Good morning to all! Six calendar days until the end of the year. It will be a mad dash for us to cram in as many Oscar hopeful films between now and this Saturday. The always challenging Animated Short Subject and Live Action Short Subject releases will not be out until January!!
As a reminder, we will be in India the entire month of February. That said, we WILL have our Oscar Predictions out before we leave!
Mark your calendars, the 89th Academy Awards are Sunday, February 26, 2017, 5:30 PM Pacific Time. We will be somewhere in Rajasthan. We don’t know where exactly but if there is a TV with coverage, we may skip any planned activities that day and watch. (Should be about 5 AM India time.) We’ll make it part of the adventure if possible.
In the meantime, please enjoy the following! More to come soon.
J&J
Sing
This is another animated animal cartoon musical comedy that has become so popular over the last few years. This time, Illumination Entertainment, (of Despicable Me fame), finds theater owner mouse making a last ditch effort to save his business by hosting a singing competition (sound familiar?!).
The best news is the cast: Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton, Matthew McConaughy, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, John C.Reilly, Jennifer Hudson, Rhea Perlman and several more.
All does not go well, with one disaster followed by mishap followed by catastrophy. Finally, there is one last show that captures the local news on TV. You can guess the rest.
It is just a lot of fun. The theater was packed with families and lots of quiet as a mouse children. Rated PG and listed accurately as a Drama/Musical. Running 1 hour, 50 minutes.
Feature length animated films are going to be a tight race come Oscar season!
Rating 
Passengers
This is very interesting movie about the future of space travel taking over 90 years with guests and crew in a state of hibernation. It is clever and inventive. The cinematography is spectacular.
The acting is quite good. The chemistry between the lead characters is impressive. Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt share great on screen chemistry. That is until, well, they don’t. Michael Sheen is great, along with Laurence Fishburne and Andy Garcia.
The critics were not kind in their reviews. We thought that was a bit harsh. It is a thought provoking concept with lots of clever twists and turns.
It is listed as a Fantasy/Science Fiction running just under two hours. It is rated PG-13.
Rating 
Assassin’s Creed
I’m not sure how this movie got on our play list but since we saw it, we will review it. It is based on a video game series. That would explain why there was only young males in the audience and one woman, apparently a girlfriend/wife.
The cast was quite impressive. Michael Fassbender who is typically exceptional in every role, gave a good delivery. Marion Cotillard, who has been having a stellar year, was also good. Jeremy Irons also performed well as the Dad. Other performances included Brendan Gleeson, Michael K Willims and a bit part by Charlotte Rampling.
Overall, the film was dark, confusing, and disorienting. We now assume you need to know the game in order to understand the movie. A bummer because the connection to 15th century Spain, the Templar Order and the Assassins was the draw in the first place.
Rated PG-13, but we would caution parents about significant and prolonged violence. It is listed as a Fantasy/Science Fiction that runs 2 hours, 20 minutes.
Rating 
Merry Christmas! If there was one movie to take my husband to this week (and not a musical…), what would you suggest! He likes a story where you can’t predict the plot. Thanks! And thank you for your blog this year – have enjoyed every one of them.
Thanks for sharing the reviews. Always helpful. I saw Fences this weekend and I’m waiting for your impression.
Stuart