Action junkies unite! John Wick is easily one of the best revenge based action films in the last decade. With a minimum amount of plot and a maximum amount of empathy, directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski made a character with whom anyone can identify: John Wick.

Wick is a retired “fixer:” the man you call when you have an unsolvable problem, rather like “The Wolf” (Harvey Keitel) from Pulp Fiction. Only Wick tends to eliminate the problem, not just fix it and he does it with extreme violence.

Imagine John Wick, living a peaceful life following his wife’s death, being attacked in his home and losing the things he’s using to barely hold on. It is heartbreaking. Moments after the invasion, Wick (Keanu Reeves) is arming up, grabbing a stack of gold and preparing for war. Someone is going to pay.

At this point it’s easy to hearken back to the Death Wish franchise with Charles Bronson. Bronson is Paul Kersey, an architect whose wife is murdered by street thugs. Kersey begins a killing spree in New York City, any and all muggers better watch out. It is a passionate look at revenge and gets the audience really involved.

John Wick is a better film, but it brings out the same passion, kill everyone and let God sort them out. What makes Wick so much better is the absolute belief, developed by the writer and director, that Keanu Reeves’ character is that deadly. Even more amazing is the beauty and believability of the violence. The choreography of the action is brilliant and nothing seems gratuitous or unnecessary..

In some sense it was rather like The Bourne Identity: a minimum of movement leading to a maximum result. Every director should take notes. Realism is so effective…Kill Bill and The Matrix notwithstanding.

The directors also managed to leave acting to the actors and let Reeves stick with action.  Willem Dafoe, Michael Nyqvist and Ian McShane were rather brilliant. All three are acting work horses and shouldered the film adding depth and spice. The surprise was Alfie Allen as Iosef Tarasov. From spoiled brat, when he tries to bully Wick, to “deer in the headlights” when he gets caught, literally with his pants off, he was excellent. I wanted to kill him myself. I like him as Theon Greyjoy in Game of Thrones, but in this he was so good I forgot where I’d seen him before. Thumbs up!

So much was done extremely well, that I would love to see some Oscar nods, something not usually given to this type of film. The directors deserve much of the credit, the minimalist writing also much, but the actors carried the load and made this an absolute pleasure to watch. Even John Lequizamo was a delight.

This is a film that you really need to see in the theater before it goes away. You will not be disappointed!

Rating 4.5 stars out of 5.

Fury is a foul smelling, diesel guzzling, steel death trap. It’s also a new movie written and directed by David Ayer and starring Brad Pitt. The film is a rolling snapshot of the European theater in World War II and the men that fought there. What it is not is a war picture with a lofty purpose, like Saving Private Ryan, or one with a political motive, like The Hurt Locker. Fury is a gritty, gory story of five guys in a Sherman tank trying to survive the Great War. It’s simple.

Brad Pitt is Top Sergeant Don “War Daddy” Collier, a hard driving taskmaster who’s managed to keep his tank crew alive for years.  His crew: Boyd “Bible” Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Grady “Coon-Ass”Travis (Jon Bernthal) and Trini ‘Gordo’ Garcia (Michael Peña) are trapped with him in a WWII hell not of their own making. They are crawling through Germany in a tank that’s nearly helpless against the much more powerful German Tigers. They are crawling because Germany, at the order of Adolph Hitler, is fighting the allies for every foot of ground.  Enter Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman), a fumbling stenographer and typist, to fill out their tank crew. He is just as green as you might expect.

These characters are what makes Fury so special. There is very little character development, instead Ayer depends on archetypes. Look at nearly any WWII movie with Alan Ladd, John Wayne or Audie Murphy and you’ll see the same. My father was so good he could tell you in five minutes which character would be the hero, which the coward and which one would die. He was never wrong.

Yep, I could have told you what would happen with each member of the tank crew after I met them. Fury is so uncompromising in telling a good story that the background of the characters became secondary. This film is a journey from beginning to end, does it really matter what happened before? If you think so, demand a prequel!

Fury gave me the feeling I was an intimate…a member of the tank crew family, joining in as the group played, fought and even got drunk and obnoxious. That’s the importance of archetypal characters: it’s easy to match them to ones you’ve seen before and match them up.

This is not a movie about “guts and glory,” as some may suggest, but a movie about getting the hell back home in one piece. There is one exceptional moment when Don Collier sees a woman looking at the troops letting off steam in the town square. He takes the green tank driver, Norman, up to a pleasant apartment where they are greeted, not too pleasantly, by a woman and her cousin. Instead of what they expected, the Sargeant is just looking for a little hint of home. He finds it-an island of peace in an ocean of war.

The mistake is in making Fury more (or less) than it is. It’s a really good film, but it’s not about some grandiose scheme to win a war or destroy some foreign ideology. Fury is about squeezing as much out of life in a war and not getting dead. It’s also about killing so many Nazis that there are none left to kill you. George S. Patton once said, “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.” I never got a sense in the movie that anyone gloried in taking life. It was only expedient to kill the “other bastard.”

Ayer’s direction and Brad Pitt’s acting certainly headlined the piece, but everything in the film was top notch. Even the now familiar, “This is the best job I’ve ever had,” from the tank crew, fits. I would strongly suggest seeing Fury in the theater. The action and explosions are just too good to miss on the big screen.

Rating 4 Stars out of 5!

Dysfunctonal family dramas  are not my favourite genre of movie. They often recycle plots and tropes  from other classics, such as Terms of Endearment, which is the gold standard. There is always a black sheep of the family that comes back home after a long absence to help with a family crisis. There is usually an old girlfiend that still lives in the same town and is surprisingly, not married . What elevates a drama for me is the casting choices, chemistry between the actors , and the acting range shown,  A satisfying family drama has to make me both laugh and cry . This is Where I Leave You , a similar  movie where a son had unresolved father -son issues was  well acted, but the script was average, I did laugh but was never moved enough o cry .

Downey and Duvall did make me cry, as well most of the female audience members in the theater!  Downey still has the cocky confidence of Tony Stark , but without the smartass quips, gadgets, or Pepper Potts to back him up. This is the most range he has shown since being nominated for Chaplin 15 years ago , and his first drama since 2009’s The Soloist , which I also enjoyed.

Ever since Robert Duvall’s  breakthrough role in To Kill a Mockingbird as Boo Radley, he hasn’t given a bad performance. Initially unlikable, his humanity and core decency shines through making him a very sympathetic character by the end.

I thought the casting of Billy Bob Thornton as the opposing counsel, was perfect , as well as Vera Farmigia  ( Up in the Air)  who was his first serious girlfriend , but after a bad car accident  and a big fight with his father , Hank decides to leave town for good after a rock concert.

The courtroom scenes were phenomenal , and although the movie is 142 minutes long, it never dragged once and I could have watch another hour. My dad liked it so much he stayed until all the end credits were done .

It is a 4.5 out of 5, my Top Movie of 2014, and I really think  1 or both of the lead actors will receive Oscar nominations .

Gone Girl is a bestseller that has been on the bestseller lists for 121 weeks, starting at number 7 and moving to Number 2 so it was a foregone conclusion that there would be a movie. The best adaptations in my opinion are when the original author does the screenplay, so I was pleased when Gillian Flynn wrote the screenplay. Then I was worried would they get the casting right? I am pleased to report they did,

I have always been a fan of Ben Affleck,ever since I saw him in Good Will Hunting , and everyone admits he is a good director.  I think he will be a great Batman as well. Rosamond Pike was perfectly cast as the icy blonde wife straight out of a Hitchcock movie ,and the whole movie felt distinctly Hitchcockian but with the  David Fincher touch. I have never seen a movie of his I didn’t like. Zodiac and The Social Network were masterpieces.

The supporting cast  was perfect,most notably I was surprised by how fun Tyler Perry was as  a  celebrity lawyer who was subdued but charismatic, and  Carrie Coon, who played Margo Dunne, Nick’s sister. I found her to be the most likable,

I thought Neil Patrick  Harris showed dramatic range, worlds away from his Barney Stinson character

I was on the edge of my seat the whole time and was only disappointed in 1 area, but that was in the book, so can’t blame the director.

I honestly think this will have Actor and Actress nominations for Ben Affleck and Rosamond Pike  I give it a thumbs up and  a 4 out of 5.

I  have always been  in awe of Robin Williams versatility. He can go  from playing broad physical comedy  ( in drag, no less!)  to the serious drama of Fisher King or Insomnia and make them both look effortless. I have seen 90% of his movies and loved all except  Death to Smoochy ! (what was that?)

So I decided to watch  a drama  I hadn’t seen that was available on Netflix entitled World’s Greatest Dad .  I had heard a critic say this would be unwatchable in light of  Robin’s unfortunate death and I was curious to see why.

Now I was disappointed in this movie overall .   Williams is a struggling writer and teacher at a high school whose poetry class is always in danger of being dropped from the curriculum . His son is doing badly both in studies and in his social life.The plot was stunningly formulaic and a little manipulative of the viewer’s emotions.  The characters were so predictable and the female love interest , a fellow school teacher who is dating Williams  but drops him for a younger, more popular teacher , makes women look very fickle.

What makes the movie still very watchable  is the portrait of a quietly desperate, depressed father watching his world fall apart  . What makes this eerie is I don’t think Robin was acting at all . He was just drawing on his inner well of depression. He has never been farther away from being Mork than he has in this movie. He doesn’t even crack a smile once .Some reviews say it was hilarious but it is too disturbing to ever be funny

After you watch  it let me know as I would like to talk about further things but don’t want to spoil it!

I would give this a 3/5 would be 2.5 out of 5 if anyone but Robin Williams was in the lead!

I enjoy the show New Girl , The chemistry of the lead characters is great, you actually believe these people like each other and would be friends in real life even if they weren’t paid to hang around each other. Well Damon Wayans Jr and Jake Johnson found a way to continue their bromance AND  get paid!

The premise is quite outlandish  but quite original haven’t seen a buddy cop movie before where the actors were impersonating cops and having a blast until they meet up with bad guys that want to end their fun.. permanently,

There is actually a twist here you don’t see coming! The 9 people in the theater all said Ahh ! when it happened.

The chemistry was great as usual and Nina Dobrev (Vampire Diaries) was beautiful but was the only character without one funny line.

Justin ( Wayans) exasperated comment when he was coerced into wearing the cop uniform to a party  I look like Danny Glover before he got too old for this shit!  made me giggle

Ryan (Johnson)  was 100 % over the top but smarter than he looked just like the detectives in 21 Jump Street , in which he had a small part.  My sister says he is better in small doses, and cant ever be quiet in  a role but he was great in  indie movie Safety Not Guaranteed

I saw it with my sister and a friend although we  shook our heads at some unrealistic situations we laughed at least once every 5 minutes and were genuinely surprised  once which happens once in a blue moon with a comedy. 22 Jump Street was my favorite comedy so far this year but this is a close second. I give it a  3 out of 5 and say its a rental and the whole family would enjoy it ( well not grandma , some bad language) !

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.

Rush is a pulse pounding thrill fest, determined to keep you both glued to your seat and wanting to get to the nearest race car. Ron Howard’s latest masterpiece is the riveting story of Formula 1’s most incredible competition: Nicki Lauda versus James Hunt, the consummate technician against the pure race car driver.

Niki Lauda showed up in the 1970s like a whirlwind, redesigning cars and changing the face of Formula 1. James Hunt showed up shortly thereafter with a style and charisma that charmed not only the public but the drivers. Their rivalry is the stuff of legends and the source for Howard’s best film in years.

The film traces the parallel careers and nearly opposite personalities like a supercharged McLaren Formula 1 running a fast track. What Howard does brilliantly is take those two personalities and make them real and approachable. I felt by the end of the film I not only knew Lauda and Hunt but really liked them.

The movie stars Daniel Brühl as Niki Lauda, Chris Hemsworth as James Hunt and Olivia Wilde as Hunt’s wife. Brühl’s performance is exceptional, Hemsworth’s up to his usual high standard, but Wilde, in her short time on the screen, was great. Most important, the characters manage to recreate not only the seventies look but the feel.

What amazes me most about Rush is, seemingly, without the use of massive amounts of CGI trickery I felt fully engaged. There is a gritty 1970s feel to the film and, more importantly, each race. The movie is not only raw, but intense and exciting. Rush is a brilliant film, with great presentation and great performances…one of the best of the year!

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The Avengers is finally here! Based on the 1960’s comic book, The Avengers movie is a brilliant tribute not only to the comic, but also the writers and the fans. Director Joss Whedon’s vision is a fantastic blend of action, dialogue, chemistry and just plain fun! Joss Whedon gets it; the most important element in comic book movies is great characters and The Avengers is packed with ‘em. Not only that, but the characters are already developed leaving Whedon room to play, and he does.

The world is, once again, in deadly danger and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) the director of Shield, the world’s chief investigative unit, thinks he has the answer: the “Avengers Intitiative.” Fury is nearly fanatical about the Initiative and thank god he is. Loki has come to the Earth and he wants revenge. Only The Avengers:  Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Captain America (Chris Evans) are powerful enough to face, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the god of mischief.

Loki has been drifting through the cosmos collecting friends, not the fuzzy nice kind, but the kind that want to rule the universe. He’s not greedy though, he just wants the Earth. That’s where the Avengers step in and Loki’s is stymied, at least till he creates a passageway for his massive army. Then it’s on, the classic battle between the space monsters and the heroes. You have to go to the theater to find out.

Whedon’s vision for The Avengers is even better than I imagined. His development and blending of personalities, especially between Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, is amazing. The humanity of each hero, even Thor, is shown in its gooey Marvel Comics goodness. It was like watching the first twenty Avenger’s comics come to life. Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Captain America are at each other’s throats, just like in the books, (except when they fight evil then it’s “Hulk” smash). These are the most powerful heroes on Earth and Whedon never lets the audience (or Loki) forget it.

The acting is superlative, the plot simple but elegant and the story elements brilliant. Even more important, the casting of The Avengers could barely have been better. Even Scarlett Johansson, as the Black Widow, seems to fit beautifully, though Jeremy Renner was a distraction. Renner’s Hawkeye really didn’t sell.

The Avengers is easily one of the best comic book movies ever and I heartily recommend it. It’s now one of my top five and rate it a solid:

4.5 out of 5.