Brothers Grimsby

Actors: Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Strong, Rebel Wilson, Isla Fisher, Annabelle Wallis, Gabourey Sidibe, Penélope Cruz, Ian McShane.

Rating: 7 out of 10, I’m almost ashamed to admit that I went to see The Brothers Grimsby last night. I’m certainly ashamed to admit that I laughed for almost the entire length of the movie. Cohen does that to you, he goes lower than even the most modest standards and can make you laugh out loud while cringing at the same time. It isn’t low brow, it’s subterranean brow and it is funny. I’m sure some of the very British jokes eluded me. Cohen plays a clueless British soccer buffoon who reunites with a long lost brother, played by the always awesome Mark Strong, who’s a 007 like spy. I was a little troubled by Cohen’s seeming over focus on anal cavities but with Cohen you forgive a lot. If you’re comfortable leaving the preening umbrella of political correctness behind, go see this and I guarantee you’ll laugh; just never admit to it in front of progressive friends.

MVP: Strong as the brother having Nobby intrude on his life

Allegiant

Actors: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Jeff Daniels, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Zoë Kravitz, Maggie Q, Ray Stevenson, Bill Skarsgard, Octavia Spencer, Naomi Watts

Rating: 6 out of 10, It is as bad as you’ve probably heard. They followed the tried and true method of splitting up the last book in a trilogy in the interest of making more money on two versus one film. Hopefully this will crash and burn so badly that Hollywood abandons that flawed concept. Losing Kate Winslet really hurts because surprisingly Naomi Watts as one of the lead villains fails miserably. They also kill off Maggie Q early which I took a personal affront to. Our jolly band of angst filled teenagers is bound and determined to escape the walled in existence in Chicago to investigate the burned landscape outside. Of course they discover an even more sinister threat beyond the blasted lands, led by eerily evil bureaucrat (I know – redundant) Jeff Daniels. They spend way too much time in CGI world instead of with the fine actors which was the strength of the earlier movies. If you saw the trailer for this movie (hard to avoid that) then you know the entire plot, which really is just a placeholder for the final (they promise) movie in this series.

MVP: Theo James as he plucky Four, who takes a beating and still keeps kicking

London Has Fallen

Actors: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, and Morgan Freeman, with Alon Moni Aboutboul, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Jackie Earle Haley, Melissa Leo, Radha Mitchell, Sean O'Bryan, Waleed Zuaiter, Charlotte Rile

Rating: 8 out of 10, is not as bad as most critics would have you believe. Gerard Butler returns to an action role as a secret service agent incapable of missing with any weapon that falls into his hand. This is in stark contrast to the veritable army of terrorists he’s up against who would probably shoot and miss the water from the beach. With this type cast, which is loaded with talent, you would expect something loftier but this is a simple shoot ‘em up action flick with the greater London area blowing up spectacularly in CGI. If you like this type action then you’re going to like this, I did, but I am one of those peasants serious movie critics hold in such disdain. It wasn’t a cake walk though as some of the editing, especially early, before things started blowing up, was a little jarring. There was also a criminal underuse of the Washington based characters, which included Morgan Freeman, Melissa Leo, and Jackie Earl Haley. Criminal. As long as you leave the logical part of your imagination at the door, which you always have to with this type movie, you’ll be fine. For those of us who miss Jack Bauer, this was a great addition to our nonsensical movie repertoire. Critics be damned, let’s go blow something up.

MVP: Butler as the incredibly accurate Mike Banning

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Actors: James Badge Dale, John Krasinski, Max Martini, Toby Stephens, Pablo Schreiber, David Denman, Dominic Fumusa, Freddie Stroma, Alexia Barlier.

Rating: 9 out of 10, While the actual events of the Benghazi attack have become political fodder for the past few years this is apparently an accurate portrayal of the events in 2012, blissfully stripped of all the politics, well except for a CIA station chief with a stick firmly up his posterior. I thought this would be an attack on Clinton but it’s not that at all. It’s the story of some true American heroes, former Special Forces soldiers contracted for security of the CIA post. They respond to the attack of the ambassador’s house and then return back to the base to defend it against a horde of radicals attacking from all sides. The battle scenes are very realistic along with human foibles always involved. The actors obviously spent some time with great coaches for their roles because they had the lingo and movements of operators down cold. I was wondering why a director like Bay would step into the political mess that is the aftermath of this affair but I honestly believe he was trying to honor the sacrifices of these special men which has been lost in the politics. Go see this movie to honor them and their incredible toughness and sacrifice. Best movie I’ve seen so far this year. I read an interview with one of the actual heroes and he was asked if he blamed Clinton for Benghazi. He responded simply that, no, he blamed the radical Islamic terrorists who attacked that night; kind of refreshing to hear an opinion like that in this most political of all seasons.

MVP: Dale as the tragic leader of the GRS - Rone

Gods of Egypt

Actors: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Brenton Thwaites, Chadwick Boseman, Élodie Yung, Courtney Eaton, Rufus Sewell, Gerard Butler, Geoffrey Rush.

Rating: 7 out of 10, A glorious mess of a movie. It purports to show ancient Egypt at a time when the actual Gods lived amongst the people; granted they were all ten feet tall, bled gold, and spoke with a variety of European accents. I say a mess because this movie is totally incomprehensible at times with a leaden plot and wooden actors. Some films (Sin City and 300 to name a couple) embrace total immersion in CGI and make it work. Whoever made this did not. By trying to do too much they ended up not doing enough, if that even begins to make sense. With an all-CGI movie you have to care about the characters and outside of the sprightly human duo, all the “gods” were just kind of there. Gerard Butler as the bad god chewed up his usual amount of scenery but his Scottish brogue was so thick at times as to be unintelligible. Coster-Waldau as the hero doesn’t connect with his plucky human sidekick or the audience. I think this was supposed to be his big “coming out” film but he fails at almost every turn. So a disaster of a movie but visually stunning, at least we see who’d win a fight between Jaime Lannister and King Leonidas

MVP: Thwaites as the plucky Bek, more luck than ability

Deadpool

Actors: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, T. J. Miller, Gina Carano, Leslie Uggam, Brianna Hildebrand

Rating: 10 out of 10, I don’t think I’ve laughed as much at a movie in years as I did at Deadpool. The filmmakers took some real chances and while that doesn’t always work – it certainly does here. This is firmly Ryan Reynolds’ movie and he nails the sardonic, witty, hero-challenged title role. The pointed and very funny lines are relentless and would seem silly if it wasn’t backed up with a solid plot and fantastic action sequences. Reynolds doesn’t just break the “Fourth Wall” he desecrates it which ends up being some of the funniest moments in this hilarious film. This won’t be a film for everybody as it more than earns its “R” rating on as many levels as you can imagine, but it’s smart and innovative. It was nice to see a superhero movie overcome the corporate need to tranquilize itself down to PG-13 levels. Hopefully Deadpool’s obvious success will lead to more adult oriented fare. I loved it, favorite movie of 2016 so far.

MVP: Reynolds in the title role owns this movie.

Dirty Grandpa

Actors: Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, Zoey Deutch, Aubrey Plaza

Rating: 8 out of 10, Deniro plays a retired Army officer trying to mold the future of his grandson. Zac Efron is unfortunate enough to play the grandson because he gets the hell beaten out of him for the entire movie. I know the script will have the PC police out in force but there’s some really funny moments in this. Deniro is excellent as the randy senior citizen cutting a major swath through Jacksonville Spring Break a couple days after losing his wife. Efron’s main job seems to be getting punched and finding ways to lose not only his shirts but his pants repeatedly. It’s an excellent send up of several aspects of modern life but I’m sure that’ll be lost to most people who will rail against the almost non-stop lack of appropriateness, God forbid we actually offend someone with sarcastic humor. It’s like kids and mud puddles – sometimes it’s just fun to jump right in and get dirty. If you can handle humor that will push your level of discomfort then go see this. If not, run screaming away and I’m sure complaining the entire way.

MVP: DeNiro as the randy grandpa