The Equalizer

Up front: I have never seen the TV show on which this is based. I don't need to. It's Denzel Freaking Washington in an action movie saving a damsel in distress (Cloe Grace Moretz) I believe taking his track record into account for these types of movies is enough to make you want to see it. If that doesn't do it....

Bob (or Robert as he looks more like one) McCall is just your average, 40 hour work week, OCD, Insomniac, Ex-CIA agent with some serious butt kicking skills. He minds his own business and keeps his head down...for the most part. He also is quick to help his friends and when your a Russian mobster it would be good to keep that in mind when you rough up his one friend and then turn down his deal to give her her freedom from a life of prostitution.

Come on!! If THAT doesn't do it for you are you human? It sounds awesome! Sure its ridiculously violent but you have to expect that when you have a man with such butt kicking skills and so many butts that need kicking...though it's not as much kicking as shooting, stabbing, corkscrewing, drilling, asphyxiating... well, you get the picture. It's also one of the most beautifully shot action movie I've ever seen. Almost every shot had me cocking my head and saying, "Wow, that was a great shot!" If violence doesn't bother you then this is a must see for you.   A

The Maze Runner

I'm like everyone else more or less... I work, I sleep, I eat.... I am tired of YA book adaptations that document one or several brave teens as the brave a post apocalyptic world. The Hunger Games, The Host, Divergent, The Giver and now The Maze Runner. The Hunger Games was the best. Divergent...was better then the rest but still felt derivative and same old, same old. The Host and The Giver were just....flat. So I entered the theater with eye's slightly rolled and incredulity as my expression. Some times the last isn't the least though...

Awake... No memory, in a quickly rising elevator. Daylight, outdoors, surrounded by strangers. Trapped in a maze. That's who this movie begins. We learn as He learns... like Thomas! That's his name! The Maze is a deadly, inescapable, unforgiving place and you need to be a quick learner to survive.

As tired as I am of YA post apocalyptic book-movie adaptations, if they were all as good as The Maze Runner and The Hunger Games I would be okay with it. It's part Lord of the Flies, part Hunger Games, and all nightmare. It's one of the more brutal and violent then most of the fare starring teenagers...It's also one of the more compelling and better acted. Here's looking to the sequel. A-

This Is Where I Leave You

I like messy movies. Let me clarify: I like movies that correctly display how messy life can be. It's why I liked Boyhood. It's one of the reasons I wanted to make movies in the first place. So I have to say I was looking forward to this star-studded film documenting what happens when a dysfunctional family gets together to bury and mourn their father. Unfortunately some movies aren't just messy but a mess.

When the Altman patriarch dies, his four children come home and honor his last wish: to sit Shiva...even though he was an atheist Jew. It's the first time in a while they've been together and their personalities clash causing all manner of drama.

This was a messy movie that was a mess. It's the classic case of not knowing when to stop, I feel like the screenwriters sat around and figured out each persons problem (miscarriage, affair, divorce, pregnancy/marriage fatigue/ unable to get pregnant/ unwilling to growup) They decided that wasn't enough... I won't 'spoil' the rest but needless to say by the end I felt lest touched than pummeled. C-

A Walk Among The Tombstones

Another day, another movie starring Liam Neeson in which he speaks threateningly to the villain through a telephone. At least that might be what one would think while watching the trailer for this movie. The trailer did not fail to intrigue me though... it looked darker and rougher than most of Neeson's recent fare, in the style of last years Prisoners. A mystery instead of an action movie, hearkening back to the days where gumshoes sat in smoky bars nursing there liquor. That was all I asked for when I walked into the theater....



Neeson plays a retired cop working as an unlicensed P.I. who is hired to track down the men who kidnapped and killed a client’s (who is also a drug dealer) wife. The serial killers are brutal and focus on drug dealers because of their unwillingness to turn to the cops, but when you have Liam Neeson on the case, who needs cops?

Sometimes movies just deliver. Sometimes they don't try to outsmart you or try to be something they're not. When a movie does this, and concentrates on what it is, you get a movie like Tombstones. It's a straight shooting detective movie with compelling characters and a strong script. I go as far to say it's the only neo-noir films of the last decade that isn't set in Sin City. A Walk Among the Tombstones is a dark, bloody, gloomy, depressing, slog through the rain...but if you like that type of thing, this is a Walk worth taking.       A 

No Good Deed

Two things: I love Idris Elba and I love home invasion type thrillers. I love the thrillers that throw two actors together, one playing a villain and one playing an innocent victim, and let their chemistry and characters play off each other. I was looking forward to this movie and had it on my top ten list in the next two months. But sometimes the perfect formula does not add up to the perfect sum.



Terri Granger is looking forward to a girls night in with her friend and neighbor while her husband is away on a golf trip with his father. Wine and good times will flow after she's put her two children to bed. Unfortunately, a violent, sadistic escaped prisoner, Colin Evans, has crashed his escape vehicle just up the road from her house. Seeing the polite, hansom, bleeding stranger on her doorstep she lends him her phone...then offers him shelter from the downpour...then dry clothes... And then she finally begins to understand that no good deed goes unpunished.

2014 was a year of feminism in Hollywood. Movies like Maleficent, Tammy, Lucy, and now No Good Deed. I personally am happy that there are strong female characters being represented in cinema... or should I say I am happy that they are trying. Maleficent was essentially only mad because of something an old boyfriend did. Lucy was made smart by shear happenstance after trusting a boy she barely knew (and Lucy was just straight up terrible without that), and now we have Terri Granger... I found it hard to sympathize with a character who invites a stranger into her house when she is alone with only her young children. Even if I could the whole movie was tired cliche, after tired cliche, after stupid decision, after ridiculous coincidence, after Deus ex machina, after absurd conclusion. If the rest of the movie would have been like the first 5 or 10 minutes it would have been pretty decent (I actually imagine an alternate universe where this movie documents Terri Granger [who literally worked at profiling men just like Colin] tracking down the psychotic Colin across the nation... kind of a-la-Silence of the Lambs) but unfortunately the movie runs of the track right about the time Idris Elba runs off the road. You may think it's a good deed, buying a ticket for this one but trust me, the punishment of watching it is not worth it.  F....-

Boyhood

Every once in a while a film comes along that takes the world by surprise. Once in a while an "Instant Classic" comes along and you just know it will go down in cinematic history. The buzz surrounding Boyhood has been as such. That the movie that took twelve years to make was well worth it. So going into the theater I had enormously high expectations...walking out I felt kind of underwhelmed. But that was the point.

Mason Evans Jr. is just like any six year old. Wildly imaginative, tenacious, and fun loving. He and his sister relocate to Texas with their single mom for a fresh start. They have to deal with new schools, a renewed relationship with their biological dad, and dealing with having a new step-dad. Over the next twelve years we see each relationship and situation grow and be dealt with.

Watching characters literally grow up in the course of almost three hours and an incredible experience. Growing up is a long, sometimes dull, sometimes exciting, sometimes scary thing...and that pretty much describes Boyhood. It beautifully messy in the best possible way. It truly is a must see. It is easily the most lifelike/realistic movie I've ever seen. All the pros and cons of growing up is here and it's amazing. I was speechless for almost an hour afterword even choosing to drive home with the radio off so I could really absorb it all. It was amazing. Period.  A+

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

I love noir or neo-noir films. I love everything about them. Give me any gangster/crime drama between 1930 and 1960 or anything that's like that and I'm a happy man. Sin City was a great noir film in 2005 and was a revolutionary visual treat that changed the way comic book based movies could be made. Now 9 years later can the sequel live up to its predecessor or will it follow so many other franchises into the sequel curse.



Sin City is a place you go into with your eyes open, or you don't come out. That's what one of the characters says early in the film. As far as I could tell you could go into that city with all your senses sharp and not come out...or come out in pieces. It's everything you could expect of a city named Sin. Murder, prostitution, bribery, etc. aren't just necessary evils, they're an understood and excepted way of living. We get four different but intersecting stories that document the workings of this city in all its glory..er..depravity. And at the end of the day not much has changed...people love, get betrayed, kill, and go guns blazing to their doom.

Sin City was revolutionary. I've already said that but I say it again to remind you that the defining point of this series is how original the original really was. Unfortunately this sequel continues the trend of amazing graphics and visuals but forgets to bring any compelling stories. In fact the most compelling story of all (Johnny the gambling bastard son of the main man in Sin City) is the least used. As much as I wanted to like this followup there is nothing special here. The one thing of note is that this may be the most anti-women film ever made. There isn't a female character who doesn't make a living off her sexuality. Sin City was a nice vacation spot in 2005 but now I think I would stay home. D