Allegiant (2016) Divergent Series – Movie Reviews

March 19, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

The futuristic film opens with Naomi Watts’ character, Evelyn, now in charge of walled-in Chicago after the demise of Jeanine, and she’s trying to provide ‘justice’ for past sins against the members of Erudite by conducting public trials in which they’re put to death at the whim of angry mobs. Those who think that Evelyn is merely a replacement for Jeanine in Machiavellian tactics splinter off into their own group, the Allegiant, led by Johanna (Spencer), and civil war is about to break out for control of the city. Meanwhile, Tris and her cohort of rebellious heroes manage to scale the walls of the city to try to find something or someone that will remedy the situation on the outside, eventually leading to an encounter with the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, led by David (Daniels), who instructs Tris that their entire existence has served as an experiment for the last 200 years in trying to purify the damaged genetics of humanity, and that Tris’ purity as a Divergent means that the experiment is a success. However, with Tris’ home and nearly everyone she cares about about to kill each other, and an organization that’s supposed to be looking out for their well-being showing that they might not be the benevolent rescuers she is hoping for, she’s going to have to take matters into her own hands if she wants to fulfill that role of savior of humanity she’s been destined to be since birth.

The Young Messiah (2016) Sean Bean – Movie Reviews

March 14, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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The film starts with young Jesus with his family, having fled to Egypt due to a decree by Herod the Great to find the child that had managed to escape slaughter as a babe seven years back. At this point in his life, Jesus isn’t yet aware of his divine identity, having recently been able to resurrect a dead bird. While there, Jesus has his first run-in with a crafty Demon who is trying to alter events against the young Son of God, resulting in circumstances that cause Jesus to employ his ability to raise the dead yet again. Meanwhile, as Herod’s reported death clears the coast for the family for the long road back to their home in Nazareth, Roman Centurion named Severus is tasked by Herod’s new reigning son, also called Herod, with investigating the whereabouts of the boy, and, if found, putting an end to his life. Along the way, Jesus finally confronts the hows and whys of what makes him different than other little boys his age.

The Brothers Grimsby (2016) Sacha Baron Cohen – Movie Review

March 12, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Sacha Baron Cohen stars as Norman ‘Nobby’ Butcher, a who lives in Grimsby with his lusty wife Dawn (Wilson) and eleven hooligan children (two who are his grandchildren) in the working-class town of the film’s title. Despite the large family, deadbeat welfare-scammer Nobby still yearns for one more person in his life, his younger brother Sebastian, who he was separated from as a young boy when they were left as orphans and adopted into different circumstances. After learning of the whereabouts of Sebastian, who is now a slick and debonair secret agent working for MI6, Nobby meets and tries to reassert long-dormant bonds, but Sebastian wants none of it at this point in his life, having felt abandoned way back when. During a particularly tense moment at a public function that draws out Sebastian into full super-spy mode to avert an assassination, Nobby ends up bungling the heroics and makes Sebastian look like the culprit, causing the latter to have to hide out from his own spy organization. Sebastian tries to regain separation, but Nobby is all he has in this world to help him, especially as he learns of nefarious plans being hatched from an international terrorist organization that could put the world in mortal peril.

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) John Goodman – Movie Reviews

March 12, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars as Michelle, who is leaving her fiancé, Ben voiced by Bradley Cooper), after an apparent deal-breaking disagreement that he must feel sorry for, given that he is persistently calling as she’s on the rural Louisiana road heading out of town. That’s the last thing she remembers, as Michelle end up in a car accident that sees her roll off the road and take a nasty tumble. When Michelle awakens, she finds herself in a strange bed with an IV in her, chained to the wall and enclosed in a nearly empty room with a dense-looking metal door that’s locked tight. She’s soon visited by an armed man named Howard who claims to have saved her life, claiming that they’re the only ones left alive in their fallout shelter, and that everyone outside is likely dead or dying due to an apocalyptic event that has poisoned the air. There’s enough in the mini-bunker to keep them fed and secure for years, but is Howard, an avowed conspiracy nut, a benign Samaritan, or is he her captor, trying to keep her from escaping his lair for reasons too horrific to contemplate?

Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015) Chloe Zhao – Movie Reviews

March 11, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Set in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, Songs My Brothers Taught Me primarily revolves around seventeen-year-old brother Johnny Winters and his eleven-year-old sister Jashaun, living with their alcoholic single mother Lisa below the poverty line. With local jobs in very short supply, John makes a few bucks here and there delivering bootleg alcohol and weed to his Oglala Lakota brethren in a place plagued by alcoholism and a lack of easy roads in life. Meanwhile, their biological father, a rodeo performer who sired over two dozen half-brothers and sisters in his lifetime around the reservation with many different women, has died in a fire. The community gets together in their mourning, but the wounds run deep, leaving an anguished Jashaun wanting the closeness of her brother who is already making plans to leave her behind to move thousand of miles away with his girlfriend Aurelia, who is on the verge of leaving to go to college in Los Angeles.

The Boy and the Beast (2015) Anime Movie Reviews

March 8, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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The story involves a nine-year-old boy named Ren, who, after the untimely death of his mother after a bitter divorce, ends up filled with despair and rage, roaming the streets of Tokyo rather than live with his distant relatives. That’s when Ren is spotted by a Kumatetsu, a hot-tempered ursine beast from another dimension where animal-men rule supreme, Jutengai. Ren ends up following Kumatetsu into an alley that serves as a portal back to the a supernatural place where shape-shifting humanoid animals with otherworldly powers, and where humans are not allowed because of their dark predilection for death and destruction. An exception is made for Ren, redubbed as Kyuta (for his age, “nine”) who has been taken in, rather reluctantly, as the Kumatetsu’s apprentice, and given the undisciplined beast-man is one of two possible successors that will ascend to the rule of the fantastical domain, he has some leeway in this regard. Both are ill-equipped to handle their newfound roles as mentor and apprentice, especially as they butt heads constantly, but they soon learn to make it work to their benefit and actually do some learning and growing from one another.

Mustang (2015) Deniz Gamze Erguven – Movie Reviews

March 7, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Five orphaned, loving, and seemingly carefree sisters living in a very conservative town in Turkey are growing up fast — so fast that when they’re spotted engaging in a bit of innocent horseplay with some local boys, they’re immediately disciplined, and the home in which they reside takes to locking down the girls, placing a virtual ‘chastity belt’ around the home of bars and high walls, before they go out and bring shame to the family and village they’re in. Their day-to-day existence also changes, whereby their guardians and other local ladies put them through a “wife factory”, showing them how to dress, cook, sew, and other things they should know in order to fetch the first available man through the process of arranged marriage.

London Has Fallen (2016) Gerard Butler – Movie Reviews

March 6, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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The story begins in Pakistan, with an American drone strike on the abode of terrorist-supplying arms dealer Aamir Barkawi, where a wedding appears to be taking place. Two years later, the unfortunate death of the British prime minister has many world leaders converging on London to attend his funeral. That’s when the enemies of the Western world, led by Barkawi (who somehow managed not to die in the drone strike), decide to strike back, with an elaborate plot to assassinate all of the heads of state and to blow up all of London’s most prominent landmarks, with many of the terrorists out and about in the guise of the local police and palace guards, making it difficult for the military to separate friend from foe. However, President of the United States Benjamin Asher is still alive, thanks to the continues heroic efforts of his Secret Service super-agent, Mike Banning, who must work twice as hard as ever before to make sure the terrorists don’t succeed in their plan on kidnapping Asher and executing him live on world television.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016) Tina Fey – Movie Reviews

March 5, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Tina Fey stars as Kim Baker, a journalist stuck in a life rut while working in television news as a copy-editor in New York, who ends up taking on an assignment to cover the war in Afghanistan beginning in 2003. What initially had been intended as a three-month gig end up being much longer (we immediately know she’s still there in 2006, based on the film’s prologue), much to the chagrin of her boyfriend back home. In Kabul, she’s immediately a fish out of water, dealing with the many macho men in the Marines, violence seemingly erupting without notice around her, and with none of the amenities back home. While there, she’s immediately taken in by the pool of fellow war correspondents and their entourage of photographers and bodyguards, who enjoy blowing off considerable steam in the evenings, while in the daytime, it’s still as dog-eat-dog for news stories as it had been back home.

Gods of Egypt (2016) Gerard Butler – Fantasy Movie Reviews

March 1, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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The film is set in Ancient Egypt, at a time when gods and human co-existed in the lands. The gods were like humans, mortal and fallible, but were twice as tall and their veins coursed with gold instead of blood. Each of them also had unique superhuman abilities like flight. Our main protagonist is Horus, the god of the air, who is set to ascend to take over Egypt from his father Osiris. However, those plans are soon foiled when Set, the arrogant and ambitious younger brother of Osiris, mounts a murderous coup and takes over the lands himself, plucking out Horus’ eyes in the process, rendering him powerless. It’s a dark time for Egypt, who all, gods and men alike, become subservient to their new king Set, who also immediately makes the newly dead pay a heavy fee in order to secure a place in the afterlife. Meanwhile, a roguish human named Bek, seeking to resurrect his murdered love Zaya with divine help, allies with the banished Horus to thwart Set’s quest to steal away all of the powers of the remaining gods.