Hercules

Hercules

Rating 7 out of 10
I generally like movies like this.  300 is one of my all time favorites.  Hercules is no 300, but if you watch the trailer and feel you want to see it I think you will be entertained.  I was.

Hercules is a half man/half god when his father fooled around with a human woman.  Seems these gods could not keep their hands off the human women.  When Zeus fools around with a human woman his son looks like he was chiseled out of granite and is an incredible warrior.  In this movie Hercules is played by Dwayne Johnson who on an average day looks like he was chiseled from stone.  He has buffed up even more for this movie.

Hercules since the murdering of his beautiful wife and kids has turned with his small band of warriors to  be a sword for hire wanting to get together enough gold coins together to retire to the mountains where he can be away from all people.  You know how this goes.  They need to do one more job to have enough gold to walk away from it all.  In comes Lord Cotys (John Hurt) and his lovely daughter who need his help defeating some evil enemies and offer to pay as much gold as they can carry.  Amazingly enough this don't go as planned.

You don't go to this movie for an intricate plot.  You go for lots of action and the Rock throwing people around like rag dolls.  This movie does not disappoint on that ground.  For me it was disappointing having this movie have a PG-13 rating which at times turns the fighting to a cartoonish way.

Overall I was entertained.  Saw it on the big IMAX screen.  That was very good.  I would say if you have any plans of seeing this movie it needs to be watched on a big screen rather than renting at home.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Rating 7 out of 10

I saw the first movie in the Planet of the Apes reboot in 2011 and was not really impressed.  I gave it a 5.5 rating.  I didn't plan on seeing this version of Apes until the trailers drew me in.  This movie is much better than the last one.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is in the future when a virus has killed off most of the human population yet it did not effect the Apes at all.  Somehow the apes have learned how to build places to live in the mountains, ride horses, build fires and communicates via sign language.  At times they can even speak english!  They think all the humans are gone as they have not seen one in years.

Crazy things happen when a couple humans show up and a group have been living in San Francisco thirty miles away.  The humans are running out of power and their one hope is the electric power plant which happens to be in the back yard of the apes.  The apes don't trust the humans and want nothing to do with them.  Most of the humans don't trust the apes and are not nearly as surprised to se the Apes speak english as I would have been.

There are good and bad both on the human side and the apes.  Eventually they go to war and the apes sneak in and steal many of the humans guns.  The effects are as incredible as you might guess.  We saw the movie in the 3D format only because it was the only time that worked.  I would say we got zero benefit for our extra dollars other than looking cool in our dorky glasses.

The movie is a little longer than it needs to be but I was mostly entertained.  A little peeved that it seemed to more be a setup for Apes 3 rather than conclude this one.  I would say it's worth seeing at the theater.

How to Train Your Dragon 2

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Rating 8 out of 10

I saw the original How to Train Your Dragon more by accident than a movie I really wanted to see.  The movie I wanted to see had a bad start time so I saw this one instead.  I was pleasantly surprised at what turned out to be great movie.  I sang it's praises and don't know anyone that didn't like it.  I'm glad to say Dragon 2 is as good or better than the original from 2010 (can't believe it's been four years!).

It's been years since Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) showed his rough and tough Viking chief dad that Dragons were not the evil man killers they had fought for generations but just misunderstood animals that were kind at heart.   Hiccup has grown up and dragons have become a part of every day life at their viking village by the sea.  Hiccup is not content with staying close to home.  When he rides his dragon he likes to travel far away and explore.

On one of his exploration trips he comes across an evil enemy that has fought Chief Stoick (Gerard Butler) in the past and has assembled a dragon army with intent of taking over.  Of course it's up to Hiccup and his band of misfits to save the village and they find surprises along the way.

The movie is written with a witty tone that will entertain children and adults alike.  At an hour and forty five minutes it moves along at a pace that keeps everyones attention.  The voices are spot on and the animation shows once again how far they have come.  There is a 3D version but as you know I don't care for 3D.  I was impressed enough with the 2D version.

If you liked the first one you will enjoy this version.  If you didn't see Dragon 1 it's time to rent it and then go see Dragon 2.  You will be entertained.

Jersey Boys

Jersey Boys

Rating 6 out of 10

There have been several movies this summer released with the aim toward the younger crowd.  22 Jump Street comes to mind.  I hated it yet my kids thought it was hilarious.  This movie is aimed toward the older crowd.  In fact when I saw this in the South Florida theater I was the youngest by probably ten years.

Jerseys Boys is a movie based on the long running play based on the life of singer Frankie Valli. This movie starts back in the 1950s before Grease was the word. Growing up in a rough part of New Jersey Valli had a velvet voice that the big mob bosses loved.  While his friends were going to jail he would be protected and kept from harms way.  When he did make it big he finds fame carries a price tag on your family.

Director Clint Eastwood surprisingly takes this movie in a low budget feel direction.  I don't know if he was trying to make it look like the play  He also went with a mostly unknown cast.  Christopher Walken is the only actor I had heard of.

I would say if you know and enjoy songs like Big Girls Don't Cry, Walk Like a Man, My Eyes Adore You and December 1963 you will enjoy this movie.  I saw the play several years ago and thought it was great.  I like the music too.

I was entertained.

Transformers 4

Transformers: Age of Extinction

Rating 8 out of 10

I saw the first three Transformers movies.  It's not that I didn't like them as much as didn't completely get them.  Having missed out on the Transformers cartoon stage I was never able to tell the good robots from the bad ones.  When they would start fighting I would never remember which one I was supposed to be cheering for. Action was always pretty good and effects first rate.

I really had no plan to see the latest Transformers movie.  I do like Mark Wahlberg so I thought I would give it a try.  In my opinion I feel this is the best of the lot.

I don't remember how Transformers 3 ended.  Here we start off in the future.  Years after a battle in Chicago where the robots went nuts and while we defeated them much of Chicago was destroyed.  Transformers for some reason are outlawed and being hunted down by the CIA.

Wahlberg plays a hapless inventor on the verge of losing his house that he and his super hot blonde daughter (newcomer Nicola Peltz) live in.  He comes across a beat up old big truck that he buys to fix up and sell for a profit.  That truck turns out to be the missing Optimus Prime.  That's when their trouble starts.

Of course to no ones surprise the world is on the verge of being destroyed by the evil robots and the only hope is the cars that turn into robots with the help of Wahlberg and his daughter.  Intricate plots are not the selling point to these movies.

I was pleasantly surprised and definitely entertained.  I thought this was by far the best of the four Transformers movie.  Maybe at nearly three hours run time it was maybe thirty minutes longer than it needed to be.  Still if you liked any of the first three movies I think you will be happy with this one.

Think Like a Man Too

Think Like a Man Too

Rating 6 out of 10

Two years ago I was talked into renting the movie Think Like a Man.  I just didn't look like my type of movie.  I was wrong.  It was VERY funny.  Had a nice plot to it and likable characters.  I know Kevin Hart had been in other movies but this movie launched him into the high real estate he is today (last year he is said to have made $40 million).  Hart was very funny and stole the show.

Now the same group of friends are in Vegas for a wedding.  What could go wrong there?  Of course, everything.  The problem with Too is it was kinda funny, had very little plot and likable characters.  Clearly someone at the top realized Hart stole the first movie and decided to center the second movie around him and let him go crazy.  He still has some funny parts, but just feels like he has to try too hard.

The movie is still entertaining.  If you liked the first one you will enjoy this one.  Maybe not as much.  I would say this would make a good rental.

22 Jump Street

22 Jump Street

Rating 1 out of 10

Clearly I am not in the demographic of people this movie was made for.   I did not like 21 Jump Street and am no fan of Jonah Hill (to put it nicely).  I rented the first one and turned it off after thirty minutes because it looked so stupid.  I saw this movie on Fathers Day under protest because my movie buddy and cycle riding partner Ted Daniels wanted to see it.

In this version police officers Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are wanting to be taken serious and cops when they are forced to go back undercover.  Instead of working in a local high school this time the duo are sent into a fictional college to bust a dreaded drug dealer that is pushing a new drug that is killing people.

I find it very hard to believe this movie had any type of written script before they started.  To me it seemed like they had a brief outline and told the actors to improv whatever they thought was funny no matter how stupid or unbelievable it was.  Makes no difference that local police can't go into Mexico during Spring Break and arrest drug dealers or even a muscular bicep like Tatums when shot with a 9mm slug will give you more than a band aid ouchie.  The most unbelievable part of the movie  is probably that a bozo like Hill would land a girlfriend with one of the hottest gals in the college.

I really can't remember when I felt a movie was such a complete waste of good film stock as this one.  Fifteen minutes in I was looking at my phone for another movie in the theater I could go to.  Unfortunately it was a small theater with nothing playing I could go to.  I may see a movie that takes over my Worst Ten list of 2014 from 22 Jump Street but I sure hope not.