Bears

Bears

Rating 7 out of 10

One of my favorite movie times is when I get to share a theater seat and a small bag of popcorn with my lovely granddaughter.  This time we saw Disney's Bears.  This was a movie she picked.  It was either this or Rio II.

When I was a young tike I would ride my dinosaur home from school and watch a tv show called Wild Kingdom with a very old guy named Marlin Perkins and sponsored by some insurance company.  It was a nature show and this movie reminded me of that show very much.

Bears is a year in the life of a momma bear and her two cubs.  It starts with the bears in their hibernation cave and follows them in their trek for food and their dangers.  They walk through the beautiful Alaskan mountains on their way to the oceans and rivers where the salmon spawn and fill the bellies of many large bears.  The movie is masterfully narrated by John C. Reilly.

The scenery and visuals are incredible.  I was amazed at the end of the movie when they showed how they filmed much of the bear scenes.  The hour and twenty minute movie kept my four year old granddaughters attention for about half of that.  There were some scenes of the bears eating their salmon that was a big much for her.  "that's disgusting" she said.

I enjoyed the movie.  Enjoyed the company more.

The Other Woman

The Other Woman

Rating 3 out of 10

How bad does a movie that has a large portion of it's nearly two hours with Kate Upton in a skimpy swimsuit yet still is dreadfully boring?  Watch The Other Woman and you will soon see. There were some people laughing at times during this movie. Mostly it was dead silence.  I"m not a big fan of Leslie Mann, but here she was like scratching on a chalkboard in her overacting.

In case you have not seen the movie trailer it starts off with a leggy blonde lawyer (Cameron Diaz) falling deeply in love with a Mr. Wonderful named Mark (Nikolaj Coster from the far better Game of Thrones tv show).  Mark literally charms the pants off her.  When she makes a surprise visit to his home she finds his unsuspecting wife (Leslie).  Instead of getting mad she wants to be best friend with her husbands woman on the side.  There are many stale gags that die on the floor.  When the women follow the cheater to the beach they find him with yet another woman (Upton).

They all three become best friends and decide to get even via some half baked proving he is stealing money from his company plan.  Nothing makes much sense. The only part of this movie that made me happy was the credits when the movie was over.  : >

This is a don't even bother to rent type of movie.

3 Days to Kill

3 Days to Kill

Rating 6 out of 10

Some people can't stand Kevin Costner.  Like detest him and every movie he is in.  I don't get it.  I am a fan.  I think that even when he is in a bad movie he almost always is good.  This is one of those movies.  He takes a movie that otherwise would have gone straight to dvd and makes it a mildly entertaining movie.

Costner plays a long time C.I.A. spy/hitman.  He is the best of the best.  He can take out a room of bad guys without breaking a sweat.   Nothing can stop him.  Well, nothing except a brain tumor that has drifted to his lungs and given him a few months to live.  He wants to walk away and spend what time he has with his estranged teenage daughter and lovely ex-wife.

As luck would have it amazingly the C.I.A has one last job for him to do.  That almost never happens! : >   Not only will they let him walk away but the sexy handler (Amber Heard) has a new experimental drug that could cure is tumors.

Much of the movie is the hokey/sweet efforts he goes to reconnect with is daughter.  Not many surprises. Lots of action and shooting.  Pretty much paint by the numbers but I was mildly entertained.  I would classify this as a decent rental when it comes out.

Need for Speed

Need for Speed

Rating 4 out of 10

I had a roofers holiday (rain day) and felt like a movie.  Need for Speed was the only one with a start time that worked.   This is one of the first movies made by Aaron Paul in attempt to capitalize on his hot Breaking Bad fame.  He is clearly the big name in the movie with a list of B actors and sadly showing how far Michael Keaton has fallen.

Aaron Paul plays Tobey Marshall, a natural born race car driver that has taken over his fathers garage after he passes away and specializes in very expensive muscle cars.  Even with the very high dollar clientele the banker is on the doorsteps ready to repo.  The fine acting in the movie is the evil banker who is played by my friend Frank Brennan who is just like that evil heartless banker in real life (not really).  Several things happen where Tobey goes to jail after his best friend dies.  When he gets out the only way (of course) he can avenge his friends death is to win a secret race thru the curvy California roads with and against multi million dollar cars.  How else would one do it?

The teenage Royce would have LOVED this movie.  Lots of fast cars, hot babes and action like nobodies business.  Plot that makes not a nickels worth of sense?  Teenage Royce could not care less. Lets watch this movie again!  Middle aged Royce sees it a little differently.  Middle aged Royce wonders about all those poor people in the cars wrecked with idiot Tobey drives down the wrong side of the road at 100+ mph and am not amazed when a three million dollar Mustang jumps across three lanes of traffic at 15ft, lands in the dirt without a scratch.

This is a mostly harmless go fast sports car movie that if you can park enough neurons at the door you could enjoy it.  Enough neurons that you think Dukes of Hazard was a documentary.  It could be done...

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Rating 8 out of 10

When the first Captain America came out in 2011 I went in with low expectations.  It didn't look like it was going to be very good.  I was pleasantly surprised as the movie was much better than I thought it would be.   This time expectations were higher with this version and once again I was pleasantly surprised.  The Winter Soldier is great.   The action in the first ten minutes of the movie is first rate.

This movie begins not long after the Avengers have saved NYC and the world.  Captain America or Steve Rogers (the hunky Chris Evans) is still working with S.H.I.E.L.D and it's leader Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).  A big reason this movie is better than the last is Captain America has joined forces with the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) who besides being very hot knows how to kick butt and has some of the best lines of the movie.

When an assassination attempt on Nick Fury happens Rogers uncovers a group of bad guys has infiltrated not only the government but the deepest parts of S.H.I.E.L.D.  Of course their plan is to take over the world and kill millions.  What bad guy does not want this?  It's up to Captain America and Black Widow to save the world and they don't know who they can trust.  They find a friend in Falcon (Anthony Mackie).  An ex-special forces man that has these cool strap on wings that enable him to fly like a bird.

The action is first rate here. If you like super hero movies your money will be well spent here.   I enjoyed this very much and would pay to see it again.  Also thought it was cool that S.H.I.E.L.D uses a Macbook Pro like the one I 'm typing on to run their organization!