#movies #barbie #review
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The hype has been enormous but does Barbie the movie live up to
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expectations? Some elements do others. Not so much.
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54321.
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This is movies first with Alex First.
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The film is populated by a surfer of Barbies and Kens in
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Barbie Land where women rule the roost and men trail in their
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wake. The chief Ken Bleach blonde Ryan Gosling with a six
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pack to die for as the hots for principal Barbie perfectly
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turned out gorgeous Margot. Robbie Barbie though wants to
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keep things platonic. Even a kiss is out of the question.
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Everything in Barbie Land is picture perfect.
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Barbie wakes up without a hair out of place in her open house
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that everyone can see into and warmly greets all the other
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Barbies same goes for the Ken's salutations to one another.
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Although in Gosling's case, his jealousy of rival suitors is on
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show from the outset suddenly though Robbie's Barbie is
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strangely out of sync, she finds herself raising the issue of
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death with the other Barbies before quickly checking herself.
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But then to reinforce her discombobulation, the natural
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dreamy arch in her foot collapses and she burns the
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toast rather than her usual practice of floating down from
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her house into her car. She lands heavily alongside it and
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to top it off horror of horrors, she even has cellulite for the
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first time. The other Barb's explained to Robbie that she's
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malfunctioning and the only one who can address her issues is
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weird.
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Barbie, Kate McKinnon. It turns out that somehow the separation
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Robbie's Barbie had from the Real World has been broken.
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Weird. Barbie instructs Robbie's Barbie to travel to the Real
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World to try to find the girl who initiated the split, which
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he does. Ken in tow. Let's just say all does not go according to
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plan and Ken gets his own ideas about how he'd like to
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reconfigure Barbie Land.
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Barbie. The movie has some genuine smile inducing and laugh
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aloud moments, but I wanted more for all the emphasis on girl
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power which I wholeheartedly endorse. It's too vacuous given
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the writing talent involved Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach
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who co-wrote Francis Ha. I was hoping for more cleverness.
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There's certainly some of it on show but not enough for my
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liking. I found the start flat and at one point even
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distasteful. Furthermore, it's a giant, if not at all. Subtle ad
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for Mattel. Surely the dolls sell themselves as they have for
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generations on the plus side. Margot Robbie does all she can
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to elevate the spectacle.
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It's fun to watch her transition from naive to enlightened Kate
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McKinnon, all but steals the show as weird Barbie, her comic
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turn is special. I love the references to the Barbie creator
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Ruth Handler who named Barbie after her daughter Barbara. It
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was the ninth of March 1959 when Ruth took Barbie to the annual
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toy fair in New York.
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And the rest is history. And the plot pivots around a heartfelt
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and inspired monologue by America Ferrera as Mattel's
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executive secretary, Gloria, as the narrator, Helen Mirren also
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finds moments to shine. I appreciated the blend of tosh
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action with real life. I thought the filmmakers did that
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particularly well and the color palette is delightful.
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A number of standout scenes include Barbie eating and
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drinking without food on her plate or liquid in her cup and
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Ken's surfing wipe out. In summary, while the movie has
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endearing features, the plotting could have been stronger,
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directed by Greta Gerwig. Barbie scores a 6.5 out of 10.
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