The year of 2016 has been the year of the horror movie.  It has had highly anticipated sequels (Conjuring 2), dramatic, tension filled stories (Don’t Breathe, Lights Out) and films that have no right to be good that were (Ouija 2).

Unfortunately, if 2016 is truly the year of the horror movie, then Shut In is the outlier here.  It should have been pushed back until January 2017 so Shut In doesn’t hurt the overall year perception.  Plus, January is where they dump all those crappy horror movies that are ridiculous.

Naomi Watts plays Mary, the step-mother of Stephen (Charlie Heaton), who was paralyzed in the same accident that killed his father.  Worse than just paralyzed, Stephen seemed to be completely mentally gone as well.  Mary had to feed, bathe and care for every last detail of Stephen’s life.

Mary is also a child psychologist, who has been working with other young boys out of her home, isolated in the woods.  One young boy, Tom (Jacob Tremblay), who is apparently deaf, comes to her house and then disappears.  She worries that he has run into the woods and will freeze to death.  A terrible winter storm is on its way, but no one can find Tom.

It is at this point where Mary begins to hear sounds and see strange things happening around the house.  She has been Skyping with her friend Dr. Wilson (Oliver Platt) whom she confides her concerns in.  He, of course, dismisses her worries as some strange sleep disorder.

Honestly, Shut In is terrible.  It has all the horror genre’s worst traits and tropes.  The worst thing is when Mary starts doing really stupid things.  I had to restrain myself from yelling at the screen several times as she did stupid thing after stupid thing.  Truly, if she had listened to me the first time, no one would have died in this movie.  When the characters in a horror movie have to be bumbling idiots for the story to work, then the writing is just too lazy.  The plot here is just filled to the brim with stupidity.

That includes the third act “twist” reveal.  I won’t spoil it here, but it completely tosses away anything that could have been considered positive from the first two acts.  And, of course, it makes absolutely no sense.  I’m not even sure it was plausible.  If this were the real case, then Naomi Watts has to be the most ignorant child psychologists ever to be issued a license.

Jacob Tremblay is a very talented young actor, but he does nothing here.  He has zero lines… his character being deaf… and this role could have been given to anyone.  Not a brilliant young star fresh off his role in Room.

Yes, 2016 has seen its share of great horror movies, but that does not mean that every film from the year was a gem.  This one is one of the worst horror movies this year.

1.1 stars

There is something impressive about what Christopher Guest does.  He is undeniably the “king of mockumentaries” having done six feature length versions including such classics as “Best in Show,” “A Mighty Wind,” and “Waiting for Guffman.”  That does not even include the greatest of all mockumentaries, This is Spinal Tap (which Guest starred in, but did not direct).  The most amazing part of these films is how much of them are actually ad-libbed.

His latest mockumentary debuted on Netflix in October showing that Guest still has the ability to take the ridiculous, play it straight, and find humor in it.  This time, we are at the 8th World Mascot Association Championship in Anaheim, California. competing for the prestigious Gold Fluffy where we meet our eclectic parade of characters who do not understand that they are the joke.

We see many of Guest’s normal troupe of actors return for this film including Jane Lynch, Ed Begley, Jr, John Michael Higgins, Parker Posey, Don Lake, Fred Willard, Harry Shearer, Bob Balaban and Jennifer Coolidge.

This is one reason why this movie has a feel or familiarity about it.  The second reason would be the basic story of this mockumentary has been told by Guest before.

Still, there are some funny moments in the film, and the dialogue is very strong.  You can tell that these actors are comfortable in pulling off the task set before them by Christopher Guest.  Guest, himself, makes an appearance as Corky St. Clair, one of his famous characters from Waiting for Guffman.  Corky did feel pretty wasted here though.

I enjoyed several of the mascot presentations at the World Championships, especially the character played by Christopher Moynihan- Jack the Plumber and Tom Bennett’s third generation Owen Golly, Jr- the British inspired Sid the Hedgehog.  Outside of these characters, the faces beneath the heads are not as well developed as I would have hoped.  So while I pulled for both of these characters because I had become invested in them, most of the others were just there.

The previous film Guest directed was 2006’s “For Your Consideration”, based on creating an Oscar worthy film, and Mascots is about the same level.  Both were solid films that can be considered better because of the gimmick behind them, but they do not reach the extremely high level of This is Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind or Best in Show.

Yet, for an easy watch on Netflix, you can’t go wrong with this.  There are plenty of laughs and some of the mascot routines are clever.  It just does not reach the status of mockumentary that Guest normally reaches.

3.3 stars

Hacksaw Ridge was one of the best films of the year.

And I never want to see it again.

I was emotionally wrecked coming out of Hacksaw Ridge, specifically the second half of the film, which was as intense of a war battle as I have seen on film in a long time.  It packed a serious wallop.

What made it even more powerful was that this was a true story.

Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) had a troubled childhood, but made it through with his belief in God and his own personal feelings and ideals.  Because of those beliefs, he decided that he needed to enlist in the army to fight in World War II.  The problem… his beliefs also would not allow him to touch a gun.

This ideal caused an uproar among his unit as everyone involved tried to get Doss to quit.  He stuck to his conscience despite physical and emotional abuse from officers and his fellow soldiers.  Finally, Doss was allowed to remain with his unit as a medic, and he did not have to carry a gun.  Most believed that Doss was nothing more than a coward and would not be able to be counted on when the bullets started firing.

How wrong they were.

In a military operation to take a location in Japan called Hacksaw Ridge, there is a massive firefight between US and Japanese forces and Doss winds up stranded on the top of the ridge.  Undaunted, he began to single-handedly evacuate the injured while Japanese soldiers

These war scenes were as traumatic and disturbing as I have seen.  Director Mel Gibson captured the shellshock feeling as well as it could possibly be caught.  That was how I felt as the bullets started to fly and the limbs started to be blown off.  It was a savage look at war and it truly made me uncomfortable to watch.  I am sure that was the intention of the scenes.

It was also such a distinct difference in tone between the first half of the movie and the second half of the movie.  The first half told the story of Doss’s struggles to join the army and to fight for his beliefs as a Conscientious Objector and the second half everything is just blown to hell.

Andrew Garfield does a really great job in Hacksaw Ridge.  Everything he does is believable and he makes you care about this person whose ideas seem so foreign to our typical movie going experience.  Just the thought that there could be a person who goes into a war torn area without a gun to protect himself is a unlikely scenario.  I must say though that the film started with a flashback to a young Desmond in a fight with his brother and then flashed ahead five years.  I really had a hard time believing that Garfield was supposed to be as young as this movie implied.  He just looked too old.  I don’t think that would have been a problem if they had not had that flashback or if they did not specify how long before current day that was.

There were other wonderful performances here as well.  Hugo Weaving played Desmond’s alcoholic and abusive father, who was in the army during World War I, losing all of his friends.  Those experiences shaped the person that he had become. Weaving embraced this unlikable person, but did not allow him to become a caricature.  He was a complex person and Weaving displayed this beautifully.

Another great performance was given by Vince Vaughn as Sgt. Howell, Doss’s drill sergeant.  Vaughn played so far against type that he really stood out as one of the best parts of this film.  You could see how Doss slowly won this guy over as his acts of heroism and bravery shone through the agonies surrounding them.  In fact, you saw plenty of Doss’s fellow soldiers realize just how wrong they were about him.  He was certainly no coward.  He did things that very few men, women or child would even try to do.

This is a very impressive film because it shows how violent and unforgiving war can be and it approaches it in a visceral and traumatic manner for the audience.  It is unforgiving in its realism and its brutality.  However, because of this, for me, I will not watch it again.  Much like the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave from a few years ago, I do not want to put myself through this again.  I want to sit in the corner in the fetal position and rock back and forth.  That does not work, so instead, I will just not see this ever again (where as I have already seen Doctor Strange twice).

Mel Gibson deserves consideration for an Academy Award for best director, though I doubt that they will give him the nod.  His past racial comments have still made him persona non grata in Hollywood.   That is a shame because he certainly has done a brilliant job with Hacksaw Ridge.

5 stars

Fell into a diabetic coma after this film.

Way too much sugar here.

Trolls is based on the little figures that were big toys in the 90s.  Everyone had a Troll doll on their desk.  Well…okay, maybe not everybody, but some people.

These Trolls escaped from a village where they were used as food for a race of creatures, the Bergens, that could only be happy when they were eating trolls.  Yes, that was the story.

However, during the escape, brave King Peppy (Jeffrey Tambor) would not leave any trolls behind.  His heroic nature was able to save all of his people and they took up life in hiding from the Bergens.

Flash forward 20 years and Peppy’s daughter Poppy (Anna Kendrick) had plenty of friends and was happily singing and dancing and hugging.  She was planning a huge party for the anniversary of the escape from the Bergens despite the objections of her friend, constantly depressed and paranoid Branch (Justin Timberlake).  Branch claimed that the party would reveal to the Bergens where the Trolls were hiding.

And of course, it did just that.  Chef (Christine Baranski), who had been banished 20 years before for allowing the Trolls to escape, sees the fireworks from the party and is able to capture several of Poppy’s friends and she used this to weasel her way back into the graces of the now King Gristle (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).

Feeling guilty over the party, Poppy decided to go to the Bergen village and save her friends.  She convinced Branch to go with her.

There were just so many sweet moments that it figuratively dripped from the screen.  This sweetness really put a damper for me on some of the better moments later in the film.  By the time the character development started taking place (in particular the back story of Branch), I had so many toothaches from the sugar that I could barely stand it.

And I did not find the music engaging at all.  I know there have been a lot of people claiming that the music in Trolls is a strong point, but for me, there was not much there.  With the exception of “True Colors”, the Cyndi Lauper cover sung by Timberlake and Kendrick, the music was uninspiring.

There were some funny lines that I chuckled at.

Of course, you knew what was going to happen in the end.  It was predictable and way too sweet, but there were some good parts of Trolls as well. Just not enough of them.

2.6 stars

One of these days, Marvel is going to have a bad film.

This is not that day.

Arrogant and self-centered neurosurgeon, Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is at the top of his game when a terrible auto accident caused nerve damage to his hands, endangering his career.  After exhausting every typical manner of treatment, Strange heads to the Far East in search of a more mystical solution.  There he finds Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and The Ancient One (Tida Swinton) who have a solution for his problems if Strange is able to get past himself.

This is a Marvel origin story, so there are some familiar beats to it, however, this is also as different of a Marvel movie that exists within the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we have ever seen.

Benedict Cumberbatch is perfect as Doctor Strange.  Marvel has excelled in casting since Marvel Studios has come into play (with a few minor exceptions) and this one more home run.  Cumberbatch brings so much to a character that could have been really unlikable that you can’t help but fall for him.  Cumberbatch does a good job with the Marvel humor as well.  Most of the humor in Doctor Strange is really great.  There are a couple of times that it misses the mark, but not as much as one would expect.  I did not think Doctor Strange lent itself for the normal Marvel humor, but it fit pretty well.  I’d say it was like 85% worked to 15% didn’t work.

Above everything else, the visual effects in Doctor Strange was unlike anything I have ever seen before.  There were so many times that my mouth was just agape from astonishment at what I was seeing on the screen.  I did see this in IMAX 3D and I think that is the way to see this movie.  If Doctor Strange does not win the Oscar for Best Special Effects there is something dramatically wrong with the Academy.  It was such a trippy, downright psychedelic film, and it was magical to watch.

There was a lot of criticism of Marvel for the “white-washing” of the Ancient One when they cast Tilda Swinton in the role, but I never once thought about that.  Swinton took the typically stereotypical role of the Ancient One and made it into one of the standout performances of the film.  She was outstanding in this role.  Marvel does not seem to receive any credit for casting Ejiofor, a black man, as the normally white Baron Mordo or the non-stereotypical manner in which they used Wong (Benedict Wong) in this film.  Heck, even the fact that Tilda Swinton is a female is a diversity change.  Marvel has just cast great actors in their roles and the whole white-washing controversy is a manufactured story that does not stand up to the excellence of this film’s casting.

Rachel McAdams was also great in the supporting role of “love interest” Christine Palmer.  She was not a large presence in the film, but I felt that every time she appeared on screen, she brought something positive to the scene.

And the Cloak of Levitation is easily the greatest cape in movie history.  I’ll leave it at that.

There are a few complaints of the film.  First, in the training section of the film, I was not sure how long we were there. The timing of that felt off.  How long did Dr. Strange train with Mordo and the Ancient One?  I understand you did not want to stretch this out too far, but the pacing just needed some work.  Second, SPOILER– I am not sure how I feel about the CGI on Dormammu.  It felt a little like Green Lantern, and Dormammu is too big of a villain to not have better visuals- especially in a movie where the visuals are so brilliant. I’ll need to see this film again to really decide whether or not this was a negative. End of SPOILER.

The third issue is that the film is fairly heavy in exposition.  There is a lot of explaining about what is happening.  I understand that there is probably no other way to go about this, but there was a ton of talking about mystical stuff.  It did not take me out of the story or bore me, but there is no denying how much exposition was thrown at the audience.

Some people have been claiming that Mads Mikkelsen’s Kaecilius was another wasted villain in a Marvel movie.  While I do agree that there could have been more substance to the character, I disagree of him being a bad villain.  He was very well done by Mikkelsen and he had a great look.  He certainly provided a worthy opponent for Dr. Strange, and I believed that he could take on Mordo, Strange and the Ancient One.  Mikkelsen is a great actor and hopefully, he is not done in this movie series.

Two post credit scenes are great, in particular the mid-credit scene where we get a feel of how Dr. Strange will be fitting into the overall MCU.

Director Scott Derrickson (Sinister) is a wonderful choice to helm the director’s chair for Doctor Strange.  He brought a definite horror style to the film in many of the images used without falling into the typical pattern or losing the lighthearted joy of the genre.  Doctor Strange could have been a dour and depressing tale, but in Derrickson’s trusty hands, we have another successful introduction of a lesser known Marvel hero, following in the footsteps of The Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant Man. The imagination that he embeds in this film shows what a magnificent storyteller this director is.

Doctor Strange brought something new to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and that was the world of magic.  It opened up the concept of the Multiverse as well, providing an opportunity to really change and expand the storytelling that happens in the MCU.  I get a feeling that Dr. Strange will be playing a huge role in the future of the MCU, in Phase 4 and beyond, and this film provided a brilliant opening salvo for that.  Benedict Cumberbatch is great as the Sorcerer Supreme and the cast around him is spectacular.  Even more than spectacular is the visual effects which are revolutionary in the film industry.  Even some minor faults can not derail the Marvel machine in cranking out yet another winner.

4.6 stars

Ron Howard has returned with the third film to feature the character of Robert Langdon.  The first two, The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons, were not two of my favorite movies.  Could Inferno break that trend?

The ever-likable Tom Hanks returned again as Professor Langdon, but this time we find him in serious peril.  He wakes up in an Italian hospital with a head wound and no memory of how he arrived there.  The doctor working his case, Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), tries to talk him through his confusion, made worse by a case of temporary amnesia.

Before too long though, a female Italian police officer arrived, only to start shooting people.  Langdon and Sienna escape the hospital and haul back to her place.  This is where Langdon slowly begins to put the pieces back together.  He discovers a “Faraday pointer” in his clothes and finds an artist rendition of Dante’s Severn Circles of Hell.

From this, Langdon is able to piece together the plot of billionaire Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster), who had killed himself a few days before to protect his secret.  Zobrist intended to release a virus on the earth to kill a large number of people with the plan of ending the trouble of planetary overpopulation.  With this information, Langdon and Sienna take off across the globe to try and race against time and stop the extinction level event from happening.

Of course, in any film like this there are government agents and their loyalties are called into question.  This film has them as well, including Westworld’s Sidse Babett Knudsen and Omar Sy.  This made the film needlessly complicated for the real low payoff.

One of the biggest issues with this film is its promotional materials.  The trailers showed way too much.  There were very few surprises left that hadn’t already been revealed in the trailer.  This is a problem that way too many trailers have had recently.

Plus, the film’s story is convoluted and difficult to believe.  Langdon is like if James Bond was a college professor, and even Hanks’ great screen presence is put to the task here.  They forced a relationship near the end of the movie that came from nowhere and felt as forced as everything else in the film did.

There were beautiful exterior shot of amazing locations across Europe.  The film was beautiful to look at.  However, there were definite problems with the early part of the movie and the supposed visions that Langdon was having.  They felt like they should have been in a different movie and they really stood out in a negative way.

I did not hate watching this movie.  It was meh.  I would even go as far as to say that it was, at times, watchable.  But there is nothing that makes Inferno special or that demands that you see this film, and that is a bad thing for a thriller.

2.6 stars

It is astounding that someone could actually deny that the Holocaust happened.  And yet, this new movie is the true story of one such famous encounter.

Deborah E. Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz) was an author who focused her attention on the Holocaust, specifically on those who might deny the event took place.  She wrote a book on the subject.  However, at one of her lectures about the topic, she is ambushed by David Irving (Timothy Spall), a vocal denier of the Holocaust.  Irving specifically had stated that Hitler had never ordered the extermination of any Jewish people.

Irving’s publicity stunt was just the start of the trouble, though.  He sued Deborah for libel for comments she had made about him in her book.  What was worse was that he sued her in the British courts, where the burden of proof was on Deborah, not on him.

What followed was the court case, led by a team of lawyers hired by Penguin Press, including Anthony Julius (Andrew Scott) and Richard Rampton (Tom Wilkerson).  The case strategy was not what Deborah had imagined.  Her lawyers intended on making the trial about Irving, not about any Holocaust survivors or about Deborah.

Being very outspoken, this strategy was challenging for Deborah, as she rallied against it on several occasions.

The film had several very strong performances among its cast of stellar actors.  Both Weisz and Wilkerson were excellent in their quirky roles, bringing life to these people.  Andrew Scott was very subdued and restrained, almost to an nth degree.  But I found the most compelling performance to be had by Timothy Spall.  Spall had the difficult assignment of playing a remarkably unlikable man, whose thoughts and words were bordering on hate speech, and yet, he made him a rounded individual.  The scene of him lovingly playing with his young daughter was downright chilling.

The other scene that really brought chills was the scenes at Auschwitz concentration camp.  The monumental horrors that occurred at that place is staggering to any right thinking individual and just the manner in which the gas chamber was described to Richard and Deborah by Professor Robert Jan van der Pelt (played perfectly by Sherlock’s Mark Gatniss in a small but compelling role).

Now, the film is not perfect by any stretch.  It did feel long and the middle section dragged on quite a bit.  Many of the courtroom scenes felt very real, but, because of that, lacked that normal dramatic flair that would accompany courtroom films.  That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it did slow down this film a lot.

There were also characters introduced that were intended to tug on the heart strings and really did not have any other purpose to the overall narrative.  These moments felts too manipulative and not needed.

However, the film documents an important trial in world history, bringing to light once again the travesty that had befell the proud Jewish people, who simply want the dead to be remembered and to be given a voice.  Denial does a good job of that.

3.8 stars

2016 has been the year of fantastic horror movies.  So much so that even a sequel (prequel actually) to a terrible movie from a couple of years ago that had trailers that were downright laughable in its badness, turns out to be a really good movie.

There was no way that I was going to like Ouija: Origin of Evil.  As I said, I hated the trailers.  This film looked just terrible.  I went into this with the mind set that I was going to hate this.

So what happened?

Ouija: Origin of Evil was a really fun time.

I know… I can’t believe it either.

Alice Zander (Elizabeth Reaser) was a medium who, along with her two daughters Lina (Annalise Basso) and Doris (Lulu Wilson), had “psychic” readings designed to convince grieving relatives that their loved ones were okay.  Though the readings were faked, Alice claimed that they were doing the survivors a service, helping them move on and give them closure.

Alice’s husband had recently died, and this loss was tough on the girls.  Lina sneaked out of the house one night to go hang out with her friends where she experienced a Ouija board.  Telling her mom about it, they decide to add the Ouija board to the act.

Problem was that, once they started using the board, Doris started showing some spiritual connection with it.  She would hear voices and could manipulate the Ouija board without even touching it.

At first, this seemed to be a gift, but it was not too long where Doris started exhibiting some less than positive traits.

I really enjoyed this movie.  The biggest thing that I enjoyed about it was that it took its time to introduce these characters and spent time on making them more than the typical stereotypical horror movie characters.  All three of the Zander women were well developed, three dimensional people with real worries, concerns and thoughts.  You don’t see that enough in horror movies.  In fact, even the secondary characters such as Father Tom (Henry Thomas from E.T. fame) and Mikey (Parker Mack) had time spent on them.

Lulu Wilson, who came across as silly in the trailers, does a great job in a role that demanded a strong performance for this film to succeed.  Her performance was both creepy and filled with sadness, which was also missing from the trailer.  Annalise Basso’s Lina was much more important to the story than the trailer made it look, and she steps up to the plate.

Ouija: Origin of Evil was directed by Mike Flanagan, who has directed the enjoyable Oculus and the excellent Netflix movie Hush, and Flanagan has another great horror genre film on his resume.  He does an excellent job of creating real scares in the audience instead of trying to maneuver the audience into being frightened.  The jump scares are kept to a minimum and when they are there, he does not use the loud music cues that most horror movies employ.  The silence used here was much more effective.

There were also a concerted effort to make this feel like a film that was made in the 1960s.  The film’s setting was taking place in the decade and Flanagan went out of his way to make it work.  He went as far as to add the little blip in the corner of the screen, which used to indicate to the film projectionist that it was time to switch reels.  This is not a technique that is used anymore and the fact that Flanagan added such a thing really showed how dedicated he was to creating the tone of this film.

There was no way that this movie was going to be a good movie.  The original Ouija film was one of the worst films of 2014 and there was no way that it needed a sequel.  However, Ouija: Origin of Evil was made and it turned out to be fabulous.  In many years, this would easily be the best horror movie of the year, but 2016 had some really powerhouse horror movies released.  Ouija: Origin of Evil is in the discussion with those great films, and I did not see that coming.

4.1 stars

Keeping Up with the Joneses is what you would expect…. unless what you expected was a funny comedy/adventure.

Jeff (Zach Galifianakis) and Karen (Isla Fisher) were a boring married couple, with two kids, living on a homey cul-de-sac.  Everything seemed to be going dully for the Gaffneys until their new neighbors, Tim (John Hamm) and Natalie (Gal Gadot) Jones moved into the neighborhood.  The Joneses seemed too perfect and the triggered Karen’s radar.  She suspected that there was more to this new couple than met the eye.

And Karen was right.  Even after following Natalie to the lingerie shop, Karen had questions.  Meanwhile, Jeff and Tim were bonding over snake dinners and indoor skydiving.  That all changed when the Gaffneys discovered a bug planted by the Joneses, leading them to sneak into their neighbors’ house where they found the couple’s spy equipment.

This movie is about as unmemorable as you could imagine.  It is predictable and dumb, depending on the antics of Galifianakis and Fisher as the comedic couple for the film’s laughs.  The problem with that was there is not much that is funny here.  In fact, the biggest laugh in the trailer was not even included in the film.  The loud and over-the-top nature of Galifianakis and Fisher was not something that was entertaining to me.

Now, I will say that I liked the pair of John Hamm and Gal Gadot, their relationship and thoughts on their job being one of the more interesting storylines.  Both Hamm and Gadot are likeable actors and do a nice job here.  This did put my concerns over Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman at ease for now.  Gadot is an extremely attractive woman who has a definitive presence on screen.  I’m still not convinced that she has the acting chops to be Princess Diana, but she did nothing here to encourage that thought.

When not yelling, Galifianakis and Fisher are likeable enough.  I just found their characters too cartoony to be realistic.

There was nothing new or necessary about this film.  The cast was a strong point, but the story, the dialogue, the humor was really lacking.  There is nothing here that will make you like this film.

2.3 stars

Toyko’s in for it again as everyone’s favorite King of the Monsters, Godzilla, has returned to its roots, savaging the Japanese in this new reboot.

This is not the same reboot as we got a few years ago with Gareth Edwards directing.  This returns Godzilla, or should I say Gojira, to the style of film from the 1950s.  A Japanese speaking romp that sees Godzilla tramping through the Japanese cities.

No sign of Raymond Burr this time though.

Misuse of nuclear waste again leads to the birth of the King of Monsters, as Godzilla comes from the water, onto the land and begins wrecking havoc.  Now, there were some interesting differences in Godzilla in this new version.  In particular, the film shows Godzilla evolving into the monster we recognize.  Godzilla’s first appearance in the film is extremely different and even a bit shocking.  I did like how they showed the natural evolution of the creature from one form to another.

And most of the Godzilla scenes were very strong.  They looked good and Godzilla also done very well visually.  It had a better look than those original Japanese film for sure.

The problem with Shin Godzilla (which actually means Godzilla Resurgence) is the non-monster characters.  And there were a ton of them.  Each character that appeared on screen got their own little written intro on the screen.  That became very distracting as I was already trying to read the subtitles.  The film also placed details on the screen every time the film switched locations.  So there were writing on the screen dealing with new characters, setting and dialogue, as well as the original Japanese text.  To say that the screen sometimes felt crowded would be an understatement.

Anyway, back to the human characters.  There were zero characters that had any sort of development and so gave me nobody to root for.  And when I have no one to root for in a movie like this, I root for Godzilla.  However, this Godzilla was not shown as the heroic and noble beast that we have seen in other iterations.  He was meant to be the act of nature in a man vs. nature story.  He is the earthquake. He is the erupting volcano.  But I still saw him as one of my favorite characters (as well as an EYG Hall of Fame member).

Another issue with the film was the non-Godzilla parts were all about government bureaucracy and how it might respond to this type of attack.  That made this very dialogue heavy and, at several times, boring.  I will admit that I thought this picked up a bit when the US got involved and was considering using a nuclear strike against Godzilla.  That brought up old wounds for the Japanese (considering they had two bombs dropped on them during WWII) and that was a powerful section.  There was not enough of that though and I think that could have been extended more.  Especially if we had some human characters to root for.

The closest we came was a Japanese-American Kayoko Ann Patterson (Satomi Ishihara) who wanted to be President of the US one day (awwwwwwww, silly girl…).  Kayoko was the closest we came to having a character who had more to do than just stare at Godzilla and worry about what was happening.

I came out of this film not sure of what I thought.  On one hand, I really liked the Godzilla parts, even the goofy looking first sight of the monster, but I found much of the non-monster parts dull.  However, I think I liked a lot of the ideas that those non-monster parts presented.  It was very realistic with how a government (including the world around that government) would react to the ravaging monster rampaging through the streets of its biggest city.  It showed how things really had to grind out and how the process of a decision could be just as problematic as the monster itself.  Still, I wanted more of a hero to cheer for besides Godzilla.  There was one scene with rescue workers standing outside of what was once a building and I thought it was going to be some kind of powerful reminder of these kind of tragedies, but it did not go in that direction.

I think the film missed several opportunities to make a really awesome Godzilla film, but what is here has some strength on its own.  I am very split on this film.

3 stars

I had heard a lot of negatives surrounding the new sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back from critics that I respect, so I approached this movie with low expectations.  I didn’t love the original Jack Reacher film, meaning I didn’t have that to fall back on either.

And yet, I didn’t hate this movie.

Of course, it’s not a very good movie either.

The film brings us back into the world of Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise), a former military man (a major) who was now doing freelance work here and there.  He has become friendly with a contact in the military, Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders).  He is so taken with Turner that Reacher plans a trip to Washington, D.C. to take her out for a dinner.  When he arrives there, however, he discovered that Turner had been arrested for espionage.

At that point, a series of weird plot points begin happening, which lead to Reacher breaking Turner out of jail and the pair of them heading out on the run.  They had to determine who was behind the framing of Turner, and finding enough proof for anyone to believe them.

Add to this, the subplot of a 15-year old girl Samantha (Danika Yarosh) who might be Reacher’s daughter, whom he did not know he had.

Poor Danika Yarosh is cast in this film as Jack Reacher’s version of Kim Bauer from 24.  If you don’t know anything about Kim Bauer from the classic Kiefer Sutherland series, she was one of the most annoying characters on the canvas because she was constantly doing stupid things that put herself or others around her into danger.  This is what Samantha was here to do as well, as there was no other reason for her inclusion in the story.

The plot was pretty formulaic and predictable, but there are many action films that are.  The villains were not memorable at all, with Patrick Heusinger’s The Hunter being little more than a one-note villain.  I also got confused, because it seemed as if he initially was nothing more than a hired henchman, but he wound up killing his “boss” for no reason but for a plot contrivance.  Plus, there were many extra villains who would turn up where Jack Reacher was so they could have an action scene.  It was like the last Fast and the Furious movie with Jason Statham appearing wherever the Fast crew was just so they could fight.  It’s lazy writing.

Having said all of this, there are some good action scenes in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (which is a title that makes absolutely no sense to the story.  It feels like it was a title that they used out of one of those name generator things) and I did enjoy Cobie Smulders here.  It goes to show you that Maria Hill could do more in the Marvel Cinematic Universe if the higher ups choose for her to do it.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back was not a good movie, but I did not hate it.  I even considered giving it a fresh review, but the more I think back, the less justification I can have for it.  Still, if you want to see a dumb action movie, you could do worse than this film.

2.7 stars

We have super heroes everywhere.

Even former toys from Mattel are becoming super heroes.

16 year old Max McGrath (Ben Winchell) has returned to his home town after years of moving around with his mother (Maria Bello).  Suddenly, he started displaying a strange energy that caused electronics to short out and churned within him like a bomb.

Max did not understand what was happening and, as he was trying to figure it out, he came across an odd alien named Steel (Josh Brener).  Steel knew something about the mysterious energy and about the creatures that killed Max’s father years ago, but he was having trouble remembering it.

There is a shadowy group following Max and trying to kill Steel as well.  Then, we discover that the pair can combine into an armor wearing super hero, called Max Steel.

This film is not the worst thing I have seen, but there is nothing remarkable about it either.  It is a rather dull origin story that was very predictable.  I disliked the way Steel spoke, not sounding like an alien at all.  And the acting was pretty abysmal, especially  Andy Garcia.  Garcia’s performance as Dr. Miles Edwards was obnoxiously bad.  It was clearly a paycheck performance for the former Oscar nominated actor.

The special effects were okay, but nothing really special.  There was a definite feel of an 80s or early 90s movie… and not a good one.

Honestly, I spent much of the first 30-45 minutes with my eyes closed and trying to doze through it. I was never officially sleeping during it, but I wasn’t paying a great deal of attention either.  Max Steel was not much of a super hero movie.  This is the type that could really bring about super hero fatigue.

2.2 stars

Ben Affleck is on the spectrum in the new hitman movie, The Accountant.

Diagnosis of Autism has been on the rise for several years now, making this a topical film and an empowering one.  Yes, even with autism, you can grow up to be a mass murderer… and an accountant.

The Accountant is the story of Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck), a man who is autistic, but who grew up with a military father who insisted that he be trained to be able to physically take care of himself.  So Chris was brutally trained, with his brother, is hand-to-hand, weapons among others.  Chris was also a prodigy with numbers, as he became a masterful accountant, helping criminal organizations around the globe launder their money.

But when a company called Chris in to look at their company’s mysterious loss of money, he gets involved with another employee, Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick), who discovered the book’s problem in the first place.

An unknown party wanted this money issue to remain hidden, and so Chris and Dana become targets of a hired assassin, played by Frank Castle himself- Jon Bernthal.

I found much of The Accountant to be pretty boring.  It dragged through much of the movie, which made it feel very long.  The story was needlessly complicated.  Not only was the whole Chris and Dana tale weird, but they had a Chicago agent, played by J.K. Simmons, who was trying to find the Accountant, and was blackmailing another agent named Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to help him.  Much of this part of the story could have been removed and you wouldn’t have missed much of anything.  In fact, it would have helped the flow of the film.

Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal are,once again, the strongest part of the film.  Affleck does a very good job portraying the intricate idiosyncrasies of the Accountant.  Bernthal is just exceptional in everything he does.  Together, these two are very entertaining to see.

Other actors in this film are wasted.  I have already mentioned Anna Kendrick, whose character is completely out of place in this movie.  She was meant to be some kind of inspiration for Chris, but I did not buy that for one second.  Also, J.K. Simmons could be completely removed without losing much, and that is a travesty for an Oscar winner.  He spends a long time in one scene basically laying everything out for the audience.  It was a waste.  But the use of three veteran actors, John Lithgow, Jean Smart and Jeffrey Tambor was inexplicably wasteful.  These amazing actors were given little to do and we barely got to enjoy their presence.

The ending action scenes were well done, but a bit too late.  There was also a lot of humor used in the film, but honestly, despite the one-liners being funny, much of the humor felt out of place. Perhaps it was because many of the humorous one-liners felt as if it was being directed toward Affleck’s character and, by way of that, at his autism.

This was a letdown, as I had been thinking that this would be a really good time.  Unfortunately, The Accountant was too long, with too many plot points and not enough action.  Affleck and Bernthal were great again, but much of the remaining cast of the movie felt as if they had been wasted.

2.7 stars

If you like Kevin Hart, you’ll love What Now?

I do like Kevin Hart and I found myself laughing throughout the movie, filmed at the Philadelphia venue, Lincoln Financial Field in front of over 50,000 people.

Sure, his stand up comedy is raunchy and filled with politically incorrectness, but there is no denying that the laughs are real.  And even when the jokes themselves are not great winners, Kevin Hart can bring laughs from his delivery, the performance that is as much self-deprecating as it is crude.

I also really enjoyed the opening act of this film, where Kevin Hart showed up to a casino, ala James Bond (including an entertaining Bond-like opening theme song) and played poker in the hours before the concert was to start.  Hart came in with Halle Berry on his arm (though she seemed to not be a fan), and played against the short’s villain, Victor (David Meunier).  Add to this the inclusion of Don Cheadle as himself, a rival of Hart who becomes tired of his act, and the machinations of the bartender (Ed Helms) and this opening was very fun.  I thought this was just the right length, something that some of Kevin Hart’s full length movies had trouble with.

Once Hart arrived on stage, the film picked up even more.  He told stories, many which he claimed were true, about his “lady”, his children, his father, his new house that needed lights on his driveway…among many others.  Kevin Hart’s frenetic style draws out the humor and drives home the laughter.

If you find Kevin Hart annoying or obnoxious, there is nothing in What Now? that is going to change your mind.  But if you are a fan, then you should have an entertaining time with this concert film.

4 stars

This one faced a serious challenge for me.  I work at a middle school so I found myself constantly thinking that the things that were happening were just so unbelievable that it was pulling me out of the movie.  I found it considerably more difficult to suspend my disbelief for this film that was based on a bestselling novel.

And suspending disbelief was absolutely necessary to accept anything that was happening at this school.

Still, there was a surprisingly emotional and deep character heart in this movie that I was not expecting.  I have never read any of the Middle School book series so I did not know any potential spoilers heading into this film, but there were some definite moments that I found very heart warming and full of heart.

Rafe (Griffin Gluck) was onto his third school in the last year, having been expelled from two others.  This was a hopeful new start.  However, he discovered that the new school was controlled and oppressed by an overbearing principal named Dwight (Andrew Daly).  Principal Dwight had a rule book that he insisted that all students follow without exception, much to Rafe’s chagrin.

Rafe, a talented artist, had his sketchbook confiscated by the rules-mad principal and it was destroyed.  Angry from this slight, Rafe decided, with the support of his friend Leo (Thomas Barbusca), that he would break every rule in Dwight’s rule book as revenge.  Rafe went about pulling amazingly complex and difficult pranks to make the principal look foolish.

The story was told with several breaks into animation, where pictures that Rafe had drawn would come to life to tell the story.  Some of these moments with the animation worked, however, many more of them flopped badly.  Most of the animated sections of the film from the first 30-45 minutes were not an effective use of animation.

Griffin Gluck was a charming actor who did an admirable job as the lead character.  He also displayed some surprisingly strong emotional scenes when the Sixth Sense-like twist was revealed.  I give the film full credit that I never saw that twist coming and when a film can surprise me, it has earned some respect.

Yet, my own life at a middle school made it nearly impossible to just ignore the gaping plot holes that filled this story.  Griffin was able set up all these amazing pranks somehow.  Apparently, there is no camera system in the school.  Also, I guess he can get in and out of the school at any hours.

Principal Dwight was as one note of a villain as you are going to see.  He had no reason to be as over-the-top as he was, or at least, I did not understand why he was the way he was.  To make it worse, they added another horrible person as the vice principal Ida Stricker (Retta) making there be two wastes of characters.  The film had the friendly and kind teacher trope as well with Mr. Teller (Adam Pally) who did not like the choices of the administration.

The only area that I could relate to was the comments the film was making on education being too dependent on standardize tests these days.  Principal Dwight took some desperate steps to make sure that his students were number one on these tests.  Yes, he was cartoonish in this film, but I know that many dramatic steps are taken to make sure that students do their very best on this type of assessment.  There have also been stories of schools cheating on the tests, which this film highlights.

I was also impressed with the acting skill of Alexa Nisenson, who played the role of Rafe’s sister Georgia.  This little girl brought a realness that much of this movie was missing.  The interactions between Rafe and Georgia were among my favorite scenes in the film.  The inclusion of scene stealer Rob Riggle as the unwanted and mean spirited fiance to Rafe’s mother (Lauren Graham) may have been too much.  Riggle is always entertaining, even when his role is weak, and this is no exception.

Middle School: The Worst Years of my Life was not the worst time at the movies I had ever had.  In fact, there were many moments that I truly enjoyed.  The problem was there was not enough of these wonderful scenes to fill out a movie, and the parts that were bad were quite bad.  I found my own life as a middle school teacher interfered with the necessary suspension of disbelief to truly enjoy the film.  Still, there were some real emotion and heart here, especially with the child actors.

2.8 stars