Oz the Great and Powerful

Set a few years before the events of The Wizard of Oz, Oscar Diggs is a seedy magician (or rather, a con man) who makes a living traveling in a rundown carnival show. He has a knack for charming any audience, especially the ladies. Oscar is the kind of man that the song The Wanderer by Dion talks about. He charms his way into people's lives and then when he gets to close he moves on to the next town to find some new people to con. You see, the girls he meets want him to be a good man and settle down for once; but that's not the life for him. He doesn't want to be a good man - he wants to be a GREAT one. One that people will remember for his wealth and stature.

All of that changes one stormy day when he runs into a jealous beau of one of the girls he seduced. As he's running from the man he hops into a hot air balloon and gets caught up into a strong gust of wind which carries him into a huge tornado. He gets knocked out during the storm and when he wakes up he finds himself in a strange, yet colorful place. A place filled with ruby flowers, an emerald city, witches and little animated China dolls. A land called Oz. Oscar eventually meets a beautiful young lady by the name of Theodora who informs him that the people of Oz have been waiting a long time for him. It seems there is a prophecy that a great wizard will one day arrive in the land of Oz to rid them of a terrible witch that has been terrorizing them. She tells him (much to his delight) that all the riches of Oz are his...but he must first rid Oz of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Oz the Great and Powerful starts off a bit slower than I would have liked, but once it gets past the first 20 minutes or so it picks up steam and becomes a fantastic thrill ride for fans of the original Wizard of Oz. I saw it in 3D, and while I'm not a huge fan of 3D, it was one of the very few movies I would recommend seeing in 3D. Oz does a great job of not only connecting the dots from this prequel to the original, but also of being a great stand-alone film. I loved James Franco in the role of Oscar Diggs. My only complaints were the beginning was a bit slow for me, and the China doll character seemed a bit too much of a whiny brat. I didn't hate her character but I felt she could have been created somewhat nicer. Oz is a great little film that will make kids of all ages (and even parents who loved the original) want to take another trip down the yellow brick road.

Olympus Has Fallen

Mike Banning is a broken man. A former Secret Service agent, he now sits behind a desk piled with documents at the U.S. Treasury Department. Almost two years prior, Banning failed to protect the First Lady when their car slid off a bridge into an icy river, resulting in her death. He's been carrying the weight of this guilt hoping for the chance to redeem himself and regain his position as one of the President's protectors. His feelings of guilt have taken a toll on his job and his marriage.

The redemption that Banning longs for comes in the form of an opportunity to save the President and his son. A small North Korean rebel faction has infiltrated the White House by way of deception; they make the President think they are a South Korean delegation to discuss the possibility of North Korea becoming a viable threat. The President and his cabinet are taken hostage, and after exhausting every possible way of saving them the government turns to the one man who could save them and stop the terrorists from releasing nuclear missiles: Mike Banning.

For a movie that has a plot that's been done over and over again, Olympus Has Fallen is pretty darn entertaining. Olympus has more of a believable plot than most action films of this nature where a "lone ranger" of sorts is left to save the day. The violence does get a little painful to watch at times - I had to personally look away when Banning takes a knife and shoves it up into a terrorist's chin, among other graphic scenes. Despite this, however, I still had a lot of fun. Gerard Butler is pretty fantastic as the gung-ho hero. Olympus Has Fallen is one of the better movies of this genre out there. 

It's A Good Day to Die Hard

In the fifth installment of the Die Hard series Bruce Willis returns as John McClane, a rough around the edges cop on the verge of retirement from the New York City police force when he gets a call from Russia informing him of the arrest of his son Jack McClane. He doesn't know what exactly he can do to get his son out of trouble, but he feels like he has to do something so he hops on a plane to Moscow to see his son and assess the situation. No sooner does he land and make his way to the courthouse when a couple of car bombs go off and masked gunmen storm the courthouse. John is unsure of what is going on, but one thing is for certain: he switches into action-hero mode and charges into the courthouse to look for his son. John spots his son escape from the courthouse with another prisoner and goes after him, trying to stop the gunmen who are also in pursuit of his son along the way. John must track his son if he wants to figure out why there are people after him and the other prisoner with him.

I'm a huge Bruce Willis fan and a Die Hard fan, but even I have to wonder if this series has run its course. It's A Good Day to Die Hard doesn't even try to take itself seriously. It tries to be more of a tribute to the 80's action flicks with larger-than-life heroes who will stop at nothing until justice is served no matter the cost. In doing so it defies logic with unbelievable stunts which would kill any normal person but does minimal damage to our hero. I wasn't expecting a smart thriller that would keep me guessing, or had any resemblance of a good plot in general and that is exactly what I got. Die Hard 5 is good but seriously dumb fun. It's more of an action-comedy rather than a straight-up action flick. I sincerely hope this is the last we've seen of John McClane. I don't even want this series rebooted. It should take a hint from its name and die a slow, hard death. 

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

The sequel to G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra picks up where the first one left off with Cobra Commander being incarcerated along with his right hand man Destro. Duke (whom we met in the original) is a part of a G.I. Joe outfit stationed in the middle of the Sahara desert under the command of a man named Roadblock. This outfit is prepared for anything, any assignment that their Commander in Chief has for them...

...well, almost anything. The Joe's aren't prepared for a sudden attack on their desert base which destroys the base and kills almost everyone there except for a few survivors who managed to hide in a well. As they survey the carnage they realize their country has betrayed and abandoned them in the desert. They must find a way back stateside if they have any hope of figuring out why their own government has betrayed them and if the Cobra organization has anything to do with it.

I'll start out by saying that I'm probably one of the few who actually liked the original G.I. Joe despite it's plot being strewn with holes throughout and stereotypical good wins in the end type of predictability. I liked the chemistry between the main characters and the special effects were pretty decent. I also liked the fact that it felt almost believable. I could believe that it was possible for us to have the type of technology found in the first G.I. Joe. It focused more on the story than on the special effects. The second one on the other hand, focuses way more on special effects and takes any ounce of believability and drop kicks it out the window. I also hated the fact that only three or four of the original characters returned for the sequel. I was hoping for the entire team to return. I honestly was a little bored with G.I. Joe 2. The first one was good but dumb fun, and I had hoped the second could deliver the same level of fun but it wasn't meant to be. I did enjoy it a little bit, but it was nowhere near as enjoyable as the first one. I'd say this is one to wait until it comes out on DVD and rent it instead of seeing it in theaters or buying it.

42

The year was 1945 and America, along with the rest of the Allied Powers, celebrated the end of World War II due to a victory over the Axis Powers of Germany and Japan. As one conflict came to an end on the international stage, however, a new battle had reared its ugly head at home. That battle was racism. It had been almost 100 years since Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which freed all slaves in America and ended the Civil War and yet segregation was still rampant throughout the country. There were still feelings of intolerance among the white community against the African American community. African Americans had to endure the fact that everything was separate - from bathrooms, seats in a restaurant, to even having to sit at the back of a bus or train. They also had to endure threats against them and sometimes even actual assaults.

This segregation had seeped into every aspect of American culture, even into sports. In Major League Baseball, for instance, African Americans were delegated to a separate league from the whites. It had been this way until a man named Branch Rickey decided enough was enough. Rickey wanted to break the unspoken color barrier and bring an African American player to the big leagues and play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Rickey's search for the perfect player to break this barrier brought him to a young, tough player by the name of Jackie Robinson.

42 is a harsh and powerful look at the effects of racism and brings to the forefront a dark blemish in America's history. I've seen several movies portraying this time period such as The Help, The Great Debaters, and Django Unchained to name a few; ones that tried to show the effects of racism and segregation. None of these movies prepared me for a stark, honest portrayal of the racism that went on during that time. This felt more real than I've ever experienced which consequently makes 42 a very tough film to watch. That being said, I firmly believe that 42 absolutely needs to be seen. My favorite part in the film is where Jackie is talking to Branch Rickey about signing up for the Dodgers, and he honestly asks him: "You want a player who has the guts to fight back?" and Rickey answers him: "No. I want a player who has the guts NOT to fight back." It's easy to want to "fight fire with fire" so to speak, but it takes a bigger person to stand in the face of adversity and not do anything in return but take the blows dealt them. I left the theater with a greater respect for Jackie Robinson than I had before. I do believe audience members with young children need to exercise caution before taking them to see 42 - due to the harshness of the portrayal of racism this is one movie where I don't recommend children under the age of at least 13, maybe even 15 see it. For those parents who do let their kids see it,  I urge them to talk with their kids both before and after the film to hopefully help them understand the gravity of the situation back then.

Silver Linings Playbook

Pat really loves his wife Nikki. So when one day he walks in on his wife in the shower with a random guy, he lets his emotions get the best of him and beats the guy to within an inch of his life. This results in a sentence of an eight month stay at a psych ward and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Once Pat is released he goes on a mission to win back his wife and continue the life they had before the incident. Along the way he meets a woman named Tiffany who is just as damaged as he is. Tiffany's husband died in a car wreck that she feels personally responsible for, and so she falls into a depression that involves sleeping with every one of her co-workers. As Pat and Tiffany get to know each other, their relationship goes from awkward friendship to something much deeper.

Pat's father, Pat Sr. on the other hand, doesn't like this budding relationship because it means that Pat won't spend time watching the Philadelphia Eagles (or in other words with his father) and cheer them on to the Super Bowl. Senior feels that the only way to express his love for his son and to spend time with him is to sit down and watch the Eagles. When Pat Jr. spends time with Tiffany to get ready for a a dance competition, Senior feels betrayed. It isn't until the day of the competition that Pat realizes that every time his dad sent him off to a game and said "I believe in you!", or sat him down on the sofa to watch the game with him he was really saying "I love you".

Silver Linings Playbook is a harsh look at the effects of mental illness, not only of the individual diagnosed, but also of the family and friends of that individual. As we get to know Pat we see the underlying issues he has to deal with concerning his family. He has a father who has never outright said "I love you", an overbearing mother, and a brother who seems to be the only one who has ever really cared for him. Pat's one true friend is a fellow patient named Danny whom he met while being admitted to the psych ward. Also, while Pat's family comes to terms with his illness and tries to cope with it, the film never really gives a satisfying "everything is going to be ok" kind of ending. Pat and his father patch their relationship, but it's built around the superstition that Pat is a good luck charm of sorts for his father involving the Philadelphia Eagles. It doesn't feel like a true father-son relationship. Pat's relationship with Tiffany has it's problems too, concerning the fact that both of them are fragile and they are mistrusting of each other throughout the entire film. I don't believe real life is all rainbows, sunshine and roses, it has its struggles; however, I wish that Silver Linings had ended on a lighter note. I walked away from it feeling a little depressed. It had its moments that had me laughing out loud, but overall this is a depressing film. I want to recommend it, it was really well done, but I'm not entirely sure I can recommend it.

Lincoln

The year is 1865 and the United States of America has been involved for the last four years in the bloodiest conflict in its short history: the Civil War. Both the Confederate States and the Union are exhausted and ready to end the war and enter into a time of peace. To reach an agreement for peace, however, is not an easy task. The South wishes for slavery to be continued if they are to be let back into the States, while President Lincoln and the Union wishes for slavery to be abolished. While President Abraham Lincoln tries to persuade the South to surrender and be let back into the states, he also tries to get a new amendment passed in Congress: the 13th Amendment in the hopes to kill two birds with one stone.

Lincoln is without a doubt a masterpiece. Daniel Day-Lewis is amazing as President Lincoln. When I first saw pictures of him in character before the film arrived in theaters, I had to do a double-take because I was totally taken off guard at how much he looked like the 16th President. The film is a bit slow at times, especially during the scenes where Congress is arguing about whether or not to pass the 13th Amendment, but despite that the entire film is phenomenal. It was interesting to see a different side of President Lincoln. Whenever you hear about him in a history book or on the History Channel you almost always only hear about his time as President and never about his family life. Lincoln shows us his devotion to his family in the midst of all his political troubles. The film also suggests that President Lincoln resorted to not-so-honest methods of passing the 13th Amendment: he hires a few lobbyists to persuade Congressmen to vote in favor (although he forbids them to outright bribe the voters with money).

I'm not normally a historical fiction kind of guy when it comes to films, but Lincoln is one of the best historically based films I've seen in recent years. I wouldn't be surprised if Daniel Day-Lewis was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the 16th President.