Tom Cruise in a sci-fi thriller about a future earth all-but-destroyed in an intergalactic battle.
1. DJANGO UNCHAINED:
Quentin Tarentino wrote, directed and plays a small role as a bad guy in this intense story inspired by the 1966 spaghetti western “Django” that starred Franco Nero, to whom Tarentino gave a small role in this film. Full value for its Oscar nominations, and its win by Christoph Waltz as a bounty-hunting dentist in the American pre-Civil War South, there is violence aplenty, and a great turn by Jamie Foxx as a freed slave who is looking to reunite with his wife (Kerry Washington). A fabulous tip-of-the-hat to the spaghetti western genre that Tarentino loves, fans of the director’s style will love this one. I did! Rated 18A.
2. SAVE THE DATE:
This romantic comedy that had limited success in theatres suffers on two fronts – not much romance, and not much comedy. It’s the story of Sara (Lizzie Caplan of New Girl and Cloverfield) who turns down a proposal from her boyfriend, then bounces into a rebound relationship. Her sister Beth (Alison Brie of Community) has her hands full with her own marriage, and the story moves from person to person, not sure if it’s supposed to be a serious character study or just a quick way to get a movie into distribution. Writer-director Michael Mohan’s first big-screen project ... maybe his last! Rated 18A.
3. HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2: GHOSTS OF GEORGIA:
A quick sequel-that-isn’t, this one uses the title of the based-on-fact Haunting in Connecticut in which a family moves to a home because of their son’s health problems, only to learn that it was haunted, having been the previous site of a mortuary. This one has no factual basis, doesn’t take place in Connecticut, but manages a few pretty good scares before descending into typical haunted house activities. Abigail Spencer (Oz the Great and Powerful) is the young woman possessed. Rated 18A.
DJANGO UNCHAINED:
The horsemanship demonstrated by Jamie Foxx’s character isn’t just stunt work … Foxx used his own horse and did all his own riding. Amazing!
THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY DAY (1950):
Robinson plays himself, and many of his Dodgers teammates do the same, in this dated-but-intensely-interesting inspiration for the movie now in theatres.
42
A must if you like baseball movies, and a great piece of history
SCARY MOVIE 5
R-rated parody of the “Paranormal” movies
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES
Ryan Gosling great as always as another anti-hero, a motorcycle racer with relationship issues.
