Vix Flix Movie Reviews

Here we go again with yet another concussion-begets-enlightenment movie, in a role reversal of 2000’s  What Women Want , starring Mel Gibson. That go-round was evidently before women realized they didn’t want…him. This time we have Taraji P. Henson in the lead role as sports agent Ali Davis, competing in a male dominated occupation as the sole female combatant in a clearly cutthroat business. I must say, I have known only one sports agent and he was among the worst people I’ve ever met. But Ali develops the ability to read men’s thoughts as a result of her head bump, a useful advantage and vivid comic illustration that men are all idiots. That brings up an interesting trend that I’m hopefully not just imagining. As women secure an increasing number of lead roles, their male co-stars seem to be turning into MeToo fantasies – docile, moral, soft-spoken and male model good looking. They are great dads and easily offended, unless they’re still old-fashioned jerks. The transition is

What more appropriate day to see this movie than at its theatrical debut on Valentine’s Day?  Isn’t It Romantic  is the latest in the alternate reality genre wherein dwell  Big ,  13 Going on 30  and even  It’s a Wonderful Life . It shares a key plot line popularized in 2001’s  Shallow Hal , another movie with a message about body shaming and love. In fact, this film is something of a cross between  Shallow Hal  and  When Harry Met Sally .  What Men Want , currently in theaters, and the upcoming  Yesterday  also begin with a physical trauma. I can only guess that the success of other scripts has led us to a plethora of movies that use this device, unless there was a recent lazy writers’ seminar on the use of an injury to launch a story into another universe. This is no  Matrix . Unlike  I Feel Pretty , in which Amy Schumer’s head trauma leads her to be alone with the illusion of her own extreme beauty,  Isn’t It Romantic  reverses the paradigm, leaving Rebel Wilson mystified tha

It has been nineteen years since Bruce Willis emerged as the sole survivor of a horrific train crash in M. Night Shyamalan’s  Unbreakable . Somehow, Willis’s character David Dunn was unaware that he was a superhero with super strength, but as I recall, it was a pretty good movie. In 2016’s  Split  we were introduced to the two-dozen personalities of the main character whose name is, well, he has two-dozen names. His 24 th  personality is a psychopathic superhero called The Beast (James McAvoy), who is out to kill several young girls. It was also a pretty good movie. It seems that M. Night Shyamalan felt compelled to produce a trilogy rather than just leave well enough alone. Two good movies do not a third guarantee. Glass  is the final chapter in this triad. At least, it should be. The main characters all meet very ordinary ends. Who knew that holding a superhero’s face in a sidewalk puddle is all it takes to destroy him. Yep, that’s the end of David Dunn. And all you have t

How did we miss a movie that was included in  The Week  magazine’s list of the top ten of 2018? Perhaps MoviePass never included it in their own list of allowable films at our local theater. That particular program was one of our favorites for part of the year, until it became utterly useless and we left it behind. And that’s probably good, since we were substituting movie theater snacks for our dinner an unhealthy number of times. But I digress.  Eighth Grade  was indeed a movie worth seeing, and one to recommend, with one caveat: if you hated the year in school chronicled in this film as much as I did, you’ll be curled up in a fetal position by the time the movie reaches its mid point. Writer and director Bo Burnham masterfully portrays that awkward time in our development from the perspective of lead actress Elsie Fisher’s wonderful portrayal of Kayla Day, a pimply faced middle-schooler who broadcasts her thoughts and advice on YouTube to an audience of perhaps zero to one. I