Friday, July 26, 2013

The Wolverine (2013)

Rated: PG13 - Runtime: 129 min
tesg's Rating: Two and one half stars (out of four)

The first half of this movie actually feels like a Bourne movie.  Which is kind of cool.  And it's mostly set in Japan.  Which is also kind of cool.  And Wolverine has a live-action Japanese anime-inspired sidechick who reminds me of Hitgirl.  Cool.

Yet The Wolverine series just isn't as cool as the other Marvel series.  It sort of has that "shot cheap in Canada" syndicated television series vibe.  More like "Highlander: The Series" than, say, "Twilight", but there you go.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

The Way, Way Back (2013)

Rated: PG13 - Runtime: 103 min
tesg's Rating: Three stars (out of four)

As coming-of-age teen summer movies go, this one has a script chock full of cliches and quirky characters.  But it makes up for that in charm.  And I have a soft spot for movies where the cute blonde befriends the dork.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Pacific Rim (2013)

Rated: PG13 - Runtime: 131 min
tesg's Rating: Two and one half stars (out of four)

There's a certain segment of the movie-going audience...the low-budget sci-fi and Japanese rubber monster fans...who are going to go ape over this and consider it a masterpiece.

Trouble is, it ISN'T a low-budget movie.  It's reportedly a $190 million budget movie.  And there simply aren't enough of those fans to make this profitable.

The script is pretty basic, but the action is good.  Lots of great visuals.  Ron Perlman's character is by far the best part.  Too bad they didn't just make a movie around him.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Much Ado About Nothing (2013)

Rated: PG13 - Runtime: 107 min
tesg's Rating: Three stars (out of four)

Shot at the home of Joss Whedon, a Shakespeare fan who supposedly stages stuff like this at home with his friends routinely, this is a black-and-white modern-day take of "Much Ado About Nothing" with one exception...the dialogue is Shakespeare's original text.

Meaning it's like watching a romantic comedy written by Yoda.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

The Lone Ranger (2013)

Rated: PG13 - Runtime: 149 min
tesg's Rating: Two and one half stars (out of four)

This has a really awesome grand finale.  The two hours it takes to get to said grand finale, however, is on Sherlock Holmes level ridiculous, yet not as clever.  Depp's Tonto, played largely for comic relief, is the only memorable character.

Still, better than I expected it to be...which is to say I wasn't expecting much at all.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Monsters University (2013)

Rated: G - Runtime: 102 min
tesg's Rating: Two stars (out of four)

Noting that I'm a huge fan of "Monsters, Inc", I can safely say the prequel will NOT appear in my video collection.

I didn't have terribly high expectations for this, but I certainly expected it to be better than a straight-to-video quality offshoot, which is about what it is.  It's not funny.  It's not creative.  It just exists for profit.

It's actually sort of depressing.