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GOO Reviews

~ An Edmonton-based movie blog

GOO Reviews

Author Archives: Thom Yee

Power Rangers (2017) review

01 Saturday Apr 2017

Posted by Thom Yee in Films

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Action, Franchise, martial arts, Sci-Fi, superhero

Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club Power Rangers

by Thom Yee

power-rangers-one

Power Rangers images courtesy of Lionsgate Films

When it comes to the narrow windows of time that separate our personal childhood fascinations from the general nostalgia that we just can’t stand, I fell just outside of the right age to be into the Power Rangers. I was in upper elementary school, grades 4 through 6, when the morphenomenal teen team first debuted and gained prominence, just a little too mature to fully immerse in their world, but still surrounded by the property’s deluge of television episodes, toys, and commercials. If I’m being honest, there was a part of me that envied the younger kids at my school who were at just the right age for the Power Rangers and could play with the Japanese-looking robots that combined together to form even bigger robots, but at that point I mostly had my sights set firmly on one other goal: Toughening up so that I wouldn’t be eaten alive in junior high. In my case, that meant leaving behind such juvenilia, picking up at least one sport to be good at, and pretending to be into gangsta rap. But, as long as we’re being so honest with each other here, I should probably go ahead and admit something else to you: I still watched Power Rangers sometimes. Continue reading →

Kong: Skull Island review

18 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by Thom Yee in Films

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Action, Horror, kaiju, Kong, Monsters, MonsterVerse, Sci-Fi

‘Twas beauty killed the—what’s that. He’s still alive? Oh… well never mind then.

by Thom Yee

kong-skull-island-one

Kong: Skull Island images courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

So, I’ve never actually seen the original King Kong, not all the way through or all in one sitting at least. That’s not something I regret either despite being ‘the movie guy’ in my group of friends and despite being a person who prides himself on his knowledge of movie history. It may ultimately be a failing on my part, but I just don’t have a great deal of patience when it comes to the classics, and, as has been the case with Citizen Kane, The Graduate, or Scarface, I doubt that I’m going to see the original King Kong anytime soon. I’ve seen parts of it of course, the same way we’ve all watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory, pressed the wrong floor in a cramped elevator, or eaten at Subway, but there was never any intentionality behind those viewings, so while I have a pretty good idea of what the movie was about, I don’t really know what people see in it. But I have seen the 2014 Godzilla. Continue reading →

Logan review

11 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by Thom Yee in Films

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Action, comics, Emotion, Marvel, superhero, Wolverine, X-Men

Ew… no! Blood! Unngh!

by Thom Yee

logan-one

Logan images courtesy of 20th Century Fox

The last time we checked in on a Wolverine movie was in 2013’s The Wolverine, a small, self-contained little story where Wolverine travelled to Japan and was charged with the care of the rich heiress and granddaughter of a soldier whose life he saved in World War II that quickly and drastically grew less small and less self-contained when that same soldier wound up betraying Wolverine in a bid to steal his youth-imbuing healing factor. I know that’s a bit more than a spoiler (and a really long and convoluted sentence), but, frankly, eff that movie and its weird Viper-snake-ladies, its ridiculous Silver Samurais, and its jump-right-off-the-rails-of-sanity third act after its much more even-toned first two [acts]. Besides The Wolverine’s bullet train sequence, there is almost no reason to see that movie, at least not in its entirety. Continue reading →

Get Out review

04 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by Thom Yee in Films

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Comedy, Horror, Satire

You cool like dat? I’m cool like that.

by Thom Yee

get-out-one

Get Out images courtesy of Universal Pictures

One of the most cogent and convincing arguments I’ve ever heard in my life was about cheating:

“If you can take advantage of a situation in some way, it’s your duty … to do it. Why should the race always be to the swift, or the Jumble to the quick-witted? Should they be allowed to win merely because of the gifts God gave them? Well I say, ‘Cheating is the gift man gives himself.'”

Eugenics isn’t explicit in that statement, but I think it is implicit, and eugenics, or at least the idea of pre-determining a preferred path based on your beliefs on superior genetic traits, is an idea at the core of Get Out. Continue reading →

La La Land review

25 Saturday Feb 2017

Posted by Thom Yee in Films

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Drama, Musical, Oscars, Romance

Surprise!  It’s a musical review!

by Thom Yee and a special guest

la-la-land-one

La La Land images courtesy of Summit Entertainment

I’ve never outright announced, proclaimed or demanded that GOO Reviews will not be reviewing musicals, in fact it’s something we’ve done a few times in the past, but more recently, under my editorship (i.e., I’m the only one left who writes our full-length reviews on a regular basis), it’s something I thought would at least be implied going forward.  And yet here we are.

The release of La La Land was something that had been causing me actual apprehension for most of last year.  I was conflicted about the movie because while it was going to be a musical, and thus something I could probably ignore, it was also likely to be a headline-grabbing, award-nominated movie that I’d most likely have to pay some attention to.   Continue reading →

Manchester by the Sea review

18 Saturday Feb 2017

Posted by Thom Yee in Films

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Drama, Emotion, family, Oscars

And then you die

by Thom Yee

manchester-by-the-sea-one

Manchester by the Sea images courtesy of Roadside Attractions and Amazon Studios

“Life isn’t fair.” Odds are you’re going to hear that on at least a few occasions in your time on Earth, and if your life goes a certain way or if you too often find yourself in the company of a particular sort of person, it’s a saying that could echo and repeat and may even start to form a pattern around your entire existence. Really, the only people who like to say “life isn’t fair” are those who don’t care, especially not about your sh*t. Another saying that’s become nearly as popular is “It gets better”, and there’s a certain type of person you’re likely to hear that from too — someone who does care but who doesn’t have as firm a grasp on things as they’d like you to believe. And, if we’re being honest, they probably don’t care that much about your sh*t either. If they did, they’d realize how ignorant, manipulative, and galling saying “it gets better” can be. Continue reading →

The Founder review

04 Saturday Feb 2017

Posted by Thom Yee in Films

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

biography, Drama, Food

Who’s up for Shamrock Shakes?

by Thom Yee

founder-one

The Founder images courtesy of The Weinstein Company

I remember this one time when I was a kid and McDonald’s was selling their hamburgers on promotion for something like 25 cents a piece. This was the ‘90s mind you, well before the days of McCafé or McDonald’s salads, well after the days of the McDLT, and probably around if not just before the all-too-brief age of McDonald’s’ pizzas, so it was right in the heart of when we knew how bad fast food was for us, but hey, where else were we gonna eat (plus we always ordered the Diet Coke, so whatevs)? And the place was just packed. People were buying the maximum number of hamburgers, ten at a time, and getting their friends to come in with them to order more, as if there were some kind of hamburger shortage, as if they were struggling to feed their tired, hungry, huddled-mass families, as if their very lives depended on it. But who am I to talk; after all, I was there too. I got a McChicken. Man, I miss how good those used to be. Continue reading →

Split review

28 Saturday Jan 2017

Posted by Thom Yee in Films

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Horror, Shyamalan, Thriller

They say this one has a surprise ending

by Thom Yee

split-one

Split images courtesy of Universal Pictures

I’ve been a big fan of writer/director M. Night Shyamalan ever since his first movie. Well, actually, that’s not true, I’ve never seen Wide Awake, the Rosie-O’Donnel-led comedy he wrote and directed from 1998, nor did I even know about his 1992-released Praying with Anger until I bothered to look up his film credits. No, the M. Night Shyamalan I’m speaking of, the one we’re probably all thinking of when we dig into the rosier side of our movie memories, is the storyteller, the wunderkind, “The Next Spielberg”, the man who brought us The Sixth Sense. And… actually, I never saw The Sixth Sense either. ‘Cause somebody told me how it ends. I still look back on those early Shyamalan movies fondly, however, because even if I was never able to experience what it was like to sit in one of those theatres in 1999 — without any expectations as I beheld a gritty, suspenseful, unexpectedly well-told movie about seeing dead people with a monumental twist ending that would change everything — I had a pretty similar experience when I did see his follow-up, Unbreakable, the year after. Without anyone spoiling it. Continue reading →

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