Willie's View Movie Reviews

 Netflix is littered with bad Nicolas Cage movies. Just take a look. Cage has been the joke of Hollywood for years for making many bad movie choices.  JOE is NOT one of those movies. It's Cage's best in years. JOE is the story of an ex-con trying to live as normal a life as he can, but his past actions keep coming back to haunt him. When he hires an abused teenager looking to make a living for his family and befriends him, Joe is forced more than ever to keep a reign on his life.  JOE, directed by David Gordon Green, is about two men trying to leave their pasts behind and build a life of his own. I must warn you that this is a hard core rated R film, with strong language, violence and some nudity.   Nicolas Cage is a good actor who's gotten a bad rap, especially making crappy choices. But JOE is a step in the right direction in redeeming himself of his "bad movie" reputation.   I give JOE a B+.

UNBROKEN is the true story of Louis Zamperini's time as a prisoner of war in Japan in W.W. II. The film is based on the best selling book by Laura Hillenbrand and is directed by Angelina Jolie, with Jack O'Connell as Louis Zamperini. I have not read the book and after viewing the film, I have a feeling that some of the story was left out. What the film does cover is his 47 days at sea in a raft with two fellow crewman after their plane is shot down and crashes in the middle of the ocean. From there, the rest of the film covers his time in a Japanese POW camp.   My problem with the film is that it lacks the emotional punch this sort of film needs. Instead of being an inspiring story, the film version is a listless paint by numbers Oscar wanna be. The key scene in the movie, for example, where (SPOILER WARNING!!!) a frail Louis is forced to hold a board over his head for a long period of time. If he drops it, he will die. This scene should have had the audience cheering. I

Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt in the new trailer for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE-ROUGE NATION, due out in theaters on July 31. From what I've seen from the trailer, we should expect more action and thrills, just like the previous four high octane action thrillers. Most of the MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE:GHOST PROTOCOL cast is back for the fifth outing, this time being directed by JACK REACHER director Christopher McQuarrie. I can only hope he will bring the same invigorating energy that Brad Bird did with GHOST PROTOCOL. We will find out on July 31.

I Consider The Kendrick Brothers to be the best Christian Film Makers in the business. Their list of films include FLYWHEEL,FACING GIANTS,FIREPROOF and COURAGEOUS. Their fifth film, WAR ROOM, will be released August 28th. I for one cannot wait. From my view of the trailer that dropped yesterday, it looks to be their most evangelical film to date. I hope and pray that secular audiences will find out what all the fuss is about in regards to God gifted film making ability of the Kendrick Brothers. I get excited every time one of their films come out. Check out the trailer below.

  Can a movie have a second life on another platform outside of the box office? I believe it can.    AND SO IT GOES, starring Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton is such a movie. It's out on home video and is streaming on Netflix.  It was originally released in theaters last July and met a horrible box office death among all the summer blockbusters that were out at the time. A nice little romantic movie such as this is all wrong for summer, in my opinion.   I hate to use the word cute, but that's exactly what this film is. Nothing more. Nothing less. It's directed by film veteran Rob Riener (WHEN HARRY MET SALLY and A FEW GOOD MEN) and wriiten by Mark Andrus (AS GOOD AS IT GETS) and they bring their film pedigree to this light and fluffy romantic comedy. There's nothing wrong with light and fluffy.   Michael Douglas is the movie. He plays a mean widower who is at the end of his real estate career and his forced by his estranged son to take care of his 10 year old

PIXELS Is the latest Adam Sandler comedy coming out this summer. July 24 to be exact. Along with Sandler are Kevin James, a usual co-conspirator of Sandlers, Peter Dinklage (Elf, Game of Thrones), Josh Gad (ew!!) and Michelle Monaghan (MI:3). It's basically Sandler and gang vs. 80's video game characters brought to life by aliens. It looks like Indepence Day meets Ghostbusters via the typical juvenile Sandler humor. But what raises my eye brow with interest is who is directing-Chris Columus, the director of Home Alone 1&2, Harry Potter 1&2 and one of my favorite comedies -Mrs. Doubtfire. Columbus hasn't had a hit since It Percy Jackson and The Lighting Thief and that was a very minor hit. I'm wondering if he is Sandler's latest director for hire? From what I've seen of trailer, that might be the case.   I'm slightly interested. 

   Political manuvering takes Center Stage in the latest Hunger Games movie.  Let me start by saying that I have not read any of The Hunger Games novels, although I do plan to do so.     Let me also say that I loved the two previous movies- Hunger Games and Cathing Fire.     Now on to Mocking Jay Part 1, which is the third book in the Hunger Games Trilogy and is being split into two movies. I call this strategy "milking the cow for she's worth". It worked for Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows when that novel turned film was split into two movies.    The first part works splendidly as a political thriller. The story involves the Rebels, led by President Coin (Julieanne Moore)trying to get control of Katnis (jennifer lawrence in another fine performance) and Peta (Josh Hutcherson) away from the evil Capitol, led by President Snow ( played by one of the greatest over-actors of all time-Donald Sutherland). I'll stop with the plot details for those who ha

   Denzel Washington is back in his best movie since THE BOOK OF ELI with THE EQUALIZER, based on the 80's TV series about a mysterious man who goes around helping people who are victimized by criminals and don't have a fighting chance on their own.   That is all I will say about the plot and that's all you really need to know going into the film. But please recognize that the film is rated R for strong language and violence.  Here's the thing that works about THE EQUALIZER besides the performance of Washington and the directing by Antoine Fuqua (who directed Washington to an Academy Award in TRAINING DAY)-you like Robert McCall (Washington) because he's a good person and he goes out of his way to help people-way out of his way. That's something I look for in a movie. A likable or relate-able character. It also helps that McCall can kick some serious butt. When he goes after the scumbags in this movie, you're behind him all the way.   It also help that t

ROBOCOP is the remake of the 1987 sci-fi classic. This time, instead of taking the campy sci-fi approach that the original did, this remake or reboot gives Robocop a superhero makeover, complete with the PG-13 rating instead of the graphic R rating of the original.  The new version is faithful to its predecessor in a story sense and does take a standard straight forward approach in the visual sense, instead of the original director's (Paul Veerhoven) pornographic and brutal over the top action style. That's not to say that the new model is kid friendly. It's not. Sorry parents. This one features the video game violence that kids are unfortunately used to.   The question that I have to answer is ROBOCOP(2014) better than ROBOCOP(1987)? The answer is no, however, the new model does offer enough entertainment value to recommend. (1) The supporting cast, featuring Michael Keaton as the main villain, Smauel L. Jackson as a TV news host and Gary Oldman as the creator of Roboc

    Whiplash, starring Miles Teller (Divergent, The Spectacular Now) and J.K. Simmons(Juno and Spider-Man) is about a promising young drummer who is mentored by the music teacher from hell.      Whiplash puts you on the edge of your seat, rooting for Andrew Neimann (Teller) to achieve his dream of becoming the best drummer he can be. The film is fueled by the performances of Teller and Simmons. Without them, the film would be average. The performances ARE  the film.     That's not to say that the writing and directing by Damien Chazelle is sub-par. It's not by any stretch of the imagination. Chazelle film, like I said earlier, puts you on the edge of your seat until the very last drumbeat.    It's a shame that this brilliant drama didn't find a wide audience while in theaters. It's a travesty when the latest Vince Vaughn comedy (Unfinished Business) can open in 2700 plus theaters and Whiplash only open on 560 plus screens in comparison. Something is wrong when a

  FURY,written and directed by David Ayer and starring Brad Pitt is a dark,gritty and enjoyable W.W. II drama about a five man Sherman Tank crew inside Nazi Germany.  David Ayer is no stranger in writing/directing dark,gritty action dramas with unlikable characters (TRAINING DAY with Denzel Washington). With FURY, Ayer gives us Brad Pitt as an unsympathetic Army Sergeant who has to break in a rookie soldier (played by PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTINING THIEF's Logan Lerman), who's main skill is typing 60 words per minute-not killing Nazis. The five man crew is rounded out by Shia LeBeouf as a Christian,who quotes The Bible and prays;Michael Pena (seen in Ayer's END OF THE WATCH) and Jon Bernthal, best known as Shane on THE WALKING DEAD, as a foul mouthed, kick butt and ask questions later type of soldier/mechanic.    The problem I had with FURY is that I did not find the characters likable enough to sit through this depressing 2 hour plus film. Granted, Lerman's charac