despicable me 3

Despicable Me 3 - Official Trailer http://www.despicable.me The team who brought you Despicable Me and the biggest animated hits of 2013 and 2015, Despicable Me 2 and Minions, returns to continue the adventures of Gru, Lucy, their adorable daughters-Margo, Edith and Agnes-and the Minions.

I'm not sure if the shtick that is the Despicable Me franchise; or the Minions for that matter, is just not able to offer anything worthwhile anymore, or maybe it's simply the fact that this third installment is just a swing and a miss. This is all besides the fact that I thought it had a lot of potential with it's premise too. It's just unfortunate that it ended up being quite a bit disappointing. 

I do like the plot ideas for the story though. Gru loses his job as a good guy, and then the surprising arrival of his twin brother tries to convince him to be a villain again. There's also a plot line about Lucy trying to figure out how to be a Mom to Gru's adopted kids. Plus the Minions want to go back to villainy, with humorous results. Oh, and then there's that 80s child actor who became an 80s themed super villain too. All those elements definitely look good on paper, but unfortunately this movie wasn't able to translate all that into a fully entertaining experience. 

Story aside, I wanted to at least enjoy the comedic side of things. There were definitely a lot of jokes in this movie, whether it's based on satire, sight-gags, or clever lines, but I probably only genuinely laughed less than a handful of times. A lot of the humor were very sophomoric or just simply uninspired. Actually the sophomoric jokes may have been done that way on purpose, but it still doesn't matter if I didn't find them funny. Some of the comedic ideas may have been inspired in some way; like putting the Minions in prison, but even so they just didn't feel like they tried hard enough to make them great ideas. 

There are things I did like about the movie though, like the "cheese festival" bits, the super villain car, the heist sequences, and the character of Lucy who I was really rooting for in this movie. There really was potential for "Despicable Me 3" to be fun to watch, but when the end credits sequence showed us what the movie should have actually been about, then you know they could have made a better animated film than what we got. 

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baby driver

This Summer, all you need is one killer track #BabyDriverMovie In Theaters Wednesday, June 28. Get tickets: http://www.babydriver-movie.com/#get-tickets Subscribe to Sony Pictures for exclusive video updates: http://bit.ly/SonyPicsSubscribe Follow Us on Social: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BabyDriverMovie/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/babydrivermovie/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BabyDriverMovie Synopsis: A talented, young getaway driver (Ansel Elgort) relies on the beat of his personal soundtrack to be the best in the game.

The opening sequences of this movie shows you there and then that this is going to have a very specific style and feel to it. The action of the characters and the way the movie is edited, directly parallels the beats and mood of the soundtrack. Most everything is synced up with the music and songs, which means that you are either somebody who is going to really like that this movie is doing that, or you will be annoyed as heck.

Ansel Elgort lip syncing to a song, or drumming on the steering wheel to the beat, or dancing along to the music while doing an errand of getting coffee. Is that something you'd enjoy? How about the sound of gun fire that is synced up to the "Tequila" song? Maybe songs that have the name "Baby" or "Debora" on it, because two characters are named that in the movie? Are those the kind of things you'd like? I thought the whole conceit of this directing style is pretty clever actually, but I can understand if that's not for everybody. 

If that mixture of visuals to the soundtrack does scare you a little, don't worry because the whole movie is not like that; although I personally wished it was all like that. To tell you the truth, I didn't think the whole soundtrack was as great as I hoped it would be, even though there are some excellent choices of songs in there. With all that said, that's not the only thing worth mentioning in this movie, because there are some excellent chase sequences in this film that are most definitely worth seeing, and were quite exhilarating. It's not even all just car chases either, because there is a chase scene on foot that was quite exciting as well. 

I thought the whole cast were generally really good in this, from Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, to Eiza Gonzalez. There were shades of their characters seemingly being a little one note of just being specific archetypes, but this is an Edgar Wright movie so it isn't that simple. I liked all the characters they played, and the chemistry they all had with each other was just excellent. The bits of them bantering, and the funny lines that were said, were all just entertaining overall. 

Although I did mention that this movie is very stylish in a fresh way, the story itself isn't that far off from what you've seen before. It's not completely following a familiar plot formula to a tee, as there are some surprises, so it's not exactly that derivative either. Despite the cool directing style, the fact that it's not a completely unique experience kinda disappointed me a bit. Maybe I expected more than I should have with "Baby Driver," but either way it is undoubtedly worthy of your time to check out. 

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beatriz at dinner

#isawthatmovie

At an elegant dinner party in a swanky hilltop home, conversation between a soft-spoken holistic healer and a hard-nosed businessman explodes into a bitter clash of cultures in Beatriz at Dinner, the latest provocative film from director Miguel Arteta and screenwriter Mike White.

This is a simple movie predominantly set inside a luxury home, with a small cast, that usually revolves around the characters conversing with each other, and dreamlike shots of cinematography. With that said, this unabashedly jumps into the fray that is the never ending discourse between the liberal democrats and the conservative republicans. It's not ashamed to choose sides either, as it swings heavily on the liberal point of view, and that in itself will alienate most movie goers. 

So what we got here is a story that's content in patronizing to a specific audience that shares it's ideals, and also wants to lecture another set of audience about the errors of their ways. I admit there are some subtlety of showing some shades of grey on each side, but it's also arguably too subtle in many regards. Manipulative is one way to describe this movie, and the characters end up being shallow caricatures on who they represent, that doesn't get to offer anything really insightful about the ideologies that they bring up short of a superficial level. 

The cast is good in this though, in particular Salma Hayek and John Lithgow. Yes they lean quite a bit into exaggerated portrayals of what a liberal hollistic Mexican immigrant and what a white billionaire mogul that hunts for fun might be, but they were fascinating to watch together, so there's that. Even though Hayek and Lithgow made the movie more enjoyable to watch, the film occasionally purposefully throws in some questionable plot turns that are suppose to be thought provoking, but instead only comes off as pretentious. The whole premise of the film could have genuinely been interesting to watch, but unfortunately it all just ends up obnoxious. 

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the hero

Uploaded by The Orchard Movies on 2017-04-18.

Who doesn't like Sam Elliott right? Even in a movie that is inherently derivative, about a selfish, generally forgotten actor, who is reexamining his life, Sam Elliott's quietly effective performance; plus that incredible voice of his, should keep your attention either way. Yes the premise is a bit on the derivative side and you can likely predict where the plot is going, but the meditative tone, pacing that takes it's time, some understated but beautiful scenes, and the subject matter itself, makes this movie worth checking out. 

With Sam Elliott at the lead as Lee Hayden, the small cast in this is very good. Nick Offerman as Jeremy Frost adds a nice bit of comedy and lightheartedness into this movie, but also allows Elliott to toss in a few bits of jokes as well. Laura Prepon as Charlotte Dylan is fantastic as this woman Lee gets involved with, and she adds that bit of spark and energy into the story in a very welcome way. Offerman and Prepon however are basically there for Sam Elliott to bounce off of, which allows him to display some excellent acting in several of the best scenes of this movie. 

The poignancy of the story and the character of Lee Hayden, and the chemistry he has with the other characters, are what carries this movie through and through. Despite the heavy subject matter, it's not a completely dour movie, as it knows when to integrate a bit of fun into the equation, like this joke that got the biggest laugh for those familiar with Sam Elliott's career. It's not the most flashy of movies to watch, nor is it the most original, but it has a lot of heart with a strong emotional base of a theme, and absolutely kept my attention throughout the whole thing; even when it meandered a bit.

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transformers the last knight

Meet Izzy in this special new preview of Transformers: The Last Knight, created exclusively to run in theaters with Beauty & the Beast. The Last Knight shatters the core myths of the Transformers franchise, and redefines what it means to be a hero. Humans and Transformers are at war, Optimus Prime is gone.

You know a blockbuster movie franchise is going down the wrong path, when each installment doesn't seem to be in competition on which one is the best (obviously the first one), but which one is the worst. Between Michael Bay's Transformers parts 2 to 5, I have to say that "The Last Knight" takes the crown as the worst of the bunch. What an obnoxious mess of a movie. 

For the longest time now, us fans simply want to watch a Transformers movie where it's focused more on the Transformers themselves. We want less scenes involving human characters that we don't care about, and more scenes of Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee, etc... What does this movie do? Even MORE scenes of human characters we do not care about. When we do have the transformers on screen, it usually involves four scenarios. One, a scene where a human is either berating a Transformer, or is talking to them like they are some kind of pet or child. Two, an extended sequence where they are in their vehicular form, in what is basically another action scene where we don't really see a robot. Three, a Transformers shooting at something off screen. Four, an actual Transformers vs Transformers fight scene, that usually don't last long enough. 

Speaking of characters, the majority of the Transformers don't have much to do at all, except have a few lines of dialogue, or just to be in the middle of an action sequence. Peter Cullen and Frank Welker are absolutely wasted in this movie.  The only Transformer that had some actual spotlight put on them is Cogman; voice acted by Jim Carter, who while he can get rather annoying at times, actually provided some entertaining scenes. Bumblebee has the most screen time out of all of them, but he was still mostly just an ancillary character whose purpose is just to be the token Transformer of a given scene. 

Can we please get a better director and writers for this franchise? Enough with the frenetic action sequences of bullets flying, random things exploding, and unnecessary chase sequences. Those things wouldn't be an issue, if they were at least enjoyably fun to watch. The action in this movie are like a visual representation of what a migraine would look like. The writing for this movie is unfortunately all over the place in it's idiotically unnecessarily convoluted story of trying to link up together all these multiple plot lines, and characters that we aren't given enough reason to care about. I get that they are going for this whole "the world is going to end unless we do something about it" epic story telling, but at least make it entertaining. 

The only ones who seem to be having some fun in this movie are Anthony Hopkins and Jim Carter as Cogman, but they aren't enough to save this. Everybody else are way too serious in a very pretentious way, and that includes the precocious 14 year old girl that we're suppose to feel something for. When it tries to be funny, it almost always falls flat, or just comes off as patronizing to the audience. Here's a word of advice to this movie... a hundred scenes of characters arguing and bantering with one another is only fun if they are executed properly! 

Michael Bay, you, your schizophrenic edits, your love for things blowing up, your ridiculous amount of aspect ratio changes, and your general lack of restraining your indulgences, should really leave this franchise. You've claimed to quit Transformers several times already, and yet you keep coming back. Leave!!! 

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47 meters down

Lisa (Mandy Moore) and Kate (Claire Holt) catch a once in a lifetime, face-to-face look at majestic Great Whites. But when their worst fears are realized and the cage breaks away from their boat, they find themselves plummeting to the bottom of the seabed.

I know this is primarily being advertised as a shark movie, and it's true that our protagonists are trying to avoid getting eaten by such an animal. The sharks however aren't the main things that this movie focuses on in terms of danger. Getting accidentally dropped 47 meters in the ocean while in a cage, with a limited amount of air, and the dangers of decompression sickness; aka "The Bends," plus other scuba diving rules and jargon, are many other things to worry about on top of the sharks. If anything else, this is a movie about how dangerous deep sea scuba diving can be. 

Due to the focus on scuba diving, plus the addition of sharks being a threat, the movie is actually a little bit more interesting than yet another story about a dangerous shark encounter. There is a bit of background story exposition in regards to the main characters, but I simply would call those the boring moments. This movie does not pick up until they get to that boat, and get in that cage. For only a 90 minutes run time, there is that significant chunk in the beginning that I could have lived without. 

Mandy Moore and Claire Holt are good in this at least. Their story progression as they try to survive this experience can be a bit predictable, but they play their archetypes well enough. Mandy Moore is the inexperienced panicky one, and Claire Holt is the more experienced braver one. Can you easily guess where this movie goes with their characters? Sure, but the "lessons" about scuba diving adds a nice touch of expositions, and the risky actions they take does add to the tension when watching this movie. 

While "47 Meters Down" generally feels like a throwaway underwater thriller of a story, it has it's merits of playing the game of "will they" or "won't they" make it alive by the end. I should say that there is a plot point that will definitely challenge your limits on what you can accept from this movie, and that might completely sour your experience watching this. All I know is that while the movie "Jaws" made you afraid of going in the water because of sharks, this movie is an example on why you shouldn't do deep sea scuba diving. 

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all eyez on me

All Eyez On Me TEASER Trailer In Theaters June 16, 2017

Since this is a movie based on real life, there is a lot of contention on how accurate it is in it's adaptation of rap legend Tupac Shakur's story. Whether it got the facts correct or not is one thing, but the other question is on if this movie is entertaining to watch or not. It is enjoyable to watch in many regards, but there are times when I wished they could have edited out certain scenes. Some scenes have a tendency to be too brief, while others tended to be longer than it should have been. 

Like with most biopics that try to cram years worth of history into a tolerable running time for a movie, this one had issues properly balancing out the things it actually needed to show us. I would say that the first half of the movie was able to pace things out a little better, and allowed the story to just grow in a reasonable way. The second half of the movie however seemed to just be content in giving us highlights after highlights without much in terms of a normal plot progression. The narrative of the movie just felt off several times, although it has the benefit of still being about a very fascinating true story and person. 

Demetrius Shipp Jr is pretty amazing playing the role of Tupac, and there is a certain confidence to his performance that really carries the movie through and through. Even if the script can sometimes fail him, Demetrius seems to be able to rise above the flaws and is able to keep our attention. If anybody else was going to upstage him, it's Danai Gurira as Tupac's Mom Afeni Shakur. What an electrifying work by Danai that absolutely steals the movie whenever she is on screen. 

Since this isn't exactly a documentary on Tupac, I can understand why the direction took certain liberties for cinematic reasons. Either way, Demetrius Shipp Jr, Danai Gurira, and the legend that is Tupac, should be enough reason to check this movie out. 

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the book of henry

Sometimes things are not always what they seem, especially in the small suburban town where the Carpenter family lives. Single suburban mother Susan (Naomi Watts) works as a waitress at a diner, alongside feisty friend Sheila (Sarah Silverman). Her younger son Peter (Jacob Tremblay) is a playful 8-year-old.

At first this looks like a conventional family drama film, about a boy genius who seems to have taken the reigns on taking care of his adorable younger brother, and his goof of a Mom. It's also like a conventional caper thriller, about an intricate plan to save the girl next door from an abusive step-father. One part of this movie is lighthearted and touching, the other part is dark and gripping. Combined together, makes this a rather unique experience. A movie mash-up of two different genres? Yeah, not every movie goer is going to accept the tonal differences that it gives. That may not be for everybody, but it worked for me. 

There's another thing that people might have a problem accepting about this movie, and that's the fact that Henry is a boy genius. Some people might get turned off by how seemingly perfect and smart he is at everything. Speaking of Henry though, Jaeden Lieberher plays the precocious boy really well. Jacob Tremblay is also fantastic as his younger brother Peter. Both of these child actors are simply great on screen. To top it off, Naomi Watts is excellent as always, playing the loving but ultimately carefree Mom; Susan. I thought the role-reversal of Henry and Susan was pretty charming, but others may not feel the same way. 

I'm not done yet saying what might be oft-putting about this movie for people. Without revealing spoilers, there is a plot in this movie which leads to the ending, that depending on your point of view, may come off incredibly far-fetched, and will ruin your suspension of disbelief. I myself thought it worked well enough as it wanted to be, but talk about a risky story to include in this movie. With all the chances this takes with it's premise, I have to show some admiration for Director Colin Trevorrow and Writer Gregg Hurwitz of attempting to make this into a feature film; questionable decisions aside. 

Needless to say, this movie isn't for everybody. I myself thought the characters themselves were enough for me to feel really invested in the story, but I can see how the plot will be really problematic for other people. 

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rough night

Watch Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz in the all new #RoughNightMovie trailer. In theaters June 16. Get Tickets: http://bit.ly/RoughNightTix Follow Us on Social: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RoughNightMovie/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/roughnightmovie Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roughnightmovie/ Subscribe for exclusives: http://bit.ly/SonyPicsSubscribeYT Five best friends from college (played by Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz) reunite 10 years later for a wild bachelorette weekend in Miami.

As I usually say about funny movies, it's that comedy is subjective. What one person may find funny, another person may not. So did I personally find "Rough Night" hilariously funny? Not really. I laughed a few times, or smiled for some moments acknowledging a joke, but I didn't find anything here that made me genuinely laugh out loud. I did find the farcical premise generally humorous, which is a group of friends trying to party it up for a bachelorette get together, and then things go wrong when somebody dies. It's not an entirely unique plot, but it's not something I would fault them for. There are even certain plot points that do pay off by the end of the movie as well (stay for an important after credits scene), which I can appreciate that they thought the story through enough to pull those off. 

A lot of outrageous things do happen constantly in this movie, but unfortunately just the act of showing something outrageous doesn't automatically mean comedy gold. There's a lot of raunchy humor here, as well as situational comedic scenes, and it seems like it does make many attempts to create memorable funny moments, but a lot of it just falls flat. There is even this one recurring sub-plot involving actor/co-writer Paul W Downs that I found absolutely obnoxious and just plain stupid. Needless to say, logic is absolutely thrown off the window here, but that's neither here nor there. 

I suppose on the positive side of things, I do like the cast. The characters are almost like your typical archetypes of who we are all suppose to find in a movie like this, but it worked regardless because of the decently good chemistry of the cast together. If there was one weak link among the five primary cast members, it's actually Scarlett Johansson who was the least interesting person of the bunch, or Jillian Bell who could be a little annoying at times, Kate McKinnon was odd in a humorous way, Ilana Glazer was amusing with her contradictory ways, and Zoe Kravitz just gets kudos for being in that one particular plot of the movie that involves the neighbors. 

It's unfortunate that this movie didn't really work on me, because it does seem like there will be people who might genuinely enjoy this. I suppose I could just say that if you are a fan of any of the cast, then go ahead and see it anyway. 

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my cousin rachel

Now Playing in Theaters Get Tickets: http://bit.ly/MCRtickets A dark romance, MY COUSIN RACHEL tells the story of a young Englishman who plots revenge against his mysterious, beautiful cousin, believing that she murdered his guardian.

There are two things about this movie that might not work for some movie goers. The first thing is that Philip; the lead character played by Sam Claflin, makes a rather quick change of heart, from hating somebody to completely falling in love with that person, all in a short amount of time. This is the premise of the movie after all, so I suppose you either accept it or watch something else. I myself bought the reasons why Philip changed his mind, and it does have a lot to do with the character of Rachel; the widow of his cousin played by Rachel Weisz, and the effect she has on him. 

The second thing about this movie that might not work for some movie goers, is how blatantly obvious this seems to be in trying to make you have to decide on whether Rachel really is manipulating Philip, or if this is all just a misunderstanding. Once again, this is after all the premise of the movie, but I would say that Director Roger Michell laid too many suggestions into making us think she really has sinister motives, that the guessing game of whether she is or isn't is very one sided into one conclusion. 

Since the movie is primarily seen through the eyes of Philip, we get to follow him into his descent of madness through the rabbit hole that is his cousin Rachel. From his anger towards who she is at first, through his infatuations, his obsession, his paranoia, we get to experience what he is going through as well. That is where it gets frustrating though, because Philip makes decisions you probably wouldn't do yourself, that are absolutely face-palm worthy. That is the romantic-mystery-thriller aspect of this movie however, and it will either hook you right in all the way to the end, or you get the opposite reaction and can't wait for the end. 

Sam Claflin and Rachel Weisz are both really good in this, with Weisz doing a lot of excellent subtle acting to keep us guessing as to what her real motivations are, as opposed to what her character claims. A period piece, with engaging characters, a mysterious plot, and fantastic cinematography, only shows that this movie is better than it really is. 

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