Captain America : The First Avenger

Captain America : The First Avenger

Rating 7 out of 10

When I first saw the previews for this movie I thought it looked kinda lame.  A superhero that shoots guns?   I thought this would make a good rental.  Rocky's birthday came along and that was the movie people wanted to see so I was in.  I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised.  This is no movie of the year or best superhero movie of the year as some have claimed.  But it is an entertaining action packed well acted movie.

Steve Rogers is the sickly skinny young man with the heart of a racehorse.  Want's to sign up with the Army and fight the Nazi's, but his body won't let him in.  Rogers (played by Chris Evans who also played superhero Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four) gets into a "special" experimental program that injects him with a blue goo that turns him into a chiseled hard body that can leap tanks with a single bound.

His special forces go against the evil Red Skull who is such a bad guy he makes Hitler seem okay.  Red Skull is played well by Hugo Weaving (from Matrix and Lord of Rings movies).  Always good to see Tommy Lee Jones.

This is a fun movie that's not going to blow you away.  The superhero still shoots a gun at bad guys although he does have a cool shield he can throw.  It's a good summer movie.

Zookeeper

Zookeeper

Rating 5 out of 10

Kevin James is a funny guy.  Of that there is no doubt.  I have seen his standup and he kills.  He was funny in the tv show.  With his movies though he tends to aim at the grade school humor.  This follows that line.  The movie is harmless and mildly entertaining and from young teenagers on down will find it hilarious!  If you liked Paul Blart: Mall Cop you will love this movie.

James plays zookeeper Griffin Keyes in NYC who is jilted by his long time girlfriend five years before.  She was clearly out of his league.  Now she has resurfaced and he still has feelings for her.  He talks of leaving the zoo for a high paying job that would impress her.  He is loved by all the animals who decide to now show him they can talk to help him out.  Also helping is lovely Kate (Rosario Dawson) from the Zoo.  She also has a thing for Griffin.  You can guess the rest.

The animation on the talking animals was first rate.  Some good voices.  Sylvester Stalone, Nick Nolte, Adam Sandler and Cher.

This is a cute enough movie that has some pretty good laughs.  Rocky rated it an 8.5 and thought it was one of the funniest movies he has seen in a while.  He loved Paul Blart too.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Rating 5 out of 10

There are movies I don't care for, but can see how others would like it.  This is one of those movies.  Not sure why I went to see this movie at all.  I didn't really like the first two much either.

This is a typical Michael Bay directed movie.  Lot's of special effects and things that go boom.  Not much in the way of plot.  Let's be honest though, you don't go to a movie like this for an intricate plot.

Most of the same gang from the first two return.  The lead is again Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) who has saved the world twice and has a medal from the President but can't find a job.  The new cast member is Sam's new girlfriend Carly Miller (played by supermodel Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) who replaced Megan Fox who thumbed her nose at the series and was sent packing.  Okay, I'll believe bright yellow Camero's can turn itself into a huge robot but there is not way a dufus like Sam would have one hot girlfriend like that much less two!

Not even going to try to describe the storyline.  I am frustrated in these movies where I can not tell the good robots from the bad robots.  I also get frustrated by the complete lack of logic in some of the decisions made.  Yeah I know, I shouldn't worry about plot.  Just watch things blow up.

If you liked the other Transformers movie's I feel sure you will like this one too.  All two and half hours of it.  For me it was not my cup of tea.

Horrible Bosses

Horrible Bosses

Rating 6 out of 10

Having date night with the wife and the Daniels.  The wives were being hard to deal with in not wanting to see Transformers.  This movie is funny in parts but not hold your side from laughing so hard.  It suffers from the same problem many movies do in that most of the funny parts of the whole movie fit into a couple 30 second trailers.

The movie is easy to describe. Three good best friends all have horrible bosses in different ways.  With the bad economy they don't feel like they can quit.  So after several drinks it makes more sense to kill the bad bosses. Simple as that.

The film has a great cast.  Jason Bateman does a good job as the friend most trying to talk sense into the trio. Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day are the other two buds.  Both have some very funny parts and seem like I should know who they are.

The real star power comes from the three nasty bosses.  Kevin Spacey and Colin Farrel are good as the rude and mean bosses.  Jennifer Aniston is crazy as the sexual harassing dentist.  The movie also has small parts for big stars like Donald Sutherland, Jamie Foxx and Julie Bowen (from my favorite tv show Modern Family).

The movie is definitely hot and cold. Not many directions you can take this story.  It's good for an early show or a rainy weekend.  The movie has a moderate amount of F-bombs and much of the humor is very crude.

New tv shows--

I have been a big fan of The Amazing Race for years.  Love it.  Look forward to the new season every year.  Would give one of my kids to participate in it.  Maybe two.  So I was looking forward to the new show on ABC called Expedition Impossible.  It clearly was a rip off of the Amazing Race, but hopefully that would be a good thing.  It wasn't.  This is a low rent rip off of Amazing.  Instead of teams of tow there are teams of three.  Instead of traveling around the world they travel across the country of Morocco. Instead of winning a million dollars they win $150,000 and a new car.  Instead of interesting likable teams I found these to be bland.  After watching two shows I couldn't care less who wins and took it off my dvr to record list.




Another tv show that takes from the Amazing Race idea is Love in the Wild on NBC on Wednesdays at 10p.  This is kind of a mix of Amazing Race and Love Connection.  It sounded very hokey but in the end I liked it. They took ten Babes and ten hunky guys and put them on what looks like an island.  Without meeting them the ladies pick their partners one by one just like picking kickball teams in grade school.  The new teams then go thru a series of challenges  (making a raft, finding hidden items...) to see who comes in first.  The next day the men then get to chose if they want to stay with their mate or switch to another one.  The last two are eliminated.  Yes it is hokey but no one gets a rose at the end and it was fun.

Bad movie rental weekend

Usually the 4th of July weekend is a good movie time for me.  There are usually a couple good movies I want to see.  This year nothing high on my list.

The big release this year is the new Transformers movie.  I like the action and special effects.  I missed out on the Transformers cartoon.  So I get frustrated not knowing which are the good robots and which are the bad robots.  Who do I root for?

I want to see the new Tom Hanks/ Julia Roberts movie Larry Crowne.  Sadly it's getting hammered in the reviews and the only person I know that has seen it said it wasn't very good.  I could see where this could be a sleeper.  Or a rental.

I decided to rent some movies and spend some quality time with the wife.  The wife time was good.  The movie rentals were not.



Just Go with It

Rating- really bad.

Can anyone remember the last very good movie Adam Sandler made?  It takes some thinking.  This one won't make the list.  The movie is based on the absurd notion that young hot babes are drawn to married men. Hot single women see the wedding ring and want to rip his clothes off.  I have never found this to be the case.  Sandler plays Danny.  For years he has played the game of pretending to be married just to get women to sleep with him and having no attachment.  He meets an amazing blonde (Brooklyn Decker) whom he tells he is married but getting a divorce.  She want's to meet the ex. Danny talks his assistant (Jennifer Aniston) into pretending to be his ex wife.  The movie just gets worse as it goes along.



Cedar Rapids

When I saw the trailer for this movie long ago it looked to be funny.  Great reviews.  Yet the movie never came to a theater near me.  Surprising with the reviews and a decent cast.  Ed Helms from the Hangover movies, Anne Heche and the usually likable John C. Reilly.  Helms plays a naive insurance salesman who gets to go to the big city of Cedar Rapids for a convention when the lead salesman dies.  The movie has spots of humor and is not overly offensive (especially compared to Hangover).  The problem is the spots of humor are too seldom.  Most of the movie is just dull or stupid.  Not even worth a rental.



How Do You Know

This movie was so bland I saw it two days ago and for the life of me couldn't remember what it was or who was in it.  The story is bad on so many levels I am amazed they got a decent cast.  Reese Witherspoon plays a lady cut from the US Softball team and somehow feels her only options are a full of himself pro baseball player that treats her like crap (Owen Wilson) or a slightly more likable lawyer that is under federal investigation for a crime he probably didn't commit (Paul Rudd).  I have never under stood the popularity of Rudd or Wilson.  This movie seems to prove my point. Why would she pick either?  Jack Nicholson is thrown in to the mix I guess because the films budget wasn't high enough?   Waste of time. : <