It seems like every year we get more and more comic book movies coming out, which is great! Until things go wrong! As comic book fans we’re always on edge about how Hollywood will treat our beloved characters. Get it right and we are hooked! Get it wrong and its like crushing our hopes and dreams so as happy as we are to talk the best comic book movies we thought it would be fun to name The 5 Worst Comic Book Movies! We also would love to know your 5 worst comic book movies send your lists to moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com or call the voice mail 260-573-0015 you can also post them to our Twitter or Facebook

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Guardians of the Galaxy has been our most discussed movie here at the Movie Madness Podcast. Some of us think it will be great “Jeremy” and others not so much “Doug” & “Craig”! So we decided we had to do something special and I hopped in my car along with my son Kirby drove two hours to Indianapolis to see Guardians of the Galaxy with Jeremy and his family in IMAX! Of course we had to turn on the mics to give our initial reactions! What did we think? What did the kids think? Well you’ll have to listen in to find out! Then let us know your thoughts on Guardians of the Galaxy! email us moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com, call us 260-573-0015 or post them on Facebook or Twitter

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Have you ever gone into the theater expecting a movie to turn out one way only to be disappointed or if your lucky it turns out better than expected!  These are two of those movies! You’ll have to listen in to find out! Is it Lucy starring Scarlett Johannson and Morgan Freeman or Hercules Starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, John Hurt and Ian McShane. We’ve given our reviews let us know yours call our voice mail 260-573-0015 or email us moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com or post on our Twitter or Facebook Page

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Being the comic book fans we are we had to take some time to discuss the upcoming Batman Vs. Superman movie from casting to Batmans new costume we get our geek on! Now I know that we are a movie podcast but we couldn’t resist talking about the new Flash tv show on the CW network. We also step up and put our predictions out there on Guardians of the Galaxy. And finish things up with some trailer talk about Dumb and Dumber To, The Equalizer and Expendables 3 and the sad state of Nicolas Cage‘s career as he stars in the Left Behind reboot. We want to hear from you! Email us moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com, call us 260-573-0015 or post on Twitter or Facebook

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Sometimes it amazes me how many different kinds of movies we review here on the Movie Madness Podcast and every now and then we’ll see two movies that are so far apart in themes that we laugh at having them in the same mini review! This is one of those times! As we bring you reviews of the comedy Sex Tape starring Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz. Switching gears we dive into Disneys Planes: Fire & Rescue starring the voices of Dane Cook, Ed Harris and Julie Bowen. Both these movies should be hits right? Well I think you’ll be surprised at what the Movie Maniac Craig has to say! So Listen in and then send us your reviews. You can email us moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com, call us 260-573-0015 or post them to Facebook or Twitter

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It seems like technology is moving so fast in movies nowadays that every blockbuster outshines the last from a visual standpoint but one thing that has been lacking from these CGI wonders has been emotion and feeling. Until now! Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is that giant step forward in the melding of CGI and performance that we’ve been waiting for! Led by the highly underrated Andy Serkis as Caesar and not to be outdone Toby Kebell as Koba. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is one you do not want to miss. Listen in to our Mini review of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes then send your reviews to moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com or call us 260-573-0015 you can even post them to our Facebook Page or Twitter

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We have finally emerged from the darkness of our favorite theater and boy do we have some reviews for you! Pop in your ear-buds and join us as we review Maleficent starring Angelina Jolie, Sharlto Copley and Elle Fanning. We reset and review Edge of Tomorrow starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Then its a trip down 22 Jump Street with Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. After that Jeremy tries to transform Transformers: Edge of Extinction starring Mark Wahlberg into a good movie! But wait there’s more! Craig weighs in on Clint Eastwoods Jersey Boys and Tammy starring Melissa McCarthy. Finally we saved the best for last! How to Train Your Dragon 2 starring Jay Baruchel and Cate Blanchett could this be the best animated movie of the year? We’ve given our reviews let us know yours call us 260-573-0015 email us moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com or post on our Twitter or Facebook Page

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The world is at the brink of war and there seems no way to stop it. Apes and humans have proven in movie after movie that they just cannot get along. Since 1968 when George Taylor (Charlton Heston) met Cornelius (Roddy McDowell) and Zira (Kim Hunter) in the original Planet of the Apes, we’ve all known that this is so. So how could we be surprised that in 2014 a movie would come out that shows not only how the war began but that apes and humans are mortal enemies. The Newest iteration in the franchise, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, is no exception. Apes have developed a peaceful community where Chimpanzees, Gorillas and Orangutans can live in peace. That is, naturally, until humans come too close. Humans just seem unable to leave well enough alone. It is true though, that the apes carried the virus that decimated humanity over the entire planet. So it is no wonder that the species are not on good terms. In Dawn, humanity is stuck for power. The batteries, fuel and generators are running out and breaking down. There is a solution: send people to an old damn near the city and start the turbines. Water power should solve the problem. Unfortunately the apes are already there. In a surprise meeting a scared human shoots an ape and nearly starts a war. Malcolm (Jason Clarke), desperate for electricity to power San Franscisco again, and believing that the apes may be reasoned with, risks his life approaching their leader, Caesar (Andy Serkis). Caesar, of course, is not so easy to approach. He rightly distrusts humans but see some of his “father,” Will Rodman (James Franco), the human that raised and taught him. Koba (Toby Kebbell) has different plans. He hates the humans and destroys any chance for peace between the species. You’ll have to watch this excellent film to see how. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a wonderful re-imagining of the franchise and a great follow up to Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Dawn is packed with great performances, terrific action sequences and phenomenal CGI. Andy Serkis is brilliant in Dawn. I thought no one could ever top the great Roddy McDowell as Caesar but Serkis manages it. His performance as Caesar is nothing less than awe-inspiring. His face conveys even the most subtle emotions and forces it home with a great vocal performance. McDowell was hampered by the makeup of course but still… Serkis rises to near Oscar level. Toby Kebbell’s powerful performance was even more surprising. As the deservedly hate driven Koba he was utterly amazing. Passionate vitriol oozed from every pore. His face was grim, his voice bitter and captivating and his body language thrilling.   both from body language, eeast even more. He was great in  with a passionate hate-filled performance that chilled me to the bone. I cannot wait to see him in Warcraft and The Fantastic Four. The human characters were less impressive. Jason Clarke was fine as the protagonist, Malcolm, but he is no Charlton Heston or even James Franciscus. Both are in the original franchise and brought much more to their perspective roles. He just does not have the screen presence or gravitas. Keri Russell, as Malcolm’s wife Ellie, had more presence but suffered from too small a part and too little screen time. Pay attention to Maurice (Karin Konaval) when you see Dawn, and you should, because he is a wonderful character and we should see lots more of him. I’m puzzled though about the inclusion of the veteran character actor Gary Oldman. He’s one of the greats but was an afterthought in this movie. It feels like someone one said, “Hmm, who could we add to make the movie a bigger draw without giving him much of a part. Let’s do Oldman!” At least I’m sure he got a nice paycheck, but he should have been the human lead. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is really good but it is unbalanced. The ape characters are too good for the humans not to be. Maybe with Oldman in the lead and an a really good human villain Dawn moves from a 4 out of 5 stars, to an easy 5. I think you should definitely see the film in the theater but 3D is optional. Final Warning: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has all the beef of the originals, but none of the cheese!

Verdict: ★★ 1/2

Firstly, please… for the love of all that’s sacred… leave your toddlers with a sitter when you go see a PG-13 movie. Is that so hard to do? I have another option for you. It’s a little extreme. I don’t mean to offend anyone but you could always wait for the DVD! I know. I know! I maaaay have crossed a line suggesting that, but c’mon people. Cowboy up. There were two toddlers in the theater (two different sets of parents).Fuuuuuuuuu…!

Okay, where was I? (huffs) On with the review…
Michael Bay apparently lives in a world where every woman alive is barely legal, has tan legs, walks around with BFFs and wears the latest sexy Beverly Hills fashion while they look seductively at boys. That’s what almost every woman in this movie is portraying. Bay makes Transformer movies for adult men who’s inner teenage boys just hit puberty and it works because these movies do very well at the box office. Well, I mean, T1 did phenomenally well. T2 should never have existed. T3: Dark Side of the Moon kicked all kinds of ass due in large part to Leonard Nimoy’s involvement and now we have T3: Age of Extinction, a rather squirmworthy fourth installment of the Transformer canon.

Optimus Prime has gotten tired of starring in Michael Bay movies humans. The US Government and their politics, black ops, backwards morals and blind sheeple as its citizenry have even gotten the best of this patriotic leader, and the human race can kiss his gigantic blue mechanical ass. Apparently, because of the attack on Chicago in the third installment, ‘muricans have declared war on all transfomers and Optimus has taken a hell of a beating. There are special black operation CIA transformer hunters who do nothing but track down and kill Decepticons and Autobots alike swiftly and harshly. Add to that a strange just arrived transformer named Lockdown who’s history those of us that aren’t up to date on the comics, know anything about. He just appears with a big, city sized ship and walks around menacingly looking for Optimus to add to his “collection” of other caged transformers of repute.

Enter Mark Wahlberg, an oddly cast electronics nerd/engineer/inventor who’s built like a mack truck and who also builds robot dogs from scrap and electronic whirlygigs that do nothing special at all. His 17 year old daughter who wears cut offs with less fabric than French bikinis, even calls him a loser. He can’t pay bills, borrows money from friends and has no social skills. When out of the blue he runs across an old, beat up, bullet ridden, mortar shelled truck cab and takes it home to part it out for cash. He lights it up with a car battery and it suddenly transforms into a rather dazed and confused Optimus.

Wahlberg was a strange casting choice here. I love Marky Mark. He’s bad ass in just about anything he does, but in this one, he constantly flips from in yo’ face with a baseball bat to running and screaming like a little girl when the shit hits the fan, back to in yo’ face with an alien gun. Not really knowing if he’s supposed to be a nerdy inventor or a special forces warrior, he fights in some scenes and in other scenes he runs around like a chicken with his head cut off and it just doesn’t look right. I will say I liked Wahlberg a lot better than I liked LaBeouf. Shia LaBeouf’s consistent hollering out pages from a legal encyclopedia and never shutting up was a little grating on my nerves and there are times when I wished he’d just die off so I can watch the Transformers just kick each other’s asses instead. Wahlberg is always a more grounded force in his movies and this one was no exception, even if the movie was scattered as it was.

Wahlberg aside, this movie is brimming with talent. John Goodman is the voice for Hound, an extremely “Murican” military transformer who speaks and acts like a gung-ho WWII soldier. Ken Wantanabe voices Drift, a peaceful samurai transformer. Kelsey Grammar plays an especially paranoid “agent” who relentlessly tracks down and destroys transformers “for God and Country”. Nicola Peltz plays Wahlberg’s daughter, who never takes her heels off in the Texas desert or in the middle of robot battlefields. And finally, Stanley effing Tucci, one of my all time favorite actors, takes John Turturro’s place as comic relief and he fills that role as only Stanley effing Tucci can! He’s serious in some places and hilariously wigs out in other places and he never makes it unbelievable. I love that guy.

A word about sidekicks… stick with one, will ya Mike Bay? A comedy sidekick is cool, so long as the jokes work with the movie. They didn’t. I mean, seriously… a surfer dude (complete with surfboard on the roof of his Mini Cooper) in Texas? And having him suddenly replaced with a more serious side kick with no comedy at all makes the movie drag its tailfin in the dirt before takeoff.

All that said, this movie did kind of work, sort of… in a roundabout way. The action was incredible, but honestly it was the same action as the first movie: robots rolling around on asphalt in slow motion, shouting and shooting giant guns throughout city streets with people screaming and running in all directions. It was just better CGI, that’s all. I thought I saw scenes from the first movie in this one, but don’t quote me.

Tell ya what. Just watch the first movie again and re-run the final action sequence an additional 20 minutes and you’ll pretty much have this movie. The story was smart… ish, but maybe it was too smart… ish for me because, amidst the French bikini cut offs, the constant robots fighting and explosions, I was lost the entire time about what was going on. Optimus is pissed off the entire time, random hottie in cut offs is leaning over something, black ops guys are chasing someone, ‘nother random hottie in cut offs is checking the mail, Optimus is pissed off and fighting something, two random hotties in cut offs or short skirts are walking together down a sidewalk, summersaulting transformers are shooting guns, black ops guys are chasing someone else, ‘nother random hottie in cut offs is smiling and leaning over something…

There were more female legs than robots in this movie and that’s saying something! All in all, I’d say save your money and watch this one on HBO if you want to keep up with the movie canon. Not really worth the price of admission though.

How many times have you looked at the casting for a movie and said ” No way they will never work!” or What we’re they thinking! They’ll ruin the franchise!” and even worse “Who the hell is this guy?” We’ve all done it! Sometimes we’re right and that’s a bad thing but when we’re wrong great things happen! So before we all go crazy about the horrible casting of the next great blockbuster lets take a look back at the Top 5 Surprise Casting Choices that Worked! We have our favorites let us know yours! Email us moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com or call us 260-573-0015. You can also post them on Facebook or Twitter

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