The Fall of MoviePass
As you've probably heard, MoviePass, which for a brief time was the best thing to ever happen to moviegoers, met its downfall when the company realized that charging customers $10 a month to watch as many movies as they want was not a profitable venture. After several attempts to stop the bleeding (including forcing people to watch only movies starring Adam Sandler, I believe) MoviePass settled on only allowing members to see three movies a month. Which is the point at which I finally quit. So, here are the last few movies I got to see with my card before I took scissors to it.
Ant-Man and the Wasp - you know what you're getting with a Marvel movie by now, and this doesn't disappoint, even if it offers nothing new on the formula. The returning cast is delightful as ever and there are welcome new additions in two morally ambiguous characters played by Laurence Fishburne and Hannah John-Kamen. Best of all, though, is seeing Michelle Pfeiffer in her first comic book role since Batman Returns (1992) as Janet Van Dyne, the original Wasp. On the down side, the plot is forgettable and there are too many supporting characters. But overall this is an enjoyable diversion after the apocalyptic Avengers: Infinity War.
Sorry to Bother You is one of the weirdest movies I've had the pleasure of seeing on the big screen. Imagine Idiocracy, The Brother from Another Planet and Get Out thrown in a blender and the result is even stranger than you'd expect. Set in a far-fetched reality where evil corporations exploit the working class (ok, maybe not so far-fetched) it follows a telemarketer played by Lakeith Stanfield who uncovers a sinister conspiracy at the company he works for. To say any more would spoil the bizarre twists the movie takes, but this is definitely worth checking out.
Teen Titans Go! to the Movies is a fun expansion of the TV show, with more comic book and movie references than you can possibly count, some of which will be over the heads of the kid audience. A few of the jokes are a little lowbrow, but any DC movie which mocks Batman v Superman is to be cherished.
Christopher Robin - Disney's live-action Winnie the Pooh movie is basically the same idea as Hook, with a grown-up Christopher Robin reconnecting with his childhood friends to save his family. However, I enjoyed it more than that movie, mainly because of the more subtle performances from the talented cast and the air of melancholy throughout which works quite well. Worth taking the kids to, if you have some, or taking yourself, if you don't.
That was the end of my MoviePass run, but not the end of my moviewatching. The most recent film I saw was 2001: A Space Odyssey. I've seen it twice before on the big screen, but this time it was in IMAX and looked and sounded better than ever. My kids were thoroughly baffled by the slow pace and impenetrable plot, but for me this remains just as groundbreaking and awe-inspiring as it was to audiences 50 years ago.
Sorry to Bother You is one of the weirdest movies I've had the pleasure of seeing on the big screen. Imagine Idiocracy, The Brother from Another Planet and Get Out thrown in a blender and the result is even stranger than you'd expect. Set in a far-fetched reality where evil corporations exploit the working class (ok, maybe not so far-fetched) it follows a telemarketer played by Lakeith Stanfield who uncovers a sinister conspiracy at the company he works for. To say any more would spoil the bizarre twists the movie takes, but this is definitely worth checking out.
Teen Titans Go! to the Movies is a fun expansion of the TV show, with more comic book and movie references than you can possibly count, some of which will be over the heads of the kid audience. A few of the jokes are a little lowbrow, but any DC movie which mocks Batman v Superman is to be cherished.
Christopher Robin - Disney's live-action Winnie the Pooh movie is basically the same idea as Hook, with a grown-up Christopher Robin reconnecting with his childhood friends to save his family. However, I enjoyed it more than that movie, mainly because of the more subtle performances from the talented cast and the air of melancholy throughout which works quite well. Worth taking the kids to, if you have some, or taking yourself, if you don't.
That was the end of my MoviePass run, but not the end of my moviewatching. The most recent film I saw was 2001: A Space Odyssey. I've seen it twice before on the big screen, but this time it was in IMAX and looked and sounded better than ever. My kids were thoroughly baffled by the slow pace and impenetrable plot, but for me this remains just as groundbreaking and awe-inspiring as it was to audiences 50 years ago.
posted by A.S. McDermott at 9:32 PM
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