Unlike the Avengers series of movies by Marvel, the X-Men films seem to have been on the decline for some time. The last one was The Wolverine, which got slightly above average reviews. At the box office, it did really well in worldwide totals, but that is mostly due to increased ticket sales overseas, coming at a time when more people in China and Russia and other countries are going to the movies than they used to. Here in the USA, it was the lowest grossing X-Men movie ever. The franchise is sort of in need of a change, while retaining its star Hugh Jackman, though personally I’m a bit tired of him as well. (Obviously the people behind these movies disagree, as he has been the focal or near-focal of every film so far.) That’s where X-Men: Days of Future Past comes in.

It is the future now, and mankind has created a weapon, sort of like robots called Sentinels, that seek out mutants and kill them. Things go wrong though when they turn on man as well, and a huge world war has virtually wiped out civilization. The X-Men decide the only way to prevent it is to send Wolverine’s consciousness back in time to 1973 where he can control his younger self and prevent events that lead to the creation of the Sentinels. The movie blends the cast of the original X-Men movies with the attempted reboot of a few years ago. X-Men First Class, which received great reviews (87% on Rotten Tomatoes) and I personally really enjoyed, did not blow anyone away at the box office.

The newest X-Men film is good, though it does seem a little “wordy” at times and felt a little long as well. The effects are really good as always, and the climax is a little unexpected and welcome. However, it does set up for a change in the series that, while the film series probably needed a shot in the arm, I’m not sure I like it. I’m not going to give anything away, but the ending leaves things very open ended. It feels very much like another reboot, something this series seems to be having a few too many of lately.

Saw this one yesterday morning before the weekend estimates starting hitting, so I thought it was still going to do really well on its opening weekend. It ended up flopping. That is sort of surprising to me; though I’m not a Family Guy fan, I thought Seth MacFarlane had plenty of fans out there. Makes me think Mark Wahlberg had more to do with Ted’s success than Macfarlane behind the chair. But in any case, A Million Ways to Die in the West is an ok film on its own, but doesn’t have the gut-busting laughs I’d hoped.

Don’t get me wrong, its a funny film, but its more of a chuckle throughout rather than a laugh-till-you-cry movie. While I cracked a lot of grins, only once did I laugh out loud throughout the whole thing. Going to the movies a lot like I do, I think I’ve seen 3 separate previews for this film in the last 6 months. Usually when that happens for a comedy, I’ve seen all the funniest parts by the time I actually see the movie. Not so for A Million Ways, there was still plenty of fresh humor. It has a few short cameos, but they are over in a split second so don’t blink, and they aren’t set up as funny as other cameo-heavy films, like Muppets or Anchorman for instance. In the end, this is a ok film if you are in for some adolescent d* and fart jokes for 2 hours (that’s another thing, it felt a little long…), but don’t expect side splitting laughs.

Maleficent is the other side of the story of Sleeping Beauty. When I was a kid, good guys were good and bad guys were bad, and there wasn’t much in between. Even kids movies these days often offer more shades of grey, and such is Maleficent. In this movie, you see what drove her to darkness to become the villain we all know from the story, but also how she came to redeem herself later. Like most people, her story is much more complicated than a simple evil witch intent on destroying all that is good.

The initial previews for this movie (from quite awhile ago, Disney’s been hyping this one for some time) made the movie seem darker than it ended up being. When the final rating came down as only PG, I knew it would be more kid friendly than initially expected. And I think it does make a good kid’s movie. It offers something for adults, including spectacular visuals and decent acting by Angelina Jolie, but there isn’t too much substance here. However, kids should love it, and the younger in the crowd did ooh and awe throughout the film. The ending is a little predictable, but like most Disney movies, I think there is enough here that kids will want to see it again and again. For me, once is enough.

It’s not hard to see Jon Favreau’s personal career arc mirrored in the movie Chef. He started out making small indie films like Swingers and Made, which were very highly thought of. As the budgets got bigger, so did the headaches and tensions with studios, until after doing Iron Man and its first sequel, he was passed over both The Avengers and Iron Man 3, something that had to sting. In Chef, he successfully returns to his roots.

Chef is about, well, a chef. After a sterling food critic’s review early in his career, Favreau’s character relatively quickly moves up to a head chef position in a posh restaurant in L.A. There he has to sacrifice his planned menu to appease the “exec” (restaurant owner) and the end result is a catastrophe for all involved. Now jobless, broke, and with a son he has ignored over the past 10 years to further his career, he ends up back where he started. Of course, this is where he finds true happiness, and gets to become a better person, a better father, and a better chef along the way.

This movie really has it all. It is funny, provoking, and it has a lot of heart too. It won’t be a big blockbuster, but at this point in Favreau’s career, I don’t think he wants it to be. After making the big movies and raking in the dough with them, I think he just wanted to make this one for himself. Moviegoers should be glad he did.

Caught 2 movies last night at the local drive-in (yes, these still exist!) and another this morning, so got to get caught up!

I had high hopes for Godzilla, though I’m not sure why. Maybe I was ready for a good sci-fi film, unfortunately this was a big letdown. The acting is pretty bad, with very over-dramatic pauses, rough dialogue and even worse delivery of the rough dialogue. There are more scenes in the movie where the music quits, everyone gets quiet, and something moves in the background/foreground/off-camera than probably any other movie made in the last 50 years. I’m sad to say this movie feels like one of the old English-dubbed Japanese disaster movies that are always ridiculed, only with big budget special effects. I know a few people that roll their eyes a lot. If they saw this movie, they’d strain the muscles around their eyes by the end of this film.

After a string of decent, so-so, and bad movies lately, Million Dollar Arm finally moved me. It is the based-on-a-true story of a sports agent that starts a reality show in India to find baseball talent. In a time when baseball players are being scouted in most big market countries around the world, agent J.B. Bernstein, played here by John Hamm, looks to India, one of most populated countries in the world that, to this point, has not been scouted. He realizes the sheer number of an untapped fan base there, and sets out to find India’s first major league baseball player. While the trip starts out all about the promise of millions in the future, it becomes something much more.

This is a very heart warming story. John Hamm is fantastic as the cold, business-only sports agent. He treats the 2 teenagers from India as his meal ticket, until his neighbor (played by the up-and-comer Lake Bell, definitely check out last year’s indie surprise In a World, well worth it) makes him realize they are more than just the hope of financial success. They are kids, thousands of miles from the only home they ever knew, in a different and scary environment. The ending left several people in the audience sniffling and reaching for a tissue. It is a very warm movie, great for viewers of all ages. Unfortunately it opened against Godzilla and did not do well this weekend, though with a great Cinemascore (A-) it will probably hold for several weeks longer than expected. This one is well worth a trip to the theater or a family night rental.

Neighbors just killed it in the theaters this past weekend. It came in with a bunch of hype and looked genuinely funny in the previews. While certain segments were definitely laugh-out-loud funny, overall it didn’t hold up to what it could have been.

Initial estimates are saying the movie did about $51 million in its first weekend, which is huge for an “original” (non sequel, etc.) R-rated comedy. The premise looked great, a college frat house moves next door to first-time homeowners, adjusting themselves to feeling older as they now have a house and a new baby, and they are trying to reconcile being responsible versus trying to stay young and hip, while feuding with their new neighbors. It has plenty of star power. Seth Rogen is coming off This Is the End, a huge semi-surprise hit last year, Rose Byrne showed she can do the comedy thing in Bridesmaids, and Zac Efron surely brought out the under-25 crowd. Much of the comedy in the film is Rogen-style dialogue, in his usual unscripted-like feel (not sure how much was or wasn’t in this movie). However, it didn’t always work, I definitely felt like there were less laughs than there should have been. And the movie got a B on Cinemascore (ratings of pure word-of-mouth movie goers, not critic reviews), which is not good. I think Neighbors is an ok film, though it does get a little weird in the last 20 minutes when it drops the comedy and tries to inject a real story arc where one didn’t exist before.

If you enjoy Rogen’s style, you’ll at least enjoy most of this film, and if nothing else it is good raunchy adult humor that you can lose yourself in for an hour and a half.

Spiderman seems to be in a tailspin. Though the movies keep making money, each successive one makes less (at least domestically, this newest one looks like it will do very well overseas). The movies aren’t bad, and even the newest one, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, is a decent movie for action super-hero lovers, but I think people are getting tired of them. After all, if you count the original trilogy and the reboots, this is the fifth in the last 12 years. Spidey’s newest adventure attempts to be grander than any previous one, but in the end it feels a little tired.

I left the theater last night thinking it was a really good movie, but the morning after I’m left thinking it was just ok. Spiderman doesn’t have any new tricks up his sleeve to show the audience. The bad guys are pretty one dimensional with no great sweeping plots or intricate dastardly plans. There is a heart-wrenching scene but it was expected and thus even that was a bit of a letdown. I’m a big fan of the Avengers film series over the last few years, because they keep events gripping and on such a large scale (though even there, I’m a bit tired of Iron Man). Don’t get me wrong, Spiderman 2 is a fun adventure. Marvel just may want to take a break and let Spiderman get some rest.

As a side note, I can understand why the filmmakers decided to cut Shailene Woodley’s filmed parts from the final release. She was to play Mary Jane, Spiderman’s longtime girlfriend in the comics. The director and team decided they didn’t want to muddle the movie and the gripping scenes between Spiderman and his old flame Gwen (played by Emma Stone), but I think it was a mistake. Woodley’s star is sharply on the rise between last year’s critically acclaimed The Spectacular Now, and the upcoming The Fault in Our Stars, in which she seems to be getting a lot of early buzz. Not sure if she’ll stick around for the next Spiderman film, and if they make another soon, they could use the star power.