Tag: Brad Pitt

F1: The Movie in IMAX

F1: The Movie in IMAX

Wow! It’s been a while since I have seen a movie starring Brad Pitt.  

Brad Pitt comes to us as Sonny Hayes FORMULA 1’s most promising Phenom of the 1990’s. But an accident on the track nearly ended his career.

Fast forward 30 years and Sonny is a Nomad Race-for-Hire moving from event to event living out of a Van. Soon he is approached by his former teammate Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) who is an owner of a struggling FORUMLA 1 team. Ruben convinces Sonny he should come join his team for one last shot at saving his career, helping the team and winning big. Sonny is informed that he would be driving alongside Joshua Pearce (Damon Idris) who is the team’s hotshot rookie, intent on setting his own pace. 

As the engines start to roar Sonny’s past catches up with him. He learns that in FORMULA 1 your teammate is your fiercest competition. The story unfolds from there…

If you are a fan of FORUMLA 1 Car Racing events, this is a must see. The movie is very authentic. The race cars are super cool and the sponsor names you see are real.

There is great cinematography and the IMAX aspects are awesome. You will feel like you are in the race cars on the track. 

The running time of the movie is a bit long. There were a few dead spots. All in all, the movie is worth the ticket. I really enjoyed seeing Javier Bardem. He was awesome in his role. Damson Idris as the hot shot Rookie Joshua Pearce is easy on the eyes.

This is a 4 Star Movie!!

Bullet Train in AMC Dolby

Bullet Train in AMC Dolby

Brad Pitt is “Ladybug” an assassin who after a few derailments of assignments is determined to complete all of his assignments peacefully no matter what. As fate would have it, Ladybug’s latest assignment puts him in the path of some dangerous adversaries from around the globe. All of them have a connection although their objectives are different. All of this is taking place on the world’s fastest high-speed train. The story unfolds from there…

I had high hopes for this movie being that Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock are both starring in it and one of the Producers is Antoine Fuqua. The movie is a high-speed chase through Japan…But alas…The story runs off the rails, you are not sure who is actually a bad guy or who can be trusted and there does not seem to be a destination/ending which leaves the train to just continuously speed on never ending tracks ultimately to derail. This movie could turn into a Franchise…Imagine “Bullet Train 2”. If this happens, I certainly hope the next installment is better than the first.

“Bullet Train” is only open in Theaters.

This is a 2 Star Movie!!

Ad Astra in AMC Dolby

“Ad Astra” is about an Astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) who is sent on a Space Exploration out into the Solar System to search for his missing Father Cliff McBride (Tommy Lee Jones) who is also an Astronaut. The mystery of it all threatens the existence of planet earth. On his travels, Roy uncovers secrets that challenge the human existence and earth’s place in the cosmos. The story unfolds from there…

Plain and simple the movie was boring. I did not find anything entertaining about “Ad Astra”. I had hoped it would get better, but except for 2 or 3 scenes that were interesting I found the movie to be dry and lifeless.
Don’t get me wrong I love Space Exploration movies like “Interstellar” and “The Martian”. Those movies were entertaining and had lots of action, suspense and intrigue and kept you on the edge of your seat. I did not get any of these elements from “Ad Astra”.

The paid critics gave “Ad Astra” 4 stars. It will only get 2 stars from me.

This is a 2 Star Movie!!

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Wow!! It seems like it’s been ages since I saw and wrote a movie review, but in reality it’s only been 3 weeks. I hope this is the only 3 week drought for me for the remainder of the year. It seems that this July has been a surprisingly very dismal month for movies. Let’s hope August is more promising.

Quentin Tarantino is back with his ninth movie with a story set in LA in the late 60’s into the early 70’s. One of the leading characters in the movie is Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) who happens to be a former Western TV Series Star and his long time stunt double and driver Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Both men are struggling to make it in a Hollywood environment that they no longer recognize. Rick finds out he has a very famous neighbor…Sharon Tate. The story unfolds from there…

This movie is painfully long. I had no idea it would be 2 hours and 39 minutes. The story drags a bit, but there is a little bit of everything in this movie. There are parts that will make you yawn, parts that will make you laugh and parts that will make you sit up in your seat. The movie contains fiction as well as historical facts about Hollywood in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Quentin Tarantino has been known for making long satires, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is no exception.

This is a 3 ½ Star Movie!!

Allied

Intelligence officer Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) meets up with a French Resistance Fighter Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard) in North Africa, together they participate in a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Sometime later they reunite in London, their relationship blossoms, they marry and have a child but soon their relationship is tested due to the wartime constraints. The story unfolds from there…

There are parts of the movie that at times show signs of brilliance, but in the end it just doesn’t quite make it. From an execution stand point there are holes that need to be filled. The plot isn’t really clear.

“Allied” is a fairly decent movie. It should be better given the cast in front of the camera and behind the camera.

This is a 3 Star Movie!

The Big Short

Michael Lewis’ best-seller; The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine is the basis of the movie “The Big Short”.

“The Big Short” centers around four high-finance outsiders who predicted the credit and housing collapse of the 2000s and how they took on the big banks for their lack of foresight and intense greed. The story unfolds from there…

“The Big Short” is un-cut, unedited. You see everything in the raw. Execution at times is a bit slow, but none the less the movie is intriguing, eye-opening and worth a look.

“The Big Short” is open in limited-release around the country. Check it out in your city.

This is a 4 Star Movie!!

BTW…I had planned to see “Point Break” the remake of the 1991 Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves movie, but the 2015 installment received such awful reviews I decided to pass.

Fury (2014)

“Fury (2014)” is intense and definitely not for the weak at heart. You get war violence at its finest.  

It’s 1945 and there’s a Sherman Tank on the move behind enemy lines being commanded by Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) with his 5 man Platoon that contains a rookie. They are out manned and out gunned but that is not going to stop Wardaddy from making a final push at trying to bring the Nazi German Regime to its knees. The story unfolds from there…

“Fury (2014)” is gritty, grimy, brutal and very well crafted. This is a serious war movie with serious war violence. See it if you dare.

This is a 3 1/2 Star Movie!

The Counselor

Please do not waste your money! “The Counselor” is one of the worst movies of 2013!
What an utter disappointment. The movie is all over the map. There are long sex scenes that don’t make sense and have no real place in the movie. I am not sure what Ridley Scott was thinking when he was directing this.
The movie is supposed to be about an attorney who gets in too deep in the drug trafficking business. The story and plot are not obvious and everything is all over the place. The movie is brutally bloody. The previews are extremely miss-leading. I totally expected action, intrigue, drama and a bit of fun given the cast. There is none of that in “The Counselor”.
I have to say that I am not even sure that “The Counselor” warrants a look even when it comes out on DVD or Blueray. I can’t see spending any money on this film at all.

“The Counselor” should have been left on the cutting room floor.

World War Z 3D

Movie: World War Z 3D
Running Time: 1hr. 55min
Cast: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale

“World War Z” is a combination of the September 2012 Thriller “Contagion” and the 2007 Sci-Fi Thriller “I am Legend”.

Brad Pitt plays Gerry Lane a former U.N. investigator who finds himself, his family and a major part of the world embroiled in a deadly fight for survival from an unknown lethal virus that if a person is bitten they become something vicious.

The Military call’s upon Lane (Pitt) to lead a search to get at the origin of the virus. This search will take Gerry and his team to places unknown. The story unfolds from there…

The movie is edge of your seat suspense. It’s a bit grisly…I found myself closing my eyes a couple of times. The 3D aspects are pretty good because there were things coming at me and I ducked or closed my eyes.
“World War Z” is not for someone with a weak stomach. The movie is executed pretty well although not my favorite genre. If I had it to do over I probably would have skipped seeing it, but I was curious since the previews didn’t really give you much to go on.

If you like Sci-Fi Horror by all means do see “World War Z”.

Killing Them Softly

Have you ever gone to an amusement park, gotten on a ride and then wished you could get off the ride after is started, but once it was going it didn’t seem so bad. This is how “Killing Them Softly” seemed to me. During the first 35 minutes I wanted to leave the theater, but something made me stay and I am sort of glad I did.
“Killing Them Softly” is about a high stakes poker game involving 16 people who are robbed by some amateur thugs. Unfortunately the thugs rob the wrong people. One of the poker players calls in a cool, calm killer-for-hire (Brad Pitt) to take care of all who were involved with planning and executing the robbery. The story unfolds from there.
“Killing Them Softly” is brutal, intense and dark. There is nothing “Soft” about the movie. “Killing Them Softly”; appears to have been shot on a small budget, but has some really nice special effects and camera angles.