Movie Review: Luck

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TO has been choosing the movies he wants to watch for a couple of years now and thankfully the ones I’ve been watching with him have had something as a take away barring the entertainment factor. We watched Luck on Apple TV+ last night and except for a few parts which were a bit hokey IMO, it’s a decent watch for families.

Movie plot: Sam, a 18-year old orphan is aging out of the last orphanage she lived in; having spent her life going from one home to another without ever having found her “forever family” aka get adopted.

This doesn’t make her too down in the dumps however and she appoints herself as a big sister for the other girls in the home, most of all Hazel. Sam, unfortunately, suffers from chronic bad luck and something or the other always goes wrong for her till the day her luck changes and she accidentally finds a lucky penny dropped by a bad luck omen- a BLACK CAT!

The rest of the movie follows her adventures in the Land of Luck as she tries to reclaim good luck for Hazel and make sure she gets her forever family which she learns important lessons in life, love and about herself.

Featuring the voices of Jane Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg, John Ratzenberger among others, Luck is an original Apple film which explains, in a very patient manner, that having only good luck isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. A balance of good and the bad is what makes life the journey it is. Bad luck isn’t all that bad at the end of the day and is just a path towards reclaiming the good luck that gives one a sense of confidence and joy to go further.

Similar to the movie Inside Out, Luck explains the slightly metaphysical concept of good being not all good and bad being not entirely bad to the younger lot and does it in a wholesome manner. Sure, some parts do seem a bit goody-goody, but with all the less than sanitary stuff that’s assaulting the kids from all around, a feel-good movie and slightly goody-two-shoes character isn’t a bad thing at all!

Jurassic World Dominion

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I like dinos. Quite a bit. Have religiously watched all The Land Before Time movies and then the Jurassic Park/World ones and I was *quite*curious to see what they would do to wrap things up in Dominion. They didn’t do much.

Given that things have to follow patterns set for creature and doomsday movies, one can’t realistically expect there to be anything totally unique about a movie where dinosaurs roam free amongst humans. However, one could expect to be a bit more entertained in the process. And that’s where this movie lets you down. Pretty badly.

With hackneyed plots and less than stellar acting, this particular installment of the Jurassicverse would be enjoyed if not outright adored only by an ardent fan. The return of Laura Dern, Sam Neil and Jeff Goldblum don’t hit any entertaining notes and the inclusion of Campbell Scott as the unassuming antagonist doesn’t rouse one’s ire let alone get the feel of an honest-to-god bad guy.

As a parent, the character of Maisie Lockwood (played by Isabella Sermon) just makes you want to ground her till she’s 35 for a) releasing the dinosaurs in Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom and b) being a typical disobedient, sulky teen who essentially causes the dominoes to start falling.

All in all, this is a movie I saw purely for the love of my child and a bit of my innate curiosity. The love for the child remains but the curiousity is sated; for good!

P.S: This movie proves one thing for sure…the T-Rex always wins!

The Exasperated Mommy Bloglet

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Living with a teenager is quite like living with an overly opinionated, randomly emo, rather ignorant, squaking parrot who you love to bits but want to silence by throwing a tarp over.

Movie Review: Psycho (The Poster Version)

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Movie Review: Friday the 13th (The Poster Version)

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The Mother’s Day Brouhaha

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My family lived in the US briefly, many years ago. Prior to that life was smaller in many ways. There were no 75 channels on tv and there certainly was no Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Presidents Day and what have you.

We had Children’s Day where we most certainly did not get to escape from school; were “nudged” into elocution or essay competitions eulogizing the first Prime Minister of India. We had Teacher’s Day where the teachers got a break..sort of. The place I did my middle school from, had the 10th graders dress up in sarees or salwar kameez and the younger classes were allocated to us to manage while the teachers had a break for a day. Lunch was organized for them and there were no classes on that day for anyone. Good times all around. But the concept of Mother’s Day being a thing and a big one at that is something I got to know when I was in 3rd grade. Still a newbie of sorts to American life.

Our teacher who had an unfortunate way of looking strict while she wasn’t too bad in real life had us make little accessories for our mothers. Small pieces of what looks like particle wood to me now were available for us to color on and then a pin would be glued on the back and it would make a lovely brooch for our moms.

In theory so many things sound good. Doable even, but give a bunch of kids glue and craft products especially a goggle-eyed one from India who is new to the concept of pipe cleaners and googly eyes and you get something like this-

My mother in her infinite wisdom *never* wore this except for the time I gave it to her. Given that she had nothing which would offset this and she never went trick or treating either, this brooch was consigned to her drawer of special things, displayed prominently but sensibly not worn.

She preserved this, possibly as a reminder to herself that Art and her daughter were not intended to be friends. Over the years I’ve got a laugh out of jiggling the brooch so the eyes jump up and down but for the most part this work of art remains misunderstood and has more depth than anyone has possibly gauge.

Happy Mother’s Day all!

Movie Review: The Godfather (The Poster Version)

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