Have we hit peak Super Hero Movie?  Who the hell is Doctor Strange?  Why is there a weird looking white bald lady in Nepal that is the supreme sorecerer….why are there sorcerers?  The nerds in the audience were happy about this character that I had never heard of before Marvel Studios started marketing it.  So I guess he is somewhat popular but I was not sold, and I was thinking as I was watching this, do we need another superhero?

If Doctor Strange is that superhero, I think the answer is no.  This movie was rushed and was about as run of the mill as you can get.  A faceless magical super monster is the bad guy.  He has minions who are not very interesting or scary.  It was not a threat that felt real or like something that wasn’t going to be fixed easily.

Doctor Strange learned his powers in about 10 minutes and really didn’t feel like a struggle or that he had learned anything.  It just all felt like a secondary character to a secondary movie that wasn’t inspired at all.  No one felt like they put in the effort to make this movie better than a cash grab.  I would say skip it, but I know you won’t.

Everything about the set up of this movie is wrong.  The trailers are confusing.  The name is one of the worst names for a movie I have ever heard of.  The Accountant, he will balance your sheets, and then shoot you in the face!   It has left everyone very confused about what this movie is about.  Luckily I get to see movies early and tell you all about them, and I am here to tell you that The Accountant is an ok movie.

So first of this movie is pretty long.  Almost 2 and a half hours and with that they tell a far deeper story about The Accountant than what we are led to believe by the posters and the trailers.  It deals with a lot and while the end is predictable, and a little unsatisfying I thought the trip to get to the end was at least worth watching.  Anna Kendrick was cute and a fun break from the heavy subject matter of the lone accountant fighting the good fight.  Affleck was interesting and generally fine.  It did feel like his presence in the movie made for it to feel a bit like The Town or Argo.  Perhaps some collaboration between directors happened here.  This is by no means a masterpiece, but it is not the huge pile of garbage the name would suggest.  It does feel long and it is a little bit of a silly premise, but I had no problems ignoring that for the entertainment.

I think The Accountant is actually worth watching, but you do not necessarily have to go to the theater to see it.  I think you could get away with renting this one for sure, pick up Argo too if you haven’t seen it and make it an Affleck night, but never Dawn Of Justice.

Do you like guns?  Do you like half hour long gun fight battles where there is a lot of shooting and guns?  Then The Magnificent Seven is for you.   Do you want there to be little plot, little character development and a lot of guns?  Then rush out to the theater and get in line for The Magnificent Seven right now.  Do you want Chris Pratt to be the Chris Pratt you fell in love with for about 2 minutes in a 2-hour movie and the rest of the time he shoots guns?  Then The Magnificent Seven is for you.

It is hard to write more than that about this movie.  There is literally about 10 minutes of back story plot in this whole movie and it is 2 hours and 12 minutes long.  It follows a formula that doesn’t surprise you in any way.  It will do everything you expect it to, right down to the very last minute.  It clomps along with its impending super battle scene for sure coming right over the horizon.  Then it is time, for the gun battle that lasts for 30 minutes, pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew.

While entertaining in an action movie sort of way this movie is so without substance that you can get just as much action from any number of old 80’s movies and do not need to pony up the 10 bucks to see this one.  So I think you can skip this one.  It just doesn’t have anything new that would make it worth the trip.

See the cast, see the all black wearing trenchcoats and hats cast, they are the attempt at making another Ocean’s Eleven.  See the maze of cards, it’s all twisty and misdirected.  It is what this movie is attempting to be, twisty, but it just ends up being misdirected.  The first movie was entertaining enough, and was obviously popular enough to warrant a second movie.  So now we get to see what happens to The Horsemen.

In this one, there is far less cool magic, and heisty stuff, all while being more confusing and adding in computer chips.  As we go along with the story, we are left wondering where is the magic, and the electricity that we had from the first movie.  Instead of magic, we have a card throwing scene, that, while cool, isn’t about magic tricks and more like a fun dance.  This is one of the scenes that are supposed to stick out as a highlight.  The execution of the big heist scene, and it just didn’t deliver what I was hoping for.  This happens throughout the movie.  It is more like the second best magicians in the world, because they did not do nearly as many cool tricks as they did in the first movie.

The bigger more convoluted plot led to a bigger cast.  Adding Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Radcliffe.  Lizzy Caplan was very enjoyable and quite underused.  Her light fun character helped breath life into this very confusing movie, but was not used nearly enough and her big magic trick was cut for plot.  The whole movie felt like it was cut for plot, when there was already too much plot and not enough spectacle.  It is hard for me to say that a movie needed more spectacle and less plot, but Now You See Me 2 needed just a little more magic.

I recently went to the Austin Toy Museum.  They have displays set up of different toy lines that have come out since the 60’s.  You should really check them out if you are in Austin.  The one that really stuck out to me was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles display.  It was an amazing time when the history and knowledge of toy making ran into the crazy characters of TMNT.  The toy quality of that series is really amazing, good molds, amazing colors and quality.  Looking through it all it made me realize how bonkers TMNT was.  The story line is off the rails crazy.  Men turning into all kinds of animals.  Samurai rabbits from other times.  A giant brain that controls a giant robot that is trying to get through a dimensional portal to take over Earth, and then ninjas.  The modern day ninjas led by a man wearing blades all over himself is the most normal part of the story line. After thinking about all of that and taking into account that TMNT: Out Of The Shadows is for kids, I can say that it kind of worked.

Now, the movie is awful if you are an adult hoping for a quality super hero action movie that is focused and targeted at adults.  It has horrible jokes, terrible dialogue, and a plot line that is all over the place.  This movie isn’t for adults and it is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, based on a comic, that was crazy, and a cartoon that was even crazier.  The CG is very good.  The turtles look awesome and the 3D is well done.  Then it just delivers all the things that were so off the wall from the old show.  It is unbelieveable and it is silly and I noticed I didn’t really care how weird it was.  If I had an 8 year old I think he or she would of loved this movie and I think that is why this movie delivers.  It is just as bonkers as the toys I collected in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

If you are an adult without a child that is looking for a movie on par with a Marvel Studios movie you are going to be quite disappointed.  If you have 2 kids that watch the Nickelodeon show that is on now, then be prepared for a groan fest, but open up your heart a little bit and I think you will have a good time with this horrible, crazy, off the chain movie.

It is hard to believe it is already here.  It is May 6th and there is another Marvel movie out.  It has a lot of characters in it, some new, some that we haven’t seen for a few movies, others absent completely.  Time flies when you are watching summer blockbusters.

I never felt like this movie was going to be bad.  After Ultron, when you see a line up like this some might be a bit worried.  I have had that conversation a few times already.  I didn’t feel like this was going to be the case.  It was such an important moment in Marvel history to mess it up, and the Captain America movies have been pretty solid.  So I am happy to report that they did a great job with Civil War.  Dealing with a lot of story, they managed it very well.   Smaller characters, introductions, reintroductions, Cap and Iron man, it was all handled in a way that was clear, fun, and exciting.  I didn’t feel lost, bored, or that the movie got too lost in what it was trying to do.

The movie still dealt with the Winter Soldier and I liked the story line very much with Bucky and his struggle.  This had to be a subplot to the larger Civil War and I think it fit in very well.   The introductions of Spider-Man, is it 3.0 now, and Black Panther were excellent.  They gave them the right amount of time and just enough to give us something to look forward to in the future.  I was worried I might be hitting peak Marvel but this movie kept me interested and excited for the future.

I also saw this movie in 3-D and noticed the 3-D in it.  Which is a rarity now.  I don’t know if I would go so far as to say it was worth it to go see it in 3-D but I did think to myself, well this looks quite good in 3-D.  So take what you will from that.  I would say this is a full price watch this weekend if you can movie.   So get out there and pick a side.

Here is the math.  2 and half hours, Batman, Superman, Lois Lane, Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor, another bad guy, and some other Justice League stuff.  There has to be a large fight at least that takes up some time.  So you can figure out that there is a lot of stuff going on in this movie and even at two and a half hours there is not enough time to get to it all.

Batman is confused, Superman is confused, they are confusing us.  The first half of this movie there was just too much to get to, and it just did not work.  Affleck’s Bruce Wayne was too aloof at some times and way too angry at other times.  His motivations for everything he did, did not seem to fit what batman is about at all.  Superman was actually exactly correct to me.  Silent, confused, and attempting to fight the good fight.  Then they added in all the other things, a horrible Lex Luthor who is more crazy than genius, which doesn’t work.  He was more like the Joker than the central focus of the world’s criminal and technological organizations.  Justice League stuff, which was provided very little information that it could of been left out and made the movie actually better.  After the first half of the movie and they got all of this stuff out of the way, the movie actually picks up and starts delivering.

Diana Prince shows up and is the best part of the movie.  From here on out the Batman V Superman starts to work.  They got all the attempted story out of the way and started delivering punches, a more linear story, and a resolution.   It all ends up with a feeling that you did watch a mostly good movie, but upon reflection there are a lot of things wrong with Batman v. Superman.  So many so that I would even say you could rent this movie if you don’t love DC.

Writing this now I can say I did have fun watching Batman V. Superman.  If I had paid 20 bucks to see it however I might be a little bit more upset about it.

So up until a month ago almost no one knew that this movie even existed.  Going along with the original Cloverfield theme of viral marketing, secrecy, and misdirection, 10 Cloverfield Lane comes out tomorrow.  No one knowing what it is about, or will we be seeing more for the world famous monster from the sea.  All we know is John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Gallagher Jr. are in it, and there is a bunker.  That is about all we know.

Well I saw it last night and this is what I will say about it.   When the first Cloverfield came out there were so many questions.  J.J Abrams replied with, we only know what the people on the ground are seeing.  We know only what they know.  10 Cloverfield Lane is the same in this regard.  We only know what those in the movie experience, and it is genius.  While the first Cloverfield was a wonderful explosion of viral marketing and small details and shots that do not show us enough to answer questions and make us want more.  10 Cloverfield Lane perfected it.  This is a very well put together movie that keeps you wondering what exactly is happening right until the end.

Let me say however this is a very scary movie.  It is not fun horror like Cloverfield, or even action thriller.  This movie is very chilling, is more a psychological thriller than any other type of movie and it is will cause you to jump and stop breathing, so be warned.  This movie is carried by John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead who are amazing.  They really made this movie, without their stellar acting this movie would of not been as good as it was.  I left the movie smiling and in shock.  It was such an amazing, scary experience.

I am giving this movie 5 stars, but that does not mean I think you should go see it directly in the theater.  If you can not handle horror that feels real, like it could happen to you, then this movie is probably not for you.  It is one of the scariest movies I have seen in a long time so be warned.  If that sounds good to you, go see it tonight if you can, you want to talk about this movie with your friends as soon as you can.

Having seen very little about Risen before going to see the movie I am not sure of what this movie was supposed to be.  The trailer I watched implied a missing Jesus body, and the hunt by those who do not believe to find him.   I had gathered from this, that this was going to be a secular movie, with hints of Jesus, and his miracles.  Instead it was pretty much a third person viewing of his miracles and left no mystery at all.

Maybe mystery is not the intent of these movies.  We already have the mystery in the texts themselves, why do we need to make it more questionable in the movies we watch about Jesus.   The Ten Commandments sure did not shroud it’s godly plagues from the viewers, nor the parting of the Red Sea.   However with The Ten Commandments, those were spectacular special effects that were the most cutting edge of the time.  The one’s in Risen are not spectacular at all with flashes of light and fadings.   So we must review this movie as it was presented to us.   A telling of Jesus’ death, rise from death, and ascent into heaven.

As a movie that tells this story it is slow, without peril or conflict, and is too known to be exciting or unexpected.  The problem with the greatest story ever told is that it has been told a lot.  How many ways can we crucify Jesus, or see his tomb, or see him rise, or see how sweet his hair looks.  In Risen his hair is amazing.  The acting is fine, and the sets are fine, and it is all just fine.  A slow retelling that will not change your heart, your mind, or really make you see this in a different way than you already do.

These movies that are based on true stories.  I always wonder how much is real.  How accurate do you think they are?  I don’t mean in the small details, those can be swayed whichever way the director decides.  The big details though, the timeline, the intensity.  How close to reality were those things?  Because in 13 hours, to think that any of this was real, is absolutely insane.

I looked over Michael Bay’s director list.  I would say Bad Boys was his best movie prior to this 13 hours.   This movie blows anything else he has done out of the water.  Character development that feels real.  A level of intensity that doesn’t feel like a joke or comical.  A script that is based in that Michael Bay kept in reality and it delivers that reality in stunning, scary clarity.   I felt afraid for these people, I felt like I was seeing something no one was supposed to see and I was hooked into it.

This is a hero movie, and it is done in a perfectly quiet and respectful way.  It doesn’t shove America down your throat or pick a political side.  It feels like it shows actually what happened.  The acting by everyone involved help prop up this great movie.  This was one of those movies where everyone understood what the goal of this movie was and everyone that was a part of it delivered their portion to make that goal a reality.  13 Hours is a great movie and I would highly recommend it to anyone to go see this weekend.  This recommendation has been a long time coming for Michael Bay.