Gifted

Gifted

Rating 6 out of 10

I thought this movie looked cute from the first trailer viewing.  Good cast.  Was concerned that it had a limited release, but some time on my hands I decided to give it a shot.  It was a good rainy day movie.

The movie starts with little Mary begrudgingly going off for her first day at school.  We find out that Frank is her uncle.  When her mother (his sister) died he took on the task of raising her.  We soon find out that Mary is gifted to the genius status.  In first grade she is doing huge multiplication problems in her head.  The teachers of course want to send her directly to the school for the gifted but Uncle Frank promised her mom (who was also a genius) she would get a normal life with normal kids.

Grandma gets involved and wants to push her to the limits she did with Mom that caused her demise. Grandma is rich and controlling and sues for custody.

The film moves along at a slow pace and is fairly predictable.  What makes this an above average movie is the acting .  Chris Evans is very good as Uncle Frank and little McKenna Grace could not be cuter as Mary.  Octavia Spencer is also good as the neighbor that helps out with Mary.

I was entertained.  I would say when this hits RedBox it would be a very good rental.

Fate of the Furious

The Fate of the Furious

Rating 3 out of 10

Clearly this has been an interesting series of movies.  I have liked most of the Fast and Furious movies.  I think the apex was Fast Five.  They really should have stopped there.  The problem is the movies keep making a bazillion dollars so sad to say there will be more.  This Fate movie grossed over $500 Million world wide.  For me after this one I am out.

The Furious 7 movie was so over the top and unbelievable but still had a fun factor even though it seemed to have been written by a third grader.  So the bar was set pretty low with Fate of the Furious.  Sadly for all of us four guys that saw it the movie finished far below expectations.  As anyone that has watched tv in the past few months has surely seen the trailers for F8 knows this time Dom goes rogue.  The only thing the family can't handle is a bad Dom.  I'm not going to give spoilers as to why Dom goes rogue but I should to save you ten bucks.  The action is not very good.  Every fight scene with the Rock or Jason Statham is so full of shaky cam it was hard to watch.

The plot is so weak even that third grader that wrote the last one would say Oh Please!  Needless to say I was not entertained.  Slapped my forehead so many times I had a headache when I left.  I know you have to take these with a grain of salt. I just couldn't do it.

I would say don't even bother to rent but that's just me.

Boss Baby

Boss Baby 

Rating 7 out of 10

This was not a cartoon I was anxious to see.  It looked kinda dumb and predictable.  Maybe I'll rent it.  Maybe.  But when my beautiful granddaughter Olivia has a birthday she pretty much gets what she wants from me (most other days also).  We braved the thunderstorms and her momma Mandy met us there were a car load of young ones.  Two minutes before the movie started what must have been a bus load of kids invaded the theater.  Oh man, when the movie gets boring this is going to be painful.

Then the movie started.  Much to my surprise it was actually funny.  The kids were all laughing heartily and I laughed out loud a few times too.  The 97 minute movie moves along at a good pace.  Yes the story is predictable.  Young Timmy is loving life with his two caring parents (voiced by Lisa Kudrow and Jimmy Kimmel) spoiling him with truck loads of attention. Then one day it's all ruined when a baby from the baby factory (Alec Baldwin).  There is a side plot where Boss Baby is a special baby that is being groomed to take over the Baby Factory except the bad guy is causing problems.  Timmy is out to do whatever it takes to get Boss out of his life.

My Grandkids laughed until their sides hurt.  I laughed and was entertained,  It was much better than I thought it would be,  I wouldn't rate it up there even close to Moana or some of the other great animated films of last year.  I won't buy the dvd but I will recommend it for kids of all ages.

Power Rangers

Power Rangers

Rating 6 out of 10

The Power Rangers have been around for quite some time as the tv show started in the US back in 1993.  I have never watched an episode but my oldest son (31 now) I feel sure watched every one.  I am surprised this is the first large scale movie released in theaters.  The movie while clearly aimed at young males and big fans of the old tv show does hit the mark for that.  I had a cute little granddaughter that wanted to see it so no matter what I was going to have fun.

The movie starts with a super hero version of the Breakfast Club.  All five of our future Rangers are in High School detention for various reasons.  When the nerdy kid gets the cool kid to go to a rock quarry with him to look for I'm not sure what it turns out the two females and Asian kid are at the quarry at the same time.  As luck would have it when they are digging in the rocks they find five crystal type rocks all of different colors.  So each one of the Rangers get their own crystal that gives them each super powers.  Super strong and can leap small buildings with a single bound.

The problem is when they unearthed their super crystals they also awoke a really mean female that loves gold and (surprise) is determined to wipe out all humans and take over earth.  When she builds her golden giant to kill everyone the five rookie Power Rangers are all there are to save the world.

The final showdown is cool for this type of movie.  I was mildly entertained.  Little Rylee Rose gave it an enthusiastic double thumbs up.  Although she gave the video games in the lobby the same approval.  If you have a young child that you want to take to a movie or an older child that grew up on the tv shows you won't be completely bored.  Definitely worth seeing on the big screen.

CHiPs

ChiPS

Rating 5.5 out of 10

Conversation
Me: That CHiPs movie looks sooooooo stupid.  I didn't even like the tv show when it was on in the 80s.  I like Dax Shepard but has he EVER been in a good movie???  I'd rather you just hit me in the head with a bat right now and get it over with.

Hottie: I'd really like to see that CHiPs movie

Me: There is a 130pm showing...

Needless to say I set the bar very low for this movie.  Surprisingly it was mildly entertaining and harmless.  The movie uses actual characters from the old tv show.   The story is not much more silly that any episode that hit the air on NBC.

Shepard plays Jon Baker.  An ex-pro cycle rider that wants to become a CHiPs officer to impress his distant wife (true life wife Kristen Bell).  Frank "Ponch" Poncherello (Michael Pena) is an FBI agent sent in to investigate some possible bad cops.  He gets partnered with Baker since he is a rookie and can't be one of the bad ones.

The story is elementary and predictable, but there are some funny parts that do land even tho most are aimed at 14 year old males.  Vincent D' Onofrio (one of my favorites) plays a good bad guy.  We laughed and as long as our popcorn and diet coke didn't run out we didn't look at our watches.

As I said I was mildly entertained.  This would make a decent rental for some laughs.

Life

Life

Rating 5 out of 10

I was on the fence on this one, but the good cast and some time on my hands got the better of me.  One of my movie pet peeves is movie previews that tell the whole dang movie.  That is mostly the case here.  The previews tell the whole story.

There is a group of astronauts on a large expensive Space Station not far out of the atmosphere.  They are attempting to gather a probe from Mars that somehow they know has a possible life form.  In the matter of hours they have the thing in the lab and are poking at it. They treat it like a pet and even give it a name.  Turns out the little guy is not so friendly after all and when he grows like crazy.  Starts killing the good guys and is way smarter than they thought.

You can pretty much guess the rest of the story.  It comes across as a low rent Alien movie.  If it were not for the good cast this would go straight to DVD or never been made. It's not bad, but it's not good either.  If you are bored you can rent this one at RedBox in a couple months.  I was mostly bored.

Beauty and the Beast

Rating 7 out of 10

I have seen the Disney animated Beauty and the Beast atleast twenty times since it's release in 1991.  Can it really be twenty six years ago???  One of my all time favorite animated movies.  I was hooked on this one from the first preview.

I like the idea of a mostly live action version of this movie. I figured Disney would do it right.  For the most part they did.  Emma Watson was absolutely spot on as sweet Belle.  I was surprised that she sang as well as she did.  The story is mostly like the original but not completely.  They added atleast three new musical numbers and a few new twists to the story.

Anyone that saw my La La Land review knows I am not a big fan of musicals yet this is in my opinion how musicals are supposed to be.  There were probably three or four musical numbers too many for my taste yet still let the movie highly entertaining.  There are some scary parts early on where people are attacked by wolves but nothing most small ones can handle.

On the down side I didn't care for the actor the played the Beast (Dan Stevens) much at all.  Didn't really feel he had the singing chops to be in a movie like this.  Especially how well Emma sang.  The animation was mostly good.  There were a few times when the Beast looked like Emma was talking to a video game.  But overall it was above average.

I was entertained.  Doesn't make me want to throw away my dvd of the original but I was entertained.  It will make a bazillion dollars and kids will be singing the songs for years to come.