Lawless

The back hills of Virginia during the prohibition, moonshine, white lightning, bootleggers, hillbillies, Chicago gangsters, crooked coppers, murder and mayhem – all with a pretty decent supposedly true story attached. If this sounds like your cup of tea, or hard cider, then this is a movie for you to rent. I enjoyed it! It was well done, nicely acted and filmed. The story revolves around three brothers, born in the back hills of Virginia. Their family has always lived just outside the law, and through the generations, they gained the reputation as being invincible. Of course, the Chicago gangsters want to move in on their territory, and laugh at the idea of such a powerful family. Never underestimate the power of family ties. I found the entire movie entertaining, and a few scenes excellent. The ending was also satisfactory. A decent story, well done.

The Three Stooges

I was unsure about watching this movie, the Three Stooges were my heroes and favorite comedians, when I was little boy. I wasn't confident that they could do justice to the original stooges and I wasn't sure if that kind of silly, slapstick humor would translate to the 21st century. I was pleasantly surprised and actually enjoyed the film. The three actors who played Mo, Larry and Curly did an excellent job! They must've really practiced with the physical slapstick, zaniness to get it correctly. The sound effects were perfect, making each slap and poke in the eyes, just as funny as it was 50 years ago. I had to overlook some of the stupidity and silliness – at my age, some of it just didn't connect. But, all in all, I think they did a great job! (Spoiler alert) – the part where Moe becomes a reality star on the show "Jersey Shore" had me in stitches. Poking. "The situation" in the eyes and slapping "Snooki" was priceless and worth the rental. If you remember the Three Stooges fondly as I did, and still do, then probably you should rent this movie. I cannot guarantee that all of that the comedy will translate to the newer generation, but us old school fellas should find this entertaining.

Brave

Disney-Pixar did it again and created another enjoyable animated feature. This is good family fun, I recommend it, especially if you have elementary school-age children. What I like about Pixar is that they strive very hard to make the story as excellent as the animation. Too many animated movies these days lack any original thought or story line – they rely on remakes or traditional fairytales. I like to see originality – Brave, fits the bill. It's a lovely, heartwarming, original story. The central character, a young girl, is precocious and fun-loving. Of course, she doesn't want to get married, who would when all of the males around are brutish looking Vikings. The animation of the characters is fantastic – I especially enjoyed that they took a lot of time to develop the three clans different personalities through their looks and actions. Then the little girl's red hair was just delightful! There were some good action scenes, and some good jokes. The pace was too my liking – not too slow and not too fast. Too often these days and animated pictures that actually goes by too quickly for my old eyes to enjoy it. This, I did enjoy. If you have children, it's worth the rental.

Savages

A film by Oliver Stone. For those of you that like Oliver Stone movies, he's made several excellent ones, you should probably watch this and you will enjoy it. If you're not familiar with Oliver Stone's documentary style, gritty realism, and unbelievable conspiracy theory, theme and elements – you may find this movie not to your liking. The blood, gore, sex, drugs and violence are extremely graphic. The story revolves around the California medical marijuana and the illegal marijuana, drug trade between Mexico and the US. The Mexican cartel boss, Selma Hayek, is fun and an interesting character. The Mexican assassin is very familiar, forget his name, though he is popular. John Travolta plays the corrupt DEA agent, and three unknown actors – two guys and a girl – are the central characters. All of them do a very believable and credible job of acting. However, there were a few lines in the movie that Oliver should've left out. "I love you man!" In the middle of an intense action scene, was unnecessary. And, when the young girl referred to the threesome as being like the characters in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid" I wanted to eject the disc and search Netflix for that much better and more heartwarming story. I'm sure Oliver Stone just wanted to pay respect to that film classic, but he needs to consider his audience – old folks like me who grew up loving that movie will resent the comparison – while younger folks who had never seen the classic Western would just be thinking "what the heck did that mean?" Other than that, I've got no real complaints. It was a decent movie, good action and interesting story. Oliver just needs to lighten up a little bit.