Matthew Liedke

After Earth review

Director:
M. Night Shyamalan
Cast:
Jaden Smith
Will Smith
Sophie Okonedo
Zoe Kravitz
Rated: PG-13

Well, let’s be happy Jaden is only acting and not rapping.

“After Earth” begins with a large backstory of what happened to the human race. Years into the future, because of environmental problems, humans are forced to abandon the planet. While relocating to another planet, the surviving humans come in contact with aliens and the forces have a conflict. The brave general Cypher (W. Smith) leads them to victory by fighting off monstrous creatures by ghosting, which completely suppresses one’s fear.

Cypher’s son, Kitai (J. Smith) not only tries to live up to his father’s name and become a ranger himself, he still has bad memories of his sister being killed and not being able to help. Cypher and Kitai eventually go on a mission together on a ship but unfortunately it crash lands on a planet and the rest of the crew is killed. Because Cypher’s leg is injured, Kitai has to travel to another piece of the ship that broke apart during the crash to recover a beacon that can save them, however the planet they have landed on is Earth and it has become very dangerous for humans.

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Now You See Me review

Director:
Louis Leterrier
Cast:
Jesse Eisenberg
Mark Ruffalo
Woody Harrelson
Isla Fisher
Dave Franco
Morgan Freeman
Michael Caine
Melanie Laurent
Rated: PG-13

I wish someone would have used a magic trick to make this a better movie.

“Now You See Me” sets up a few different story arcs that intertwine throughout the film’s run. The first arc that the audience is introduced to is the story of the Four Horsemen. These four, including a street magician named Daniel Atlas (Eisenberg), a mentalist named Merritt McKinnney (Harrelson), an escape artist named Henley Reeves (Fisher) and a young magician named Jack Wilder (Franco).

The four meet after being summoned to the same apartment building and a year later they are putting on a big show in Las Vegas. During their performance they end up robbing a bank and there enters the next story arc, an FBI agent named Dylan (Ruffalo) and an Interpol agent named Alma (Laurent), who are on the Four Horsemen’s trail. Another arc comes into play as a man who is an expert at debunking magicians, Thaddeus (Freeman), decides to help out the FBI for his own gains.

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Epic review

Director:
Chris Wedge
Cast:
Colin Farrell
Josh Hutcherson
Amanda Seyfried
Beyonce Knowles
Rated: PG

“Epic” is another animated film from the studios that have brought you the “Ice Age” sequels and “Rio,” and like those movies, this one is stunningly mediocre.

The film follows a teenage girl named M.K. (Seyfried), who is planning to live with her father played by Jason Sudeikis. The only problem is that her father is an obsessed scientist who believes that there is a race of tiny people who live in the forest.

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Fast and Furious 6 review

Director:
Justin Lin
Cast:
Vin Diesel
Dwayne Johnson
Paul Walker
Michelle Rodriguez
Tyrese Gibson
Rated: PG-13

With the stuff some of the characters survive in this flick you would think they were super humans.

“Fast and Furious 6” is the latest installment of the now over decade long franchise. In this film, a dangerous, highly trained criminal named Shaw, played by Luke Evans, is after a weapon system worth billions. DSS agent Hobbs (Johnson) is after Shaw and requests the help of Dominic Toretto (Diesel) and his crew, not only because the crew is one of the best but also because Hobbs has information that Toretto’s old girlfriend Letty (Rodriguez) could still be alive.

With that, the crew from the past films are re-united and face down their toughest threat ever. This time the villains bring along tanks and other heavy weapons that the crew has to take down.

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It boldly goes where other Star Trek films have gone before.

“Star Trek Into Darkness” is the sequel to the 2009 movie that served as a sort of reboot to the franchise going back to the original characters. The film, which takes place in a sort of separate reality than the original series, follows Captain James T. Kirk (Pine), who is now in command of the Enterprise. His reckless actions though cause him to get into some trouble with the higher ups in Star Fleet.

Kirk’s issues with the upper command is pushed aside though as a new threat arises to challenge Star Fleet. Because of this, Kirk, along with his crew consisting of Spock (Quinto), Uhura (Saldana), Leonard McCoy (Urban), Scotty (Pegg) and Sulu (Cho). Have to go after the individual raising the threat. However the villain behind this threat, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, turns out to be one of the most fierce adversaries that the Enterprise has to face.

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Iron Man 3 review

Director:
Shane Black
Cast:
Robert Downey Jr.
Gwyneth Paltrow
Don Cheadle
Guy Pearce
Rebecca Hall
Jon Favreau
Ben Kingsley
Rated: PG-13

The 2013 summer movie season starts with a lot of booms, most of them coming from Tony Stark’s house getting blown to bits.

The third installment of the “Iron Man” franchise picks up not long after the mega super hero team up film “The Avengers.” After the events in New York, billionaire, Iron Man inventor Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) is trying to move on and live his life normally. However, because of the events that occurred with the alien attacks, Stark has been feeling nervous and has had anxiety attacks. To deal with this, Stark has been building multiple versions of his high tech suits.

While this is going on, a new threat begins to rise with an international terrorist who calls himself The Mandarin (Kingsley) starts taking responsibility for a number of mysterious bombings. At the same time, a man who has his own science corporation, Aldrich Killian (Pearce), has his own mysterious dealings going on and could possibly be connected to The Mandarin. Because of the threat that is brewing, Stark has to fight against The Mandarin, yet he finds himself short of much of his technology.

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The Big Wedding review

Director:
Justin Zackham
Cast:
Robert De Niro
Katherine Heigl
Diane Keaton
Amanda Seyfried
Topher Grace
Susan Sarandon
Robin Williams
Rated: R

This movie dares to ask “how many sub plots can you fit into one movie?”

“The Big Wedding” follows a large family that has been split apart by a few different issues over the years. Mainly, Don (De Niro) and Ellie (Keaton) were once married for many years and had three children, Jared (Grace), Lyla (Heigl) and the third, an adopted child, Alejandro (Barnes). The two are now split up and Don has a new woman in his life named Bebe (Sarandon).

Alejandro is the one in the family getting married with the character Missy (Seyfried).

Things would seem like just a normal wedding if it wasn’t for the fact that Alejandro’s birth mother will be attending the wedding and is a devout catholic who believes divorce is a sin. So Alejandro convinces Don and Ellie to act as though they are still married so he can make sure his mother gives her full blessings.

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Pain and Gain review

Director:
Michael Bay
Cast:
Mark Wahlberg
Dwayne Johnson
Anthony Mackie
Tony Shalhoub
Ed Harris
Rated: R

This is certainly a step up for Director Michael Bay from “Transformers.”

“Pain and Gain” follows Daniel Lugo, played by Mark Wahlberg. Lugo is a steroid-using muscle trainer at a gym who, after attending a convention which tells the audience to be a “doer,” decides to do something to make himself get all the wealth and glory that he thinks he deserves.

Lugo eventually gets fellow trainer Adrian, played by Anthony Mackie, and ex-prisoner- turned-devout-Christian Paul Doyle, played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, to assist him in a rather crazy plan. The three execute a scheme to abduct a wealthy man named Victor Kershaw, played by Tony Shalhoub, who goes to the gym where they work. The three end up pulling off the kidnapping, however things don’t go so well from there as the three are just plain stupid.

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Oblivion review

Director:
Joseph Kosinski
Cast:
Tom Cruise
Morgan Freeman
Olga Kurylenko
Andrea Riseborough
Rated: PG-13

Tom Cruise’s latest blockbuster is about a simple guy named Jack. OK, there’s more too it.

Jack is a man working as part of a two person crew that is on Earth decades into the future.

The film informs that many years ago, the Earth came under attack and that while humanity ultimately prevailed, the population still had to leave the planet because of the war’s destruction. Jack works with his partner, Victoria (Riseborough), to repair drones and do mop up work as well as collect fuel for humanity’s new home.

One day, though, Jack finds a survivor named Julia (Kurylenko) from a space ship crash, this leads to questions of why a ship would crash land now. More mysteries rise when both Jack and Julia are captured by a group of other humans led by a man named Beech (Freeman) who informs Jack that the life he’s been living maybe something else entirely.

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Evil Dead review

“Evil Dead,” is the remake of the 1981 film “The Evil Dead,” that was originally directed by Sam Raimi. The film follows the characters Mia, played by Jane Levy, and David, played by Shiloh Fernandez, as well as three of their friends. The five go to a cabin in the middle of the woods to help Mia break a drug addiction. There, they discover an old book, which is the Book of the Dead from the original series, yet, is never referred to by its actual name here.

After one of the characters reads a few of the passages, an evil demon is released who possesses Mia, and the rest of the characters are put through a gruesome series of events.

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