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.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Since 1997 Peter Jackson has been developing, honing, and filming what will soon be The Epic of Middle Earth. A series of movies based on the beloved books from J.R.R. Tolkien about a certain ring... and a Hobbit. This is the second to last movie in this series...but is it the best?

The film picks up about where the first one left off (bar a flashback scene to The Prancing Pony) with Bilbo and Co. trying to stay ahead of the pack of nasty orcs and wargs while navigating the craggy mountains of New Zealand  err...Middle Earth. Bilbo, the thirteen oddly named dwarves, and Gandalf the Grey continue their journey to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug and reestablish the kingdom of the Dwarves. Along the way they meet many a nasty creatures, sketchy elves, and is abandoned by Gandalf right before a very difficult task. Anyone feel like they've seen this before?

Okay, so that sounded a bit rough but seriously think back through all the movies and it does seem that Gandalf has a habit of abandoning quests he started or what? In the second chapter of the Hobbit and the fifth movie some of the Desolation of Smaug can feel a bit familiar, over long, and stuffy. For me, Smaug himself made up for all of that and some. His on screen presence is dominating, sinister, and creepy. The creation of Tauriel and addition of Legolas may seem unnecessary but it actually adds a sense of familiarity and relevancy to the journey. The Desolation of Smaug is a far better thing then was Journey, but still a far, far cry from the magic of Lord of the Rings.  

American Hustle

Last December director David O. Russell's film staring Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro expanded into hundreds of theaters across the country. It instantly became a critical darling, audience favorite, and financial success. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, made over eleven times its budget, and was one of my personal favorites of last year. This December David O. Russell ads Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Jeremy Renner to his old cast, upgrades to a historical drama, and attempts to recapture that lightning in a bottle.


The movie opens with the line "Some of this actually happened." This is when you know you're in for an experience. In 1978, con man Irving Rosenfeld and his lover Sydney Prosser are happy ripping off suckers looking for a loan and selling fake art to wannabe collectors. Happy until they capture the attention of up-and-coming FBI Agent Richie DiMaso who offers them a plea bargain to help him capture four other con artists. This originally small time sting snowballs into the now well known Abscan involving corrupt politicians, well meaning politicians, and the ever sinister mob.


To be clear, American Hustle is already a critical darling and is fully expected to rack up at least a few awards. My only question is: Why? It has been compared to Goodfellas often and one reviewer even suggested that Russell "come(s) close to out-Scorsese-ing Scorsese," Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes all hold it in "universal acclaim," and I am still left unimpressed. Was it entertaining? Sure, in a slightly confusing and brash way. Strong performances? Too be sure. Silver Linings Playbook was a quiet indie that captured audiences with its honest portrayals and fresh story. American Hustle is an unabashedly, in your face of an attempt to be the the great awards worthy movie and in that, it falls flat. Positively fantastic? Not so much...more like passable frolic. 

Saving Mr. Banks

A fight over movie/book rights can be a bitter pill to swallow. Artists and authors love their works and no one wants to hand their dream over to someone who might turn that dream into a nightmare. Saving Mr. Banks shows how Walt Disney discovered just how much sugar it takes to make some people swallow a bitter pill.

Walt Disney has bargained, bartered, and begged for the rights to adapt the children's classic Mary Poppins into a film for twenty long years. Now in 1964 he has finally convinces P. L. Travers to come to Los Angeles  to sit down and discus her demands for how the movie is made. Unfortunately her many demands include no animation, no made up words, a clean shaven father, and ...none of the color red? Yeah, to make this happen Disney will need all of his magical fairy dust...

Its very rare that a movie that is in the running for the best picture Oscar and is geared to the fans of adult drama is even close to suitable for children. Hollywood loves making movies about themselves but many times the rest of us could hardly care. Surprisingly, Saving Mr. Banks isn't just a movie everyone can see, its a movie everyone should see.   

12 Years A Slave

Some stories need to be told and heard. They are hard to hear and even harder to watch but they still need to be told. Movies have become the medium for storytelling and sometimes the stories they tell are uncomfortable and emotional. The movies have changed peoples way of thinking for years to come. Movies like Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Amistad, Precious, and now 12 Years A Slave.

Solomon Northrup is just like every other man. He lives in New York with his family and works to provide for that family. He is a talented musician and carpenter. Unfortunately Solomon lives in 1841... a time when not all men were understood to be equal, a time when free black men like Solomon were kidnapped and sold into slavery often. This is exactly what happens to Solomon and what follows is a visceral, harrowing tale of cruelty, humanity, and the will to overcome.

Let me get right to the point: 12 Years A Slave is the best movie of the year to date. I predict it will win the Oscar for being just that. It is a powerful film that beats you emotionally with its portrayals. I walked out of the theater feeling physically different than when I walked in. My popcorn was hardly touched and my drink was barely sipped. It is a hard story to watch but it needs to be watched.

Out of the Furnace

Hollywood loves gritty dramas. Every year you will see quite a few on awards lists that boast big stars, great directors, and respected producers. Out of the Furnace has all of these things. It stars Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Willem Dafoe, Sam Shepard, Zoe Saldana, and Forrest Whitaker, is directed by Scott Cooper, and produced by Ridley Scott and Leonardo DiCaprio. With that much pedigree you could tell this movie was reaching for the Oscars... so why did so many pan it?

Russell Blaze doesn't have it easy. His dad is dying, his brother is getting into debt thanks to gambling, and he just want to escape the steel town of Braddock, PA with his girlfriend and live happily ever after. But he just keeps plodding away at his hard job in the mill, paying his brothers debts, and visiting his dad. Unfortunately it doesn't get any easier for Russell either... A tragic accident sends him to prison and when he gets out things have gotten even worse. His father is dead, his girlfriend is with another man, the steel mill is ready to close down, and his brother has suffered a painful tour in Afghanistan and is still in deep debt. So deep that he tries to pay it off in illegal fights. After all this Russell is ready to pick up the pieces and put his life back together... but he should know by now that his life isn't easy...

Out of the Furnace is almost a period piece. One that could have been to this generation what The Deer Hunter was to the last. These two movies are easily comparable and I know I'm alone when I say that Out of the Furnace is the better one. Almost every year a movie is inexplicably ignored by critics and crowds. Last year was Lawless and this year is easily Out of the Furnace. Both have career best performances and captivating stories. Both are about hard men living hard lives and doing questionable things. But neither should have been so easily ignored...

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Sequels have it tough. Some are criticized for not living up the original's glory while others are called simply stepping stones to the next installment. But there is that rare case when the sequel does out do the original... for example Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight, and The Matrix: Reloaded.... CALM DOWN!! I was just kidding with that last one. Seriously though, we can add Catching Fire to that list.

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark have won the Hunger Games. They now live in the grand Victors Village in their district with fellow victor Haymitch Abernathy. True, Peeta now knows Katniss was faking the love story that allowed them to win and they aren't together but Katniss is now hanging out with her old pal Gale... It's going pretty good. Except: the districts are starting to rebel, Katniss and Peeta can't fool the coldhearted President Snow (see what I did there?) and now the 75th Hunger Games (known as a Quarter Quell) has allowed a rule change.... one that brings back old victors....like Katniss and Peeta. I guess no one really does win the Hunger Games....

I loved The Hunger Games books and I hated the first movie. It was decent but could have been so much better. When the movie franchise switched director Gary Ross out for Francis Lawrence I began to see a glimmer of hope in the future and when I saw the trailers for Catching Fire I knew this was going to be different. Catching Fire is the movie fans deserve. Stellar acting with superb directing and a great screenplay finally captures the magic that was in the books. Bottom line: If you aren't really a fan of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire will make you a fan

Thor: The Dark World

Many years ago some Marvel executives sat in what I imagine as a dark room and began mapping out their dream for the years to come. A plan to bring the greatest heroes this side of DC together in a daring, original, and thrilling collaboration that was the Avengers. Many fans were concerned after the experience of the Avengers of them returning to the individual movies that where the fantastic building blocks. After Iron Man 3 confirmed for many that the lightning in the bottle couldn't be caught twice Marvel answered with Thor: The Dark World.... We all should have trusted Marvel.

Many years ago...(before the executives sat down together) Thor's grandfather defeated a race of elves. Not the kind that live in a workshop and make toys or the kind that help hobbits but the kind that wants to destroy the world with a nasty device called Aether. At least he thought he did... Every story needs protagonists so the nastiest of the elves escape and have now returned. They easily retake the Aether that had been taken from them and begin their plan to destroy the world again and if Thor wants to stop them, he has to take help from his greatest enemy: Loki.

Marvel movies have been consistently the lighter, happier (but not near as good) counterpart to the dark, intense Nolanesque DC Comics movies. The Dark World is as close to a Nolan movie that Marvel has come... and it benefits from it. The risk is higher, the action darker, and the movie is better. In my opinion Thor The Dark World is the greatest Marvel movie to date and the best superhero movie this year.

Captain Phillips

 In early 2009, for the first time since the early 19th century, an American ship was successfully boarded and hijacked by pirates. The Maersk Alabama was only held for a few hours but for four terrifying days the four Somalia pirates held the captain of the Alabama hostage in a small lifeboat. People said it could've been a movie. Hollywood heard them.

Captain Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama is just trying to do his job: get safely to port and deliver his shipping containers to the right people. Muse is just trying to do his...unfortunately his job is hijacking the Maersk Alabama.... and he's a little better at his. After a tense cat and mouse chase on the open sea Muse is successful in securing Captain Phillips' ship...and then the story gets really incredible.

There is a lot of controversy about this film and Captain Phillips behavior prior to the hijacking. For this review I am going to pretend there is none and the movie is accurate...because its just that good. I am not a fan of Paul Greengrass's film style. While all good stories, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum and The Green Zone all showed his 'shaky cam' style of shooting. This has really become the new norm for action films (unfortunately in my opinion) but for the tense thriller that Captain Phillips is, there is no better fit. That paired with Tom Hanks best performance in years makes Captain Phillips an irresistible, visceral thriller. Keep the tissues handy for the last scenes.

Gravity

Okay, time to admit something... I love space but it's also one of the things I'm most scared of. It’s like tigers, beautiful, majestic, and far, far away. I honestly had nightmares about floating un-tethered in space when I was a child. So when I saw the trailer for Gravity on the big screen months ago...yeah...I clenched the seat arms and plastered myself into the back of the cushion while my sister looked and laughed at me in disbelief. Now after I've seen it, it was everything I expected breathtaking, beautiful.....terrifying.

 

Dr. Ryan Stone is part of a five man and woman team (headed by Lieutenant Matt Kowalski) who have traveled to space to service the Hubble Telescope. It is her first mission and is understandably extremely nervous. As it turns out, she has good reason to be. A Russian missile strike on a defunct satellite has caused a chain reaction of debris colliding into each other and has resulted in a mass of orbiting, destructive space junk...and it’s headed straight for them. It’s no spoiler alert to say the other three unlucky members of the team die quickly and Dr. Stone and Lt. Kowalski are left alone...in space...with no communication to earth...and it’s a long space walk to the International Space Station.... and that's their only hope.

Gravity is an incredible movie. It has been hailed as setting a new bar in movie making technology, heralded as Oscar worthy, and been undeniably slaughtering competition at the box office. The hype had set the expectations bar high and when I left the theater and realized I hadn't experienced oxygen in a while, I knew it had succeeded in living up to the hype. If you plan on going to the theater this weekend I can understand why you would gravitate to this movie. (Oh come on, I'm allowed one Gravity pun)

Rush

When Hollywood has released racing films in the past I've been less than impressed with the result. We have the absurd frivolousness of Talladega Nights, the ridiculous action packed Fast and Furious, and the animated Cars. Rush something of a mixture of the above. It shows the result of a truly frivolous lifestyle, the physical consequences of a real car wreck, but unlike Cars, it is very much adult.

James Hunt and Nicky Lauda are both great Formula Three racers. Hunt has the guts and instincts to do what is necessary to win while Lauda has the brains and precision. They both want to be Formula One racers...and they both hate each other. Throughout their respective careers their skill increases. While their skill increases so does their rivalry and respect...but so does the risk.

 James Hunt lives his out his philosophy of "The closer you are to death, the more alive you feel. It's a wonderful way to live. It's the only way to drive." Nicky Lauda feels that "Happiness is the enemy." Both are right and wrong in certain respects. It is good to live with no regrets but if you want to win, sometimes happiness is the enemy. Unfortunately only one of these men learns from the other. Rush is a tragic story that is also at the same time triumphant. And like I said in the beginning, it is also very much adult.

Prisoners

Fall brings a lot of things people like. Pumpkins, holidays, and the end of fan favorite, campy, summer films and marks the start of Oscar bait, adult dramas. Prisoners is among the latter...but everyone knows that just because a film tries to be Oscar worthy, doesn't mean that it is.

Keller Dover is a lot of things: He's a family man who loves spending time with his kids, he is a small business owner, he is a religious man who listens to an audio Bible while he drives, and he is something of a doomsday prepper who tries to be prepared for everything...but nothing can prepare him for Thanksgiving. He and his family go to their neighbors the Birches and by the end of the day both the Dovers and the Birches young daughters are taken. The police have a suspect in custody but no physical evidence and time is ticking. Keller Dover knows the suspect is guilty, he heard him admit it, and if the police aren't going to keep him in custody then Keller is going to take things into his own hands.

Prisoners is a dark, grimy, and tense drama full of hard moral questions and terrifying possibilities. Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal give career best performances. Prisoners doesn't just try to be an Oscar movie, it demands recognition. It is a hard movie to watch (my sister had to leave) as it looks unflinchingly at the hard topics of vigilantism and torture. I loved the story but if you're going to check out Prisoners, don't take the R rating lightly.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

YA book to movie adaptations are a dime a dozen now thanks to the enormous success of titles such as Harry Potter, Twilight, and most recently The Hunger Games. But every genre has its run and since the recent adaptations of Beautiful Creatures, The Host, and Percy Jackson floundered to flopped, it feels like this type of movie has seen the last gasps. Maybe The Mortal Instruments and the yet to be released Divergent series will turn that around....but maybe not.

Clary Fray is an ordinary teen living with her mom in New York...sure she draws weird symbols in her sleep and apparently has only one friend in Simon Lewis but her life is fine. Until she goes to a night club and sees a band of mysterious teens apparently stab a young man to death in the middle of the night club....and then realize she's the only one who can see it. Turns out when her mom disappears and she finally hooks up with this group, who really aren't the bad guys, that she is part Shadowhunter. An ancient order of beings descended from the Nephilim (half angel, half human warriors) who's job is to hunt out demons among the mundanes (humans) and apparently keep downworlders (vampires, werewolves, warlocks, witches, and fairies) in order. Complicated plot to say the least...and that is just the beginning....

City of Bones will be compared to every teen flick before it, and mostimes justly. It could probably be called 'The Host of Twilights Games between Beautiful Creatures at Hogwarts' honestly. But just because it came after all of those doesn't mean its not better than most. I can say I only enjoyed two of those referenced more than I enjoyed City of Bones, mainly because this story has teeth. Obviously like most things, the book is better than the movie, but if you like your teen angst movies with a little more blood, a little more darkness, and a little more twistedness (in the story and the relationships) than you will love The City of Bones.

The Butler

Oprah Winfrey rarely attaches her well known name to a feature film. But this Oscar bait film about an African American butler employed in the White House was to tempting to refuse. With a cast studded with names like Forrest Wittaker, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrance Howard, John Cusack, Robin Williams, Leiv Schreiber, and Jane Fonda and the already Oscar buzz I couldn't refuse it either...

                                  

Cecil Gains knows how to serve. As a black man in the early 1900s he isn't given a lot of choice about it but he is good at it and he likes it. Cecil knows as a black man in a white man’s world he should be silent unless spoken to, secretive about his politics, and completely compliant with whatever is asked of him. His good service is recognized by a white house executive while visiting a swank restaurant and Cecil is given the chance of a lifetime: to be a butler at the white house. Cecil of course excepts and is privy to presidents meetings and conversations during some of history’s most memorable civil rights moments including Federal integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Nashville sit-ins, the Freedom Riders, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the Black Panther Party, the Vietnam War, the Nixon Resignation, the Free South Africa Movement, and Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

I can't refuse a true story, or an Oscar bait movie, or a good cast, or a period piece...  The Butler has all of the above. I enjoyed the story of Cecil Gains very much and would quickly watch it again. Unfortunately at the end of the movie history is muddled in the racial politics of Barack Obama's presidential election and the story of an incredible man reads like a campaign message. The Butler is a movie I couldn't refuse, the politics I can.

Paranoia

Paranoia. First off Paranoia is a pretty cool, one word title. Most people in the world are paranoid about one thing or another. Second, Paranoia has a killer cast (Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, and Liam Hemsworth) and third: Paranoia has an interesting plot about corporate espionage. With all of this going for it, one has to wonder what could go wrong. (Besides how many times it's possible to write the word 'Paranoia' in a review...

Adam Cassidy has no delusions about the world. He knows that hard work, a good education, and a likable personality aren’t enough to succeed in this world. One has to have something, someone can’t refuse. An idea special enough to get recognized. So when he and his associates are shot down pretty quick and then fired while making a presentation to technology guru Nicholas Wyatt of Wyatt Industries he gets a little mad. He and his buddies then go out on the town...on the company card. Wyatt though is a nice guy and is willing to forgive Adam his $16,000 debt. That is, IF Adam is willing to go to work for Jock Goddard, Wyatt's competition, and steal company secrets. Adam is then forced into a battle between giants in the techno world where lies, bribery, and murder is all part of a day’s work.

Every summer you have the lower budget movies that try to compete in the heavily funded Hollywood market. Most times they live up to their budget and are just mediocre movies. 2013 has been the year of the fantastic low budget movies. Movies that I went into with low expectations and then left with a new Top Five Favorite Movies of the Year contender. Movies like The Great Gatsby, Now You See Me, and The Purge. Unfortunately Paranoia fails to continue that trend. It comes so close to delivering the jaw dropping twist but just falls short. I loved the movie right up until the last ten minutes. Then it devolves into a completely blanket, dumb, and unexciting ending. It felt like the writer/director wanted to deliver the knock out left hook but was scared to take the chance…and the movie suffers for it. Paranoia is a movie that could’ve been a homerun, but instead settled for a softer, less risky bunt.

Elysium

Neill Blomkamp is known for his gritty, politically themed movie District 9 which used sci-fi as a backdrop to tell about racism and cruelty. Now with a more stellar cast Blomkamp is using the genre again as a back drop for the political thriller Elysium and proves once again that it works.

Its 2154 and life sucks here on Earth. Overpopulation and poverty are the new normal and thieving is necessary for survival. Thankfully there is a place that doesn't suck so bad, a place that takes its name from the home of the gods in old mythology, but a place that is nigh impossible to get into unless you are the richest of the rich. That place is Elysium. Max Da Costa has dreamed of going to Elysium since he was a boy in an orphanage with his best friend Frey and has tried to get the money all his life. But crime still doesn't pay in 2154. Now Max is trying to walk the straight and narrow, working hard, and clinging on to the hope that things will get better. Unfortunately before that has a chance of happening Max is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation and is given five days to live. His only hope at surviving is to do the impossible and break into Elysium and Frey asks him to do the same for her daughter who has leukemia. But getting out of the hell on earth and into the heaven of Elysium is easier said than done.

Elysium has a much more complicated plot then the little summery above but that is all I can reveal without spoiling the fantastic finale. There will be many comparisons of District 9 and Elysium, some of them fair and some of them not. They both are gritty takes of a complicated futuristic world. Both have stirring political themes. I can honestly say that I thought Elysium was the better movie. I enjoyed the characters and plot more. There have been a lot of sci-fi movies this summer, some I liked, some I didn't. Very rare does Hollywood offer a gritty sci-fi thriller that is compelling on all levels but Neill Blomkamp knows what he's doing and he delivers a gem in Elysium.

We're The Millers

We're The Millers has a lot to bait and hook audiences. The cast includes comedy alums such as Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Nick Offerman, Kathryn Hahn and Ed Helms plus the newcomers Emma Roberts and Will Poulter. The plot is compellingly comedic and the chemistry between the actors is spot on.

David Clark is living the life. Sure his next door neighbor/stripper Rose won’t give him the time of day and his downstairs neighbor Kenny is driving him crazy but he spends his days surfing on YouTube and dealing pot to run down mothers and bored business men. As an old college buddy says he "could disappear tomorrow and nobody would even know." Not in a bad way! Unfortunately that streak of good luck ends when his backpack full of drugs and money is stolen and he goes into deep debt with his supplier Brad. No worries though, Brad has a way for David to pay him back: trot down to Mexico and bring back a 'smidge and a half' of marijuana. Of course David looks just like a drug dealer so how can he become an international drug smuggler? By hiring Rose, Kenny, and a homeless girl to be his family and using an RV to transport the contraband. But this is no typical family vacation...

We're The Millers does have a lot to bait and hook audiences. You will be drawn into the kooky plot with the equally kooky characters. You will laugh at the snarky lines, cringe at the awkward situations, and smile at the predictable but not corny family resolution. Now if you like the raunchiness of the R rated comedy romps then you will enjoy this movie. But if you're like me, the bait of this movie will be a little hard to swallow when you have the crassness of the hook sticking in your lip.

2 Guns

August is usually known as the month that Hollywood throws any junk films that can carry the Superhero/Action Packed/Summer season into the Oscar Hopeful/Grown Up Dramas season. Sometimes there is a big surprise when a truly good movie finds its release date in August. Then still sometimes what looks like a good movie with A-list actors actually deserves a B movie release date.

Robert Trench and Michael Stigman are undercover agents posing as thugs working to bring down Mexican drug lord Papi Greco. They plan to rob a bank Papi uses to hide a small, 3 million dollar part of his earnings, and use the money as evidence in a RICO case. Unfortunately Trench is working with DEA and Stigman is NCIS and neither knows about the other, each think of each other as another thug to be brought down in the case. When they rob the bank and discover it actually holds 43 million dollars and none of it is Papis AND that they are actually allies, both being duped by their respective agencies AND that the money is actually the CIAs... Yeah lets just say the story gets a little complex and the action a little ridiculous.

2 Guns is like its heroes: not what it appears to be. I thought going into it that it would be a buddy cop action drama with a little comedy and maybe a little romance. What it actually is a full blown comedy, enough action to keep you interested, and pretty much an antiromance. Denzel is perfectly cast as a sure-of-himself, "I-know-a-guy", cynic and Walhberg is just as perfectly cast as the arrogant, wise-cracking, eager boyman who is completely unconcerned with openly humiliating cartel lords. The chemistry between these two is absolutely perfect throughout the whole movie and this is the only thing that makes this movie worth watching. There is the most brilliant comedic sketch in years involving Walhberg and some doomed chickens that had the audience in tears. Unfortunately when the movie tries to be smart with its seemingly complex but actually completely predictable plot, the storyline falls flat. So is this the surprise movie of August? I don't think so. It may be a good B movie but it remains a B movie.

The Wolverine

If you're anything like me, when you saw the title for the sixth installment of the XMEN series was The Wolverine, a brief nightmare of X-Men Origins flitted through your mind. Thankfully, Hollywood heard fans groaning, and answered them with The Wolverine everyone wanted to see the first time.

Wolverine picks up after the events of Last Stand in the tundra of Canada where Logan is haunted by the killing of Jean Grey and coincidentally an incident that Logan experienced years before at the bombing of Nagasaki. Coincidentally because when he goes to town in search of some hunters who illegally poisoned a grizzly he meets up with Yukio, a woman who informs him the man he saved all those years ago at that bombing is dying and would like to say goodbye. Now if you've seen the trailers, you know this isn't all he wants: Like any good friend, he also wants to help Logan die.

After five movies, any series can start to feel a little stale or even worse to outlandish to be considered. Now I understand outlandish is kind of a relative term when it comes to mutant superheros but with one title you'll understand what I mean: Spider-Man 3. Filmmakers reach too far for originality and make the concept hokey and pathetic. So when they basically tried a new spin on the Wolverine it could have come off hokey, but believe me when I say there is nothing hokey about The Wolverine fighting NINJAS! Thats not sarcasm. It truely is amazing that they pulled off that fight without it ever feeling like it was trying too hard. This is a Wolverine that can be proud to stand in the XMen canon.

PS: The price of admission would be worth it if the only scene you see is the post credits scene, so STAY for it and be wowed.

RED 2

The best never rest. Everyone’s favorite Goldie Oldies (Bruce Willis, Hellen Mirren, John Malkovich, Brian Cox and newbie Anthony Hopkins) return for a second round of cars racin', bullets flyin', and....arthritis yet anyone?

Frank Moses is just trying to live a normal life with his girlfriend, Sarah Ross; grilling some hot dogs, shopping at Coscos, being blamed for the top secret Operation Nightshade.... wait, except that last part. Unfortunately for Frank, that last part is no joke. His old pal Marvin shows up to say thanks to a Wiki Leak, he and Frank have been named in conjunction with Nightshade. A lot of people and governments now want Frank, Marvin, and Sarah dead or the nuclear bomb that Nightshade was all about. Some want both. Down the comedic, spy thriller, globetrotting rabbit hole the pack goes, tracking clues to why Nightshade is so important and why everyone wants it...besides the apparent fact that its a nuclear bomb.

RED 2 is a ridiculous sequel to a ridiculous original. I loved the original and had high hopes for the follow up and potential franchise. Unfortunately RED 2 flounders where the first one flourished: humor. This sequel’s super serious (and surprisingly smart) spy thriller theme is a bad environment for really funny jokes. John Malkovich does not have nearly enough opportunities for conspiracy theories, government jokes, and outlandish schemes. Anthony Hopkins pretty much steals this show with his more-than-meets-the-eye-but-still-entirely-insane act. RED 2 isn't nearly the fun ride RED was, but it still has enough momentum to be an entertaining night at the movies.

The Conjuring O.o

First off, I'm not a huge fan of scary movies. I like some suspenseful, jump-and-gasp films but I'm extremely picky about them. I'm not a fan of exorcist and demon films at all. At first the Conjuring looked like another Paranormal Stupidity film. Then the raving reviews, some more trailers, and some comparisons to The Purge. So then I thought it would be cool to see. Lesson: don't believe everything you read.

 

In 1971 the Perron family decided to move out of the big city with their five daughters to a fix-it-up farm house in Rhode Island. They've tied up all their money in this bring the family together project and all have high hopes (except the one surely teenager) for their future. Then the dog dies. Then there are nasty smells. Then things really start going bump in the night. They do the thing any worried family would do: Call in certified demonologist and clairvoyant Ed and Lorraine Warren to get to the bottom of it all. The Warrens go about doing what they do: setting up temperature trigger cameras, sound recording equipment, and lots of crosses. The goal is to get a big enough demonic reaction to get the approval of the Catholic Church for a certified exorcism. Unfortunately they may have to deal with it themselves when they do the one thing anybody will tell you never to do: make a demon mad.

Honestly this is easily the scariest movie I've ever seen. Not because of terrifying make up  (though that helps), the don’t-walk-down-that-dark-hallway moments, or the horrific violence, but above all that, one of the scariest things about this film is the sheer realism of it all. This is a story based on real events, granted filtered through Hollywood’s fictionism filter but the truth of the terror is tangible. The family that is teased, tortured, and eventually possessed was real. Ed Warren was a real demonologist. Lorraine was really a clairvoyant. As a quote at the end of the film by the real Ed Warren reads: "Diabolical forces are formidable. These forces are eternal, and they exist today. The fairy tale is true. The devil exists. God exists. And for us, as people, our very destiny hinges upon which one we elect to follow.”
The realness of it all hit me when one demon popped up on screen and the lights in the theater flickered. Everyone screamed but then shrugged it off as electrical, but one never knows. Early in the film, at the first demonic interaction, some people got up, walked out and didn't come back. Unfortunately I wasn't one of them. Easily the thing that disturbed me most was actually when the credits rolled and the lights came up: I looked around the theater to see at least four kids younger than 10 sitting with their families. The fact that some parents think that this movie would be ok to show their children is a scary thought indeed.

R.I.P.D. .....Dead On Arrival

The trailer for R.I.P.D. made it look like a version of Men In Black with Jeff Bridges. That actually stirred my interest a little bit. Unfortunately this movie barley ever exceeds that expectation.

 

RIPD picks up right before Nick Walker is killed in a police raid. He finds himself postponing judgment by joining the Rest In Peace Department. He is quickly partnered with a veteran sheriff from the 1800s Roy Pulsipher. The R.I.P.D. is an organization of the "best police officers who ever lived and died" tasked with seeking out the Deados who are the evil souls that escape judgment and hide out among the living.

It's a pretty cool concept. It's also disappointing that it quickly dissolves into repulsive creature jokes, unoriginal plot lines, and a completely predictable sci-fi/buddy cop/save the world laugh less fest. The biggest disappointment was the humor: jokes we've all heard before, missed opportunities for a good punch line, and absurd antics. Ryan Reynolds tries too hard and achieves complete forgetablility. Jeff Bridges spoofs his own character from True Grit and barley moves past being just plain annoying. The one small bright spot in this fiasco is Kevin Bacon as the twisted villain.

At the end of RIPD I remembered I had seen this before: Not as Men in Black, but in the trailers for RIPD. If you've seen these trailers, you've seen pretty much all the main plot points, any jokes worthy of a chuckle and probably the best version of this almost two hour misfire.

Pacific Rim

When I first saw the trailer for Pacific Rim back in January or February I laughed at it as a mix up of "Real Steel and Godzilla." I never planned to be excited by it or even see it, but as the months wore by and more trailers were released and I saw Charlie Hunnam in the lead, my interest grew. When I saw initial reviews and box office predictions I knew I had to see it. Now I find my first prediction was correct: Real Steel and Godzilla. Except that's not such a bad thing.

The film starts off with a fissure opening between two tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean that is a portal between worlds. Ours and one apparently populated by giant, dinosaur/Godzilla beasts (called Kaiju) who love destroying cities because the first thing they do is start taking out buildings. Human tanks, planes, and soldiers can't get the job done so the world bands together to build super huge robots to battle the beasts. But the robots (Jaegers) cant be controlled by just one person but have to be controlled by two people who are neurally linked. That means they share minds, memories, and feelings. At first this plan works and the Jaegers start kicking some Kaiju butt, except then after a few years the Kaiju evolves to deal with the Jaegers and humanity faces its greatest challenge....again.

I'm not a huge fan of Guillermo del Toro....or robot movies....or monster movies (exception: any Spielberg monster movie) so I figured that Pacific Rim had already struck out but 20 minutes in I was 100% hooked. The fight sequences alone would redeem this movie with Jaegers and Kaiju beating the living daylights out of each other, but then you have completely likable characters with compelling arcs. Now some people will say the story arcs are completely predictable but I don't care. Let yourself be taken away with the story and just love Pacific Rim for what it is: the best darn monster movie in decades.

Despicable Me 2

Gru is back! The first time around he and his yellow minions had the nefarious scheme to steal the moon but where sabotaged by three girls that showed the not so despicable side of Gru. This time around domesticated Gru is hired by the Anti Villain League to find out who stole a top secret lab. Yes, Gru is back, but is he better than ever?

Despicable Me 2 starts off with a pretty grand theft. Not Great Pyramids grand but still pretty sweet. A top secret lab in the arctic circle that is conducting these behavior modification experiments until a huge magnet ship swoops in and lifts the whole thing away, which of course captures the attention of the Anti Villain League. Now weeks later and hardly a clue later, they decide to bring in an ex-villain who's an expert thief to help them out. This is where we pick up with our favorite despicable Gru who is in something of a pickle. Not a breaking into a heavily fortified house pickle, more like the fairy princess cant show up on his youngest girls birthday pickle. What's a fellow to do? Jump into a dress and be a fairy of course! Pretty soon Gru is thrown back into business, not his new jelly and jam business but the business of catching a villain...if only his oldest daughter stopped being so interested in boys.

Unfortunately almost everything that made Despicable Me so compelling and original in the first place is missing in this not so Despicable sequel. Where Gru was at his funniest in his villainy he is now domesticated and doting. The strongest part of the whole movie is when Gru becomes despondent and walks through the park sabotaging Frisbee games and yoga classes or when he freezes a boy who is interested in his oldest girl. Thank goodness for the comic relief of the minions who steal the movie in hilarity. So is Despicable Me 2 as good as its predecessor? Absolutely not. Will your kids care? Absolutely not. Will you still get a few laughs and giggles yourself? Sure.

The Lone Ranger and the critics NAM syndrome

Hi-yo Silver, Tonto, Kemosahbee, and the stirring William Tell Overture are almost as much  a part of Americana as the old west itself. But what happens when the team (Gore Verbinski, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Johnny Depp) that brought you the Pirates of the Caribbean try to reinvent this American icon for the modern age? A lot. 

 

I perhaps am one of the only 19 year olds who actually grew up watching the original TV show and now own quite a few episodes on DVD so going in as an original fan I had an idea that it would be nothing like the show but perhaps still fun. Don't get me wrong, there are glaring differences between the original and this rip roaring, mega expensive flick but perhaps more shocking are the similarities. A few shots looked ripped right out of the original and colored in.

 

The film starts surprisingly in San Fransisco in 1933 at a fair. A young boy dressed as the iconic hero wanders the grounds taking in the sites and eventually walks into the old west show. After viewing the buffalo and grizzly bear he approaches what appears to be a mannequin in The Nobel Savage exhibit but it turns out to be the elderly Tonto in what looks to be his last job. Tonto of course, begins to recount the glorious days of old when a pacifist lawyer came west to spread lawfulness by spouting John Locke... Wait what? Yes the hero had a less than heroic beginning but thankfully the story travels quickly into the stuff of legend with Tonto and the ex-lawyer John Reid riding side by side, stopping outlaws, racing trains, snarkly insulting each other, and rescuing damsels in distress. The filmmakers brilliantly tease the William Tell Overture at the beginning of the film and then make you wait a full two hours before hearing the heroic cords in their full glory.

 

FYI for families: If you're thinking to take your young child or grandchild to relive the glory of your own childhood, you may want to know about the cannibalism, scalping, and frantic gun play.

 

Now this brings me to my final note: the critics. The critics of Entertainment Weekly, New York Times and pretty much anywhere else have cooked this movies goose. Lambasting it for its unreal action, over long story, and Jack Sparrowing the old west. Don't listen to them. Modern day critics are suffering from what I like to call NAM syndrome. As in: Not Awards Movie. No the Lone Ranger will never win an award (except most expensive western perhaps). It doesn't have craggy faced Daniel Day-Lewis in it nor is it masterfully directed by Ben Affleck. But it is something that few movies are anymore: fun. You enjoy the banter between Tonto and The Lone Ranger, you guiltily love the insane action sequences, and you let yourself be taken back to a time when heroes were looked at as larger than life. The critics have forgotten how to enjoy a movie for its escapism, but I guarantee that seeing the original masked man ride his noble steed silver along the roof tops of the speeding train to the grand Overture will make you want to stand and cheer. And whats so wrong with that?