In July/August, you could say that I really took advantage of my A-list and all the subscriptions that I have at home to watch all the movies I could.
To preface, if you look at my Letterboxd, a person could see that I am very lenient with my ratings. I am a movie watcher, not a critic.
I started my month off with the live-action Moana. It was good; I watched it with my little sister. It was very similar to the animated version that I remembered. The last time I watched it was probably more than a year ago. I would say the best part was the beginning when Moana was singing about being on her island and becoming the next chief. I watched it on Screen X, and it made the water scenes really cool.
The next day I watched The Secret Garden (1993). Watching it and looking into it, I realized it had a few remakes, some that were released and some that didn’t make it. The overall plot is an interesting one. Visually, it’s stunning, but at some points I did question some scenes, like how it seemed that Colin wanted to marry Mary, who was his cousin.
The same day I watched The Long Walk, which was probably one of the best movies I’ve watched. The concept of a walking contest, and throughout the movie we see everyone’s reason for joining the competition. A very cruel and gory movie based on a Stephen King book of the same title.
The Odyssey was highly anticipated, and I was super excited to watch it. Now I didn’t get to watch it in IMAX 35MM, but I did get to watch it in regular IMAX, and it was very good. A little too loud at some points, but still good. I’m sure it would still have been great even in a regular format.
Over the next week or so, I binged the X-Men movies, and I mean all of them, every Jean Grey and every Professor X. My favorite in terms of energy or vibe would be Days of Future Past, but plot-wise I think my favorite would be X2 or X-Men: First Class.
Then I binge all the Spider-Man movies with Tom Holland as Spider-Man before watching Brand New Day. I watched it twice, once in Dolby and once in ScreenX. The movie is great; I loved all the characters and how they were bringing universes together. My favorite was The Punisher. I also watched The Punisher: One Last Kill.
Fun fact: I also love musicals!!!
At AMC, they were showing the movie recording of Hadestown and SIX: The Musical. Both were amazing, but my favorite was Hadestown; the music was phenomenal. I added a few songs to my playlist after the movie. Watching SIX made me notice how many of these songs went viral on TikTok.
To finish off this list, the last few movies I watched were:
Jerry Maguire, a movie that I wanted to watch for a while but wasn’t willing to pay the $5 on YouTube. I finally found it on Tubi, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Only You had Robert Downey Jr., and the plot was cute at first but got annoying after a while. Downey’s character’s decisions were definitely questionable at many points.
The End of Oak Street: When I went to watch the movie, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I didn’t see any promotion for it, so the only thing I really knew about it was that Ann Hathaway was in it.
Camp Rock 3: This was mostly for nostalgia. It’s a great kids’ movie in my opinion, but that’s about it.
Crazy, Stupid, Love: I watched this after re-watching Project Hail Mary mostly because I was in a Ryan Gosling mood, and it was a great movie. I enjoyed it. I was not expecting the ending, but it was a good movie. I enjoyed it.
This movie, Man, Tony, I remember watching Anthony Bourdain on TV when I was little, back when cable channels were most commonly watched. This movie was goated. It made me want to go to Cape Cod and eat a lobster roll with a beer, and I have never craved any of those things. It made me see Anthony Bourdain in a different light, not in a bad way, but how he TRULY was as a person because when I knew him as a little kid, he was just a guy who talked about food on TV. He was iconic
Double Happiness, this movie made me a little sad watching, but was beautifully made. The man is holding two weddings at the same time in order for his mom and dad not to meet. But the parents don’t know, and those weddings are not really for the bride and groom; it’s for the groom’s parents, so everything has to be perfect for them. This all roots in his parents’ divorce and the parents’ lack of responsibility in establishing a stable lifestyle for him after their divorce.
I Could Never Be Your Woman…I saw Paul Rudd was in this movie with Michelle Phieffer.
melina is writing 