Director:
Alfonso Cuaron
Cast:
Sandra Bullock
George Clooney
Ed Harris
Rated: PG-13
Like most kids growing up, I thought about the idea of becoming an astronaut, this movie makes me happy I never followed through with that.
“Gravity” takes place in the Earth’s orbit, following the story of a NASA shuttle crew doing repair work. The crew includes an engineer named Ryan (Bullock) and a veteran astronaut named Matt (Clooney).
Director:
Cody Cameron, Kris Pearn
Cast:
Bill Hader
Anna Faris
James Caan
Terry Crews
Chester V
Rated: PG
Sometimes with animated movie sequels you get really great films, that didn’t exactly happen with “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.”
The sequel to the 2009 film that was inspired by a children’s book, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2” starts off immediately after the first film ended. Once again the movie follows inventor Flint Lockwood (Hader), who was responsible for the machine that produced food that blanketed an entire island.
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Director:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Cast:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Scarlett Johansson
Julianne Moore
Tony Danza
Rated: R
Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes his directing debut in “Don Jon” and pulls it off just about perfectly.
“Don Jon” is the nickname given to the title character. Jon is a young man living in New Jersey who has developed a routine which he follows every week. Jon goes to the night clubs, sleeps with women, attends church and confessional and more often than not ends up watching porn.
That routine becomes shaken up a bit when he meets and starts a relationship with Barbara (Johansson). Jon starts to believe that Barbara could be the right one for him, yet as time goes on he starts questioning the relationship. When he starts taking a college class at the request of Barbara, he meets a woman named Esther (Moore) who ends up helping him a bit with his relationship situation.
Director Ron Howard, whose previous work includes “Apollo 13” and “Frost/Nixon,” returns with “Rush.” The film is a chronicle of a real life rivalry that developed between Formula 1 racers James Hunt, played by Chris Hemsworth and Niki Lauda played by Daniel Bruhl.
The film shows how both drivers got started in the lower ranks of the motorsport and through time worked to become two of the biggest names in the industry. During the 1970s, both men’s private lives are delved into, revealing what else was really driving them. The movie culminates with the 1976 world championship for Formula 1 in which they both compete for the title.
Director:
Denis Villeneuve
Cast:
Hugh Jackman
Jake Gyllenhaal
Viola Davis
Terrence Howard
Paul Dano
Rated: R
Hugh Jackman didn’t need any claws to dish out some pain this time around.
“Prisoners” is a movie that takes the audience on a suspenseful and quite uncomfortable ride. Hugh Jackman plays Keller Dover, a midwestern, middle class father who has brought his family over to a friend’s house to celebrate Thanksgiving.
During the festivities, Keller and his friend Franklin’s (Howard) daughters go outside to play before dinner. However, they end up not coming back.
Director:
David Twohy
Cast:
Vin Diesel
Jordi Molla
Matt Nable
Katee Sackhoff
Rated: R
If you enjoy stories about a boy and his dog, the first 45 minutes of “Riddick” might work for you.
“Riddick” is the third installment in the sci-fi series that started well with “Pitch Black” in 2000, yet took a turn for the worse with “The Chronicles of Riddick” a few years later. The latest feature takes place an unspecified amount of time after Chronicles, the title character, Riddick (Diesel), has been betrayed and is left for dead on a planet that appears to be a barren wasteland.
As Riddick reconnects with his survival skills in the wilderness, he meets an alien dog that he trains and they wander the planet. Eventually our protagonist comes across an old outpost for mercenaries and he sets off a beacon to the stars. This results in bounty hunters coming down to capture Riddick, who is a wanted criminal. However, this is the least of all of their problems as dangerous aliens are on the way.
The comedy “The World’s End” from Edgar Wright led the way this year with five awards while the Superman adaptation “Man of Steel” finished with four including the top prize.
“Pacific Rim” also earned two awards.
Director Edgar Wright has once again delivered a great genre film that doubles as a comedy in “The World’s End.”
The movie follows Simon Pegg as the character Gary King. Gary and his best friends originate from a small town in England and when they were younger, they attempted a pub crawl called “The Golden Mile.” The crawl has a total of 12 pubs, the last one being The World’s End, however, the group never made it there.
Fast forward to the present and Gary is the least successful out of his friends and is struggling through life. To recapture the good times, he gets his old group back together, which includes Andy, played by Nick Frost, Oliver, played by Martin Freeman, Peter played by Eddie Marsan and Steven played by Paddy Considine and once again attempt the Golden Mile.
Director:
Harald Zwart
Cast:
Lily Collins
Jamie Campbell Bower
Kevin Zegers
Robert Sheehan
Rated: PG-13
One might notice similarities with other movies and books when viewing “The Mortal Instruments” as it tends to rip off more than a few things.
The film follows Clary (Collins), a teen who lives in New York City with her mother. One day, while hanging out with her friend Simon (Sheehan), she witnesses a murder, however, the being that was killed was actually a demon.
The murderer turns out to be a man named Jace (Bower) who hunts demons. It turns out that Clary has the same abilities as Jace does allowing her to hunt demons too. Upon learning this, Clary’s mother is kidnapped and she now has to rely on Jace and his team to track down the culprit and discover who she really is.
Director:
Lee Daniels
Cast:
Forest Whitaker
David Oyelowo
Oprah Winfrey
Terrence Howard
Cuba Gooding Jr.
Rated: PG-13
This is one of those films where you have to know the difference between “based on” and “inspired by.”
“Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” follows the story of Cecil Gaines (Whitaker), who began his life working in a cotton field as a child. After seeing his father get killed, Cecil grows up learning how to be a server inside a house. Eventually, Cecil makes his way to the Washington D.C. and over time finds himself working as a butler in an upscale hotel.
His skills allow him to be noticed by a supervisor at the White House and he begins working there soon after. Cecil ends up working under multiple presidents while serving as a butler at the White House and is able to observe major moments of how the administrations dealt with civil rights issues. Meanwhile, the job puts a bit of a strain at times on his marriage with his wife Gloria (Winfrey), as well as his son, Louis (Oyelowo), who becomes involved with multiple civil rights movements through the film.
Matthew Liedke on Film 