August movies

Well, that was a fast summer!

In the 80's and 90's there were dozens of big Stephen King movies but lately they are few and far between (but I read King has this really cool clause that allows filmmakers to use his material on the cheap so there are LOADS of Stephen King based short films out there). It seems Hollywood felt some sort of King fatigue so we're being treated to two BIG King films this year. It is coming out in September but this month we have The Dark Tower to look forward to. The Gunslinger, Idris Elba, is a man from a broken and destroyed world who is searching for the Dark Tower before the Man in Black, Matthew McConaughey, destroys it and brings the end to all worlds. From what I understand this Tower connects many universes and in the King Universe, The Dark Tower connects all of his works. While I don't think we'll have Idris Elba gunning down killer clowns, possessed trucks, Jack Nicholson or bullied high school students I do believe there will be a few subtle references to this works throughout the film. This is a big deal for King fans, who may be disappointed that this film is different than the books, (but aren't they always?) but it does have support from King, who's no stranger to disowning film versions of his books (The Shining especially).

Until Hurt Locker came out it had been quite some time since anyone had heard of Katherine Bigelow. She had a few movies before and after Point Break but nothing major (though Strange Days and Near Dark are definitely worth a look). With Hurt Locker she revived her career, made Jeremy Renner a star and beat her ex-husband, James Cameron, for the Best Picture Oscar (even after he, supposedly, managed to up the Best Picture nominees from 5-10 just to get Avatar in the running). After that came Zero Dark Thirty, where she made the hunt for Bin Laden into an investigatory thriller with heavy focus on everything leading up to the raid. So it's been a few years and she's back with another movie based on true events. This time it's about the 1967 Detroit riots, specifically the events that unfolded at a Detroit hotel during that tumultuous time. Now Point Break, Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty had exciting and well shot action sequences, but I feel Bigelow and her crew excel at tension and this film looks very tense. 

There's a lot I miss about Blockbuster. One thing in particular - walking down the aisles and seeing recognizable actors on the cover of a movie I never heard of. Some of them were just a quick cash grab for the star and were so-so at best but some were pretty fun. The Hitman's Bodyguard looks like one of those fun movies. Starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson, this film would probably be at your local Redbox had the wonders of comic book movies not shot these two to a whole new level of stardom. When hitman Jackson has to testify at the International Court of Justice (I'm not sure that's a real thing) he is assigned the world’s best bodyguard, Reynolds. Judging by the trailer the two use profanity and bicker as much as they shoot at people. This looks like a fun goofy film and I'm glad they still make stuff like this. 

I'm always interested when an actor tries their hand at writing. It's even more interesting when it actually goes well. Taylor Sheridan was a character actor who had a few film roles and some arcs on Sons of Anarchy and Veronica Mars. Then after a 5 year hiatus from acting he came back as a screenwriter with the hit thriller Sicario (which I kinda liked) and then a year later Hell or High Water (which I really liked) and this year he's trying his hand at writing and directing with Wind River. Starring not one, not two, but three actors from the world of Marvel - Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlett Witch), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and Jon Bernthal (The Punisher) appear in this one. Olsen plays a young FBI agent sent to investigate a murder on a Native American reservation and needs help from the local game tracker, Renner. Judging from his past works things are going to get violent and twisty. 

The Conjuring is based on two real life paranormal investigators. That was their job. Whether you believe in ghosts and hauntings is up to you, but in this film universe it's all real. So is the killer doll, Annabelle, who got her own spinoff in 2014, and since a killer doll is just so dang scary and people wanted more, we now have Annabelle: Creation. I didn't see the first one but so far this one is getting some pretty good reviews and, honestly, I find killer dolls to be absolutely terrifying. This one seems to be a prequel to what was already a period piece, so I'm not even sure when this is set, but it's about a doll maker who, after losing a child, opens his house to a recently closed orphanage. And that's when the doll maker’s most cherished item, Annabelle, begins acting up. Creepy.

july movies

The 3rd rendition of Spider-Man! A new attacking human’s movie! A Christopher Nolan War movie! Another huge sci-fi adventure! An 80's set action flick! A movie that will make you wonder if there are any original ideas left in the world of film!

If you ever wonder why producers are so quick to reboot/remake superhero movies here is my uneducated, unofficial answer: with the right team, cast and marketing every superhero film has the chance to make a billion dollars. How could you pass up that opportunity? Even if the last Spider-Man film was a critical failure and a domestic financial disappointment (made $202 mil, cost 200 mil) it's still worth making another one to try and hit that billion mark. Fortunately Sony, who owns the rights to Spider-Man, saw the writing on the wall, made a deal with Marvel and we the viewer get Spider-Man: Homecoming. After our friendly neighborhood webslinger popped up in Captain America: Civil War, he has to go back to high school. He fought alongside and against some of the world’s most powerful superheroes and he's supposed to just go back to school? Well he has a bit of a problem with that so when a weapons developer (Michael Keaton!!!) gets his hands on alien weaponry and starts messing up NYC, Spidey comes to help. He's still a kid though, and needs help from Tony Stark/Iron Man to save the day. The director has made some small thrillers and this is a big next step. He also worked for The Onion and the writing team has worked on several big comedies and TV shows. The cast also has its fair share of funny people so while the action is why people are going to come, I'm pretty sure the sense of humor will be pretty great too.

The original Planet of the Apes series went in a very different direction than this new series. It involved nuclear weapons and time travel. We're not there in this current series, not yet anyway. After Dawn and Rise, we are now at the War of the Planet of the Apes. The words 'of the' are very popular among movie titles and, barring the wordy titles of the Lord of the Rings movies, this is one of the only other time it's shown up two times, But I'm sure some satire will come out called 'Silence of the Pirates of the Shaun of the Raiders of the Return of the Masters of the Clash of the Apes’. But for now let's see how the War turns out. It's been years since James Franco and Tyler Labine wiped out most of human civilization (watch the first movie) and now the survivors are in a constant battle to remain on top of the food chain. There's some human-ape sympathy but for the most part there is tension and fighting between the two. Woody Harrelson (who is just so darn good at being very dramatic, very funny and very intense when he wants to be) is the leader of an army of humans leading the charge against the apes and their leader Caesar, played once again by Andy Serkis. These films tend to be lots of drama that leads up to a big action finale and being that this is called War, I figure this one won't be different - but it'll probably be exciting.

Christopher Nolan has made films about disorders, magic, space travel, dreams and three movies featuring a character named Batman. After nearly two decades and many hit films he finally has his first war film, Dunkirk. When Allied Forces found themselves surrounded by German forces, they had a very intense battle ahead of them. The battle was fought on land, sea and the air and rather than focusing on one group, Nolan is focusing on all fronts. Tom Hardy will be the pilot we see fight in the air, Mark Rylance will play a civilian who ventures into the battle to help evacuate soldiers and Harry Styles, that kid from One Direction, will play a young soldier on the ground. Nolan loves film and loved practical effects, at one point he wanted to destroy an actual WW2 plane for a scene. This film will most likely be exciting, moving and look great.

The Fifth Element is one of my favorite movies. My wife and I love it so much we named our dog after the lead character. I'm a huge fan and I was very excited when the director, Luc Besson, decided to make another big space adventure. Between Guardians and Star Wars, I'm afraid that American audiences are all spaced out but I still have high hopes, quality wise, for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Valerian, Dane Dehaan, and Laureline,Cara Delevingne, are a pair of government agents sent to the planet of Alpha where representatives of all planets come together in harmony and work together for the better of the galaxy. So of course someone wants to ruin that and the pair must find out who before all is lost. Every movie should stand on its own, but I would be very happy if Fifth Element heavily influenced Valerian and judging by the trailers, that looks to be the case. There are flying vehicles, musical numbers, action galore and weird looking creatures. I can't wait.

Brad Pitt has done a few action movies and we've seen him fight before, well it was all an illusion! Thanks to his stuntman, David Leitch, he has never been in any actual danger of getting punched by Ed Norton. After years of taking Pitt’s punches, he joined forces with the guy that takes Keanu Reeves punches and the two made John Wick - and the action world rejoiced. Leitch was uncredited, probably due to SAG rules, but now he is the sole and credited director for the new Charlize Theron action film Atomic Blonde - and I'm pretty sure the action world will rejoice again. Theron's action career has really taken off since Mad Max: Fury Road, where she totally stole the show. She didn't have much to do in F8 of the Furious but, judging by the trailer, she will have a lot to do in this 80's Berlin Cold War action thriller where she goes undercover with James McAvoy to save the lives of fellow agents. The story could be thin, or it could be complex, but it's the action I'm looking forward to. The key here is long-take action scenes, the days of quick cut
Jason Bourne action is over. John Goodman also appears, he's usually entertaining especially in an action film that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Sir Patrick Stewart is a respected actor of film, television and stage. In The Emoji Movie he'll be voicing the Poop emoji because why the heck not? The film posits that in our phones exists a world called Textopolis where all of the Emoji's live waiting to be used. Looking through the emoji's on my phone I think I've used like 2% of them. I mostly stick with the smiley two handed wave, beer and heart eyes emojis, so my Textopolis would be more of a ghost town. In this town lives Gene, an emoji of many expressions. Gene, voiced by T.J. Miller, wants to be normal and only have one expression like all of the rest. Along with his best friend Hi-5 (who would probably be everyone's best friend) they travel through the apps on the phone to find a way to become one singular expression. I'm sure the producers didn't have to put up any of their own money, the movie was probably completely funded by all of the apps wanting to get in on the movie game. It worked for Angry Birds, after all.  Steven Wright is the Meh emoji. Now that's perfect casting.

june movies

Happy June all! We have a few superhero movies, plenty of comedies and a new movie from the creator of Shaun of the Dead which I'm very much so looking forward to.

The best part of Batman v Superman was when Wonder Woman showed up. Her entrance music played as she helped the bickering heroes put an end to their fight and take on a bigger foe. By the time she appeared many already knew that her solo film would be coming soon. Diana Prince a.k.a Wonder Woman is played by Gal Gadot, who was previously a member of the Fast and Furious family. Her origin story takes place long before the events in BvS during World War 1. Chris Pine plays an American pilot who crash lands near her isolated island home where she was raised and tells her people about the war. She feels she can help and joins him on a quest to put and end to the fighting. I'm a bit wary because it's from the DC camp who just can't seem to make a coherent or entertaining movie but I like the cast and the action looks great. Plus this is starring directed by a woman, that's big for the action genre.

I'm not sure if all schools had this but I remember once a year we had book fairs. For a week books would arrive at my grammar school library and class by class we would rush in and buy books that looked cool or were part of a series we loved. I would always go for Goosebumps but my younger brothers would always go for Captain Underpants. It was the story of two young students who hypnotized their principal into becoming the titular hero and it seems that Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie retains that ridiculous premise. The title and premise seems like it would attract younger viewers, especially if the books are still popular, and turn away adults so hopefully there's some stuff to entertain the older viewers. The writer wrote several R-rated comedies but he also wrote the recent Muppet movies so he might have a decent grasp on balancing comedy for adults and kids

Universal Pictures sees the writing on the wall, the Fast and Furious franchise can only make billions for so long (even as a true fan I see this running out of gas within a decade, especially if The Rock becomes president in 2020). They need to find a way to continue making their precious billions so one day an exec looked in the 'stuff we own the rights to' closet at Universal and realized that they still owned the rights to a bunch of monster movies. The Marvel extended universe is clearly still doing well so why not make a Universal Monster extended universe? It's a stretch but I'm pretty sure that's exactly how it happened. A few years ago they tried with Dracula Untold and it did okay but it did not kick start interest in a Monster Universe so they're trying again with The Mummy. Tom Cruise plays a soldier who uncovers an old tomb, awakens a mummy and meets Mr. Hyde, played by Russell Crowe. The films to follow are supposed to feature Johnny Depp as The Invisible Man and Javier Bardem as the monster in Frankenstein. I don't know how much people want for a summer blockbuster monster franchise but I'm interested.

I don't usually go in for movies about dogs. THEY NEVER END WELL. We get it Hollywood, our pets will die someday but for the love of God can't they survive 90 minutes of screen time?! This is why I am wary about Megan Leavey, a true story about a solider and her dog. Cue water works. Kate Mara plays Leavey, a Marine sent to work with the K9 unit where she meets and bonds with Rex, an aggressive bomb sniffing dog. The two join forces and go on over 100 missions, taking care of explosives and saving a lot of lives in the process. I looked up the true story and there's a happy/sad ending here, so ready the Kleenex.

The first Cars movies is one of my favorite Pixar movies. It has a good message about slowing down and appreciating life rather than racing through it just to look the best, at least that was my take away, and it had some solid voice work by late greats Paul Newman and George Carlin. I didn't see the second one, I had heard it was the worst Pixar movie but that bar is hard to judge because as far as I'm concerned they're all pretty great plus it's a James Bond spoof so I imagine I'd like it. Cars 3 seems to completely go back to it's racing roots and feature the Owen Wilson voiced Lighting McQueen trying to prove that he's still got what it takes and is a better racer than these younger, faster cars. Sounds like any other classic sports tale but it's Pixar so I'm on board.

With a title like Transformers: The Last Knight you might not be surprised to find that part of this movie will feature King Arthur and have Transformers swinging swords during Game of Thrones like battle sequences. Now as far as I knew Transformers were just supposed to transform into cars and trucks. There would be no place for them in medieval times. I guess they'd transform into like a dragon or something? That might actually be cool. Hopefully that happens. So like all other Transformer movies this one has all sorts of action excitement and no shortage of 'why are they in this' actors appearing like Anthony Hopkins, Stanley Tucci and John Turturro (who's actually in a few of these movies). I'm not even sure if they 'transform' any more. The old theme song went, "Transformers-robots in disguise!" but if they're already known to the public, what are they hiding from? Why are they transforming? What are they hiding from? These are the kind of questions that will not be answered in this newest movie.

I'm pretty big into podcasts, I'm still surprised their not a huge medium. If you are a person and you like a thing then there is a podcast matched to that thing you like. Look it up, I'm serious. One of my favorite podcasts was called The Indoor Kids, it was hosted by Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon and the name was taken from a line from Wet Hot American Summer, which was partially written by Michael Showalter. So that might be why he was chosen to direct The Big Sick which is based on the true story of how Kumail and Emily met. His parents wanted him to have an arranged marriage but he met her and she got sick and stayed by her side. In the film he becomes close with her parents, played by Ray Romano and Holly Hunter. It seems a lot of the entertainment comes from their interactions. This looks like the smaller scale, charming comedy that I wouldn't mind going out of my way to see.

Nearly 20 years ago a movie came out called Very Bad Things. It was supposed to be a darkly funny movie about a bachelor party gone terribly wrong. I found it to be disturbing and not all that funny but to be fair I haven't revisited it in over a decade. The bachelor party trope became popular again with the Hangover movies and their hi-jinks got pretty over the top but never got disturbing, just annoying, gross and repetitive. Rough Night looks to combine the fun of Hangover with the plot of Very Bad Things. Scarlett Johannson, Zoe Kravits, Kate McKinnon, Iliana Glazer and Jillian Bell play a group of friends out for a bachelorette party. Things take a turn and they spend the rest of the weekend trying to hide a dead body ( there might be some Weekend at Bernie's like humor). With McKinnon, Bell and Glazer this is sure to have a good amount of laughs.

DTV (direct to video) films are something we're all familiar with. They're the movies that you see posted onto the board of your local Redbox (it breaks my heart not be able to say ' local Blockbuster') that have a semi or very recognizable actor in a movie you've never heard of because either it's not that good or it was made on the cheap and didn't get much press. 47 Meters Down starring Mandy Moore was supposed to be one of these movies but somehow it managed to escape the realm of DTV and become a summer release. It's about two vacationers stuck on the ocean floor in a shark tank, their air is going fast and the sharks are getting closer. It sounds like the perfect Thursday night SyFy movie of the week but it'll be released to cinemas and might be a minor hit.

I haven't seen either Despicable Me movie or Minions but people seem to enjoy them so they're probably worth a watch. The series follows the exploits of a villain named Gru, from what I understand he adopts 3 adorable kids and has a group of talking bananas and tries to pull of crimes in comically unsuccessful ways. I'm not sure if anyone has tried to stop him or if a long the way he becomes a good guy but either way we are now up to Despicable Me 3 where Gru meets his long lost brother Dru. This, to me, sounds like it will be 2 hours of Steve Carell talking to himself as he voices both Gru and Dru. To mix things up they've cast Trey Paker of South Park and Book of Mormon fame as the main villain. This will be the first non South Park film he'll appear in over a decade and one of the first leading roles in a film he didn't also write in over 20 years. I'm more curious as to why he took the gig than the film itself but, like I said, people seem to enjoy these so I have to be missing out on something.

Amy Poehler, Will Ferrell and Jason Mantzoukas headlining an R-rated comedy about parents hosting a illegal casino sure sounds like a fun time to me. Written and directed by the writer of both Neighbors films The House follows a couple, Ferrell and Poehler, who lose their daughters college tuition money and with the help of a friend, Mantzoukas, create an illegal underground casino. As with most casino related stories I'm sure things get out of control. I like the cast and thought the Neighbors movies were hilarious and kinda heartfelt too. Not sure if this one will be heartfelt at all but I imagine I'll be laughing.

Edgar Wright is a master of film making. After pretty much perfecting the zombie movie, cop movie, apocalypse movie and video game movie he's now taking on the 'one last job' movie. Each of these are tropes and each of these have been done by many different directors with varying results but he nails it every time. I feel that Baby Driver will be another home run. When a get away driver named Baby wants out of the game the crime boss he works for, Kevin Spacey, gives him one last job to pull off. This of course goes way wrong and he becomes targeted by the likes of Jamie Foxx and Jon Hamm. Now there's always something different about Wright's movies that make them stand out. In this one it's that Baby has a constant ringing in his ear from an accident years earlier, to drown it out he listens to music ALL THE TIME so there will be music going along with all of the car chases and gunfights and I am going to lose my mind. I already love this move. Needless to say, my expectations are high.

May movies

With the release of a new Guardians film it’s officially summer! There's also a new Alien movie! For some reason a new Pirates movie. Baywatch is another in a long line of reboots BUT WITH THE ROCK! And Snatched  is Goldie Hawn’s first film in 15 years. Happy May!

A few years ago there was this movie called Prometheus. It was a sci-fi feature that dealt with the origins of humanity BUT it also tied into the Alien franchise. I found it to be great looking but confusing. Hopefully, Alien:Covenant will clear up some of the confusion. These films are supposed to be part of a trilogy that leads up to the first Alien film. If you're unfamiliar with Alien it goes like this: a space ship crew comes across a creature that decimates nearly all on board. That's over simplifying it and I could go on about the rest of the series but it would take up too much of your time. Covenant deals with a new space crew that ventures to a beautiful planet, but when they discover the origins of said planet and come across a new Alien things go terribly wrong. Surviving character's from Prometheus will appear but I'm not sure on the how or why. It's all part of the mysterious approach they've taken with this film.

With two westerns and one massive hit, 2015 was probably Kurt Russel's biggest year in film and 2017 might just top that. It's only two films this time around but one is last month’s Fate of the Furious and this month it's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and it reunites him with his Tango and Cash co-star, Sylvester Stallone. 80's action movies fans rejoice! Of course they might not even share a scene and this isn't the reason this movie will make a billion dollars (that's not even an overestimation, can you believe that?!). People will see this one because the first time Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista and two creatures voiced by Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper teamed up it entertained the entire galaxy, so they might as well do it again! Vol. 2 will focus on Star Lord, Pratt, finding out who his father is and this will take them on a whole new fun and destructive adventure.

 

The first Pirates of the Caribbean movie is a pretty long but very fun adventure film. When the sequel came out I was excited, until I saw it. I don't remember exactly what I disliked about it but I never re-watched it and haven't seen another once since. That's not to say I'm not interested. The very first film dealt a lot with Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp, and who he's running away from, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales seems to be very similar. It seems he's angered a lot of people and Disney will keep mining these stories. This is a lot of material to come from a boat ride at an amusement park. Javier Bardem plays ghost pirate Salazar who, like all ghost pirates, has a grudge against Sparrow. While evading everyone who wants him dead Sparrow searches for Poseidon's Trident, which will grant its owner rule over the seas.

 

The reboot of 21 Jump Street worked because of the game cast and writer/directors who knew how to surprise the audience. There were plenty before that film, but after that particular film I feel reboots have become more prevalent. Power Rangers was a moderate hit because it looks like fun for a younger audience but failed to attract an older audience and CHIPS was a moderate failure because it was for a niche audience but it betrayed the PG feel of the original by making it a hard R and there was hardly any marketing. Now Baywatch may look a bit different than the David Hasselhoff starring NBC drama from over 25 years ago, so die hard Baywatch fans might be turned off, but the film stars Dwayne Johnson, Alexandra Daddario and Zac Effron - and that's enough to fill the seats. I'm a fan of the director and some of the writers and can't help but laugh any time I see the trailer. This will be a very silly movie and I am looking forward to it a whole lot.

 

I was surprised to learn that Goldie Hawn was in her 70's, but what surprised me even more was that she's only been in about 30 movies. Some actors do 30 movies in a decade and they can't achieve the level of fame she has. It looks as if she won an Oscar for her first leading role in a film, so it seems she had a good start. Between 1969 and 1992 she was making movies pretty frequently and then it got less frequent and by 2002, she seemed to have retired from acting. So after 15 years she's back in Snatched, playing Amy Schumer's mother in a comedy-adventure where the duo play mother and daughter on the run from kidnappers while on a dream turned nightmare vacation. It's written by Katie Dippold ( Parks and Rec, The Heat and Ghostbusters) and directed by Johnathan Levine (50/50, Warm Bodies and The Night Before) and being released Mother's Day Weekend, so this might do pretty well for an R rated comedy.

April movies

April is usually reserved for one big movie and in years past it's either been a Marvel movie or a Fast and Furious movie. This month it's the latter and if Colossal wasn't also coming out then this entire article would be about how excited I am for the 8th film in the Fast and Furious saga. Along with those two films there's also a few other interesting projects, several melodramas, a bunch of documentaries, a couple biographies and a few films that seem to have been made strictly because the money was right.

I love a good sequel title. My favorite so far this year has been Logan. It wasn't called X-Men: Origins:Wolverine:3:Logan, because there are just way too many colons in that title. It's a simple title and it's made for adults who don't need a title to spell out what the film is for them. Well, The Fast and the Furious series is not made for adults but it has become known for its titles (2 Fast 2 Furious being the most ridiculous, Fast and Furious being the most obvious and Fast and Furious 6 being the laziest). The 8^th and newest film delivers another great title with The Fate of The Furious (F8, get it?). The trailers for the F&F films tend to be very spoiler heavy so I avoid them. I show up early when I go to the theaters so this means I've run out during the trailers for nearly every movie I've attended this year. While I may not know much about the action I do know a little about the plot. When Dom, Vin Diesel, is coerced by a mysterious woman known as Cypher, Charlize Theron, to work with her it puts him at odds with everyone he loves and cares about. This means he turns his back on his family, Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris and Tyrese etc. It also puts him in the cross hairs of government agents Hobbs, Dwayne Johnson, and the mysterious/resourceful/charismatic Mr. Nobody, Kurt Russell. Somehow Jason Statham and Helen Mirren work their way into the story. The addition of Theron and Mirren to the series adds to the long list of all too respectable people that Diesel has worked with. While the plot may not matter there is a guarantee for fast cars, a lot of actors I appreciate and plenty of stuff blowing up. Hopefully I don't burst into tears at the end like I did during Furious 7. 

The coming-home-after-life-falls-apart sub-genre of comedy-drama is a tale as old as time. Someone gets dumped, goes home, parties with friends, eventually has a realization and tries to get their life back on track. That's part of the plot of Colossal but it's not the part that made it such a big deal at film festivals. The other part of the plot is that after coming home and partying Gloria, Anne Hathaway, awakes to discover that a gigantic monster appeared in Seoul, South Korea and began wreaking havoc. She then learns that she has a strange connection to the monster. So yeah, it' not your average coming home story. This one has elements of comedy, drama and science fiction. It looks like a ton of fun but I imagine there's some smarts behind it, too. It's probably a film that works better the less you know.

Films about making films usually make for an interesting topic, plus Hollywood loves a film about Hollywood. Too bad for Hollywood, Their Finest is about a British film crew making propaganda during World War II after the Blitzkrieg. Now that might seem like a heavy subject, so to reel it in and make it more entertaining they've cast Bill Nighy (not the Science Guy). Look him up, he's in everything.

 

The story of El Dorado, The City of Gold, is a pretty popular tale and there are plenty of stories about people traveling there. Based on a true story The Lost City of Z is about one particular expedition in the 1920's. A British explorer named Percy Fawcett and a small crew ventured into the Amazon to locate the oft told about city. I believe the film is an account of his journey because, spoiler alert, he disappeared completely and the how and why are debated still to this day. So since there's no way to know the whole story, expect some embellishments. Early reviews are that this movie is great.

Sleight is smaller film that caught my attention strictly because the plot sounds cool. A young street magician has to take care of his little sister after losing their parents, gets in too deep with some criminals and has to use his skills to save her. Now I'm not sure what his skills are but being that this is listed as an Action/Drama/Sci-Fi/ Thriller, I can't help but be interested. Plus this is the director’s first feature film and he's rumored to be doing The Fly remake, which we obviously don't need, but whatever - it means someone thinks he's got talent so maybe this one is all right.

Another topic worth talking about besides the new Fast and Furious film is the unfortunate passing of Bill Paxton. This guy was in loads of great films. Yes, Twister is a great film and people seem to like Titanic as well. Then there's Aliens, Apollo 13, Predator 2, True Lies. The list goes on. Fortunately his final film stars Tom Hanks and Emma Watson so people will see The Circle. Unfortunately Paxton only has a small role as Watson’s sick father so I'm not sure how much of him we'll see. The Circle is a huge tech company that Watson is hired at and quickly rises in the ranks and becomes a sort of protégé to the founder, Hanks. While working there she begins to notice that this company knows everything about her, including her father’s illness, and that privacy is quickly becoming a thing of the past. That's never a good thing.

It's hard to ignore a title like How to Be a Latin Lover and for me, it was even harder to ignore because it's directed by Ken Marino, one of my favorite comedians. His feature length directorial debut is about a man, future Overboard remake star Eugenio Derbez, who has made a career of seducing rich older woman but now has to move in with his sister and learns about love and family. It sounds cute and fortunately, Marino has brought along plenty of friends like Kristen Bell, Michael Cera and Salma Hayek and the three Robs: Lowe, Cordry and Riggle. No complaints about that cast.

Melodrama 1 - A proud atheist/journalist/lawyer takes umbrage when his wife finds Christianity and decides to use his skills to disprove her beliefs in The Case for Christ. This comes from a production company whose previous films have heavy religious themes so I'm pretty sure I can guess how this one ends. 

Melodrama 2 - Chris Pine dons a 5 o'clock shadow and battles his own mother for custody over his daughter who's like super smart a.k.a. Gifted. Jenny Slate also appears and it being a more dramatic role, I imagine her brand of comedy will not make it into this one. 

Melodrama 3 - More of a thriller but I'm pretty sure the overacting will be on display when ex-wife Katherine Heigl makes life hell for new wife Rosario Dawson in Unforgettable. 

Easy paycheck 1: Zack Braff fancied himself a director in the early 00's with Garden State and some Scrubs episodes. His film career didn't really take off and his most recent indie flick didn't garner much attention but he's back as a director for Going in Style. Starring Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin it's about a group of lifelong friends who decide to rob the same bank that ruined them financially and hilarity (or safe pg-13 comedy) ensues. It’s a remake of a film with the same name.

Easy paycheck 2: If there was to be another televised version of 'We Are the World' I imagine the cast of singers would read something like the cast of Smurfs: The Lost Village. There's a lot of people providing their vocal talents to this sequel that focuses on Smurfette as she and her friends follow a map to locate a mysterious village before Gargamel locates it. It also features Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt stars Ellie Kemper and Tituss Burgess and if the producers knew what they were doing, they'd give these two a musical number. 

Easy paycheck 3: Sometimes I read a description to a film and I get excited because the plot sounds so bonkers that I can't wait for one of my movie podcasts to cover it and discuss its ridiculousness. Spark: A Space Tail is one of those movies. It's an animated tail (ha) about a monkey and his animal friends who try to retake Planet Bana (yup) when an evil conqueror takes over. Like the Smurf's sequel this also has quite the voice cast, just not nearly as currently popular. 

Documentary 1: Alive and Kicking takes a look at the world of swing dance.

Documentary 2: Born in China takes a look at the lives of a panda bear, a monkey and a snow leopard. 

Documentary 3: SHOT! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock takes a look at the history of rock n' roll through the eyes of photographer Mick Rock.

Documentary 4: Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent takes a look at the life of celebrity chef Jeremiah Tower. 

Biography 1: A Quiet Passion takes a look at the life of Emily Dickinson.

Biography 2: Cezanne and I takes a look at the life of painter Paul Cezanne.