As the days get shorter, the nights get longer, and we inch closer and closer to the winter season, more and more people will be renting movies becoming couch potatoes.
Here are the recent movies we rented that you may have thinking about checking out. Some you’ll want to see and some are definitely not worth spending your money or wasting your time on.
LILA & EVE
This drama stars Viola Davis (“How To Get Away With Murder”) and singer/actress Jennifer Lopez (“The Boy Next Door”) as grieving mothers who join a support group after their children are murdered .
Great performances from both actresses with several shocking twists.
If you love Davis as Annalise Keating on “Murder”, treat yourself to this one.
GRADE: B
“BOULEVARD”
Robin Williams stars in this drama, the late actor’s last on-screen movie role. It’s new to DVD and it’s very touching.
You get heartbreaking performances from both Williams and Kathy Baker (“Picket Fences”).
Also, relative newcomer Roberto Aguire stands out as Leo, the man that helps Williams’ Nolan Mack to re-evaluate his life at 60.
Speaking of Aguire, I tweeted him recently about the movie and got this kind response.
A must see!
GRADE: A
“THE GIFT”
This psychological thriller stars Jason Bateman and Joel Edgerton, who also wrote, produced, and directed the movie.
Simon (Bateman) and his wife, Robyn, move from Chicago to California near when Simon grew up. They run into a man, Gordo, who claims that he and Simon went to high school together. Simon doesn’t seem to remember Gordo.
Gordo begins popping up at their house with gifts and you realize that Simon does know Gordo and it becomes very interesting.
The story line twist is original and downright creepy.
GRADE: B
“SPY”
As I’ve blogged before, I’ve never been a big fan of Oscar-nominated comedian Melissa McCarthy.
I enjoyed her dramatic performance in “St. Vincent” and thought I’d give the comedy “Spy” a chance with low expectations.
I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun I had with the movie and I laughed a lot — once you suspend some belief.
McCarthy and Rose Byrne were hilarious in the movie.
The biggest scene stealer was English actress Miranda Hart, who played a CIA agent and friend of McCarthy’s Susan Cooper. I definitely want to see more of her.
GRADE: B
“SAN ANDREAS”
Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) stars in this disaster flick about a massive earthquake, one of the largest ever recorded on Earth, that devastated California from Los Angeles to San Francisco along the San Andreas Fault.
If you suspend ALL belief in science and take the movie at face value for the popcorn thriller it is, you’ll enjoy it.
And, any movie that featuresKylie Minogue in a bit part is all right with me.
The $110 million dollar budgets movie grossed $470.5 million!
GRADE: C
NOW, LET’S TALK SEQUELS NEW TO DVD…
“THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL”
I loved the 2012 surprise hit, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”. The $10 million movie ended up making almost $137 million.
Thus, the expectations were high for the follow-up, which cost about the same to make, but only brought in $86 million.
And, it’s fitting. While the main original cast returned, the movie was enjoyable, but didn’t really add too much to the story and it really didn’t need to be two hours long.
The Bollywood musical number toward the end of the movie bumped it up from a “C”.
GRADE: B-
“PITCH PERFECT 2”
The 2012 original about the a cappella group, the Barden Bellas was entertaining, it spawned a radio hit, “Cups”, by Anna Kendrick and jump-started the career of Rebel Wilson, who played Fat Amy.
The sequel fell flat!
The only bright spots in the movie were the clueless, politically incorrect commentators played by Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins and the German powerhouse group “Das Sound Machine” (DSM).
If hearing Kendrick and Snoop Dog (Lion) or just Snoop perform “Winter Wonderland/Here Comes Santa Claus” wasn’t bad enough, by the time Fat Amy performed, “We Belong”, I felt sorry for Pat Benatar for allowing the movie to use the song!
Sadly, another sequel is coming in August 2017.
GRADE: C-
“MAGIC MIKE XXL”
Here’s what I wrote and graded the summer 2012 original, “Magic Mike”:
“‘Magic Mike’ is definitely a fun, hot movie that also has a heart. It’s not all about sweaty dollar bills, cheap sex, and chiseled bodies — although there’s nothing wrong with that. Who am I to judge?”
GRADE: A-
This sequel three years later was too talky and boring — flaccid!
“We didn’t want to show the best parts of the movie in this trailer, but it was very very hard to resist”.
That’s actually from the movie trailer. Sure enough, my favorite scene in the whole movie is featured 23 seconds into the trailer — Joe Manganiello’s character doing a dance routine in a convenient store.
I think the “XXL” in the title means “extra extra lousy”.
Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer, and Jada Pinkett Smith could not even save this movie!
GRADE: D
If you saw any of these movies, let me know what you think. You might have liked them more than me or hated them more.
Anthony
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