In the Heart of the Sea

In the Heart of the Sea

Rating 6.5 out of 10

I have been a fan of Ron Howard directed movies since the beginning.  He had an amazing string back in 80's and early 90's.  Splash, Cocoon, Willow, Backdraft, Parenthood, Apollo 13 to name a few.  More recently I think he has made some very good yet under appreciated movies.  If you haven't seen Cinderella Man with Russell Crowe you are missing out.  Great movie.  In 2013 he came out with Rush.  A movie about a racer driver that was good although it had a small target audience.

I like many were amazed with the previews of this huge whale attacking and destroying a gigantic whaling ship while hunky Chris Hemsworth yielding  a mighty spear thing vowing to take this beast down.  The bad reviews and low attendance helped put this movie on the back burner.  Lots of rain days with nothing else to do so I grabbed the Hottie (She is entertained with anything Hemsworth is in) and off to the theater we went.

This movie starts in the early 1800's.  This is before people realize oil is in the ground and can be pumped out to light and heat our homes.  Whale oil is used in place of candles as bright burning and long lasting fuel.   Whale oil is a hot commodity  and business men are building ships as fast as the trees can be cut down and hiring sea captains to make them rich.  On this fateful voyage the captain takes the ship out to sea further and further hunting for that large pod of whales they hear is there.  They also hear stories of a white whale more than 100 feet long and mean as a snake.  They mark that off to fisherman's lore and see dollar signs.

When they find the pod of whales they also find the story of the white whale to be true and things do not go well.  The ship is destroyed and the seamen left alive are 2000 miles from land in small lifeboats trying to survive.  Here it becomes a survival movie.  There is also a side story of Moby Dick author Herman Melville interviewing the last living survivor of this voyage to get the inspiration for his whale book.

I was entertained with this movie.  The scenes of the way they harpooned and brought in whales much bigger than their little boats is amazing.  Was a little disappointed in the big whale.  Literally what you see in the two minute trailer is about thirty seconds shy of all the screen time for the great white one  Hemsworth is hunky and entertaining as always. This will make a good rental.

The Big Short

The Big Short

Rating 8.5 out of 10

When the big housing meltdown happened in early 2007 into 2008 I read up on it trying to understand what went wrong.  Had several try to explain it to me.  I should have just waited for this movie.  The Big Short does a good job of explaining things in a way an average Joe like myself can understand and makes it entertaining to boot.

The movie starts with Michael Burry (Christian Bale).  He is a trader that smells a rat in the market for sub prime mortgage loans.  The packages started out a good idea in packaging large groups of AAA mortgage loans of people with good credit and paying history.  The problem (as I remember) begins when the packages run out of good loans and not wanting the lucrative money train to stop the bankers start filling in with worse and worse loans.

While this could sound like a boring documentary director Adam McKay explains much with scenes like Margot Robbie in a bubble bath describing how loans are bundled or Selena Gomez at a blackjack table explaining other things.  It's pretty scary how close we came to a total economic meltdown and sad how not that many things have been fixed.

Great acting is what makes this movie sing.  Steve Carell is fantastic.  Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Jeremy Strong to name a few.  This movie is like one of those films they showed in Economics class that you dreaded yet turned out to be very good.  I was definitely entertained and plan to go see this again to catch what I missed.

The Hateful Eight

The Hateful Eight

Rating 6 out of 10

Quentin Tarantino movies are a special breed in themselves.  You can't say you don't know what you are getting with the guy.  Lots of dialog.  Often pointless dialog.  Long movies.  You get your monies worth as far as minute per dollar.  Lots of bad language and blood by the 55 gallon drum.  Over the top violence.  Heads exploding, severed limbs, ect.  I have enjoyed several of Quintin's movies.  Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs, Inglorious Bastards and Django Unchained.  Was never a fan of Pulp Fiction like so many others were.

I was looking forward to The Hateful Eight.  Fantastic cast.  Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern to name a few.  It's a basic Western which I am also a fan of.  This is two separate movies.  Literally.  The movie is right at three hours long with an intermission in the middle to break it up.  The first half of the movie is alot of talking.  The hottie and I actually dozed off for a few minutes in the warm theater and food in our bellies.  The second half is much better.  The action and story picks up and is far more entertaining.

John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell) is a bounty hunter on a stagecoach taking the evil Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to a Wyoming town trying unsuccessfully to out run a blizzard snow storm.  Along the way they pick up another bounty hunter (Jackson) and a man saying he is the new sheriff of the town he is taking Daisy to. Ruth is known as the Hangman because while other bounty hunters will bring them in dead (in the dead or alive) where he wants to bring them in alive to not cheat the justice system.  When weather forces an extended stop at an outpost called Minnie's Haberdashery there are already other seedy looking guys there also stranded by the storm. There the gang has conversations.  LOTS of conversations.  Tarantino likes his bad words.  This movie it's the N-word.  It gets thrown around more than a rap concert and clan rally combined.

We finally realize atleast one of the eight is planted there to free Daisy from the noose.  Once you get back from your bathroom break and refill the coke cup during the intermission (several around us were discussing leaving at the intermission) the action picks up a bunch. This is where the bullets fly and blood flows like rivers.  I was awake and entertained.  I give the first half of the movie a 4 and second half an 8.

If you are a Tarantino fan you will most likely enjoy this movie and know what you are getting into. Much was made about watching the movie in the 70MM screens as Tarantino wished.  Not sure why. 94% of the movie is inside one small outpost.  There are some cool stagecoach riding thru snowy mountains scenes that are pretty amazing.  The second half is almost entertaining enough to make you forget how boring the first half is.  Almost.

Star Wars: the Force Awakens

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Rating 8 out of 10

In all my MANY years of movie watching I don't recall one ever having the pre-release hype as this one.  I have actually seen this movie twice, but have held out in doing a review mostly for fear of giving away any type of spoiler and having my house burned down.  In a week or so I'd like to have a SPOILER conversation.  This one should be spoiler free. I hope.

This movie takes place many years after the third Star Wars movie: Return of the Jedi.  It's the one with the furry teddy bear looking guys and I hardly remember the movie.  After the good guys destroyed the death star life is good without all that evil.  Luke Skywalker has opened a school for budding Jedi's.  When one of the Jedi in progress students goes rogue and kills all the other Jedi Luke becomes so distraught he exiles himself to a far away secret planet.  With the Jedi gone the dark side has been able to flourish.  They have built ANOTHER death star.  This one many times bigger and weapons that can destroy several planets at a time.  The only hope we have is to find Luke Skywalker and return the Force to battle the Dark Side.

Director JJ Abrams does a good job mixing the action, comedy and drama to the new reboot that will surely bring us many more Star Wars movies in the future.  It's good seeing our old favorites of Hans Solo and Chewbacca.  Princess Leia (now General Leia) looks like the years have not been kind but does a good job.  The newcomers Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac- probably my favorite character actor) are great.

My lone problem (You knew there had to be one) is... Movie starts with our star on a sand filled desert planet that happens upon a droid that has a secret video with information that can save the universe.  If she can just get that information to the good guys life will be saved.  The bad guys know of the droid and will stop at nothing to capture or destroy it. There is a guy with a dark helmet mask and deep scary voice and a death star that is impenetrable except for one secret spot that if you can just slip a well placed missile it will blow it to smithereens.  Does this plot sound familiar?

I have heard this movie is supposed to be similar to the first one for a reason.  I'm not sure I understand the reason.  Either way I was entertained.  Almost impossible to live up to the hype.  This is a good movie and I'm sure I'll be in the seats when the next one comes out.

Sisters

Sisters

Rating 2.5 out of 10

I love Tina Fey.  Have always thought she was funny.  Watched the tv show 30 Rock because of her and how great she was.  Amy Poehler not as much.  She can be funny, but is not money in the bank like Fey.  One thing I have liked about both ladies is they could be funny without lowering down to the vulgar attempts of humor scattered with F-bombs.  Unfortunately that stops here with this dog you should avoid if you are above the age of twelve.  This is one of those movies where every funny part is in the commercials and even then the laughs are few.

Fey and Poehler were funny on Saturday Night Live.  Sadly this movie seems like a SNL skit stretched into a two hour movie that seemed more like three.  They must have had a handshake agreement with the SNL alumni that if they made a movie together they would include as many as they could.  This was not a good thing.

When mom and dad decide to sell the family home and move into a retirement condo association the two daughters Jane (Fey) and Maura (Poehler) are given a couple days to clean their stuff out of their old rooms.  Maura is the younger more responsible of the two.  They decide to throw one last party in the house before the new owners take over.  Invite all their old high school friends and go nuts.

The biggest problem is in the writing.  It is just not funny.  I wanted to laugh.  I wanted to like it.  Nope.  Avoid this movie.

Spotlight

Spotlight

Rating 8 out of 10

This movie has been getting great reviews and mentioned on many top ten lists so I thought I'd give it a try.  I remember when this was in the news several years ago and then it died out.  I'm sure the movie will suffer with so many Americans being Catholic and I feel most will avoid this movie which is understandable in not being a great time in the history of the Catholic church.

The movie takes place in 1990s (I think) Boston when a new editor takes (Marty Baron- Live Schreiber)  over the Boston Globe newspaper.  He is the first Jewish editor in the papers history and isn't afraid of taking on religious (Catholic) issues in a town very much dominated by Catholics.  When news comes up about a priest molesting a young boy Baron orders the paper to investigate it instead of sweeping it to the side like they have in the past.  The paper had a small group of investigative reporters called Spotlight that specializes in hard hitting stories just like this one.

After alot of digging they find evidence of nearly 90 priests in the Boston area alone that have been accused of molesting young children.  To make a horrible situation even worse they unearth evidence that many in the church hierarchy know about the molesters and instead of doing anything they pay off the victims and move the priest to another church.

The movie is not out to slam Christians or even the Catholic church.  They mostly zero in on the bad apples that let things get out of control.  They make that clear.

I will say this movie will probably be shown at film schools for how acting is supposed to be done.  Michael Keaton is fantastic.  Way better than last years Birman.  Mark Ruffalo, Rachael McAdams, Stanley Tucci (always great), Schreiber, Billy Crudup, ect.  Everyone does a great acting job.

The movie is a little slow in building when you already know how it turns out.  Yet it kept my interest the whole time.  The two hour movie moved along and never once had me looking at my watch.  Probably not for everyone but good rainy day movie for me.

Sleeping with other People- Rental

Sleeping with other People

Rating 8 out of 10

I was recently on a long plane ride with plenty of time to kill.  Delta had quite a few movies that were free to watch.  I had seen a commercial for this movie months ago and thought it looked interesting yet never saw it come to theaters.  The hottie and I clicked go and gave it a try.  It turned out to be a sweet and entertaining movie we both enjoyed.

I find myself surprised that I like the star of the movie, Jason Sudeikis, as much as I do.  I liked him in Horrible Bosses and thought We're the Millers was better than the reviewers gave it.  I like the female lead, Alison Brie, also but I'm not sure where I have seen her before.

Jake (Sudeikis) and Lainey (Brie) meet in college and end up being each others first time.  They drift apart and over the next several years date alot without finding the special one.  They agree they are not meant for each other while they do like each other and become friends.  Jake is a serial dater that can't commit.  Lainey always commits to the wrong guy who is with someone else.  The movie tests the When Harry Met Sally theory that a man and woman can't be friends.  That sex thing always gets in the way.

While the name and theme of the movie leads one to think it's a teenage sex romp stupid comedy.  It really isn't.  It's more a fairly well written movie about a friendship over the years.  I was surprised how much I enjoyed this movie.

Creed

Creed

Rating 8.5 out of 10

I had reservations about his movie in the beginning.  Looked like it could be good or could be a hammed up extension of the mostly very good Rocky saga.  After a few people I know saw this movie and liked it I decided to go.  A rainy day in Kennesaw means unpaid vacation days for roofers.  So I scooped up my friend Mark and we were off to the local NCG for an early movie.

In Creed we have Adonis Johnson.  Turns out Apollo Creed while being a great boxer was not always a great husband.  He got a woman pregnant just before he decided to fight this big blonde Russian guy that did not end well.  Adonis is born after Apollo dies and never meets his father.  When his mother dies he spends several years in orphanages fighting all the time until Apollo's wife takes him in.  He gets a proper education and has a fancy finance job.  Yet fighting is still in his blood.  He flies off to Mexico to do backstreet fights.  He quits his job and decides to become a boxer like his dad.

When he goes to Philadelphia looking to Rocky for help he finds reluctance.  Of course it would be a short movie if Rocky held to his guns and refused to train Adonis.  Through a couple amazingly lucky breaks Adonis lands a huge fight just as Rocky did so many years ago.

With this movie the fight is not really a big part of the movie.  It's the relationships Adonis builds and cultivates as he goes along.  While it's agreed Sylvester Stallone has not been in many runs for an Oscar award I feel this may be his best job of acting ever.  Michael B. Jordan does a good job as Adonis.  Acting overall is very good.

I was highly entertained and will probably pay to see this one again.  Good movie folks.