The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner

Rating 5 out of 10

We all know these trilogies are popular right now.  Mostly for the younger crowd.  Started with Twilight.  Then Hunger Games and Divergent earlier this year.  The latest movie made from a trilogy of books is The Maze Runner.  I think I've had enough.  Agreed I'm not in the age demo they are aiming for and maybe the books are great.  I just have a problem with movies that the whole nearly two hours of film stock is dedicated to setting up movies number II and III,

The movie starts with a young man being sent up in a outdoor elevator looking thing and shoved into a big open field that turns out has huge 100+ foot concrete walls surrounding them. His memory is lost.  That happens to everyone he quickly finds out.  Soon he remembers his name is Thomas.  He quickly joins in with the eighty or so other guys that have been there up to 3-4 years.  A new guy shows every month with more supplies.  From where no one knows.

Every morning the big walls open and there is a maze out there.  A group of runners run the maze every day trying to figure out a way out.  You have to be careful not to be caught out there after dark when the walls close and these big mechanical spider looking things show up and like to pull arms off of young men.  If you thought the Hunger Games was too violent with young folks you want to stay away from this one.

Thomas right off the bat decides his mission in life is to find a way out while some in the group worry that his attempts will create harsh treatment by those who supply the goods. I can't say much more without giving spoilers although even at the end of the movie I was scratching my head trying to figure out what in the hell was going on.

I'm guessing if you have read the books you would like this movie more than I did.  I thought it was well acted and had some good action.  It was just too confusing as to what was really happening and why.  Even when they explained what was going on it didn't completely make sense.  I guess you have to watch II and III which I feel sure will be coming in the next two years.  I doubt I'll give it a run.

The Equalizer

The Equalizer

Rating 8.5 out of 10

There are a few actors that when one of their movies come out I will go see it trailer unwatched.  Denzel Washington is one of those actors.  He always gives you a good performance as he does here in this movie.

This is one of those movies that if you watch the trailer and it looks like a movie you would like chances are very good you will like it.  Alot.  If it looks like it has too much action, fighting and blood you should probably skip it.  I liked the trailer and loved the movie.

This movie is loosely based on a 80's tv show that instead of Denzel you got an older grey headed English man that would find people in need and dispense justice to bad men.  Here Denzel plays Robert McCall.  He is a mid level manager at a Home Depot type store with a crazy past.  He lives alone and has trouble sleeping at night.  In the early morning hours he walks to the local diner and reads books.  He befriends a young Russian call girl who always seems to be in the diner.  When her mean Russian pimp beats her bad enough to put her in the hospital Robert becomes the Equalizer.  He ends up taking on the Russian mafia and means business.

The acting is good all the way around.  The bad guys are really bad without going comically over the top.  Chloe Grace Moretz shows she is getting some acting chops beyond the movie Kick Ass.  As I said if you like this type of movie you will leave the theater happy.  I know I did.

A Walk Among the Tombstones

A Walk Among the Tombstones

Rating 6 out of 10

I thought this movie looked interesting when I saw the trailer and how can you go wrong with Liam Neeson?  I did not know this at the time this movie is based on a series of books.  Neeson plays ex-NY cop turned private eye.  He's not licensed so he takes the jobs no one else wants.

He is called in by a drug dealer who when he paid the ransom on his kidnapped wife the REALLY bad guys killed her anyway.  He wants his own kind of justice.  Turns out the bad guys are targeting family members of drug dealers.  You know the bad guys are pretty sick when you feel sorry for drug dealers.

This sounds like a pretty high impact action movie you have come to expect from Neeson.  It's not.  This is a slow plodding movie with little action.  Out of the nearly two hour running time probably 30% is of Neeson walking from place to place.

The movie is also very brutal in a nasty twisted torturing women sort of way.  It creeped me out in parts.  They don't show the brutality, but it's implied enough to make your skin crawl.

I was mildly entertained yet could not recommend this movie.  I expected it to be better.

The November Man

The November Man

Rating 6.5 out of 10

I thought this movie looked interesting from the trailers.  I've missed Pierce Brosnan since he quit being Bond, James Bond. He defines the word suave and is a pretty good actor to boot.  I was a bit nervous when I saw the movie was getting tanked in reviews (scoring only a 36% on www.rottentomatoes.com) but I powered through and for the most part was glad I did.

Brosnan is Peter Devereaux, the top CIA agent.  Nicknamed the November Man because when he goes in to a situation not a bad man survives.  Not sure what that has to do with November but I'll buy it.  When an OP goes bad and a small child is killed Peter decides to hang up his boots and 9MM and retire to a nice island with a view.  Dang, as luck would have it after several years he is drawn back in for one last mission.

The man about to become the new Russian leader amazingly enough was a very bad guy when he was a general in their army.  As he is getting close to becoming the leader he starts killing off people that know about all the skeletons in his closet.  He is down to one lady who knows the worst of the worst of what he has done.  Peter is there to save her from assassins and now needs to keep her alive until they can out the bad guy.

Yes, the movie is full of cliches.  His old CIA buddies are now after him also led by the young buck he trained.  If you can watch the movie with rose colored glasses like my movie buddy Ted Daniels (who also defines suave) you can overlook the cliches and love the movie.  I thought the movie was interesting.  The action was good and lots of good actors I like.

I was entertained.  I would recommend this movie for an early show or a good rental.

Lucy

Lucy 

Rating 4 out of 10

When I saw the trailers for this movie several months ago I was intrigued.  I like Scarlett Johansson and the story looked interesting.  A woman in Asia with her loser boyfriend gets tricked into participating in a crazy drug deal.  When the really bad guys work on transporting the new drug into Europe they kidnap unsuspecting people and cut their stomach open and insert the drugs inside of them.  Resistance is dealt with very harshly. When the bag inside Lucy (Johansson) ruptures and starts releasing the drug in large doses into her body it comes with a crazy side effect.  It allows her to access the majority of her brain instead of the measly 10% we mortals use.  I know many mortals I'm sure use closer to 2% but that's another story.  Lucy begins to have special powers that allow her to do superhuman things.

That alone to me sounded like a movie with some promise.  Unfortunately it just made my head hurt. It's like taking your car to the shop for a tune up and a professor comes out and explains the internal workings of a combustable engine is great detail for two hours.  All I wanted was a tune up.

Director Luc Besson is know more for his huge flops than any good movies he has made.  The Professional in 1994 may be the last good movie he made.  I wonder how he keeps getting the keys to the car.  He has a good cast to work with here with the always good Morgan Freeman joining Scarlett.  He just makes a mess out of things.  He throws in goofy flashbacks that have little to do with what is going on and bounces around too much to make much sense.

I found this to be a waste of time where I was checking my watch ready to get out of the theater.  Rent if you must.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Rating 5 out of 10

When I was a kid the big cartoons were Scooby Do and Johnny Quest.  By the time the karate kicking turtles came along I was out of the cartoon watching phase and I had a small son that loved them.  I thought they were cute but could never remember which one was Leonardo or which one was Donatello.   Still can't.  That was 20+ years ago and they are still going strong.  My youngest son also loved the Ninja Turtles.

I went into this movie knowing I was not in the target audience.  Special effects have improved greatly since the last Turtle movie.  This movie starts off at the beginning and I believe takes a little different turn on how the little turtles grew so big and learned how to use nunchucks.  They befriend the pretty reporter April O'Neil ( Megan Fox- looking good again after her ten year dabble with being way too skinny and over dosing on tattoos)

If you are a male child between 6-15 years old you will love this movie.  The rest of us not so much.  The effects were good and there was plenty of action.  The story for me kinda dragged along and amazingly enough the bad guys didn't destroy the world (spoiler alert).   If you have a young child that wants to see this there are worse options for you.  I was mildly entertained yet was ready to see the closing credits.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Rating 4 out of 10

I saw the original Sin City in 2005. I was mildly amused and gave it a rating of 6 out of 10. These movies are most definitely style over substance. The colors in the film and the over the top acting. Action is exaggerated and the violence is brutal. You don't go to this movie for the plot.

Jessica Alba is returning from the first movie and that is never a bad thing. She is a stripper dancing in the seedy strip club in Sin City. She still very angry about the death of her love Hartigan (Bruce Willis) years before and vows to get even with the powerful Senator who caused his death.

This movie has several plot lines and none of them make much sense. The dame in the title is Ava Lord (the very lovely and mostly naked Eva Green) who returns to her old flame Dwight (Josh Brolin) for help with a potential abusive husband.

There is another plot line featuring Josh (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as a bastard son of the main bad guy of the movie Senator Roark (Powers Boothe) out to prove a point. We never really figure out what his point is.

Visually the movie is incredible to look at. It has a crazy good cast most of whom only get a few short minutes on screen. It's just too all over the place and mostly makes no sense. If you REALLY liked the first one you will be entertained here.

footnote- Had a bad storm go over the theater while there and power went out. Sat there a couple minutes in the dark waiting for everything to come back online. First time that has happened to me.