Philomena

Jean, This movie was so much more interesting than I had expected.I thought it kept your interest rather than being played for your tears. It is the story of an Irish lady who searches for her son 50 year after the Sisters had convinced her to put him up for adoption. It is based on true events with actual people. The main characters are Dame Judy Dench and Steve Coogan, and they are great  playing off each other. The story allows them to argue the pros and cons of belief in a greater being, and the position of the Church. What makes this movie in my mind is the twist or surprise they find at the end of their search which takes them from London to Ireland to the United States. The movie is beautifully produced so you feel you are viewing actual locations and even actual people. At the end, they show you the photos of the main characters taken in real life.

Dad

The previews were:

August: Osage County

Heaven is for Real

Saving Mr. Banks

Nebraska

Jean, I think this movie is over hyped. I saw a long, slow, gentle, sometimes dreary. not often humorous, sometimes depressing, without much of a payoff, folksy road trip movie. The actors were all good but you got a new face at every turn and no one was particularly interesting , not even Bruce Dern who is getting all the praise. I got the impression this is really a minimalist movie from start to finish.  Dad

The previews were:

The Wolf of Wall Street

Cesar Chavez

Out of the Furnace

Labor Day

The Hunger Games - Catching Fire

 

Jean, I think this movie is better than the first in the series. It helps if you have seen the first movie as a lot of basic information is necessary for any understanding of the events it shows. I thought the movie really came alive after we get Jennifer Lawrence into the forest. (It unfortunately took almost 90 minutes before that happens.)  The explanatory scenes slowed the movie down a lot I thought. But once Jennifer's character is in the forest and figuring out things with her woodsman smarts and flicking those deadly arrows faster than you can follow, the movie comes alive. You should be aware this is a quite violent movie. A number of the parents took their young children out of the theater during the very intense attack of the super baboons which seems to last and last. But then you have the killer fog and the attack of the jabber jays, etc. I question the PG-13 rating as there are also head shots using large hand guns and a very intense flogging using a cat-o-nine-tails. Dad

P.S. The previews were:

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Vampire Academy

Malificent

NOAH

The Hobbit:the Desolation of Smaug

Thor: The Dark World

Jean, You can not help but come out of the theater saying to yourself," I got more than my money's worth in this film." It has quite a big time cast including Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgard, and even Chris O'Dowd from Bridesmaids.Then you have some of the most imaginative and amazing special effects scenes.( I am still thinking of the scene where the flying wing space ship flies down the center of the palace corridor clipping the lineup of gothic columns, one by one or two by two.) This is another case where the hero is nearly beaten to a pulp by the villains like they did to Batman a while back. There is humor here, some of it really hits the mark. Thor himself can be a little boring as he does not have an alter ego, so he is the super hero "all the time." I thought this was so much better than the first one and would now go see the third as it is set up neatly in the final scene.  Dad

P.S. The previews were:

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Delivery Man

Robocop

The Hobbit:Desolation of Smaug

The Hunger Games:Catching Fire

Gravity (3D)

Jean, Wow, this is such a spectacular visual effects and white-knuckle suspenseful ride. This surely qualifies for that saying "if you only see one..." I saw it in the Real 3D, glasses and all and felt it was really worth it. Moving through space and moving through those space station compartments, you end up dodging all sorts of things. Remember this is in "real time" in space. There are no flash backs to events happening on earth. It is Sandra Bullock's movie. And she is up to the question of "what do we do next?". Better left unsaid anything about the script  but they use a few familiar tricks. But the ride in space has you believing from the opening scenes. You have to watch the whole screen as things move fast in the 90 minutes. See it on the big screen!  Dad

P.S. The previews were:

Ender's Game

Grudge Match

The Monument Men

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

47 Ronin (3D)

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (3D)

Thanks for Sharing

 

 

Jean, I went to see this movie as from the previews it looked like an entertaining comedy. That was not what I saw. This is a almost clinical study of 3 addicts. They are three men, two are sex addicts and one is an alcoholic. We go through all the 12 steps program including the dairies, tokens and meetings. It makes one think about how the addict's behavior affects their close friends and family. Then you really cringe when you see the relapse coming on and that surely happens.They do not sugar-coat the impact of addiction. I think I am more patience now about people with addictions than before. At the end they even bring before the camera a number of addicts who talk about their trials and struggles to just cope with everyday matters. If coping with addiction is your interest, this is your movie.  Dad

 

The Previews were:

 

American Hustle

Nebraska

The Summit

All is Lost

The Family

Jean, I walked into the theater thinking I was going to see a comedy. This had some comedy touches like De Niro going to a movie showing of "Goodfellas" and other touches along the way. But the violence is what I saw. That is, shooting a man and then chopping off all his fingers with an ax. The sound of the crunching of the bones included. Or hanging a man by his feet and then lowering him into a barrel of acid. Or beating nearly to death a man with a baseball bat and then doing just about the same with a tennis racket. The director, Luc Besson, is fine with the violence but with the humor, not so much. He has a fine cast of De Niro, Pfeiffer, and Tommy Lee Jones but they bought into quite a violent and bloody script. The movie moves to a very violent climax in the small French town in Normandy, bringing together all the family members and their former friends in the Brooklyn Mafia. Every type of weapon is used and the body count goes over 10 or 12. Besson handles that scene in a very effective manner .It has to be one of best of any  year in it's category, but all the underlying violence and killing just put me off and it hits you in the face in the first scene.(None of this was in the previews I saw of this movie.)

 

Dad

 

P.S. I have not seen Michelle Pfeiffer in some time. It is quite evident she is in the same school of nourishment as Kelly Ripa. The thinking is you have to be able to count every rib of the person.

 

P.P.S. The previews were:

 

Don Jon

Out of the Furnace

Dallas Buyers Club

Inside  Llewyn Davis

Thanks for Sharing

Closed Circuit

Jean, This must be the most cerebral movie I have seen in years. The cast, which I found just excellent, is giving you information on a number of levels throughout the film. It may be the English legal system, public versus private court, barrister versus solicitor,  their MI 5 versus MI 6, single versus double agents, etc. On top of that you have those very interesting London locations in that damp London weather. I just wished that I could "freeze-frame" the movie every so often and say "what did that  character just tell me?" I enjoyed trying to keep up with the main characters and what they were telling me. That was the only way to figure out who were the bad guys or gals and who were the good.  You have to work for an understanding of this plot line. I found it an interesting movie even with  it's cynical view of today's world.  Dad

 

P.S.  The previews were:

 

The Family

Dallas Buyers Club

Carrie

Rush

Escape Plan

The Fifth Estate

Elysium

Jean, This is District 9 on steroids to me. It has that look and all the dust and grime and poverty. But after seeing the big movies of the spring/summer, Oblivion, Iron Man 3, Star Trek,Into Darkness, Man Of Steel, World War Z, White House Down, Lone Ranger and Pacific Rim, I would put this one near the top. That is for the great look of the two different worlds shown, the great weapons they invent and you have Jason Bourne slugging it out. They put him in all these allegorical stories and inside all these Iron Man super suits and he is still that great no-holds -barred fighter. (They, also, did not make this a long movie which some have done this summer.) Matt Damon takes more punishment than even Batman did in his last movie.  Dad

 

P.S. The previews were:

 

Bad Grandpa

Thor: The Dark World

The Counselor

The Monument Men

Enders Game

Gravity

Pacific Rim

Jean, This must be one of the top spectacular action movies of the summer. The battles between the Jaegers (huge robots, controlled by humans inside them) and the Kaiju (monster reptiles coming up out of the Pacific Ocean) are amazing to behold. The Jaegers make the Transformers look like toys to me, and the Godzilla would not have a prayer against the Kaiju. For some reason, you can follow the battles as the monster robots are following the actual physical actions of their two man or man and woman "pilots". It is a blow by blow match and not a mass of metal against metal. There is some technical jargon such as neural handshakes and mind melds and drift compatible,. which you can pick up on as the movie continues. The story line sorts itself out but the basis of the cratonic plates around the Pacific Ocean and that weakness in the crust is the source of the action and the solution. I saw it in a nearly full theater.  I  also was impressed with the Category 4 and 5 monster reptiles and the analog versus the digital monster robots. You can enjoy the differences between the huge combatants and some of the lines such as "this is not a refuge, this is a buffet line."  Dad

 

P.S. The previews were:

 

Gravity with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock)

Seven Sons

Paranoia

Jobs

Captain Phillips (with Tom Hanks and Catherine Keener))

The World's End

White House Down

(Reviewed June 28, 2013)

Jean, This movie actually is quite a bit of fun for the summertime. Roland Emmerich has pulled out all the stops on this one. He has enough catastrophe situations for 4 movies here. I mean Air Force One in jeopardy, Norad and the firing off of all the country's missiles (think War Games), flights of Raptor jets and flights of Apache Helicopters. On top of that you practically go through the succession to replace the President of the U.S. Everyone seems to have machine guns, bazookas, ground to air missiles and they leave the White House in a complete shambles. But the actors do not take themselves seriously and there is added humor. "Do not step on my Jordans" , "That was a priceless 1600 Ming vase you just broke" and so many times they refer to the secret tunnel under the White House that JFK and Marilyn used.  I lost count how many times Jamie Foxx gets shot or injured fatally and gets back up. The final question of who gave out the secret codes seems awfully "tacked on" to me. Forget saying "how can that happen" and enjoy the movie.  Dad

 

The previews were:

 

Elysium

Jobs (Steve)

2 Guns

The World End

World War Z

(Reviewed June 21, 2013)

 

Jean, I found this a  suspenseful and entertaining movie. I did not  expect that after the articles (think Vanity Fair) about changing the writers and  changing the ending and trying to settle on the "tone" of the film. The movie comes down closer to "Contagion" than "Dawn of the Dead". Also you will see an awful lot of similarities to the 2005 film of Spielberg/Cruise entitled "War of the World". Brad Pitt is just great in all his scenes and there are really no other actors of note in the film. Brad seems to know where to look  for clues at pivotal times in the movie.  The book, World War Z  on which the movie is  based by Mel Brook's son, Max Brooks   is a smart, thinking  man's book. The film has a talent for showing a world in chaos with aerial shots of many different cities across the globe, without a boring repetitive killing of the zombie hordes.. Some of the questions it answers are "what happens when you find a Zeke (zombie) in the bathroom on your airliner?" or" how do you save your friend when she is savagely  bitten on the hand  by a blood-crazed zombie?". Dad

 

P.S. The previews were:

 

Anchorman: The Legend Continues

The Conjuring

You're Next

Insidious 2

Elysium

The Wolverine

Man of Steel

 

 

 

Jean, This is a big time, big screen event in my mind. The theater I went to was literally packed. I have not seen that since "Iron Man 3". It has a great cast of actors and Henry Cavill is a great looking Superman, in or out of the blue tights and red cape. The actors all hold up their roles in fine fashion. And there is almost non-stop destruction as you near the end of the movie. ( It is long at 145 minutes ) Be prepared for almost complete high-rise building destruction and explosions etc. to the point that when you get to  destruction overload, the screen goes all white. (This happens 3 or 4 times.) I would see the next Super man movie now that they have spent so much time in exposition of the early days in Krypton. I really do not care about Kal-El or Jor-El or the Codex, etc.. My audience was there to see Superman rescue helicopters from a collapsing  deep water drilling platform or catch Lois Lane at the last second after she falls out of a plane. Which they did see. I thought Amy Adams and Henry Cavill made a good couple  but there is very little romance but lots of action and destruction.  Too bad they did not have more humor such as "That is not an S" or " They say after the first kiss, it is all downhill" or " To me he is just hot". This is one big action scene on another, maybe Christopher Nolan had something to do with that.  Dad

 

The Previews were:

 

300: rise of an empire

R I P D

White House Down

Paranoia

The Worlds End

The Hobbit, The desolation of the Smaug.

The Internship

Jean, This is not a case of the sequel being better than the original. This is a mediocre comedy at best. I think the supporting characters are stronger than the two leads. The one joke is that those two guys are complete technology know-nothings, That becomes stale very fast. (Have they been asleep for the last 20 years?) The story line revolves around a summer intern class and the 5 or so tests they have to pass as teams of 5 members. (Are you proficient in programming in the C ++? or playing the Hogwart's game holding on to broomsticks  (Quidditch?)) This is a great commercial for working at Google Campus and all the perks that come with it. It is also a great look at the Bay Area from the air or Golden Gate Bridge and just working in the Bay Area is shown as a  plus. There is a black Star Wars t-shirt with gray letters that is quite prominent in the movie.  Dad

 

P.S. The previews are:

 

R.I.P.D.

We're the Millers

The Way, Way Back

Kevin Hart's " Let Me Explain"

Now You See Me

   

Jean, If this movie was as interesting as the first 20 minutes, it would be a very enjoyable movie. But after the introduction, we go off onto more outrageous and beyond belief stunts of magic and attempts at big score robberies than can be imagined.  Add to that the chase to find out what is going to happen next and who is the mastermind behind all this unbelievable visual effects chaos gets more frantic. When it is explained and the mastermind is revealed you will say to yourself "come on, you have to be kidding me". (Even the all-knowing character played by Morgan Freeman can not figure out the identity of the crime genius. I think that is because the answer is so improbable, that it just cannot be.)  Dad

P.S. The previews were:

Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Before Midnight

Closed Circuit

Much Ado About Nothing

The Butler

RED 2

Kon-Tiki

Jean, This is a surprisingly good family action-adventure film. It is based on the real story of Thor Heyerdahl and his balsa wood raft trip  of 5,000 miles from the coast of Peru to the Polynesian Islands in 1947. it was to prove his theory on the settling of Polynesia from the east rather than from the west. It has more action than I expected, with the arrival of the whale shark, the adventure with the shark school and the wild shark on deck and the phosphorescent fish at night. Some of the scenes reminded me of "Live of Pi" with their whaleboat in the vast sea. It is such a good looking film. The after lives of all the crew members is also interesting as well as their real life experiences during WWII.  Dad

 

The previews were:

 

Populaire (French Film)

Kings of Summer

Much Ado About Nothing

Unfinished Song

Star Trek - Into Darkness

 

Jean, This is one of the best action, sci-fi movies you can expect to see. Space never looked better on the big screen. And the USS Enterprise never looked faster, more technically advanced and can that spaceship take the blows that are sent her way. The destruction scenes are a marvel as well as the images of cities of the future. And the scenes of   fighting  or jumping on the edge of great heights were almost too much.( I felt uncomfortable looking over those cliff edges.)

The cast members also took a lot of blows, as their punches sounded like Mike Tyson was throwing them. I did not see any "fall off" from the first one these done in 2009.  J.J. Abrams really did bring back this film series in a big way. The villain was a very formidable character, almost too smart for the rest of the cast. My theater was nearly full for a Friday matinee and there was applause at the ending and they reacted every time the Enterprise went off at hyperspeed or warp speed or whatever that was.  Dad

 

P.S. There is humor too. Our audience laughed out loud at what happens after Office Uhura says to Spock "Don't hit him, we need him to save Captain Kirk." Also walking out I heard this said by a couple of the audience "Who's the Blonde?"

 

P.P.S. The previews were:

 

Anchorman, The Legend Continues.

Despicable Me 3

Elysium

Much Ado About Nothing

World War Z

The Great Gatsby

Jean, This is a big time, big screen motion picture experience. I saw it with three other people. I know some of the critics are saying it is excessive in it's presentation of such scenes as the 1920's parties, and the homes and cars and car chases even the initial appearances of some of the main characters. The big visual effects scenes are almost all gone by one third into the film and they are something to see. Then the film morphs into a quite dramatic one which leads to a big dramatic payoff. And the cast members are all easily up to their rolls and especially Leonardo De Caprio. He is surprising in his taking over of the role of Jay Gatsby. He not only delivers the goods but you can not help but compare his performance to previous Gatsbys and he takes no safe route but really puts himself out there. You are believing in him even before the big dramatic scenes towards the finish. (Joel Edgerton also comes through being much more than a boorish oaf or a rich spoiled bully in Tom Buchanan.) This is also a great looking film and it must have cost a lot of money. But leaving the theater you are thinking that all that money is on view, up there on the screen. (The hip-hop music controversy is a non-event. There is more George Gershwin than anything and the hip-hop where it is used is strictly scene-specific.) This is a big film to see on the big scene. (We saw it in 2D for various reasons and felt we did not miss anything,) Dad

 

P.S. The previews were:

 

August:Osage County

Before Midnight

Gravity

The Kings of Summer

Much Ado About Nothing

The Hangover III

Iron Man 3

 

 

 

 

 

Jean, This has to be the funniest and most humorous of all the super hero movies. It has fine visual effects of explosions and buildings or shipyard structures crashing in slow motion. The iron man suits are being propelled around like a lot of shooting stars as well. But it is those comments by Robert Downey Jr. who gives us another pitch perfect  performance as Tony Stark. And his one-liners and comments throughout this movie are just grrrrreat. Also his movie trivia references come thick and fast, and make for a even more fun movie. Whether he is playing Tony Stark or Sherlock Holmes, he gets into a zone and you can not help but enjoy the ride. There are a few plot twists but it does not seem to matter as you are homing in on that darn Downey Jr. This has to be a big blockbuster of a movie and I think you get your money's worth. (We had one lady in our audience who almost did not stop laughing as she would reconsider one of the last of the Tony Stark's  comments and would laugh over it a second time.)  Dad

 

 

P.S. The previews were:

 

The Lone Ranger-(long)

Much Ado About Nothing

White House Down-(long)

The Kings of Summer

Man of Steel-(long)

Thor, The Dark World

PAIN & GAIN

  

Jean, This is called a dark comedy but I did not see the comedy part. There was practically no laughter in my theater during this film. I think all the amusing scenes were gathered up and put in the preview. This is a dark and gross and gruesome crime movie based on actual crime records. Take for example the repeated running over of the hostage victim with a van. Or consider the dismemberment of two bodies with a chain saw and then cooking the body parts on a Weber Grill. The story gets so stupid and grotesque that Michael Bay reminds you half through the movie with  subtitles that this is still a true story. Based on the crime records of the Dade County, Florida 1995-96. It is almost as if Michael Bay is taking great pains to depict all the gruesome and grisly details for you. Even  the Tony Shalhoub character does not have a hint of humor playing the very distasteful hostage victim.  At the end, they show you the main criminal movie characters in mug shot fashion and then the actual criminals in their mug shots.

The Previews were:

World War Z

Kings of Summer

The Bling Ring

The Hangover III

This is the End

Star Trek, Into Darkness

Oblivion

Jean, This is a big, great looking sci-fi movie. The story line, not so much. It has great futuristic vistas and space ship travel scenes as well as a realistic landscape of the future.(I understand a lot of it was shot in Iceland. and Mammoth Lakes, CA.) But it is a anthology of past sci-fi movies. I think the first Star Wars movie alone has grounds to scream plagiarism. In fact, you have to ignore counting the different scenes that remind you of past movies. The actors all do a fine job but there are so few. It is almost entirely Tom Cruise, the two young actresses, and Melissa Leo as Sally. (Morgan Freeman is really not a factor at all.) And it has more than it's share of twists.  But I am sure you will walk out of the theater as I did with two other movie-goers, scratching our heads and asking to see that last 3 minutes again. Dad

P.S. The previews were:
Hangover, Part III

Mud

Fast and Furious 6

Elysium

The Kings of Summer

R.I.P.D. Rest In Peace Department

TRANCE

Jean, This must be the one the most face-paced, mind-twisting, violent heist movies on record. Danny Boyle seems to pull out all the stops with a loud, pounding, pounding sound track, gory human mutilation and repeated full frontal nudity. If you are into heist movies this is for you. There are so many twists in this plot that your eyes never leave the screen and your ears are tuned to pick up all the dialogue . The hypnotism sequences leave you wondering but there is no time for that due to the fast pace. After a big ending series of scenes you are not sure why which of the main characters are still standing. Along the way you learn some very interesting art history about the great masters of the painting world. The three stars , James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel and Rosario Dawson seem to be really  enjoying their parts. For some reason this is a great looking film, such color and clarity especially in the many night scenes.  Dad 

The Previews were:

The Way, Way Back

The East

Kon Tiki

Rosario Dawson in TRANCE

Mud