November/December/January emoji movie reviews

• Rise of the Planet of the Apes

  • Trey: (rewatch) 👍
    awesome movie. A great entry point into the franchise at large.

  • Rebecca: 👌.
    You know how you go to see the Sonic the Hedgehog movie expecting for it to focus on the anthropomorphic hedgehog but instead you get a lot of story about the human companions instead? This felt similar. You get used to the cgi/mo cap apes pretty quickly; there are only a few uncanny scenes. It is easy enough to accept the super smart apes and harder to believe how incredibly stupid the humans are.

    (Side note: Trey mentioned “that Harry Potter actor” multiple times and I had no clue who he was talking about until I saw Tom Felton’s name in the credits. Oops.)

• Planes, Trains, Automobiles

  • (Rewatch for both of us)

  • Trey: 👍
    great movie on its own. Knowing there’s deleted scenes makes me want to see it as intended. A feel good holiday movie

  • Rebecca: 👍
    the funky 80’s soundtrack does not vibe with the sentimental scenes. Very funny movie that you should watch if you have not!

• Baby Driver

  • (Rewatch for both of us)

  • Trey: 👍
    Great movie, a small story, but not in a bad way. Great music, great camera effects, decent acting. Hokey ending

  • Rebecca: 👍
    Great film! Meant for the big screen. Love the practical effects. Just a long music video.

• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

  • Trey: (rewatch) 👍
    Best out of three, you really see Cesar conflicted in his role as a leader. the humans play even less of a role in this film.

  • Rebecca: 👍
    I don’t think this really needed three movies to tell the story, but this one is the best as a whole film. I think it’s stupid that the female apes have beads in their hair as a way to designate them as female. The humans are less dumb in this one.

• White Christmas

  • Trey: 👍
    a Christmas movie that is not about Christmas at all. Great music, but doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas. The Christmas aspect is just thrown in.

  • Rebecca: did not watch

• A Christmas Story

  • Trey: 👍
    great movie, stone cold classic, captures being a kid. All the kid hits are there: bullies, school, wanting a present. Small, little stories that are all together with the theme happening around Christmas time

  • Rebecca: 👍
    for the longest time, I only knew of this movie from my family’s Christmas Eve parties, where this would run continuously in the background on the channel that plays it on loop. I didn’t like it as a kid because I thought everyone was picking on him. Now, so good!

• War for the Planet of the Apes

  • Trey: (rewatch) 👍
    solid inclusion to the trilogy, not as good as the first two but also a different kind of film from the others. Solid performances all around

  • Rebecca: 👎
    boooooooooring. We had enough war in the second movie. The first movie could have been summarized in a flash back and the third movie could have been an epilogue. The humans are back to being just as dumb as the humans in the first one.

• Gremlins

  • Trey: 👍

    okay movie. Weird stuff didn’t need to be in there. Probably would’ve gotten more out of it if I was younger. Strange tonal shifts. Not as crazy violent or gory as I was led to believe.

  • Rebecca: 🫤

    Weird film. I see no reason that the dad had to be a kooky inventor. I thought it would have played into the plot more.

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)

  • (Rewatch for both of us)

  • Trey:👍👍👍
    Great movie all around. Boris Karloff is the narrator and the voice of the Grinch. Awesome visuals and direction by Chuck Jones. What more could you want? We both like when the Whos open up like a gate at the end.

  • Rebecca: 👍🎄👍

    Fahoo fores dahoo dores Welcome Christmas, Christmas Day🎵I have misophonia and really relate to the Grinch complaining about the whos and their noise, noise, noise! Great film.

• Frosty the Snowman

  • (Rewatch for both of us)

  • Trey:👍
    I cry every time.

  • Rebecca: 👍☃️🤍

    I did not care for the Frosty song and never watched the movie until I dated Trey. He loves this film and cries when Frosty says “in fact, I’m all living. I’m alive! What a neat thing to happen to a guy like me”. So now I cry when frosty says that, too. This film is oddly paced, funny, and charming.

• Robby Hoffman: Wake Up

  • Trey: 👎 👎 👎 👎
    ”Dude, that thing was the worst excuse for comedy that I have ever had the misfortune to view. I dare you to watch this and try to laugh. the only reason I was in the same room while this was on was because you (Rebecca) were asleep in the bedroom and we were trapped in the AirBnB. I did not select this to be watched.”

  • Rebecca: did not watch

• The Holdovers

  • Trey:👍
    Amazing movie, really, really good. Not really a comedy, but a feel-good movie to be watched between Christmas and New Year's.

  • Rebecca: did not watch

• Wicked: For Good

  • Trey: did not watch

  • Rebecca:👍

• Heated Rivalry

  • Trey: did not watch

  • Rebecca: 🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒
    So, I ended up reading the book after watching the series and I think this series is one of the most faithful book adaptations I have ever seen. I didn't like Hudson William’s portrayal of Shane until I read the book and learned that is just how that character is.

• Iron Man

  • Trey:👌
    If every Marvel movie was as good as this, then there would be no talk of superhero fatigue.

  • Rebecca: 👍
    He was in that cave longer than I remembered. I think this film was better when it was 2008.
    

• Hulk (2008)

  • Trey: (rewatch)👎

  • Rebecca: 👎
    I forgot what I thought about this film so I asked Trey if I liked it and he said “No. Nobody did.”

• The Thing

  • Trey:👍
    Really great. There is nothing bad about this movie. But it is not the best movie TM. I think this is an unfortunate side effect of being born too late. We waited for it to be cold and opened all the windows to watch this.

  • Rebecca:👌
    If I wanted to see an isolationist, sci-fi horror film, I’d rather watch Alien. But, this had neat effects and I appreciated the jump scares in this.

• American Movie

  • Trey: 👌
    The movie itself is not very great, but the two main dudes are very charming. Clips of them you can find on YouTube are better than the actual movie.

  • Rebecca: Did not watch

• An Evening with Kevin Smith

  • Trey: 👍

    You are better off watching the clips of him talking about stuff on YouTube that everyone has seen already. the college kids hooting and hollering while asking him about smoking weed should have been left on the cutting room floor.

  • Rebecca: did not watch

• Pixels to Pages

  • Trey: 👍
    This is a documentary about Electronic Gaming Monthly. You can tell there was a lot of passion behind the magazine and behind the making of this movie. Lots of cool stories to be heard here.

  • Rebecca: did not watch