AVENGERS - AGE OF ULTRON

Walt Disney Studios

Rated PG-13

Running time: 141 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Avengers - Age of Ultron from YouTube.
 

In Walt Disney Studios Avengers - Age of Ultron, an artificial intelligence robot Ultron/James Spader threatens human extinction - and the Avengers must stop it.

In this sequel to The Avengers, and the eleventh installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avengers - Age of Ultron is Written and Directed by Joss Whedon, and has an ensemble cast of Tony Stark/Robert Downey Jr., Thor/Chris Hemsworth, Hulk-Banner/Mark Ruffalo, Captain America/Chris Evans, Black Widow/Scarlett Johansson, and Hawkeye/Jeremy Renner as the Avengers.

After the Avengers raid a Hydra outpost run by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker/Thomas Kretschmann, they run into twins Pietro/Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Wanda/Elizabeth Olsen who were experiments of Strucker using Loki's scepter. After Wanda/Olsen tries to overwhelm Stark/Downey, Jr. with a vision of the deaths of the Avengers, Stark/Downey, Jr. retrieves Loki's scepter. Stark/Downey, Jr. and Banner/Ruffalo discover an artificial intelligence in the scepter's gem and they use it to complete Stark's Ultron global defense program, designed to save the word. When Ultron/Spader becomes sentient, he believes he must destroy humanity in order to save Earth.

Amidst all the action, the movie sets up the Avengers - Infinity Wars movies with the Infinity Stones, as well as a hint of the Captain America - Civil Wars movie with the conflicts between Stark/Downey and his guilt of the possible deaths of the Avengers, and Captain America/Evans with his idealism on the direction and true purpose of the Avengers. Thor's/Hemsworth's vision in the film of the larger threat puts the movie on the path to tie all of the MCU together.

I liked seeing how all of the Avengers powers and abilities have improved in this sequel, although they had to use various Hollywood tricks to cover up Johansson's pregnancy. Hawkeye/Renner had more to do in this film than he had to do in the last film in which his role was pretty much wasted. It was cool watching the Hulkbuster in action. The Hulk's portrayal was based on the Peter David Hulk from the comic books with a split personality of each personality hating the other - which is intensified with his relationship with Black Widow/Johansson, in which you learn more of Black Widow's/Johansson's background. Black Widow's/Johansson's background is a similar background to a similar character in the TV show Marvel's Agent Carter. Hayley Atwell - the star of Agent Carter - had a cameo as her character, Agent Carter, in Age of Ultron. It was great having Lou Ferrigno as the voice of the Hulk in this movie - as well as Nick Fury/Samuel L. Jackson rallying the Avengers to stand and fight.

Seeing the Maximoff twins being there for each other and the use of their powers was great, especially with Taylor-Johnson running outdoors to give life to his running instead of running in front of a green screen. Due to rights issues, Taylor-Johnson's Quicksilver is a different version of  the Quicksilver shown in the X-Men movies. As agent Maria Hill/Cobie Smulders says, he's fast and she's weird, referring to Olsen's hypnosis and telekinesis powers.

I loved the theme song of Pinocchio's I Got No Strings for Ultron's/Spader's theme song. This seems appropriate both artistically, and that Disney owns both films. With Ultron/Spader having access to the entire Internet, Age of Ultron also has a more world-wide scope to the movie than The Avengers did as the Avengers travel around the world dealing with Ultron's/Spader's activities and his army of robots. The end of the movie felt very similar to the end of Man of Steel to me, but was a more positive ending as the Avengers worked hard to save the citizens while they battled Ultron/Spader and his robots.

Stan Lee's Excelsior cameo is during the Avenger's party. Lee says that this is his favorite cameo to date, which possibly may be due to his being a World War II veteran. The TV show Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV episode "The Dirty Half Dozen" - which aired a few days before the movie's opening - sets up the opening scenes of Avengers - Age of Ultron. Then a few days later, after the movie's opening, the episode "Scars" on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. picks up after the events of Age of Ultron.

I was at a preview screening of the movie, and there was Thor and Captain America directly behind me in line. Several people were carrying Captain America shields.

For those who listen to the music and stay through all the way to the end credits, there is only one mid-credits scene at the end of the movie. Joss Whedon confirms that there is only one mid credits scene, although there is a leaked second scene on the net that may or may not have been real and was possibly cut out of the movie, but this second "scene" was still fun to watch.

Avengers - Age of Ultron was on track to break the box office for an opening weekend, with a bigger opening weekend than the original Avengers, but was knocked out of the race due to the Mayweather-Pacquiao boxing match that aired that weekend.

 Click below to watch another movie trailer of Avengers - Age of Ultron from YouTube.

   

Click below to watch a final movie trailer of Avengers - Age of Ultron from YouTube.



Rated PG-13. for violence. Running time: 141 Minutes

Pancho
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Insurgent

Lionsgate

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 119 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Insurgent on YouTube.
 

In Lionsgate Insurgent, has Shailene Woodley and Theo James are on the run after evading a hostile takeover from Kate Winslet and her mind controlled soldiers in post-apocalyptic Chicago.

Based on the second book of the Divergent trilogy written by Veronica Roth, with Ansel Elgort, Ray Stevenson, Zoe Kravitz, Miles Teller, Maggie Q, and Mekhi Phifer returning from Divergent, the movie takes place a few days after the first movie. Jai Courtney and his soldiers search through the wreckage of Abnegation for an unknown box that has the symbols of all the factions. Winslet says that the box contains information from the city's founders with the means to end the Divergence problem which has grown beyond all control, but only a Divergent can open the box - so Winslet orders all Divergents to be hunted down and captured. An angry Woodley, who is the key to the box, goes after Winslet - who believes that Divergents will destroy their society.

I was not familiar with the Divergent series, but I did not have to see the first movie in order to follow what was happening in Insurgent.  It is good that most of the cast resumed their roles from the original movie to maintain continuity, with Insurgent being Kate Winslet's first sequel - although the movie Insurgent is different than the novel Insurgent. The movie had the feeling to me of The Maze Runner, especially towards the end, with both movies as post-apocalyptic movies.

This is the first film in the Divergent series to be released in 3-D.

The final book in the Divergent trilogy - Allegiant, will be made into two films, with Shailene Woodley, Theo James, and Naomi Watts reprising their roles.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Insurgent on YouTube.



Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual situations. Running time: 119 Minutes.

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FURIOUS 7

Universal Pictures

Rated: PG-13

Running Time: 137 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Furious 7.



In Universal Pictures Furious 7, Vin Diesel and his crew must find Jason Statham - who is targeting Diesel's "family" after what Diesel did to Statham's brother, Luke Evans.

In the seventh movie in The Fast and the Furious movie series, Diesel, former LAPD Paul Walker and the rest of their crew, Michelle Rodriquez, Tyrese Gibson, and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges have returned to the United States to live normal lives after getting amnesties from Diplomatic Security Service agent Dwayne Johnson - until rogue special forces assassin Statham seeks revenge against "the team that crippled his brother."

The three previous movies of the Fast and Furious films were set between 2 Fast 2 Furious and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Furious 7 is the first film to take place time wise after Tokyo Drift.

The move was released in 3D internationally, which is the first for a film in the series to be released in 3D.

My favorite action scenes were the car drop scenes. These scenes were done for real using a Lockheed C-17 Hercules as well as a C-130 Hercules and various camera angles.

I was not crazy about the fact that Djimon Hounsou was a secondary bad guy in the movie. As much as I like Hounsou, his character distracted from the intensity of Statham's character being the main bad guy. It is also kind of disappointing that Hounsou is being typecast as a villain. I have lost track of how many bad guy roles he has played. I also was not crazy about the fact that the crew never used voice activated headsets, but instead used handheld radios while driving. Considering that their rides are under dangerous conditions, using the handheld radios were rather distracting.

I was expecting Johnson to be playing a major role in the movie, but his role was basically taken up by the leader of a covert ops team Kurt Russell. Russell's character was fun, and I was never quite sure which way he was going to turn.

This is my first Fast and Furious movie, so I am just getting to know these characters. I did not have to see the other movies to enjoy these characters and their relationships with each other. I immediately got that family feeling from them, with Diesel as the patriarch. Actually the whole movie had that family feeling in the film, especially with Jordana Brewster as Walker's wife. It was rather sad seeing Diesel dealing with Rodriquez loss of memory of their relationship together. I think this is a fun, and sad movie to watch.

This movie is mostly known as Paul Walker's final movie. Walker's name is not shown in the opening credits. I thought that I might have missed seeing his name while watching the credits - despite Walker being a major character in the movie, even if he only did half of the filming - and was disappointed in not seeing his name. I realized while watching the movie that the producers would have saved his name for the tribute in the end credits. The movie had to be rewritten and had the rest of the movie filmed with body doubles - including Walker's brothers Caleb Walker and Cody Walker doubling for Walker, with Walker's face CGI'd over their faces. The Walker brothers also provided voice over for Walker's character. The movie does have a logical reason why Walker will not be in any future movies of the Fast and Furious series and I was satisfied and sad with it. Actually with the loss of Walker, I would not be surprised if computer hacker Nathalie Emmanuel becomes a new member of the crew.

At the end of the movie there is a tribute to Walker, including footage from previous Fast and Furious films. You could feel that the filmmakers really wanted to honor Paul's legacy. The movie ends with the dedication - For Paul.

Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 137 minutes.

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Kingsman: THE SECRET SERVICE

20th Century Fox

Rated R

Running Time: 129 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Kingsman: THE SECRET SERVICE on YouTube.

   

In Twentieth Century Fox's Kingsman: The Secret Service, a smart orphaned street punk Taron Egerton is recruited by tailor Colin Firth/Galahad to join an independent international intelligence agency to stop megalomaniac Samuel L. Jackson from committing genocide.

Based on the comic book, The Secret Service by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar, and Directed by Matthew Vaughn, Kingsman: The Secret Service is basically classic James Bond movies meets the British agents from The Avengers as well as a mix of Men in Black, without the aliens, and My Fair Lady, as the movie follows the recruitment and training of potential secret agent Egerton in which Firth/Galahad sponsors Egerton to compete with other various young potential agents for the Kingsmen, which includes candidate Sophie Cookson, and trained by Mark Strong/Merlin to become the next Lancelot agent. The Kingsmen are modern day Knights of the Round Table from Arthurian legends, with leader Michael Caine as Arthur. This is an over-the-top comic book spy film - which is similar in plot to Tom Clancy's novel Rainbow Six - and is a proposed origin film for a new proposed film series. The graphic violence in the movie is lessened by the comic depiction of the violence, but is still rather graphic.

It seems funny to me, but rather more appropriate to me that Egerton's training from Strong/Merlin did not relate to Egerton's final fight scenes in the movie, despite their relationship - but rather it was Egerton's training from Firth/Galahad which trained him for Egerton's final fight scenes. I wanted to see more of a relationship between Egerton and his dog J.B. which added some comedy relief. Actually, I wanted to see more scenes with the trainees and their dogs. I believe the dogs should have been a major part of their training.

I liked the fact that Kingsman has a world-wide scope, like a true James Bond film dealing with various countries and heads of state, including heads of state Hanna Alstrom and Bjorn Floberg. Having Colin Firth doing 80% of his own stunts made his performance even more believable. I also liked the fact that the Kingmen are gentlemen, with A Gentlemen's Guide for a strict code of conduct since "Manners Maketh Man," This Gentlemen's code of conduct is a major aspect of Firth/Galahad's relationship with Egerton. I also liked the fact that the Kingsmen have a stylish line of tailor's clothes in conjunction with men's style retailer Mr. Porter. The collaborations between luxury retailer Mr. Porter and various heritage brands is the first of its kind to make Kingsman: The Secret Service the first film with outfits from the movie available for the moviegoers to buy.

I was not crazy about Jackson's lisp in the movie, until I found out that his lisp represents a typical "dysfunction" of some form of a James Bond villain and is reminiscent of Jackson's own lisp when he was younger that he had overcome. It is quite ironic that Jackson's character is named Valentine and that the movie was released on Valentine's Day weekend. In a cameo role - based on a combinations of characters from the comic book, including himself - having Mark Hamil using his Joker voice was a little distracting to me considering his character as I wanted to hear his normal voice, but it is cleverly ironic that Hamil is in the movie after being in the original comic book.

It was funny to me that at the end of the movie, while I was leaving, a lady was telling the usher who was cleaning up, "That was a great movie, except for the end. That was so strange." I thought the ending was totally appropriate for a classic James Bond takeoff.

Rated R for graphic violence, language, nudity.

Pancho
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NIGHT OF THE MUSEUM: SECRET OF THE TOMB

20th Century Fox 

Rated: PG

Running time: 98 Minutes

Click below to watch the movie trailer of Night of the Museum: Secret of the Tomb on YouTube.

 

In Twentieth Century Fox's Night of the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, the living museum exhibits of the New York City of the American Museum of Natural History are acting strangely and Ben Stiller must go to London to the British Museum where the other half of the exhibits are in order to fix the magical tablet that makes them come alive - before Stiller's museum friends become wax exhibits forever.

The final installment of the Night of the Museum trilogy, Night of the Museum: Secret of the Tomb is basically Night of the Museum set in London as the other exhibits, returning characters Teddy Roosevelt/Robin Williams, Jedediah/Owen Wilson, Octavius/Steve Coogan, Ahkmenrah/Rami Malek, Attila the Hun/Patrick Gallagher, Sacajawea/Mizuo Peck, and Dexter/Crystal the Monkey follow Stiller to London. The movie goes more into the history of the magical tablet. Given that, the only real British aspect of the movie is Sir Lancelot/Dan Stevens, as well as Rebel Wilson's Australian accent. I would have loved to have Stiller and his son learn more about London and the British Museum in this movie. The movie is also the shortest of the Museum trilogy, so that also makes the movie feel not as satisfying. My favorite scenes are of Neanderthal Stiller and Rebel Wilson. The juxtaposition between Neanderthal Stiller and Stiller's music DJ son Skyler Gisondo is interesting as is Stiller's relationship to both of them.

The uncredited cameos with Hugh Jackman and Alice Eve were cute. It is ironic that Jackman made his acting debut as King Arthur in a production of Camelot as a child. I liked the fact that the uncredited Alice Eve portrayed herself along with Jackman playing himself.

It was nice to have Dick Van Dyke, Bill Cobbs, and Mickey Rooney reprise their original roles.

At the end of the film there is a dedication to Robin Williams and Mickey Rooney. The scenes with Williams and Rooney are heartbreaking when you think about them, with this being Williams final onscreen role.

Rated PG for violence. Running time: 98 minutes.

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TAKEN 3

20th Century Fox

Rated: PG-13

Running time: 109 Minutes

Click below to watch the movie trailer of Taken 3.



In Twentieth Century Fox's Taken 3, Liam Neeson is wrongly accused of a horrible crime and is on the run from LAPD inspector Forrest Whitaker and the Los Angeles Police Department.

In the third and final film in the Taken series, and Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, Neeson, Famke Janssen, and Maggie Grace return as Neeson gets a text to meet with his ex-wife Janssen when he discovers something horrible. Immediately the Los Angeles Police Department arrive to arrest him for a crime he did not commit. Neeson escapes and looks for the person who framed him while trying to protect his pregnant daughter Grace from suffering the same fate.

While I have always like Liam Neeson, this movie felt like a poor man's John Wick, although Neeson did do all of his own fighting sequences for the film.

Being a Trojan, I liked the fact that they used aerial footage of USC, and several extras were listed as USC students during Grace's university scenes.

Forrest Whitaker was pretty much wasted in this movie. I really had wanted him to play more of an obsessed detective in getting Neeson in this movie as the movie trailers seem to portray. Having Neeson and Whitaker matching wits in their various obsessions, with the police caught in the middle would have been great to see. I really wanted to see more of the police coordinating with each other a lot more in order to get Neeson rather than what was shown in the movie.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Taken 3.



Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 109 Minutes.

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INTO THE WOODS

Walt Disney Pictures

Rated PG

Running time: 125 Minutes

Click below to watch the movie trailer of Into the Woods.



In Walt Disney Pictures Into the Woods, a childless baker James Corden and his wife Emily Blunt must find certain items for witch Meryl Streep in order for her to remove the curse that she had put on their family tree.

Based on the Tony Award winning Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim, and Directed by Rob Marshall, this live-action musical movie intertwines the fairy tales of Little Red Riding Hood - Lilla Crawford, Cinderella - Anna Kendrick, Jack and the Beanstalk - Daniel Huttlestone, and Rapunzel - Mackenzie Mauzy, between Corden's and Blunt's original story quest of going into the woods for items from each of these fairy tale characters.

While I have never seen the theatrical production, Into the Woods seems well-adapted as a movie. It is a shame that due to the low budget, Director Rob Marshall decided not to shoot the movie in 3-D Adapting a stage production into a movie seemed perfect, especially moving the camera through the woods, as well as the direction/choreography of the artificial waterfall for the duet of Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen singing the song Agony. Actually I thought Chris Pine was much better as a singer than I thought he would be. Although several songs from the theatrical production were cut from the film, I love the ensemble cast of the movie with Corden and Blunt leading the way, and Streep singing her own songs live. Crawford's and Huttlestone's performances I thought were wonderful considering their ages, but then Crawford and Huttlestone are veterans of musical theater with Huttlestone appearing in Les Miserables.

This a a dark movie - and people should remember that, despite the Disney name, this is a Steven Sondheim musical and not your typical Disney family oriented animated movie musical. This is the second Broadway adaption that Disney has made, and the style and themes of the movie are slightly different from Disney, being a darker, existentialist, and more adult movie - along with the consequences of wishes as the major theme of the movie since the musical was not originated from Disney and does not follow the happily ever after fairy tale endings that we have all grown up with.

Even though Johnny Depp is credited in the movie, Depp's performance is really just a cameo appearance in the movie. The movie is not about Depp, but his performance did capture his character as it was based on the Zoot suit wearing Wolf from the old 1940's Tex Avery cartoons.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Into the Woods.



Rated PG for violence and sexual intentions. Running time: 125 Minutes.

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