Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Actors:  Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, Jaime King, and Powers Boothe, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green, Dennis Haysbert, Ray Liotta, Christopher Lloyd, Jamie Chung, Jeremy Piven, Christopher Meloni, Stacy Keach, Lady Gaga, Alexa Vega, Julia Garner, Juno Temple

Rating:  8 out of 10, I liked this sequel to one of my favorite movies of all time.  This one has the same groundbreaking digital effects scenery of the first where most of the action is in black and white with just a few objects colorized.  My favorite character, the indestructible Marv, was back pulverizing anything in his way while Miho decapitated henchmen by the bushel.  This was a prequel in some ways since when we last saw Marv he was riding an electric chair. Some of the other returning characters were dealing with events from the first movie.  I really liked this second movie but it didn’t have the same dark edge of the original, it was a little too brightly lit.  There were some new characters introduced who more than held their own led by Joseph Gordon-Leavitt and Eva Green (or more correctly Eva’s breasts).  Sin City is like film noir on some amazing performance enhancing drugs.  It doesn’t apologize for being violent or absurd but revels in it.

MVP:  Gordon-Leavitt as the cocky Johnny, lucky in everything except parentage

Maleficent

Actors:  Angelina Jolie, Ella Purnell, Isobelle Molloy, Elle Fanning, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, Janet McTeer, Sharlto Copley, Sam Riley

Rating:  8 out of 10, Disney, ever ready to wring every last dollar out of their franchises, decided the wicked witch of the Sleeping Beauty saga needed her reputation rehabbed.  Angelina Jolie was tone perfect for the lead role as the misunderstood fairy queen.  She’s become such a pop culture icon that you forget what a talented actress she is and her eyes eloquently tell most of the story.  It was cool seeing all the images from the original story brought in with a new meaning as we see the story from the “evil” queen’s side as she battles to protect her people from the humans.  The movie sometimes pushes the cute level a little too much (we are talking Disney here folks) and applies the typical Disney hammer to make points that could have been more subtly introduced.  All that being said, it was a fun watch.

MVP:  Jolie, very eye eloquent in the title role

Hercules

Actors:  Dwayne Johnson, Ian McShane, Reece Ritchie, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Joseph Fiennes, John Hurt.

Rating:  7 out of 10, Noted thespian Dwayne “Rock” Johnson holds forth as the legendary muscle man. Since this was a Bret Ratner film you are obligated to donate brain cells before entering but it turned out to be pretty entertaining as they play his god like prowess as an ancient con game. This is the part Johnson was born to play as he has the physique and athleticism to make Hercules come alive. Most guys who’ve attempted the part are so muscle bound they couldn’t turn their head without committing the entire body. Johnson’s also a better actor than most give him credit for and he’s surrounded by a supporting cast of really fine actors. Since it’s ancient times they all speak with British accents though.

MVP:   Johnson in the role he was born to play

Space Balls

Actors:  Mel Brooks, John Candy, Bill Pullman, Daphne Zuniga, Rick Moranis

Rating:  7 out of 10, One of the few Brooks’ movies I had not seen.  I was/am a huge Star Wars nerd so I thought it would be disrespectful to enjoy this parody aimed straight at that beloved movie. In typical Brooks fashion he completely flays all the lofty concepts and has a really good time doing it, Yogurt as the pint sized peddler of the power of “the Schwartz” is just one example of the hijinks.  Brooks went very ethnic in this going a little over the top with all the Jewish jokes but that’s what Mel does.  The overt attempts to merchandise the film in the midst of making it also hit home.  Bittersweet to see John Candy again – it made me realize how much I missed Mr. Mambo.  The film is definitely dated but it still elicited a number of surprise laughs that my nerd side couldn’t suppress.

MVP:  Candy as Barf the Mawg wookie stand in

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Actors:  Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Nicholas Hoult, Shawn Ashmore, Peter Dinklage, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart

Rating:  9 out of 10, A great action flick, up to Marvel’s usual standard in the way of special effects, but you can also tell that a supremely talented director was back at the helm as well as the story is so ridiculously convoluted in jumping back and forth between the present, past, and future that to see it flow smoothly understandable across the screen is a real achievement.  My “kids” were crowing that this movie finally returned sanity to the X-Men universe in terms of loyalty to the source material.  I was blissfully unaware that this was a serious problem but I’m assured that this is how the X-Men mythology is supposed to unfold.  I'm sure to sleep more soundly tonight now that this cosmic crime has been deus ex machina-ed back in line.   While I loved the science fiction aspects, my wife “marveled” at the fully exposed gluteal muscles of the Wolverine displayed in all their glory.  She muttered something about crossing an item off a bucket list.  Hugh Jackman’s butt has been a serious topic of discussion ever since she saw him on Broadway a few years ago.

MVP:   Good to see Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier re-assembled and back as the soul of the X-Men

To Be or Not To Be

Actors:  Mel Brooks, Anne Bancroft; Tim Matheson, Charles Durning, Christopher Lloyd, José Ferrer

Rating:  6 out of 10, The next in my Mel Brooks journey and a little different than his earlier efforts.  This is more a straight comedy without the usual number of gags and slapstick.  Any movie with Christopher Lloyd playing a part straight much less a Nazi officer is fertile ground – its good he stuck to comedy after this.  The movie is worth watching to see Bancroft and Brooks (real life husband and wife) together.  They play a pair of ham actors in 1939 Warsaw just as the Germans stop by.  Funny at times but missing the manic fun of his earlier work.

MVP:  Bancroft as the philandering Anna Bronski

Edge of Tomorrow

Actors:  Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson
Rating:  9 out of 10, Say what you want about Tom Cruise but he knows how to deliver a summer blockbuster.  I feared my high expectations would lead to disappointment but that fear was shattered early on.  This is a great sci fi movie told on a grand scale.  It’s the love child of a cross breeding of Groundhog Day and Aliens.  Cruise plays a smarmy political type officer who’s forced into combat and then is eternally re-cycled, by dying, through the same day until he can figure out how to beat the aliens.  Emily Blunt almost steals the movie from Cruise as a fellow soldier afflicted with the same recycling issue.  There are some very funny moments as Cruise repeatedly meets his demise while trying to learn how to fight.  The only problem comes at the very end where the Hollywood effect is imposed but that doesn’t distract from a really good adventure and who doesn’t want to see Tom Cruise killed a couple hundred times.

MVP:  Blunt as Rita Vrataski Full Metal Bitch warrior extraordinaire