As it is a personal tradition in long flights, I’ve been watching low-investment movies, here’s my watch list on my Summer 2018 round-trip between New York and Paris.
Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
Giant robots against giant monsters, there’s not much more to it, and it’s perfect as it is. Expectedly less striking than the first movie, still entertaining, and it opens the way for a third movie.
The Commuter (2018)
Regularly using the mass transit system in New York, I was curious about this Liam Neeson’s thriller happening on a commute trip. Unfortunately, I quit it half-way, Speed already did it in better fashion for me 24 years ago.
Ready Player One (2018)
Despite having the same cringeworthy initial world setting, the movie itself wasn’t as bad as I’ve been led to believe the book is, probably thanks to the visual inclusion of pop culture references from after the 1980’s and the probable rewriting of certain female characters.
Still bad.
Borg vs McEnroe (2017)
I was less interested in this retelling of the legendary 1980 Wimbledon finals by the tennis (I didn’t even know the result in advance) than by the portrait of two very different exceptional characters. Recommended even for non-tennis fans.
And I still can’t recognize Shia LaBeouf even when I know he is playing one of the two main characters of a movie.
The Avengers: Infinity Wars (2018)
I failed to keep watching past the first five minutes. The fact that I just tried to watch it for the “I don’t feel so good” meme didn’t help. I probably just don’t care enough about supernaturally powerful mean dudes.
Bleeding Steel (2017)
I unexpectedly enjoyed this lighthearted Chinese action movie starring Jackie Chan, bioengineered soldiers and a not-so-subtle product placement for Audi. As usual with Chan’s movies, the bloopers reel at the end is a nice feat.
Bonus: The movies I purposefully avoided
There always are a number of movies that I would like to watch but that I purposefully avoid watching on a flight because it simply isn’t the right setting, especially with a young kid. Here’s the list of the available movies I unfortunately had to discard:
- Lady Bird (2017): Ugh, relationships and feelings, I was already sticky from sweating on my sweat.
- Marvel Studios’Black Panther (2018): I know it should fit the flight movie bill and is supposed to be good, but I’m having a superhero overdose.
- Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018): Come on now, I still have certain standards.
- Paterno (2018): What’s the deal with all those American movies about obscure sports?
- Tomb Raider (2018): I refuse to believe a good movie can be born out of a male gaze-focused video game franchise.
- Rampage (2018): I like Dwayne Johnson better when he’s a supporting character. The Rock as a buff primatologist just doesn’t cut it for me.
(Image courtesy of British Airways used without permission)
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