Sinister 2

The sequel to the 2012 sleeper hit horror movie. In the aftermath of the shocking events in Sinister, a protective mother (Shannyn Sossamon) and her 9-year-old twin sons (Robert and Dartanian Sloan) find themselves in a rural house marked for death as the evil spirit of Buhguul continues to spread with frightening intensity.

Not sure that the original called for a sequel.  There is also a reason why this was released in August.  It was pretty much garbage.  The male lead was just plain awful.  Actually all actors in this were pretty much awful.  The somewhat original idea from the original was barely enough to carry that one and seemed just plain silly by the end of this one.

I wouldn't recommend anyone wasting their time or money on this turd.  There were some cheap sight scares but nothing more than that.

Hitman: Agent 47

Hitman: Agent 47 centers on an elite assassin who was genetically engineered from conception to be the perfect killing machine, and is known only by the last two digits on the barcode tattooed on the back of his neck. He is the culmination of decades of research – and forty-six earlier Agent clones -- endowing him with unprecedented strength, speed, stamina and intelligence. His latest target is a mega-corporation that plans to unlock the secret of Agent 47’s past to create an army of killers whose powers surpass even his own. Teaming up with a young woman who may hold the secret to overcoming their powerful and clandestine enemies, 47 confronts stunning revelations about his own origins and squares off in an epic battle with his deadliest foe.

This movie is a prime example of why movie theaters should be avoided at all costs the last couple weeks of August.  This is the time of year where studios release their crappiest movies trying to bank on people just looking to catch whatever is new at the local Cineplex.  I figured that you pretty much have seen this movie just by seeing the trailer and I was right.  It's basically a marketing ploy for a video game franchise.  At least the first attempt bothered trying to use a name actor in the lead.  This one felt more like a made for Cinemax action movie.

I would not recommend anyone bothering with this.  It's late August garbage and not worth the time.  Certainly not the money either.

Straight Outta Compton

In the mid-1980s, the streets of Compton, California, were some of the most dangerous in the country. When five young men translated their experiences growing up into brutally honest music that rebelled against abusive authority, they gave an explosive voice to a silenced generation. Following the meteoric rise and fall of N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton tells the astonishing story of how these youngsters revolutionized music and pop culture forever the moment they told the world the truth about life in the hood and ignited a cultural war.

This was a great biographical movie.  You have to value the validity of it all since Dre and Ice Cube produced it too.  I totally forgot how much of this I remembered from back in the day.  The feuding and the listening to each other's albums taking shots at each other was so weird because you always imagined that stuff like that was happening and then you actually saw it play out.  

This was a great watch - especially for someone who was into that kind of music or followed all the back and forth drama from back then.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Set against the backdrop of the early 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. centers on CIA agent Solo and KGB agent Kuryakin. Forced to put aside longstanding hostilities, the two team up on a joint mission to stop a mysterious international criminal organization, which is bent on destabilizing the fragile balance of power through the proliferation of nuclear weapons and technology. The duo's only lead is the daughter of a vanished German scientist, who is the key to infiltrating the criminal organization, and they must race against time to find him and prevent a worldwide catastrophe. 

You could tell that the movie was based on an old tv show because that is exactly how it played out.  The writing, acting and action were TV level not movie level.  The character development was especially TV like.  It's not that the movie was awful.  It was watchable and the banter between the two leads was entertaining.  I'm just not sure that it was necessary to be made.

I wouldn't really recommend anyone bothering with this.  It's not necessarily a bad watch.  It's just kind of there.

Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four, a contemporary re-imagining of Marvel's original and longest-running superhero team, centers on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their daunting new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy.

This movie is all about expectations.  If you expect it to be on par with the greatness we have been given by comic movies - it is garbage.  If you expect garbage - it is a somewhat decent watch.  I went into this expecting a somewhat decent watch and I was disappointed at some parts and thought that others were better than the predecessor efforts.  The cast was definitely better.  The Thing looked much better.  It wasn't as campy.  However, this was the first time that I have not enjoyed watching Miles Teller.  The campiness might have actually ended up being needed for certain scenes because us taking it seriously just makes it stupid.  And worst of all - this didn't feel like a complete movie.  It took way too long for them to "become" the Fantastic Four, they skipped forward a year - which would have been vital to the actual development of the superheroes.  They brought in Doom for what felt like the middle of the movie but it was actually the final battle.  The movie only actually felt like the Fantastic Four at the very end . . . . . which again should have probably been the middle.

I wouldn't really recommend people wasting their time with this.  Even going in with the lowest of expectations and being surprised with it being decent is still not really worth the two hours of your life.  I really hope that Fox just stops and lets go of the rights to go back to Marvel.  Maybe they can finally give us a legit film version of Fantastic Four.

Shaun The Sheep Movie

When Shaun decides to take the day off and have some fun, he gets a little more action than he bargained for. A mix up with the Farmer, a caravan, and a very steep hill lead them all to the Big City and it's up to Shaun and the flock to return everyone safely to the green grass of home.

I've always been a huge fan of claymation.  This movie was great claymation.  As if that wasn't entertaining enough, the way that they were able to tell an almost 90 minute story without actually saying a single word was very impressive.  I'm not going to say that this is like the usual Pixar or Dreamworks animated fare with the adults liking it as much as the kids, but it was still a very enjoyable film.

I would recommend people checking this out.  It is a fun watch for the family and it will be a while before something else comes out for that demographic.