The November Man

The November Man

Rating 6.5 out of 10

I thought this movie looked interesting from the trailers.  I've missed Pierce Brosnan since he quit being Bond, James Bond. He defines the word suave and is a pretty good actor to boot.  I was a bit nervous when I saw the movie was getting tanked in reviews (scoring only a 36% on www.rottentomatoes.com) but I powered through and for the most part was glad I did.

Brosnan is Peter Devereaux, the top CIA agent.  Nicknamed the November Man because when he goes in to a situation not a bad man survives.  Not sure what that has to do with November but I'll buy it.  When an OP goes bad and a small child is killed Peter decides to hang up his boots and 9MM and retire to a nice island with a view.  Dang, as luck would have it after several years he is drawn back in for one last mission.

The man about to become the new Russian leader amazingly enough was a very bad guy when he was a general in their army.  As he is getting close to becoming the leader he starts killing off people that know about all the skeletons in his closet.  He is down to one lady who knows the worst of the worst of what he has done.  Peter is there to save her from assassins and now needs to keep her alive until they can out the bad guy.

Yes, the movie is full of cliches.  His old CIA buddies are now after him also led by the young buck he trained.  If you can watch the movie with rose colored glasses like my movie buddy Ted Daniels (who also defines suave) you can overlook the cliches and love the movie.  I thought the movie was interesting.  The action was good and lots of good actors I like.

I was entertained.  I would recommend this movie for an early show or a good rental.

Lucy

Lucy 

Rating 4 out of 10

When I saw the trailers for this movie several months ago I was intrigued.  I like Scarlett Johansson and the story looked interesting.  A woman in Asia with her loser boyfriend gets tricked into participating in a crazy drug deal.  When the really bad guys work on transporting the new drug into Europe they kidnap unsuspecting people and cut their stomach open and insert the drugs inside of them.  Resistance is dealt with very harshly. When the bag inside Lucy (Johansson) ruptures and starts releasing the drug in large doses into her body it comes with a crazy side effect.  It allows her to access the majority of her brain instead of the measly 10% we mortals use.  I know many mortals I'm sure use closer to 2% but that's another story.  Lucy begins to have special powers that allow her to do superhuman things.

That alone to me sounded like a movie with some promise.  Unfortunately it just made my head hurt. It's like taking your car to the shop for a tune up and a professor comes out and explains the internal workings of a combustable engine is great detail for two hours.  All I wanted was a tune up.

Director Luc Besson is know more for his huge flops than any good movies he has made.  The Professional in 1994 may be the last good movie he made.  I wonder how he keeps getting the keys to the car.  He has a good cast to work with here with the always good Morgan Freeman joining Scarlett.  He just makes a mess out of things.  He throws in goofy flashbacks that have little to do with what is going on and bounces around too much to make much sense.

I found this to be a waste of time where I was checking my watch ready to get out of the theater.  Rent if you must.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Rating 5 out of 10

When I was a kid the big cartoons were Scooby Do and Johnny Quest.  By the time the karate kicking turtles came along I was out of the cartoon watching phase and I had a small son that loved them.  I thought they were cute but could never remember which one was Leonardo or which one was Donatello.   Still can't.  That was 20+ years ago and they are still going strong.  My youngest son also loved the Ninja Turtles.

I went into this movie knowing I was not in the target audience.  Special effects have improved greatly since the last Turtle movie.  This movie starts off at the beginning and I believe takes a little different turn on how the little turtles grew so big and learned how to use nunchucks.  They befriend the pretty reporter April O'Neil ( Megan Fox- looking good again after her ten year dabble with being way too skinny and over dosing on tattoos)

If you are a male child between 6-15 years old you will love this movie.  The rest of us not so much.  The effects were good and there was plenty of action.  The story for me kinda dragged along and amazingly enough the bad guys didn't destroy the world (spoiler alert).   If you have a young child that wants to see this there are worse options for you.  I was mildly entertained yet was ready to see the closing credits.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Rating 4 out of 10

I saw the original Sin City in 2005. I was mildly amused and gave it a rating of 6 out of 10. These movies are most definitely style over substance. The colors in the film and the over the top acting. Action is exaggerated and the violence is brutal. You don't go to this movie for the plot.

Jessica Alba is returning from the first movie and that is never a bad thing. She is a stripper dancing in the seedy strip club in Sin City. She still very angry about the death of her love Hartigan (Bruce Willis) years before and vows to get even with the powerful Senator who caused his death.

This movie has several plot lines and none of them make much sense. The dame in the title is Ava Lord (the very lovely and mostly naked Eva Green) who returns to her old flame Dwight (Josh Brolin) for help with a potential abusive husband.

There is another plot line featuring Josh (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as a bastard son of the main bad guy of the movie Senator Roark (Powers Boothe) out to prove a point. We never really figure out what his point is.

Visually the movie is incredible to look at. It has a crazy good cast most of whom only get a few short minutes on screen. It's just too all over the place and mostly makes no sense. If you REALLY liked the first one you will be entertained here.

footnote- Had a bad storm go over the theater while there and power went out. Sat there a couple minutes in the dark waiting for everything to come back online. First time that has happened to me.

The Expendables 3

The Expendables 3

Rating 5.5 out of 10

Admittedly with these Expendable movies the bar is set pretty low.  No one walks into one of these movies expecting a great well thought out plot.  The draw is seeing an amazing collection of action heroes (most) from yesteryear come in and blow up a bunch of stuff.  I greatly enjoyed the first two movies.  This one not nearly as much.

Sylvester Stalone is back as Barney Ross- the leader of the Expendables.  He also is one of the main writers to the movies.  With Expendables 3 he just tries too hard.  Instead of just sticking with what works he tries to work emotions into it.  The bad guy (this time Mel Gibson) is a very bad guy from Barney's past that was supposed to be dead.  Clearly he is not and in their first battle he manages to gravely injure one of the Expendables which makes Ross realize he cares too much for the group of bad-arses and he retires them.  Thus he is able to bring in a new group of younger Expendables to finish the job on Gibson.  Stalone seems more interested in a revolving door of bringing in a different person than a story that makes any sense at all.

For me the cardinal sin is the action.  As I said you don't expect much of a plot line.  I was disappointed that they reverted to shaky cam on many or most of the fight scenes and zoomed in so close most of the time you couldn't tell what was really going on.  These are not prima donna movie stars.  They are (admittedly aging) action stars.

I was mildly entertained here.  The list of action stars is impressive  Just a little disappointed in the outcome.  Out of the list of Expendable movies this one is definitely 3.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy

Rating 8.5 out of 10

I have been seeing the trailers for this movie for six months.  Usually I have found when they play the trailers long in advance of the movie it's because the movie is not that good and they are hoping for a big weekend before people find out how bad it is.  I'm glad to say that is not the case for Guardians of the Galaxy.  I thought it was great.

I was not really a comic book nerd like by brother inlaw Gil.  I had never heard of this band of misfits  before this movie.  The movie starts with a young Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) watching his mom die in a hospital.  When he goes out mourn he is sucked up by a space ship never to see earth again.  Twenty years later we see the same Peter now a common thief stealing a small sphere to sell to the highest bidder.  Turns out that sphere is a very powerful weapon capable of destroying planets.

Peter (Star Lord) ends up leading a group of criminals to stop the bad guy from destroying a planet he  hates with billions of people.  Okay, I get that storyline is not the most original.  I will say the movie mixes a perfect amount of action, comedy and great oldies music.  The effects and makeup is also very good.  The casting is spot on.

I liked this movie alot and would pay to see it again.  If you watch the trailer and think it's your type of movie you will be entertained.  I know I was.