Queen of Katwe (2016) Oyelowo, Nyong’o, Disney Movie Review

October 2, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

Phiona Mutesi, who we see growing up in Katwe, in the crime-ridden slums of Kampala, capital of Uganda, with a future ahead of her that seems to offer more of the same for her and her family. David Oyelowo co-stars as Christian missionary and youth outreach coordinator Robert Katende, who discovers a hidden prodigy in Phiona when he gathers some of the local children together to teach them the game of chess. Phiona gets very good, very quickly, soon enough besting all of the kids in Katwe, leading Robert to seek greener pastures by trying to have her compete in competitions sponsored by schools for the more formally educated. However, opportunities are scarce for someone of her situation (not only prejudice against people of the slums, but you also need money to enter some of the competitions), and Phiona’s widowed mother Harriet grows increasingly concerned that the path Robert has her on will lead to a diminishing of her home life and earning money to help feed her and the family by selling maize (corn) at the local market.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Movie Review

October 1, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Asa Butterfield stars as Jacob, an American teenager close to his grandfather, Abe, who would frequently impart his fanciful stories of his own youth spent at the peculiar home of the story’s title. The home is run by Miss Peregrine, who caters to orphan children who possess strange and magical traits (one has bees living within him, another with a mouth on the back of her neck, another with the strength of ten men, etc.). When his grandfather passes, Jacob determines to find if Abe’s stories about the magical home off the coast of Wales is real, but he discovers the place in rubble, bombed out by Nazis during World War II. However, Jacob soon discovers that a ‘time loop’ in which the orphanage continues to exist on the fateful day of the bombing in 1943, thanks to Miss Peregrine’s ability to reverse time one day, every day. However, even the time loop may not be enough to save them, as the viciously evil Barron and his grotesque Hollowgast friends are out to snuff ‘peculiars’ out.

Complete Unknown (2016) Rachel Weisz – Movie Review

September 26, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Michael Shannon plays Tom, celebrating his birthday at a critical time in his life, wondering what to do when his Persian wife is on the verge of moving from their home in New York to California to continue her education and help in her passion to make jewelry as a career. At the party, Tom’s workmate Clyde brings over a guest, Alice, a new acquaintance he hopes will eventually be more. We know what the guests of Tom’s party does not, thanks to an opening montage: this stranger has had many identities over the years, and Alice is just her latest. When she reveals her past at the party, it becomes all the buzz, and as Tom gets to talking to her more, we soon find out that they are both hiding secrets – the woman who must move on whenever she becomes trapped in a life and the man so set in his ways, he has a hard time leaving even when there’s not much to stay for.

The Hollars (2016) John Krasinski – Movie Review

September 25, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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A man’s mother whas been discovered to have an advanced-stage brain tumor that needs immediate removal, with John Krasinski playing the role of bored office worker and would-be graphic novel author John Hollar, who moved to New York and is currently awaiting the birth of a baby with his well-to-do girlfriend, Becca. He receives a call to return to his Midwest home to be there for his mother Sally’s risky but crucial brain surgery, where he is greeted by his financially struggling plumber father, Don, and his recently laid-off brother Ron, who hasn’t yet been able to move on from his divorce.

The Magnificent Seven | 7 | (2016) Denzel – Movie Review

September 24, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Set in the year 1879, this new version moves the action from feudal Japan and Mexico to a struggling new town called Rose Creek, who are being bled dry and forced to leave or die from a ruthless and iron-fisted land baron named Bartholomew Bogue, who is looking to continue amassing riches by getting rid of themeek residents of the town to further set up his gold-mining operation. When Bogue’s attempts to terrorize the people of Rose Creek into leaving turn deadly, recently widowed Emma Cullen seeks righteousness and revenge by enlisting the services of fearless duly-appointed warrant officer Sam Chisolm to help protect the town and put an end to Bogue’s murderous ways. With the local sheriff and deputies on his payroll, and an army of desperadoes to protect Bogue, Chisolm knows he’s going to need a formidable team on his side as well, soon enlisting the services of a ragtag group of skilled gunfighters, as well as to train the town of mostly pacifists on how to fight for the town that’s rightfully theirs.

Snowden (2016) Oliver Stone – Movie Reviews

September 19, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Edward Snowden (doing a reasonable interpretation of his voice and demeanor), a neoconservative wanting to serve his country but whose military career is cut short due to frequent injuries, turning his sights to working to help is country in another capacity though a career in government intelligence. He proves to be more than adept at this job, which allows him to climb the ranks to higher and higher levels of security clearance within the CIA. However, the closer he looks at their programming, the more disturbed he is to find just how intrusive many of the surveillance software and techniques are under both the Bush and Obama administrations, leading him to have a crisis of conscience on whether the American public has a right to know about how their privacy has eroded in the computer, smart phone, internet and social media age.

Blair Witch (2016) Callie Hernandez – Movie Reviews

September 18, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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As with the first film, we’re greeted with a title blurb informing us that what we’re about to watch is footage found in the woods of Burkittsville, MD — aka, the Black Hills Forest. We see the beginnings of the footage at the home of a 20-ish aged man named James, who has seen a YouTube video that gives him a clue that his sister Heather, who has been missing since trying to document the origins of the Blair Witch, may be still alive in those woods. Embarking on this quest, James seeks the assistance of his filmmaker friend Lisa to record their travels and make it into a documentary, traveling to the area to meet with the YouTuber who shot the footage, bringing along friends Peter and Ashley in tow. They get plenty of their questions answered in due course, though not exactly the way they wanted.

Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016) Renee Zellweger – Movie Reviews

September 18, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Bridget is now 43 years old, alone and still living in the same flat in London — no husband and no children — working as a producer for a London televisions news program. On the urging of a friend and colleague, Bridget is cajoled into attending an outdoor music festival where people can expect to get laid, and often, where she soon meets a charismatic and good-looking American dating-site wunderkind named Jack Quant, with whom she decides to “have relations.” About a week later, she runs into her reserved and refined old flame Mark Darcy, who says he’s going through a divorce but still has feelings for her, and they also, “have relations.” when Bridget ends up pregnant, it becomes an awkward situation, as she doesn’t know which of the two appealing men will be the father, and if so, if they will accept the situation of responsibility.

Little Men (2016) Greg Kinnear – Movie Reviews

September 13, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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Jake is an artistically gifted but introverted 13-year-old kid whose therapist mother Kathy and actor father Brian relocate from Manhattan to Brooklyn when they take over the abode of the recently deceased father Brian barely spoke to anymore. The properties inhereted also contain a modest dress shop run by a middle-aged Chilean immigrant named Leonor, who also has a son, Tony, around the same age as Jake. Tony quickly befriends actor-in-training Jake, but difficulties arise between the two families when the lease on the shop is found to not exist, and a major readjustment to the very low rent she had been paying to the grandfather is proposed to keep up with the skyrocketing property prices in the radically changing Brooklyn neighborhood they reside in.

Other People (2016) Molly Shannon – Movie Review

September 11, 2016 ~ Vince Leo

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The film takes place over the course of a year, with the primary focus being on a struggling comedy writer and improv comedian named David (Plemmons), returning to his hometown of Sacramento from New York to look after the needs of his terminally ill mother, Joanne (Shannon), uncomfortably reuniting with his mostly estranged father, Norman (Whitford), who has yet to fully accept him since coming out, and two mostly annoying younger sisters. The family is preparing for the inevitable life after Joanne, as she has decided to forego additional grueling chemo treatments and accept her fate with the cancer that is overtaking her. While there, David also begins to find some healing time with dormant familial relationships and a bit of perspective on the other trials and tribulations in his personal, professional and romantic life.