The Blogboard Jungle

Hands of Stone (2016) is the film based on the true story of Roberto Duran. A story of how combat sports changed one man's life and helped him overcome odds in a difficult time. Boxing films are often about making a come back. Overcoming adversity is a common theme in them but sometimes the story can get a little sidelined and this film unfortunately falls victim to that. It is still a great film about one of the best times in boxing's history. However, the story of Roberto Duran told by his trainer, Ray Arcel played by Robert De Niro made it a little hard to follow the narrative. While all the things and people involved in Duran's life probably could stand alone as their own film, this film tried very hard to squeeze it all in. Because of that, you may find yourself asking where certain characters that pop up midway through the film are coming from. Even if you are not that into boxing, if you grew up in the 70's and 80's the fights between Duran and ...

There seemed to be a lot of negative to so-so reviews of Suicide Squad (2016) when it was released. DC is trying to catch up to Marvel in the movie business and maybe the poor reviews are coming off some bias from the dominant brand. Regardless of the reasons for the reviews, this is ours. It's not a horrible film, some characters were introduced to simply be finished off within a few minutes. Others, like Jared Leto's Joker were probably best left out of the film. Fans will argue, how do you build that character of Harley Quinn played by Margot Robbie without The Joker?  Easy, just mention how they met and move on. Without spoiling anything, know that you could take or leave this portrayal of The Joker and you would still have the same movie. Will Smith plays Dead Shot and I guess his star power and drawing power made his character one of the central characters in the film. Say what you will about Smith and his past films that were trying to promote his son, ...

                                                               (Warner Bros. Pictures) Buddy cop films seem to be in comedian Kevin Hart's blood system right now, as his latest one Central Intelligence is one of them. Let's dig into the review of it. Central Intelligence starts out about two high school students. One named Calvin (Kevin Hart) is the popular, successful kid who everyone loves. The other one is Robert (Dwayne Johnson), who is the chubby, nerdy and strange kid no one loves. However, 20 years later, Calvin doesn't become much of the success as he had hoped. He's just a mid-level accountant, sort of struggling with his marriage. On the other hand, Robert has become the opposite, as he's lost weight, gained it back in muscle, grew taller, and became a highly talented CIA agent. When they meet up again, things g...

                                                                    (Walt Disney Pictures) Heroes stand together to fight crime. However, now the heroes are against each other, trying to do what's right in their eyes. That's basically Captain America:Civil War in two sentences. Here's just one sentence that describe Civil War. Amazing in every way, and enjoyable in all the right places. Let's go further into the Captain America: Civil War review. This latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe shows Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) wanting to work with the government now, instead of being vigilantes who work without supervision or support. Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) wants to continue working solo, without any governmental interference. So when things get messy, arguments happen. Wh...

Blu-ray available on Amazon With Captain America:Civil War (2016) due out soon, we thought it might be a good idea to watch the previous Captain America film, Captain America:The Winter Solider (2014) . Marvel has been reigning at the box office by building their cinematic universe. All they're doing is publishing films the way comics are published,something fans of the characters have wanted as long as they have been reading comic books. When something new is added, its time to play catch-up. The Winter Soldier film holds a lot of the elements that will fuel the Civil War story-line in the films. It really is required viewing before the new film comes out and without spoiling too much for the few that have not seen it, we'll list some elements that will continue in the new film. Trust No One When the story gets going (and it doesn't take long) in Winter Soldier, a mortally wounded Nick Fury warns Captain America not to trust anyone. Before that even happens ou...

"Based on the case files of the Warrens." The Conjuring (2013) was a summer horror film about one of the many cases Ed and Lorraine Warren had investigated. If you're not familiar with their name, you're definitely familiar with their cases, the Amityville Horror being their most famous one. Truth being scarier than fiction has been written about here before , but if it weren't for the truths, the works of fiction would not exist. The film is about as scary as any film nowadays from James Wan, goofy faced demonic ghouls bothering a family. It's the bare bones of any horror film but rarely does it intrigue more similar films that are worth watching. This one does something different though, and it is the basis of what could be a nice series of films. Focusing on the ghost fighting of the Warrens is a really nice touch and kept me interested throughout the film. The Warrens have tussled with the Amityville house, Anabelle , and many others that they...

Back to the Future Blu-ray Before even noticing it was going to be a thing, I recently had the chance to sit through all three Back to the Future films. I had the chance to watch it with my girlfriend, who had never seen them before (GREAT SCOTT!). It was a bit of shocker because she is a big fan of sci-fi and especially time travel stories. We ran into it on TV a few weeks ago and she loved the first film, when she saw the commercial for the marathon, I knew we were in for the night. It was really fun to sit through it again with her, not only because I liked seeing her happy, but it reminded me of when I was enjoying the first film at young age and how epic the trilogy was. What is even more epic is the fact that a lot of the technology in the film is around today. By the time you read this you probably have read about hover boards and video conferencing, so I won't bore you with that again. But, it is pretty cool that the film mostly predicted a lot of technology that ...

Album Cover This movie will take a lot of people down memory lane if they grew up around the time the album the film is titled for came out. When it did, those that got it when it did come out probably had to sneak the purchase from their parents. The film takes a look at the coming up of the group N.W.A and their break-up when some let the success blind them. Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC-Ren, and DJ Yella made up N.W.A and the actors picked to play them could not have been more perfectly cast. Some of them look so much like the true life figures they portray the resemblance is uncanny, it helps that O'Shea Jackson, Jr. is playing his role of his father, Ice Cube. The film tells a story a lot of fans probably got footnotes from all the news the group made. To have it dramatized in a film made it a true work of art. A lot of news footage is original footage from the time things occurred in the film. If you were ever a fan of hardcore rap and hip-hop,you owe it to yourself...

Did that first trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice make you want to see the movie? It was okay, but no much. The latest trailer however, made much more of an impact although Jesse Eisenberg looks to be mixing a little Joker into his Lex Luthor portrayal. What did you think of the latest trailer? 2016 is long way off...

Photo: Official site Maggie (2015), is a limited release horror film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, as a father that has taken to caring for his daughter after being infected by a zombie virus. The film begins just after things get under control after the outbreak happens, and scientists are attempting to find a cure. In a time when the market is flooded with the zombie genre because of The Walking Dead television series, this film takes a different approach at a soon to be played out genre. Photo: Official site. Schwarzenegger has really been flexing his acting muscles over his action muscles in the last few films he has done. When he came back to acting with The Last Stand he used the film to welcome himself back to movie going audiences while letting them know, he is aware he may be too old for action. Not that old, because he did Sabotage where he played a commander of an elite group of agents with a troubling secret he had to keep. It was still action, but he had t...

Photo: Marvel It's the first weekend of May. What comes with that? Free comic book day, nice weather, and what has become the inaugural summer movie event, a Marvel film. This year comic and movie fans got Avengers: Age of Ultron , the sequel to the Avengers (2012) that laid out the blueprint of crossover stories in film. Photo:Marvel The villain in this film is in the title, Ultron. Ultron is an artificial intelligence pipe dream of Tony Stark's that he designs with the help of Bruce Banner. They do so based on the energy of a fragment of what ultimately is known as one of the infinity stones for a villain Marvel is building all these films up for, Thanos. He is the purple faced character that has been appearing at the end of the last several Marvel films. Photo: Jay Maidment/Marvel In doing so, the films have introduced fans to many new characters.  Along with Ultron this film brings in Quick Silver, The Scarlet Witch, and Vision. As always with comic b...

From official Facebook Page Yet another horror film has been re-made and due out this summer. Poltergeist (2015) is the remake of the original from 1982. Usually there can be some skepticism on whether or not a newer version will be any good but, Sam Raimi is attached to this one. Attached the way he was to the re-make of his own Evil Dead (2012 ) so we should reserve judgement. Fans of the original film often asked where Carol-Ann was during most of the film with only dialogue and imagination left to scare ourselves on top of the 80's level puppet effects. Re-making a horror film like this one may add to the story details that weren't possible back then. With today's special effects this could be one re-make that improves on an original. From Official Facebook Page One thing that looks like it may bother some fans of the original, no Tangea. Remember the medium brought in to help, "make this house clear"? Instead Jared Harris of Mad Men and Frin...

There are few remakes that do a story good but when they do, they get their own sequels.  One of the ones I enjoyed was Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and it did well enough to earn a sequel.  The trailer is out on the web and I caught this one on The Telegraph. This teaser trailer...for the trailer was announced before and it seems it was worth announcing to people like myself that liked Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

     Don't let the title mislead you, the film was good.   Elysium stars Matt Damon,  Sharlto Copley, and Jodie Foster in Neil Blomkamps latest film.  Fans of District 9 are familiar with Blomkamp's work and will notice the visual similarities in this film as well as a familiar scenario.  Blomkamp's allegorical story telling style is definitely the thinking man's director for present day sci-fi films and he has yet to disappoint. Got so crazy with Breaking Bad...forgot to post this. Damon gets in "Jason Bourne" shape for this film to play Max Da Costa, a future hard times guy working in a droid factory that makes the bulk of the androids that police and control the regular folk planet side on earth that aren't good enough (or rich enough) for Elysium.  The film takes place in 2154, where two classes of people exist, those good enough to be in Elysium and those that aren't.  The film makes it seem like the qualifying factor to get up ...

     The buddy cop film is an oldie but goodie genre, no matter how many of them come out they are always welcome.  Just when you think Denzel Washington may be too old to do something, he up and stars in one of the better buddy cop films of this year, 2 Guns .  He and Mark Wahlberg have instant on screen chemistry and if this film can get a sequel, lets hope its soon. Old school summer movie action. Movies in this genre don't need to be Oscar winning material, they need to be funny, have hot women, action, and great comedic banter.  This film delivers on all that and more, I can't remember a film that had this many people out to get one another since The Way of the Gun .  In a time where the summer movies are pretty much a bombardment of super hero comic book based films, this was a refreshing change,(Although this film too is based off of a Graphic Novel of the same name).  Bill Paxton and Edward James Olmos play some of the key...

"Wanna Fight?"  Only God Forgives reunites Ryan Gosling with Drive director Nicholas Winding Refn and there is a lot of familiarity with the visuals and story flow. If you saw Drive you can expect a lot of the same story telling pace in this film. Very slow, to the point of getting annoying, then very interesting. Visually from beginning to end the movie is beautiful, especially the color mix with interior shots in the clubs. Goslings character Julian owns and operates a Muay Thai club (Muay Thai is Thailand's style of kickboxing). The trailer led me to believe this was going to be a martial arts based drama or action flick that had me so excited for it I wrote about it before . While it did lack in the martial arts, there is still plenty of violence in this film mostly from one of the other characters in the film played by Vithaya Pansringarm who must have been some kind of Muay Thai icon by the way he moved in his fight scene with Gosling. If you read a synops...

    The banter between these guys is pretty funny.      There are movies that come out with barely any marketing or warning that we find ourselves going to see (or at least I do), films like  The Other Guys and Cop Out that critics hate on, don't do well at the box office, and are reported as failures the week after they release and don't get put in the top 10 for the weekend it came out.   R.I.P.D is one of those films that share the company of the other two films mentioned according to a lot of box office reports.  You know what else those films have in common?  I like them. R.I.P.D stars Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges in this supernatural buddy cop movie, that has plenty of laughs to keep you entertained.  It's a horror/comedy that doesn't take itself seriously at all and in my opinion Ryan Reynolds always shines when he does any form of comedy.  Jeff Bridges does his Rooster Cogburn remix in this film as they play tw...

This movie was the bomb, that's where Jaeger bomb comes from. ;)      This movie is what summer movies are supposed to be about, big crazy special effects, mixed with some comic relief, followed up by a huge clash battle at the end.  It has all the ingredients of old school Robotech, Voltron, Godzilla plot lines my generation (generation X) grew up with, even those that grew up with Power Rangers the generation after me will find something to enjoy in this film, all the good stuff from what I just mentioned without the cheesi-ness.      I know Charlie Hunnam from Sons of Anarchy fame is supposed to be the protagonist in this film but I  found myself to be drawn to Idris Elba's character more as I found his back story most interesting.  Most of the main characters have a good back story drawn up for them so I'm sure you'll find your favorites as you watch it.  That's enough about the human actors though, lets get to why we re...

     No one really wants to see The Lone Ranger .  That's what I have been reading about a lot this week, how despite the films star power, (which is what Johnny Depp seems to represent) the film did not do well on its opening weekend.  There is a baseless theory I have (baseless because I just thought it up), and its only something I noticed with Disneys last flop John Carter which was actually pretty good but never got a chance.  It's their logo, the Disney logo attached with the title seems to be the equivalent of attaching M. Night Shyamalans name to a project, its box office poison.    The Disney logo is something I associate with all their animated classics when I was a kid.  Talking animals, singing, falling in love with things that can only be made possible by some spell or wish and other kiddie fantasies.  That is what that logo makes me think of, if I had kids it would still be an eye catcher for me.  I don't have ...