How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

The final chapter of the trilogy started by How to Train Your Dragon. In this installment, Hiccup is the viking chief and Toothless is the established dragon Alpha. Toothless meets a girl, and a dragon hunter comes to kill all the dragons. The only option is to look to move the dragons to the mythical hidden world. Will Toothless be able to maintain focus while dating? Will Hiccup rely on Astrid and learn to lead? Will the dragons be saved? Still a fun show, but largely formulaic and unremarkable.
3 stars (out of 5)

The Wandering Earth

Chinese sci-fi, action film. The sun is dying in the next 100 years so humans finally put petty fights behind them and form a unified earth government to develop and build 10,000 earth engines. These will de-orbit the earth so it can travel for 2500 years to a new Alpha Centauri. Along they way, they will need to use Jupiter as a gravity slingshot. The story follows one of the project engineers (stationed on the lead spacecraft) and his family (still back on earth) and throws several engineering failures at the humans and we watch how problems are solved. In this, I love how the story arc and dramatic tension are science/engineering failures and solutions. It is too bad that these are more fiction than science. I would say that the most fun thing about the film was the driving scenes with the cargo transporters on the surface.
3 stars (out of 5)

One Special Night

James Garner and Julie Andrews get stranded together in a snow storm and realize how lonely they are on their way to discovering that loving again is ok. Slow, Hallmark TV special quality.
2 stars (out of 5)

Alita: Battle Angel

From the previews, the character of Alita reminded me of the GMO fighter from The Windup Girl and I could still see hints of that. But the world is modern instead of steampunk, and not nearly as in-your-face dystopian. Alita is a cyborg creature rescued from the trash heap and spends most of the film discovering her identity and character. She finds herself to be a fighter with a mission to seek justice. I didn't know anything about the original manga which means no expectations or history. I do know something about how much I like 3D movies but decided to give it a try anyway. 3D means still don't waste your money, no 3D value added. Hoping this makes enough money to become a franchise.
4 stars (out of 5)

Green Book

Set in the 1960's, an accomplished black pianist (he has played at the white House twice) needs a white, thuggish chauffeur in order to tour the deep South with his trio. Mahershala Ali plays Dr Shirley and Viggo Mortensen his Italian driver Tony. Both men are exposed to race and culture and friendship in ways that surprise them. Comedic, tragic, enlightening, heartwarming. Well done.
4 stars (out of 5)

Hell or High Water

We join two brothers on a chain of bank robberies in West Texas. The strength of this film is not the action or tension of the heist, but the story of the characters that has led them to this place and the narrowing paths the future opens for them. It really strikes at the complexity of the US identity as we get both anti-capitalism and rugged individualism.
3 stars (out of 5)

A Star is Born

Bradley Cooper is the aging rock star who happens across Lady Gaga's undiscovered talent as singer/songwriter. They develop into each other's muse and fall in love. And they struggle to balance this love with fame, addiction, and the affliction of their own personal histories. The characters reminded me a lot of the Johnny Cash and June Carter portrayal in Walk the Line. This is a fun film with great music and a series of charmed coincidences that allow the plot to move forward with ease. Thoroughly enjoyable.
4 stars (out of 5)

RBG

Documentary portrayal of the rise of Ruth Bader Ginsburg into the Supreme Court Justice and popular icon that she is today. Interesting review of her early career showing the development of her legal identity and how that has carried into her decisions on the bench. Looking forward to the biopic version of her earlier life On the Basis of Sex.
5 stars (out of 5)

Close

An entitled heiress to a mining company/fortune which gains most of its wealth from African mining sites is kidnapped after her father dies and taken to North Africa. Presumably this is something to do with some current buyout deals that the company is pursuing. Her temporary body guard is the "can't let it go" type and recovers the girl and uncovers a conspiracy while showing his commitment to his craft of bodyguarding. More stars if you watch it after midnight while have asleep.
2 stars (out of 5)