Ameircan Made Review

American Made is a fantastic film and a reminder that Tom Cruise is a great actor not just a great action star.  This film is the true story of Barry Seal, a pilot who worked for the CIA and Pablo Escobar in the 80s. This movie is so crazy at times that it stretches believability until you remember that this all happened. Doug Liman who's worked with Cruise many times directs this movie perfectly giving the film an extremely unique editing style and a great sense of pace and energy once the film gets going. Other standout performances in this movie include Sarah Wright as Cruise's wife. She brought a lot to a fairly standard role. Domhnall Gleeson continued to impress me as an actor here and he is clearly having a lot of fun with his character. My main flaw with this movie is that the first act moved much slower than the rest of the movie. But overall I had a ton of fun with American Made and I left having learned an interesting true story that I previously didn't know

9/10 

Logan Lucky Review

Logan Lucky is a really entertaining and fun heist film. However, despite the critical response and the director's past work, I feel like this movie could've been amazing. Steven Soderbergh directs this movie extremely well although it never achieves the heights of his Oceans trilogy. Channing Tatum and Adam Driver are both really good here but they’re not doing anything we haven't seen them do before. Seth McFarlane has a fun side role that while annoying at first has a great payoff. This movie also includes plenty of cameos from other great actors. However, the standout of this movie is Daniel Craig. He is doing something genuinely unique acting wise and is a total blast to watch. The movie gleams energy whenever he's on screen. Despite the marketing, I should warn you this is not a straight-up comedy. A lot of the humor just comes from characters interacting with each other. My main flaws with this movie are it's about 15 minutes too long and has a few unneeded side plots. Also for a heist movie, this movie takes a long time to get to that part of the story. But overall I still had fun with Logan Lucky.

7.5/10

Kingsman The Golden Circle Review

Kingsman The Golden Circle is disappointing there's no way around that. The first film is an all-time favorite of mine and there's not a single scene in this movie that tops anything from the first film. However, Kingsman 2 is also some of the most fun you can have at the cinema this year. Taron Edgerton remains great as our lead. I will always welcome more Mark Strong and he's still great here. While this movie includes many excellent actors such as Jeff Bridges and Channing Tatum they are mostly just cameos. Some other cast members from the original film return here but don't want to say who in case you haven't seen the spoiler-filled trailers. The weak link here is Juliane Moores villain Poppy. While she's a perfectly serviceable antagonist she's given very little to do and is nowhere near Sam Jacksons scene-stealing villain from the first film. For the most part, the action sequences are great although nothing near the incredible church sequence from the first film. If you're a fan of the first film this movie is a must see but be prepared it's nowhere near the brilliance of the first film.

9/10  

American Assassin Review

Yea sorry I'm not with critics on this one at all. American Assassin is the new Bourne. This movie had everything for me. All the acting was great. Dylan o Brian was an excellent lead and Michael Keaton is always great and still is here. All the action sequences were fantastic with excellent stunt work and were filmed where I could always tell what's going on. While the story is standard spy movie fare I was so caught up in this story and world due to everything else being so excellent that I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. While I was definitely excited for this movie it still surpassed my expectations to become a massive surprise and one of my favorite films of 2017 so far. Please go support this movie so we can get a series out of this. 

9.5/10

Wind River Review

Wind River is a great directorial debut by writer Taylor Sheridan whose previous film Hell or High Water I loved. With this film, he continues to be a great writer and has proven himself as a director expertly milking tension out of a fairly standard mystery plot. Jeremy Renner gives the best performance of his career so far here as does Elizabeth Olsen and I expect both of them to be up for Oscars next year. The cinematography is great and the editing especially is worth mentioning with one particularly unique edit in 3rd act adding even more tension. I really don't have flaws with this movie other than I don't think I could ever sit through this movie again. Otherwise, this is a dark but compelling thriller from start to finish.

8.5/10

IT 2017 Review

 IT (2017) while not my type of movie at all, I still found myself really enjoying this movie. I liked it even more upon a second viewing. IT is a creepy disturbing and sometimes downright scary horror film. However, it's also one of the best coming of age films I've seen in a while with a cast of kids whose chemistry is so perfect you fall in love with them instantly. This movie is also shockingly really funny with a few lines that had me laughing really hard.  Jaeden Lieberher is great as Bill our lead who faces a terrible tragedy early on. He has quite a few scenes that are very emotional but extremely well done. Sophia Lillis is great as Beverly the only female in the Losers Club. While her character might seem simple there's more to her than initially seems. Jeremy Ray Taylor was great as Ben the New Kid. While he's not given many standout scenes he's involved in one of the films most terrifying sequences. Jack Grazer is really good as Eddie although he's slightly underused he still gets a few standout moments. Chosen Jacobs as Mike and Wyatt Oleff as Stan are both really good but easily most underused members of the Losers Club. The standout of the entire group though is Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things fame as Ritchie his character is hilarious and stole the entire film for me. However, my favorite actor in this whole movie is Jackson Robert Scott as Bill's little brother Georgie he's so adorable and has some of films best scenes. Nicholas Hamilton is great as the bully Henry Bowers his character is taken in some surprising directions. However, this movie is called IT so let's talk about Bill Skarsgard terrifying turn as Pennywise the Clown. He absolutely owns this role he is terrifying and sometimes funny at the same time which is not an easy balance to pull off. He deserves a lot of attention for this role and I hope he gets it. Director Andy Muschietti is definitely going to be a name to watch as he directs this movie extremely well-milking tension wherever he can while not being afraid to actually develop his characters and let them interact. My main flaw with this movie is the CGI is occasionally pretty spotty and can take you out of the movie. Otherwise while not really my kind of movie I shockingly enjoyed the ride of watching IT. One note though this movie is Hard R and includes non-stop violence against children. This movie is NOT FOR KIDS or the faint of heart.

8/10