The Space Between Us, mini movie review

 "Courage is just fear that has said its prayers."

 ~ Sarah Elliot (character), best line in the movie.

Rating: B-

Many of us look up to the stars and dream about living among them.  What would it be like?  How different from Earth would it be?  We get so caught up looking up that we forget to look around, failing to realize the beauty we already have.

Nathaniel Shepherd (Gary Oldman) dreams of Mars, but due to a health issue he is not allowed to participate on the first mission to live on Mars he helped start.  Gardner Elliot (Asa Butterfield) is the first child born on Mars to astronaut Sarah Elliot who dies giving birth.  Gardner's was never meant to exist, and so he's kept a secret, hidden on isolated Mars, dreaming of Earth as he searches Earth's online network for his unknown father.

Nathaniel would give anything to live on Mars.

Gardner would give anything to live on Earth, but growing up on Mars has allowed his heart to grow twice the size of a normal human heart and his bones to be weak, therefore making life on Earth impossible.

Thanks to a risky experimental surgery Gardner is allowed to come to Earth, despite Nathaniel's objections, to see the beauty we all take for granted and search for his father.  He finds Tulsa (Britt Robertson), a girl he found online and has fallen in love with, and together they set out on a journey.  The movie truly soars while watching Gardner's wide-eyed wonder and innocence during his discovery of Earth.

Is the plot predictable?  Yes.  Is it a sappy teenage love story?  Yup.  And unfortunately the plot is spliced together, particularly in the beginning, feeling jagged at parts.  The anti-gravity scenes felt off with hair tied up, lack of seat-belts dangling, and so forth.  Despite this Asa Butterfield does a fine job carrying The Space Between Us.  He's charming in the role.

I liked this movie!  I cried.  My Mom cried.  This movie has a lot of heart (And I'm not talking about Gardner's enlarged heart).  The story is sweet.  I don't know if this movie is for everyone, but if you like sci-fi and a nice love story this movie is one you might like.

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for brief sensuality and language.

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, mini movie review

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5.

We've got superheros!  We've got mutants!  We've got superheros who are mutants!  And now we have Peculiar Children.  Strange children with creepy abilities.  Strange enough that no one but the likes of Tim Burton should bring them to us in a strange, haunted dream.  Peculiar children are hidden throughout the World, protecting them from those who would prefer them dead, and somehow Jake, played by Asa Butterfield, is brought to their war.  Jake is a normal teenager from Florida, hot humid Florida.  Sorry Florida, you get picked on a little in this movie.  Then one day Jake's very normal life turns crazy after his Grandfather is attacked.  A message found in a Ralph Waldo Emerson book sends Jake on an adventure towards his life purpose with the Peculiars.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is strange.  Too strange.  Almost creepy goth side-show strange.  Where did the teenager get all those hearts that reanimates bodies?  The bad guys feasting on eyeballs was a step too far for my likes. I wanted to like this movie.  I really, really did.  I had high hopes.

The movie is sprinkled with opportunity and potential.  Missed opportunities and potential are found in a slow paced opening, awkward storytelling, and rough acting.  The music during a carnival fight scene was just odd.  Not good odd.  Take me out of the moment, cock my head to the side puzzled odd.  By that point I was waiting for the movie to end.

For those liking the odd, you'll find it here.  There are moments to enjoy.  For me I'm perfectly fine with a single viewing.

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of fantasy action/violence and peril.