MOVIE - The Girl in the Spider's Web

R

Wide/Limited release

Viewed Monday 11/19/18 at Carlisle in a recliner...by myself....
IMBd:  6.1/10

RT Critic: 41   Audience:  46
Critic's Consensus:  The Girl in the Spider's Web focuses on the action elements of its source material for a less complex -- and only sporadically effective -- franchise reboot.

Cag:  3/Liked it somewhat

Directed by Fede Alvarez

Columbia Pictures

Based on the book by Steig Larson/David Lagercrantz

Claire Foy

My comments:  There were so many improbabilities and unreasonable happenstances in this movie that it became more than ludicrous.  However, if you didn't think about all of them, it was and enjoyable couple of hours.....  The actress that played Lisbeth Salander did NOT do it for me.  At all.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Young computer hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist find themselves caught in a web of spies, cybercriminals and corrupt government officials.

MOVIE - Ready Player One

PG (2:20)

Wide release 3/29/18

Viewed on a Thursday off, 4/5/18 in Hanover at the RC Theater there - a 1:20 showing, I was the only one in the HUGE auditorium.
IMBd:  8/10

RT Critic: 74   Audience:  80
Critic's Consensus:  Ready Player One is a sweetly nostalgic thrill ride that neatly encapsulates Spielberg's strengths while adding another solidly engrossing adventure to his filmography.

Cag:  3.5

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Warner Brothers Pictures

Based on the book by Ernest Cline

My comments:  It was okay...entertaining....a LOT of battle scenes, the last one, when they're fighting for entrance to find the final key is painstakingly long.  Drove me a bit crazy.  It's a long movie.  But fun.  Not great.  Book was, of course, better....

RT/ IMDb Summary:  From filmmaker Steven Spielberg comes the science fiction action adventure Ready Player One, based on Ernest Cline's bestseller of the same name, which has become a worldwide phenomenon.The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse. But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance). When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger.

MOVIE - Tomb Raider

PG-13 (1:58)

Wide release 3/16/2018

Viewed March 16, 2018

RT Critic:  50  Audience:  56
Critic's Consensus:  Tomb Raider reboots the franchise with a more grounded approach and a star who's clearly more than up to the task -- neither of which are well served by an uninspired origin story.

Cag:  3/Liked it - good entertainment

Directed by Roar Uthaug

Warner Brothers Pictures

Alicia Vikander, Walton Goggins

My comments:  Totally stupid and unbelievable, but really fun to watch.  She would have been dead at least a dozen times, and at the very least not been able to get up andmove afterwards, never mind fight and run and blah blah blah.  It certainly kept me entertained, though.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Lara Croft is the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who vanished when she was scarcely a teen. Now a young woman of 21 without any real focus or purpose, Lara navigates the chaotic streets of trendy East London as a bike courier, barely making the rent, and takes college courses, rarely making it to class. Determined to forge her own path, she refuses to take the reins of her father's global empire just as staunchly as she rejects the idea that he's truly gone. Advised to face the facts and move forward after seven years without him, even Lara can't understand what drives her to finally solve the puzzle of his mysterious death. Going explicitly against his final wishes, she leaves everything she knows behind in search of her dad's last-known destination: a fabled tomb on a mythical island that might be somewhere off the coast of Japan. But her mission will not be an easy one; just reaching the island will be extremely treacherous. Suddenly, the stakes couldn't be higher for Lara, who--against the odds and armed with only her sharp mind, blind faith and inherently stubborn spirit--must learn to push herself beyond her limits as she journeys into the unknown. If she survives this perilous adventure, it could be the making of her, earning her the name tomb raider.

MOVIE - Black Panther

PG-13 (2:15)

Wide release 2/16/2018

Viewed March 11, 2018
IMBd: 7.4/10

RT Critic:  97  Audience:  79
Critic's Consensus:  Black Panther elevates superhero cinema to thrilling new heights while telling one of the MCU's most absorbing stories -- and introducing some of its most fully realized characters.

Cag: 4.5

Directed by Ryan Coogler

Marvel Studios

My comments: What an amazing set, costumes, sound - the music was just great.  It was a really good movie and a really interesting story, with usual major battle scenes; good versus bad throughout.  Black panther will make a nice addition to the Avenger's crew, it was nice to be able to see from whence he came!

RT/ IMDb Summary:  "Black Panther" follows T'Challa who, after the events of "Captain America: Civil War," returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to take his place as King. However, when an old enemy reappears on the radar, T'Challa's mettle as King and Black Panther is tested when he is drawn into a conflict that puts the entire fate of Wakanda and the world at risk.

MOVIE - Maze Runner 3: The Death Cure

PG-13 (1:54)

Wide 1/26/18

Viewed 2/11/18 at the Carlisle 8
IMBd: 6.7/10

RT Critic: 42  Audience:  66
Critic's Consensus:  Maze Runner: The Death Cure may offer closure to fans of the franchise, but for anyone who hasn't already been hooked, this bloated final installment is best left unseen.

Cag:  3/Liked it

Directed by Wes Ball

20th Century Fox

Based on the book by James Dashner

Walter Googins

My comments:   I read the book for and saw the first movie in this series.  Totally skipped the second, and this was the final segment of the trilogy.  Lots of bangs and booms, zombies, and Walter Googins as a half-zombie - the bad guy that will stop at nothing.  A surprise, supposedly dead, character from the past.  An especially long entertaining movie with an okay ending, though nothing spectacular.  A good way to spend the evening after a long weekend of work, in the dark, with a cold soda, feet up in a recliner, and the big screen in front of me.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Thomas leads some escaped Gladers on their final and most dangerous mission yet. To save their friends, they must break into the legendary Last City, a WCKD-controlled labyrinth that may turn out to be the deadliest maze of all. Anyone who makes it out alive will get answers to the questions that the Gladers have been asking since they arrived in the maze.

MOVIE - Mechanic: Resurrection

R (1:50)

Wide Release 8/25/16

Viewed Wed. 10.19.16 at Century Gateway

RT Critic:  26  Audience:  44
IMDb: 5.7/10
Critic's Consensus:  none!

Cag:  3.5 Definitely enjoyed it...

Directed by Dennis Gansel

Summit Entertainment

Jason Statham, Jessica Alba, Tommy Lee Jones

My comments:  This was a very entertaining bang bang, shoot-em-up, MacGyver-to-the-extreme movie with glorious locations/settings.  An extremely clever (and buff) retired hitman reluctantly goes on one last spree to make himself dead and gone forever, sot that he can live out the rest of his life in peace - in beautiful locales with beautiful Jessica Alba.  When you look past all the ridiculous killing (all bad guys, of course) the story was a blast.  Now I need to see the 1st Mechanic, filmed in 2011.

IMDb Summary:  Arthur Bishop thought he had put his murderous past behind him when his most formidable foe kidnaps the love of his life. Now he is forced to travel the globe to complete three impossible assassinations, and do what he does best, make them look like accidents.

MOVIE - The Accountant

R (2:08)

Wide 10.8.16

Viewed 10.17.16 at Park Place

RT Critic:  49  Audience:  87
Critic's Consensus:  The Accountant writes off a committed performance from Ben Affleck, leaving viewers with a scattershot action thriller beset by an array of ill-advised deductions.

Cag:  5/Loved it

Directed by Gavin O'Connor

Warner Brothers Pictures

Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J. T. Simmons, John Lithgow, Jeffrey Tambor

My comments:  I loved this movie.  Some of the critics didn't...probably because it was all wrapped up in a neat little bow, which is what I really loved about it.  Bill Dubuque, who wrote the screenplay, was brilliant.  He took a number of seemingly different vignettes and wove them together to make one story.  He must have needed a wall to map it out!  Spectacular storytelling!   Yup, violence, and killing...but sweetness and humor and a grand mystery as well. And Asberger's.  And love, although it definitely wasn't a love story per se.  Top it off with small roles for both John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor (and fantastic parts for Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, and J. T. Simmons) and this became a real winner for me...one of my favorites so far this year!

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Christian Wolff is a math savant with more affinity for numbers than people. Behind the cover of a small-town CPA office, he works as a freelance accountant for some of the world's most dangerous criminal organizations. With the Treasury Department's Crime Enforcement Division, run by Ray King, starting to close in, Christian takes on a legitimate client: a state-of-the-art robotics company where an accounting clerk has discovered a discrepancy involving millions of dollars. But as Christian uncooks the books and gets closer to the truth, it is the body count that starts to rise.

MOVIE - Jupiter Ascending

PG-13 (2:05)

Wide release 2/6/15

Viewed date at Roadhouse with Cyra on Friday, 2/6/2015

RT Critic: 22   Audience:   51

Cag:  1.5/Didn't like it, but it wasn't quite gag-worthy

Directed by Lana Wochowski & Andy Lochowski (who also wrote it)

Warner Borthers

Action/Adventure/ SciFi

Actors: Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum

My comments:  Yuck.  I love a good sci-fi, but this sure wasn't a good one.  Lots of whizzing around in outer space, careening this way and that, explosions, light shows...but all without being able to tell what was going on, lots of plot "stuff" you had to guess at...but lots and lots and LOTS of really great ears.  Yup, ears.  All the space aliens had different weird ears, and I loved 'em all!

RT Summary: From the streets of Chicago to the far-flung galaxies whirling through space, "Jupiter Ascending" tells the story of Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis), who was born under a night sky, with signs predicting she was destined for great things. Now grown, Jupiter dreams of the stars but wakes up to the cold reality of a job cleaning other people's houses and an endless run of bad breaks. Only when Caine (Channing Tatum), a genetically engineered ex-military hunter, arrives on Earth to track her down does Jupiter begin to glimpse the fate that has been waiting for her all along-her genetic signature marks her as next in line for an extraordinary inheritance that could alter the balance of the cosmos.

MOVIE - Guardians of the Galaxy

PG-13 (2:01)

5/1/14 Wide release

Viewed at ElCon with Sheila

RT Critic:  90  Audience:   94

Cag: 3/Liked it

Directed by James Gunn

Walt Disney Pictures

Chris Pratt, Zoe Zaldana, 

My comments:  I only went because everyone said this was a surprisingly good movie.  It was.

RT Summary:  An action-packed, epic space adventure, Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits-Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand-with the galaxy's fate in the balance. 

MOVIE - 2 Guns

R (1:49)

Wide release 8/2/13

saw at ElCon with Sheila on 8-8-13

RT Critic: 64 Audience: 75

Cag: 3/liked it 

Directed by Baltasar Kormakur

Universal Pictures

Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg

Fandango summary:  For the past year, DEA agent Bobby Trench (Denzel Washington) and U.S. Navy intelligence officer Marcus Stigman (Mark Wahlberg) have been working under cover as members of a narcotics syndicate. The twist: Neither man knows that the other is an undercover agent. When their attempt to infiltrate a Mexican drug cartel and recover millions goes haywire, the men are disavowed by their superiors. Trench and Stigman must go on the run lest they wind up in jail or in a grave.

My comments  2 Guns is the type of movie you go to just to get away from it all.  The two main actors are always fun to watch, and together they do a really great job - they're lots of fun to watch - always!  This one reminds me of something Shakespeare might have done with one of his comedies.

Movie - Jack Reacher

PG-13 (2:10)

Wide release 12/21/12

went on Saturday, Dec. 22nd to the Ellsworth Theater with Brian

RT Critic: 60    Audience: 75

cag: 3.5 (Very entertaining)

based on the series written by Lee Child

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Paramount Pictures

Tom Cruise,  Robert Duval

Rotten Tomatoes synopsis:

MOVIE INFO

Six shots. Five dead. One heartland city thrown into a state of terror. But within hours the cops have it solved: a slam-dunk case. Except for one thing. The accused man says: You got the wrong guy. Then he says: Get Reacher for me. And sure enough, ex-military investigator Jack Reacher is coming. He knows this shooter-a trained military sniper who never should have missed a shot. Reacher is certain something is not right-and soon the slam-dunk case explodes. Now Reacher is teamed with a beautiful young defense lawyer, moving closer to the unseen enemy who is pulling the strings. Reacher knows that no two opponents are created equal. This one has come to the heartland from his own kind of hell. And Reacher knows that the only way to take him down is to match his ruthlessness and cunning-and then beat him shot for shot. --

Thoughts:  It was fun to go with Brian, although the theater was FREEZING.  If I didn't KNOW that part of Jack Reacher's appeal is that he's something like six-foot-five I would have been quite pleased with Tom Cruise's depiction of Reacher, but I couldn't get Cruise's under-six-foot stature out of my head.  The antagonist is a ruthless bad guy, an Reacher is not going to let him get away with it.  Very entertaining movie, especially if you're any sort of fan of the Lee Child books.

Movie - Skyfall

PG-13 (2:25)

Wide Release 11/9/2012

saw with Sheila at El Con

RT Critic: 92    Audience: 88

cag:  2/It was OKAY

Director: Sam Mendes

MGM

Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem

Nope, this one just didn't do it for me.  Why are my views so different from others? The movie seemed to go on and on and on....a little bit of humor but not enough, not even the most interesting storyline....I'm not convinced that Daniel Criag makes a good Bond, though Jaier Bardem was super.....

Movie - The Bourne Legacy

PG-13 (2:15)

Wide release Aug. 12, 2012
on DVD Dec. 11, 2011

saw it at Crossroads cheapie theater

RT Critic: 56    Audience:  56

cag: 4.5 Liked it a whole lot

Directed by Tony Gilroy

Universal Pictures

Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Albert Finney

IMDb Summary:
The events in this movie takes place around the same time that the events in The Bourne Ultimatum. When a British reporter was writing an expose about Black Ops operations Treadstone and Black Briar, and the ones responsible for them are concerned. And when Jason Bourne, former Treadstone operative got the file on Treadstone and Black Briar and gave it to Pamela Landy who them passed it to the media. When the men behind Treadstone and Black Briar learn of this, they're concerned how this will affects other ops they have. They decide it's best to shut down all ops and make sure make everyone involved disappears. They try to take out Aaron Cross who is part of another op called Outcome, but he manages to survive. He then seeks out Dr. Marta Shearing who worked on him when he began. It seems part of the program is for all subjects to take medications but he has run out, which is why he seeks her. But someone tries to kill her. He saves her and she tells him, he should have stopped taking the meds long ago. They go to Manila so that she can help him. Later the men behind Outcome learn that Cross and Shearing are still alive.

Thoughts:  Action-packed, included great, thoughtful acting by Renner. 

MOVIE - The Avengers

actually:  Marvel's The Avengers
Definitely an action-packed flick
Wider release May 4, 2012
Viewed Saturday, June 2, 2012 at El Con - by myself
PG-13 (2:22) The last half hour lasted a looooong time....
RT:  93 Critic, 96 Audience
cag:   Liked it/3
Director:  Josh Whedon
Walt Disney Studios

Bring together Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and head-of-the-world's-peace-keeping forces Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), pit them against evil, power-hungry Loki (terrifically acted by Tom Higglesworth) and you've got lots of brawn, plenty of brains, and quite a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor as well as a rollicking, action-packed adventure.Throw in Clark Gregg as non-super-hero-human Agent Coulson and even a one-minute comedic spot by Harry Dean Stanton as a security guard with Bruce Banner/The Hulk and you've got wonderful actors and pleasant surprises. The story builds really well, showing first the need for super-hero help, then building the Avengers team, trying this and that to thwart the bad guys, then the full-out battle.  I loved the first 3/4, found the last 1/4's fighting to be tedious, but that was, I guess, to be expected.  It was pure entertainment.  Robert Downey, Jr. continues to be my hero, and I was quite enthralled by the acting of Tom Higglesworth. His smurky, mocking grin was so right-on! (It also  didn't help the enjoyment of the end of the movie when the 100-oz. of liquid I'd consumed just prior to and during the first 3/4 of the flick was starting to become a bit excruciating.....)

MOVIE - Safe House

Released 2-10-12
R (1:55)
RT Critics 54 Audience 69
My rating:  2.5 (It was decent)
Director:  Daniel Espinosa
Universal Pictures

Ryan Reynolds, Denzel Washington

Matt Weston (Reynolds) sits day after day in a Safe House in Cape Town, South Africa, in an in-between CIA position, waiting for something to happen before he is fully employed in the manner that he wants.  Tobin Frost (Washington) is an ex-intelligence officer who's been "wanted" for over ten years.  There are mercenaries after Frost, as well as the government, as the two have to become reluctant partners...with Frost always seeming to be devilishly untrustable.

MOVIE - Source Code

Super!
Released 4-1-11
PG-13 (1:27)
Wed. 6-8-11 at Crossroads, alone
RT:  91, I'll go with the same
Director:  Duncan Jones

JAKE GYLLENHAAL (need I say more?) Michelle Monaghan, Vra Farmiga

Great movie.  Air Force Captain Cotter Stevens wakes up on a train heading for Chicago, sitting across from a young woman who keeps calling him Sean.  As the train approaches the city, it blows up.  Stevens "comes to" in some sort of a dark, cold, weird underground holding room.  He can't remember anything that's happened to him, but the woman who he can see and talk to on a screen tells him, slowly, what he needs to know.  He has 8 minutes to keep returning to the same situation to discover information about the bombing so he can stop the next one that is going to take place. Most of this is shown in the first fifteen minutes, its the roller coaster ride after that  that I won't retell.  It's an interesting story, and if you can put aside wondering how being able to go back and forth works, you'll progress right through the movie understanding almost everything that happens.

Gyllenhall is his usual wonderful, handsome, athletic, smart self.  Michelle Monaghan as the girl on the train and Vera Farmiga as the person on the other side of the screen are both very good.  It's the story that works here, at least for me....it's a good one!

MOVIE - I Am Number Four

So kept my attention - but of course, the book was better
Released 2-18-11 (DVD 5-24-11)
PG-13 (1:44)
2/22/22 at El Con, alone
RT: 30 cag: 80
Director: D. J. Caruso
from the book by Pitticus Lore
Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, Dianna Agron (from Glee)

First of all, I couldn't wait to see Timothy Olyphant play the "dad" figure, Henry. However, it didn't work. I couldn't see the strong, loving bond that I felt so strongly in the book. Alexc Pettyfer is a doll, but wasn't the John I had in my mind. diaan Agron played the Sarah really well, and the bad guys were perfect.

To remind myself of the storyline, I can just read my book review. There's a huge opening for a second installment, but I haven't read anywhere about another. I'll have to do some research.