December Movies

Hallooowwww...

How ya doin' peeps? Better than me i hope... I've been getting a barrage of sickness since last week, it started with a bad case of allergic (in all my teenage and adult life i didn't use to be allergic to anything but dusts, but now i'm well into my adulthood, i suddenly developed quite a bad allergic reactions to some fish and other *unknown* stuffs WTF, i seriously have no idea why! This happens suddenly too, just started a few months ago!), continued with a bad (BAD) case of stomach infections, i also got vertigo attacks followed with a bad sorethroat and ended (HOPEFULLY!) with a BAD case of flu now! LOLOLOL, i got enough disease to last me a year so i hope i will be super healthy for the remainder of 2018 hahaha!

Alright, let's get on with December movies review ^^!

1. Coco

FYI, i am super into cultural things, and i am also into something slightly morbid. So the combination of the two always intrigued me. Us in the East (especially for Chinese) has what we called Hungry Ghost Festival (if you don't know about this and want to learn more about it, i actually wrote a post about Hungry Ghost Festival once, you can read it there!) and the Mexicans have Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, which is the background of this movie. 

Miguel comes from a humble (but pretty successful in their field) shoe-making family and they have a weird generations-old ban on music. His grandma's daddy (Miguel's great grandpa) was a musician who left his family for his music one day and never returned, the family decides that they will never let music enter their lives and their hearts again-but Miguel dreams of becoming a successful musician, like his idol Ernesto de la Cruz. One thing lead to another and Miguel finds himself in Land of the Dead by accident, where he meets various characters, including the trickster Hector and together they set off to an adventure to find Miguel's grandfather to give him his blessing so that he could go back to the land of the living.

Now, although i am super intrigued with Dia de los Muertos itself, i wasn't particularly interested to watch Coco judging from the trailer. I watched another animated movie with similar background before, i think it was The Book of Life - and i wasn't impressed. But Coco totally impressed me! It's such a lovely, funny, heartwarming story and it made me cry like a baby. Family always comes first! Highly, highly recommended!

2. Murder on the Orient Express

I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie since i was little (yes, i was a strange kid. And a huge bookworm. I read heavy novels since very very young, Agatha Christie novels are my book of choice since kindergarten years), and i am very familiar with her weird, unlikely hero : Hercule Poirot (although i didn't really know how to pronounce his name back then) so i was quite interested when i heard they are making a movie out of one Hercule's most iconic story. Honestly when i first heard about the movie, i didn't realize right away that it's based on Agatha Christie's book and hunny was the one who wanted to watch it, but once i knew it was... I knew right away that i would enjoy it and hunny would fall asleep *LOLOLOL*. And i am right :)).

So, Hercule Poirot, the best detective in the world (i think he is definitely autistic or something. Definitely OCD. Not sure such diagnostic are available in his era tho) can never find himself time to relax, even when he is trying his best to have a vacation. Next thing he knew, he is boarding on the Orient Express because he is needed for an investigation. Little that he knew that he's going to face one of the hardest (if not THE hardest) case in his career right on that very train. A passenger is killed while the train accidentally gets stopped due to a small avalanche and he must find the killer and explain the motif before the train starts working again.

If you are a fan of Agatha Christie's books like me, then you'd know that her genre is crime drama, which means the movie would also be a crime drama (strong emphasize on the drama, i mean... With Hercule Poirot with his dramatic flairs... ) meaning there'd be a lot more dialogue, puzzle solving and mysteries than action. If you are looking for a popcorn, fast paced typed of movie : this ain't it. Even i get a little bit sleepy at times-but as a whole, i still very much enjoy it. Hunny claims to enjoy it too (even though he def fell asleep a few times during the movie *LOL*) but this is very much of a love it or hate it movie. I know people who thinks that this movie is boring AF, but there are also people who praise the movie the heavens. I am neither one of these two opposites tho, as i do like it but i also wouldn't be recommending it to everybody. Just to Agatha Christie/Hercule Poirot fans and or crime drama lovers.

3. Star Wars : Episode VII - The Last Jedi

Okay so i said this many times (two times actually) before that i am not a fan of Star Wars and i know nothing about it before other than Luke Skywalker, Darth Vadder, Master Yoda and Chewbacca - and i am only familiar with their names, period. I only started watching since The Force Awakens and i had to nag my son about who is who throughout the movie. I liked The Force Awaken, but then my image of Star Wars was destroyed by Rouge One *LOL* i was completely at loss throughout the movie so i had a mixed feeling going into The Last Jedi.

Luke Skywalker has been exiling himself for many many years, and his solitary, peaceful existence (coz you can hardly call it life) is completely disturbed by the appearance of Rey, a young woman with a strong signs of the Force and even stronger head. She won't leave him alone before he agrees to help the resistance or at least, to train her to be a Jedi - which Luke is adamant not to do due to a traumatic event with his nephew (now known as Kylo Ren alias the current enemy), but soon he realizes that he might not have a choice.

As someone who's knows nothing about Star Wars, i personally don't mind The Last Jedi. Is it very very good? Errr, i don't think so. I think The Force Awaken was a lot more entertaining. Was it horrible? No, ofc not, it's pretty nice. And i LOVE those porgs! I can't say anything to Star Wars fan ofc (i heard there are two strong opinions regarding this movie? I could be wrong), but if you're a civilian like me, it's not a must watch but it's not an entirely horrible way to spend your time either.

4. Jumanji : Welcome to the Jungle

I grew up in the 90s, meaning when the original Jumanji came out, i was a kid myself (in case you don't know, i am younger than Kristen Dunst) - and like other kids of 90s, i LOVED Jumanji. It's probably one of the best movies of my childhood (i think my ultimate fave is Casper tho), and it leaves a strong mark. This is why the new Jumanji has a huge shoe to fill for us, and it's proven to be a pretty hard deal to do so. Kids who are born in the mid 90s to 2000s might not be as familiar with the original Jumanji and they love this new one, but for old skoolers like us... It can never replace the original. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad - on the contrary, it's very good and highly entertaining but personally i find it doesn't even compare to the original (probably biased too). I am glad they come up with an entirely different story line tho!

The movie opens in 1996, when the Jumanji board game is found and given to Alex Vreeke, but he claims that board games are boring and somehow, the game transformed into a video game cartrige, which Alex found the next day, proceed on playing and ofc - got sucked into the game. Fast forward to present time (when Alex Vreeke is well known as the teenage who disappeared), four high school students on detention find the same old video game and they began playing - they are more than just a little surprised when they got sucked into the game and turn into the avatar that they chose at the beginning. They soon realize that the only way to play is to survive the game, and that they have to finish the game to get back to their real lives.

Jumanji movies are always loud to say the least, Welcome to the Jungle is nothing like the original and it doesn't try to be as it is very different. It's a very fun movie, i actually would highly recommend this for a nice laugh and a good time, it's just that for me, the original would probably always be the best, but i can appreciate a good reboot when i see one. Plus, The Rock can always make any movie good in my opinion, he's crazy and hilarious, i just love him! And i can finally understand a little bit why girls love Nick Jonas so much *LOL*.

And those are the movies i watched in December, not much but all pretty good! Did you watch and enjoy any of those too?

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