DELIVERY MAN

Touchstone Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 105 Minutes



Click below to watch the Delivery Man movie trailer.
 

In Touchstone Pictures Delivery Man, Vince Vaughn is a slacker working at his Father's butcher's shop delivering meat - when Vaughn discovers that his sperm donations have produced 533 children.

In this comedy remake of Writer/Director Ken Scott's French/Canadian film Starbuck, Vaughn owes $80,000 to some thugs and his girlfriend Police woman Cobie Smulders is pregnant with his baby. When lawyer Damian Young informs Vaughn that Vaughn's fertility clinic made a mistake and used his sperm multiple times, Vaughn suddenly finds himself the father of 533 children - adult, grown up children who have joined together in a class action lawsuit in order to force the clinic to reveal who their real father is. With the reluctant help of Vaughn's friend and lawyer Chris Pratt, Vaughn goes through the profiles of his children and finally finds his true purpose - deciding to be a guardian angel to his grown up children.

This was a cute film, and not as nasty about sperm donation that I thought the film would be. I liked the fact that Vaughn eventually decided to become involved in the lives of his children. Some of the children of course are a little suspicious of Vaughn, but to see the children's lives change for the better as a result of Vaughn's encouragement was a tear-jerker for me. Having Vaughn observing what their jobs and lives are like was very touching for me. What I did not like was the fact that there were several concepts and ideas that were brought up in the movie that were not followed up to their conclusions. And Vaughn's relationship with one child was both illogical plot wise considering the lawsuit and was not followed through to the end, although Vaughn's relationship with this child was a tear-jerker of a relationship.

Among the media coverage, cameos with Jay Leno and Bill Maher appear as themselves as they discuss who this mysterious father is as they appear on their talk shows in the movie.

Rated PG-13 for language. Running time: 105 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

THOR - THE DARK WORLD

Marvel Entertainment

Rated PG-13

Running time: 112 Minutes



Click below to watch the Thor - The Dark World movie trailer.



In Marvel Entertainment's Thor - The Dark World, the Dark Elves led by Christopher Eccleston invades Asgard and Earth. Thor/Chris Hemsworth must then recruit his criminal brother Loki/Tom Hiddleston to stop him.

After an ancient battle between Odin/Anthony Hopkins father Bor/Tony Curran, and the Dark Elves led by Eccleston - Eccleston and a handful of Dark Elves escape into suspended animation.

In modern-day London, astrophysicist Doctor Natalie Portman discovers a place where objects disobey the laws of physics and disappear into thin air. Portman winds up being teleported to another world. When Thor/Hemsworth learns of her disappearance, he goes in search of Portman as the Asgards learn of the Convergence, the rare alignment of the Nine Realms with portals linking them all. Eccleston and the Dark Elves awaken from suspended animation and return to threaten Asgard and Earth through the Convergence portals. In desperate revenge Eccleston and the Dark Elves, Thor/Hemsworth seeks an alliance with his imprisoned traitorous brother Loki/Hiddleston.

I had mixed feelings about this movie. Actually, I had opposite feelings about this movie than for the first Thor movie. I liked the Earth scenes better than the Asgard scenes. The Earth scenes dealt with more interesting scenes, like scenes in London instead of scenes in the middle of nowhere in America, and the scenes that dealt with the warping of the laws of physics. The Asgard scenes were too human for me, more human street level, instead of using more godlike fantastical situations.

I liked the eventual meeting with Thor/Hemsworth and Natalie Portman, as well as the meeting with Portman and Loki/Hiddleston. Portman of course has issues with both Thor/Hemsworth and Loki/Hiddleston after what happened in The Avengers. Thor/Hemsworth also has to deal with the issues he has with both Portman and Loki/Hiddleston. I also liked the uneasy alliance between Thor/Hemsworth and Loki/Hiddleston. You are never sure when Loki/Hiddleston will betray Thor/Hemsworth. Their relationship was possible the most interesting one in the entire movie. Portman's relationship with Thor's/Hemsworth's parents Odin/Anthony Hopkins and Frigga/Rene Russo. While Odin/Hopkins did not think Portman worthy, Frigga/Russo had a motherly affection for Portman. Frigga/Russo also kicks ass if you mess with her, which I loved.

For Stan Lee fans, I think it is appropriate he is a patient in a mental ward. Chris Evans uncredited cameo was great.

As a by-product, the events of Thor - The Dark World will affect the events in TV's Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.

During the end credits - there is not one, but two scenes that are shown. Most people left after the first scene was shown. The first scene was more concerned with The Collector story - with an uncredited Benicio Del Toro as The Collector - which leads to Guardians of the Galaxy, so the people leaving after learning the story was okay. The next scene was a love story scene with Porter and Thor/Hemsworth.

Rated PG-13 for violence, nudity. Running time: 112 Minutes.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews


 

ENDER'S GAME

Summit Entertainment

Rated PG-13

Running time: 114 minutes



Click below to watch an Ender's Game movie trailer.



In Summit Entertainment's Ender's Game - Earth had been attacked by aliens, so now Earth is readying soldiers to fight them. These soldiers are children - especially the chosen leader Ender Wiggin/Asa Butterfield.

Directed by Gavin Hood - who plays the giant in the mind game - and Co-Written by Hood, the movie is based on Orson Scott Card's book Ender's Game, and is Produced by Card who also wrote the screenplay in order to preserve the vision of his book. This live-action movie of Ender's Game is a study in the near future of how desperate the human race would be if we were trying to prepare ourselves for another invasion. The use of training children from the start with war games instead of normal play with educational kid games is rather sad. Too bad several themes from the book never really got a chance to be developed in the movie as they were concentrating on Ender's/Butterfield's story.

Actually, despite what the trailers may imply, this is Ender's/Butterfield's story. You see Ender/Butterfield going from student to being recruited to Battle School as Mankind's last hope of a military leader against the aliens. You also see the jealousy of the other students for Ender's/Butterfield's brilliance, and I felt for his isolation and his manipulation by Harrison Ford. In a sense, this is the ultimate bully movie as Ender/Butterfield fights back.

While initially I did not think Ben Kingsley's facial tattoos were unnecessary and detracted too much for me from appreciating Kingsley's performance in the movie, the tattoos were explained in the movie as part of his Maori background and I accepted them.

The movie is actually very close to the book. While not everything could not be put in and explored, at least all the major themes were mentioned. The children were more young teenagers from high school instead of the elementary school children from the book however. This is probably due to the fact that you can not do this kind of graphic material with very young children, as well as having the marketing factor of having teen aged stars being in the movie. The videos of the aerial battle with the alien Fomecs used contemporary military fighters, so the alien invasion could have taken place today - and the battles in space were believable too. I like the fact that the U.S. Marines have Ender's Game as recommended reading for lessons in leadership.

Having read the book in college, I have always wondered how they were going to do the zero gravity effects of Battle School - if this would be an animated film or a live action film. As a live-action film, the zero G Battle School scenes in Earth orbit were very believable - especially as the young actors were trained in wire-work by Cirque du Soleil. The performances by the Academy Award Nominee stars Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, Abigail Breslin, Harrison Ford, and Academy Award Winner Ben Kingsley make you get into the characters. I think this is the best military science fiction movie I have seen. As for Ender Wiggin/Asa Butterfield - this is no game.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 114 Minutes.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Ender's Game.



Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews

LAST VEGAS

CBS Films

Rated PG-13

Running time: 105 Minutes


















Click below to watch the Last Vegas movie trailer.

 

In CBS Films Last Vegas, three sixty-something lifelong friends of 50 years from Brooklyn, New York, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Kline travel to Las Vegas in order to throw a bachelor party in for their single pal Michael Douglas who is going to marry Bre Blair - a woman half his age.

Directed by Jon Turteltaub, Last Vegas is a comedic senior version of The Hangover. I loved the relationships between all of the characters, with the relationship between De Niro and Douglas being especially intense with their unresolved issues. Lounge singer Mary Steenburgen makes their way into their lives as she shows them around Vegas as the guys get into all kinds of trouble.

I liked the juxtaposition between seniors De Niro, Freeman, Kline, and Douglas and their younger selves RJ Fattori, Aaron Bantum, Phillip Wampler, and Noah Harden. This was also the first time that De Niro, Freeman, Kline and Douglas ever appeared together. Actually of the seniors, I was surprised at how old Kline got. I think the last time I saw Kline in a movie was in the movie Dave, which was done in 1993.

Although the movie is rated PG-13, Jon Turteltaub convinced the MPAA - Motion Picture Association of America - to bring the movie down from an initial R rating, so audiences should be prepared for the movie because of the sexual situations.

Rapper 50 Cent, credited under his real name as Curtis Jackson, makes a cameo. This was a delight, when the guys wound up with a celebrity suite at their casino hotel.

Rated PG-13 for violence, language, and sexual situations. Running time: 105 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

MACHETE KILLS

Open Road Films

Rated R

Running time: 107 Minutes


Click below to watch a movie trailer of Machete Kills.




In Open Road Films Machete Kills,  ex-federale Machete, Danny Trejo, is recruited by U.S. President Carlos Estevez to stop insane revolutionary Demian Birchir from south of the border from launching a nuclear missile targeted at the White House.

Written, Directed, and Produced by Robert Rodriguez, this is the third of the Grindhouse fake trailers made into movies. I have always liked Trejo's character, ever since Spy Kids. This is the first non Spy Kids movie that Trejo, Alexa Vega, Antonio Banderas, and Robert Rodriquez have collaborated on - although this is an adult role for Vega, who I think is hot.

I have always been a fan of Trejo, and it is nice to see a little development to his character after the lost of an uncredited Jessica Alba and of Trejo's relationship with his one-eyed associate Michelle Rodriguez as well as his handler Amber Heard - and that Trejo tells Rodriguez that the problem of the nuclear weapon and who is behind it is not just for the Mexican people, but for the whole world. And of course you can not have a character named Machete without Trejo using machetes. I also liked the armoured car Trejo used to run the Mexican border wall.

One of the things I liked about this movie, man-hating madmousille Sofia Vergera goes especially crazy - after the lost of her escort daughter Vanessa Hudgens - with Vergera's machine-gun breasts.

This is Lady Gaga's film debut, who - along with Walton Goggins, Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Antonio Banderas - plays the chameleon hit man El Camaleon. This is also Mel Gibson's first bad guy role. I also liked the fact that the film introduced Carlos Estevez as the President - Charlie Sheen's first credited role under his birth name due to the film's Hispanic theme.

Since this is a Robert Rodriguez low-budget film - the violence is bloodily graphic, almost humorous. I miss the low-budget entertainment factor that is missing from the big budget star films.

At the beginning and the end of the film there is a low-quality scratched up prevue of coming attractions, of the style of the Grindhouse trailers, of the movie sequel - Machete Kills Again... in Space. Since there is a listing for this movie sequel in developement on IMDB, I am looking forward to having fun seeing Machete Kills Again... in Space. Maybe they will show the Star Wars landspeeder car again like they did in this movie.

Rated R for graphic violence, language, sexual content. Running time: 107 Minutes.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Machete Kills.


Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

GRAVITY

Warner Bros.

Rated PG-13

Running time: 91 Minutes



Click below to watch the movie trailer of Gravity.



In Warner Bros. Gravity, NASA space shuttle astronauts - comedic veteran George Clooney and frustrated Sandra Bullock, on her first mission in space - get stranded in space when their space vehicles get struck by a debris field.

Directed, Produced, and Edited by Alfonso Cuaron, and Written with his son Jonas Cuaron, Gravity is basically a combination of Apollo 13, Armageddon, and Cast Away in space and shows both the beauty and dangers of space. This movie give you the feeling of what space would really be like if you were an astronaut. The Kessler Syndrome of metallic space debris was rather scary. This is a tour de force performance for Bullock as she continues to try to communicate by radio, although Bullock was rather irritating to me in the beginning with her frustration and space sickness. This is not a film for those with acrophobia to watch. Bullock floating free in space is a rather scary thought if you can relate to that position. Space can be an extremely dangerous place, especially as shown by the various hazards Bullock encounters. The astronaut that I liked the most, voiced by Phaldut Sharma, you hardly got to know. I think it is great that Ed Harris from Apollo 13 and The Right Stuff was the voice of Mission Control.

There is at least one plot point that was scientifically inaccurate, but made the story. Another inaccurate plot point fortunately was explained in the movie. I am also not crazy about the ending, and several people I know agree with me.

The film is in 3D, but after a while, I did not notice the 3D. The only times that the 3D really stood out to me was through the solar/camera lens flares and the space debris - although there was a floating drop of water that was rather obvious, as well as the reflections from the visors. I will admit that I had flinched a few times with the debris coming out at me. The visor reflections were so good that at first I thought that my glasses got smudged and I was going to wipe them. Cuaron's use of long camera takes helps to illustrate the immense feel of space, especially now that we have the technology to realistically simulate zero gravity. I am glad that the only sounds you hear in space are the music composed by Steven Price and the sounds that you hear inside the space suits and vehicles. The crawl in the beginning of the movie helps to explain this.

What is curious is that the movie is 91 minutes long, which is about how long it takes for the International Space Station to orbit the Earth. Seeing a set of the ISS in the movie was nice to see.

Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 91 Minutes.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Gravity.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

  Pancho's Movie Reviews

WE'RE THE MILLERS

Warner Bros.

Rated R

Running time: 110 Minutes



Click below to watch a We're the Millers movie trailer clip.



In Warner Bros. We're the Millers, pot dealer Jason Sudeikis gets his drug money and stash stolen and is forced by his drug lord Ed Helms to bring a "smidgen" of marijuana across the border from Mexico - by using a fake family in an RV.

In this raunchy comedy, Sudeikis realizes the only way that he can get through border customs is to pose as a family. The dysfunctional group of people that he hires, stripper neighbor Jennifer Aniston, teen aged runaway girl Emma Roberts, along with his virgin neighbor Will Poulter to become the All-American Family the "Millers" in order to sneak past the border. The road trip back and forth from Mexico becomes even more raunchy when they meet up and make camp with their RV counterparts, the "Fitzgerald's" - Nick Offerman, Kathryn Hahn, and Molly Quinn. In the meantime, the "Millers" get chased by Mexican drug lord Tomer Sisley and his henchman, former NFL player Matthew Willig, because Sisley wants his marijuana back from Sudeikis.

I thought Jennifer Aniston was pretty hot as a stripper. I liked the fact that - despite the fact that they're not being a real family and rather hate each other - the "Millers" pull together and do become a family. Sudeikis reluctantly becomes a father to Poulter and Roberts, with Aniston being a natural mother. I actually thought that henchman Willig had more of a presence in the movie than his boss drug lord Sisley. Helms is decidedly sleazy as Sudeikis businessman drug lord.

At the end of the movie are bloopers, including a classic blooper concerning the Millers and Aniston.

Rated R for drug material, language, sexual situations, violence, nudity. Running time: 110 Minutes.

Click below to watch what I consider a red tag movie trailer of We're the Millers.

 
Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews