Oh Yeah, It’s Blockbuster Season

School is back in and I go back to work today. In fact, by the time this post goes live, I will be at home eating breakfast after my first shift of the day, extremely glad to be out of the August heat.

Speaking of heat, July is supposed to be the height of blockbuster season, but overall it was pretty tepid. I happily skipped going to the movies altogether the last couple of weeks of July because nothing really grabbed me. Fandango Rewards didn’t help, either, because everything I could have gotten five dollars off of, I had either already seen or didn’t particularly want to see. It happens now and then.

Where’s a screening of The Room when you need one?

I still managed to cobble together a list, of course, and obviously they’re not all current features. It’s also very telling that my top picks are both older movies. Do better, Hollywood.

And no, Superman didn’t make the list. I gave it a C-, but I couldn’t in good conscience include it here, simply because that thing got talked to death and I don’t particularly want to add to it. We all know fatigue is a thing. Here’s the review if anyone would like to read it.

So yeah, here’s this month’s list, and as always, click the images for the full reviews…

I Know What You Did Last Summer

Ugh. This movie was such a pale, pale shadow of the original movie and it knows it, but that doesn’t stop it from trying really, really hard. Or navel-gazing. Apparently not trusting the new Scooby squad to carry the movie on their own, about half a dozen of the original cast members appear at various junctures. Freddie Prinze, Jr., who reprises his role as Ray Bronson, literally says, “It’s 1997 all over again.”

No duh, Sherlock.

I gave this movie a D+, but it still makes the list because it’s everything a summer popcorn horror flick should be, even if it mostly sucks. It’s also one of the few movies I went to this summer that played to full houses, at least at my showing. Mostly Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers, of course.

Jurassic World: Rebirth

Our group of characters goes back to Jurassic World to obtain some biomaterial from the dinosaurs because apparently it can help cure cancer. They’re all types, such as Zora, the St. Christopher medal-wearing covert operations specialist, and shady businessman Martin Krebs, who wants to make a ton of money off of the group’s supposed discovery. Naturally there has to be a scientist along to narrate or sometimes gasp in horror at the proceedings, and in this case it’s Dr. Henry Loomis, whose career needs a jumpstart after his dinosaur museum closes.

There’s also the Delgado family and their teenaged daughter Teresa’s boyfriend, Xavier, who get swept up into the quest when a dinosaur capsizes their sailboat. The family is nice and adds a lot of cuteness to the movie, but they’re not with the core group enough to be true audience characters. Mostly we just see them on occasion and hope they’ll be OK.

No, it’s not great, but on the positive side, it’s another summer popcorn flick. Enjoy it in the moment, groan at the very obvious flaws, and then toss the popcorn bucket in the trash on the way out the door.

F1: The Movie

At first glance F1 feels like Top Gun: Maverick but with Formula One cars, and that’s not too far off, because Joseph Kosinski directed it. Granted, Brad Pitt is no Tom Cruise, but it’s still fun to see him in the role of Sonny Hayes, the aged heartthrob whose career abruptly ended due to an accident, but who gets a new lease on life when he’s brought in as a ringer for the Apx team.

He’s got a very sparky chemistry with his younger and equally cocky counterpart  Joshua Pearce, who’s got some issues of his own, plus it’s about this F1 team working together to build the most effective vehicle and drive in the most effective way possible. There’s a lot more to F1 than star quality.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this movie as much as I did, because Grand Turismo had kind of bored me, but it manages to keep everything compelling, even for someone who may not know much about F1 racing.

A Month In the Country

Colin Firth, Kenneth Branaugh, and Natasha Richardson all in one movie about a World War One veteran restoring a mural in a church, another one living in a tent on the parade ground next to the church, and both of them working through their PTSD.

This is the kind of movie that sneaks up very quietly to the point of almost being boring, but when it makes sense, it really makes sense.

It’s also pretty awe-inspiring to see Colin Firth and Kenneth Branaugh so young and so early in their careers and yet giving such raw performances. Hyperbole is inevitable but also completely and sincerely warranted.

The Trouble With Angels

Why is a 1966 movie topping this month’s Substack recap? Because it’s so danged fun. And because it was honestly the best movie I saw in July. It’s Hayley Mills playing opposite Rosalind Russell and directed by Ida Lupino, so it’s gold.

I won’t spoil it. It’s on Tubi right now. Hope you all get to see it if you haven’t already.

A new Julia Child post is coming out on Monday. Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you then…

---

If you’re enjoying what you see on Taking Up Room, please subscribe to my Substack page, where you’ll find both free and paid subscriber-only reviews of mostly new and newish movies, documentaries, and shows. I publish every Wednesday and Saturday. You can also subscribe to my Club 15 Tier, which gives you at least one extra Taking Up Room post every month for a small fee.