Tag: Streaming Movie Night Movie Reviews

My Oxford Year

2025   Netflix

Rated:  PG-13

Length:  1 hr  52min

Comedy ~ Drama ~ Romance

Directed by:  Iain Morris

Starring:  Sofia Carson and Corey Mylchreest.

One Year Can Change Everything

The Book:

My Oxford Year: A Novel By Julia Whelan – April 24, 2018

Synopsis:

American Ella Durran has had the same plan for her life since she was thirteen: Study at Oxford. At 24, she’s finally made it to England on a Rhodes Scholarship when she’s offered an unbelievable position in a rising political star’s presidential campaign. With the promise that she’ll work remotely and return to DC at the end of her Oxford year, she’s free to enjoy her Once in a Lifetime Experience. That is, until a smart-mouthed local who is too quick with his tongue and his car ruins her shirt and her first day.

When Ella discovers that her English literature course will be taught by none other than that same local, Jamie Davenport, she thinks for the first time that Oxford might not be all she’s envisioned. But a late-night drink reveals a connection she wasn’t anticipating finding and what begins as a casual fling soon develops into something much more when Ella learns Jamie has a life-changing secret.

Immediately, Ella is faced with a seemingly impossible decision: turn her back on the man she’s falling in love with to follow her political dreams or be there for him during a trial neither are truly prepared for. As the end of her year in Oxford rapidly approaches, Ella must decide if the dreams she’s always wanted are the same ones she’s now yearning for.

The Movie:

A few things I want to mention first about the movie, the book and why I chose to watch it. I have not read the book and just like The Life List, I didn’t know it was based on a book until I did research for the review. I do question a few things that are different from the book, like Anna is Ella in the book and an American, and she is of Hispanic descent in the movie……Anna De La Vega.  She is also slated to become involved in politics in the book, yet in the movie she is going to become an analyst for Goldman Sachs. They also changed the end of the movie to be different from the book, although I won’t tell you how so as not to spoil it. I don’t understand why Hollywood feels the need to change things around, so I did a little digging.

Sofia Carson wanted to change Ella’s name and ancestry to reflect her Hispanic heritage. Ok, I like Sofia Carson, loved her in The Life List but why do we feel the need to change the story based on the actress, why not get an actress to portray the character in the book. Nothing against Sofia, I liked her in this, I just don’t get why if we’re bringing a book to life that we don’t just follow the book and bring it to life like it is written. Ok, I’ll move on……….I’m sure you get the point. Anyway they changed the ending because they felt that that the book ending wasn’t powerful enough emotionally as it came about on the screen. They actually tried several different endings with different test audiences and picked the one that seemed to resonate the most with the audience.

I wanted to watch this because it is a new Netflix Film and Sofia Carson was really good in The Life List, so I had to give it a go. Obviously the expectations were high because I feel like The Life List is such a good movie. I was not disappointed, My Oxford Year is exactly what you think it is, a Love Story, a Romantic Comedy and yet a serious look at life and how life can throw all your best laid plans right out the window in the blink of an eye. It’s about living every moment of every day as if it were your last no matter what life throws at you. Anna was forced to make some very serious decisions about the course of her life that was nowhere near her well laid plans. And we watched her grow because of the choices she made.

I thought it was good, I thought Sofia again did a great job with her character. I also really liked Corey Mylchreest as Jamie Davenport, I thought he did a really great job. Poppy Gilbert as Cecelia did a great job as well, I really liked her. It was sad but yet just like life it was heartwarming as well. We all do the best we can do with what we are given to work with, they don’t give us a manual. I think My Oxford Year did a great job of portraying that side of life and how we have to adjust, deal and move forward no matter what. It is a good Romantic Comedy with a bittersweet slice of reality. Sofia as Anna chose to take the lemons and make lemonade, make some memories she would remember, and would change her life forever. Live life to the fullest. Give it a go.

The Life List

Old Guy

2025   The Avenue

Rated:  R

Length:  1 hr  34min

Action ~ Comedy

Directed by: Simon West

Starring:  Christoph Waltz, Lucy Liu, and Cooper Hoffman.

Competition Is Always A Killer

Christoph Waltz as Danny Dolinski is the heart and headache of “Old Guy,” a hitman whose career high points are undermined by a creaky body and creeping obsolescence. The movie opens with Danny partying like a man half his age, only to quickly remind us, with a wicked hangover and arthritic hesitation, that time is no friend to aging assassins. When Danny’s ready to rejoin the world of contract killing after a hand surgery sideline, his handler Opal instead hands him insult with assignment: train Wihlborg (Cooper Hoffman), a Gen Z whiz kid with the fashion sense of a festival-goer and the emotional warmth of an iced latte.

Any hope for a revitalized, James Bond-style comeback fizzles as Danny and Wihlborg collide in the field—Wihlborg doesn’t drink, barely socializes, and takes killing as seriously as an avant-garde art project, all to our curmudgeonly anti-hero’s dismay. Sent to Belfast on a job that quickly unravels, Danny botches the hit thanks to his unreliable hand, forcing Wihlborg to save the day with ruthless professionalism. Despite their mutual suspicions, the two realize the gig is bigger than their personal beefs—someone inside their own organization is playing both sides, and both hitmen are rapidly moving up next on the target list themselves.

Enter Anata, played by Lucy Liu, whose nightclub serves more as a weapons depot than a party venue and whose presence complicates Danny’s feelings and loyalties. She’s no damsel, she’s the object of Danny’s unspoken affection and a wild card in the unfolding conspiracy. When the trio finds themselves caught between mob bosses and double-crossing handlers, they’re forced to rethink what loyalty, legacy, and survival really mean in the killing business.

Old Guy assembles an enviable cast; Christoph Waltz, Lucy Liu, and Cooper Hoffman, promising a genre-busting assassin caper with a splash of biting wit. The foundations are laid for a generational clash that should have been electric, but the set-up, brimming with potential for comedic and dramatic fireworks, instead sputters as the film drifts into predictability. The old pro and his green apprentice trade barbs and botched jobs through Belfast’s rain-slicked streets, but the banter rarely crackles, and the action beats stumble into well-worn “geezer assassin” territory. Even a mob war conspiracy and the reliable presence of Lucy Liu’s Anata, a fixer with more sense than most, can’t generate enough fresh energy to distinguish this outing from countless other streaming titles.

What’s most disappointing is how little the film does with its heavyweight cast. Waltz is clearly having fun with Danny’s self-deprecating swagger, but Lucy Liu and Cooper Hoffman are left orbiting his performance rather than building dynamic chemistry of their own. Instead of the odd-couple fireworks promised by the premise, we get tired tropes—grumpy mentor, sullen prodigy, double-crossing bosses—sketched out with dialogue that never quite sparkles and action sequences that feel recycled from more memorable films.

“Old Guy” isn’t unwatchable, thanks mostly to the professionalism of its stars and a handful of sly, self-aware moments, but at only 94 minutes it started to feel a lot longer. It’s a bland, overly familiar ride that fails to capitalize on the unique talents assembled. Given the collective charisma and experience of Waltz, Liu, and Hoffman, the finished product feels like a missed opportunity, a reminder that even the best casts can’t transcend a flat script and uninspired direction.

 

Watch at your own peril,

there are better choices out there.

Trap

2024   Warner Brothers Pictures

Rated:  PG-13

Length:  1 hr  45min

Drama ~ Horror ~ Thriller

Directed by:  M. Night Shyamalan

Starring:  Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Night Shyamalan, Hayley Mills, and Alison Pill.

“This whole concert? It’s a trap. They’re watching all the exits, checking everyone that leaves. There’s no way to get out of here.”

Movie Synopsis from Netflix Tudum:

To celebrate her good grades, Philadelphia firefighter Cooper Abbott (Josh Hartnett) takes his daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue), to see her favorite pop star, Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan), in concert. But when they arrive at the event, Cooper notices that security is on extra-high alert. He watches as, one by one, guards remove other dads accompanying their daughters from the show, and realizes that every exit is blocked off by police. An employee at the arena tells Cooper that the FBI has reason to believe a notorious serial killer known as The Butcher is attending the concert, and they’re using the event to try to ensnare and arrest him. With the entire arena under surveillance, and thousands of armed police officers ready to sniff out the killer, The Butcher will have to find his way out without drawing attention to himself  — or his daughter.

Movie Backstory from Netflix Tudum:

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan (The Watchers, After Earth), Trap isn’t directly based on a true story, but the plot was partially inspired by a real-life sting operation known as Operation Flagship. In 1985, the US Marshals Service and the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department sent out more than 3,000 invitations by mail to fugitives with outstanding warrants living in the DC area. The invitations, which were sent using the name of the fictitious television company Flagship International Sports TV, stated that the individuals had been selected to receive free tickets to a Dec. 15 NFL game between the Washington Redskins (now known as the Washington Commanders) and the Cincinnati Bengals, as well as a chance to win an all-expenses paid trip to Super Bowl XX in New Orleans.

When the fugitives arrived to retrieve their tickets at what they were led to believe was the network’s headquarters, they were greeted by undercover marshals and police officers posing as ushers, cheerleaders, mascots, and other event staff. Operation Flagship resulted in the arrest of 101 people. Speaking about the inspiration behind Trap, Shyamalan told BBC News that he heard about Operation Flagship as a kid. “I thought it was totally absurdist, that this actually happened … This was real-life criminals, FBI and police,” he said, “They dressed up as cheerleaders and mascots and were dancing around with them and goofing around with them.”

What I thought about Trap:

What a Trap! I couldn’t resist, it was too easy. It was a little cheesy, a little campy. If I was a young teenage girl I might be really drawn in by Saleka’s character, but otherwise it just wasn’t that good. It really was kinda silly and implausible and I didn’t think Saleka is that good an actor. After the fact I started thinking you know…that seemed like M. Night Shyamalan was trying to showcase his daughter’s talents.

So I googled that and that is exactly what Trap is. A showcase by M. Night Shyamalan to showcase his daughter’s music and acting aspirations. “Daddy…….can you make me a star? Please daddy…” I just don’t think she was that good on either front. Teenage girls might think otherwise, I don’t know. Kind of a letdown for an M. Night Shyamalan movie. I expect more after his track record of really good thrillers.

That’s a no for me Dog……

The Accountant 2 Official Movie Trailer

The Accountant 2 is the sequel to the 2016 movie The Accountant starring Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick. According to Rebecca Ford in a Vanity Fair Article dated February 11, 2025 Director Gavin O’Connor has been trying to make the sequel for eight years. As studios changed leadership and strategies, the sequel was stepped over in favor of more lucrative script ideas. Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, J. K. Simmons, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson  all reprise their roles from the first movie, with the exception of Anna Kendrick whose role is not carried over into the storyline of The Accountant 2. The Accountant 2 is being released in Theaters by Amazon MGM on April 25, 2025.

Here is the recently released Official Movie Trailer from Amazon MGM:

Strange Darling

2024   Magenta Light Studios

Rated:  R

Length:  1 hr  37min

Action ~ Horror ~ Suspense

Directed by:  JT Mollner

Starring:  Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Barbara Hershey, and Ed Begley Jr..

“Love hurts, love scars…Love wounds and marks, any heart not tough enough or strong enough, to take a lot of pain…….takes a lot of pain.”

I watched this last night. I was looking for something to watch more than I was looking for a movie to review. Strange Darling caught my eye on Amazon Prime. Perfect I thought…I didn’t know anything about it and had never heard of it.

WHICH IS EXACTLY HOW YOU SHOULD WATCH IT. And that is why this review will feature very little of the plot, storyline or in-depth look at the movie or the characters. Here is all I can tell you:

It is a Slasher type Horror Action Suspense Film.

The Movie Stars The Lady and The Demon.

The movie is broken into six chapters and an epilogue, in this order:

Chapter 3: “Can You Help Me, Please?” 

Chapter 5: “Here, Kitty, Kitty…” 

Chapter 1: “Mister Snuffles” (Mister Snuffleupagus)

Chapter 4: “The Mountain People” 

Chapter 2: “The Electric Lady” 

Chapter 6: “Who’s Gary Gilmore?” 

Epilogue.

The Movie starts like this:

SHOT ENTIRELY ON 35MM FILM

(IN BLACK AND WHITE) A man and a woman in a truck on a rainy night in front of a motel………… she asks, “So I have to ask you a question, are you a serial killer?”

Between 2018 and 2020, the most prolific and unique American Serial Killer of the 21st Century went on a calculated, multi-state spree that began in Denver, Colorado, continued through Grand Lake, and expanded across Wyoming and Central Idaho before culminating in the dense forest of Hood River County, Oregon.  

Drawing from police interviews, detailed accounts of eyewitnesses, depositions, and observations of various law enforcement, this is a dramatization of the true story of the final known killings in that rampage….

Then there is a killer (Pun intended) car chase…and then a woman is running in the woods from a killer, blood dripping from her wounds……as an acoustic cover of Love Hurts by Nazareth plays in the background……..

Love hurts, love scarsLove wounds and marksAny heartNot tough or strong enoughTo take a lot of pain, take a lot of painLove is like a cloudHolds a lot of rainLove hurtsOoh, ooh, love hurts

Some fools think of happinessBlissfulness, togethernessSome fools fool themselves, I guessThey’re not foolin’ me
Ooh, ooh, love hurts
AND WE START THE MOVIE WITH:
Chapter 3: “Can You Help Me, Please?” 
I absolutely enjoyed every minute of this Horrifying piece of Cinematic Slasher Art.
Willa Fitzgerald reminds me of Mia Goth in Pearl.
Kyle Gallner is creepy scary as the nice guy?
JT Mollner I am unfamiliar with but will keep an eye out for.
Turn out the lights, crank up the soundtrack and enjoy the ride…
because that is what it is.
A Horrifying Action Filled Thrill Ride
 through a Serial Killer Amusement Park.
Highly Recommended!
Love Hurts Cover by Z-Berg featured in the movie: