#josh and jennifer are amazing actors and have great chemistry

[starrrbakerrr]

Peeta has said many charming things, but this line always has me giggling and kicking my feet. I don’t understand how Katniss was so strong.

Suzanne really decided to create the perfect man: he can bake and paint, he’s charming but not cocky, and is really kind and caring only to then strip and distort his entire personality, thanks suzanne.

I kinda hate how they changed this in the movie. Even in the paragraphs before this they had this flirty banter that was so so good. The movies erased or changed nearly all of their banter though.

But, anyway - Peeta Mellark is the blueprint that no other book boyfriend has lived up to.

[butdidyousee]

Title: “Love, Simon” (2018)

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Staring: Nick Robinson, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel, Katherine Langford

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Directed by: Greg Berlanti

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Run Time: 110 Mins

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Opening weekend numbers: $11,756,244

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Screen it, Stream it or Skip it: Screen it! Stream it, but don’t miss it.

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“Love, Simon” is the story about Simon Spier, a gay kid who is walking the fine line of not being able to come out to the world because of his fear of change. yet, thanks to a new budding romance from an online pen pal and the threat of being outed/blackmailed by a fellow student who stumbled upon their e-mails, wants to be his truest self. The movie is based off the amazing book “Simon V.S. The Homo sapiens agenda” by Becky Albertalli.

Let me start with this movie is just all around lovely. All the characters have been well cast and have amazing chemistry. Nick Robinson is just a white hot supernova of like-ability as our main protagonist. As one of the current “YA” mainstays along with Ansel Elgort. He just makes me believe Simon’s struggle feels legit. Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel do a great job of being the supportive parents. Including but not limited to an amazing Mother/Son speech that left me weepy and I hope will be used to comfort gays for generations. All of Simon’s friends(played by a plethora of up and coming young stars) made me feel like I wanted to hang out with them more and more. I give this film 3.8👍🏻 out of 5.

Another reason this film was incredibly important was the fact that it was the first big budget movie staring an LGBT character as the lead, giving Simon the John Hughs movie treatment. This came with it’s own set of watered down problems. By making Simon awkward and not overly feminine, mostly so he can be the “every kid” it made him a little bland(although incredibly sweet).

I saw a few of the deleted scenes and I truly felt like they should have left them in. They show more emphasis on his journey as an out gay kid going to a gay bar with his best friend. It also shows him getting into conflict with his mother as he struggles to figure out who he is going to become as an out homosexual. But, it seems the production company felt like it wasn’t important enough for the main story.

Watching this movie with a live audience(and packed theater) also made this movie quite the enjoyable experience. It was a full range of every reaction including cheering, big laughs and “yaaaaaaasss” screams during a Whitney Houston powered dance scene. The music was a rather enjoyable mix of oldies like the oogum boogum song and new hits by great artist like Troye Sivan and Khalid. The soundtrack was put together by Jack Antonoff.

A fun fact about this movie was that the lead actor’s little brother came out while he was filming this and 2 actors who play Simon’s potential love interest(Keiynan Lonsdale and Joey Pollari)both felt inspired by this movie to come out as Bi-Sexual and gay respectively.

I also had very personal feelings for this story because as a gay man, I felt like Simon’s journey was extremely important, particularly to help the non-LGBTQ community try and understand how scary it is to have to come out and feel like everyone and everything in your life can come crashing down in a matter of an instant by just finally uttering the words “I’m gay”. Overall this film was beautiful and I 💯 say watch it if you feel so inclined.

As Simon says “Everyone deserves a great love story” and after seeing this movie, I felt that statement is incredibly true.

Did you see love,Simon? What did you think? Leave me your thoughts on the comment section. Also, don’t forget as always, insta cuts my posts down, so please follow the link in the bio to see my full review of Love, Simon.✌🏻

[darringauthier]

Office Christmas Party (2016)

Genre: Comedy

Who’s in it: Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, TJ Miller, Jennifer Aniston, Kate McKinnon, Courtney B Vance, Rob Corddry, Vanessa Bayer

Who directed it: Josh Gordon, Will Speck

Plot:  When his uptight CEO sister threatens to shut down his branch, the branch manager throws an epic Christmas party in order to land a big client and save the day, but the party gets way out of hand

Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Rotten Tomatoes Score: Critics 41%  Audience 41%

Why I watched it: From time to time I break up my routine by watching a comedy, now I’m very picky with comedies, I love to laugh and I think I have a good sense of humor but most comedies leave me cold, now this one I liked the cast so I gave it a try. 

Random thoughts: Off the top of your head how many movies have Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston been in together, I count 4, that’s a lot.

What I liked: This is a likable cast, I will say so many comedies have an abrasive cast or the tone is mean spirited at least Office Christmas Party was pleasant for the most part.  There’s a lot of funny people in this film, maybe too many cause there’s not enough screen time to go around but I have to give them credit almost everyone gets a moment.  Two actors stand out for me Kate McKinnon steals the movie, she’s different her vibe is a bit off but she has amazing timing and she can pull off some weird characters and her she’s a side character but she’s really the only one in the cast to take what is a one-dimensional character and flesh out more.  She was a hoot.  Also Courtney B Vance, he’s not known for his comedy but he under plays for the first half then let’s it loose and he has some nice moments.

The tone is good, like I said it’s not a mean comedy, there’s a conflict but it’s got a good message about treating your coworkers and employees like family, about caring for them and trying to make Christmas special, nothing wrong with that.

Also think that the cast had an easy chemistry with each other and it did feel like these people worked together, Bateman and Munn being the glue to hold the office together and Miller being the well meaning but goofy boss.

What I didn’t like: The Christmas theme is lost here, honestly it could have been just an office party, sure Miller dresses up as Santa but this didn’t feel like a Christmas movie, it’s a comedy but not something anyone would watch every year at Christmas.

I like Jason Bateman, I think he’s very under used just go watch The Gift to see his range but man he’s typecast playing the same guy in these comedies, he’s the nice but bland voice of reason and here he doesn’t even get to be funny and his relationship with Munn doesn’t really work cause they have no meaningful screen time together. This is the main problem of the story they throw too much in, too many side characters and sub-plots and they don’t have the time to really flesh everything out.  Aniston is playing the comedy villain cliche and I mean right down the line she’s so a cliche.  I would say they could have cut at least four characters and spread out the time to everyone else to make this a tighter and funnier film.

The ending is a head shaker, really they have to rally to save the company and how they do it is just silly and not very believable.  Also one thing I’m realizing with the comedies coming out now, we have this loose improve thing going, and you see it when they show the bloopers, just riffing on a scene and you realize that there’s not so much a script but an outline and I think that’s why these comedies come out uneven cause some stuff works and some seems out of place or just doesn’t fit the tone.

Final thoughts: Honestly I didn’t dislike the film, I didn’t love it and I thought it didn’t work completely but I did smile and I laughed a couple of times and there was effort here so it’s not a bad film just not great or even really good but it’s watchable and it did have it’s moments.

Rating: 5/10