X-MEN: APOCALYPSE

Twentieth-Century Fox/Marvel

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 144 Minutes

Click below to watch a trailer of X-Men: Apocalypse from YouTube.
 

In Twentieth-Century Fox/Marvel's X-Men: Apocalypse, Professor Charles Xavier/James McAvoy and his mutant students, must go up against the first mutant Apocalypse/Oscar Isaac and his Four Horseman, Storm/Alexandra Shipp, Psylocke/Olivia Munn, Angel/Ben Hardy, and Magneto/Michael Fassbender to stop Apocalypse/Isaac from literally destroying the world.

Produced, Written and Directed by Bryan Singer and based on the X-Men characters from Marvel Comics, this is the ninth film in the X-Men series and a sequel to X-Men: Days of Future Past. Mutant/god Apocalypse/Isaac, who takes other people's powers to make him even more powerful, awakens after being buried by his worshipers since the year 3600 BC. Seeing the world as it is today in 1983, and still feeling angry at being betrayed by his worshippers - Apocalypse/Isaac decides to destroy the world because they are lost, and wants to remake it with the strongest in control as he seeks out his new Four Horsemen and having them devoting themselves to him as his children.

With Apocalypse/Isaac considering himself a god, I think this is the most religious of the X-Men movies and has a lot of Old Testament themes to it. The movie definitely has a more disaster movie feel to it, instead of just an action movie. The launching of the nuclear missiles is both intimidating, and yes we've seen this in other disaster movies.  There was not enough desperation from the government for me when they had lost control of their nuclear missiles. Although with all of the world-wide destruction in the movie, you do not feel all of the death from that as the cities get destroyed. The deaths that you feel are the more intimate, one on one deaths.

Being released in 2016, with Apocalypse's first appearance in an X-Men movie, this marks Apocalypse's 30 anniversary since his first appearance in the X-Men comics (July1986).

Due to the international feel of the movie, there are subtitles for the various languages - including Egyptian and a very rudimentary Polish language.

With the new timeline, at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, there is a younger group of the core of X-Men, basically children learning how to control their powers, with Jean Grey/Sophie Turner, Scott Summers/Tye Sheridan, Nightcrawler/Kodi Smit-McPhee, and newcomers Quicksilver/Evan Peters and Jubilee/Lana Condor - although Condor did not get to do anything with her powers, but I am looking forward to seeing them in future movies. Quicksilver's/Peters scenes I think are the most fun. Returning X-Men Raven/Jennifer Lawrence, Hank McCoy/Nicholas Hoult, and Havok/Lucas Till continue their roles - as well as returning CIA agent Moira MacTaggert/Rose Byrne, who is also the unrequited love interest of Xavier/McAvoy. McAvoy finally got to shave his head for his role as Xavier.

I think this was Michael Fassbender's best characterization of his character Magneto in the X-Men movies. It definitely gave me the feels for him and his family in this movie, which also includes his return to Auschwitz.

It was great seeing Tomas Lemarquis as Caliban, thus setting up the Morlocks in the X-Men Universe.

One of the fun things in the movie is that they showed a clip of the Star Trek episode "Who Mourns for Adonais" as one of Apocalypse/Isaac's first experiences to the modern world. I wish they would have used a better clip from that episode to make it even more fun.

Stan Lee makes his appearance in the middle of the movie, along with his wife Joanie Lee.

There is an awesome uncredited cameo in the movie.

In the beginning of the movie - at least in my theater showing - Alexandra Shipp, who plays Storm, talks about how much she enjoyed playing the role and that hundreds of people worked to put together this movie and that everyone should enjoy it. This insert seems like an appeal to all of the fanboys who have been criticizing comic book films lately.

I saw the movie in RealD 3D. Outside of a few action scenes and the opening credits, I mostly did not notice the 3D - which gave depth into the movie, instead of things coming out at you.

There is one after credits scene, which sets up new elements for the X-Men universe, including the upcoming Wolverine sequel. There was also one scene in the movie, that to me, sets up a possible Phoenix story, while Psylocke/Munn sets up the X-Force movie.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of X-Men: Apocalypse from YouTube.



Click below to watch a final movie trailer of X-Men: Apocalypse from YouTube.



Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 144 Minutes.

Pancho
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CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

Walt Disney Studios/Marvel Studios

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 146 Minutes

Click here to watch the TV spots of Captain America: Civil War on YouTube.
 

In Walt Disney Studios/Marvel Studios Captain America: Civil War, the consequences of the Avengers world-wide actions put Iron Man/Robert Downey, Jr. and Captain America/Chris Evans on opposite sides.

This is a non-spoiler review. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. There is one MCU continuity issue for me, but is a very minor non-issue when concerning this movie.

The thirteenth film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and as of 2016 the 75th anniversary of Captain America, the movie is set one year after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron and deals with the events of the past few movies, Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, and based on the 10th anniversary of the Marvel comic book crossover storyline limited series Civil War by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven.

Actually this movie is really more of an Avengers movie than a Captain America movie. At the very least, the story is just as much about Tony Stark/Iron Man/Downey, Jr. as it is about Captain America/Evans. You also got to see more of the background of Captain America's friend Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier/Stan. The movie has an ensemble cast of Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson/Black Widow, Sebastian Stan/The Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie/Falcon, Don Cheadle/War Machine, Jeremy Renner/Hawkeye, Chadwick Boseman/Black Panther, Paul Bettany/Vision, Elizabeth Olsen/Scarlet Witch, Paul Rudd/Ant-Man, Emily VanCamp/Sharon Carter, and Tom Holland/Spider-Man.

This is an international movie as the characters travel to various countries - and the MCU country of Wakanda is represented well in the United Nations. There are sub-titles in the movie as several of the characters speak various languages.

The politics of whether or not the Avengers should be under oversight by the United Nations when informed by U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross/William Hurt were very important issues. I am basically Team Cap/Evans, who was against the accords and feels that the Avengers are better policing themselves instead of the government policing them - but the reasons why Tony Stark/Downey, Jr. are for the accords are very compelling, and I totally felt for him and could go for Team Iron Man. I totally understand the reasons which split the Avengers, and I felt for both sides - which is especially sad as they are friends.

Aside from the politics, the theme of this movie is that of loss. There were a few times where I felt for the characters at their loss.

It is awesome to see the Avengers using their full powers and fighting abilities fighting each other. Even without their powers, they are incredible hand to hand martial artists. Also, the number of Avengers, despite the fact that they were split up, makes me appreciate just how powerful a group of Avengers really are - and why there needs to be some kind of oversight with this kind of power. Some of the action scenes were very dramatic done with film strobe usage.

Introducing Black Panther on his 50th anniversary and one of the first black superheroes in American comics, as well as introducing Spider-Man into the MCU was awesome. Black Panther/Chadwick Boseman was done right - and Spider-Man/Holland was awesome and actually had more to do in this film than I had expected. Actually, all of the Avengers had their own scene moments and made you really appreciate them as characters - especially the vulnerable Scarlet Witch/Olson. Even a couple of minor MCU characters had scene moments in the movie, which make me appreciate the scope of the MCU more.

There are a few terrorist acts in the movie - and as a member of my local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), I totally sympathized with the first responders dealing with the aftermath of those acts in this movie. It also brings home the idea of world events being bought into the movie.

There is an intense helicopter scene, that hopefully was done with CGI, that was incredible.

For Stan Lee fans, his cameo is at the very end of the movie. You can enjoy the movie without worrying about missing his cameo.

I saw the film at a 9:00 Saturday morning showing and the theater was half-full. There were a lot of kids in the theater. I can only recall one language word in the movie and that was as a reaction word from Spider-Man and is not used as a graphic language word. In fact, the kid behind me had more of a reaction to a simple kissing scene than that one word.

There are two after-credits scenes. In my theater, a lot of people left after the first after-credits scene, but there were still a few people who stayed for the second after-credits scene. It is curious that one of the after-credit scenes in Ant-Man was used in this movie.

Spider-Man will return.

Click below to watch a trailer of Captain America: Civil War from YouTube.



Click below to watch another trailer of Captain America: Civil War from YouTube.



Click below to watch the Team Cap and Team Iron Man trailers of Captain America: Civil War from YouTube.



Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 146 Minutes.

Pancho
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BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

Warner Bros.

Rated PG-13

Running time: 151 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice from YouTube.




In Warner Bros. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Batman's/Ben Affleck's and Superman's/Henry Cavill's different ideologies finally come to a head in a fight to the finish.

A sequel to Man of Steel, and loosely based on the graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller - with Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, and Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Executive Produced by Christopher Nolan and Directed by Zack Snyder. The movie is the second installment of the new DC Extended Universe.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice seems to me to be told from billionaire Ben Affleck/Bruce Wayne/Batman's point of view - especially after the 9/11 type of events that had happened from Man of Steel. This is Batman's introduction, and origin - as well as Bruce Wayne's/Affleck's and Clark Kent's/Cavill's first meeting - and these events have Batman/Affleck and half the world very concerned about the power of Superman/Cavill.

I happened to like this film - although a lot of people felt it was too slow as most of the action happened toward the end of the film, which also dealt with the Doomsday story line from the comics. There was a good use of Superman's/Cavill's powers throughout, and you got to see Batman's/Affleck's hand to hand fighting with the bad guys - some of which are based on the Batman: Arkham games - as well as fighting with Superman/Cavill. I liked the dramatic setup and characterization of the movie, although some people were confused by the plot, which also includes dream sequences. Most of Superman's/Cavill's characterization of the movie was actually set up in Man of Steel, so the movie seems more of Batman's/Affleck's viewpoint.

There is a lot of religious overtones in the movie with comparisons of the Greek Gods, as well as of Christianity - God vs Man - between Batman/Affleck and Superman/Cavill. My favorite line is, "devils don't come from Hell beneath us, they come from the sky." When you consider that devils are fallen angels, this line really hit home for me. There is also another theme presented in the movie with the major characters about parentage.

I thought Affleck was great in his introduction to the DC Extended Universe as Bruce Wayne/Batman as a tragically hardened vigilante. Cavill was able to put on twice as much muscle mass for this movie than he did for Man of Steel and had looked very much like what Superman should be. There were also a couple of shots in the movie were Cavill/Superman looked like Christopher Reeve/Superman to me.

With Holly Hunter as a Senator in the movie conducting a Senate committee hearing on Superman, I could not help but think about the movie The Incredibles of which Hunter was also in and had in that movie dealing with similar issues about superheroes.

The movie portrays a younger Lex Luthor/Jesse Eisenberg than has been seen in previous incarnations, but is quite literate of books. For a dramatic movie, most of the humor in the movie comes from Luthor/Eisenberg in his sarcasm. While I could accept Eisenberg's portrayal of Luthor, I would have preferred him to be bald from a childhood accident, thus having issues with his father. It is interesting to me that Luthor's concerns with Superman are similar to Batman's but on a more psychotic level and based on the comic All-Star Superman.

It was good to have the stars like Laurence Fishburne, Amy Adams, and Diane Lane from Man of Steel in this movie. Jeremy Irons as Alfred is the only major character from Batman's comic book series, outside of his parents Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan. Other cameo appearances in the movie were nice to see, some of whom are real people.

This is the first time that the trio, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman have appeared in a live-action film. I thought Gal Gadot was great as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. The movie also sets up the premise for The Justice League with cameos of the future metahuman members of The Justice League. I liked the musical introductions/themes that Hans Zimmer created for the various characters, which are supposed to be used in future movies for these characters. It is too bad that Zimmer has quit writing music for superhero movies after being burned out of writing them for eleven years.

What is anachronistic for the film is that the Daily Planet is actually printing newspapers. A friend of mine used to be a printing manager for the local Los Angeles Times printing plant. He left after 25 years because The Times does not "print" newspapers anymore. The Times is all online now.

While I had expected what was going to happen, I had mixed feelings about the end of the movie, both positive and negative. A lot of fans were very disappointed with the end. I will admit that I can not wait to see how this will affect future movie sequels in the DC Extended Universe.

During the end credits, there was a Special Thanks section with what seemed like about a couple dozen names of comic book creative artists who have worked on Batman and Superman comics at one point over the decades. A lot of material from these creative artists were touched upon in the movie.

With the very dramatic tone of the movie, there are no after credits scenes during the credits as with a Marvel movie.

Rated PG-13 for violence, language, sexual situations.

Click below to watch another movie trailer to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice from YouTube.




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LONDON HAS FALLEN

Gramercy Pictures

Rated R

Running time: 1:39 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of London Has Fallen from YouTube.



In Gramercy Pictures London Has Fallen, United States President Aaron Eckhart attends the British Prime Minister's funeral in London - and suddenly has to go on the run with Secret Service Agent Gerard Butler to escape terrorists.

In the sequel to Olympus Has Fallen, three years have passed and the western world's leaders are gathering to attend the state funeral for the British Prime Minister - when terrorists attack and President Eckhart and Secret Service Agent Butler go on the run throughout London.

The movie has several actors from Olympus Has Fallen reprising their roles in this movie, especially Vice President Morgan Freeman, Director of the Secret Service Angela Bassett, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Robert Forster, Butler's wife Radha Mitchell, and Secretary of Defense Melissa Leo. Freeman always has a presence as a leader in his leadership roles and this was no exception. Alon Aboutboul was good as the terrorist arms dealer on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list. So was Charlotte Riley as the MI6 agent. I wish Riley had more to do, she could have been a kick ass character.

With recent real world events, some of the terrorist scenes can be difficult to watch, as well as the news videos accompanying them. I had a relatives that were in the cities of those real world events, so these scenes hit a little home to me. I also felt a little upset that the movie opened with news reports of terrorism attacks in the Philippines, including the failed real world police operation which lead to the deaths of several members of the Special Action Force in the Philippines. The trailer's initial release also had controversy as to it's timing to the anniversary of the 2005 London bombings attack.

There were typical car chases and explosions but I liked the action sequences with Butler taking charge of President Eckhart's protection throughout the movie, as well as the political scenes both with the heads of state and with Vice President Freeman and the National Security Council at the White House. The movie set up all the political players with graphics of their titles as they are introduced. I had a problem with how the terrorists got pass all of the world security Dignitary Protection services of not only the United States, but all of the other western Dignitary Protection services for the various heads of states in what is supposedly the most protected event in the world, and I also did not like how filmmakers did the tag of the movie.

It is curious that underneath the political terrorism, the theme of the movie was about family, which I liked.

I think this is the first time that I have seen Marine One in action which I liked.

While I think Olympus Has Fallen is a better film, London Has Fallen is a typical action popcorn film.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of London Has Fallen on YouTube.



Rated R for violence and language. Running time: 1:39 Minutes.

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SPECTRE

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.
Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 148 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Spectre from YouTube.



In Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures SPECTRE, James Bond, Daniel Craig, goes after the criminal organization that has been manipulating his life.

In the twenty-fourth James Bond film, Based on characters created by Ian Fleming - and the fourth appearance by Craig who is also the Co-Producer - Bond/Craig is undergoing an unofficial mission from the previous M - an uncredited Judi Dench - and recovers assassin Alessandro Cremona's ring that has a stylised octopus. The current M, Ralph Fiennes, then suspends Bond/Craig from field duty for Bond's/Craig's unauthorized mission. Meanwhile M/Fiennes undergoes a power struggle with C, Andrew Scott, as a result of domestic MI5 and foreign MI6 merging and C/Scott proposing that Britain joining a global electronic surveillance and intelligence initiative between nine member states - and shutting down the outdated licensed to kill '00' section. Bond/Craig disobeys M's/Fiennes's order of standing down from field duty and goes off to visit Cremona's widow, Monica Bellucci, and learns about Cremona's criminal organisation that he works with - SPECTRE.

While I liked the movie, I felt the movie could have been tighter in the story. It felt like it was dragging to me and did not seem as suspenseful to me as a result.

Monica Bellucci has the distinction of being the oldest Bond girl in the series. Bellucci is extremely hot and it is hard for me to believe she is 51 at the time of the movie's release. When Bond searches for the daughter of Jesper Christensen, who was a former member of a SPECTRE sub-organization, psychologist Lea Seydoux, you could tell that she would be a strong Bond girl character in the movie who could also kick butt. Although I felt that Seydoux fell in love with Bond/Craig a little too soon.

The title song by Sam Smith Writing's on the Wall does not have does not have the same name as the title of the movie, and so to me did not have as much of a connection to the movie as other Bond songs, while in actuality the title comes from a quote from Pierce Brosnan's GoldenEye. In a sense, this is appropriate as the title Spectre is not an Ian Fleming story title. Although the song did become the first Bond song to get to the UK Top of the Pops No. #1 rank. The music by Thomas Newman does have the feeling of a Bond movie.

I can understand the argument between human intelligence and electronic/signals intelligence. In the real world both are necessary - as sadly evidenced from recent events, especially when in the movie there was a plan to blow up a stadium. Now intelligence sources are strongly being going over in the real world as a result of intelligence failure during the recent events.

The movie references classic Bond films.

M/Fiennes, Q/Ben Whishaw, and Moneypenny/Naomie Harris return in the film to assist Bond/Craig, as well as cameo portraits of other Bond characters from Craig's Bond films appearing in the movie. I liked that Q/Whishaw had a scene outside of the lab. Dave Bautista's introduction in the movie was most impressive, and he only had one word of dialog in the entire movie. Christoph Waltz was great as the Bond villain who has been manipulating Bond throughout his entire career. It is incredible that the criminal organisation SPECTRE has not been seen since the 1971 movie Diamonds Are Forever.

I loved the Day of the Dead sequences in Mexico City and wished there was more of the references for Bond to what the parade meant to the people. There is a world-wide feeling to the movie as evidenced by the five different languages spoken in the movie with the subtitles, and the intelligence gathering alliance of countries, as well as the various locations - which includes London, Mexico City, Austria, Morocco, and Rome, Italy.

The film's budget made SPECTRE one of the most expensive movies ever made, yet there was only one over the top Bond action sequence that was slightly unbelievable, and one explosion that to me was a bit of an overkill. The rest of the action sequences were good. Aside from the Aston Martin DB10 coupe car for Bond, there was only one Bond gadget that was in the movie. SPECTRE is the second Bond film to be screened in IMAX, although it was not filmed in IMAX. The movie had the biggest opening of all time in the United Kingdom during it's first 007 week of release.

This is the first Bond film not to feature the trumpet playing of Derek Watkins who has played on every film since Dr. No. This is also the longest Bond film to date.

It is said that Craig will not come back to playing Bond, so this film had a finality of Craig's last film as Bond. It seemed appropriate that it referenced classic Bond films as a result, as well as cameo pictures of past stars in Craig's series of Bond films of which his series of movies was an overarching storyline.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Spectre from YouTube.



James Bond will return.

Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual situations, language. Running time: 148 Minutes.

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MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION

Paramount Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 131 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation from YouTube.
 

In Paramount Pictures Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Agent Tom Cruise is going after the mysterious Syndicate that is targeting the members of his organization, the IMF - Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, and Ving Rhames.

Starring and Produced by Tom Cruise, this fifth movie to the Mission: Impossible films - which takes place immediately after the movie Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol - is a fun movie with Cruise, Field Operations Director Renner, computer expert Pegg, and agent Rhames reprising their roles from previous films. This is the first Mission: Impossible film where the IMF team is a veteran of at least one other Mission: Impossible film. Of the films that I have seen in this series, this was the most fun. It is curious that before the movie, they aired the James Bond movie trailer SPECTRE. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is a more fun film than James Bond, with the character relationships providing the fun in Mission: Impossible.

In the movie, Cruise is on the run from the CIA, headed by Chief Director Alec Baldwin, that wants a Senate Oversite Committee to disband the IMF (Impossible Missions Force) after a series of botched operations, and is trying to order Renner to give up Cruise's location. Cruise meanwhile is trying to find Sean Harris. the head of The Syndicate - an international criminal organization - that is escalating a series of terrorist acts as well as targeting the IMF.

During the opening title sequence, which has graphics just like the TV series, there were clips of the movie shown, just like in the TV series of clips of that week's episode. These movie clips did not have any spoilers, but definitely teased what was going to happen in the movie. It was great that the musical theme of the TV show by Lalo Schifrin was all over the movie, which made it feel like a Mission: Impossible episode. Another nod to the TV series is The Syndicate, which was the antagonist organization in the TV series, as well as Cruise receiving his mission briefing from a vinyl record from which the original TV briefings came from.

The movie does have a world-wide feel to the movie as they travel to various countries, just as a James Bond movie does, with locations in London, Vienna, Monaco, Morocco, and Morocco's largest city Casablanca. The movie also had several car chases to make for great action. It is amazing that spies nowadays have to be so electronic savvy when you see all the gadgets that everyone uses. Just as the original TV series and TV series update made use of the latest state of the art technology, the movies do as well.

Operative Rebecca Ferguson was pretty awesome in the movie as someone who you were not sure which side she was on whenever she engaged Cruise. I definitely fell in love with Ferguson as a "bad girl" and I look forward to seeing more of her work.

Cruise hanging off of a plane, an Airbus A400M, was a real stunt with Cruise at an altitude of 5000 feet. The underwater footage is the first film release featuring footage from Arri's new 6.5 Alexa 65 camera. Cruise trained with diving specialist Kirk Krack to hold his breath underwater for three minutes to perform an underwater sequence without any edits trying to defeat a security system.

For the IMAX theatrical release, the movie has a Mission Impossible style SMPTE Academy leader countdown at the beginning of the movie instead of the normal IMAX countdown.

Rated PG-13 for violence, language. Running time: 131 Minutes.

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HITMAN: AGENT 47

20th Century Fox

Rated R

Running time: 96 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Hitman: Agent 47 from YouTube.



In 20th Century Fox's Hitman: Agent 47, mysterious woman Hannah Ware, who is searching to find her father Ciaran Hinds and uncover the mysteries of her ancestry, teams up with an elite assassin while another elite assassin is after her.

Based on the video game series Hitman, this reboot movie is a combination of the Bourne films, Dark Angel, and John Wick. Rupert Friend as engineered human being 47 plowing through security reminds me of Jason Statham from the Transporter films. It is interesting to see the juxtaposition between Friend and Zachary Quinto, especially during their fight scenes. I believe Quinto could become a new action star if he wants to go in that direction in his career. Ware is also someone you could be looking out for as an action star.

It is sad that Paul Walker was originally supposed to play Agent 47 before he passed away.

The number of nameless victims in the movie represents the visceral action of the video game, as they are just action figures and not actual characters. There were very few people that you would  actually care about if they were killed. I will admit though, that the action did make me flinch a couple of times. The movie is too urban and inner-city to be a full-blown action film, but is more of an action thriller with the feel of video game action.

It is curious that for a high tech movie, the surveilance cameras that were used in the movie were an obsolete model. We have never used those cameras at work and our building is 15 years old.

There is an after credits scene which sets up a sequel.

Rated R for violence and language. Running time: 96 Minutes.

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THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.

Warner Bros.

Rated PG-13

Running time: 116 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of The Man from UNCLE from YouTube.

In Warner Bros. The Man From U.N.C.L.E., CIA agent Napoleon Solo/Henry Cavill must join forces with KGB operative Illya Kuryakin/Armie Hammer to track down a private atom bomb.

Based on the television series The Man From U.N.C.L.E., the movie is Written and Directed by Guy Ritchie. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is set during the height of the Cold War of the 1960's in 1963, soon after the Cuban Missile Crisis. News archive footage from British Pathe, including footage of President John F. Kennedy and World War II and atomic bomb footage, as well as the graphics at the beginning of the movie and throughout the movie reflect that time period. Not only does having the film set during the 60's retain the flavor of the TV series and the spy movies of the 60's, along with the music in the film, the 60's style separates the movie from the current series of spy films set in today's world. It was also nice that they incorporated the theme song from the TV series into the movie.

In a most dangerous time of our history, top CIA agent Solo/Cavill extracts Alicia Vikander, the daughter of Nazi scientist turned US collaborator at the end of World War II Christian Berkel from East Berlin - evading the best KGB operative within three years Kuryakin/Hammer. Vikander's uncle Sylvester Groth works for a shipping company owned by Elizabeth Debicki and Luca Calvani who are Nazi sympathizers and have ties to an international criminal organization that want to destabilize the fragile balance of power and intend to use Berkel to build thier own private atom bomb. Rivals used to working independently - Solo/Cavill and Kuryakin/Hammer are ordered by their governments to work together on this mission, as well as with Vikander to act as Kuryakin's/Hammer's fiancee, in order to locate Vikander's father Berkel and to stop Debicki and Calvani from succeeding in having Berkel developing the nuclear weapon.

I felt that The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is more fun than a James Bond movie in that the comedy comes from the character relationships, rather than the plot. I always felt a lot of the plot in a James Bond movie was contrived. It is curious that Ian Fleming developed both James Bond and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. A couple of the dining scenes reflect the humorous character relationships between Solo/Cavill and Kuryakin/Hammer when they are working together in the field as well as the relationships during the various chase scenes.

I loved the rivalry between Solo/Cavill and Kuryakin/Hammer and how they grew to respect each other. Actually, personally I related to Cavill more to his role as Napoleon Solo rather than Cavill in his role as Superman as Solo uses his criminal talents in infiltration as well as overcoming security systems. It is curious that Armie Hammer was once considered for the role of Superman. Cavill and Hammer did most of their own stunts, which I think was great - especially as Kuryakin/Hammer had more of a temper and Hammer doing his own stunts which would be shown onscreen. With Kuryakin/Hammer having a temper as well as being Vikander's "fiancee" and his relationship with her, it feels that Kuryakin/Hammer is more of the protagonist of the movie during most of the film instead of Solo/Cavill and Kuryakin/Hammer being equal.

I did not recognize Hugh Grant as Commander Waverly  as his hair has changed from the last time I saw him. It is funny that Grant is the only principle character that used his own accent in the movie.

Due to the various languages spoken in the film, such as Russian and Italian, there are subtitles in the movie. The movie has in international feel as it travels from East Berlin, to Rome.

The graphics of the end credits show the dossiers of the agents of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.

I am looking forward to more of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. films, even hopefully a film of The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.

On a sad note, before the movie started, the theater showed a video of emergency procedures for the theater in case of an event. It is a shame that with events that are happening in today's news that the movie going experience has come to this.

Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual situations, nudity. Running time: 116  Minutes.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of The Man From Uncle on YouTube.



Click below to watch the Comic-Con movie trailer of The Man From UNCLE on YouTube.



Click below to watch a 60's style movie trailer of The Man From UNCLE from YouTube.



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ANT-MAN

Marvel Studios

Rated: PG-13

Running time: 117 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Ant-Man from YouTube.



In Marvel Studio's Ant-Man, ex-burglar Paul Rudd is recruited by retired scientist Michael Douglas to be the super hero Ant-Man to stop rival scientist Corey Stoll from misusing Douglas's Ant-Man technology.

One of the original Avengers from The Avengers comic book, Ant-Man finally makes it to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the twelfth installment of the MCU movies after being through years of development. Co-Written by Paul Rudd, Ant-Man is the last film of Marvel's Phase Two. Basically Ant-Man is a Marvel version of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and The Rocketeer. In fact Ant-Man had been in development since the late 1980's when Ant-Man creator Stan Lee pitched the idea to New Line Entertainment - then owner of Marvel - but New Line found it too similar to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

In the movie, forty years ago, scientist Douglas develops the Pym particles which allows shrinking technology. Douglas buries that technology and resigns from SHIELD, when his misguided prodigy Stoll attempts to sell the technology to the government as a weapon for an army of soldiers that are the size of insects with superhuman strength - the ultimate secret weapon. When the Stoll of today continues to try to reinvent the technology to use as a weapons system for an army of soldiers, Douglas and his estranged executive daughter of his company Evangeline Lilly recruit ex-con burglar and divorced father Rudd to use his talents and the Ant-Man suit to redeem himself and stop Stoll in order to save the world for both of their daughters.

This movie is much more dramatic than what the currently airing trailers of which the media is airing now portrays. The movie trailers used in this review more closely represent what the style of the movie really is. It was great to see Rudd/Ant-Man going at it as a kick ass fighter with his shrinking technology and defeating security systems, which is what I wanted see in Rudd to be doing for an Ant-Man movie. Lilly is also amazing as the one who trains Rudd/Ant-Man. Most of the comic relief comes from Rudd's buddy Michael Pena and Pena's crew David Dastmalchian and Tip "T.I." Harris - and Pena's crew do not have a large part in this movie. The movie mostly concerns Douglas, Rudd, Lilly and Stoll.

It was also great to see the cameo from Garrett Morris who played Ant-Man at a party in a Saturday Night Live skit. It would have been great if the Morris cameo was at a party as well, in order to have more of a tribute to the SNL skit, maybe a cameo in a party with Stan Lee. For Stan Lee fans, Lee's cameo is at the end of the movie, so you can concentrate mostly on watching the movie until then. It was also great to see cameos of Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter and John Slattery as inventor Howard Stark, as well as a young CGI'd Micheal Douglas during the 1989 sequence.

It was cool to have the song It's a Small World being used in the film, considering the theme of Ant-Man and the movie being owned by Walt Disney Studios. Curiously, the song It's a Small World does not have a Disney Corporation copyright, and is the only Disney entity outside of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit not to have a Disney copyright. I also liked the story themes of Mentor/Pupil and Father/Daughter that were used in the film, making the movie even more of a family film. I admit to tearing up a little a couple of times during the Father/Daughter scenes, with Douglas and Lilly and with Rudd's daughter Abby Ryder Fortson and the love that they obviously had for each other.

With the introduction of the science of Pym particles, Ant-Man brings the subatomic quantum realm - the Microverse - into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are additional ties to the MCU with the continuous referrals to The Avengers. Actually, the movie feels very much like the original Iron Man movie on a small scale (no pun intended). It is amazing to me to realize how many technological suits there are in the MCU.

I wish there was more personality to the ants, but as Douglas says, Do you know how many ants there are? Even for the one ant Rudd seemed to be connect to, a personality would have been nice. Personality for the ants would have made the ants more anthropomorphic, especially when Rudd controls the ants to do his bidding. As it was, I felt Rudd's relationship with the ants appeared to be more of a master/slave relationship otherwise.

The film was shot in the 1.85 format to give a greater appreciation of the vertical aspects of the Ant-Man scenes that can not be appreciated in the traditional 2.35 aspect ratio movie format. The movie also made extensive use of macro photography to show things from Ant-Man's point of view.

It was great to see during the end credits Special Thanks to Marvel comic book artists John Buscema, John Byrne, and Gene Colan.

There is a mid credits scene and an after credits scene. It is curious to note that in my theater, most of the audience stayed all the way through to the end credits. People are getting hip to Marvel's end credits, which is a film-goer's bonus. Personally I enjoy listening to the music of the end credits as well as reading the various film departments and names.

Ant-Man will return.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Ant-Man from YouTube.



Click below to watch a final trailer of Ant-Man from YouTube.



Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 117 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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TERMINATOR GENISYS

Paramount Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 126 Minutes
















Click below to watch a movie trailer of Terminator Genisys on YouTube.
 

Paramount Pictures Terminator Genisys, has an apocryphal future war in 2029 against computer artificial intelligence Skynet and it's robot Terminators bent on destroying the human race. Human Resistance soldier Jai Courtney is sent back in time by Human Resistance leader Jason Clarke to save and protect Clarke's mother, Emilia Clarke, from the robot Terminators Brett Azar and Byung-hun Lee that have been sent to kill Emilia Clarke in the past - before the war and before Jason Clarke is born.

The fifth installment in the Terminator series - and the first film in a proposed new Terminator trilogy - the first half of Terminator Genisys is basically a combination of The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The first half of the movie was to me the best and my favorite part of the movie, as the movie explored the various consequences of multiple timelines while time traveling. Courtney was very confused in that the situations were not what he expected to happen when he traveled back in time - as the timeline has been altered. The opposite situation as opposed to a strong kick-ass Emilia Clarke, who knew what was going on - which is opposite of what the original Terminator movie was. The second half of the movie goes off onto it's own story in order to stop Judgement Day from happening - with a Terminator still after them. I was not crazy about the direction of the second half of the story, even if the movie did have tributes to the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles trying to stop Judgement Day from happening, but I did like the action of the second half of the movie and loved the relationship of the characters. Terminator Creator James Cameron says that he considers Terminator Genisys to be the official third film of the Terminator franchise.

The filmmakers studied the Back to the Future films about how time travel works. This was important as you can get lost with how convoluted the various timelines can become.

Fan favorite Matt Smith (credited as Matthew Smith) was pretty much wasted as a fan favorite as he had very little screen time, although he was an important character. Dayo Okeniyi and Courtney B. Vance's characters were hardly used and those characters are major characters in the series.

There is a very logical explanation of Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger's mature age in the movie, as he reprises his role, as the filmmakers did not use makeup or CGI to make Arnold younger. Arnold was just as bad-ass as always in this movie and he was fun for me to watch. Many actors in the series were considered to have the actors reprise their original roles, but for various reasons they did not do so. I also do not like Schwarzenegger's credit that was listed in the movie as that is not what his name was. All the questions in the movie were answered except for one, unless I missed the answer which was not obvious. That one question was answered in another movie and I was expecting it to be reiterated in this movie.

There is a mid credits scene at the end of the movie. The first Terminator movie with a mid credits scene. It is also the first film in the series to be shot digitally and the first in the series to be shot with an anamorphic lens.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Terminator Genisys on YouTube.



Rated PG-13 for violence, language, nudity. Running time: 126 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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