Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life

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Rafe Khatchadorian (Griffin Gluck) is a middle schooler who has been kicked out of multiple schools for his trouble making behaviour. Hills Village Middle School is the last school that will take him and he promises his mother Jules (Lauren Graham) that he’ll behave.

The school principal Ken Dwight (Andy Daly) enforces a hundred school rules that centre around obedience and respect. The students are not allowed to do anything creative which is especially hard on Rafe as he is a talented artist.

When Principal Dwight destroys Rafe’s sketchbook, Rafe decides to get revenge by breaking every rule in school with his friend Leo (Thomas Barbusca). Rafe’s pranks include covering the school in post its, replacing the school bell with fart noises and putting hair dye into the principal’s hat.

The movie was based on a book by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts. The film has a fun upbeat soundtrack which accompany animation sequences that detail Rafe’s feelings. Although I haven’t read the book, I’m guessing that there are pictures in there and it matches what is used in the film.

There’s a twist in the movies which I didn’t see coming. It was touching and provided the heart to the story. It helped me to understand Rafe’s motivations and his interactions with other people.

I enjoyed this movie. I think it is good family viewing and perfect for sleepovers and rainy days. Kids will like the outlandish pranks and comedic characters. Everyone is kooky in their own way in the movie. I thought the child actors were fine in the movie, nothing remarkable and stilted at times. I liked the adults in the film, particularly Andy Daly and Rob Riggle who played Carl, Jule’s boyfriend.

The Spirt of Christmas

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Kate Jordan ( Jen Lilley) is a workaholic lawyer who is assigned to sell the Hollyoak Inn after the owner passes away. It proves difficult because every twelve days before Christmas, the inn is haunted by the first owner Daniel (Thomas Beaudoin). Kate is undeterred by Daniel’s presence, determined to sell the house so that she may win a promotion. Kate resolves to solve the mystery of Daniel’s death which will help him move on.

The two leads are both gorgeous. Thomas Beaudoin’s looked a little too hipster to be a ghost from a hundred years ago. Then again, many hipster men sport beards so they could come from that time too.  Jen Lilley and Thomas Beaudoin had great chemistry but I was conflicted about their characters getting together. There’s a long-lost love in the film too and I felt sorry for her.

This was a cute film and unexpectedly spooky at times. I was expecting more Casper the Friendly Ghost type of vibe when I watched this movie but it’s one step above it. I am a person who scares easily so I was a little scared at the menacing presence and door slamming. Other people won’t have that problem at all. 

The Lunch Box

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Illa (Nimrat Kaur) is a young Indian housewife who makes hot lunches for her husband which is sent through the intricate Dabbawala system to deliver it to her husband. In India, it is common for office workers to have hot meals from home or a restaurant to be delivered to them via a delivery service. Usually a man will come collect the meals from a residence or restaurant and then it may be sent on the train or bike depending on the location. Illa’s lunch is accidently sent to Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan ) an accountant who is about to retire after thirty five years working at the same firm.  

The two start to send messages to each other in the lunch box and they learn about each other’s lives. Illa writes about how her husband takes her for granted and Saajan writes about the monotony of his life and his loneliness from being a widower for many years.The pair come to depend upon each other and fall in love but it’s complicated. Illa has a husband and a young daughter and Saajan feels he may be too old to start something new. They try to meet a few times but things get in the way.

It was a cute movie. One of my friends recommended this film to me so that’s why I watched it. I love movies set in India as I love Indian culture. I enjoyed watching the film but I wish the ending hadn’t been ambiguous. I had hoped that all the issues would be resolved in the end. I don’t know if they would have got their happily ever after because they were both lonely people who just happened to be there for each other. I think a hobby and friends could have easily fixed the hole each had and Illa needed to communicate more with her husband.  

Autumn Dreams

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Eighteen year old Annie (Ivy Matheson) and nineteen year Ben (Matt Visser) get married and run away to New York but are stopped by Annie’s father. Ben goes to New York by himself and Annie remains on her family farm. The two are separated for fifteen years until they reunite to get a divorce as each have decided to marry other people.  Ben (Colin Egglesfield)  lives in New York engaged to Jovanna (Tasya Teles) and Annie is engaged to Joe ( Michael Karl Richards) back on the farm. The divorce proceedings don’t go to plan and Ben and Annie spend time reminiscing their past and rekindling their love.

Ben and Annie were a nice couple. Nothing spectacular about their love story, sometimes love is like that. I thought that there was more chemistry between the teenaged versions of Annie and Ben rather than the older ones. I also think it’s because the teenagers were at the height of their love and the older ones were rekindling their love.

It’s a cute movie to watch when you want something on but don’t want to concentrate too hard. I watched it while I was cleaning the lounge room. I also picked it because it had the shortest running time on my huge saved list on Netflix. What I found refreshing about this movie was that there were no scheming love interests. I thought Jovanna would be some uptight city girl who would make snarky remarks about Annie being a small town country girl. Or that Joe who was friendzoned by Annie in their teenage years, would be behind some kind of deception which resulted in Ben and Annie’s estrangement.  However, Jovanna and Joe were both nice people. I felt bad for them in the end.

Monster Trucks (film) 2017

Tripp Coley (Lucas Till) is a high school student spends his time repairing a truck and working at the local junk yard. His life changes when a mysterious creature appears in the junk yard and starts living in his truck. Tripp names the creature Creech and he tries to hide him from evil oil magnate Reese Tennyson (Rob Lowe) who wants to kill Creech and take over his habitat for a new oil drilling station. Tripp, Creech and Tripp’s love interest Meredith (Jane Levy) go on a wild adventure to save Creech.

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Tripp is a typical brooding teenager who just wants to get out of his small town. He loves his mother, resents her boyfriend and his real dad who left them. I would have liked to have seen more family dynamic, it just seemed stereotypical. Meredith is an overachiever who offers to tutor him and follows him around and he’s also idolized by a younger student. Both of them like him so much but he just ignores them. It made me cringe and wondered why they even like him.

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This was a cute movie and if I was a kid I would love it.  I thought this movie would be about monster truck rallying but it turned out to be different. It was more like those creature makes best friends with a young child movies from the 80s and 90s like E.T or Magic in the water.  The movie moves at a fast pace which set aside character development and a detailed plot. So, I found it to be a bit underwhelming. However, I’m sure kids won’t mind such flaws and this could become a favourite among younger audiences.