blog.wddjr.com

Archive for the ‘Movie Reviews’ Category

This is the third in the Iron Man series and the 4th appearance of Iron Man as he was in the Avengers movie.

In a flashback to New Year’s Eve 1999, Tony, meets a scientist Maya Hansen in Bern, and arrogantly avoids crippled scientist Aldrich Killian, who wants Tony’s backing in his endeavor, Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM). Maya has an experimental plant. Sometime after the events of The Avengers, a haunted Tony Stark has obsessively built several Iron Man suits in his mansion. Tony works on a new model 42 in which all the suit pieces fly to him and recombine.

In present-day America, At Stark Industries, Pepper meets Aldrich who demonstrates new DNA altering technology, Pepper refuses as it could be weaponized. She drives home and Tony has a huge stuffed toy for her as a gift. However, he is busy working and Pepper is upset. Happy is suspicious and follows Aldrich and his henchman, Savin. In front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre Savin gives another man a briefcase. Happy tries to intercede but is beaten by Savin, and the other man explodes, leaving only his old dog tags. The Mandarin comes on TV and takes responsibility for the blast. Stark visits the comatose Happy and issues a televised threat to the Mandarin, then goes home to investigate the bombing with Jarvis. Maya suddenly knocks on the door, telling Tony to hide. Then helicopter gunships attack with missles. Tony commands the 42 suit to cover and protect Pepper. Pepper and Maya survive the attack. Tony gets the 42 back but down on power he cannot fly, the house crumbles into the sea taking the Ironman down. The suit regains some power and flies off, unseen. Tony then finds himself in rural Tennessee after his artificial intelligence JARVIS follows a flight plan from Tony’s investigation into the Mandarin. On crash landing Jarvis and the 42 suit run out of power. The world believes him dead.

Teaming with Harley, a precocious 10-year-old boy, Tony investigates the remains of a local explosion bearing the hallmarks of a Mandarin attack. He discovers the explosions were triggered by soldiers from the Extremis program, an experimental treatment intended to allow its users to recover from crippling injuries. However, if a user’s body cannot properly metabolize Extremis, the user’s body heats to an extreme temperature and explodes. After veterans started growing unstable and exploding, their deaths were used to cover up Extremis’ flaws by manufacturing a terrorist plot. Tony witnesses Extremis firsthand when Mandarin agents Ellen Brandt and Eric Savin attack him. Tony blows up the woman and stuns Savin to escape.

With Harley’s help, Tony traces the Mandarin to Miami. Stark infiltrates the estate headquarters using a variety of home-made weapons. Inside he discovers the Mandarin is actually a British actor named Trevor Slattery, who is oblivious to the acts the Mandarin has carried out. The Mandarin is a creation of Killian, who appropriated Maya’s Extremis research as a cure for his own disability and expanded the program to include injured war veterans. Tony is captured and taunted by Maya, who was working with Aldrich all along. She thinks Tony can help perfect the Extremis DNA. Aldrich arrives and reveals he has kidnapped Pepper and subjected her to Extremis, intending to infuse her with superhuman abilities and turn her against Tony as leverage to gain Tony’s aid in fixing Extremis’ flaws. Aldrich then kills Maya.

Aldrich has also manipulated American intelligence agencies regarding the Mandarin’s location, luring James Rhodes the former War Machine, now rebranded as the Iron Patriot, into a trap to steal the armor. Tony escapes his captivity by summoning the 42 suit from Pennsylvania, and reunites with The Colonel on the estate, discovering that Aldrich intends to attack President Ellis aboard Air Force One. Savin boards the President’s plane wearing the Iron Patriot suit, he kills the SS agents and takes the President. Savin then blows holes in the airliner body and survivors fall out. Iron Man kills Savin and manages to rescue the falling people, Tony had been controlling the unit by remote control. Meanwhile the Iron Patriot flies away. Tony and Rhodes trace Aldrich to an impounded oil drilling platform where Aldrich intends to kill Ellis on live television. The Vice President will become a puppet leader, following Aldrich’s orders in exchange for Extremis to cure a little girl’s disability.

On the platform, Tony goes to save Pepper, and Rhodes saves the President. Tony summons a fleet of his various Iron Man suits, controlled remotely by JARVIS, to provide air support and attack the many other Extremis infected guards. Rhodes secures the President and leads him to safety, while Tony discovers Pepper has survived the Extremis procedure. However, before he can save her, a container crane rig collapses around them and she falls 200 feet to her apparent death. Tony is forced into confronting Aldrich using several suits and finally traps him in the 42 suit that self-destructs. But, a glowing Aldrich survives and staggers toward A defenceless Stark. Pepper shows up with Extremis powers and finishes off the weakened Aldrich.

After the battle, Tony orders JARVIS to destroy each remaining Iron Man suit remotely, as a sign of his intention to devote more time to Pepper. The Vice President and Slattery are arrested. In VoiceOver Tony mentions he cures Pepper, and Tony himself undergoes surgery to remove the shrapnel embedded near his heart. He pitches his obsolete chest arc reactor into the sea, musing he will always be Iron Man, even without his armor. He gathers some scrap parts from his house wreckage and drives off in his Audi eTron.

In my opinion this was the best of the Iron Man series. Definitely worth seeing on the big screen. My guess is that since this was a box office hit, we will be seeing more of Iron Man.

Rating: 4.8 out of 5

Iconoclastic, take-no-prisoners cop John McClain, for the first time, finds himself on foreign soil after traveling to Moscow to help his wayward son Jack – unaware that Jack is really a highly-trained CIA operative out to stop a nuclear weapons heist. With the Russian underworld in pursuit, and battling a countdown to war, the two McClanes discover that their opposing methods make them unstoppable heroes.

I have lost count as to what number of the Die Hard franchise this is. It is the typical Die Hard movie with John McClain goes on a simple mission and turns it into an explosive extravaganza. We have a new character here, John’s son Jack (John, Jr) who I don’t remember having seen or mentioned in any of the other of the series. Jack is played by Jai Courtney who had a run on the Starz series Spartacus. He played Varros and lost his life at the hands of his friend and fellow gladiator, Spartacus. You may also remember him as one of the principal antagonists in the recent movie, Jack Reacher.

In the beginning, it seems like half the movie is taken up by an extensive road chase. Many of the dialogue overdubs during all the explosions are designed for dramatic humor, but actually seem out of place. The continual back and forth between father and son is a bit juvenile. In the end, as you would expect, the McClains conquer the foe in grandiose style after falls and jumps that would kill anyone but Superman. With Courtney’s hair so short, there is a “strong family resemblance” between him and the aging Bruce Willis. Will Courtney fall heir to the Die Hard franchise? He would be a good choice.  He certainly is athletic, well built, and would possibly have more appeal to a younger generation. It would provide a good tag line for continuing the series.

Not the most exciting movie in dialog or plot line, but if you like explosions and gun fire, then this is certainly 1 hour and 38 minutes of entertainment for you.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Emily Taylor, despite being reunited with her husband from prison, becomes severely depressed with emotional episodes and suicide attempts. Her psychiatrist, Jonathan Banks, after conferring with her old doctor, eventually prescribes her an experimental new medication he’s consulting on, Ablixa. However, its side effects on Emily prove increasingly serious with Emily sleepwalking until she kills her husband in that state. With Emily plea bargained into a mental hospital commitment and Dr. Banks’ practice in ruins, the case seems closed. However, Dr. Banks cannot accept he was at fault and investigates to clear his name. What follows is a dark quest that threatens to tear what’s left of his life apart even as he discovers the diabolical truth of this tragedy.

The movie starts out very typical and predictable. It gets a bit boring until about 45 minutes into the movie when the Channing Tatum character gets murdered. Once you get the no-talent stripper out of the picture, the plot develops and just when you are about to get board with what you feel is a predictable conclusion it flips and actually perks up your interest. For those of you who can remember the Alec Baldwin and Nicole Kidman medical thriller, Malice, you will see great similarities in the plot development. This is just on a slightly different slant.

The movie is watchable and provides good entertainment if you can overlook the fact that Channing Tatum is a no-talent lummox.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Another complex, bloody, and down to earth Quenton Tarantino extravaganza. Clocking in at 2 hrs and 48 minutes, it is a fast paced movie which is not for the faint of heart. Viewer be warned as the synopsis below is bloody and contains spoilers. Know that Christopher Walsh of Inglorious Basterds fame stole the show and Jamie Fox was pretty good, too.

In the opening scene (set in the year 1858), Django (Jamie Foxx), a slave, is chained to a bunch of other slaves and being marched to his new owner’s estate in Texas by the Speck brothers. A German man in a dentist cart pulls up and hails the Speck brothers. He introduces himself as Dr. King Schultz (Cristoph Waltz). King is clearly more intelligent and enlightened than the Specks. He says he is looking for a slave who can identify the Brittle brothers. Django announces that he knows the Brittle brothers and can identify them. King offers to buy Django, but his educated manner rubs the ill-mannered Specks the wrong way, and one of the Specks threatens to kill him. In response, King shoots and kills one brother, and cripples the other. Having been crippled, the remaining Speck brother agrees to sell Django, and King pays the man (for both Django, and the dead Speck’s horse), gets an official title to Django, and prepares to ride off. Before King leaves, however, he frees the remaining slaves (clearly, King finds slavery abhorrent) and says that they may either carry the remaining Speck brother back to town, or shoot him and flee north. As Django and King ride off, we hear Speck pleading for his life, and then a gunshot.

We then see Django’s back story. He was in love with, and married, a fellow slave-woman named Broomhilda Von Shaft (Kerry Washington) who had been a servant of a German mistress before being sold into slavery in the U.S. Their owner was cruel and disapproved of their marriage, so the pair attempted to run away. They were caught by the Brittle brothers who tortured and branded them both with the mark of a runaway. Their owner then directed the Brittle brothers to sell the pair to separate owners, and to take the lowest price for Django (which is how he ended up in Texas).

Django and King arrive in a small town near El Paso and walk into a bar despite the fact that Django is forbidden from doing so because he is black due to the South’s segregation laws. The barkeep runs out to get the town sheriff while King pours a beer for himself and Django and leaves money on the bar. He explains that he is no longer a dentist, but a bounty hunter in search of the Brittle brothers who are wanted dead or alive. He admits that although he knows the general location of the brothers, they have adopted aliases, and he needs somebody to identify them. The pair are interrupted by the sheriff, who orders them to leave the bar. Once outside, however, King shoots the sheriff dead with a spring-loaded pistol concealed up his sleeve. The barkeep runs off to find the federal marshall, while King continues talking to Django. King tells Django that if he helps him bring in the Brittle brothers, King will give him his freedom, pay him a $75 share of the reward, and let him keep his horse. Django immediately agrees as the Marshall arrives and has the building surrounded. King reveals to the Marshall and the townsfolk that the sheriff was actually an outlaw who had adopted a new alias when he arrived in town and the sheriff had a bounty on his head and a warrant for him signed by a federal judge back in Washington DC. The Marshall has no choice but to let Django and King ride free with the sheriff’s body to collect their reward.

Django and King develop a plan to infiltrate the estate where the Brittle brothers reside and for Django to point the three brothers out to King while there. Django is to play-act as a freed slave who has been hired as King’s valet. They arrive at the plantation owned by Spencer “Big Daddy” Bennett (Don Johnson). King states he is looking to buy one of Bennett’s slave girls for an exorbitant price. As he and Bennett talk business, Django is given free range to look around the estate. He eventually finds two of the Brittle brothers preparing to torture a young black girl in the same manner they had tortured Broomhilda. Rather than alerting King, he shoots one brother dead and whips another unconscious before also shooting him. Hearing the commotion, King and Bennett race to the scene to find the two dead Brittle brothers and the third fleeing on horseback. King uses his sniper rifle to shoot and kill the final Brittle brother, after Django confirms the man’s true identity. Though Bennett is incensed, he is forced to let them go once King explains they are legally authorized to kill and collect these men.

That night, to get revenge, Bennett calls out all the fellow white men of the plantation to kill Django and King, whose dentist cart is found located just outside of town. They all arrive wearing KKK style masks (including a cameo by Jonah Hill) and a funny scene ensues wherein they all admit they can’t see anything through the poorly-made hoods. They eventually get their act together and ride over the hill to attack the cart, only to find the cart abandoned and filled with explosives. Django and King sit in a tree some distance away, and King shoots the cart, blowing it up and killing most of the Klansmen. Bennett manages to survive the detonation and begins riding away, but Django manages to shoot and kill him with the sniper rifle. King realizes that Django is quite a natural sharpshooter.

King asks what Django will do now that he is officially free, and Django says he will locate his wife (believed to be in Mississippi) and try to purchase her freedom. King, who has bonded with Django and is impressed by both his intelligence and marksmanship, proposes to help Django rescue his wife if Django will work with him over the winter in collecting bounties. King is also impressed with Broomhilda’s name (and her ability to speak German), telling Django the German legend of Broomhilda. In the legend: the beautiful warrior Broomhilda is captured and imprisoned in a tower on a mountainside that is guarded by a dragon and surrounded by hellfire. Her lover, Siegfried, rescues her, facing the mountain and dragon simply because he is brave, but overcoming the hellfire out of his love for Broomhilda.

Django agrees to King’s proposal, finding him to be a deeply honorable man despite his line of work. King trains Django to not only be an expert with a gun, but also how to read and present himself in public. On one mission, Django hesitates to kill a man who is now peacefully working on a farm and has a son. King explains that before the man owned this farm and started a family, he murdered several people while robbing stagecoaches, and that is why he has a $7,000 bounty on his head. King explains that it is this own man’s actions in a dirty world that has brought the bounty hunters to his door. Hearing this, Django kills the man in front of his son. King tells him to keep the bounty notice, as a bounty hunter’s first successful bounty notice is good luck. Throughout the winter, Django imagines he and Broomhilda free and happy.

Jumping forward to March 1859, once winter passes, the two head back to the South in search of Broomhilda. King discovers that she was sold to a man named Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), the owner of a plantation known as ‘Candie Land’. Candie is famous for breeding “mandingos”–slaves who are bred to fight each other to the death (bare-knuckle) for their owner’s amusement (and for betting purposes). King says that he will pose as a wealthy European who seek to purchase one of Candie’s mandingos to take to fight in Europe, and that Django is his business partner and talent evaluator.

They arrive at a city apartment Candie owns and meet Candie’s lawyer, who explains that Candie is obsessed with French culture (although Candie, unlike the actually cultured King, does not speak French). The two are brought upstairs where they watch a mandingo fight, which is very brutal and fatal for the loser. It turns out that Candie is boorish and clearly arrogant and ignorant despite his wealth and high upbringing. Django is incredibly offensive to Candie and his guests, talking back to all the white men. Candie finds Django’s rude and defensive behavior amusing and King to be charming. King and Django state that they are willing to pay an exorbitant amount ($12,000) for one of Candie’s third-best mandingos and they arrange to return with him to his estate.

On the way there, Django continues to act defiantly, insulting both slave and white man alike, and displays his intelligence. When King asks Django why he is so belligerent, Django says he is playing his role in this dirty world. Candie states that he believes one in 10,000 black men are exceptional, and believes Django to be one of those rare few. As they travel to Candie Land, they see one of Candie’s slaves stuck in a tree, having been cornered by some white trash who works for Candie and who also own some vicious hounds. It turns out the slave, named D’Artagnan (named by Candie after the hero from The Three Musketeers, a book written by Frenchman Alexandre Dumas), is a mandingo who was caught running away. Candie convinces D’Artagnan to come down from the tree where D’Artagnan explains he can’t handle any other fights despite having won three in a row. Candie states that his slaves can’t retire from fighting until they have won at least five matches in order for him to recoup his $500 investment in them, and that D’Artagnan must be killed. King suddenly offers to pay Candie $500 to spare D’Artagnan’s life, but Django, realizing such odd behavior would blow their cover, loudly declares that D’Artagnan isn’t worth a single penny. King, coming to his senses, agrees not to pay for D’Artagnan, and Candie has the slave ripped to pieces by the hounds as they all watch on. Django glares at Candie, but imagines himself reunited with Broomhilda to keep his anger supressed.

They arrive at Candie Land and meet Candie’s widowed sister Lara (Laura Cayouette) and his loyal house-slave and foreman trustee Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson). It is clear that Stephen is appalled that Django is free and riding on a horse into the estate along with his master and other white men. Stephen informs Candie that, while he was gone, Broomhilda also attempted to escape and is now locked in a large metal box in Candie’s field. King says he wishes to meet Broomhilda, saying he heard legend of her German-speaking abilities. Candie, wanting to please his guest, orders Broomhilda to be cleaned up and sent to King’s room. Once there, King explains to Broomhilda (in German) that he and his “friend” are here to rescue her. He then signals Django to come into his room, and Broomhilda faints with happiness upon seeing her husband. King, who is impressed with Broomhilda’s intelligence, begins the next phase of his plan.

At dinner, Broomhilda serves Candie and his many guests – including King and Django. Lara notes that Broomhilda seems to be attracted to Django. This piques Stephen’s curiosity (Stephen is clearly invested in Candie’s success, and also forces the other slaves call him “Sir,” as though he were their master) and he begins to interrogate Broomhilda in a back room.

Meanwhile, King, despite Django’s “objections,” offers to buy Candie’s third-best mandingo for $12,000. They agree that King will return to the estate in five days with a lawyer to complete the transaction. Candie, clearly thrilled at this windfall, is then asked by King whether he can also purchase Broomhilda and take immediate possession of her (King claims he is interested in her ability to speak German, though Candie is convinced King is simply sexually attracted to her).

Before Candie can accept the deal, Stephen interrupts and asks to speak to his master in another room. Once there, Stephen tells Candie that he is convinced that Django and Broomhilda know each other and that King and Django intend to buy her, leave the property, and never return for the mandingo. Candie is incensed and has his white friends surround the pair and disarm them. He then explains that he collects the skulls of his dead slaves and has realized that the reason they don’t rise up and kill their masters, despite easily outnumbering the whites, is that their brains are predisposed to subservience whereas white brains are built for dominance and ingenuity. Candie then reveals he knows that they want Broomhilda, and unless they immediately pay him $12,000 for her, he will kill her and examine her skull in front of them. King immediately agrees to these terms, and Candie tells Django that he is not exceptional after all.

King pays the $12,000 and Candie has his lawyer begin drawing up the papers transferring ownership of Broomhilda to King. Candie gloats about his victory and intelligence, and King flashes back to D’Artagnan’s brutal death. The papers are signed, but before they leave, King insults Candie’s intelligence, noting how especially stupid Candie is, since he names his slaves after characters in novels written by Dumas even though Dumas was a black man. Candie, seeking to humiliate King and recognizing that King finds him to be a disgusting human being, says he will not allow the travelers to leave with Broomhilda unless King shakes his hand. This is more than King can take, and he uses his hidden spring-loaded pistol to shoot and kill Candie. King apologizes to Django just before he himself is fatally shot with a shotgun by one of Candie’s friends. Django then goes on a rampage, killing many dozens of white men as they try to overwhelm him. The gun-battle is finally ended when Stephen and a white guy capture Broomhilda and threaten to kill her unless Django surrenders. Feeling that he has no other choice, Django does surrender and he is brutally beaten by Stephen and the rest of the white men.

When Django awakens, he is tied upside down with a man about to castrate him with a hot knife. Stephen enters and tells the man that the plans have changed, and Django is no longer slated for castration. After the man leaves, Stephen explains that Django would have died too quickly if he had been castrated. Stephen, wanting Django to suffer, has convinced the white men instead to sell him to a mining company as a slave, where Django will spend the rest of his days.

En route to the mining company, Django is able to get the attention of one of the transporters (a group of Australians, including a cameo by director Quentin Tarantino). He tells them that he is a bounty hunter, not a slave, and that he was tracking a man worth $7,000 before he was captured. He promises that if they free and arm him, he will give them the lion’s share of the reward. They find the bounty notice (from Django’s first kill) on his person and also question the other slaves, who admit that Django is a bounty hunter and rode in to Candie Land with white men on a horse. The transporters free Django and he immediately kills them all and frees the other slaves bound for the mine. He takes a horse, guns, and dynamite that was also being taken to the mine and heads back to Candie Land.

Django first stops and kills the men who had hunted down the escaped D’Artagnan with their hounds, killing them all in D’Artagnan’s name. He then swears that his next act of vengeance will be in honor of King.

Django sneaks back onto the estate and finds and frees Broomhilda. He has her wait outside Candie Land while he engages in further preparations. When Candie’s family and friends return from Candie’s funeral, Django is there waiting and shoots them all, even Lara. He then shoots Stephen in the kneecaps, stating that, in the 9,999 slaves Stephen has likely betrayed while working for Candie, he has never met one like Django. Stephen defiantly cries out that Django will be hunted down and killed by bounty hunters for his crimes, and that the South will never die. Stephen is finally silenced, however, when he is killed in a dynamite blast that utterly destroys Candie’s mansion.

Django meets his wife, who waits for him with two horses outside the estates. The two are finally reunited, and ride off into the night to face whatever destiny awaits them. Django is destined to become a legend, just as Siegfried before him.

After the end credits, we cut to the slaves Django freed from the mining company transporters. They remain seated where Django left them, still in awe of what they witnessed. Then, one asks what the name of that black man was (suggesting Django may not yet become a legend).

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.

This is the movie version of the beloved stage musical that has moved the heart of live performance goers for decades. It is based on the story of the French Revolution by Victor Hugo. There have also been movies based on this story, the most recent with Liam Neeson starring. The world has waited for this ever since Phantom, Evita, and Rent were brought to new life via cinema. Entertainment Weekly panned this movie and even besmirsched  Rent and Evita in the review. A pox on the reviewer.

Based on the novel by Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables” (translated most accurately as “The Miserable Ones”) tells the tale of a released prisoner named Jean Valjean, who was imprisoned for nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread for his starving family. Given his new-found freedom, he violates his parole. His life is changed forever through the generosity and grace shown to him by a priest; as he learns he must redeem himself in the eyes of God. Despite becoming a respectable mayor, he is chased by Javert, a police inspector who believes solely in atonement through the Law. The law leads to frustration and death, but grace leads to a life of selflessness and hope. This game of cat vs. mouse is the spine to the epic story of Les Misérables, as Valjean encounters many impoverished characters who help him seek redemption for his sins along the way.

This proved to be a very interesting and moving cinema experience. First of all, this was a first of a kind where the musical soundtrack was taken directly from the filming and not done in a sound studio. For that reason, you could certainly see the vocal strain on the actors trying to match the vocals of a true singers. The opening moved slow compared to the stage play. It was very realistic for the times with the dirt and filth of the people, almost to the point of nauseation of the audience. Also, Crowe and Jackman added too much recicitive dialog to the lyric parts of the opening numbers. That dulled it a bit and I almost gave up on any future emotional attachment to the movie. Also, in some of the pieces, it was obvious Jackman was straining for the high notes which was a bit painful to watch since they were doing facial close-up. They should have rescored the music down a step for him and Crowe as well.

Suprisingly, after a slow opening, the movie picked up the pace. All the other actors were great and their singing was fantastic, except for Anne Hathaway whose death throes pre-empted the lyrics of her death song. The actors playing young Cozette and Gavroche were by far, show stealers. Amanda Seyfried has found her niche and she didn’t look so bug-eyed as she usually does. Eddie Redmayne played a great Marius and suprisingly he handled the vocals like he came off broadway. From a cinematic standpoint, Aaron Tveit, as Enjorlas, had the looks of what you would more expect of a Marius and an excellent voice.

The barricade scenes were fabulous. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helen Bonnam Carter were the epitome of the Thenardiers.

The movie evoked the same emotions as the theater performance, and likewise, there were a few macaroons in the audience that had no clue about what they had just seen in the 2 hr and 38 minute epic movie. This one’s a real keeper and should be seen on the big screen.

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.

This is supposed to be a look a the lives of Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann) a few years after Knocked Up. This is another offering by writher Judd Apatow. Maybe after this he will give it up. It is rated R because of language, adult situations, and some nudity. It is a typical toilet humor movie which wasn’t particularly funny and clocking in at over two hours was extremely repetitious and boring. Debbie’s character is even more obnoxious than Kirsten Wiig in Bridesmaids – overbearing, obnoxious, and a voice that to your ears feels like fingernails on a chalkboard. This movie just opened and there weren’t two dozen people in the theater. The best parts of the movie was Bryan Adams cameo singing “Into the Fire,” and the outtake at the end that had Melissa McCarthy in it. The only reason I didn’t get up and leave within the first hour of the movie was that there was nothing on TV.

No one could be as whiny, spoiled, tasteless, combative and reliant on annoying stand-up comedy riffs as the entire cast of this film, the most disappointing one of the year. Overlong, unnecessarily sex-obsessed and downright nasty at times, “This Is 40” feels haphazard and unfinished, despite a few moments of laugh-out-loud humor. The most horrible marriage of two horrible people raising two horrible children. If my family would act like the people in this movie, I’d sell them all into white slavery.

Entertainment Weekley gave this movie an “A-” but I say don’t waste your money on this movie, don’t buy this movie, don’t see it if you have to pay for it. Don’t worry because it will never come to network TV and it it does, it will be a silent movie because of the language.  This will surely go down as one of the top 10 worst movies of 2012. I am cancelling my subscription to Entertainment Weekley as it is a purely undependable read or the reviewer was watching something else when he wrote the review.

Rating: -5 out of 5.

Worthless and stupid. Don’t waste your time unless you have insomnia and there isn’t anything else to watch…..

Rating: -5 out of 5.

Sorry I am late on this one as it just got to video…..

Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a New York City bicycle messenger alongside his ex-girlfriend, Vanessa (Dania Ramirez). Her roommate, Nima (Jamie Chung), delivers $50,000 that she has saved for two years to Mr. Leung (Henry O), a Chinese hawaladar, in exchange for a ticket that she must deliver to Sister Chen, buying a place for Nima’s son and mother in one of Sister Chen’s ships that smuggle people from China to the United States.

Mr. Lin, a local loan shark, learns of the ticket and how whoever returns it to Mr. Leung can collect Nima’s money. He then approaches Bobby Monday (Michael Shannon), a gambling-addicted NYPD officer who owes him money, offering to clear Monday’s debt if Monday gets him the ticket. Monday begins searching for Nima, who decides to hire Wilee to deliver the envelope with the ticket to Sister Chen at 7 P.M. After Wilee leaves, Nima is confronted by Monday, who coerces her into revealing that Wilee has the ticket and handing over the delivery receipt. After Monday leaves, Vanessa finds Nima, and learns the contents of the envelope.

Monday catches up with Wilee before he leaves the campus where Nima lives and threatens him for the ticket. Wilee escapes and heads to the police station to report Monday, only to find out he’s a police officer, and hides in the bathroom, where he opens the envelope and finds the ticket.
After he escapes the station, Wilee angrily tells his dispatcher, Raj (Aasif Mandvi), that he is returning the package so that someone else can drop it off. Returning to Nima’s college, Wilee leaves the envelope, which is picked up by his rival, Manny (Wolé Parks). Before Manny picks it up, however, Monday calls the dispatch to redirect the delivery to a different address.

As he is about to leave the college after returning the envelope, Wilee runs into Nima. He confronts her about the ticket, and she reveals the truth. Guilt-ridden, Wilee tries to catch up to Manny, who refuses to give Wilee his drop. They race each other and in the process, are chased by a bike cop who had earlier tried to arrest Wilee. As they approach Monday’s location, the bike cop tackles Manny out of his bike and arrests him. Vanessa, who learns of Monday’s trickery and races over to warn Manny, appears, grabs Manny’s bag and gives it to Wilee.

As they were about to escape, however, Wilee is run over by an oncoming taxi. He is put in an ambulance with Monday, while his damaged bike is taken to an impound lot, with the envelope hidden in the handlebars. Monday beats Wilee into offering to give Monday the envelope in exchange for his bike.
Wilee tells Monday that the envelope is in Manny’s bag, and Monday leaves to search it, while Wilee meets with Vanessa in the impound lot. She gives him the envelope, which she had retrieved, and he escapes on a stolen bike. Monday, realizing Wilee has tricked him, pursues Wilee to Sister Chen’s place. Wilee’s stolen bike breaks and he steals the bike belong to the cop who chased him throughout the movie. Meanwhile, Nima calls Mr. Leung for help. He deploys his enforcer, the Sudoku Man, to help her.

As Wilee reaches Chinatown, he is confronted by Monday, who is threatening to kill him. However, Vanessa arrives with other messengers, dispatched by Raj, and delays Monday, giving Wilee time to deliver the ticket to Sister Chen, who calls the Captain of her ship and tells him to allow Nima’s family inside. Outside, Monday is confronted by the Sudoku Man, who shoots him in the head and leaves. Nima arrives, after a phone call from her mother confirming that they got on the ship, and meets with Wilee and Vanessa.

This is one of those flashback movies that shows you an end point then starts back with each of the main character lines. It is a 20 minute movie that you watch 4 times from a different prospective. Although the storyline was ok, it was a bit tedious with all the incessant bike riding. I don’t understand why they though this would be a great movie from that standpoint. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is in a lot of movies these days, guess he is competing with Tyler Kitch to see who can be in the most B movies in a single year. He still has his 50/50 chemo haircut and really doesn’t fit the bicycle courier type. None the less, definitely watchable and is only about 97 minutes long. You don’t waste a half day watching it.

Rating: 2.7 out of 5.

This is a remake of the 1984 movie starring Patrick Swayze and C. Thomas Howell…..

lt’s Friday night and the residents of Spokane are consumed with the thoughts of the local high school football game. The Wolverines just lost a nail biter and the team’s quarterback Matt Eckert is trying to shake off the tough loss. Adding to Matt’s worries is the sudden and unexpected return of his older brother Jed (played by Chris Hemsworth, THOR). After their mom died, Jed left town with no warning and enlisted in the military. Now Jed is home unexpectedly after serving in Afghanistan and the brothers’ relationship is strained at best. After some encouraging words from his dad and his girlfriend Erica, Matt heads home to sleep off his loss. The next morning Matt is startled awake as their whole house shakes violently. Running outside, Matt and Jed find the sky filled with parachutes and the streets lined with military vehicles. For the first time in history, the United States is being occupied by foreign armies. The invaders are calling themselves the “People’s Liberation Army” and they easily outnumber the citizens of Spokane. Matt and Jed’s worst nightmares are actualized as missiles scream into nearby houses, rocking them with explosions. On the once quiet streets of their neighborhood, U.S. citizens are being rounded up and taken prisoner. Suddenly, with horror, Matt realizes that the foreign invaders have captured his father and his girlfriend Erica. Matt screams out to them, vowing to save them as Jed drags his brother away to safety.

With the town completely overrun by the enemy, Matt and Jed watch helplessly as their father gives up his life to protect his family, allowing his sons to escape into the Cascade mountains. Determined to fight for their community and rescue what’s left of their hometown, the brothers assemble a ragtag group of high school students and begin to fight back. Being a war hero, Jed is able to train this unlikely group of heroes the same way that he was trained. Soon they are transformed into sharp shooting, camouflaged, freedom fighters. Known as the “Wolverines” (after Matt’s football team), the group soon becomes a national symbol for the resistance and the hope of Americans everywhere. What this enemy didn’t realize is that what makes the U.S. great is not the size of its military, but rather the men and women who wear the uniform and the communities they come from.

With the help of an underground network of scared but brave townspeople, the Wolverines quickly go from a minor nuisance to serious threat as they begin to batter away at the invaders. Using their superior knowledge of the landscape that they grew up around gives them a strategic advantage. The foreign invaders want to destroy the American way of life but the Wolverines aren’t going to let that happen.

Meanwhile, Matt is searching tirelessly for his girlfriend Erica who is being held prisoner by the invaders. He will stop at nothing to rescue the girl he loves even if it means risking his life to do so. With the fate of the country on the shoulders of these small town heroes, the Wolverines must summon the courage to overcome impossible odds and unity a town against the greatest threat this country ever faced. Outnumbered and with limited supplies, the Wolverines must rely on the spirit instilled in every small town across the U.S… protect your neighbor at all costs, because even though they aren’t your blood, they’re still your family. RED DAWN will show you that when this country is in its darkest hour, salvation can be found where we least expect it.

Erica looks like a washed out druggie when Matt finds her. They could have done better with makeup. And of course, like the 1984 original our Hero, Jed, gets killed. Not a bad remake. It ran about 20 minutes longer than the original and would have been a bit better if they had tightened it up. Definitely watchable and great matinee fodder.

Rating: 3.9 out of 5

Well, it looks like as Tom Cruise passes off the Mission Impossible franchise to Jeremy Renner, he is taking on a new and more interesting one with bringing out Jack Reacher.

In an innocent heartland city, five are shot dead by an expert sniper. The police quickly identify and arrest the culprit, and build a slam-dunk case. But the accused man claims he’s innocent and says “Get Jack Reacher.” Reacher himself sees the news report and turns up in the city. The defense is immensely relieved, but Reacher has come to bury the guy. Shocked at the accused’s request, Reacher sets out to confirm for himself the absolute certainty of the man’s guilt, but comes up with more than he bargained for.

This was a great flick which clocked in at over 2 hours in length. We are getting our money’s worth for the late releases who hope to be oscar contenders. I do not expect this really get a nomination but it is a great entertainment feature. It has twists and turns, lots of bullets, and the good guys win. Do not miss this one for the holidays.

Rating: 4.3 out of 5.