New-to-me movies watching in June 2015

1. Farewell, My Queen (2012)
2. Jurassic World (2015)
3. Hotel Transylvania (2012)
4. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
5. The Fourth Kind (2009)
6. Hellraiser (1987)

REVIEWS:

1. Farewell, My Queen (2012)

The story centers on Sidonie, Marie Antoinette’s reader. Sidonie feels deeply attached to the queen and wishes to do all she came to serve and protect her even as the rumblings of the French Revolution begin.

Fascinating to see the history of the French Revolution from the perspective of the servants within the Versailles. Being neither royalty nor the starving revolutionaries, the servants inhabit an interesting place in the history. They have their own uncertainties and dangers from both sides.

Diane Kruger is brilliant as Marie Antoinette. She is both powerful and flighty, queenly and childlike.

The music and the cinematography are fantastic, reflects the intensity of the moment. The story starts in the middle and has an open-ended ending, but it is put together well and felt satisfying.

2. Jurassic World (2015)

Discussed elsewhere.

3. Hotel Transylvania (2012)

Super cute. I love seeing all the monsters and how the lead their “normal” lived, even though the story is fairly predictable.

4. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Discussed elsewhere.

5. The Fourth Kind (2009)

“You have watch this movie,” my sister says. “It’s terrifying as hell.”

“Well, I am terrified of the idea of kidnapping aliens,” I reply.

So, there I am watching — all the time totally annoying by the layering of ‘real’ documentary style scenes played side-by-side with ‘reenactment’ scenes (why they did both I’ll never know) — and all the time I’m wondering when this is going to get scary.

At the end, I turn to my sister and say, “Really?”

“Wait,” she says, “It seemed like there are scenes missing.”

Turns out we watched the edited PG-13 version, which is crap. But I’m guessing that even the unedited version is still going to be kind of crap, even with the graphic violence, because the whole style and story is a big old mess.

6. Hellraiser (1987)

Way cooler than I expected it to be. The story is fairly unique, the characters are at least vaguely interesting, and the gore is fabulous.