X-Men: Apocalypse
In this ninth installment in the X-Men series, the ancient (original) mutant is awakened and attempts to take over the world while the X-Men try to stop him. That is about it… Well, maybe a bit understated. But only a bit.
En Sabah Nur, bad mutant, is a really good really bad dude. He recruits four of the X-men as the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” They raise havoc around the planet. In the mean time, the good mutants are circling the wagons…
There are really good special effects, lots of unexpected surprises and reasonably good acting. James McAvoy, the always awesome Michael Fassbender, and the consistently good Jennifer Lawrence are the most noteworthy.
Critics were not pleased and audiences shunned this episode. We thought is was fun and worth the time and money. Maybe there are too many Marvel movies in release these days. Just a thought.
Rating: 
Alice Through the Looking Glass
Well…it had to be made. After all the 2010 Alice in Wonderland racked up a whopping $1 Billion box office.
So now we have Alice Through the Looking Glass with many of the original actors in tow. Jonny Depp with better than ever make up and still stupid accent plays Hatter. Ann Hathaway is still the White Queen tormenting her sister the evil Red Queen played by the incredible Helena Bottom Carter.
Sacha Baron Cohen plays Time and Mia Wasikska plays Alice, now all grown up and cheated by her extended family of fame and fortune.
Ultimately Alice tries to use time to go back in time to save Hatter’s family from oblivion. Visually stunning, mostly entertaining but ultimately fatiguing, we were disappointed.
Rating: 
The Nice Guys
The good news is this was a fun romp through Hollywood of the1970s: drugs, sex and mayhem. It was well crafted, held your interest and was often very funny. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling have excellent chemistry together.
On the down side, the main characters bordered on dumb and dumber. They were not “nice guys”. In fact, they were conniving, irresponsible shysters and terrible professionals.
On the bright side, it was not boring. It clips along at a quick pace and once you embrace this as a silly comedy, it becomes an easy watch.
Audiences and critics liked this much more than we did. I’ll watch it again on a long plane ride and reconsider my opinion.
Rating:
Weiner
Oh my! This documentary is about the former New York Congressman, Anthony Weiner, who ran for Mayor of New York in 2013. “Former” because in 2011, he was forced to resign after texting a series of sexual pictures of himself to women that became public and the subject of relentless ridicule.
His wife, still a top aide to Hillary Clinton, struggled to “stand by her man” but, nonetheless, endured and supported her husband.
It seemed odd that anyone would agree to a documentary like this. It is both riveting and creepy at the same time. The critics loved it. I found it pitiful.
Rating:
Good reviews, as always. I was especially interested in your take on Alice and Nice Guys. It seems we agree: entertaining if you don’t think about it! I also think you are right about X-men; there are just too many of them. I wasn’t interested because of that, but now I’ll reconsider. Thanks!
I want to see Weiner. No, we are not related.
Thanks for the review.