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Just saw the latest movie by Canadian national treasure, Ryan Reynolds...the latest kids movie, "IF", not the much anticipated Deadpool sequel. This movie follows a young girl who discovers she can see Imaginary Friends who have been abandoned by their kids due to having grown up. And trying to find them a place in the world so they don't just disappear, which is a thing that can happen apparently. Overall not too bad, kinda funny in places, kinda also giving you lots of feels too. Especially as the movie opens with a flashback montage of life leading up to her mom dying of some sickness (cancer?) before starting with her arriving at her gran's cos her dad in hospital with some kind of heart condition.

Why do kids movies these days like to kick us in the feels? I think there was a kid in the row behind me and they seemed to be having a whale of a time though, so maybe it is only us jaded emotionally damaged adults whose feelings take a kicking watching these movies? That said, it is far more gentle than say Up, or Inside Out was so my feels are only slightly bruised rather than having taken a 2 hour long pounding.

Before watching the latest Planet of the Apes instalment, I prepared myself by watching the previous 3 as I'm pretty certain I'd never seen War and given I got asked me if I wanted to continue playback, I'd only watched some of Dawn. Out of the 3, I still like Rise - I've watched it many times now. I think I prefer War over Dawn, if only because it had a slightly more interesting plot and it feels like a proper sequel.

I also liked Kingdom, although it wasn't at all what I expected. This is mostly down to the synopsis I saw for it, which better described a non-existant movie that occurred between War and Kingdom that talked about the apes leaving their new home and expanding outwards. That had already happened by the time Kingdom starts and a great many different ape settlements have sprung up in the 300 years between the two movies. I liked the idea that our protagonists' clan has formed a strong affinity with eagles, rearing and training them from birth to be their allies in the sky. I wonder if we'll see other clans with other animal bonds in the future films?

The main niggle I have with all the sequels so far, is they're all basically telling the same sort of story. It is all about the pursuit of power in some form or other. Which is very definitely a human trait, but is it an ape one? Are the stories they're writing really just about humanity in ape form? I don't know...hopefully the future films will focus on some other aspect?

First up - Love Lies Bleeding. Similar in vein as Drive Away Dolls, this also features lesbians vs criminals, but it definitely not a comedy. Our hapless couple are Lou, who works at the local gym and Jackie who is a body builder passes through on her way to a competition in Vegas. And the criminal element is Lou's somewhat estranged father. Murder, drugs, gun fights.

Abigail is a comedy about a gang of kidnappers who find the daughter they've kidnapped is not the helpless little girl they think she is. As kinda spoilered by the trailer - she's a vampire. This is definitely a comedy though with lots of gore and galleons of fake blood spraying everywhere. Think along the lines of Lost Boys, but not so 80s camp.

And finally, The Fall Guy. Which was amazing and exactly what I had hoped it would be. It is very loosely based on the ancient TV show starring Lee Majors which was about a stunt guy who would help rescue the victim of the week from whatever trouble they were in. The movie falls into a similar theme, except our protagonist is the one who is in the middle of a fine old mess that he needs to extract himself from, all the while trying to hook back up with his ex. I would not be surprised if it was full of easter eggs that I missed, but I enjoy seeing Lee Majors making a cameo and the theme song from the TV show playing in the credits.

I watched it the other day and despite having no interest in tennis, I actually quite enjoyed it. It's about 2 male tennis stars who were best friends, discovering they both have the hots for the same woman. Personality-wise, they are complete opposites. 1 of them is a "nice guy" and the other is a "bad boy". Since I can't remember their actual names, I'm going to refer to them as Nice or Bad. 13 years has passed since Nice and Bad met Zendaya's character and we find out how that time went through flashbacks and exposition. What passes for the main plot is that Nice and Bad have by pure chance found themselves at the same backwater tennis tournament and have ended up in the finals opposite each other. Bad is there because despite being a pro tennis player, he's not making a living from it and he really needs the prize money. Nice is there because he just got owned by some young up and coming player and needs a confidence boost before he tries one last time to win some big tennis thing. And as the match ebbs and flows between them, so does the stuff we find out about the past. Notably though, Z dated Bad and then ended up marrying and being Nice's coach. And despite how things appear in the promotional stuff, Z is definitely not the main protagonist - she is a McGuffin used to direct the plot back and forth between Nice and Bad.

I'm not sure if I'm over thinking it, but I'm wondering if the actual movie is meant to be a gay romance with tennis as the court it is played on. Z mentions early on that she thinks that real tennis is a lot like being in a relationship. And she also questions if these 2 best friends are or might be something more, even luring them onto the bed so she can trick them into snogging each other. Which they don't seem to be entirely unhappy about when they realise what has happened. Nice's sexuality isn't really discussed beyond that, but Bad is possibly bi as you see him using Tinder to find someone to hook up with so he has a place to crash during the tournament and there was at least one man in amongst the women he checks out. But that could have just been someone who filled in their profile wrongly.