Money Monster

Money Monster

Rating 6 out of 10

I really had no plans to see this movie.  It looked like a boring/predictable movie where Clooney gets to ham it up for the camera.  I was partly right even tho it was better than I thought it would be.  I had a friend tell me the movie was good and an Atlanta rain day with nothing else to do.  My rear was in the seat.

The movie plays out pretty much like the trailers.  Lee Gates (George Clooney) is a way over the top entertainer with his own money market show on a popular cable station.  He gives out money advice mixed in with song and dance and crazy animated effects.  His producer (Julia Roberts) is always trying to reel him in.  When a big tech stock is having a down turn Gates tells his followers to go all in.  Unfortunately it soon tanks big time due to a "glitch" in some software and $800 million is lost.  When Kyle (Jack O'Connell) follows Gates advice and loses his life savings he takes it personal.  Works his way onto the show with a gun and a bomb determined to make someone pay.

Clooney and Roberts work well together.  To enjoy this movie though you have to be able to suspend belief and any knowledge on how the stock market works. That's not a strong suit for me.  Overall I was mildly entertained.  I think this would be a decent rental for people who love the cast.

Captain America: Civil War

Captain America: Civil War

Rating 7 out of 10

I was not that excited about this movie from the start.  Like the earlier Batman v Superman movie I'm not crazy about superhero's fighting each other.  There are plenty of bad guys out there without them fighting themselves.  Civil War was getting great reviews so I gave it a shot.  I was entertained yet this is no where near as good as the two Avengers movies.

The plot of Civil War is two tier.  Captain America is being difficult on both lands.  The genius politicians at the United Nations has determined the Avengers have become to big for their britches.  They show pictures of poor kids that died in the alien attack on NYC and act like the Avengers were to blame.  Did they not remember the bad guys that were intending on eliminating all humans?  They want the Avengers to sit on their hands until the 171 country UN takes a vote on whether they should save the day.  Tony Stark (Ironman) is feeling bad because a woman showed him a picture of her 10 year old son that died on one of his battles so he starts to agree with he UN idea.  Captain America says not a chance.

When a bombing kills many politicians a picture show the person setting it off is none other than Captain America's childhood friend Bucky Barnes (the Winter Warrior). Everyone on the planet is now out for Bucky.  Shoot to kill ask no questions.  Captain defends his friend and realizes he was brain washed by a bad guy so he is not really to blame.

This movie is entertaining in parts.  It's fun seeing all the characters come together.  There is a new character, the Black Panther that is very good.  Ant-Man joins the fight as does the new kid playing Spiderman.  There is a big battle at the airport that is fun even though you realize after a couple minutes that they really can't hurt each other.  They do make a mess of some nice planes.  For me the biggest problem is the directors use of the shaky cam.  Many of the early fight scenes has the camera shaking back and forth, in and out.  I had to look away.  The movie is also a little long at 2.5 hours.

You will be entertained with this movie.  Just don't go in expecting a movie of the year.  I liked Deadpool much better.

Mothers Day

Mothers Day

Rating 2 out of 10

I am in Chicago for work.  The hottie flew in with plans of catching a Braves vs. Cubs game at Wrigley Field.  Mother Nature felt otherwise as it started raining early and lasted all day.  Time for a movie before eating large quantities of deep dish pizza.

This is director Garry Marshall's third entry into the holiday movie following Valentines Day and New Years Eve.   I saw and enjoyed the first two.  They were poorly reviewed, a little on the corny side, but cute and wound around a story in a mildly entertaining way.

This movie is nothing like that.  I have to steal from another reviewers post when he said this is "the perfect movie to take your mother to if you hate her".  This movie is bad in so many ways it would be hard to list them all.  While it has several actors I like the acting is as bad as any movie I have ever seen.  The story is a mess. Many scenes appear as if the director looked at the actors with palms up and said I've got nothing. Ya'll see what you can do.

This movie has every stereotype in the book.  The ultra-racist grandparents from Texas driving an RV while grandpa chews on a chicken bone with the bucket right on the dash.  Two sisters living side by side.  One is gay with her wife and the other married to an Indian man. Both causing grandma to disown them. A divorced mom (Jennifer Anniston) secretly wishing her ex (Timothy Olyphant)  would want her back.  Instead he marries his hot very young model girlfriend.  You have the dad with two daughters still trying to cope with the death of his wife a year before (she was in the military).
Julia Roberts with one of the worst wigs in movie history as a Home Shopping Network star.

This movie is terrible on so many different levels.  If you read this and go see it anyway knowing Royce is always harsh on movies you will secretly admit I was right.  Otherwise you can just thank me for saving your hard earned movie dollars.

The Huntsman: Winter War

The Huntsman: Winter War

Rating 6 out of 10

This movie was one I wanted to see at first glance.  I like the actors and generally like this type of movie.  I didn't realize it was a kind of sequel to the 2012 Snow White and the Huntsman with Kristen Stewart that I didn't care for much.  Even tho this movie is getting killed in the reviews (17% on Rottentomatoes.com) I make it a point to see every movie that Jessica Chastain puts out.  Turns out the Hottie has the same mission with Chris Hemsworth is in.  So contractually we had to go see this movie.

This movie starts out just before the Snow White saga and then continues.  No Snow White or Kristen in this movie.  We have the two queen sisters Ravenna (Charlize Theron) and Freya (Emily Blunt) each more evil than the other.  When a bad thing happens to Freya early on she turns from kinda good to a very bad version Elsa in the Frozen cartoon.  She moves to the North and gathers an army intent on ruling the world without any version of Love.  She takes children from the kingdoms she defeats and raises them to server her as warrior (Huntsmen).  In the first group of kids is Sara (Chastain) and the Huntsman (Hemsworth).  They are the ultimate warriors and soon fall for each other.

The battle scenes at best.  Filmed way too close and choppy.  The story is thin but mildly entertaining. It's better than the reviews are giving credit.  This will make a good rentals just for the good actors involved.

The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book

Rating 9 out of 10

I like most everyone one else on the planet is a big fan of the Jungle Book cartoon by Disney. I know the Bare Necessities song by heart.  Well, the first line or two anyway.  Then I just hum along and dance like a chubby bear.  From the first viewing of the trailer for the new version I was in.  I am happy to say everyone reading this needs to head to the theaters.  I even saw the movie in 3D and I hate 3D movies.

I never read the book by Rudyard Kipling.  I am guessing this movie follows the book more than the cartoon version did as while it's similar there are differences.  I like this version better.  This biggest star of the movie is the animation.  The animation is so good in this movie had this been released forty years ago these people would have been burned at the stake as witches.  It is nothing short of amazing.  So hard to believe the kid is the only real thing in the movie.  Everything else is animated.  All the animals, trees, grass, river, ect.  Amazing.

That said the kid that plays Mowgli (Neel Sethi) is so good I think he could be nominated for an Oscar next year.  The rest of the voices are perfect.  Bill Murry, Ben Kinglsey, Scarlett Johansson and Idris Elba.

The animation is so good it might be too much for small kids.  The tiger pouncing had the hottie jumping out of her seat more than once.  The monkeys were a little scary at times.

This is a good movie folks.  You will want to see it in the theater.

Criminal

Criminal

Rating 5 out of 10

Seeing the preview I thought this movie looked interesting.  It's getting pounded by the critics (26% on www.rottentomatoes.com), but critics rarely like action movies like this.  That's what I told myself.  It has an A+ cast.  Kevin Costner, Ryan Reynolds, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Gal Gadot (the new Wonder Woman) and even that Mexican guy I like from the Prison Break tv series.  It has to be good with that cast.  That's what I told myself.  It is better than the critics gave it but should be left alone until it hits Red Box.

As the movie starts we are following CIA agent Bill Pope (Pretty boy Ryan Reynolds).  He is in downtown London and realizes as he is talking to his lovely wife (Gadot) that he is being followed by bad people and is in trouble.  He is in charge of a computer nerd that has figured out how to control all of the US weapons and want's to sell it to us before those bad guys get to him.  When Pope is killed before he can let his CIA bosses know where he stashed the guy they call in the experimental Dr Franks who can merge his still warm brain cells with the right guy so he can tell them where he is before he blows up the world with our own nukes.  The problem is the only guy it will work on is Jericho (Costner), a worst of the worst criminal in a deep dark prison.

When the brains are merged Jericho does get some of Popes thoughts but he also has many of his own bad thoughts.  Everyone is now after him.  The movie has some decent action yet suffers from too many movie cliches. Jericho only has 48 hours before Popes memories disappear.  The probably should have gone a little lighter on the star power and spent some of that money punching up the script.

I was mildly entertained but would wait for a rental on this one.

Zootopia

Zootopia

Rating 9 out of 10

I like to catch the animated movies when they come out.  I get to hijack one or more of my grandkids for the day and the kid in me have always loved the cartoons.  I would have seen this sooner had it not been for the painful trailer of the main characters going into the DMV and getting a sloth to help them.  Some thought that was very funny. It was scratching on a chalkboard for me.  Luckily it was a small portion of the very entertaining film.  After hearing from several people how good it was the hottie and I grabbed my sweet granddaughter Rylee Rose and headed to the AMC theater.   Good times for all.

The movie begins in the suburbs with Judy Hopps.  She is a spunky rabbit who spurs thoughts of continuing in the family carrot farm instead sets sights of being a police officer in the big city of Zootopia.  This is crazy talk as no rabbit has ever moved to the city much less become a cop.  She is determined and eventually her dream comes true.

She finds it difficult when her sergeant only wants to put her on easy jobs like writing parking tickets.  When she stumbles upon a clue to a big crime spree she is off and running with the help of a small time criminal fox.

Zootopia has a good story that keeps the kids involved yet enough jokes to keep the adults amused too.  The voices were perfect with Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman as the two leads.  The animation was as amazing as you would expect.  You can count the hairs on the lion's head and city life is detailed perfect.  The only thing keeping this from being more than a 9 for me is it gets a little preachy at the end.  Still I was greatly entertained as was my hottie and granddaughter (it was her third viewing and she sat still the whole show).