David_H

I'm a fan of Elton from way back and was hoping this might be similar to the recent Queen movie... sadly it does not live up to the hype. You are drug down into the seedier side of sexual confusion, substance abuse, and poor management, and there isn't much relief. you leave the theater a bit depressed, plus the musical parts were not even very good and did not feature some of the key songs you might expect.

Don't get me wrong, I do like Chris Pratt and I admit Bryce Howard is a cute girl and a seemingly talented actress. However I'd have to say if you saw the last in the Jurassic series... you've pretty much seen this one already. At least you've seen the effects, the frantic chase scenes, a young child thrown into the mix, and the inexplicable habit of the large carnivorous dinos when they see a camera to turn to their best side and let out a moaning roar for the audience. This series has truly run its course, I knew it was below average when I had pretty much forgot all about it by the next day...

This would be a useful movie if you enjoy being horrified and deeply depressed upon viewing a movie. I know there are critics who keep saying "we need to remind people of the darker parts of our history..." Okay but seriously how many decades into the 21st century do we need to keep throwing ugly racism onto theater screens? I would argue that continuing to do so is not helpful to race relations. If I had to say one redeeming thing about it, i'll admit that the performances by Carey Mulligan and Mary J. Blige were both quite good, given the depressing screenplay they were handed. Unfortunately it was such a downer I would not recommend to to any family or friends.

Walked out feeling a bit let down, as it seems like the characters and the basic bones of the plot could have been handled in a much more epic fashion. Some parts of it like the star battle scenes you could say we've seen it all before. Having a little humor is okay as we did from the start of this series, but the way it was done in this movie was so campy and inappropriate, almost like they hired Seth Rogen to write the comedic parts. Those parts might have been funny if you are eight years old. I hear there is one more episode coming.... when it does I doubt i'll go to the theater, might wait until it comes out on Redbox for $1.50 if i have nothing else to watch.

As a qualifier, I’m old enough to have seen and been a big fan of the original Blade Runner, plus I’ve always been a sci-fi fan. That said, the better half and I were both disappointed in this sequel. You know how you hear that much of a movie ends up on the cutting room floor? Well for this movie it’s like they forgot to do the cutting; they just left everything in it. Generally, it comes across as a film that is trying way too hard to be “epic”. Yes there are long sweeping vistas, advanced cinematography and long scenes with very sparse dialogue. Sometimes this approach can be entertaining, but for 163 minutes? This film requires a large capacity bladder and if you include previews, be aware you will be sitting there for about 3 hours. Where the original had so much action and interesting characters, this sequel is almost the opposite; most characters show no emotion at all and the whole thing drags so slowly, we came close to walking out after about two excruciating hours. I’ll admit performances by Ford, Gosling and Leto were good considering the script they were handed. However again it was way too long and to make matters worse, you leave with hardly a hint of an uplift.

I'll admit DiCaprio was very intense in this movie but not sure why it got such high ratings. it's not what I'd call "entertaining", the whole thing is rather dreary and depressing. in the end you also get the feeling DiCaprio's motivation was partly due to his political left leaning. it subtly regurgitates the old myth that the white man came to America and purposely wiped out all the native american indians. This is sad since even many history books don't tell the real story that the majority of native indians died of disease.

The original film with Will Smith I thought was quite entertaining, if a bit cheesy. This remake takes cheesy to a whole new level. i spent half the movie rolling my eyes and nearly just walked out about three quarters of the way through. You get Bill Pullman's character drumming up yet another (but somehow spontaneous) "inspiring" speech where of course all the nearby aircraft mechanics and pilots drop everything they're doing to drop their jaws in awe of his words of wisdom. Then you get a heavy dose of politically correct messages of "can't we all get along?" thrown in. It is 120 minutes of my life i will never get back.

One of the worst movies i've ever sat through. It was basically one scene after another after another of Jobs arguing or having conflict with every person in his life. I have no idea how accurate it was but i suspect its unlikely his life was that negative. there wasn't even any beautiful scenery or decent cinematography to balance out the depression, it was shot like a poor quality documentary. At any rate, the movie was a huge downer and the only thing it succeeds in is raising your blood pressure.

Excellent movie with a group of moderately known guys playing the security contractors who seemed to be perfectly cast for the roles. It helps you understand some of the futility of the US attempting to win allies amongst fanatics. It's also incredibly sobering to see that our state department completely abandoned good people, most likely to avoid admitting Mideast turmoil in an election year.

We’ve all probably seen the preview where Tom Cruise is hanging off the side of a large airplane taking off. Well, the next morning after I saw this movie… that scene was about the only thing I could remember if someone asked me about it. In other words; it was just okay. I talked to my friends about this and we came to the conclusion we’re experiencing “Cruise-fatigue”. I can’t fault the guy for trying to keep the paychecks coming in, but Hollywood’s enthusiasm for Tom Cruise has resulted in choosing his name over movie quality/integrity. Note to Hollywood: if you're writing any more Mission Impossible scripts, please leave Cruise out of it and let him start auditioning for grandpa roles. Tom’s sidekick Jeremy Renner (of recent Bourne fame) is a bit of a fresher face in the cast, but his role in this sequel is much blander than the last one. As for positive points; there is a decent motorcycle chase scene, and the newest female face in this genre (Rebecca Ferguson) I thought was excellent. She is pretty but not in a way that makes it hard to believe she can also beat someone down. Hopefully this will open up opportunities for her because it would be fun to see her in more films.

I believe this is the first 10 i've given a movie. i liked it enough to purchase a DVD copy of it. Bay is known for his action and he certainly delivers here. This is a very unique plot line that has not been explored before. Scarlett Johansson is the most beautiful i've ever seen her in a film, Sean Bean is as intense and excellent as ever. Keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout, definitely in my top 10 of all time.

Surprisingly good. Don't expect something like all those really goofy movies where two people swap personalities due to some fairy tale, this is actually a pretty unique take in this sic-fi genre. There are subtle parallels to a 2005 film The Island with Ewan McGregor (one of my favorite sleeper films) but this is quite a departure even from that one. Some nice plot twists and surprises as certain families get pulled into the plot lines, even my wife enjoyed this film, which I wasn't expecting.

I read all the books so I knew where the story was going... for the most part. its been a couple years since I read it but it seemed like the movie "diverged" a bit from the book. nevertheless it was similar to the first movie in that it was well done, excellent casting, acting, and very good special effects and scenery. the main character Shailene Woodley continues her quiet internalizing of everything in her life, you could draw some similarities with the teen angst displayed by Kristin Stewart in the Twilight series, in fact it's exasperating at times and you just want Tris to "spit it out"! I didn't give it better than a 6 simply because the whole thing is pretty dark, serious business, though you get some nice resolutions in the end. By the way, knowing where this goes in book 3, I'm tempted to call it quits here... i'm not sure i want to see the third movie.

Once again Bradley Cooper proves he is far more than a pretty face and manages to transform both his affect and drastically change his physique, while pulling off what seems to be a true rendition of war hero Chris Kyle. I see some of the lower score reviews are not unbiased movie reviews but more likely liberal rants from people that are afraid to use the term Islam when naming the violent enemies of not only America but of most first world nations on the planet. Having had a close family member pull two tours in Iraq, i can say this is one of the first movies that really helps a civilian understand a little of the torment and pain and sacrifice our soldiers experience. This is good enough that Cooper and Eastwood deserve Oscars. They don't delve too deeply into the struggling wife, but Sienna Miller does a good job in her role. Though we all know what happened to Kyle, I'm also glad the ending of the movie was handled with grace and didn't put us through too much agony.

For a Christian it would be hard not to lend a biblical critique to this. It was odd to the point of irritating that a story about Noah not once uses the word "God" in the script, yet it certainly seems typical for Hollywood. There were semi-modern industrial references that seemed way out of place for the historically accepted time period. Even without the biblical errors, the show overall was excruciatingly long and it spends most of its time in a dark and sinister mood.

It is very well produced and enjoyable as long as you walk in knowing it is in a documentary format. It is both brave and tragic; brave of D’Souza to shine a light on so much truth that is now considered politically incorrect, yet tragic that so few news or educational sources report on these truths. Also whether or not it was intentional, Metacritic has done us all a great favor in segregating critics from the rest of us. Especially for a politically charged film like this, the Metacritic format exposes mainstream media so-called “critics” for what their true liberal bias shows they are. Finally, I’d recommend portions of D’ Souza’s content be used to fact-check all of our children’s history text books.

Well of course a year before it came out, many people were wondering "Do we really need yet another Superman movie ?!?" The answer was clearly No after seeing this flop. A few positive notes first; I do like Amy Adams in her part as well as Kevin Costner and I'd say the buildup in the first third of the movie as Clark was growing up wasn't terrible. The biggest problem was in the end when you have the inevitable battle with a bad guy; one of those battles that just goes on and on and on ...and on and on. it was ridiculous. Keep in mind its one of those situations where of course Supermnan is essentially indestructible and of course his nemesis is almost equally indestructible, yet they endlessly throw each other through buidlings, throw cars and trucks at each other, bury themselves under tons of concrete and metal... but neither one is hurt of course so you just get totally bored with it. This was a total waste and 143 minutes of my life i will never get back.

I'll admit there is some beautiful bodies and gratuitous skin, especially the starring actress Margot Robbie is gorgeous. However there just isn't much of a story and it seems like a really long movie that's mostly about severe substance abuse, which makes it kind of a downer.

Well I expected it to be depressing but how many movies about slavery do we need? Plus there are so many moments where the main character is shown in deep thought and anguish... Yes we get the point he's traumatized but those moments drag on and on. It was tedious, a downer, and way too long.

This movie reminds me why we should often not worry about what the critics say. Granted it won't receive academy nominations and not too artsy or deeply thought-provoking or intellectual, but sometimes people just want to go to a movie and be entertained without having to think too much. Keep in mind I'm well beyond 40 yrs old and i do also love movies like silver linings playbook, so you know where i'm coming from. but both my wife and i found this was one of the most entertaining movies we can remember seeing. It does draw some interesting parallels with Hunger games (which we also liked) but is a different and unique take on future humanity struggling (and failing) to control and manage society. Sadly, I worry one of the reasons this kind of storyline is ringing true to viewers these days is because our own society and leaders seem to be running off the rails themselves, and a twisted Orwellian future state seems less far-fetched than ever before...

I'm sorry but sometimes you have to put down your cannes-film festival critic's hat, sit back and just laugh your head off at some moderately crude humor. No it won't win any awards and it even dips into some sappy moments that are pretty ridiculous, but I haven't laughed this much at a movie in a very long time. And even if she did use a body double for some scenes, Aniston is still gorgeous. If you can kick back with a glass of wine or a beer and not take it too seriously, it's hilarious!

As purely an action/drama film it was very good and Tom Hanks was as good as he consistently is. One drawback is some of the after-story blowback where certain crew members have criticized over-heroization of Phillips (as Hollywood often does) and claims that the path he routed close to the Somali border in order to speed delivery is actually what put them in harm's way in the first place. But the biggest problem with this as with some of the other Navy SEAL-related films lately, is that it is horribly wrong to allow a movie to reveal our special forces tactics. Even the slightest reveal has the potential for putting our troops in greater danger and I have no patience for this sloppy exposure.

I'm old enough to have seen the original Robocop in the 1980s, I liked the original and I have to say this was done very well. It is not a sequel, it is in fact a pure re-make that is fairly true to the original screenplay. I hadn't seen this actor before but he played the role of tough cop with a good heart very well. Ironically, the only character that seemed to space out a bit in some of the scenes was the well known actor Michael Keaton. I'm a fan of Keaton but I'm not sure he was a good choice as the evil CEO-type. But overall the movie has great action and quite entertaining.

Well I went in with mediocre expectations because i didn't really like the theme where a "good guy" seems to get blamed unfairly for a bad behavior as the movie trailers suggest. However, I was pleasantly surprised there were complexities to the plot that go a bit further than you expect. All in all a pretty good action film, but i have to give it a six simply because I'm not sure I'll be raving about it a couple weeks from now.

Well i love the cast and have to admit i'm a big fan of Jennifer Lawrence, but can't give this a high score. On the pros; it had an excellent sounds track (especially for baby boomers) and yes much of the cast blended together very well. But on the negative side, i just felt the plot line was a bit tedious and the movie overall felt like it was about 30 min too long.

Very good action-filled movie from start to finish. After the mixture of actors that have portrayed Jack Ryan and particularly mediocre showings from Ben Affleck and Alec Baldwin, this young Chris Pine is a breath of fresh air. Chris really brings a youth and intensity to the character. The only fault I can list is Keira Knightley's character as Ryan's love interest; her reaction to the revelation of what Ryan really does for a living lacks in some believability...

There's no doubt the big star casting is impressive here and certainly there was some very impressive and very emotional acting. Unfortunately i cannot endorse a movie enthusiastically when it comes down to the fact you walk out of the theater feeling like crap. honestly i don't see the point of a movie that is filled with conflict and depressing scenes, topped off with an ending that doesn't resolve anything.

This was the most boring movie I've seen in years. I. Never thought I'd be like my father and fall asleep in movie theaters. But in this case yes I was literally falling asleep. The woman character was so irritating you find yourself wondering why Walt Disney didn't just kick her out of his office the first day, instead of tolerating her incessant whining for weeks. I recommend not seeing it and don't even bother renting it later.

After doing such a nice job with LOTR, its such a sad situation and such a blatant money grab and complete disregard for J.R.R. Tolkien's original prose. The Hobbit was about 1/6th the length of Lord of The Rings, yet the producers chose a worthless and mind-numbing extension of Hobbit into two ridiculously long movies. The graphics and effects and story was so expansive in LOTR we were willing to allow the division into three films, but for the Hobbit there is absolutely no reason to split it up other than to **** more money out of our wallets.

'd have to disagree with the 10s. I admit it was fairly good but I'd say it was great on aesthetics, but mediocre on plot. It is very comparable to tom hanks Apollo 13, with the difference being that Apollo 13 had a more interesting plot line and many more interesting characters. I've always liked Bullock but honestly it is difficult to believe her and even more difficult to believe Clooney as an astronaut. Yes I'm sure it was very expensive to shoot such realistic space scenes and they were very good but in the end I thought the story was somewhat forgettable.

The leading actress was so exceptional in Descendants plus overall reviews for this movie were very good, we had high hopes going in. There was pretty good character development but it starts out with the stereotypical troubled teens/romance type plot we've all seen a million times so naturally we expected there must be some new twist to make this good. Sadly the unusual or creative twist never came so we thought well then it must have an incredible ending, yet there too we were very disappointed. There's nothing new or interesting here folks so I recommend you stay away and save your money.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Chris Pine is again excellent as James Kirk, as are the exceptional cast in the new series. I was pleasantly surprised because so often when a new series comes on so incredibly strong, the sequel often disappoints. Having said that the reason for my less than stellar scores simply the casting selection of the villain. Yes we understand the timeline is now shifted but the villain from whence he is derived absolutely drives the need for a Latino actor. For example Javier Bardem would have been an excellent choice.

It's not all bad, the scenery and special effects were excellent, as were the two female Costars. I was also pleasantly surprised to see the Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who did a good job as a sidekick to Morgan Freeman and has gained recent notoriety in the Game of Thrones show. The bad was that of course we've seen this post-apocalyptic plot regurgitated so many times in a few weeks you will have trouble remembering what stood out about this film. Finally, the really ugly is Hollywood's continuous insult to our intelligence when casting lead actors. America is so deeply weary of being reminded Tom Cruise is the most amazing man in the universe... Note to Hollywood: please give Cruise a rest.

Fairly useful and brute force historical depiction of the civil war. it shows how even back in the 1800s, the U.S. congress was all about back room deal-making, but at least then they weren't able to make a career out of being in congress. Though Steven Spielberg obviously has made some blockbusters, you still have to wonder with a topic like this; how much of the subtleties were created by the "world according to Spielberg"...? Its also a bit depressing to be so blatantly reminded that our country has not learned from history and in fact has gone backwards in terms of degrading and disrespecting the constitution. You can't walk out of Lincoln without feeling that this country used to have such promise and prosperity... and now it is so deeply bogged down with a bloated federal government, thousands of laws and taxes, and power-hungry career politicians that care only about their next election cycle...

Yet another blatant exploitation of our nation's defense and security tactics. Everyone involved in this film should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. Clearly too much information was leaked and everyone should boycott this kind of movie. Anything that provides this kind of insight into our military tactics carries the risk of putting our soldiers into harm's way.

One of the best of the year. I was a fan of the Aliens series and this shares a common background but takes things in a very new direction. special effects and scenery were excellent. Characters were all well cast and Noomi Rapace is absolutely phenomenal as the tough girl who has to survive some ridiculous events.

Its not terrible but Paul Rudd keeps playing the same kind of guy. Honestly I saw it a couple weeks ago and I had to watch the trailer again on here in order to remember it. I do like John Lithgow and he was one of the more interesting characters but his role was very small. Also I'm not sure when Hollywood is going to learn that most men generally are uncomfortable with jokes about ****. It was just okay but very forgettable. If you watch a trailer for it, you've seen all you really need to see.

Please don't waste your money on a ticket to Jack Reacher. I think some of these movie studios could save a lot of trouble, if every year they would just release a movie entitled "Generic Tom Cruise Action Movie". This has to go down as one of the worst casting errors in film history. The premise is just so silly; Tom Cruise is what about 5' 7"... my grandmother could kick his butt. I don't know if I'm more disappointed with Cruise, the film studio, or Lee Child, the author of the Jack Reacher novels. I guess the only people that might find this movie tolerable are people that don't read books. Lee Child's series of books featuring this character are not exactly Melville, but they are entertaining and one thing you don't forget is his character development. If you know the stories, then you know this is a little bit like casting Cruise to play the life story of Hulk Hogan. You don't have to take my work for it; look up a facebook page called "Tom Cruise is not Jack Reacher".

I had to give it at least a 1 for the beautiful scenery and the valiant effort by several very good actors. Sadly, it was destined to be a flop ever since Peter Jackson decided to drag a wonderful story out into three separate films. The original Hobbit depending on what publication edition, was roughly 1/5 or less of the number of pages of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This leaves you feeling you not only get to pay three times to see one story, but you also get to wait a full year between each release! I could wait until all three are out and watch it, but I don't want to sit on my butt for so long in front of a TV that I could have just re-read the original story in paperback.

The plot was quite dark and the movie seemed to drag on too long. Darkness is ok to an extent but there was very little that was fun or even interesting in the movie; not even many interesting gadgets that previous Bond movies typically include. I like Daniel Craig, but this is clearly the worst of the Craig series of Bond movies. I won't recommend any family or friends go see this movie.

Politics aside, I hesitated going to this because in general, documentaries can be a little dry. On the contrary, D'Souza came across as extremely intelligent and engaging. It kept up a good pace, laid out the facts clearly and kept me interested all the way through. If you keep up with events, there won't be too many surprises but it confirms the sad truth. This Manchurian candidate we've elected is rapidly sinking our nation. Everyone should see this movie.

I read the critique that it was overly bleak, but seemed about the same level of darkness as the 2nd movie. The only difference was this one was at least 45 minutes too long. I thought it was very mediocre, a bit tedious and certainly too long. The hand-to-hand combat was very poor and telegraphed. Not much new to see and a bit boring.

I'm old enough to have seen the first TRON in the theater so I have to admit, I walked in somewhat jaded and thinking it wouldn't likely be very good. I was actually pleasantly surprised. There was good chemistry with the actors and Olivia Wilde was an excellent addition to the cast. The technology and vehicles were also very well done.

I should have known better when I attempted to read the book a couple years ago. it drug on so painfully slow I had tog give it up about three quarters of the way through. This movie was the same way; so incredibly slow and drawn out, we walked out of the theatre before it was finished. Some of the earlier Harry Potter movies were entertaining but I definitely cannot recommend this one. The sad thing is there will be a Part 2 to this movie, which I will certainly not bother to see.

A couple of funny lines but sadly, you've already seen them if you've seen the trailer. Ben Stiller's type-casting stereotype is growing incredibly old.

I'm old enough to have seen the original and its not just an issue of "why remake a John Wayne movie?". I have to give Jeff Bridges some credit, he certainly has skill. Matt Damon however seemed to be an odd casting choice and a bit awkward in this kind of movie. Overall, the whole thing moved slow and therefore seemed to drag on. I left the theater feeling like I had wasted an afternoon and that there was no point in remaking this film. The original was excellent and this version brought nothing new.