Disney is at it again.

Moana is a wonderful new animated movie from the House of the Mouse that is simply great entertainment for the entire family.

Moana (the debuting Auli’i Cravalho) is the daughter of the Chief (Temuera Morrison) of an island where the people are happy and isolated.  They never go out past the reefs.  The tribe’s rules prohibit it.  So when the ocean chooses Moana to go on a mission, there is conflict.

See, at one point in the past, demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) stole the heart of the island goddess Te Fiti in an attempt to create more islands.  Maui was banished from the island and the legends said that only by bringing Maui back over the seas to return the heart could stop the destructive darkness.

As Moana’s island begins to show signs of decay and loss, she sets out to find the mythological demigod and bring him back to save the world.

Moana has a simple story, but that is not a bad thing.  In its simplicity, the story shines.  And because of that, Moana is able to take other Disney tropes and shake them up.  Moana is not a typical Disney princess (despite the joke later in the film that she is) and she does not require anyone else to save her.  I found this female character refreshing and original.

Newcomer Auli’i Cravalho is magnificent in this role.  She makes this character her own immediately and she has unbelievable chemistry with the Rock.  She was cast as a 14-year old freshman in high school over some serious competition for the role, but it was clear that she showed Disney something special and she truly brought it to Moana.

Speaking of the Rock, his portrayal of Maui was note perfect.  I also liked how Maui was basically a likable jerk, which is something that Dwayne Johnson can definitely pull off (if you smell what I’m cooking).  I got a little bit of a “Genie from Aladdin” vibe from Maui, but with much more narcissistic tendencies.  Maui wanted to be the hero, mainly for the adoration of the crowd, not as much because it is the right thing to do.

The music of Moana is beautiful.  The score was written by Mark Mancina and Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote songs with Opetaia Foa’i  and Mancina.  Auli’i Cravalho’s voice is beautiful and the song performed by The Rock (“You’re Welcome”) is my personal favorite.

I really enjoyed some of the creative secondary characters in this film as well.  The Ocean was an actual character that interacted with Moana.  The chicken Heihei (Alan Tudyk) who was about as dumb (intelligence wise) as it could be.  The villainous Tamatoa (Jemaine Clement) is a giant crab that loved the bright and shiny objects (and sang a great song about it).  And the tattoos on the body of Maui are some of the best parts of this film.  These tats are basically animated and can interact with Maui and can change depending on what happened.  This was genius and a great way to tell the story.  These tats could provide the POV of the audience at home when Maui was being too much of a jerk.  Tremendously creative.

Of course, the animation of Moana is breath-taking.  The shots of Moana and Maui out on the ocean are about as realistic as you are going to find.  Disney continues to up their game in the world of animation with each new release.

Moana has so much heart and love that you cannot help but enjoy this film.  There are so many things going for it that I have a hard time believing that anyone would not have liked this film.

Now, I was not a fan of the animated short that preceded the movie.  Usually these Disney shorts are pretty fun and entertaining, but this one was just a dud.

The Polynesian culture is something that we have never seen on screen before, and this is a huge aspect of the  film.  I love the lead character of Moana, a heroic female who does not fall into the tropes of Disney princesses.  The Rock is always the man.  A beautiful looking, sounding and full of fun movie that is charming throughout and, at times, hilariously funny.  Sure it may be a simple story of a hero’s journey, but that does not mean it is a bad story.  Disney has yet another winner on their hands.

4.6 stars

The new Robert Zemeckis film, Allied, was not one that I thought I was going to enjoy.  Yet, I was surprised at how much I did enjoy the film.

This is really a romance film, which was unexpected.  It was promoted more as a spy thriller set in World War II, but I was as engaged with the relationship early on in the movie as I was with the spy shenanigans at the end.

Max (Brad Pitt) goes on a mission to assassinate a German officer and he hooked up with Marianne (Marion Cotillard) as a partner.  They were pretending to be husband and wife to infiltrate the target’s world and, along the way, they fall in love.  After the mission ended, they went back to London, married and started a family.

Problem.  London intelligence determined that Marianne was not actually who she said she was and was, in truth, a German spy.  They planned on setting her up to prove this story and, if true, wanted Max to execute her.

I was surprised at how connected I felt to Max and Marianne as a couple.  When the whole German spy thing came up, I was never sure if it were true or not.  The film played it coyly throughout, and it kept me uncertain.  I liked that.  I like the fact that I wasn’t sure if Marianne was really a German spy or if it were just British Intelligence messing with them.  I had convinced myself both ways as the film progressed.

There were some pacing issues with the movie.  There were some shots that could have been edited out to bring the run time down a little bit.  I think that would have helped make this feel a tighter story.

Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard were excellent in their roles, and I completely bought them as a couple in love.  I believed completely in Pitt and his conflicted mind as he struggled to prove that his wife was not what she was accused of being.  If these characters were unconvincing, the entire film would fall apart.  They made me believe.

The film was also very much of a throwback to films of yesteryear.  In particular, the film was an homage to Casablanca.  Zemeckis was clearly inspired by those films and wanted to make a film to honor them.

I liked Allied more than I thought I would, and it is nice when a film surprises me.

4 stars

Among the boxing movie genre, Bleed for This does not stand out, and that feels unfortunate since it has, at its core, perhaps one of the greatest comeback stories ever.

Boxer Vinnie Pazienza was a world champion when he was involved in a horrific automobile accident that broke his neck.  Instead of having neck fusion surgery that would have ended his career, he chose to have Halo surgery, which was a circular metal device that was screwed into his skull with metal screws, to allow his body to heal on its own.  It was a severe risk, but Pazienza couldn’t see his life outside of the boxing ring.

Pazienza (Miles Teller) works diligently to fight his way back inside the squared circle, overcoming unbelievable physical odds.

The problem here is this film does not do a great job with the source material.

After seeing this movie, I could not place my finger on what it was about Bleed for This that was bugging me, but there was definitely something.  I did not hate this movie, but the story just did not seem compelling enough, which is astounding.

Add to the fact that the film boasted a brilliant performance from Aaron Eckhart as well known boxing trainer Kevin Rooney, this film should have been a huge hit.

Miles Teller was, at best, okay here.  He did not come near the highlight of his career (Whiplash) as this boxer.  Another issue was that the film itself felt like it was split into two parts.  The first part was Pazienza coming back after falling into a slump and moving up two weight classes to box.  This was the first half of the film and was dealt with fully before the accident that nearly cost him his life, which was the second half of the film.  I kind of thought that was what this film should have focused on.

I found much of the early part of this movie boring, and maybe that was why it did not feel right.

There was also some undertones of corruption implied in the film, including a weird interview with Teller, as Pazienza, that seemed to indicate that there was more to the world of boxing than what we normally see.  Considering we did not see any of that (with the possible exception of Ted Levine playing the slimy Lou Duva) the ending felt tagged on to the wrong movie.

There really isn’t anything new here or special here or inspiring here, despite it being a tremendously inspiring real life story.  It feels as if this movie lost an opportunity to become one of the year’s best biopics, but now it is just another boxing movie, like Hands of Stone (the Roberto Duran film from earlier in the year- Duran (Edwin Rodriguez) who appears in this film as well.

The film felt like it took forever, and I was checking the time several moments throughout.

2.75 stars

I was not sure what to expect about Moonlight.  I had heard extremely positive things about the second directed movie by Barry Jenkins, yet I had a difficult time relating.

However, the ideas of the film does transcend the racial divide and deal with concepts of growing up and how confusing that could be.

The film follows the same character, Chiron, during three major parts of his life.  First in i: Little, as a child struggling with a challenging home life who finds a friend in a kind local drug dealer Juan (Mahershala Ali) and his girlfriend (Janelle Monáe),  Second, ii: Chiron tells the story of the young boy as a sexually confused and awkward teen in high school, picked on by a basic bully.  And finally, iii: Black, sees Chiron as an adult drug dealer on his own trying to reconnect with his high school friend Kevin with whom he had had his first sexual encounter.

The film does a great job of smashing stereotypes of the black community.  Juan is a drug dealer, but he is shown as a caring and kind-hearted man.  Mahershala Ali is wonderful again in the film, but his absence in the second and third acts of the movie is jarring.  It starts out by feeling as if it were his movie only to discover that was not the case.  Interestingly enough, Chiron basically grows into a copy of Juan by the third act of the movie.

There was a fascinating subplot in the film dealing with Chiron’s substance abusing mother (Naomie Harris).  I found this as interesting as any of the other stories in the movie.  I would have liked more between these two.

This is most definitely a personal film and one that was, at times, tough to watch.  The characters were original and well developed and the story was well written.  The time jumps were a little difficult to hand at times, and the constant use of the n-word, while probably realistic, was uncomfortable.

In the end, Moonlight is a solid film, but I had more of a challenge relating to our main character.

3.5 stars

I really enjoyed Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, which I did not expect.  It was one of the best movies of that year.  Unfortunately, Lee’s new film, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is closer to Ang Lee’s Hulk instead of Life of Pi.

I really disliked this movie.

Billy Lynn (Joe Alwyn) was a member of the military group known as Bravo Squad who was involved in a video of a heroic action during the Iraqi War and suddenly became American heroes.  Billy Lynn was the face of the story.

So the squad was brought to Texas to a football game, to make an appearance at the halftime show, by team owner and billionaire Norm Oglesby (Steve Martin).  Along the way, we see the troubles and tribulations of the group of soldiers adapting to the normal world again.

There were so many stupid things throughout this film.  From Billy Lynn enlisting because his sister Katherine (Kristen Stewart) was in a terrible accident to a group of roadies attacking the squad during the football game, I found so much just ridiculous in the story.  Billy Lynn meets and falls for a cheerleader (Makenzie Leigh) and is ready to run away with her after ten minutes.

Flashbacks to the Iraq War involving Vin Diesel as the person who Billy Lynn “saves” does not help the movie.  Steve Martin, who was basically playing Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones, was wasted as the Texas money man.  I did not understand why Kristen Stewart had such a desire to get Billy Lynn out of the military either.  She went as far as to say that if anything would happen to him, she would kill herself.  Geez, thanks sis for putting on the pressure.

The remaining members of the Bravo Squad were underdeveloped and were basic stereotypes.  They were not portrayed in a very positive light.  They were shown more as assholes and delinquents than soldiers.

Ang Lee’s message was all over the place as well.  At times, it felt like I was getting preached at about the horribleness of the Iraqi War and other times it made me think that the soldiers were being set up as being better than all of us and other times made me think that this was intended as a comedic satire.  I’m not sure if this was a political statement or a love letter to the military or a satirical plot.  It felt like all of these at many different times of the film, and that inconsistency makes this tough to watch.

The funniest part of this whole thing is Chris Tucker plying an agent who is trying to sell the story of the Bravo Squad to Hollywood, but not getting any takers.  Ironically, in the movie apparently, they understand that this would not make a good movie.  Too bad real life did not echo fiction in this case.

2 stars

I can really relate to this movie.  Not the teen angsty seventeen year old, but the grumpy high school teacher played by Woody Harrelson.  The line about the “run-on sentences” is one of my favorite lines of the year, and one I could see myself saying in the same situation.

There have been a ton of these types of social outcast, teen drama films over the years, but The Edge of Seventeen does a very fine job of creating well developed characters and avoiding the cliches that can easily be prevalent in this genre of film.

Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) is a seventeen year old girl who has had a lot of problems in her life.  She has a perfect brother Darian (Blake Jenner), a mother (Kyra Sedgwick) who has been off the rails since the death of her husband, and a lack of friends her own age.  Nadine does have one best friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson), but when Krista falls for the perfect brother, Nadine feels betrayed and tossed aside.  This sends her into even more of a downward spiral.

Nadine goes to her social studies teacher Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson) as a sounding board, but he is anything but empathetic toward her situation.  In his own way, Mr. Bruner provides what Nadine needs in a snide and snippy manner.

There are some really strong performances in this film, lead by Harrelson and Steinfeld.  This relationship between not-so-great teacher and overly-needy student is the strongest, most real relationship of the film.  It is written with a lot of wit and intelligence, providing a real tone of caring.

I also enjoyed the way the writers created Darian.  He could have easily fallen into the perfect sibling trope, but Darian shows the cracks in his veneer as he has to continually step up to help his family, despite at the detriment of his own life.

The film is very poignant and at many times very funny.  The coming of age story is nothing new, but this film takes that and subverts it by taking the main character and making her a stubborn, unlikable mess who you still can’t help but love and root for.  Hailee Steinfeld brings all of her youthful vigor to this role, providing an uncertainty to exactly how this film would come to an end.  I did worry that, at some point in this film, Nadine would take a turn into tragedy.

I also enjoyed the relationship between Nadine and the lovesick loser Edwin (Hayden Szeto).  This was another character that, in a worse movie, would have fallen into simplistic tropes, but in this film becomes a much more fascinating character filled with rooting potential.  The cute animation near the end of the film was very funny as well.

I was a little disappointed that there was not a scene between Nadine and her mother to smooth over that relationship, although it is a powerful chance that the film took by having this important relationship only shown to improve through tiny steps- over a text message.  I still thought it felt like a scene was missing between them, but I respect the moxie of the movie makers.

I do think the film went a little long, but I am not sure what I would cut out.

Again, I really loved the disgruntled teacher played by Harrelson.  When he put on a film about Lincoln and left the classroom, I howled because I know of teachers who have done that before.

The Edge of Seventeen was a very enjoyable film, deep and funny, and contributing something new to a genre that tends to be repetitive.  Strong performances highlighted an already excellent script.

4.3 stars

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has returned with the new tentpole franchise set in the Harry Potter universe, Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them, and it is a definite so-so film.

There were plenty of moments and things to enjoy about the new film, but there are just about the same amount of things I did not like.

Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) was a wizard from England who was traveling to New York City with a magical suitcase filled with fantastical creatures that Newt is trying to save and preserve.  Unfortunately, some of the creatures escaped from the suitcase and caused chaos in the non-magic world.  He gets himself into trouble with the Americans and an agent named Tina (Katherine Waterston), who pursued Newt.  Newt meets up with a muggle named Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) who is surprised by the world he did not know existed.

Ok, let’s get into it.  What I liked.  I actually loved Jacob Kowalski.  I enjoyed just about everything from him, and I also liked the mind reader Queenie (Alsion Sudol).  Their relationship was sweet and forbidden, and I wanted to have more of them.  Eddie Redmayne was good, but he was so quirky as the character that was a little challenging.  Colin Farrell was good as our resident villain, Percival Graves.  There were some interesting aspects in the story, especially about the American Wizard community.  The differences between it and the Wizard community that we already knew was cool.

I did have some emotional moments during the story.  The humor was good at times, but I do not remember much of the humor (outside of the giggle drink).

What I didn’t like.  I really disliked Tina as our main female protagonist.  I did not like her character at all.  She was very annoying and weak-willed.  I wanted her to go away.  I so preferred her sister Queenie.  Nothing against Katherine Waterston because she is a solid performer, but I just did not like the way she developed.

I also thought that the beasts were all forgettable.  None of them were interesting and I did not think any of them were great CGI.  The CGI is not terrible, but none of it stood out as amazing and a couple weeks after Dr. Strange really makes these beasts look down.  Maybe if I was more of a Harry Potter fan these monsters would mean more, but they do not.

I was not a fan of this movie’s ending.  It had a feel of a deus ex machina.  It seemed to be lazy writing.  The whole Ezra Miller story line was out of place in this movie for a lot of this film, considering it was one of the main arcs of the movie.

I think that if you are a die hard Harry Potter fan, you will love Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them.  I am only somewhat of a fan of Potter so the new film was only okay.  I did not hate it, but I came out of the film feeling conflicted.  I wanted to really love this.  It was not bad.  That’s the best I can do.

3.1 stars

This is sci-fi at its most cerebral.

I love having to think during a film, and you have to pay attention to Arrival if you hope to follow along.  And that is not a bad thing.

Warning though… if anyone thinks that this film is an alien invasion movie, you will be desperately disappointed.  This is a slow burn story of trying to understand what the arrival of these aliens means and how we can communicate.  It is more like First Contact than Independence Day.

Twelve spaceships arrive on the planet earth, scattered everywhere with no discernible pattern, and the governments of the world are forced to work together to decipher what the purpose of this arrival is.  The US government recruited linguist extraordinaire Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) and scientist/mathematician Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) to head up teams in an attempt to communicate with the aliens.

That’s about as much as I can tell you about the plot without spoiling it.  And the story “twist” is worth going into unspoiled.  I did spot the twist a little earlier than the reveal, but it still was excellent.

Amy Adams is outstanding.  Her understated performance as the main hope for being able to bring the two races together is wonderful and has created some well-deserved Oscar buzz.  Adams is the heart of the movie easily.

The other cast members, including Renner and Forest Whitaker, do a fine job, but they all play second fiddle to Adams.

There really is almost zero action scenes, and yet the film was very dramatic and intense.  In fact, if there had been some action here, it would have felt out of place.  The suspense was created by the story and the mystery, not the plot contrivances of the movie and that is a welcome change.

This was science fiction leaning heavily on the science part.  Even when we are with the aliens, this movie approaches it like a science experiment.  I really liked this for a change.  It was a smart sci-fi film that did not have to depend on sci-fi violence to sell it.  It is based on performances and writing.  And Arrival had both of those in spades.

Director Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Prisoners) brings yet another voice to the world of sci-fi, much like he did to the world of the drug cartels with Sicario.  It could have been easy to take this in a different direction, but his vision of what sci-fi could be won out and you have a movie that is one of the best ones of the year.

You absolutely come out of Arrival thinking about what you have seen.  I am sure there were countless discussions about it in the car ride home.  (A couple I sat next to said that they were excited to discuss this on the way home.)  I think kids will probably be bored, but for those who appreciate intelligent films, this is one of the best.

4.7 stars

Thee is nothing new in Almost Christmas.  We have seen this type of movie before countless times including films such as Parenthood, This is Where I Leave You, Love the Coopers, and August: Osage County.  The ensemble family film with each family member filled with melodramatic plot points that wrap up by the end of the film has been a staple of movies over the last few decades.  Almost Christmas does not add anything new to the mix.

That does not mean that there is not moments to enjoy here as well.

The melodrama is everywhere here.  The patriarch of the family struggles after the loss of his wife and considers selling the family home.  The loud-mouth husband has a wondering eye and involved in an extra-marital affair.  The siblings have a long-standing dislike for one another.  One of the family member’s job interferes in the family occasion.  The kids are precocious.  There is a substance abuse problem.  One of the siblings has struggled to find her path in the world and finds love with an old flame.

Seriously, every one of these are here.  The only one we were missing was the surprise pregnancy.

And yet, I was reasonably entertained by Almost Christmas.  It is harmless and does deal up a few laughs mixed in with the melodrama.

Most of those laughs are from Mo’Nique, who plays Aunt May (no, not Peter Parker’s Aunt May), a back-up signer who has traveled the world behind some of the great acts of the last 30 years.  Mo’Nique’s character is so over-the-top, so cartoonish that you can’t help but enjoy her here.  She delivers each line with such gusto that you believe this woman is truly a diva and she is fun to watch.

And my absolutely favorite scene in this film was when the ladies were in the kitchen trying to prepare food so they put on music and this results in a lot of dancing.  That scene brought a big smile to my face, even though, narratively, it seemed to fall in a place in the story where it did not fit.  The cliched family holiday football game was not as fun.

Danny Glover does a great job playing family patriarch Walter who was still grieving the loss of his beloved wife Grace.

If you are looking for that family friendly Christmas movie that checks all the boxes, this is probably it.  It is a harmless film.  It is desperately predictable and formulaic, but there is enough here to make the time in the theater enjoyable.

3 stars

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