Fury

Actors:  Brad Pitt, Logan Lerman, Shia LaBeouf, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal

Rating: 9 out of 10, A Brad Pitt vehicle set in the last days of World War 2 with Pitt as a tank commander fighting his way across the remnants of the 3rd Reich.  He and the rest of his veteran crew take on a fresh-faced newcomer, Logan Lerman, to replace a dead comrade.  The movie boasts some truly amazing battle scenes where some obvious effort went into realism.  The movie is more about the loss of humanity of the veteran crew (all excellent actors) caused by years of war.  You see Pitt trying to hang onto the last vestiges of his own humanity when he sees himself reflected back in Lerman’s reactions.  Despite their fragile existence living on the edge of barely retained sanity, fighting together establishes a bond that excuses their descent to a certain degree.  A really well done war movie, brutal to the extreme, but so is war.  I spent my entire career in light infantry and didn’t work a lot with tanks (they referred to us as “crunchies”).  Tankers were a strange, fatalistic breed which the movie does a great job of capturing.  Infantrymen have a healthy respect for tankers, probably dating back to the initial training where they have a sixty ton, armored beast come straight at you and do a couple pivot steers directly on top of your position.  A change of underwear is usually required afterwards.

MVP:  Pitt as Wardaddy balancing brutality and humanity

Vegas Vacation

Actors:  Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, Ethan Embry, Marisol Nichols as

Rating: 6 out of 10, The worst of the bunch by far because Chase always managed to make Clark somewhat likable if extremely flawed. Here he’s just an A-hole undeserving of his family. The kids make a comeback and Cousin Eddie re-appears which is always welcome. Wayne Newton’s pursuit of Ellen doesn’t play well although D’Angelo still had “it” at this point. The best plot line has Ethan Embry as Rusty mirroring Chase’s futility at gambling with his own success. Time to send Chase out of pasture – he’s just not that funny and the material was too main stream, losing the edge of the earlier efforts.

MVP:  Embry as the very lucky Rusty

European Vacation

Actors: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Dana Hill, Jason Lively, John Astin

Rating:  6 out of 10, Obviously made quickly to ride the success of the first film this is still somewhat funny as the Griswolds win a European vacation and all that entails. This might have been a much better film except for Dana Hill as the daughter Audrey. She is so grating that I wanted to mute the sound each time she came on screen. It was funny to hear Clark saying he hardly recognized his kids anymore since they changed with each movie. There were the obvious gags at British politeness, French rudeness, German beer drinking, and Italian fashion which was funny if a little too safe.

MVP:   Chase the ever oblivious Clark Griswold

Vacation

Actors: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, Dana Barron, Anthony Michael Hall, John Candy, Imogene Coca, Christie Brinkley, Jane Krakowski

Rating:  7 out of 10, This was much better and more edgy than I remembered as Clark Griswold savages his family across the USA on a family vacation. I had forgotten how attractive D’Angelo was in her prime and she is the best thing about this movie as the long suffering Ellen Griswold. The first of four sets of actors to play the Griswold children do a good job of capturing sibling distress in the car’s back seat. The movie’s best when it deals with the family and supporting characters as Chase isn’t funny when on the screen by himself. The movie has aged well though and still captured some heartfelt laughs.

MVP:   D’Angelo as Ellen Griswold 

The Drop

Actors: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, James Gandolfini, Matthias Schoenaerts, John Ortiz, James Frecheville

Rating:  9 out of 10, The Drop  is billed as James Gandolfini’s last movie.  In reality this is Tom Hardy’s movie and it is powerful.  It’s not an action packed thriller but a look at the gritty underside of organized crime in Brooklyn.  The plot jumps around a lot but in doing so provides the necessary clues for a fantastic climatic confrontation. Hardy is completely believable as a seemingly inept, but sweet hearted bartender for the devious Gandolfini.  They’re under pressure from Chechen mobsters to recover money stolen in a late night stick up while Hardy adopts a pit bull puppy and Noomi Rapace.  I can’t say too much because it would ruin the fantastic scene between Hardy and Rapace following the super bowl.  The movie ends with maybe the best line in cinema this year, “No one ever sees you coming, do they?”.  If you love character driven drama and great acting –go see The Drop.

MVP:   Hardy dominates as the very deep and well camouflaged Bob Saginowski

Lucy

Actors:  Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Amr Waked, Choi Min-sik.

Rating: 9 out of 10, Scarlett Johansson has an accidental drug induced ability to fully access her brain’s capacity (insert comment here about what an actor’s brain would really be capable of).  The enhancement turns her into a superhero and she starts globetrotting and time travelling to link up with Dr Morgan Freeman to preserve her knowledge before she burns out.  Old Boy himself, who was responsible for the enabling drug is hot on her heels with a seemingly endless supply of henchman.  Since this was a Luc Besson movie the climax takes place in Paris.  Since this was a Luc Besson movie the action is almost non-stop, filled with huge plot holes, and immensely entertaining.

MVP:  Johansson owns the movie transitioning from ditz to superhuman Lucy

Jaws

Actors:  Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, Murray Hamilton, Lorraine Gary

Rating: 9 out of 10, I finally added this superb movie to my collection and was reminded again of Spielberg’s early genius. The tension he builds for the first half of the movie when you don’t even see the shark is palatable and makes the first true sighting that much more terrifying. The musical score is probably the most evocative in the history of cinema gets a big assist with the terror. The relationship he establishes between Scheider, Dreyfuss, and Shaw on the boat defines a “guys’ night out” comradery which then turns on a dime with the recounting of the Indianapolis disaster. The mechanical shark is kind of quaint by today’s CGI standards, its even missing its whole tail in one scene but this movie still works on so many levels. I was afraid to swim in even a pool after I saw this the first time and now it will take weeks to get Quint’s ditty-  “Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies, Farewell and adieu to you ladies of Spain” out of my mind.

MVP:  Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody balancing small town politics, a fear of water, and a humongous shark