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In The Equalizer, Denzel Washington plays McCall, a man who believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and dedicated himself to beginning a new, quiet life. But when McCall meets Teri (Chloë Grace Moretz), a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters, he can't stand idly by – he has to help her. Armed with hidden skills that allow him to serve vengeance against anyone who would brutalize the helpless, McCall comes out of his self-imposed retirement and finds his desire for justice reawakened. If someone has a problem, if the odds are stacked against them, if they have nowhere else to turn, McCall will help. He is The Equalizer.
This was a fun, badass movie. It was very easy and enjoyable to sit back and watch Denzel kick ass. His silent and assessing nature of each action scene just made the intensity that much better. This is basically the type of story that everyone daydreams about if anyone were to harm their loved ones.
This movie was a great watch. I would definitely recommend everyone checking this out. There are some parts that were crazy violent but still a great watch.
The city needs heroes. Darkness has settled over New York City as Shredder and his evil Foot Clan have an iron grip on everything from the police to the politicians. The future is grim until four unlikely outcast brothers rise from the sewers and discover their destiny as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Turtles must work with fearless reporter April O'Neil (Megan Fox) and her wise-cracking cameraman Vern Fenwick (Will Arnett) to save the city and unravel Shredder's diabolical plan.This was one of the better all around reboots to come out of Hollywood in a long time. I loved the turtles growing up and was beyond skeptical when I heard that they were going to reboot this. When I first saw the trailers, I got even more skeptical because the turtles looked totally jacked up and their faces just didn't seem right. Regardless, I was excited to see this and although the way that they looked annoyed me, that annoyance wore off as the movie went on. Besides, the awfulness of how Splinter looked and the over the topness of Shredder (he was like part Transformer and part Edward Scissorhands) made the annoyance of the steroided up turtles the least of my annoyances compared to how they were. With all of that being said - everything else about the movie was great. The build up was quick paced and easy enough to follow. The action was awesome - especially the whole scene on the snowy mountain. That 15 minutes alone would be worth the price of admission. The comedy was still there - especially from Michaelangelo and they did an awesome job of getting all the turtles the same amount of screen time and showing their different personalities well enough. I would definitely recommend people checking this out. It will be fun for the whole family. The adults who like them when they first came out will enjoy this as much as the children of theirs that they are taking to see them on the big screen for the first time.
When Thomas (O'Brien) wakes up trapped in a massive maze with a group of other boys, he has no memory of the outside world other than strange dreams about a mysterious organization known as W.C.K.D. Only by piecing together fragments of his past with clues he discovers in the maze can Thomas hope to uncover his true purpose and a way to escape. Based on the best-selling novel by James Dashner.
I loved this book and was really excited to see this movie. The story is basically like a forced version of Lord Of The Flies. You don't know why this is happening to these people but its done in a way that keeps you hanging on to find out. There were parts of the book that I thought were too much or kind of silly and clearly the filmmakers agreed because they were the parts that got changed for the better in the movie. They pretty much kept to the book but with less of the drawn out fluffy stuff. It was a great paced ride with lots of action and characters that you really are able to get behind.
I would definitely recommend people checking this movie out. I can't wait to go read the other two books of the trilogy now.
When their father passes away, four grown siblings, bruised and banged up by their respective adult lives, are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof together for a week, along with their over-sharing mother and an assortment of spouses, exes and might-have-beens. Confronting their history and the frayed states of their relationships among the people who know and love them best, they ultimately reconnect in hysterical and emotionally affecting ways amid the chaos, humor, heartache and redemption that only families can provide—driving us insane even as they remind us of our truest, and often best, selves.
One of the greatest things that has come out of Hollywood over the last couple of years is the rebirth of Jason Bateman in to regular roles and relevancy. There are few actors that are funnier at delivering lines in the most perfect way. Dry humor, sarcasm, dramatic physical reaction, disgust - he kills me across the board. He was great in this. Honestly, the whole cast was. The only knock you can make on this is that it is as much a drama as a comedy (if not more so). That being said, it still does an amazing job at portraying a family with all levels of dysfunction in an accurate, touching and funny way.
I would definitely recommend people checking this out. There are plenty of laughs and even some tears but you are able to connect and root for all the different family members.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits—Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand—with the galaxy's fate in the balance.
Marvel did a great job with what is easily their toughest sell so far. Imagine Thor but A LOT more sci-fi type of material. Plus making it about five central characters that all need to be developed pretty much from scratch for the general public because this is nowhere near one of their high profile comics. And they pulled it off. The characters were great and very well developed. The story was excellently told while doing this and bringing them all together. There were plenty of laughs. The action and cinematography was awesome. I had pretty high expectations for this even though I was trying to keep them in check but the movie completely met them and pretty much exceeded them.
I would definitely recommend people checking this movie out. This is what going to the movies during the summer is all about and it should be the start of another great branch of Marvel's universe.
Inspired by a true story, When the Game Stands Tall tells the remarkable journey of legendary football coach Bob Ladouceur (Jim Caviezel), who took the De La Salle High School Spartans from obscurity to a 151-game winning streak that shattered all records for any American sport.
This was a textbook sports movie. Lots of melodrama and adversity for the players and coaches to deal with both on and off the field. Will they rise above it all? If you saw the trailer, you pretty much saw the movie as it is formula in every way. That being said, I am a sucker for these movies and this one was no different.
I would somewhat recommend people checking this movie out. It's not a must see by any means. It is an enjoyable sports movie though for people that like those.
Dolphin Tale 2 will tell another true story inspired by the life of Winter, but also involves a new baby dolphin named Hope who was rescued by the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in 2010. Winter, who still resides at the Aquarium, played herself in the original film and returns in “DT2” and Hope will play herself in the sequel.
This movie was just like the first one. Totally formula in every way. You know how it's all going to play out just by watching the commercial. There are several heartwarming moments and you will no doubt love this if you are an animal lover. There really isn't anything else to say about it though.
If you saw and liked the first one - I'd recommend this to you. If not or you didn't see the first one, I wouldn't bother with this.
A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth's dominant species.
This was an excellent continuation of the modern version of the franchise. I thought it would be great and loved the first one but had no idea how dramatic it would be. Normally, you would think that referring to this movie as dramatic would be bad since half if not more of the cast were apes. However, the effects used to bring the apes to life was so lifelike and the different emotions shown through them should have some of them up for oscar contention. Andy Serkis did another excellent job as Cesar but it was whoever played Koba that really stole the show. There was one part where that monkey went from serious to scared to being silly to get out of a situation and then vicious. It was really impressive. The matching emphasis on the importance of trust and family between the humans and apes was very well directed and kept the pacing of the movie great even though it had a two hour running time.
I would definitely recommend people checking this out. It was a great watch and entertaining in many more ways than I expected.
In The Hundred-Foot Journey, Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal) is a culinary ingénue with the gastronomic equivalent of perfect pitch. Displaced from their native India, the Kadam family, led by Papa (Om Puri), settles in the quaint village of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val in the south of France. Filled with charm, it is both picturesque and elegant – the ideal place to settle down and open an Indian restaurant, the Maison Mumbai. That is, until the chilly chef proprietress of Le Saule Pleureur, a Michelin starred, classical French restaurant run by Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren), gets wind of it. Her icy protests against the new Indian restaurant a hundred feet from her own escalate to all out war between the two establishments – until Hassan's passion for French haute cuisine and for Mme. Mallory's enchanting sous chef, Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), combine with his mysteriously delicious talent to weave magic between their two cultures and imbue Saint-Antonin with the flavors of life that even Mme. Mallory cannot ignore. At first Mme. Mallory's culinary rival, she eventually recognizes Hassan's gift as a chef and takes him under her wing.Honestly, this is one of those you saw the trailer you saw the movie type of watches. There is nothing that surprises you or that you don't see coming. That being said, it was still a very enjoyable watch. This was a great movie about the importance of family and respecting other's cultures. It is a great example of letting go of being so set in your ways and how greatness can really be found or experienced if you will let it in even if it is from where you least expect it. I would definitely recommend people checking this movie out. It was a really great watch with great performances across the board. You definitely leave the theater feeling good and you care about the paths of all the characters from beginning to end.
Miles of twisting catacombs lie beneath the streets of Paris, the eternal home to countless souls. When a team of explorers ventures into the uncharted maze of bones, they uncover the dark secret that lies within this city of the dead. A journey into madness and terror, As Above, So Below reaches deep into the human psyche to reveal the personal demons that come back to haunt us all.
At this point I'm pretty much done with the "found footage" horror movies. They really need to stop making these or make them few and far between instead of one every 2-3 months. The theater has become saturated with them and they are pretty much all the same. This movie took what felt like forever to get to the good stuff. Once it did - there were a couple of really good parts for a "found footage" movie. You still had that annoying thing of not really being able to see what is happening in the most intense scenes but the parts were they worked around that were better than most of these types of movies. The ending fell flat just like pretty much all of these movies do.
I wouldn't really recommend anyone bothering with this movie. It's not the worst of these kinds of movies. I would put it right around the middle of the pack or a little higher due to a couple of really good scenes. But it's still not something that you need to rush out there to theaters to see.
In The Expendables 3, Barney (Stallone), Christmas (Statham) and the rest of the team comes face-to-face with Conrad Stonebanks (Gibson), who years ago co-founded The Expendables with Barney. Stonebanks subsequently became a ruthless arms trader and someone who Barney was forced to kill… or so he thought. Stonebanks, who eluded death once before, now is making it his mission to end The Expendables -- but Barney has other plans. Barney decides that he has to fight old blood with new blood, and brings in a new era of Expendables team members, recruiting individuals who are younger, faster and more tech-savvy. The latest mission becomes a clash of classic old-school style versus high-tech expertise in the Expendables’ most personal battle yet.
This is pretty much just more of the same from the first two movies. The story doesn't really matter. It's the action and all these action stars not taking themselves seriously and riffing on each other while playing shoot em up and what not. The new additions this go around were good as the bad guy and the laugh track.
I would recommend this to anyone that liked the first two. You will probably enjoy this one as much as those. If you have not seen any of them - I have no idea why you would start now.
The story of The Giver centers on Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), a young man who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Yet as he begins to spend time with The Giver (Jeff Bridges), who is the sole keeper of all the community's memories, Jonas quickly begins to discover the dark and deadly truths of his community's secret past. With this newfound power of knowledge, he realizes that the stakes are higher than imagined - a matter of life and death for himself and those he loves most. At extreme odds, Jonas knows that he must escape their world to protect them all - a challenge that no one has ever succeeded at before.
This was another movie about a future society based on a young adult novel. The whole set up seemed very similar to The Hunger Games and Divergent and that should really make me sick of these movies by this point. Yet I'm not for some unknown reason. I like these movies even though they seem like knock offs of each other. Not sure if that's a reflection of my views of society and how I think the future will shape up or if I just have some sort of patience for this. The cast in this was good although I think they could have actually done more with the three teenage friends dynamic. Meryl Streep was no necessary and seemed out of place but Jeff Bridges was perfect and great as always. I did not read this book so I can 't really account for the book vs movie debate.
I liked this movie. I would not say loved it or that it is a must see. Not nearly as good as The Hunger Games or Divergent in my opinion but still a pretty decent watch. I would somewhat recommend people checking this out.
Code named 'The November Man,' Peter Devereaux (Pierce Brosnan) is a lethal and highly trained ex-CIA agent, who has been enjoying a quiet life in Switzerland. When Devereaux is lured out of retirement for one last mission, he must protect valuable witness, Alice Fournier, (Olga Kurylenko). He soon uncovers this assignment marks him a target of his former friend and CIA protégé David Mason (Luke Bracey). With growing suspicions of a mole in the agency, there is no one Devereaux can trust, no rules and no holds barred.
This movie was a somewhat decent watch. The problem is that it was supposed to be a political espionage suspense type of movie and there was nothing that you didn't see coming whatsoever. You could see everything coming ten miles away that it started to drag after a while as you had to wait for the dots to be connected that you already knew would be. Pierce Brosnan was good but the rest of the cast was pretty lame. This probably could have been much better with a better cast and tighter story telling.
I wouldn't really recommend people wasting their time seeing this. You can just catch this one cable or something if you really have nothing to do and it happens to be on.
Madea gets coaxed into helping a friend pay her daughter a surprise visit in the country for Christmas, but the biggest surprise is what they'll find when they arrive. As the small, rural town prepares for its annual Christmas Carnival, new secrets are revealed and old relationships are tested while Madea dishes her own brand of Christmas Spirit to all.
I had hoped to find the whole Madea thing funny again after it had gotten so stale during the last couple of entries. And it had a couple of moments but overall, it was just as bad. The side story was overly dramatic as always. And how in the hell Larry The Cable Guy is in a Tyler Perry movie is totally beyond me.
I would not really recommend anyone watching this. I was a huge fan of Madea at the start. I still found it funny for the first four or five films but it has definitely run its course now and needs to be shelved for a while, if not permanently.
After making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) when they go deep undercover at a local college. But when Jenko meets a kindred spirit on the football team, and Schmidt infiltrates the bohemian art major scene, they begin to question their partnership. Now they don't have to just crack the case - they have to figure out if they can have a mature relationship. If these two overgrown adolescents can grow from freshmen into real men, college might be the best thing that ever happened to them.This was a pretty funny movie. It was just like the first one in the fact that they were mocking the movie the entire time. There was one scene towards the beginning where it was essentially a dialogue on how stupid sequels as a whole were and did nothing but riff on them and making fun of themselves. You can never go wrong when you blatantly don't take your movie seriously like this. It always provides awesome comedic material. The overacted relationship of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum also continued and is very funny due to the great chemistry that they have together. However, the best part of the movie is the mockumentary type stuff during the end credits. That stuff had me belly laughing.If you were a fan of the first one - there is no way that you will be disappointed with this one. It was just as funny and I think I might have actually liked it more than the original.
