Reviews

Let's start out with the good. Denzel. C'mon, he's always good and in this he's still got it. Funny, hard-hitting, and a seemingly untouchable leading man.

The bad speaks for itself if you end up watching it. The pacing is slow in the first half, the action is barely there, and it seemed even more unnecessary than the second Equalizer film.

Let's just say you're writing a script and you introduce a large plot point that could severely cripple the lead character. Would you:

A. Bring it up later to challenge the protagonist in a confrontation.

B. Never address it again.

You can probably guess what the screenwriter ended up choosing.

McCall is good and in this he's too good. Not once was he challenged. He gives two beatdowns in the second half of the film without a scratch to himself. It's boring to watch and even harder to watch because the first half of the film was already a snooze.

It's sort of like a non-film that prides itself in taking a crap on good times. The worst part is I paid to see it. I paid to get crapped on and I don't even usually like that sort of thing. Leave it to the people on Craigslist, they're the real professionals. Antoine Fuqua and his team, who are usually pretty good, decided that hiring professional wet workers and whatever their crap equivalent is, was too much of a bother.

Let's keep this quick and simple because if you're seeing this movie you probably can't focus on anything for long periods of time.

1. Evil corporation - CHECK

2. Three massive sharks - CHECK

3. A giant squid - CHECK

4. Jason Statham literally jumping a shark - CHECK

5. One-liners straight out of an 80's movie - CHECK

The regular film critics might say this is a mess but I think a serious giant shark movie just wouldn't work. I don't think Hollywood is giving up, I think they're giving in to what the people want. If you asked me what movie I think should win a razzie and still be worth your time, it's this one.

The film stars Ansel Elgort as the titular character in deep with some undesirables from the criminal underworld. To pay them back, he must use his driving skills to help with a number of heists. During all this, he becomes smitten with a waitress (Lily James) who makes him feel like he's more than just a criminal. He then decides to try and escape his life of crime, but he soon realizes that it's much easier said than done.

I must say, Edgar Wright did a fantastic job with this film. All the music fit so well in their respective scenes, combined with the great acting all around to make one of the most entertaining films I've seen in a long time.

Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey, and Eiza González did their parts well and portrayed convincing mentally unstable killers. This is the first time Wright has worked with this much star power, specifically American star power. The actors played well off of each other, especially in scenes involving comedy where they nailed the punchlines.

The music was good, not all of it recognizable by the average viewer, but effective nonetheless. Supposedly Edgar Wright based the whole movie idea around the Baby Driver song by Simon & Garfunkel, which is an accomplishment all on it's own.

Baby Driver was paced well, was never boring, and made me want sit back down in my seat and watch it over again.

I wanted to keep this review kind of short, but I did want to give you enough information to hopefully convince you to go out and see this film if you get the chance.

My suggestion: Do yourself a favor, go enjoy a night out at the movies and go see Baby Driver!

Seen at a advance screening in Roseville, Minnesota.

Some people go to the movies to be wowed by the superb acting, heart wrenching and well written story, and overall solid production... THIS has good effects? The acting in this film isn't bad, but it definitely won't win any awards for it.

The story has characters Bill Randa (John Goodman) and Houston Brooks (Corey Hawkins) piggybacking on an expedition to an uncharted island to test their "hollow earth" theory. Tom Hiddleston plays a tracker, Brie Larson plays a photographer, and John C. Reilly plays a surprisingly funny WW2 vet marooned on Skull Island.

The film takes place in 1973 and loves to remind you with CCR and old technology as if it was a hundred years ago. Kong: Skull Island pays homage to Apocalypse Now quite frequently even though it seems a bit excessive at times.

Kong looked good, almost all the creatures looked cool and all the fights between them looked really good, especially in IMAX 3D. Some of the green screen effects, like backgrounds behind characters, were distractingly bad. Ultimately, you get some great stuff out of all the effects if you're not looking too closely.

The characters are more hollow than the earth (according to the film's characters themselves), the story is mediocre, but the effects reign king in this film adaptation.

My suggestion: See it! it's a blockbuster meant to fill seats, not win awards. Take it for what it is.

Seen at an advanced IMAX 3D screening in Minneapolis.

I wasn't familiar with Dash Shaw's work before I saw this movie, he was a comic book artist or graphic novelist, I'm not quite sure. His unique visual style propelled the story and characters to new heights, complementing each together very well to provide a wholly different kind of viewing experience.

The basic story has our main character Dash (Jason Schwartzman) try and save is school from sinking into the sea after he found out that it wasn't up to code. An oversight by the principal causes the school to fall apart and becomes a fight for survival full of quips and a sincere look at the lives of teenagers in general.

A great voice lead by Jason Schwartzman, Lena Dunham, Reggie Watts, Maya Rudolph, and a hilarious Susan Sarandon as Lunch Lady Lorraine.

My only issue was sometimes the animation got out of control; what I mean is that it became hard to follow and sort of jarring to watch towards the end.

The combination of great voice acting, a well written script, and a unique animation style make this a must see!

My suggestion: Check it out, watch it for the visuals and for a movie that will make you laugh throughout it's entirety.

Seen at TIFF 2016.

Visually, this film is a masterpiece and the shots are breathtaking. The castle where most of the movie takes place is a great setting, it's a real place in Germany called Castle Hohenzollern. Every shot is a piece of art, framed and filmed with the utmost respect for the craft.

The story is an interesting one, you'll be thinking to yourself for most of the movie, what is the cure for wellness? They do give an answer to it later in the movie. The plot has a man working for a big finance company out to retrieve the CEO of the company from a wellness center in the Swiss Alps. Along the way, he meets some interesting characters and tries to figure out what exactly they're trying to cure up there on the mountain.

The only thing I thought the film could have done better was with the twist, it could be seen from a mile away if you were watching the previous part of the movie with even a little bit of concentrated focus.

My suggestion: See it! this film is the reason people go to the movies, to be entertained to the extent of leaving a lasting impression.

Marc Forster has delivered some decent big budget films in the past, like World War Z and Quantum of Solace, but All I See is You is smaller and a less epic offering. The story is an interesting one, a woman who has been blind for a long time has a procedure to get her eyesight back. The recovery period is long but ultimately successful in helping her gain her eyesight back, but she slowly starts realizing her life is not at all what it seems.

I thought the cast did a fine job, Blake Lively played a blind woman quite well and Jason Clarke played her supportive yet angry husband.

The problem with this movie is that nothing really happens, it tried to hit the viewer with a couple twists but those ultimately fell flat. Another problem was that it tried to use sex to further the narrative but that really just got in the way and felt forced. Maybe Marc was trying to distract the viewer with sex so they don't realize his movie is boring. A sort of plus was the handful of cool visuals that were scattered throughout the film, I won't tell you what they are because I don't really know how to explain them and if you choose to see it, I don't want to give anything away.

My Suggestion: See it if you like Blake Lively or Jason Clarke enough to sit through a boring movie starring them.

Seen at TIFF 2016.

I was excited to see this movie after reading the synopsis a couple of days before the screening. As the title of this summary suggests, there is a lot of walking in this movie. The story starts out semi promising with you wondering what happened to the earth but ends up being the walkiest and least talkiest movie I've ever seen. I know those aren't words but goddammit they get my point across.

The main actress is forgettable, Jason Momoa, Jim Carrey, and Keanu Reeves were miscast or maybe it was just the bad script? Possibly both? Back to the walking part, with minimal dialogue and no action whatsoever, this movie becomes a student film really quick. What I mean is that they don't cut out all the walking around and other useless scenes that should have obviously been taken out.

There isn't really a story, it's sort of tried to take elements from Mad Max and other post apocalyptic films that are much better than it and hope the audience notices and doesn't care or doesn't notice at all.

My suggestion: don't see it unless you want to be bored to death.

Seen at TIFF 2016.

From what I actually did pick up on from the movie, the story was pretty interesting and Riz Ahmed did a pretty good job. It was incredibly hard to understand what everybody in the movie were saying, the background noise was too loud, the music was too loud, and the heavy accents at low volumes are hard to understand if you're not familiar with how they speak in England. I don't think they need to change their voices or anything, it's how they speak and I totally respect that, it was just hard to understand for me and most of the audience at my screening.

My suggestion: watch it with subtitles when it releases on Blu-Ray and DVD.

Seen at TIFF 2016.

It was marketed as an eco-thriller with some big names involved; Michael Shannon and Werner Herzog being the two. That's where the good things behind the movie stop. It had some of the worst dialogue and acting I've ever witnessed, forced and painful.

The story was almost non-existent as it was mostly just shots of the salt flats to try and detract away from the literal lack of basic movie elements. Werner Herzog should be ashamed and probably stick to documentary filmmaking.

I booed at the end of the screening, Werner was there in the front row and I hope he heard me.

My suggestion: STAY AWAY from this film, it is a painful viewing experience.

Seen at TIFF 2016.