Category: The Twenty-First Century
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Hercules [2014] ★★
After the crappy “Legend of Hercules”, I don’t think audiences needed to see another “Hercules” movie. Not so soon anyway. And yet Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson seems born for the role. The man is strong, funny and he knows how to entertain. Then director Brett Ratner comes along and decides to ruin everything. His movie,…
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Guardians Of The Galaxy [2014] ★★★
If every summer blockbuster or comic-book movie were as unexpectedly entertaining as Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy”, I’d greet the upcoming summer flicks with a lot more enthusiasm…but there aren’t many writer-directors as witty as James Gunn. Indeed, it’s the writing that sets his film apart from the crowd, in harmony with perfect casting, first-rate visual…
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Planes : Fire & Rescue [2014] ★★
The first “Planes” was one of the weakest Disney animated features. So my question is: Who ordered a sequel? Rating: 2/4
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Sex Tape [2014] ★½
“Sex Tape” is the kind of movie that gives sex comedies a bad name. I won’t dwell on its one-joke premise, in which a married couple make a sex tape and then realize that it’s spreading like wildfire to a multitude of iPads they’ve recently given to friends and family. Nor will I comment on whether or not…
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Tammy [2014] ★
What can I say about a movie that made me want to walk out? “Tammy” is so lame and downright stupid that I hesitate to review it at all. It has none of the qualities of a good comedy, and it’s a long way from Melissa McCarthy’s Oscar-nominated “Bridesmaids”. In fact, I’d call this movie…
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Transformers: Age Of Extinction [2014] ★½
It’s tempting to dismiss Michael Bay’s long, loud and preposterous third sequel with one word: crap. On every level, this movie is ridiculously stupid. But there is more to be said about a movie this huge ($210 million spent on robot junk) and this stupid. “Age of Extinction” may not be as horrible as “Dark of the Moon” (oh the horror), but it’s still pretty bad. And please, you…
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Heaven Is For Real [2014] ★½
Yep, this is the movie where Greg Kinnear’s 5 year old son suffers a burst appendix and claims he saw heaven, Jesus and his grandpa. I’m not making this up, since we’re told right from the start that this is all based on a true story. Fair enough. I am not criticizing any real belief…
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The Purge: Anarchy [2014]
The first “Purge” cost $3 million to make and ended up making $64 million. I thought you should know this fact because it’s the only damn thing left for Hollywood to exploit in a franchise. This ridiculous sequel is more of the same, only less likable; Once a year, for 12 hours, the government condones robbery, rape…
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Cold In July [2014] ★★½
With multiplexes crammed with Box office monsters, this little-hyped thriller emerges as a dark-horse winner by reminding us of how pleasurably exciting a popcorn movie can be when it’s populated by actors who are in it for more than a ridiculous fee. I’m talking about Michael C. Hall (from the hit series “Dexter”), Don Johnson and…
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Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes [2014] ★★★
Summer season takes an unexpected turn with “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”, a spectacular follow up to the 2011 hit starring Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke and directed by Matt Reeves. I couldn’t be more surprised to be honest. After 7 movies and Tim Burton’s crappy remake, the series has been milked hard, it’s…
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Mr. Morgan’s Last Love [2013] ★★½
Michael Caine is one of the best actors of all time and a pleasure to watch in almost anything. Now, at 80, he’s using the lessons of a long career to show how it’s done. In “Mr. Morgan’s Last Love”, he plays an aging widower who lives in Paris. Having lost his beloved wife three years ago, he…
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Deliver Us From Evil [2014] ★★
Horror movies have fallen on hard times. Amidst the deluge of pointless remakes (“Friday the 13th”, “Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Carrie”…) and some original ideas (“The Conjuring), “Deliver Us From Evil” goes with “based on a true story” to try and shock its audience. But isn’t it always the case? Eric Bana (why oh why?)…
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Think Like A Man Too [2014] ★½
Sequels are the curse of modern-day moviegoing. Occasionally you find a good one, but more often the second installment dissipates all the fun and sense of discovery that made the original a hit in the first place. That’s not the case with “Think Like A Man Too”, since the first one was equally stupid. Now…
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Jersey Boys [2014] ★★½
Every Clint Eastwood picture brings its great expectations, and rightly so. Which is why I was a bit disappointed with his latest effort “Jersey Boys”, a big screen adaption of the Broadway show of the same name, about the rise and fall of the popular 60’s band “The Four Seasons”. I give Eastwood and the…
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22 Jump Street [2014] ★★★
On my way to see this movie I kept saying to myself, “I hope they don’t ruin it!”. I feared that we might have seen all the funniest bits in the first movie; fortunately, I was wrong. The first “Jump Street” only offers a glimpse of what both Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum have to…
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A Million Ways To Die In The West [2014] ★★
Welcome to a million ways to laugh yourself silly. Your host? Seth MacFarlane, the genius behind “Family Guy” and the hilarious “Ted”. “A Million Ways” is MacFarlane’s take on the Western genre, with plenty of sex jokes and gross out gags to inspire haters. Fair enough. But for all its ups and downs, the movie…
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The Fault In Our Stars [2014] ★★★
Say what you will about “The Fault In Our Stars”, the big screen adaptation of John Green’s best selling novel about two cancer patients who fall in love, but director Josh Boone and his screenwriters have crafted a sincere and totally irresistible tale that makes the familiar seem bittersweet and heart-stoppingly new. It’s rare to…
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How To Train Your Dragon 2 [2014] ★★★
I expect family audiences to turn this sequel to 2010’s surprise animated hit into a certified smash. And I’d be pleased. Four years have turned “How To Train Your Dragon” into a DVD babysitter with kids enjoying multiple viewings of Hiccup and his pet dragon Toothless. But I have to admit: I approached this sequel…
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Edge Of Tomorrow [2014] ★★★
Think of “Groundhog Day” morphing from comedy to Science-Fiction and you’ll get an idea of the amazing stuff waiting for you in “Edge Of Tomorrow”, an incredibly entertaining summer movie from director Doug Liman that is potent enough to make us stop ID’ing him as “that guy from The Bourne Identity”. A terrific Tom Cruise…
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