Meryl Streep is one of the greatest actresses we have in the world of movies.  She can carry just about anything and do it with credibility.  Here, she steps into the high heels of one of the stranger, true stories that you will ever see.

Florence Foster Jenkins was a grand dame who was a driving force behind a “music club” during World War II.  The prim and proper membership of the club was high brow and respectful.  After seeing a brilliant opera singer, Miss Florence wanted to get back on the stage and sing.  Her husband St Claire (Hugh Grant) goes out of his way to make her wishes happen.

The problem?  Miss Florence can not sing.  Everybody knew it.  Her new pianist Cosme McMoon (Simon Helberg) couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  And he was confused why no one else was saying anything.

St. Claire was the man behind the curtain in this case, making sure that his wife was always shown in a positive life, whether by bribery, blackmail or bravado.

The main characters in this film are very likable and that comes across because of the three lead actors.  Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant and Simon Helberg are really good and have a distinct connection with their characters.  You can feel how much each of these characters mean to one another, and how far St Claire and McMoon will go to help Miss Florence.

Streep does a great job singing just terribly.  It is a very funny performance as this woman who loves music, but cannot hear that she cannot sing a bit.

This is one of the biggest issues with the film. The film is not clear about how we are supposed to act.  Are we supposed to laugh at the singing or the facial expressions on Simon Helberg (which are really funny) or are you supposed to not laugh at her because laughing at her is mean and cruel spirited.  This variation of tone made me wonder what they wanted to portray.

There is a very intriguing story moving through the film, involving Florence’s health.  There is also a lot about St Claire and another romantic relationship he had with a woman named Kathleen (Rebecca Ferguson).  These plots were welcome and based in character which only made them stronger.

The movie does pull on heartstrings and the ending comes across as sappy, but the overall story is one that would have seemed far fetched had it not been a true story.  It does show how the love of music can drive someone to do more than they are capable of doing.  Strong performances are scattered throughout the film.  I just wish that I knew if it was supposed to be a comedy or not.

3.8 stars

It shouldn’t take you too long to realize that you shouldn’t have brought the kids to this animated feature, parents.  The “F”-bombs and raunchy sexual references (not even innuendo) fly fast and furious in this new Rated R comedy from Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg.

The movie shows how the food from the supermarket was alive and who are hoping to be picked by the human/”GOD” and taken to the Great Beyond.  Yes, there is a definite religious feel to that.  However, we find out that the food does not know that once they leave the supermarket, they are to be consumed by their Gods.

Frank (Seth Rogan) is a sausage (really more of a hot dog) who is hoping to be chosen with his sausage mates for the 4th of July holiday.  Then, he hoped that his girlfriend, Brenda the bun (Kristen Wiig) would be chosen as well so that once they arrive in the Great Beyond, the could have sex.

Frank and Brenda wind up out of their packages and running around the store with other racially motivated food, being chased by the movie’s villain, the juiced up Douche (Nick Kroll).

Many of Rogan’s buddies appear here, lending their voices to certain produce and characters.  James Franco, Michael Cera, Bill Hader, Selma Hayek, Jonah Hill, Anders Holm, Danny McBride, Edward Norton, Craig Robinson, and Paul Rudd are stars who gave their voices to this animation.

Here is the biggest thing.  This is really crass and raunchy at times, but you can excuse that if the humor is funny.  So is this film funny?  Yes and no.  There are many scenes where the humor is very funny, and they really push the envelope a long way.  There are also some clever jokes that are blended into the sex and drug jokes.  There is almost a message in the humor at times.  Unfortunately, I found myself sitting for several long stretches in the film without laughing.  A bad sign.

I have a feeling that the joke of swearing and sexually active food got old as it was dragged out through the entire film.  This is one of those films that feels like it would have been a hilarious 45 minute movie, but to fill the 87 minutes that it was was just too much.

However, the finale to the adventure was just shockingly really out there… crossing any line you could imagine.  And it just kept going and going.  You have to give the film credit for going for it as hard as it did.  There were several images that I saw that I never expected that I would see, especially in an animated film about talking food.  It certainly earned its hard R rating.

I am on the fence about Sausage Party.  While I find this funny in spots and very creative in a way that took the Pixar film making strategy and turned it on its head, there was long times in the film where I just did not find it funny.  They fell back on the lame drug humor that I never like, and the sexual jokes got old quickly.  That is…until the ending just became an orgy of over the top imagery.

2.95 stars

This film stars Mowgli and his giant, green, fuzzy dog with wings.

Huh?

Just kidding.  There is no Mowgli in this movie.

Pete’s Dragon is the latest live action remake of a classic Disney cartoon like The Jungle Book and Maleficent.

Young Pete (Oakes Fegley) was stranded in the forest after a tragic car accident killed his parents.  The child ran across the dragon and they bonded.  Pete named the dragon, Elliot, after his favorite book, and then spent the next six years living with Elliot in the forest.  However, when Pete was discovered by Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), she brought him to her home and discovered the hidden secret of Elliot.

Fortunately, Grace’s father (Robert Redford) had also had an encounter with the dragon years ago and had been telling hyperbolic tales about it since.  Grace is not the only person who discovered Elliot’s existence.  Forester Gavin (Karl Urban)has a negative interaction with the dragon (who was looking for the missing Pete) and sent him on a mission to capture the giant creature.

Now, the movie definitely has some good moments.  The dragon was good (though it was way too much like a dog) and Pete does a solid job as well.  The movie definitely tried to bring the feels on for the audience as it puts the dragon and Pete through their emotional paces.  It does an admirable job of showing how much the relationship between Pete and Elliot meant to them both.  I might have liked some kind of scene showing the early years with them instead of just jumping 6 years after they met, but that is a minor point.

The rest of the cast was really underwhelming.  There was very little development of any of the secondary characters in the movie after Pete and Elliot.  Even Grace does not feel as fleshed out as she could have been.

The CGI of the dragon was very good, but I did not understand why the film chooses to make the dragon furry and doglike.  I suppose that decision may just be a way to sell more plush toys, but it does not service your story at all.

Speaking of the story, it is right out of the typical Disney playbook for these live action films, right down to these kids, Pete and Grace’s step daughter Natalie (Oona Laurence), defying authority and helping the creature escape.  It had a very Witch Mountain vibe to it.

I was not a huge fan of this, but it was okay.  The dragon was fun, and I thought the kids did a good job.  I wish the story was tighter and that the dragon wasn’t a bog dog.  It was a sweet time at the theater that families would most likely enjoy together.

3.1 stars

Before and during World War II, Nazi SS General Reinhard Heydrich was one of the darkest, worst individuals of a evil batch.  He was credited with being one of the main architects behind the concept of “The Final Solution,” became known as “The Butcher of Prague” and was the third highest ranking Nazi officer behind Hitler and Himmler.

In 1942, there was a mission inside occupied Czechoslovakia to assassinate Heydrich that was called Anthropoid.  This is the story of that mission.

Now, since I was unaware of this event, I will not spoil what happens, although you could ask a history buff or hit Wikipedia if you cannot wait to discover whether or not the assassination attempt was successful.

A group of parachutists dropped into Czechoslovakia to undertake the mission.  The story focuses on two of them- Josef Gabčík (Cillian Murphy) and Jan Kubi (Jamie Dornan)- and their efforts to find a way to attempt such a difficult, if not impossible, job.

Along the way, the Josef and Jan find their way to the Kovárníková family, who were willing to put them up and support their mission. They also had several resistance fighters from the town itself including Ladislav (Marcin Dorocinski) and Uncle Hajský  (Toby Jones).  Facing some opposition to the mission, Josef and Jan had to do what they could to keep it on track.

While they were establishing themselves, Josef and Jan meet Maria (Charlotte Le Bon) and Lenka (Anna Geislerová) who agreed to help them.  Of course, the men fell for these women, making their mission even more taxing.

Now, there was some issues with the movie.  It does take some time to get going, and we do not get a proper introduction to several of these characters.  That made it challenging, at times, to follow.  We really do not know much about these people, making it tough to relate to their struggles.

However, once the mission starts, the remainder of the film is very exciting and compelling.  It is difficult to write anything about this next section without spoiling, so I will say that the final 30-45 minutes of the film really pulled off some intense scenes with some remarkable battles.

The film does a great job of showing how the little person tried to stand up and battle against the juggernaut that was Nazi Germany and hteir invading forces.  One of the concerns of the mission was that an assassination attempt on a figure as high ranking as Heydrich would lead to a drastic retaliation by the Nazis, and that is exactly what happened.  The film does an amazing job of showing how little human life meant to the Nazis and it is always a shocking example of one of the most horrific time in the history of the planet earth.

This does feel like a tale of two films.  The first half was slow and plodding while the second half becomes tense and violent.  This film served as a history lesson to one of the worst real-life villains we have seen ever.

3 stars

I came across this Netflix original as I was perusing what Netflix had to offer. I had a couple of few hours and I found this.  The explanation on the queue looked interesting so I gave it a try.

Rebirth is the story of Kyle (Fran Katz), a man who had a nowhere job and a marriage that he was feeling lost in.  Then, an old friend Zack (Adam Goldberg) arrived and offered him a weekend trip to a place called rebirth.  Though Kyle was not convinced at first, he decided he would take his friend up on his offer.  The trip started off with a lot of confusion for him, but it soon became more than that.

I will say that I think the concept of Rebirth was an interesting one.  There were some really original and weirdly trippy things happening in the movie and you kept waiting for the shoe to drop.  Kyle went from one abusive situation to another in Rebirth just looking for someone to explain to him what was going on.

Though the story itself was refreshingly original, there were other problems with the film.  First, the tone seemed to be all over the place.  It was as if the film was being a thriller, a comedy and a horror movie.  At times, the change in tone was jarring.

Another issue was the performance by Fran Katz as Kyle.  Kyle spent the whole time in Rebirth just screaming at the top of his lungs.  There really needed a more layered performance which would have balanced out the character of Kyle.

While I was engaged with the plot, I was not happy with the ending of the film.  I found this very unsatisfying and not worthy of the intriguing premise the film put forward.

This is one of those films that feels like it could benefit from a few rewrites and some adjustment to where the story goes.  There are some good ideas here, but the overall execution of the film left a lot to be desired.  If you have a few hours to kill some day while you’re looking around Netflix, this one would be okay, but you could probably do much better.

2.3 stars

The classic novella, The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery has been adapted many times, but never with the success of the original.  The original is one of the most translated stories in the world.

Mark Osborne has done what many others failed to do.  Find the magic.

Osborne took the source material and interwove into a larger narrative that found a young girl (Mackenzie Foy) moving next door to the old aviator (Jeff bridges), alone and living out his life remembering his adventures with the Little Prince (Riley Osborne).  The Little Girl, whose loving, but overbearing Mother (Rachel McAdams) has her entire life pre-planned for her, comes across the eccentric Aviator and becomes enthralled in his stories, sparking the imagination and youthful hope that she was missing from her life.

It was truly wonderful.

The tale of the Little Girl took place in a present day setting, with one form of animation, while the flashbacks/storytelling of The Little Prince was told in a different animation style.  These two worked together very well and brought something special to the tale.  In particular, the flashback sequences are as artistic as you will ever see.

Other memorable voices were used in the story for some lesser characters, including Paul Rudd, Ricky Gervais, Benicio Del Toro, James Franco, Albert Brooks, Paul Giamotti and Vincent Cassel.

The story was full of emotion as well, playing each note with a perfect emphatic brilliance.  I really found myself connecting to the Little Girl and the Aviator.

There are tons of themes beneath the surface of this beautiful film, many coming straight from the novella itself.  It runs the gamut of the human condition and gives a wonderful point of view on how to live life.

The film was released in limited release this weekend, as well as on Netflix.  If you are a fan of beautiful animation or a story of growing up, then you should make time for The Little Prince.  But be warned…keep the tissues handy.

4.3 stars

Kevin Spacey turns into a cat.

It makes you wonder exactly how much House of Cards pays that would require Spacey to take this kind of role.

I don’t know, maybe he and the rest of the creative forces behind this new comedy (although the existential question is can you call a film a comedy that has no laughs?) thought they were making a modern day Shaggy Dog for cat lovers.

Kevin Spacey played Tom Brand, the owner of the Firebrand company, and Tom was focused on building the biggest building in the world.  He was focused on this project to the detriment of his family, ignoring calls from his wife Lara (Jennifer Garner) and forgetting the birthday of his daughter Rebecca (Malina Weissman).

Of course, the movie is trying to set up Tom as an absentee father who only thinks of his daughter, yet it spends several scenes in a boardroom with Tom and his employees brainstorming what Tom could get for Rebecca’s birthday.

Rebecca had asked her father for a cat, and, though he hated cats, Tom decided to acquiesce to his daughters wishes and finds a cat shop called Purrkins, which includes a weird owner Mr. Perkins (Christopher Walken).  Perkins acted in a very mystical, all-knowing type manner, speaking to Tom about his life.

Tom gets called back to the building by lowlife business partner Ian (Mark Consuelos), who wants the Firebrand company to go public.  A freak lightning strike sent Tom and the cat over the side of the building, desperately hanging on.  Ian watched Tom fall from the building.  Amazingly, he did not fall all the way to the ground, but crashed through one of the windows.

When help arrived, Tom’s body was injured, but his consciousness was transferred into the cat.  So Tom could see what was happening to himself.  Tom ends up in a coma and the cat winds up with his family.

Now, I am not sure when this conscious swap happened.  Was it supposed to have happened with the lightning strike?  It couldn’t have because Tom (the person) spoke to Ian as he hung over the side of the building…after the lightning.  Was it crashing through the window?  Why would that do it?  The cat was inside a cage during this whole time as well.

I don’t think you are supposed to think about the how too hard.  That way, you would be just like the writers.

This was truly one of the worst times at the movies this year.  There were not even a few chuckles to be had in this weak script.  Even the top of the line cast could not make this thing interesting.

Some people might claim that the movie was made for children, as if that is an excuse to not be funny.  However, I am not sure how too many kids could enjoy this either.  There are a lot of scenes of boardrooms and meetings at the office… way more than you would expect.  I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t have been bored with all this.

Robbie Amell was also in this movie as Tom’s son David from his first marriage.  Tom always had negative things to say about his son, saying he wasn’t a man etc.  David was always looking for his father’s approval.  Probably my favorite character was Tom’s ex-wife Madison (Cheryl Hines) who didn’t even try to hide her contempt for Tom despite being good friends with Lara.

The special effects of this movie were horrendous.  It was so clearly green screen in so many instances and the cat did not look real for a good chunk of the film.  It was comparable at times to the level of special effects from The Shaggy Dog films.

However, there was an interesting idea in this heap that was just touched upon.  When Tom in cat form returned to the Purrkins cat shop, the other cats were talking to him indicating that this was not the first time that this kind of thing happened.  To me, that would have been a much more fascinating and dark take on the story.  Imagine that at one point all cats were once rotten people being punished for their deeds and Perkins was the person behind it.  The mind reels at the possible outcomes of that movie, but here, it is tossed aside like nothing.

This really was not a good film and you could easily get more laughs by watching a series of cat videos on YouTube (which the movie actually starts with).  This is not worth time as a family or is it something that makes you think.  In fact, it is not that enjoyable if you just shut off your mind.  It is a hairball of a movie.

0.9 stars

Here we go.

I did not hate Batman v. Superman on first viewing, but it was one of those movies that, as I thought back, got worse and worse.  Man of Steel was the same way.  I gave it an overall positive review, but the more I thought about what I had seen, the less I liked it.

I am a huge fan of Marvel.  I always have been.  I will not apologize for that.  I do like the DC characters, and I really was hoping that Suicide Squad would be that film that broke the DC Extended Cinematic Universe’s streak of weaker films.

Then I started hearing about some of the reviews.  At this minute, Suicide Squad is at 29% on Rotten Tomatoes.  Chris Stuckmann gave it a C.  The Schmoes neither had it at fresh.  Suddenly, I was frightened.

Then I saw the movie and you know what… it was pretty good.  I would go out on a limb and say that, in my opinion, it is definitely the best of the recent DC movie universe films.

Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), determined to provide a defense to the metahuman problem, decides to put together a team of the worst of the worst villains to face anything that might be a greater threat to the nation. She put together villains Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje),  Diablo (Jay Hernandez), and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courntey) with soldier Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and Japanese swords fighter Katana (Karen Fukuhara).

The team of villains were forced together by Waller with the threat of death, after a bomb was implanted into the villains’ heads.  She sent them after the witch Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), who was trying to take over the world by bringing her brother into the world and creating some weapon.

Positives:  There are several of these.  Will Smith was outstanding as Deadshot.  Deadshot was the most developed of all of the characters, showing a very wonderful relationship with his daughter.  He was funny and well written.

Margot Robbie was perfect as Harley Quinn.  Her relationship with the Joker (Jared Leto) was displayed beautifully.  These two crazy characters really showed themselves as a perfect pair.  Jared Leto’s Joker was a very interesting take on the character.  I was never a fan of the tattoos or grills at first, but they all seemed to work here.

The Squad itself worked very good together.  The charisma shown by the members of the group were great.  In particular, I liked the relationship that developed between Deadshot and Harley Quinn.  I liked how the movie introduced these characters and brought them to the screen.  There was a lot of music used to introduce many of these villains, and I liked most of that.  They may have over used the music a little, but they picked some really good songs, so that was good.

Viola Davis was unbelievable as the downright cold and vicious Amanda Waller.  She was as bad as any of the villains of the Suicide Squad.  Joel Kinnaman was good as Flag, Jai Courtney was surprisingly solid as Boomerang.  Jay Hernandez was okay as Diablo.

The first hour or so was very entertaining.  There was a nice tone for Suicide Squad.  It was still the darker tone much like previous DC movies, but it was able to sprinkle in more humor and fun to the film, something that was dramatically missing from Batman v. Superman.  This film showed that you did not have to constantly making jokes or being light-hearted to make an entertaining film.  It was also not constantly grim and depressing as the other DC movies.

Negatives:  For those who gave this movie a negative review, I can understand why, because it is anything but a perfect movie.  There are several problems with it.

There was just not enough Joker.  Despite being featured heavily in the promotional materials, Jared Leto’s Joker does not appear very often.  This would have been a much better movie had the Joker played a bigger role.

The villain of The Enchantress was horrible.  Her “brother” was worse.  These were probably two of the absolutely worst villains in any comic book movie.  There was no motivation for the characters outside of being evil.  Then, the look of these characters was horrendous.  The Enchantress did all kind of weird movements (like she was constantly doing the hula) and her brother made me think about the Green Lantern movie.  Plus, the expendable monsters they created as canon fodder for the Suicide Squad to kill looked ridiculous.

As good as the start of this movie was, the third act battle was just as bad.  Honestly, this third act really threatened to pull the entire film off the track (and I am sure many of the negative reviews out there were negative because of the last battle scene).  The story leading up to this was a mess, but at least the characters were entertaining and we had solid character moments.  The last fight was very much laughable in many ways.  These great characters that we had been introduced to deserved a better conclusion to their movie.

Killer Croc, especially, but also, to a lesser extend Boomerang and Katana, didn’t have much to do.  They were here to fill out the team and that was about it.  Killer Croc was basically there to grunt or to do something with his strength.

I can see how the finale could ruin this movie for some people, but it did not mess it up for me. I was able to enjoy most of this movie despite the weak ending.  I found myself leaving the theater happy that I saw it.  The miscredits scene was really great and a much better way to introduce some information than we saw in BvS.  Deadshot and Harley Quinn stole the show and I really wanted more Joker.

3.5 stars

I did not see the original Jason Bourne movies.  I saw the Bourne Legacy with Jeremy Renner and it was okay.  So I did not have any real feelings about Matt Damon returning to this role.  I was coming in to this as a newbie.

Honestly, I didn’t hate it, but I was not a fan either.

Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) comes back after going underground to find answers about the death of his father and how he was recruited into the government program.  CIA Agent Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander) was part of the investigation, led by CIA Director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones).  Dewey sent the unnamed Asset (Vincent Cassel) after Bourne.  Action happens.

The action was fine, but there was nothing exceptional about the action and I was so tired of the shaky cam shots that permeated the movie.  Now, I hear that the earlier Bourne movies had employed this technique and maybe for some it wouldn’t have felt like a Bourne movie without it, but I feel like that is a cop-out.  I couldn’t tell what was happening a lot of the time.  How am I supposed to enjoy action if I cannot tell what is happening?  This shaky cam stuff is just not fun to watch.

Matt Damon does a good job in the role.  It is clear that he feels comfortable as Jason Bourne and his performance is one of the stronger aspects of the film.  I also enjoyed the performance of Vikander.  She is a star.  My favorite character in the film is Tommy Lee Jones’s CIA Director Robert Dewey, who plays Tommy Lee Jones.  Jones is always fun to watch.

The story had no surprises and the “twists” in the film were painfully obvious.  I found several sections of the Jason Bourne movie kind of dull.

They even had a different angle of the great shot from the trailer of Bourne knocking the fighter out with one punch.  The shot that was actually in the film was so much less impressive than what was in the trailer.  I don’t understand why someone didn’t use the original shot from the trailer cause it was so much better.

I am not a fan of the Bourne movies, but I didn’t have to be to watch this movie.  I just think the film could have been so much better than what it was.

2.8 stars

This looked like just another bad behavior movie that would be like all of the others.  They are never funny.

And yet Bad Mom was better than I thought.

Amy Mitchell (Mila Kunis) is a mom who has so many things to do.  Working at a coffee company, running her children around, PTA and bake sales, and handling the sudden vertigo of the family dog, Amy reached her breaking point.  Then she finds her husband online cheating on her, she kicks him out and heads out to the bar,  She meets up with two other moms, Kiki (Kristen Bell) and Carla (Kathryn Hahn), and they decide that they would now become bad moms.

After becoming bad moms, Amy found things starting to improve.  However, she was still having troubles with the bully PTA president Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate).

Now, Bad Moms is definitely a predictable film, but the three main actresses are funny and have a great chemistry together.  Kristen Bell was my favorite of the three because of how uncommon her character was.  These performances really helped keep this from becoming just another bad behavior comedy.

There was a good message shown in this film as well.  The importance of family, friends, breaking the role of women, and what is important in life is focused on and the film actually does a really good job of it.

Christina Applegate’s movie was a terrible stereotype, until the very end.  That character really has an interesting change at the end. I wish I had more of that throughout the film because I might have found her as more than the just simple bad guy character that you see in all of these films.

In the end, Bad Moms entertained me more than I thought it would.  I thought the actresses were great and the film was funny.  Emjay Anthony was Amy’s son and he is always good.  (I still want him to be the Sam Alexander-Nova in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  He would be so perfect.)  Yes, it was predictable, but that did not take away from the enjoyment I had.

3.3 stars

An internet based game that can cause people to become crazy and obsessive?  Come on… how can I believe that?

Okay, perhaps the sarcasm is a bit too strong because clearly, the concept behind the new movie called Nerve is not that far of a stretch.  The fact that this could happen is a plus in this film’s column.  However, those cell phone batteries in the movie that never seemed to fail… wow, those batteries were way better than mine.

Shy wallflower Vee (Emma Roberts) finds herself trying to bust out of the shadow of her best friend Sydney (Emily Meade) and so she signs up to the new online game sensation, Nerve, where people sign up as your followers and offer you dares that can earn you cash.  Youhave to complete these dares by filming yourself on your phone and putting them on the Nerve website.  Vee meets up with another player Ian (Dave Franco) and the two of them take on the game.

I found a lot of this movie charming.  I did like the relationship at the start that developed between Vee and Ian.  I was very taken with the lovely Emma Roberts, who was beautiful and carried this film well.  Vee started to come out of her shell as she playfully accepted each increasingly more challenging dares.  These dares would become more and more dangerous as the night moved along.

I also liked the secondary characters here, as they really reflected the world of social media taken to the nth degree.  I was interested in how the relationship between Vee and Sydney was disintegrating the more Vee became her own person.  There was also a relationship with Vee and her friend Tommy (Miles Heizer) that I would have liked more of.

The film, though, really started to weaken as it reached its climax.  In fact, the entire third act falls apart.  Suddenly, there was dark forces behind the game.  Ian had a mysterious past and was in the game for a more dastardly reason (even though we hadn’t seen any of this before) and the hackers, who we hadn’t seen much of anything prior, become a big time deus ex machina.

And the conclusion to the film was downright ridiculous.

There was a “Purge” feel to this film, as we never learned anything about where this game came from, who these mysterious forces behind the game were or why they were so focused on creating this game.  With the villains undefined, when this became a big struggle against the game, things started to not make sense.

The “snitches get stitches” line is just childlike.

Then, the film tried to make a statement about how people can be such horrible people by hiding behind screen names, looking at the community of online line, such as Twitter and message boards.  That felt very forced as well.  The implication was there throughout Nerve.  It did not need to beat us over the head.  It could have been more subtle of a message.

This really felt like a dual film.  One part I enjoyed quite a bit.  I felt entertained for awhile.  The third act really found the movie lacking.  So I was not sure what I was going to do for a score.  I feel as if the film is somewhere between a 2.8- 3.2.  So I will go right in the middle.

3 stars

The Killing Joke is one of the greatest graphic novels of all time.  Perhaps my favorite Batman story, and, certainly, my favorite Joker story of all time.  It was brutal and vicious and very psychological.  Of course, when I heard that the book was being adapted into an animated movie by DC and that it was going to be rated R, I was very excited.

And even more exciting was that Fathom Events would be hosting the movie on the big screen in select movie theaters for one night only.  Well, that eventually became two nights only (as they added July 26th to the original July 25th date) but I knew that I wanted to see this on the big screen.  The DC animated movies have always been extremely well done, and I was sure that The Killing Joke would be no exception.

After seeing it, I would say for sure that it was no exception, but it was not quite as brilliant as I thought it might be.

Here was the thing.  The movie added about 30 minutes of story to the graphic novel.  I understand that fully.  There was no way that the graphic novel’s original story could be adapted for a run time around 90 minutes. As it turned out, with the new material, the film ran for 76 minutes.  And, the only other option was really changing the story around and just barely being recognized as The Killing Joke.

Marvel Studios do this very well.  Captain America: Civil War doe snot resemble the comic series at all.  Basically the theme or overall concept is similar while what the movie does is very different.  That works for Marvel Studios.  However, it would have been disappointing for the animated version of the Killing Joke to follow suit.  The animated version of The Dark Knight Returns was remarkably adapted.

Because of that, DC had to add content to the story.  They chose to spend those thirty minutes or so focusing on Batgirl (Tara Strong).  That was an interesting choice, since Batgirl really is a peripheral character in the Killing Joke.  She was important, but only for motivation.  And there is actually less of that here.

That first 30 minutes feels long, and not vital to what was going to happen.  The whole story arc of Batgirl and the villain Paris (Maury Sterling) was just too tacked on.  The controversial sex scene did not seem to push forward the story either.  If that first section was its own animated episode, it would be fine, but here, it just felt superfluous.

However, once Batman went to see Joker at Arkham Asylum, only to discover that this was not the actual Joker, the story really picked up,  Of course, this was where they started to make a much more faithful adaptation of the comic.

The back story of the Joker is heartbreaking and tragic.  You can almost feel sorry for him, despite the maniacal murderer that he developed into.  This is one of the most epic confrontations between these two characters who are opposites of each other, and the story is such a tale of strength and of the human spirit.

The ending is spot on perfection.  If you do not know how The Killing Joke ends, I will not spoil it for you, but the adaptation to the screen was wonderful.

Reuniting Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as the Batman and the Joker was a masterstroke.  No voice actors have nailed their parts like these two.  Mark Hamill’s Joker is so iconic that this is the way most of the generation of Batman fans imagine the Joker to sound.  Many other voice actors who have tried to tackle these two characters over the years simply do imitations.  So it was amazing to hear these two maestros at work again.

The evening’s activities began with a short interview with Mark Hamill, detailing his past as Joker and his reasoning for returning to this role.  I really enjoyed his comments and his story.

Ray Wise (Leland Palmer from Twin Peaks) voiced Commissioner Gordon and he did a fine job as well.  I have always enjoyed Wise’s work and I am glad he continues to add to his resume.

The animation was nothing to write home about, being kind of choppy at times.  The score though was dark and beautiful, perfectly complimenting the darkness that was happening on screen.  The song The Joker sang was a highlight.  Mark Hamill does an amazing job with that song.  There was a short documentary about the music after the film that was also very entertaining.

Overall, the film does a magnificent job of adapting one of the greatest comic issues of all time, but the tacked on section of the film, while understandable and acceptable, was, at best, fine.  It felt too forced and did not add anything to the story that would follow.  However, when you get through the Batgirl material, this film really takes off, with the return of the iconic voices of Batman and Joker, and the dark and twisted story of the Joker and his origin.

3.7 stars

Absolutely Fabulous is anything but fabulous.

I really disliked this movie.

Now, I was unaware of any previous incarnation of this.  Apparently, Absolutely Fabulous, or Ab Fab as it is sometimes referred, is a BBC sitcom featuring these characters, written by Jennifer Saunders, the actress who portrays Edina.  So maybe if you are a fan of this source, perhaps you would enjoy this more than I did.

PR agent Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and her friend Patsy (Joanna Lumley) love the good life, and are accustomed to drinking champagne and going to parties.  However, the world around them see them as people to be avoided or laughed at.  So when the model Kate Moss decides to change her PR people, it sends Edina into a frenzy, hoping to sign her.  However, Edina does not intend to accidentally knock Moss of a balcony and into the Thames.  With the country thinking that Edina had killed the supermodel, Edina tries to escape from her life and find a lifestyle she can appreciate.

My biggest problem with Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie was that I really did not like Edina or Patsy.  They were so despicable that I could not root for them at all.  Yeah, I know that they are supposed to be unlikable, because that is meant to be where the humor comes from, but I just do not enjoy it.  In fact, I have never liked this type of comedy.  Dumb and Dumber was okay.  They were, at least, relatable.  I had no connection to these obnoxious women and their negative attitudes.  Becaus eof that, I could not find much to laugh at.

There were a few chuckle moments, but the film is so over the top that it couldn’t help but have some giggles.

Again, let me state this.  I have never seen the British comedy that this film apparently follows, and I have seen comments that having that background knowledge would help the viewing of the movie.  I cannot say.  I will say that seeing this movie does not inspire me to go and search out those BBC comedies for viewing.

I actually considered leaving before the film was up.  I thought to myself that I could be doing plenty of other things with my time than watching this.  I did stick it out, but the film did not improve.

I hope that if you are a fan of the BBC show that you enjoy this more than I did.

1 star

The third film from the rebooted series Star Trek came out this weekend with Justin Lin, director of Fast & Furious 6, taking over for J.J. Abrams, and provided fans of the franchise a film that boldly went where no one had gone before with action and adventure and characters embodied perfectly by the new cast.

Star Trek Beyond sends viewers on an exciting voyage into the stars, and fills the screen with exciting action throughout.  This film catches the exciting action of the reboots with the intellectual tone of the original series and blends them together into something that feels like classic Trek.

We catch up with the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise as they are arriving at Starbase Earhart after failing to negotiate a treaty between two warring factions, Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) was starting to feel the strain of this five year mission.  Spock (Zachary Quinto) hears news of the passing of Ambassador Spock (the late Leonard Nemoy) and has to reflect on his own choices.  With the crew slowly being pulled in different directions, the Enterprise heads out to navigate through a nebula to aid a ship whose captain requested assistance.

Unfortunately for Kirk and his crew, the request was a trap and the Enterprise is attacked by a swarm of some kind of creatures.  The Enterprise crashes on the planet below and the crew is scattered into smaller groups, trying to find their way back together.

Meanwhile, the leader of the swarm was Krall (Idris Elba) who was after a “macguffin” that was on the Enterprise, a weapon they tried to present to one of the warring races as a peace offering.  One wonders what Krall would have done had that race of small rock like creatures had accepted the peace offering of this weapon.  Still, Kirk realizes that Krall wants this weapon and keep sit away from him.

The strength of these characters are really seen as they are split into pairs.  Kirk and Chekov (the late Anton Yelchin) are together, searching for the weapon.  Bones (Karl Urban) and Spock are together, with amazing, crackling dialogue that lights up every scene that they share.  Sulu (John Cho) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) are captives of Krall and Scotty (Simon Pegg) meets up with new, bad ass alien Jaylah (Sofia Boutella).  Each section brought something different and entertaining to the ensemble and moved the movie along.

Karl Urban was, once again, the standout as Doctor “Bones” McCoy.  Urban is so perfect in this role that the iconic character has really become his own.  Urban receives all of the best lines of dialogue and he delivers them with a robust, cantankerous enthusiasm that would make DeForest Kelly proud.  Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, played by movie co-writer Simon Pegg, is also provided with wonderful lines within the script, both funny and compelling.

Idris Elba provides a solid villain for the protagonist, but there were a couple of lines that I am not sure what they were going for.  His motivation was made clearer in the third act of the film, but there were some moments where I was expecting something more about him.  Still, as always, Elba was outstanding as the counter to Kirk.

The action was excellent, though there may have been too much use of shaky camera for my tastes in several of the action scenes.  The use of “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys in the trailer felt out of place and forced, but the song’s inclusion in the story itself was perfect and made complete sense.  It also provided a fun and rocking moment in Star Trek Beyond that found me nodding my head and tapping my toes along with the crew.

Star Trek Beyond is another outstanding film in the new, rebooted series of films.  There is great action, strong characters we love and has more of a feel of the original show than ever before.

4.2 stars