San Andreas (The Rock, Dwayne Johnson) – Movie Review

June 1, 2015 ~ Vince Leo

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson plays Los Angeles Fire Department fireman and helicopter rescue pilot Ray Gaines, who ends up commandeering an LAFD chopper in order to try to rescue his soon-to-be ex-wife and daughter before they’re crushed in the rubble following a series of mammoth earthquakes the likes of which California has never seen before.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)

May 30, 2015 ~ Vince Leo

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Thomas Mann stars as Pittsburgh-raised twelfth-grader Greg, who spends most of his days trying to fly under the radar among his peers at school, not trying to fit in so much as to not stand out. He’s longtime friends (or co-workers, he states due to his desire not to commit to anything definitive) with Earl. Together, they spend a good deal of their spare time not only watching classic films, but making their own silly spoof home movies based upon them (echoes of Be Kind Rewind abound). His mother thinks it’s important for him to make a connection, and cajoles him into visiting Rachel, a fellow classmate he barely knows who has recently been diagnosed with stage four leukemia. They begrudgingly spend time together, but soon form a unique friendship. The young men decide to make a film just for Rachel, hoping it will give her the strength she needs for the long and arduous battle ahead.

Mad Max: Fury Road (Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron) Film review

May 16, 2015 ~ Vince Leo

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his time out, Max Rockatansky is played by Tom Hardy, an established actor known for playing many complex, troubled antiheroes, so a natural fit for the part. He’s an ex-cop in post-apocalyptic Australia. His travels eventually lead him to abetting the fierce and heroic Imperator Furiosa, who is on a cross-country journey in a mega-tanker through desolate wasteland to transport five pregnant women used by a vicious, slaving despot named Immortan Joe for breeding purposes to a legendary oasis of her youth (“the place where it’s green”). As one of his children is ready to pop, Joe is going to get that child at any cost, so the deadly chase is afoot, with Furiosa and Max greatly outnumbered against the horde of sadistic “war boys” in Joe’s command, willing to do whatever it takes to stop the exodus from succeeding.

Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)

May 1, 2015 ~ Vince Leo

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Juliette Binoche stars as internationally famous actress Maria Enders, whom we meet on a trip to Zurich, Switzerland with handy and very trustworthy personal assistant and confidante, Valentine, in tow, asked to accept a major career tribute, on behalf of Wilhelm Melchior, the playwright and screenwriter who gave her a big break early on (and perhaps a bit of romance). En route, she receives word that he has died, which derails the spirit of the speech she has been preparing. Meanwhile, Maria is approached by a respected young director looking to cast her in a juicy role in the very play that brought her fame, “Maloja Snake”, except this time, she’s slated to play the older romantic counterpart to the young seductress she had played in the original production.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) Film Review

April 27, 2015 ~ Vince Leo

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Loki’s scepter, remnant from the first crossover film, which had been used for its power to draw forth two more beings of inordinate ability and skill in twin brother and sister Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, a speedster and telekinetic mind-warper, respectively. After the battle, the Avengers end up with the scepter’s possession, which Tony Stark uses to try to create an army of artificial-intelligence entities that will work to shield Earth from possible alien threats in the future. However, the first AI creation emerges, and its belief is that to protect Earth from harm (as Tony puts it, achieving “peace in our time”), that means eradicating the ones most responsible for its perilous situation — humans. It’s now up to the Avengers to keep this new entity, dubbed “Ultron”, from succeeding in its mission of protection

Ex Machina (2015) Film Review

April 26, 2015 ~ Vince Leo

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Set sometime in the future, Domhnall Gleeson plays coding programmer Caleb Smith, an employee working for ‘Blue Book’, the world’s most popular search engine by a long shot. He has been summoned by virtue of a contest by the company’s founder, mega-billionaire Nathan Bateman, to his remote, high-security home/research facility in Alaska (exteriors shot mostly in rural Norway) for a week in order to help provide learned research into artificial intelligence. Caleb is soon introduced to Ava, a sleekly designed and highly advanced robot resembling a human, and he’s told to spend his time testing her (a ‘Turing Test’) to see if she truly is self aware. With Nathan off drinking, or unable to watch due to sporadic power outages, Caleb and Ava converse about sundry topics, and while her body in clearly artificial, the man can’t help but be drawn to her. But, is this part of the design, or is something more organic and unpredictable afoot?