Fast 8

8 Films about cars, hijacks, robberies and family….What more could they do with this series?  How about a heel turn? (As seen in the trailers).  But as with all heel turns, if you are a WWE fan, there is motive.  And there is a motive with Dom (Vin Diesel) that after knowing why he did it, he did it.  There is a scene though in a trailer where his old team has him surrounded, and he basically flips and destroys their cars, but what if he would have severely injured them?  Where would that turn then have taken this team?

This series seems to amp up a little bit more each movie with the action and the stunts.  From the bank vault in Fast 5, Tank and Plane  in Fast 6 to the Submarine and wrecking ball here.  It makes you wonder what they have left they can do for the next 2 films that are planned.  With making $500 million plus on opening weekend, that basically assures there are going to be more. 

This movie though was flat on the characters, and maybe that was a few of them trying to fill Paul Walker’s spot more.  Tyrese got a little more physical in this with more than just his mouth.  Vin’s character didn’t have that normal “bro” to play off of and with all the stuff going on with him and the Rock on set, you can see that void there.  The interaction that was the best in the flick I thought was between Statham and the Rock.  It would be fun to dive into those characters more, and maybe that’s where the sequels go.

I don’t know what more we can do with Dom’s character, and making him the focal point.  Maybe it’s time he takes a backseat to Tyrese, Ludacris and the others to get a little more freshness into the series.

Fast 1, 5 and 6 are still my favorites in the series, this comes up midway of the 8.  Still some good points that may make it to the Summer Movie Awards.

The Fate of theFurious 5/10 Stars

2017 Summer Movies Awards Watch List

Back for a 9th year, the (kinda in my own mind) prestigious Summer Movie Awards….Preview.  Ok maybe I haven’t done the preview for 9 years but this hopefully gets everyone ready for the ever growing Summer Movie Season, which I’m extending to include Power Rangers and the last week of March for the second year in a row.

This year’s slate is full of sequels, some reboots or reboots, a few newcomers, cartoons (for the kids), the Rock with a shirtless Zac Efron, and old faces in familiar places.  Also have a bunch of one offs that look like some nice escapes from reality and a few that could provide some laughs.  This year, more so than others, its almost every week that something new looks entertaining through the end of July.  August looks to cool off, but there could be some sneaky there and end the watch list ends with action.  

The SMA watch list:

Power Rangers (Mar 24)

Wilson (Mar 24)

Chips (Mar 24)

Smurfs: The Lost Village (Apr 7)

Going in Style (Apr 7)

Fast 8 (Apr 14)

Free Fire (Apr 21)

The Circle (Apr 21)

Guardians of the Galaxy (May 5)

Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Men Tell No Tales (May 26)

Baywatch (May 26)

Wonder Woman (June 2)

Captain Underpants (June 2)

The Mummy (June 9)

Cars 3 (June 16)

Transformers : The Last Knight (June 23)

Despicable Me 3 (June 30)

Spiderman Homecoming (July 7)

War for the Planet of the Apes (July 14)

Dunkirk (July 21)

Renegades (Sept 1)

Of this list, Disney/Marvel I think will be the big winner with Cars, GOTG2, Spiderman, and Pirates all coming out.  Wonder Woman I think could be sneaky good and a dark horse for Best Flick, and I’m thinking that Spiderman Or Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is the front runner right now.  The Mummy reboot with Tom Cruise looks like Suicide Squad & Mission Impossible together.  

Transformers, the first one was 2 hours of awesomeness, but every other one has been a disappointment, and there are 14 MORE in the pipe.  14!  How much more can Gru do, and curious to the end of the Cars trilogy.  2 focused so much on Mater, and he’s not been in any trailer. 

2017 MLB Predictions

AL EAST - Boston RedSox

AL CENTRAL - Cleveland Indians

AL WEST - Houston Astros

AL WILD CARD - Texas Rangers

AL WILD CARD - New York Yankees

NL EAST - Washington Nationals

NL CENTRAL - Chicago Cubs

NL WEST - LA Dodgers

NL WILD CARD - San Francisco Giants

NL WILD CARD - New York Mets

ALCS

RedSox over Indians

NLCS

Cubs over Dodgers

WORLD SERIES

Cubs over RedSox

Power Rangers

 

Ok, so going into this flick I had low expectations from watching the original series and all said instances created after on Netflix with my son. 

This isn't the 1990s cheesy Fox Power Rangers either.  That was a group of kids who were "good".  This, wisely, shows real life kids, with struggles and things to over come.  When the trailer came out I called it the Breakfast Club Rangers.  That's what it is.  And I think it really works well and should work well with today's audiences. 

The opening act gives a nice, quick, history of the Rangers and a lil tid bit of the many different types of Rangers.  The most of the movie then builds on the origins of the 5 kids and becoming Rangers.  Think the first half of Iron Man.  They really aren't Rangers much of the flick, and when they are its all really decent action, but also you get the lil bit of 'cheese' from the 90s which I thought was a nice call back.  The ending had a lil to lack, but really don't all boss fights in movies? 

The kids and Bryan Cranston all did great.  Alpha 5 was good, and all but like the last 15 mins, Elizabeth Banks was a great antagonist in Rita Repulsa.  I thought the end got a little too much catch phrasey and trying to hit all what the original show had and this didn't need.  She needed to go more Loki.

The end teaser though was a cherry on top and exactly how it should have ended!  Overall entertaining popcorn flick.  Not gonna win Oscars but would flip it on the tube when its on tv.

Power Rangers
6/10 Stars

Logan

 

Maybe a  few #spoilers here, I’ll try to keep them minimal if any.  Logan, I’m kind of still kinda of trying to process.  After watching it, and thinking about it some I think that this movie has to mark the end of what Fox created back in 2000 and then everything else with X2, X3, the spinoffs and the New Class trilogy.  This story should be the end of it.  Either give it all to Marvel or you have a new blackboard going on in the X-Verse with Deadpool being the start of that.  

Jackman is great as Wolverine and it’s the violent bezerker rage Wolverine we should have got years ago, maybe in X3 and all the other spinoffs.  There’s no real explanation of too why his powers are lowering till the end kind.  Unless you read a bit before going they need to I think more about that, maybe a line or two in the beginning.  Patrick Stewart returning in his role as Charles was decent and a nice end to his run as Charles in this story arch.  Laura/X23 was ok, but I would have maybe liked the roll better if she was a little older, say the Rogue age from X1.  Just as a younger kid, I didn’t like.  The villains were different than really any other X-Flick.  Which is ok, with this story they were trying to make it more emotional action than I think a big CGI flick.  It would have maybe been better I think if they could have expanded a lil more if they could have on them.  There were also a few minor little scenes that slowed it down in my opinion and could have been axed but the way they were used they were wrapped up pretty quick.  

Wolverine to me, his nemesis is always Sabretooth, and we saw that in Origins, which was wiped out with the Days of Future Past flick, but would have loved to see it end with a battle with Sabretooth and roll of into the sunset there.  That complaint/critique and the villains is my biggest disappointment here.  The ending, which I didn’t think they’d go that way, was pretty prefect and a sendoff for Hugh Jackman’s incarnation of Wolverine.  He put his stamp on the roll and the ending scene is where I think you get the end of this universe as it is.   

This isn’t a Marvel Cinematic flick, like Dr Strange or Civil War but it’s  one of the Better X films from Fox.
Logan
6/10 Stars

Lego Batman Movie

Everything I've seen on tv and read so far, this was a sure fire hit, and it will be no matter what at the box office. But it has a lot to live up to with the greatness of The LEGO Movie, and I think this one fell a little short.

The underlying message was there, and well delivered. Will Arnett nails Batman. Awesome like he did in The Lego Movie. But it lost me a little as a Bat-flick with the extra comical villains who were just added and the Robin story lines. Maybe it's just the purest Batman fan in me but that's where it lost me.


That being said, I did laugh and it has enjoyable moments and I will most likely be purchasing it when it comes out on digital.


The LEGO Batman Movie
5/10 Stars

Hidden Figures

Great flick! Shines a light on those behind Glenn's mission of orbiting the Earth and the Space Chase with Russia. The sad thing is this movie should have been made years ago to bring light to these amazing women.  

This brings also back a lot of seeing how the world was back in the 60s, and it was refreshing to see the changes the characters made. A few of them even had the packed theater clapping.

Costner and Henson and everyone is well cast and all perform excellent. I hope that Mr. Glenn got to see this movie before he passed.  And I hope all little girls are able to see this flick, its that good!

Hidden Figures

8/10 Stars