Movie Guru Corey

      When I heard that a third installment of the Kung Fu Panda franchise, I was excited because I love the series.       We meet Po (Jack Black) and he is enjoying his life as the dragon warrior. When he is asked to teach a class of kung fu to the furious five, he chokes. It is brought up by Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) that it could be, he really does not know who he is. Later that  day he meets his long lost father (Bryan Cranston), while doing a dumpling challenge. His father believes the best way is to come back with him and learn what it means to become a panda.  When he leaves an evil that hasn't been around for thousands of years returns.     The movies got the same basic concept Po struggles at something, then through the help of others, he really succeeds Going through the movie, even though it was entertaining, you knew what was going to happen.The end wraps up the series the on top, going and doing a fourth one would be a terr...

Surprising, but when going into this movie  I had never seen a trailer. In some  ways I actually think it helped me to better take it in. Joy ( Brie Larson) was kidnapped at the age of seventeen by a man that pretended to have lost his dog, and locked into the mans backyard shed. For years she suffered sexual abuse at the hand of the man, she eventually became pregnant, and gave birth to Jack ( Jacob Tremblay). They both live in this room for years and years, but what happens when you are no longer forced to live in this room. This movie was very hard to make on a few different levels. One, the script had to be thorough in how it portrayed the captive life of both Jack and Joy, more so the psyche of a five year old child who has not seen outside of the room. The other was how to keep the post traumatic stress disorder after they left the room.In the last level, would have been worthless without huge performances by the two leads Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay, but the...

This week has the western Jane Got A Gun. Jane (Natalie Portman) has been running from The Bishop gang lead by Colin ( Ewan McGregor). One day Jane's husband Bill comes home all shot up and warns the gang is coming. Jane feels like she has no choice but to go get help from a former fling Dan Frost (Joel Edgerton). This movie has been plagued with issues since the start of production from going through countless actors to looking directors as well. The western genere is a hard one to crack. Your movie either has it, or they dont. There really is no in between, and this sadly does not. First the movie is very predictable from start to finish. The movie also uses the flash back sequence to the point were it seems to throw the pacing off of the film. GRADE:C-

I am one that does do a short review on movies, but I believe this will be the shortest. Marlon Wayans got his career from spoofing films from scary movie to haunted house. His new film now spoofs fifty shades of grey. The humor in this movie is so racist at points, it comes off as really weird. The other supposed funny parts of this movie, are not, because it looks as though they are trying too hard. When the humor fails in a spoof movie, you are left with nada. GRADE:F

This week we get a variety in the movies coming out . First is the much anticipated next entry I'm the Kung Fu Panda series. This entry has Po meeting his family along with a full colony of Pandas. We even get a western this week with the long waited Jane Got A Gun. It has Natalie Portman as Jane who has had enough with a gang that has been terrorizing her for years. This week brings another spoof film from Marlon Wayans. This time he takes a jab at Fifty Shades of Grey, except it's Black. In the Finest Hours, we get the true story of how four men, in a small coast guard patrol boat, were able to save the lives of 32 men. This is all during a raging blizzard in 1952. 

This week the trailer is from the creators of Paranorman and Boxtrolls .  For me, it is tough to really say what the story is about. It seems that Kubo is someone that is growing up and wants to go out on his own. Whatever it is, we will see August 19.

This week brings another pg13horror film in the form of The Boy. Greta ( Lauren Cohan) is an American new to England. She takes a job as a nanny to the Hilshire family, and their son Brahms. When she gets to the house she finds out that Brahms is a porcelain doll. The household does treat him as if he was a real boy. The parents end up leaving on a vacation, and many strange things begin to happen. This is another film that has a clear set of instructions that get clearly ignored..... suprise! The dialogue written for this movie was very much ridiculous at some points was ridiculous, and at some points the story just flat out makes no sense at all. GRADE : D

Dirty Grandpa is another on the long list of of Zac Efron comedies.  This time around, Efron stars as Jason, an uptight corprate lawyer about to marry Meradith, (Julian Hough), a much more uptight corporate lawyer. The day after his grandma's funeral, he agrees to take his grandpa ( Bob Deniro) to his vaction home in Florida. It quickly becomes evident that Grandpa has other plans. I would be first to admit there are parts of this film that are decently funny, but some of the jokes do go into a tad on the offensive side. The biggest problem with this movie is that it seems the writers went more for the joke than story substance. There is very much potential in the story, that just isn't there. On the plus side, it does look like everyone had fun making the movie. GRADE:D+

Young adult adaptations have always come with negativity. Unfortunatley, most of these complaints do have some founding. This film puts the young adult formula into an alien invasion story line. Cassie is a normal teenage girl with friends and a loving family. This was all until the others showed up. The others started different waves of destruction, all increasing in size. This all leads to the last and largest 5th wave. This films problem is that it seems to copy parts of other young adult stories and smashed it all into one movie. This ultimately made the film feel old. The sad thing is the concept has huge potential and we end up with something that is less than what it could be. GRADE: D+

This week we get three wide release films. The first comes in the form of the Zac Efron Robert DeNiro comedy Dirty Grandpa. The story revolves around an uptight young lawyer that gets tricked by his grandpa to go to spring break. We also get into the opposite side of the spectrum with the horror film, The Boy. The story revolves around a nanny who is tasked with watching a porcelain doll, which may be more than it seems.  The final movie is what is next in the long line of young adult novels, The 5th wave. It surrounds an alien invasion that comes in waves of increasing destruction, bent on the extinction of humanity.

There has been long speculation since the release of the original Cloverfield on whether or not a sequel would ever come from it. Well, in 2016 we get our answer with 10 Cloverfield Lane. The producer, JJ Abrams has said it is a blood relative to the original. We will get to see March 11 2016.

When the first one came out, everyone was  suprised at what a huge hit it was. The one thing was that,no matter what you thought of the film, it was a very self contained story. But now here we are, in the week of the release of Ride Along 2. This time we see James (Ice Cube) and Ben (Kevin Hart) in Miami to take down a drug kingpin. The only problem with this movie is, it is nearly the same as the first movie except, this is set in Miami and Ben is a cop in this one. To me, it almost seems like the Point Break remake from Christmas time. It really makes me wonder whether rereleasing the first one would have been a better idea. Grade:D

This movie is something that easily been less than it was if it was put in the wrong hands, but this was not the case. A chance encounter between Carol (Cate Blanchett) and Therese (Rooney Mara) in a department store sparks a very interesting friendship. As they begin to hang out the sparks begin to fly. This is not what her soon to be ex husband Harge (Kyle Chandler), who still loves. This movie is boosted by amazing performances by Blanchett and Mara. The costume and set design really puts you in the era. GRADE: B+

   Not to be mean but, I almost felt bad for the filmakers when I was watching this movie,which is really hard to do. Honestly, I am not sure I have ever felt that way after watching a movie Norm is a polar bear that is just terrible at everything that he does. One day while on his grandfather's land, he finds a condo and makes the leap that humans want to settle in the artic. He tries to warn the others, who obviously, don't believe him. He goes back the next day to find them shooting a commercial. Norm feels the only way to fix the problem is to hitch a ride on the condo, which is going back to New York, to talk to the developer. This movie had issues from the very beggining. There are just way too many storie were there is a guy that can not fit in for the life of it, goes on a huge quest, then oh my he does now! It has also been a very long time since every single joke in the whole movie fell flat, till now. You can take this last point with any grain of salt you wa...

The Benghazi incident has brought about much political controversy since the incident occured. We start months before the incident to meet Oz, Tig, Boon, Tanto, Rone, and Silva. When Ambassador Chris Stevens comes in, the threat of attack is huge. When September 11 2012 everything seemed off and it was. By the end of the night rebles began a thirteen hour siege on both the temporary American consulate and CIA base. With the kind of political movie this could have been, there was close to none. Made this movie as close to an action movie as absolutely posible, which is a shame. The action at times gets hard to follow almost to the point of Revenge of the Fallen. The finalbthing is the use of the sholder camera was a but exahsting on the eyes. Having said this, The film is better than the last four Michael Bay movies. It is a move in the right direction for him. GRADE:C-

There are three films that are planned for wide release this week . First we have the animated film Norm of the North. This film is about Norm ( Rob Schneider) who is not good when it comes to anything polar bear. When developer threaten the home, it is up to him to save the day. Michael Bay returns in something that is not Transformers. 13 hours is the story of what happened during the terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya                                        Finally we get the sequel to the 2014 hit Ride Along. This time we find Ben (Kevin Hart) and James ( Ice Cube) going to Miami to hunt down a drug kingpin.           

For the most part this year the Oscars were of no surprise what so ever except for one category best supporting actress. Every critical award that Alicia Vikander has picked up was for Ex Machina, except the Academy took the route of the Danish Girl. She faces off against Rooney Mara, Kate Winslet, Rachel McAdams, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. In the supporting actor category the biggest shock to me was the nomination of Tom Hardy in the Revanent. I only say this because I personally believe that he had a better performance in Mad Max. He is joined by Mark Rylance, Sylvester Stallone, Christian Bale, and Mark Ruffalo. There where really no suprises in the best animated film category, but people do have to realize that Inside Out does have huge competition. The movie Anomalisa has been getting huge critical praise as well, almost on par with Inside Out. They are joined by the films Boy and the World, Shaun the Sheep Movie, and when Marnie was here. For the best original screenplay ...

I have been putting this post off for a long time because I really haven't been sure which way I wanted to grade this movie. Going in, I heard nothing but great things so I was very pumped for the movie. The movie stars Leo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass, a tracker that helps a fur trade company through the wilderness. After Glass is viciously attacked by a bear it leaves him unable to walk and speak. With being under constant threat of attack from the Indians, Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) wants to end his pain and go. So, in the middle of doing the act, Glass's son interupts and tries to get help. Fitzgerald murders him and burrys Glass alive. Glass crawls out,and wants revenge. First of all the stand out for the movie is how well it is shot. It really shows the beauty of the wilderness. One thing I was surprised about was the gruesome things that happened in the movie, but that is probably just me. My biggest issue with this film is the pacing. Ninety-five percent of this movie had a ...

The witch was a huge success at the Sundance festivle. This is the second week in the row that a horror movie has taken the spot. The film company was so happy with what they got, they are skipping the limeted release and going straight to wife release. We all Will get to see It February 19.

With the award season in full swing today we got the golden globes of 2016. There was a bit of a surprise personally with The Revanent edging out Spotlight for best picture Drama (my review for it will be up soon). I did know it would either be The Martian or Big Short for comedy area. The lead acting went fairly as expected DiCaprio got a staue for Revanent. It will be interesting to see if it caries over for him The comedy category went to Matt Damon for the Martian. Brie Larson was one of the favorites to win for the actress drama category and she did. Even though it's a tad weird Joy was put in the comedy category and Jenifer Lawrence took the globe for that.  Supporting actor was interesting, Sly Stallone gave an amazing performance in Creed but I was not sure it would win an award. The supporting category for actress has pretty much screamed kate Winslet since the film came out. It is an interesting start to the award shows. It will be interesting to see how the awards conti...

The Big Short is a film I was unable to see before I had put out my top ten of the year, but this will be edited in as one of the best of 2015. This movie does something that is hard for a lot of movies to do, have intertwining stories of people that never meet, but the story actually works. The story centers around Mike Burry, Mark Baum, and Ben Rickert. Without getting into too muchfinancial lingo, Burry figures out that the housing collapse years before it happened and bet a lot of the hedge fund he was managing on it. Every body thought he was crazy except for a few that did the same thing he did. We all know what happened at the end.  This film holds nothing back in what happened. It shows people happy to screwhard workers out of their houses all the way to the panic on their faces at the end. This movie is important in many ways, mostly, the line between greed and what is right. GRADE: A-

One thing I did not know was this film was based on a true story of a wrestler turned preacher. In the film Chris Samuels is a professional wrestler that retires to become a preacher at a Michigan Baptist church. This church is in a bad area and is struggling with perishaners and cash flow. An opportunity comes along to possibly wrestle again to make money for the church. That is an idea he really struggles with. This film is a biopic mixed with a religious film which is an interesting combination. It does do everything that every other biopic and religious film does: Starts out with a rough childhood, rises above that, falls for some reason, than comes back up. Having said that it does not play off as bad as it does in some other movies like that so, you could do worse. GRADE:C

     Sara and Jess ( Natalie Dormer) are identical identical twin sistsrs. Sara goes to Japan to find her sister who is lost in suicide forest. Once she gets in weird things start to happen.      This is based on a real place, where thousands have gone to kill themselves. Like many other horror films what happens in the Forest is sensationalized to the max. As much of a fan I am of Natalie Dormer, this movie is so frustrating. This is a movie that is predictable to the max. All the rules that are given, are broken......suprise!      So ultimately this falls into the typical pg13 horror problem,shame. GRADE:D-

This week brings us a few movies. This week brings the wide release of the Leo DiCaprio Tom Hardy revenge film The Revanent. January also seems to bring out  of the pg13 horror films. This week we get the Forest. It surrounds the supernatural element in the Forest under mount Fuji.

The Conjuring when it came out was widely considered one of the best horror movies ever made. This June we get another instalment in the Warren case files. This time they head to England to help a single mother and her children. Take a look!

    This film has had quite the run to the big screen. Last year the script was leaked to the public and writer Quentin Tarantino said the story would never see the screen. Later that year, it came out that he had rewritten the movie and the film was moving forward with people like Kurt Russel, Sam Jackson, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth, and Walton Goggins.       The story revolves around Daisy Domergue (Jenifer Jason Leigh) and John Ruth ( Kurt Russel). On the track to Red Rock he comes along Marquis Warren (Sam Jackson) and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins). On their way to Red Rock they get caught in a blizzard and are forced to stop at Minnie's Habidashery. This is where things get crazy.    First of all this movie was very interesting but there were a few notes on it. There is a rather definite parallel to Resivoir Dogs almost to the obvious point. The film was also a tad on the predictable side. My final not is not a bad one. This movie seemed to be thr...

The story of how concussions have changed the game of football is nothing short of a captivating one. The film Concussion attempts to tell the story of how Bennett Omalu did an autopsy on retiered football player Mike Webster (David Morse), who for apparently no reason lost his mind. It is dicovered that a protein was released causing the issue. The findings were published in a popular medical journal. The NFL did everything in its power to kill the article. As more players started to die, it became harder to deny.    There has been thought that the film was dumb down to not make the NFL mad. I'm not sure that it was changed to more that it was not as brutal as it could be. GRADE:B-