Men In Black 3

In Men in Black 3, Agents J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) are back... in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes him as much as his wry, reticent partner. But when K's life and the fate of the planet are put at stake, Agent J will have to travel back in time to put things right. J discovers that there are secrets to the universe that K never told him -- secrets that will reveal themselves as he teams up with the young Agent K (Josh Brolin) to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind.

Sadly, this movie was just kind of there.  Sure, it was entertaining.   Will Smith is Will Smith and I will always be down with watching him.  Josh Brolin was great being a young Tommy Lee Jones.  Some of the effects were good and the alien effects were as well.  There were definitely laughs too.  The problem is that the second the credits hit - I really didn't care about this movie anymore.  Is it better than the first sequel?  Absolutely!!!  That one was one of the biggest moviegoer insults I ever watched.  Having said that, saying that this one was better than that ends up not really meaning much.  This is basically a summer popcorn movie where you can be entertained for a little less than two hours and that's it. 

I would lukewarmly recommend people checking this out.  I'm not sure if I let my expectations/excitement to see it get the best of me, but I was definitely disappointed that there wasn't more of a hook to the movie or substance that might give me something more to say than "Eh . . .  it was ok."

Chernobyl Diaries

Chernobyl Diaries is an original story from Oren Peli, who first terrified audiences with his thriller, Paranormal Activity. The film follows a group of six young tourists who, looking to go off the beaten path, hire an "extreme tour" guide. Ignoring warnings, he takes them into the city of Pripyat, the former home to the workers of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, but a deserted town since the disaster more than 25 years ago. After a brief exploration of the abandoned city, however, the group soon finds themselves stranded, only to discover that they are not alone...

This movie definitely had moments of optimal creepiness.   Enough to keep me watching the whole way through.  Unfortunately, the whole story felt sooooooooo forced right from the beginning and as opposed to Paranormal Activity where you get scared that could be happening anywhere, I wasn't as hooked in to this because my brain kept asking why the hell would these people be there in the first place.  The other thing was that a lot of the attack scenes were too fast paced and blurry so you would jump at first and then just kind of wait for the attack part to be over. 

I wouldn't really recommend that people check this out.  There are definitely better options out there.  Again - there were good scary moments but the forced story made the whole thing pretty cheesy.

What To Expect When You're Expecting

Over the moon about starting a family, TV fitness guru Jules and dance show star Evan find that their high-octane celebrity lives don't stand a chance against the surprise demands of pregnancy. Baby-crazy author and advocate Wendy gets a taste of her own militant mommy advice when pregnancy hormones ravage her body; while Wendy's husband, Gary, struggles not to be outdone by his competitive alpha-Dad, who's expecting twins with his much younger trophy wife, Skyler. Photographer Holly is prepared to travel the globe to adopt a child, but her husband Alex isn't so sure, and tries to quiet his panic by attending a "dudes" support group, where new fathers get to tell it like it really is. And rival food truck chefs Rosie and Marco's surprise hook-up results in an unexpected quandary: what to do when your first child comes before your first date?

This movie is essentially a pregnancy version of Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve.  It's got a ton of actors all coupled off and dealing with their pregnancies and oncoming children.  They are all somewhat connected and take us through the many different emotions that come along with this life changing event.  There were plenty of laughs (mostly from the guys walking in the park with the kids) and the overall movie was cute/watchable.

I would somewhat recommend this movie to the general movie goer.  Anyone who liked movies like Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve will like this one and pretty much any female will like this  movie as well.

The Dictator

The film tells the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.

This was a slightly different Sacha Baron Cohen movie.  I was expecting another of his mockumentary type movies.  This was actually a movie with a "story" and other "actors."  It kind of took away a little bit from the laughs when it was part of a script as opposed to the usual freelance rantings.  There still were plenty of laughs and the usual sight gags and when it was funny - I was bellylaughing.  Unfortuantely, it seemed held back by the actor interacting and the parts that weren't as funny, I found myself bored. 

I would somewhat recommend people checking this movie out.  It's nowhere near as funny as Borat was, but I definitely liked it more than Bruno.  It's a shame that they decided to try and have a story.  I feel like this could have been hilarious if they didn't.

Dark Shadows

In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet�or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy...until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets.

I'm kind of torn on this movie.  I enjoyed watching it but I'm pretty sure that it was solely based on Johnny Depp's charisma.  He's part of an elite group of actors that I find it almost impossible to not enjoy his work.  If it were anyone else in this movie, I probably would have pulled the plug on it for pretty much not caring about the story because there really isn't a hook that keeps you attached.  It's just that it's Johnny Depp.  There are laughs and it's pretty well paced, but honestly - it's just kind of there.  And there was no reason for this to be a summer release.  None at all.

Again - I enjoyed it because I like Johnny Depp . . . . . . especially when he is working with Tim Burton.  But take him out of this movie and it's really not too good of a movie.  Sorry, I can't really do much better than that.

The Avengers

Continuing the epic big-screen adventures started in Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers is the superhero team up of a lifetime. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as SHIELD, finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins.

Never have I seen a movie with expectations like this.  I mean you are talking about four different mega-high profile movies with four different known comic book characters.  And there was a sequel to one of them in there too.  This movie has legitamitely been hyped for four years since the scene at the end of the credits in Iron Man.  You are talking about juggling all these characters (and the egos of the actors attached to the parts).  You are talking about a pipe dream of a movie for fanboys since they picked up any comic book featuring this.  You can say what about X-Men, but that was different.  They were established and developed within that one movie.  These were all established seperately and all revolved around completely different ideals.  One was all about ego.  One was all about doing the right thing.  One was all about mythology.  One was all about controlling anger.  How in the hell would they be able to put all this together and do it justice?   I kept telling myself to just enjoy a popcorn movie short on substance and cool to the eye and I would have been satisfied.  I was wrong.  They managed to pull off what I thought would be impossible, met the sky high expectations and quite honestly - blew them out of the water.  The story was amazing.  The action was awesome.  The laughs were HUGE . . . . and it wasn't just Downey Jr's one liners.  The script was written in such a way that everyone got to be in on it.  There were two scenes with the Hulk where the audience was hysterical.  The balance between everyone was amazing.  They did every single one of them justice.  Even bit players like Agent Colson was made to matter to every viewer.  I can't remember the last time that I was impressed by a movie.  Actually - I can.  It was the Dark Knight.  This movie didn't have as much broad spectrum substance as that and it's the only thing that keeps me from saying that this is the best comic book movie ever made.  But I have no problem saying that this is the second best comic book movie of all time and easily the greatest achievement of hype matching I've ever seen.

Would I recommend it?  Duh.  I could have kept gushing for pages and basically just forced myself to stop.  This movie was excellence across the board and easily the best movie of the year so far.

Battleship

Battleship is an action-adventure that unfolds across the seas, in the skies and over land as our planet fights for survival against a superior force. Based on Hasbro's classic naval combat game, Battleship stars Taylor Kitsch as Hopper, a Naval officer assigned to the USS John Paul Jones; Brooklyn Decker as Sam, a physical therapist and Hopper's fiance; Alexander Skarsgard as Hopper's older brother, Commanding Officer Stone of the USS Samson; Rihanna as Lt. Raikes, Hopper's crewmate and a weapons specialist on the USS John Paul Jones; and international superstar Liam Neeson as Hopper and Stone's superior (and Sam's father), Admiral Shane.

I don't know if I just had super low expectations for this or what but I ended up enjoying it.  I was actually flat out loving the movie until the aliens became mobile.  The excitement that was there until that point kind of faded a little bit.  And I really like Taylor Kitsch.  He was always my favorite kid on Friday Night Lights and he could have a bright future.  Hopefully this movie will make him a bigger name and people can forget that whole John Carter thing.  This was a throwback to Jerry Bruckenheimer summer popcorn movies.  Lots of action.  Lots of young actors.  Funny one liners.  You know the drill.  The effects were very Transformers like and to be honest - this movie was waaaaaaaaaay better than either of the Transformers sequels . . . . . . not that an accomplishment like that would be hard to pull off.

I would definitely recommend people checking this out.  It's an entertaining summer movie for all to see.