I absolutely adore Apollo 11. This is a huge leap forward in documentary style movies.

Just got back from Aladdin. They did a nice job making it it's own movie. It has nice touches of the original, but just enough of an alteration that it stands as a nice movie on it's own legs.

Normally I don't care much for sequels. In fact, I've pretty much stopped watching them as 90% of the time, they make me dislike an original that I did like. However, the trailer for The Lego Movie 2 drew me in, and I know I'm in the minority on this, but I actually liked it better than the original Lego Movie. (I didn't care much for the Batman Lego movie and most everybody seems to have loved that one.)

On a totally different note, I ran across this short 15 min. movie the other day called 'In My Seat.' I know the people featured in this movie (not personally sadly) because they've turned up in homeschool conventions, and I've started watching/listening to a lot of their talks.
I don't want to spoil it for you, but I will say that it has to do with the fact that he's a pilot and it centers around 9-11. Definitely worth a watch.

Thanks for sharing that link, fantasia. I'd heard the story but not in such detail.

I was finally able to see this spring's Apollo 11. I wasn't able to see it in the theater but had to settle for the Blu-ray on a respectable-size TV. It brought back so many memories of that summer 50 years ago, and it was also awesome to see so much high-quality footage that until now had been unreleased. (There's nothing quite like a high-quality view of a Saturn V launch).

I'm going to quiz you a bit about The LEGO Movie 2, as I doubt I'm going to see it in theaters but I might like to watch it on DVD sometime. I also didn't care for The LEGO Batman Movie (Batman was my least favorite part of the first movie, a whole movie about him didn't help), and I have a love/hate relationship with the first movie (I loved everything RIGHT until the ending - the ending left a sour taste in my mouth).

Soo... what I liked about the first movie was that it was genuinely very imaginative and it was about what a LEGO would would be like, not just "Let's tell a story where all the characters happen to be LEGO". I did not like how they shoehorned in a cliched message at the end that, frankly, I thought undercut the message they actually had going for them in the movie (namely, how to have independence/imagination while ALSO having cooperation/structure). Not to mention the whole "It's okay that the kid was messing with the project his dad had been working really hard on, his dad shouldn't have been finding his own creative way to use a kid's toy" thing (um, what?).

I didn't read your spoiler tag, so did you (or anyone else who's seen it) think they did a better job of it this time around? Or did they go in another direction entirely?

I'm going to do the best I can at replying to your questions without spoiling everything, but I am going to include stuff from the trailer, so hopefully you've seen that at least.

In regards to what you liked about the first movie, this one is the same artistically and stylistically and expands into Duplos and the new style of legos you can buy in stores.

As far as Batman is concerned, he was nothing to me in Lego Movie 1 other than a couple amusing lines. But he comes into his own in this movie and he was one of my favorite characters.

Now.... I'm not quite sure how to reply to your not liking the theme bit because I'm not clear on what you didn't like about it.
The following spoiler is only for people who haven't seen the FIRST movie.

...did you (or anyone else who's seen it) think they did a better job of it this time around? Or did they go in another direction entirely?

Going to try to be as non-spoiler as possible. There is a different theme, but it is a similar style of theme as the first movie.
To give you a very minor spoiler that you can choose to read or not, the second movie

Now.... I'm not quite sure how to reply to your not liking the theme bit because I'm not clear on what you didn't like about it.
The following spoiler is only for people who haven't seen the FIRST movie.

Spoiler

Was it that you didn't like bringing the real life father and son in? I feel like the theme you described was the message of the movie. Not sure what you're referring to cliched message.

Yeah, that's what I get for not re-reading my writing before posting it. I didn't inherently dislike the idea of the scene with

I saw Aladdin around the time it first came out but didn't think to post here until now.

Quick non-spoilery review: It was very good! It tries to stay true to the original in the important aspects but definitely puts its own spin on things. Worth a watch if you are an Aladdin or a Disney fan.

Spoilery Review:

mm1991, I completely agree with you about Aladdin, pretty much all you've said. I really enjoyed the movie regardless, but I think it could have been much better.

Are there any Neverending Story fans here? I just love that movie. When I was a kid I dreamed about a book like there. The world is amazing and there is the kindest dragon ever there

Are there any Neverending Story fans here? I just love that movie. When I was a kid I dreamed about a book like there. The world is amazing and there is the kindest dragon ever there

Welcome to the board, Tricky! Hope you are enjoying yourself so far.

I do love Neverending Story! I actually forced my boyfriend to watch it a few months ago because he had never seen it!

I enjoyed the movie (first one) but loved the book. I read about half sitting on the floor between shelves in the library, okay perhaps less than half, but I got into the change of print colour!
I've got a copy of it, but haven't read it for years. I want to relive that moment when the colours become irrelevant (you know, if you have read it).

I watched Coco this weekend thanks to the Matthew Aldrich news. I have to admit, I wasn't quite as in love with it as many others have mentioned. It was just okay. I liked the animation, and I liked the portray of Miguel's family and Mexican culture, and that was about it.

I watched the new Aladdin movie yesterday. Like mm1991, I thought it was a whole lot of fun especially the genie's musical numbers.

I've heard a good bit of cynicism about this movie on the internet but honestly I think that's mainly because of how many remakes the Disney Company makes nowadays. (I believe this is one of three being released this year.) They're really starting to lose their event factor. If this movie came out in another time, I don't think people would react negatively to it. Though maybe that's because I regard the 1993 Aladdin as a really enjoyable piece of fluff and I feel the 2019 one is the same. There are things each does better than the other but they're probably equal on the whole.

P.S.
I love the character of Dalia. She kind of reminds me of Nerissa from The Merchant of Venice. In my ideal world, she and the genie would get their own spinoff movie.

I saw Toy Story 4.

Fantasia, although Coco is one of my new favorites, I agree that it was a bit predictable. In my humble opinion, I didn't think that detracted from the movie overall though. I can't say that about many other movies, but I thought all the elements were so good, I could forgive a little predictability.

Col Klink, I'm glad you also liked it! I see so much negativity about all the Disney remakes but when I investigate further, I don't see much substance to it. Some people don't like it because it's not an exact copy of the original. Then other people hate it because they feel it IS an exact copy of the original (???). Then other people don't even bother seeing it but still post negative stuff about it because "What's with all the remakes and movies based on books nowadays?! Can't they make something original?!" I hope these people never dive into the history of cinema because they would be sorely disappointed! You can't make everyone happy and some people will find anything to complain about!