Looper

 

In the futuristic action thriller Looper, time travel will be invented - but it will be illegal and only available on the black market. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target 30 years into the past, where a "looper" (a hired gun), like Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good until the day the mob decides to "close the loop," sending back Joe's future self (Bruce Willis) for assassination. The film is written and directed by Rian Johnson and also stars Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, and Jeff Daniels.

This movie did two things incredibly well. Sci Fi is all about making people believe in the world being portrayed. This "future" was very well developed and beliveable. The storytelling and back and forth between present Joe and "future" Joe's stories was incredibly done. You found yourself going back and forth rooting for them as you understood both of their lines of thinking on how things had to play out. There were only two things that kept me from completely raving about this movie. One - the makeup on Joseph Gordon-Levitt making him not look like Joseph Gordon Levitt was driving me crazy the whole movie. I don't see why that was necessary at all. The second thing is that the pacing was so kick ass for the first half of the movie and then awesome for the last 1/2 hour but there was a 1/2 hour in there where the movie basically just kind of stopped. If that were done better, this would be a lock for my top ten movies list . . . . . even with the ending that is very philosophical instead of the textbook closure providing type.

I would definitely recommend people checking this out. It is excellent sci-fi and amazing storytelling.

The Words

 

Starring Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Irons, Dennis Quaid, Olivia Wilde and Zoe Saldana, The Words follows young writer Rory Jansen who finally achieves long sought after literary success after publishing the next great American novel. There's only one catch - he didn't write it. As the past comes back to haunt him and his literary star continues to rise, Jansen is forced to confront the steep price that must be paid for stealing another man's work, and for placing ambition and success above life's most fundamental three words.

It's hard to put my finger on why, but I liked this movie. A lot. I'm not saying its a great movie but it was very enjoyable for the usual toilet of movie releases that is the month of September. I guess it was the storytelling format that they used. It was simple and different and even though you knew any twists that would pop up, you were still totally intrigued to see how it played out . . . . or was told by the narrator. The movie was also very short and I think that the lack of dead time kept the storytelling that much tighter.

I would recommend people check this movie out. Again - it's not a must see by any means but I did enjoy it very much just because of the narrative way of telling the story and the back and forth between three different writers.

Trouble With The Curve

 

Gus Lobel (Clint Eastwood) has been one of the best scouts in baseball for decades, but, despite his efforts to hide it, age is starting to catch up with him. Nevertheless, Gus, who can tell a pitch just by the crack of the bat, refuses to be benched for what may be the final innings of his career. He may not have a choice. The front office of the Atlanta Braves is starting to question his judgment, especially with the country's hottest batting phenom on deck for the draft. The one person who might be able to help is also the one person Gus would never ask: his daughter, Mickey (Amy Adams), an associate at a high-powered Atlanta law firm whose drive and ambition has put her on the fast track to becoming partner. Against her better judgment, and over Gus's objections, Mickey joins him on his latest scouting trip to North Carolina, jeopardizing her own career to save his. Forced to spend time together for the first time in years, each makes new discoveries, revealing long-held truths about their past and present that could change their future.

This was a great character drama. Clint Eastwood played pretty much the same role that he has in his last couple of movies. Hey - if it ain't broke - don't fix it. Amy Adams was great as the daughter to the dad that was never there. The baseball intricacies were great and Justin Timberlake continues to get better and better as an actor.

I would definitely recommend that people check this out. It is an amazing father/daughter movie. The story was simple yet touching. The main characters all had great hooks that make you care. And all of the main actors played very well off of each other.

Premium Rush

 

Dodging speeding cars, crazed cabbies, open doors, and eight million cranky pedestrians is all in a day's work for Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the best of New York's agile and aggressive bicycle messengers. It takes a special breed to ride the fixie (super lightweight, single-gear bikes with no brakes) and riders who are equal part skilled cyclists and suicidal nutcases who risk becoming a smear on the pavement every time they head into traffic. But a guy who's used to putting his life on the line is about to get more than even he is used to when his last envelope of the day, a routine "premium rush" run, turns into a life or death chase through the streets of Manhattan.

Is this what Hollywood has come down to? Remaking old Kevin Bacon movies from the 80s. They don't openly admit that this is a remake of Quicksilver but it sure as hell felt like it. And how in the hell did such legit actors like Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Shannon decide to do this? It's not that the movie was horrible. It's somewhat watchable and short enough that you don't lose interest in it and what not. It's beyond predictable from the first scene and they try to mix it up by going back and forth over the two hour timeline covered in the movie.

I would somewhat recommend this movie to people. Like if you have absolutely nothing else to do and have seen most other movies out there maybe. It's not bad, but its not great. It's just kind of there.

Resident Evil: Retribution

 

The Umbrella Corporation's deadly T-virus continues to ravage the Earth, transforming the global population into legions of the flesh eating Undead. The human race's last and only hope, Alice (Milla Jovovich), awakens in the heart of Umbrella's most clandestine operations facility and unveils more of her mysterious past as she delves further into the complex. Without a safe haven, Alice continues to hunt those responsible for the outbreak; a chase that takes her from Tokyo to New York, Washington, D.C. and Moscow, culminating in a mind-blowing revelation that will force her to rethink everything that she once thought to be true. Aided by newfound allies and familiar friends, Alice must fight to survive long enough to escape a hostile world on the brink of oblivion. The countdown has begun.

Why do they keep making these? The fact that this is a franchise with however many movies (is this the fifth one, now?) is one of the things that I hate the most about my movie seeing problem. It's just another Resident Evil movie. I really don't have to say anything else. It's poop. Just like the rest of them for the most part.

Really? Would I recommend it? No. I recommend that for the love of all that is holy they stop making these damn movies.

Pitch Perfect

 

Beca (Anna Kendrick) is that girl who'd rather listen to what's coming out of her headphones than what's coming out of you. Arriving at her new college, she finds herself not right for any clique but somehow is muscled into one that she never would have picked on her own: alongside mean girls, sweet girls and weird girls whose only thing in common is how good they sound when they sing together, in the new out-loud comedy Pitch Perfect.

This movie was soooooooooo much fun. I loved the music. I loved the characters. I laughed my ass off. This is easily one of the biggest surprises of a movie I've seen in a long, long time. I'm not by any stretch of the imagination willing to say that in terms of good filmmaking this is a phenomenal movie. But in terms of just pure fun and laughs - this is one of the more enjoyable movies that I have seen this year.

I would absolutely recommend people checking this movie out. It was so much fun and I am now officially the hugest fan of "Fat Amy".

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

 

Based on author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney's fourth Wimpy Kid book - this one covers Greg's worst summer ever.

There really isn't much of a synopsis necessary for this one because it's pretty much just more of the same story and characters. If you liked the others and the characters - like I do. Then you will like this one as well. It's pretty much the same laughs and the same morals for a third go round.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who like the previous Wimpy Kid movies. I have read all the books and seen the movies and enjoy them for being simple, family movies that are not in 3D and don't go over the top. These are the kinds of movies that you can take your kids to and not worry if it's okay for them to see it.

Total Recall

 

Total Recall is an action thriller about reality and memory, inspired anew by the famous short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick. Welcome to Rekall, the company that can turn your dreams into real memories. For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), even though he's got a beautiful wife (Kate Beckinsale) who he loves, the mind-trip sounds like the perfect vacation from his frustrating life - real memories of life as a super-spy might be just what he needs. But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man. Finding himself on the run from the police (controlled by Chancellor Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston), the leader of the free world) Quaid teams up with a rebel fighter (Jessica Biel) to find the head of the underground resistance (Bill Nighy) and stop Cohaagen. The line between fantasy and reality gets blurred and the fate of his world hangs in the balance as Quaid discovers his true identity, his true love, and his true fate.

Ok. There are two ways to look at this movie. The first is to pretend that the original Total Recall with Arnold Schwartzenegger never happened. If you do that, this is a barely watchable sci-fi movie. They basically had the robots from I, Robot and the stormtroopers from Star Wars make a baby and those were the soldiers chasing them. Then they basically stole the exact look and transportation from Minority Report. Then they told Beckinsale to pretend that she was in Underworld 17. Unfortunately, stealing all these things from other good sci fi movies (I'm referring loosely to Underworld 1 included in that), doesn't make a good sci fi movie. This movie had some of the dryest acting ever and was barely watchable due to the visual effects of it. If you are watching this in the second way to see it . . . . factoring in the original Total Recall . . . . . . this movie is absolutely horrible. The first Total Recall was one of the iconic movies of my teenage years. I can pretty much quote it word for word and at the time, the makeup and effects were top notch. This movie was pretty much a giant insult to that movie across the board.

I wouldn't really recommend anyone bothering with this movie. It's pretty much garbage either way you look at it and a total waste of time.

Ted

 

Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane brings his boundary-pushing brand of humor to the big screen for the first time as writer, director and voice star of Ted. In the live action/CG-animated comedy, he tells the story of John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg), a grown man who must deal with the cherished teddy bear who came to life as the result of a childhood wish... and has refused to leave his side ever since.

This is one of those movies that I wish I would have seen right out of the gate and not a week later. I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more without all the hype and commentary about how funny it was and what not. There were some laughs, but most of it was fifteen year old humor. I did find myself laughing about the talking teddy bear throughout the movie but it was definitely like 30 minutes too long.

I would somewhat recommend people checking this out. There are good laughs but not nearly as much as all the hype suggests there are. 

The Bourne Legacy

 

The architect behind the "Bourne" film series, Tony Gilroy, takes the helm in the next chapter of the hugely popular espionage franchise - The Bourne Legacy. The writer/director expands the "Bourne" universe created by Robert Ludlum with an original story that introduces us to a new hero (Jeremy Renner) whose life-or-death stakes have been triggered by the events of the first three films.

This was an awesome twist to the franchise. It took place alongside the Jason Bourne stuff and that back and forth was great. This movie was a little more talky talky than the other three and went much more in depth about how these men became super agents and the methods used to do so. The action scenes were still great and I think Jeremy Renner was an excellent choice to be cast in this. Ideally, the best part of this movie is that it was done in a way that the franchise can ultimately go to a whole other level like what they did with the Fast & Furious franchise by continuing it without the main star but leaving it open that Vin Diesel could come back. The thought of the next movie or another one down the road in this franchise having both Renner and Damon is awesome. Very good overall storytelling.

I would definitely recommend people checking this movie out. Again - the action wasn't as high as in past Bourne movies, but the writing/story is very smart and involves the overall franchise instead of just keeping this one seperate.

Ice Age: Continental Drift

 

In Ice Age: Continental Drift, Scrat's nutty pursuit of the cursed acorn, which he's been after since the dawn of time, has world-changing consequences -- a continental cataclysm that triggers the greatest adventure of all for Manny, Diego and Sid. In the wake of these earth-shattering upheavals, Sid reunites with his long lost family, and the gang encounters a ragtag menagerie of colorful new characters determined to stop them from returning home.

I have to be honest and say that I have at no point really been a big fan of this franchise. I usually love animated films, but I just never got in to these. The first one was a decent watch. The second one was a straight to video movie that was thrown on screens at a point when no other movies, especially family films were out there and it made a boatload of money. The third one was okay. And as for this one - it's more of the same. There are some good laughs, but I never felt like they've hooked me with the characters enough to care. I pretty much just watch it for the sake of saying that I did.

I would recommend that anyone who saw the others and liked them check this out. You will definitely still like this one because it really is just more of the same stuff with some new characters thrown in.

The Apparition

 

When frightening events start to occur in their home, young couple Kelly (Ashley Greene) and Ben (Sebastian Stan) discover they are being haunted by a presence that was accidentally conjured during a university parapsychology experiment. The horrifying apparition feeds on their fear and torments them no matter where they try to run. Their last hope is an expert in the supernatural (Tom Felton), but even with his help they may already be too late to save themselves from this terrifying force...

This was pretty much a textbook PG-13 thriller movie.  Lots of teases but no really big scares.  There is a decent amount of story telling effort and the shorter than 90 minute running time was much appreciated.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes those Grudge, The Ring, etc type movies.  It's not as good as those on a creepy level or in depth story but the pacing still makes it somewhat watchable.

The Dark Knight Rises

 

It has been eight years since Batman vanished into the night, turning, in that instant, from hero to fugitive. Assuming the blame for the death of D.A. Harvey Dent, the Dark Knight sacrificed everything for what he and Commissioner Gordon both hoped was the greater good. For a time the lie worked, as criminal activity in Gotham City was crushed under the weight of the anti-crime Dent Act. But everything will change with the arrival of a cunning cat burglar with a mysterious agenda. Far more dangerous, however, is the emergence of Bane, a masked terrorist whose ruthless plans for Gotham drive Bruce out of his self-imposed exile. But even if he dons the cape and cowl again, Batman may be no match for Bane.

Brace yourselves because this is going to be a long one. Let me start by saying this is an amazing movie. It fell in line exactly with where my expectations for it were. I kept saying that this would be more of a sequel to Batman Begins than to The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger's performace was a once in a lifetime type of thing and to think that they would be able to top that would be ridiculous. That being said - Christopher Nolan (best director out there - sorry, Fincher) was so fair to everyone in this movie. He was fair each actor that has been throughout all the trilogy. Gary Oldman got his due. Morgan Freeman got his due. Michael Caine got his due. And most importanly - Christian Bale got his due after pretty much just being a distant third fiddle to Ledger and Eckhardt in the last one. Besides them, he worked in Catwoman very well and Anne Hathaway was great with the sleekness needed delivering her lines. Tom Hardy is the man. Love this guy and he was awesome as Bane. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt was great as the new cop getting introduced. Much more on him later. As for the fans - he could not have done us more justice. This movie trilogy wrapped up in the most phenomenal of ways. I can't really go into it without giving too much away. I will go over some stuff later but with spoiler warnings. I am just so happy with how I felt walking out of the theater and didn't realize how much this telling of Batman really meant to me as a movie fan until that point.

All of the awesomeness being addressed, there were some things that left a bit of a blah taste in my mouth. The first 30-45 minutes of the movie seemed a little choppy and forced having to introduce Bane, Catwoman and the new cop guy. Luckily, just when it was getting to the point where it could really take away from the movie - it smoothed out and because awesome from then on.

SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOILERS AHEAD! Only read if you don't care with things being mentioned.

Bane was so badass and was such an awesomely developed villain, yet he became completely inconsequential after the swerve of Thalia A'Gul being revealed and his demise was almost done in passing and for comic relief. That bothered me alot. I felt like the character deserved better than that. As for the aforementioned swerve - I'm being generous when saying swerve because I saw that coming months ago when they announced the casting and saw it coming the whole movie. That was very un-Nolanesque. The only two other things that didn't sit well with me was A - the flying away with the neutron bomb (Did they have to drag it on the ground and bang it all over the place? It's a bomb. I feel as if something would have happened in the realm of blowing up prematurely by doing that? It just looked kind of silly.) and B - a major editing snafu with the getaway from the Wall Street attack. The chase started in total daylight and they went under some tunnel and it was total nightime when they came out? Again - just kind of hit me as un-Nolanesque.

Now on to my praise of the ending - STILL SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Wow! Christopher Nolan not only gave every character what they wanted to have a happy ending, but he gave Warner Brothers the biggest gift ever if they really want to try and do the Justice League thing. I've been ranting with my friend about how they would never be able to pull it off because The Avengers was a work of advanced mastery in marketing and WB would basically just be throwing Justice League on the screen having to have a new Batman too soon and no advance hype whatsoever. Then Nolan goes and has Joseph Gordon Levitt acknowledged as "Robin" and has the movie end with him going in to the batcave. HOLY $HIT!!! I felt the same way after seeing Sam Jackson at the end of Iron Man. Now all they have to do is have JGL show up in the relaunched Superman next year and they already have the legwork for Justice League. Please let the powers that be at WB not screw this up and run with the absolute gift that Nolan has given them.

I feel as if I have written enough here. You have probably guessed that I would recommend this movie by now. It's easily one of the best trilogies of all time - probably behind only the original Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings for me. I would say it's by second favorite of the trilogy behind The Dark Knight and I would say it is my second favorite movie of the year only to The Avengers for pulling all of that together.

Hope Springs

 

Kay (Meryl Streep) and Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) are a devoted couple, but decades of marriage have left Kay wanting to spice things up and reconnect with her husband. When she hears of a renowned couple's specialist (Steve Carell) in the small town of Great Hope Springs, she attempts to persuade her skeptical husband, a steadfast man of routine, to get on a plane for a week of marriage therapy. Just convincing the stubborn Arnold to go on the retreat is hard enough � the real challenge for both of them comes as they shed their bedroom hang-ups and try to re-ignite the spark that caused them to fall for each other in the first place.

This was a cute relationship movie. You care about the characters and the situation that they are in/going through. And both of them did a great job. The movie was definitely watchable, but outside of seeing where these two characters end up - there really is no major point to the movie.

I would recommend this to anyone who is a Meryl Streep fan or can identify with the level of their relationship I guess. Again - the characters are well portrayed but there is no overall point to the movie.

The Odd Life Of Timothy Green

 

The Odd Life Of Timothy Green is a story about a happily married couple, Cindy and Jim Green (Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton), who can't wait to start a family but can only dream about what their child would be like. When young Timothy (CJ Adams) shows up on their doorstep one stormy night, Cindy and Jim, and their small town of Stanleyvill, learn that sometimes the unexpected can bring some of life's greatest gifts.

This was one of those blatant heartstring movies. They take some characters and give them a horrible situation - in this case being unable to have children - and milk the sadness out of it as much as they can. At the risk of losing my man card - I usually love movies like this, but wasn't really hooked by any of the characters. No hook = no sympathy connection = movie is just kind of there.

I wouldn't really recommend people checking this out. Well, maybe it was just me and you'll connect with the characters and enjoy a sapfest. It just didn't work for me at all.