Fly Me to the Moon
Moving but Meandering
PRAISE: This latest race to space story about Sparks flying between a marketing executive and a NASA official as he makes preparations for the Apollo 11 moon landing is charming and funny. Fortunately it's two leads Scarlett Johansson as Kelly Jones and Channing Tatum as Cole Davis have just enough chemistry for me to not only root for them romantically but hopefully to accomplish the goals set before them.
They butt heads over and over again as Jones wants to sell America and several politicians on still providing funding for NASA and it's to the Moon mission while Cole wants to insure that everything goes right as he is very protective of the astronauts and the space program.Part of the movie plays with the conspiracy theory that the moon landing happened on a soundstage and actually provided a couple of suspenseful moments. There are some great turns from Ray Romano, Woody Harrelson, Jim Rash and Anna Garcia. Also there are several moving tributes to the 1967 Apollo 1 tragedy in which three astronauts – Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee – were killed in a fire that consumed the command module during a launch rehearsal.
I think the movie has the right amounts of humor and heart.
PROBLEMS: There are some predictable moments when it comes to what is going to disrupt the bond that is growing between the two leads characters. I thought that some of the dialogue and situations were kind of corny. The final act should have had better pacing .
Scale of 1 to 10 a 7½
Divorce in the Black
Deteriorating Divorce
PRAISE: Tyler Perry's latest movie opens with campy and outrageous acts by several characters in this story about Ava ( Meagan Good) and Dallas's ( Cory Hardrict) marriage coming to a heated and volatile end. There's nothing wrong with beginning a movie like this because it got me involved and it was over the top entertaining. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the cast who give it there all including Joseph Lee Anderson, Shannon Wallace, Taylor Polidore, Richard Lawson and Debbi Morgan. When the movie goes through the basics I've seen in dozens of films like this it is the character of Dallas going into full Manic mode is when it comes alive again and at least the movie provides unintentional laughs through his sinister acts and what's done visually.
PROBLEMS: The middle of the film is beyond dull and predictable . Perry wants to show Ava's strength and he provides flashbacks of her but not the flashbacks I needed because I really wondered how she ended up with Dallas and why she was so supportive of him. I have to assume she saw him as a wounded bird or something because she makes it clear several times there's basically nothing else present in the marriage but then again maybe she was just getting salty revenge by doling out several put downs.
Perry is once again to on the nose with a character driving up in white truck instead of a white horse. I was waiting for the caption SAVIOR to pop up on the screen. I'm actually shocked Perry didn't really go full on crazy with some characters because at least it would have provided some much needed energy.
Scale of 1 to 10 a 5
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