The Wolverine review

I thought Hugh Jackman's performance as Jean Valjean was fantastic! Oh wait, wrong movie.

Everyone remembers who damn excited they were back in 2009 for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and then how disappointed and betrayed they felt after they saw that crappy movie. That "movie" is probably the reason why you don't want to see this movie. Take those notions and throw them out. The Wolverine, while not a perfect film, is highly entertaining and a hell of a lot better than the last solo Wolverine flick. The movie starts out with a flashback to WWII in Nagasaki. Wolverine, or Logan, saves a Japanese soldier from the nuclear blast. Back in present day, Logan is called back to the soldier in Japan, now dying of some disease, to say goodbye. But things aren't as they seem. First off let me say, as cool as this movie can be, it would have been 100 times cooler if it had been directed by Darren Aronofsky. Imagine a black and white psychological thriller in which Wolverine battles drug addiction and runs from greedy business executives. How awesome would that be? All jokes aside, James Mangold was a solid directing choice, but Darren Aronofsky would have seriously added to the movie. Mangold has made some decent movies. I really enjoyed his 3:10 to Yuma remake and I liked Walk the Line. He doesn't do anything new for the superhero genre, but he does have fun with it. Hugh Jackman is good, as he usually is, in the title role. Even though I've seen it so many times, I fell like it's always fun to see Jackman play Wolverine. In the beginning of the movie, Logan is living as a hermit. He has a long beard and scraggly long hair and he's living in a cave on a mountain. Only Hugh Jackman could make the homeless look seem badass. Acting wise, this movie doesn't have a ton to offer. Yet, the rest of the film is so exciting and cool, you don't really mind. There are some other good indie movies out right now that you should see first (Frances Ha and The Way, Way Back) but of you're choosing between the stuffy new Woody Allen flick or The Wolverine, I'd go with the latter. There's one scene in particular in which Wolverine is fighting some yakuza dudes on top of a speeding bullet train. I don't know about you, but that is honestly pretty awesome. Blue Jasmine doesn't have train top fights. The Wolverine reminded me a lot of World War Z. It's not a great movie, but it's very exciting and certainly a worthy escape from the summer heat. It's no Dark Knight, but it's still pretty good. I give The Wolverine 3.8 out of 5 stars. Happy Viewing! You can follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies and like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies. 

Blue Jasmine review

I was very happy when i found out this movie wasn't about the oral history of a blue flower. 

Say what you will about Woody Allen, the guy is very prolific. He also has made some more than decent films. Allen's newest flick, Blue Jasmine, isn't less than decent. Yet, it's not more than decent either. The plot of the film is that a housewife named Jasmine (played nicely by Cate Blanchett) looses all her money after her crook of a husband (Alec Baldwin) goes to jail. Leaving Jasmine to have to leave her lavish lifestyle and stay at her sister's place in San Francisco. Woody Allen is usually a very good writer and director, and although he isn't always good, he can choose a good cast. Blue Jasmine has quite a good cast. Cate Blanchett gives the best performance of the movie as the main character. She's so crazy and vulnerable, Blanchett plays her perfectly. Jasmine isn't the most likable character, she is self-centered, sometimes drunk, and occasionally annoying, but Cate Blanchett pulls it off. Louis C.K. has a fairly small role here, and he's not used to his best potential, but he's good in the parts that he's in. Peter Sarsgaard us good in his role as Dwight, a rich businessman who takes a liking to Jasmine. This is no surprise though. Sarsgaard always adds to a movie. He was particularly good in Garden State and Shattered Glass. Alec Baldwin plays Jasmine's ex-husband and he's not bad, but he's sort of the person he always plays. Even though Cate Blanchett gave the film's best performance, Micheal Stuhlbarg gave my favorite one. Stuhlbarg is always good at awkward or funny characters. His small role in Seven Psychopaths made me crack up and he was very good in A Serious Man. Here he plays a dentist who's very attracted to Jasmine. I didn't think the movie was all that great but his role was partially worth the 11 bucks. Although it gets a bit slow at times, at least Blue Jasmine manages to be slightly interesting. Though some of the characters just don't develop nicely at all. The writing is at least pretty good. It's not laugh out loud funny, but the movie was able to manage a chuckle out of me here and there. I suppose you do have to hand it to Woody Allen. The makes a movie almost every year, some of them are gonna be flops. Blue Jasmine isn't a flop, but it's not great either. It has some good performances but overall it's just mediocre. It's not worth paying the full price for a ticket, but I guess Blue Jasmine could be worth renting. I give Blue Jasmine 3.4 out of 5 stars. You can like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies and follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies. Happy Viewing.  

#tbt Pan's Labyrinth review

I know this is technically supposed to be a Throwback Thursday review and it's not Thursday, but I didn't get a chance on Thursday so I'm writing it today. Here it is. Enjoy!
Pan's Labyrinth is a 2006 film written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. It's about this girl, whose mom is pregnant and getting married to a military Captain for a fascist regime in 1944 Spain. The girl, named Ofelia, goes to a fantasy land where she is the reincarnation of a princess and has to accomplish tasks to gain back her throne. So, I went into Pan's Labyrinth thinking it would be the kind of awesome fantasy/adventure film that del Toro loves to make. Yet, instead of getting a movie like Pacific Rim or Hellboy, I got this wonderful, emotional, and deep film about fear, imagination, and escape. Not that I didn't like Pacific Rim or Hellboy, because those movies are their own level of awesome. Nowadays most movies have two or more screenwriters. Guillermo del Toro was able to come up with an amazing original story that unraveled so flawlessly that he wrote all by himself. That level of originality is hard to come by. Guillermo got a nomination for Best Original Screenplay that was very deserved. Pan's Labyrinth is all in Spanish with subtitles which is slightly irritating at first, but 20 minutes into the film and I didn't even notice. The movie won Oscars for cinematography and art direction. It's no wonder, the filming and artistry here is beautiful. If the story isn't getting you the cinematography sure will. I hate to sound cheesy but Pan's Labyrinth is breathtaking at parts! It isn't all good it does drag at parts and some things are left unexplained, but I can easily forgive this movies flaws. There are some pretty great performances here. Ivana Baquero is great as Ofelia and Maribel Verdu I thought gave the best performance as the conflicted Mercedes. Pan's Labyrinth is a terrific film that mixes a story of fantasy with one of war. It contrasts the worlds of the innocent little girl and the hardened war Captain very well with a beautiful score from Javier Navarrete. It's an overall great movie that I can safely recommend. Happy Viewing and Happy Throwback Thursday! (Okay, it's not Thursday, but whatever.) Remember, you can follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies and like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies!        

The Way, Way Back review

The Way, Way Back is way, way good. Okay, that was a little cheesy. Even for me.
People always complain about how all the summer movies are big-budget, action-packed blockbusters with no character development and no plot. I personally don't mind a big-budgeted action blockbuster from time to time, that is, if it's done well. The Way, Way Back, is the new film from writer/director team Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, and it's the kind of movie that satisfies everyone. It's not some big-budget blockbuster, but it's just as enjoyable as a good one. The plot of The Way, Way Back is a familiar but good one. Duncan (played by Liam James) is an awkward teenager whose divorced mom (Toni Collette), her boyfriend (Steve Carell), and his daughter (Zoe Levin) go on vacation together. Duncan hats it there because all the adults (Rob Corddry, Amanda Peet, and Alison Janney)  act ridiculous, and everyone seems to hate him, but soon meets Owen (portrayed hilariously by Sam Rockwell), who is a very cool manager of a local water park, and they become good friends. Owen's water park is a reprieve for Duncan from his mom's mean and boyfriend. It's an oasis where he can get away from all the awkward moments and terrible people and just live. The movie, while very good, got very sappy towards the end. I was so into the story I hardly noticed, but after I saw it, I did realize the ending was a bit too syrupy and happy. I still don't really mind, but I think that could have been done differently. The acting in this movie was superb. Sam Rockwell is good in pretty much anything. He's very underrated. Recently he's been doing especially well. Rockwell was fantastic in Moon and just as great in Seven Psychopaths. The Way,Way Back is another great flick that Sam Rockwell makes even greater. By the way, Moon and Seven Psychopaths are both great movies that I highly recommend. Steve Carell is also quite good here. He really plays out of type and does it well. Carell played his part so well, by the end of the film I hated his character. Hating Steve Carell is a very hard thing to do. Liam James is great as our teenage protagonist. He plays the awkward role so damn well, I couldn't be sure if he was acting or not. Jim Rash and Nat Faxon have small supporting roles and they are actually great in them. Jim Rash plays the Dean on the show Community, and he's great in it. He's just as strange and hilarious here. Rash and Faxon wrote The Descendants last year. I thought that was pretty decent but I think The Way, Way Back is two steps up from that. It's not a perfect movie. It gets kind of syrupy at the end and it's kind of a familiar story, but I really did love this movie and am willing to forgive it's flaws. It's wonderfully enjoyable and keeps you engaged with the story the whole time. Plus there's some terrific performances from Sam Rockwell, Liam James, and Steve Carell. I honestly think you have to be a cynical bastard to truly hate this movie. Just saying. I give The Way, Way Back 4.3 out of 5 stars. Happy Viewing! You can follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies and like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies.

R.I.P.D. review

This movie is basically Men in Black with dead people.
R.I.P.D. is the new sci-fi action-comedy directed by Robert Schwentke, who directed Red. it's about a cop named Nick Walker (played by Ryan Reynolds) who is killed by his scheming partner (played by Kevin Bacon) and is sent to the Rest In Peace Department or the R.I.P.D. The R.I.P.D. are a bunch of dead cops who hunt down evil dead guys, called Dead-Os . Dead-O's are bad guys who died and escaped judgement and cause chaos. So, Nick is partnered up with Roy (portrayed by Jeff Bridges), who's a lawman from the Old West, and together they try to kill some dead guys and solve some confusing case involving gold, an ancient staff, and Nick's old partner. Yeah, it's a weird movie. So, going into this I didn't really know what to expect besides what I saw in the promos. It was a lot stranger and complicated then I originally thought. R.I.P.D. has a lot of problems with it. Besides the really weird parts, it was very predictable. I saw a lot of things coming. The script, while interesting was full of plot holes and as I said, was incredibly predictable. And yes, it was just way, way too similar to Men in Black. Most of the acting was sub-par, although Jeff Bridges gave a funny and entertaining performance as Nick's partner Roy. Even though Bridges was essentially doing the same Rooster Cogburn character he did for True Grit, he's still fun to watch. Mary-Louise Parker was also pretty good as Nick and Roy's boss, Proctor. Other than them, the acting is just mediocre. Kevin Bacon is usually a very good actor, but he's wasted here. Ryan Reynolds is also just mediocre but it's not like anyone was expecting an Oscar-caliber performance out of him, especially in a movie like this. One thing that is good about this movie is the direction. Robert Schwentke was able to swiftly move the camera along and create scenes that weren't boring at all. Sure the plot was incredibly silly and the script sucked, but at least it was exciting.  The CGI is nice but it's not as mind-blowing as one would expect. Considering you can make a movie like Pacific Rim nowadays, the CGI is kind of disappointing. Apparently, R.I.P.D. is based on a graphic novel. I can see how this story could thrive in comic book format with a good writer. In movie format it just fizzles. Now, say you forget everything I just said. Say you forget everything you know about a good film. Then go see this movie with your kids just to kill some time on a hot summer afternoon. Then, you may enjoy R.I.P.D. Only to some extent though. There are a few mistakes in this movie that are impossible to forgive. It was a good idea but it was done very poorly. R.I.P.D. is a bunch of flashy images and borrowed ideas, mixed with some well-known actors, and packed into a very short and forgettable popcorn flick. There's some element of enjoyment here but, it's lost in all the silliness. Hey, at least it's better then Grown Ups 2. I give R.I.P.D. 2.6 out of 5 stars. Happy Viewing. You can follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies and like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies.              

#tbt Platoon review

War, what is it good for? Movies. War is good for movies, and as Platoon shows us, it's not good for much else.

Oliver Stone is a very good director/screenwriter whose material has sort of dropped off. Even though he's been making movies like Alexander recently, he used to be really good. He's written some awesome movies like Scarface and Midnight Express. He's directed a lot of great movies too, like Wall Street and JFK. Platoon is one of his great movies and possibly his best. Platoon takes place in the late 60's during the Vietnam War. The narrator and main character is Chris, played by Charlie Sheen before he became the Charlie Sheen we all know today. Chris is a volunteer soldier who realizes war isn't all it's cracked up to be after he watches his own fellow soldiers murder innocent people.  Charlie Sheen is actually terrific here (surprise!). I can safely say he gives the best performance of his career. He really portrays the anguish and fear that his character is feeling. Sheen doesn't give the only good performance though. Platoon is chock full of great acting. Willem Dafoe plays Sgt. Elias, who is one of the few honest and likable characters in the movie. Although, a movie doesn't have to have likable characters to be good, villains are just as fun to watch as the good guys. Dafoe is really good here. I don't know if it's his best performance ever, but he does a great job acting in this movie. Willem Dafoe got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Platoon, and I think he deserved the win. Tom Berenger plays a crazed and scarred Sgt. named Barnes. Berenger is insanely good in his role. He also got an Oscar nod for it. Every scene he's in I was watching intently because of how crazy and intense his performance was. If you hate the rest of the film for some reason, see it at least for Tom Berenger's great performance. One of the best parts of Platoon is Oliver Stone's terrific direction. Stone uses his techniques and camerawork to show the true horrors of war. He captures the actors emotions flawlessly. The Best Director Oscar went to Oliver Stone in 1986 for Platoon and I don't can't argue against it. His direction here is great. The screenplay is also really good. Stone's writing isn't always great and can sometimes get too cheesy, like he did a little in Wall Street. Platoon is one of his much better screenplays. The whole damn movie is good. it's no wonder it won Best Picture. Platoon isn't a pretentious anti-American film. It's a gritty and realistic anti-war film. If you're turned off by war movies or violent movies, see Platoon anyway. Of course it's not a perfect film, but it comes very close. And it sticks in your mind long after you've finished watching it. I highly recommend it. Happy Viewing. You can follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies and you can  like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies.    

Frances Ha review

As Silver Linings Playbook taught us, dancing solves all your problems! This movie only reinforces that point. Sorta.

I really don't know very much about writer/director Noah Baumbach except that he's helped pen a couple good Wes Anderson films. I haven't seen any of his other movies like The Squid and the Whale or Greenberg until I saw Frances Ha. It wasn't amazing, but I was pleasantly surprised. A black-and-white film that doesn't have a real specific plot may turn some people off. Don't worry. The black-and-white only adds to the movie and I didn't find it irritating at all. The fact that it didn't have a plot was actually a good part of the film. It was more of a character study or a snapshot of a certain time in this girls life. It was good. The basic "plot"of the movie is this girl Frances loses her best friend and is going through a bit of a bad time in her life. She tries to cope with it, hold on to her hopes, and mature. I honestly wasn't expecting to enjoy this movie at all. Once the credits started rolling, I was kind of shocked at how much I'd liked it. The writing is absolutely terrific and very original. I think the screenplay is the best part of the movie. It's smart, witty, profane, and sometimes hilarious. Frances Ha at times reminded me of a more feminine Clerks mixed with a romantic comedy. Although there is less romance than you'd think, and Frances never succumbs to the annoying rom-com stereotypes. Frances is played by Greta Gerwig and she does a nice job acting for the most part. She manages to be likable yet, she is not a perfect person. Frances is real. She has flaws and makes stupid decisions like anyone else. Frances's "best friend" Sophie is played by Mickey Sumner. Sophie makes bad decisions too but is mean at times and not as good of a friend as Frances. Mickey Sumner portrays Sophie quite well. Another good performance in this film is Micheal Zegen who plays Benji, one of Frances' friends. He is one of the most likable characters in the movie and is good throughout the film. Frances has her ups and downs, but she always is funny and real. Frances Ha may not be a huge blockbuster, but it has something not enough movies have. Heart. It''s not a perfect film, but it's funny, insightful, and fresh. I'd recommend it. I give Frances Ha 3.9 out of 5 stars. Remember, you can follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies and like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies! Happy Viewing!