"Oh, I'll bring it. Don't worry."

THE MOVIES were as follows:

• Bring It On (00)
• Groundhog Day (93)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (15)
• Matilda (97)
• Star Trek: Beyond (16)

   I recently realized I had to fill a giant hole in my movie-watching life and finally watch Bring It On, and it Did Not Disappoint. It was fun! I was so glad about the cheque thing and how it wasn't the story of a white saviour. I also spent a great deal of the movie shouting things like, "they cannot actually allow 17 year olds to do this in real life". Like the car wash? Please tell me that is a movie-made myth. Also, Gabrielle Union was TWENTY-EIGHT when they made this movie.

   I watched Groundhog Day ALSO for the first time, and here are some thoughts I had, in no particular order:

• There is no explanation of why the day starts repeating, and no actual explanation for why it stops:
• Arguably, it stops because Rita agrees to stay at the hotel without Phil trying to ply her, but that's only circumstantial. 
• Phil indulges his id (the car chase, eating whatever he wants, picking up women, dressing up as Bronco), his ego (learning French, piano, etc), and his super ego (a wide selction of good deeds), all in turn;
• He also goes through the evil-neutral-good/lawful-neutral-chaotic spectrum, sort of?;
• This movie is MUCH DARKER than I thought it was;
• Phil doesn't know when the day will stop repeating, or even if it will. Based on his experience, he has to conclude that it is going to repeat forever, meaning:
• Phil has died and is in purgatory;
• Only when he has learned to disregard the self and only act with the good of others in mind does he complete the 2nd of Feb; and,
• And when he wakes up on the 3rd, he has worked his way through purgatory, and moved on.
• Based on clues, we have to conclude that Phil has been repeating the 2nd for at least several years. When he goes to the movie, he says he's seen it 100 times, and I was going to count how many times Rita slaps him when I realized, "I can just google this," and discovered that people have calculated either 8ish or 34 years.
• Based on his learning French (presumably, since he busted it out a few iterations into their date), piano, ice sculpting, and card throwing, I'm inclined to agree with 34 years. 10,000 hours to achieve mastery, you know? 

   If you thought I'd be tired of watching and re-watching Mad Max Fury Road yet, you thought WRONG. It's a cinematic triumph and I love it. 

   I had vague memories of both watching Matilda and not being allowed to watch Matilda, which I'm sure combined into baby-me watching it, getting scared, and then not being able to talk to my parents about it without blowing my cover (hi, mom). 

   DISTINCT LACK of needlessly naked ladies in Star Trek: Beyond, well done, JJ (and others). I found myself being jarred out of my suspension of disbelief by some VERY ridiculous physical feats, especially things like people sliding very fast down a long thing, landing squarely on their feet, and not immediately breaking every leg they had. It's like when people in movies use non-dynamic rope and don't get cut in half, or when there's some good ol' TV CPR. IT'S THE WORST. Other than that, this is a fun movie, Spock/Bones are great, the Sabotage scene was truly amazing, and there are ladies who exhibit agency and individuality. A good flick.