From the very first couple minutes, you can tell this movie is a little weird. And while it is certainly that, it is fun too. The movie is about a woman (Scarlett Johansson) who gets caught up in a drug smuggling run. When the bag she’s carrying inside her body rips and starts leaking this new synthetic drug into her system, her brain comes alive. The premise behind the movie is humans use only 10% of their brain capacity, but this drug opens up all the synapses and neurons and gives her super-human like powers to manipulate the world around her.

It’s all pretty fantastical and extremely shaky scientifically, but it makes for a solid, thrilling movie. The Korean drug lord behind it all comes after her (played by the original Oldboy’s Choi Min-sik), and Scarlett is in turn helped by a scientist voicing the future of humanity (played by Morgan Freeman). The acting in the movie is ok I guess, Scarlett is pretty emotionless but that is part of the script, but this makes it hard to really rate her performance. Everyone else is fairly generic, but the script and effects really make this film. It is different, which in this day and age is very refreshing in a movie, and if nothing else, it does make you think about human’s existence in this universe and where our future may take us. I’ll always give movies that make you do a little thinking on your own an extra gold star.

I enjoyed Once when it came out a few years ago. The same director’s newest movie is Begin Again, which feels much like the same movie with a slight twist. Even so, it is told well (again) and is still entertaining.

The movie stars Keira Knightley as a songwriter who has come to America tagging along with her boyfriend (Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine), who is also a songwriter beginning to gather some national attention for a few songs. When the fame becomes real and he moves on to the glamorous lifestyle, she is stuck. However she gets noticed by a down-on-his-luck record producer played by Mark Ruffalo, who convinces her to made a demo. Interspersed throughout is his relationship with his estranged wife and daughter.

As in Once, the ending is maybe not what you wanted but it is the one that should be written, though it does do a better job of making everyone have a happy ending. The music isn’t as good as the first movie, but the story may be a little better overall. A nice afternoon at the movies.

I liked the (second?) reboot of the Planet of the Apes franchise, that’s not the one with Marky Mark. It was good action with a lot of heart in it as well. It showed the start of the apes growing smarter and starting to come together. The sequel shoots us forward ten years, where their society is now growing.

The same human-made virus that made the apes smart has killed off humankind, with only 1 in 500 being naturally immune. As such, human society has de-evolved into a chaotic mess, with small groups struggling together here and there. There is no power, no communication with other groups, and a general sense that this is the end. When they go up into the hills to try to jump-start a dam for power, they run into the increasingly-intelligent ape village. I don’t want to give anything away, what leads to the conflict and how it plays out, because it is intense and it is a well told story too. If you’ve seen the original Charlton Heston version and sort of know where all this is going, it makes it even more exciting.

Though the ending was (for me) a little flat and entirely expected, the movie is still great throughout and certainly one worth watching again. I liked it better than the first which as we all know is hard to do in the world of sequels.

Had a feeling this one wasn’t going to be as funny as the previews made it out, and I was right. It has a lot of “snicker” moments, but few real belly laughs. Not a bad movie I don’t think, and it tries to inject some heart into the script, but its a pretty free-wandering film.

Melissa McCarthy plays Tammy, an average young adult who’s life isn’t really going anywhere, who has the worst day of her life. She hits a deer on the way to work which wrecks her car. This makes her late and thus gets fired from her job. Arriving home early she finds her husband is cheating with the neighbor, which sends her over to her parents house, who live two doors down. Here is where the adventure begins. Broke, she teams up with her alcoholic grandma, played by Susan Sarandon, for a cross country drive.

My wife really enjoyed the film, and I did think it was ok, but not hilariously funny. McCarthy’s typecast role of the loud-mouth spewing shocking interjections (Identity Thief, Bridesmaids, The Heat) continues here, and for me it is starting to get a little old. I think she’s a funny actor and hopefully she can branch out a little more in the future. She wrote and produced this one (also produced by Will Ferrell & Adam McKay), but there just wasn’t enough here.

Jersey Boys (the film) is based on Jersey Boys (the musical), which is based on the rise of The Four Seasons in the 60’s. I haven’t seen the production, but from the movie I can see why it has been so popular, it looks to have everything that would make a good Broadway show. Unfortunately that doesn’t always translate well to a good movie, and that is the case here.

Don’t get me wrong, it was ok. But that’s really the best I can say for it, just ok. Some plot elements don’t flesh out well, and others don’t make much sense at all. For instance, though Frankie Valli talks throughout the film how important family is where he comes from, his own family takes a back seat until something traumatic in the last third of the film. It just comes out of left field so fast, that it feels very disjointed and doesn’t connect well with the rest of the movie. This could work on a stage, but (for me, personally) film needs to have a little more cohesion. I’m a big musical/play fan and see at least a couple to a few a year. Just some of the things that may work on Broadway don’t move over well, and in adapting Jersey Boys to the screen, they seemed to try to keep it is as original as possible without taking this into consideration.

If you grew up when The Four Seasons were big, or if like me you listened to all these songs on the oldies station with your parents when you were young, then there is some nostalgia to it, and the movie is interesting enough. Unfortunately just not a great film. I would be interested in seeing it on stage where I’m sure it is better.

Saw this one on a whim, and really glad I did. Snowpiercer is a South Korean-American film, written and directed by Bong Joon-ho, and based on a French graphic novel. It has a lot of the elements and themes you associate with graphic novels. It’s hard to explain unless you see the film, but there is a definite east Asian feel to the movie, with scenes, dialogue, and a story that would be just at home in a Korean setting with English dubs. However, they went with a (mostly) English cast, including Chris Evans (Captain America), Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris, Octavia Spencer (Academy Award winner for The Help), and Jamie Bell (of Billy Elliot and Jumper).

This movie takes place in the near future. In an attempt to curb global warming, governments around the world sprayed a new chemical into our atmosphere. It ended up working too well, and sent our planet into a new ice age. The only survivors are the lucky few hundred that boarded a world-traveling luxury train called the Snowpiercer. The train has been moving continuously for 17 years now, and no one can get off, or they freeze to death quickly outside. Over the years, a caste system has developed, so those in the front live in luxury and to excess, while the poor in the back cars of the train struggle in squalor, and only survive at the whim of the powerful. If it sounds like just a new take on an old story, it sort of is, but this movie does make it different enough that it feels fresh.

The acting is great, though Chris Evans’ attitude and style isn’t much different than his role in Captain America, so maybe he’s just a one trick pony. Everyone else is in form though. Most inhabitants have gone a little crazy after having been cooped up in a train for 17 years, and they all play them to a T.

This film almost didn’t make it stateside, after being released almost a year ago in South Korea (where it went on to become one of the biggest domestic releases ever there). There were some bickerings back and forth between the director and the movie studio here, and it is only now seeing a bigger release due to stellar reviews and huge positive response (a whopping 94% on Rotten Tomatoes right now). This movie is a pleasant surprise. It’s not for everyone, but if you just enjoy good filmmaking, you should check this one out.

I haven’t seen E.T. in decades, so perhaps it hasn’t held up well, I really couldn’t say. But I do remember loving it as a child when it came out. Earth to Echo may be the same for the latest generation, though I think it holds less well with adults. From a grown-up’s perspective, it’s a pretty bad film.

There aren’t a lot of redeeming qualities in this film unfortunately. The acting is very rough, from everyone in it. The kids I can at least understand, they are young, and while you hope for better, it can at least be partially forgiven. But even the few adults in this film are terrible. There is one scene in particular where a man is so over-the-top, so completely hamming it up, that I actually laughed out loud in the theater, though it was supposed to be a tense scene.

If you haven’t heard, the film is basically an updated E.T. Kids find a stranded alien, and try to help him find his way off the planet while a super secret government group is hunting them down. But there is none of the heart of E.T. in this film. You don’t feel for the kids, and only remotely feel for the alien. The film tries to keep things light with “humorous” dialogue, but it’s pretty unfunny. This movie is really only for the very young, and even they might grow bored before it is over.

Michael Bay has the transformers shtick down. I generally like these movies, even though, for me personally, they aren’t all that memorable later. I’ve seen them all exactly once each, and can tell you bits and pieces of what happened, but can’t really recall the whole plots of any of them. But it seems to be working, as the movies are exciting (while watching them) and the audiences still seem to be liking them too.

In the latest, it is more of the same. It has a whole new cast (except for good old Optimus Prime), but the formula hasn’t changed. There is more action than story here, but it is very good action. In the 165 minute film, there might be 20-30 minutes where something fantastical isn’t happening. The premise is the “makers” of the transformers, which is the same group that wiped out dinosaurs on our planet millions of years ago, have put a bounty on Optimus’s head, and a group has arrived to collect him. The battlefield is once again our planet and humans are caught in the middle.

Since Shia LaBeouf has been intent on flushing his career down the toilet, he was replaced by Mark Wahlberg as the new lead. I like the move, Mark looks more like an action star and Shia’s “antsy” style in the films grated on me. While there is nothing really new about Transformers 4, the recipe is still working, and for those that liked the first 3, you’ll like the newest as well.

Its sad when a movie has a ton of potential and manages to blow it all away. The Signal started out well, and got very interesting quickly, but the promise was never fulfilled. It follows 3 computer geeks as they trek westward, on the trail of a hacker who brought down their server. When they get there, they find an abandoned house, shortly before they all black out. When the lead character awakens, he is in an institution and is told he was abducted by aliens. As he is poked and prodded by the scientists (lead by Laurence Fishburne), he begins to feel all is not as it seems (even in a fantastic scenario as this) and tries to make his escape.

The movie has a quiet intensity in spots, but is pretty lackluster overall. The plot is also full of holes and questions, very few of which get answered by the time its over. There are some spectacular scenes, but by the time you realize something is very wrong, you almost don’t care anymore, which in a movie is never a good thing. The writer/director is young, and there are enough bright spots in the film to think he can learn and get better, though I hope he tones down the use of slow-motion camera work (every single action sequence in the last 30 minutes) in his next movie.