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I feel that it is my duty that when I review a movie, that I stick around for the entire run and not bail out early even with the bad ones. The Free State of Jones(2016) tested me in this regard eventually forcing me out to hit the eject button and make it home what seemed like weeks after the movie started. I did not write a review for that movie, and the reason I bring it up is that unfortunately Gold gave me the same feeling. Both star Matt McConaughey, who just a few years after his McConnisance has hit a bit of a rough patch, even though it's not necessarily at fault. Both films were birthed from a good piece of history that is not very well known, but both seem to become about more than the original idea, and maybe they should have kept it simple.

Gold is actually based on true life events, well that's not exactly true. It takes some elements from a real life event, but Gold should not be taken as historical fact. McConaughey plays Kenny Wells, the heir to a mining company run by his father and started by his grandfather. When we first see Stills the company is booming and his father is alive. Then we jump to 7 years later, Stills Sr. has passed on and it seems the company is on the same boat. Then in one of the worst examples of forcing the main character to get off the couch and start his journey, Stills dreams up a gold deposit in Indonesia, and no that is not word play, he really gets drunk, falls asleep, and dreams up the motivating factor in this movie. Stills then goes to Find Mike Acosta(Edgar Ramirez), who is apparently the real mastermind behind this Indonesian gold mine and together they search for the gold deposit in the rain forest. I have just laid out the most interesting and part of this story and that all takes place in the first act.

The news is not all bad, McConaughey is solid in the lead role, but similar to a great player on a bad basketball team it can be difficult to get into a rhythm by yourself. Edgar Ramirez lacks chemistry with McConaughey which was vital for this movie. These two men go through quite a bit together and they never really seemed to click. Bryce Dallas Howard is basically here to give the lead a romantic interest and someone to treat horribly when he inevitably goes off the rails. Side characters are filled with some pretty solid actors such as Corey Stoll and Toby Kebbell, but they basically add up to one role, and neither character is interesting at all.

Gold seemed like it wanted to be a mix of a high level stock market drama and a treasure hunt movie with a dash of historical fiction thrown in there. The problem, other than that mix sounds like a terrible idea for a genre, is that the movie never comes close to succeeding in either regard. The plot is terribly uninteresting and none of the characters save for parts of McConaughey's performance are in any way redeeming. I had expected it to be rough when it was completely skipped over in every year end list but I did not expect this. There is nothing I can say is remotely worth your time here. There are plenty of other places to see good McConaughey performances where he does not look gross and out of shape. After these last two stinkers(which both are probably in the running for the worst movies I have seen in the last year) Mr. McConaughey should think about he chooses his roles. Skip Gold and see something else, I beg of you.

This past Halloween I revisited The Sixth Sense(1999) to see how well the horror classic had aged. I remembered it being a perfect piece of new age horror, that changed the way ghost stories would be told in movies. While The Sixth Sense does hold up as a terrific movie, there are problems mostly with the direction of the story and the dialogue. It may please you to hear that Split has a lot of the same elements that made The Sixth Sense great, but also some of the faults. They are not the same movie at all, but M. Night Shyamalan may have stumbled upon his best idea since Unbreakable(2000) and while he has taken quite a fall in recent years, he still has the ability to create worlds that are interesting and watchable.

Split is about 3 teenage girls who after attending a birthday party, are abducted by a man who seems to have some significant mental problems. The girls are placed in a room who's only contents are 3 beds, a door and a bathroom. The girls can hear a few different voices on the other side of the door, even a woman who seems to be willing to help the girls, but as the girls find out, their captor has split personality disorder, and has been talking to himself the whole time. The plot is incredibly easy to understand, while also feeling like a complicated web of stories and characters that we will most likely never fully know about.

While Shyamalan has always been known for his twists at the end of his movies, his overall writing ability has been lacking. Where he really excels is in creating worlds that exist in the same one we live in, but adding an element that changes the whole story. For example The Sixth Sense is about a boy who is struggling to grow up, who also happens to see dead people. In Unbreakable Bruce Willis is a regular down on his luck guy looking for meaning in his life, who just happens to not be able to get hurt. Split follows the same formula and it is this which really took Split from a bad movie to a good one for me. The way the different personalities take hold of James McAvoy's character is just so darn cool and inventive. The more I learned about the process the more I wanted to see it used in other movies.

James McAvoy, who is probably best known for playing a young Professor X in the recent X-Men movies has been at this for a while. I first remember him as Mr. Tumnus in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) movie, but McAvoy has moved out of family movie actor and has become one who takes some challenging roles. McAvoy has played characters with mental disorders before, in Filth(2013) he played a cop with Bipolar Disorder and his performance in that was great. While he takes his role in Split a little over the top, its almost what the character needs, Kevin does not have a run of the mill case of split personality disorder, he has 23 unique personalities who seem to be completely separate people, to the point that one of them can have diabetes while the other 22 do not. While not his grandest performance, McAvoy gives a good one and one that fits into the movie.

I have tried to avoid using the wordplay that I'm sure every other review of this movie has used, but since were almost done I figure using this pun won't ruin your opinion of my opinion. I felt very SPLIT in my opinion of Split while watching it. On one hand there were some lines of dialogue that I could not believe made it past the first draft of the script, let alone into the final cut, but on the other Split kept my attention for most of the 117 minute run time. If you don't understand the ending that is fine, just do a quick internet search and the results should solve at least some of the confusion. Split is an entertaining movie, that was marketed more as a horror movie than a thriller, but if you keep an open mind and allow Split to be entertaining you should have a fun time at the movies.

My first thoughts after seeing the trailer to Hidden Figures was to question its watchabliity. My second thought was that Hidden Figures may be just the opposite. It had a story that as the title describes is relatively unknown and deals with one of the most exciting times in history. On top of that is a great solution to a Hollywood problem, the lack of leading roles for women, especially ones of color. Hidden Figures provides 3 leading roles for women of color, but unfortunately focuses far too much on that aspect of the characters, and not enough on their actual accomplishments. Oh and that watchability thing, well that's a problem too.

The real truth is that the story underneath it all is pretty lackluster. These women were certainly achieved some great things in a world that wanted them to do the opposite, but movies do have to be entertaining. The plot is not driven by these women and them overcoming both racism and sexism, but by the space race and the countless amounts of white men who benefited from it. The amount of scenes showing the women being treated like trash almost double the ones that show them succeeding. Race and sexism should certainly be part of this story, but it took over most of the movie which is disappointing.

The best thing about Hidden Figures are the three leads. Octavia Spencer plays Dorothy Vaughan and she fits into the supporting role perfectly. I don't want to call her a motherly figure, but she takes control a few times on the movie and it's great to see Ms. Spencer getting awards looks again. Janelle Monáe plays Mary Jackson and has the difficult task of acting alongside two fantastic actresses. She brings a lot of character to Jackson, but feels flat compared to her co stars. The real jewel here is the performance of Taraji P. Henson as Katherine G. Johnson. Henson lights up the screen, and even though she is normally known as a bit of an over the top actress she brings subtlety to the role. She gets her moments to go all out and boy does she use them, another possible awards candidate and Ms. Henson's finest performance yet.

Hidden Figures will probably have a few Oscar noms by the time all is said and done, and while it is more deserving than movies like Hacksaw Ridge and Birth of a Nation, it does not deserve to be in the same category as Moonlight and La La Land. While watching Hidden Figures I was reminded of Loving, not because racial tensions drive both movies, but because they both have the same nagging issue, they are stories that are just not fit for movies. I would much rather watch a documentary on either the story of the Lovings or the women featured in Hidden Figures. At least I would gain some historical knowledge rather than being made to feel bad because people with the same color skin as me were assholes 60 years ago. Hidden Figures is not a bad movie, it just wants to be something its not, and that is never a good way to make a movie.