philipmorrison-73118

Brie Larson gives an outstanding performance in this tale of a girl abducted, abused, impregnated, and what she had to overcome to keep her son alive. A young woman is abducted and then forced to live in a shed. The shed is soundproof and locked. Her assailant then gets her pregnant and she has the baby. The story begins after the child is now about 5 years old. The mother and son live in this one room shed. The kidnapper only shows up when he wants his way with the mother or brings food and supplies. They are given just the bare minimum to survive. When the abductor starts to see the child as a possible new direction for the abuse, she knows it is time to get the child out before it is too late. The script is well written. I believed every minute of what was going on and how it played out. I hope not to give too much away, but getting out of the "Room" is only half the movie. The other half is filled with deep emotional variances that take you across a broad spectrum of response to the situation. As a final note, a special nod of approval for the lady officer in the movie…very smart!

This movie had some interesting concepts, but also had some issues with the delivery. This movie is about a group of two guys and a woman and her baby trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. The woman gets bit, so it is just the two guys and the baby. The two guys head north where it is too cold for the zombies. The father, played by Mathew Fox, can't handle the trauma and becomes an alcoholic. His best friend, played by Jeffrey Donovan, feels he has no choice but to raise the girl himself and vows that his father will now have nothing to do with her. Time passes for 8 or 9 years and the little girl tries to get the two men to begin talking to one another and mend old feuds. Oh yeah, the zombies have adapted to the cold and are coming to get them. The filming of this movie is very dark and you can hardly see anything. The two actors played it up pretty well, but I couldn't believe for one minute that they would continue some long feud when they are fighting to survive. I like my zombies slow and dumb and these were fast and adaptable. The little girl does too many things to worsen their situation. The two guys have built a fortress to protect themselves and the zombies get in like it was nothing. A lot of little things brought this movie down from being a pretty decent concept.

Great Movie! Matt Damon does an excellent job portraying a stranded astronaut. There was a lot of realism that I liked in this movie. The movie has one basic mantra; how do I solve the next problem to stay alive. The obvious items are food and water, then the elements, motion, and communication. Meanwhile, NASA is trying to decide the worth of a single life. Save him by putting others at risk or let him fend for himself, which will mean certain death, but will minimize any loss? The drama of things going badly for Matt on Mars is pretty spectacular. At one point he nearly blows himself up, but at each point he just brushes himself off and starts with a new problem to solve in order to get home. I think it is a metaphor for life that we tend to miss. One of the lines from the movie is, "you solve one problem then the next. If you solve enough problems, you get to come home." I think if we took our own lives the same way, maybe more people would be better off. Solve a problem, then solve another, if you solve enough problems in your life, then you get to have the life that you want.

First, this movie didn't have any apparent connection to the 2008 film "Cloverfield", so it can stand on its own. I can't write this review without some major spoilers, so if you want to be surprised, don't read this. With that said, here we go. It was like they took two movies and spliced them together. 80% of the movie goes one way, and then the last part is just radically different. I was worried that this film would drag, but was pleasantly surprised to find enough plot twists to keep me intrigued. I'm going to give credit for that totally to John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. The interaction between the two of them is both funny and frightening. In several scene's, Mary has this glaring stare that says, "What the hell"? I know I was saying it right along with her and it was awesome. Add to that John Gallagher Jr.'s role as the mild manner boy next door who is just trying to survive and you have a 3 person cast that was just outstanding. The overall plot is fairly simple, a young woman wakes up from a car accident to find she's in an underground bunker with someone who could very well be insane telling her that the outside world is under attack and the safest thing you could do is not get out, but to stay in. With no supporting information and the fact that her savior is probably a serial killer, she desperately seeks a way to get out, but is the outside really safer?

Not the best or worst movie ever, but interesting enough. The downside: A lot of this movie is filmed in the dark, so it's hard to see. There are scenes that are so unbelievable, you just throw them out of your memory and don't look back. The upside: Chloë Grace Moretz does another great acting job. I'm really becoming a fan of hers and I'm sure to be seeing a lot more of her in upcoming movies. I don't think they'll make a sequel to this one, but I'm sure the next role will be even better. Nick Robinson does a decent job. Again, I think he has a very promising career in front of him and we'll be seeing him in a lot more movies. Here come the spoilers, so you may not want to read the rest. Movies need to do a better job of editing. It is becoming too obvious that scenes are filmed in tiny spaces and then they try to make it look like a larger space, but it isn't working. 2 spots where terrible for this: the gun fight in the ally and when the family 1st sees the spaceship. Additionally, I'm getting a little tired with the story line that 2 or 3 people can infiltrate a completely manned army base. Come on. It is just too ridiculous. Throw some of those ideas out and it isn't a bad movie, but it isn't a great movie either.

Comedy and Horror mix well in this coming of age movie. There are some brilliant moments in this movie so it is worth a watch. Zombies and children don't sync, so I would definitely not show this one to the little kiddies. There are adult sexual themes for a well-deserved "R" rating. The movie centers around 3 boy scouts that are getting too old for the camp outs and sitting around the camp fire. The zombie outbreak happens when they are in the woods and when they get back into town; it's an all-out war against the zombies. Add to that, a stripper that knows more about what is going on than the scouts and you have a funny group of survivors trying to save the world.

I discourage renting this movie. It was slow and disappointing; this movie is about a bully who gets caught. He sort of gets his in the end but not really. Not near the just punishment for the crimes he's committed. The person, who gets bullied, gets revenge, but not really. The plot twist at the end was not well defined. Mostly, it just took a long time to get to no point. Jason Bateman does not pull off the roll of the nice guy that has been hiding this monster inside for so many years that no one is the wiser. His wife's character is just a creepy wimpy woman that doesn't know her own husband. It was just a disappointing look into the human condition of what bulling can do to people as they get older.

A video of vintage video games are sent into outer space in 1982. Aliens believe it is an act of war, so they challenge the earth to classic video games in 2015. If the earth doesn't win within 3 lives, the aliens will destroy the earth. It is up to the hero of the story to play the real life video games to save the planet. I liked this movie. It was light hearted and fun. I don't know that I'll go back for another viewing, but I could see where a family with young teens might. I used to play all of the video games that were presented in the movie, so it was very nostalgic for me. I'm not sure the teenage crowd, that should be the target for this movie, will get all the references? Although I laughed here and there, it isn't the level of comedy I've come to expect from Adam Sandler. With that said, it was worth renting and I hope it makes it to Netflix or Amazon Prime, but I think it will get pulled into the Cable channel lineup.

This is a great movie for comedy/horror. Ultimately, don't judge a book by its cover movie. In this movie the good guys look like the bad guys and vice versa. Although gory, the bumbling way that people die in this movie is hilarious. This movie reminds me of the old Abbot and Costello meets Boris Karloff movie, but a step up with the blood and gore. Basically, a bunch of college kids mistake a couple of country boys for something akin to "Deliverance". The college kids don't know it, but the country guys actually save one of their friends from drowning. Quickly she learns they are not the murderous type at all and befriends them pretty quickly. In the meantime, the college kid's fear is the catalyst to some very bizarre accidental deaths. Then the country guys think the college kids are out to kill them. A great watch on Netlix.

This great streaming movie I watched on Amazon Prime. A group of friends gather for a dinner party during the passing of a comet. The comet seems to have opened multiple dimensions so that there is an infinite number of the same group of friends. The point of the movie is what if one of those dimensions is better than the one you are currently living in? What would you do to change your entire existence? Watch this movie till the end. It starts off slow, builds to reveal some plot twists and then a well written ending. Although the acting is just OK, the plot is excellently written and carried out. There isn't much in the way of special effects, but if the story is good, then that doesn't take away from the main story. Although I couldn't find a movie rating, I'd say it should be PG-14.

What a great movie for true Peanuts fans. This has all the great bits that fans have come to love; Snoopy whipping the kids across the local ice rink pond, the kite eating tree in both winter and spring, kicking the football, Lucy as the psychiatrist for 5 cents, and most important (and a major plot in the movie) Snoopy against the Red Baron. All the gang is here too; Lucy as the brass one, Linus as the smart one, Schroder dreaming of become Beethoven, Pig Pen, Peppermint Patti and Marci and the rest of the bunch. The animation is brilliant. The colors, the motion, and soundtrack all come together for an excellent experience in animation. The storyline and plot are double sided; a love story mostly, but then Charlie Brown does what he does best, bring friends and family together just by being himself. I recommend this move for anyone and hope they make more.

This is a very good "James Bond" movie, but not my favorite. One of the problems that I have with many Bond movies is that they are slow. The action scenes are great, but the slow parts in between are really slow. The various locations are beautiful and visually stunning, but again, slow down the movie. The plots in the Bond movies featuring Daniel Craig are better than in the past and are more of a continuation from one movie to the other, which I like. This movie introduces the Blofeld character, which is THE nemesis for Bond. Another part of this movie that I like is that the people who support Bond, M and Q, play a more active role. I'd like to talk more about the end of this movie, but that would be giving too much away. Let's just say there should be some chatter about the final scene and what it means for the Bond franchise.

You can catch this on Netflix. If you've got nothing better to do, go ahead and watch. This is a definite attempt at John Carpenter's "The Thing". The monster is a virus type thingy that grows and can shape shift. It takes out the drama of it shifting into human form. It just goes from monster to liquid and back again. Everything is moderate for this movie from acting to script to special effects. The budget was probably pretty low, so take that into account. To top it all, the ship was supposed to explode at the end and it doesn't so you can add editing issues to the list. The monster is kind of fun to watch, but not overly scary.

This movie is definitely worth a watch, especially for young woman (who are old enough to watch this type of movie) who are targets for this crime. There is a lot of blood and violence and disturbing scenes of abduction, but don't let that stop you from a good story line, well pieced together, and acted well. Tina Ivlev does an excellent job of the girl who gets away and seeks vengeance on behalf of the other girls abducted. She realistically dramatizes a person who has to be tough rather than a super-hero type that just plows through the bad guys. Probably the only issue that I have with the movie is that Richard Tyson, as the abductor, gives up information a little too easily in this movie. Sure, he's being tortured, but there could have been a little more to the script that would explain why he's divulging the information so readily.

Jurassic World is a nice escape movie. It has a ton of action and keeps you on the edge of your seat most of the movie. It doesn't have much of a plot line other than dinosaurs killing everyone in their path and our heroes trying to save as many people as they can and stop the bloodshed. They picked a good crew for the actors and I enjoyed the banter between them. You have to take a lot for granted in this movie. Throw away common sense before you start watching. If you start asking, "Why did they do that"? You are doomed. It's a thrill ride, so just buckle up, sit down, and enjoy it. Unlike me, who spent the most part of the movie going, "ok, that wouldn't happen", "stupid humans", and "who do they think they are fooling, that would never work". I saw it first at the movie theater and had issues. My wife hadn't seen it so we rented it for my second viewing. I threw out the common sense and found that I enjoyed the movie much more.

Just an OK movie for me. Streep did the best she could with the script, but the plot was pretty thin. It was nice seeing real life mom and daughter act together. I think Streep's daughter has a promising career. In fact, I think I liked her performance in the movie better than her mom. They picked good music for the soundtrack, but then had Meryl Streep sing them all. When she wasn't on stage they should have left it with the original artist. I didn't like Rick Springfield as a love sick puppy; too mushy for me. Although it seems he's the only sane person in the group. The personal dynamics in this movie just didn't make any sense. You are never quite sure if people are trying to work together or against each other. Maybe their world is gray, but it makes for a wishy-washy script if the characters don't make some sort of stance.

This one falls under the umbrella of good bad "B" movies; this is a perfect addition to my list. Add this to "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes", and "Toxic Avenger". The movie almost didn't make my list except for the end when the aliens turned the town into vegetables. That's when it made my list. The giant carrot with bulging eyes and whimpering to say, "Help me". How many vegetables can you name from the movie? The ray guns were obvious toys and you never "see" the transformation from human to veggie, but it was still funny. The acting was pretty terrible; looks kind of like a student project. The vixens were supposed to be slutty, but back in the 80's everyone dressed like that…lol.

If you like the old TV series (like I did) then this movie is worth a view. As a movie on its own, it just didn't cut it. There were too many holes in the story to fill in. The movie had a ton of unbelievable moments that threw my mind out of the movie over and over again. There were some cheeky moments that were funny, but not enough to make the film great. At one point there appeared to be a love story brewing, but that fizzled out. It is supposed to be a period piece back in the 60's, but I didn't find the connection to that time period interesting in this movie. This movie might be a good watch as a rental or streaming, but I'm glad I missed paying a lot to see it at the movie theater.

I caught "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" in 3D at the movie theater. "Wow" and "Outstanding" come to mind. It had all the formula moves from the original "A New Beginning", yet in 3D and better graphics. The 3D effects for the space scenes were outstanding. At one point, one of the space ships seem to come right off the screen and into the theater. The acting is so much better than the last 3 movies. Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher do an outstanding job of reprising their roles. The new girl "Rey", played by Daisy Ridley, did a terrific job as the new Jedi. I think that Fin, played by John Boyega, has some room to grow, but not bad. The other actors carried him just a bit. Fin, do better next time! There were lots of great cameos from actors that I like; Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, and Greg Grunberg to name a few. This movie does what a Star Wars movie should; make me want to watch the next one as soon as possible. I feel very confident that this series will be worth watching and adding to my collection.

Another great movie from PIXAR! You get to look inside the mind of a young girl struggling with her family having to relocate to San Francisco for the father's job. Inside her mind are different characters that represent varying emotions. You sometimes get a glimpse into the mother and father's mind too, which make for a good laugh. Inside Out is an outstanding portrait of the human condition, what makes us tick, and how our emotions tend to play off of one another. The vocal talents of the cast gave sincere emotion to the characters. The plot and animation was perfect and kept me interested throughout the movie. The ideas of how the brain develops based on input and outside stimulus was brilliant. This was an all-around great movie that everyone should see and enjoy.

I watched this movie on Netflix. The story is about a college girl who gets stuck on campus with only a few people around. A group of serial killers target her for the next kill to post on the Internet. I liked this movie for several reasons. The heroine of the story (Haley Bennett) is smart and acts that way. She uses a number of items to fight back; some of which are pretty ingenious. The murderous gang is led by a woman (Ashley Greene), who does a great job letting you know she is a psychopath. Lots of good, edge of the moment scenes that kept you interested. The acting was pretty good. The downside is that most of the other characters who die act stupid to get there. I didn't care for the lights going on and off in the hallway scenes (It didn't seem to add anything to the movie). And lastly, no campus is that deserted even on a holiday weekend. I do want to mention that they did an amazing job on Ashley Greene's make-up. You can hardly tell it is her.