Lights Out (2016) Teresa Palmer – Movie Review

July 24, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

The main story involves a dysfunctional family, who are particularly in dire trouble now that the depressed mother, Sophie, has begun to exhibit signs of mental illness that she thought her medications had all but completely eradicated. Sophie’s first husband has gone missing under mysterious circumstances, though we get to see that hubby number two is actually brutally murdered by a supernatural force while in his workplace there’s barely a mention of this event among the family afterward, curiously). Sophie’s daughter, the long-suffering Rebecca, no longer chooses to visit her now that she has taken a turn for the worse, leaving Sophie’s young son, Martin, in a very vulnerable spot, all alone with a sick mother and an entity that she is always talking to in the shadows. As Martin reaches out for help, half-sister Rebecca gets thrust back into the family issues that have haunted her over the years, having to get to the bottom of the jealous evil presence in the house that her mother has called “Diana”, who lives and kills in the dark recesses of the house.

Star Trek Beyond (2016) Justin Lin – Movie Review

July 24, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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This one showcases the third year of their five-year mission, with Captain James T. Kirk pondering a career move for the better, thanks to the heroic deeds chronicled in previous entries. Decisions can wait, when they end up picking up an escape-pod survivor, leading the Enterprise to a strange part of the galaxy on a mission to rescue the rest of her ship’s crew in uncharted territory. However, they’ve shuttled right into a trap, masterminded by a fierce adversary named Krall, who is hell-bent on obtaining an artifact on board the Enterprise. Krall sets about all but completely destroying the Kirk and company using a swarming fleet of insect-oid ships, severely damaging the Enterprise, and leaving the crew members to shuttle to the nearby planet.

Zero Days (2016) Alex Gibney – Movie Reviews

July 19, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Prolific documentarian Alex Gibney continues his roll of crafting some of the most intriguing and topical films in recent years with Zero Days, this time taking a look at a new and different kind of international warfare. It’s not one fought with bullets or bombs, but with computer scripts, some so potent that they can infect a device, stop production in a factory, and perhaps, if one were powerful enough, take down a massive power grid that could end up costing billions of dollars to the country it is inflicted upon.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) Taika Waititi Movie Reviews

July 17, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Julian Dennison plays Ricky Baker, a rebellious, chubby, twelve-year-old foster thug-life wanna-be who ends up dumped by an exasperated social worker to a childless couple, kind-hearted Bella and her cynical husband Hec, a last-chance effort from the foster placement, out on a remote farm in rural New Zealand. “Bad Egg” Ricky hates his new environment about as much as he’s hated everyplace else he’s been, choosing to run away at his first opportunity, only to find that he hasn’t a clue where he can go or how to survive out in the wilderness that surrounds the farm. However, circumstances result in injured Hec and Ricky, who is adamant about never returning to foster child services, stuck out in that wilderness, becoming misunderstood fugitives caught up in a high-publicity manhunt (hence the title), and Ricky’s going to have to learn “the knack” of survival out in “the Bush” of New Zealand.

Ghostbusters (2016) Wiig, McCarthy – Movie Reviews

July 16, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Kristen Wiig plays Erin Gilbert, an ambitious associate professor seeking tenure at New York’s prestigious Columbia University who ends up losing that when a book she published years ago on ghosts surfaces, putting the credibility of the institution in question should she remain in the faculty. Turns out that her writing partner, Abby Yates, republished the book that had previously been out of print, and ends up cajoling Erin to just come help her and her current research partner, the kooky gearhead engineer Jillian Holtzmann, in her studies in investigating paranormal activity further, . They initially find success in trapping ghosts with Jillian’s devices and their continued pursuit leads them to start a business and take on a fourth team member in Patty Tolan, a street-wise MTA subway employee who has seen a particularly nasty apparition in the subways of New York, and whose knowledge of the city will be of particular help, plus an daft-but-hunky administrative assistant in Kevin. But the ghostly activity seems to be on the rise, with signs pointing toward an oddball loner janitor named Rowan, who seems to be Hell-bent on bringing the generally unseen demons and ghouls to the Earthly plane that hasn’t been so kind to regarding his genius.

The Infiltrator (2016) Bryan Cranston – Movie Reviews

July 14, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Bryan Cranston decides to go on the other side of the drug laws from his stint on the seminal “Breaking Bad” with The Infiltrator, playing a true-life U.S. Customs agent named Robert Mazur, who, in the 1980s, would go undercover as a money launderer to bust some of the country’s most wanted traffickers at the height of the Reagan-era, “War on Drugs”. Set in 1986, the highly effective operative, Mazur, is set for retirement when he decides to do one more case in “Operation C-Chase” to take down the drug men, only this time, he decides that the only way to actually stop the influx of product is to follow the money instead of the drugs, and take down the biggest fish in the game as he climbs up the proverbial food chain. Under his new identity of Bob Musella, Mazur plays a high roller with mafia ties who gains the trust of some men within a powerful and deadly Colombian drug cartel channeling through Miami, headed by the notorious Pablo Escobar, to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into his sham company operating as a legit business so that it won’t draw suspicion.

The Secret Life of Pets (2016) Louis CK – Movie Reviews

July 13, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Max is dog living a life of relative bliss in a New York City apartment who gets all of the love and attention he needs when his owner Katie’s home, but now finds himself having to compete when bleeding-heart Katie brings home a shelter pooch in the form of the big, dopey, shaggy-haired Duke, who steals that attention, as well as a good deal of the food and pet bed. Squabbles result on who is going to be ‘alpha dog’ before both find themselves having to ally when they end up out in the streets of the city without an easy means of returning home in one piece. Out to the rescue are a few of their pet animal friends, who’ve made it their mission to bring Max back, and they have to do it fast, as the mutts have made enemies with a psychopathic bunny rabbit named Snowball, the gang leader of a rag-tag group of vicious street rejects who hate pampered, domesticated pets and their human owners.

The Purge: Election Year (2016) Frank Grillo – Movie Review

July 11, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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The “Purge” of the title, for those who are still unaware, is an annual “celebration” in which, for a twelve-hour period, any crime you can think of is declared legal, as the police, fire fighters, and medical services take a break and let the U.S. citizens run amok without fear of prosecution for any misdeeds committed. The “patriotic” day now faces the biggest challenge since its inception, as independent senator Charlene ‘Charlie’ Roan, whose family was killed in front of her eyes on Purge Night eighteen years prior, is running in a hotly contested battle for the presidency with a platform on abolishing the practice because it is being used by the wealthy elite in business and government as a means to eradicate the poor and sick because they feel they are an economic burden on the rest of society.
Her opposition for the seat is a representative of the status quo that has the backing of the NFFA (New Founding Fathers of America), which is a group of those mega-Christian right-wing elites (all older, white and rich), who desperately need to thwart the senator’s momentum before they lose their stranglehold on the direction of American society to their favor. They market a “fair & balanced” change in the Purge Night law that protected government officials from harm during Purge Night as making things right to the downtrodden, because now no one is safe. However, it is all a ruse to get Senator Roan, who has decided she must hide in her home like everyone else so that it doesn’t look like she’s privileged, out of the way during the Purge. With big guns out to get her, it’s up to chief security agent Barnes, as well as a kind and resourceful store owner named Joe and his cohorts, who all believe in the senator and what she stands for, to protect the vulnerable senator from being killed along with the plight of the nation’s victimized poor through the acts of the Purge. Unfortunately, there’s nowhere to hide when just about everyone out in the Washington DC streets is out to bask in the blood of the weak.

Eat That Question Frank Zappa in His Own Words (2016) Review

July 10, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Eat That Question offers plenty of archival footage of various interview sessions Frank Zappa did for television, combining this with clips from some of his own personal movies, as well as a number of his stage performances in front of crowds both welcoming and skeptical. Some of the delights include a clean-cut younger Frank Zappa improvising music to an audience who clearly don’t get it on “The Steve Allen Show” in 1963, where the witty host praised Zappa for his far-sighted courage to push the boundaries of his artistic expression, while also quipping to not ever perform that music around him again. We also get some insightful footage of Zappa’s testimony to congress in the 1980s, taking on Tipper Gore’s proposal to put warning labels on music of objectionable content to protect younger ears, while he fought back on trying to clamp down on artistic freedoms, feeling that there is no such thing as a bad word.

The Legend of Tarzan (2016) Movie Review

July 6, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Based on characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Alexander Skarsgard stars as John Clayton III of Greystoke Manor, an earl living comfortably in London during the Victorian Era, whose past has made him something of a legend, where he was orphaned and raised by apes until adulthood. Margot Robbie plays his wife Jane, who was once saved by Tarzan while she was exploring the jungles of the Congo, soon entering into a steamy relationship with the feral man who would soon come to learn the customs and laguage of a proper Engish gentleman, abandoning his former life.
Christoph Waltz emerges as the main nemesis, playing Captain Leon Rom, an emissary from the floundering Belgian regime who has been sent to the Congo in the late 19th Century in order to propogate, by any means necessary, the extraction of valuable diamonds from the mostly tribal lands, which they’ve also sought to colonize for further exploitation. Chief Mbonga, one of the powerful heads of those tribes, agrees to give Rom the riches he’s seeking if the Belgian is able to secure Tarzan to him. To fulfill his part of the bargain, Rom entices Clayton to return to his former stomping grounds, ostensibly for humanitarian purposes. In tow are Jane and a U.S. envoy to the region named George Washington Williams out to thwart what he feels is the continued enslavement of Africans of the region. When Rom kidnaps Jane in order to bring Clayton out to the open, the latter finds himself having to use his old skills of the jungle to bring down powerful forces seeking to upend all that he has come to hold dear in this world.