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
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JOYFUL NOISE

Warner Bros. Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 118 Minutes



Click below to watch the Joyful Noise trailer.



In Warner Bros. Pictures Joyful Noise, Queen Latifah is made church choir director over Dolly Parton after Parton's husband, choir director Kris Kristofferson, passes away during a church choir competition.

A combination of Sister Act 2 and Footloose, this film is very uneven. While the music is great, most of the songs are popular secular songs used during church services - which felt very awkward for me. Very few of the songs the various church choirs sings actually mention Jesus or the Lord - and, of course, the songs are supposed to give greater glory to God. The film also is more about the relationship between Latifah's daughter Keke Palmer and Parton's troubled grandson Jeremy Jordan, who arrives at Parton's home after being kicked out of his mother's house. Despite the roughness of Jordan's background, Jordan is drawn to Palmer and joins the choir and is also a good influence and teacher to Latifah's son Dexter Darden who appears to have a form of autism. Darden liked one-hit wonders, especially Walk Away Renee by The Left Banke. I have always loved Walk Away Renee ever since I heard Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes do a cover song of this. The best scene in the film, the one that got to me, was when Darden was questioning why Latifah loves God so much - when Darden is really ticked off with God for making Darden the way he is. The scene was so heart-wrenching to me, and it really made me feel for Darden.

As a tenor singing in my church choir, I could not believe that there is hardly any rehearsal done in the music. There is choreography rehearsal, but no vocal rehearsals - which is where most of the work of a choir is, especially if you are singing harmonies. For such a small town/congregation, there seemed to be a large out of proportion amount of music ministers. It looked like there were more people in the music ministry than there was in the congregation. Are there that many musically talented people in a small town? In my church, out of 3,000 registered families, only .01% of the people are music ministers. Also, you only get to know half of the choir in the movie. The other choir members are just background singers and instrument players, and you do not know the instrument players at all. There was a relationship that was developing between two choir members Francis Jue and Angela Grovey which would have been a nice contrast to the dysfunctional relationships in the rest of the movie, but Jue's and Grovey's relationship ended up as a cheap joke. Although Kris Kristofferson has a song, Kristofferson has an extremely brief cameo in the movie - which was much less than I expected for the movie when I found out Kristofferson was involved in the movie.

The story itself is like a soap opera, with the focus of the movie on the rivalry between Parton and Latifa as well as the romance between Palmer and Jordan. There is no interaction with the parishioners of the church, just interaction with these members of the choir. Even Pastor Courtney B. Vance was more interested in the "business" of the church, instead of tending to his flock of people - and given the smallness of the town, you should have seen Vance more with the people as the church is the center of the community. Vance tending to the people is especially important with the town struggling with the economy and the closing of the local businesses. It is because of the economy that Latifa's husband Jesse L. Martin went back to the military for a paycheck to send back to his family, although nurse Latifa does not see it that way. All she cares about is that he left her. The theme of the movie was more like ME! ME! ME! instead of glorifying God.

Considering that Parton just lost her husband, you never got any grieving from her - and what happened to her family? Her sons were at the service and you never saw them again - and you never saw her daughter. No grieving or support for Parton after that. A couple of scenes after the service of grieving would have made Parton a little more believable. I have no idea whose child Jordan is as Parton's grandchild. That is how little Parton's family had an impact on me. I'm sad to say, just after seeing the movie - I found out my cousin had passed away, so Parton's lack of grieving and lack of support from her family had really upset me.

Rated PG-13 for language and sexual situations. Running time: 118 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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