Hunt for da' Wilderpeople: 9/10 Deftly played humor was so much fun as the two characters bounce off each other perfectly. Ending was hilarious as you fully expect him to just drive off a cliff. A few scenes you are likely to laugh at hours after the movie is over and you are laying in bed. Movie had amazingly fast pace for what you think would have been a slow build, but it moves and is easily digested. Sam Neil was unrecognizable to me until looked at the cast at the end. He's underrated and can definitely hold a movie together, but didn't need to here, that fat kid was hilarious. Each supporting character was integrated perfectly. Lot's of fun. Could be a 10, but no real artistic merit, just a good time and good storytelling.
The Netflix Amanda Knox documentary that came out this weekend was really good. Give it a watch if you like true crime.
Magnificent 7 (2016) It was good. Nothing special or ground break but a solid entertaining film 8/10 Rocket River
The Purge 1/10 Bought it on DVD with part 2 as a combo pack. Conceptually its a good idea but jeez was this a terrible movie. You could always tell when the jump scenes were about to happen. Wasn't scary or interesting or entertaining. Whoever came up with this idea should have written it as a drama with you know an actual plot and really explored the idea. Is part two any better?
Part 2 is world's better. Don't judge the franchise until you've seen the second, it's like night and day. I'd rate the first one a 3/10, second I'd go easy 7/10.
Deepwater Horizon 7.25/10 Pretty cool movie. If I had to nitpick, I dont believe Transocean was as angelic as the movie portrayed.
Yeah, I enjoyed it more but that last act is a mess. Pretty much the minute Eva Green isn't on screen, the movie loses it's pop. Not sure what the hell Sam Jackson was going for.....
West World ( 1973 ) : 8/10 This was very good. Almost like a mix of Jurassic Park and Terminator, well before either came into being. Top notch performances from this Yul Brenner guy and James Brolin. Richard Benjamin not as good, some bad acting I think, but put in a good 20 minutes at the end where his performance nicely turned as the movie turned dark. So there was good contrast there intentional or not. And when the movie did turn it was brilliantly done as the drama and darkness could be felt. Sound effects a little weird, but movies shift was sharp, contrasting, well done. Made you think first about what would you do in a world like that for fun, and was great yarn, and then made you think more about what you would do in that situation when it all goes to hell. Some thought provoking stuff there. Much better than Jurassic Park in that regard. And the theme of tech turning seemed well ahead of it's time. Think the only flaws were the concern over the snake bite was followed by a complete lack of concern over the punches thrown in the bar fight. And then how did the guy know how to get into the tech staging area at the end. But overall, solid movie there I had never seen or even heard of until now. Good stuff!
War Dogs 8/10 - Pretty much what I expected only a bit better. The Big Short 9/10 - Surprisingly funny and interesting. Felt like a cross of Wolf of Wall Street (even has a Margot Robbie cameo) and The Company Men.
Random Space Villian of the Week, aka Star Trek Beyond. If I had known how bad it is, I'd rather have watched ST 2, 8, 6 or maybe 4 again. But it's better than ST 5, 9 and 10 (you were suppose to be good!) turd nuggets. 4/10, only for being obviously better than the turd nuggets.
I didn't really care for the pacing of this movie. Then the ending was just a mess. I'm still not sure what to make of it.
My favorite movie of 2015. Thought Rogen, Daniels, Fassbender, and Winslet knocked it out of the park. Each of the three segments are shot using "era appropriate" technology, which I thought was also very cool.
