Genre: Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi

Year: 2015

Country: USA, Switzerland

Rating:

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace, Connie Britton, Walton Goggins

Director: Nima Nourizadeh

My Review: Screenplay by Max Landis. Directed by Nima Nourizadeh (Best known for music videos). Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace, Connie Britton and others. This movie is set in a no name backwater town (in West Virginia), where Mike Howell - a lackluster stoner who works at the local convenience store while he dreams of making it big as a comic book illustrator. His world gets turned upside down by the following activation phrase: "Cherry Progressive, Listen. Madelbrot set is in motion. Echo Choir has been breached" What? As it turns out, Mike is a super secret government trained assassin, he just doesn't realize it. This movie was far better than I anticipated. Topher Grace (from that 70s show) was excellent as the CIA operative, and the movie had some excellent pacing. The acting was very good. I totally believed the stoner vibe that Jesse Eisenberg put on? And the screenplay was immensely entertaining. The previews give away most of the movie, but its still worth watching. Funny, thrilling and intriguingly twisted. The typical archetypes are really turned on their head in this movie. The casting was well suited to these non-standard characters along otherwise stale plot lines. I give it a 4 out of 5.

Summary: Small-town stoner Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) spends most of his time getting high and writing a graphic novel about a superhero monkey. What Mike doesn't know is that he was trained by the CIA to be a lethal killing machine. When the agency targets him for termination, his former handler activates his latent skills, turning the mild-mannered slacker into a deadly weapon. Now, the utterly surprised Mike must use his newfound abilities to save himself and his girlfriend from getting wasted by the failed test subjects that are sent after him by the CIA.

Genre: Drama, Mystery, TV Movie

Year: 2015

Country: UK, USA

Rating:

Starring: Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hattie Morahan

Director: Bill Condon

My Review: Screen play by Jeffrey Hatcher, based upon a novel by Mitch Cullin, with characters based on the novels of Arthur Conan Doyle. Directed by Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Kinsey, The Fifth Estate). Starring Ian McKellen (Gandalf the Wizard and more than a hundred other roles), Laura Linney, Hiroyuki Sanada, Milo Parker and many others. This movie features an older, retired Sherlock Holmes (played by Ian McKellen). He's living out his days in relative isolation, fighting off the effects of early onset dementia. Befriended by the young son (Roger, played by Milo Parker) of his housekeeper, he's convinced to once again take up a case - The thirty year old case that haunts his memories. With flashbacks to events when he was 60 years old, Sherlock endeavors to solve the case of his missing memories and long buried regrets. The sets and location were beautifully shot. Milo Parker was quite enjoyable and Ian McKellen perfectly cast as the aged Sherlock Holmes. This movie rated a better effort at direction, but it hardly needed it given the quality of the acting. A subtle, slow moving tale that manages to tell a story without the break-neck pacing of anything featuring Robert Downey Jr. I enjoyed the movie. I give it a 3 out of 5.

Summary: The story is set in 1947, following a long-retired Holmes living in a Sussex village with his housekeeper and her young son. But then he finds himself haunted by a thirty-year old case. Holmes memory isn't what it used to be, so he only remembers fragments of the case: a confrontation with an angry husband, and a secret bond with his beautiful, but unstable wife.

Genre: Sci-Fi

Year: 1957

Country: USA

Rating:

Starring: Kathryn Grant, William Leslie, Tristram Coffin, Raymond Greenleaf, Charles Evans

Director: Fred F. Sears

My Review: Directed by Fred F. Sears (Best movie - Earth vs the Flying Saucers (featured Ray Harryhausen special effects), worst movie - The Giant Claw). Starring Kathryn Grant, William Leslie, Tristram Coffin and others. This movie was one of six vintage sci-fi movies on a two-disc collection I purchased in Nov of 2015. In this movie Dr. Conway (Played by William Leslie) has invented a machine - The gigantic 'Datatron', an electric brain which predicts earthquakes. The first earthquake it predicts is a monster. A massive quake is predicted to strike California in the next 24 hours. With no 'proof' that there machine works, the Governor won't declare an emergency or evacuate the area of the predicted epicenter. The skeptics are all proven wrong when the earthquake hits and immense damage is dealt. Beyond the initially predicted earthquake, there are indications that a devastating series of earthquakes are coming up. In order to get better readings, the scientists head for Carlsbad caverns in New Mexico. The movie features rather poor special effects, poor acting, and worst of all the science and technology depicted was severely mocking, even for the 50s. The set of the military aircraft was amazingly bad, and the reliance on too much stock footage underscores how low production quality hampered this movie. I give it a 2 out of 5.

Summary: Dr. Conway has perfected a machine which he believes will predict earthquakes, and has determined that one will strike California within 24 hours. He and his patron, Dr. Morton, attempt to convince the Governor but he cannot bring himself to declare an emergency when there is no proof the machine works - which, within 24 hours, it is proven to do. More significantly, Conway is getting readings which indicate a series of additional, pending quakes around the world, which also begin to occur; and more still seem to be on the way. With his assistant "Hutch", to whose love for him he seems oblivious, Conway takes his equipment to the deepest point of Carlsbad Caverns, in hopes that being closer to the center of the earth will help discern the cause of the earthquake epidemic. It does, when they inadvertently discover a new element which lies dormant in watery pools deep within the earth but, when in contact with air, becomes violently explosive. Forces unknown appear to be pushing this ...