Any other movie would hire a 10 year old, dress him young to play 8, dress him old to play 12, and then have a slightly similar looking 16 year old actor dressed young to play his next stage of life, and so on. Boyhood however follows Mason Jr from the age of 6 or 7 up until he goes off to college, and was filmed sporadically over 12 years. It has the same actors throughout the 12 year period. If nothing else, you can appreciate the artistry and dedication to pull this off.

I left the theater not thinking too much of it. It isn’t a sweeping drama, it isn’t an action story, and there is no story arc to tie it all together. It really is just the story of Mason’s life, but as I’ve reflected on the film since, I’m growing to like it more and more. The writer/director Richard Linklater creates a life-like movie showcasing how the little things in everyday life during our formative years make us who we are. And since it is Mason’s story, the movie changes as he grows.

Linklater captures the world of the growing child perfectly. Young kids don’t care about grown up things, so early in the movie, Mason cares more about getting the newest Harry Potter book (a whole scene in the movie) than the war in Iraq (mentioned by an adult in passing and never explored). When young, his world revolves around his sister, so she is a principal, but as they grow older you see her less and less. As in the real world, people enter and leave his life, sometimes slowly, sometimes violently. Some he keeps in touch with, others, while maybe important to him at that point in his life, leave and we never hear from them again.

The movie also takes care to show the important points in Mason’s life, which isn’t always the things we might think. When his Mom remarries for the first time, we see her come home from the honeymoon and hand out presents, but when that marriage fails and she marries again, it isn’t even mentioned in the film. One scene she is meeting a guy she likes, and the next is a year later and they are in a new house and married. And the film does this throughout, it jumps ahead in spurts here and there, without giving the viewer a map to follow along. The movie doesn’t spoon feed us all the details happening in the background, expecting us to keep up as events are going on. Sometimes the only way to know the timeline has jumped forward is Mason’s changing hairstyle.

There is no “story”, but even so, the more I think about this movie, the more I like it. It is the simple life of an average kid. He faces the same hardships we all did growing up, as such the movie feels real and substantial. Though I wasn’t impressed 5 minutes after it ended, after reflection it is probably one of the most endearing films I’ve seen in awhile.

Marvel is on a roll with the avengers series of films. While I thought Iron Man 3 was good (but not great), I thoroughly enjoyed Thor 2 and Captain America 2. Guardians continues the trend, in fact my son says it is his favorite yet. I might not go that far, but it is a wild, entertaining movie.

I think even Marvel didn’t know what to make of Guardians from the beginning. It is the first non-sequel film in the series since the first Captain America back in 2011, and as such didn’t have any crossover or shared characters with the previous highly successful films. It also took place off our world, and really the only thing shared is a human as the main character. If not for the Marvel comics background, it could just be a good sci-fi film, full of spaceships and planet-hopping aliens. But the same humor and high intensity action that Marvel’s films are known for permeates throughout this movie.

The Guardians are unwillingly brought together through haphazard circumstances. At first they butt heads, but they team up to stop a villain from destroying a civilization. It’s not a new story, and there really isn’t anything new about how it is told, but they do it so well that it is still a lot of fun to watch. The movie killed it in opening weekend and I’m sure a sequel will be in development before long. If you aren’t a paid movie critic (seriously, some of these snobs need every film to have some deeper meaning to be “good”) then you will almost certainly enjoy this movie, and seeing all those space explosions on the big screen is worth it.

Had very high hopes for this one. I don’t remember Garden State much, having seen it once years ago when it came out, but I do remember liking it very much. Wish I Was Here is Zach Braff’s second film, and while it does finally reach moving, heartfelt moments, it takes a long time to get there, and I think it wants to be grander than it is.

Zach Braff plays a mid-to-late 30’s dad, struggling to pursue his dream of acting, with a wife that is providing for their 2 kids. He starts the movie as sort of an ass, and looks like little in his life is bringing him any joy. When his father (played by the always amazing Mandy Patinkin) comes down with terminal cancer, Braff starts to realize what is important in life and changes his attitude. Unfortunately, it happens so quickly in the movie that you don’t realize the difference until it is almost over.

As I said, the movie does take a very long time to develop. I think Braff did this to attempt to flesh out the characters, but it didn’t work for me. Some people didn’t like that he raised funds for this film via Kickstarter, which he states was driven for the need to make “his movie” without input from the execs in Hollywood. That part doesn’t bother me so much, but I do think that if it was “his movie” he could have been a little more daring. But in the end, if he made this one for himself, then he should be satisfied with the result. Not a bad film, but not one you’ll take anything from.

This movie rocked. It’s not the kind of movie that will get great reviews from critics, I think its around 50% or so on metascore as I write this, but its ratings are much higher among average joe moviegoers. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The movie stars Dwayne Johnson as the title character. It shows the “true” story of Hercules, a normal man with a team of mercenary friends behind him that have built his legend through heroic exploits, smarts, and luck. By the end of the film, he of course meets a challenge where he has to be super-human to overcome, and his legend is cemented. The action scenes are intense and powerful, and there is enough light-hearted banter here and there to keep the movie from feeling glum. And the climax is thrilling, many in the theater (myself included) cheered out when it came.

The plot doesn’t offer any surprises, but it is still a great “guy” movie. The Rock is an entertaining actor and he brings it in this film.

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.