Sisu Road to Revenge

Actors: Jorma Tommila, Richard Brake, Stephen Lang

Rating: 8 out of 10, An excellent follow up to the surprising first film. Our hero, once again, without saying a single word in the movie, plows his way through a horde of enemies trying to kill him. He sneaks into the Soviet Union in 1946 to visit his old homestead where his family was killed. He dismantles the house and attempts to sneak it back into Finland. The Soviets, a bit put out by the more than 300 Soviet soldiers he killed during early WW2, decide to send the man who killed his family after him. Big mistake. Jorma Tommila is truly a force of nature as the Soviets don’t do any better than the Nazis did in the first film. You have to suspend a lot of disbelief to make it work but this is an eminently watchable, non-stop action flick as he wades through the Russians. Stephen Lang is the head bad guy as he seems to have made a career out of scarily competent villains. The cinematography is fantastic as the filmmakers don’t depend, too much, on CGI. A great movie.

MVP: Who else could it be but Tommila reprising his role as Aatami Korpi

Wizard of Oz

Actors: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton

Rating: 7 out of 10, I finally added this to my collection. It is one of the most cherished movie memories of my youngest years. It’s still amazing to see what they were able to accomplish in 1939 in the way of special effects. From Garland's heartrending rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, to the amazing switch to breathtaking color when they leave Kansas, to the three immortal companions for the trek along the Yellow Brick Road this movie still packs a well-aimed punch to the heart. My favorite character as a young boy was the cowardly lion who I thought was hilarious. Watching as an adult I appreciate all three, especially the scarecrow, hard to look away when these three are on the screen.  In 4K you can see the backdrops were obviously painted but it doesn’t distract from the story. The witch is still scary despite all modern attempts to rehab her image. A fun, nostalgic watch.

MVP: Who else could it be but Judy as Dorothy

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Actors: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe

Rating: 9 out of 10, This is a simply awesome sequel to a great original film. The best aspect were the original stars returning properly aged for the thirty years since the original, although Katherine O’Hara must have made a real deal with the devil because she doesn’t look to have aged at all. She returns as Delia, the crazed epitome of an evil step mother/pretentious New Yorker. The movie doesn’t try to re-tell the same story and brings a lot more heart than I thought possible. Keaton, once again, demonstrates what a comic genius he is running around the afterlife pursued by Monica Bellucci (some guys have all the luck) while still trying to reunite with Lydia. A very welcome addition is Jenna Ortega who steals every scene she’s in as the perfectly cast daughter. Even now, thinking back at some of the gags I can’t stop smiling although I missed the sadly (departed in real life) Otho. There were some very clever and obscure tributes to the first film. A very fun and nostalgic comedy/horror romp.

MVP: Keaton as the perpetually horny ghost/title character

Ballerina From the World of John Wick

Actors: Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick, Norman Reedus, Ian McShane, Keanu Reeves

Rating: 9 out of 10, I was fully prepared to dislike this as a weak attempt to capture some Wickian magic. I was wrong. After a slow start this movie embraces the spirit of the Wick films and delivers. All credit deservedly goes to Ana de Armas who proves her 007 action cameo was no fluke, she is uniformly awesome as the main character/body-count-generator. She plays a student of that weird Belorussian dance studio that J.W. passed through. She’s on a revenge mission against a European cult that knocked off her parents. She kills her way to their home base and just when it looked like it couldn’t get any better, John Wick himself shows up, as this is set between earlier pictures, before his “demise”. I thought the dueling flamethrowers were especially poignant. This was a truly great movie, completely up to the high standards of the previous films. Thank you, Ms. Armas.

MVP: de Armas as gorgeous and deadly assassin Eve

Seven Days in May

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Fredric March, and Ava Gardner

Rating: 9 out of 10, I had never seen this despite spending most of my adult life wearing a uniform. It’s a fascinating look at a fictional attempted coup by the American military over a president perceived as weak on the Soviets. It’s full of 1960s paranoia and offers the actors a full range to explore. Lancaster portrays a popular and egomaniacal Chairman of the Joint Chiefs behind the coup while Douglas is his admiring aide who lives up to his constitutional dirties. While this is simplistic on so many levels it’s a valuable lesson in the fragility of our republic, currently under so much strain. As a military guy I found it disconcerting to see the many mistakes the filmmakers made in portraying the military, such as routinely wearing headgear inside. Other than that small complaint, a truly great film.

MVP: Douglas as the one true military man Colonel Casey

Den of Thieves

Actors: Gerard Butler, Pablo Schreiber, Curtis Jackson, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Evan Jones, Dawn Olivieri, Mo McRae, Max Holloway

Rating: 8 out of 10, I loved the first movie and was fully prepared to accept a watered down, money seeking sequel. I was therefore more than pleasantly surprised to find an awesome movie in its own right. Bob Odenkirk continues his role as the most unlikely of all action heroes as Hutch Mansell. He’s still dealing with the ramifications of the path he carved through the Russian mafia in the first flick and decides the family needs a vacation together. Of course, trouble ensues as he returns to a beloved amusement park of his youth which had not been updated since and conveniently supplies a full team of villains led by a deranged Sharon Stone. The entire cast that survived the first movie is back and, if possible, were even more fun this time around. I loved that they didn’t waste time trying to explain Mansell to the audience. Too many sequels assume the audience needs a re-introduction to the main characters. This movie takes for granted you’re watching it because you loved the first movie. I did and this one as well.

MVP: Burler as the nearly unhinged cop Nick

Caught Stealing

Actors: Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D'Onofrio, Benito Martínez Ocasio, Griffin Dunne, Carol Kane

Rating: 9 out of 10, I truly enjoyed this flick as Darren Aronovsky abandoned his usual uber-serious tone with an attempt at an Americanized version of a Guy Ritchie-type gangster dark comedy. Austin Butler confirms his movie star status as he effortlessly carries the complex plot through. He plays a NYC bartender who’s next door neighbor/drug dealer leaves him with the keys to his apartment as well as making him a target for competing gangsters and corrupt cops. This is one of those movies where the hero just can’t buy a break and has to deal with the aftermath of the choices he’s confronted with. The rest of the cast is great, if extremely expendable to the plot twists. A fun movie to watch as you can’t help but root for Butler as he tries to survive.

MVP: Butler as the monumentally unlucky Hank