Lone Survivor

War movies are always welcome in Hollywood. Some are true, some are fiction, some are good, and some are bad. Lone Survivor is both true and good...not good, great....and as you may have guessed from the title: its pretty heartbreaking.


 In 2005, four Navy SEALs went deep into Afghanistan to capture or kill a notorious Taliban leader. They were discovered by some goat herders in the middle of there mission. Without communication to their base and Superior Officers, they had a decision to make. A question of war ethics, personal morality, and human rights. They make the honorable decision to release the goat herders even though it means certain failure of the mission. Unfortunately when communication is unable to be set up, this decision also means they have to fight for their lives. It's not about 9/11 or a political statement or a moral decision: It's about fighting for the man next to you.

Lone Survivor is a visceral experience. Director/Writer Peter Berg was the first civilian to be embedded in a real SEAL team and lived with them in Iraq for a month, the lone survivor referenced in the title Marcus Luttrell moved in with Berg for a month, and the US Navy gave Berg unprecedented access to battle reports and autopsy reports to preserve authenticity and it is authenticity that permeates this film. Its realism is tangible. The several minutes of opening scenes are actual Navy SEALs stock footage of real SEAL training is the first glimpse of this realism and its brutal truths of war are felt for the next two hours. Lone Survivor is a war classic for the modern age and its depictions of heroic men and brave actions will ensure its referenced when listing the greatest war movies of all time: Saving Private Ryan....Black Hawk Down....Lone Survivor...

Looking Ahead to 2014!

Nerds, fanboys, and pretty much the general public who enjoys movies are already panting in anticipation for 2015. Debates have erupted about whether it will be the best year for movies ever...but before that we have to get through 2014. And 2014 still looks like a pretty darn great year in movies.

January:

Finally in wide release will be two 2013 award hopefuls Lone Survivor and Her. Two other movies that look watchable is Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and I, Frankenstein.

February:

The Lego Movie, Monuments Men and Robocop in early February all look from pretty decent to darn good... Later in the month we have Liam Neeson in another action movie Non-Stop which should prove to be entertaining at the least.

March:

March looks darn good for a usually cold movie season with an interesting release every week: 300: Rise of an Empire, Aaron Paul in Need for Speed, a new YA book adaptation with Hunger Games size hopes in Divergent, and finally a new Biblical Epic with a Russell Crowe led cast in Noah.

April:

The summer superhero phase kicks off early this year with Captain America: The Winter Soldier on April 4. This month also has a Kevin Costner helmed sports drama Draft Day, animation for kids in Rio 2, and a Christopher Nolanesque film staring Johnny Depp in Transcendence.

May:

Notable movies in May include The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Godzilla, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Maleficent.

June:

Tom Cruise heads up an interesting movie titled Edge of Tomorrow, we all get to cry at Fault in Our Stars, some will laugh at 22 Jump Street, many will take kids to see How To Train Your Dragon 2, I will definitely be checking out The Purge 2, and all the fanboys can see the reinvented Transformers 4: Age of Extinction.

July:

We all lose the battle in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Channing Tatum stars in what actually looks like a watchable Jupiter Ascending, and Dwayne Johnson stars in Hercules: The Thracian Wars.

August:

Marvel releases its biggest gamble in Guardians of the Galaxy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboots...again, the Expendables gather for a third outing, and Sin City has a Dame to Kill For

September:

White people try to remake Death At A Funeral with This Is Where I Leave You, Resident Evil returns in its 6th movie, The Maze Runner makes an entrance, and Denzel Washington comes out in The Equalizer

October:

October looks like a pretty dead month but release dates could be moved around: Two sure bets: Gone Girl and The Judge.

November:

My most anticipated movie of 2014 comes in November...not The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 but Christopher Nolan's first movie since Batman, Interstellar. Expect Dumb and Dumber To to be lost in the midst.


December:

Another Biblical Epic, this one staring Christian Bale, Exodus, the final Hobbit movie There And Back Again, an African American take on Annie, and the third Night at the Museum.

Well movie fans, that's what 2014 looks like so far... release dates and other releases subject to change...

The Top 10 Overrated Movies of 2013

These movies made a lot of money and wooed a lot of critics....but were they really that great?


10. This Is The End: A raunchy, buddy comedy about celebrities surviving the apocalypse made a decent amount of profit and had a lot of great reviews. Some moments where surprisingly funny but it just felt like an excuse to make Hollywood inside jokes and get pretty darn blasphemous.

9. Spring Breakers: A heralded good-girls-gone-bad flick. James Franco as alien is about the only good thing in here...except the time when the credits roll

8. Identity Thief: I have this Melissa McCarthy lower on the list then her other because it wasn't as loved but it was a little better. But not that much.

7. 2 Guns: Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington in a buddie cop movie. It's not that bad bud it's not nearly the gem that critics raved it to be.

6. The Heat: High hopes for the pairing of Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy but unfortunately it reverts to familiar tropes of the buddie cop film...somehow critics still loved it and audiences couldn't stay away.

5. Despicable Me 2: Critics and audiences loved this animated sequel... but it truly lacked the heart that made the first one such a delight.


4. Lee Daniels' The Butler: A decade trotting, power house of talented actors about a black butler serving in the white house during the times of change. It was all facts and lacked the emotional power that ruled the far superior 12 Years a Slave.


3. Gravity: True it reinvented modern movie making but strip all the technical marvels and you have a simple story line with not a lot of interesting characters.



2. The Wolf of Wall Street: Scorsese at his best or worst depending on how you look at it. This tale of sex, drugs, and thievery is truly loved by critics but as its put in the movie "Its obscene."


1. American Hustle: Star studded cast, true story, Oscar bait. Critics loved it and its raking in the cash but the one word that truly describes this tale? Underwhelming.

The 20 Best Movies of 2013

2013 was the year that:


20. A Pixar sequel was good in Monsters University


19. Monster movies returned in Pacific Rim

18. Magicians surprised us stealing stuff in Now You See Me

17. Exorcisms and paranormal activity became scary again in The Conjuring

16. We forgot about XMen Origins in The Wolverine

15. Zombies became fast again in World War Z

14. Tom Cruise was in a good movie in Oblivion

13. A post credits scene                                                                        made us exited for more                                                                  cars in Fast and Furious 6

12. Movie making was reinvented in Gravity


11. Disney melted our hearts with their biggest hit since the Lion King in Frozen

10. Christian Bale reminded us what a great actor he is in Out of the Furnace

9. The world burned for this superior sequel in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

8. Marvel apologized for Iron Man 3 in Thor: The Dark World

7. A ghost was truly haunting    in Guillermo del Toro                                                                       Presents Mama

6. We all dreamed a little bigger after The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

5. Tom Hanks made us cry as Captain Phillips



4. Hugh Jackman was unfairly overlooked in Prisoners



3. Ron Howard is still freaking amazing in Rush



2. A movie was practically perfect in every way with Saving Mr. Banks




1. We bawled our eyes out watching 12 Years A Slave

The Wolf of Wall Street

Martin Scorsese is a well known staple of Hollywood. He has churned classic after classic out including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, and The Departed. Scorsese has rejoined with Leonardo DiCaprio for a fifth time to reestablish his supremacy in Hollywood.

In 1987, Jordan Belfort joined a prestigious stock brokerage company on Wall Street. Unfortunately the first day after him passing his broker exam was Black Monday. As Belfort puts it in the movie "Wall Street had swallowed me up and s*** me right back out." But that doesn't slow down Jordan Belfort, soon he made a name for himself in trading penny stocks and sets out with his new friend Donnie Azoff to form their own company. Money are what they care about, lies are how they get it...who even cares? It is Wall Street after all...

The Wolf of Wall Street is a fantastic film cinematically speaking. Incredible directing from Scorsese, fantastic performances by DiCaprio and Jonah Hill, and a captivating story about the rise and fall of a stock market guru. But the content and message is much more problematic. Wolf now holds the new world record for most uses of the F-word in a non-documentary, mainstream film. It had to be edited (in my opinion not nearly enough) to avoid the NC-17 rating. It borderlines glorification of drug use, loose sex, and shady to downright illegal business tactics. The antihero can be said to get his comeuppance but a three year prison sentence in a place where "it's not so bad if you're rich" isn't really what I call justice. I heard one teen behind me jokingly say after the film: "Well that was good. Let's go do drugs and sell people s***!" When you think about it, it's a pretty scary thing to joke about...and a terrible thing to get from a movie...

The Secret Life of Walter Mittty

In 1917 it was a short story...in 1947 in was a Danny Kaye film....and now in 2013 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty has been adapted by Ben Stiller. It may not be much of a secret anymore but this is a story that still needs telling.

Walter wants to be an adventurer. He wants to be a lover and live his dreams. Unfortunately dreaming is what he's really good at...that and getting professional photographer Sean O'Connell's work published in Life magazine. Now though he can't even do that. See Life is going online and for the last issue Sean sent what he considers to be his greatest work ever...and Walter can't seem to find it. Now with his job in serious jeopardy, Walter sets off to find Sean and get that picture...and maybe on this globetrotting journey, just maybe Walter will find the courage he's been looking for all his life.

Well everyone, Hollywood is on a roll. Within three weeks they've released two of the greatest family films in years. The first was Saving Mr. Banks (have you seen it yet? Stop reading and go! Jeez) and now The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Seriously, its a great movie with great performances and a great message. You want more? Well there's also some great humor, a compelling mystery, and a sweet love story. Do I still need to keep talking? Yeah, I didn't think so.

47 Ronin

47 Ronin is a well known story in Japan, now the west has given it a hearty fantasy spin. Keanu Reeves stars in this fantasy flick made by a new director and the film has had its share of difficulties. Now after over a year of delaying release dates 47 Ronin rides into theaters...but is it worth the wait?

Kai owes a lot to Lord Asano. See when Kai was abandoned in the forests of Japan when he was a baby, the demons that lived there adopted him and tried to teach him how to kill and hate. Kai ran away when he was a boy, carrying his scars with him, and Lord Asano spared his life and made him a squire. Asano even let his daughter befriend Kai. Years later a rival, Lord Kira, killed Lord Asano (in a roundabout way with the help of a witch) and his Samurai was disbanded. Now Kai, thirsting for revenge and honor has joined this group of Samurai outcasts...rebels....Ronin...

The story of the 47 Ronin is a true story. If Hollywood would have done a straight adaptation of that story we would have something like a Last Samurai (one of my favorites.) Unfortunately the studio took a very fantasy take on the story...and it suffers because of it. 47 Ronin is a decent flick... but the creatures, demons, witches, and dragons clog it up with un-realism.