Pete's Dragon

Rating 7 out of 10

I always enjoy taking the grandkids to a "popcorn movie".  They call it a popcorn movie because they know they can get me to buy an tub of popcorn and of course candy and goodies.  I'm the one that comes out a winner.  Especially when the movie is pretty good.  As was the case with Pete's Dragon.

I didn't realize this was a remake from 1977. I kinda remember the original.  This movie starts off with a family on and adventure up through the mountains.  When dad swerves to miss an animal in the road the parents are killed little five year old Pete wanders out in the woods all alone.

Five years later we see Pete is alive and well deep in the forest with a magic dragon named Elliot as his best friend and protector.  He is happy the way life is except a group of loggers cutting down trees close to his Swiss Family Robinson type of tree home.  When a lady forest ranger stumbles upon little Pete and takes him in it causes turmoil with Elliot the dragon.

Locals have heard stories of dragons living in the forest for many years and are excited at the chances of seeing/catching one.  The movie is cast well.  It paces right along.  Never once looked at my watch.  My grandkids enjoyed it.  I enjoyed it.  It's a cute and harmless movie all will have a good time with.

Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad

Rating 6 out of 10

When the fantastic trailer came out for Suicide Squad this became my most anticipated movie of the year.  Don't know that I've ever seen a trailer that made me want to see a movie so much.  Then the terrible reviews came out.  One reviewer called it not the worst movie of the year but close.  This clearly brought my expectations down.  I found this movie to be somewhere between best movie of the year and worst movie of the year.  Good movie.  Not great.

This movie starts after Batman and Superman has their battle.  Superman is no longer with us and the government is looking for someone to protect us when the next bad guy come after us.  Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) works for the government and assembles a crew of the worst of the worst.  Bad guys and gals with special powers.  As bad luck would have it as soon as the squad is assembled one of the ladies with special powers goes rogue and decides to kill everyone on the planet.

The Suicide Squad themselves have lots of promise.  The biggest problem is a movie like this rises and falls with the villain. Here the villain and her gang of weird looking helpers are just goofy.  You never feel like the squad or humanity is in much trouble.

Margot Robbie is great as Harley Quinn.  Will Smith is always good.  Jared Leto is a pretty good Joker.  The movie has some good action scenes.  Some comedy.  I was entertained.  Hoped to be overwhelmed but was just entertained.  I'm hoping Suicide Squad II is much better.

Jason Bourne

Jason Bourne

Rating 6.5 out of 10

Still out of town and some time to kill.  Can't see Suicide Squad until the Hottie rolls into town so Jason Bourne it is.  Went in with very low expectations and by that was pleasantly surprised.  Not a great movie but I was mildly entertained for the 123 minutes I sat in the chair.

I like Matt Damon and the rest of the cast.  Like the rest of the Bourne movies (except the one he wasn't in) for good or bad Matt carries the film.  This one is pretty much like all the rest.  Jason is still getting pieces of his memory back.  Just enough to carry the plot line forward.  The evil CIA boss (Tommy Lee Jones) knows he has the secrets locked up in his brain to bring down his secret op program so he must be taken out.  There is always a sensitive female working in the CIA that decides to slip Bourne top secret information to help him find out why he is the way he is.  This time that agent is Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander).

Lots of action as Bourne takes out one hit man after another in his quest to expose the bad guys.  Lots of scenery as they travel from Greece to Italy to Las Vegas.  I know I have harped not this before but the film style that seems to follow these movies is crazy.  The camera never stops moving.  Even when the characters are standing still the camera floats up and around like the cameraman is drunk.  Fight scenes are zoomed in and out so fast it's hard to tell at times whom is hitting whom.

That said I was mildly entertained.  If you liked the other Bourne films you will like this one too.  Damon is good.  If you want to get out of the summer heat there are worse ways than this movie. Or it will make a decent rental a little later.

Nerve

Nerve

Rating 6 out of 10

I'm in Minnesota for work and had a rain day.  My supervisor Jim and I could go outside and enjoy the 72 degree weather.  Instead we decided to go into a dark movie theater for a couple hours.  We intended to go endure the shaky cam and see Jason Bourne beat up bad guys only to find out when we got to the theater the 445p show was "canceled".  Faced with having to go back outside and breathe fresh air we looked at the board and saw Nerve was scheduled to start at 5p.  Sold.

Clearly Jim and I are not the demographic the studio had in mind when they gave the movie the green light.  We thought we were going to be the only two in the theater until four teenage girls came in during the previews and sat in the back probably creeped out that two grandpa's were in the same theater.  One crazy thing about this Cinemark theater is the movie was scheduled to start at 5p.  Instead between the commercials and previews the opening credits started at 5:28p!!! Twenty eight minutes of previews and commercials.

Oh yeah, the movie.  This movie plays on the social media craze between twitter, you tube and maybe a touch of video games.  A blacklist illegal game has taken the younger crowd by storm where people can play the game where faceless moderators dare the person to do crazy things and broadcast them with their iPhones for money.  Each dare gets a little crazier and pays a little more. Vee (Julia's niece Emma Roberts) is a repressed high school girl who can't even talk to her football stud guy crush is talked into playing the game.  She quickly is paired up with Ian (Dave Franco) and they become fan favorites.  The dares become more and more dangerous.  The game is very illegal yet everyone in NYC seems to be watching and the police have no clue.  Vee see's this is no simple game and becomes determine to shut it down.

The two leads are likable and overall the movie is fairly harmless and mildly entertaining. I would think if you are over the age of about 25 you may want to wait for RedBox or Netflix.