Matthew Liedke

REVIEW: The Political Satire In ‘Sausage Party’ Works, Everything Else Not So Much

Director Greg Tiernan and actor Seth Rogen take animated pictures to a whole new level with this feature, mixing ideas of a raunchy comedy and a Pixar-like adventure.

The film takes place in a supermarket like any other and shows that all of the food and items in the store are sentient. Additionally, the products view humans as gods, meaning that when they are bought and taken out of the store they’re going to a sort of heaven.

Much of the flick revolves around the characters Franks (Rogen), a sausage and Brenda (Kristen Wiig) a bun. The movie picks up with them getting lost with other foods in the store when a mishap happens preventing them from being purchased. In the process, they start to learn some of the truth behind what the humans do.

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REVIEW: ‘War Dogs’ Is High On Excitement, Low On Depth

If there’s anything movies based on real events have taught us, it’s that truth is stranger than fiction. Once again, this is the case with “War Dogs.”

In this film from Director Todd Phillips, Miles Teller plays David Packouz, a young man who’s trying to make a living to support his wife by way of being a massage therapist. Unfortunately, this isn’t going very well. He gets a lucky break, though, when he meets up with his friend from high school Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill), who’s become an arms dealer for the United States.

Taking place during the early stages of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Efraim is having plenty of success and he pulls David along for the ride as a business partner. As the two get deeper into the industry, though, they soon start to get a bit in over their heads.

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REVIEW: ‘Hell Or High Water,’ A Modern Western And An Instant Classic

There’s been many good films released in 2016, but “Hell or High Water” is the first I can really call great.

The movie follows the Howard brothers, an ex-convict/roughneck Tanner (Ben Foster) and a divorced dad, Toby (Chris Pine). While the two are on good terms, they don’t exactly have the same way of doing things. However, the two decide to work together in a bank-robbing scheme to save their family’s ranch in Texas.

As a result, a duo of Texas Rangers are sent after the brothers. The pair includes Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) who’s about to retire and Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham), who has to put up with Marcus’ rough personality.

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REVIEW: Great Storytelling, Characters Make ‘Kubo And The Two Strings’ One Of The Summer’s Best

“Zootopia” might just have competition during award season from this flick.

“Kubo and the Two Strings” follows the story of the titular character. Kubo (Art Parkinson) is a young boy who lives near a small village with his mother, who was forced to flee from her family because her marriage was viewed as a betrayal. In her escape, though, Kubo’s mother was injured, resulting in her dealing with memory loss.

Despite this, she still has magic powers and those powers were passed on to Kubo. The main conflict launching Kubo on his adventure begins when his mother is killed by her sisters. To protect himself from his mother’s family, Kubo is sent to find a magical suit of armor.

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REVIEW: ‘Pete’s Dragon’ Remake Is A Heartwarming Family Experience

Disney’s latest strategy of making new live action films based off old properties continued this weekend with “Pete’s Dragon.”

Like the 1977 movie, “Pete’s Dragon” follows the titular character, played by Oakes Fegley, who is orphaned in the middle of a vast forest at age 5. The film’s story picks up about six years later when Pete, and his dragon Elliot, too, start to be noticed by other people as the forestry industry goes further into the woods.

This leads to Pete eventually meeting Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), who starts to believe the boy’s tales about a dragon as her own father Meacham (Robert Redford) also claimed to have seen one.

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REVIEW: New ‘Bourne’ Doesn’t Live Up To Original Trilogy

Move over Jeremy Renner, Matt Damon is back in the franchise again.

“Jason Bourne” once again follows the titular character, played by Damon, who’s now gone off the grid since the events of 2007’s “The Bourne Ultimatum.” While being out of the government’s eye, though, he still doesn’t find much peace, as he spends most of his days in street fights.

His life out of the espionage world is cut short, though, when a woman from his past, Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) informs him more about who he was before he became Bourne and that the government is starting a dangerous new program. This encounter puts Bourne back on the map, and subsequently, back on the run.

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REVIEW: ‘Collision Course’ Shows That ‘Ice Age’ Series Is On Life Support

It just never ends.

In the latest installment of the long running “Ice Age” series, the sabertooth squirrel Scrat causes a chain of events that sends an asteroid toward Earth. As this is happening, there’s a bit of drama with the Ice Age crew.

Peaches (Keke Palmer), the daughter of Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah), is planning to get married to her fiance Julian (Adam Devine) and in the process wants to leave home. So not only do the parents have to worry about the asteroid, they also have to worry about their kid leaving.

This movie feels like one of the most manufactured pieces of media that I’ve ever seen. The movie’s main conflict, the child wanting to leave home with a guy that the dad doesn’t like, is so incredibly generic and “Collision Course” doesn’t do anything new with it.

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REVIEW: Poorly Handled Subtext Pulls The Plug On ‘Lights Out’

“Lights Out” likely could have been a better horror flick if it had handled one aspect better.

The movie centers around the character Rebecca, played by Teresa Palmer. Rebecca is trying to make the best of what she has in life but is troubled by her mother’s clinical depression and the effects it has on her younger brother, Martin (Gabriel Bateman).

The situation becomes extraordinarily worse when Martin sees his mother, Sophie (Maria Bello) speaking to some sort of dark being and it doesn’t take long for Rebecca to believe him.

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REVIEW: ‘Star Trek’ Series Returns To Form With ‘Beyond’

It looks like third time’s the charm.

“Star Trek: Beyond” takes place about three years after the last film, “Into Darkness.” The USS Enterprise is now three years into a five year mission of exploration. While the ship is functioning and the crew is handling the adventure OK, Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) is starting to grow a bit weary.

His musings on life as a captain in deep space are cut short, though, when the Enterprise responds to a person in distress and in the process, is led into a trap. Ultimately, the ship gets grounded on an unknown planet and the crew is separated.

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The Imitation Game review

Director:
Morten Tyldum
Cast:
Benedict Cumberbatch
Keira Knightley
Matthew Goode
Rory Kinnear
Charles Dance
Rated: PG-13

Much of “The Imitation” Game takes place during the second World War and focuses on the work of British mathematician Alan Turing (Cumberbatch).

Despite the film centering on Turing’s work in World War II, though, the audience is also given a look into two other time periods. The period of time with Turing as a young man and the decade following the war to show what happened to him.

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