Unbroken

All of the Oscars... Maybe... Probably.... Most likely

Unbroken follows the true story of Louis Zamperini (Jack O' Connell) a soldier that was held as a prisoner of war during WWII. The story goes through his childhood, when he was constantly getting into trouble; then transitions to his brother training him to run cross country so he learns to behave himself. The training eventually leads him to the Olympics, where he wins the competition for America. He then joins the Army and experiences engine trouble over the ocean, which leaves him and two of his friends stranded. He is picked up by the Japanese, and tortured for information, awaiting rescue.

This guy has had the most interesting life put to film to date. Honestly, I wish I could meet him so I could hear his unedited version of the story as opposed to the hyped up Hollywood version. Sadly, he passed away during the filming of this, so we are left with this movie, which isn't a horrible substitute, but it could have been better. I just wish I could have got more story on his reasoning for joining in the first place, as opposed to being thrust right into him in a dog fight. I know that the creators have to make sacrifices in the mindset of time and pace; but, I was expecting about a three hour movie to begin with. This being a two hour movie might have hindered it from being amazing. It was great, don't get me wrong, it was just missing a few things. As it stands, this movie seems to have wanted to emulate every critically acclaimed movie ever. There are elements of Cast Away, every touching sports movie ever made, and every touching war movie ever made. This is not a bad thing, but it doesn't seem to have much of a voice for itself. This is still a very touching movie, with plenty of moments that will make the audience angry, sad, scared, and every other type of passionate; so that is a win in my book.

The direction here was great in a lot of ways, but horrible in one. It had great camera work, Angelina Jolie knew how to get the best performances out of her cast that they could offer her, and some of the shots are beautiful enough to have a dozen artist renderings. The part that drove me up the wall here was the sound, and more to the point the sound effects. None of the sound effects seemed to have any gravitas behind them. The gun fire felt like listening to popcorn sometimes, the ocean seemed to have the weight of a pool, and my biggest complaint was with the punching scenes. If I am trying to get the audience to feel sorry for a character getting beat up, I want to make those punches have some bang to them. I want it to seem like Rocky got in a street brawl with Apollo. There is still that "meat hitting meat" sound, but it is low; sacrificed for emotional music.

The acting is the thing that could have made or broke this movie, luckily we had some amazing performances given here. The only problem I had was that there were moments when the characters seemed so disinterested in everything surrounding them, which could have been intentional; but, just not the way I would have went about it. The supporting cast does great, but there is no denying where the weight of this movie fell, and Jack is brilliant. My hope from this entire production is that Jack O' Connell gets some more work, and eventually stars in a movie that I can give my highest honor to.

Final Verdict: See it in Theaters There are some missteps made in this film that are hard to overlook, but it is still a great piece of work. Some small tweaks would have made it unforgettable, but this will do for now.

Into the Woods

Fairy tales and music from Disney. Perfect, Right?

Our story mainly follows a baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt), who desperately seek to have a curse reversed, allowing his wife to bear a child. The witch (Meryl Streep), whom originally laid the curse on the baker's house, tells the baker to gather four items. A slipper, a hood, a cow, and some hair. The baker and his wife begrudgingly take to the quest, meeting the famous fable heroes of old.

Okay, let's get this out of the way right now. If you don't like musicals this movie is not for you, right from jump street. There is more singing in this than spoken words, and this movie is reserved for people that either enjoy that, or can withstand it for around two hours. Now that we have that out of the way allow me to begin my review.

I love musicals, and I especially love musicals that are adapted for the screen. Gerard Butler as The Phantom, Rosario Dawson as Mimi from Rent, and even John Travolta as Danny from Grease are all lasting memories. I have seen musicals on Broadway, in my home state of Florida, and where ever else I can find them. So, where does this movie rank among the classics of old? Meh. It's okay. This is one of the few musicals I never had the opportunity to see, while I was growing up. So, like most people that go to see a movie adaptation of a musical, my entire experience was based on the way it was presented in this movie. I like the entire third act, I think whenever you can cleverly flip some old fairy tales around to make them your own, the world is a creatively better place. Everything leading up to the third act felt like a race to get to the finish line. Some characters were forgotten about completely, some resolutions were reached without much resistance, and some of the morals were heavy handed. I don't expect to sit through a movie about fairy tale characters with out some heavy handed lessons at the end; but, this was a bit absurd. Almost every character broke the fourth wall to let the audience know just what they should be learning from this. I feel the creators went that way to combat the blatant pedophilia feeling people would be getting from the Little Red Riding Hood arc. I would normally take someone at their word if they told me I was looking into this too much; but, there is no getting around the fact that you can directly correlate pedophilia and the Wolf's hunger without much issue. That lesson is supposed to be "don't talk to strangers," the main lesson is "be careful what you wish for," and a couple of other messages mixed in. Trust me they will all be hard to miss.

The music in this was another part of this movie that held it back from true greatness. Usually, I love the music in every musical I see, and will immediately run to iTunes so I can enjoy it for the next week. This time, there were a few songs that just couldn't register with me. It wasn't the singer's fault, or the orchestra, some of the lyrics that they came up with were just so bland. Again, don't get me wrong I liked a good amount the songs presented; but, there were just a couple that seemed a bit lazy and I found that weird, since it hasn't happened to me much before. I loved the song where the princes started to compare the agony they were going through, but I was bored by the opening theme.

The acting here should be close to perfect with the amount of A list actors they threw at this production, right? Well, yes and no. Just because they are A list, doesn't mean they were made for this picture. As usual I had a major problem with Chris Pine's acting; but at least he can sing. Thankfully I didn't have to suffer through much of Johnny Depp's bullshit, since he was only allowed about five to ten minutes of screen time. The rest of the cast was fine. Anna Kendrick was a bold and welcome choice as Cinderella. James Corden and Emily Blunt didn't have much chemistry, but did well in their respective roles. The true scene thief here should be no surprise to anyone, Meryl Streep. My God, this woman is amazing. Sings beautifully, and sells the audience on anything she feels like conveying. Sometimes I felt like the characters acting scared of her in the movie, were just the actors conveying their admiration of a true legend.

Final Verdict: Rent it I was a little disappointed by the showing here. It was an above average movie, with a good cast, and a descent enough storyline. You won't hate yourself for watching it, but there is no rush.

The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies

Fighting, fighting, and more fighting.... Oh look! Some story.

In this final installment of The Hobbit series, we continue with a dragon coming to lay siege to a small village. After that is dealt with, we see the Dwarves we have been following through the first two movies (recently separated), reunited in the mountain they have been seeking all this time. As they come together, they are confronted by their leader having been driven mad by gold. They must try to get him back to the way he was as two interested parties come to collect on debts that were promised to them. While all of this is going on Gandalf has to race to the scene where our heroes are, and warn them of a large army of Orcs coming to destroy them all.

The story here should not be important to anyone. Seriously, if you read the book, just get it out of your head that this movie is going to make every detail shared with you in text, come to life on the big screen. Luckily, I am not weighed down by such matters when it comes to a movie. If a movie is good, I am going to appreciate it as a movie. The storyline here is WAY, WAY, WAY far in the background for this movie, and what you should expect is a truck load of battle sequences. There is something about a love triangle between two pretty elves and the pettiest, little Dwarf in the company. There is something about a king being driven mad because a dragon laid on some gold for so long, and poisoned it or whatever. There is something about humans being anti-war, and children being around. I don't know, all I know is that this movie provided more fan service than any movie before it, with the fight scenes given. All of the story arcs met an abrupt end.... like solved within a few minutes kind of abrupt, and to me this was just Peter Jackson trying to out do any big battle scene he had done before.

I feel like this movie needed one of those overly enthusiastic sales people you find on late night television at the fore front of each one of the trailers for this. You want these three older characters kicking ass against a bunch of ghosts? We got it! You want big troll things being used as a battering ram/siege tank? We got it! You want an army of Elves mixed with an army Dwarves, with a small band of humans? We got it! and we even threw in a wizard, some animals, and a Hobbit. You want a climatic and satisfying ending to the big, bad Orc terrorizing our company of heroes through the first two movies? We.... well.... I am not going to spoil anything. This movie was about an hour and a half of battling, half an hour of story development, ended with twenty four minutes of credits. Not a bad thing for those of us seeking "battles of epic proportions," and I really didn't expect much more from Jackson in this last movie.

Did you like the cast from the first two Hobbit movies? Good news everyone! They haven't gotten sick of this movie series yet, and are still amazing in their roles. There are no weak links in the chain here, everyone looked happy to be working, and (more to the point) gave almost perfect performances. Out of everyone I saw here it is hard to pick a favorite performance... at least it would be if Richard Armitage hadn't stolen every scene he was in. He may not have been my favorite character, but this performance brought him up to a close second. On a quick side note, if you didn't like the cast from the first two movies, what the hell are you on and can you keep it as far away from me as possible?.... Just a joke.

The big question hovering over this movie series (now that it is over) is: Does it hold up against the original trilogy? The answer is no, but it was fighting an up hill battle with that from jump street. The thing that made the original trilogy so appealing was, that they integrated big battle scenes and story so seamlessly. The original series left out tons of characters from the books, and still got away with being called a masterpiece. This movie can't get away with adding characters without scrutiny. The original movie series was fun, brilliantly acted, exquisitely written, and left most everyone that exited the theater happy. The question over this movie never should have been: will it be as good as the first? It should be, will it be fun? The answer to that is, yes. I had more fun with this than I did with the first two Hobbit movies, and feel no shame in admitting that (even if it didn't go exactly according to the book).

Final Verdict: See it in Theaters All of the movies in this trilogy probably would have gotten the same score. All of the movies in the original trilogy probably would have gotten my highest score. Take the stick out of your bum and have some fun. 

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

With all due respect...

In this installment, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) finds himself trying to save the living museum exhibits from not remaining still forever, when the magic tablet that allows them to move starts to decay. They must go to visit Ahkmenrah's (Rami Malek) father, who is housed at a British Museum, and holds the secrets to the tablet's magic. While dealing with the problems at the museum, Larry must also try to understand the changes his son is going through as he grows older.

So, this is a tricky review, being so close to the death of a man I held in the highest regard. I haven't agreed with every cinematic choice he has done; but, the gems that he produced have lived on in my heart and guided me through my life. I assure you that what you are going to read here is not going to be effected by Robin's death very much, I will mention a few things, but my overall opinion of this movie remains. Now that we got that out of the way, on with the review.

There is a lot of bad to say about this movie, but at the same time a great amount of good that redeems this movie into a completely neutral film. Some of the comedic points hit the nail right on the head, and they even managed to leave a fair amount of those points out of the trailers. One point in particular had me rolling on the ground laughing, but that point should remain a surprise. I could definitely do without the side storyline with Larry and his son, it seemed forced, and could have been completely cut out of the picture. There were a fair amount of recycled jokes from the first two movies, where I guess the makers of this film were thinking along the lines of "if it ain't broke don't fix it." The biggest problem I have with this movie is that the thing that gave the original film so much of the limited charm it had, was that it was basically a walk through history in a comedic effect. Here, we have them trying to add even more made up theology to a series that already had a truck load of history to dive into. What is worse is that they didn't go through much of the history (or fables) in England. They picked the most basic thing about English history/fables (Lancelot had the hots for Guinevere)  and beat that horse into the ground until it was a puddle of blood and bone. I will give them credit on doing a bit (when so many films choose to leave that part out of Arthur's tales), but it was basically mentioned every time Lancelot was on screen, and I wanted some more history. Bring in Jack the Ripper cutting things, some King obsessed with beheading (who also happens to be a serial monogamist), or even a damn William Wallace character (I know he is Scottish). Don't beat me over the head with the most famous knight of the round table pining over a quest. Aside from that, the new caveman was endearing enough, and Marenkahre (the Egyptian Pharaoh father) had some pretty great jokes.

A major problem I had with the movie was with the visuals. It seems like they are using the same visual effects team from the first movie, and they haven't learned anything new. The statues look even more fake than one would expect in a movie riddled with CGI. I will give them that they seemed to have their shit together within the first ten minutes of the film, then something happened when they went to England, and everyone must have gotten lazy. The only other thing that struck me as weird was the amount of time they spent on Robin when he was in danger, or clinging to life (with respects). I don't know if it was just me looking into to it too much, but it did seem like they lingered on a couple of key moments to shamelessly tug on some heart strings.

The acting in this was where most of my trouble came from. Everyone just seemed so tired. Like the collective cast all took some Zanax before every shot. The only people that seemed to say "no" to the downer party were Luke Wilson, Steve Coogan, and Dan Stevens. I could say the same for Rebel Wilson, but she seemed to play the same character I have seen before.The worst culprit of underacting was the headliner, Ben Stiller. He just had this air of being above all this, like "why the hell am I making this movie into a trilogy?" The one who seemed to save a couple of moments during this sad train was Dan Stevens. He brought some fresh unfamiliar energy to the proceedings, and seemed to not let the participating cast's mood get in his way of having some fun.

Final Verdict: Netflix It A good movie for one of those lazy days, but nothing to rush out for. I feel like most people who plan to see this already have their mind made up, and usually I would try to stop you; but, this time I will just let my rating speak for itself.

Exodus: Gods and Kings

God? Damn this movie, please.

Going to skip this introduction. There have been too many movies and re-tellings of this story. It is thousands of years old. Get some small history knowledge and you will know the basic premise..... Not good enough? Fine. Moses was an adopted prince of Egypt. He gets found out as a Hebrew, and sentenced to exile. While in exile he happens upon a small community of Hebrews where he finds his wife. His peace is interrupted so he can go and free the Hebrews from slavery. Plagues happen, parting of an ocean, SPOILER WARNING the Hebrews are free and start a new journey. Done and done.

It is hard to fail on as many levels as this movie did. I mean, I have never seen a movie fail on so many levels in my life time. Legitimately, a have a hard time believing anyone walked out of this movie, fully satiated. Are you religious? Did you come to this movie for a religious experience? To bad. You like action? Did the previews give you some notion that there was going to be action in this? Whoops, sorry. Go see another movie. Do you like amazing visual effects? Were you expecting to see what the technology of today had to offer us, when it came time for the sea to part? You are better off watching Prince of Egypt. Do you like it when people white wash history with quite possibly the most Caucasian people in Hollywood playing the roles of Hebrews and Egyptians?  GOOD NEWS!

On a more serious note, let us delve into this movie's story. It is all pretty basic for a Moses story... oh wait, well at least parts of it were. There was a small hiccup along the way of making this movie, and I am not going to be talking about the biblical inaccuracies. Mainly because I loved Noah so biblical inaccuracies don't really concern me. At first they were trying to make it seem like Moses was crazy, then he slowly became more and more sane. He still talked to a small, invisible child, claiming it was God speaking to him; but, no one really questioned that after a while. After some time passed they had a small concern come up about Moses' sanity, then it got stifled by a speech that I assume was supposed to be motivational. There was no believable hard choices in this. Moses made a fuss or something about "hating to see the people that raised him undergo such turmoil" or something to that effect; but, it seemed like they just fit that in, out of some undo obligation, or ignorance. I say ignorance because the scene just seemed to come out of no where. Like someone told the director "Umm, Moses is supposed to feel bad about hurting these people.," the the director smacked his head and added a line. Oh don't worry, there is so much more to take issue with when it comes to the story here, but in the interest of time let's move on to the audio.

 For those of you who frequent my blog, you will take note that I usually don't comment on the audio or visual of a movie, unless it blows me away or leaves me cringing. This case is an example of the later. Why is it that most religious movies feel that they have to make this movie seem older by adding a shit ton of wood instruments? Do they think the building of pyramids, and choices in fashion were to subtle? The music in this is not only cliche, but cliche in awful way. Cliche in the sense that you feel they had to pay Disney to use tracks from their movies made in the sixties. Music wasn't the only problem here, dialogue was all but impossible to hear sometimes. At first I thought I should just blame the lead actors for mumbling, then I realized I had to strain to hear anything coming from any of the actors unless they were yelling. When you can't even get the audio in your movie right, we have some major issues.

Audio now leads us to visual. In today's day and age, this company should feel embarrassed that they released something so visually unappealing. Some of the shots were well done, but it was mainly thanks to the scenery. The real fault here lies with the effects. Noticeably fake alligators, noticeably fake wall of water, noticeably fake plagues, and the CGI wasn't the worst part here, that honor lies with the make up. How do we make boils and plague look like shit? Ask whoever was in charge of the make up department here. Blood that looked like paint, boils that you could see were peeling off in some areas, and the worst ageing effect ever done in film's history (that includes J. Edgar). When I said this movie failed on every level I wasn't exaggerating. This movie fails on every perceivable level.

Finally we come to the acting. Surely, having a cast filled with A list actors this movie won't suck in the acting department, right? Wrong. Did the director forget that his job is to rein in these primadonnas? Christian Bale was all over the place, but he has a tendency to be hit or miss in any movie. Joel Edgerton surprised the hell out of me, by overacting worse than William Shatner trying to escape an alien planet. The only person that could even hope to give Joel a run for his money was John Turturro. Sigourney Weaver seems to have one mode these days, and that is to act like Sigourney Weaver. My condolences lie with Aaron Paul, and Ben Kingsley in this production. This is the second movie Aaron Paul was in that I didn't like, and I just want to see him do well for some reason. Ben Kingsley should have known better than to sign on for this garbage.

Now before you start saying that I had something against this movie right out of the gate, let me just say that I really wanted this movie to succeed. I was riding high on the release of Noah this year, and I was just about to start giving every religious movie a shot. When the movie was about half way through its run time a woman got up and walked out screaming religious sacrament to the audience that remained as she left, with her friend screaming "AMEN!" behind her. So I wanted this movie to shut them up by turning around and being good. After all of that, here I sit. Disappointed and angry. Don't make the same mistake.

Final Verdict: Don't do it If you have any respect for the film industry, teach these people a lesson by not acknowledging their movie's existence. More to the point, save yourself the time, money and energy.  

Top Five

Chris Rock gives us something unexpected

We follow Andre Allen (Chris Rock), a celebrity that got his start doing stand up comedy, moved to doing comedic movies, and now wants to be taken seriously as an actor. He is to be married to a reality television star named Erica Long (Gabrielle Union), who controls his life and is making their union all about the show. On the cusp of the release for his first serious film he meets Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson), a writer for the New York Times sent to get an interview. During this interview she challenges him with serious questions as a fan of his old stand up work, wondering why he isn't funny and why he doesn't want to be anymore.

So, the only way I can compare this movie to something else out there right now is by saying that this is a different version of Funny People. Which may sound like an insult, but trust me it is not. I liked Funny People and this is just looking at the celebrity lifestyle in a different lens. Instead of trying to regale you with drama, they attempted comedy, and the result has me a little skewed. I liked this movie, even though I didn't really laugh a lot. It had its funny moments, but I might not have been the target audience for some of the jokes. Which has me skewed because I am a big fan of Chris Rock's stand up. Maybe it was the threesome joke, the gay joke, or maybe this just wasn't something I was supposed to laugh my way through, regardless I respected the story, even if it wasn't necessarily the funniest movie I have seen. This movie was just a great tale, with interesting directing, and some points of well rounded acting. I loved the characters, I loved the slight jabs at the entertainment industry, I loved the "back to my old stomping ground" moments, and I loved that this movie had a character that took the piss out of reality television stars. Don't get me wrong this movie wasn't perfect by any means. I didn't much care for the ending, I didn't have much care for the side characters, and there were some points that were just a bit to unbelievable (like, you are really going to sit here and tell me that you kissed a woman in on a street where not one person caught that on camera?).  Chris Rock has had his moments of ups and downs, but this movie is assuredly a rise up, despite the problems I had with it.

Chris Rock has definitely found out how to direct, not that I thought he was bad before; but now it seems like he at least has a style he can call his own. I liked the flash back scenes, they seemed to move well within the film. There were some shots that stood out in the film. Not like I was going to frame that still from the movie on my wall or anything, more like it just seemed to be more grounded in realism. In a movie that (I assume) is trying to make you think of this as real life, some of the shots were integral to bringing out the movies full potential, and it seemed like he nailed it.

Now for the acting.... the acting.... right. Well, let's start off with the good, the women in this production were the ones that stood out above anyone else. Rosario Dawson and Gabrielle Union were believable, and gave this movie some moments that were truly wonderful to behold. The rest of this cast is filled with a who's who of actors you haven't thought about in the last five years (at least five, if not more). That doesn't mean they did poorly, just that we have seen everything that they are bringing to the table. Cedric the Entertainer plays the "man with all of the connections," and he was good in that role, but I feel like I was transported back to the mid-2000's watching it. Tracy Morgan was present.... and that is about it. I like some of Tracy's stuff, but he never really took off with me. Chris rock showed us that one of the lines "you are a terrible actor" may have been a bit harsh, but not completely unwarranted. He had some good moments of acting, but those moments seemed to come from a more comedic place, the times he tried to play it straight were a bit of a drain.... than again maybe that was the point.

Final Verdict: See it in Theaters Some missteps with the story, as well as the acting took me out of the experience a couple of times; but, it w

Penguins of Madgascar

Work that money maker

The Penguins are back at it, in this newest installment of the Madagascar series. Skipper, Kowalski, Private, and Rico (Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, and Conrad Vernon) are hunted by an evil Octopus named Dave (John Malkovich) leading a band of squids. Dave has an ax to grind against all penguins, since their cuteness robbed him of the zoo spotlight years ago. It is up to the penguins, with the help of a secret organization called The Northwind, to put an end to Dave's master plan, and celebrate with a high one.

So, this movie embodies the essence of why animated pictures don't get the respect they deserve most times. At the core of this series is a money grubbing machine, that seeks to take every last penny from the parents of children, and will never stop as long as there is a box office to be made. That is why this spawned off into a television series on Nickelodeon (which I never watched), and is the first spin-off of a movie series that already has three films in it. Does that automatically make this a bad movie? No, just soulless. This is, by all accounts, a standard Dreamworks spin-off. Probably good for the kids but no real winning comedy for anyone over the age of eight. This always goes back into my argument that "animated films should be fun for all ages," but very few animated films seem to grasp that concept these days.... well Disney gets it most of the time, and Dreamworks/Blue Sky usually do well their first time around for movies, but that is about it. There are a couple of cute jokes in the movie, but nothing that really screams out to you. Like them playing around with the names of henchmen when saying "Halle bury them" or "Nicholas cage them."... you see the way he is saying the names makes it sound like famous people.... Is this thing on? Yeah, if that didn't grab you then I apologize, this movie is not for you.

The morals of the story in this are as simplistic, and written on the walls as the jokes are. Listen to your friends (or maybe respect your subordinates for the older crowd), believe in yourself (because that horse hasn't been beaten to death yet apparently), and looks don't matter as much as being a good person. All very pertinent morals in today's society, but the delivery of the message is all over the place. It was kind of like the "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" of delivery: one moral spoke too loud, one was just right, and one moral screamed from the top of a mountain, causing an avalanche and killing hundreds. Yeah, whenever you blatant say the moral of your movie, you might as well just stop the animation, break the forth wall, and start lecturing the kids in the audience. Again, these morals are all things kids should learn, but you need to sneak it in so it doesn't feel like the kids are being talked down to.

The acting in this is something that I had a hard time grappling with. There is a voice actor whom I deeply admire and respect that voiced one of the penguins in the Nickelodeon television show, so I was feeling a bit biased thinking he was a voice in this. Since they replaced him, I feel less biased. The penguins in this are Dreamworks regulars, real salt of the earth, under appreciated talent that I always love seeing. They brought the voices for these characters back (the same as they always do), and knocked it out of the park. Now we come to the others, or "seen actors" who decided to voice a role in this. I usually have hatred for seen actors that dip there toes in with voice actors, but I know it drives ticket sales, and sometimes they perform well. Take John Malkovich and Peter Stormare who brought life to their characters, and acted like they were getting a paycheck for speaking into a microphone. No gripes on that front, now we get to something that eats at my core. I respect Benedict Cumberbatch as an actor, but he brought nothing to this movie. It was almost like hearing him read a script, and I don't want to hear him read a script, I want to hear him act. No emphasis on words, no emotion, just bland and dull. If you needed to pay someone for having a British accent, please give it to someone who actually enjoys the work he is doing.

Final Verdict: Pirate it Nothing special here, just your run of the mill animated picture to soften the week Horrible Bosses 2 came out. If you have the DVD/BLU RAY of either How to Train Your Dragon 2 or The Lego Movie I would suggest re-watching that. 

Horrible Bosses 2

Another horribly funny sequel

Nick, Kurt, and Dale (Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day) are back, this time trying to be their own boss. Dale came up with the idea for a new invention called the shower buddy (basically taking the concept for one of the wands at a car wash, and making it for use in the shower), and the boys get a buyer interested. Rex and Burt Hanson (Chris Pine and Christoph Waltz) run the biggest distribution chain in America, and convince our would-be heroes to make 100,000 shower buddies. After the boys complete the order, the Hanson's cancel it, and leave the boys in debt to the tune of $500,000.00. So, the guys get it in their head to kidnap Rex, and demand a ransom from his father for what they are owed.

I don't usually expect a good storyline when I walk into a comedy, but it never hurts to have one handy. Luckily the creators of this movie just so happened to have something descent in their back pocket. This is pretty much the same setup as the first movie; but, the subplots really drive this movie home. I like how the Hansons screw over the three schlubs we grew to love in the first movie. I like the pretend kidnapping, and the reversal of emotion from Chris Pine's character. This movie may be the same setup, but it has separate story arcs that make the story line really blossom into something fresh and original. My one gripe with the story is with the characters, and what's weird is that it isn't with the new characters, but with the ones we met last movie. Motherfucker Jones is kind of forgettable here, since we know he isn't really a bad-ass; but the characters still kind of play like he is a bad-ass. There is an air of superiority to the trio when they meet Jones, but not enough to wipe the question from our mind: Why did they go back to this guy? I'll tell you why, because they severely crippled Nick, Kurt, and Dale's intelligence in this (also because the studio probably got a bunch of pleas for a Motherfucker Jones return). The trio was never insanely smart in the first one, but they are noticeably more stupid in this, and it kind of took me out of the ride every once in a while. The good news for returning characters is that Dr. Julia (Jennifer Aniston) and Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) are still horny/angry. I can never be mad at their characters, they were writing gold from jump street (if only they could have brought Colin Farrell back from the dead). The new characters are fun. Chris Pine is nuts, Christoph Waltz is greedy, done and done. The characters are a very small gripe with me, because I still loved this movie.

Was this funny? On almost every level, this movie was hilarious. It didn't keep me laughing from start to finish like some other movies, but it was definitely a contender for comedy of the year. There were a couple of jokes that didn't register with me, but even more that made me fall out of my chair with laughter. Some of the jokes were misinterpretation, some of the jokes were racially or sexually charged, and some of the jokes were heavily reliant on awkward comedy. If any of that seems like a winning combination than you will find this movie hilarious. I didn't see me liking this movie, but this is the second comedic sequel of the year to change my mind.

Now comes the time to talk about the acting, but really what more is there to say about the actors here. Jason Sudeikis has a direct line to my funny bone in most movies he is in, so he did well here. Jason Bateman is the same depressed, "too-smart-for-the-people-around-him" guy that he usually plays (except for that one guy in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story), but luckily I am not tired of that yet. Charlie Day is the same loud, awkward character; but, luckily I am not tired of that either. Jamie Foxx is the same, Jennifer Aniston is the same, and Kevin Spacey is the same; yet, none of that is bad because they were all amazing in the first movie. The real test here was for the newcomers. Christoph Waltz is German... that about sums it up... but seriously he is an extraordinary actor, and keeps an even pace with this movie's tempo. Jonathan Banks is old, and again that can about sum that up; but, his placement was good here, and he had me laughing in the few scenes he was present. Lastly, we come to Chris Pine. Chris Pine. I don't think I have kept my feelings on Chris Pine's acting a secret, but I will reiterate myself now: I think he is talent-less. At least that was the case before I saw this movie. Every movie prior to this had overacting so bad, I could only think every movie he was in saw his performance as Kirk in Star Trek, and thought he was trying to play William Shatner. If he was he nailed it, since he shouldn't have I hated him. This performance took some of the hate I keep for him out of my heart. He showed a range of emotion, and his usual antics fit his character perfectly for this. Let know one say I am not a fair judge of talent... now please Chris Pine, stop being the Captain.

Final Verdict: See it in theaters Some misfired jokes, and fumbles with character development kept this movie from my top spot. Luckily, this movie is a rare occurrence where it rated equal to its predecessor.Go see it, you won't be sorry. 

Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Katniss is on Fire and loving it

When we last left our intrepid young heroine Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), she was rescued from the Quarter Quell with other past victors from previous Hunger Games. She is now being propositioned to be the rallying cry for the districts to band together, and take down the capitol once and for all. She is abrasive as always, saying that she will only be their voice if Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) is rescued at the first opportunity. The war wages on and Katniss must keep herself together as well as she can, while leading a country back from the brink. 

Okay, time for me to anger the four people that actually read this blog, and have read The Hunger Games Trilogy. I never read the third book. The first one seemed like a more in depth, American retelling of the Asian movie Battle Royale, and the second book bored me to tears. Call it whatever you want, but this is a rare occurrence where the movies actually interested me more than the book. Sure, I wish they played up Haymitch more in the second movie (since he was my favorite character), but I never liked these movies for there "compelling storyline." I liked them for the work that was put into them, the performances given by all of the cast, the amazing way they were shot, and subtle emotional underlining. These movies were never going to register with me on a writing level, but thankfully all of the movies (to include this one) registered with me on an entertainment level. 

Speaking of the writing in this, let's go ahead and talk about it. This movie (and book series) were written in the most uninspired way possible. I feel like Suzanne Collins saw Battle Royale and said "you know what was missing from this movie? Back story on how the government was pushed to the breaking point." Little did she know the thing most people loved about that movie was the lack of explanation. All I needed to know with Battle Royale was "they have a youth problem, and decided to give the youth guns and an arena." Simple, short, sweet, and amazing end result. This movie/book just over explains everything. Of Course the bad ass archer chick is caught in a love triangle, because there aren't any young adult novels that can't have some element of Twilight in them for fear that they won't catch on. Of course the rebels have a secret arsenal, and won't use it because of "story telling reasons," because we want people to think of Star Wars in the back of their mind. In fact, this whole movie is a Star Wars/Battle Royale mash up fan fiction if you think about it. It is just that this evil galactic empire has kids fighting in an arena, and the other one had a base the size of a moon that could destroy planets. The only thing they added was a love triangle (and yes I am not counting Luke, Leia, and Han as a love triangle because that is a bit gross), and I can barely accredit them with adding politics since the new Star Wars Trilogy was all about politics. So sufficed to say, I don't like the writing in this movie, I think it was a lazy, quick buck for Suzanne Collins; but, at least she is better than Stephanie Myers (which isn't much of a compliment).

Luckily, this movie has a brilliant support structure that can almost make you forget that you are watching the entire Star Wars series, if it was all filmed on Endor. The least of which is not the director Francis Lawrence, who breaths life into a dead script. Francis has a history of finding a way of making even the worst movie ideas seem like poetry when he directs something. Say what you will about I Am Legend and Constantine, but there are shots in those movies that will stick with me through out my entire writing career. This movie is no different. The bombing scenes give you a hint of general concern for the characters, and make you pray for their safety. The action scenes in this are a bit scarce, but when they happen he spares no minor detail in creating a realistic battle. This is another in the line of great successes that he can pin on his wall of achievements. 

The other thing that I always look forward to seeing in this series are the brilliant performances put forth by the cast. Unfortunately, they cut out Woody Harrelson to a very support heavy role, but the scenes where he is on screen are something truly wonderful to behold. Jennifer Lawrence is amazing (yet again) as Katniss, and I love how she has this way of making her voice crack at just the right moments in order to make a scene carry a boat load of gravitas. Liam Hemsworth is... well he is very pretty. Just kidding. The kid takes after his brother, by selling the performance of a young pup with a large amount of pride with reserved dignity, and smoldering good looks. The surprise for me in this movie came from none other than Josh Hutcherson. He was essential to the "plot" of this movie, and really brought his A game, because he outshines even the more experienced actors. 

Final Verdict: See it in Theaters This movie lacks in the story department, but the cast and crew are more than willing to pick up the pieces. It isn't going to win any story of the year awards from me, but it is definitely worth the price of admission.  

Dumb and Dumber To

How to commit comedy homicide: the Farrelly way!

Harry (Jim Carrey) and Lloyd (Jeff Daniels) are back for another road trip! Only this time it is a road trip to find Lloyd's daughter, when he is desperate for a kidney transplant.... yup.... yup that about covers this.

Do you all remember looking forward to a Jim Carrey comedy? I do. I remember laughing uncontrollably at Fire Marshall Bill, I remember dying when I watched both Ace Ventura movies at home, I remember defending his choice for movies like How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Man on the Moon; but, now there is no getting around how one note his comedies are, and how boring his career is. He's made so many movies that live in my heart as some of the best comedies of all time; but, I think I fell out of love with him around the time he did Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. That train wreck led into other crap-tastic movies like Yes, Man, Mr. Popper's Penguins, and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. Sure he had some winners mixed in like his character (Col. Stars and Stripes) in Kick Ass 2, and the comedic/dramatic triumph that was I Love You, Philip Morris; but, he is no longer the man that can do no wrong for me. Which is fine, everyone deserves to make some crap every once in a while, which brings me to this movie.

I also remember when the Farrelly Brothers used to be funny.... you know that time before they made Stuck on You. Don't remember? Yeah, it has been a while. This movie misses almost every single mark with me, and it doesn't help that this is another tragic case of "the funniest moments were shown in the trailer" (Which also weren't too funny). Their attempts at making Lloyd and Harry more "contemporary" seem forced and unwanted, and leave me silent. I guess it makes since that Lloyd uses a flip phone through out this movie since the characters cannot translate to today's generation. They rely heavily on "gross out" humor, and "slapstick" which could have worked if it didn't seem like an extended skit on In Living Color (you can tell when they pause for laughter). I feel like they missed the golden opportunity that was staring them right in the face. Comment on today's youth. When we live in a day where kids think that the movie Titanic was a work of fiction it is just too hard not to comment. The only reason this movie didn't miss EVERY mark with me is because I can't resist a good fart joke.

The acting here seemed like almost everyone involved was committing some kind of crime. Like they were about to steal all of the audience's money and run (which is what they did). Jim Carrey seems like he was put through the ringer, and forced to be on set. Jeff Daniels tried to be his usually professional self, but you could tell he was thinking "Oh man, c'mon I act in The Newsroom. Why am I here?" Rob Riggle looked happy to be working, but he couldn't escape the overwhelming indifference of his fellow cast. The only one that seemed to be putting forth any effort was Rachel Melvin, and that is probably due to her relatively new status. She put forth a commendable performance despite the over all feeling of the rest of the cast...most likely because she remembered that she was getting paid to be there.

Final Verdict: Don't do it As sad as I am to see this movie earn this rating, it is accurate. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I mean someone did release a horrible prequel to this movie a while back.

Interstellar

Space is fun, but people are boring

Here we find the world limping along after a freak disease has wiped out most of the planet's population and food supply. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) has given up his dreams of space travel in turn for what the world really needs, farmers. Feeling that his genius has been wasted, and his children's futures are dwindling, he sets out to discover the cause of an anomaly happening in his house. He is guided to the last remnants of NASA, and is recruited to help find humanity a new home world before the disease kills off the rest of the food.

Here we go, I know my opinion on this movie is not going to be a popular one; but, I don't really give too much of a shit about popularity. Hey, everybody! I thought this movie was mediocre! Look, to me a movie like this has to be held together with more than science, there has to be some actual descent storyline thrown in. Don't get me wrong, normally worm hole theory and the fact that they never have scenes depicting sound in space would get me as hard as a diamond in an ice storm; but, the story was just uninteresting. If they want to give me a science lecture then just say the things you have to say here in Bill Nye the Science Guy or Cosmos, don't put it in a two and a half hour long movie. This movie is filled with expendable scenes that could have made the run time closer to two hours instead of 2:49. It detaches from science completely sometimes, when the human emotion is brought into effect, and we have to choose which wins out our species or the ties we hold dearly. Yes people, the entirety of this story (and the tone of this film) is boiled down to the classically overused story line "the needs of the many..." Was it brought to the screen brilliantly? Yes. Was it acted out damn near flawlessly? Yes. I just had some major problems with bits and pieces of the storyline, and the third act damn near had my eyes permanently glued to the back of my skull.

Now, we get to the good parts of this movie, the first being (in no small part) the direction. Christopher Nolan may have picked a less than stellar script to role with, but this man can direct like no one's business. The scenes mixed beautifully with the  music, in a way that made me forget about the drivel of dialogue that was being spewed out. The scenery was so striking that one could think this movie actually could have taken place on another world. The atmosphere was thick with realistic tones and an earthy center where they needed to be. You could taste the dust in your mouth when the movie brought you to Earth. You could feel the cold air course through your lungs when they were on an alien planet, or the feeling of the waves pass under you. The movie was undeniably beautiful, and shot to perfection that only this director could bring through. Now, someone please give the man a good script to work around. 

The performances shown here were nothing short of spectacular. Matt Damon turned out to be convincing, and was able to make me think he started taking some ques from his buddy in Good Will Hunting. Anne Hathaway brought some feeling to a character that could have turned out bland, and when she messes up you can feel that weight. Michael Caine acted out of character in a Nolan film for once by bringing a bit of gravitas, and (dare I say) sincerity to his performance. Just so we are clear I am surprised by this movie using him for his acting talent beyond being comic relief, not that he is a bad actor. The real power house performance that shined through in this came from Matthew McConaughey (and never have readers been less stunned) he really made you feel every scene in this movie like it was happening to you. I had my reservations about him finally taking acting seriously when he first made his come back from the depths of "RomCom hell"; but, this is just a drop in the bucket from the well of talent this guy has been showcasing. 

Final Verdict: Rent it Some major fault lines in the plot took me out of the experience completely sometimes, but the actors were more than ready to make up for the shortcomings. This movie was serviceable, but there is no need to rush out for it.

Big Hero 6

Will Disney stop hitting home runs?

Hiro is a boy genius throwing his intelligence into unimaginative projects so he can gamble on robot fighting. His brother, Tadashi has had enough, and plans on trying to get Hiro to use his gifts for better purposes. After visiting Tadashi's lab, and meeting his friends, Hiro is hooked on joining the prestigious school; but, when Hiro gets accepted for building a revolutionary technology, his brother dies trying to save the founder of the school. Hiro is inconsolable until a project his brother was working on powers up, and helps him through his loss. The project is Baymax, a medical, balloon, robot only concerned with the well being of humans around him. Baymax stumbles across something that leads Hiro to call on Tadashi's friends in order to bring the person responsible for Tadashi's death to justice.

Short answer to the subheading question: not this time. In what seems like a winning streak for Disney animation, this movie is another in the line of great successes. I was worried that this would have been the one falter in the amazing line, but it just doesn't show any signs of slowing down. This movie owes no small credit to the storyline backing it up. I don't mean that the story line was "the most original" or anything like that, I mean the characters were unimaginably likable, and the message they were trying to convey was inspiring. 

The message here, beyond relying on your friends is now "HEY KIDS! SCIENCE IS AWESOME! Rely on that big brain of yours!" Sure the overlying message is great, rely on the people around you to coup with the loss of a loved one (a kind of darker place to go); but I feel like we have seen it before. The other message was sneaky, and a little more inspiring for today's youth who hero-worship like no tomorrow. I just want to hear a little kid ask their parents to grow up to be an inventor, or scientist. I want to see kid's dressed up as Hiro for Halloween saying that they are "going to invent a big robot to stop bad guys." This message is one for intelligence and I have nothing, but respect for a message like that. 

The characters are amazing across the board. Sure, they all have their little quirks that make them indefinably significant, as well as racial diverse; but, those quirks are so endearing you can't help loving them. Fred is the slacker, obsessed with science fiction becoming a reality, and ultimately get's his dream granted. He is the lovable oaf of the group, that won't be deterred by bad vibes. Honey Lemon is the ultra, hyperactive nerd, filled with an appreciation for chemistry; as well as, a strong yearning to help her friends. Wasabi is the overly neat, big guy with an affinity towards cutting things in half with lasers. Baymax is the lovable squishy robot that will do anything to make sure his patient is feeling well either mentally or physically, and Hiro is the leader. My favorite character had to be Go Go, with her thrill seeking attitude and "Woman Up!" catch phrase. There are a lot of things to these characters that I won't be able to get to (in the interest of time) so let me go over some bullet points. I love that Go Go used her catch phrase regardless of gender, I love that Baymax is easy to imprint on as "human," without ever giving you any clue that he is actually becoming more human, and most importantly I LOVE THAT THERE WAS NO ROMANCE BETWEEN ANY OF THEM! (Sorry, I just wanted to get that point across) 

This movie also won in the animation department, being one of the most beautifully crafted movies to come out this year. I have a massive hatred for 3D as a whole, but this movie was enhanced by it in the only way it appeals to me. Particles seeming like they are going towards the screen, instead of something feeling like it is coming at you. The small micro bots battling under their master's control is a beautiful sight to behold, and no detail goes unnoticed here. Sure, the character design is the same from the last three movies, but that is never a problem for me. Pixar had the same art style through out all of the movies that came out under its banner, and it didn't stop me from liking most of those. The biggest selling point of the animation was the setting. Mashing bits and pieces from San Fransisco and Tokyo so well, you would think this location was a real city in America or Japan. 

 

The acting here was great. Damon Wayans Jr. gave a command performance as Wasabi, Jamie Chung sold me on the Go Go character, and Genesis Rodrigues stole the show a few times; but, the real tip of the hat has to go to James Cromwell and Scott Adsit. James Cromwell made a small plea from the villain seem like the world was ending, and Scott breathes life into the lifeless. 

Now, I know what you are thinking. "Dustin, I think your opinion is biased since you like most Disney movies, and have nothing bad to say about this." On the contrary, I feel the biggest set back this movie had was not being long enough, and while that may feel like a cop out, it is not. This movie just rushed in to the ending, and I didn't get enough time with the characters. Which made me sad in the end, since I loved the characters so much; but, the only one they felt like following through most of the movie was Hiro. Nothing against Hiro, but I wanted more Go Go and Wasabi. I know that Disney is most likely going to make this into a series (because Disney is Disney), but I just wanted more this go around. This error is still not enough to keep me from giving this movie...

Final Verdict: Buy It The comedy always hits its mark, the characters were lovable, the story was endearing, and the animation was gorgeous; this movie wasn't perfect but no movie is (if you look hard enough). See. This. Movie.