Willie's View Movie Reviews

  I am a BIG James Bond fan and a bigger fan of the Daniel Craig/James Bond era.  I loved Casino Royale. Wasn't crazy for Quantum of Solace, but it was watchable. Skyfall is my favorite of the bunch. Now comes Daniel Craig's fourth outing as 007 in Spectre, and I'll cut right to the chase. Spectre is the biggest disappointment of 2015. Plain and simple.   Like always, I'll spare you of the plot details and get right to the problem of this film. The story.   There is no character development for James Bond whatsoever in this film. NOTHING that happens in this movie amounts to a hill of beans. NOTHING!!! Basically, James Bond goes looking for answers to his life and when all is said and done, we really don't get any answers of than one. SPOILER ALERT...............Still with me? Don't say I didn't warn you. We find out that the villain of this movie (played by Christoph Waltz) is responsible for everything that happened to Bond in the previous three films. ....

 I admit that I have never seen Hotel Transylvania, but being the movie nut ball that I am, I knew more than enough about the film to be more than familiar with it. I knew it was an animated Adam Sandler film, costarring all of his friends (i.e. Kevin James, David Spade and Steve Buscemi). I knew it was about classic horror movie monsters led by Sandler's Count Dracula, who ran a hotel for monsters. I knew that it was also about his his teenage daughter (voiced by Selena Gomez) who falls in love with a goofy human( voiced by Andy Samberg). And so, to prove to his daughter that he likes humans, he opens his hotel to humans. That was the first one. See? I did pretty good without seeing it,right?   And since the first one was a box office hit, it's inevitable that we would have a sequel. And we do. Shock. Surprise.   I have another admission. I was bored when I picked this movie selection. I figured at the very least that I could stop it if it was awful. To my surprise...

        THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. is based on the 60's television show which followed secret agents  who worked for a secret international counter espionage and law and enforcement agency   U.N.C.L.E.  Now, almost 50 years later, we get the film version, directed by Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes movies and SNATCH) and stars Henry Cavill (THE MAN OF STEEL) and Armie Hammer (THE SOCIAL NETWORK) as rival secret agents-Cavil for the U.S. and Hammer for Russia. The plot centers around the two men having to work together despite their dislike for one another, to protect the daughter of a Professor who has made a nuclear bomb. Their mission-find the missing professor and find the nuclear bomb before the bad guys and destroy the world. Your basic spy movie plot.     What I liked about THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. is the chemistry between the three stars-Cavill, Hammer and Alicia Vikander as Gaby, the daughter of the Professor.Their chemistry and likable ch...

  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....

     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 t...

  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)...

  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 compare...