Movie review | Page 7 of 23

The Secret Life of Pets review

The Secret Life of Pets is a great example of the less you know about a film the more it surpasses expectations. Prior to seeing the film the only thing I knew about it was what I saw from the main trailer. It’s rather pedestrian stuff with lots of sight gags about what your pet might do when you’re not home. Having seen The Secret Life of Pets I can assert that they saved the best stuff for what is not in the preview. This is the most even handed and consistently paced Illumination Entertainment film yet that is a fun ride from beginning to end.

If you’re going to the film arrive early because there is a five minute short film starring the Minions. It’s short, funny and leaves you wanting more of the chatty yellow creatures.

The first four minutes of The Secret Life of Pets is essentially the above trailer. They’ve crammed all the good stuff into the first couple of minutes, I thought. In reality it’s exactly the opposite and the film hammers home the funny with absurd pairings, excellent vocal work, dazzling visuals and a surreal plot that will all but take you down the rabbit hole. Read no further if you don’t want spoilers…….

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The BFG, Spielberg’s best (children’s) film since E.T.

In April I attended Disney Social Media Moms at Walt Disney World. One of the things that they gave attendees was a copy of Roald Dahl’s book, The BFG. I had never read it and picked it up one night when I was bored and it absolutely blew me away. It’s a fabulous book for older elementary school kids to read or a great one for parents to read to ages 5 and up. We were provided with the book because the movie version of The BFG is now a big movie directed by Steven Spielberg. The book is a classic and one of the most imaginative ones that we’ve ever read-the film couldn’t possibly stand up to those expectations, could it?

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Independence Day: Resurgence review

20 years between sequels is a curse or a blessing. It happens because there wasn’t enough interest for a sequel or it’s happening just for nostalgia. Independence Day: Resurgence is a happy mix between the two and then some. It’s a worthy successor to what kicked off the expectations of a summer movie blockbuster in 1996.

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The Conjuring 2 review, brilliant, well made scares from true tales

Rare is the sequel that surpasses the original. The Conjuring 2 is just that kind of unicorn though. Not only is it better in some ways than the original it does this while being part of the horror genre. Stop right there if the categorization of ‘horror’ puts you off from wanting to see The Conjuring 2 and consider how you might define horror.

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The Conjuring 2, giveaway for semi-haunted swag

We’re just joking about the semi-haunted swag. But after viewing The Conjuring 2 you might believe in a very large struggle of good and evil. The film portrays a family whose young teen girls were playing with a Ouiji Board and opened the door to a really evil spirit that takes over the house and one of the girls. This is one of the true tales from Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated during their decades of research.

Did you see The Conjuring? If not, see it now. It’s a masterpiece of sublime scares that manages to grip viewers without engulfing them in blood and gore. Somewhere in the 80’s ‘horror’ became synonymous with blood and gore, which is unfortunate because those two do not have to go hand in hand with a scary movie. The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2 hit the nail on the horror head. The Conjuring 2 is rated R for terror and horror violence. There isn’t much blood in the film, but there are countless life and death moments, as well as a sense of tension that lasts for 75% of the movie.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway is for four tickets to The Conjuring 2, two t-shirts (one gray and one black-both of which are large), a very spooky cup and a leather bound journal for you to capture your ghost scribbling. We’ll review The Conjuring 2 tomorrow in more detail. The movie tickets are Movie Money, so you can cash them in wherever the film is playing.

TMNT: Out of the Shadows, Shell up and enjoy the ride

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Normally when you describe a movie as not bad it’s meant as a slight. However, with TMNT: Out of the Shadows it’s meant as a compliment. For us, we expected Out of the Shadows to be bad and were pleasantly surprised when we enjoyed it. When the cartoon first came out I was a casual fan, but with our kids watching those same episodes I’m back down with Turtle Power. Out of the Shadows is better than you think it is, if you go in with the right frame of mind and are 10 or older.

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Ratchet & Clank is a serviceable, average animated film

To understand what you’ll think about the Ratchet & Clank film and its lineage, you need to acknowledge where you are in their universe. Are you a long time gamer fan of Ratchet & Clank, parent looking for some entertainment for the kids or just an average person who somehow wandered into the theater? How much you enjoy the film will vary as to which group you’re in and just how much you want to be entertained.

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Here is the Jason Bourne trailer

The first Bourne film was released in 2002. That was back when dystopian teen films about the end of the world; pretty vampires and Paul Blart weren’t even in development. The new Jason Bourne trailer is out and it’s simply titled Jason Bourne. Watching this reminds movie fans that The Bourne Identity was arguably the first American film the capture the kinetic, tight action sequences that are seemingly mandatory in today’s movies.

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