Caro the Movie Critic

Ellar Coltrane at age 6. Hey, fellas, do you ever recount your memories when you were in the stage of boyhood? Do you remember the first time you went to the movies or go to your first baseball game? Do you remember your first date? One's boyhood chronicles something special in their life that showcases the ups-and-downs of reality in their inner circle and in the outside world. This movie is a testament of risk vs. reward as the filmmakers accentuate the single most important events in their life and undoubtedly the dodgy events in their life. What they have created is one of the most ambitious movies with the greatest reach I have ever seen. The movie starts with Mason Jr. (Ellar Coltrane) at age 6 who is the son of Olivia (Patricia Arquette), a single mother who rents a small house in Texas that works constantly balancing the struggles and her childrens' lives. His sister, Samantha (Lorelei Linklater), is two years older and teases and taunts him and gets away with her...

Lucy (Scarlett Johannson) getting kidnapped.  It cannot be possible for 100% of the brain to work, otherwise, we will be powerful, psychotic and insane and then we may throw everybody around or use "Jedi-like" powers. However, if I had those abilities to have 100% brain power, I would basically predict what would happen to the stock market and probably retire early. But, that's just me. Anyway, to have something inflicted into the brain to create powerful abilities to change the world would have that one person struggling to control his or her powers, kind of like a superhero, mostly Spider-Man. This movie has the distinction of showing us what the brain is capable of when it shows a countdown of how much the brain is used. It is informative, but a ridiculous second half derails the movie and my experience with the movie. Lucy (Scarlett Johannson) is a hard-partying woman who lives in Taipei, Taiwan and has a relationship with her boyfriend, Richard (Pilou Abasek). ...

Johnny Depp giving a presentation.  Do you trust an artificial intelligent human being? Do you trust a system that is beyond your wildest beliefs and dreams? Do you trust its creator? Well, either you question the person who created the universe or the person who is curious about the nature of the universe gets you perplexed as to why a scientist has the free will to create a computer with technological singularity, another word for artificial intelligence or as he calls it "Transcendence". It is sort of a neat concept when it has to be explained well to get the viewer to go on the journey with the characters, but the storyline and the lack of emotion derails the whole movie and we get left with plot holes and questionable logic. Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is a shrewd scientist that is curious about what is out there in the center of the universe and while he lectures the fact to an audience that he is building a computer with a team, he predicts that a computer wi...

Keira Knightley performing a song. The music industry is a tricky business in the movies and maybe in real life. Music producers, executives, and/or talent scouts look around for people who have the "IT" factor, a quality that bring their voice and genre into stardom. But, sometimes being a music producer or being a music executive is even more stressful trying to find a star that can bring out an attractive quality to persuade listeners what he or she is delivering while singing in your own IPod, computer, or a radio. Even though the movie has a predictable and familiar concept, it is, nevertheless, an entertaining film not just about music but redemption. Dan Mulligan (Mark Ruffalo) is a struggling record label executive who is constantly drinking and has not signed anybody for seven years until one night, he encounters Gretta (Keira Knightley), an independent songwriter that has his attention. He wants to sign her on to the company, but given the idea of fame in the ...

The small group trying to survive the annual purge. The annual Purge commences again and the hope to survive begins again. Let's think about it again. How would it feel if 364 days of the year is crime-free and one day of the year you can kill anybody you want? Well, the 6th commandment is out the window and it is like a national Hunger Games. Everyone is almost looks like that they are on steroids or have high testosterone when this annual Purge is brought up again. This sequel is a bit crazier and is actually better than the first movie, even though, I would not jump up and down quite yet. MARCH 21, 2033 Less than 2.5 hour before the Annual Purge begins. It is very difficult to review this movie without any spoilers, so bear with me. The movie starts in a diner where one of the waitresses, Eva (Carmen Ejogo), want to seek a raise from her boss to pay for her father's medicine. She goes home and tells her daughter, Cali (Zoe Soul), that "it's not in the cards...

Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz preparing to make some sort of tape. It is daunting and ambitious for someone or a couple to just say, "What the hell?" and go with some broadcasts that showcases the person masturbating or the couple fornicating on a webcam. Any person in their inner circle will question that 1) they are insane and 2) their sex life has spiraled downward. In a way, let's just say that their decision is like therapy but fun and entertaining therapy rather than spending a lot of money going to a sex therapist. But, when you mix up foreplay and comedy, it has to be done well. When this movie was made, those ingredients do not mix well due to a weak script and attempts to be funny. Mommy blogger Annie Hargrove (Cameron Diaz) asks her fans on her latest post to remember the first time their man saw them naked. She remembers when Jay (Jason Segel), her boyfriend at the time, and herself used to have sex constantly regardless of anybody was watching them or no...

Roger Ebert and his newly married wife at the time, Chaz. This is a documentary of a portrait of a popular film critic and a man who has worked hard to get where he was in the world of film criticism on newspaper and television. Honestly, anytime he wrote a movie review or commented about something relatable to a film or his thoughts, I read carefully of what he had to say regarding the material, the craftsmanship and the acting. He was not just a film critic but he was a pure essayist who wrote from the heart. In this extraordinary documentary by Steve James, the director of the great Hoop Dreams , we see the renowned critic's life and pain being brought on-screen. This movie is about Roger Ebert's legacy of working at the Daily Illini  at his alma mater at the University of Chicago, working at the Chicago Sun-Times, his relationship with co-worker at At the Movies  and film critic, Gene Siskel, their fights and banter, his fight with alcoholism, and his relationship wi...

Caesar and his clan of apes preparing to fight. I have adored the Planet of the Apes  series from the late 1960s to 1970s, especially the original sci-fi classic from 1968 starring Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and Linda Harrison. If anybody has seen that film, you know one of the most shocking twists in movie history where (SPOILER ALERT!) Heston's character found out that he was on Earth the whole time. The sequels were definitely hit and miss with my favorite sequel being the 4th movie, Conquest for the Planet of the Apes . Then, we had the forgettable Tim Burton film and we had the surprisingly good reboot 3 years ago. Now, we have this sequel to Rise  and the best sequel summer ever in my opinion just got a whole lot better. Almost a decade has passed since the ALZ-113 virus spread across the globe and the incident regarding the apes and the Golden Gate bridge and most of the human population is wiped out and the ape population is growing and thriving ...

The children uncovering something mysterious, and maybe, secretive. We have seen good and bad imaginative science fiction films in the past decade, but rarely, we have seen one that involves children. The most recent one was the film, Super 8, directed by J.J. Abrams, which was a good movie on its own, but it was an appreciative homage to Steven Spielberg's early sci-fi films like E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But, every director tries to craft a film as efficient as both of those Spielberg-directed films and the E.T. film really set the standard between the children's communication and the alien's response and its communication. This is a film, unfortunately, that copies from E.T. and at times, Close Encounters. It is clichéd-riddled. Tuck, Munch, and Alex are an inseparable trio of friends whose lives are in jeopardy as a construction crew forces his entire neighborhood to relocate and build a new freeway. All three mourn as all of their families are ...

Chris Evans amongst a few survivors on a train. What happens if the planet is so desolate that you cannot find a place to live in and survive for the remainder of your life? Global warming, storms, et cetera, et cetera. I cannot imagine what I would do if some catastrophic event interfered my life and also billions of other live. The only question remains on anybody's mind: "What do I do?" It's a game for survival. Therefore, a train is the setting for this small film that has brought its way into my foray of movies that I needed to watch. And, ultimately, I have to thank myself that I did because this movie is something special. Because of a failed experiment trying to combat global warming, a new ice age has occurred on Earth and caused every living organism to die. Now, the remaining humans have lived for years on the Snowpiercer, a train with a perpetual-motion engine. It is like a "Hunger Games" world inside the train where the lowest ranking peop...

Melissa McCarthy trying to take a ride on Susan Sarandon's car. I have been pleasantly surprised by Melissa McCarthy's abilities based on her talent in movies, TV shows, comedy skits and even TV interviews. There's natural humor underneath her jokes that goes over-the-top and we basically laugh with her, and not at her. It seems like she has done this ever since pre-school and about almost every movie, there is at least 2 laughs coming from what she said and/or what she done. It takes professionalism and comfortability to perform at her level, and not many people are right now. Unfortunately, this movie does not perform at her level. Tammy (Melissa McCarthy) is having an awful day from her being fired at work to her car dying to her husband, Greg (Nate Faxon) eating a romantic dinner with their neighbor (Toni Collette). Disappointed and heartbroken, Tammy grudgingly walks two doors down to her parents' house and tells her mom, Deb (Allison Janney) that she is goi...

They are about to go into battle. It is mesmerizing that an animated film can make a moviegoer sympathetic towards the characters and the creatures because he or she cares about the story revolving around the characters. When reading the history of the Vikings, kids will care or not care whether the historical figures did place their significance in the encyclopedias or textbooks. But, in the mean time, this sequel has the rarity of becoming a good movie, actually, this sequel is a really terrific ride. The movie opens five years later when the Viking village of Berk welcomes dragons as companions, workers and racers. Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) goes on adventures with Toothless, his pet dragon, into territories and vast regions. However, his father, Stoick (voiced by Gerard Butler), presses Hiccup to become the new chieftain, which means take on new responsibility and he questions himself and his father that is he is up for the job. As Hiccup and Astrid (voiced by America ...