In Theaters: March 31, 2017

There are TWO wide releases this weekend.

The Boss Baby

In the realm of animated family features, it is not at all uncommon for movies to be of truly abysmal quality and break even only by being the sole family offering in theaters at the time.  To the untrained eye it can be difficult to tell which are bad and which are good.  But alas, my eye is not untrained.  And it may surprise you to learn this, but The Boss Baby will be one of the good ones.

The Boss Baby is rated PG for some mild rude humor.

Ghost in the Shell

This one is a little harder to explain.  To put it as simply as I can, it's an anime adaptation that is too nerdy for mainstream viewers, yet too mainstream for nerdy viewers.  One will feel confused and the other will feel betrayed.  If anyone walks out of this one feeling anything other than confused or betrayed, give me a call.

Ghost in the Shell is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence, suggestive content and some disturbing images.

      Big Shot Critic

In Theaters: March 24, 2017

There are THREE wide releases this weekend.

CHiPs

Michael Peña is funny.  Dax Shepard is not.

For the uninitiated, CHiPs is called Chips (and spelled that way) because it's shorthand for California Highway Patrol.  It was also a show in the 70's or 80's - I'm not sure which because it was before I was born and I don't really care.  I've seen reruns on TV, like, twice, and from that alone I can tell you that there is little semblance between the show and the movie, and the show is far better.  The show struck me as more of a moral of the story kinda show, like Little House on the Prairie.  To take that and turn it into an R-rated action comedy?  Pretty stupid if you ask me.

CHiPs is rated R for crude sexual content, graphic nudity, pervasive language, some violence and drug use.

Life

The alternate title was "Life (sucks if you're an astronaut who picked up something on Mars and found out it's super dangerous and loves killing astronauts)".

It's basically a 1979 Alien rehash by a director who wishes he was born forty years earlier just so he could beat Ridley Scott to the punch.  Only difference is that this time it takes place on the existing International Space Station, instead of the fictional Nostromo.  And where Alien was Sigourney Weaver's star-making role, this could prove to squander the up-and-coming Rebecca Ferguson.  And that would be a shame.

Life is rated R for language throughout, some sci-fi violence and terror.  Ain't that the truth?

Power Rangers

They're back.  And there's not a dang thing you can do about it.

I actually saw this one at an advance screening last night.  It was better than I expected in two ways and worse than I expected in one way.  That's a net gain!  But it also means that this movie was actually worse than I expected in at least one way, and that's saying a lot.  Proceed with caution.

Power Rangers is rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence, action and destruction, language, and for some crude humor.

Which one are you most interested in?