Blackhat

Meh.  It's not that this movie is horrible, it's just so very so what.  Like what I would imagine a movie-by-numbers would look like.  Action sequence at minute fifteen?  Check.  Guy and girl sleep together at minute nineteen (seriously, due to what we have to assume is proximity and interconnecting parts rather than any established attraction to one another)?  Check.  But I think the greatest problem is that the filmmakers could have saved themselves some egg on their face had they simply looked up the difference between "increase" and "decrease".  [SPOILERISH ALERT ...but let's be honest, you're not going to be invested in this movie anyway, so knowing what's coming shouldn't alter your experience at all]  When the movie begins with a nuclear meltdown, you need to up your game for what the end stakes will be, not ... well, what these filmmakers did.  Even more heinous than decreasing the stakes in the plot,  these filmmakers actually neutralize (for the filmmakers:  neutralize means "remove" or "completely cancel out") the stakes by just repeating pretty much the same threat 20 minutes later.  "Oh no!  They've done x."  (fast forward 20 minutes) "Oh no!  They're going to ... do x ... again!"   The filmmakers obviously just wanted to make sure there was A reason - without any care whether or not it was a GOOD reason (cough movie-by-numbers cough) - for deadly hand-to-hand combat (between cerebral COMPUTER HACKERS, might I note) at minute one twenty.  Meh.  Verdict: Movie Rental If You Must.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Were we supposed to know going in who The Winter Soldier is?  Is it a comic book thing, where anyone who knows the comics knows this dude's identity?  Cuz all the previews made the reveal scene a bit anticlimactic.  Fitting perhaps, regardless.  Because this movie was a bit anticlimactic.   Kinda felt like it was trying to do a Bourne Identity thing.  I have nothing against Bourne Identity things.  But when I've paid money to see someone named Captain America do stuff, I'm not really expecting the stuff to be so action movie de rigueur.  Verdict: Movie Rental (or just see Captain America again)

The Wolverine

Uh... what?  You lost me.  Why did you make this movie?  Or rather, why did you make it with Wolverine?  A man getting over the grief and guilt of a loved one lost.  Okay.  An X-Man doing it?  Sorry, but snore.  Verdict: Movie Rental if You Must

Now You See Me

Sigh.  Note to anyone doing another movie about magic : start with a good trick, then build to something phenomenal to leave your audience clapping.  Don't start with your best trick, then hope your audience is wowed by a routine light show and blatant hologram stunt as a "finale".  (I could do a hologram stunt.  Especially since I'll be under no obligation to make it look like anything other than a hologram stunt.)  BUT this movie has bigger problems.  You know how in Sixth Sense, when you find out the twist, you look back over the film and think "Oh!  Of course!  How sly!"  Well, when Now You See Me explained how what happened happened, you just think "Well that doesn't make sense.  If that's the solution, this wouldn't have happened here, and he/she wouldn't have done that there."  The brilliance of unexpected solutions is when you look back on the story armed with explanation, the story makes just as much -- if not more -- sense.  Now You See Me thinks it can pull any explanation out of its butt, as if we just weren't watching at all.  Verdict: Movie Rental if You Must

Star Trek Into Darkness

Blasted spoilers.  I had made a concerted effort with this movie to avoid all press.  Turn the channel when an ad came on.  Turn the page when a review is published.  Cover my ears and run screaming from the grocery store when any nearby person starts speaking about it.  And STILL I had heard what was supposed to be a twist in the plot.  Blasted spoilers.  This movie was fun on its face, yes.  But for as much trouble as the franchise went through in order to free itself to explore any plot lines without being beholden to the established history of the original series... well, let's just say it wasted its own time, as well as yours and mine.  But it had fun while wasting it. Verdict: Discount Theatre

Iron Man 3

I had read a review where it said this movie looks like what would happen if the producers brought the VFX team in for a meeting and said "So... what would you like to do in this movie?  Carte blanche.  It shall be so."  Find that review.  It is apt.  I got a real Transformers-vibe off this movie - and by that, I mean I wasn't always sure who was doing what to whom and where I was supposed to be looking.  But yeah, cool VFX.  However, don't believe the hype that this is the best Iron Man movie yet.  Like I said in my review of Iron Man 2: do yourself a favour, frankly, and just go rent Iron Man 1 again.  Verdict: Movie Rental

Argo

In dealing with a story for which most of us already know the ending, this movie actually holds your attention quite well.  It does a good job creating suspense and danger and when the hostages are able to finally celebrate their escape (ooh, sorry: spoiler alert), you kind of want to celebrate too.  Then you remember that over 50 other Americans are still being tortured and tormented in the consulate, and will continue to be so for -- what? -- well over a year.  But yay! Six people were saved!  Verdict: Discount Theatre

Skyfall

Fair warning: we have a new Bond.  I know, I know, Daniel Craig isn't exactly "new".  But if any die hard Bond fans were hoping that we'd get back to the misogynistic (said with love), teflon-coated, action-with-no-time-for-reaction Bond... well, we'll always have Connery.  But, if you can get past that -- I think you'll really like this new Bond.  He's not indestructible.  He's not flawless.  He gets dirty and bloody and sometimes the kills aren't pretty but are still solidly categorized as lethal.  And his unwavering loyalty to Queen and country makes his path clear and his aim steady.  Let the past go.  Embrace the Craig.  (p.s. Go M!  And I love Javier Bardem's twist on the usual villain's excessively tired overactive libido schtick!)  Verdict: First Run Theatre

Looper

I'm going to do you a favour: I'm not going to talk about Looper.  Not really, anyway.  A lot of other people have been talking about Looper, and quite frankly I think it ruined it for me.  I went in expecting ... I don't know.  More than I got?  Different than I got?  The problem lies in the fact that your standard is different than mine.  If you say a movie is "x" -- well that means one thing to me that it might not mean to you.  And if you say the movie is "z" -- again, you're not in my mind.  Except, I forget you're not in my mind and I expect that I too would label what I find in the movie to be "z."  I wouldn't have labelled this movie "z".  I wonder, though, what I would have labelled it had I not gone in with someone else's expectations in my labelmaker.  You may, however, read what you wish into the following:  Verdict: First Run Theatre

Sinister

Definitely spooky.  Creepy, spooky and scary.  But also kinda sells itself short.  A few faces jumping into screen that aren't necessary (or logical), music that is a bit cliche by this point, and --gotta say it-- ending that doesn't make sense.  Was it creepy?  Yes.  Spooky?  Sure.  Based on anything that was discovered during the course of the movie?  Nuh uh. Verdict: Movie Rental if you're not anal about the endings to movies