What a fun movie! I wasn’t expecting too much from The World’s End, but it grabbed me from the start and never let go. Having lower expectations can help sometimes.

The World’s End can be seen as the third movie in the Pegg/Frost/Wright collaboration universe. Even though they don’t share characters or a trilogy plotline, they do share the same soul. They also share the same genre bending approach of story telling. While Shaun of the Dead clearly starts as a zombie movie, it’s the last act where the horror/gore really gets cranked up to meet marks for John Romero homages. Hot Fuzz less so, it starts with it’s feet in one lane and then shifts it’s weight over to insanity for it’s wild reveals and heroism. The World’s End is much like Hot Fuzz where you think you know what your watching and then they switch it up at the end of Act 1.

I like this much more than Hot Fuzz with it’s better characters, pacing and humor. Peter hasn’t done much with his life since high school, unlike his 4 other friends. They share a past as best friends, grow apart and come back together to indulge in Gary’s desire to “get the band back together” to relive their pub crawl attempt from 1990. At the 4th stop they find themselves smack dab in the middle of an alien assimilation plot. Sticking together, they do their best to get out of their home town in one piece.

I loved Simon Pegg as Gary King, a man who never grew up and clings to one night in his teenage years as the peak of his life. Nick Frost as Andy continues his streak as a brilliant foil for Pegg’s characters. Martin Freeman as Oliver, Paddy Considine as Steve and Eddie Marsan as Peter round out the stellar main cast. They convincingly play as old friends and each keep up with the quick and spastic wit that the movie is infused with. There’s a manic kind of direction and editing here that works really well (Edgar Wright is one of my favorite directors). Extensive and well done visual effects ratchet up the intensity and fun of the movie. Brilliant dialog with a really satisfying ending make this one of the bigger surprise movie treats for me. My favorite project that Simon Pegg has done so far.

After the terrible XMen Origins: Wolverine, a lot was on the line for The Wolverine. Origins followed the equally terrible XMen 3: The Last Stand which meant the entire franchise seemed to be teetering on the edge of being left behind for newer and greater Marvel characters. Thankfully, this solo run for Logan turned out to be a much more focused and enjoyable movie.

Wolverine shares a similar problem as Superman. He’s basically invincible as his bones are near unbreakable and his healing powers are so powerful. He can basically eat bullets and flesh wounds stitch themselves together in a matter of seconds. So what can you really threaten him with?

The Wolverine looks back to Logan’s past and shows that he has far more mental scars than physical ones. After the events of The Last Stand he isolates himself in the woods as avoiding people seems like the best course to take. He’s pulled back when a man named Yashida, who he helped survive a devastating event decades earlier asks to see him one last time. When Logan makes the trip to Japan, he’s told that he can be made mortal through the tech advances that Yashida’s company has made through extensive research. Logan passes on the offer but when Yashida dies that night, it triggers a power grab among the Yakuza and Yashida’s daughter, Mariko, whom he left his company to. Logan is trapped in the middle as his mutant powers are crippled by a mysterious woman named Viper while he tries to protect Mariko and unravel the mysteries that Yashida left behind.

It’s an interesting tale with real character development for Logan in gorgeous locals. The action scenes showcase their comic book roots with big one man vs an army fights, high speed train battles and epic final “boss” fights. There’s some cool fight choreography, the SFX are well done, but the final act is really tiring. It’s a predictable twist with execution that you will either love or hate and to me it was disappointing after such a strong first two acts. There are so many comic book movies now that it all kind of blurs together now. Hugh Jackman still gives us the best real world Logan we can probably hope to ever see, but I’m not sure if that’s good enough anymore. There’s a lot riding on this years XMen movie from Bryan Singer. Will people care for the next step in this universe with all the other Marvel movies coming down the pipe? The Wolverine is a competent movie and a step in the right direction, but if you skip it, you really aren’t missing anything.

A year has passed since the first Hobbit movie so it was time for Peter Jackson and company to bring us back to Middle Earth in The Desolation of Smaug.

With almost everyone in New Zealand on the crew, Peter Jackson has again crafted another gorgeous movie. A real treat to look at in nearly every sumptuous frame, Desolation brings us back to the world where Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and a whole ecosystem of fantasy creatures live and breath. It’s another convincing visual achievement (stunning set design, costumes, make up and CG work), but as a story I couldn’t shake the feeling of apathy. It’s a big poke at Lord of the Rings to simply say that you spend 9 hours watching people walking to a mountain. Obviously there’s a lot more to it than that, but the feeling of just meandering around is hard to ignore.

Sitting in the theatre I kept trying to figure out what I was feeling as it was an odd mixture of boredom and excitement. I really enjoyed seeing the movie, but not actually watchingit. Events are just sort of strung along, dragging you with it. Characters come and go seemingly because the wind started blowing in a different direction. Gandolf is at one point in lock step with the Dwarves and Bilbo to get to Erebor to take back the Dwarven kingdom and then he suddenly says he has to leave them. “Stay on this path through the forest or your dead, I’m off to go talk to a dirty wizard about something I just thought of. I’ll catch up with you. Maybe.” This kind of weird separation happens a lot so whenever they cut to a character who was off doing his own thing, I kept thinking of the 60’s Batman logo spinning into frame with an announcer yelling “Meanwhile!”.

While this journey has action scenes throughout (the river sequence is fantastic) it did little to keep me from being blasé about everyone. You already know who makes it out of this story so it feels like it doesn’t matter if some creature is swinging a pointy object at them.

I find the whole idea of extending The Hobbit into a trilogy to be a mistake. Every book adaptation cleaves the narrative to make a tight movie and PJ puts this book in the rack to stretch it out to get another 2 1/2 hours that isn’t actually there? The character Tauriel was made for the movie, so everything she does wouldn’t be missed. It’s all padding. I’m saying that about a character I actually liked too! But that’s only because she’s played by Evangeline Lilly, who I have a goofy crush on so my opinion on her roles are completely biased (I’m the same way about her in Lost. People hated her character after awhile, but I never minded about whatever nonsense they had her do). The love triangle they made for her story arc was just weird and annoying in the end. For example, the Elves capture the Dwarves, lock them up and Tauriel strikes up a conversation with one of them. The two bond a little bit and she later says to another elf that she thinks he’s pretty cool and the elf responds, “Yeah? He’s still ugly! Elves rule!” What? He’s literally a shorter version of you! You are all humanoid beings that basically only have different expected life spans. Apparently everyone on Middle Earth is a champion level hater. It’s a really weird thing that stuck out to me, but I had to think about something while this flick oozed to its slam cut to black and credit roll.

This might be a good example of just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. That said, I do want to see the third movie to see the conclusion, but I’m in no hurry to see Desolation again any time soon.

Once a franchise on the decline until Fast 4 bounced back in 2009 and Fast 5 blew the doors off the box office in 2011, Fast and Furious 6 tries to keep the runaway train rolling at top speed. While a good entry into the series, it doesn’t reach the bar set by 5.

At the end of the 5th movie, the Dominic and Brian crew pulled off a huge heist that toppled a criminal ring in Rio and made the Robin Hoods in custom cars filthy rich. While they have the money, they don’t have the freedom as they are all wanted criminals. CIA agent Luke Hobbes returns with someone else to chase this time. Shaw is stealing equipment to make a scary military grade weapon/device and he must be stopped. Knowing Shaw’s skills, the only people he can think of to stop him is Dom & Brian. Hobbes offers them all full pardons and a link to their past that was long thought dead in return for their help.

So that starts the globe trotting, pulse pounding and wheel spinning race to save the world. While the series has always taken the laws of physics and ideas of plausibility with a grain of salt, Furious 6 pretty much throws it all to the wind to make some of the most over the top action scenes ever put on film. People walk away from horrific car crashes with barely a scratch, harrowing rescues defy logic and reasoning.

It’s all done in the name of fun. You just need to check your brain at the start and let the good times roll. Goofy, heroic dialog and speeches that are sure to make you groan. Car chases and fights that unfold more like a cartoon than real life scenario. An airplane runway that seemingly stretches across continents it’s so big. When you get to the 6th entry of driving cars around really fast, you really need to think outside the box to keep from showing the exact same action sequence.

The 5th movie felt more fresh and new than this one did. It had a lot of great ideas and some amazing action scenes that while over the top, felt more grounded. Also, the resurrection of a dead character made this movie feel like it was stretching a lot more to justify it’s existence.

Fast & Furious 6 keeps the good times coming at a break neck pace, just don’t look for anything serious to happen for these 2 hours of your life.

Jack Reacher is another solid entry into Tom Cruise’s action movie catalog. Part sniper, part military, part spy movie, Jack Reacher checks all the boxes for go to action movie requirements. Car chases, foot chases, gun and fist fights. A dash of mystery and investigation glues it all together.

The movie opens with a man named Charlie milling his own bullets. Not a good sign. We then see him set up shop in a parking garage and then shoot and kill 5 people, seemingly at random. On the surface it’s a cut and dry case. He runs to try and get away, the police quickly catch him and plenty of evidence is gathered that pins him as the sniper. After he’s beaten to near death while in police custody, he has one request. Find Jack Reacher.

Jack is a hell of guy, Highly regarded in his military service, he disappears into the wind, only surfacing when he wants to be found. Smart, athletic, and a hell of a fighter, Jack Reacher is more super hero than human being (he is played by Tom Cruise after all). It’s up to Jack and Charlie’s attorney, Helen to figure out what really happened. And figure it out they do! Jack can seemingly connect the dots out of thin air and can take a punch without missing a step.

While everything seems to unfold very conveniently for Jack, it doesn’t ruin the movie. It’s a very Hollywood affair. It looks really good, it’s well paced and fun to watch. It doesn’t try to break any ground, but does it’s best to be a good movie. I can’t see this ever becoming a franchise or even standing out in Tom Cruise’s career, but it makes for a great rental.