Pitch Perfect - When Gleeks go off to college...

I broke one of my movie rules that I usually only break for dates and dvds:  No comedies, rom-coms, and/or silly movies featuring college students.  It, surprisingly, was worth it like seeing Step-Brothers and The Hangover.  Pitch Perfect starring Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, is a cute little comedy full of practically unknowns for those who liked the first two seasons of Glee.  With lines from Chelsea Handler like, "Nothing makes a woman feel good like a man signing like a boy," and creepy soft-spoken asian girls like, "I set fires to feel joy," how could you not watch?

In it's simplest form, this movie is about a college student, Becca, who has dreams of being a record producer and is forced to go to college instead.  Her dad makes her a promise that if she tries one activity in school and if she still hates college after a year he will pay for her to go to LA and live her dreams. She chooses to join a pretentious acapella club full of misfits (ironic I know) who has dreams of being the first all-girl team to win the international acapella contest against their rivals, an all male group from the same school.  In the process she meets a boy who just so happens to sing in said rival glee club.

The set list in this movie is what make it.  Bruno Mars, RiRi, and Madonna make an appearance.  Plus my favorite song out right now, "Titanium", is sung beautifully acapella in the shower.  They do tons of old school/new school mash-ups acapella style.  Blackstreets' No Diggity will get you groovin' in your seat.  I often times found my self quietly clapping after they were done singing.  The movie is predictable.  You can figure out how it ends about 15 minutes into the movie, but you will laugh and leave feeling like a giddy nerd for enjoying it.  This movie really makes me wish I could carry a tune, but until God decides to miraculously bless me with a voice, I will continue to watch others do it (watching last night's Glee while typing this).

Looper - It will throw you for a loop!

Finally, a sci-fi thriller set in the Mid-West.  This is thinking people.  This is creative!  This is kinda boring.  Well, it is Missouri (Missouri is in the mid-west, right?).  Looper, staring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, and the adorable albeit psychotic, Pierce Gargon is this unconventional sci-fi/thriller set in Kansas City.

Basically, time travel is illegal and controlled by the mob.  The mob has set up a system where Loopers assassinate people purposely sent to the past.  Once your time as a Looper is up, the mobsters sends back your future you to be killed by you then you get paid handsomely to live out the next 30 years before your assigned death.  Why would anyone sign up for this job?  Clearly, not a well thought out plot, but let's continue.  One Looper sent back to die (Willis) decides he can change the future by killing the person responsible for sending him back, The Rainmaker.  He sets out to kill The Rainmaker (Gargon) while being chased by the Kansas City mob.  His younger self is also being hunted by the mob for not killing his older self and finds his way onto a farm which may or may not be the home of The much younger Rainmaker.  Are you confused yet?  It makes much more since when you watch it.

I'll be honest.  The movie is slow and very unrealistic even for a futuristic sci-fi movie, but it is gripping.  Plus there's nothing like seeing a bad-arse Bruce Willis with a gun shooting folks.  The star of the show, I must say, is Pierce Gargon who plays Sid.  He's cute, intelligent, and bad arse all in the same scene.  I think this would be better as a tv movie on the Sci-fi channel or TNT, or a three-day mini series.  There's just a lot to do and say in a two-hour movie which oddly made it move at a snail's pace, however, I did enjoy it.  And, I think most of you will too.

Dredd - Oh I'm judging

Why do I do this to myself?  Why would anyone do this to themselves?  Sit in yet another remake or yet another movie that didn't need to be remade.  I didn't have high expectations for this one, with good reason.  I don't remember much about the 1995 Judge Dredd movie or the comic strip, but I'm hoping it was much better than this 2012 version.  I mean, really why was this movie necessary?

I'm all for blood, guts, violence, explosions, ect., but I also like good acting and a plausible storyline.  Plausible story lines in action movies these days are few and far between.  Dredd was no exception.  Let's see if I can sum it up for you:  In yet another post-apocolyptic future, what's left of the major east coast cities have been combined to make a mega-city governed by judges.  These judges are police, lawyers, judge, jury, and executioner all in one.  Judge Dredd takes a psychic rookie under his belt to test her and see if she's cut out to be a judge.  They go to a 200 story high-rise building taken over by a psychotic ex-hooker turned drug lord (MaMa) after reports of a triple homicide to do their thing.  The judges after lots of gratuitous violence finds the murder of the 3 and henchman to MaMa, and ends up being locked up inside of this building with no way of getting out.  MaMa is after them to keep the henchman from telling about her enterprises.  For the next hour, the two judges run around this building with bullets managing to hit everyone BUT them.  I won't tell you any more.  You'll just have to suffer through it to learn the rest.  Let's just say through all the gruesomeness, there is a happy ending.

I'll do you this one favor.  Don't go see it.  Don't waste your life.  It's not necessary.  The movie is just a  whole lot of bullets and blood and not enough substance.  Wait until it comes on USA or TNT or better yet ABC or NBC.

House at the End of the Street - A classic tale...NOT!

We know this story.  We've heard it before.  Mom and teenage daughter move to a new town after a divorce.  Daughter meets next door neighbor who is a simple college boy.  Mom disapproves of daughter dating this boy.  They fight.  She lies and dates him any way.  Boy's sister is a killer locked up in the attic.  Some one breaks a leg; someone is shot, stabbed, murdered...BLAH BLAH BLAH!  A classic tale, right?  NO!

House at the End of the Street begins as this seemingly classic story that we've all heard an seen, but it's not.  It's a little more sinister than you can imagine.  There is a plot twist that I didn't quite see coming.  I kept expecting someone else.  I was wrong.  I'm not very often wrong.  I like a movie that has twist and turns that make sense.  This one did.  I'm not saying it's a great movie, but it is a suspenseful somewhat shocking thriller.  I wouldn't say it was a horror.  There was nothing scary about it, although I did jump once.  (They got me.  I know...I couldn't believe it either.)

Jennifer Lawrence is fast becoming the new Kristen Stewart meaning she's staring in a movie series based off of a very popular book series, and she's getting roles in B-list movies that would make better tv movies.  Lawrence, however, has two more facial expressions than Stewart and is a much better actress.  She's pretty bad arse in this one; I'll give her that.  Very Katness Everdeen-esque (google it).  Is it a great movie?  No.  Would I watch it again?  If it was on TNT, USA, Lifetime, and nothing else was on tv, yes.  You've seen this one before (sorta), and you'll see it again (probably).  No need to rush out to go see it.  There's probably even better drama going on in the house at the end of your street (or maybe not).

Sparkle - A Sparkling Remake

This summer which is coming to a close brought us great blockbusters, action-pact films, cheesy children's movies, and remarkable remakes.  I have spent many hours sitting in the dark watching the big screen being mesmerized by what I see.  Sparkle is bedazzling, enchanting, charming, and intriguing.  The storyline grabs you, the singing captivates you, and the stars fascinate you.  Sparkle is a remake of a 1976 film with the same name.  And, although I still believe the world doesn't need yet another remake, this one was enjoyable and sparkling (pun intended).

Instead of telling you what the movie is about and reasons you may not want to watch it (let's be real, the acting is B-list at best), I want to give you the many reasons to the contrary.  Let's start at the top with Whitney.  Majority of the people are going to go see it to because of Whitney Houston who is one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) voices of all time who lost her battle with substance abuse just 6 months ago.  Although her acting isn't award winning, it's plausible, but we really just want to hear her sing, and her rendition of "His Eye is on the Sparrow" was soulful and showed signs of the Whitney we fell in love with so long ago.  It brought tears to my eyes to realize that we will never hear that voice again, and the audience agreed with heavy applause.

Mike Epps plays a sell-out comedian, and even though that is his real-life profession, he is sinister and destructive which is out of character for him.  He was a very convincing bad boy.  Immediately upon entering the scene you decide to dislike him.  I applaud his effort and growth as an actor.  Jordin Sparks, American Idol winner, who plays Sparkle, does a wonderful job for being a singer turned actress.  She's much better at it than Beyonce (that's not hard to do), but maybe not as good as Jennifer Hudson.  Her acting isn't going to get any Academy Award nominations, but her voice is remarkable and she tears up "One Wing" in the end.  Derek Luke, Carmen Ejogo, Tika Sumpter, and Omari Hardwick round out a fantastic cast.  They may not be household names, but with a few more movies under their belts, maybe they will.

Side note:  Ladies, Omari Hardwick is yummy.  Google him.

If the actors and singers aren't reason enough to watch Sparkle, then the maybe knowing who was behind the scenes will.  The screenplay was written by Mara Brock Akil.  She is best known for creating and writing The Game and Girlfriends.  The movie was produce by TD Jakes (he finally gets one right), and one of the executive producers was Whitney Houston.  And to top it off, R. Kelly was the musical director.  It doesn't get much better than that.  Now I know you really want to go see this movie.  Please do.  Try to forget it's a remake, and go just to enjoy it.  You won't be disappointed.

The Bourne Legacy - Aaron Cross is no Jason Bourne

The Jason Bourne action thriller films are some of my favorite.  There's nothing like Matt Damon as Jason Bourne kicking butt and taking names, but Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross didn't really do it for me.  Don't get me wrong, he kicked a little booty, but it wasn't anything like in the first three Bourne movies.  The Bourne Legacy is yet another example of learning when to say stop; enough is enough; let it go man, just let it go.  

The storyline of this one starts up where Bourne Ultimatum leaves off.  At the end of Ultimatum, Bourne jumps in the water and swims off with bullets flying at his head.  Legacy opens with Cross swimming in the water to retrieve something.  The next 45 minutes is of Aaron Cross in the Alaskan wilderness during a training exercise trying to survive with his limited genetic medicine.  Meanwhile, more information about Treadstone, Blackbriar and other CIA operations have been exposed by Jason Bourne and now all agents and cohorts have to be terminated including Cross while the powers that be play the game of CYA (cover your arse).

You would think a lot of exciting action would take place, but I can't really say that.  There are bullets and explosions, and car/motorcycle chases, but in small doses; they almost feel forced and placed to wake us up with all this conspiracy theory talking.  Like, when one of the lab Doctor's that work with the operatives starts shooting at at his colleagues.  We never get an explanation why?  It just sets up a way for Aaron to meet Dr. Marta Shearling and begin his quest for meds.  This movie attempts to tie up the political loose ends from Ultimatum, but it falls flat and is kind of pointless.  Did you really care what happened to Pamela Landy for helping Bourne?  Me neither.  

I really don't want to see the Bourne film series go down in flames, so I say that this should be the last.  I know it may not be, but if no one else goes to see this somewhat boring film, then maybe they'll stop here.  Let's hope that Bourne Legacy is the end of the Bourne journey.

Total Recall - Total Entertainment

One of my favorite Arnold movies is Total Recall.  It's not cinematic genius, but it's sci-fi and action which always works for me.  So, I had mixed emotions about a remake.  I always have mixed emotions about remakes as I think why can't they just do something new?  Are we really running out of ideas?  But, the trailer looked interesting enough, so I said why not?

This version is less aliens on alien planets and more earthly politics.  After World War III, the only livable part of the planet left is either Australia (The Colony) or The United Federation of Britain (UFB) and workers use The Fall to travel through the earth's core to get to and fro.  The UFB is ran be Chancellor Cohaagen played by Bryan Cranston who wants to take over The Colony, but The Resistance is fighting against that, and is lead by Matthias (Bill Nighy) who is in hiding and leading attacks in the UFB through his rebels which includes Jessica Biel.  How does Colin Farrell fit in here?  He plays Douglas Quaid who is bored with his life and decides that he wants his memories altered by going to Rekall where through chemicals and electrodes they can give you whatever memories you desire.  Quaid decides to be a double agent, but before the memory transfer is complete, the UFB police stops the process led by his "wife"/UFB agent (Kate Beckinsale).  Then, all the entertaining action begins.

This version like the original is no Emmy award winner, but there is an understandable somewhat plausible plot, good action scenes, and the actors do their job quite well.  I did miss the Governator a bit, but Colin's ability to please my eyes and speak clearly was a welcomed departure from Arnold.   For those who are looking for something to do on a hot summer day, I say this:  Total Recall is a remake that didn't need to be made, but since it was, I watched it, enjoyed it, and would recommend it.