The ageless Tom Cruise still knows how to make an action film. Rogue Nation is the fifth installment of the Mission Impossible franchise, and it builds on the success of 2011’s (has it been that long?) Ghost Protocol. Ethan Hunt and his team have been shut down by Congress, who no longer approves of a group that offers no oversight and seemingly do missions on their own with no approval or outside direction, even if said missions are for the greater good of the ol’ US of A. The shutdown comes at a tricky time for Ethan, who is on the cusp of outting the Syndicate, a sort of anti-IMF secret organization that has been carrying out terrorist activities around the globe. Ethan decides to go underground and continue his search, trying to catch up to the Syndicate while also hiding from the CIA, as he is now a wanted man.

It’s a good old spy film that is heavy on the action. You have to be original to keep a car chase film entertaining, and this team brings the goods. It also keeps you thinking, there is a certain amount of wondering who is good and who is bad, with some characters having multple motives they are juggling. Cruise is backed by a great cast, brought over from the last couple films. Lots of tension and lots of gun fights make for another big film! Judging by its opening weekend, I’m sure we’ll get another one too!

Cake is exactly what I heard it to be. Starring Jennifer Aniston as a woman suffering from a pretty severe case of chronic pain, it features tremendous acting by her (maybe her best?) in a pretty lukewarm plot. We learn as the movie goes along that her pain is the result of a bad car accident, leaving her with scars all over her body and her young son dead. The emotional trauma from it has ruined her marriage and turned her into a pretty sour person. She spends the movie obsessing over another girl in her support group, who had just killed herself, while at the same time starting to let others in to her life again. Aniston is terrific, showing she can do much more than usual 2-dimensional characters she often portrays, but the movie is just ok. Worthy of a single viewing for Aniston alone.

Black Sea is a pretty awesome movie and a good change of pace for what I’ve been watching lately. It is a deep sea thriller, staring Jude Law as a salvage expert looking for old wrecks. He is approached about finding and recovering an old Nazi Germany U-boat, suposedly full of gold. Most of the film takes place in an old sub they were able to procure for the hunt, with rising tensions between the mix of British and Russian crew. When Law’s character announces everyone will be getting an equal share of the loot, one crewman prophetically says there will be problems when the crew realizes each person’s share gets bigger if a person or two dies along the way. Great, tense film with good surprises along the way, and a satifsfying, if somewhat predictable ending. A good nail-biter if you are in the mood or that!

Next up was a good family Disney film, McFarland USA. It showcases Kevin Costner in what he does best, a good sports film. This one is based on a true story, with Costner as Jim White, a teacher and coach in a small town in rural Texas. The population is nearly 100% hispanic, and White must adapt to a culture where his students do more than just go to school, with many of them working long hours before and after class to support their families. He starts a cross country team when he sees potential in a few students, and takes them from humble beginnings to success. A bit hokey at times, but a heart-warming film.

I really wanted to catch Mr Turner last year during my theater craze, but it saw very limited release in my area and I missed it. It is a historical semi-biography, based on the later life of 19th century English painter J.M.W. Turner, portrayed here by Timothy Spall. It is a fairly quiet film, no big plot twists or revelations, but it is extremely well done and Spall is incredible. He is an artist who is celebrated at the beginning, but after his father dies (which greatly affects his mood henceforth), he tries new techniques which diminish his reputation. He is very much a loner and brushes others off wherever he goes, and is consumed with art, going so far as to scoff at other painters if he feels their work is subpar. I think this is a film movie-lovers can adore, but I know many (such as my wife) would stop after 20 minutes, evidenced by 98% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes but only 57% by viewers.

Taken 3 continues Liam Neeson’s franchise as a badass taker-down of bad guys. However it does lack the surprises of the first film, and even had a less tense feel than the second. As long as they keep making money, I’m sure they’ll keep making them. This time Mills’ ex-wife has been killed, and he has been set up for the murder. The plot tries to get you to follow it down a couple “twists” that you see coming from the first 5 minutes, but the action sequences are still ok at least. I think even die-hard action film fans will find little to get too excited about in this one though.

Last year no one expected Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy to do much, and it turned into another blockbuster. Not sure if Ant-Man will make a ton of money, but it sort of followed the same path. It is a movie that on the surface doesn’t seem to fit in with Marvel’s Thor/Iron Man/Captain America themes, but it delivers well and is a ton of fun to watch.

Paul Rudd plays Scott Lang, who is recruited by Michael Douglas’s Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man in comic lore. The plot is a bit convoluted and overall feels a little disjointed at times, but Rudd keeps it light and he is his usual funny, charming self. His delivery is on target throughout the film, and even heavy moments keep from feeling too dark. The middle of the film felt a little slow, but the ending definitely made up for it, with great action scenes. It was also a pleasant change of pace. When every Marvel movie seems to be saving the world, in Ant-Man the scale is much smaller.

This is a very enjoyable movie. It feels different yet similar to the Marvel movies that came before, and fits in nicely. Disney/Marvel keep doing a good job of making fun movies that satisfy casual and hardcore fans alike.

Not quite sure how I feel about this movie. It is heartbreakingly sad, the story of an intelligent women losing her mind to early onset Altzheimer’s. Granted, Julianne Moore as Alice is incredible. She deals with her quickly failing cognitive abilities with as much grace as possible, but all the film does is make you feel sorry for her. Her family stays by her side even when she no longer knows who they are. Little things are perhaps the saddest, like they day she can’t remember how to tie her shoes properly, or when she goes to the bathroom in her clothes because she can’t remember where the bathroom is. In the end of course, there is no swooping savior or something that makes it all right, she just fades away. As an insight for someone like myself who has never been touched by this disease, it is a fascinating picture, just not sure how good of a movie it actually is.

Into the Woods got a lot of praise when it came out end of last year. I almost saw it in theaters during my run but didn’t make it. Glad I didn’t. Not sure what the hype was about. Pretty bland movie, geared towards kids (I think?) but fairly dark at the end when people start dying in droves. Big all-star cast hides a disappointing plot, and though I’m a sucker for musicals, I could have done without the plethora of aimless songs. The movie is a re-telling of a few classic stories interwoven together, including Rapuznel, Cinderella, Jack and Giant Bean Stalk, and Red Riding Hood. Their individual tales colide with weird consequences. Overall, this is one of those that I’m sure the stage production is better than the film.

Maps to the Stars is just a strange film. It paints Hollywood society as a dark culture, with everyone sleeping with everyone to get to the top, everyone popping pills, everyone holding dark secrets, and just about everyone has some weird psychotic episode at one point or another. It is extremely well acted, so movie lovers may want to see it for the acting alone, but the plot is a bit convoluted. Much of the film is based on a twist that is revealed about halfway through, so it is hard to say anything without giving it all away, but the ending is not quite what you expect and I think the movie tries too hard to elicit a gasp from the audience.

Paddington is a cute kid’s film, based on the old children’s books. It doesn’t have the same kind of appeal to adults; I enjoyed it mostly, because it felt like the type of kids movies that were around when I was a kid myself, almost like going back in time, but perhaps because of that it doesn’t have the same adult reach that, say, the latest Pixar movies have. But it is adorable. The story is of Paddington the bear, who has lost his family and is now trying to find a new home in the busy streets of London. The family that takes him in takes time to warm up to him, and the film is mostly the antics they go through together. Cute, but not much replay value if you are over the age of 10.

I honestly don’t know why critics were so hard on The Wedding Ringer. It doesn’t pretend to be a great cinematic experience, you won’t find expert acting or story, but it is a genuinely hilarious film. Doug is a guy with no friends, so when he is getting married to gorgeous Gretchen, he needs to quickly find not only a best man, but a whole suite of groomsmen to match his popular bride’s ladies. He turns to Best Man Inc, a company that hires out wedding parties, with Jimmy to be his best man. The spend the week getting to know each other, so that Jimmy can put together the perfect fake best man, but events take them in a new direction. The jokes come from the banter between leads Josh Gad and Kevin Hart. Not as crude as some of Hart’s other material, but still edgy and loud-out-loud good at times. If you are a critic, don’t bother, there is no deep meaning here, but for everyone else, you will laugh.

Inside Out is the latest offering from Pixar, and the first original in awhile. 2013 had the Monsters sequel, and 2012 had Brave (which lets be honest, felt a little more Disney and little less Pixar). With the Cars and Toy Story sequels before that, you have to go back to 2009’s Up. So it has been a bit, and thankfully Inside Out lives up to the storied franchise.

Riley is just a normal 11 year old girl with a good life, until her family uproots and moves. She is now struggling with everyday issues, and the battle is raging outside and inside. Most of this movie is the goings-on inside her head. Her primary emotions of Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust all run things from time to time, but because she’s had a fairly happy time up to now, her memories are littered with golden orbs showing all the happy moments, and all the emotions are pretty much ok with letting Joy run the show. Now however Riley is facing some true hardship, and the team is left wondering how to “fix” her.

In true Pixar form, there are tons of laugh-out-loud jokes, but plenty of heart-tugging moments as well. I think they did an admirable job of showing the complexity of human emotion, in a way that kids and adults can enjoy together. When Riley is young, events and emotions are black or white, but now that she’s growing, she (and her emotions) are realizing not everything is so clear cut. A very enjoyable film for all ages.

Jurassic World will bring a lot of people back to their childhood. Boasting the same soundtrack and the same creepy hiding from the dino’s (though not as suspenseful), it made me feel like that 13 year old again. Unfortunately while dazzling visually, the movie is ultimately more about the dinosaurs and fairly light on plot. Let’s not kid ourselves, that’s why you’d go see it anyway.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed this movie. Fairly predictable from the get-go, that doesn’t stop it from being an epic tale worthy of “summer blockbuster” status. But in the end, though the CGI has gotten better, for me it isn’t going to go down as memorable as the first all those years ago. It picks up 20 years after the events of the first film (I’m not sure if it ignores the first 2 sequels or not, doesn’t clearly say). Jurassic Park has become Jurassic World, a full fledged amusement park that has forgotten its gory beginnings. However, with sagging attendance (“kids now look at a dinosaur the same way they look at an elephant”), the powers that be decide to genetically grow a new super dinosaur that will put butts in the seats. Of course this new terror gets out, and havoc ensues. Starring Chris Pratt, who is on a roll and is his usual likable character again, the park workers try to at first contain the problem, before ultimately realizing there’s not much they can do.

It is edge-of-your-seat thrills for most of the film, and for fans there are lots of easter eggs to bring you back to the first film. I’m sure it will make a ton of money and you will leave happy for 2 hours of nostalgia, but I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the outcome.

This film is a wild ride from the opening sequence until the final scene. I know the original trilogy has a big following, but honestly I thought they were just ok when I saw them years ago. Maybe I’ll give them another chance. But the newest incarnation is incredible.

Max is in a post-apocalyptic world, haunted by the demons of his dead family. This new film shows more clearly his half-insane nature, more than I remember from the earlier films. He is captured by a crazed cult-like group that run a city, the Citadel. Their leader runs the city by his control of one of the only clean water sources for miles. The film is centered around Furioso’s (Charlize Theron’s) abduction of the leader’s brothel, and attempt to get them to safety. Max ends up with this motley crew, and together they try to evade and fight off pursuit.

Most of the film is the various car chases, with explosions aplenty. The people in this world are all right on the edge of insanity (or slightly over if you want to look at it that way), and the cult members are more than willing to sacrifice themselves to take out Max and Furioso, for the promise of Valhalla for those that die for the cause. Parts of the film are a little silly, and many parts are way over the top, but rather than make the movie outlandish, it just adds to the feelings of despair and madness that these people live in. It is a wild, edge-of-your-seat rush that will not disappoint action film lovers.

Ex Machina is a great, subtle film that is both thought-provoking and quietly tense, from nearly the opening sequence. I tried to describe it to a friend and everything I said made it sound like a bad B movie, so I’ll try to do a better job here.

Caleb (played by the likable Domhnall Gleeson) is a computer programmer for a big Google-like search engine company. He finds himself meeting up with the genius founder of said company, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), for a secret week-long experiment. It turns out he is there to perform a Turing Test on Nathan’s invention, a woman cyborg with supposed artificial intelligence, named Ava (Alicia Vikander). Caleb spends a couple hours each day asking Ava questions, usually in a small-talk kind of way, to see if she is actually formulating responses on her own, or just as a result of programming by Nathan, all while Nathan watches over CCTV. However, there are occasional power surges that knock the cameras out, and during these times, Ava paints a very sinister picture of Nathan. Caleb is stuck not knowing who to believe, or how to act in the secluded compound where they are located.

The movie slowly creates tension throughout, and even the powerful climax feels subdued and quietly intense. What really sets this film apart is how it gets the viewer engaged. It asks questions about A.I., such as the responsibility in creating it, whether we even should just because we might have the ability, and our treatment of the creation after it is done, all questions that we as a society will be asking ourselves before long. A minor warning for those with kids that may be interested in the whole robot theme, it deserves its R rating for some pretty graphic nudity and some violence. I took my son, and since he is 18 and going to college, I’m sure he’s seen it all, but it made old Dad feel uncomfortable!

Sorry my blog posts have slowed. I’m still reading a lot more slowly lately, in fact been on An American Tragedy for a couple weeks and I’m nowhere close to finishing it. Just sort of doing other things right now. But I did get to the theaters over the weekend to see the new Avengers.

In this newest one, the Avengers team comes together to yet again stop a plot to destroy the world. Stark (Iron Man) creates Ultron, a robot that is supposed to protect humanity, but is instead fueled by anger and sets out to do the opposite. That’s pretty much the plot in a nutshell, it isn’t all that deep, and most of the film showcases the amazing battles that makes these films great. The one knock against it is by the end, it seems super heroes are coming out of the woodwork, in a X-Men Last Stand sort of way, which personally feels a little out of character for the series so far.

I have mixed feelings for this movie. The production is huge and well done, but it is starting to wear on me a little. It seems the team just keeps facing more and more dire circumstances, and honestly this film seemed to stray off what the Avengers movies do best. Some plot elements felt a little forced, and boy did they try hard to squeeze a tear out of you (to no avail)! Overall it is good, don’t get me wrong, but I liked the first Avengers better, and as the Marvel team is ramping up these films and releasing more and more, with closer dates to each other, they may have to do something to keep this series feeling fresh.

This is a hodge podge of movies, something for everyone in here!