Bad Grandpa

86-year-old Irving Zisman is on a journey across America with the most unlikely companions, his 8-year-old Grandson Billy in Bad Grandpa. This October, the signature Jackass character Irving Zisman (Johnny Knoxville) and Billy (Jackson Nicholl) will take movie audiences along for the most insane hidden camera road trip ever captured on camera. Along the way, Irving will introduce the young and impressionable Billy to people, places and situations that give new meaning to the term childrearing. The duo will encounter male strippers, disgruntled child beauty pageant contestants (and their equally disgruntled mothers), funeral home mourners, biker bar patrons and a whole lot of unsuspecting citizens.

This movie was split in half for me. I loved the prank scenes like always. Some were simple and the reactions to them made me laugh my ass off. These were the types of things that I always loved about Jackass. Some were a little gross and/or sexual but they were much more tame than usual so I even enjoyed those. The only bad thing about the movie is that instead of a series of pranks, they tried to make it an overall legit movie about the grandpa bonding with the son. So any time they were on that track, I found myself bored and just wanting them to get back to pranks becuase these two characters are already established as fictional masters of prank. Why would I feel any sort of emotional connection to their "story"?

I would still recommend anyone that likes the Jackass show/movies check this out because there are some really big laughs in it. Just be warned that this is a lot more like Dictator with Sasha Baron Cohen where the "story" of the movie gets annoying inbetween the laughs.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 picks up where the first comedy left off. Inventor Flint Lockwood thought he saved the world when he destroyed his most infamous invention -- a machine that turned water into food causing cheeseburger rain and spaghetti tornadoes. But Flint soon learns that his invention survived and is now creating food-animals – "foodimals!" Flint and his friends embark on a dangerously delicious mission to battle hungry tacodiles, shrimpanzees, hippotatomuses, cheespiders and other foodimals to save the world – again!

While this movie took a little too long to get Flint and crew to the island with the foodimals, it was still,just as funny as the first one. Adults are totally able to enjoy the movie as much as the kids because of the quick humor throughout the movie. The pronounciation of the food making machine will never get old.

I would definitely recommend anyone who enjoyed the first one check this movie out. Parents will enjoy taking their kids to the movies for this one.

Rush

Set against the sexy and glamorous golden age of Formula 1 racing, Rush portrays the exhilarating true story of two of the greatest rivals the world has ever witnessed—handsome English playboy Hunt and his methodical, brilliant opponent, Lauda. Taking us into their personal lives on and off the track, Rush follows the two drivers as they push themselves to the breaking point of physical and psychological endurance, where there is no shortcut to victory and no margin for error. If you make one mistake, you die.

This felt at times like a Formula One version of Days Of Thunder. You saw how the two drivers grew up professionally and personally on two very different paths. The back and forth between them was great and even though the movie was advertised so heavily about Chris Hemsworth, the actor that played Lauda was more enjoyable and I found myself rooting for him much more. The intensity of the racing scenes was great and the camera work was amazing at points.

I would recommend people check this movie out. It's not a must see by any means but it was a very enjoyable character drama. I have never been a racing fan but I would have to think that if it got me into it that any racing fans would love this movie.

Last Vegas

Starring four legends like you've never seen them before, Last Vegas tells the story of Billy, Paddy, Archie and Sam (played by Academy-Award winners Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline), best friends since childhood. When Billy, the group's sworn bachelor, finally proposes to his thirty-something (of course) girlfriend, the four head to Las Vegas with a plan to stop acting their age and relive their glory days. However, upon arriving, the four quickly realize that the decades have transformed Sin City and tested their friendship in ways they never imagined. The Rat Pack may have once played the Sands and Cirque du Soleil may now rule the Strip, but it's these four who are taking over Vegas.

This was a very, very enjoyable movie about friendship and growing old. The movie is pretty much just as formula as you would have expected from the trailer, but the four actors all provide plenty of laughs and their friendship portrayed onscreen was completely believable since they all played off of each other so well. My biggest fear going in to this was that it would turn out to be a dramedy with someone's health becoming an issue or something. My fears were not answer and this comedy didn't swerve down that road.

I would definitely recommend people checking this movie out. It really was a lot of simple fun at the movies and I liked it very much.

Captain Phillips

Captain Phillips stars Tom Hanks in the true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.

This was a really intense movie. The direction kept you on the edge of your seat the whole time and it was great to see Tom Hanks back in a role that you could really get behind and care about. Even knowing how the story was going to play out because of it being a true story didn't remotely make you more comfortable with how the story was playing out simply because the level of intensity and especially the filming style in the cramped space of the life boat thing.

I absolutely recommend people checking this movie out. It's definitely one of the best movies of the year and a great return to true prominence for Tom Hanks as far as I'm concerned.

Blue Jasmine

Blue Jasmine is the story of the final stages of an acute crisis and a life of a fashionable New York housewife.

I have never really been a fan of Woody Allen movies. I can't really put my finger on it. They just tend to not interest me. The one thing that he does incredibly well though are character studies. And this was a prime example of him at his finest. Cate Blanchett's character in this movie is an upper class houswife who's phony life comes crashing down around her and you watch her try to struggle with accepting it and moving on while there is something clearly off about her. She deserves all the accolades she has gotten from critics as her acting is phenomenal. The weirdest part is that you go back and forth between not liking her and hoping that she is able to work through everything and come out okay.

I would recommend people check this out. It's not a must see by any means, but it is a great character and Woddy Allen's character portrayal at its finest.

Machete Kills

Danny Trejo returns as ex-Federale agent Machete, who is recruited by the President of the United States for a mission which would be impossible for any mortal man - he must take down a madman revolutionary and an eccentric billionaire arms dealer who has hatched a plan to spread war and anarchy across the planet.

Just like the first movie, this is one of those it is what it is movie. In terms of those 70s grind house type movies, this is great. Totally over the top acting with really cheesy story and action. If you like those types of movies, I'm sure you will enjoy the filming style and silliness of it all.

I would only recommend this to people that specifically enjoy these types of movies. If you don't or have not seen any movies of this "genre", I don't think you should touch this movie with a ten foot pole.

Enough Said

A divorced and single parent, Eva (Julia Louis Dreyfus) spends her days enjoying work as a masseuse but dreading her daughter's impending departure for college. She meets Albert (James Gandolfini) - a sweet, funny and like-minded man also facing an empty nest. As their romance quickly blossoms, Eva befriends Marianne (Catherine Keener), her new massage client. Marianne is a beautiful poet who seems "almost perfect" except for one prominent quality: she rags on her ex-husband way too much. Suddenly, Eva finds herself doubting her own relationship with Albert as she learns the truth about Marianne's Ex. Enough Said is a sharp, insightful comedy that humorously explores the mess that often comes with getting involved again.

This movie was like a 5 or 6 episode of a television show on dating. Great characters. Great chemistry. And a really funny development spiraling out of control for the Julie Louis Dreyfus. As much as I loved The Sopranos, I thought that James Gandolfini was overhyped after his passing. This movie showed me how wrong I was as he really had such a great on screen presence and aura about him outside of being Tony Soprano and I will actually miss him more now after seeing this movie.

I would definitely recommend people checking out this movie. It's a very cute and touching movie about how things so simple can be made so difficult when we get in our own way.

The Butler

The Butler tells the story of a White House butler who served eight American presidents over three decades. The film traces the dramatic changes that swept American society during this time, from the civil rights movement to Vietnam and beyond, and how those changes affected this man’s life and family.

I LOVED this movie. Absolutely loved it. I would say this is the best movie of the year so far. The character development and the constant changes in their perspective as they went through all of society's changes over the three decades was so well done. The actors that showed up to play the presidents during that amount of time was also very entertaining. The movie honestly felt a lot like Forrest Gump with how it went through all the changing times. I think that there will be a lot of Academy Award nominations for this movie and quite deservedly so.

I give this movie a must see stamp. It is the best movie I've seen all year so far and everyone should see this for it's entertainment, education of history and great acting/directing throughout.

Riddick

The infamous Riddick has been left for dead on a sun-scorched planet that appears to be lifeless. Soon, however, he finds himself fighting for survival against alien predators more lethal than any human he's encountered. The only way off is for Riddick to activate an emergency beacon and alert mercenaries who rapidly descend to the planet in search of their bounty. The first ship to arrive carries a new breed of merc, more lethal and violent, while the second is captained by a man whose pursuit of Riddick is more personal. With time running out and a storm on the horizon that no one could survive, his hunters won't leave the planet without Riddick's head as their trophy.

This was a great movie for what it was supposed to be. It is a majorly testosterone fueled movie about a bunch of thugs arguing with each other and then having to fight together against the alien inhabitants on the planet. There was just enough story that kept you interested in the characters and there was much more continuity with the two previous entries in this franchise than I expected and the alien makeup/design is still some of the better work out of any recent attempts to capture that look/feel from the Aliens franchise.

If you liked either of the first two movies based on the Riddick character, you should definitely like this one. I wasn't really a fan of The Chronicles Of Riddick but loved Pitch Black. This was much more like Pitch Black thankfully.

Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station follows the true story of Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan), a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who wakes up on the morning of December 31, 2008 and feels something in the air. Not sure what it is, he takes it as a sign to get a head start on his resolutions: being a better son to his mother (Octavia Spencer), whose birthday falls on New Year’s Eve, being a better partner to his girlfriend Sophina (Melonie Diaz), who he hasn’t been completely honest with as of late, and being a better father to Tatiana (Ariana Neal), their beautiful four year-old daughter. Crossing paths with friends, family, and strangers, Oscar starts out well, but as the day goes on, he realizes that change is not going to come easily. His resolve takes a tragic turn, however, when BART officers shoot him in cold blood at the Fruitvale subway stop on New Year’s Day. Oscar’s life and tragic death would shake the Bay Area – and the entire nation – to its very core.

This was a movie both incredibly simple and incredibly powerful at the same time. You basically follow him through his last day alive knowing he is going to be unjustly killed at the end. It's no different from anyone else's normal day at one time or another. It's just a matter of being the wrong guy in the wrong place with the wrong people. It really shows how much ignorance and racism/stereotypes there are in the world still.

I would definitely recommend people check this out. It's very eye opening.

Carrie

A reimagining of the classic horror tale about Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz), a shy girl outcast by her peers and sheltered by her deeply religious mother (Julianne Moore), who unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom.

Yeah - this is pretty much total garbage. I was never that big a fan of the original movie or any of the pointless remakes or sequels to it. This was probably the worst of them all because I would think that a modern version of this story could at least look better. But no. They thought it would be better to make it look 1970s like. Ugh.

Don't see this. Don't ever see this. Total waste of time.

You're Next

You're Next reinvents the genre by putting a fresh twist on home-invasion horror. When a gang of masked, ax-wielding murderers descend upon the Davison family reunion, the hapless victims seem trapped...until an unlikely guest of the family proves to be the most talented killer of all.

This movie started out pretty damn awesome. It was intense and definitely made you jump a couple of times so you were good if you're a fan of that. There was definite gore in the killings for fans of that. I thought this was going to be one of those random quietly released horror movies that is a million times better than the massively advertised ones. And then they started with a "story" and had the need for twists that weren't too hard to figure out before they happened and the movie pretty much fell right into the toilet. It was very disappointing because the first half of it was great.

I wouldn't recommend anyone wasting their time with this. It basically became a homemade scary/horror movie that tried to be too smart for its own good.

Runner Runner

Princeton grad student Richie (Justin Timberlake), believing he's been swindled, travels to Costa Rica to confront online gambling tycoon Ivan Block (Ben Affleck). Richie is seduced by Block's promise of immense wealth, until he learns the disturbing truth about his benefactor. When the FBI tries to coerce Richie to help bring down Block, Richie faces his biggest gamble ever: attempting to outmaneuver the two forces closing in on him.

Was this movie beyond predictable at every turn?  Absolutely.  Did it follow the nice, pretty path where the protagonist beats the antagonist?  Absolutely.  Was it still somewhat enjoyable?  Yes.  Granted if you go into this with any kind of high expectations, you will be disappointed.  I did not so it ended up being a pretty decent watch.  Timberlake was his usual charismatic self and Ben Affleck was pretty entertaining as the over the top "bad" guy. 

I wouldn't outright recommend this movie for everyone.  There are definitely better movies out there that you could be seeing.  However, this wasn't a total waste of time . . . . . with your expectations being in check.