2014 Summer Movies

The BIG popcorn movies seem to stretch a little earlier to avoid each other for weekend box offices, so I’m gonna have to adjust the Summer Movie Awards to reach to spring months.

The list of this year of potential movies I'll see in theater (I won't get to all of them) - Captain America : The Winter Soldier ; Rio 2 ; Draft Day ; Transcendence ; The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ; Neighbors ; Chef ; X-Men Days of Future Past ; Maleficent ; How to Train Your Dragon 2 ; Transformers 4 ; Tammy ; Planes 2 ; Guardians of the Galaxy ; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ; Expendables 3.

I’m a little more excited since my kids are getting older, they are getting more into the non-cartoon movies and I get to share a few of the movies with them. My boy’s most excited for the Ninja Turtles. I will say I’m kinda curious as to how that will come out too. I’m not that big on what Michael Bay does to some of these franchises and well Megan Fox. But if it focuses on the Turtles it’s all good!  Addyson is excited about Maleficent though I wonder if it will scare her any.
X-Men and Captain America 2 are my most anticipated ones.

2011 Summer Movie Awards

It's that time of year again, football is starting along with school and my time at the theater is going to be declining.....and also time for my 3rd Annual Summer Movie Awards.  I was able to 7 summer movies this year.  In order they are Thor, Bridesmaids, KungFu Panda 2, XMen First Class, Transformers 3, Cars 2 and Captain America.  This Summer definitely has a SUPER HERO feel to it with the 3 Marvel movies and the Green Lantern too.  With out further ado here are the 2011 Awards.

Best Movie 

XMen First Class

Best Dude

James McAvoy : Charles Xavier : XMEN First Class

Best Dudette

Melissa McCarthy : Megan : Bridesmaids

Best Scene

Magneto as a young boy with Sebastian Shaw in Poland Nazi Concentration Camp  - You really see what builds Erik’s 

personality. : XMEN First Class

-Honorable Mention - Charles and Erik recruiting mutants and the cameo by one Wolverine. : XMEN First Class

-Honorable Mention - Sam watching the execution of Bumblebee…the connection between the two is seen there. : Transformers 3

Best Fight

Optimus Prime vs Sentinel Prime vs Megatron…could have been longer with all 3…something the WWE would have been jealous of. : Transformers 3
-Honorable Mention - Captain America vs Red Skull in the Valkyrie : Captain America The First Avenger

Biggest Dud

Cars 2 - Cars was such a great movie, this one just fell flat, a miss by Pixar

Anticipated Sequel

XMen - I want to see this expand and tell more stories.  There are so many more XMen stories to tell..Wolverine 2 needs to be its own story arc…keep the XMen Story line characters and Wolverine characters separate.

Summer movie not seen that I want too

Fast Five

XMen First Class

Marvel’s second feature film this summer after Thor is XMen First Class.  A prequel to the XMen Trilogy that was given to us in the 2000s.  This takes pieces from the first film and expands to show how Erik and Charles become friends.  The movie also introduces some new mutants to us in Havoc, Angel Salvadore, Darwin, Banshee, Azazel, Riptide and Sebastian Shaw.  Also the introduction to the connection between Charles and Moria McTaggert.  The movie from the get go I thought was all action and great character development.  You were immediately immersed in to Erik’s world as a young boy in a concentration camp, and also into how Charles first used his powers and his maturity with them.  Along those lines Matthew Vaughn takes you back to the world events of the 1960s with the Cold War and Cuba Missile Crisis.  You can see the influence and hatred that Erik has for Shaw, along with the way that Erik thinks and views the World of Humans and Mutants and how Charles views the world.  Beast is shown as a young man here, and Mystique as a young child.  We learn how Beast gets his blue fur and becomes the Beast, and Mystique’s view of how she is mistreated by her blue skin.  Kevin Bacon was an excellent villain and you get great performances from James McAvoy (Charles) and Michael Fassbender(Erik).  You also see a few cameos too, not to ruin the scene but there is a scene with our favorite Wolverine.  You see a few cameos too, not to ruin the scene but there is a scene with our favorite Wolverine. 

This is by far the best movie I’ve seen in the XMEN series.  I was literally on the edge of my seat.  It is the front runner for my summer movie awards and I’m guessing is going to be the winner for a few awards.  It’s in a tie for the 3^rd best SuperHero movie ive seen with Iron Man and behind Spiderman 2 and The Dark Knight.

This is a great movie!  Go see it! 

4/5 Stars easy.

Now some issues I have with the Xmen series or movies.  This may contain some spoilers so read at your own risk.  This movie ties well with the original series, but if you are an XMen fan, this is not Charles first class.  His first class is Beast, IceMan, Cyclops, Angel and Jean Grey.  Not this kids but yea you needed to go backwards.  There are some character issues in this movie and XMen Origins:Wolverine.  In Origins Charles has the use of his legs, we see in this movie that he doesn’t at the end of the movie.  Moria in this movie is a CIA agent, at the end of the 3^rd XMEN movie and in the comics she is a Doctor.  Emma Frost is in XMen Origins:Wolverine as a child in the 70s/80s but she’s a grown women in the 60s?  I did like this carnation of her better than in Origins.  So there are my few character questions.  

Best and Worst of the Weekend – 15 year reunion

Best – So the weekend was pretty good on a whole.  Friday we didn’t do to much as I knew that Saturday was going to be a long day with things packed back to back to back.  Had all 3 kids out cold by 9pm! 

Saturday was a flurry.  Brayden had his end of year program with Lil Scholars preschool.  He was up on stage singing (and sometimes just standing) but he did a good job.  When he went up to get his certificate I let out a “way to go brady!” and he stopped on stage to look back not knowing where I was.  Was kind of funny.  Then we had to rush him out and get him to his Bam Bam game.  He had already been up for a while being the first one up, so this was an adventure.  He was getting to the point of being tired and crabby and just ornery.  He didn’t want to play and was hungry and more interested in the rocks and dirt.  Not to mention it was kind of warm too.  He got through about an inning and a half before tapping out.  He didn’t want to run past 1^st his second at bat. 

After that it was home and pack for Garwin.  I had my 15 year reunion on Saturday.  Can’t believe it’s been 15 years since we graduated.  We had about 12 of our class of 35 there.  I think we had more kids there than classmates.  But it was fun.  I’ve seen a few people since then with just running around Des Moines, and softball and stuff.  Others I hadn’t seen in a while.  Was really good to catch up with them and see them again.  Also loved being back in Garwin and at the park we just let the kids run and play.  Can’t do that here in Des Moines so much, so I loved just giving them that freedom.  They did pretty good too.  Afterwards drove around town and saw the new school addition, that looks really nice.  Then we drove around to see both the old houses and grandma’s old house.  Was kind of nostalgic and fun.  Loved growing up there! 

Saturday night we went to drive to see dad in Marshalltown then.  Mom was gone in Memphis all week so thought he needed a visitor.  He was sleeping when we got there, no surprise.  The kids ate a brownie there and we left some with dad.   Brayden wanted to stay with grandpa, probably will get them there some weekend so he can play with grandpa.  On the way home the kids were out cold, and took a bit to wake them up to get them in the house. 

Sunday I told the kids I’d make them pancakes and then get them outside and doing stuff in the morning before it got hot.  We hit Columbus Park to swing a bit and then one of their favorites, the sculpture park.  They just ran.  Addy I think may be a good little runner.  She was moving pretty good.  Brayden will get there, he just needs a little more time to get longer legs to keep up with Addy.  After that we went to Pete Crivario Park and the wading pool.  The kids and I were there 2 hours playing.  They loved the water, played with other kids and ate lunch.  Were pretty good there.  Brayden then CRASHED big time!  It was nice.  I got about a 30 min nap in.  Not long enough.  The rest of the day was keeping cool, grilling and watching X-Men.

Worst – one little accident Brayden had at the wading pool.  I’ll keep it at that. :)

On tap – I hope to get to see XMen First Class sometime this week.  Also 2 more bam bam games and also 2 softball games.  So a busy week!

Grab your popcorn...

The snow has melted….well for some of us, the NCAA tournament is over and the Sun is coming out.  Also with that trailers are starting to hit the airways.  So I took a quick gander at the calendar and what movies will be rolling out this summer that I’m going to be marking on my calendar that I want to go see.

It all starts out on May 6^th with THOR.  One of Marvel’s singular films that helps set up the super hero montage that is The Avengers.  I think this movie will be decent, but the one question I have is how are they going to tie a mythical character like Thor into the real world that is already set up with Iron Man and kind of The Hulk?

Next is the 4^th installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean on May 20^th.  A cash cow for Disney, I hope this one is more like the first pirates than the 2^nd or 3^rd.  They were a disappointment for me, but the first one was amazing.  Please be more like the first. 

May 27^th is a double feature weekend or sequels.  Kung Fu Panda 2 (which apparently is 2 of 6 Panda films to be made?) is going to probably steal the box office with all the kids wanting to see this.  I loved the first one, hope this one continues it.  I’m sure it will.  Then the Hangover 2 comes this weekend also.  Really can you get better than the first?  I think they are taking a big risk at damaging the first with the second.  If it flops, I think it hurts the first one.  Hope they know what they are doing.  That being said, still hope I laugh my ass off at this one.

A week later, X-Men:The First Class.  Jump back about 30 years from when X-Men came out when Charles Xavier and Magneto are buddies and just building the X-Mansion and school.  As an X-Men fan I’m going to question this one a bit.  The first X-Men were Cyclops, Beast, Jean Grey and IceMan.  That changed a bit with a young IceMan in the first 3 movies.  Then apparently Emma Frost is in this movie and older than when she was in Wolverine?  How’s that fly?  Also they have 2 sequels possibly green lit after this movie too? 

June 10^th comes Super 8.  JJ Abrams (Star Trek) teams up with Steven Speilberg for a movie I really know nothing about.  The trailers don’t show much but I like that, don’t show us the whole movie in a trailer.  Will be interesting to see what this one is all about.

Another week, another movie..here comes Green Lantern.  DC Comics gets away from Superman and Batman and puts another star on the big screen.  Ryan Reynolds (also plays Marvel’s Deadpool) dons the green ring in from what I’ve seen from trailers, looks like a fun movie, I’m going to say kind of like the first Fantastic Four movie.

June 24^th I’m sad to say has what I’m going to target as looking to be the most disappointing movie of the summer that I’ll be seeing…Cars 2.  Mater and Lightning travel the world and racing but then become spys?  I’m not sure how this one is going to fly.  But since my boy loves Cars, we will be seeing it.

Transformers 3 Dark Side of the Moon comes out on July 1^st.  This one has to be better than T2 mostly because it can’t be any worse.  The first Transformers was a huge hit, 2+ hours of awesomeness.  The second film I didn’t really care for, the story sucked, some of the jokes were bad….it was like the Megan Fox show off show and to many robots that didn’t get enough air time to get more in depth into the story.

The final movie I’m looking forward to this summer (as of right now) I have the highest hopes for.  It was screened and got rave reviews apparently.  Another Marvel film that is to lead up to the super hero montage, the Avengers….Captain America.  Chris Evans takes the role of Cap and Hugo Weaving the Red Skull.  Tied into this movie is bits from Iron Man and the Hulk.  Which makes me confused as to how Thor is going to tie into it.

Again at the end of summer (around the middle of August) I’ll again be doing my Summer Movie Awards so hopefully I’ll get to all these 10, and maybe a few more. 

2010 Summer Movie lineup

·         Thor – May 6

·         Pirates – May 20

·         Hangover 2 – May 26

·         Kung fu panda 2 – May 27

·         X-Men first class – June 3

·         Super 8 – June 10

·         Cars 2 – June 24

·         Green lantern – June 17

·         T3 – July 1

·         Capt America – July 22

Who's in your 5? Superhero Movies

Some of the best popcorn movies, and most viewed and most anticipated movies are Superhero movies. Spiderman, Batman, Superman and the X-Men all have their spots in the a lot of DVD collections, but which ones are my fav 5? Here we go…


5. Fantastic Four – Again, a great origination movie. Introduces Hollywood to Dr. Doom and the Human Torch. Great performances by both. Like Iron Man, the sequel failed to live up to the 1st. With Chris Evans taking on Captain America, I assume we will see a reboot.


4. X-Men – chhhing! How many of us have always wanted to hear that sound on the big screen? Finally Wolverine! Movie brings our favorite mutants together, and also kicked off the decade of superhero movies.


3. Spider-Man 2 – until The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2 was the best superhero sequel. It continued classily the story of Peter Parker, and Doc Ock was perfectly acted by Alfred Molina.


2. Iron Man – one of the best ever origination movies. It brought Iron Man also to the mainstream of movies. Wish the Sequel would have continued it, hopefully #3 will.


1. Dark Knight – the best comic book movie ever. Heath Ledger’s Joker is iconic. If it wasn’t a comic book movie, then it would have won Best Picture