Bone Tomahawk is a western with a twist. Kurt Russel plays a sheriff hunting down a primitive, crazy, cannibal sect of Native Americans after a couple of his townfolk are kidnapped. His little posse of four sets out to rescue their friends, with the obstacles of the lawless country along the way. When they finally find the kidnappers, a group so terrifying even other Natives fear them, they get more than they were ready for. Die hard western lovers might not like the almost science-fiction element of the crazies, but the movie is solid with a quiet, slow-in-the-making tension that builds throughout.
Sicario is another good one. This one stars Emily Blunt as a good cop fighting the war on drugs near the Mexican border. She is recruited by Josh Brolin to do some sort of deep mission against the drug lords, but he keeps her in the dark on what they are actually doing, and she just goes with the flow. The movie takes a turn pretty quickly when you realize Brolin (and his accomplice Benicio del Toro) will stop at nothing to complete their objective, whatever that may be. Another gripping film. When you finally realize what they are doing, you aren’t sure if it is genius or sheer stupidity.
Mistress America got some great reviews, but I could not connect with the story or the lead character. Tracy always wanted to live in New York, and is now there as a freshman in college, but it isn’t the lifestyle she thought it would be. She meets up with Brooke, her soon-to-be sister-in-law, and finds her glamorous lifestyle more to her liking. She latches on and spends the rest of the movie following Brooke around and telling her how great she is, when in reality, Brooke is nothing more than a spoiled rich girl that doesn’t understand when things don’t go her way. The movie goes along with this absurd notion too, and as a viewer I just wanted to reach through and slap everyone. In the end Brooke gets her way as the great climax, but by then I wanted the exact opposite.
Ted 2 is funny, I guess. The main plot of the film, Teddy fighting in courts to be recognized as a human being so he can get married and have kids, is just OK and rather predictable and boring. The laughs mostly come outside the story, in little scenes here and there that have nothing to do with the plot, but are just Ted and Mark Wahlberg’s character goofing off. The movie made plenty of money, hopefully that doesn’t translate into another dull sequel.
Don’t waste your time on the latest Fantastic 4 reboot. I can say nothing positive about this movie. The Disney-side of Marvel movies keeps making great films, the Fox-side of Marvel unfortunately has more misses than hits. This one is a complete dud. The plot stops making sense halfway through and the ending “climax” is straight out of left field.
Jons Movie Takes 