MOVIES ~ Any of ya'll seen any good (or shitty) movies in recent weeks/months? Post reviews, feedback, movie news, trailers, recommendations, etc ...

Baywatch



Based on the long running Baywatch and short lived Baywatch TV shows Baywatch is another movie that cant decide what it wants to be
Raunchy comedy? Action adventure with a little drama? Or a straight parody?

Some of jokes worked,and there's some fun to be had
The cast does their best with the schizophrenic script,the women are beyond beautiful

A lot of jokes go on far to long
A scene fades out on a joke that starts off funny but then fades back in to the same joke which made it grating
A lot of talent is wasted ,some of the green screen work is terrible
This movie was like watching a Skinemax flick that's trying to have a story but minus the skin....well there's skin but not the type of skin I wanted to see for a long period of time

Scale of 1-10 a 3
 
WONDER WOMAN






Whether she was in Comic Book,animated, or Television form Wonder Woman has always been the personification of strength,courage,intelligence and beauty.
All of the aforementioned has been carried over to the movie Wonder Woman,thanks to the very good portrayal of the iconic character by Gal Gadot,a very good script by Allan Heinberg,and the direction of Patty Jenkins

This is an origin story that is thankfully not dwelling ,not rushed,but gave me enough of WW's growing up on Themyscira/Paradise Island,all of the strengths of and different races of the Amazon's that live there. High praise to Robin Wright as General Antiope: Hippolyta's sister and WW's aunt and mentor & Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta WW's mother.
Also kudo's to the women portraying The Amazon's

Chris Pine continues to prove himself as an actor.The chemistry between him and Gadot is off the charts.They hit all the right notes together,whether its a humorous,dramatic or romantic scene.
Kudos to the actor's that make up WW's World War I team:Saïd Taghmaoui as Sameer
Ewen Bremner as Charlie and Eugene Brave Rock as Chief
This movie works so well as a Comic Book film actually reminding me of The All Star Squadron comic books,a fish out of water story and a war film.Nothing is passed over and the messages throughout the movie are clear

My only gripes are the villains.There was a cheesy campy moment that made me cringe and gave me flashbacks of 1997's Batman & Robin movie
The finale is a CGI fest that was a bit over done,but i liked what was said during it.

Im looking forward to Justice League and a second film featuring the Goddess of Truth


Scale of 1-10 an 8½


Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales







Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is not as bad as i thought it would be.
Jack Sparrow is being pursued by the vengeful ghoul Captain Armando Salazar due to Sparrow causing his undead status. Henry Turner The son of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann also pursues Sparrow hoping he knows the way to a powerful Trident that will reverse his father's curse and Carina who wants the trident for personal reasons.

There are some rousing and fun moments in the film,i got several laughs from the stupidity of the pirates,and the over the top mumbling and swagger of Sparrow.
There is some impressive SFX sprinkled throughout the film,the flirtation between Henry and Carina was cute here and there.

Some of the CGI was a bit choppy and the film has way to many characters that were disposable.
By now i thought there would be more depth to the Sparrow character but at this point it likely wont happen and judging by the box office take for this movie fans like Sparrow just the way he is.

Scale of 1-10 a 7
 
LIFE




The latest horror in space film to hit the big screen is titled L I F E and its actually pretty good.
It's the story of a six-member crew aboard the International Space Station studying rocks from Mars and discover a life form exists within the rocks.This discovery is welcomed by all aboard and the world until the life form becomes hostile and the fun and chaos begins.

Even though i found some of the character development to be a bit slight,i was pulled into the fates of the characters as the suspense is pushed to high levels with enough visuals and thrilling moments to keep me engaged.

The movie does borrow from other films in it's genre bracket and falls into some some cliched black holes but its very entertaining and has one of those endings that made me smile and wonder could more branch off from this story.

Scale of 1-10 a 7½


POWER RANGERS



I was never a super fan of the Power Rangers.Through my brothers and son's love for the series and watching episodes here and there with them i could definitely see that this 2017 big screen version of the long running TV series,gets a lot of things right
Fortunately there is some good character development for the five leads Dacre Montgomery as Jason Scott / Red Ranger, the leader of the Power Rangers.
Naomi Scott as Kimberly Hart / Pink Ranger
RJ Cyler as Billy Cranston / Blue Ranger,
Becky G as Trini Kwan / Yellow Ranger
Ludi Lin as Zack Taylor / Black Ranger
Al with their different personal problems and motivations ,even though some are less involving than others.
The plot is set up nicely with a good turn by the great Bryan Cranston as the voice and motion capture of Zordon
Characters that i thought would be obnoxious and grating actually become the most watrchable.
The action sequences are good providing a mixed bag of visual styles
There is some cheesiness to the film and over acting from Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa, but as a whole the film is fun
There will likely be a few more PR films and it will be interesting to see where the Power Rangers GO from here.


Scale of 1-10 a 7½


was watching Life on Kodi. Ryan Reynolds appeared to have died. That was good enough. 7. Power Rangers Liam Neesom I believe brought back the black guy/ranger...also good enough for 7. never finished either
 
Sleight









Sleight may borrow a bit from the films Iron Man and Fresh but other than that its 95 percent original

Bo has suffered some tragedies in his life but he does well as a street 'magician' and drug runner as he cares for his younger sister and starts a relationship with a young lady named Holly who comes with her own set of personal problems
But when his drug kingpin boss wants him to get into more sinister actions trouble starts to arise

I was completely pulled in by the plight of the main character,and really admired the originality of the film,and the screenplay is quite involving
There are a couple of plot holes and clunky moments but aside from that the main cast which includes Jacob Latimore,Seychelle Gabriel,Sasheer Zamata,Storm Reid,Cameron Esposito
and Dulé Hill

This is a film so worthy of a large audience and box office support,so if you cant catch it in the theatre please support it when it hits the DVD shelves.

Scale of 1-10 an 8½


The Circle

Imagine an ultimate version of Google or Facebook,in which every aspect of your life was filmed and logged
Such is the case in the film The Circle
Mae Holland (Emma Watson) can't wait to work for them and is overjoyed when she starts working for them
There are many fringe benefits and they even help her family particularly her father (Bill Paxton in his final film role) who is suffering from multiple sclerosis
Her boss and CEO of The Circle Eamon Bailey,seems to be the best boss ever and gracious as he offers up amazing tech advances for low prices but is something sinister laying beneath it all?

I loved the first half of the movie Hanks was charming as ever I actually got excited about some of the tech he offered up in the film and there are great scenes about how much Chloe has to give over of her life to her new job
Definitely a reflection of how so many people give up so much information about their lives in various social media networks

Then the film runs out of steam,i started losing interest fast as the film gets bogged down by Chloe trying to find out what's going on with the Circle and how far reaching the company really is

Laced with some bad acting,characters only showing up briefly, and no big pay off The Circle's latter half disappoints

Scale of 1-10 a 6

RIP Bill Paxton


Sleight still isn't on Kodi.:hmm: Y'all slipping in 2017 man. For realo_O
 
THE HERO






In The Hero Sam Elliott is Lee Hayden an actor at the twilight of his career and life
Elliott is perfect in the role never missing a beat as a man trying to make amends and peace with his life.
Laura Prepon is good as Charlotte a woman who walks into her life,at first i thought her character would be one note so it was a nice surprise that she wasnt.

There are also nice touches by Nick Offerman,Elliott's real life wife Katharine Ross and Krysten Ritter
It's cliched and padded at times but definitely worth watching

Scale of 1-10 a 7½


It Comes at Night







It Comes at Night is an ambiguous im talking ambiguous witha capital A !!
As the film begins a family of 3 have secluded themselves to the woods,out of fear of some plague.
One day another family of 3 comes a knocking and the fun begins.

I would say the ambiguity works for about 75% of the films running time as the tension and suspense is raised to edge of your seat levels,its aslo well acted by the entire cast.
The hisses and a couple of boo's from the audience i watched it with may indicate how many might feel about the films conclusion,i definitely had some problems with it,and word of mouth about it may definitely alter the volume of audiences curious about the film.


Scale of 1-10 a 7½



The Mummy






This 2017 The Mummy film is supposed to be the gateway to other Universal Pictures/Dark Universe monster mash franchises like Frankenstein and The Invisible Man but is this film's foundation strong enough for it to happen?

So what did i like about it.
The opening Mythology,Sofia Boutella as Princess Ahmanet nice blend of scary and beauty,some of the action sequences,the SFX,Russell Crowe chewing up some scenery,some nice dark turns,and Tom Cruise does his best with the script........

Ugh that script !! This is what you get when you have to many cooks in the kitchen....4 different writers,deliver something half baked with little seasoning.
It's uneven and jumbled.
There is absolutely no chemistry between Cruise and Annabelle Wallis as archeologist Jennifer "Jenny" Halsey
In fact the film makes a joke about any real romantic connection or even the characters caring about each other.
Jake Johnson was funny at first as Cruises sidekick but his character is turned into a grating, weird,recurring
nightmare.
The film trys to borrow some dark humor from An American Werewolf in London,that completely doesnt work
What's crazy is i still want to see what they come up with for the rest of The Dark Universe,but it's up to the ticket sales for The Mummy or maybe Universal will shell out the bucks for at least 2 more films despite how this first outing performs


Scale of 1-10 a 6½
 
Gonna start getting caught up on movies soon hopefully. Waiting on the NBA Finals, Fargo, and Better Call Saul to wrap up. Usually watching those with friends or fam', or the MMA ppvs with the crew. Gotta get back into the movie routine.
 
All Eyez on Me



Can you really sum a persons life in a 2 or 3 hour movie,even if it was only a brief 25 years?
Tupac Shakur was larger than life,multi talented,controversial and ambitious.

Director Benny Boom and writers Jeremy Haft,Eddie Gonzalez,and Steven Bagatourian gets the biopic All Eyez on Me off to a good start by introducing Afeni Shakur,Tupac's mother a political activist and member of the Black Panther Party,who was a loving mother but flawed woman who heavily pushed for Tupac to have a grasp of the world and to become knowledgable about it.I thought their bond was perfectly played on screen,with a definite boost from a perfomance from Danai Gurira as Afeni.

Demetrius Shipp Jr. as Tupac Shakur did a great job,capturing the look,mannerisms and even movements of Shakur,only briefly lacking in a couple of scenes.
As the film progressed it felt more like a documentary only touching on a few things,not dwelling on anything that could have connected me more to the movie or Tupac himself.

Some of the portrayals were spot on: Kat Graham as Jada Pinkett, Chris Clarke as Shock G,and Annie Ilonzeh as Kidada Jones.Other's were laughable and lacking :Grace Gibson as Faith Evans,Lian Amado as Angie Martinez ( Thank God her scene was short !!!!) and Jarrett Ellis as Snoop Dogg,that voice over dubbing was terrible,but i did intentionally laugh at one scene he was in.

I went in expecting inaccuracies and of course there are a few.
The film truly comes to life whenever Tupac's songs were played.There are good moments that displayed why he was so loyal to Suge Knight,how bad association lead to bad turns in his life.
I wanted to see more of his connection with Biggie Smalls,more of his take on how he viewed life.
But as i stated at the beginning of this review how much can you put in a 2 or 3 hour film?
I actually hope John Singleton who walked away from this film gets to make his own Tupac biopic

As the movie drew to a close i did reflect on what i and Tupac's many fans were robbed of :So much more music,and performances from an artist that has become a legend.

Scale of 1-10 a 7½


47 Meters Down



Following on the heels of The Shallow's another human vs shark flick hits the big screen in 47 Meters Down.
Lisa (Mandy Moore) and Kate (Claire Holt) are sisters on vacation in Mexico who decide to take a boat trip to go deep diving shark watching,of course everything goes wrong and they find themselves trapped 47 meters down with some great white sharks.

There are some thrilling moments in the film as i actually felt the peril and scary situation the women were in,but then i started thinking about their logic.
Sure things may happen in a persons life and it may influence you to take a risk here and there,but whats displayed to the characters in this film should have made them do a complete about face
Then a moment is thrown in which i should have seen coming because it was actually stated a few times completely pissed me off !!

wait for the DVD !!

Scale OF 1-10 a 6
 
Finally got around to seeing Fences. We enjoyed it, as expected. Great performances across the board.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fences_(film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accolades_received_by_Fences_(film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fences_(film)#Critical_response






Fences is a 2016 American period drama film directed by and starring Denzel Washington and written by August Wilson, based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name (Wilson died in 2005, but completed a screenplay before his death). In addition to Washington, the film also stars Viola Davis, Stephen Henderson, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby, Mykelti Williamson and Saniyya Sidney.

Principal photography on the film began on April 25, 2016, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Hill District, and wrapped in mid-June 2016.[3] Fences was released in the United States on December 16, 2016, by Paramount Pictures, received positive reviews and grossed $64 million. The film was chosen by the American Film Institute as one of the top ten films of 2016,[4] and has been nominated for numerous awards, including four Oscar nominations at the 89th Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Washington), Best Supporting Actress (Davis), and Best Adapted Screenplay, with Davis winning for her performance. It also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor for Washington and a Best Supporting Actress win for Davis.[5]
 
@joneblaze

What rating scale are you using? I've seen both The Mummy and Baywatch. You gave the former a 6.5 and the latter a 3.

How in the world is The Mummy "3.5" better than Baywatch when they both weren't that great, to begin with?

Here's a simpler question. How does The Mummy get over a 5 on this 10 point scale?
 
@joneblaze

What rating scale are you using? I've seen both The Mummy and Baywatch. You gave the former a 6.5 and the latter a 3.

How in the world is The Mummy "3.5" better than Baywatch when they both weren't that great, to begin with?

Here's a simpler question. How does The Mummy get over a 5 on this 10 point scale?


@tical I rate films by the script,acting,production, and SFX The Mummy had great SFX IMO plus i liked some of the dark turns in the film,but the script was pretty bad
 
@tical I rate films by the script,acting,production, and SFX The Mummy had great SFX IMO plus i liked some of the dark turns in the film,but the script was pretty bad

Fair enough! But i have to admit it does seem like you're a liberal grader. A good deal of your films are over 7/10 by your grading standard.
 
On a semi-related note in regards to entertainment, and MOVIES/TV ...





- Season 2 of Stranger Things returns on October 31st. The Walking Dead will be returning in October, per normal, too ...




- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_Things#Release

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_Things

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_(TV_series)#Series_overview

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_(TV_series)#Season_8



The series was released on Netflix on July 15, 2016. It received critical acclaim for its characterization, pacing, atmosphere, acting, soundtrack, directing, writing and homages to 1980s genre films. The series has received several industry nominations and awards, including winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2016. On August 31, 2016, Netflix renewed the series for a second season of nine episodes, which is set to be released on October 31, 2017.
 
Fair enough! But i have to admit it does seem like you're a liberal grader. A good deal of your films are over 7/10 by your grading standard.
Sometimes i take off points if the film gives the audience a big FU It Comes At Night is the perfect example good script,great acting,good suspence and then i realized how it was going to turn out
Just another example of how i grade films
 
The Big Sick




Kumail Nanjiani's real life love story is brought to the big screen in The Big Sick.
Kumail Nanjiani as Kumail and Zoe Kazan as Emily meet cute,try to keep things casual,but cant deny their connection.The obstacle Kumail's traditional Pakistani Muslim family want to marry him off to a Pakistani woman,when Zoe discovers he's been hiding her and about all the women his parents tried to set him up with he cant give her a straight answer ,they break up,and Zoe becomes very ill,placed in a coma,and Kumail awkwardly bonds with her parents.

This film works as a dark comedy,romantic comedy,,drama and a tear jerker.
The performances are so strong across the board with so much heart. Nanjiani and Kazan have great chemistry.
Ray Romano as Emily's father Terry is terrific,i still miss his short lived tv drama Men of a Certain Age
Holly Hunter is outstanding as Beth his wife and loving mother of Emily.They are so believable as the well worn husband and wife.
There are great supporting characters.I loved the raw emotion and honesty of the characters.

Only a couple of moments in the movie were a bit stiff

A nice Summer surprise

Scale of 1-10 a 9


The Beguiled





It's 1864 and a young girl happens upon a badly wounded Union soldier John McBurney helps him back to her boarding school where he is nursed back to health by the head mistress Martha Farnsworth.Each girl and woman are intrigued by him,flirtations begin,and a game of seduction and desire lead to some minor mayhem.

Colin Farrell as John McBurney is charming as ever and draws each woman to him in some way.
The actresses all click together well from Nicole Kidman,to Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning.
I liked that for a time i didnt know their intentions,especially Dunst who really played her cards close to her chest
It never really gets to the ultra sinister turns that the trailers kind of promised,and the film is a very slow burn,but i found it very entertaining

Scale of 1-10 an 8



Rough Night






Rough Night never gets to the crazy levels of mayhem as Oh no we killed the stripper movies like STAG or Very Bad Things but some sight gags and jokes are hilarious.Scarlett Johansson ,Kate McKinnon ,Jillian Bell ,Ilana Glazer and Zoë Kravitz play well together and Paul W. Downs as Peter the fiance has some funny turns in his odyssey to find out what Johansson is up to.
The film has a lot of predictable turns near the end and runs out of steam in it's last 20 minutes
A good rental for a slow Saturday night

Scale of 1-10 a 6½




Transformers: The Last Knight




In the time since the last Transformers adventure more Autobots and Decepticons have come to Earth to fight it out,a splinter group from the military has been established to keep them under control or just make them blow up real good,and we have Mark Wahlberg as Cade Yeager trying to make a safe haven for and defend the Autobots from the splinter group and a plucky girl Isabela Moner as Izabella trying to do the same.
On top of this here comes Cybertron again trying to over take Earth and only a lost relic can stop it

So what did i like about this 5th Transformers flick? I actually liked this a bit better...and i mean a bit better than the last flick.The SFX,3D,and action sequences are flawless,i thought a couple of new characters were interesting with a nice look to them

I know Michael Bay's feeling is: I dont care if you complain because you are going to see the movie anyway!! It's unfortunate he feels that way and it's just unfortunate all of the good things are coupled with a terrible script,so much time is wasted on silly banter.Characters that were hyped up in the trailers,introduced in the movie ,and favorites vanish for at least an hour,or have brief moments and are never seen again.
Sight gags are grating and painfully unfunny,stereotypical characters dance around the screen like something out of a nightmare.

The story could have worked,but there are way to many plot holes and inconsistent moments.Some of the actors arent bad but what they are given to work with makes them look brain dead.Whenever the film slows down i kept hoping the scene of anyone talking would just end quickly.

This is what i suggest rent the movie,fast forward to any action sequence,marvel at it,and move on with your life


Scale of 1-10 a 5
 
BABY DRIVER




About 3 weeks ago i walked into a movie theatre and i saw a huge standee for the movie Baby Driver.There were quotes from film critics written all over it,saying how great the movie was.
In the weeks that followed ,ads on TV and on the big screen said the same thing.
I started thinking they are really hyping this movie up.
Well does it live up to the hype? Well i would say it was a bit over hyped.

Ansel Elgort is Baby,the wheel man for Doc (Kevin Spacey) who puts crews and heists together.
Baby suffers from tinnitus so he uses music to drown it out but this doesnt limit him from being a great driver and retain all the information needed for any heist he's a part of.

I was so glad to see Elgort outside of his role in the Divergent movie,i liked the character ,i related to to his love of music.
Spacey was outstanding as usual.Jamie Foxx as Leon "Bats" Jefferson was great his character is the type of side eyed,snearing,intimidating person that even when he smiles at you ,you better keep your guard up.
Jon Hamm & Eiza González were good as the Bonnie & Clyde of the crew.Jon Bernthal,Flea and
Lanny Joon make brief but noticeable appearances
Baby's romance with Lily James as Debora, was cute but has some stiff and stalling moments

This is a musical without being a musical( THANK GOD !! ) I definitely found myself tapping my feet to the music,the marriage of music set to the beats of a high tension moment or action sequence was perfect.
BD does fall into some cliched holes but fortunately not for to long,it pulls itself out of the holes by having some unexpected turns,and originality,kudos to Director and writer Edgar Wright

Definitely worth seeing in the theatre but dont go in expecting to be completely thrilled

Scale of 1-10 an 8





THE HOUSE




I loved the set up for this movie.A young lady named Alex gets into the college of her dreams but her parents Scott and Kate Johansen cant afford it so they decide to open an illegal casino with their friend Frank
Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler were good as Scott and Kate but Jason Mantzoukas was better as Frank

There was so much i liked in the film's first hour.The banter between the people of the town in which the Johansen's reside,the town council,the fight club at the casino,and just how every attempt was made to have a true blue casino inside a home.

By the last half hour with the exception of a funny cameo ,the story became predictable,there were actually recycled jokes from comedies that came out earlier this year.The ad libbing was off the charts and it made me wonder did this film have a full script?

This makes for a good cable watch

Scale of 1-10 a 6½
 
BABY DRIVER




About 3 weeks ago i walked into a movie theatre and i saw a huge standee for the movie Baby Driver.There were quotes from film critics written all over it,saying how great the movie was.
In the weeks that followed ,ads on TV and on the big screen said the same thing.
I started thinking they are really hyping this movie up.
Well does it live up to the hype? Well i would say it was a bit over hyped.

Ansel Elgort is Baby,the wheel man for Doc (Kevin Spacey) who puts crews and heists together.
Baby suffers from tinnitus so he uses music to drown it out but this doesnt limit him from being a great driver and retain all the information needed for any heist he's a part of.

I was so glad to see Elgort outside of his role in the Divergent movie,i liked the character ,i related to to his love of music.
Spacey was outstanding as usual.Jamie Foxx as Leon "Bats" Jefferson was great his character is the type of side eyed,snearing,intimidating person that even when he smiles at you ,you better keep your guard up.
Jon Hamm & Eiza González were good as the Bonnie & Clyde of the crew.Jon Bernthal,Flea and
Lanny Joon make brief but noticeable appearances
Baby's romance with Lily James as Debora, was cute but has some stiff and stalling moments

This is a musical without being a musical( THANK GOD !! ) I definitely found myself tapping my feet to the music,the marriage of music set to the beats of a high tension moment or action sequence was perfect.
BD does fall into some cliched holes but fortunately not for to long,it pulls itself out of the holes by having some unexpected turns,and originality,kudos to Director and writer Edgar Wright

Definitely worth seeing in the theatre but dont go in expecting to be completely thrilled

Scale of 1-10 an 8





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