Batson's Blog

Melissa McCarthy was on fire for a while — several years. Has her time subsided or is it unrealistic to expect someone to stay on top of a particular field for so long? Especially a field that can be as fickle and wishy-washy as show business? Those were the thoughts going through my head as I watched this movie. Probably not a good sign when you’re watching a movie and not actually paying attention to it. The movie started off normal enough. It almost seemed understated compared to some of McCarthy’s other films. I thought it could end up being a family comedy at first. But that soon changed ... somewhat. The problem with this movie is that it straddled the line between family-friendly comedy and ‘outrageous’ comedy. McCarthy is great at playing those potty-mouthed characters. But she’s kind of a one trick pony in that sense. I get the impression she’d like to break out of that mold a bit. McCarthy’s acting was fine in this movie — good, in fact — but her character flopp...

I didn’t intend on watching this but it was the best option of the flight I was recently on. So, Rampage it was. Sometimes it’s best to go into a movie with no (or minimal) expectations because it surprises you. I’ll admit that the movie didn’t start the way I thought it would. Granted I didn’t watch every trailer so maybe the setup of the movie was previewed in one of those. The Rock is a zookeeper (or zoologist?).  He has a special bond with one gorilla in particular.  A space crash, one mad scientist and a full-on mutation later, Davis Okoye (The Rock) is now teaming up with an attractive genetic engineer, Dr. Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris). Davis' relationship with George was a bit corny. Or a lot corny. I don’t know exactly what it’s like dealing with apes, but I find it very hard to believe that they can understand dialogue the way The Rock’s character was delivering it. A basic understanding? Sure. But understanding sarcasm (enough to flip a human off)? I ...