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GOING IN STYLE Director: Zach Braff Starring: Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Alan Arkin, Ann-Margaret, Christopher Lloyd, Matt Dillon, John Ortiz, Joey King, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Kenan Thompson Between Alan Arkin, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman, they have a combined fifteen Oscar nominations and four wins. At this stage in their career, they’ve lightened up and are taking on the goofy, bumbling, senior guy roles. The movie opens with Joe (Caine) meeting with a banker to discuss the envelopes he’s receiving from the bank stating that his house is in jeopardy. They’ll seize it from him if he doesn’t pay his mortgage. Right then and there,Read More →

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GHOST IN THE SHELL Director: Rupert Sanders Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbæk, Takeshi Kitano, Michael Pitt, Juliette Binoche Let me state right up front that I went into Ghost in the Shell with no previous knowledge of this material. It’s based on the wildly popular 1989 Japanese manga comic series by Masamune Shirow. I’ve never read the books or watched the 1995 animated movie of the same name. Nor have I seen any of the franchise films that came after that. I went into this with an open palette and no preconceived notions of what to expect outside of the rumblings of Scarlett Johansson beingRead More →

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T2 TRAINSPOTTING Director: Danny Boyle Starring: Ewan McGregor, Johnny Lee Miller, Ewen Bremner, Robert Carlyle, Kelly McDonald, Shirley Henderson Trainspotting was a low budget film about five friends with a massive drug addiction that became a wacky cult classic. Twenty years later, the cast has reunited to see where these troubled men are at in life. Ewan McGregor is front and center as Mark Renton who returns home to Edinburgh after his mother dies. He’s led a clean and sober life in Amsterdam since the events of the first film, which ended with him stealing thousands of dollars from his friends. His other three friends,Read More →

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LIFE Director: David Espinosa Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Ariyon Bakare, Olga Dihovichnaya, Hiroyuki Sanada Space exploration movies feel like they’re all the rage right now. Unfortunately, they can’t all be as great as 2013’s Gravity. With Passengers last year and now Life, I’m wondering if they’ve run their course for the time being or if we can’t figure out a new story to tell. Maybe the ambiguous one word titles have something to do with it. Life boasts a fun crew with Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson leading the team on an international space station. They’re returning from a mission to MarsRead More →

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BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Director: Bill Condon Starring: Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Kevin Kline, Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson, Audra McDonald, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Stanley Tucci Disney’s animated classic (in my opinion) Beauty and the Beast was the first full-length animated film to be nominated for Best Picture at the 1992 Academy Awards. It’s hard not to have the catchy Alan Menken and Howard Ashman songs stuck in your head after you watch it. Even as an adult, it still holds up. Since then, Disney turned it into an epic stage musical for Broadway and now has reimagined it again turningRead More →

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KONG: SKULL ISLAND Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John Goodman, Corey Hawkins, John C. Reilly, Thomas Mann, Jason Mitchell, Toby Kebbell We have seen many iterations of King Kong before. Kong: Skull Island is the latest take on this legendary creature. This version takes place in 1973 in the middle of the Vietnam War. John Goodman and Corey Hawkins play a government agent and seismologist looking for more money to spend on an expedition to a mysterious island off the South Pacific. Goodman wants to discover a land where “myth and science meet.” He gathers the money and aRead More →

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LOGAN Director: James Mangold Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Stephen Merchant, Dafne Keen, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Boyd Holbrook, Richard E. Grant, Eriq La Salle, Elise Neal Hugh Jackman first donned the Wolverine claws for the first X-Men film back in 2000. Seventeen years and nine appearances later, he has come to the end of his reign for playing the iconic comic book hero. Logan picks up in the year 2029 and we see him living in hiding under a new identity as a limo driver. The mutant population has practically been wiped out with Logan living a simple life in Mexico with old pal Charles XavierRead More →

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TABLE 19 Writer/Director: Jeffrey Blitz Starring: Anna Kendrick, Lisa Kudrow, Craig Robinson, Tony Revolori, June Squibb, Wyatt Russell, Stephen Merchant, Thomas Cocquerel, Margo Martindale We’ve all been there before where you are invited to a wedding, and you’re unsure if you’ll know anyone else there. You were probably sat table 19. That’s the table where all of the odd pairings and random guests are sat in the corner of the ballroom. Anna Kendrick stars as Eloise, the former maid of honor and ex-girlfriend of the man of honor (Russell). She’s a bit of a mess when the film opens due to her recent breakup butRead More →

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GET OUT Director/Writer: Jordan Peele Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener, Lakeith Stanfield, Lil Rel Howery, Stephen Root, Marcus Henderson, Betty Gabriel I would never have thought funnyman Jordan Peele would have turned to the horror genre for his directorial debut. He’s best known as one half of the Comedy Central duo Key and Peele. After their show ended, they released the cat action comedy Keanu last year, and now Peele is flying solo. There’s that old myth that the black guy always dies in a scary movie, and Peele is shifting that around with Get Out. Girls star Allison Williams starsRead More →

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RINGS Director: F. Javier Gutiérrez Starring: Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Alex Roe, Johnny Galecki, Vincent D’Onofrio, Bonnie Morgan , Aimee Teegarden I’d like to think that I pay close enough attention to pop culture, specifically film, to know what is trendy and popular. I don’t remember reading or hearing about a move to keep making additional entries in The Ring franchise. The first film was released in 2002 and was a remake of a Japanese film. It spawned a sequel in 2005, and somehow now we have a follow-up sequel. It isn’t necessarily a reboot as it acknowledges there is a past to this story.Read More →