Best TV Show That I Just Watched

Best TV Show That I Just Watched
Parks & Recreation

Monday, March 26, 2018

Molly's Game Review


There are certain creative people that just hit us right between the eyes. They speak to us. While not everything that a specific creative person does appeals to that person’s fans, generally speaking, the fans are more geared to enjoy the work that person creates. For some people, it may be painting, and others may be spoken to by architecture, writing, sculpture, directing, acting, the list goes on.
    For most people of my generation, Steven Spielberg is very much a director like that. Maybe Empire of the Sun and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull were not in your wheelhouse, but you cant imagine a world without ET, Jurassic Park, and Schindler’s List. I currently work with someone who feels that everything that Quentin Tarantino touches is gold. I am a huge fan of both Spielberg and Tarantino, but they each have certain projects that they have been connected to that speak to me more than others.
   Spielberg and Hitchcock are two of my personal creative idols. I would also put Cameron Crowe, John Sayles, and Rob Thomas (not the musician) also very high on my list. But, the talent that speaks to me first and foremost is writing. As a book author, Stephen King tops my list. But the current writing talent who creates both film and television who speaks to me most is Aaron Sorkin.
   I was on my mission in France when A Few Good Men came out, but it was one of the first films that I saw when I got home and I loved it! A courtroom drama with such amazing, crackling dialogue is definitely something I can appreciate!
   I didn’t know this until a couple of years ago, but I actually heard Sorkin dialogue on my first day back in theaters after my mission. Since A Few Good Men was so widely loved, for a few years, Sorkin worked as a script doctor on many huge hit films in the mid ‘90’s and, looking back on it, it is quite obvious to hear Sorkin dialogue in Spielberg’s aforementioned Jurassic Park. If you’re a Sorkin fan, think about it. Most everything out of Goldblum’s mouth was probably reworked by Sorkin in some way.
   Aaron Sorkin went on to write the film The American President (the less said about Malice the better, except for Baldwin’s ‘I am God’ speech) and Michael Douglas’ blistering speech at the end of that film made me take notice of who wrote that film.
   I tuned into the TV show SportsNight for 2 reasons- it was written by the guy who wrote The American President and it was right after Michael J Fox’s show Spin City, so I only had to elongate the taping time to catch SportsNight anyway. So I did. Even though I didn’t (and still don’t) care about sports. But ABC’s advertising called SportsNight a “Tv show about sports the same way that Charlie’s Angels was about law enforcement”. Even though it took 22 minutes for Casey McCall to come out of his funk from his recent divorce to do a cold tease about their upcoming show, I was basically a goner after a studio technician was asked to ensure that Helsinki was in Sweden and Dan Rydell responded with, “Yea, we think there’s a pretty good chance!” But, especially after SportsNight’s second episode where Dan had to give an on-air apology about an interview he gave and he ended up apologizing to his dead brother for mistakes made in his past, that I realized that Sorkin could tackle issues, comedy, and drama in even measure.
   Sorkin would go on to write 2 seasons of SportsNight, the first 4 seasons of The West Wing, 1 season of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (and, while still having its share of problems, a show I feel is much better than 30 Rock), 3 seasons of The Newsroom (whose opening scene is a constant Facebook meme), along with the scripts for Charlie Wilson’s War, Bulworth, he co-scripted Moneyball, wrote Steve Jobs (the Michael Fassbender version NOT the Ashton Kutcher version), and The Social Network (whose opening scene of dropping you right into the middle of an argument and expecting you to keep up is still my favorite thing ever written for the screen).
   By this point of me explaining my adoration for all things Sorkin, you will pretty much be able to tell that I went into Molly’s Game extremely biased and also, if it will be your cup of tea or not.
Molly’s Game is based on the true story of Molly Bloom who, after flaming out in grand style during the final qualifying mogul skiing run before  the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics, ends up going to Los Angeles, working for a real estate broker and running that broker’s weekly poker games. In real life, these games included such stars as Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey McGuire, Todd Phillips, A-Rod, and many more. Molly ended up taking over this game, and, after leaving Los Angeles and moving to New York, starting up her own game at an even higher price and running the highest priced private poker games in the nation. Until she ran into trouble with the law by crossing a small line and getting into trouble with the Federal Government.
   Molly’s Game, using Sorkin’s trademark back-and-forth style starts his film with the ski trial, then with Molly getting arrested, then flashbacks to explain how she got where she was, and continuing a forward motion story of Molly with her lawyer and how she is trying to stay out of prison while keeping her dignity. Sorkin (also directing for his first time) jumps out of the gate and never slows down. He expects you to keep up for the entire 2 hour and 20 minute runtime.
 Sorkin is known for using very fast paced dialogue to explain hard to explain things in a very compact way, but also while using high aptitude language. In order to speak Sorkinese, an actor has to be of a very high caliber to ensure that the words placed in their mouths come out flowing instead of tripping and dribbling. This is why I have had to rethink my initial impressions of Matthew Perry, Jesse Eisenberg, Brad Pitt, and Jonah Hill.
    Luckily, Molly’s Game is lead by Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba. They are high quality actors who feel comfortable with Sorkin’s words in their mouths and it sounds right coming from them. Normally, near the end of a Sorkin script, one character gets to use all the bombast at their disposal to make large declarative statements that sum up the themes of the story. Idris Elba gets that chance here and he does it in a very non-bombastic way, but it works perfectly and gets the point across just as powerfully.
   Chastain is always powerful on screen and solidifies it here. Having read the book written by the real Molly Bloom, Chastain puts the attitude of the real Bloom in her performance and, mixed with Sorkin’s dialogue, gives a, perhaps, career high performance. Elba keeps up with her in every way. His role is more to pull the exposition for the audience out of Molly and he gives a fascinatingly strong, even performance. Where many actors could have blustered their way through it, Elba subtly nudges the audience through the emotions and the case, and gets the quiet moments of power. Chastain’s is the showy role, but Elba’s is the solid rock that she can bounce off.
   As a first time director, it is easy to see that Sorkin studied the people who have directed his previous scripts and used some of their tricks to keep the camera and the forward motion of the picture moving while the dialogue keeps going at a breakneck pace. There are several times where one can see an exact directoral lift from SportsNight’s own poker episode ‘Shoe Money Tonight’. Other times, you can see a camera angle that David Fincher would have used in Social Network. Yet, Sorkin makes it his own and keeps the movie’s pace humming right along. He doesn’t get in his own way. He trusted Chastain and the film’s costume designer to choose clothing that looks expensive and sexy, yet never in a sexualized way. In a year which could be called The Year of the Woman, a very strong female story and performance is guided by a man who trusts the women around him.
   If you are not a Sorkin fan, this film will not change your mind. In fact, to paraphrase Spinal Tap, How much more Sorkin could it be? None. None more Sorkin. But, if you are a fan, or even intrigued a little bit by this story, give it a shot.
   Molly’s Game is as much about poker as SportsNight was about sports and Charlie’s Angels was about law enforcement. Even if you don’t know a straight from a Royal Flush, I would recommend that you give this film a whirl and jump right in.
   Living in St George, this film was only playing for 2 weeks and I only got to see it twice. As of this moment, it is my favorite film of the year 2017. I still have a lot of films that I still need to see from 2017, but I do not see Molly’s Game falling that far down my list, no matter what. I will definitely be watching Molly’s Game many, many more times throughout this year and the rest of my life. But, I am an obsessive Sorkin fan, and that is just part of what I do.
   Molly’s Game is a tour de force of acting and writing, and many times in a film, that’s what captivates me- a character and an actor portraying that character’s emotions through a well written script. There are no explosions in Molly’s Game, and it couldn’t be called an action film by any stretch of the imagination, but it shows you just how breathless words and actors can make an audience.

    Film rating- 10/10
   Movie rating- 10/10

Insidious- The Last Key Review Review


   Horror films are a strange quantity to review. Generally speaking, people like comedies if they make them laugh, dramas if they feel something, and action films if things are kept moving and enough stuff blows up or goes flying through the air- specifically on fire. Horror films, though, people tend to like for a lot of different reasons. Some people want to be creeped out, others want to laugh at how stupid they are, some want to see how bloody and gory they get, and some just want their significant other to hold them just a little bit tighter on the way home from the theater.
   It gets even tougher to review a horror film that is the fourth film in a franchise- especially a franchise about which I have very conflicted feelings.
   The Insidious franchise comes from the mind of Leigh Wannell, who gave us the Saw franchise, and Jason Blum, the producer of such varied micro-budgeted films as Get Out, The Purge, Split, and Jem and the Holograms. It should be noted that Insidious was never meant to be a franchise, but when your $1.5 million budgeted horror film makes a $95 million profit, the studio wants you to keep making them. As such, the four Insidious films have a chronological continuity of films 3, 4 (The Last Key), 1, and 2.
  Since this film bridges films 3 and 1, if you have not seen either of those films, then I would not recommend seeing this one. While The Last Key tells a relatively straight forward story in and of itself, it does not go into details such as what exactly is The Further? How does one get to The Further? Who is Dalton? Who is Quinn? Who are any of these characters? Why does a red door matter? And if none of this makes any sense to you, then Insidious The Last Key is not a film for you.
   The sequel to the prequel, this film goes back in time and starts with, and then intermingles, the childhood of current psychic Elise Rainier with a case that is presently taking place at the house where she was raised. We find out why Tucker and Specs wear the outfits they wear and get in on an early case with Elise and her sidekicks.
   Before getting deeper into this film, it must be said that I loved the original Insidious. It reinvented the genre and created an immense amount of tension and scares and creepiness that was all done in a way that looked so easy (and most of the effects and scares were done in a very inventive yet physically simple way which could technically be done by any film student) but needs a real pro of storytelling and directing to be able to pull it off. The strong alpha-female mother character played by Rose Byrne who would do anything to protect and get her son back brought a strong emotional kick to the proceedings that created a real backbone for the story. Byrne and her husband, played by Patrick Wilson,  get a psychic (Lin Shaye) who helped Wilson’s character with some disturbing things when he was younger.
   Then came Insidious Chapter 2 which, in my opinion, turned Byrne’s character into a damsel in distress a few too many times and took away her strength and decision making capabilities, and let Shaye’s psychic (who is still an intriguing character) do the saving of the family.
   For Insidious 3, like I said, we jumped back several years and Shaye’s psychic character is helping a young motherless girl who is stuck in a cast at home, being terrorized by an entity in the building which may be affecting her friends as well.
    In The Last Key, we now go back and try to explain how all these films connect in a way that isn’t just through Lin Shaye’s character while making the film solely about her.
   And this is both a very good and a very bad thing.
   Lin Shaye, as Elise Rainier, is easily the best part of this film. She immediately gains your empathy and is very likeable right off the bat. When she is frightened, you are right there with her, when she feels sad, or overwhelmed, or mildly amused, you feel it, too. Unfortunately, this is not a one person show.
   Horror films almost always need at least a bit of humor injected into the runtime so that a little pressure can be released before the next big scare. The humor used in this film feels weak and forced and the characters to whom it is given do not perform it well and the humor is more cringe-inducing and seems like it comes from a Saturday Night Live sketch mocking the Insidious films instead of from an Insidious film. Another couple of actors also seem to be in that same SNL sketch.
   The scares in the original Insidious film were all very low tech, but here, the need for special effects and CGI, for me, lessened the terror in the film. While some of the shots are indeed, very creepy, after the camera cut from the shot, it didn’t stay with me.
   My problem with this film comes purely down to the script and the direction. Needing to connect all of these films with something other than the psychic Elise Rainier also felt like more of a studio need for another film in the franchise than a plot or story need to wrap things up. Is the main plot idea a bad one? Not at all. In fact, in and of itself, if it could have just told the story of Elise as a child and how it affected her work in modern day, I think it would have been a solid entry, but needing to tie everything together and lace it with some badly timed and written humor creates more of a feeling of ‘meh’ then anything else. Also, several of the performances come across as ham handed, over the top, and don’t fit emotionally. There is also an over-reliance on musical stinging jump scares. If a horror film has nothing else in its playbook, it has almost nothing, and they go to this well a few too many times, instead of trying to create a truly scary scene.
   Yet, with all of these problems, I would also be lying if I said that certain scenes didn’t work on an emotional or creepy level. They do. Special mention must be made for many of the actresses in the film, not just Lin Shaye, who do more for this film than they have any right to do. Even the emotionally cathartic resolutions all hit home for me when, purely by the film and script alone, they didn’t earn it. It’s just that the good is on screen with the bad at the exact same time and it makes the viewing a very jarring one, and not in the ways the filmmakers intended, I am sure.
   If you are a fan of these films, I would definitely say to go see it- not that me telling you not to see it would really keep you away. If you have always been interested in these films, but have yet to see any of them, start with the first one. If you see every horror film that comes out, you will have seen much better and also much worse.
For me in rating films, a film rating is more of a critical rating and the movie rating is more of an audience type of rating.

Insidious The Last Key-

Film Rating- 3
Movie rating- 5

Monday, January 22, 2018

Where Have I Been?

It has been one heck of a last 2 years.
I kept wanting to start the blog back up, but, again, just like after my dad died, there were so many things that happened, and I didnt know how to start back up. So, here is the start back up!
I don't want to get into all of it, but here is the gist of it.

1- In August of 2015, I had implantable corrective lenses put in my eyes. I was lucky, and got to be the 1 percent of people who have the surgery who get cataracts from it. So, in August of 2017, I got the cataracts taken care of. Due to the cataracts, I had to crank the magnification up on my computer and I couldnt really see it unless it was at 600%. Try that. Crank your computer up to that high of magnification and see how much fun it is to be on the computer.
2- I was working 2 jobs- Protection 1 and Megaplex Theaters. My job at Protection 1 got phased out so I got put into the general customer service area and, because I was new to customer service, I was given the worst shifts possible (even though I had been at the company for 9 years) and had to make my Megaplex shifts work around those crappy shifts.
3- I eventually left Protection 1 to work for another company (which I would prefer not to name). I was hired to do one thing and, almost every week, my job description got changed, and I was never trusted to do any part of the job, until I was given an impossible job and tasks and, when it didn't work, I was let go...the week before Thanksgiving. So, Megaplex became my main job.
4- In a 6 month period, I had a car fire, my car was totalled, but I was safe. So, I got a new car, and then got into an accident which totalled that car. And I am now on my third car in about a 15 month period. Hopefully I will have this one for a while.
5- My wife Aleisha and I seperated in August of 2016. She moved to Austin, Texas. We tried to make it work for 10 months, but, on June 2, 2017, Aleisha asked for a divorce. This was after we had already started the process to get back together in St. George, UT, but things just weren't progressing in that way. I filed the divorce papers in Salt Lake. Since the process had already begun, I continued to move and so, I am now ,living in St. George, Utah. The divorce finalized the day before Thanksgiving 2017. So, as of this writing, I have now been single for 2 months.
6- I was able to transfer to a theater in St George with Megaplex, so I am now an Assistant Manager at the discount theater in St George. I am working on trying to get as many smaller and independent films to the theater as I can. The first one I fought for, Megan Leavey, was one of our top sellers of 2017. I also made Team Leader of the year after just 6 months at that theater. I am quite proud of that achievement!
7- I have started a movie club with my friends from the theater, showing them some of my favorite films of all time and talking about them.
8- I am working on writing curiculuum with my mom for a school down here in Southern Utah. We just started, so I dont have much more information, but it feels great to get back to writing!
9- I have also started writing movie reviews again and I am initially sending them to a website called www.filmsleeprepeat.com. After being there for a short while exclusively, I will start posting them here and on my podcast site so that I will have record of them, no matter what happens in the future to the other site.
10- I have also started writing the sequel to my fiction series novel, the continuing adventures of Jonathan Edward Mills. Boy, does it feel great to write again!
11- At this time, I still have the four cats- Ainsley, Calleigh, Felicity, and Cordy. They have helped me immensely during this transition period.

So, as January  2017 comes to a close, I am 45 years old, newly divorced, single, now living alone in St. George, Utah, working at a local movie theater, writing movie reviews for a blog, writing history curiculuum for a school with my mom, working on a sequel to my book, trying to get that all published, and trying to start over again.

It's hard, but I feel good. It's not where I would ever have chosen to be, but, it seems to be working out.

I'm back!


Wednesday, December 30, 2015

What I Watched in 2015

Since I am working both jobs between now and the end of the year, this is my final list for the year of 2015. I have not had a chance to see any movies in the past 2 weeks because of working both jobs like crazy, but I will be catching up on some of those in the first week or two of 2016. I will also be catching up on many films that I missed in theaters that are coming out on video in the next month or so, so I will be posting my 'Best of' list just before the Oscars, so that I may also include Oscar nominated films that slipped by me.

So, without further ado, here is my list of everything I saw in 2015:




Previous Years’ films

Annapolis
Matinee
Grandma’s Boy
The Program
Supercross
Fire with Fire
Bride Wars
Fame- 2009
Making of Alien 4
Father Hood
10
Trouble with the Curve
Innkeepers
Star Wars


Full ReWatch with others


Cheers Ssn 3
Cheers Ssn 4
Veronica Mars Ssn 1

Boyhood
Whiplash
Birdman
17 Again
Amazing Spider Man 2
Life Itself
Ghostbusters 2
Lego Movie
John Wick
Blended
When the Game Stands Tall
Million Dollar Arm
Alexander and the Terrible Day
About Last Night
Big Hero 6
Guardians of the Galaxy
Annie- 2014
Trance
Rocky
Big Eyes
Into the Storm
Iron Giant
Hot Fuzz- 3x
Commitments- 2x
Prisoners


TV Series

Benson Ssn 1
Benson Ssn 2
Big Bang Theory Ssn 7
Big Bang Theory Ssn 8
Castle Ssn 6
Castle Ssn 7
Charlie’s Angels Ssn 3
CSI Ssn 14
CSI Ssn 15
CSI Cyber Ssn 1
Dallas Ssn 1
Dallas Ssn 2
iZombie Ssn 1
Mentalist Ssn 6
Mentalist Ssn 7
Nashville Ssn 1
Psych Ssn 8
Rizzoli & Isles Ssn 5
Rockford Files Ssn 1
Scrubs ssn 4
Scrubs Ssn 5
Scrubs Ssn 6
Scrubs Ssn 7
Scrubs Ssn 8
Scrubs Ssn 9
Streets of San Francisco Ssn 5
Vegas Sssn 1 V 1
Wings Ssn 1
Wings Ssn 2


2014films

American Sniper- 2x
Inherent Vice
Foxcatcher
Selma
Babadook
Ida
Unbroken
Still Alice
Laggies
Mr. Turner
Two Days One Night

2015 Films


1-Taken 3
2- Woman in Black 2
3- Wedding Ringer- 2x
4- Project Almanac
5- Jupiter Ascending
6- Black Sea
7- Loft
8- Fifty Shades of Grey
9- Hot Tub Time Machine 2
10- McFarland USA
11- Kingsmen- The Secret Service
12- Focus
13- DUFF- 2x
14- Lazarus Effect
15- Chappie
16- Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
17- Unfinished Business
18- Cinderella- 2x
19- Run All Night
20- Last Five Years- 2x
21- Ala Mala- 2x
22- Insurgent
23- It Follows
24- Get Hard
25- Furious 7
26- Woman in Gold
27- Freetown
28- Longest Ride
29- Danny Collins
30- Unfriended- 2x
31- Paul Blart Mall Cop 2
32- Ex Machina
33- Age of Adaline- 2x
34- Monkey kingdom
35- Avengers- Age of Ultron
36- Water Diviner
37- Hot Pursuit
38- Paddington
39- Most Violent Year
40- Spare Parts- 2x
41- Pitch Perfect 2- 3x
42- Mad Max Fury Road
43- Mortdecai
44- Poltergeist
45- Roar
46- The Voices
47- Boy Next Door
48- Cut Bank
49- Aloha
50- Seventh Son
51- Good Kill
52- Tomorrowland
53- San Andreas- 2x
54- Far From the Madding Crowd
55- Spy- 2x
56- Entourage- 2x
57- Jurassic World- 3x
58- Cokeville Miracle
59- Insidious Chapter 3
60- Love & Mercy- 3x
61- Red Army
62- Blackhat
63- Black or White
64- Wild Tales
65- Inside Out
66- Ted 2
67- Dope
68- Max
69- Terminator Genisys
70- Magic Mike XXL
71- Me & Earl & the Dying Girl
72- Kill Me Three Times
73- Minions
74- Gallows
75- Self/Less
76- Ant-Man
77- Trainwreck- 2x
78- Pixels- 2x
79- Mr. Holmes
80- Southpaw
81- Paper Towns
82- Blindsided
83- Vacation
84- Mission Impossible- Rogue Nation
85- Batkid Begins
86- Amy
87- Fantastic Four
88- The Gift- 2x
89- Ricki & the Flash
90- Irrational Man
91- Shaun the Sheep
92- Straight Outta Compton
93- Once I Was a Beehive- 2x
94- Vatican Tapes
95- American Ultra
96- No Escape
97- Hitman- Agent 47
98- Man From U.N.C.L.E.
99- We Are Your Friends
100- Walk in the Woods
101- Burying the Ex
102- Cake
103- The Visit
104- The D Train
105- Transporter Refueled
106- True Story
107- Maze Runner- Scorch Trials
108- Barely Lethal
109- Meru
110- Everest
111- Do You Believe?
112- Perfect Guy
113- Captive
114- Martian- 3x
115- The Walk
116- Pan
117- Intern
118- Hotel Transylvania 2
119- 99 Homes
120- Ladrones
121- Goosebumps
122- Crimson Peak
123- Just Let Go
124- Sicario
125- I’ll See You in My Dreams
126- Return to Sender
127- Woodlawn
128- Last Witch Hunter
129- Paranormal Activity- Ghost Dimension
130- Steve Jobs- 2x
131- Jem & the Holograms
132- Rock the Kasbah
133- Scouts Guide to  Zombie Apocalypse
134- Burnt
135- Truth
136- Spectre- 2x
137- Our Brand is Crisis
138- Miss You Already
139- Suffragette
140- When We’re Young
141- Final Girls- 2x
142- She’s Funny That Way
143- Final Girl
144- Bridge of Spies
145- Peanuts Movie
146- My All American
147- Love the Coopers
148- Hunger Games- Mockingjay Part 2
149- Night Before
150- Secret in Their Eyes
151- Spotlight- 2x
152- Creed
153- Electric Boogaloo- Story of Cannon
154- Good Dinosaur
155- Victor Frankenstein
156- The 33
157- Brooklyn- 2x
158- Krampus
159- Trumbo
160- Christmas Eve
161- Cooties
162- Stanford Prison Experiment
163- In the Heart of the Sea
164- Mississippi Grind
165- Room
166- Star Wars- Force Awakens




Missed in Theaters

Romance in the Outfield
Gunman
Child 44
War Room
Mistress America
Sinister 2
90 Minutes in heaven
Grandma
Learning to Drive
Pawn Sacrifice
Green Inferno
Freeheld
Black Mass



To  See in Theaters

Sisters
Alvin & Chipmunks
Big Short
Point Break
Joy
Concussion
Daddy’s Home
Hateful Eight
Danish Girl

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Top Films of 2014 #16- 1

16- Imitation Game

15- Lego Movie

14- Gone Girl

13- Guardians of the Galaxy

12- 22 Jump Street

11- Fault in Our Stars

10- Veronica Mars

9- Raid 2

8- Edge of Tomorrow

7- Captain America- Winter Soldier

6- Theory of Everything

5- Whiplash

4- Chef

3- Begin Again

2- Life Itself

1- How to Train Your Dragon 2

Great Films, but Missing That Extra Little Thing- #32- 17

32- Still Alice

31- Nightcrawler

30- John Wick

29- Big Hero 6

28- The Drop

27- Kill the Messenger

26- Most Wanted Man

25- Walk Among the Tombstones

24- Foxcather

23- Oculus

22- Babbadook

21- X-Men Days of Future Past

20- Big Eyes

19- This is Where I Leave You

18- American Sniper

17- Boyhood

Good For What They Were, but Better Than Expected- #80- 33



80- Million Dollar Arm- While I enjoyed this film quite a bit while watching it and I have recommended it many times,, it just felt a little blah at the same time. The acting is great, with Jon hamm, lake Bell, and Alan Arkin, and the Indian actors are a joy to watch, but, again, even though this is a true story, it is still a very cliched version of the way to tell it. There is the businessman who takes a last chance effort to make his business succeed. It works for a while, but everything hinges on these people from a different culture who he brings to the US and they have the predictable fish-out-of-water-experience. There is failure, they teach him what life is truly about, they get one last shot and, success and he turns his life around because of their influence. While admittedly rousing and fun, it also is way too long, and not quite as interesting as it thinks it is.


79- Muppets Most Wanted- The music was nowhere near as good as the last one, although it is still fun enough, the story seems much more slapdash without the heart of the best Muppet films (and also has a feeling of Great Muppet Caper reboot), but this is still an entertaining fun time with the felt fiends. It still gets good mileage out of a bunch of silly gags and I loved Tina Fey overplaying it as the Warden of a gulag. And Danny Trejo because, you know, why not? I realize that this is just a feeling of whining of ‘it’s not as good as the last one’, but, I also don’t see this holding up through the years as well as some of the others, either.

78- Maze Runner- I saw this in Dolby Atmos and, as the walls moved and changed, the theater rumbled and came alive. I was really into the plot and intrigued as to where it was going and what this island was and how they were going to escape…. And then the last ten minutes came, and I just didn’t care anymore. It took the generic, dystopian-future-kids-are-being-tested storyline instead of going with something more interesting and thinking outside of the box. It became what it hadn’t been until that point and my interest level bottomed out. Am I going to see the sequel? Yes, because it’s a movie, but even the sequel seems by the numbers and as uninteresting as it can get.

77-Inherent Vice

76- Top Five

75- Exodus: Gods and Kings

74- Mr. Peabody & Sherman

73- As Above So Below

72- Cantinflas

71- Stalingrad

70- Paranormal Activity- Marked Ones

69- Robocop

68- 13 Sins

67- November Man

66- Deliver Us From Evil

65- Two Days One Night

64- Selma

63- Neighbors

62- Book Of Life

61- St. Vincent

60- Heaven is for Real

59- Godzilla

58- Snowpiercer

57- Ida

56- Horrible Bosses 2

55- Laggies

54- Bad Words

53- About Last Night

52- Mas Negro Que La Noche

51- Non Stop

50- Equalizer

49- Wild

48- Gambler

47- Belle

46- Birdman

45- Boxtrolls

44- When the Game Stands Tall

43- Interstellar

42- Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit

41- Hector & the Search for Happiness

40- Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

39- Draft Day

38- Meet the Mormons

37- Into the Woods

36- Mom's Night Out

35- Vampire Academy

34- 50 to 1

33- Alexander & the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day