Movie Notes

It’s been quite some time since I’ve commented on any movies so without further ado, here are some abbreviated notes on the flicks I’ve seen lately.

The Revenant – Best movie I’ve seen in a long time. It’s not fast-paced in any sense of the term but there’s non-stop action throughout. DiCaprio deserves an Oscar for this one.

The Hateful Eight – Classic Tarantino. Witty, over-the-top dialogue, and an out of sequence telling of events that I’ve come to know and love from this director. It’s almost like a more brutal Clue.

The Heist – If I could get this hour and a half back I would. I can’t understand how a movie with Robert De Niro and Morris Chestnut along with Gina Carano and Jeffery Dean Morgan could be so terrible. It’s a story we’ve seen countless times and it’s told very poorly.

Creed – If you’ve seen the original Rocky then you’ve seen Creed, which isn’t a knock on this gripping drama. It’s a good flick but not nearly as family friendly as the other installments in the franchise. I honestly thought the excessive cursing was unnecessary.

Deadpool – Almost the most disappointing movie from the Marvel franchise that I’ve seen to date. There’s two scenes in the entire movie and neither of them are particularly good. They touted the R rating as something that would make for a better movie but in the end, it just allowed them a lot of vulgarity that didn’t add a ton to what can be best described as a moderately funny superhero movie. Honestly, I’d watch Kick-Ass any day of the week before watching this again.

The Fantastic Four – This was the most disappointing Marvel movie I’ve ever seen. I didn’t understand why’d they reboot this one so soon (just like I didn’t understand why they did it with Spider-Man) and I can’t for the life of me understand why they’d do another origins movie. But that aside, it was a lame story with mediocre acting, and next to no action.

The Big Short – This was the most challenging film I’ve seen in a long time. Challenging in the sense that it really made me think and it was somewhat hard to follow (in terms of who the good and bad guys were). It’s about the housing collapse of a few years ago and how Wall Street investors were able to predict what was going to happen and the way in which they took advantage of it. The acting was incredible, the story was compelling, and it honestly left me wanting to watch it again just so I could have a better understanding of what happened back then.

Dirty Grandpa – Mildly funny. It’s not like we haven’t seen a million movies like this already. Efron and De Niro haven’t reinvented the genre and they haven’t added anything significant to it either.

Daddy’s Home – Another mildly funny comedy. I’ve come to expect more from both Wahlberg and Ferrell, especially since they were so great together in The Other Guys.

Straight Outta Compton – I was surprised at how well they told NWA’s story and at how good the acting and overall production of this movie was. Some complained that they made Dr. Dre appear tougher and Eazy-E softer than they actually were, but I haven’t heard the folks who lived through it complaining about that.

The Martian – One of the best movies I’ve ever seen. I watched it twice, back-to-back, on Christmas day. I can’t say that I’ve ever watched a movie two times in a row! This had the right balance of humor, drama, suspense, and action. I can’t wait to watch it again!

Burnt – A chef in search of a three Michelin star rating goes to extremes to get it. I understand that world, and I think the film captures the pressures and abuses that exists in the fine dining kitchen, but I didn’t feel like they told a cohesive story here. It seemed incomplete and disjointed.

Sicario – A lame revenge film that’s pretty boring every step of the way until we get to the actual revenge, which comes in the last scene.

Everest – A great drama that’s based on a true story that shows humans at both their best and worst.

I’m sure I’ve seen others but they didn’t leave a lasting impression.

B”H

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Movie Notes

I haven’t done a Movie Notes post in a long time (since July 2013 by my count!) and I’ve seen a lot of flicks since the last time I did one. So many that I doubt I’ll be able to remember them all. But here’s some brief thoughts on those I do remember.

Foxcatcher – A biopic about Olympic gold medal winning wrestling brothers Mark and Dave Schultz and eccentric billionaire John du Pont who commissions the brothers to help coach a wrestling team (Team Foxcatcher so named for the farm du Pont lives on in Pennsylvania) to Olympic Gold in the 1988 games. Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, and Steve Carrell all play their parts brilliantly. If the real du Pont was anything like Carrell portrayed him then he was a scary dude (I actually know a girl who worked for the du Pont family down in Delaware and she claimed to have been held hostage by them. I never believed her but after seeing this film her story was entirely plausible). This film shows how wealth fuels entitlement, which in turn feeds depravity. It also shows how crippling insecurity can truly be and how easy it is to take advantage of emotional cripples.

American Sniper – Another biopic; this one about U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle (convincingly portrayed by Bradley Cooper) who was a cowboy turned SEAL after seeing the events of 1998 US Embassy bombings. Whatever one’s politics, Kyle was a man who saved countless American lives, both in and out of the theater of war, and this movie shows how complicated war can be. Complicated not just on the field of battle, but also when combatants return home and have to adjust to regular life, a process that was difficult for Kyle. Having known nothing about the real man the ending was a total shock.

The Interview – This was a slightly different twist on the buddy film. We’ve seen comedic teams pair up to do secretive spy stuff before (I Spy with Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson comes to mind) but never, to my knowledge, was the team tasked with assassinating a character that exists in real life. Seth Rogen and James Franco have a certain chemistry on screen that’s hard to match. They were responsible for one of my top 3 funniest movies of all time (Pineapple Express), and while this one doesn’t live up to that hype, there were still plenty of funny moments. I think what I enjoyed most was the sheer ridiculousness of it all. There’s no way that any of the events depicted would or even could take place and they embrace that. It’s campy in all the right ways but it does surprisingly have an underlying message, namely that empowering people for democracy is the better alternative to assassinating dictators.

Chef – This film was written and directed by John Favreau who plays Chef Carl Casper, a once trendsetting chef who is still passionate and innovative but has been stifled creatively by the owner (played by Dustin Hoffman) of the restaurant whose kitchen he runs. Combine this with a devastating review from a blogging/tweeting food critic (Oliver Platt) and Chef Casper has a meltdown, which leads him to start up a food truck with the help of his ex-wife (Sofia Vergara), son (Emjay Anthony), and former line cook (John Leguizamo). As someone who cooked for a living at one point in my life I greatly appreciated how authentic the portrayal of restaurant life and cooking was in this film. It doesn’t hurt that all of the actors turned in great performances as well.

Gimme Shelter – Yet another biopic. Vanessa Hudgens plays Agnes “Apple” Bailey, who was a teen that had been through the system and seen all of the worst abuses that it had to offer. After running away from her drug addicted and terribly abusive mother (Rosario Dawson) to search out her biological father (Brendan Fraser), Apple is met with hostility by her new found step-mother. She ends up encountering a priest (James Earl Jones) who sets her up in a shelter for young mothers (yes, Apple was pregnant). The story of the shelter and the woman (Ann Dowd) running it was familiar, reminding me of the story of how Teen Challenge was born from David Wilkerson’s ministry in New York City. The story is uplifting and hopeful, showing how Jesus’ ethics triumph when put into practice, but the film is marred by a over-acted performance by Hudgens. Dawson’s inspired performance helped to redeem the film a bit though.

Locke – In the course of a drive from Birmingham to London, Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) loses his job and family as he goes to be present for the birth of his child conceived during a one night stand. The entire film is Locke in the car making and receiving various phone calls from his employer, co-workers, wife, children, and the mother-to-be (while arguing with the ghost of his father). Hardy is genius. How he was able to play such a complex role basically by himself is beyond me. I was most taken by the inconsistency of his character though. Here is a man who decides to “do the right thing” and be there for the birth of his illegitimate child because he “caused it” and didn’t want it coming into the world without a father; a man who even after losing his job makes all the necessary arrangements to see that the job gets done the right way in his absence; and yet the same man pleads with his wife that this is the “only time” he’s made a “mistake” and he expects forgiveness because it’s not a regular thing.

And now to abbreviate things quite a bit…

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues – Lame. Not nearly as funny as the first. When will they learn to leave classics alone?

American Hustle – Loved it. Amy Adams played her part so well that I never quite knew who exactly it was that was getting hustled. Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale were also perfect in their roles. Jennifer Lawrence? Meh.

The Wolf of Wall Street – Certain folks wondered how I, as a Christian, could watch this movie. Funnily enough, the whole point of the film was sympathetic to one of the chief realizations that direct people’s attention to Christ; namely that excess (all the money, women, and drugs one can handle in this case) is never enough. Satisfaction will never be found in material gain.

RoboCop – A surprisingly good remake. Well, not that surprising. Technology being what it is we’d expect to see some advancements on such a technologically driven movie.

The Drop – Flashes of brutality invade a seemingly mundane existence as a couple of cousins who tend bar at a mob owned bar are robbed and have to deal with the fallout. The ending blew my mind. Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini turned in great performances.

The Captive – A disturbing film about the kidnapping of a young girl who is abducted by an underground ring of pedophiles that broadcasts live streams of her on the internet and uses her as she gets older to recruit other young girls for their purposes. The film is not graphic (thank God!) but the reach that these monsters have and the lengths they go to to get their fix is terrifying.

Joe – Nicholas Cage plays Joe, a man who had a checkered past, who owns a tree killing business. He employs a troubled kid and serves as something of a mentor. It’s funny because Joe is depicted as a “good man” even though he sleeps with prostitutes, drinks excessively, and is violent.

The Expendables 3 – Not as good as the first; better than the second. All the great choreographed action you’ve come to expect from these flicks.

The Equalizer – Of the ex-CIA turned low key citizen type flicks I’ve seen, this one rates at the top. Good plot; great action; and who doesn’t love Denzel Washington?

Lucy – Incredibly stupid. Couldn’t make it through the whole thing. This was a lame attempt to make The Celestine Prophecy pseudoscientific and action packed.

Gone Girl – Boring. Really boring. Affleck and Pike play sociopaths, or so I gather. Their disdain for one another is palpable but the lengths they go to to hurt each other is ludicrous. And everyone in the movie is super-fake and really weird at pretty much all times.

A Walk Among the Tombstones  – Reminiscent of Suicide Kings only without good acting. Just another run-of-the-mill whodunnit.

22 Jump Street – Funny but not nearly as funny as the first one.

Afflicted – A different take on vampirism. I appreciate the idea but the execution could have been better (it was done camcorder documentary style).

Bad Words – Funny despite its weak plot.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Disappointing considering how good Rise of the Planet of the Apes was. I didn’t get the feeling that anyone actually wanted to be in this movie. Didn’t care for the plot and the acting was phoned in.

Dracula Untold – An interesting twist to the Count Dracula mythology. Can’t say that it was a great flick; but it’s not the worst I’ve seen. They definitely overdid it with the turning into a swarm of bats effect.

Draft Day – Surprisingly good. Kevin Costner managed not to bore me to tears as he navigated his way through a ton of negotiations on NFL draft day.

Godzilla – Very well done. They made Godzilla look like Godzilla and not some dumb dinosaur. Fans of the original films will appreciate this one.

Gravity – Not nearly as good as the trailer made it look. Sandra Bullock floating in space and at times hallucinating. It was what it was.

Night Crawler – A scary tale about how far a socially awkward yet highly intelligent and highly motivated creep will go to get ahead.

Wolf Creek 2 – Stupid. Should have quit after the first one.

Willow Creek – A couple in search of Big Foot end up finding him, or rather he finds them. It doesn’t end well. Short movie. Not quite sure it was worth 80 minutes of my life.

Step Up: All In – I like dancing movies. Sue me. I thought it was choreographed very well. The stories are never anything to write home about but that’s not why we watch movies like this.

Like I said, I know I’ve seen more, but I can’t remember them all. When I do I’ll offer some further notes.

B”H

Favorite Covers

A while back Jason Gardner shared a bit about some of his favorite cover art in recent memory and asked his readers to share theirs. Well, in keeping with his request, and modifying it slightly, here are my favorite covers and the reasons I like them.

Album: Stephen the Levite — To Die is Gain

This is a powerful image. It’s a cartoon, but not childish in any way. The light beaming down directly on the man about to be stoned while just missing the crowd still covered in shadows tells so much of the story of sin, salvation, and discipleship.

Book: Bart Ehrman — How Jesus Became God

This cover is crude in many respects. It’s a crude drawing in the sense that it’s a step or two above stick figures, but that’s what makes it so appealing. It’s like a cave painting. But the imagery itself is crude in the sense of being offensive. The men who have constructed the idol Jesus are now climbing the ladder to place what appear to be beams of light, or radiating glory one might say, above Jesus’ head. Ehrman’s whole spiel about Jesus’ exaltation to Godhood by men is crude and offensive. But man, what a nice looking book cover!

Film: None

To be honest, I can’t think of a DVD/Blu-ray cover that has grabbed my attention, like ever. Sadly, they’re all basically the same. Place a picture of the star(s) of the film on the cover with some city or explosion in the background, add a tag line, and you’re done. It’s really pretty sad.

Song: Marilyn Manson — Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

The original by the Eurythmics is one of my favorite songs of all time. I’ve had it as one of my phone’s ringtones for years (long before I had anything even approaching a smartphone). Marilyn Manson’s cover of the song captures the original feel while adding a little more creepiness and and a lot more edge to it. If I had to pick between the two I’d pick the original because the added oomph detracts from the song’s monotone brilliance, but it’s still done really well. For the record, I never liked the video, which is full of what are supposed to be disturbing images. I’ve never been disturbed by them but not being disturbed isn’t enough to make me find it visually appealing.

B”H

Movie Notes: The Long Overdue Edition, Part 1

I haven’t done a movie notes post since December of last year! I’ve seen quite a few flicks in that time—way too many to remember—but I’ll give it my best shot and try to say a word about those I do recall.

End of Watch – A film about 2 LAPD patrolmen who keep stumbling upon Mexican drug cartel schemes and messing up their plans. It’s shot in a semi-documentary style but it was done really well and the story, acting, and action were amazing. I loved it and would recommend it highly. There’s plenty of profanity and violence though so beware.

Spring Breakers – I can’t decide whether I liked this movie or not. There wasn’t much dialogue in it but I think it’s meant to be more of an art flick anyway. Casting former Disney Channel stars in unexpected roles was kind of intriguing and James Franco’s portrayal of a white rapper/gangster drug dealing thug was inspired. He nailed the part, for sure.

Django Unchained – I love most anything that Quentin Tarantino and Django was no exception. Over-the-top gore and violence; witty dialogue; and the right mix of comedic and dramatic performances make this one of the best Westerns I’ve ever seen.

The Master – This is a film that I imagine most people won’t get or at least get and not care for. It’s about a sexual deviant and alcoholic named Freddie (played by Joaquin Phoenix) who gets caught up in a cult. Freddie’s already unstable and the cult, especially the Master, portrayed brilliantly by Philip Seymour Hoffman, can’t help him. Hoffman’s character Lancaster Dodd is based on L. Ron Hubbard and the cult strongly resembles Scientology. I thought the film nailed the ridiculousness and ad hoc nature of the religion.

A Good Day to Die Hard – I wish people would learn to quit when they’re ahead. There was no need for Live Free or Die Hard but it turned out to be a decent movie. The worst in the series up until that point, but still pretty good. A Good Day to Die Hard was also unnecessary but unlike the film that preceded it, it was horrible! The director obviously had some ideas for cool action sequences and thought he’d try to build a movie around it. Bad idea. Horrible story; terribly unconvincing performances; and a couple of decent action scenes. Avoid this one if you can.

Snitch – Hard to believe that this was based on true events. It’s a movie about a father who’s willing to do anything possible to get his son out of prison. The kid’s in there because a friend set him up with a drug charge. He doesn’t want to set anyone else up so his dad agrees to do it for him. But he goes high up on the food chain and ends up taking down some big players in the Mexican drug cartel. I gotta wonder how much was factual in this because some stuff seems pretty unbelievable. In all it was a good movie, but not as good as I had hoped for. A bit slow to be honest.

Taken 2 – A lot of people panned this one so I had low expectations. All the more because I loved the first film so much. So imagine my surprise when I found out that the movie was actually good. As good as the first one? Nah, not a chance. But good nonetheless. Bryan Mills (portrayed by Liam Neeson) is one of the most clever spy types in all of film. He showed that cleverness much more in this film than the first.

10 Years – This was a fun movie with an ensemble cast of youngish actors who get together for their 10 year high school reunion. I enjoyed it because they were all around my age so there was something familiar about it. The comedic moments were funny; the musical bits entertaining; the dramatic moments somewhat sobering but not overly done. While it wasn’t an Oscar-worthy film there was something authentic and endearing about it. I’ll watch it again.

Looper – Nothing gets under my skin more than time travel since I get stuck in an infinite regress of thinking about infinite regresses. The Back to the Future films and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure got it right. So many movies get it wrong. Looper is one of the worst at getting it wrong. And Joseph Gordon Levitt spent the entire movie making me want to smack him. Bruce Willis was slightly better. Kudos to the makeup team for getting Levitt to look like Willis though. Good job there. Still a dumb movie, but good job on the makeup.

Premium Rush – A movie about a bike messenger going through crazy trouble to deliver a package; what could be bad about that right? Well, most everything. Forget that he’s a thrill seeker who rides a bike with no gears or brakes (honestly, who cares?). Forget that the plot is nearly incomprehensible (he’s delivering a ticket that stands for cash that has been paid to get a girl’s son smuggled in from China; why does this ticket need to be presented; why not just make a phone call and say payment has been made?); forget that the dirty cop chasing him is one of the most annoying antagonists to come along in a good while; instead let’s focus on the fact that Kevin Bacon’s Quicksilver is the be-all-end-all of bike messenger movies. How dare they even attempt to make another!

21 & Over – This was your standard movie about young adult debauchery. Nothing really remarkable about it. Definitely some funny moments but overall it was pretty mediocre.

So those are the ones I’ve seen recently that jump to mind. There has been plenty of others that I’ll have to think about and comment on in another post.

B”H

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You’ll likely find something that’s not available in your regular cinematic haunts. Check it out today!

B”H

Movie Notes: The Forgotten Edition

I neglected to mention a couple of flicks I’ve seen recently because I forgot that I saw them and/or I already mentioned them on Twitter. But here they are:

The Amazing Spider-Man — There were things that I loved about this movie and things that I hated. I hated the villain. Lizard looked terrible and I always thought it was one of the weaker Marvel villains anyway. I was also irked by how many people found out Spider-Man’s secret identity so easily. He’s like the sloppiest superhero ever. But I thought Andrew Garfield played the character well. Totally different than Toby Maguire. I liked Emma Stone in this one as well, but then again, I like her in pretty much everything she’s in. It was a nice change of pace to use Gwen Stacy and get away from Mary Jane Watson. I wished they would have done more with Dennis Leary though. The action was good. I liked that the webs were synthetic in this version. Made it more believable if that makes any sense. All in all I’d watch it again.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter — This is one of the most inventive twists on the genre to come around in a long time. I thought the effects were fantastic and I loved the whole concept behind it. That being said, it was lacking a bit in story development. It really made no sense for him to just up and forget about vampires as he was making his rise to the presidency. I was also torn between whether or not I liked the whole different kinds of vamps with different kinds of abilities deal. I’m a sucker for the classics so I like all my vampires and their powers to be uniform.

B”H

Movie Notes

I haven’t written about any movies that I’ve seen in the past couple of months. The truth is that I haven’t seen many; at least if we’re talking about new movies. I’ve re-watched a bunch that I’ve seen before (e.g., Boyz N the Hood; Varsity Blues; Project X; etc.). But time doesn’t come in the abundance it once did and once the fall TV season started up most of my viewing time has been spent on television shows. Having said that, I will mention a few of the flicks I can remember seeing in the recent past.

This Means War — I’ve seen Chris Pine and Tom Hardy in enough movies at this point to have decided that I like them both. Teaming them up as spies who both fall for the same girl (Reese Witherspoon) was a great move. This is one of the better romantic comedies I’ve seen in a long while and I think it’s because of how well the trio plays off one another. Chelsea Handler was a bit over the top, and I’m convinced she can’t act, but the action saved anything she may have ruined.

Stake Land – I just watched this the other night. It’s an interesting twist on the vampire flick since it reads more like a zombie film. The film is set in a post-apocalyptic world that is being overrun by vampires. But the vamps are vicious and seemingly have no control over themselves. Like I said, they resemble zombies more than vampires. But the real villains in this movie are, you might have guessed, the people! This is another rip off from the zombie genre. All in all this was a decent movie but it’s not something I’d go out of my way to watch again. And whoever did the vamp makeup should have been fired. It was pretty bad.

The Tall Man – I can’t say much about this movie because it was confusing and boring and overall hard to watch. I hated every single thing about it. All I know is that kids go missing. I don’t know why or what’s being done with them. I rewound at least 5 times and still couldn’t catch what was happening. It sucked. Horribly. Don’t waste any time on this one.

Machine Gun Preacher – This was based on a true story about a ex-con drug addict biker who comes to Christ and then feels a call from the Lord to build a church and finally do missionary work in Africa. But his zeal for the children in Africa leads him to mess his marriage up badly; alienate his home church; and ultimately lose faith in God. I wasn’t sure if he ever regained it but it did seem like he was at least heading in that direction. I’d recommend this one for sure.

Get the Gringo – This was like a long episode of Prison Break. A white American thief ends up in a Mexican prison, which is really just a small city and he has to hustle in order to survive all while trying to save a young cigarette smoking kid and his mother. It was below average for a Mel Gibson movie. I’ve come to expect much more from him over the years. But it wasn’t bad. It was just okay.

Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap – If I’m not mistaken, this documentary marked Ice T’s directorial debut. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Ice T interview some of the best rappers in the world and asking them about how they approach the craft.

That’ll do it.

B”H

Just Ordered

I just pre-ordered the Blu-ray/DVD + UltraViolet Digital copy of The Dark Knight Rises from Amazon and to put the order over $25 I got a used copy of John Thompson’s Modern Trinitarian Perspectives. The description said that the copy I ordered had no marks in the text so here’s to hoping that the binding is tight and the cover isn’t mangled. I’ll find out soon enough.

B”H

Just Ordered

I had some Amazon credit burning a hole in my pocket and I saw that The Avengers 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo went on sale for a mere $15 today so I decided to get it. But in order to get free shipping I had to add $10 to the purchase, and since I had an extra $30 to spend (my credit was for $45) I added a couple of Peter Leithart’s books to the order, which had been in my shopping cart for months. So I got A House for My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament and The Four: A Survey of the New Testament. Leithart never disappoints so I’m sure I’ll enjoy his OT and NT surveys respectively.

Now I just need to figure out what to get with my Barnes & Noble gift card!

B”H

Movie Notes

Here’s some brief thoughts on the movies I can remember watching in the past couple of months.

Steal — Watched this yesterday and it was a complete waste of time. Not a very inventive take on the heist/double-cross genre. Terrible acting; lame action; and no real plot to speak of.

Blitz — I honestly expected more from this one. Jason Statham flicks are usually pretty good. This one was boring. You know who the killer is from the jump and you just wait 90 minutes to see him get killed. Not much going for it.

Coastlines — I honestly can’t remember what this was about, which should tell you how good it was. Completely forgettable. All I know is that Timothy Olyphant was in it.

Hostel: Part III — Nothing will ever top the first installment in this franchise but this is definitely the worst. I don’t think Eli Roth had anything to do with this one, which clearly hurt it. Still, it was better than most Saw sequels. It had an ending similar to the remake of The Last House on the Left or the Masters of Horror episode “Family.”

Super 8 — Way better than I thought it would be. I watched this with my daughter and was a little put off by all the cursing, which came mainly from the hefty kid, but it had that classic Spielberg feel to it. J. J. Abrams did a great job with this one. I thought the story was good, the action was intense, and the acting was believable.

Seeking Justice — I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; Nicholas Cage flicks are hit or miss. This one could go either way. I like the idea of it (a semi-secret society of vigilantes who right the wrongs that the law just can’t), but I’m not sure they pulled it off as well as they could have.

Warrior — Awesome film about two estranged brothers who end up reuniting in an MMA tournament. They’re both fighting for different, yet noble, reasons, but there can only be one winner. Great story; greater acting; and the fighting was authentic.

Medium Raw — If they weren’t speaking English I would have thought that this was a foreign film. It was lame. Some stupid riff on Little Red Riding Hood with a cop and some others trapped in an Asylum where the homicidal patients are on the loose. Not worth anyone’s time.

The Howling Reborn — If you wanna reboot a series this isn’t the way to do it. I couldn’t follow the story and I couldn’t bring myself to care about any of the characters or anything that was happening. It made me long for the horrible Howling flicks of my youth because no matter how bad they were, they were better than this!

Son of No One — Another lame movie with a lackluster plot. Some kid killed a couple of people when he was like 8 or 10 or something; he grows up to be a cop; and all of a sudden it starts to come out. Only the person telling isn’t after the kid turned cop; they’re after the cops who covered up the murders 20 some-odd years earlier. This might have been the biggest waste of talent (Ray Liotta & Al Pacino) that I’ve ever seen.

The Dark Knight Rises — I preferred The Dark Knight to this one; but that’s not to say that this wasn’t brilliant. Bane was a nice change of pace even if he didn’t prove to be the real villain running the show. I liked how Nolan integrated the previous two films into this one and this definitely felt like the most psychological out of the bunch.

So as you can tell; I haven’t seen a lot of good movies (that I can remember at least) in the last couple of months. Hopefully that’ll change.

B”H