Quite simply one of the most unfunny “funny” movies I’ve ever seen. I should have known something was up when every preview or clip I’ve seen from it showed the same couple scenes, because those were the only truly funny scenes in the whole movie. The film seems to just be Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum buddying around, making up dialogue as they go. I’m not even sure this movie had a script, I have the feeling everyone showed up on a Saturday and said “Let’s make a movie today!” As of right now, it is actually rating (slightly) higher than the first film. I’m flabbergasted at how that is possible.

Why does a good movie bomb at the box office? Hard to say why this happens from time to time. Edge of Tomorrow is not doing well at the theater, even though it seems the people that do see it are loving it, including reviewers (71% on Metascore, a whopping 90% on Rotten Tomatoes). Whether it was poor marketing, strong competition, or just an audience tired of sci-fi over the last couple years, this great film is going relatively ignored.

Edge of Tomorrow takes place in a near-future Earth where an alien race has landed and is wiping us out. It gets you into the action pretty quickly, when Tom Cruise’s character, a major in the armed forces that has risen in the ranks due to politics but knows nothing about combat, is thrust into the main front. He dies pretty quickly, but wakes up the previous morning in a Groundhog Day-like fashion, with no one else aware. It turns out the aliens have the ability to time shift, which they do whenever they lose a battle, so they can re-fight it and change the outcome, while the humans are none the wiser and thus lose every fight. Cruise has now leached this power, and relives the same 2 days over and over. With this power he is able to learn more and more each day in hopes of overcoming the alien threat before they locate him and stop his loop, learning from Emily Blunt’s character, a seasoned trained fighter, as she too was once in a loop before she lost the ability.

It all sounds very fantastical, and while it seems extremely far out there and hard to grasp, the movie presents it in a fashion that is easy to follow. Obviously it has stunning effects, which is expected in a big budget film, but it is also much more than just a shoot-em-up disaster movie. Cruise’s emotions play out, from hope when he realizes he has this time loop on his side to help him defeat the threat, to despair when nothing he does seems to stop the threat over the hundreds (thousands?) of days he repeats. The big finale is wholly unexpected too. This is a film worth seeing on the big screen, and I hope more people do before its gone.

Some movies are made to make you sit on the edge of your seat in suspense. Some make you laugh until it hurts. Some make you gasp in fear. The Fault in Our Stars was made for one purpose only, and that is to make you cry. If that is entertaining for you, this movie is right up your alley.

As a movie on its own (if you can remove the emotion it attempts to wrestle from you) it is ok I guess. Cancer stricken girl falls for cancer-remission boy, in a relationship that you know from the beginning is not going to end well for anyone involved. And that is the problem I have with this movie, nearly from the get-go all it wants to do is see the audience covered in tears. It does a good job of it too, by the time it was over, plenty of grown men in the the theater with me (all with a girl that dragged them to it I’m sure) had a piece of dirt or something in their eye causing it to water uncontrollably. This is a definite chick flick, and the numbers played out, with an 82% female audience (and 79% under the age of 25) on opening weekend.

I’m comfortable enough in my skin to admit I’ve been known to choke up at a good movie, but this one is a little overkill for me. My wife teased me that I’d be a waterworks before we went in, but while I only shed a tear or two, she was a blubbering mess, so I guess I’m just outside the demographic on this one. But guys, you can earn some serious points by taking your date to this film.

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.