Anthropoid

It's the height of World War II, and Hitler has invaded Czechoslovakia and put in charge his third in command, a ruthless dictator in his own right named Reinhard Heydrich. As the occupying leader, he is the architect of something called the Final Solution - an ultimate plan to wipe out the Jewish population from the face of the earth. In order to end the Final Solution as well as the general reign of terror in Czechoslovakia, a handful of Czech and Slovak soldiers conspire with the government to assassinate Heydrich. They called this plan: Operation Anthropoid.

I'm sure there's quite a few people who might be tired of seeing movies based on the time period of both World Wars, if only (probably) for the reason that they are all beginning to seem to look and feel the same. Where most war movies focus a bit too much on the action and not terribly much on the drama and suspense, Anthropoid does the exact opposite. It focuses almost entirely on the planning and secrecy surrounding the plot to kill Reinhard Heydrich, and only in the third act does the audience see the plan go into fruition. Personally, I loved that. I love war movies in general, but every once in awhile it's nice to see one that doesn't completely rely on extravagantly cool visuals during the war scenes. I could feel the tension in the air when it seemed the conspirators were going to be caught, the thrill of excitement when it finally all came together. One of my favorite actors, Cillian Murphy, did well as one of the main characters named Josef Gabcik. Jamie Dornan, a.k.a. Mr. Christian Grey, did pretty well as Josef's partner Jan Kubis during the assassination plot. Charlotte Le Bon - whom I last saw in The Hundred Foot Journey - and Anna Geislerová were wonderful as the two women who Josef Gabcik and Jan Kubis meet up with and ask for help in their assassination plot. Not to mention, but from some of the things I've read, real life locations in Prague were used to invoke a natural feel to the film as opposed to creating the sets in a studio.

There's very little I'd consider negative. There were a couple of places where the accents were so thick that it was a bit difficult to understand what was being said, but I could still follow what was going on onscreen, so it wasn't a huge deal. It's also rated R, and a war movie at that, so I would not recommend parents take their young kids to see it.

For World War II history buffs and war movie lovers, I would wholeheartedly recommend seeing Anthropoid. It's a great historically based film that shows a different side to World War II than what is typically shown. To me, that makes it even better.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

In the year since defeating Shredder and keeping him from destroying New York City Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael have been living in the shadows underground in the city's sewers out of the prying eyes of the masses. Their friend Vernon agreed to take credit for defeating Shredder, and since then has been living the life as the "hero" of the city. Even though they all agree that his arrangement is best for everyone, life has been tough for the turtles. Raphael has been taking it the hardest, believing that they should be up on top continuing to help keep the city safe. As it turns out, they just might get their chance, as Shredder has returned, and he's got a new evil ally - an alien by the name of Krang. The mutant ninja turtle brothers once again have to step out of the shadows and work together in order to defeat Shredder once more, with the help of April O'Neil, Vernon and a new ally named Casey Jones.

I can't really believe I'm saying this, but I enjoyed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, I did kind of enjoy the first one as well. This one and the 2014 reboot obviously aren't meant to be great movies, more like a "check your brain at the door and just enjoy it" type. It's got plot holes on top of plot holes, with a really simple storyline, but there's something about it that was just a lot of fun. Personally, I thought the first one was better - better story, better characters, etc. - but Out of the Shadows was surprisingly well done. I guess what gets me the most is the fact that I'm not even really a TMNT fan to begin with. I've seen one or two of the older live-action films and thought they were completely stupid (don't even get me started on Secret of the Ooze...I couldn't even get through the first 30 minutes of it). I especially liked the characters of Bebop and Rocksteady. They played the stupid-but-funny henchman role pretty well.

The only things I didn't think were that good were Tyler Perry as Baxter Stockman and Stephen Amell as Casey Jones. Nothing against them personally, it's just that it felt like their characters were both not given very meaningful parts, so their characters were just...there. It's like the story wouldn't have changed much whether or not their characters were included. I got a little annoyed at that considering I do like both actors a lot. Each of their full potential felt wasted. The character of Shredder also felt a bit wasted, but not quite as badly.

As much as I enjoyed both Out of the Shadows and the first TMNT, I'm not sure I would like a third one. I would certainly go see it if/when a third one comes out, but it's not really something I'm totally looking forward to. If you have kids who love the cartoons, or if you enjoyed the older live action movies, I think it's a good movie to see. As mentioned, it's stupid, but it's fun.

Star Trek Beyond

It might seem exciting to have the opportunity to "...explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before". Captain James T. Kirk and his crew aboard the Starship Enterprise have undoubtedly had many adventures during the first 2-3 years of their mandated 5 year journey through unknown space. To be fair though, even while discovering new civilizations and expanding one's knowledge of the known universe, it can be easy to become, shall we say, complacent, to the point where such a journey eventually loses its appeal. Captain Kirk begins to wonder if it's time to leave the captain's chair and explore other opportunities in Starfleet. His best friend and right hand man Spock is feeling the same way - he contemplates leaving Starfleet and spearheading an attempt to rebuild the Vulcan homeworld. Both Kirk and Spock must set aside their ambitions for the time being, however, as they are sent on a mission to look into an abandoned ship which had been attacked by an unknown enemy. Their rescue mission turns out to be a trap, and so Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew are taken captive by a brutal, violent and cunning alien by the name of Krall.

Star Trek Beyond is the third installment of the rebooted Star Trek franchise, and it's safe to say that it's a heck of a wild ride from start to finish. It's easy to see the influence of some of director Justin Lin's other movies such as the Fast and the Furious franchise. The action sequences definitely had a Fast and Furious in space feel to them. Not necessarily an entirely *bad* thing, but also not necessarily a *great* thing either. Especially when action such as the sequences found in Fast and the Furious can possibly be considered a dime a dozen. I don't mean that in the sense that it was all just mindless action per se, but rather the adrenaline-racing pace of the action was obviously similar. As an action movie lover myself, I had a lot of fun in the theater. I could also see a notable difference in the writing between Beyond and the previous rebooted movies. With Simon Pegg in charge of script writing duties, I could see the tone of Beyond grow closer to the original, more philosophical idea of what Star Trek is, and not another Fast and the Furious clone. I hope that trend continues onto the next installment.

That said, Star Trek Beyond is not without its problems. I liked Idris Elba as Krall well enough, but it felt like something was missing to make him a truly memorable villain. I'm not really sure if it was his motivations behind his actions I didn't like, or something else, but either way I was left wanting just a bit more from him. The script did have a pretty creative way to bring Krall into conflict with the crew of the Enterprise, so that in and of itself was a plus. As mentioned above, the action is pretty thrilling and adrenaline-pumping, but (mild spoiler) the way in which Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise defeated Krall was admittedly a little weird. I'm not sure if I'd say it was bad, it certainly was creative, but I feel like a less outlandish way to defeat Krall would have been better. Really the only other true beef I had with the movie was the soundtrack. Maybe it's just me, but the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy doesn't really seem like the type of music I would normally associate with a movie/series such as Star Trek. But that's probably just me.

As far as the rebooted franchise goes, Star Trek Beyond is probably my second favorite. I'm one of the (apparently) few who greatly enjoyed Star Trek Into Darkness, and it also happens to be my favorite of the reboots. Star Trek Beyond is yet another exciting, adrenaline-pumping ride through space that leaves me anxious to see what is coming next. Side note: I know it's probably a long way off, but I really am hoping sometime in the future for a new adaptation of The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine. I guess we shall see if it happens.

Suicide Squad

A Black Ops team dubbed the "Suicide Squad", consisting of the worst incarcerated criminals is created by a conniving, ruthless government official by the name of Amanda Waller. This team, which includes Harley Quinn (normal but certifiably insane), Deadshot (sharpshooter/assassin), Captain Boomerang (insane street-level criminal who has skills with a boomerang), Killer Croc (body is mutated to look like a reptile), Slipknot (skills with rope and an assassin), El Diablo (controls fire), and Katana (wields a katana which can trap the souls of the dead) are tasked with bringing down a supernatural entity of an unknown origin. Their consolation in participating in the Squad is a reduced sentence. Once they realize they've been set up to fail, each member of the team must set aside their own selfish ambition(s) in order to effectively work together to come out alive.

I'm not sure what critics have against the DCCU (DC Cinematic Universe), but as I did with Batman v. Superman, I must disagree with all of the disparaging, and mediocre reviews. If anything, I honestly liked Suicide Squad better than I did BvS. Granted, I have not had a chance to check out the Ultimate Edition, so I cannot make the assessment that my concerns with the theatrical release were dissuaded. Suicide Squad has its problems, but it is not the huge pile of crap it's being made out to be. I found the story to be much easier to follow, since they didn't try to combine multiple comic arcs into one long story. Not to say that BvS's story was *too* hard to follow, but it was obvious since Suicide Squad didn't have multiple comic story arcs combining into one it was a much more coherent and well put together product in the end.

As with most of the characters of BvS, in Suicide Squad I thought they did a pretty good job (with a few minor details here and there) of sticking to the essence of who their comic book counterparts were. I think my personal favorite characters were Will Smith as Deadshot, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn.

However, the things where Suicide Squad lost me from saying it's the best DCCU film to date are:

1. Joker and Harley's relationship - In the movie, Joker is constantly weaving in and out of the story as he's pursuing Harley to bring her home. Now, I'm no real expert (I only read comics every so often, and have seen a few of the animated series), but as far as the comics and animated show(s) go, from what I understand their relationship is supposed to be an abusive, almost-but-not-quite Stockholm Syndrome type of relationship where Joker just tolerates Harley, and it's Harley who's actually the one in love with the Joker. In that regards it was weird seeing their roles switched. There were times where it showed instances of the psychological (and sometimes physical) abuse Harley endured at the hands of the Joker, but it was never a big part of their relationship - at least, as far as the movie shows. For all we know that stuff could have been happening behind the scenes. I do think Jared Leto and Margot Robbie as Joker and Harley Quinn respectively played their roles well, and I look forward to seeing them in future movies.

2. Katana - I loved the character; however, I wish that her character had been written as being bilingual instead of only speaking Japanese - unless there was an instance or two where she spoke English that I missed. She never really interacted with the rest of the group, and so the audience doesn't get a good chance to really get to know her. I will say though, there is one especially touching moment amidst the chaos where we do see a touch of humanity from her, so that was refreshing.

3. Killer Croc - He had a decent sized role, but I still wanted more from him. He played the giant brute of the group well, and even had moments (like Katana) where we saw a different side of him, but I was left wanting more.

4. Enchantress - As the villain of the movie, I think she did well with the material she was given, however it wasn't much to go on. There was no real depth to her character, no real gravitas to make her a satisfying villain. I think that had more to do with the script and not with Cara Delevingne who played Enchantress. Towards the final fight, I had hopes of seeing something magical (pun intended) occur and she would turn out to be a great villain, but it just sort of crescendoed and then fizzled.

All in all, as mentioned above, Suicide Squad is not a horrible movie. It's actually quite a bit of fun. This is one where if you are a comic fan (or if it just happens to look good to you) do *not* listen to the Debbie Downers and go see it. I know I'll be seeing it at least one more time.

Ghostbusters (2016)

One should be careful what they do as a prank, you never know when it will come back to bite you. Erin Gilbert knows this all too well. When she was in college, her and a friend, Abby Yates, wrote a book on paranormal activity. Thinking the book would never see the light of day, Erin forgot about it until years later as she is working towards tenure at a prestigious university. It seems that Abby never actually got rid of all the copies of the book, and Erin's bosses at the university randomly came across it. Erin meets up with Abby to force her to get rid of the book, and through the circumstances of their reunion ultimately loses her job at the university...but ends up proving the existence of paranormal activity. Erin and Abby begin to work together in order to focus their efforts on exposing the truth on the paranormal in New York City, eventually bringing on two other women to help: Jillian Holtzmann and Patty Tolan.

Like virtually everyone who heard the original Ghostbusters was getting a reboot, I was highly skeptical about seeing it. The trailers never seemed all that funny, and like a lot of people I thought the updated theme song was horrible (I happen to actually like Fall Out Boy, but good grief that was bad). After seeing it, I can safely say my first impressions were mostly spot on. It's pretty sad when one of the funniest lines is a character smacking the heck out of another shouting "THE POWER OF PATTY COMPELS YOU!". For about 2/3 of the movie I sat there constantly thinking "who actually thinks this is funny?" Not only that, but the chemistry between the cast was bad. For a brief moment I thought I was watching a bad SNL skit instead of a feature movie. Actually...scratch that. It was more like an old episode of Scooby Doo. I half expected one of the ghosts to be caught and claim they would've gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those meddling Ghostbusters. Either that or see Shaggy run across the screen yelling "Zoinks! Oh, we're in for it now Scoob!"

Now, to be fair, it wasn't entirely horrible. I did enjoy the action, with the final showdown between the Ghostbusters and the ghosts of New York being a pretty cool sequence. Towards the end the comedy began to be a bit more natural and legitimately funny. Leslie Jones as Patty had a lot of the funniest lines throughout the movie. It wasn't enough to save the movie, but it's not the worst movie I've ever seen either.

In the end, I would honestly say if you're looking for 2 hours to kill with nothing else to watch on Netflix or Redbox, then...eh, you could do much worse than this. Otherwise, these aren't the Ghostbusters you want to call if there's something strange in your neighborhood.

Disney's The Jungle Book

Living in the jungle is the only life Mowgli has ever known. Rescued by Bagheera, a black panther, Mowgli grew up under the wolves' protection. For years, Mowgli lived in peace among the animals of the jungle, though he never quite fit in - he had his own way of accomplishing certain things, and the other animals didn't quite appreciate his ways. Still, Mowgli manages to stay out of too much trouble - until a tiger by the name of Shere Khan returns to the jungle from being in exile. Shere Khan immediately tries to get rid of Mowgli for reasons unknown to Mowgli. To help the boy survive, Bagheera attempts to help Mowgli return to the man village where his real family belongs and he will be safe from the wrath of Shere Khan.

To start off, I have never read the book by Rudyard Kipling, of which this movie, the 1994 version and the 1967 animated Disney movie are all loosely based on. I've only seen the three movie adaptations. I don't remember much of the 1994 version, but I absolutely love the animated movie. It's not my favorite Disney animated movie, but it's up there. Watching Jon Favreau's latest adaptation brought back so many great memories of singing along to the songs and watching the animated version as a kid. Jon creates a beautifully dark, mysterious world of the jungle where danger lurks around every corner. The animated Disney film has some moments where there is somewhat of a feeling of danger and suspense, but Jon Favreau manages to actually make the audience feel the darkness and the seriousness of the situation(s) unfolding onscreen. What's even more amazing is how the entire world of the jungle is CGI, including the animals. I've seen enough movies to where I can usually tell what's CGI and what isn't, and yet I had a really tough time figuring it out. As far as the visual elements go, I'd go so far to say this was on the level of movies such as Life of Pi and Avatar. Scarlett Johansson is absolutely freaking creepy yet wonderful as Kaa the snake, and Idris Elba is a very convincing villain as the evil tiger Shere Khan. Newcomer Neel Sethi as Mowgli is a joy to watch. I think it's safe to say he's got a great career ahead of him if he keeps it up. A small warning - there might be a few parts involving Shere Khan and possibly the sequence with Kaa where really young kids might have a hard time watching if they get scared easily. There aren't any truly scary parts (this isn't something like Pirates of the Caribbean after all), but there are some pretty intense and dark moments.

For those who may or may not be worried about the dark aspect, thankfully the film as a whole isn't all 'doom and gloom'. There are a few times involving Bill Murray as Baloo the bear which brings about a whimsical sense of adventure. Not to mention, there are a couple short instances which hark back to the animated movie by recreating a couple of the original songs. It was great to hear songs like The Bare Necessities and I Wanna Be Like You on the big screen again. I loved it so much I ended up being in a Disney kind of mood and listened to my Disney station on Pandora on the way home. Heck, I haven't stopped listening to it since then.

Personally, my only problem was one humorous scene involving Mowgli getting some honey down from a large cliff for Baloo that kind of felt like it dragged on for too long. Don't get me wrong, the whole scene was funny, and a welcome change from the gloomy aspect of the whole story, but it also kind of took away from me being invested in the rest of the movie as a whole. That was the only part that kind of dragged for me. Otherwise, Disney's The Jungle Book is a beautiful, wonderful story which I firmly believe is a must see.

Zootopia

If there's one thing to say about Judy Hopps, if anyone ever tells her she is unable to do something, then she'll do everything in her power to prove that person wrong. Since she was young, all she's ever wanted was to make a difference - and the way she knows best is to join the police force in the big city of Zootopia. Everyone tries to talk her out of it, even her own parents, trying to get her to see how dangerous it is for a little country bunny in the big city. Their desperate pleas fall on deaf ears, and so Judy works her little cotton tail off through the police academy and earns her place as part of the police force. Her excitement diminishes when she realizes none of her coworkers believe she belongs on the force, and her job is reduced to little more than being a meter maid. She knows she has a lot more to offer both the city of Zootopia and the police force, and so when the police catch wind of a case of missing mammals, Judy jumps on the chance to solve the case on her own to prove her worth.

Zootopia is one of the best animated movies I've seen in recent years. I've heard a lot of people say that last year's Inside Out was the best Pixar animated movie, and I enjoyed it a lot, but personally I enjoyed Zootopia so much more. I wasn't really able to connect as well to Inside Out as I was to Zootopia. I'm not really sure why. Zootopia has a fantastic (albeit slightly cliche) message intertwined into the story of not judging a book by its cover, and to strive to do your best at everything you do, even if the task at hand isn't something you particularly enjoy/want to be doing.

Like most, if not all, Pixar's stories, Zootopia keeps you entertained with a riveting story; one filled with excitement, laugh-until-you-cry humor, and even some slightly scary parts. I don't want to go in to too much detail so I don't spoil anything, but fair warning: there are a few chase sequences which may or may not freak out the much younger kids who sit down to watch it. Nothing truly bad happens, but the scenes could be considered pretty intense for younger audiences. As far as the more sentimental scenes go, they didn't feel forced like so many other movies. I didn't roll my eyes once at any sappy, sentimental lines. For me that was a huge plus.

I usually don't like saying this about movies, I've always been under the impression that while there could be some good messages and/or themes throughout a movie, the primary job - to semi quote Gladiator - is to entertain. If it doesn't do that, then it hasn't done its job. That being said, I think Zootopia can fall under the category of not only entertaining, but an important movie to sit down and watch. I can only say that about a handful of other movies over the years. Yes, the message is slightly cliche, and it's been done dozens of times, but to me this was different in its delivery. I can't explain it, but I'd say that Zootopia is one of those movies that *should* be seen.