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.

Men In Black 3

 

In Men in Black 3, Agents J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) are back... in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes him as much as his wry, reticent partner. But when K's life and the fate of the planet are put at stake, Agent J will have to travel back in time to put things right. J discovers that there are secrets to the universe that K never told him -- secrets that will reveal themselves as he teams up with the young Agent K (Josh Brolin) to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind.

Sadly, this movie was just kind of there. Sure, it was entertaining. Will Smith is Will Smith and I will always be down with watching him. Josh Brolin was great being a young Tommy Lee Jones. Some of the effects were good and the alien effects were as well. There were definitely laughs too. The problem is that the second the credits hit - I really didn't care about this movie anymore. Is it better than the first sequel? Absolutely!!! That one was one of the biggest moviegoer insults I ever watched. Having said that, saying that this one was better than that ends up not really meaning much. This is basically a summer popcorn movie where you can be entertained for a little less than two hours and that's it.

I would lukewarmly recommend people checking this out. I'm not sure if I let my expectations/excitement to see it get the best of me, but I was definitely disappointed that there wasn't more of a hook to the movie or substance that might give me something more to say than "Eh . . . it was ok."

Sparkle

 

Sparkle tells the story of the title character; Sparkle, (Jordin Sparks) the youngest of three sisters and a music prodigy who struggles to becomes a star while overcoming issues that are tearing her family apart. Sparkle is from an affluent Detroit area, naive to the unexpected experiences her new life will bring as she and her two sisters blossom into a dynamic singing group during the Motown-era. Whitney Houston will play the trio's mother (Emma). Mike Epps plays a wealthy comedian named Satin, who woos Sparkle's sister into a drug-filled abusive relationship on their way to the top. During her journey, Sparkle endures the trials and tribulations of fame but fights to rise through the ranks of the music business.

I made it 25 minutes into this movie before not being able to take it anymore. It's like a homemade rehashing of Dreamgirls. It's pretty much crap.

I wouldn't recommend anyone ever bothering with this. It wasn't even worth a 26th minute of watching for me.

Lawless

 

Lawless is the true story of the infamous Bondurant Brothers: bootlegging siblings who made a run for the American Dream in Prohibition-era Virginia. In this epic gangster tale, inspired by true-life tales of author Matt Bondurant's family in his novel "The Wettest County In The World," the loyalty of three brothers is put to the test against the backdrop of the nation's most notorious crime wave.

I'm kind of torn on this movie. I liked it, but still thought that it could have been so much better. For a two hour movie, the characters weren't really developed enough and it just felt like parts of the story were missing and we were just supposed to "know" or assume stuff. I loved Tom Hardy and Guy Pearce. Gary Oldman's character seemed great but ended up not being a necessary part of the movie whatsoever. Surprisingly, Shia LeBeouf was pretty crappy in this movie. Maybe that's what held it back? I found myself wanted to see more of the other characters than his.

Again - I would lukewarmly recommend this movie to people. It isn't bad, but it could have been so much better. I liked it and was disappointed at the same time.

Step Up: Revolution

 

Step Up Revolution is the next installment in the Step Up franchise, which sets the dancing against the vibrant backdrop of Miami. Emily, the daughter of a wealthy businessman, arrives in Miami with aspirations of becoming a professional dancer, but soon falls in love with Sean, a young man who leads a dance crew in elaborate, cutting-edge flash mobs. The crew, called the MOB, strives to win a contest for a major sponsorship opportunity, but soon Emily's father threatens to develop the MOB's historic neighborhood and displace thousands of people. Emily must band together with Sean and the MOB to turn their performance mobs into protest mobs, and risk losing their dreams to fight for a greater cause.

Let's face it. Who gives a rat's ass about the stories in these movies? You go to see the dance sequences. Even Stinka said after the movie that "the dancing was cool but the rest was crap". I was literally busy playing games on my phone any time it wasn't one of the choreographed scenes. I will say that some of the scenes were actually pretty cool. This Step Up franchise has literally morphed into a Mr. Cinco/Stinka tradition and this wasn't nearly as painful as the last one because I found the dances much more entertaining than the last one.

Would I recommend anyone checking this out? Absolutely not if you haven't seen any of the others or if you didn't like the others. If you did/do - then you will enjoy this one. I thought it was better than entry three.

ParaNorman

 

In ParaNorman, a small town comes under siege by zombies. Who can it call? Only misunderstood local boy Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee), who is able to speak with the dead. In addition to the zombies, he'll have to take on ghosts, witches and, worst, of all, grown-ups, to save his town from a centuries-old curse. But this young ghoul whisperer may find his paranormal activities pushed to their otherworldly limits.

This movie had moments where there were good laughs. However, the animation was kind of creepy like Coraline. Worse than that the story was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out there and much too dark for any kids to be seeing this - much less understanding it.

I wouldn't really recommend people checking this out. It's not horrible. Its just an animated movie that isn't remotely for kids and kind of dark but not committed to be "dark enough" for adults to really like.

The Expendables 2

 

Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) -- with newest members Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth) and Maggie (Yu Nan) aboard -- are reunited when Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) enlists the Expendables to take on a seemingly simple job. The task looks like an easy paycheck for Barney and his band of old-school mercenaries. But when things go wrong and one of their own is viciously killed, the Expendables are compelled to seek revenge in hostile territory where the odds are stacked against them. Hell-bent on payback, the crew cuts a swath of destruction through opposing forces, wreaking havoc and shutting down an unexpected threat in the nick of time - six pounds of weapons-grade plutonium; enough to change the balance of power in the world. But that's nothing compared to the justice they serve against the villainous adversary who savagely murdered their brother.

This movie is great, just like the first one, for being exactly what it's supposed to be - a throwback to over the top 80s action movies. There is crazy shootouts and fighting. There are cliche one liners all over the place and they have even brought in more throwback actors that pretty much made entire careers out of these types of movies.

If you liked the first one (or 80s action movies) - you will like this movie just as much. If you didn't - don't touch it with a ten foot pole. It's pretty much one of the easiest movies to review.

Brave

 

Merida is a skilled archer and impetuous daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane). Merida's actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric old Wise Woman (voice of Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to discover the meaning of true bravery in order to undo a beastly curse before it's too late.

I'm conflicted about this movie. Mostly because it's from Pixar. Is the movie good? Yeah. I enjoyed it. It was like a Disney princess movie with red hair and a Scottish accent. The originality was hurt a little bit by how similar it was to Brother Bear from a couple of years ago. But it was still enjoyable and the animation was fantastic. However, this is Pixar. They are the top rung on the ladder of animation. Their movies are usually Best Picture worthy. But this coming on the heels of last year's mailed in Cars 2, reeks of them selling out their originality for marketing/money making. Sad.

Again, I did enjoy the movie and I would recommend people checking it out, but it was below the expectations that I have grown to have for Pixar movies.

The Watch

 

The Watch is a sci-fi comedy about a suburban "neighborhood watch" group that serves as a front for dads to get some male-bonding time away from their families. The group finds itself in over its head when it uncovers a plot to destroy the world.

This movie was pretty much garbage. It's a damn shame to say that considering the collective comedic talent in there and the ads did look kind of good. Unfortunately, most of the laughs were in the commercial and Ben Stiller's characters was so annoyingly straight laced that it didn't mesh well at all with Vince Vaughn (who was overly hyper than normal) and Jonah Hill (who was the only one that actually made me laugh) and most of the humor was lamely sophomoric.

I wouldn't recommend anyone bothering to check this out. This was a very disappointing summer comedy that wrapped up what has not been a good year for them at all.

Savages

 

Laguna Beach entrepreneurs Ben (Johnson), a peaceful and charitable Buddhist, and his closest friend Chon (Kitsch), a former Navy SEAL and ex-mercenary, run a lucrative, homegrown industry - raising some of the best marijuana ever developed. They also share a one-of-a-kind love with the extraordinary beauty Ophelia (Lively). Life is idyllic in their Southern California town...until the Mexican Baja Cartel decides to move in and demands that the trio partners with them. When the merciless head of the BC, Elena (Hayek), and her brutal enforcer, Lado (Del Toro), underestimate the unbreakable bond among these three friends. Ben and Chon - with the reluctant, slippery assistance of a dirty DEA agent (Travolta) - wage a seemingly unwinnable war against the cartel. And so begins a series of increasingly vicious ploys and maneuvers in a high stakes, savage battle of wills.

This was a pretty good story. I liked the performances - especially Del Toro, Hayek and Kitsch. I know that Kitsch was in John Carter and Battleship this year which both tanked, but I love the potential of this kid. His badassness pretty much carried the movie anytime that it got a little blah. That is actually the only knock I would make against it. It could have been a little tighter. If the 2 hours were maybe 1 hour 45 minutes, this movie would have been great. Instead, it ended up being a good enough movie to watch but not something that I could really recommend.

Like I said - I would somewhat recommend people checking this out. It's not a must see by any means or even a "great" movie. It is a pretty good watch though and there is definitely worse stuff out there.

The Amazing Spider-Man

 

The Amazing Spider-Man is the story of Peter Parker (Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. Peter is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents' disappearance, leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Ifans), his father's former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors' alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.

I have to put it out there that the reboot of this franchise is way too soon. When they rebooted Batman - more than enough time had gone by and they were doing it in a VERY different and darker way. This reboot is coming out ten years after the original one with two sequels to the original one having been made in the last decade. Granted, I thought Spider-Man 3 was very disappointing and would ultimately lead to them rebooting as opposed to just throwing Spider-Man 4 out there but not this soon. And they only made minor tweaks to the story. Just needed to state that for the record before going on about the movie.

The movie was awesome. The cast was great. Andrew Garfield was great for Spidey. I liked him a million times more than Tobey Maguire. And Emma Stone is just awesome. She might be my favorite actress at this point. She's just entertaining no matter what she does. The effects were pretty cool and the story developed well. Unfortunately, due to the closeness to the original Spider-Man I can't help but compare the two. I feel that the development story and tightness of it was better with the original but the cast of this one was a thousand times better. It's not that the story wasn't good in this one. It just wasn't as good as the original.

All of this ranting aside - I still absolutely loved this movie. It's a great "alternate" telling/reboot even if it was too soon. And in a year overly crowded by subpar movies or ones that are just there, this movie is easily second only to The Avengers in 2012 so far.

Arthur Christmas

 

Set on Christmas night, the story of Arthur Christmas at last reveals the incredible, never-before seen answer to every child's question: 'So how does Santa deliver all those presents in one night?' The answer: Santa's exhilarating, ultra-high-tech operation hidden beneath the North Pole. But at the heart of the film is a story with the ingredients of a Christmas classic - a family in a state of comic dysfunction and an unlikely hero, Arthur, with an urgent mission that must be completed before Christmas morning dawns.

This movie decided to push the whole dysfunctional family bit using the Claus family this time. Apparantly they are a bunch of selfish, thick headed men who are really the opposite of "Christmas spirit" except for the youngest son Arthur who is a textbook clutz. All the grandfather cares about it showing the oldest son and heir apparant Steve that he is right. Steve just wants to be named Santa because he knows everything and Santa is portrayed as a lazy one that just wants to sleep after not really doing anything. It was all a little too much waa-waa for me. The elves were cool and provided most of the funny lines, but that was really about it.

I wouldn't really recommend anyone rushing to see this. It's not horrible. It's somewhat watchable but there has to be better movies you could see or just pop in a much better Holiday movie.