G.I. Joe: Retaliation

In this sequel, the G.I. Joes are not only fighting their mortal enemy Cobra; they are forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence. 

This was pretty much more what I had wanted from the first GI Joe movie.  Not that the first one was bad but in terms of production value it was lacking.  This one had a much better look to it and much less forced effects/action.  It also had The Rock and as I've been saying for a long time - The Rock just makes everything better.  Not sure that anything will match the adrenaline/testosterone rush of him and Vin Diesel on screen together but him and Snake Eyes came pretty close.  There really wasn't much in the way of a complicated story or anything in this movie but was anyone really looking for one.  This was a fun, brainless action movie based on my favorite childhood toys.

I would recommend anyone interested in these type of movies checking this out.  It's not great.  It's not bad either.   It's a good watch and I liked it better than the first one.

The Croods

The Croods is a prehistoric comedy adventure that follows the world's first family as they embark on a journey of a lifetime when the cave that has always shielded them from danger is destroyed. Traveling across a spectacular landscape, the Croods discover an incredible new world filled with fantastic creatures - and their outlook is changed forever.

This movie was great on so many levels.  The animation was awesome.  The family dynamics were so portrayed in both comedic and dramatic ways.  The cave people seeing and learning about things for the first time was well scripted and hilarious.  The whole family of characters was very well developed.  This is definitely one of those movies where the adults can enjoy it just as much if not more than the kids that they are taking to see it.

I fully recommend that people check this out.  It's easily one of the better movies to come out so far this year and was very entertaining and enjoyable for all ages.

Admission

Tina Fey and Paul Rudd star in Admission, a movie about the surprising detours we encounter on the road to happiness. Straight-laced Princeton University admissions officer Portia Nathan (Fey) is caught off-guard when she makes a recruiting visit to an alternative high school overseen by her former college classmate, the free-wheeling John Pressman (Rudd). Pressman has surmised that Jeremiah (Nat Wolff), his gifted yet very unconventional student, might well be the son that Portia secretly gave up for adoption many years ago. Soon, Portia finds herself bending the rules for Jeremiah, putting at risk the life she thought she always wanted -- but in the process finding her way to a surprising and exhilarating life and romance she never dreamed of having. 

This could have been a great comedy with the talents of Tina Fey, Paul Rudd and Lily Tomlin.  Unfortunately, they overloaded this movie with so much unneccesary heartstring pulling drama that all laughs kind of go by the wayside and the movie ends up being very heavy on the waa-waa and just kind of circles the drain for 2 hours.

I wouldn't really recommend anyone bothering with this movie.  It's really not a comedy.   It's too all over the place to be a legit drama.  It really just doesn't know what it wants to be and is a waste of your time.

The Call

When veteran 911 operator, Jordan (Halle Berry), takes a life-altering call from a teenage girl (Abigail Breslin) who has just been abducted, she realizes that she must confront a killer from her past in order to save the girl's life.

This was essentially a movie length version of a Criminal Minds episode.  It wasn't bad.  It wasn't great.  If you like procedural tv shows like Criminal Minds or SVU - then I have no doubt that you'll like the movie.  There really isn't much else to say other than that I could have done without the weird close up in tight spaces camera work.  Did they think that would make it more realistic or something?  Ultimately - just got annoying.

I would again recommend this movie to anyone that likes those procedural type tv shows.  Based on this being exactly that - you definitely get what is advertised. 

Olympus Has Fallen

When the White House (Secret Service Code: "Olympus") is captured by a terrorist mastermind and the President is kidnapped, disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped within the building. As our national security team scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning's inside knowledge to help retake the White House, save the President, and avert an even bigger disaster.

This movie was a straight up throwback to 80's/90's popcorn action movies.  Like the good Jerry Bruckheimer films that would come out every summer.  Lots of action.  Good guys getting the bad guys.  Good and basic shut your brain off and enjoy the show entertainment.  And it was great to finally see Gerard Butler back in the kind of performance that his career was made on from 300.  Enough of the romantic comedies, fella! 

I would definitely recommend people checking this movie out.  It's an awesomely entertaining roller coaster ride of a movie.

Spring Breakers

Spring Breakers tells the story of four sexy college girls as they plan to fund their spring break getaway by burglarizing a fast food shack. But that's only the beginning... At a motel room rager, fun reaches its legal limit and the girls are arrested and taken to jail. Hungover and clad only in bikinis, the girls appear before a judge but are bailed out unexpectedly by Alien (James Franco), an infamous local thug who takes them under his wing and leads them on the wildest Spring Break trip in history. Rough on the outside but with a soft spot inside, Alien wins over the hearts of the young Spring Breakers, and leads them on a Spring Break they never could have imagined.

How in the blue hell did this movie get such raving reviews.  I watched the trailer and couldn't for the life of me understand how the reviews I was hearing were paired with this movie.  I thought maybe it was a great movie that was just pushing the 'girls gone wild" and drug/thug angle to pull in that audience too.  I was wrong.  And so were all the great reviews.   It is nothing more than a "girls gone wild" and drug/thug themed movie with James Franco playing an incredibly annoying character and the direction, while trying to be artsy, really only accomplished being annoying.

I wouldn't recommend anyone checking this movie out.  It was a giant turd and a complete waste of time based on moronic critics praising it for some completely unknown reason.

Oz The Great And Powerful

Oz The Great and Powerful, directed by Sam Raimi, imagines the origins of L. Frank Baum’s beloved character, the Wizard of Oz. When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he's hit the jackpot--fame and fortune are his for the taking--that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone's been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity--and even a bit of wizardry--Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.

I had heard nothing but horrible things about this movie. So I'm not sure if I enjoyed the movie because my expectations had been so lowered or not but I did. I wouldnt say that the movie was awesome and what not but it reminded me a lot of the recent Alice In Wonderland and I think I might have liked it more than that. It was very campy and there were tons of random fantasy characters. I thought James Franco did a good job and I liked the back and forth between the three witches.

Again - not sure if my lowered expectations effected my take on the movie but I liked it. I guess I would recommend people going to check it out with the same lowered expectations.

Dead Man Down

Dead Man Down is an action thriller that stars Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace as two strangers whose mutual desire for revenge draws them together and triggers an escalating trail of mayhem. The film also stars Academy Award-nominee Terrence Howard and Dominic Cooper.
 
If this movie could have been edited a lot tighter, I probably would have loved it. I liked the story very much, the dynamics between Colin Farrell and the girl and the tension that developed throughout but there was too much time that led to a lot of dragging and pensive staring.   The ending confrontation was awesome.

I'd still recommend people who were interested in seeing it check it out. Its a good watch but about 20-30 minutes too long.

James The Giant Slayer

Jack the Giant Slayer tells the story of an ancient war that is reignited when a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants. Unleashed on the Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing the young man, Jack, into the battle of his life to stop them. Fighting for a kingdom, its people, and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed in legend—and gets the chance to become a legend himself.

I'm not really sure how I felt about this movie.  It was watchable and the battle that it built up to was pretty cool with the special effects and what not.  But the movie felt like it was just kind of there.  I wasn't at any point fully involved or engaged with the movie.  I was basically watching it because it was on the screen.  There was no real hook to keep my interest. 

Not sure on any sort of a recommendation.  Again - it's not that I didn't like the movie.  It was definitely watchable, but it was just kind of there.  I just saw the movie a couple of hours ago and to be honest, I'm bored just to be writing about it.

21 And Over

Straight-A college student Jeff Chang has always done what’s expected of him. But when his two best friends Casey and Miller surprise him with a visit for his 21st birthday, he decides to do the unexpected for a change, even though his critical medical school interview is early the next morning. What was supposed to be one beer becomes one night of chaos, over indulgence and utter debauchery in this outrageous comedy.

I had really wanted this movie to be funny and Hangover like. So many movies (including Hangover 2) have tried to capture that over the top one night partying comedy aura and have fallen way short. I think this movie probably has come the closest by far. There were plenty of big laughs and the bantering between the three guys was great. I'm not going to say that I laughed my ass off from start to finish, but I definitely enjoyed the movie alot.

I would recommend anyone interested in seeing this to check it out. It was very funny and didnt drag at all due to the short run time.

The Last Exorcism - Part II

Continuing where the first film left off, Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell) is found terrified and alone in rural Louisiana. Back in the relative safety of New Orleans, Nell realizes that she can't remember entire portions of the previous months only that she is the last surviving member of her family. Just as Nell begins the difficult process of starting a new life, the evil force that once possessed her is back with other, unimaginably horrific plans that mean her last exorcism was just the beginning. 

This was pretty much crap. It should have been a straight to dvd movie. I liked how it picked up right from the first one but that was literally it. The first one was good because of the whole hand held camera/homemade movie thing. This movie abandoned that. The other one even though it was PG-13 still had crazy exorcist type stuff. This one had none. It was beyond watered down and lame.

I would recommend this movie to nobody. It's pretty much a giant waste of 90 minutes.

Snitch

Inspired by true events, Snitch stars Dwayne Johnson as a father whose teenage son is wrongly accused of a drug distribution crime and is looking at a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years. Desperate and determined to rescue his son at all costs, he makes a deal with the U.S. Attorney to work as an undercover informant and infiltrate a drug cartel on a dangerous mission- risking everything, including his family and his own life.

This was a decent watch.  I mean, how could a movie with The Rock not be, right?  Seriously though, it did a good job of juggling parents, the legal system, the war on drugs, and hoodlum activity very well.  And it really put a scare in to pretty much any parent watching about how one stupid move by your kids can really explode into something and how far would you be willing to go to protect your kids.  It was also a big change of pace for The Rock because it's not like he went all Rock Bottom on everyone's asses.  He was a scared parent trying to protect his kid.  The dude had to actually act in this and he was pretty convincing.

I would recommend people checking this out.  It's not a must see by any means, but it's an enjoyable and short watch that definitely hooks the viewer and keeps your attention.

Dark Skies

Dark Skies is a supernatural thriller that follows a young family living in the suburbs. As husband and wife Daniel and Lacey Barret witness an escalating series of disturbing events involving their family, their safe and peaceful home quickly unravels. When it becomes clear that the Barret family is being targeted by and unimaginably terrifying and deadly force, Daniel and Lacey take matters in their own hands to solve the mystery of what is after their family.

I don't know why but I thought this movie was going to be more of a ghost story than an alien thing.  So I was kind of thrown off throughout the movie.  There were still a bunch of points where stuff made you jump and there was a pretty good build up.  Unfortunately, the movie kind of ended flat.  Well, I shouldn't say that.  It ended in a take what you want from it type of thing instead of a straight forward wrap up type of thing that I was expecting. 

I would somewhat recommend people checking this out.  I think that I was kind of disappointed because I had expectations for a very different kind of movie.

 

Beautiful Creatures

A supernatural love story set in the South, Beautiful Creatures tells the tale of two star-crossed lovers: Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich), a young man longing to escape his small town, and Lena (Alice Englert), a mysterious new girl. Together, they uncover dark secrets about their respective families, their history and their town. 

This was a very Twilight-esque story with much more substance.  I liked the story, the actors and how it was developed.   Unfortunately, I feel like they kept trying to develop it after we were already good to go for the ending and what not.  If this were a 90 minute movie instead of 120 minutes I probably would have liked it a lot more.  The extra 30 minutes made it start to go more in to the Twilight realm with the same thing being said over and over again by the two main characters.

I would somewhat recommend people checking this out.  Its not a must see by any means but if you are the type that enjoyed the Twilight series or movies like that - you would probably like this as well.


 

Safe Haven

A story about a young woman's struggle to love again, Safe Haven is based on the novel from Nicholas Sparks, the best-selling author behind the hit films "The Notebook" and "Dear John." When a mysterious young woman arrives in a small North Carolina town, her reluctance to join the tight knit community raises questions about her past. Slowly, she begins putting down roots, and gains the courage to start a relationship with Alex, a widowed store owner with two young children. But dark secrets intrude on her new life with such terror that she is forced to rediscover the meaning of sacrifice and rely on the power of love in this deeply moving romantic thriller.

This was a pretty decent chick flick.  It was a textbook romance story with a little Sleeping With The Enemy stuff thrown in there for drama.   You care about the characters.  There was good build up to the romance and they made it seem very realistic with the kids factor part of it.  Surprisingly, no main characters die or struggle with a horrible disease like in pretty much all other Nicholas Sparks movies.  In all honesty, he spared the audience the usual getting choked up until a reveal at the very end of the movie.

I would recommend couples going to check this out.  I doubt that the ladies will be disappointed and the guys will get the bonus points for taking them.  Just saying.

Escape From Planet Earth

The animated family comedy catapults movie goers to planet Baab where admired astronaut Scorch Supernova (Brendan Fraser) is a national hero to the blue alien population. A master of daring rescues, Scorch pulls off astonishing feats with the quiet aid of his nerdy, by-the-rules brother, Gary (Rob Corddry), head of mission control at BASA. When BASA's no-nonsense chief Lena (Jessica Alba) informs the brothers of an SOS from a notoriously dangerous planet, Scorch rejects Gary's warnings and bounds off for yet another exciting mission. But when Scorch finds himself caught in a fiendish trap set by the evil Shanker (James Gandolfini), it's up to scrawny, risk-adverse Gary to do the real rescuing. As the interplanetary stakes rise to new heights, Gary is left to save his brother, his planet, his beloved wife Kira (Sarah Jessica Parker) and their adventure hungry son Kip.


That was way too long winded of a synopsis for a basic kids movie.  This movie was just kind of there.  It wasn't necessarily bad but wasn't anything that I would be pushing anyone to see.  It's basically going to benefit simply because its the first kids movie that has come out in almost 2 months and has another month before anything else comes out.  The movie is basically a watered down version of Mosters Vs. Aliens.  

I wouldn't really recommend anyone rushing to see this.  It's a somewhat decent watch for a kids movie but they could have done more with it for the adults that have to watch it with the aforementioned kids.

A Good Day To Die Hard

Since the first Die Hard in 1988, John McClane has found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, with the skills and attitude to always be the last man standing, making him enemy #1 for terrorists the world over. Now, McClane faces his greatest challenge ever, this time on an international stage, when his estranged son Jack is caught up in the daring prison escape of a rogue Russian leader, and father and son McClane must work together to keep each other alive and keep the world safe for democracy.

There are certain franchises in Hollywood that have totally run their course and I really wish that they would just stop.  Die Hard is NOT one of them.  I will gladly keep watching these movies if they decide to keep going.  Sure Bruce Willis is getting older but I'm still buying him in these movies.  Adding his son to the mix made it pretty fresh and they didn't waste time with too much of a story.  It just kind of took right off and the action was great.  This is a great movie for what it's supposed to be.

I would definitely recommend fans of the franchise checking this out.  It's more of the same enjoyable formula that all the entries bring to the screen.

Bullet To The Head

Based on a graphic novel, Bullet to the Head tells the story of a New Orleans hitman (Stallone) and a DC cop (Kang) who form an alliance to bring down the killers of their respective partners.

This was awful.   Just like with Arnold's latest, they are trying to just make the same cheesy movies that they made in the 80s because of The Expendables success.  However, the movies in the 80s/90s weren't even close to this cheesy and a big part of The Expendables success is that even though the action is awesome and what not they don't come close to trying to take themselves serious with the movie.  Honestly - there are parts where they are almost parodying these kinds of movies.  This one had a serious tone to it and it just made all the action and dialogue atrocious.  Some of Stallone's lines were downright painful.

I would absolutely not recommend that anyone bother with this movie.  It is total garbage and a blatant waste of everyone's time.  Dude should just stick to The Expendables franchise and accept that his time has passed.

Identity Thief

Unlimited funds have allowed Diana (McCarthy) to live it up on the outskirts of Miami, where the queen of retail buys whatever strikes her fancy. There's only one glitch: The ID she's using to finance these sprees reads "Sandy Bigelow Patterson"... and it belongs to an accounts rep (Bateman) who lives halfway across the U.S.
With only one week to hunt down the con artist before his world implodes, the real Sandy Bigelow Patterson heads south to confront the woman with an all-access pass to his life. And as he attempts to bribe, coax and wrangle her the 2,000 miles to Denver, one easy target will discover just how tough it is to get your name back. 

This movie was alot of fun.  Bateman and McCarthy paired like this was casting genius.  Their comedic abilities are perfectly complementary.  The two actors also did a great job of being equal parts caring and vicious towards the other.  You couldn't help but care about the storyline of both of them as you laughed your ass off numerous times.  I do wish that they would have been a little vaguer in the commercial ads and not given away so many of the laughs but there were still plenty, right up to the end.  

I would absolutely recommend people checking this movie out.  Totally worth the time.

Side Effects

Side Effects is a thriller about Emily and Martin (Rooney Mara and Channing Tatum), a successful New York couple whose world unravels when a new drug prescribed by Emily's psychiatrist (Jude Law) – intended to treat anxiety – has unexpected side effects.

This was a really good movie with good acting across the board.  There was a great build up of suspense and the whole side effects of taking these kinds of pills was a realistic concern that was tapped well.  I can't say too much without giving away too much but there were good twists and the story was paced very well.  Side rant . . . . . Catherine Zeta Jones has had two really bad plastic surgeries.  She has something done with the end of her lips that make them pull up so she looks kind of like the Joker and her eyebrow lifts make it look like she is constantly giving The Rock's people's eyebrow.  Very werid and I clearly couldn't stop focusing on that.  Okay - I'm done now.  Had to put that out there.  Wait - there was another . . . . and it's one I've done before.  Why does Steven Soderberg insist on all his movies having a yellow tint to them?  It wasn't there at first and then showed up and stayed for the rest of the movie.  It's as if someone peed all over the lens and it was then filmed with that stain on there.  Okay.  Now I'm really done.  Feel much better now.  Thanks.

I would definitely recommend that people check this movie out.  It was a very tight and factually based story about a major issue in society with all the pill popping and how it can all be manipulated and what not.

The Haunting In Connecticut 2: Ghosts Of Georgia

Building on the terror of A Haunting in Connecticut, this horrifying tale traces a young family’s nightmarish descent into a centuries-old Southern hell. When Andy Wyrick moves his wife Lisa and daughter Heidi to an historic home in Georgia, they quickly discover they are not the house’s only inhabitants. Joined by Lisa’s free-spirited sister, Joyce, the family soon comes face-to-face with a bone-chilling mystery born of a deranged desire…a haunting secret rising from underground and threatening to bring down anyone in its path. 

This movie was pretty much garbage because it has NOTHING to do with The Haunting In Connecticut.  Seriously.  No story connection.  No ghost connection.  The movie doesn't even take place there.   It's in Georgia.  Besides the fact that the story and the "frights" were lame as hell, I just sat there the whole time yelling "what does this have to do with The Haunting In Connecticut!?!   

This movie was total garbage.  I have never seen a more senseless use of the number 2 on a sequel.   Unless they were just trying to warn us that this movie is a steaming pile of number 2?  

The Master

Set in America in the years following World War II, a charismatic intellectual (Philip Seymour Hoffman) launches a faith-based organization and taps a young drifter (Joaquin Phoenix) as his right-hand man.  But as the faith begins to gain a fervent following, the onetime vagabond finds himself questioning the belief system he has embraced, and his mentor.

What a weird, weird movie.  Paul Thomas Anderson is another one of those directors that critics love no matter what he does but I end up watching his movies with that confused dog, tilted head face the whole time.   Again as with most of the movies that came out in 2012 - the acting was great.  I mean, outside of Daniel Day-Lewis, I don't know if there is a better actor in terms of fully engrossing himself in the character than Joaquin Phoenix.   There were many times where I started to really get in to this movie and the cult following type of stuff but then it kind of swerved off track and the annoyingly over the top score ended up just turning me off from the movie that much more.

I don't know that anyone should go off of my recommendation on this one.  This is one of those movies for me where you heard so much good about it that you end up watching it questioning why people would say it was so good.  I wasn't a very big fan of it though.

Warm Bodies

A funny new twist on a classic love story, Warm Bodies is a tale about the power of human connection. After a zombie epidemic, R (a highly unusual zombie) encounters Julie (a human survivor), and rescues her from a zombie attack. Julie sees that R is different from the other zombies, and as the two form a special relationship in their struggle for survival, R becomes increasingly more human – setting off an exciting, romantic, and often comical chain of events that begins to transform the other zombies and maybe even the whole lifeless world.

This movie was really enjoyable simply because it was a totally different take on the constant flood of zombie movies/shows.  Not that I am sick of them.  I tend to like most zombie movies/shows.   But this one was a much lighter take and it ended up being very entertaining simply because of it's "originality".  It basically played out like a zombie version of Romeo & Juliet.

I would definitely recommend people checking this movie out.  Its well paced, original and funny all at the same time.

Amour

In the film, Georges (Trintignant) and Anne (Riva) are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter (Huppert), who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has an attack. The couple's bond of love is severely tested. 

This movie was amazing.  I don't know that I've ever watched a movie that seemed more real.  This movie touched me in such a way that I literally told my wife that I called dibs on passing away first.  It was equal parts touching and upsetting throughout.  I am honestly having a hard time even reviewing this simply because of how much this movie hit an emotional chord in my heart/head.  EVERY happily married couple should watch this together and they will probably leave it loving each other even more than they already did.

I thought it was absurd that this foreign movie that nobody had heard of was nominated for Best Picture.  After watching it, it would probably get my vote.  I couldn't possibly recommend more that everyone see this movie.  It hit me in the most unexpected of ways.  

Parker

Parker (Jason Statham) is a professional thief who lives by a personal code of ethics: Don’t steal from people who can’t afford it and don’t hurt people who don’t deserve it. But on his latest heist, his crew double crosses him, steals his stash, and leaves him for dead.  Determined to make sure they regret it, Parker tracks them to PalmBeach, playground of the rich and famous, where the crew is planning their biggest heist ever. Donning the disguise of a rich Texan, Parker takes on an unlikely partner, Leslie (Jennifer Lopez), a savvy insider, who’s short on cash, but big on looks, smarts and ambition. Together, they devise a plan to hijack the score, take everyone down and get away clean.

This movie was basically Transporter 5 or 6 or 7.  The only difference was a lot more actual violence and blood than Jason Statham usual movies.  Outside of that it was pretty much the same characters, the same story and the same ending. 

I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys the Transporter movies or any Jason Statham movies.  I do so this movie was enjoyable for what it is.  Other like me won't be disappointed.  Anyone that doesn't - why would you see this or start watching his movies now?

The Last Stand

After leaving his LAPD narcotics post following a bungled operation that left him wracked with remorse and regret, Sheriff Ray Owens (Schwarzenegger) moved out of Los Angeles and settled into a life fighting what little crime takes place in sleepy border town Sommerton Junction. But that peaceful existence is shattered when Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega), the most notorious, wanted drug kingpin in the western hemisphere, makes a deadly yet spectacular escape from an FBI prisoner convoy.  With the help of a fierce band of lawless mercenaries led by the icy Burrell (Peter Stormare), Cortez begins racing towards the US-Mexico border at 250 mph in a specially-outfitted Corvette ZR1 with a hostage in tow. Cortez's path: straight through Summerton Junction, where the whole of the U.S. law enforcement, including Agent John Bannister (Forest Whitaker) will have their final opportunity to intercept him before the violent fugitive slips across the border forever.  At first reluctant to become involved, and then counted out because of the perceived ineptitude of his small town force, Owens ultimately rallies his team and takes the matter into his own hands, setting the stage for a classic showdown.

This movie is exactly what you would think it would be.  It's a throwback to 80s/early 90s action movies.  The problem is that unlike the two Expendables movies that basically mocked these kind of movies in a tongue in cheek kind of way, this movie tried to take itself seriously.  That's just silly.  Arnold is OLD now so the him playing an action hero ship has pretty much sailes.  Ironically, the scenes without Arnold (as beyond overdramatic) as they were are more enjoyable than the scenes with him.  

I wouldn't recommend anyone bothering with this movie.  The Expendables movies were one thing but are Arnold and Sylvester Stallone really going to start making movies again?  Again . . . . . the ship has sailed.

Promised Land

Promised Land is the new contemporary drama directed by Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting). Matt Damon plays Steve Butler, an ace corporate salesman who is sent along with his partner, Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand), to close a key rural town in his company's expansion plans. With the town having been hit hard by the economic decline of recent years, the two outsiders see the local citizens as likely to accept their company's offer, for drilling rights to their properties, as much-needed relief. What seems like an easy job for the duo becomes complicated by the objection of a respected schoolteacher (Hal Holbrook) with support from a grassroots campaign led by another man (John Krasinski), as well as the interest of a local woman (Rosemarie DeWitt). Promised Land explores America at the crossroads where big business and the strength of small-town community converge.

This was a very well written down to earth feeling movie.  Simple town life vs corporate america and all the lines of thinking that come with that.  All the characters were well developed and played great off of each other.  It was very well played out how Matt Damon's emotions about what his job was went up and down and all over the place and you find yourself really rooting for him to figure it all out.

I would definiely recommend people checking this one out.  It's not in a wide release at all so you will probably have to wait, but I think it's worth the time.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

After getting a taste for blood as children, Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton)  have become the ultimate vigilantes, hell bent on retribution. Now, unbeknownst to them, Hansel and Gretel have become the hunted, and must face an evil far greater than witches...their past.

This movie is exactly what it said it would be.  Overacting with lots of silly gore and action.  It completely came through on what was advertised.   Again - if you thought that it looked ridiculous from the commercial - then you will find the movie ridiculous.  I expected what I said before and that's exactly what I got.  It's in no way a "good" movie but if you have 90 minutes and want to watch a movie like this, it's not a bad watch.

I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who saw the commercial and thought it looked cool.  It won't disappoint you guys.  If you saw it and thought it looked like garbage, those expectations would more than likely be met for you as well.

Movie 43

From the twisted minds of producers Peter Farrelly and Charles Wessler comes Movie 43-- the outrageous new ensemble comedy starring some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Movie 43 is not for the easily-offended and contains jaw-dropping, sometimes shockingly disturbing, but always entertaining intertwined storylines you'll have to see to believe.

I am at a total loss on how to review this movie.  Is it good?  Absolutely not.  In fact - it's so bad that I want to tell people to see it to believe it.  The sight gags were out of control, but sometimes belly laugh funny.  That's what makes it all even weirder.  I did laugh throughout this movie but my brain won't let me say it was a good movie.  It was so out there and absurd and over the top.   And I couldn't stop asking myself how in the blue hell all these people were in this movie?   And for the record - I may never look at Hugh Jackman the same.

I would recommend adults seeing this simply so you can sit there for 90 minutes with your mouth open and the WTF look I had on my face the ENTIRE movie.

Stand Up Guys

Stand Up Guys stars Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin in a tough but touching action comedy as retired gangsters who reunite for one epic last night. Val (Al Pacino) is released from prison after serving twenty-eight years for refusing to give up one of his close criminal associates. His best friend Doc (Christopher Walken) is there to pick him up, and the two soon re-team with another old pal, Hirsch (Alan Arkin). Their bond is as strong as ever, and the three reflect on freedom lost and gained, loyalties ebbed and flowed, and days of glory gone by. And despite their age, their capacity for mayhem is still very much alive and well - bullets fly as they make a hilariously valiant effort to compensate for the decades of crime, drugs and sex they've missed. But one of the friends is keeping a dangerous secret- he's been put in an impossible quandary by a former mob boss, and his time to find an acceptable alternative is running out. As the sun rises on the guys' legendary reunion, their position becomes more and more desperate and they finally confront their past once and for all.

This was a fun watch simply because it was Al Pacino and Christopher Walken playing off of each other for an hour and half.  How could that really go wrong.  Is it a great movie?  Not really because there really isn't too much more substance than these two great actors talking about getting older and living in the moment.  But it's Pacino and Walken so I enjoyed it.

I would definitely recommend people check this out.  Again - nowhere near must see status, but . . . . . IT'S PACINO AND WALKEN, people!

Gangster Squad

Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and--if he has his way--every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It's enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop...except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen's world apart. "The Gangster Squad" is a colorful retelling of events surrounding the LAPD's efforts to take back their nascent city from one of the most dangerous mafia bosses of all time.

This was a very, very fun movie.  Sure, it was silly, overdramatic (especially Sean Penn) and total testosterone, but it was still a lot of fun.  They did a good job of rounding up the squad, developing the characters and making you get excited about what was happening.   This was one of those movies where you can just turn your brain off and enjoy watching the good guys get the bad guys.

I would definitely recommend people checking this movie out.  It's easily one of the most simple entertaining movies out there.

Mama

Five years ago, sisters Victoria and Lilly vanished from their suburban neighborhood without a trace. Since then, their Uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain), have been madly searching for them. But when, incredibly, the kids are found alive in a decrepit cabin, the couple wonders if the girls are the only guests they have welcomed into their home.  As Annabel tries to introduce the children to a normal life, she grows convinced of an evil presence in their house. Are the sisters experiencing traumatic stress, or is a ghost coming to visit them? How did the broken girls survive those years all alone? As she answers these disturbing questions, the new mother will find that the whispers she hears at bedtime are coming from the lips of a deadly presence.

This was one of the more blah PG-13 fright flicks.  These movies really are hit or miss. This one definitely missed.  It took too long to shed light on the story and there was no real hook into being invested enough in the ghost haunting the family.

I wouldn't really recommend anyone wasting their time with this.  Not only is it not scary enough but the "ghost" effects were beyond subpar and not scary.

Broken City

Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) has a promising career as a New York City cop until the night he is involved in a controversial shooting. Stripped of his badge, but kept out of jail by New York's popular Mayor (Russell Crowe), he re-makes himself as a private investigator.  Times are tough, and when the mayor offers Billy $50,000 to investigate the First Lady's (Catherine Zeta Jones) extra-marital activities, it seems like a straight forward payday. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes apparent that the Mayor is not at all what he seems, and for Billy to achieve redemption he will have to risk everything -- possibly even his freedom.

I was kind of bored in this movie.  It's not that it was a bad movie, there just wasn't a quality emotional hook that made me care at all about what the characters were going through.  Without that emotional hook, this is one of those movies where you are just kind of watching it play out.  And since you are well aware of how it will all turn out - it just made it that much more not too interesting for me.

I wouldn't really recommend people checking this out.  Maybe I'm wrong and there just wasn't an emotional connection for me and there might be for others. I was pretty bored though.

A Haunted House

From the creators of Scary Movie comes another horror spoof, a parody of the "Paranormal Activity" franchise. When newlyweds Malcolm (Marlon Wayans) and Kisha (Essence Atkins) move into their dream house, they quickly find they’re not alone. But it’s not the house that’s haunted, but his wife that is possessed with spirits – or as Malcolm calls it – “relationship baggage.” Malcolm hires everyone from a priest to modern day ghost busters to rid her of the demon, determined not to let the evil spirit ruin his marriage... or his sex life for that matter.

This movie was ALOT funnier than I thought it would be.  There were good sight gags and the spoofing of the Paranormal Activity movies didn't get played out like I thought it would.  The real downer of this movie was the whole Devil Inside spoof with Cedric getting too much play in the commercials.  If they would have held that out - I would have been dying watching those parts.  

I would surprisingly recommend people checking this out.  Those of you with teenagers thinking it would be a soft R because of language or something - there is a ALOT of sexually related humor in this movie.  You have been warned.

Anna Karenina

The third collaboration of Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley with acclaimed director Joe Wright, following the award-winning boxoffice successes "Pride & Prejudice" and "Atonement," is a bold, theatrical new vision of the epic story of love, adapted from Leo Tolstoy's timeless novel by Academy Award winner Tom Stoppard ("Shakespeare in Love"). The story powerfully explores the capacity for love that surges through the human heart. As Anna (Knightley) questions her happiness and marriage, change comes to all around her.

Another massive snoozefest that I'm so glad showed up online preventing me from watching this in the theatre.  I'm really not the best person to review these pretentious old English type movies.  I am just completely bored by them 95% of the time and this movie was no different. 

I wouldn't recommend people wasting their time with this.  Like I said - I was barely interested enough to even acknowledge that it was on at all.

Beasts Of The Southern Wild

In a forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee, a six-year-old girl exists on the brink of orphanhood. Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality. Desperate to repair the structure of her world in order to save her ailing father and sinking home, this tiny hero must learn to survive unstoppable catastrophes of epic proportions.

I cannot for the life of me put my finger on exactly why but I loved this movie.  It was like a alternate version of Where The Wild Things Are but in the real world.  Half of me kept thinking WTF and the other half was dying to see where this movie was going to go.  It was like watching real life struggles through the eyes of a strong willed six year old . . . . . and being about to identify with it or understand it.  

I would absolutely recommend people checking this out.  If I were to go back and adjust my 2012 best of list, this movie would probably crack the top ten.  

The Impossible

Based on the true story of one family's survival of the 2004 tsunami . . . .

Maria (Naomi Watts), Henry (Ewan McGregor) and their three sons begin their winter vacation in Thailand, looking forward to a few days in tropical paradise. But on the morning of December 26th, as the family relaxes around the pool after their Christmas festivities the night before, a terrifying roar rises up from the center of the earth. As Maria freezes in fear, a huge wall of black water races across the hotel grounds toward her.  The Impossible is the powerful and unforgettable account of a family caught, with tens of thousands of strangers, in the mayhem of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time. But the true-life terror is tempered by the unexpected displays of compassion, courage and simple kindness that Maria and her family encounter during the darkest hours of their lives. Both epic and intimate, devastating and uplifting, "The Impossible" is a journey to the core of the human heart.

This movie was a very tough one to watch.  The tsunami portion of the movie made me look away numerous times.  The violence, the injuries/hazards that you don't even think about and the working through the aftermath were simply gut wrenching.  The performance by the little boy really stole the show and this movie give you a whole new appreciation of areas that are ravaged by natural disasters like this.  For the most part, you get lots and lots of coverage of the area but then everyone's short term memory kicks in and it's left alone.  This movie really shows you what it's like after these types of world changing events.

I would definitely recommend that everyone check this movie out.  It was very well done across the board but be warned that there are some really tough to see scenes.

Hyde Park On Hudson

In June 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Bill Murray) and his wife Eleanor (Olivia Williams) host the King and Queen of England (Samuel West, Olivia Colman) for a weekend at the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park on Hudson, in upstate New York - the first-ever visit of a reigning English monarch to America. With Britain facing imminent war with Germany, the Royals are desperately looking to FDR for support. But international affairs must be juggled with the complexities of FDR's domestic establishment, as wife, mother, and mistresses all conspire to make the royal weekend an unforgettable one. Seen through the eyes of Daisy (Laura Linney), Franklin's distant cousin, neighbor, and intimate, the weekend will produce not only a special relationship between two great nations, but, for Daisy - and through her, for us all - a deeper understanding of the mysteries of love and friendship.

This movie was one of the biggest snoozefests I've seen in a long long time.  I had absolutely zero interest 30 minutes in and was nodding off so I turned it off.  It kills me to see how much Bill Murray sucks in his movies now.  Can he please go back to just making a comedy or playing a regular acting role?

I wouldn't recommend anyone wasting one minute watching this movie.  Unless you are having trouble sleeping.  If that's the case - you should put this on.  Better than Nyquil.

Hitchcock

Based on the book "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho" by Stephen Rebello, Hitchcock is a love story about one of the most influential filmmakers of the last century, Alfred Hitchcock and his wife and partner Alma Reville. The film takes place during the making of Hitchcock's seminal movie "Psycho."

This was a movie that was built mostly around the performances of Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren.  Both of them did great, but there really wasn't much substance to the film or the story besides there biographical performances.  The movie ended up just kind of being there.

I would lukewarmly recommend people checking this out.  It isn't a must see by any means.  The performances were good and there were some moments that the film was great but overall it was just kind of blah.

Texas Chainsaw 3D

Texas Chainsaw 3D continues the legendary story of the homicidal Sawyer family, picking up where Tobe Hooper's 1974 horror classic left off in Newt, Texas, where for decades people went missing without a trace. The townspeople long suspected the Sawyer family, owners of a local barbeque pit, were somehow responsible. Their suspicions were finally confirmed one hot summer day when a young woman escaped the Sawyer house following the brutal murders of her four friends. Word around the small town quickly spread, and a vigilante mob of enraged locals surrounded the Sawyer stronghold, burning it to the ground and killing every last member of the family - or so they thought. Decades later and hundreds of miles away from the original massacre, a young woman named Heather learns that she has inherited a Texas estate from a grandmother she never knew she had. After embarking on a road trip with friends to uncover her roots, she finds she is the sole owner of a lavish, isolated Victorian mansion. But her newfound wealth comes at a price as she stumbles upon a horror that awaits her in the mansion's dank cellars.

This movie was pretty much awful.  It’s not like I expected anything good from it going in, but it was actually worse.  There were pretty much zero frights and I never thought I would say this, even the amount of gore was pretty lame . . . . . especially for the blatant “3D” version.  To make matters worse they tried to expand the story.  They even went so far as to try and portray Leatherface as misunderstood and . . . . . .wait for it . . . . . one of the good guys.  Yeah.  That happened.

I would recommend nobody bother with the bazillionth attempt at this movie or an expansion of it.  It is a total waste of 90 minutes of your life.