Movie Preview: February 2014

January is typically seen as a dumping ground for movies. If you look at reviews for the new movies that came out in the month, you will see that this was the case. Despite this, a few of those movies managed to attract audiences anyways and combined with some 2013 hold-overs, January 2014 ended up as the best January financially since Avatar was still dominating theaters back in 2010. Lone Survivor, technically a 2013 release, won the month. Ride Along and The Nut Job were the winners out of the official January newcomers. The other 2013 hold-overs that were key in January's success were Frozen, American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Looking forward to February, we are in another month where the Box Office is historically a low month. Although this February won't have the power of the hold-overs to carry it forward as those movies are dying down, the advantage it does have is a lot of interesting new titles that could make this one of the bigger February histories if enough of them break out. We're already one weekend in, but there is still plenty to talk about, so let's dive in!

February 7th - 9th- 

The weekend of January 31st to February 2nd I included in my January preview, even though it included more February days. That's why this February preview starts a bit later in the month than is typical. While the first six days of February were really quiet for movies, day seven came with a bang as The LEGO Movie blew up the Box Office for the second highest opening weekend ever in February, behind only 2004's The Passion of the Christ. Usually animated movies aiming for big success avoid the month of February. Gnomeo and Juliet hold the February animated movie record with a final total just shy of $100 million. The LEGO Movie has gone in unphased, though. Telling a full story in LEGOs has worked out quite well because of the strong branding that LEGOs have among all ages. Add to that the insanely high reviews from critic and casual movie-goer alike as the movie holds a 97 percent on RottenTomatoes and a 8.8 on IMDb. These high reviews also mean that word of mouth will be rather strong and thus The LEGO Movie will play out very well for the rest of February. The animation slate for 2014 is looking pretty good, but I'd put out an early prediction that we are looking at our winner for best animated feature in 2014 with this.

Also making a decent opening this week is The Monuments Men. Initially scheduled for the end of 2013, The Monuments Men was considered to be a major threat at the Oscars this season, which made it surprising when it rescheduled to February, one of the many months that the Academy seems to completely ignore when it comes to awards. It turned out to be a good decision, though, because with how poorly reviews have been, it wouldn't have been nominated for anything. And now it will be able to have a much better box office run than it would've in the crowded, end-of-year market. The Monuments Men is directed and written by George Clooney and is the second war-themed movie in as many months. Clooney also stars in this movie alongside Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, and Jean Dujardin.

Finally, the latest failed attempt at a successful young adult book-to-movie franchise is Vampire Academy. Ever since the major success of Harry Potter and Twilight, movie makers have worked frantically to find the next big success along those lines. The Hunger Games was a huge success in 2012, but 2013 was full of duds as Beautiful Creatures, The Host, and Mortal Instruments: City of Bones fell flat on their faces. The Vampire Academy seems like an odd mix of Twilight and Harry Potter with Vampires going to a Vampire Academy. Audiences didn't bite as Vampire Academy has opened up to less than $5 million.

February 14th - 16th-

Valentine's Day this year falls right on a Friday, which should mean decent business for the box office, especially since this Valentine's Day introduces three new romantic-themed movies for couples to choose from for their dates. Before I jump into those movies, though, I want to talk about the most controversial movie of the weekend, that being Robocop. In theory it should provide some good counter-programming to those guys who don't want to want to go see a romance movie on Valentine's Day. Also, it opens up on Wednesday the 12th, so it'll get a head start on the other three. The issue here is that Robocop is a really popular movie franchise from the late 80's and early 90's and fans of the Robocop movies have been crying blasphemy almost since the movie was announced, but especially since it landed a PG-13 rating. The original Robocop is considered one of the more violent movies ever made and thus has a very strong R-rating. And that's why the Robocop fans love it. With this remake, they feel it is a watered-down version of the movie they love. Making such a violent movie, though, limits the audience for obvious reasons, so the attempt with this remake is to appeal to a broader audience. However, the last time a Paul Verhoeven movie got a PG-13 remake, it didn't fare so well. That of course was 2012's Total Recall.

Now onto the romance movies. Out of the three of them, the one that seems to your most typical Valentine's Day chick-flick is Endless Love. The story here is nothing new. Hot guy falls in love with hot girl. After the initial falling in love takes place, some sort of drama happens that threatens to end their romance. Then for the remainder of the movie, they have to figure out how to make things work out. Hot guy in this movie is Alex Pettyfer while hot girl is Gabriella Wilde. The conflict? We go completely original with this. Forbidden love. Because of course that hasn't been done before.

Next up is About Last Night. If January taught us anything it is that actor/comedian Kevin Hart is great at drawing crowds. With Ride Along last month, Kevin Hart almost single-handedly brought that movie to the top of the box office three weeks in a row and now the movie has just crossed the $100 million mark. Now he will try his luck again, this time with a stronger R-rated romantic comedy. R-rated comedies have done well in recently in the early months. As an example, last year's Identity Thief  won the month of February, so there's a good chance that those who enjoy this type of comedy might combine with the Kevin Hart fanbase to turn this into a hit.

Finally, we have the odd romance movie that may end up being the odd one out. That is Winter's Tale. This movie combines more fantasy elements in with the romance genre. The trailer advertises a man who falls in love with a dying woman back in the past and then shows us the same man in the future with his memory seemingly wiped. The movie is based on the novel of the same title by Mark Helprin. The book is a well-reviewed book and the movie adaption has a great cast with Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe, Will Smith, and Jennifer Connelly. But whether or not it will have power to attract audiences away from the other three movies of the weekend is a different story.

February 21st - 23rd-

After introducing one action movie and three romance movies the previous weekend, the third weekend of February evens the score by adding two additional action movies. First of is the second sword-and-sandal movie of the year with Pompeii. Hollywood is full of interesting coincidences. I guess it just seemed like a good idea to do these movies this year as we had Legend of Hercules last month, Pompeii this month, and 300: Rise of an Empire next month. Adding to that will be a second Hercules movie in August. I don't know why sword-and-sandal movies are suddenly popular, but they are this year, just like end of the world movies were popular last year. In addition to that, I suppose it was just destined for us all to remember Pompeii. Not only do we have the movie Pompeii coming out, but Bastille's song Pompeii is currently riding high on the Billboard Hot 100. I half expect the song to show up in the movie, but it's not going to. Just another one of Hollywood's coincidences.

Opening with Pompeii is Kevin Costner's 3 Days to Kill. This movie kinda reminds me of taken in that it's a daddy/daughter action movie. Kevin Costner's character, a Secret Service agent, is dying and has three days to live. However, there is an experimental drug that could save his life and he can get it if he completes a certain mission. During this, he is trying to spend more time with his family and is specifically charged by his wife to watch over his daughter. Starring with Costner is Hailee Steinfeld and Amber Heard. It's been a busy time for Costner recently. After appearing in Man of Steel last year, Costner was in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit in January. After 3 Days to Kill, he will have three more movies before 2014 ends.

February 28th - March 2nd- 

The last weekend of February was going to add three more movies to the market, but with the last minute delay of Welcome to Yesterday, the weekend is now less crowded. One of the two movies that comes out brings Jesus Christ back to the big screen in Son of God. It's been 10 years since Jesus was last on the big screen with Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. In fact, that movie also opened up on the last weekend of February and buoyed off quite a bit of controversy to become the highest grossing R-rated movie ever. This version is only a PG-13 and won't carry all the controversy with it, but the process this movie has gone through is very unique and thus raises eyebrows in a different way. Last year, the History Channel aired a TV mini-series called The Bible. That became so popular that they decided to take the parts of that mini-series that go over the life of Christ and turn it into a full length movie. So essentially if you watched The Bible mini-series, you have already seen this movie. Christian audiences should turn out for this movie, especially if they never saw The Bible. The big question on this is whether or not those who already watched The Bible will turn out again for Son of God.

Finally our last movie of the month brings Liam Neeson back to the theaters for the second time in February and third time in 2014 total. Although the other two were in animated roles, so this is his first live action movie this year. The movie is Non-Stop. Neeson has had quite the decorated career as his roles range from Qui-Gon Jinn (Star Wars) to Aslan (Chronicles of Narnia) to Zeus (Clash of the Titans) to Ra'sAl Ghul (Batman Begins) and many more. Non-Stop puts him back into his action star role like he's done in movies such as Taken. Neeson in this is an air marshal who gets threatened and framed while on a plane via text message. The mysterious texter threatens to kill passengers if Neeson doesn't transfer a large sum of money into a certain account. The movie has a whodoneit type of vibe and reminds me a lot of the movie Source Code. Non-Stop won't be a huge blockbuster, but it should be able to attract a decent-sized audience.

The LEGO Movie Review

After suffering through the rather painful month of January in terms of movie selection, February looked much more hopeful. Especially since first up on the docket was a movie that I was completely sold on from the very first time I saw the trailer. LEGOs!!!! Many hours of my life have been spent putting those amazing little blocks together. And even now if you put a package of LEGOs in front of me, I will be perfectly happy sitting down and spending my evening putting them together. No shame at all. Thus the idea of having a full feature length film of LEGOs was like the greatest idea ever in my opinion. I was completely sold the second I saw the trailer for the first time. Each additional piece of footage that came out made me even more excited. And finally my level of excitement hit an all-time high as reviews came in extraordinarily high (it currently holds a 96 percent on RottenTomatoes and a 8.9 on IMDb). I am happy to report to you that my extremely lofty expectations for this movie were met and even exceeded.

So what is The LEGO Movie about? How can they make such a good movie based on LEGOs that has a good plot? Well, unfortunately I'm going to mainly leave that up to you to find out. I will say that the basic story is about a LEGO construction worker named Emmet who lives life by the book. Literally. He carries around a LEGO instruction book that he follows to the t. One day, though, Emmet gets sucked into a high-powered adventure that turns him from being an unnoticeable construction worker to being the chosen one who is supposed to save the world from the evil President Business. Seem like a generic and cliche plot? It's not. It's actually a plot that is smart, moving, and full of nostalgia. The ending of the movie was a complete shock to me and actually blew my mind. I have a lot more that I could say about the story, but I'm not going to. I'm going to let you discover it for yourself.

In addition to a surprisingly good plot, there are many things that led to the awesomeness of the movie. And I will try to move briefly through them so that you aren't here reading a blog post for the next year because there are so many things that make this movie great. First off is the brilliant voice cast. And there is a ton of amazing voices. In fact because there are so many, I'm going to let you go to IMDb to figure out all of them yourself. Our main gang consists of our hero Emmet (Chris Pratt), the main girl Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett), the Unikitty (Alison Brie), Benny the 1980 something space guy (Charlie Day), and the wise old man Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman). Our team of villains is headed by President Business (Will Ferrell) and his main pawn Bad Cop (Liam Neeson). All these characters, along with all the minor characters, mesh together perfectly to make one of the best voice casts for an animated movie I've seen. Along with that, the humor is excellent. I was laughing my face off the for the entire movie because of all the different gags and jokes in the movie.

The next thing I will bring up is the animation. All the trailers actually led me to believe that they did this stop-motion style with actual LEGOs that they were zooming in on for the movie. Turns out I learned before going in that it is actually mostly pure computer animation. Knowing this doesn't make me think any less of the movie, though. In fact, it makes it super impressive. The animation is so good that you wouldn't even know that it's animation. It looks like actual LEGOs. I don't know if I've ever seen an animated movie where the animation was so good that I couldn't actually tell it was animation. 

And finally, talking about the animation leads to possibly the best part of the movie for me. It's what I have decided to call LEGOisms. And of course I mean all the attention to detail. Detail that perfectly encompasses the whole LEGO culture and is rather brilliant. Emmet takes a shower. Water falling on him is little blue LEGO circles. Emmet bends all the way backward right around his waste, right where the LEGO people always bend and in a way that we all bent them. Emmet takes off his hair and puts a wheel on his head. Emmet rides a LEGO horse, one that I swear was taken from my LEGO set back home. Said horse moves in the way I would've moved that horse. When Bad Cop knocks over Emmet's cup of water, a little blue LEGO circle falls on the ground representing the water. And of course everything is done with LEGOs, including but not limited to explosions, laser beams, water, scene introductions, etc. LEGOisms. And these LEGOisms were all over the place in every scene of the movie. I loved it.

In wrapping up, The LEGO Movie was everything that I was hoping for. Brilliant story, brilliant voice acting, lots of humor, lots of LEGOisms, and of course nostalgia through the roof that was reminiscent of the Toy Story movies. The movie is creative, groundbreaking, and original. Yes, it deserves to be mentioned right up in the conversation with Toy Story. It is that good and that nostalgic. The LEGO Movie is sure to be a future classic, one that I will own and watch many times over throughout my life. Because of all this, I am giving The LEGO Movie my prestigious grade of 10 out of 10.

Labor Day Review

January was a mean month for movie fans. Every time I wanted to watch a movie, there was nothing appealing out of the new releases. And when I did check out the new releases, they ended up being not so good. Yes, January is typically a dumping ground for movies, but this year especially seemed to be the case. Fortunately, though, I kept myself entertained by all the Oscar-nominated films, so it wasn't a complete loss. However, I've been waiting longingly for the first good movie of 2014. I have finally found it in a movie that came out on the very last day of January. Although, technically Labor Day was a 2013 release, but that was only for the last week of December in a few theaters in order to officially qualify for Oscar nominations. But meh, semantics.

My first thought when I heard about this movie was that it should've come out around Labor Day, not right before Valentines Day and President's Day. But I guess the filmmakers didn't want to be cheesy like that, because the movie doesn't really have much to do with Labor Day, outside the story taking place on Labor Day weekend of course. The movie is based on the book of the same title written by Joyce Maynard. I have not read the book, so I have nothing to compare to. The movie is a romantic drama starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin. Frank (Brolin) is a recently escaped prisoner who comes up to Adele (Winslet) and her son and essentially forces his way into their lives. Quickly, both find out that Frank is not the man they think he is. He is in fact a great family man who treats both of them with a ton of respect and claims that the story the police and media tell about him isn't the full story.

Is this a chick flick? Well, I suppose it kinda is, but I like the term romantic drama a lot more to describe this. Usually chick flicks are boring, cheesy, and predictable, all following the same exact plot structure. This is none of those. Brolin and Winslet do an excellent acting job. Winslet does well at playing a mentally scarred woman after her previous marriage ended rather tragically. Brolin does well at playing a man that is just super awesome and helpful in every way. Then the movie is actually fairly tense because you keep being reminded that Brolin is a fugitive, and so every time a police officer drives by or a neighbor knocks on the door, your heart nearly stops. Also making the movie even better is the son, played by Gattlin Griffith. In addition to following the story between Winslet and Brolin, we dive into the life this 12-year-old boy and all the stuff he is going through.

Yes, there may be a few logistic of the movie that one would question if one needed a perfectly realistic movie, but overall this is a great story. On top of that, it is also a beautiful movie in terms of cinematography and music. Overall, I walked out of the movie very pleased and would highly recommend this movie to both male and female. See it on Valentine's Day. See it on President's Day. Heck, you can even watch it when Labor Day actually rolls around. But give it a shot. I give Labor Day a very strong 8 out of 10.

Sherlock Season 3 Review

The character of Sherlock Holmes has been brought to life many times via film and television. Being that I am a sucker for detective shows, I usually find myself enjoying whatever version of Sherlock Holmes comes my way. That said, Benedict Cumberbatch has become my favorite version of Sherlock Holmes. I can't necessarily say that BBC's Sherlock is the best Sherlock Holmes show ever created because I haven't seen them all, but I can say that it's my personal favorite. I can also say that Sherlock is one of the best shows currently on TV. Season 2 left us all on a painfully awful cliffhanger that was made worse by us having to wait two years to find out what happened next. Well, the long wait is over. Sherlock season three has arrived. And I have to say, it did not disappoint.

There are a lot of things that Sherlock does right. Starting off is the cast. Like I said, Benedict Cumberbatch is my favorite Sherlock Holmes. The man is a legend in my books for his perfect representation of the character Sherlock Holmes. He gets Sherlock's mannerisms and personality right on. And of course his acting skills are top notch. Ever since Sherlock started, I have been in love with that man's acting. Every role he plays is brilliant. However, Cumberbatch isn't the only brilliant character. Martin Freeman plays Sherlock's partner John Watson. The chemistry between the two of those two are brilliant. Those two alone make the show worth watching.

But that's certainly not all. Yes Cumberbatch and Freeman are both genius, but I give props to the casting on this show in general because I really think every character, major or minor, is perfect. In addition to that, the writing on the show is genius. I suppose that at least part of that has to be attributed to the three episode season format. Instead of having to write 13 or 24 episodes, they can focus all their effort into making three fantastic hour and a half episodes. But it's not just that. The plot lines are great. The suspense, drama, and comedy is perfectly balanced to create an all around beautiful experience. Also, the visual style of the show is great. With that I refer to both the way they show the texting and the way they show Sherlock's brilliant mind deducing each situation in depth.

All this that I have mentioned is a review of the series as a whole. I have not yet put my thoughts on this to writing, so I felt it needed to be done. Season three continues the brilliance of the show in these ways that I have mentioned. Now that I have spoken in general about the show, I want to actually dive into each episode in season three, since there is only three episodes. I will give no spoilers, but if you have not yet seen season three and you want to go in with a complete surprise, knowing absolute nothing, feel free to stop reading here and just know that I really loved season three. It may not be the absolute best season to date, but that's ok. I still loved it. Anyways, for those who want a more in depth review, feel free to continue reading.

Episode 1: The Empty Hearse

This episode was super satisfying to me. I had been on a Sherlock fast for way too long and it was super good to have it back again. It's like if you were given a delicious cheesecake and at first you indulged yourself pretty heavily. However, after a few slices, the cheesecake was taken away from you. You were informed that you could have more later, but just not anymore right now. Knowing that there was more cheesecake out there for you to eat would torment you until you were finally given permission to indulge yourself once again. That's how this was for me. Sherlock had been gone for so long, and mind you it had left on a horrible cliffhanger with the season two finale, that I was just happy to have it back.

If you haven't seen the season two, I won't give away what happened at the end, but this first episode put my mind at ease. Funny enough, the cliffhanger wasn't actually completely resolved for sure, but I was given possible ideas about how it could've been. Despite the continued tease, that was refreshing. Now I talk about the chemistry between Watson and Sherlock being fantastic, and that was the strength of this episode. Sherlock has been gone for a long time and Watson had moved on. Sherlock has now reappeared into Watson's life, and with the lack of people skills that Sherlock has, he expects things to be fine and dandy. They're not. Watson's reaction to Sherlock returning in this manner is rather priceless. But nonetheless, there is a terrorist threat in the city of London and Sherlock needs Watson's help. It's a classic Sherlock episode that starts the season off with a bang.

Episode 2: The Sign of Three

As is the case with seasons one and two, the middle episode of season three is the weakest of the bunch. That's not really an insult, though. It's still enjoyable. But logically with three episodes, the first episode is going to try to be the attention getter and the third episode is going to leave things off with a bang. This leaves the middle episode as the transition episode. That's what happens here. The story of the episode comes with Watson getting married. Sherlock is asked to be the best man and thus has to give the speech. This is actually super comical. Sherlock isn't a social person and he doesn't know how to give a best man's speech. It's great watching him stumble through it. The episode actually started off super slow and for a long time I was wondering what exactly was going to happen. I won't tell you what happened, but I will just say that this is a very unique episode. I understand why some people may not like it, but thinking back on it, I actually really like the creativity and uniqueness of the episode, even though it wasn't the best.

Episode 3: His Last Vow

The finale of season two completely blew my mind. One of the best TV episodes ever made. Since there was about two years in between the season two finale and the season three premier, I literally spent months reflecting on that episode. The season three finale makes the attempt to be as epic as the season two finale. Does it match the season two finale? Well, no. But it's still fantastic and the best episode of season three. There are three things I really loved about the finale, and I'll try to be as vague and brief as possible so the experience is the same for you as it was for me. First off, we introduce a new huge villain for Sherlock named Charles Magnussen played by Lars Mikkelsen. His character was excellent. Second, there is a big twist towards the beginning that brings the intensity and emotion to a season high. I love the way all the characters dealt with it. And finally, there is a twist at the end that was genius. Many say they saw it coming. I personally didn't, but when it happened I wasn't surprised at all. Season two left me pulling hairs out of my head with how it ended. Season three didn't. But at the same time it made me super excited for the direction that they are going to take with season four.

Overall, I loved the first two seasons of Sherlock. I have been looking forward to season three for a very long time and I am happy to say that it lived up to the legacy of the first two. I usually give a grade to the movies I review, but I have never done so with TV seasons I review for various reasons. No, I'm not going to start now, but if I were to, Sherlock season three would get my top rating.  Not as good as season two, but about on par with season one. Rumors say that season four is coming sooner rather than later. I really hope that is true because my only real concern about Sherlock is that there isn't enough of it. I want more!

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Review

This January has brought the character of Jack Ryan back to the big screens for the fifth time. If you are unfamiliar with the character of Jack Ryan, allow me to briefly explain. Author Tom Clancy wrote a series of nine books that featured the character Jack Ryan, who comes to work for the CIA. Four of these books have been turned into movies. Starting in 1990 we had The Hunt For Red October. 1992 brought us Patriot Games. Following this two year trend, Clear and Present Danger came out in 1994. Then Hollywood waited eight years before bringing us the fourth installment, The Sum of All Fears in 2002. Generally speaking these movies are fairly well liked, except for maybe the last one, and did good business at the box office. Unfortunately, in my opinion, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit falls quite a bit short of its predecessors.

There were several red flags for me before going in. First, it was a reboot of the franchise. Sure, that works out many times, but other times it fails. Second, it was the first Jack Ryan book that was only based on the characters and not an adaption of a specific book. That's pretty risky. Third, it had Chris Pine and Keira Knightley as the leads. I'm not a huge fan of either. And finally, it had a January release date. that told me that they didn't have too much confidence in their movie. All the others were released in big movie months.

Nevertheless, I went into the movie with an open mind, hoping to enjoy it. However, my fears about the movie quickly were proven to be legit concerns. This movie wasn't that good. Starting right at the top of my concerns, rebooting this franchise was a mistake. Right along with that, creating their own story instead of basing it off of one of the five remaining books also was a mistake. The movie spends a lot of time at the beginning setting up the character of Jack Ryan. And actually, according to the background of the character, they follow things pretty well. It just seemed choppy, boring, and forced to me. We start with the September 11th attacks that inspires Jack to join the military. Ok cool. Then we get his helicopter accident that leaves him completely messed up. Also done well. Then things get complicated. We jump into the near future and Jack Ryan can't walk, but he has no scars whatsoever. That seemed a bit odd. Then Kevin Costner is talking to him about joining the CIA. That kind of came out of nowhere as concerning this specific reboot. Sure, we knew it had to happen. But it felt forced. Then we jump ten years into the future and for some reason no effort was made at all to make any character look ten years older. And then suddenly we were on a mission to Russia. It was all forced, messy, and boring.

Then of course we had red flag number three. Chris Pine and Keira Knightley. Who made the decision to cast those two? I'm sure Chris Pine was cast because of the success he had as Captain Kirk in the Star Trek reboot. Seemed like a sure fire thing that he would also carry this movie to success? I'm sorry, he just wasn't a very convincing Jack Ryan. For the record, I also didn't like him as Captain Kirk. In fact, my favorite part of Star Trek Into Darkness was when Benedict Cumberbatch was beating the heck out Chris Pine. So maybe it's just me, but I think there were a lot of better choices that could've played Jack Ryan and made this movie a success. Onto Keira Knightley. I know there had to be a girl. That follows the Jack Ryan background, but Keira Knightley had zero chemistry with Chris Pine and thus her character just got in the way. The relationship was forced. It just happened as if they did it only because they had to do it. No tension, either, until the jumped ten years in the future and suddenly after living together for ten years Chris Pine can't be honest to her about the fact that he saw a movie. Forced.

Was this movie a complete failure? Well no. The main aspects of the movie were really messy like I have mentioned, but there were some saving features. While our lead roles were bad, a couple of the secondary roles were fantastic. I'm mainly speaking about Kevin Costner and Kenneth Branagh. Coster is good in just about every role he's in. Even in movies like Man of Steel that were a complete disaster, he did good in the role he was given. Such is the case here. Also, Kenneth Branagh doubles as the director of the movie and the villain of the movie. It really showed that he cared about this movie as he did an excellent job as the villain. Also, despite the plot not making a ton of sense and feeling forced, there were several scenes in the last half of the movie that at least were entertaining to watch. I give that some kudos. But in the end, this is a pretty messy that puts shame into the great Jack Ryan name. My grade for it is a 6.5 out of 10.

Movies of 2014: The Good, the Bad, and the Maybe

The Good:
These are some of the movies that I am looking forward to this year

The Lego Movie- 2/7
I love Legos. All the Star Wars Lego stuff has been well received. So why not? Lots of great Lego characters. Lots of great voices. Creativity in this movie looks like it is through the roof.

The Monuments Men- 2/7
One of the most anticipated movies from the end of last year, postponed to this year. George Clooney and a whole host of talented actors look like they have a winner here.

Son of God- 2/28
I am not ashamed at advertising my faith in Christ. I'll always be interested in movies about Christ. The Bible miniseries this based has been well-received.

Need For Speed- 3/14
My all time favorite video game here. After hearing about this, I immediately said there needs to be fancy cars, over-the-top crashes, and awesome police chases. It appears that they have that and more.

Muppets Most Wanted- 3/21
The first made me laugh really hard. Muppet movies have rarely failed me in my life, so I'm all in.

Captain America: Winter Soldier- 4/4
You know I am a sucker for these Avenger movies. The first Captain America movie was the weakest of the Phase One, but this looks like it could be the best of Phase Two.

Heaven is for Real- 4/16
A movie based on a true story that judging by the trailers looks phenomenal. A young boy has a near death experience and says he visited heaven. Due to him knowing things that he shouldn't know, it's hard to doubt his experiences.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2- 5/2
Remaking Spider-Man so soon payed off huge dividends. Andrew Garfield is the perfect Spider-Man and Emma Stone is the perfect Superhero girlfriend. I'm excited about the direction of this franchise.

Godzilla- 5/16
Initially a question mark, but the trailers made me believe that they are going to do Godzilla right this time around.

How to Train Your Dragon 2- 6/13
Dreamworks is always hit and miss, but How To Train Your Dragon was a huge hit, so I'm optimistic about this sequel.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes- 7/11
Rise of the Planet of the Apes was one of the huge surprises from a couple years back. It was a Planet of the Apes movie that was done right. This sequel looks to build on that awesomeness.

Guardians of the Galaxy- 8/1
It's boom or bust for Marvel on this gamble. If you are not a huge comic book nerd, you will essentially know nothing about these characters in this movie, but if successful, could it be Marvel's version of Star Wars? It's in Marvel I trust right now. They've given me no reason to think otherwise.

The Giver- 8/15
If you haven't read this book, you need to. One of my all time favorite books. I don't always jump for joy when I hear about another book-to-movie adaption, but I did when I heard about this one.

Big Hero 6- 11/7
Disney is on quite the roll recently with their animated movies. With them owning Marvel, a teaming up of the studios makes perfect sense. This won't be in the same Avengers Universe, but I'm excited for Marvel's first theatrically released animated movie.

Interstellar- 11/7
I know very little about this movie outside of the fact that it's directed by Christopher Nolan. But that fact is enough to get me excited for this. Also, the teaser trailer was one of the best I've seen.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1- 11/21
Did Mockingjay need to be split into two movies? Well, yes. The book was rushed. Also, if they move away from solely following Katniss, there's actually a ton that goes on that definitely warrants two movies.


The Bad:
These are some movies that I am really nervous about

Vampire Academy- 2/14
Can we please be done with Vampire movies? They wore out their welcome several years ago. This Valentine's Day special just look awful.

300: Rise of an Empire- 3/7
Lots of unnecessary sequels this year. And apparently we didn't get enough gory violence mixed with naked women in the first 300, so we need to have a sequel to get even more.

Draft Day- 4/11
A fictional sports movie about a fictional Cleveland Browns general manager in a fictional draft day situation? What? Why? This looks like Trouble with the Curve all over again.

Transformers: Age of Extinction-  6/27
A fourth Transformers movie. Because the third made over $1 billion worldwide. Need I say more?

Planes: Fire and Rescue- 7/18
The first Planes movie didn't need to happen. No one really liked it. Why are we getting a sequel?

Sex Tape- 7/25
Talk about a movie with a weird and ridiculous premise. A couple decided to tape what they did on the night of their wedding. Why? And now they lost the tape? Oh please no.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- 8/8
MICHAEL BAY YOU GET AWAY FROM MY CHILDHOOD! RIGHT NOW!!!!!

Dolphin Tale 2- 9/19
I loved Dolphin Tale. It was a touching movie about a boy and a dolphin. But I don't understand why this sequel is happening. I have no idea what they can do with this.

Paranormal Activity 5- 10/24
What happens when you make a horror movie that costs $15,000 that ends up making $200 million worldwide? Five years later you have a sixth installment in this franchise. My biggest fear is that these movies will never stop.

Exodus- 12/12
I guess I'm not that opposed to Hollywood doing another Moses movie, even though we do have The Ten Commandments and The Prince of Egypt already. What I'm nervous about here is the director. Ridley Scott?

Night at the Museum 3- 12/25
Ok, the first Night at the Museum was a great movie. But did this really need to be a trilogy?


The Maybe:
These are some movies that I hope end up good, but I have a question or two about

Robocop- 2/12
Most Robocop fans are angry that they seem to be doing a watered-down version of their movie. I personally am glad they are trying something a bit different. I hate it when Hollywood makes the same movie twice.

Welcome to Yesterday- 2/28
I knew nothing about this movie until I saw the trailer for it in theaters. Now I think it could be a decent February sleeper movie like Chronicle a couple years back. It's a time travel movie. I like time travel.

Divergent- 3/21
Is this the next Hunger Games? There were several movies last year that thought that, too, and they all failed. What sets this aside from the likes of Beautiful Creatures, The Host, or Mortal Instruments?

Noah- 3/28
I was a pretty big critic of this movie all the way up until the trailer came out. From what I've been reading, this isn't your typical Noah movie. But I'm willing to give it a shot.

Transcendence- 4/18
Some people enjoy hating on Johnny Depp. I like the man. Yes, he's hit and miss at times, but when he's hit, he is amazing. Transcendence looks like a sci-fi movie that could be a hit for him. 

Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return- 5/9
For some reason that I don't quite know, I've been following this movie for a long time. Yes, it was put into production long before Oz the Great and Powerful became an idea. It's just had a much longer journey to the big screen. With how much time I've invested in this, I hope it ends up good.

X-Men: Days of Future Past- 5/23
This is looking like the Avengers of the X-Men movies. I like the idea of combining the new and old X-Men casts into one movie. I just put it in this category because X-Men movies are always hit and miss for me. And my opinion usually ends up being opposite of everyone else's.

Maleficent- 5/30
Disney has started a new kick. Take all their old animated movies and turn them into live action movies. I commend them for always being so good at making money. I hope this movie works out.

Edge of Tomorrow- 6/6
Welcome to Yesterday and Edge of Tomorrow in one year? Yeah, ironic, I know. I enjoyed Tom Cruise in Oblivion last year, so I hope this is good. I just can't help but notice it looks like a sci-fi version of Groundhog's Day.

The Boxtrolls- 9/26
I have a ton of respect for the stop motion style of animation. Those movies take a lot of time and effort in making them. I know very little about this specific movie, but I hope it turns out as good as Paranorman did.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day- 10/10
Hearing about this movie made me laugh a bit. It's about the last book I would expect to be turned into a movie. The more I think about it, though, the more I am optimistic that it could actually turn out good.

Dumber and Dumber To- 11/14
Not to confuse this with the wannabee sequel Dumb and Dumberer, this is an actual sequel to the popular Dumb and Dumber, with the same returning cast and everything. It could work out a lot like the recent Anchorman 2 did.

The Hobbit: There and Back Again- 12/17
I enjoyed the first Hobbit, but wasn't blown away. I was entertained by the second Hobbit, but thought it wasn't nearly as good as the first. Yes, this trilogy could've been a lot better, but I'm optimistic that the final chapter could end up being the best of the three.

Annie- 12/19
I love the musical Annie. But did they need to do this again? And is this a politically correct version of Annie? I know they are trying to build off the success of Les Mis. I hope it works.

The Legend of Hercules Review

Greek mythology has always been a popular subject in Hollywood. This year, Hollywood will have a minor fascination with the character of Hercules as there are two different Hercules movies coming out. I personally enjoy Greek mythology, and thus I usually welcome movies that explore the genre. I don't know a whole ton about Hercules outside the Disney portrayal, but I'm open to exploring the character more. Dwayne Johnson will get the chance to portray the character later this year, but for now it's Kellan Lutz' job.

How did the movie turn out? Oh my lanta! This movie was an astronomical disaster! Here we are starting off 2014, and on the first movie I watch, I may actually be hard pressed to end up with something this year that I dislike more. Perhaps I am jumping the gun on that statement, but this was bad. Let's start with the opening scene. Bad CGI has seemed to be a theme recently, but here we are again with a movie that had really lazy CGI. I mean, it was so bad that with the opening scenes the movie almost appeared as if it was an animated movie. That was a very weird sensation. Then there was the action in the movie. I don't know who it was that decided that slow motion battle scenes were a good idea, but it was really weird and distracting. And it happened the whole movie. Every time a character is about to attack, we get a slow motion shot for a few seconds. That made me turn my attention away from it being an animated movie and made me believe that I was watching someone play a video game. Yeah, I lost interest with this movie quite fast.

I haven't even touched on the story yet. It's about what you would expect from a Hercules movie, although the problem was that I wasn't really interested in the story at all. It was really boring. The characters? I latched onto no one. They could've all died in a massive nuclear attack and I wouldn't have been remorseful at all. In fact I would've been relieved that the movie was over. Our main two actors couldn't act at all. Kellan Lutz, as I have said, is Hercules. Gaia Weiss is Hercules' princess girlfriend. I am actually 100 percent positive that both were cast solely for their looks. That's all that they had going for them. Their poorly written characters didn't help much with their bad acting. In the movie, Hercules had a brother and that brother is whiny and annoying the whole time. The king is very good at growing every single time he talks. That was weird. Overall, this was just a complete failure.

I'm trying to decide if there is a type of people that would enjoy this movie. I was thinking that perhaps it is a movie that you would watch if you were in the mood to watch a bad movie with a bunch of friends so that you could just laugh at how bad it was. I don't actually think this movie would satisfy that. The only other thing I can think of is perhaps people who only care about eye candy and don't care about anything else like story, visuals, characters, etc. But yet if those type of people exist, I would think they would just go look up pictures of said actors on the internet, not tune in for this movie. I got nothing. Legend of Hercules gets a 4 out of 10 for me. Bad way to start off the year. I guess it can only get better from here, right?