience three of my favorite things, the Utah Symphony, Harry Potter, and an outdoor performance in the mountains, and it was absolutely wonderful!  As if those weren't enough incentives to get a ticket to last night's concert at Deer Valley, the guest conductor was Enrico Lopez-Yanez!  I enjoyed him so much during his last appearance with the symphony because he was incredibly charming and engaging!  I was really excited to see him again and he certainly didn't disappoint last night!  He came out in full Hogwarts regalia and conducted a roll call for House affiliation (I am Ravenclaw in case you were wondering) before beginning the concert with "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by John Williams.  Next the orchestra played "The Weasley Stomp" from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by Nicholas Hooper.  They continued with "Fawkes the Phoenix," "Dobby the House Elf," "Gilderoy Lockheart," and "The Chamber of Secrets" from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by John Williams.  One of my favorites was "Nimbus 2000" from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone because I could picture the Quiddich match in my head as the orchestra played it.  The first half of the concert ended with selections from the Suite from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by John Williams and included "Aunt Marge's Waltz," "The Knight Bus" (which was very popular with all of the kids sitting around me), "A Bridge to the Past," and "Double Trouble."  The latter included four vocalists, Julia Bradshaw (Gryffindor), Mariah Stanelle (Ravenclaw), Mitchell Mosley (Hufflepuff), and Tate Forshay (Slytherin), and it was a lot of fun!  After the intermission, the orchestra played "Witches, Wands, and Wizards" from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by John Williams and "Death of Cedric" from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by Patrick Doyle.  Then Lopez-Yanez picked several kids (and one 25 year old) in costume from the audience to compete in the Tri-Wizard Tournament and sent them to pick their wands while the orchestra played "Diagon Alley" from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  He had the contestants name as many magical creatures as they could while the orchestra played "Buckbeak's Flight" from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and then use their wands to cast a spell during "The Quiddich World Cup (The Irish)" from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  The audience crowned the winner and she was given an actual Tri-Wizard Tournament Cup!  Next came the Symphonic Suite from Harry Potter which included "Fireworks," "The Flight of the Order of the Phoenix," Harry & Hermione," "Obliviate," "Lily's Theme," and "Courtyard Apocalypse" (I loved the dramatic drums in this piece).  The concert concluded with "Harry's Wondrous World" from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and the encore was "Hogwarts' Hymn" from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  I love all of the Harry Potter movies so it was a lot of fun to hear all of the music played live, especially in the mountains where it was actually cool enough for me to need a jacket!  I think all of the remaining concerts in the Deer Valley Music Festival are sold out but you might have some luck calling the box office!

Old

I am a huge M. Night Shyamalan fan (I even like the Shyamalan movies that most other people hate) and I have been looking forward to Old for what seems like forever so I saw it at the earliest possible opportunity which was a Thursday preview last night.  Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Prisca (Vicky Krieps), along with their children Maddox (Alexa Swinton) and Trent (Nolan River), are vacationing at a resort on a tropical island.  There is a lot of tension between them and it turns out that they are giving their children one final vacation before announcing their intention to divorce.  The manager of the resort (Gustaf Hammarsten) tells them about an exclusive and secluded beach and offers to have an employee (Shyamalan) drive them there for the day.  They decide to go but are annoyed when they are joined by a doctor named Charles (Rufus Sewell), his trophy wife Chrystal (Abbey Lee), his daughter Kara (Kyle Bailey), and his mother Agnes (Kathleen Chalfant), as well as a nurse named Jarin (Ken Leung) and his wife Patricia (Nikki Amuka-Bird).  A rapper named Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre) is already there having spent the night with a woman he just met.  When the woman's drowned body is discovered in a cove, they are all horrified to discover that it has decomposed at a rapid rate.  They are also stunned to see that the children are changing drastically every hour (Maddox is played by Thomasin McKenzie at 16 and Embeth Davidtz as an adult; Trent is played by Luca Faustino Rodriguez at 11, Alex Wolff at 15, and Emun Elliott as an adult; and Kara is played by Mikaya Fischer at 11 and Eliza Scanlen at 15).  Evidently, time is passing at a rate of one year for every 30 minutes on the beach and the guests can't seem to leave.  This is an absolutely brilliant concept and I really enjoyed the discussions about living in the present and cherishing the time spent with loved ones.  The tone is incredibly surreal (it reminded me of an episode of The Twilight Zone) with line deliveries that are almost hysterical in pitch, jarring camera work that emphasizes the disorientation of the characters, and an uncomfortably menacing sound design.  Many might disagree with these choices but they worked for me and I enjoyed the effect.  However, I didn't enjoy the typical Shyamalan plot twist as much as I usually do (I think it is anti-climactic after the tense build-up).  I really need to think about Old a bit more before I decide if I love it but I definitely didn't hate it.

Note:  When I say that I like the Shyamalan movies that most other people hate I, of course, do not mean The Last Airbender.  Did anyone like that movie?

Pig

When I first heard about the movie Pig, I had certain preconceived notions about the kind of movie it would be, especially since it starred a deranged looking Nicolas Cage, so I decided not to see it.  However, I started reading rave reviews (which admonished viewers to go into the theater knowing as little as possible to fully enjoy it) so I changed my mind.  I went to see it last night and I'm not sure what I expected but it certainly wasn’t a philosophical meditation on finding meaning in a seemingly meaningless world!  Robin Feld (Cage) is living off the grid in a rustic cabin deep in the woods of Oregon.  His only means of support is selling truffles to Amir (Alex Wolff), who then sells them to the trendy restaurants in Portland, and his only companion is his prized foraging pig.  He is a broken man and he clearly has his demons.  One night he is savagely attacked and his pig is stolen which leaves him devastated.  He enlists the help of a reluctant Amir, who has his own demons, to help him find his pig and their search brings them to Portland, where is is revealed that Feld was once a well-regarded chef.  That is really all you should know before going in but you should also know that this is a complex character study rather than a traditional revenge thriller (there is a scene of shocking violence but it is not at all what you are expecting) and that might prove disappointing for some.  I think it is brilliant because, while it is definitely a slow burn, everything that happens builds upon and expands the central idea.  Cage is really hit or miss with me but this is one of his best performances.  His delivery of a monologue at the midway point is absolutely haunting and it gave me goosebumps.  Wolff is also very good and Amir's character arc is as compelling as Feld's.  This is definitely one of the best movies I've seen this year and I highly recommend it!

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions

I liked the movie Escape Room a lot more than I thought I would.  I enjoyed the premise, the design of the rooms, and the suspenseful action sequences.  My only problem was with the ending because it lacks any kind of credibility and it slows down the action with a lot of clunky dialogue in an attempt to explain everything.  There is also a groan-worthy cliffhanger that I thought was a blatant bid for a sequel (and I was right).  Did you enjoy the lengthy recap of my review for the first movie?  More about that later!  Last night I went to see the promised sequel, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, and this time around I didn't like it as much as I thought I would.  After surviving the escape rooms set up by the Minos corporation, Zoey (Taylor Russell) and Ben (Logan Miller) are suffering from PTSD and want to hold Minos accountable for the deaths of the other players.  They follow a clue to a dilapidated warehouse in New York but eventually end up in another escape room with Theo (Carlito Olivero), Nathan (Thomas Cocquerel), Rachel (Holland Roden), and Brianna (Indya Moore).  Once again, the players must solve puzzles in order to escape from elaborately staged rooms or face deadly consequences.  This movie begins with a lengthy bit of exposition recapping everything that happened in the first one (maybe the filmmakers wanted to pad the runtime, which is 88 minutes, to compensate for a thin plot?) but this just serves to emphasize that the original characters are more sympathetic than the new ones.  The premise for the new game, namely that each player is the sole survivor of his or her respective game, is not as compelling as the original one (each player has a secret which is revealed in one of the rooms) and there is not even an attempt at characterization.  The new players are dispatched very quickly, without leaving much of an impression, in order to get to the reason why Zoey was lured back into the game and this, once again, strains credibility. We also get a cliffhanger that is even more groan-worthy (is the whole world just one elaborate escape room?).  I will concede that the design of the rooms, especially the subway car and the bank lobby, and the action sequences within the rooms are actually an improvement upon the original but I just didn't care as much about whether or not the characters survived them.  You can give this one a miss.