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

Transformers, Age of Extinction

Actors:  Mark Wahlberg as Cade Yeager, Stanley Tucci, Nicola Peltz, Kelsey Grammer, Jack Reynor

Rating:  8 out of 10   I guess there were so many unanswered questions in the Transfomer saga they just had to make another.  The one thing that stood out for me, outside of the amazing CGI effects, was how damned long this thing was.  Michael Bay has made so much money on this series that he’s been given carte blanche which isn’t necessarily a good thing.  You get well over two hours of non-stop pitched battles between huge robots and evil humans.  Chicago gets worked over again and in what has become routine in large action flicks, the battles move to China (can’t short change that lucrative demographic) where Hong Kong gets pasted.  You know things are completely out of hand when ancient robotic dinosaurs join the fight.  There is no over the top for Mr. Bay.  Mark Wahlberg and Stanley Tucci along with the obligatory hottie in short shorts were nice additions to the cast which was completely overhauled.  There were however a tidal wave of cringe worthy lines the actors are forced to utter which sent the unintentional comedy level through the roof.  With all the money Bay gets to make these things you think he’d invest a little bit in the writing. It was however a transformers movie where you don’t go in expecting Shakespeare and you certainly get your money’s worth of death and destruction.

MVP:  Wahlberg as Cade Yeager further cements his action credentials

History of the World, Part 1

Actors:  Mel Brooks, Sid Caesar, Shecky Greene, Gregory Hines, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman

Rating:  7 out of 10, Not one of Brooks’ greatest efforts but it has some very funny moments and at least one enduring line for the ages – “It’s good to be king!” as well as the “15 no 10 commandments”.  Mel and his merry band of regulars take hysterical license with history from the stone age to the French Revolution.  Many of the jokes haven’t aged well and the semi-maniacal pace can be a little off putting but it remains a great example of Brook’s cache at the time.  He could get away with a lot more than other directors at the time.

MVP:  Delouise as the Roman Emperor who keeps finding things in his butt