In Theaters: October 2, 2015

There is only one wide release this weekend and one expanding to a nationwide release.

The Martian

Put on the fast track after the success of Gravity in 2013, The Martian is another story about an astronaut that gets stuck.  This time the astronaut is stuck on Mars (hence the title) and this time the movie is based on a novel.

I have to say this movie looks really really good.  It looks like someone took Gravity and threw away all the ridiculous bits and the boring "character moments", then took Interstellar and removed all the too-long cuts and the sound of Hans Zimmer falling asleep on his pipe organ, put the two together and made The Martian.  Basically it looks like the child of those two movies who ONLY got the good genes.

Also, Ridley Scott directed it.  He's like the Energizer bunny.  He's 77 years old but he's directed thirteen movies in the last fifteen years.  And not just little ones; that list of movies is peppered with huge productions such as: Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, Prometheus, Robin Hood, Exodus: Gods & Kings, Black Hawk Down, and more.  It's wild.

The Martian is rated PG-13 for some strong language, injury images, and brief nudity.  (brief nudity is Matt Damon's buttocks - presumably while switching space suits or something)

Sicario (expanding)

This is supposed to be the most taut and tense action thriller in years.  This director is known for a sort of hard edge.  The action and suspense, they say, is very raw.  If you cooked it a bit more it would probably become something like 2014's Sabotage (with a pink center).  And if you left it on the grill even longer it would become something like Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (well done).  And if you burn it to a crisp it becomes The Incredibles.  I may have carried that joke on too long.

The tagline tells us that "In Mexico Sicario means Hitman."  Sicario is about a special agent sent in to an escalating drug war.  She finds out that some wack stuff is going on and gets caught up in some kind of twisty windy conspiracy.  The cast sounds amazing for a movie like this.  Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, and Josh Brolin.

Sicario is rated R for strong violence, grisly images, and language.

      Big Shot Critic

Review: Maze Runner - The Scorch Trials

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

   I saw this movie forever ago (last week) and I'm finally posting my review.  Maybe it took this long to really wrap my head around it, you don't know!

   It didn't.

   I never saw the first Maze Runner when it came out last year, for reasons I discussed in my post when this movie was coming out.  This one looked cooler.

   The downsides of this movie are mild but unique.  Again, I haven't seen the first one, but I saw this one with a friend of mine who did see the first one.  We both agree that there is a lot unanswered about the first one.  Why were they in the maze?  The Scorch Trials doesn't play up the mystery of that question so much as it leaves it virtually unaddressed.  Even the children who were in the maze don't seem to mind that they don't know why they were there.

   Along the same line is the question of where the series is going.  It's always good to have a sense of what everything is building toward.  Obviously in this series the main good guy must defeat the forces of evil in his world, but it's all a bit fuzzy.  The movie constantly affirms two things about the main character: 1) He's just a kid, and 2) He doesn't really know anything about the world he inhabits.  So how is he going to lead these people to victory?  The movie poses this question and promptly sidesteps it.  Some viewers will interpret this as something missing from the narrative.

   There are many bright sides to this movie - things they did well.  The lead actor was great.  He's believable, he's real, and I wish we could get him to play Spider-Man.  For someone I've never really heard of he was more than good enough.

   The production design was first class.  The sets they had were dressed to perfection and everything about them contributed to pull me into the story.

   The costume design did the same thing.  It was all very survivalist-chic.

   I'll throw in one last thing and say that the supporting cast really was just as good as the leads were.  The villain gets an honorable mention, for sure.  He's another actor I haven't heard of but he did a wonderful job.

   On top of all this the movie was very exciting.  The action was spot on.  And it's good to have a YA novel adaptation with a male in the lead instead of Bella, Katniss, or Tris.  Also, his name is normal - extra points for that!  And because we have a man in the leading role, his feelings don't unnecessarily play into the story!  Hooray!

  If you like good action and suspense with a nice little cat-and-mouse story that takes you into a very unreal world filled with very real characters, The Scorch Trials are for you.

In Theaters: September 25, 2015

There are three wide releases this weekend plus one movie expanding to wide release.

The Green Inferno

The Green Inferno is rated R for aberrant violence and torture, grisly disturbing images, brief graphic nudity, sexual content, language and some drug use.

I wanted to lead with the rating this time so I can discuss something.  I had to look up the word "aberrant".  It means "departing from an accepted standard".  So - literally by definition - Eli Roth is setting a new standard of violence in horror movies.  Stupid.  Having the word "aberrant" in the ratings information is as good as admitting that this movie is going for one thing and one thing only: shock value.

The Green Inferno is about a group of rich American college kids who travel to the rainforest as activists.  But they get captured by the natives instead.  Plain and simple.

Hotel Transylvania 2

Lord knows how the first one got a sequel, but it did.  There are two kinds of computer animated movies these days.  Cheap laughs for kids or quality entertainment that happens to be animated.  This appears to be the former.  I gather that the main conflict in this movie is that the vampire has a grandson who might move away with his (the child's) mother and the vampire doesn't want that.  Not exactly a compelling foundation for a story, is it?

Hotel Transylvania 2 is rated PG for some scary images, action and rude humor.  I'd still see this over Green Inferno.

The Intern

Robert De Niro is great but I have trouble with Anne Hathaway.  Any role she plays I either love or hate - there is no middle ground on this point.  And I can never tell which one it's going to be.

De Niro plays the title character, an intern at Anne Hathaway's company out of New York.  I don't know how he ends up being an intern, but I do know that a lot of the movie is based around the fact that he's unusually elderly for an intern.  It's advertising itself as sort of a feel good dramedy.

It's worth mentioning that writer/director Nancy Meyers also wrote and directed The (Lindsay Lohan) Parent Trap and Something's Gotta Give.  Obviously this will be closer in tone to Something's Gotta Give.  But to overcomplicate things, I always get Something's Gotta Give confused with As Good As It Gets.  Bottom line The Intern looks okay.

The Intern is rated PG-13 for some suggestive content and brief strong language.

Everest (expanding to wide release)

This movie looks so sweet.  It looks like my kind of disaster movie with big, broad brushstrokes of awesomeness.  And Jason Clarke in a leading role - always a good thing.

Everest tells the true story of two teams that set out to climb to the top of Mt Everest in the summer of 1996 and ended up facing a very dangerous storm.  As I understand it the two teams came together to survive.

Did I mention the cast is loaded?  Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sam Worthington, Kiera Knightley, Robin Wright, and Josh Brolin among others.  Obviously Jake Gyllenhaal is a big deal, but there's something about Jason Clarke and Josh Brolin on the screen that just makes me want to pay attention and watch.

Everest is rated PG-13 for intense peril and disturbing images.

See it in IMAX 3D if you like.

      Big Shot Critic

In Theaters: September 18, 2015

There are three wide releases this weekend plus one limited release of interest.

Black Mass

Based on a true story.  The FBI in Boston in the 1970's collaborates with the Irish Mob to take down the Italian Mob.  This movie is supposed to be kind of a big deal because of the performances from Johnny Depp and Joel Edgerton.

Black Mass is rated R for brutal violence, language throughout, some sexual references and brief drug use.

Captive

This one snuck up on me but it's about a man who breaks out of prison (or jail or something) and ends up holding a woman hostage.  Both of them are in the midst of a trial of faith of sorts and I guess they help each other through their struggles.  In some way.

Captive is rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements involving violence and substance abuse.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

I never saw the first Maze Runner movie but I heard it wasn't all bad.  This one, in my opinion, looks a lot more awesome.  It certainly looks like it takes place in a more interesting world.  Not hard, when the previous movie was a bunch of kids stuck in a maze.  I think the main reason I didn't want to see the last one was because that one guy is in it.  You know, the one with the most punchable face in the world.

punchable

I haven't seen him in the trailers for this one though.  So maybe it's good!

Being honest I have no idea what it's about.  I even read the wikipedia summary of the book (like a year ago) and I still don't really understand what's going on.  I didn't try hard to understand, but anyway I don't.  And the trailer doesn't help.  A bunch of teenagers run around facing all sorts of danger from people and things, that's all I know.  But it looks like it could be good!

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is rated PG-13 for extended sequences of violence and action, some thematic elements, substance use and language.

So I guess some of the teenagers are junkies.

Pawn Sacrifice (limited release)

This is about Bobby Fischer, a real life chess master who is basically the Michael Jordan of chess.  During the Cold War he faced off against the reigning Russian champion.  This movie focuses around that event and Bobby's mental state (he was a bit nuts as I understand).

The only reason I want to see this movie is Tobey Maguire.

Pawn Sacrifice is rated PG-13 for brief strong language, some sexual content and historical smoking.

For now there are only a couple theaters in the Valley screening Pawn Sacrifice.

      Big Shot Critic

Review: The Transporter Refueled

The Transporter Refueled

   This movie pretty well delivered everything I expected from it.  It's Luc Besson, so I expected style, creative action, and not a lot of substance in the story.  Luc Besson isn't really out to innovate in terms of story.  He's more about using the story to create interesting action.  I think the Wachowskis (The Matrix Trilogy) may have beat him at his own game, but alas, they have turned out to be a one hit wonder.  Meanwhile Luc Besson just keeps going and going.  This is his latest production.

   The movie starts on the French Riviera in the 90's.  A ruthless crime boss takes over the prostitution in all of South France (by murdering resident pimps on the spot).  Obviously he makes a few enemies.  One of them is Anna, one of the crime lord's girls.  After a few years she and some others have hatched a plan for revenge - and it involves Frank Martin - The Transporter.

   Now about Frank Martin.  This is the fourth Transporter movie and all of them center around Frank Martin.  In the first three Jason Statham played Frank Martin.  This time it's Ed Skrein.  I can't decide yet what I think of Ed.  He's interesting.  He has screen presence, but I don't know why.  I just learned something that might explain it though.  He's an accomplished athlete.  He once swam the English channel for charity.  Another time he cycled 1,000 miles - also for charity.  So where Jason Statham looks at you in a threatening way he'll make good on it and kick your butt.  But if Ed Skrein looks at you in a threatening way he'll make good on it and kick your butt - and donate the proceeds to charity.  Also, this guy is turning up everywhere in supporting roles.  No complaints here.

   I can't honestly recommend this movie.  I enjoyed it.  But I am not hard on movies.  If you aren't hard on movies, and good action pleases you then go for it.  Otherwise you should probably wait for the Redbox.

      Big Shot Critic

In Theaters: September 11, 2015

There are THREE wide releases this weekend.

90 Minutes in Heaven

Anakin Skywalker grows a mustache and gets in a car wreck.  And by that I mean Hayden Christensen plays a man (with a mustache) who gets in a car wreck and sees heaven before being saved from death - essentially coming back to life.  This is based on a book of the same title, which in turn is based on the real life (and death) experiences of Don Piper.

Personally I believe Hayden Christensen is an underrated actor.  So I could see myself heading over to the theater for this.

90 Minutes in Heaven is rated PG-13 for intense accident and injury images.

The Perfect Guy

Girl dates guy for a lot of years, guy won't commit, girl dumps guy, girl meets psychopath, girl falls for psychopath, psychopath reveals he's a psychopath, girl goes back to normal guy, psychopath makes their life difficult.  The usual.

The Perfect Guy is rated PG-13 for violence, menace, sexuality and brief strong language.

The Visit

M. Night Shyamalan's return to form!  For the first time since 2008 he's directing his own movie that he wrote!  This could honestly go either way.  He's got the modern horror producers behind him this time.

Two kids go to visit their grandparents, but their grandparents are EXTREMELY CREEPY PEOPLE.  The exact nature of their creepiness is sort of a mystery.

The Visit is rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic material including terror, violence and some nudity, and for brief language.

      Big Shot Critic

In Theaters: September 4th, 2015

There are TWO wide releases this weekend.  Last month I put the whole month in one post.  I didn't really like not doing my weekly posts so I'm changing it back to weekly posts.

The Transporter Refueled

Okay so this is a reboot.  There were three Transporter movies before this and all of them had Jason Statham in the title role.  In this reboot the new actor is playing the same character that Jason Statham played before.  I just learned that.

I'm not sure what to say except that you can expect LOTS of stylish, over-the-top, and inventive action.  My guess is that it won't offer a whole lot beyond that.

The Transporter Refueled is rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, sexual material, some language, a drug reference and thematic elements.

A Walk in the Woods

A Walk in the Woods is based on a novel of the same name.  I hear the book was very very funny and the movie is definitely going for the dramedy genre (with more comedy than drama).

It's about an older man who wants to have a spectacular adventure so he decides to hike the Appalachian Trail.  For those of you who don't know, the Appalachian Trail stretches 2,200 miles from Maine to Georgia.  His wife insists that he takes a friend for safety reasons and the only friend who agrees is a bit tricky to get along with at times.

I will say the cast is loaded.  Robert Redford, Nick Nolte, and Emma Thompson are all extremely capable actors.  Old - but very capable.  Expect the audience at this movie to also skew a bit older.

A Walk in the Woods is rated R for language and some sexual references.  That kinda makes me scratch my head.  Obviously they aren't going for maximum audience.  Considering the time of year I'd say we're looking at a hopeful awards contender.

      Big Shot Critic