Saturday, December 10, 2016

Jack Reacher 2012 8 out of 10


Jack Reacher 2012 8 out of 10

A sniper takes out what appears to be five random people.  When interrogated the sniper simply writes the word " Get Jack Reacher". 

Jack Reacher is played by Tom Cruise who is an ex military investigator with a grudge against the man in custody and shows up hoping to see him put away.  But when he begins to look into the case some things don't add up.  And then someone pays some thugs to have him beat up to discourage his investigation.   Bad idea....Jack kicks some ass and gets deeper into uncovering the mystery behind what is really going on.  The cast includes the beautiful Rosamund Pike as the defense attorney that helps him investigate the shooting.  Robert Duvall is great in a supporting role.

Tom Cruise --may be a crazy Scientologist in real life,  but he is definitely a movie star.  He has that "IT" factor on screen.  This movie could have been a TV episode on some cool action mystery series like Castle.  The story is fairly simple.  The action isn't Mission Impossible over the top on the side of a building and feels more realistic.  Tom Cruise elevates what could be a standard film with his portrayal of Jack Reacher.  The character he plays which is based on a book series --is like a cool investigator version of Jason Bourne.    I really liked this film and now look forward to seeing the sequel.


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About Time 2013 9+ out of 10 (Time Travel Movie # 9)


About Time 2013   9+ out of 10

I didn't have huge expectations for this movie going in.  I hadn't watched the trailer and recorded it based on the fact that it was a Time Travel movie, one of my favorite movie genres (which we recently did a podcast about).   This was a Romantic Comedy Time Travel movie so I didn't know what to expect.   I absolutely love it.

The Cast
The movie stars Domhnall Gleeson (Ex Machina and The Force Awakens),  Bill Nighy  (Love Actually) and Rachell McAdams (Insert Romantic Comedy here).    This cast was absolutely terrific.  Rachel McAdams was a delight and so adorable as the girl he falls in love with.   Domhnall gave a great and layered performance and Bill Nighy was his awesome witty self.  The film was written by Richard Harris who once again (like with Love Actually) has made a nearly perfect story.

The Story 
At age 21 the main character learns from his father that the men of the family have the ability to Time Travel and change things in his life.  All he has to do is go into a closet and basically wish himself back in time in order to make his life better.   He uses this ability to get a girlfriend.  The movie has funny scenes and touching scenes. It is basically a love story about life itself.   The main character learns to embrace life and its ups and downs.  To appreciate everything and take nothing for granted.  This was a fun simple little film with good dialogue and it touched me.  The concept was intriguing and made for an absolutely surprising and wonderful film.  I would highly recommend this for anyone that loved Love Actually as it draws on emotions like that film.   I'd also recommend this to Time Travel fans, since it was a new and interesting twist on the genre.  



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Wednesday, December 7, 2016

The Second Arrival 1998 3 out of 10


The Second Arrival 1998  3 out 10

My only excuse for watching this direct to (probably VHS)  turkey of a movie is that is was a cold Sunday afternoon and I didn't feel like getting out of bed.   

The original The Arrival starring Charlie Sheen --(before he made his comeback) wasn't even that good....so what hope did this direct to VHS sequel have.   Apparently not much.   Charlie Sheen's character is dead and Patrick Muldoon plays his brother --who along with some other people  get information left behind for them to save the Earth from the alien invasion. That invasion basically consists of a couple of aliens posing as humans and some cheesy wind effects.   He is helped by a reporter played by Jane Sibbett  (Ross's lesbian ex wife on Friends).

The Dialogue:    Terrible
The Acting:  No one could make this dialogue sound good.
The Story:  Dull and underwhelming
The Action:  Isn't as good as TV show action
The Special Effects:  Totally Cheese ball

This is not the Alien Invasion movie you are looking for




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Sunday, December 4, 2016

Bad Moms 2016 6 out of 10


Bad Moms 2016  6 out of 10

Bad Moms was a good movie...not a great movie.  It was typical of many modern day comedies in that all the really good stuff made it into the trailer.   The trailer was excellent and the cast for this film gave it so much potential, but the film as a whole didn't live up to the promise of the trailer.  It was similar to Daddy's Home with Will Ferrell in that the trailer promised much more than the movie delivered.

The Cast
The cast was stellar.  Mila Kunis stars as Amy and does a great job as the mom that has finally had enough of trying to be he perfect mom.  It also starred Kristen Bell (one of my favorites)  and Kathryn Hahn  (who shines in a suppporting role) .   Christina Applegate plays  Gwendolyn the dictator style head of the PTA that is basically the nemesis of the film.

The Story  (Spoilers)
The story was decent.   It basically follows the adventures of a mom who is pushed to her limit in attempting to be the best mom dong everything.  Her husband doesn't appreciate her and she finds him sex chatting with some other girl and kicks him out of the house.   Her boss doesn't appreciate her and her kids take her for granted.  She is rushing around trying to do everything and arrives late to the PTA meeting about the bake sale and when the head of the PTA tries to punish her for being late --she rebels.  She decides that it is okay to be a Bad Mom every once in awhile.  She joins up with a couple other  struggling moms and they start to have some wild adventures.  The problem is the wild adventures weren't wild enough.  


The group of girls try to take over the PTA by Mila's character running for president and after throwing a wild Mom party start to win over the other moms.   Gwendolyn retaliates by using her power to get Amy's daughter kicked off the soccer team by framing the daughter by putting weed in her locker.  Amy hits rock bottom as her kids rebel and go to stay with the loser dad and she loses her job.   The film then has a too simplistic conclusion.  Amy goes from crying on her couch and not wanting to go to the Election to showing up and giving a big speech and winning everyone over. Everyone gets an unrealistic happy ending that doesn't seem earned by the characters.  This ending was 

In Summary 
Bad Moms was a decent comedy that had moments. I loved the cast of talented actresses,  but the film under delivered on the promise of its trailer.  It should have been a wilder ride.


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Saturday, December 3, 2016

Man of Steel 2013 8+ out of 10


Man of Steel 2013   8+ out of 10

I absolutely hated Batman vs Superman.  When I saw Man of Steel was playing on TV,   I decided to record it on the DVR to give it a chance.  I generally hate Reboots and Superman had already been Rebooted recently, therefore I was really surprised by how much I actually enjoyed Man of Steel.    


Man of Steel basically reboots the Superman II storyline from that nostalgic films.  The film features Superman battling General Zod in an epic battle.    Superman II was by far my favorite of the Christopher Reeves era Superman films of which only the first 2 of 4 films were any good.   Terence Stamp will always be General Zod to me so I wasn't going to like that character as much.  As much as I loved Superman II it now seems cheesy when compared to the special effects of today and what they can now do.  This Man of Steel was like Superman II on Crack.   I actually really enjoyed the film (a lot more than expected after the awful Batman vs Superman film).    Man of Steel gives me hope that The Justice League film could actually be good.   Henry Cavill is great as Superman and Ben Affleck was good as  Batman. Batman vs Superman suffered from a terrible script.   Man of Steel had a much better and coherent storyline.

Man of Steel utilized the character of Superman to his fullest potential.  The battles with Zod and the other Kryptonians were great to see on screen and made the scenes from Superman II look pedestrian by comparison.  The stuff with Russell Crow as Superman's dad  (although weird) was fun to watch.   Not being a big comic book fan beyond Star Wars and Indy I don't know much about Krypton other then the cheesy scenes with Brando from the original Superman.  Krypton actually looked like an interesting planet and gave Superman a cooler back story than just his Ice Castle in the original films.  I just hope that the Justice League will be more like Man of Steel than Batman vs Superman.     I thought Man of Steel was a solid 8+ out of 10 while Batman vs Superman was a dud to me..

Here was my less than favorable reivew of Batman v Superman.




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