Genre: Comedy

Year: 2013

Country: USA

Rating:

Starring: Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Christina Applegate

Director: Adam McKay

My Review: With the first Anchorman movie being such a smashing success, how did Anchorman 2 turn out to be a 'Sucks-ass' movie? Well, maybe not that bad, but truly not worthy of the sequel title. Written and directed by Adam McKay (co-written by Will Ferrell), the movie features the same cast. A great line-up of comedic actors who never miss a step. In this story, we pick-up where AM1 left off… Ron Burgundy is living high on the hog in New York. Until… His wife is promoted to the top spot, and he's fired! Ron heads back to San Diego to beg for his old job back - Not so fast hot shot. Ron suffers for a bit and then he takes a chance on a new format - 24/7 News! Ron gets the old gang back together and then… That's pretty much it. They started with a pretty good premise, but it seems like they didn't know where to take the movie, and they ended up just throwing in more and more gags and jokes to fill in the lack of script. There was a lot of repeated memes from the first movie. Many of the jokes were distasteful, shameful and over the top (Not simply social commentary on a different era/social climate). The acting seemed forced or staged. The story really didn't go anywhere and there wasn't anything original here. It was clearly just a play to cash in on the outstanding success of the first movie. Maybe they meant to make a parody of a parody? I laughed a few times, but I ended up wishing I hadn't seen it. 2 out of 5.

Summary: Having left San Diego for New York City, Ron Burgundy is living the high life with his wife Veronica Corningstone and son Walter Burgundy. However, when the boss decides to promote Veronica to full time lead anchor and fire Ron, everything changes. Now heading back to San Diego, Ron is washed up and working part time at Sea World. His shot at redemption though comes in the form of a man named Freddie Schapp, who's an executive producer at the Global News Network, the world's first 24 hour round the clock news channel. He hires Ron, who proceeds to reunite the news team of Champ, Brick, and Brian, and head back to New York City. While there Ron and his news team are given the graveyard shift and a challenge. Ron comes up with a radical new idea to transform the news and that puts him at the top of the game once again. But how long will Ron's newfound fame last? And will Brick finally find true love?

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music

Year: 2000

Country: UK, USA

Rating:

Starring: John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Todd Louiso, Jack Black, Lisa Bonet

Director: Stephen Frears

My Review: As pleasing as a newly pressed piece of vinyl. This movie was a tragic comedic love story. The kind that casts John Cusack in the role of romantic lead (Say Anything, Sixteen Candles, Grosse Pointe Blank, Must Love Dogs, etc). A tribute to the music of the 80's. This movie hits a soft spot in my heart. The characters are quirky but real. Todd Louiso and Jack Black were both fantastic in two completely different ways. In an odd approach, the movie is Narrated to the audience by the main character as he attempts to unravel the romance mistakes that led him to his sad state of affairs. In the end we're left with a happy ending despite the lack of a conclusive closer. An excellent story, writing, direction and acting. I give it a 5 out of 5.

Summary: Thirty-something Rob Gordon, a former club DJ, owns a not so lucrative used record store in Chicago. He not so much employs Barry and Dick, but rather keeps them around as they showed up at the store one day and never left. All three are vinyl and music snobs, but in different ways. Rob has a penchant for compiling top five lists. The latest of these lists is his top five break-ups, it spurred by the fact that his latest girlfriend, Laura, a lawyer, has just broken up with him. He believed that Laura would be the one who would last, partly as an expectation of where he would be at this stage in his life. Rob admits that there have been a few incidents in their relationship which in and of themselves could be grounds for her to want to break up. To his satisfaction, Laura is not on this top five list. Rob feels a need not only to review the five relationships, which go back as far as middle school when he was twelve, and try to come to terms with why the woman, or girl as the case may ...

Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime

Year: 2013

Country: USA

Rating:

Starring: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton, Edward James Olmos, Bill Paxton

Director: Baltasar Kormákur

My Review: A cop buddy movie based on the Boom! Studios graphic novels by Steven Grant. Written by Steven Grant and Blake Masters, Directed by Baltasar Kormákur, starring Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg and others. The movie starts out with a traditional misdirect. Neither actor is the character they initially portray. They betray each other at the end of a heist, only to discover that they're both 'Cops'. Unfotunately, the immense pile of money they stole - way more than they anticipated - turns up missing. And now they're on the run from the DEA, Navy Intelligence and a Cartel boss. Who's money was it? Who's trying to get it back? Why is everyone out to kill them? And where is the money! With only themselves to turn to, the two team up to save their lives, unravel the mystery and bag the real bad-guys in this crime caper gone bad. The movie is based on an extremely violent graphic-novel/comic book series, but thankfully the cinematic violence isn't quite as bad as I'd anticipated. This movie is a bit formulaic in the double-crossing genre of good guys go rogue to take down other good guys gone rogue. It's labelled as a 'Comedy' but Denzel can't do comedy that well, and there really isn't much chemistry between Denzel and Wahlberg. Despite the lack of chemistry together, their different acting styles weren't a detriment to the movie. In the end the real problems with this movie were the number of plot twists, the typical double cross formula and no surprises outside the genre. Ultimately its forgettable. I give it a 2 out of 5.

Summary: Robert Trench, an undercover DEA agent, takes advantage of gunman Michael Stigman's idea to rob a bank to bust him and a mob boss. However, it proves too successful with much more money seized than anticipated with Trench's forces not stopping the getaway. Complicating things still more, Stigman turns out to be a Naval Intelligence agent who shoots Trench and takes the money. The interservice debacle suddenly finds Trench and Stigman in a bloody web of corrupt clandestine rivalries as they are hunted, blackmailed and isolated for the money on both sides of the law. Now, the fugitives must work together to find a way out of this situation with no one to turn to but themselves.

Genre: Documentary

Year: 2013

Country: USA

Rating:

Starring: David Kaplan, Fabiola Gianotti, Sherwood Boehlert, Joel Hefley, Savas Dimopoulos

Director: Mark Levinson

My Review: A complete geek fest documentary. The first time the 'Large Hadron Collider' (LHC) is activated in Cern, Switzerland. This could be the greatest step forward for mankind, it could be a huge non-event, or it could be the end of life as we know it! If you're not interested in particle physics, this movie will likely bore the shit out of you - If you can force yourself to watch it… For me (intensely interested in science), this was a very intriguing and engrossing movie. Search for the 'god-particle' (the Higgs boson particle) is a worthy endeavor, which propel us forward into a new understanding of the universe and how its constructed. This documentary is as much about this particular event (activation/first full test of the particle accelerator) as it is about the personalities behind the search. Mans quest for definitive and immutable answers continues. While I found the documentary fascinating, it decisively lacks much in the category of entertainment. This film gets a 3 out of 5 in my book.

Summary: As the Large Hadron Collider is about to be launched for the first time, physicists are on the cusp of the greatest scientific discovery of all time -- or perhaps their greatest failure.

Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime

Year: 2013

Country: USA, UK

Rating:

Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz, Morris Chestnut, Claudia Lee, Amy Anzel

Director: Jeff Wadlow

My Review: A sequel to the 2010 movie Kick-Ass. Directed by Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass directed by Matthew Vaughn). Screenplay by Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn). Many of the original cast are back in the same roles: Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kick-Ass (aka Dave Lizewski), Chloë Grace Moretz as Hit-Girl (aka Mindy Macready), Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Red Mist / The Motherfucker (aka Chris D'Amico), Clark Duke as Battle Guy (aka Marty Eisenberg). Missing is Nicholas Cage as Big Daddy (aka Damon Macready), who's character is deceased. New is Jim Carrey as Colonel Stars and Stripes (aka Sam Bertolinni) and several others as the 'Bad Guys' aka The Toxic Mega Cunts. Aside from the rather profane language in the movie, I was appalled and shocked by the egregious use of graphic violence in this movie. It was definitely a new low in shock tactics. While I thoroughly enjoyed Kick-Ass; giving it a 4 out of 5; marking it down by one point because of the violence, I was far less impressed by the sequel. Kick-Ass 2 starts out with Dave Lizewski (aka Kick-Ass) being bored in retirement (from crime fighting). He begins training with Hit-Girl (aka Mindy Macready) with the intention of resuming his crime-fighting career as a member of the 'Justice Forever' (the good guys). In the meantime, the villain is 'Born'. Chris D'Amico, aka Red-Mist, accidentally kills him mother after his father was obliterated by Kick-Ass in the previous movie. As a result, he becomes 'The Motherfucker'; obsessed with revenge bordering on insanity. He forms a 'Supervillain Gang' called the 'The Toxic Mega Cunts', intent on wrecking havoc and exacting revenge - No, I'm not making this up. This is the language used in the film. From that point on the film gets more violent and cruder, as Kick-Ass's father is murdered in prison. The movie overdoes the shock of violence that the first movie was finely balanced upon. The 'poop' jokes, ultraviolence and profanity combined to produce a very bad taste in my mouth. The acting by Aaron Taylor-Johnson (aka Kick-Ass/Dave Lizewski) was extremely weak, but Chloë Grace Moretz as Hit-Girl (aka Mindy Macready) was outstanding. Aside from those two, there were far too many other actors in the movie, reducing character development to a non-existent level. Jim Carrey was in the movie; as Colonel Stars and Strips, but his acting was overshadowed by the lack of character development. Chloë's performance and the editing were the only good things about this extremely vulgar pointless exhibition. I give it a 2 out of 5.

Summary: After Kick-Ass' insane bravery inspires a new wave of self-made masked crusaders, led by the badass Colonel Stars and Stripes, our hero joins them on patrol. When these amateur superheroes are hunted down by Red Mist -- reborn as The Mother F%&*^r -- only the blade-wielding Hit Girl can prevent their annihilation. When we last saw junior assassin Hit Girl and young vigilante Kick-Ass, they were trying to live as normal teenagers Mindy and Dave. With graduation looming and uncertain what to do, Dave decides to start the world's first superhero team with Mindy. Unfortunately, when Mindy is busted for sneaking out as Hit Girl, she's forced to retire-leaving her to navigate the terrifying world of high-school mean girls on her own. With no one left to turn to, Dave joins forces with Justice Forever, run by a born-again ex-mobster named Colonel Stars and Stripes. Just as they start to make a real difference on the streets, the world's first super villain, The Mother F%&*^r, assembles his ...

Genre: Action

Year: 1994

Country: Japan

Rating:

Starring: Ken Takakura, Kiichi Nakai, Rie Miyazawa, Kôichi Iwaki, Ryûdô Uzaki

Director: Kon Ichikawa

My Review: There are many movies named '47 Ronin'. This is by far one of the best Japanese 'Samurai' movies that I have ever seen. Screenplay and direction by famed director, Kon Ichikawa (An Actor's revenge, Burmese Harp, Fires on the Plain). Starring Ken Takakura, Kiichi Nakai, Rie Miyazawa and many others. A classic Japanese tale of honor and revenge. Beautiful camera work with excellent and thoughtful choreography. An engrossing and suspenseful script. Despite occasional slow-downs, it kept me interested throughout the movie. Superb set and period work, creates an environment of belief in the feudal setting. Superb acting by all involved. The story involves a large group of disgraced Samurai. While many of the Samurai chose to follow their leader by committing seppuku, a core of them remain (47 Ronin) committed to their former lord. Disgraced and now without honor, they vow revenge for the wrongs their lord suffered. Despite the outcome of their plan, they know that their fates are sealed, and they will likely all die in the end. The film heavily focuses on the bushido code and the concepts of loyalty and honor. As I mentioned previously, there are many films based upon this legendary historical 'incident' in Japanese history (based upon actual events which occurred in the 17th century Genroku era). Kon Ichikawa presents a masterful telling of the fateful morality play. I only mark it down because of the pacing and difficulty following such a dense plot. 4 of 5.

Summary: A group of disgraced samurai plan a decade long revenge against a corrupt lord.