Author: Matthew Liedke

Journalist and film critic in Minnesota. Graduate of Rainy River College and Minnesota State University in Moorhead. Outside of movies I also enjoy sports, craft beers and the occasional video game.

Furious 7 review

Director:
James Wan
Cast:
Vin Diesel
Paul Walker
Jason Statham
Michelle Rodriguez
Jordana Brewster
Tyrese Gibson
Ludacris
Dwayne Johnson
Kurt Russell
Rated: PG-13

The fights, the roaring of the engines, the one-liners, the girls. “Furious 7” delivers on everything.

The seventh installment starts not long after the previous film. The whole crew is living peaceful lives and things appear to be going well. That is until Deckard Shaw, played by Jason Statham, starts coming after the protagonists. The reason for his attacks, Shaw is the older brother of the villain from part six.

After Shaw takes out one of the members of the crew, Dominic Toretto, played by Vin Diesel, decides to retaliate.

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Get Hard review

Director:
Etan Cohen
Cast:
Will Ferrell
Kevin Hart
T.I.
Craig T. Nelson
Rated: R

In “Get Hard” Will Ferrell plays James, a rich business man who seems to have a perfect life for himself. This changes suddenly when he is charged with a white collar crime and has to go to prison.

In the process, James mistakes Kevin Hart’s character Darnell as a man who went to prison and hires him to teach him how to survive in the slammer. Despite never having been to prison, Darnell agrees and decides to teach James how to stand up for himself.

If you’re looking for an unpredictable comedy where you have no idea where the next joke is going to come from, “Get Hard” probably isn’t for you. The film, from beginning to end, is entirely predictable, both in terms of story and its jokes. It’s easy to figure out who the villain is, it’s easy to tell what’s going to happen and the humor is never a surprise.

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REVIEW: ‘Home’

Director:
Tim Johnson
Cast:
Jim Parsons
Rihanna
Steve Martin
Jennifer Lopez
Rated: PG

In the latest Dreamworks animated feature, Jim Parsons lends the voice to the character Oh. Oh is a member of an alien race that is on the run from a intergalactic threat and is trying to find a new home where they will be safe. They end up coming to Earth and decide to make the planet their own. After moving the human population to a single location, the alien race takes over Earth.

Things seem to be going fine until Oh, being the mistake maker that he happens to be, ends up accidentally notifying the threat about where his race is. As he goes on the run from his own people, he meets Tip (Rihanna), a young girl who is searching for her mother. The two end up making an unlikely pair and have to go on adventure to set things right.

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The Gunman review

Director:
Pierre Morel
Cast:
Sean Penn
Jasmine Trinca
Javier Bardem
Idris Elba
Rated: R

In “The Gunman,” Sean Penn plays Terrier, a mercenary for hire who is nearing the completion of a current mission. After Terrier completes said mission, he decides to retire and leave his current business behind him. Eight years later, though, it appears that the sins of his past have come back to haunt him as he becomes the target of an assassination.

Now Terrier is on the run and has to try and figure out just why someone wants him dead.

One would figure that “The Gunman” would be an exhilarating feature, as most ‘men on the run’ type stories are. Yet, the film turned out to be entirely dull and the entire runtime it felt as though the movie was plodding along.

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Insurgent review

Director:
Robert Schwentke
Cast:
Kate Winslet
Shailene Woodley
Theo James
Miles Teller
Rated: PG-13

I certainly wasn’t expecting the second movie in the “Divergent” series to be a chore to sit through, but it was.

In the sequel to last year’s mediocre “Divergent,” “Insurgent” picks up not long after the first film ended. Tris, played by Shailene Woodley, and Four, played by Theo James, are on the run from the main factions of the city and are seeking out any kind of shelter.

Unfortunately, they have to stay on the run through many parts of the film. This problem increases when Jeanine, played by Kate Winslet, decides to search for Tris as she may be the one who can unlock secrets of the city.

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REVIEW: ‘Cinderella’

Director:
Kenneth Branagh
Cast:
Cate Blanchett
Lily James
Richard Madden
Helena Bonham Carter
Rated: PG

If you’ve seen the original animated “Cinderella,” or any of the other adaptions of the fairy tale, this will be very familiar territory. This live action version starts off with Cinderella(James) as a young girl and the movie introduces the audience to both her mother and father.

The film goes into the upbringing of Cinderella and shows how her mother died, how her father found a new wife and how life was like after her father passed away. From there, it works like the other adaptions, Stepmother (Blanchett) comes into the picture, forces Cinderella to do work, a ball comes up and the two stepsisters are brats.

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Run All Night review

Director:
Jaume Collet-Serra
Cast:
Liam Neeson
Ed Harris
Joel Kinnaman
Boyd Holbrook
Rated: R

“Run All Night” follows former mob hit man Jimmy (Neeson) who doesn’t exactly have the best luck in life. Jimmy is an alcoholic, poor and is estranged from his own son. The only person in the world who even gives him the time of day is his former boss and friend Shawn (Harris).

Problems increase for Jimmy, though when Shawn’s son gets involved in some bad crime and ends up killing another drug dealer. Jimmy’s son Mike ends up seeing the killing while on duty as a limo driver. This sets in motion a plot where Mike is on the run from Shawn’s cronies and needs the help of his father if he has any hopes of surviving.

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REVIEW: ‘Chappie’

Director:
Neill Blomkamp
Cast:
Sharlto Copley
Dev Patel
Ninja
Yo-Landi Visser
Jose Pablo Cantillo
Hugh Jackman
Sigourney Weaver
Rated: R

“Chappie,” like Director Neill Blomkamp’s first film “District 9,” takes place in the South African city of Johannesburg. The city is over run with crime and gangs seem to be everywhere. Because of this problem, a large weapons manufacturing company develops a new droid humanoid robot to add to the police force.

This is where we enter one of the film’s protagonists, a software developer for the robots named Deon (Patel). Deon has his sights set on creating the first artificial intelligence and pulls off the feat and uploads the program to a damaged police robot. Problems arise, though, when the robot ends up in the hands of a trio of gangsters (Ninja, Yo-Landi Visser, Cantillo) who begin teaching the impressionable droid criminal acts.

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Whiplash review

Director:
Damien Chazelle
Cast:
Miles Teller
J.K. Simmons
Paul Reiser
Rated: R

Miles Teller plays Andrew in “Whiplash,” a young college student with aspirations of being a highly successful musician, more specifically, a great drummer. Opportunity eventually comes knocking when he is brought into a skilled jazz band taught by a man named Fletcher (Simmons).

Andrew soon finds out, though, that Fletcher is one of the toughest instructors he has ever gone up against and it will take all of his will power and talent to meet the massive expectations placed upon him as a member of the band.

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