Willie's View Movie Reviews

   If you've read any of my reviews this year, you might notice that I've talked about the emotional disconnect that some movies are plagued with. I'm referring to lack of character development (example-UNBROKEN and FURY, come to mind.)  PIXAR'S latest animated film, INSIDE OUT, almost gets derailed with the lack of character development/character empathy and a flimsy storyline that plays like a re-tread of the Toy Story Movies. Two characters with different personalities find themselves out of their comfort zone and spend the rest of the movie trying to get back. Been there. Done that about a 1000 times over.   But does INSIDE OUT offer anything to write home about? Yes. Two voice over performances that breath life into this "cute" film. Those two are Phyllis Smith (from The Office) as the emotion Sadness and Richard Kind (Spin City) as a stuff animal type creature named Bing Bong. If it weren't for these two supporting characters, I feel we would have...

  22 years ago, Steven Spielberg debuted one of his signature action masterpiece's with JURASSIC PARK.   22 years and two lesser sequels later, movie-goers get the opportunity to return to Isla Nebular and see all those cool dinosaurs once again eating people. During the 20 plus years, INGEN has managed to get Jurassic Park running and operational, capturing the vision of it's founder, John Hammond. But when attendance level start to decrease, the mad scientists go back to the lab to create a bigger and badder dinosaur-Indominus Rex.   Of course, things go horribly wrong and the head of Park Operations,Claire( played by Bryce Dallas Howard) enlists the help of Raptor Whisper Owen(Chris Pratt) to get things under control.  We've seen this done three times already. But what JURASSIC WORLD offers is a BIG star in the lead role-Chris Pratt. This movie really is best described as Chris Pratt and The Dinosaurs. Chris Pratt fully embodies what the previous three movies ...

 MAD MAX:FURY ROAD is a jaw dropping, game changing genre defining action movie in every sense of the word.  If you are a movie buff like myself, then you remember the original Mad Max trilogy from the 80's, starring Mel Gibson, the role that made him a household name.   Well, series creator George Miller returns 30 years later to reignite and re-define Mad Max for a new generation. What he delivers is a film that I think will also re-define the action movie from here on out. This is arguably the best action film to made in the past 15 years. The film takes at a break neck pace and does not let up until the final credits. Just when you think Miller is giving the audience a chance to catch our breath, we find ourselves off in another mouth gaping action sequence. The action is really that crazy awesome.   Then there is the performances by Tom Hardy as Mad Max and Charlize Theron, who in my opinion, steals the movie right out from under Hardy. Theron's Imperator Fur...

 Jake Gyllenhaul plays Louis Bloom, a creepy individual who just wants to be excepted and most of all get a job.   When we first meet Louis Bloom, he's trying to get a job, but his creepiness gets in the way and we see that Mr.Bloom doesn't take being rejected very well. One night, he witnesses an accident and see a group of independent news camera crews descend on the carnage and take video of said carnage and then sell it to local TV news stations.  Bloom is a quick learner and before you know it he's in front of a local TV news producer, played by Rene Russo (Lethal Weapon 3 and 4), selling his footage of another accident from another another night.   Writer/Director Dan Gilroy gets very close to turning this thriller about the media getting screwed by a psychopath, into a black comedy. Don't know what a black comedy is? Google it. But thankfully, Gilroy keeps the action in the thriller genre.  I can't stand the news media and seeing how they are portra...

MEN IN BLACK II begins a new ongoing series of movie reviews that I am calling Retro Movie Reviews.  Originally released in the summer of 2002, MEN IN BLACK II reunties  Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith as Agents K and J, know as the Men In Black. It was the chemistry between Jones and Smith that made the original film a box office blockbuster and this second entry went on to make over $190 million at the domestic (U.S.) box office and spawned a third and better sequel. But I'm here to talk about MIB 2.    Trouble starts all over again when Serleena (played well by Laura Flynn Boyle), an alien (of course) from another planet (of course) shows up looking for the "light of Zartha". No one seems to know where it's location is, except for one person and he can't remember where it is or who he is for that matter. I'm talking about Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K, whom, if you remember, got neuralized (that mean his memory erased) in the first movie. It's up to A...

In the film KINGSMAN:THE SECRET SERVICE, Harry (Colin Firth) says that "manners maketh a man". If that's the case, then he sure doesn't practice what he preaches. For one, he, along with everyone else in the film, have potty mouths. I lost count on how many F bombs went off during the course of this 2 hour plus pornographic action fest.   I should have expected this type of film from Matthew Vaughn, the director of another pornographic violence fest-KICKASS. The film is basically about a young man who attempts to make it as a spy in a secret agency known as the Kingsman. Based on their behavior, I wouldn't call them gentlemen at all. Not only is the foul language so over the top, but the violence is as well. Case in point-the church scene about an hour into the movie. I should have stopped right there, but regretfully, I didn't.    James Bond this is not. Not even close. There are some out there that loved this movie. All movies are not for everyone. This...

Avengers:Age of Ultron is a film that runs the risk of having too much going on visually and story wise. And to my amazement, writer-director Joss Whedon pulls it off in brilliant fashion.  Age of Ultron is a comic book lover's dream come true. It has everything you could ask for in a super-hero film. Action,comedy,drama,romance and a classic villain played wonderfully by James Spader(The Black List). The film has so much going on plot wise that I dare you to call this film boring. And at the heart of it all, Age of Ultron continues to nail what was so good about the first film-the characters and their inter-action with each other. The performances by everyone are spot on with Downey and Evans leading the pack. In addition to all the characters that we loved in the first film, we get new additions, featuring, as I mentioned, Spader as the deliciously evil Ultron, and Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor Johnson as twin siblings with super powers)of course).  Also, the film c...