Movie Guru Corey

10. Inside out 9.   Brooklyn 8.   Sicario 7.   It Follows 6.   Steve Jobs 5.  Ex Machina 4.   The Big Short 3.   The Martian 2.   Bridge of Spies 1.   Spotlight Honerable mentions: Paddington, Creed, The Gift, Shaun the Sheep, and Dope

10. The Loft 9.   The Gunman 8.    Hot Pursuit 7.    Hot Tub Time machine 2 6.    Love the Coopers 5.    Woman in Black 2 4.     Fantastic 4 3.     Rock the Kasbah 2.     The Lazarus Effect 1.      The Perfect Guy Dishonerable mentions: Minions, Jupiter Ascending, and The Seventh Son

This week there were not many choices when it came to movie trailers. This week is a bit different, the film has actually been out for a while, but it never got a US translation. Daisey Ridley and Dev Patel lend their voices to the film. The film is about a twenty something women that learns to be happy through her middle school self. The movie hits select theaters February 26.

When it comes to remakes, the question on the writers mind should be how can I improve on the original. Many people consider the 1991 original to be a classic, by many standards, it was over the top fun. This film goes with nearly the same plot, Johnny Utah ( Luke Bracey),fresh from the FBI academy is out on the case of Bodhi (Edgar Ramierez) who seems to be robbing places for no reason. For those that have seen the original the one real difference that you will notice the action has been turned up a considerable amount. The problem I found was it lacked the originals overall cheessenes. Putting the film into 3d,I thought, was a bit of an odd choice, but it is something that wasn't as bad as some films in 3d recently. GRADE: C-

        With the year coming to a close there is one movie that expands from a limited release. Since released on Christmas Day, The Hateful Eight has done fantastic in its run, to the point were it's expansion was pushed up.                                           The Hateful Eight

Christmas brings us another Will Ferrel comedy, this time in the form of Daddy's Home. Ferrell teams up again with Mark Wahlberg, who had critic and comercial success in their last outing, The Other Guys. This time Brad (Will Ferrel) is doing the best he can to be a good stepfather to his wife's children. One day Dusty (Mark Wahlberg) comes back and decides he wants his family back. This idea has been used in some way or another through many different films over the years. It really needs to be out to rest for a while.The PG13 rating was because of several sexual comments that just seemed to be forced which could have made this film easily pg. Finally, nearly all of the jokes fell flat which maybe speaks to the over used concept. GRADE:D

        When it comes to Jenifer Lawrence and David O Russel many think of greatness like American Hustle and Silver Linings playbook. Coming into it, knowing it was not shown very much previous to the critic screening, did not get my hopes up for this.        From the beginning, the story was nearly spelling out that Joy was meant for great things, but life seemed to get in the way. All things started to change when she cleans up red wine off the floor of her father's girlfriend's yacht floor. A mop that rings out itself. She gets her family to help get the mop business started. The movie goes through the lows and the highs of this endeavor.        Most of this movie seems so much like a movie we see every other week. So the question is, what is made up in this film what seems so familiar or is the true parts just so formulated these days? I'm honestly not sure what the answer is.     Finally, it was hard to like the film when most of the characters are so unlikeable

This is a movie that has been out for a very long time and I just found it a local theater. As some of you may know movies that are compeling and raw. This film has this and so much more. When the Catholic sex scandal broke in the early 2000s I was in middle school and did not know the power of this story. This rocked many to to their core but at the same time helped so many. This film starts with a possible story for the Spotlight team (Mike Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, and Rachel Mcadams).Once the evidence piled in, it goes into serious scroutiny over everything to,make sure the story stuck. The absolute detail out into this film is something that is rare these days. This on top of strong performances from Keaton and Rufallo. With this film there is huge contenders in Oscar time. Only time will tell. GRADE:A+

The trailer for this week kind of took me by surprise because I had never heard of it, which is very rare . This film is from the father son team of Alfonso and Jonas Cuaron. The film stars Gael Bernal and Jeffery Dean Morgan. Gael stars as Moises a man trying to get back across to the United States to his child. Morgan plays Sam a man that believes the government is not doing what it should to block illegal imigration, so he takes drastic measures to stop them. The film hits theaters March 4 2016.

When people look at the team up of Amy Poehler and Tina Fey people think of Weekend update and Baby Mama.  Going into this my hopes were probably set a bit higher than what it probably should have been. They star as Maura and Kate Ellis. They come to Florida to find that their parents (James Brolin and Diane Wiest) have sold their childhood home. The sisters throw a huge party in the house to send it off, hijinx do ensue. I have been a huge fan of these two since the weekend update days, so like I said, my hopes were very high. Going in I expected this film to I expected this film to be very funny and it was not. There were many jokes that fell flat. It really just ended up feeling like a standard coming of age story which is sad to see. GRADE: C

I will try to keep this as low of a spoiler count as I can, but this is a warning to the readers. Going into this film I tried to keep my expectations as low as I possibly could because, well the prequels. The film picks up thirty years after the return of the Jedi and a new empire has a empire has risen in the form of the First Order. Their mission is to destroy everything that destroyed the original Empire, including Luke Skywalker. The film most defintley gets the feel of the original films back, which was very necessary for a movie like this. To me, there were two great perfomances in the film, in the form of Oscar Isaac as Pie and Daisey Ridley. There were a few things I was a little eh about as well. The film had serious mirrors to A New Hope which made the movie thoroughly predictable the whole way through. The character of Poe played by Oscar Isaac was criminally under used considering how well the character is written written. Finally, Kylo Ren peopl have criticised the

This film marks the fourth in the decently sucessful franchise. This time around Alvin, Simon, and Theodore are growing up and Dave (Jason Lee) is trying to give them more responsibility and they fail, a lot. With Dave now a successful record producer, he goes to Miami and takes his new girlfriend Samantha ( Kimberly Williams-Paisley) with him. The guys think that he is going to propose and the mischief ensues. This movie, I don't believ, was as horrible as I thought it was going to be but there is issues. This film continues on taking the singing away from the chipmunks, which made the first two films better. It bugs the question as to why make sequels when you run out of material with the original formula. Secondly, the is is also the second film in a row where the villain is way to under developed for anyone to really care who he is. This is a real shame because Tony Hale is a very talented actor. I could even go as far as to say his character being more than a cameo is bad.

This is the week that many people have been waiting for, the release of Star Wars. It has come. Starring Harrison Ford, Daisey Ridley and Osscar Issac, this movie is expected to shatter records. How many records, will be seen. For those who are not fans of Star Wars, or it sells out there are two more wide releases. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler team up again in the film Sisters. The film tells the story of two sisters who throw one last party in the house throw grew up in before it is sold. Finally there is the fourth installment in the chipmunks series, this sends the crew to Miami for another crazy adventure.

This week was a very tough choice with a of the epic trailers released this week. My pick for the week is the latest in the X men franchise. It has the returning cast like James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jenifer Lawrence. There are many new comers to this case including Oscar Isaac, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, and Tye Sheridan. This is a setup for a very epic showdown worth to be called a finale. The X men take on the first mutant, who is bent on world, domination. The film drops May 27, 2016, check it out!

   The Ridiculous Six is the start of the long contract that Adam Sandler signed with Netflix. It comes in the form of the spoof of the classic Magnificent 7.      In the story it surrounds White Knife (Adam Sandler) and his seemingly perfect life with the apache tribe. Things get a little messy when his long absent father (Nick Nolte) shows up and is subsequently kidnapped. Fifty thousand dollars is needed to set him free, so White Knife takes it upon himself to rob the terrible people of the West to get his father back. Along the way he finds out that he has many other brothers in the shape of Taylor Lautner, Terry Crews, Rob Schneider, Jorge Garcia, and Luke Wilson.      Through most of the later of Sandler's Carter you could at least count on his movies being entertaining. This film seemed choppy in places when it came to the story. None of the jokes seemed to really work. It's hard to say but Sandler has done so much better even in recent years. GRADE:F

      I am one that keeps up with better than most people I have known through the years. The one thing I have not heard about this year is the performance of Bryan Cranston as the legendary screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. Cranston now has both a golden globe and sag nomination. Once you see this film, I hope you can agree there is no one else that could have played this man.      The film picks up in the height of his career where he is very well respected in Hollywood getting job after job. The one problem he had was, he was a registered communist. This did not sit well with a lot of people in that era. When it came to the Red scare the government started its witch hunt with Hollywood and subsequently, Dalton Trumbo. Trumbo was put in front of a congressional hearing, and did not fold like many did in the day. The movie mostly focuses on what occurs during and after this hearing.    The performance of Cranston is the huge plus of this film. I also am a huge fan of films that are very

   In the Heart of the Sea depicts the true events that inspired the Herman Melvile classic Moby Dick.   The movie focuses on Owen Chase and George Pollard played by Chris Hemsworth and Ben Walker. They are tasked with running the whale ship Essex and gathering 2000 barrels of whale oil. Just days off port bad things start happening, including nearly getting sunk by a squal. After their first whale they hit a bit of a dry spell. They port and here of a huge pod of whales. The rest is legend.  The film is directed by legendary director Ron Howard, who uses the visual effects to his advantage, which is pretty much the whole time the film at sea.  My problem is it really does not go into very much depth when it comes to the tragedy portion of the story, so in the end, I am not sure their struggles are felt as well as they could. GRADE:C+

  The week before the Force Awakens has one wide release for us.    This week brings us In the Heart of the Sea. This is the true story that inspired the Moby Dick novel. The film stars Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, and Brendan Gleeson.

When it comes to writer and director, he has written and directed many cult films such as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and writing films like Lethal Weapon. So when I heard of Nice Guys in development, I was excited, and the trailer backs what I was hoping for. In case there is anyone on the young side reading this, there is a lot of language and some nudity in it. Nice Guys is out next summer.

In limited release we have the film, The     Letters, which tells the of story of the early works of Mother Teresa also while trying to cover right after her life and the possibility of her becoming a saint.  First of all when you have a movie that stars Max Von Sydow and Rutger Hauer, it is really hard not to have my expectations on the high side. I believe that the biggest problem with this film is that with what they have in the film it does not work as a a flash back film, it should have been one or the other. With the way they have it, it ends up bland. GRADE: C-

       Over the years there have been many working of the Krampus story. We now come to this film co written and directed by Trick or Treat helmer Mike Dougherty.       This film at the center has a very dysfunctional family. Every one is resenting each other in one way or another. Max has his letter to Santa read and mocked in front of everybody and explodes. He wishes that all of his family would just go away, this unfortunately brings out Krampus.       This film is full of humor with a decent amount of creepy moments. I love the fact that it does not take it self to seriously. I believe it also plays off that fact. The Krampus helpers were very well designed. In the end it was a whole lot better then I expected. GRADE:B

This week there is only one wise release this week and it comes in the form of the horror comedy Krampus. This movie stars Adam Scott and Emjay Anthony among many other people. Krampus is the story German folklore that tells of a monster that comes to take people that don't behave to hell on Christmas.

This week was few and far between when it came to film trailers. This one I felt was something that is set to have a great performance by Tom Hiddleston. We will get to see March 2016.