Movie Reviews

Finding Dory is the best Pixar film since Toy Story 3 (2010).  It takes everything that was great about Finding Nemo (2003) and elevates it to new heights.  It’s a funny, exciting, captivating sequel featuring great characters, new and old, and will pull at the heartstrings as much as any other Pixar movie. Finding Dory takes place one year after the events of Finding Nemo.  This time, Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) searches the entire ocean and an aquarium to find…

The Conjuring (2013) is one of my favorite horror movies of all-time, as well as one of the scariest.  Horror maestro James Wan created a horror film that was just as smart as it was scary.  I would have been satisfied with just one film, but, like most successful movies in Hollywood, we get a sequel.  However, in this case, making a sequel was a wise decision.  The Conjuring 2 is a true horror masterpiece.  It ups the…

Now You See Me 2 should really be called Now You See Coincidences.  This is a film that is based solely on one character predicting what another character will do.  And of course, everything goes according to plan.  From the placement of a cell phone to knowing how people will react in a particular situation, everything that every character wants works out. You know what doesn’t work out?  This movie.  Led by an all-star cast who…

I placed Warcraft at number two on my Potential Surprises list when looking at summer movies.  The film had a lot of potential.  Duncan Jones is an excellent director, having made one of the best science fiction films in the last decade with Moon (2009) and the incredibly inventive Source Code (2011).  He was finally given a big budget and it was exciting to see what he could do with that.  The visuals for the films looked spectacular and the…

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is complete and utter chaos.  A movie structured into three explosive half hour action sequences and a whole bunch of of exposition giving us necessary plot points and story structure.  This is the perfect mindless summer action movie and one that slapped a smile on my face the entire movie. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows starts with the recently detained Shredder (Brian Tee) breaking out of…

Before walking into Me Before You, the studio had the great idea of handing out a box of tissues to each patron before entering the theater.  This was a clear indication of the kind of movie this was going to be, though I had an idea this was going to be a sapfest just based on the synopsis.  I declined my box of tissues, keeping the slightest shred of man-card I had left and also feeling…

X-Men: Apocalypse is either the third, sixth, or ninth installment of the X-Men franchise, depending on how you look at it.  Regardless of how or where you classify Apocalypse, it’s awesome.  It isn’t the masterpiece that was X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), but it is a bold, brash, epic film that is incredibly entertaining. Apocalypse kicks off introducing us to the first mutant ever Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), a mutant worshiped as a God in the dawn of man, who gets…

Neighbors (2014) was a surprise smash hit.  I thought the film was solid, but the jokes towards the end got a little redundant.  But with great critical response and box office comes a sequel, so now we get Neighbors 2, an unnecessary movie, but one that keeps the laughs coming for the entire film. When a hard partying sorority moves next door to Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogen & Rose Byrne), the couple asks for help…

I’ll be honest, I was getting a little bored with Marvel.  I thought the studio hit its peak with The Avengers and all the movies following it were good, but very cookie-cutter and safe.  Sure Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) was great, but that’s because it was different than anything Marvel had previously done.  Now, with Captain America: Civil War, Marvel has created its most epic and ambitious film ever and also one of the studio’s finest. After a…

Keanu stars Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele, the two masterminds behind the brilliant sketch comedy show Key & Peele.  The film plays out like an hour and a half long skit that they would have on their show, which has its positives and negatives. When an adorable kitten lands on the footstep of the recently broken hearted Rell (Jordan Peele), he finds a new outlook on life and his heart is immediately mended.  One night, when…