Hangover 2

How do you top a hit movie or at least make it comparable to the first one?
Well you take the same actors, use the same premise, throw in a few surprises and you have Hangover 2.
I went to this movie wanting to get the same adventure I experienced the first time with The Wolfpack and I got it in spades.
The movie starts right after the bachelor party in Las Vegas, Phil, Stu, Alan, and Doug jet to Thailand for Stu's wedding. Stu's plan for a subdued pre-wedding brunch, however, goes seriously awry.
There are some very funny moments and some scenes will make you want to throw-up. Mr. Chow, Ken Jeong, is back and funnier than ever. Paul Giamatti plays in the role I assume was meant for Mel Gibson. There is also a very funny monkey.
There have been mixed reviews on this movie but if it ain't broken don't try and fix it, stick to the formula that made it a hit.

Verdict:
Not as great as the first but a solid follow-up. My prediction for H3 is Zach G. will be the next one to have to get married.

Bridesmaids

This movie is one of the few non-squeal movies that have premiered this summer and it's a bawdy, rollercoaster, laugh until you cry comedy hit movie. Don't be fooled into thinking that this is the female Hangover movie.
The movie's main character, SNL star Kristen Wiig, is picked as her best friend's maid of honor. However her life has hit bottom so she looks to bluff her way through the expensive and bizarre rituals with an oddball group of bridesmaids.
I have always been a HUGE fan of Kristen Wiig due to her amazing ability to emerse herself into various charaters on SNL. After watching Bridesmaids you can say that she is the Lucy Ball of our day. There are scenes where she uses her facial expressions and does not say a word and she makes the entire audience laugh.
Rose Byrne and Mya Rudolph do a good job rounding out the cast but it's newcomer Melissa McCarthy who steals scenes throughout the movie.
This is a breakthrough movie for Kristen Wiig and Bridesmaids 2 is already in the works.

Verdict:
I laughed until I cried, twice. This is a movie you don't want to miss, you also want to experience it with others.

Priest

Did you ever go into a movie and expect it to be good based on the trailer and the premise? Then 10 minutes into the film you are still hoping that it will end up being a great movie but you know that it will not be? Well that movie is Priest.
The movie is about a priest who disobeys the church law to track down the vampires who kidnapped his niece. The desert landscape CGI effects are beautiful to watch but that's it. Paul Bettany is a good character actor (see The Tourist) but he fails in making you care about his delimma. Then Cam Gadget shows up and tries to show his acting talents which is as thin a a string of floss. He dreams that he is Steve McQueen in this movie (not literally but he must have seen The Magnificent Seven 100 times based on his performance) but his acting talents make watching him a nightmare. Finally the sexy Maggie Q from the television show Nikkita shows up and she is boring and makes watching paint dry a pleasurable experience.

Verdict:
Why was this not sent straight to the $4.99 DVD?

Thor

Back in the day the Marvel comic book character Thor was never considered as cool as Spiderman, Hulk, and the Fantastic Four. Thor talked funny, carried a Hammer, and was not from earth. Newcomer Chris Hemsworth as Thor does an excellent job of embracing the character and making the audience enjoy his adventure.
The movie begins when Thor is cast out of Asgard (his home) and sent to live amongst humans on Earth, where he soon becomes one of their defenders.
Natalie Portman plays the love interest but it's more of a lust interest because there is not enough time to develop their interest in each other.
Anthony Hopkins as Thor's father is excellent and gives a great performance.
I highly recommend the 3D version so that you can see the awesome special effects of Asgard which takes up the first 50 minutes of the movie.
Actor Kenneth Branagh directed this film with a good sense of what people want to see in Superhero movies: great special effects, a story you can follow, and as much action sprinkled in between but not to the point where the action is senseless ie: Transformers 2.

Verdict:
Worth seeing for the special effects and the performances.

Fast Five

I would like to say that this was the perfect movie at the right time. Hollywood has been selling America "B" movies and trying to tell us they are great.
Rarely does a franchise comes out that can continue to haul in millions after 3 movie versions much less 5(exclude James Bond). Fast 5 does not disappoint.
Dominic (Vin Diesel) and his crew find themselves on the wrong side of the law once again as they try to switch lanes between a drug lord and a The Rock, Duane Johnson, who plays a federal agent/hunter.
Do we really care what the story is about? Not really, fans just want to see all the elements from the original: have Vin Diesel kick someones ass and not say much; have at least one race; open the movie with a action scene that keeps you in your seat. Then sprinkle with beautiful women, muscle bound men, and you must have a righteous bad guy. This movie has all of the above. Vin Diesel should never again think of acting in anything else (remember when he left the franchise to be a serious actor), he is blessed to be in a franchise that will not die in the near future.

Verdict:
Perfect popcorn movie, cars, action, location, and the original cast (minus the great Michelle Rodriquez). Keep making these money machines until the wheels fall off.

The Conspirator

The Conspirator has everything going for it. It's timely, has great actors (Kevin Kline, Tom Wilkinson to name a couple), excellent costumes, and sets. The movie also has great buzz which is hard to get these days with the crop of poor films that have been coming out.
The story is about Mary Surratt, who is charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination trial of Abraham Lincoln. As the whole nation turns against her, she is forced to rely on her lawyer to uncover the truth and save her life.
My problem with this movie is that I didn't care about Mary and I knew well in advance how it was going to end. In between the 2 hours there was nothing to engage me, I couldn't wait until the end of the movie.
Academy Award winning director Robert Redford gives Kevin Kline a chance to show talent that he has not displayed in years.
James McAvoy, from Wanted, gives it the college try but is not able to carry the film.

Verdict:
You will want to hang yourself after sitting thru this movie.

Source Code

When the director of this movie, Duncan Jones, was born his father David Bowie named him Zowie. Prior to seeing Source Code I had no idea that he was the great rocker's son.
Jones has a cult following due to his 2009 movie Moon. Source Code will remind you at times of The TV series Lost with it's parallel universes and it will also remind you of the Bill Murray hit comedy Groundhog Day.
The story is centered on a soldier who wakes up in the body of an unknown man and discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.
This time bending premise has already been done in Denzel Washington's Deja Vu as well as Jean Claude Van Damme's Timecop.
Source Code has you thinking from the very start and that is one of the problems with the movie. There is not enough action to keep the audience from figuring out who the nemesis is.
In the third act the movie tries to save itself with a happy ending but audiences at my screening left the theater perplexed, confused, and not buying the ending.
The great Jeffrey Wright is a supporting character in the movie. Jeffrey should have won an Oscar for his leading role in the film Basquiat, also let's not mention his masterful performance of Peoples Hernandez in the remake of Shaft. In Source Code Jeffrey is not able to display his considerable talents and the movie never explains why his character is handicapped. Vera Farmiga, another solid talent, is also wasted in this movie.

Verdict:
Interesting but not entertaining.