May Movies
By: Kyle Davidson
Far from the Madding Crowd I just learned about this story while reading about this movie. Apparently it’s pretty old because it has been made a few times - 1998, 1967 and 1915. That last date gave me the clue that this was an old story. It is the story of a woman with a unique name falling for several men with not so unique namesthat is portrayed by an actress with a not so unique name and several actors with unique names. We have Bathsheba Everdene falling for Gabriel Oak, a sheep farmer played by Matthias Shoenaerts, Frank Tony, a Sergeant played by Tom Sturridge and William Boldwood, a rich guy played by Michael Sheen (okay that’s not too crazy but that first one is a doozy). Ms. Everdene attracts these different suitors and learns about love and relationships and overcoming hardships. It’s probably another on a long list of classic tales I have not heard of… I need to read more.
Hot Pursuit Sofia Vergara has been one of the many highlights on Modern Family. She’s hilarious, but aside from small roles, has not really had a feature film. Reese Witherspoon, fresh off her Academy Award nominated film, Wild, is on top of her game right now. Putting these two together is some Hollywood producer’s idea to make easy money, but I like the two of them so I’m hoping for the best, silly outcome. Vergara is a drug dealer’s widow and Witherspoon is a cop trying to protect her from those out to kill her. It is tried territory for sure, but I’ll always give an action comedy a shot.
Mad Max: Fury Road It has been 30 years since Max Rockatansky (full name) escaped Tina Turner’s clutches in Thunderdome but he (the character, not Mel Gibson) and the director of the original Mad Max trilogy are back! What have they been doing for the past 30 years? Well the director, George Miller, made a few films, got some Academy Award nominations and even won one! He was nominated for Babe, yes that Babe, and he won for Happy Feet, yes that Happy Feet. Max on the other hand, well I don’t know what he’s been up to since this is apparently more of a reboot. I figure we should just go into this with a basic understanding that Max is a man with little to lose, trying to do some good in a barren wasteland and see where the film takes us. I for one am excited.
Pitch Perfect 2I love the first film. It is hilarious and the tunes are great. The whole crew from the first is back to do some a cappella singing and take on another team. This time it’s not just the leading team at their college. This time they’re fighting for America! Elizabeth Banks, who had a small role and produced the first one, has now stepped into the shoes of director in her first feature film. Hopefully she’ll have a bigger role because she was hilarious in the first.
Tomorrowland A very intelligent teenager and a former boy genius, who has given up on his pursuit of whatever made him a boy genius, go on a journey to find a place that exists between time and space that we on Earth are not supposed to know about. Somehow the two of them do know about it and they go on a journey in search of it. Sounds crazy right? Well someone at Disney didn’t think so, because visually they put a lot of money into this and got George Clooney as the former genius. This film looks pretty wild but I haven’t gotten a lot of information from the trailers, other than it looks good so I’m hoping for some surprises.
Spy I’ve already mentioned my appreciation for action comedies, but let me just say, after The Heat I feel that we turned a new corner. Fortunately with Spy, we continue to turn that corner. The same writer/ director takes the reigns and Melissa McCarthy is the lead again, which is a great thing. She plays a C.I.A. analyst who is outside of the action, but when a situation arises that forces her to go undercover, she leaps at the opportunity. With costars like Rose Byrne, Jude Law, Jason Statham and many others, I could not be happier.
San Andreas I’m always on the fence for disaster films. Although I see most of the big ones, it seems the market has become oversaturated with them and Americans have begun losing interest in robots and monsters causing destruction. But are we so tired of these films that we don’t want to see Dwayne Johnson try to survive during a disaster? Well I’m not - I’ll see it. In this film he plays a search and rescue helicopter pilot during a massive earthquake in California. Since he’s already in the helicopter, why doesn’t he just fly out of there and go to a safe place? Because he’s The Rock that’s why! And because his estranged daughter is somewhere amongst the rubble so he has to go save her.
Insidious: Chapter 3 Insidious 1 and 2 are really one big movie. It’s very cool. Moments that occur in the first one are explained in the second one and it works really well. They’re both very scary and the world they created was very interesting. So what’s next? Well they followed the formula of many other series and made a prequel. Several of the actors have aged though, so I can’t tell when this story takes place. It can’t be a period piece so I’m guessing it takes place a few years before the first film. Hopefully it all connects but it will definitely provide a few good scares.
Aloha Cameron Crowe has only made a few films, but some of them are pretty darn big movies, like Almost Famous, Say Anything and Jerry Maguire. You might not know the name but you’ve probably heard of some of these movies. His latest film could be a good film, who knows, but it sure does have a lot of people in it. The film stars Bradley Cooper as a military contractor who visits Hawaii, spends time with his old girlfriend played by Rachel McAdams and he also begins to fall for Emma Stone, who is in the Air Force. The film also features Bill Murray, Alec Baldwin, Danny McBride and John Krasinski. Crowe makes fun films with serious tones, which is the vibe I get from the trailer.
