Kong: Skull Island in 3D

“Kong: Skull Island” is “Crazy Stupid”, but it’s fast-paced, has lots of eye candy and tons of action.

Set in the post-Vietnam war era, a group of explorers/scientists and a team of military specialists are brought together to go on an exploration assignment to an uncharted island in the Pacific. It’s not really explained ahead of time what the group might be looking for, but it was made known that they needed to go before Russia went. At first glance the island looks to be a paradise, but the parties soon find out the island is as dangerous and treacherous as it is beautiful. The story unfolds from there…

The special effects are awesome. The action is non-stop. The 3D aspects will have you on the edge of your seat. It’s in your face violent.

“Kong: Skull Island” offers you another rendition of the King Kong saga. It’s the first creature-feature of the year.

This is a 3 Star Movie!

Logan

Wow! “Logan” is Action-Packed, Intense, Gritty and Intriguing.

It’s 2029 and all Mutants are supposedly gone. “Logan” (Jackman) lives on the outskirts of the Mexican Border and has a job as a Chauffeur. Professor X (Stewart) is ailing and needs constant care. Logan uses whatever cash he makes purchasing the medication that helps keep Professor X’s brain calm and quiet.

Logan is approached by a woman who says she desperately needs his help. At first Logan refuses indicating that he does not know the woman and does not know how or why she thinks she knows him. Logan soon finds out that the reason the woman needs his help is that she is harboring a young little girl who is a mutant with skills like Wolverine.
There are bad people looking for the little girl. The woman offers Logan 50,000 dollars saying he is the only person who could keep the little girl safe. Mysteriously the little girl shows up at Logan’s place without him knowing about it. This brings the bad people to his place also. The story unfolds from there…

“Logan” is entertaining, suspenseful, very bloody, and violent and has some cool special effects. Hugh Jackman puts so much of himself into the character “Logan” that it’s almost painful to watch.

“Logan” is so intense that it’s not for young children. This is truly an adult Marvel Comics installment.

If you like Marvel Comics, “Logan” is for you!

This is a 4 Star Movie!

The Shack

It’s difficult to bring a best-selling novel to the big screen. It’s even more difficult to bring a novel that was difficult to read to the big screen. In comes “The Shack”. I read “The Shack”. After the first 75 pages I had to walk away from the book for a few a days, but I did come back because it was a recommended read for me because I was struggling with the death of my Mom at that time.

“The Shack” is about how we question or even abandon our faith when something tragic or devastating happens to us.
Mack Phillips (Sam Worthington) suffers a family tragedy. He falls into a HUGH depression, questions his beliefs and abandons his faith. Mack is summoned to an old shack in the Oregon woods. There he meets three souls. Through this meeting Mack discovers truths about himself and how to deal with his tragedy. The story unfolds from there…

“The Shack” is difficult to watch on the screen, not because it’s not meaningful and important, but because the script is all over the place. The movie is really hard to follow. The story doesn’t really come together and the movie is not entertaining. The book wasn’t that bad…

The movie contains some beautiful cinematography and panoramic views, but that’s not enough to make “The Shack” even a three star movie.

I have seen many Christian-Faith based movies and I personally do not think “The Shack” is worth the money, but I will say that Octavia Spencer is the best element in the movie.

This is a 2 Star Movie!

Oscar Recap 2017

The 89th Academy Awards are over…The show won’t be remembered for the fun things that happened such as Food Parachuting from the ceiling not once, not twice, but three times during the show or the Tour Bus folks who beyond their wildest dreams had a chance to meet Hollywood stars as they made their way through the Auditorium.
This year’s Oscars will be remembered for the horrendous blunder that occurred for the Best Picture Award. After 89 years you would expect that a mistake like what happened last night wouldn’t happen, but it did. “La La Land” believed they had locked up the Best Picture Award to find out they did not actually win. “Moonlight” is the Best Picture Award Winner.
I did not see “Moonlight” but was very much aware of the movie and I knew that it was receiving “Oscar Buzz” as far back as October.

Here is my Oscar Recap for Last night’s awards.

“Moonlight” won the Best Picture Award. I did not see it, but I did see 5 of the nine nominees: “Fences”, “Hidden Figures”, “La La Land”, “Hell or High Water” and “Arrival”. I gave all of these movies 4 or 5 stars.
Casey Affleck won for Best Actor in a leading role for “Manchester by the Sea”. I did not see that movie. I feel that Denzel Washington was more deserving of the Oscar for his role in “Fences”.
Mahershala Ali won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in “Moonlight”

Viola Davis won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in “Fences” in fact Viola Davis won the “Trifecta”. She won the Golden Globe, The SAG Award and topped it off with the Oscar all for her role in “Fences”. Viola Davis deserves every accolade she has received.

Emma Stone won for Best Actress in a Leading Role for “La La Land”.
Damien Chazelle won the Best Director Oscar for “La La Land”
“Zootopia” won the Best Animated Feature Film Oscar. I gave this movie 5 stars.
“Moonlight” – Best Writing Adapted Screenplay Oscar
“Manchester by the Sea” – Best Original Screenplay Oscar
The Best Cinematography Oscar went to “La La Land”
The Best Music Original Score Oscar went to “La La Land”
The Best Costume Design Oscar went to “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”
Best Original Song went to “City of Stars” from “La La Land”
The Production Design Oscar went to “La La Land”
The Sound Editing Oscar went to “Arrival”
The Sound Mixing Oscar went to “Hacksaw Ridge”
The Visual Effects Oscar went to “The Jungle Book”
The Makeup and Hair Oscar went to “Suicide Squad”

If you have not seen “Hidden Figures”, “Arrival”, “Hell or High Water”, “Fences”, “La La Land” or “Zootopia” I suggest catching these movies as soon as you can.

Other Oscar Winners are as follows:

Best Documentary Feature Film – “O.J. Made in America”
Best Documentary Short Film – “The White Helmets”
Best Live Action Short Film – “Sing”
Best Animated Short Film – “Piper”
Best Foreign Film – “The Salesman”

Collide

“Collide” wasn’t on my original “Watch List”, but I decided to check it out.

“Collide” is about a heist that goes terribly wrong. A prominent business tycoon uses his empire as a cover as every 6 months he brings in Cocaine to be distributed in parts of Germany. A regular business man is aware of what’s been going on and wants in on the action from a financial perspective. The two gentlemen meet, but the meeting does not go well. The prominent business tycoon refuses to do business.

This leaves the regular business man to devise a scheme to get what he wants. He recruits a couple of young guys that work for him with the lure of an extremely large payday. The two guys put together what they believe is a fool-proof plan, but the prominent business tycoon is a bit smarter and what appears to be the perfect heist goes awry. The story unfolds from there…

The best thing about “Collide” is there are lots of nasty car chases involving extremely expensive cars.
You would think that a movie containing Anthony Hopkins and Ben Kingsley would be very good. Not so in the case of “Collide”. The story is rich, but it’s not executed very well. The dialog is horrible.

Several people got up and left in the mid of the movie and did not come back! I started to leave, but my curiosity got the best of me, so I stayed.

There is a reason that “Collide” did not get much press. It’s an awful movie, so I am sure they were thinking why bother…

“Collide” is best viewed on Cable. It’s not worth the price of a Blue-Ray or DVD.

This movie does not rate any stars!

The Great Wall in Real 3D

“The Great Wall” is an Action/Fantasy set in 11th century China, two Mercenaries (Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal) from the west find themselves battling for their lives against a Chinese Military. They are soon captured, but once their captors witness their archery and weapons skills, the military command at the Great Wall needs their assistance to battle a super-natural menace who continues to try and scale the wall to get at them and their people. Meanwhile there is a stranded visitor (Willem Dafoe) who has been at the great wall for twenty five years. He states there is a treasure to be had and tries to convince the Mercenaries to help him steal it. The story unfolds from there…

“The Great Wall” is an action epic and visual feast. Matt Damon is the best element in the movie. It’s a shame that the story wasn’t put in proper context so that it was understood how the super-natural menace came to be and why it wishes to attack and destroy an entire nation and where did the supposed treasure come from.

Because the story as a whole is dis-jointed and unclear, it’s boring. If it weren’t for Matt Damon, the movie won’t be worth seeing. The 3D aspects are pretty good.

“The Great Wall” will be a great movie to watch on Blue-Ray, DVD or Cable.

This is a 2 ½ Star Movie!

John Wick: Chapter 2

Welcome to a Special Edition of “Thursday Night at the Movies with The Movie Warrior”

I am often leery about second installments of a movie whose first installment was surprisingly good. I did not think that “John Wick: Chapter 2” could improve on its 2014 debut, but I stand corrected. As action/drama movies go, “John Wick: Chapter 2” is awesome!

“John Wick: Chapter 2” has an excellent lead in and it reminds you of what transpired in the first installment. John (Keanu Reeves) wants desperately to retire, but after only being home for a couple of days a former associate from his past comes knocking at his door. At first John refuses the assignment that is offered, but the associate who visits him refuses to take no for an answer. Since John said “No”, the associate exacts revenge and destroys John’s house which leaves him homeless. Now John has no choice but to find out what the assignment is and go execute it. The story unfolds from there…

The action is awesome and intense. The events are non-stop. There is a ton of suspense and intrigue. Keanu Reeves is in great shape for his role as John Wick. There were many awesome fight scenes. The only draw-back is the dialog. If you are interested in a movie that has a lot of dialog, you will not be happy with “John Wick: Chapter 2”. The dialog is minimal, but is enough to get the job done.

All in all “John Wick: Chapter 2” is definitely worth the ticket.

This is a 4 Star Movie!

23rd Annual SAG (Screen Actors Guild) Awards – Short Recap

The 23rd Annual SAG (Screen Actors Guild) Awards aired last night. I don’t usually post about them, but there were several exciting things that happened on the show, so here goes…
First of all, if you haven’t seen “Fences” or “Hidden Figures”, you are doing yourself a dis-service.

While “La La Land” earned 7 Golden Globe nominations and 14 Oscar nominations, it only had 2 SAG Award nominations. It only won one of these. Emma Stone won the Female Actress in a Leading Role award. She also won this category at the Golden Globes. Who should have won is Amy Adams for her role in “Arrival” or Natalie Portman for her role in “Jackie”. Each of those performances were better.

What did happen is Ryan Gosling did not win a SAG for his role in “La La Land”.
Denzel Washington won the Male Actor in a Leading Role award for “Fences”. I was so happy and excited about this that I was in tears!!

Viola Davis won for her role in “Fences”. Winning the SAG gives her 2 for 2. She won the Golden Globe and she is also an Oscar nominee.

The entire cast of “Hidden Figures” won a SAG Award last night for Best Film.
The SAG Awards are the last stop before the Oscars. We will find out in a few weeks if “La La Land” sweeps or if there will be a few really nice surprises like last night.

In parting if you haven’t see “Arrival”, “Jackie”, “Hidden Figures” or “Fences”, you should check them all out. Also consider seeing “Hell or High Water” and “Florence Foster Jenkins”. These movies have actors nominated for Golden Globes, SAGs and Oscars.

Gold

“Gold” is based on true events that happened between 1980 and 1988. Prospector Kenny Wells (Matthew McConaughey) is scratching hard for a lucky break. He teams up with another Geologist Micke Acosta (Edgar Ramirez) who is in a similar situation. Together they prospect an area in the jungle of Indonesia for gold and put together what appears to be a air-tight plan for a rags to riches result.

After several false starts, funds running low and the Indonesian workers wanting to quit, Wells and Acosta strike a small find. This small gold find leads to heavy hitters wanting to invest, a Wall Street Stock Market opening and everyone trying to get a piece of the action. But how long will it last, the story unfolds from there…

If this wasn’t based on true events, I would not have believed it. Matthew McConaughey’s portrayal of Kenny Wells is the bright spot of this movie. The story is jumbled, skips around and does not appear on the big screen in the order in which things actually happened. There are a lot of “Heavy Hitters” in this movie, so I expected better.

Some parts of “Gold” will remind you of the 2000 hit “Traffic”, but “Traffic” was an awesome flick and executed much better than “Gold”.

If you are a Matthew McConaughey fan, his performance in “Gold” is worth seeing. Otherwise wait for “Gold” to come out on cable, DVD or Blue Ray.

This is a 2 Star Movie!

A Dog’s Purpose

“A Dog’s Purpose” is about a Golden Retriever named “Bailey” who goes through several reincarnations. Through some of these reincarnations dog abuse is realized before the reincarnated “Bailey” lands where he/she is supposed to be.

Each time “Bailey” is reincarnated he/she learns a new purpose and life lesson. The story unfolds from there…

While we all know that animal cruelty does happen, I don’t like seeing it on the big screen. That made parts of the movie intolerable. At times the movie was very entertaining and other times it was boring. There was some comedy relief, but that too was brief. I had hoped for a better more fun movie than what I actually saw.

I believe small children might enjoy “A Dog’s Purpose”, but dog loving adults may not.