Remember (2015) Christopher Plummer – Movie Reviews

April 6, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

Christopher Plummer stars as Zev Guttman, a 90-year-old recent widower of German origin who embarks on a road trip to try to find and kill the culprit for many deaths in Auschwitz during World War II. Guttman, whose severe dementia erases every short-term memory by the time he wakes up from sleeping, has escaped from his assisted care facility in New York with some cash and a detailed letter from a fellow survivor in the facility, Max Rosenbaum, telling Zev who he is and patient, memory-refreshing instructions on how to find the man who killed their families. With a tip that this Nazi Block Commander had escaped somewhere in North America under the assumed name of Rudy Kurlander, Zev sets about going to each of the four men who fit the description until he finds the right one, and then he’s going to end his life with a bullet from his store-bought Glock.

Marguerite (2015) Catherine Frot – Movie Reviews

April 4, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Marguerite is a seriocomic look at an absurd set of circumstances, loosely inspired by the true story of American singer Florence Foster Jenkins (Jenkins is set to get her own film in 2016, played by Meryl Streep). Set in France around 1920, Catherine Frot plays Marguerite Dumont (her name and occupation, a Marx Brothers nod), a wealthy, aristocratic socialite who has a deep-rooted passion to be an opera singer, despite not having any talent to do so. Due to her wealth status, and many enablers, including long-suffering (but neglectful) husband Georges and their protective butler Madelbos, who haven’t the heart to tell Marguerite that she’s not exactly easy on the ears, she dives in headfirst at a career in the vocal arts. Now that she’s taking just singing among friends and peers in private ceremonies to the public arena, those around her are at a loss as to what to do in order to minimize the damage inflicted on Marguerite’s fragile ego once the general public has paid to hear her embarrassingly caterwaul on a theater stage.

I Saw the Light (2015) Tom Hiddleston – Movie Reviews

April 2, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Tom Hiddleston stars as country music legend Hiram King “Hank” Williams in this biopic on his short life, several loves, and his influential career, crafting such classics as “Hey Good Lookin'”, “Move It On Over”, and the posthumously released gem, “Your Cheatin’ Heart”. Starting with quickie marriage to first wife Audrey Mae Sheppard at the age of 21, Williams and his band would start their career off playing for local radio, where he ended up not lasting long due to butting heads with the staff, leading him to take his show on the road. He eventually lands a recording contract, where he would become a national sensation, making him in high demand as he would dour throughout the late 1940s and the 1950s. But with success comes a dark side, fueled by alcoholism, womanizing, chronic spina bifida and a failing marriage.

Embrace of the Serpent (2015) – Movie Review

April 1, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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The black-and-white film, sumptuously captured by cinematographer David Gallego, bounces back and forth between two different time periods about 30 years apart, with an older and younger version of the main character, a shaman named Karamakate, to unite them. Part of this is in 1909, where we find German scientist Theodor, along with his native guide Manduca, encountering the young Karamakate. Theo is ailing and needs help finding a possible cure, but Karamakate is reluctant to trust this white man, as the Europeans have come in and virtually erased his tribe, the Cohiuano, away in their exploits to extract rubber from the sap of their trees. He ends up assisting Theo when the visitor reveals that some of his people still exist and that he knows where they are. Decades later we’re introduced to Evan, a biologist from America, who has read Theo’s diary and has sought out an aging and somewhat forlonr Karamakate in order to help him find an ultra-rare and sacred plant called yakruna, long rumored to have great power to heal.

Hello My Name is Doris (2015) Sally Field – Movie Reviews

March 29, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Sally Field plays the titular role of sixty-something-year-old Staten Island shut-in Doris, an aging holdover in her Manhattan-based company who ends up developing a crush on a friendly, hunky, and much younger new employee named John Fremont. Most of her interactions with John are in her own mind, but after she ends up partaking in a course with a motivational speaker, she decides to turn what she thinks is ‘impossible’ into “I’m possible!” and begins to try to make things happen by putting herself in the same social circles as John and his hipster friends. John takes a liking to Doris, but is he just being friendly, or is he signaling that there could be something more between them?

Eye in the Sky (2015) Helen Mirren – Movie Reviews

March 28, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Bouncing the action around between Air Force operations based in the United States, war rooms in England, and a small village in Kenya, the storyline involves one such potential strike of a house in Kenya in which there is a meeting among several higher-ups in the terrorist organization known as al-Shabbab.

The difficulty in taking these terrorists out comes from the collateral damage that will occur in their particular location, especially when the potential collateral damage assessment has a public face in the form of a young Kenyan girl who has set up shop just outside of the perimeter of their headquarters, where they are planning to strap on a vest of explosives to be used in an imminent a suicide bombing. Can they intentionally kill the girl to potentially save the lives of dozens of others, by averting the suicide bombing about to happen? What will the political fallout be for all involved, and is it worth the risk of action, or inaction?

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016) Nia Vardalos Movie Reviews

March 27, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Now happily married (though the romantic spark has largely gone), Toula and Ian have a 17-year-old daughter, Paris, who is already getting pressure from Toula’s father, Gus, to find a boyfriend, get married and start having Greek babies. Toula is more concerned with a different life milestone for Paris, college, and the family desperately hopes that the young woman will choose to stay near family in Chicago by attending Northwestern University. As the family generally gives hugs until suffocating, Paris has begun mulling over being as far away as possible from the most overbearing family one could never hope for. Meanwhile, in an ironic twist of fate, Gus gets pressure from his family to marry when it is discovered that he and his wife of fifty years, Maria, were never officially wed due to the marriage certificate remaining unsigned by the priest. Gus thinks its just a formality that can be settled with a quick jaunt to city hall, but Maria, thinking he didn’t do it right the first time around, wants him to earn the privilege of being her husband yet again with a real marriage proposal and proper formal wedding.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) – Movie Reviews

March 25, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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DC decides to expand its cinematic universe to catch up with the Marvel films with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Batman feels Supes is a danger to humanity, and Superman view Batman as a threat. Taking advantage of the separation comes Lex Luthor, who pits them together in an effort to rid the world of those who could stop his quest for domination.

Rams (2015) Grimur Hakonarson – Movie reviews

March 25, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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We mostly follow the film from the perspective of mild-mannered Gummi (Sigurjonsson), who beams with pride on his stock of sheep, entering his ram into a local competition for the best example of good breeding. We see him narrowly losing the latest competition to his neighbor and estranged alcoholic and temperamental brother Kiddi, which leaves a bitter taste in Gummi’s mouth not only for the loss, but it’s a loss to the man he most detests in this world.

During the aftermath, Gummi decides to inspect Kiddi’s winning ram and is disturbed to find it appears to be a little ill, perhaps showing signs of the dreaded scrapie, a contagious degenerative illness in sheep that affects their brains and spinal cords. He reports the incident to the local veterinary council, who immediately inspect the ram in question, raising the dander of Kiddi for the imposition, with the results leading to the slaughter of all of the sheep in the valley if true, with no possibility of new sheep farming for at least two years — something that the prideful Kiddi will likely not take kindly too, especially as it is viewed as an act of jealousy and spite from his scornful brother.

Pee-wee’s Big Holiday (2016) Netflix Movie – Pee-wee Herman

March 22, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Pee-wee Herman has never left his hometown of Fairville to see anything beyond its city limits, save for a harrowing botched attempt to go to Salt Lake City that nipped his wanderlust in the bud. While at work as a cook in a local diner, Pee-wee meets and hits it off with Joe Manganiello, playing a comic version of himself, who encourages the perpetual man-child to get out and see what’s out there by inviting him to attend his swanky birthday party in a few days in New York City.