Ant-Man (2015), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

Ant-Man 1 and Ant-Man 2 were fun.  The stories were easy to follow.  The villains were only average and not memorable, but Ant-Man was a simple, no high-stake superhero so that was acceptable.

Don't think too much of the logistics.  Ant-Man 2 showed the characters towing around a block of building, blew it up and shrank it down anywhere anytime.  As a grownup now, paying utilities, I wondered. Where was the sewage?  How did the piping go?

Ant-Man 3 was a disaster. Even when it was re-running on TV, we turned it off. The biggest problem was Marvel got rid of Ant-Man's sidekicks. Even though they were not the main characters, they were the spirit and the soul to the story. Without them, Ant-Man 3 was lost and went nowhere.

Iron Man (2008)

I didn't know about Iron Man or Marvel when this movie was released.  I finished all the chores on a weekend, and thought, sure, I'd see an action movie.  I went to a third-run theater with a small screen.  Turned out I really enjoy the movie.  Very compact plot, good dialogues, great action.

Re-watched in 2026 after all these years of following Marvel movies.  Now I knew this was the movie that started Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Iron Man was still one of the best Marvel movies.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Catcher Was A Spy (2018)

Since this was based on a true story, and all of us knew that Nazi did not develop an atomic bomb, so we knew about the ending of the movie five minutes in.

At 94 minutes, this movie had some thriller, some gun fight, some sex, and some fun.  It was an ok movie.  I never really liked spy movie because real spy stuff was boring, and I hated 007 James Bond.

⭐⭐⭐

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

The first time I watched this movie, I was confused.  Why Captain America, the patriot, suddenly wanted no government oversight, while Iron Man, the bad boy, wanted to sign the accord?  Of course the ending surprised me the most, since I was not a comic book fan, I did not see it coming.  A great ending to two friends.

Then I re-watched the movie, after growing old and more wisdom, I realized Captain America was not a patriot to the United States.  He was loyal to humanity.  That was why he refused to sign the accord.  Iron Man, on the other hand, was eaten by guilt of the destruction he had made throughout the years.  So he agreed to a set of rules that would reign superheroes in.

Wow, this movie was deep!

The first time, I was simply cheering for Captain America saving his bromance buddy Bucky.  The second watch, I did not agree with Captain America saving Bucky at all cost by any means necessary.

Goodness.  What would I think if I watched this movie the third time in another ten years?

Young Washington (2026)

What better way to celebrate America's 250th birthday by seeing a movie about the founding father?  It wasn't as propaganda-y as I had thought.  I liked the movie focused on one small segment of his life.  That made the plot manageable.  I learned some things about George Washington's early life.  Apparently he wanted to be an officer but was rejected.  So becoming an enlisted soldier wasn't even plausible for him?  How egotistical. However, the whole movie was about Washington learning his mistakes and kept bettering himself.  That was all we could ask for ourselves, right?

The cameras shook too much.  Watching it on a big screen wasn't an enjoyable experience.

I heard they were planning sequels.  Hopefully they made enough money to fix the camera problem.

⭐⭐⭐

Masters of the Universe (2026)

This was a stupidly entertaining movie great for a Saturday afternoon when all chores were finished.  Two hours and twenty minutes was too long because some jokes could be cut, but overall I enjoyed it.  I was concerned the main guy would be stuffy and wooden, but not really.  He was able to provide some laughter and some tears.  I appreciated him working hard.

However, Skeletor was the best.  He was such a lame Shakespearean actor villain.  Math Teacher said that was on-point with the original cartoon.

The main theme music was over-used.  But then again, for a silly toy turned cartoon turned movie, I didn't expect much.  If it was free I would watch this movie again.

🌟🌟🌟

Twisters (2024)

Math Teacher watched this on the airplane.  His review:  He could not stand the stupid people chasing twisters while making stupid mistakes. After awhile he started rooting for the twisters.  After ten minutes, he turned it off even though it was a free movie!

My Review:  I didn't even watch the movie.  I saw the trailer.  Everyone looked like they needed to go to school for another twenty years, then they were worthy of carrying briefcases for the REAL meteorologists.

American Fiction (2023)

The trailer led Math Teacher to believe this was a comedy and a satire; he highly recommended it.  We individually watched it while in the airplane.

My Review:  No~ this was a learning movie.  There were a few chuckles, but basically it made me think and reflect.

Math Teacher's Review:  The protagonist was a teacher; so was Math Teacher.  The protagonist had difficulty with students; so did Math Teacher.  Math Teacher had to skip several minutes of the movie because the plot hit too close to home.  At the end, he concurred this was not a comedy at all; it was a movie to make people do soul-searching.

Bullet Train (2022)

If you were slow like me, then you needed to watch this movie with subtitles.  Everyone in the movie talked fast and low, slurred, and mumbled.  I couldn't quite understand some details.  Sure, I got the overall idea, but I bet if I understood more, this movie would be even more fun.

That being said, this movie was already fun!  The characters were interesting; the actions were stupid and good.  There were some twists that I did not see coming.

The most ridiculous thing was when the bullet train finally arrived at Kyoto Station, both Math Teacher and I looked at each other and thought, that was not Kyoto Station.  The movie depicted the station as a quaint little station in the countryside.  The real Kyoto Station was a stainless steel monstrosity.  Oh well~

⭐⭐⭐ and 1/2

Mortal Kombat (2021), Mortal Kombat II (2026)

Apparently Math Teacher tried to make me watch Mortal Kombat (2021), but neither of us remembered if I finished watching it.  That was how bad this movie was.

The acting in Mortal Kombat II was to be desired; the dialogues were stiff; the fights were very choreographed.  I know all fights in all movies were choreographed, but this one looked especially so. However, there was no thinking involved.  This was a great stupid movie for a lazy Saturday afternoon.  

This movie was definitely for the video game fans.  I was not one so I was lost at some points, but I could hear in the theater some fans really liked certain scenes.

Hiroyuki Sanada was back as the de facto Japanese gravitas actor (Bullet Train, John Wick 4).  He must stand around, look at cherry blossom, wield samurai sword, and said important lines.  I'm looking forward to Sanada-san in a Godzilla movie!

Spy Game (2001)

For a two-hour movie, Math Teacher couldn't sit through half of it.  We thought it was a thriller, but tt was men sitting around a conference table talking.

For context, we sat through the three-hour King Kong (2005).  That showed how bad we were with meetings.

After pausing the movie for one week, we finally got enough courage to watch the second half.  The second half picked up a little bit, even with a short car chase.   Robert Redford lied, forged documents, wasted government resources, put military lives at risk, killed innocent jail guards, just to rescue Brad Pitt that hated him.  We couldn't agree with the ending.

Robert Redford and Brad Pitt looked exactly the same, only forty years apart.

King Kong (2005)

Whoa, I've never heard of this movie, and it's been out for twenty years?! I never knew King Kong was this bad.  All I knew was Kong:  Skull Island (2017), which apparently fixed every problem in the original and the remake of the story.

The worst thing of this movie was the romance.  Why?  The main female protagonist was interchangeable without any personality.  When at the end they did the bait-and-switch on her, I had to ask Math Teacher, "Is that a different woman?"

I also didn't understand why all the monsters and T-Rex were fighting for the main female protagonist.  She was so tiny she barely fit between their teeth.  They probably couldn't even taste her.  There were plenty of other better food on the island; why would the bigger animals want to chew on a toothpick?

The racism was rampant.  The island villagers were all dark-skinned, spoke gibberish, in trance a lot, and performed human sacrifice.  The two minority characters on the expedition ship also got killed off.  All those remained were white people.

Finally it was the run time.  King Kong was three hours long, and 1.5 hours too long.

The best thing in this movie was Jack Black.  I didn't know he could be in a dramatic role.  He was still Jack Black, but without the comedy, but with neurotic I'll-do-anything-to-get-what-I-want personality.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025)

This movie was loooooong.  Too many characters; some only appeared for no more than five minutes.  However, every character that had spoken dialogues got a back story.  That was completely unnecessary.  Cutting all of these out would save the movie at least one hour.

The story was so convoluted that I gave up trying to understand.  The only thing made sense was when the President ordered to unplug the internet to stop the AI.  That was what I said in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023).  That was the only way that I knew how to fix any technology.

They brought back the poor CIA guy from Mission:  Impossible (1996) that got transferred to Alaska.  The actions were still remarkable, but basically this movie was to say goodbye to Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt.  He was getting old.  Benji was getting old.  I didn't even remember Luther being sick from the previous movie.  Sigh.

⭐⭐⭐

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

Samuel Effing Jackson was so fun and crazy!  He was such a pleasure to watch on a big screen.

The movie knew what the audience wanted.  The actions kept happening; the story kept moving.  The pace was great.  We got to see Kong right away.  Did not disappoint.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thunderbolts* (2025)

The movie was not bad, but it felt bland.  The actions were cool to look at; the plot moved along; the whole thing happened in only a few days. Somehow, however, the movie just lacked connection to me.  Or was it because I did not watch any of the Marvel TV shows?  Or maybe every character was simply a copy of another more famous superhero?

The Red Guard was the funniest one.  Julia Louis-Dreyfus was the best.

Project Hail Mary (2026)

Math Teacher read me the book years ago.  The book was dense with math and science stuff.  I couldn't get past it.  I gave up after a few chapters.  Math Teacher read the whole book by himself in two days.  It was THAT good!

Fast forward to 2025.  When Math Teacher heard Ryan Gosling was making Project Hail Mary into a movie, he was ecstatic!  That was all he could talk about.

Fast forward to 2026.  The movie did not disappoint.  Math Teacher loved it!  He said they cut some heavy math and science for the sake of the run time (2.5 hours already), but that was ok.  I agreed.  A normal person like me could not take all that science-y things.  I needed to see colors and moving pictures.

Rocky was adorable.  The friendship was so touching I almost cried.

🌟🌟🌟🌟 (not five stars because I felt horrible for Rocky.  His people did not understand Newtonian physics but they still sent him out to save their planet.  A suicide mission!  *sniff*)

ps.  Do I know Rocky is a fictional fake alien????!!!  I was so invested in his life.  Maybe this should be a five-star movie.

A Call to Spy (2019)

This was a difficult movie to watch.  This was not a James Bond movie. This did not have a happily-ever-after.  The entire time I was worried for the spies; their next steps could be their deaths.  And yeah, they did not come back home.

This was a heavy watch on a weekend night.  Be prepared to feel sad and hopeless and helpless.

Shin Godzilla (2016)

Shin Godzilla was a quintessential Japanese movie.

95% of the movie was people in meetings, in various settings such as different desks, tables, chairs, sofas, arranged in different ways, in different offices, conference rooms, etc.  At first one shot would include multiple people talking.  By the end of the movie each shot was one talking head closeup, then quickly moved to the next head.  I got dizzy after the movie.  There would also be one person telling another person some possibly important information, then the second person relaying the same information to the third person, IN THE SAME ROOM AT THE SAME TABLE, three heads away!  The third person could hear the first person clearly, but in Japan, lower rank was not allowed to talk to high rank directly.  So they set up another office called "the rebels" so no ranks in this office.  I didn't understand this "the rebels" office because all they did was folding origami.  And also this "rebels office" still had to report to someone higher rank than them  🤦

5% was about Godzilla.  In the beginning the baby Godzilla was someone's sock puppet with googly eyes glued on.  Finally the baby Godzilla grew up to adult Godzilla and destroyed Tokyo.  That was really cool scene.  Then Godzilla just stood there.  Even when the talking heads attacked Godzilla, it barely moved and just let humans attacked it.  Did the production company run out of budget?

For a movie set in 2016, the technology was bad, the dialogues were bad, the plot was bad.  They even tried to explain "God" in Godzilla in English because foreigners thought it was God.  But in Japanese, it was simply GOjira 🤦

For a better Godzilla movie, watch Godzilla Minus One.

It took me awhile to recognize Yutaka Takenouchi; he was my no. 2 Japanese actor.  In this movie his lips were kind of droopy, and his hair didn't look as nice as before.  Getting old...

Back to the Future (1985), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990)

Last year was the 40th anniversary for Back to the Future.  Our local theater was rerunning the movies, but somehow we couldn't make it because life happened.  So we got the DVDs from the library to re-watch all three of them.  This cemented that Back to the Future trilogy was my all-time favorite movie.

Now that I am older and familiar with the plot, I was able to pay attention to minor details.  I did not realize the excellent acting until now.  In all three movies, there were multiple long scenes without any dialogues.  All we could guess was from the actors' facial expression and actions.  They were brilliant.  There were also short gestures to indicate each character's quirks.

In addition to the great acting, the story was cohesive; the set design was beautiful; the makeup and costumes were outstanding.

I love this movie!  🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

Forty years, huh, I feel old.

LBJ (2016)

We don't know much of President LBJ except the school history textbook.  So we decided to watch this movie to educate ourselves.

The makeup team was excellent.  LBJ and JFK actually looked real.  The movie was actually not that dense so it was ok to watch on a weekend.

I learned the infighting between the young JFK administration and LBJ the old politician.

⭐⭐⭐