It’s a new year and there will be a whole bunch of new motion pictures coming our way! I’m looking forward to Deadpool the most, I think. As for the older movies, my husband has taken control of our Netflix by mail and added all of the classics that everyone says I need to see. With that, I resume my series of movie reviews this year, bringing you my opinion of flicks new and old!

 

Vacation (2015) ★★★★★

I LOVED this!. As a lover of all things Griswold, I was unbelievably excited to see this after catching a few previews. I thought it was supposed to be a remake before seeing it but what this is actually about is Rusty Griswold, played by Ed Helms, taking his family to Wally World like his pop did once upon a time. It proves to be a catastrophic time, as it always was his dear old dad. I thought that Vacation was hilarious and I’m actually hoping to see this whole Griswold series be rebooted!

Ant Man ★★★★ 1/2

To be honest with you guys, before I saw this I thought it sounded like the dumbest superhero ever. I was reluctant to check it out until I heard Paul Rudd was starring because I think he makes everything interesting. He did make it great but the superhero itself is a lot cooler than I thought. Ant Man can be really tiny, he can control ants, and he had certain tools that could make other things and people big and small. I’m not elaborating it as well as I’d like but that’s probably for the best because I don’t want to spoil the movie! It’s funny and has plenty of action, I think it’s absolutely worth watching! Michael Douglas, an unlikely but good choice, plays the original Ant Man and my husband and I are hoping that maybe there will be a backstory where we see more of him.

The Judge ★★ 1/2

The opening scene  between Robert Downey Jr. and David Krumholtz is pretty funny and leads me to believe that this will be a comedy. (Yes, I obviously never read the descriptions of movies before I watch them, what else is new?!) This is very much not a comedy but it’s not bad. It’s slow but I like the overall premise of the movie… a typical Robert Downey Jr. character (you know the one, very witty and sarcastic and comes off like an awesome jerk) defends his dad’s murder trial. Also, David Krumholtz is only in two scenes, which disappointed me because I love that guy.

They Came Together ★★★★

I need you all to see this because I want to hear your feedback. Seriously. I refer to it as “the modern day Naked Gun”. It’s Paul Rudd (I’ve yet to see anything with him in it that I did not like) and Amy Poehler telling the story of how they met. Sounds almost boring, right? Wrong! It is so goofy and ridiculous that my husband and I were cracking up! It is so goofy that it’s funny! I think you’ll either love this or hate it, but please tell me what you thought because I’m genuinely curious.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron ★★★★★

I love most of the comic book films and this is no exception. The first one is still better, in my opinion, but this is in no way lacking! Lots of action, still pretty funny, and the great thing about the Marvel movies is that you basically have to see all of the shows and movies if you want to connect all of the dots.

Captain America: Winter Soldier ★★★ 1/2

I’m not a huge fan of Captain American, for some reason. I feel like he’s a bit boring. After seeing Ant Man and meeting Anthony Mackie’s character, Falcon, I realized that my husband was right and I now had to see this one. The villain is someone that Captain America knows personally, Falcon gets introduced as a new character, and there’s a lot of Black Widow so you witness a lot of what their relationship is like. I find that this makes it curious that they end up on opposing sides in the upcoming Captain America: Civil War.

Into the Woods ★★ 1/2

I wasn’t sure how to rate this one because I didn’t dislike it, it was just so odd. The way I took it, this musical is a somewhat grim (or rather original since they were apparently much more grim than the Disney versions we all know and love) combination of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Jack and the Beanstalk. It stars Meryl Streep, Anna Kendrick, and Johnny Depp is in it for 2.4 seconds.

Beverly Hills Cop ★★★ 1/2

Everyone’s seen this one but me, probably, but I include those sometimes. Eddie Murphy leads this movie about a clever cop who doesn’t follow the rules but gets the job done. It has the catchiest theme song ever and it’s decent too.

Everything Must Go ☆

Will Ferrell stars in this melancholy movie about…nothing? I think it’s about nothing. Maybe I’m supposed to take something away from it. He’s an alcoholic whose wife left him and he’s slowly trying to learn a lesson, I guess.

God’s Not Dead ★★★★

Your religious affiliation may affect your opinion of God’s Not Dead but as Christians, my husband and I really enjoyed it. Based on the stories of students being challenged to prove evidence of God’s existence, this movie is about a college student who is asked to write “God is Dead” for his philosophy class and chooses not to. His professor, an Athiest, tells him that he has to convince the other students that there is a God. Some of the acting is mediocre but I find that to be the case in most of the films produced by Christian production companies, probably not a lot of mainstream actors jumping at the chance to headline a religious movie, but I think that Kevin Sorbo (Hercules!) does a pretty decent job. (As a disclaimer, some of my best friends are Athiests and while God’s Not Dead tends to portray Athiests a certain way, the views expressed are not shared by The Crunchy Mom Next Door.)

I, Robot ★★★★★

This is one of my favorites and one of the few that we currently own. I love Will Smith and the majority of his things he does but this one is so cool and twisty in a few ways. It’s a sci-fi futuristic flick where everyone has robots for slaves but Will Smith’s character doesn’t trust them at all. Then, it turns out he was right and he has to save the world. Those are the best!

Point Break (1991) ★★★ 1/2

Well, I hate Keanu Reeves but my husband made me watch this because he wants to see the remake. Keanu Reeves plays a cop who’s chasing after bank robbers. There’s some surfing. The storyline wasn’t the worst so I was mostly able to ignore his acting and surfer dude voice, which is his real voice and why I don’t watch most of his work.

Rambo: First Blood ★ 1/2

Rambo has always been talked up by everyone but for some reason I’d never seen it. I was always under the impression that it was more of a war movie. Rambo returns from a war and gets treated badly by the police, which snowballs into this explosive battle. Nobody can catch him and people keep getting killed in the process. The action is decent, for back then anyway, but I was pretty disappointed with the overall plot.

Tango & Cash ★★★ 1/2

Another oldie but a goodie! Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell are police officers that are framed and end up in jail. It’s packed with action and has a decent plot.

 

*Check out all of my other movie reviews here.