Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

Rating 7.5 out of 10

I have never been a Jackass or Johnny Knoxille fan.  Never watched the tv show or saw either of the other Jackass movies.  Just not my cup of stuff from the toilet.  There was something from the trailers for Bad Grandpa that made me want to see it.

In Bad Grandpa Knoxville puts on some very good make up to become an 80 year old man given a grandson he does not want with the duty of delivering him to his worthless father in North Carolina.  Thus we get to witness a several day road trip.  Grandpa is rude, crude and very offensive to everyone.  They make stops along the way with unsuspecting real people.

The movie is stupid in many ways yet there were times I was laughing so hard I had tears.  The reaction when a grandpa reacts to his wife dying with big smiles and high fives for everyone is priceless.  As I said this movie is very crude and not for the young ones.

I laughed more in this movie than any in recent memory.  Not really a plot as much as a series of skits.  It really doesn't matter.  I was very entertained and might even go back to get a second viewing.

Runner Runner

Runner Runner

Rating 5 out of 10

This movie was hammered in the reviews getting only a 9% rating from rottentomatoes.com.  Knowing that I went in with low expectations.  Had planned to see the movie Carrie but everyone I talked to said it was not very good or scary at all.  So when I got to the line of scrimmage I called an audible and went to this one.

I'm not sure if Runner Runner deserved all the bad reviews.  It's not a great movie but not a bad one either.  It doesn't let plot holes or even common sense get in the way of moving the story along.  Richie (Justin Timberlake) is a brilliant Princeton student hoping to graduate soon a get that high paying Wall Street job.  He is paying his way thru school by playing internet poker and being paid to steer other students toward certain internet gambling sites.  The school finds out what he is doing and puts a stop to it just as bad luck would have it he has a huge student loan coming due where if he doesn't pay it he will be kicked out of school.  I thought student loans came due AFTER you graduate? Oh well, moving along.

When Richie takes his life savings and decides to do an all or nothing win on the internet gambling site and loses he goes into the code to figure out he was cheated.  Seems if he could do that he could figure the code on how to win? Oh well, moving along.

Of course the thing to do is fly to Costa Rica and have a face off with the big boss, Ivan Block (Ben Affleck).  What could go wrong there?  Block admires his spunk and hires him on the spot.  In a matter of months works his way to the top of the ladder being Blocks right hand man.  The more Richie sees the more he realizes how corrupt it all is.  There is a love interest for Richie in Rebecca (the very hot Gemma Arterton) who works for Block yet it's never really explained what she does.

This will make a decent rental.  Watch it and don't think too much.  The acting is pretty good.  Ms. Arterton is about as attractive as any movie actress in recent memory.  With the low expectations I liked the movie enough to get a moderate thumbs up.

Escape Plan

Escape Plan

Rating 6 out of 10

There was a day not that long ago that a movie starring Sylvester Stalone and Arnold Swarzenegger would but huge news.  The good thing is for their age they can both pack a wallop in an action scene.  The bad news is their combined age is about 130.  Actually Escape Plan is not a bad movie for what it is.  For a mildly entertaining action movie that is a little different that some I'd call it a success.

Ray Breslin (Stalone) is an escape artist.  He and his company make a living breaking out of prisons in order to give the information back to the prisons to make them more sound.  Ray goes in as a prisoner in an assumed name then after a short time is able to figure out how to break out.

When tempted with a large sum of money and the challenge of a prison that is supposed to be impossible to break out of he agrees even though he and everyone at the business knows it's a bad idea.  Turns out it's a very bad idea and he has been setup.  It is a very brutal prison off the system where rules are not followed and it may well be impossible to break out of.  In the prison he teams up with Emil Rottmayer (Swarzenegger) who like everyone else really wants to break out.

The movie as I said is mildly entertaining.  It has a decent amount of action and fighting and is fun to watch.  My suggestion is to catch this on an early show (not as cheap as they used to be) or wait and rent it.  It's not a bad way to blow a couple hours.

Enough Said

Enough Said

Rating 7 out of 10

When I look at what is playing at most of the theaters in my area I find it a shame that there are so many crappy movies paying yet a well written, well acted movie like Enough Said can only make it in limited release in very few theaters.  I like a shoot 'em up-bang bang movie as well as the next manly man.  I also like a good "chick flick" every now and then too.  This is a relationship movie where the two leads are not extremely good looking hard bodies.

Eva (Julia Louise Dreyfus) is a divorced masseuse with a teenage daughter about to graduate high school and go off to college.  She is barely getting by with the clients she has now and always looking for more.  She has mostly given up on dating and any type of social life.   When she goes to a dinner party she is mostly interested in passing out business cards to pick up new clients.  She meets Albert (James Gandolfini) and while she is not attracted to him at all she agrees to a date.  He is overweight and not her "type".  Amazingly enough he is a great guy and they hit it off.  They begin dating and she falls for the guy.  He also has a daughter leaving for college.

One of the new clients she picked up at the party is a woman with a bad shoulder.  She needs several massages and in doing so they become good friends.  Spending time when not working together.  As luck would have it her new good friend is Alberts ex-wife.  When she figures it out she wants to tell them but does not want to loose either.

As I said the movie is well written.  Dreyfus is as funny as you'd expect and does a good job with the emotional parts.  Gandolfini is also very good at the overweight lovable lug. He almost makes you forget Tony Soprano. Good supporting cast also.

This is a good likable movie that you should seek out.  It's playing in a few theaters around town.  Otherwise make sure to rent it and get a large bucket of popcorn.

Captain Phillips

Captain Phillips

Rating 8 out of 10

Movies about real events can be tough.  Especially recent real events where the ending was well publicized.  It can be tough to make a two hour movie interesting when you already know how it ends. Director Paul Greengrass does a good job of keeping the story moving along and interesting.  Greengrass did the very underrated movie United 93 back in 2006.  If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it.  You also can't go wrong by putting Tom Hanks in your movie.  He is just fantastic in everything he does. He is fantastic here also.

There is an area around the horn of Africa off of Somali that has been a treacherous stretch of water.  Somali pirates would come out to the big boats with guns and hijack them holding for ransom.  For a reason I will never understand these boats did not arm themselves with anything stronger than water cannons that would shoot high pressure water onto the incoming boats.  I would have had 50 caliber machine guns mounted on the sides of the boats to send these thugs to the bottom of the sea.

Four heavily armed pirates attack the Maersk Alabama US container ship and take over.  They stay wacked out on the drugs they chew on and are not very reasonable as you might guess.  Captain Phillips (Hanks) does his best to calm them down and protect his crew. When things start going bad they take Captain Phillips as a hostage and it's up to the Navy Seals to save the day.

If you don't know what happens I won't tell you here and would suggest you not find out until you see the movie.  This is a well made movie that will keep you entertained.

Gravity

Gravity

Rating 8 out of 10

I tend to be leery when a movie gets a 97% positive rating on www.rottentomatoes.com.  Movie reviewers are a strange lot as a whole and rarely agree on anything.  When they do it's usually a bad art house type movie that I don't like.  That said with Gravity they got it right.  This is a not a movie you watch as much as you experience.

With Gravity we start with an American Space Station and Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) on her first mission and still nervous about it.  Luckily she has smooth talking veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) to help her along.  I'm guessing he is a smooth talker to make up for his deficiencies in the looks department?   While on an ordinary space walk they are hit by the pieces of a broken up Russian satellite that destroys their ship and kills the rest of the crew.  All communication with earth is knocked out.  They must find their way to a nearby Chinese station.

This is not a movie with a bunch of plot twists.  Aliens don't show up to help them out.  The movie rests squarely upon Ms. Bullocks capable shoulders.  She gets probably 80% of the screen time and will be rewarded with an Academy Award nomination (and probably a gold statue).  This is a movie of a woman in space not wanting to die and fighting to find her way home.

You know I'm not crazy about 3D movies yet if any movie is made for 3D it's this one.  I saw it on a big IMAX type screen and I'm tempted to go back and see in 3D.  The scenes where the ship is being pummeled by debris are breathtaking.  Don't wait to rent this one.  This is a movie that needs to be viewed on a big screen.

I liked it alot.

Planes

Planes

Rating 6.5 out of 10

I was one of the few that didn't care for the Disney animated movie Cars.  No way was I going to spend my money on Cars II.  Had no desire to see Planes.  It seemed like Cars in the air.  It a way it is but it was much better than I thought it would be.  The best thing I can say it had going for it was no Owen Wilson or any Cable Guys.  The worst thing is it's way too much like Cars in the air.

I was taking my two granddaughters to the movie.  Ages 3 and 2.  Taking one is very enjoyable.  Taking two is much like herding cats.  While they liked the movie they enjoyed the tub of popcorn more.  I think they would have liked the movie more if they had thrown in a couple princesses here and there.

Planes is about a single engine crop dusting airplane that dreams of entering the World Championship
flying contest.  The fastest qualifying planes race from checkpoint to checkpoint around the world ending up in NYC.  Our star, Dusty Crophopper, (Dane Cook) makes it into the contest only when a plane is disqualified. Oh yeah, Dusty the airplane is afraid of heights too.  Like in Cars there is a crusty old retired war plane that wants nothing to do with Dusty that comes around when he sees the heart the young plane shows.  He trains Dusty to be a world champion.

The movie scores zero on originality, but as I said is cute enough and fun to watch even if you know what's coming next.  As you would expect from Disney the animation is first rate.  I had a good time even after chasing my cute granddaughters around the near empty theater.  If you have small kids this would be a good early show to take them to or maybe wait for it to come on dvd and rent it.

Rush

Rush

Rating 7.5 out of 10

When trailers for this movie first came out I had no desire to see it.  Even though it was made by Ron Howard who has made many of my favorite movies.  I am just not into car races.  I couldn't tell you the difference between Formula One, NASCAR or those speedy go carts at Six Flags. To me it's just cars driving in circles.  When several of my friends saw Rush and talked of how good it was I thought I'd give it a try.

Turns out it's not so much a movie about car racing as it is a very good movie that has car racing in it.  The movie is about two drivers that off the course could not be more different as their lives intersect. Based on a true story.  James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) is the very good looking beach bum type that drives by the seat of his pants taking risks he should not and loving life as everyone loves him.  Then there is his rival, Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) a rich kid who walks away from his silver spoon life to drive cars against his fathers will.  Lauda is very calculated and not likable at all.  Both are at the top of the racing game.

Ron Howard does a good job of showing enough of the racing without overload for the non hardcore racing fans. He also does a good job of showing the 70s hairstyles and type of dress.  The relationship goes from pure hatred to respect to a type of friendship and admiration. It works.

Good movie that you should give a shot.

Behind the Plate: A Catcher's View of the Braves Dynasty

Behind the Plate

















Behind the Plate: A Catcher's View of the Braves Dynasty

This is a book by former Atlanta Braves catcher Javy Lopez.  As most any Braves fan will remember Javy was the rookie catcher that came to the big leagues in 1992 and had twelve successful years including 2003 when he set an Atlanta record for home runs by a catcher with 43.

This is an easy read.  I read the whole book on a six hour round trip flight to Boston.  The book starts with Javy growing up in middle class (for there) Puerto Rico.  He wanted to be a basketball player but quickly took to baseball.  Javy and his father were big Braves fans due to all their games being broadcast on TBS.  He was recruited by Bobby Cox and had no idea who he was.  When he was recruited by the Braves he took a much smaller signing bonus than he should have.

Coming up in the minors speaking English was a big problem for him.  He stayed more with the other Spanish speaking players and that caused problems.  Javy quickly worked his way up thru the minors leading leagues in hitting.  He got his call up when Braves catcher Greg Olson was hurt again and never looked back.

Even though Javy has a co-author you can tell he wrote most of the book himself.  He is a writer about as much as I am.  The book bounces around a good bit and while enjoyable it's a cotton candy version of events.  Everyone was his friend.  John Rocker?  While mostly he was a great guy when he got that look in his eye you knew he was going to be a jerk.  Why did he never catch Greg Maddux all those years?  He wonders that too, but never got around to asking him or anyone else.  He also glosses over the steroid years and never mentions doing steroids himself like he admits to in the interview on Atlantabaseballtalk.com. 

I enjoyed the book.  It's a nice walk down memory lane.  No big revelations or wow behind the scenes stuff.  I liked Mike Piazza's book Long Shot more even though I was never a fan of him.  If you are a Braves fan you will like this book.