The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven

Rating 7.5 out of 10

I like any movie with Denzel Washington.  I feel he has been in a few bad movies, but has rarely been bad in a movie.  The casting for this film besides Denzel is mostly spot on.  Vincent D'Onofrio, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and even Haley Bennett is pretty good.

This is a remake of a remake.  I remember the last one.  A good western classic staring Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Yul Brynner.  I am an old timer that enjoys westerns.  A small town of Rose Creek is being taken over by very bad guy Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard).  He wants the town so he can mine out the large gold deposit he has found.  He offers the locals less than half what it's worth and shoots anyone that stands up to him.  The wife of one of the men he murders goes out and finds a bounty hunter (Denzel) with a history with Bogue.  He recruits six more to battle Bogue and his hundred henchmen he is sure to bring.  Some of the townsmen stay and fight while some flee.

There are some pretty dramatic and even comedic parts to the movie.  It's predictable even if you haven't seen the original.  Probably too many of the good parts are in the often played trailers and commercials.  I think they could have found someone much better than Sarsgaard for the heavy.

While this won't go down as a classic it is entertaining.  You don't have to love cowboys to enjoy this one.

Sully

Sully

Rating 9 out of 10

The first reason you need to go see this movie is Tom Hanks.  Well, you don't really need another reason to head to the theater than Mr. Hanks is is it.  It helps more that it's directed by Clint Eastwood, but mostly it's just a great story.

We all remember that January day in 2009 when the US Airways plane hit a flock of geese and lost both engines at very low altitude.  There were 155 souls on board and they are alive today because of one man.  Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger.  What this man did was in my opinion nothing short of amazing.  I got my private pilots license in 2002 and have 600+ hours in the air.  I am not qualified to clean the gum of this mans shoes.  The word hero is thrown around way too often.  This man saved those 155 lives and no telling how many on the ground had he tried to make it back to the airport.

The movie details events that happened after the water landing.  While most of the world is singing the praises of Sully and crew the airline authorities seemed to be determined to prove they could have easily made it back to the airport and recklessly endangered those lives instead of saving them.  They would have been fired and potentially lost all their retirement.

As I said the only reason you need to see this movie is Tom Hanks.  He hits a home run as he often does.  He nailed the Sully part.  Needless to say I loved this movie as did the Hottie who was hopped up on cold medicine.  I highly recommend it.

Hell or High Water

Hell or High Water

Rating 5 out of 10

Watching the trailer for this it looked interesting.  Great cast.  Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine and Ben Foster.  Has a bit of the old Western movie feel even though it's modern day.  Then there is the good reviews on www.rottentomatoes.com.  Actually GREAT reviews.  As I have said in the past it makes me nervous when a movie gets positive reviews in the 90+%.  Hell or High Water is sitting at 98% positive reviews.  I always have to wonder about any movie where 149 of 152 goofball movie reviewers gave it a positive review.  That's the case here.  This is not a bad movie.  It's just VERY slow.

Toby and Tanner (Pine and Foster) are brothers. Tanner is the bad sheep that shot their abusive dad so many years ago and spent ten years in prison. Where Toby is the good kid that stayed around to take care if their terminal mother in her last year.  Mom left the family West Texas farm in debt and very close to foreclosure.  The brothers get together and start robbing banks in order to save the family farm.  Sheriff Marcus (Bridges) is three weeks away from retirement and makes finding these brothers his mission in life.

While the movie itself seems to have the budget of a loaded SUV, the acting is quite good.  Jeff Bridges is always fantastic and he is in good form here.  If you like a movie that builds to a slow boil without all the special effects and don't care if the story is on the predictable side you will enjoy this one.  I was mildly entertained.

The Light Between Oceans

The Light Between Oceans

Rating 5 out of 10

Not normally a movie I would see on opening weekend but the Hottie wanted to see it and she usually gets her way.  I like both the lead actors- Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander even though I can barely pronounce either.

I would call this the feel bad movie of the summer.  Not a bad movie but barely an uplifting moment in the 132 minutes of screen time.  The movie starts in the 1920s when an English soldier, Tom, is retuning from the war.  Having seen some terrible things some boring and alone time appeals to him so he signs up to be the lighthouse man on an otherwise deserted island.  His job is to live on the island and to manually light the lighthouse every dusk to help the ships find their way into port after dark.

After his first six month stint alone on the island when he comes back to the mainland for a short time he falls for the lovely mayors daughter who also takes a fancy to him.  She is so ready to get out of the small town she convinces Tom to marry her and take her to the island with him.  They get along well in isolation and soon begin to start a family.  Unfortunately they have two failed pregnancies that obviously take a toll on Isabel.  Not long after the second miscarriage a small row boat shows up on shore with a dead man inside and a beautiful baby girl.  Isabel talks the always follow the rules Tom into not reporting the incident and keeping the baby as their own.

Unfortunately when the baby is three when they are back in town on a short vacation they meet the childs real mother and hear the story of the how the baby and father ended up in that small boat.  The rest of the movie is how Tom and Isabel try to cope with what they have done.

My problem is not with the slow pacing.  There is not really any way you could speed up this story.  I was not impressed with the way the director (Derek Cianfrance) decided to film it.  His love of close ups is amazing.  The leads are beautiful people but I don't need to be able to count their nose hairs with the extreme close ups that seemed to make up half the movie.  The story is depressing and slow. I was mildly entertained but could not recommend it to anyone.

Kubo and Two Strings

Kubo and Two Strings

Rating 6 out of 10

I was on the fence with this movie.  It looks interesting yet different.  When I had a chance to take my three year old grandson to the movie I always jump at the chance.  The movie did turn out to be interesting and different.

Kubo starts off in the movie as a baby being protected by his mother after her evil father and sisters killed his father.  He has a talent of playing his guitar looking instrument and making paper fold into different characters as he tells a story.  He uses this talent in the small town to get money to support himself and mom.  His mother always tells Kubo to be back in their cave before dark.  When he strolls too far one day he doesn't make it back before the sun goes down and gets back on the radar of evil grandpa and those crazy aunts.

The base of the movie is Kubo on the run in a journey to get a magic suit of armor that will help him defeat the bad guys.  He has the help of a strict but funny monkey and a large human/beetle.  The animation is much more traditional Japanese animation rather that the Jungle Book type I have been spoiled by.  It wasn't bad, just not really my taste.

Over all I found the movie mildly interesting.  My grandson kept his attention with a little aid of the bag of popcorn in his lap.  There are some battles in the movie, but nothing to scare most kids.  It was worth the early movie price I paid even tho it does gripe me to have to pay adult price for a three year old.