Sometimes it doesn’t get any better than a good old war movie. Fury is about a tank crew who have been together for a long time, starting in Africa and moving to France, Belgium, and now in April of 1945 find themselves finally in the heart of Germany as the war winds down. But as the leader Don, played by Brad Pitt, says near the beginning, “The war will end soon, but before it does, a lot more people have to die.”

The movie starts with a new private, Norman, joining the crew to replace a killed member. He was trained as a clerk but now finds himself a gunner on the tank Fury. He struggles with being a war soldier and the brutal nature of the job, as well as the daily life and death balance that comes with it. The movie shows a raw and unflinching account of the final days of the war, as well as the cold shield the soldiers cloak themselves in to protect their sanity, to allow them to do the things they must to win. As Norman learns these lessons, he becomes a member of the brotherhood. By the end, he ends up performing heroic deeds he never could have imagined.

Some good acting in this movie, by Pitt and one of my favorites lately, the unsung Michael Pena, but perhaps the star is Shia LaBeouf. The man may be batshit crazy, but he is one hell of an actor, and he is the center of every scene he’s in. He plays Boyd “Bible”, and throughout the film he is balancing his deeply religious views with the acts he is committing, and LaBeouf subtly conveys the daily dilemmas he faces. His performance is getting a lot of attention, if he can keep his life together off camera maybe he can get his acting career back on track after his recent speed bumps. Fury is a strong war film, it might not win many awards this season, but it is sure to get more than few nominations.

In Men, Women & Children, there is a lot going on, probably more than I can put down in words. I think the movie tries to be a grand exposé on how social media, and to an extent the internet as a whole, has changed the way we interact with each other, but it really narrows itself into more of how it has changed our sexual natures. As such, while it should probably be a soft but biting narrative, it comes across more as the director hitting us over the head with a hammer to drive his point home.

The movie follows the lives of 8 to 10 individuals, each with their own problems. A husband and wife are in a stale relationship. He wants a closer intimacy, while she wants a more adventurous sex life, and they each find these elsewhere. A young teen has spent so long watching “deviant” pornography online that he can no longer be aroused by anything less. A teenage girl posts suggestive pictures online, with the support (and promotion) of her mother, who tries to live her failed stardom lifestyle through her daughter. And another girl struggles with her mother’s over-control of her internet life. The mother is trying to protect her daughter from online predators, but ends up doing more harm than good. All of these stories (and others) interconnect at times in the small community the players all live in.

The movie is well acted, and while not necessarily full of “stars”, they are all recognizable faces who have been in many films. The standout for me was the portrayal of Tim, played by Ansel Elgort. His mother recently left to move in with a man she met online, leaving her family behind. Ansel is on a roll lately with Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars, and his acting here really steals the film.

This movie was written and directed by Jason Reitman, who has done some terrific films (Juno, Up in the Air), but lately has had a string of busts (Adult World, Labor Day). I wouldn’t call Men, Women & Children a bust, but it doesn’t have the heart and appeal his successes enjoyed.

Dracula Untold is exactly what the title states, the “untold” story of how Dracula came to be. Neither very flashy nor very exciting, it is basically a subpar drama within a darker text. The cast is made up of faces you recognize but no big names, and as a whole the movie feels like nothing more than a money grab by the film studio.

Prince Vlad the Impaler rules over the tiny area of Transylvania, while paying homage to the larger Turk army and rulers nearby. When his superiors call for all the boys in his kingdom to be conscripted to their army, he visits the “monster” living in the nearby mountain and asks for the power to fight back. While his intentions are good, thus is born Dracula. The rest of the film is his fight against the Turks and the outcome of his decision.

Not a terrible movie, but certainly nothing to rush to see. I’m sure it will make it to netflix pretty quickly, and you can stream it there if you want to kill a short 1 1/2 hours.

Movie awards season is just about here, so we’ll be getting a steady diet of the films movie studios hope to blow everyone away with. The Judge is clearly one such film, with a brilliant cast of oscar winners and nominees. Unfortunately this movie isn’t as good as they wanted it to be.

Starring Robert Downey Jr and Robert Duvall, it is the story of big league, big city lawyer Hank (Downey) called home to defend his father, longtime small city judge Joseph (Duvall) from a murder charge. The two were never close, in fact are downright spiteful to each other for a good portion of the movie. Hank feels his father was too hard on him growing up, always keeping him at a distance even while keeping his other kids close. You learn as the movie goes along what kept the two separate, and each’s reasonings for keeping things as the status-quo. Unfortunately the movie tries too hard, and keeps trying to outdo itself with more and more revelations. Though it does feature tremendous acting by Downey and Duvall, as well as supporting parts by Billy Bob Thornton and Vincent D’Onofrio, the brilliant portrayals can’t save the script. It’s not a bad movie, in fact I think it is mostly good overall, but it is certainly not the great film that I think they were hoping for. This one is worth seeing for the acting alone, but ultimately forgettable.

How does a really bad movie get really good reviews? The Guest is by all definitions a “B” movie, and for fans of those types of films it is probably a good one. I was hoping for more though, and the beginning started with a lot of promise. David shows up at a family’s remote house, claiming to be best friends in the army with their now deceased son. He ingratiates himself with each member of the family, by becoming a drinking buddy with the dad, a confidant with the daughter, and a protector for the bullied son. However, the suspenseful music from the get-go lets you know there is something more sinister going on. When a few murders happen around town, all to people that have caused problems for this family, the daughter becomes suspicious.

Before you know it, a secret special forces police group gets involved and the movie takes a turn for the cliche. The second half of the film is full of terrible dialogue, terrible plot directions, and terrible acting. By the end, it is really not much better than a hack n’ slash 80’s gore fest with buckets of fake blood being splashed around. If you like to laugh at moments that are supposed to be serious, this movie is made for you.

The Good Lie isn’t really based on a true story, more inspired by events than anything else. It shows the kinds of things Sudanese refugees, especially the “Lost Boys of Sudan,” have gone through, and continue to go through today.

The movie follows a young (pre-teen) handful of family and tribe mates, the only survivors of an attack on their village. As they trek hundreds of miles through the harsh terrain of Sudan in seek of help, they continue to lose members to starvation and roaming soldiers. Finally they come to a refugee camp in Kenya, where life is hard but at least survivable. I think many Americans think refugee camps are temporary shelters, but this movie opens your eyes when it jumps forward 13 years and the surviving troupe are still in the same camp living out a haphazard existence. Finally they win a lottery and are picked to come to the USA, paid by help organizations here, to start a new life. Though they think their troubles are over, they realize upon arriving that they will be split up.

This is a fairly heart-wrenching movie. Each family member reacts differently to their new life in America. One embraces religion in thanks for their fortune, one wonders a bit aimlessly at the loss of their sister, and one throws himself into work. Yet they all stay together, with the 3 of them pooling their money to send just one of them to college. Remaining spoiler-free, I can’t really say much about the title other than it too shows how the 3 of them will do anything for the well-being of their family and friends. As the final credits rolled, it showed the 4 main actors as also true Sudan civil war survivors, several of whom were forced into child soldiers as youth. A gripping film.

Pretty good thriller here. The Equalizer stars Denzel Washington as Robert McCall, a supposed quiet man with a normal life. He works at a hardware store by day, reads classic literature by night, and seems content with his life. He has a bit of OCD in him, making sure everything is in its proper place, and even going so far as counting how many seconds it takes to complete simple tasks. He goes to the same diner every night and regularly exchanges pleasantries with a prostitute there before she heads out for work. When she gets beat up one night, McCall’s true skills come out, as he brutally takes care of the people that hurt her. This leads to a wild sequence of events, when bigger and stronger villains come after him for revenge.

The movie does become outlandish, especially the final confrontation, but it is extremely thrilling. Denzel is in his element here, as he remains one of the most bankable action stars around today. He doesn’t make as many films these days as he once did, but they are always hits and he remains one of the best actors around. Besides his extremely good acting in this film again, it is also full of excellent imagery and gripping, tense suspense.

Lot of hype leading up to this one, and it is rare that the film lives up to that, but Gone Girl mostly does. If you’ve been to pretty much any movie in the last month or so you’ve seen a preview for this one, so there were no surprises going in. It is the story of Amy (Rosamund Pike) gone missing, with few clues to her disappearance, and the police (and the nation, in today’s media frenzy style) turning on her estranged husband Nick (Ben Affleck) as the primary suspect.

The movie is based on a very popular book, which I had not read (though my wife read it twice!). It is a decent mystery-style film, with twists and turns to keep the viewer on their toes. Even you do not know for sure if Nick did it or not, with Amy’s journal entries along the way painting a pretty severe picture of him as a man with a dark side. There are two big surprises in the film, the first I sort of saw coming, the second came out of left field, but both will keep your attention until the very end.

There is some early Oscar buzz for Affleck in this film. Honestly I thought he was ok but not stellar, though Pike on the other hand is superb. For me, after the big thrills quiet down, the ending was a little paint-by-numbers, but it is still a satisfying film. The director, David Fincher, has been on a roll the last couple years, and this film continues his ride.

I was pleasantly surprised by The Skeleton Twins this weekend. Portrayed in the previews as just another comedy (and maybe a silly one at that), it is actually a very serious, heavy drama, albeit with good laughs thrown in to keep the movie from feeling too dark.

On the same day that Maggie (Kristen Wiig) is contemplating suicide, she gets a call that her brother Milo (Bill Hader) has just had his own attempt and is recovering. They haven’t spoken in 10 years, but the reason why is left a mystery for most of the film. She brings Milo home to live with her and her husband Lance, played by Luke Wilson. Both Maggie and Milo are a little strange, the product of their upbringing. They were raised mostly by their dad who was also a little out there, until his suicide when they were 14 years old. Their mother, as we learn, never wanted to be a mom and was never there for them either before or after their father’s death. Both siblings struggle with relationship issues and depression in their own way. You learn as the film progresses why each has become the person they are, and though the viewer begins to piece things together before the end comes, the final big reveal will still induce a gasp from you.

This movie shows Wiig and Hader can do much more than just SNL style comedy, with Hader in particular being tremendous as the troubled Milo. The Skeleton Twins is not a huge blockbuster and I don’t see it hanging around theaters for long (and you might have to search for a theater even showing it in your area), but it is well worth a watch.