A group of women next to me at Dune 2 snuck in an entire pizza in a purse. Legends.
The Marvels – ★★★★
Ventured out to theater on a Friday night to watch The Marvels with the entire family. Legit very funny and surprisingly short. Kids absolutely loved it and laughed out loud throughout. Rating: 4 stars
Theater Camp – ★★★★
The last production pulled this from a 3 to 4 for me. Overall pretty funny and some good songs. Molly Gordon is great. Not sure my theater kid is old enough to get most of the humor but we will see.
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Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind – ★★★★
Took the kids to watch this in the theater today as part of Studio Ghibli Fest. First time for me to ever see a Miyazaki movie on the big screen.
This was one of my least favorites when I originally was running through my Miyazaki blind spots back in 2020, but giving it my full attention now I really enjoyed it quite a bit. I was pleasantly surprised how much both my girls liked it considering how “old” it is and how relatively few laughs there are. They were probably the only 2 people under 30 in the theater today.
Nausicaä is such a fantastic character as are all the other valley residents, but boy do I hate every single Tolmekian and Pejite moron. And they remain pretty much completely irredeemable for the entire movie. (I know we’re supposed to dislike them but still.)
It is bit depressing how little progress we’ve made as a society in 40 years towards the Nausicaä’s basic themes of environmentalism, empathy, and pacifism.
It’s early so not quite as breathtakingly beautiful as some of the films that followed it, but it sure is imaginative and interesting to look at. It is also remarkable how much imagery from this have influenced (or share influences with) current Japanese video games including Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. TotK’s “depths” areas seem like a mix of Nausicaa’s forest and the gloom from Mononoke.
Buying tickets now to go see Mononoke in a month.
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? Buy Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind on Blu-ray
The Super Mario Bros. Movie – ★★★½
Fantastic looking and tons of fun references. Adequate storyline that anyone whose ever played a Mario game could predict, but good enough for a fun afternoon at the theater with the kids.
Although it is not a nonstop laugh fest, it got several big laughs from my kids, despite the fact that they are more into Minecraft/The Sims than they are into Mario. It is definitely a kids’ movie with references for us “olds,” but it was made lovingly and shows a real understanding and appreciation of the Mario characters and worlds.
Anya Taylor-Joy’s Peach and especially Jack Black’s Bowser were definitely the highlights, but all of the performances were good. Yes, including Chris Pratt.
Special shoutout to the nihilistic Lumalee the Luma who stole the show in their brief appearances.
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? Buy the Super Mario Bros. Movie Blu-ray on Amazon
The Bad Guys – ★★½
First movie I’ve seen in a theater since Rise of Skywalker (12/2019) and even longer for the kids.
It was totally fine. Probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t seen so many “it’s much better than expected” reviews on here. Should I show my 10 year old Ocean’s Eleven?
Movie theater popcorn still is great though.
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? Buy Dear Evan Hansen on Amazon