Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

 Question of the Day?  What is the significance of 1984 in this sequel to Wonder Woman (2017)?  A good question with several potential answers.  The biggest answer?  Well, you'll have to see it for yourself.  I hope you get to do that in a theater as watching at home would be very Ho-Hum.  That may be where the split may come in, those who see it on a big screen v. those who don't.

Gal Gadot returns as Diana Prince.  When we last saw her she was fighting in World War I (1917) and now it is 1984.  She hasn't aged a bit, still a beautiful movie star.  Her love of Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) still burns but he is long gone.  But wait, it's the 80s, it must be a dream just like the Dallas TV show!

So Chris Pine returns, in a bit of time travel fun, a reverse Back to the Future, complete with a Marty McFly costume.  The villain here, the Lex Luthor of his time Max Lord (Pedro Pascal) seeks to take over the world.  A counter villain, Barbara Minerva (Kristin Wiig) becomes the Cheetah and there is of course a climactic battle a la Iron Man between the two.

A complex plot, but very much a superhero movie from a woman's point of view, much different shows of mercy than in other renditions.  Violence is not the answer is an overriding theme which makes this a fresh look with a old premise.

See if you can find these 80s movie homages:

Back to the Future

Superman

Batman

For Your Eyes Only/Octopussy/A View to a Kill

Working Girl

No Way Out

And there is a lot of DC Film Universe working here as well.  Be sure to stay for the credits.

One note:  original music by Hans Zimmer is cool but it would have been nice to have more recognizable 80s music to dance along with.

**** of 5

Half Brothers

 Luis Gerardo Mendez and Connor Del Rio star in this Mexico themed mashup of Step Brothers meets Midnight Run.

See it in theaters now.   Attendance has doubled... from 2 people to 4 in the theater.

* * * * 

Die Hard (1988)

 "Is this a Christmas movie?"  One of the great film school questions.

Yes - it is set on Christmas Eve, there's a family potentially getting together, there's a Christmas party, Christmas music plays over the closing credits.

No - there's no greater theme of gifts, there's not much love to go around, no one really laments that they are about to die hard on Christmas Eve all alone, it could be any other of the 364 nights of the year.

Bruce Willis is John McLane, a New York City detective, on vacation in Los Angeles.  He's visiting his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) who has a good job with Nakatomi Industries and he attends their Christmas party on Christmas Eve.  But when German robbers led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) take over the building to rob it, John becomes a one-man army and the movie turns into a cat and mouse game on who can beat the other first.  The lead police office Sgt. Powell  (Reginald VelJohnson) provides a nice best friend aspect. 

This really set the playbook for the modern action movie:  a wisecracking one man army, guns, fist fighting, acrobatics, death defying stunts, car crashes, explosions behind the running man, etc.

* * * * of 5

The Kid Detective (2020)

 One of the few movies to open this year, its a Stranger Things look at an unsolved crime in a northern town.  Adam Brodie stars as the "Encyclopedia Brown" all grown up.  A lot of classic detective movie gags here, but it does have a few mystery twists.  Sophie Nelisse plays a good sidekick.

* * *  of 5

Gremlins (1985)

 Produced by Steven Spielberg, it's got that familiar 80s set design of a dark, suburban maze (Goonies, ET) and a cast of kids dealing with the supernatural.  Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates stars as two teenagers who find themselves dealing with a good gremlin named Gizmo which has spawned bad gremlins (e.g. Aliens) who are outlandish villains in the otherwise idyllic Kingston Falls.

Set at Christmas with the gremlin to be a Christmas present, it's kind of a movie with in a movie with various Christmas movies playing in the background.

Written by Christmas movie favorite Chris Columbus.  Stay for the good ending.

**** of 5

Jingle All the Way (1996)

 Arnold Schwarzeneggar plays Howard, an overworked dad, who waits until Christmas Eve to find the most popular toy for his neglected son.

The toy Turbo Man is of course sold out and Howard in his quest runs into Myron (Sinbad) and they competitively try and find the last one in town.  Their quest takes them through the Mall of America, Santa's warehouse and culminates in the big downtown parade through Minneapolis.

A nice combo between an action movie, a family movie and cartoon.  The Turbo Man plot is very well done.  Produced by family movie extraordinaire, Chris Columbus.  Also starring Rita Moreno and Phil Hartman.

* * * * *   Merry Christmas!

Basic Instinct (1992)

Back in the day when movies were events, this one was talked up quite a bit.  It was initially to get an NC-17 rating and still has a lot of violent sex in it.  A Hitchcock/femme fatale/feel to it.

* * * * of 5