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

THE WOLVERINE

Twentieth Century Fox

Rated PG-13

Running time: 126 Minutes



Click below to watch The Wolverine movie trailer. 



In Twentieth-Century Fox/Marvel Entertainment's The Wolverine, mutant hermit Wolverine - Hugh Jackman - is brought out of isolation by Rila Fukushima to have her industrialist employer dying from cancer Hal Yamanouchi reward Jackman for saving Yamanouchi's life years ago during WWII.

In a sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand - featuring the Marvel Comics character Wolverine, and based on the 1982 limited series Wolverine by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller - Producer and Star Jackman/Wolverine is being tormented by hallucinations and has secluded himself in the woods as a result. When Fukushima locates him, Jackman reluctantly goes with her to Japan and gets immersed into the Japanese samurai/ronin culture as he gets involved in protecting Yamanouchi's granddaughter Tao Okamoto from deadly Yakuza samurai.

I liked that they covered the Japanese culture in this X-Men Origins movie like they have had covered in the comic book and that the wild man Jackman struggles to be a part of the Japanese culture. Jackman is also a fan of the comic book and the Japanese saga and you can see this fandom of the book being used in the movie. You see Jackman in action as The Wolverine which was pretty awesome with his admantium claws and mutant healing ability, even if he does get his ass kicked sometimes. Having four strong women in the film, including Svetlana Khodchenkova, and Wolverine/Jackman's relationships with them in the movie is great.

Comic book creator and Executive Producer Stan Lee does not have his typical cameo in this movie, but there is a bottle of whiskey named Stanley's Whiskey. This is the first X-Men film to be released in 3D and IMAX. The film was scheduled to be released in Japan in mid-September out of respect for the August anniversaries of the nuclear attacks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, of which Nagasaki has prominent scenes in the movie. I would have preferred the Silver Samurai to be of human size than of giant robot size.

At the end of the movie during the end credits, there is a scene which refers to the next movie X-Men: Days of Future Past.

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

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews

RED 2

Summit Entertainment

Rated PG-13

Running time: 116 Minutes



Click below to watch the Red 2 movie trailer.

In Summit Entertainment's Red 2, in association with DC Entertainment, ex-CIA agent Bruce Willis - who lives a nice domestic life by shopping at Costco - has been brought out of retirement by John Malkovich because a file of an operation that they were involved with back in the 70's in Moscow, Russia during the Cold War has been leaked onto the Internet - and now everyone wants them dead.

In this sequel to Red, based on the limited comic book series created by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner published by the DC Comics imprint Homage, Willis has settled down to a nice homey life with his girl - bored Mary-Louise Parker. Due to it's comic book origins, there were several art graphics of the characters and scenes in the movie.

While Red was great in introducing the characters, I think I like Red 2 better as a movie more for the story and the characters in Red 2 had more characterization to me than in the original Red.

Helen Mirren is still great as a two-gun toting assassin. Mirren's scenes with contract killer Byung-hun Lee were delightful to see. It is rather touching that Lee's late father Jong Kun Lee is listed in the end credits as one of the main cast in the movie for the use of his pictures as Lee's father, especially when he had dreamed of being an actor himself. I liked the rivalness between Parker and Russian agent Catherine Zeta-Jones, both women of Willis relationships with women. Of course Willis was very uncomfortable when they got together. My favorite scenes were the juxtaposition of the action and Willis's and Parker's domestic scenes, or at least of Willis trying to domesticate Parker's action lust. Neal McDonough, Lt. Hawk in Star Trek: First Contact, was great as the bad guy. It is curious to me in that another Star Trek actor, Karl Urban, was the bad guy in the original Red movie. I hope for that the next Red movie that we will have another Star Trek actor as the bad guy. McDonough was practically psychopathic in his zealousness of getting Willis. David Thewlis initially seemed like a great character, but in actuality he did not have much characterization. Thewlis seemed more like a MacGuffin instead of a major character. Anthony Hopkins was quite appropriate as an eccentric scientist who appears to fit right in with all the other eccentric characters.

All of the characters were rather ambiguous as to which side they were on, which is especially distressing when you consider the stakes of what was happening. So it was rather distressing to me when MI6 and the CIA were after Willis and the other Red agents.

I am looking forward to the next installment of Red.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Red 2.



Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 116 Minutes.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

 

DESPICABLE ME 2

Universal Pictures

Rated PG

Running time: 98 Minutes



Click below to watch the Despicable Me 2 movie trailer.



In Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me 2, Gru, Steve Carell, and the girls Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, and Elsie Fisher, return to save the world.

This sequel to Despicable Me is Illumination Entertainment's first sequel and it's longest film as of 2013. After his daughter's birthday party, Gru/Carell is dragged in to the Anti-Villain League by Kristen Wiig to find out who stole a secret laboratory and to stop the villain from using the secret monstrous mutagen the laboratory was developing to take over the world. Steve Carell, Russell Brand, and Miranda Cosgrove reprise their roles - while Kristen Wiig returns, this time portraying agent Lucy Wilde, as well as Ken Jeong returning portraying Floyd Eagle-san.

I like this film better than the original Despicable Me - probably because Gru/Carell is a real single father this time now, as well as being brought into the game to become a hero out to save the world by the Anti-Villain League with cool cars, gadgets, and weapons. Gru is much more lovable to me, despite his women problems with his neighbor Nasim Pedrad trying to fix him up. The girls obviously love and idolize Gru/Carell, although young Fisher also wants a mother. The opening shot if Illumination Entertainment's logo and the minion Pierre Coffin prepared me to be in the just the right silly mood for watching Despicable Me 2. This is an animated James Bond film - as opposed to Monster's University's animated Revenge of the Nerds and much more enjoyable to me, probably because the story is more of a Hero's Journey. I also liked Gru's/Carrell's over protectiveness of his daughter Cosgrove from a boy, Moises Arias and his father's Benjamin Bratt's zealousness at the local mall.

As much as I love the minions in both this film and the last Despicable Me, the minions would have been better if there were only three or four minions where you can actually get to know them, instead of an army of minions. When you see the two or three minions at once, you are not sure if these are the same minions that you had seen before or are completely different minions. While the hundreds of minions, or maybe thousands of minions, are a major plot point - I would have preferred three or four main leader minions and an entire sub race of other minions that look different from them that the main minions managed. I am not sure if I like the one-eyed minion or not, but I am looking forward to the new Minions movie.

There were lots of musical numbers in the movie - including music from the Village People's YMCA, as well as Pharrell Williams Happy.

During the end credits, the minions audition for new minions for the new Minions movie. I am sure this sequence would have looked great in 3D. Unfortunately I saw the movie in 2D, but the animation still looked great.

Rated PG for mild violence. Running time: 98 Minutes.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Despicable Me 2.



Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.
 Pancho's Movie Reviews

 

WHITE HOUSE DOWN

Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 131 Minutes



Click below to watch the White House Down movie trailer.


In Columbia Pictures White House Down, U.S. Capitol Police officer and Secret Service candidate Channing Tatum winds up protecting the President of the United States Jamie Foxx when terrorists invade The White House.

This movie White House Down Directed by Roland Emmerich is basically the same movie as Olympus Has Fallen, but White House Down is sillier than Olympus. That said, there were a few things that I did like about White House Down that I wish were in Olympus Has Fallen. These things were mostly tactical in nature, which made the takeover of The White House even more unbelievable in White House Down. There were less Secret Service agents in this movie than in Olympus and also the Marine Presidential Guard disappeared as in Olympus Has Fallen. Although I did like the fact that the movie went more into the history of The White House in White House Down, like the burning of the White House.

I did not think I could accept Jamie Foxx as the President, but as the movie went along, Foxx did become more and more Presidential to me. There was still a little silliness involved, but Foxx seemed very Presidential. I liked that he was trying to negotiate a controversial Peace Treaty between the various allied countries in the Mid-East. I had actually liked the relationship that had developed between Tatum and Foxx during the movie. I also liked the fact that the movie played up the Presidential Line of Succession more than the movies have had in other Presidential movies.

Tatum having a daughter Joey King added a sympathy factor for Tatum as he tries to relate to his estranged daughter King with ticket passes to the White House since King's parents Tatum and her mother Rachelle Lafevre are no longer together. Hiding his disastrous Secret Service interview conducted with former college acquaintance Maggie Gyllenhaal from King was rather sad to see, although Gyllenhaal never seemed like a strong enough character to me. King eventually became a cute kid in the movie instead of the strong political blogger with videos on YouTube that King had started out to be. This resulted in Tatum and King becoming a sugary sappy father and daughter.

I liked Barbara Williams attitude about what her husband, the Head of the Presidential Protective Detail James Woods, is doing in the movie.

Having Jason Clarke from Zero Dark Thirty added a certain political credible continuity as an ex-Delta Force operative, although Clarke looks a little funny to me for me to take him too serious in such paramilitary movies.

Computer hacker Jimmi Simpson hacking into the defense system seemed more of a MacGuffin to me than being a major plot line of the movie. Nicolas Wright as the White House Tour Guide I did like in the movie.

The TV news crews were uneven in their gathering of news, but sadly can be the case - especially during a big event such as blowing up the White House.

I liked the idea of "The Beast" - the Presidential State Car - but that eventually became a silly car chase. That could have been great as a ground version of Air Force One. I look forward to someone making a movie about Ground Force One.

The small audience I saw White House Down with actually enjoyed the movie, so if you just turn your brain off and sit back and let it happen as an action movie, you can have a good time.

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

Click below to watch another movie trailer of White House Down.



Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews


 

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY

Walt Disney Pictures

Rated G

Running time: 104 Minutes



Click below to watch the movie trailer of Monsters University.



In Walt Disney Pictures Monsters University, before Mike - Billy Crystal - and Sulley - John Goodman - were Incorporated scarers, they had to go to school.

This film is the first prequel for Pixar. In this prequel to Monsters Inc. - a G Rated version of Revenge of the Nerds - before they were famous, Mike/Crystal and Sulley/Goodman are rival scare major students competing to be the best scarer during the Scare Games.

Several actors return to reprise their characters including Steve Buscemi, Bob Peterson, and John Ratzenberger.

I thought it was quite appropriate that the scariest monster to me in this academic setting was the Dean of the school, Helen Mirren. I thought the movie was cute - although I liked Monsters Inc. better, probably because of the relationship that Mike/Crystal and Sulley/Goodman were having with the human child Boo - Mary Gibbs - in the first movie. Mike/Crystal and Sulley's/Goodman's relationships with Oozma Kappa did not have the same emotional relationship to me, even with the big Sulley/Goodman going up against Oozma Kappa. Although I did like little Mike's/Crystal's tutoring of Oozma Kappa.

I was with my nieces, so we left when the credits started. As a result, I missed the fact that there is a scene during the end credits.

Monsters University also had the premier of the Pixar short film The Blue Umbrella which I thought was a really cute relationship film.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Monsters University.



Rated G with mild violence. Running time: 104 Minutes.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews


 

MAN OF STEEL

Warner Bros.

Running time: 1:43 Minutes

Rated PG-13



Click below to watch the Man of Steel movie trailer.




In Warner Bros. Man of Steel, Jor-El - Russell Crowe - and his wife Lara Lor-Van - Ayelet Zurer - send off their baby boy Kal-El from their doomed planet of Krypton to the planet Earth - where he grows up to be the outcast hero Superman, Henry Cavill.

Directed by Zack Snyder, and Written and Produced by Christopher Nolan, with Superman created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Man of Steel is a new rebooted dark version of Superman and Superman II put together in one movie. This is not the upbeat Truth, Justice, and the American Way Superman with a sappy love story. However, most of the symbols concerning Superman are in this movie - including references to the TV series Smallville. Released in 2013 - the 75th Anniversary of the creation of Siegel's & Shuster's Superman - Man of Steel is the story of Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Kal-El - with Dylan Sprayberry and Cooper Timberline portraying the young Clark Kent at various ages - being a bullied outcast struggling with and hiding his superhuman abilities from people.

Clark Kent's/Kal-El's/Cavill's parents Russell Crowe, Ayelet Zurer, as Kal-El's Kryptonian scientific parents, and  Kevin Costner, and Diane Lane as Clark Kent's human farming parents home in Kansas were great strong people. These people had to be strong people in order to develop the man who will eventually become known Superman, especially from Lane and Costner. Although I wish there were more scenes with Zurer. Nevertheless, you can especially feel the love coming from Costner and Lane for Kal-El/Cavill.

I liked how the U.S. Military was handled in the movie. This is how I believe the military would respond if there really was an alien invasion. There were a lot of military units in the credits that were thanked for their participation in the movie.

I also liked the relationship between Kal-El/Cavill and Lois Lane/Amy Adams. This was not a sappy love story, but a professional client/friendship relationship. Kal-El/Cavill was more concerned about his place among humans than a relationship with Lane/Adams. Although I regret that Lane/Adams did not have enough of the dramatic reporter-like scenes that shows that she is an award-winning reporter, this was more than in the previous Superman movie. Likewise Perry White/Laurence Fishburne was not used enough as the City Editor of the Daily Planet. White/Fishburne was used mostly as a victim.

The ending of the movie reminded me of the ending of The Avengers, especially the scenes in The Avengers of The Hulk battling Loki. I felt that the battles at the end of the movie of Man of Steel were a little too long and I was saying to myself, "Okay. I've seen enough of the battles. Let's get to the end of the movie."

I started to sympathise with General Zod - Michael Shannon - by the end of the movie. Zod/Shannon is still the obsessed bad guy of the movie searching for Kal El/Cavill, but at least I understood Zod/Shannon and his reasons. As the Kryptonians go wild looking for Kal El/Cavill, there were some plot points in the story that bothered me, until they were solved in a roundabout flashback way. Other flashbacks in the movie were handled better. It was sad that in the beginning of the movie - while Krypton is dying - the Kryptonian people were at war, following a military coup.

With Clark Kent's/Cavill's upbringing, it was hard to believe that Clark Kent/Kal-El had no regret when he and the Kryptonians started battling and causing damage, especially in a small town. During the various battles, you see the crowds running away but never hurt or killed. While those are implied, especially with buildings and skyscrapers collapsing in Metropolis, there is no obvious repercussions of the battles aside from all the damage. There was criticism that the people in general would not trust this Superman who had caused all this damage, despite his good intentions. He would not be considered and American idol and because of this First Contact situation, I could see the people of Earth giving up Superman to the Kryptonians and I could feel for Kal-El's/Cavill's forsakeness. And with references and comparisons to Jesus Christ, I could imagine Christ being treated the same way if Christ suddenly showed up today. With the millions of dollars of damage caused by their battles, it made me hope of a company like Marvel Comics Damage Control to handle all the rebuilding of the rubble.

There were several commercials in the theater before the movie played that had the Man of Steel theme. I had mixed feelings about that. While I liked the Man of Steel themes in the commercials just before the movie, I was uncomfortable with seeing those commercials in the theater. It made the movie feel too commercialized, especially when the showing was running late. I am not sure if running late is a new trend for movie theaters, or was just for that particular theater. The commercials just rather frustrated me as I wanted to see the movie and I could have gone for refreshments if I knew the movie was running late.

Because the movie was so dark, it made me long to see Superbman - The Other Movie again produced by my Orange Coast College film student colleagues Vern Dietsche and Dave Teubner for a good laugh.

I saw Man of Steel at a late show, and as I was leaving the fairly empty mall - a security guard asked me, "Did you come from the movies?" "Yes." "What did you see?" "Man of Steel." "I'm going to see that tomorrow! Is it good?" "Yes it is, but it is a dark movie."

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 1:43 Minutes.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Man of Steel.



Click below to watch the final movie trailer of Man of Steel.



Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews