The Invitation : My Review

I saw a great thriller this weekend called The Invitation.  It stars Logan William Green as Will who along with his girlfriend Kira (Middle of Nowhere's Emayatzy Corinealdi) are invited to a dinner party thrown by his ex-wife Eden and her second husband David.  Good food and great conversation are not the only things on the menu, unfortunately. There are diabolical plans afoot and Will seems to be the only member of  the dinner party who senses this. I'm not going to spoil this movie because I want you all to watch for yourselves. But yes it is a thriller, not too gory but extremely suspenseful and well worth the price to stream it.

Taut thrillers are hard to come by nowadays and trust me when I say The Invitation is a hard one to turn down.

I Smile Back : My Review

Sarah Silverman stretches her dramatic chops in this uneven story of an upper-class suburban wife and mother who struggles with depression and addiction.

Laney Brooks seems to have it all: cute kids, a successful husband, and a sprawling home but seems to be on a quest to ruin it all with her coke snorting, drinking, and adulterous ways. Giving up lithium has not served Laney well. Movies about addiction and depression can work, but this script was all over the place just like its lead character. Just when you think that Laney is going to get the help she needs after stooping so low as to dry hump one of her daughter's stuffed animals (don't ask), cursing out another parent, and meeting her friend's husband for quickies at hotels, after what seems like all of  5 minutes of normalcy she is back to snorting, drinking, and screwing around. The slide back into crazy town happens after a meeting with her estranged father who left Laney at the age of nine, remarried , and now has a daughter who is in elementary school. How weird is that?

This movie is only an hour and twenty-five minutes, and the ending is beyond ridiculous.  I commend Sarah Silverman for wanting to grow as an actress, but she will have to do better than this. Way better.

The Intern: My Review

Nancy Meyers movies are always good for pulling on the heartstrings, and The Intern is no different.

Robert De Niro portrays a retiree/widower who out of boredom with his monotonous routine decides to apply for a senior internship at an e-commerce company ran by Type A wunderkind Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). Jules is at first reluctant to take on an intern, much less a senior intern but comes to rely on and care for Ben as the movie progresses.

Besides Oscar winners De Niro and Hathaway, Rene Russo, Andrew Rannells , and Adam Devine also have roles in the film.

The best way to describe this film is that it's a different kind of love story and a testament to no matter how much any of else think we have it together, we all need that "person" who gets us in our lives.

War Room: My Review

Christian movies have gotten a bad rap over the years, but the latest film by the Kendrick Brothers, War Room is doing big business at the box office and the reasons are simple: it's well written and the actors, although not household names do an amazing job. The film's message of grace and forgiveness is centered around a marital relationship, but overall that message can translate to any type of relationship, and it causes you to think about how we prioritize jobs and success over a relationship with God.

Secular critics have ripped this film in the press, and if it's not your cup of tea then I respect that. Sometimes a good message can be wrapped up in an entertaining way so if you need a dose of inspiration and a break from the sex and violence that a lot of other movies promote, see this with family or friends. It doesn't disappoint!  

Devil's Due-My Review

Every now and again I get a taste for a horror movie. Today was the day I happened upon Devil's Due on HBONow. Even though the movie was a flop at the box office, I actually enjoyed it. The "found footage" film centers around newlyweds Samantha and Zach McCall who go to the Dominican Republic for their honeymoon, and upon returning home Samantha finds out she's preggers. Well for most this would be a blessed event, but for the McCalls, Sam's pregnancy turns out to be a nightmare of epic proportions. Let's just say if you ever go to a foreign country on your honeymoon, beware of charming cabdrivers who take you to underground clubs in seedy areas of town, because you may leave with more than what you came in with.

The Perfect Guy: My Review

The Perfect Guy opened on 9/11 and from the looks of things the box office is going to be ridiculous. I went to an early screening on opening day, and the theatre was pretty full. The film which stars Sanaa Lathan, Michael Ealy, and Morris Chestnut is about a lobbyist who breaks up with her boyfriend of two years and takes up with a charming and (unfortunately for her) tech savvy psycho. Now I know this sounds like Lifetime movie fare, but the film hit all the right notes suspense wise, and the acting was top notch.

 Lathan and Ealy executive produced the movie so I didn't expect it to be unwatchable but was skeptical about how good it would actually be. I was not disappointed in the least. Make this movie # 1 this weekend folks by going out and supporting it with your coins. It's worth the price of admission!

P.S. Shonda Rhimes please recruit Sanaa for a Shondaland production. #justsayin

Southpaw: My Review

The screening for the new Jake Gyllenhaal movie was tonight and from the number of people that showed up it was a hot ticket.  If any of you have seen the zillion commercials for the film, you pretty much know what goes down in the movie: Billy Pope, a boxer at the top of his game, loses his wife, home, and his daughter and fights his way back to the top with the help of a tough trainer played by Forest Whitaker.

Is the movie worth the price of admission? Sure. Gyllenhaal and Whitaker give great performances and Rachel McAdams and young Oona Laurence are exceptional in the roles of Maureen and Leila Pope, but I don't see it being Jake's Oscar winning role. That in my opinion should have been Nightcrawler, a film that was a tour de force for the actor.

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and Naomie Harris also appear in the film and 50 brings the right amount of smarminess to his role of Billy' manager Jordon. I would have liked to see more from Naomie's character as a social worker which was originally offered to Lupita Nyong'o who smartly turned it down. The role had no depth and someone of Lupita's talents would have been wasted in the role. Naomie certainly was.

The film opens this Friday nationwide so check it out in your local theater.