Mama Mia: Here We Go Again (2018)

I had never seen Mama Mia before and we decided to do a double feature. I enjoyed the first movie (I did a review check it out.) The concept of a sequel especially one that goes back in time can be hard to pull off. We take the cast of the original (Stacked!) And add in another great cast. Lilly James is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. Baby Driver was amazing and her part in Darkest Hour was great.

Unfortunatly this sequel does not match up to the first movie. A lot of the songs are reused which makes sense since we are still only pulling from Abba's greatest hits. The young Dynamos were amazing but the addition of Cher was just meh. There is a sequence with Panos Mouzourakis singing "Kisses of fire" which I loved.

All things considered this movie was enjoyable but it wasn't great.

Mama Mia (2008)

I don't know how I missed this movie. I think I had convinced myself that I hated Abba because I had only ever heard "Dancing Queen" before. I probably would have never seen this one if it wasn't for my friend. It's her favorite movie. 

From the moment Amanda Seyfried sung "Honey Honey" I was all in. Musicals are a guilty pleasure of mine and Mama Mia has quite the cast. Since I saw Sweeny Todd I was a fan of Amanda Seyfried's voice. That little wobble she does, (Not a musician I don't know the actual term.) I love it. The movie itself is great and the plot is engaging. 

A girl looking to find out who she is by finding out where she comes from. Meryl Streep is always a treasure but I think the show is stolen by the dads (Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård, and Colin Firth.) The music was fun and it fit the story. 

If you like musicals this one is up there though not my favorite. 

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

I was nervous about Rogue One. The prequels were generally bad (I liked Revenge of the Sith.) Giving us the setup for Episode IV was either going to be awesome or really pointless.

Rogue One was fantastic. It gave us the background and the spirit of rebellion that brought us to A new hope. This is a Star Wars story and not just in name.

It feels like it belongs and is easily my favorite Star Wars story yet. It is gritty and it shows that the rebellion often had to act in despiration. Jyn Erso is the star and her character is really interesting.

Her entire crew feel really fleshed out and their motivations are clear.

The digital effects are fantastic and while they aren't perfect the recreation of Peter Cushing's Tarkin and the deaging of Carrie Fisher were impressive.

See this movie. I am a completest and believe that the Star Wars universe is ever growing though I will admit I've had a hard time getting into the cartoons.

Annihilation (2018)

I love Natalie Portman and I like spooky stuff. The trailer was pretty cool and my boss Jon and I got pretty excited about it. He was so excited that he read the book.

We screened the movie and let me tell you it was an experience. Now that it's on Netflix (International), I decided to give it another view.

Lena (Natalie Portman's) husband has been missing and when he comes back something is seriously wrong. She is ex military and is sent on a mission to go find out what happened on his mission.

There were a lot of twists and turns and this one was a fun ride. If you like weird stuff or gripping thrillers then check this out.

Troy (2004)

I saw Troy in the theaters 14 years ago. I didn't remember much but I remembered not liking it.

Troy is a modern epic in the vein of classics such as Ben-Hur and Spartacus. This movie is pretty long at 2hrs and 47 mins but when I think about classics the length is to be expected.

The cast is pretty loaded, Brad Pitt as Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector and Orlando Bloom as the young prince Paris.

The plot is pretty straight forward, we all know at least one version of this story but Troy aims to give deeper motive to it's players which seems to distract from the overall narative.

The scenes of war are pretty flat in my opinion and the most interesting dynamic for me was Achilles though Brad Pitt was pretty wooden at times.

I feel like this movie added very little and was generally a flop. The sets and costuming were gorgeous but they couldn't save an otherwise lackluster production.

Makeover

Today Veronica got a much needed makeover to represent her inner spookiness. The fabulous Jemmy Von worked on her. She's got bold wings in black and purple. Her lips are a shade called maneater which I thought was very appropriate. She is feeling very confident and looks forward to the launch of our Youtube show once we get the neccisary equipment.

Her makeup was Urban Decay and Huda. Jemmy is available for work in the RI area. She is a good friend of ours and very talented.

We look forward to more reviews. Leave us comments, we read them all.

Email Jemmy at Jemmifire@yahoo.com

Email your questions to Veronica at veronicaheartsmovies@gmail.com

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

This movie was promised to be so much. We had been wanting to go forward in time for so long and now we were. The first time I saw the Force Awakens I was overloaded.

I loved the EU and I felt this was the closest I would ever get to Jacen and Jaina Solo, the light and the dark. Rey and Kylo are that but they are also something more.

Unfortunatly the more I watch this movie the less I care about it. I lump it with Episodes I and II, good to have but unnecessary.

You've heard it all before, a lot of episode IV was rehashed here, I'm not going to get into that because that's not why it failed for me.

This was a set up movie, we knew we were getting VIII and IX. This movie needed to do so much. Supreme evil? Check. Mixing of the old and new? Check. We got some cool characters, Rey is solid and some rang loud with the fans (Poe/Finn).

My complaint is they misused what they had. Phasma was such a disappointment and it kinda sat ill with me that after winning the war the Resistance was still just limping along. They should have been a force maybe not on par with the first order but not like they were here.

If you like Star Wars movies you'll most likely enjoy this. If you're a IV, V, VIer you're probably not going to enjoy anything that isn't those. This was a fun movie at the time but not really worth the rewatch.

The Babysitter (2017)

This movie was weird. It felt like two completely different movies which I think was the point. Cee and Bee were really well fleshed out and the rest were just kinda there. Maybe not just there but they had little depth. 

If you like horror or coming of age stories this is a fun one with a twist. What would you do if you found out your babysitter was worshiping the devil?

Bee was perfect, too perfect, she was pretty, she was up on movies and geek culture. She was every 12 year old's wet dream. I liked this one, I didn't love it but it was cool how it had kind of a reverse slasher thing going on.

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

I loved the first Ant Man, its pretty high on my list of MCU movies. I enjoyed Ant Man and the Wasp but the more I think about it the less I like it. The film takes place in what seems like right before Infinity War.

The character growth and interactions were on point. Michael Pena as Luis was as awesome as it was in the last movie. The thing I liked the most was Scott's interactions with Cassie.

 The plot was so so and Ghost just wasn't that compelling. A lot of the plot points just seemed like filler to me and it just wasn't exciting enough.

Stay for the end credits as always but don't expect to be wowed.

I'm giving it 3 stars but it was dangerously close to 2.5.