Sabatoge

Sabotage

Rating 4 out of 10

Not that long ago Arnold Schwarzenegger was king of the movies.  Put him in your movie and you had a box office smash.  Even his bad movies made money.  Studios would spend millions just to pitch him scripts hoping he would be in their movie.  Then he took some time off to run California.  Since his return to movies it mostly shows he should have stayed in politics.

In Sabotage we have Arnie leading a corrupt group of DEA agents.  The group besides mega star Sam Worthington (Avatar) we have a who's who of cable tv stars.  Josh Holloway ( Lost and current show Intelligence), Joe Maganiello (True Blood), Mireille Enos ( The Killing), Max Martini ( Army Wives and pretty much every army show on tv) and then throw in Terrence Howard.  Make a movie with a bunch of bad guy drug dealer thugs and high body counts. It's even filmed in Atlanta! How could Arnie be in Atlanta and I not hear about it?  What else would you need?

Oh yeah, a story that makes a nickels worth of sense.  This is almost all nonsense.  As I said this is a corrupt task force.  In the beginning we see them stealing $10 million from a drug kingpin on a raid.  The problem (besides the kingpin knowing they ripped him off) is somehow the FBI knew how much money was there and knows how much is missing.  Even worse when they go to pick up the money they stole it's gone.   Six months later when the FBI gives up trying to prosecute them people in the task force start being murdered.  The local Atlanta police detective joins in to try to figure out who is doing the deeds.

The action is mildly entertaining and acting is good.  The rest is a waste of time.

Divergent

Divergent 

Rating 6 out of 10

Divergent is the latest in a string of trilogy books that are a big hit following the Twilight and Hunger Games series.   I read the first two series and watched the movies and mostly enjoyed them.  I  mildly liked the first Divergent book although not nearly as much as my brother inlaw or others have.  I was looking forward to seeing the movie yet nervous with all the very bad reviews.  I thought the movie was better than the reviews but much more watered down and blah that it needed to be.  In this case I think people that have not read the books will enjoy the PG-13 movie more.  

With Divergent we are somewhere way in the future.  The powers that be have sectioned society into six groups, Honesty, Selfless, intelligence, Peaceful and Warriors.  Then if you don't fit in any of those you are basically cast into the homeless and looked down upon.  When you become of age you are given a mental test that helps you decide which group you will enter.  Once entering that group it's sink or swim.  If you don't make it you are cast out into the homeless group and looked down upon.  Most after taking the test only qualify to go into one group.

Our star Tris (Shailene Woodley) takes the test and qualifies for three different groups.  You would think this is a good thing except it throws a red flag to the people in power (Kate Winslet) as it means you are less likely to conform to society and think for yourself!  The name for this is Divergent.

Tris joins the Warrior group and with help of others tries to hide her Divergency.  She finds the boot camp to qualify is far more difficult and brutal than she expected.  Most of the movie (and the book) are devoted to the boot camp and difficulties she has.  In my opinion too much time is spent in both the book and movie on this.  I was frustrated that many parts (important parts in my opinion) from the book were needless left out of the movie.  I understand the need to tame things for an important PG-13 rating yet Hunger Games did it with still being able to show how rough it was.

I was entertained but not impressed.  My movie buddy Ted gave it a 7.5 but he likes all movies more than I do.

Muppets Most Wanted

Muppets Most Wanted

Rating 5 out of 10

I had another date with my lovely granddaughter that I always look forward to.  We were trying to decide between the Muppets and Mr Peabody.  Movie times made the decision for us.  I have been a Muppets fan for many years.  The kid in me always liked that type of humor.

In this movie we find there is another frog in a frozen Russian prison that is very evil and except for a mole on his right cheek looks just like Kermit.  When he breaks out of the prison he, with the help of his Number Two Dominic (Ricky Gervais) swaps places with Kermit.  He uses the Muppets with a world wide come back tour to mask their big robberies.  Kermit is thrown into the frozen brink run by the show tunes loving Nadya (Tina Fey).

This movie begins with the ending of last Muppets movie in 2011 with them realizing because the cameras are sticking around that the studio has given them a sequel and they need to come up with a story line.  They really should have tried a little harder.  The movie has some of the cute laughs you would normally get with a Muppets movie.  The plot really seems like it was written on the back of a cocktail napkin after a night of drinking.  It is void of the songs the kids like or many of the big names they usually pepper the movie with.

I was mildly entertained.  My granddaughter as soon as the Junior Mints ran out began to ask if it was almost over.

300: Rise of an Empire

300: Rise of an Empire

Rating 7.5 out of 10

I am a fan of the first 300 movie.  Big fan.  It probably is my favorite movie of all time.  So I went to into Rise of an Empire with the bar set very high although I realized there was no way it would be as good.  Empire was not as good as the original yet I was highly entertained.

Rise of the Empire is a prequel and a sequel of the original where King Leonidas took his well muscled group of super soldiers against thousands of evil Persian invaders.  This whole storyline is VERY loosely based on the true events in Greece history.  If you get a chance to see the show on the History Channel about this subject I highly recommend it.

On to this movie.  While Leonidas is battling with his 300 in history there was also a big battle going on at sea led by Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) that was equally impressive with very few ships battling a thousand Persian ships full of soldiers.  This is more their story than the rise of revenge that happens afterwards.

Visually this is an incredible movie.  Not for everyone.  If you don't like violence save your money.  There are non-stop battle scenes and blood by the tanker.  The baddest person in the movie is probably a woman.  Artemisia (Eva Green) is a Greece native that was wronged by her countrymen and saved then raised by Persians.  She has a grudge and intends on inflicting misery on her old country.  Eva does a good job of being over the top badness while still somehow being sexy.  Lena Headey returns as Leonidas widow and Rodrigo Santoro is also back as the seven foot god king Xerxes.

The story tends to bounce around more than I would have liked.  The movie they tried to explain the history part the more the story becomes muddled.  This movie won't win any awards.  It's just 100% testosterone from A to Z.  Lots of battling in amazing backgrounds.  You know who the good guy is and who is bad.

While it's not for everyone I enjoyed it.  If you liked the first 300 movie you will most likely enjoy this one.  Just not as much.

The Lego Movie

The Lego Movie

Rating 7 out of 10

I had a date with my lovely granddaughter.  I always look forward to these.  Besides getting to spend some time with her I also get to see kids movies that I would normally feel strange in with my older movie buddies.  I have heard good things about the Lego Movie and have to say I am very surprised that it has been the number one movie for three weeks (not much competition) grossing nearly $200 million.

I enjoyed this movie.  The writing is witty.  It keeps the kids interested and has enough humor for adults that I found myself laughing and following along.  The animation was good and was very creative.  I wouldn't call it "the greatest film ever in the history of cinema" as some reviewers on www.rottentomatoes.com have.  I did enjoy it.

The movie has a good message for kids.  Emmet (Chris Pratt) is and ordinary Joe.  Nothing special about him as far as even he can tell.  He is drafted into a league of special people to overthrow the evil man determined to spread super glue all over the Lego's and freeze them permanently.   He is mistakenly thought to be the leader they need to put it all together.

There are some good characters.  Many voices you will recognize like Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson.  Some creative ways to make a ninety minute Lego commercial entertaining.  I'm good with that.  Kids need more Lego's and fewer video games these day (said the old grandpa).

Not the greatest movie ever made, but entertaining and a great way to spend some time with a cute three year old granddaughter.

Royce's Oscar Picks

Another year of Oscars.  I'll say again I don't usually care for Awards shows in general.  I rarely agree with who the snobs pick as winners.  Although last year I did like many of the winners.  I don't usually watch the show either.  Do we really need to see every little award (best sound mixing?) and long songs?  Make it a two hour extravaganza that everyone would love?  I generally wait for my friend Ted Cashin to watch it then read his recap the next day.  There is my old man rant for the day.

This year I saw six of the nine films nominated for Best Picture.  Only a couple I feel are truly deserving of the honor.  Here is my run down of the major nominees along with who I would pick to win and who it think will win.

Best Picture

12 Years a Slave-  I did not see this movie.  Honestly I have seen enough of this genre.  I know that time in our countries history was a bad time. Slavery was horrible and there were many very bad white people.  For me I have seen enough movies telling me this.  Just as the Holocaust was horrible I have seen enough movies showing me this.  I'm sure this is a touching movie and have seen the lead actor that no one can pronounce his name (Chiwetel Ejofor) in other films and liked him alot.   It's just not for me.

American Hustle- I have several friends the LOVED this movie.  Again, this was just not for me.  Seemed more of a parody of the 70s than actual real times.  For me the acting was very over the top and I didn't care for the story or the flow.  I can see how some would like this movie.  It wasn't for me.

Captain Phillips-  I liked this movie alot.  Tom Hanks is a great actor and this may be his best part so far.  Well made movie.  This is definitely one of the top five movies of the year and deserves the nomination.

Dallas Buyers Club- I did not see this movie.  Looking at the $20 million box office not many other people saw it either.  I know it's a big deal for Matthew McConaughey to lose 187 pounds for a part.  Wish I could go on his diet.  This was not a movie I had any interest in seeing.

Gravity- Visually one of the best movies to come down the pike in a while.  Acting was very good.  I liked this movie.

Her-  A very strange and sometimes disgusting movie.  I guess one could appreciate them pushing the envelope, but this is too strange.

Nebraska- I have never cared for black and white movies.  I don't get why director Alexander Payne deeded to shoot this boring low budget movie in black and white.  I rented this movie and gave it a good try.  Made it forty five minutes before boredom insisted I turn it off.

Philomena-  I see many, many movies every year and this is one I had not even heard of until the nominations came out.

The Wolf on Wall Street-  A terrible movie that the only claim to fame is setting the movie record for most F-bombs in averaging nearly four per minute.  This bloated three hour bomb has no business getting any nominations.  Did I hide my feelings on this?

Who I think should win-  Gravity or Captain Phillips

Who I think will win- 12 Years a slave seems to be on a roll.

Best Actor-

Christian Bale- I think Bale is a very good actor.  I just don't think he was that great in this movie.  I thought he was better in the movie Out of the Furnace. Here I mostly felt I was watching Batman in a fat suit (although he did gain the weight) and a bad comb over.

Bruce Dern- I also think Dern is a very good actor and probably deserved an award or two along the way.  Not for Nebraska.  He plays a cranky old man that has a mean wife and a good son.

Chiwetel Ejofor-  No idea how to pronounce his name but he is a very good actor.  I have liked him in everything I have seen him in.  I'm sure he is great here.

Matthew McConaughey- A good actor.  I'm sure he does a fine job as a guy with AIDS that tries to help other victims get drugs to help them live longer.

Leonardo DiCaprio- While I hated this movie I will admit DiCaprio did a good job playing a despicable stock broker with no redeeming values that never really pays for his crimes.

Who I think should win- Chiwetel Ejofor movie unseen.

Who I think will win- Matthew McConaughey.  The voters seem to be impressed with his weight loss even though almost no one saw this movie.

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett-  I get it.  The academy loooooooooves Ms. Blanchett.   She is a decent actress that has made a career out of boring movies that no one sees.  I rented Blue Jasmine and was bored to tears.

Sandra Bullock- She does a fantastic job in Gravity.  I think she is head and shoulders above the class here.

Amy Adams-  I thought the best thing Amy did here is show cleavage.  She has been far better in other movies.

Judi Dench-  Another big Academy favorite.  Usually when I see one of her movies I know it's not one I'd be interested in.  She may be great here.  I'll never know.

Meryl Streep- She is a great actress.  Of that there is no doubt.  I heard August : Osage County was the downer movie of the year.  No one saw it.

Who I think should win-  Sandra Bullock in a walk

Who I think will win- Cate Blanchett.  She seems to be one they love.

Best Supporting Actor

Barkhad Abdi-  He was very good as the terrorist trying to hijack a big ship.  Not sure how big a stretch it is for him.

Bradley Cooper- His perm was impressive I'll give you that.  Nothing else was award winning to me.

Michael Fassbender-  He is a good actor.  I like him.  I'm sure he was good in 12 Years a Slave.

Jonah Hill- The biggest farce in the awards.  He and his big fake teeth were like scratching on a chalkboard for me.

Jared Leto- I guess he dresses like a woman for the movie and the Academy was impressed.

Who I think should win- I would guess Michael Fassbender.

Who I think will win- As I said the Academy was impressed with the dress.  Leto

Best Supporting Actress

Sally Hawkins- I watched most of Blue Jasmine and I don't remember her at all.

Jennifer Lawrence-  The Academy seems to like Ms. Lawrence in a crazy way.  I don't.

Lupita Nyong'o- She is the talk of the town right now.

Julia Roberts- Julia is always good.  I'm sure she was here.

June Squbb- She plays the nagging wife on Nebraska.  I stand a better chance of winning this than she does.

Who I think should win- I would probably go with Julia Roberts

Who will probably win- Lupita Nyong'o seems to be on a roll.

Pompeii

Pompeii

Rating 7 out of 10

Before this movie I had heard of Pompeii and knew they had a bad day with a volcano.  That was about it.  I knew nothing else about it.  When it happened or even where it was.  Turns out Pompeii was a small town in South Italy built just outside Mount Vesuvius.  It was destroyed in 79 AD

The movie Pompeii is part Gladiator, part Romeo and Juliet and part 80s disaster movie.  Milo (Game of Thrones Kit Harington) as a child watches the evil Roman soldiers led by Corvus (Keifer Sutherland playing a bad guy) slaughter his whole village to set and example to other villages what happens if you defy Rome.  He becomes a slave and eventually becomes a gladiator killing others for the enjoyment of Romans.  He catches the eye of the local princess (Emily Browning) when he helps with her favorite horse.  Here we get the forbidden love.  We know there is little time before the volcano blows.

This movie is no Gladiator or even close.  I was entertained.  The acting is pretty good.  The scenes where the volcano does blow and destroys everything is quite impressive.  The action and fight scenes are pretty good.

You won't stand in line to buy the dvd but if you like these type movies I think you'll be mildly entertained.  I was.