While Disney has made some big budget, big action, international blockbusters under its Marvel division since acquiring them in 2009, Big Hero 6 is the first animated film using Marvel characters. I think a lot of people didn’t know what to expect, if Disney could successfully blend the two audiences and make something everyone can enjoy. For the most part, they did.

At surface value, Big Hero 6 seems geared towards the younger audience. There were a lot of gags and jokes that young viewers will find hilarious, but not as much for an older audience, at least not the same that you might find in a Pixar film or something similar. Many of the chuckles revolved around the fluffy white robot all of the pre-release trailers focused on, and the enticed laughs got a little stale by the end. However, the animation and action is superb, so there is something for everyone to enjoy. The movie is about a young genius who uses his knowledge of robotics to build super hero suits for his friends. They band together to take down an evil mastermind. Without giving away too much, the film does have the tried-and-true heart wrenching loss that pervades Disney films for as long as I can remember, but the team learns to work together and stay true to their friendship to win the day.

I think long-term, Big Hero 6 might not go down as a “Disney classic;” personally I felt it was a good movie, though not as touching or memorable as some other Disney greats. But it does show that the Disney/Marvel blend can work and be successful. If you have kids, this is definitely a film you can take them to and enjoy yourself.

Whiplash was the second movie of a double header I saw today. The first was stellar, so Whiplash was going to have to be really special to compete. While very good, maybe even great, it didn’t move me like the first film did. Whiplash stars Miles Teller as Andrew, a young drummer recently admitted to one of the best music schools in the country. His goal is to become “one of the greats,” and when he gets the attention of Fletcher (played by J.K. Simmons), the director of the top jazz band in the school, he pushes himself to be just that. He quickly learns though that Fletcher is an ass. He accepts nothing but perfection, to the point that he verbally and even physically abuses his players for even the slightest missteps.

I’m a musician, and I’ve seen directors like Fletcher before (granted, not to the extreme shown in the film). They can’t differentiate their personal success from the success of their band, and every player in it is just there to show the world his ability as a leader. Fletcher manipulates everyone and uses violence as the only tool to entice perfection from his group.

Teller and Simmons are really great, though the plot as a whole is a little stale by the end. There are parts of the film that are meant to be very serious, though I found some almost comical, but perhaps viewers with a non-musical background may not even pick up on issues and events that seem a bit out of place. I did appreciate that great lengths were taken to make some of the musical aspects, central to the film, very real (others not so much, but good for the most part). The movie is getting tremendous reviews (an unheard-of 97% right now on Rotten Tomatoes), and it is well worth a viewing.

Laggies stars Keira Knightley as Megan, an aimless late-20’s somebody who doesn’t really know what she wants to do with her life. She did everything she was “supposed” to do, i.e. went to college, went to grad school, settled down with her boyfriend. All of her friends are now settling in to their life-long careers, having kids, and becoming full members of adulthood, while she has a couple college degrees she doesn’t want to use and no direction for the rest of her life. When her long-time boyfriend proposes, she flips out, makes and excuse that will take her out of town for a week, and tries to find herself. She ends up sleeping at a friend’s house (teenager Annika, played by Chloe Grace Moretz) and meeting Annika’s father (played by Sam Rockwell).

Laggies has a familiar ring, as it certainly seems a lot of my generation and younger are having a hard time “finding themselves” for whatever reason, whether it be coddling parents, laziness, or just society telling them what is expected when that may not be their choice. As a movie, it feels as aimless as Megan’s life though. It jumps around with just the rough outline of direction, and the final conclusion seems like an awfully big leap. Knightley’s acting is well done and believable, as is the serially underrated Rockwell. It’s an ok movie, not terrible but ultimately not memorable.

In his year-long run of talked-about roles, Matthew McConaughey finds himself now in space in the big budget Interstellar. Taking place sometime in the near future, humankind is struggling. A new bug or virus called “the blight” is eating our crops one by one. It grows through nitrogen, which is most of what our atmosphere is made up of, so there is no stopping it. Society has broken down as nearly all able bodied people worldwide have become farmers in hopes of making just enough food to eke out an existence. A last ditch effort by NASA is exploring leaving Earth and moving to a new planet.

I really can’t give more details than that. As with previous films directed by Christopher Nolan, the reveal of surprising plot elements along the way is what makes the film. As McConaughey and sidekick Anne Hathaway explore space, life on earth continues to grow more grim, and there is a definite race-against-time urgency for the explorers to find a new home before everyone back home is dead.

This is Nolan’s first non-Batman film since 2010’s Inception. I’m a big Nolan fan; Inception, Memento, and The Prestige are all favorites of mine, as well as his Batman films of course. Like those films, Interstellar again tries to blow your mind, and it mostly succeeds, on an even larger, more epic scale that previous films. However, if you are a die-hard sci-fi fan, a lot of the material has a “been there” kind of feel. I’m sure Interstellar will make a ton of movie to offset its massive $165 million budget, and it is a good, exciting film, but I just didn’t get the “wow” factor at the end.

Jake Gyllenhaal is known for tackling strange movies and playing characters with a darker side to them. Nightcrawler finds him at it again. He plays Lou, a part-time thief who one night witnesses a car accident and sees a freelance videographer taping the whole thing to later sell to a news station. Seeing a way to make some real money, he jumps right into it. We spend the rest of the film watching him hunt down accidents, car-jackings, and murders, to greater and greater excess.

Lou has issues, which are evident from the start. He has a real sense of detachment from the reality of the world around him, and though the movie never states so, it is implied he is on the Asperger’s spectrum from the way he interacts with others and the way he ingests the sometimes brutal things he sees. He is obviously very intelligent and very driven, and throws himself into his new career. As the movie progresses, we see the ends to which is willing to go, and he never shows regret or remorse.

Gyllenhaal is most certainly going to get an Oscar nomination, as he is absolutely incredible throughout the movie. He plays the energetic yet socially-detached Lou extremely convincingly, a stark contrast to some his subdued roles such as him film Enemy that was released earlier this year. The movie itself is well written and well directed by Dan Gilroy (first time director, long time screenwriter).

The (very) simple movie previews for John Wick set up the whole plot of the film. A man gets robbed, his dog gets killed, and the robbers become the hunted when we learn this simple man is a former assassin. Not exactly Shakespearean content here, but the movie holds true to what it wants to be and is a thrilling ride.

Many critics are saying John Wick brings Keanu Reeves back. I won’t go that far, because his portrayal in this film is exactly like his role in every other action film he’s done. He is stoic and calm under pressure, and shows the same grimaces and delivers the same one-liners that we’ve come to expect. But because this happens to be a better film, he is getting some attention.

John Wick is fast paced from the moment you sit in your seat, and doesn’t let up until the very end. There isn’t much in the way of true developmental “acting” going on, but why should that stop a good ol’ action film? If you are up for violent, brutal action and heart-pounding intensity, it doesn’t get much better.

Another based-on-a-book, and this one I’ve actually read. Before I Go to Sleep came out a couple years ago, got some hype. Personally I thought the book was just ok, and the film kept pretty close to the original material, so it too was just ok.

The movie stars Nicole Kidman as Christine, a Memento-style amnesiac who can’t make short term memories, due to an attack several years ago. She is cared for by her husband Ben, played by Colin Firth. Every morning she wakes up not knowing who he is, and he explains to her what has happened before going to work and leaving her home alone. What he doesn’t know, is she is seeing a doctor while he is away. Her doctor calls every morning after Ben has left, telling her where to find a video diary she has been keeping (and hiding from Ben) to catch herself up on what they’ve been working on, an attempt to recover past memories. As the movie plays out, you see Ben has been hiding certain things from her, though the extant and reasoning is left unclear till the end.

As psychological thrillers go, it isn’t terrible, but it does resort to cliché gimmicks and over-the-top jump scares. The acting by Firth and Kidman is good, but the story has some holes and certain plot elements are rushed and not explored as much as you’d like. Whereas my previous movie Dear White People is the kind that critics love and average movie-goers might not, Before I Go to Sleep feels like the opposite, one that will be panned by the former group and mostly enjoyed by the latter.

Full disclosure: I walked out on this film about halfway through, so if it had a big climactic finish that blew the audience away, I missed it. But what I saw was very underwhelming and not worthy of the high critical praise Dear White People is getting so far.

This movie is about the black student body at an ivy league school, and the junior film maker who is fighting the “white authority” for perceived injustices. I’m not an idealist and I know there is still racism in America, but the movie does a poor job of backing up the protagonist’s arguments. She makes wild claims without really arguing her testimony, while hiding behind big $2 words to fool the audience. To make matters worse, nearly all the characters in the film are stereotypical clichés, further damaging any statement the filmmakers are trying to make. For me personally, even the style of the film was hard to watch, it was very jumpy in a Wes Anderson-like way, but with none of the quirky, funny dialogue and scenes that make his films so endearing.

The film just seemed like it was going as far as it could to create controversy. It’s the kind of film that critics love because it is “edgy” and “eye opening” but I just don’t see the substance that they are all hyping. Maybe I’m just a dumb white guy.

St. Vincent is pretty much what the previews made it out to be. Bill Murray plays Vincent, a crass old man that takes a boy under his wing. Vincent is an ass to everyone except those he cares about, but the movie does reveal as it goes along that there is more to him than meets the eye. Murray is at his comedic roots in this film and it is probably the best he’s been in a long time. The movie also features funny actors Melissa McCarthy and Chris O’Dowd. Personally I didn’t find it as funny as I’d hoped. It produced a lot of chuckles but no “belly laughs” and ultimately will probably be a fairly forgettable film. Not one that I’d recommend rushing to see in the theater, but worthy of a redbox rental in a month.