Willie's View Movie Reviews

  SOUTHPAW, stars Jake Gyllenhaal as light heavyweight boxing champion Billy Hope. Without giving anything away(the trailer does a good job at that, so don't watch) SOUTHPAW is a predictable boxing drama. The first quarter of the movie is exactly like a Rocky movie. Thankfully, the core of the movie is the second act - part family drama,part redemption tale until we get to the third act, which turns back into a predictable Rocky movie.    Jake Gyllenhaal gives one of his best performances of his career. His performance is so good that it works against the boxing cliches. Forest Whitaker is also very good as a trainer who takes a chance on Billy Hope when no one else will.  To reiterate, the first and third acts of SOUTHPAW almost cripple the film, if not for Gyllenhaal's Oscar worthy performance, Antoine Fuqua's good direction and the solid second act. I am leaving out certain things about the movie because I try not to get into spoiler territory if I can help it.   If

     WAR ROOM is the fifth film from Alex and Stephen Kendrick and is their best film to date.       The Kendrick Brothers once again tackle the subject of marriage, but this movie is more than about a struggling marriage. It's about having a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's about praying to GOD, about seeking GOD and letting him steer you through the ups and downs of life.It's about parenting,from a mother's standpoint and then, from a father's standpoint. It's about making wrong choices and turning to GOD to make the right choices. It's also about mentoring another person.   This is where I talk about the strongest character the Kendrick Brothers have ever created-Miss Clara, played flawlessly by Karen Abercrombie. This woman needs an Oscar. her performance is the heart and soul of WAR ROOM. Take her out and you have a flat, sermon heavy movie. Miss Clara is more than a Jesus loving, prayer seeking, evangelical old lady. Over the coarse of two hou

  Terminator:Genisys is a sequel and a reboot to the previous four Terminator movies, but I really only count the first two film classics.   I can see why the filmmakers of Terminator:Genisys thought it was a good idea, at least on paper to reboot the Terminator franchise after the disappointing third and fourth films. However, the story that is used to reignite this classic Sci-Fi film series works in reverse effect and just might (pun intended) terminate this series for possible sequels.   Let me first tell you the premise of this film. Kyle Reese goes back to 1984 to save Sarah Conner from being killed. Didn't this happen in the first movie? Hang on. When he gets there, he finds things are different then what he was expecting. I'll stop there. I will say this, without spoiling anything. What transpires through the rest of the film, it manages to erase all previous four movies from ever happening, at least for this movie. Fine. Pull a DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (X-MEN) if you mus

  Being the film buff that I am, I have somehow managed to not see the film classic TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. That changed when I recently read the book by Harper Lee. Wonderful book. I highly recommend it. Curious to see how the film version compared to the book, I made my way to the local Library and checked out a copy of the film. What fol lows are my thoughts on this beautiful and haunting film about lost innocence and racism.    TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD stars Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1963. It's directed by Richard Mulligan, who went on to direct the 1991 film THE MAN IN THE MOON, which I also recommend. The screenplay is written by screenwriting legend Horton Foote,  who also picked up an Oscar for adapting the novel into this film classic.    With all the known pedigree out of the way, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is the story of lost innocence in the 1930's deep south. It was a different time compared to now, where child

 After Brad Bird breathed new life into the MISSION:IMPOSSILE movies with GHOST PROTOCOL, I thought it would be IMPOSSIBLE to ever top it. Of course, with the success of GHOST PROTOCOL, we all knew that Cruise and Paramount would be foolish not to attempt a fifth entry. But once again, Cruise rolled the dice and has come up a winner with ROUGE NATION, the fifth MI film.  This time out Cruise enlisted the help of writer/director Christopher McQuarrie to continue the momentum flowing after GHOST PROTOCAL and I am happy to say they have succeeded.   The plot of the movie? Well, McQuarrie has crafted a masterful thriller in ROUGE NATION, having IMF shut down by the CIA and making Ethan Hunt a fugitive. He's also the target of an anti IMF group that wants to use Hunt and kill him afterwards. Hunt's mission? Stay one step ahead of the CIA and find out who the mystery man is that runs the rogue assassin group that's out to put an end to him and the world as we know it.   ROG