I’ll preface this review by saying that I liked Ant-Man, but that I know that if I do end up seeing Ant-Man 2, I won’t enjoy it. I say that because traditionally I like superhero origin stories (except for when that same character gets retold over and over and over again like Superman, which, on a side note, I have yet to see a Superman movie that I’ve even remotely enjoyed, but I am expecting huge things from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice). However, as with over 90% of movies that have sequels, superhero movies generally get worse (usually much worse) with each subsequent release.
Of course, there are exceptions. Batman Begins was fantastic, but The Dark Knight is my favorite superhero movie. Iron Man and Spider-Man are both incredible movies, but there wasn’t much drop-off to Iron Man 2 or Spider-Man 2. Now Iron Man 3 and Spider-Man 3 were both much worse. But when you think about it, when is the 5th, 4th, or 3rd movie of a franchise ever really the best one? Hardly ever. 90% of the time, it’s the first franchise movie that is the best. I wish viewer franchises would make movies. I want to see even fewer remakes. But that is a different topic for another day. Continue reading Ant-Man (2015)
There is a good chance that Trainwreck will go down as the funniest movie of 2015. There doesn’t appear to be a ton of comedies this year, and the one that I was most excited for (
Kristin Wiig (
Begin Again had all of the makings of a great movie. It had an all-star cast with Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightley, Hailee Steinfeld, and Catherine Keener (in addition to Maroon 5’s Adam Levine). It had a fantastic soundtrack (with most of the songs sung by Knightley). But most importantly, it was tying itself to John Carney, the screenwriter/director’s 2007 gem Once, perhaps the most incredible “musical and performing arts” movie you’ve ever heard of. I started off really liking this movie. 
Long before Claire Danes began earning multiple Emmy Awards as the bipolar Carrie Mathison on Showtime’s knock-out series Homeland, she starred in lesser-known independent movies like Brokedown Palace, Igby Goes Down, and 2005’s completely underappreciated Shopgirl. I watched this movie for the first time back in 2008 or 2009 and was blown away by how awesome and authentic it felt. This was long before Homeland. I have since watched every episode of Homeland (including seasons 1 and 2 twice each), so it was cool to re-watch Shopgirl, knowing everything that I know about the character she plays on the television show that earned her fame. Ironically, this was the first movie that Steve Martin (Parenthood, Three Amigos!) wrote. It turns out he’s written dozens of films (including Three Amigos!, Roxanne, LA Story, The Jerk, and Bowfinger), but this was his first non-comedy. The difference was that with Shopgirl, he wrote the novel in addition to the screenplay. And let me say that he did a great job. I had a couple of problems (which I will include below), but for the most part, he killed it. I would not read this review unless you’ve seen this movie. It’s going to be chock-full of spoilers. I would love to hear your thoughts on it if you have had a chance to see it. If you haven’t, you can just stop reading now and check out the movie.