Last Movie Reviews before the End of the World

First movie this week is the classis 1985 film Explorers.  Starring a young Ethan Hawke and a very young River Phoenix as two sci fi nerds who dream of space exploration.  With the help of a dream Ethan Hawke gives his friend an idea how to make space travel possible.  Using a computer program the boys come up with a glass sphere that is unbreakable, can change size and move at any speed imaginable.  The boys than design an outifit to sit inside the bubble, aka a Tilt a Whirl cart, and try space exploration.  Everything is fine until something from outer space is contacting them and pulling them closer to the outer reaches of the universe, only to discover we are not much different than any other species.  Movie is really good and fun for all ages.  It gives me a warm feeling of nostalgia when I watch it.  My kids even got a kick out of it.  Fun movie with a good sound track and it is pretty comical.  Catch this film on netflix instant view sometime.

Next review is also a blast from the past, Monster Squad.  Made in 1987, Monster Squad is about a group of young boys who have a clubhouse and formed a group called the monster squad.  Mainly just for fun and scary movies but not much else.  But not all is well in the nether regions as a group of monster are uniting to bring darkness across the world for eternity.  Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon are the monsters hell bent on fulfilling the ancient prophecy that can only happen once every 100 years.  The movie is decent, I am glad that I got to see it and my daughter watched it with me so it was not too gross or scary for her.  Still full of cheesy 1980's clothes and music and language.  I don't know when "thats Rad" went out of style but it needs to come back soon.  Movie get 3 stars.

Next movie I did not enjoy as much.  I think this was a syfy movie at one point or another.  During a tropical storm, the crew of an oil rig is evacuated except for a skeleton crew.  But something was awakened in the deep, of course, and is killing the remaining crew one bye one, of course.  No one has any idea where the monsters came from and the director makes sure the viewer has no idea about the monsters either.  No back story on anything or anybody, poor acting, poor visual effects and the monster is just a man in a fish suit with a big toothed mouth.  Kind of lame. Even the gore was less than desired, poor among my standards of gratuitous gore and violence.  Do not waste your time unless you have nothing else to watch, even than, old hockey games look mighty good next to this garbage.  1 star.

Next movie is a civil war era movie called the Conspirator.  After the assassination of Lincoln the country is hungry for justice and vengeance.  The people involved in the murder were not really given a fair trial or due process.  The movie centers on Mary Surrat, who was a confederate woman who owned a bed and breakfast in Maryland who was accused of knowing about the impending assassination but did nothing to prevent it.  Mary Surrat also became the first woman the U.S. ever executed as she was the last of 4 to hang for the murder on Abraham Lincoln.  James McAvoy stars as the lawyer given the case to make her look innocent when he does not even believe it himself.  He is torn between doing what is right by defending Mary and satisfying the country's thirst for justice.  He realizes he is in a no-win situation.  The movie was pretty decent but a little slow in some parts, mainly in the middle.  It is definetely worth a look. 3 stars.

The Hunter starring Willem Dafoe was probably the best movie that I watched the past week or two.  It is about a man sent to Tasmania to hunt the elusive and thought to be extinct Tasmanian Tiger.  The company he is working for wants the creature for cloning purposes and will stop at nothing to make sure that no one knows why Dafoe is there, except some work from the university.  The movie is a little slow, but most indie movies are.  Dafoe does one helluva job acting here, maybe his best since Boondock Saints.  This movie is a definite must see, I loved it.  4 stars.

Now this is a movie you must not see.  Yes, a SyFy movie based on the Mothman Prophecies from West Virginia in 1967.  Except this time, the Mothman comes for you through reflective surfaces and wants to rip out your eyes. Why?  No one knows.  Not even the people making the movie.  They took a local legend and turned it into local crap.  I wanted to gouge my eyes out after watching this big steaming cup of pig fat.  Horrible acting and horrible special effects, I actually fast forwarded thru half the movie waiting for sometihing to happen that was not stupid.  Too bad that was the whole movie.  If you play the Syfy drinking games on Saturday night during the premiere of Syfy garbage, knock yourself out than.  But please avoid this, for your sake and for the sake of your daughter. Please.

The Amazing Spiderman and Expendables 2 along with some others....

Welcome to the blogspot of AJ and his amazing movie intellect that you will most certainly enjoy.

First movie is The Amazing Spider-Man.  I was not sure why they felt spidey needed a reboot after only 10 years from when Sam Raimi released his first Spiderman, but Hollywood felt it was needed.  First thing is first, Tobey Maguire is gone as is Sam Raimi, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco and every other notable character from the first trilogy.  Sad.  In comes Andrew Garfield from Social Network fame to reprise the role of Spiderman\Peter Parker.  Retelling the story of how he becomes the spider man was ok i guess.  The best part of the movie was the new villian, Dr. Kurt Connors aka the Lizard.  Dr. Connors is a scientist obsessed with cross species  gene splicing, lizards to be precise.  He lost his arm when he was younger and wants to grow another like how a lizard can grow back their tail if it is removed.  Parker unknowingly helps Connors unlike the secret but by doing so unleashes a new destructive force on the city. 

I have no problem with Garfield or the lovely Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, still I liked Maguire but Stone is a definite upgrade over Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen.  Also starring Martin Sheen and Sally Field as Uncle Ben and Aunt May, Denis Leary as Captain Stacy and Rhys Ifans as Kurt Connors.  Pretty solid cast and it did have the obligatory Stan Lee cameo I was waiting for.  Special effects are top of the line and the writing got better as the movie went on.  We can expect 2 more sequels with Garfield and Stone signed on for at least 2 more movies.  Surely this movie can be enjoyed and should be.  4\5 stars.


Next is the macho man oozing sequel to the Expendalbes, the Expendalbes 2.  Simple and sweet, just like the movie.  The best thing about the first one was all the old action stars getting together, rubbing ben gay on each other and deciding to shoot a movie while they were all here.  Same formula for part 2.  Just a rundown of who is in this movie, Stallone, Statham, Li, Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Van Damme, Norris, Willis, and Schwartzanegger, a cornicopia of 80's over the top action.  Yes I did use the name of a Stallone 80's movie for that.  I love Over the Top.  Bull Hurley was great and how cool to be named Lincoln Hawk....how cool of a name is that.  

The Expendables take a job to clear their name from the first movie and of course get burned by new villian Jean Claude Van Damme.  Cool, I know.  They lose a comrade and take a vow of vengeance against him and spend the rest of the movie getting their lily asses kicked.  I dont want to spoil the movie but alot of bullets get shot, alot of people die and the one-liners, oh my goodness the one liners in this movie are epic.  But it has got to be about time for alot of these stars to stop pretending they are action stars or actors for that matter.  Surprised we have not seen any of them on reality TV or something like that.  Still I did enjoy the movie and would recommend it fans of action and people looking for some nostalgia.  3\5 stars.

I would have just put a steaming pile of dog crap instead of the poster for this movie but I thought a pile of poo was also a horrible way to die, but this torture would be worse.  I fast forward thru half the movie and still it did not go anywhere.  Critics said it was a new genre changing horror flick, hopefully that genre is not boring ass slow moving pieces of garbage with bad camera work, bad writing and bad acting.  Never explained what was going on because it was too busy trying to be a new kind of horror movie, almost like a real life experience.  I wish it was a real life situation.  I would have rather of been beaten by a homeless bum with aids than watch this movie ever again.  Please do not view it on Netflix, many better movies to watch instead.  0\5 stars.  Winner of the Turdburger Special of the Week.