2015 Summer Movie Reviews - July

The following are reviews of the movies released in July 2015. Enjoy!
*Previews of these movies and all the ones I haven't had a chance to see yet can be found here.

July 1st

Terminator Genisys
Opening Weekend: $28.7 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 27%

Review: Perhaps it was because I watched The Terminator and Terminator 2 right before heading to the cinema, but I seem to have enjoyed Terminator Genisys (which, yes, is a terrible name) a lot more than other critics. Does Genisys manage to recreate the same sense of novelty as that first movie? Of course not. But it does take the story and mythology introduced in the 1984 film and reinterpret what some of those ideas might mean and move the franchise forward in new and interesting ways, essentially ignoring (though not necessarily disregarding) the events of Terminator 3 and Terminator Salvation.

2015 Summer Movie Previews - July

July 1st

Magic Mike XXL: Three years after Mike (Channing Tatum) bowed out of the stripper life at the top of his game, he and the remaining Kings of Tampa hit the road to Myrtle Beach to put on one last blow-out performance.
Trailer here.

Terminator Genisys: John Connor (Jason Clarke) sends Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back in time to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke), but when he arrives in 1984, Sarah already has a Terminator protector (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and nothing else is as expected.
Trailer here.

2015 Summer Movie Reviews - June

The following are reviews of the movies released in June 2015. Enjoy!
*Previews of these movies and all the ones I haven't had a chance to see yet can be found here.

June 5th

Love & Mercy

Opening Weekend: n/a; limited release

Rotten Tomatoes: 90%

Review: Watching Love & Mercy is a bit of an inexplicable experience; John Cusack (Say Anything) and Paul Dano (Ruby Sparks) are strong leads as Brian Wilson, the creative force behind the Beach Boys, but somehow the film is still somewhat of a drag. Between seeing almost nothing of actual Beach Boys performances and the constant uncertainty as to Wilson's actual mental state, I lost a significant amount of interest in this film from first-time director Bill Pohlad. The scenes in which Wilson is experimenting in novel music-making truly shine, and emotional scenes of Wilson's girlfriend (a heartwarming, strong Elizabeth Banks) discovering his abuse at the hands of his unethical psychiatrist (a perfectly smarmy Paul Giamatti) glimmer as well, but all are bright spots in a duller film that, despite seemingly having all the right pieces of a better movie, simply doesn't work as an engaging celebration of Wilson and his music.

The Final Word: 1/4 - Catch it on tv if you're bored.