Paddington

Paddington 

Rating 8 out of 10

My kids are a little older and I must admit before this movie came out I had not even heard of Paddington Bears.  One thing for sure my four grandkids have heard of them and love them.  Maybe I was hit in the head too many times but I volunteered to take all four to the movies.  A great time was had by all.

Often taking four kids under the age of four to the movies is like herding cats.  When you get an entertaining enough movie and large bucket of popcorn it makes it much easier.

The movie starts in the jungle with Paddington and his family being visited by an English couple.  They become close and when the time comes for the couple to return to England they tell the bears to visit anytime.  Years later a volcano erupts in the jungle and destroys their habitat.  Paddington jumps in a boat that luckily enough lands in London.  Paddington can't find the doctors but is taken in by a reluctant family.

This is a cute kids movie that kept my attention and more importantly keep the attention of the target audience.  They were entertained and laughed in all the right spots.  The CGI was flawless.  Acting was as good as you could expect in a movie like this.

If you have small children or can abduct some this is a good way to spend a couple hours.

American Sniper

American Sniper

Rating 7 out of 10

I have had the audio book American Sniper on my iPhone for a while and just have not got around to starting it.  When I saw the movie was coming out soon with Bradley Cooper I got on the stick and listened to it a couple weeks ago. Good book.  Good movie.

Chris Kyle was a tough cowboy from Texas that when the towers were hit on 9/11 decided he wanted to join the military and defend the country he loved.   He was older than most of the young men joining up at the time but did not care.  He joined the Navy Seals and quickly became one of their best.  He was totally fearless and actually loved the action.  Kyle became a sniper almost by accident then became one of the most proficient in American history.  He became very famous with everyone over there striking fear in the enemies heart just knowing he was in their country.

Part of his story is the love story with Kyle and his wife Taya who struggled to try to understand his need to keep going back overseas when he didn't actually have to.  Kyle loved his family yet found a strong need to be looking over other soldiers with his sniper rifle.

I would though suggest either reading the book OR go see the movie.  So often the movies say "BASED on a true story".  There is no amount of true story needed to qualify the movie to be based on...  Last years Lone Survivor was based on a true story and followed close to the truth until the last 20 min.  Unfortunately in American Sniper there is an important plot line that is totally fabricated.  Made for an entertaining movie making.  Just didn't happen.  I'd be curious to hear from others who also read the book.

I would still highly recommend this movie to all.  I was greatly entertained.  Bradley Cooper does a great job playing Kyle.  Good movie.

Top 10 movies of 2014

Top Ten

1- Guardians of the Galaxy

I just LOVED this movie.  A well written superhero movie that has it all. Great for multiple viewings.

2- The Equalizer

Another movie good for multiple viewings. Denzel Washington is fantastic.  

3- How to Train Your Dragon 2

This movie makes me glad I have grandkids young enough to take to animated movies.  Loved the first Dragon.  This one was very good too.

4- The Judge

Just a clinic on good acting by Downey Jr and Duval.  A good movie that tugs at the old heartstrings.

5- Gone Girl

The book was good.  The movie was good too.  Casting was near perfect.

6- Lone Survivor

Another good book made into a good movie.  Action was heart stopping.

7- Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Good action in a super hero series I never thought would make good movies.  Chris Evans is the perfect Captain.

8- Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Much better than the first two Hobbit movies.  Action and special effects are great.  Easy to follow and understand where others were not.

9- Transformers: Age of Extinction

Many did not like this Transformers and loved all the others.  I didn’t care for the others but liked this one a lot.

10- St. Vincent

Bill Murray steals the show.  Somehow he takes a rude sleeze ball creep and not only makes him likable but makes us love him.

Honorable Mention

1- John Wick

2- Wild

3- This is Where I Leave You

4- Fury

5- Dracula Untold

Worst 10 movies of 2014

Worst Ten

1- 22 Jump Street

I fully understand this movie is not aimed at my age demo. I was stuck rained in on a cycle trip in Nova Scotia on Fathers Day when I saw this train wreck.  It was like two hours of scratching on a chalkboard for me.

2- The Homesman

I’m guessing this was a good book or something.  It was a horrible movie even with the fantastic cast. 

3- The Other Woman

When Kate Upton running in a swimsuit can’t save your movie then it never should have been made.  This movie was just way too stupid.

4- Her

Wow. I understand trying to push the envelope every now and then but this one is insane.  Two hours of my life I’ll never get back.

5-Sabatoge

Great action cast wasted with a story that was embarrassingly bad.

6- Lucy

This movie started out interesting and then fell off the cliff.  Scarlett Johansson tries yet can’t save this movie.

7- A Walk Among the Tombstones

Walk is right.  Half the movie is Liam Neeson walking from one place to another.  Very dull waste of time.

8- The Maze Runner

Another I’m guessing was a good kids book than turned into a mostly boring movie.

9- About Last Night

Took a good movie from the 80s and turned it into something completely different.

10- Need for Speed

If I were a teenage boy I would love this stupid car chase movie.  Unfortunately for a lot of reasons I’m way past my teens. 

Should have been Better

1- Jersey Boys

2- The Amazing Spider-Man 2

3- Ride Along

4- Divergent

5- Brick Mansions

Taken 3

Taken 3

Rating 5.5 out of 10

I liked the first Taken movie back in 2009.  Hard not to like Liam Neeson. Hard to believe he is now 65 years old and can still strike fear into the hearts of bad guys.  Did not care for Taken 2 one bit. There are just some plot holes and bits of reality my DNA will not let me overlook.  I'm happy to say Taken 3 is better than Taken 2.  Sadly not by a whole lot.

We find Bryan Mills (Neeson) living the modest city life trying to get along in regular life and still making an attempt to have a relationship with his cutie daughter Kim (Maggie Grace).  His beautiful ex-wife is having marital problems and turns to Mills for advice and let him know she is still interested.  When he rushes home to meet her after a distressed text he finds her dead in his bedroom. The police show up seconds late.  He quickly figures out he has been framed and instead of explaining to the police what happened and showing he clearly has an alibi he gives the police some karate movies and goes on the run to clear his name.

There are several other "oh please" moments that I won't go into.  I'll admit I can be a little on the picky side and many of these things won't bother the average movie watcher.  The action was good for the most part and Neeson is always good.  If you liked Taken 2, you will like this one.  I was mildly entertained.

Wild

Wild

Rating 7.5 out of 10

I have become a fan of Reece Witherspoon.  Didn't really care much for her earlier roles, but think she has become a very good actress.  She spreads her wings here and plays someone who at times is not very nice.

Cheryl Strayed (Witherspoon) enjoys an interesting childhood with her younger brother and flower child (kinda nutty) mother.  Mom is a little on the crazy side yet always upbeat and fun.  When mom gets cancer and dies at an early age Cheryl goes off the deep end.  Gets heavy into drugs, drinking and multiple partners even while married to a good man.

When she finally looks at herself in the mirror and realizes what a mess she has become she decides to do something about it.  She feels if she walks the Pacific Crest Trail alone she can prove to herself what she can do and the peaceful time alone will help her find herself again.

The scenery is incredible.  Witherspoon will probably get an deserved Oscar nomination for her performance. It is an amazing walk.  As she goes along she has flashbacks of her life.  Good things and things that went wrong.  I would say too many flashbacks. Some are redundant and not needed.

Overall this is an entertaining movie with amazing scenery and good acting.  It slows down at times but overall well worth watching.

Unbroken

Unbroken 

Rating 5 out of 10

There are a thousand hero stories from survivors and non-survivors of wars past.  MANY movies have been made on these folks.  Call this one a thousand and one.  I'm not taking anything away from Louis Zamperini.  He was the real life WWII survivor for whom on Veterans Day I'll take my hat off and salute in memory of all those brave souls that did battle so I can sit at my laptop and bang out a review on this movie.  Unbroken is not a bad movie.  It's just very depressing and I'm not sure it was a story that needed to be told.

Zamperini was a troubled child in California in trouble most of the time.  When his older brother shows faith in his running abilities he trains extra hard and becomes the fastest high schooler to ever run the mile and makes the Olympics.  He does amazingly well at the Olympics and becomes famous.  Fast forward a few years and he is working on a bomber plane in the war.  When his plane goes down he and a couple others are stranded in a raft for 47 days.  Unfortunately when he is rescued it's by the evil Japanese.  He is put into a POW camp and is beaten and horribly treated for years.

The treatment is brutal and often hard to watch.  The main thing Zamperini does is survive.  I'm glad he did.  Not sure I'm glad I paid money to see it on the big screen.