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Archive for the ‘Movie Reviews’ Category

In the dead of a Wyoming winter, a bounty hunter and his prisoner find shelter in a cabin currently inhabited by a collection of nefarious characters. This movie is typical Tarantino. If you liked Reservoir Dogs, Inglorious Basterds, Pulp Fiction and Django you will fall in love with this one. It didn’t take much set as it all takes place in this big log cabin/cantina of a sort. What will follow is a quite lengthy synopsis  with spoilers, so either read on at your own risk or just go see the movie. I recommend the latter. I will give you my rating now and then you can decide. Note I am a big Tarantino fan so ….

Rating: 4.8 out of 5

Note: The movie is divided into six narrative sequences, all of which take place chronologically, with the exception of Chapter Five, which takes place before the others.

Chapter Five: “The Four Passengers

Earlier that morning, a stagecoach arrives at Minnie’s Haberdashery containing the four passengers: Bob, Mobray, Gage, and Jody (Channing Tatum). They are driven by Six Horse Judy (Zoe Bell), who hails from New Zealand. They are met by Charlie (Keith Jefferson) outside Minnie’s. Charlie, a black man, stays outside and helps the carriage driver with his horses before he travels on. Judy leads the passengers inside and introduces them to Minnie Mink. Minnie is shown to be a light skinned black woman perhaps in her thirties, and is there with a younger black woman cooking. Two older white men, Sweet Dave (Gene Jones) and the previously seen Sanford, are playing chess by the hearth.

The crew makes small talk for a few minutes before violently massacring everybody in the lodge except Sanford. Charlie comes in from outside just in time to see the massacre, and is shot by Bob in the doorway (one of the shots destroys the door’s latch) before fleeing outside. Mobray asks in Spanish if they should perhaps keep Sanford alive to create the illusion of a more lively setting. They agree to try it, and Jody talks to the old man while the crew starts cleaning up the mess the massacre left. Gage goes to kill Charlie, whom he finds hiding and shoots in the throat with a shotgun as he begs for his life.

Jody explains to Sanford that they are preparing to ambush Ruth to rescue Jody’s sister, Daisy, and that they will not kill him if he agrees to keep quiet about their plan. Sanford agrees, and the bandits all prepare for Ruth to arrive: throwing the bodies down the well, hiding guns around the lodge, cleaning up the jelly beans that had spilled. Jody hides in the basement (implying that he was the one who later shot Warren in the crotch from under the floorboards).

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A much anticipated movie, rekindling the Star Wars saga. This 7th episode is in traditional Star Wars fashion and takes you to a galaxy you are familiar with. We see some of our old friends and lose one in particular. Three decades after the defeat of the Galactic Empire, a new threat arises. The First Order attempts to rule the galaxy and only a ragtag group of heroes can stop them, along with the help of the Resistance. I won’t put any spoilers in here because if you are a Star Wars fan, you want to see it large on the big screen, preferably 3D Imax. Although, I do think it would be just a good in 2D. If you are not a Star Wars/Science Fiction fan, you might not like it; if you are, then this erases that long period of time between episode 6 and this one. Nostalgic yet contemporary. The special effects are not over done, so that makes it better, to me, than some of the previous episodes. My only wish is that we see a reprise of Yoda in episode 8. I missed him here.

Rating:  4.8 out of 5

Well, this movie has all the Oscar buzz and has been picking up some of the other awards hoping to be Best Picture. First, it ain’t like the book. They added the kid for more sympathy-revenge factor. For almost three hours I sat through a movie whose basic premise was about an American frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s who fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team. In the first place DiCaprio shouldn’t get an award except for anything except stupidity for putting himself to task in a harsh climate and doing what a stunt double would do. An actors penchant for suffering doesn’t count. That isn’t art, it is just plain dumb in this day of CGI. All for the sake of natural light and scenery that the director felt was necessary. I want entertainment at the theater, not photographic art. The cinematography was good, but you can get too much of a good thing. Inarritu does not deserve another Oscar for this loathsome movie. The only real acting was done by Tom Hardy, who normally plays the guy you are sympathetic too; however, in this movie he is the character you truly hate. Considering how bad Birdman sucked last year, I should have saved my matinee money on this crap. Forty three minutes into the movie, I looked at my watch thinking it should soon be over but to my chagrin there was another two hours left. And for those two hours there was little dialog only the congested gurgling and wheezing of DiCaprio. By the time the movie was over, you are wishing that the bear had killed him rather than mauling him. If the bear had killed him off and spared me from the remaining 2+ hours of this slog fest, I would say he deserves the Oscar. I will have to say, the bear mauling scene was quite realistic and gruesome, much like the flogging of Jesus in  Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. It was truly hard to take but you just couldn’t divert your eyes. This movie should be up there with the top worst ones in the world such as Orwell’s 1984 that was released in 1984, the Austin Powers movies, and Gravity. At least in Gravity, the incessant babbling of George Clooney ended when he floated out into space; however, you were left with the whining of Linda Bullock. She should have gone after him and then we could have left early again. I had rather be forced to watch a Dangerous Liaisons marathon that sit through the Revenant again.

Rating: -10 out of 5

This is the movie based on the life of America’s most deadly sniper, Chris Kyle. Kyle becomes a Navy Seal after the tragedy of 9-11 compelled him to give up being a rodeo star and join the military. Having had an eye for marksmanship while growing up he became an expert sniper.

The book, American Sniper, by Chris Kyle provides the basis of the story. After leaving the military, Chris had some difficulty adjusting to civilian life. He did find solace in helping other veterans recover from their problems, often taking many to the firing range. One day he took another marine who was very disturbed. Chris never made it back home alive. The marine he was hoping to help killed him and another of Chris’ friends after they got to the range.

The movie is directed by Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper, who gained 40 pounds in order to play Chris Kyle, have delivered not only a box office hit but an excellent tribute who prevented the death of many of our soldiers, but probably prevented attacks on our homeland.

This movie deserves best picture, best actor, and best director. However, Eastwood was snubbed by the liberal elite of Hollywood. This is possibly one of the most serious and best acting that Bradley Cooper has done.

Do not miss this movie on the big screen.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

A new twist for the hacker personality. Chris Hemsworth is not your Jonny Lee Miller, Justin Long, or Seth Green physique hacker. After this you are probably going to see more of the Geek Squad spending time in the gym to bulk up.

Nick Hathaway (Hemsworth), an extremely talented hacker who has gone astray, finds his way out of a 15 year prison sentence when parts of a computer code he once wrote during his youth appears in a malware that triggered a terrorist attack in factory in China. This opportunity will reunite him with an old friend but will also put him in the middle of a power game between the American and Chinese government as well as arch villain hacker whose identity he has to find if he wants to keep his freedom and his life.

Don’t get too attached to the supporting cast as the new genre is to kill off your favorite characters. This movie smacks of a Fast and Furious or Bourne franchise ending, leaving it open for a sequel. I am sure Chris Hemsworth is the big box office draw for this predictable and formulaic movie. Pretty entertaining, watchable, and decent timing of the movie. Michael Man could have used some better autofocus and image stabilization on some of the street scenes. Also, the movie could have done without the Tron-esque graphics of the virus rushing through the the computer circuitry. It only detracted from the movie.

Great mindless matinee fodder.

Rating: 2.7 out of 5

An alien race has hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, unbeatable by any military unit in the world. Major William Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop-forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again…and again. But with each battle, Cage becomes able to engage the adversaries with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Blunt). And, as Cage and Vrataski take the fight to the aliens, each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy!

To say the least a bit repetitive and a bit boring. Not sure why it received such great reviews by some of the critics. Like so many other movies based on “Groundhog Day” formula, each new iteration provides additional insight into what is going on. For me, it was watchable, but nothing spectacular. A typical Tom Cruse action movie.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

For a complete synopsis with spoilers, read “more.”

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In 1988, on Earth, the boy Peter Quill is abducted by a spacecraft after losing his mother. In 2014, Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star Lord, is a ravager searching a valuable orb on the surface of the dead planet Morag. When Peter finds the orb, he is hunted down by the Kree warship The Dark Aster of the powerful Ronan the Accuser but he flees. Peter also double crosses his partner Yondu Udonta that puts a reward on him. Peter Quill arrives on the Xandar city Nova Empire and is chased by Ronan’s warrior Gamora and by the bounty hunters Rocket and The Groot. They are arrested by the police officer Corpsman Dey and his men and sent to the prison The Kyln, where they befriend the strong Drax. Soon they learn that Gamora wants to betray Ronan and sell the orb to a dealer for a huge amount while Drax wants to kill Ronan, who killed his wife and daughter. They plot a plan to escape from The Kyln to sell the orb and split the money. But soon they also learn that the orb keeps the infinity stone that gives immensurable destructive power to the owner. They self-proclaim Guardians of the Galaxy and decide to deliver the orb to the leader Nova Prime to keep it safe from Ronan. But they are hunted down by Ronan and his right-arm Nebula that want to destroy Xandar and also by Yondu Udonta and the Ravagers that want to sell the infinity stone to make lots of money. Who will keep the powerful orb?

Chris Pratt has now come into his own as an actor.

Rating: 3.7 out of 5

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Thomas wakes up in an elevator, remembering nothing but his own name. He emerges into a world of about 60 teen boys who have learned to survive in a completely enclosed environment, subsisting on their own agriculture and supplies. A new boy arrives every 30 days. The original group has been in “The Glade” for two years, trying to find a way to escape through the Maze that surrounds their living space. They have begun to give up hope. Then a comatose girl arrives with a strange note, and their world begins to change. There are some great, fast-paced action scenes, particularly those involving the nightmarish Grievers who plague the boys. Otherwise, dull and formulaic. A bit too “lord of the flies -esque” for my tastes.

Rating: 1 out of 5

If you want more with spoilers, read more.

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The life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic athlete who joined the armed forces during the second world war. Only to be captured by the Japanese navy after a plane crash in the Pacific.

After a near-fatal plane crash in WWII, Olympian Louis Zamperini spends a harrowing 47 days in a raft with two fellow crewmen before he’s caught by the Japanese navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.

This is an adaptation of the book. Angelina Jolie has done a great job with this movie. Not one dull moment in the 2 hr plus production. Cinematography was also excellent.

Although the movie ends with his coming home and being greeted by family, the final clips are actual pictures of Mr. Zamperini with text chronology of events following the his return home. Mr. Zamperini died in 2014.

While it would have extended the movie, probably the real end story was the after effects of war and how it can bring an individual to rock bottom. A perchance attendance at a Billy Graham crusade and the transformation that made in his life and the way he finished would have been an equally compelling story.

This movie is definitely worth your time and money.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Into the Woods is a modern twist on the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tales in a musical format that follows the classic tales of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel-all tied together by an original story involving a baker and his wife, their wish to begin a family and their interaction with the witch who has put a curse on them.

This is a movie adaptation of the Broadway production by Stephen Sondheim. Most of the adaptations have been exceptional, such as Evita, Rent, Mama Mia, and Les Miserables. Mama Mia sucked, but perhaps Into the Woods is Meryl Streep’s redemption. Les Miserables was quite epic except for the apparent strain to sing as the producer recorded it in production rather than dubbing it in from studio vocals.

None the less, Into the Woods made this production more vibrant and enjoyable.

A fantastic production and certainly worth the time if you are into Sondheim and musicals.

Rating: 5 out of 5