Transformers: Age Of Extinction

Transformers: Age of Extinction is the fourth film in director Michael Bay’s global blockbuster franchise. Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Li Bingbing, Kelsey Grammer, Sophia Myles, T. J. Miller, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor and Titus Welliver star. The film begins after an epic battle that left a great city torn, but with the world saved. As humanity picks up the pieces, a shadowy group reveals itself in an attempt to control the direction of history… while an ancient, powerful new menace sets Earth in its crosshairs. With help from a new cast of humans, Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) and the Autobots rise to meet their most fearsome challenge yet. In an incredible adventure, they are swept up in a war of good and evil, ultimately leading to a climactic battle across the world. 

I will try to be positive about this movie first.  The action was great.  It was actually better than the last two because it wasn't so over the top with so much going on that you couldn't really tell what was happening at times.  The effects continue to evolve and are top notch.  There is a new way that the man made Transformers morph back and forth in this particle spray thing that was pretty bad ass.  Mark Wahlberg was definitely a better lead than Shia LeBeouf was in the last two and Stanley Tucci was probably the best part of the movie in human form.   And the Transformers story in this one wasn't as far out there as it was in the last two.  Bottom line - it was definitely the best of the three sequels to the original which is still one of my favorite movies ever.  I really didn't like 2 and 3 at all.  Now for the negative . . . . . all the other actors outside of Wahlberg and Tucci were god awful.  I mean seriously.  The daughter and boyfriend thing made me look like the Undertaker with how far my eyes would roll back in my head during every one of their scenes.  They made Megan Fox and whatever the girl's name from the third one look awesome.  I was actually rooting for them to get killed for most of the movie.  I understand that they needed to get away from the first three entries characters to move the franchise in a different direction but that meant a whole lot of blah blah character development.  If you are going to take an hour of my life for that then at least make it be characters that I could remotely care about.  Then there is the run time.  Why in the blue hell does this movie have to be almost three hours long!?!  How can you be on part 4 of a franchise and still have that kind of a running time?  There was so much that could have been edited out of this.  It's like nobody showed Michael Bay where the editing room was.  It felt like forever and could have easily been a 1 hour and 45 minute movie.

I would somewhat recommend people checking this out.  Again - I think its the best entry since the original but still light years behind it.  While I do appreciate Bay making it better than the totally overdone 2 and 3, that running time was insane.

Jersey Boys

Clint Eastwood's big screen version of the Tony Award-winning musical tells the story of the four young men from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey who came together to form the iconic '60s rock group The Four Seasons. Their trials and triumphs are accompanied by the hit songs that influenced a generation, and are now being embraced by a new generation of fans through the stage musical.

I liked this movie but I didn't love it.  And I feel like I could have but there was just something missing from it.  I don't know if it was the pacing.  I don't know if it was the lack of a real dramatic hook.  I don't know if it was the no-name actors.  Maybe it was the rave reviews for the play that I never saw effecting my expectations?  I can't put my finger on it, but there was something.  Normally a movie like this would have me loving it but this one just seemed to drop the ball.  And I was a bit thrown off thinking that it was a musical when it really wasn't.  It was a drama about a band and all songs that were performed were when they were performing on stage as part of the movie.  Maybe that was it?  I don't know.

I would somewhat recommend this movie.  Again - I did like it.  But I should have and wanted to love it but I didn't.  Still can't figure out what it was that was missing.  This is going to bother me for a while.

Think Like A Man Too

In the highly anticipated sequel, which was inspired by Steve Harvey's best-selling book "Act Like a Lady, Think Like A Man," all the couples are back for a wedding in Las Vegas. But plans for a romantic weekend go awry when their various misadventures get them into some compromising situations that threaten to derail the big event. 

This movie was pretty much just more of the same from the original.  A bunch of friends, who are also mostly couples get together.  Lots of laughs, battle of the sexes, relationship blah blah and growing up blah blah.  There were enough laughs that the movie was enjoyable and honestly how can you go wrong with Kevin Hart at this point.  Totally formula in every way but you still enjoy it as it plays out.

I'd somewhat recommend people checking this movie out.  It's not a must see by any means, but you could do a lot worse.

22 Jump Street

After making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) when they go deep undercover at a local college. But when Jenko meets a kindred spirit on the football team, and Schmidt infiltrates the bohemian art major scene, they begin to question their partnership. Now they don't have to just crack the case - they have to figure out if they can have a mature relationship. If these two overgrown adolescents can grow from freshmen into real men, college might be the best thing that ever happened to them.

This was a pretty funny movie.  It was just like the first one in the fact that they were mocking the movie the entire time.  There was one scene towards the beginning where it was essentially a dialogue on how stupid sequels as a whole were and did nothing but riff on them and making fun of themselves.  You can never go wrong when you blatantly don't take your movie seriously like this.  It always provides awesome comedic material.  The overacted relationship of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum also continued and is very funny due to the great chemistry that they have together.  However, the best part of the movie is the mockumentary type stuff during the end credits.  That stuff had me belly laughing.

If you were a fan of the first one - there is no way that you will be disappointed with this one.  It was just as funny and I think I might have actually liked it more than the original.

How To Train Your Dragon 2

The thrilling second chapter of the epic How to Train Your Dragon story returns to the fantastical world of the heroic Viking Hiccup and his faithful dragon Toothless. The inseparable duo must protect the peace – and save the future of men and dragons from the power-hungry Drago. 

I don't know that I will ever have more of an emotional attachment to a movie or movies like I do to the How To Train Your Dragon movies.  Toothless is literally an animated dragon version of my cat J.  The relationship between him and Hiccup is a carbon copy of the relationship I had with J.  J and I used to watch the first movie all the time.  We had to put him to sleep almost 4 months ago and to say that I have not been the same since is beyond an understatement.  I have been equally looking forward to this movie and dreading it at the same time.  It didn't disappoint on either front.  The movie was just as amazingly animated as the first one.  You still enjoy the wide cast of characters and their dragons.  The story is well done and paced excellently.  There are emotional hooks galore in this movie about the importance of friends and family.  And there is the amazing friendship and loyalty between Hiccup and Toothless.  I was bawling my eyes numerous times throughout the movie and the way it played out served as the most amazing recognition of honor for my dearly departed best friend. 

I'm sorry if this post seems like more of a eulogy than a movie review.  That's the emotional attachment I have to these movies taking over.  This movie will be just as enjoyable as the first one was for movie goers and if like me you love and appreciate the bond between Hiccup and Toothless - it just gets even better.  

The Fault In Our Stars

Hazel and Gus are two extraordinary teenagers who share an acerbic wit, a disdain for the conventional, and a love that sweeps them – and us – on an unforgettable journey. Their relationship is all the more miraculous, given that they met and fell in love at a cancer support group. The Fault in Our Stars, based upon the number-one bestselling novel by John Green, explores the funny, thrilling and tragic business of being alive and in love.

First off - the movie was beyond crushing emotionally on so many levels.  It would be very difficult for even the coldest of heart to attempt to watch this with out at least getting choked up.  But it was not a blatant movie that was going for the tears.  This wasn't like a Nicholas Sparks book/movie.  The book/movie was about how to look at the world through the eyes of those who truly value it the most.  I enjoyed this movie very much.  I might have actually liked the movie more than the book when I read it because of the excellent performances by all involved.

I would definitely recommend people checking this movie out.  However, it is one of the more difficult movies that anyone could ever choose to watch.

Edge Of Tomorrow

Lt. Col. Bill Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop—forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again…and again.  But with each battle, Cage becomes able to engage the adversaries with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Blunt). And, as Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy.

This movie was pretty awesome.  The effects were amazing.  The aliens were like a crazier and faster version of the things in The Matrix Revolutions.  You are invested in the characters.  The pacing is great.  There are plenty of laughs mixed in due to the whole Groundhog's Day repeating of events. This is what going to the movies in the summer is all about.  

I'd absolutely recommend people checking this movie out.  It was a lot of fun and one hell of an enjoyable ride.

A Million Ways To Die In The West

Seth MacFarlane directs, produces, co-writes and plays the role of the cowardly sheep farmer Albert in A Million Ways to Die in the West.  After Albert backs out of a gunfight, his fickle girlfriend leaves him for another man. When a mysterious and beautiful woman rides into town, she helps him find his courage and they begin to fall in love. But when her husband, a notorious outlaw, arrives seeking revenge, the farmer must put his newfound courage to the test.


Wow!  This was absolutely awful.  Like I walked out on it because it was so awful.  This was basically one joke (people died easily in the old west) stretched out for two hours (which is about one hour and 59 minutes too long).  Anything that might have been funny was in the ads.  The rest was overdone jokes and a bunch of characters that you really don't care about.  Ironically, I actually pulled the plug when one of the characters suffering from diarrhea shit in a hat.  Literally.  That wasn't bad enough though so he did it again and then knocked the hat over.  What was shown coming out of the hat completely summarized the movie as a whole.

I would recommend absolutely nobody ever seeing this.  It was beyond disappointing and so horribly bad that I walked out of a free movie.