50/50 (2011)

There's plenty of movies dealing with cancer, but the majority doesn't really know how to handle the subject properly and usually ends up being either the overly emotional type or the "living life to the fulled" type. It didn't seem like 50/50 was going to be one of those so I checked it out. 

Based on a true story, it follows Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a 27-year-old radio journalist in Seattle who lives with her girlfriend, Rachel (Bryce Dallas Howard), of whom his best friend and co-worker, Kyle (Seth Rogen), disapprove. After experiences back pain for a while, he goes to the doctor only to be diagnosed with a rare form of spinal cancer. At first, he handles all with ease as he starts counselling with Katie (Anna Kendrick), a young phycologist, but as he begins chemotherapy, everything gets more complex — her relationship with Rachel, his friendship with Kyle, and his overbearing, needy mother, (Anjelica Huston).

Thursday Movie Picks: Movies You Have a Different Opinion After Rewatch

I don't usually change my mind and, for this reason, I never rewatch movies. Unless I really enjoyed them, of course. There are some exceptions here and there though, like when a film loved by most was average at best for me, or when I'm just curious to know how I'd feel today about movies I loved as a kid and teen. The latter are the movies I'm focusing on for this week's Thursday Movie Picks, the weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves.

Top Gun (1986)

Something I've heard a lot since I started blogging four years ago is that Top Gun is one of those classics you must watch a least once in your life. For a reason or another — mainly because I tried to avoid everything with Tom Cruise as my love for him is quite recent —, I never watched it. Since a sequel is coming (soon), I finally decided to watch it. 

The story follows Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchel (Tom Cruise), a young, cocky, hotshot pilot. After a daredevil stunt, Maverick receives news that he's being accepted into an elite training academy known as "Top Gun", along with his co-pilot and friend, Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards). As soon as he begins his training, he's faced with two distractions — a highly competitive fellow student, Iceman (Val Kilmer), and Charlie Blackwood (Kelly McGillis), the attractive woman whom Maverick hits on the night before he's discovered who turns out to be one of his instructors. 

Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

Although it took me more than a year to check it out, I loved Happy Death Day, which is the reason why I was really looking forward to catching up its sequel, Happy Death Day 2U, even though sequels usually end up being huge disappointments. 

The story opens with Ryan (Phi Vu) as he wakes up in his car, goes about his day and gets killed by someone wearing a creepy baby mask only to wake up in his car again and relive the same day. Turns out he's the one who created the loop that trapped Tree (Jessica Rothe) on the day of her birthday and when it tries to fix it, he screws up Tree's life again as she is yet again stuck on April 18, only this time around she finds herself in an alternate dimension, where Carter is dating her friend, Danielle (Rachel Matthews), her mother is still alive, and the killer, who is now after Tree's roommate, Lori (Ruby Modine), is someone else.