My last movie reviews

This will be my last movie reviews, because I have still not completely recovered from my surgery.  I can't write very much, but still watch movies. I feel that it is more important to spend my limited writing time on my novels and short stories. I hope that you enjoyed the movie reviews that I did – they were fun to write. Thank you for years of support.

American Hustle, great characters loosely following the true events. The music, hairstyle, clothes of the time – 1970s – was fun to watch. Good acting. Great cast. The story had suspense as well as some heart. Recommended.

The Grand Budapest Hotel, this was a quirky film. Not quite so much fun as expected, but a very good story. Recommend if you are really willing to pay close attention to the dialogue and the fast pace storytelling.

 Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, this was clearly just a prequel, so they could up the future Jack Ryan films. The plot was very predictable. The acting was not very inspiring. Rather boring. Not recommended.

The Monuments Men

The Monuments Men, George Clooney directed, produced, and starred in this WWII film that tells the story of a group of men that try to save much of Europe's priceless artwork from Adolf Hitler's plan to confiscate or destroy it all. My father, 86 years on, watched this movie and his critique was that there was not enough information about the art that was stolen and saved. My son, 24, was only able to watch the first 20 min. His comment was that the "movie is boring!" Unfortunately, they are both right, but I did watch the entire film and I have to give Mr. Clooney kudos for trying... The premise is based on a true story. It's a story, a lesson, worth telling—people will come and go, it is the art, monuments, architecture, literature, music, language, culture and traditions that will endure and ensure the survival of civilization (loosely paraphrased). The movie takes a middle of the road approach to drive this point home. It's the dialogue between the men, their thoughts about the mission that's emphasized, not the art, not the action, not the drama. I guess this makes sense with the title, but because of this approach the movie falls flat.... With the great cast, Kate Blanchet, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Matt Damon, the French guy, and several others—there was a missed opportunity to make a fun, entertaining movie; perhaps another Dirty Dozen, Ocean's 11, or something similar. With the compelling true story, there was a chance to make a real documentary type film that would have been interesting as well as educational. The producers should have gone one way or another. Hypocritically, I've got to say that my recommendation is also middle of the road. I can honestly say I did enjoy it, but on the other hand, I don't really recommend it.

World War Z

World War Z, 2013 soft zombie movie starring Brad Pitt (soft because it's rated PG-13). I usually avoid these made for adolescent boys' movies like zucchini and raw broccoli. Unfortunately, this film was available free on my cable TV, and I felt like watching something mindless. I thought maybe with Brad the movie would have some redeeming value – WRONG! However, It is completely mindless. The story was stupid and predictable. The acting was worse, Mr. Pitt really just took the money and ran for the hills on this one. The zombies were not scary – gross, weird, spastic... but, definitely not scary. There were a couple of suspenseful moments, but they were slow moving and never really made me jump or believe that zombies really existed. Some of the special effects were okay – but, nothing to raise the roof about. Watching a swarm of bees ON a PBS documentary is more terrifying. I almost turned off the TV midway through... Now I don't want to discourage you zombie freaks out there from watching this film, but in this world of so many choices – death by zombies seems to be the least plausible. For everyone else, I don't recommend this movie. Don't waste your time.

Man of Steel

Man of Steel (2013) is the most recent remake of the Superman story. This, by my count is the seventh Superman movie – there was one Supergirl film (1984) – geewhiz, can't believe I missed that one. The first film was done in 1951, Superman and the Mole Men. I will have to look for that one. The iconic Christopher Reeve did four of these movies... all of which I dutifully attended during the 70s and 80s. Hollywood probably should have stopped there, but they didn't, and there's no stopping them now. Of course, a sequel to Man of Steel is in the works... look for it sometime in 2016 "Batman (Ben Affleck) versus Superman"—I have no idea who the actor is who plays Superman–I guess I don't care, okay, okay, his name is Henry Cavill.

I'm usually not in favor of remakes. I prefer original storytelling when possible. However, because it was a slow Monday night for television and HBO was offering this DC comic classic—I couldn't resist. I was pleasantly surprised, somewhat entertained, and generally felt as if I had not completely wasted two hours of my life. The story was in the same fashion as the previous "origins" films, nothing really new here. It was just reimagined for the computer-generated graphics action-thriller 21st-century audience. In that respect, the producers and directors did a decent job. I enjoyed the sci-fi look and feel of the film. Superman's suit was pretty cool, much better than the blue tights and red underwear Christopher Reeve had to wear. The interstellar space scenes and special effects were quite nice. The action sequences, especially some of the fight scenes were quite well done. I always feel sorry for New York City though, it seems that every superhero has to fight to the death in the streets of that city... Kevin Costner and Dianne Lane as the Earth to Kansas parents of Clark Kent were fun to watch. Russell Crowe as Superman's biological father was passable. Amy Adams as Lois Lane was rather silly, but she looks nice on the big screen. There was some terrible dialogue, and some rather corny scenes, but I expected that – it is based on the comic book after all. So, if that's what you are looking for, this might be worth a rental. However, if you're looking for an original story, dramatic acting, or some deeper intrinsic value—don't bother, you're not going to find it here. Maybe the sequel will be better.