Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

When I originally heard about this new Star Wars installment over a year ago I was a little cynical and thought it would not fit in well with the other movies. I was wrong. I loved Rogue One and and would actually say it is the best Star Wars film to come out since The Return of the Jedi. I also enjoyed The Force Awakens last year, but Rogue One slightly edged it out.

What I liked about this movie: (Spoiler Alerts)

*The gritty battle scene when the rebels attacked the tank in town.
*How the movie started slow and kept building until the intense final battle scene.
* The special effects were amazing.
*The awesome Imperial siren noise on the Death Star.
*Having much of the movie in desert and tropical environments instead of just in space.
*K-2SO provided the perfect amount of subtle humor.
*Orson Krennic was a great villain and it was nice to have multiple bad guys to worry about.
*Darth Vader has his own refreshing Bacta Tank.
* I liked how nicely it fit in with the other films.
*There were so many little easter eggs and little details from the time period of a New Hope that I appreciated seeing again. It was like a happy reunion.
*There were no Ewoks, purple elephants playing instruments, or Jar Jar in this movie. It had a much more realistic feel to it.

What I didn't like quite so much:

*Forest Whitaker is a good actor but I'm seeing him in too many movies lately. He is giving Samuel Jackson a run for his money.
*I think Felicity Jones did a good job as Jeyn Erso, but I liked Daisy Ridley as Rey in last year's movie just a little bit more.
*I liked Donnie Yen's character but I didn't buy him taking out so many storm troopers in armor just by whacking them with a wooden staff.

Overall it was a nice "inbetweenquel." I give Rogue One 8.3 stars.

More Movie Reviews

These movie summaries resemble Tweets more than they do reviews but you get what you pay for.

Arrival- I really liked this movie and it was a thinking movie on par with Interstellar. I give it 8.0 stars since it was quite intense and well done.

Doctor Strange- When I saw the trailer I thought it looked so dumb but I really enjoyed it. I liked the emphasis on the power of Zen and Eastern philosophy instead of just seeing strength or speed in a super hero. 7.8 Stars.

Warcraft- All I can say is it is based off of a video game. It had good special effects and action but I just was not engaged at all while watching it. Something was missing for me so I only gave it 6.2 stars.

Star Trek Beyond- A decent Star Trek movie but not too memorable. 6.8.

Jason Bourne- When I saw the trailer I was rolling my eyes that I had seen every single scene multiple times in the prior movies but it was much  better than I expected. 7.1.

Sully- Great performance by Tom Hanks of an amazing true story. There was even a cameo by Clint Eastwood via a movie sign in Time Square for Gran Torino. I give it 7.7 stars.

Southpaw- I really liked Jake Gyllenhaal's performance of a troubled boxer and give it 7.3.

The Intern- I thought this was actually a pleasant little movie with several nice messages. 7.0.


Here are some older movie summaries I caught edited on Vidangel over the last few months.

Cloud Atlas- Pretty intense and complicated. It took me a while to finish it but I liked it. 7.5 stars.

Shooter- This was a decent action movie and I always enjoy watching a movie about someone who was framed clearing their name and getting revenge. 7.0 stars

Gone Girl- Very suspenseful and well done thriller. I easily give it 8.4 stars.

Shaun of the Dead- Very funny and enjoyable movie in the zombie genre. 8.0 stars

Inglourious Basterds- The suspense and tension in the beginning interrogation scene with Christoph Waltz blew me away. I give it 8.3 stars.

Django Unchained- Very entertaining with great performances. A little too gritty for my taste even though it was edited but I still really liked it.  8.2 stars.

The Shallows

The Shallows is the younger generation's version of Jaws. This movie is about a woman who goes on vacation to a secluded beach in Mexico to surf and to take a break from her problems. The morning she is headed to the beach, her friend flakes on her so she ends up breaking the buddy system rule and surfs alone. She is having a good time until she wipes out, is cut up on some coral, and is then bitten on the leg by a shark. She quickly swims to a nearby rock formation where she is protected from the shark while the tide is low.

She is injured badly but uses her nursing skills to stop the bleeding. She is only 200 yards from shore but can not make the swim to safety since she is continually being watched and stalked by a persistent, huge shark.

This movie was entertaining but kind of fake. Her leg would have been gone had a shark that big taken a bite out of her but I am not one to wish anyone to lose a leg so I'll give it 6.8 stars.

19 Movie Reviews

Where else on the Internet can you get 19 movie reviews in one post? I have not updated any of my movie "reviews" for a couple months. I should actually call them ratings since I am too lazy and far behind to do an actual review. Here goes the briefest of summaries. Just pay attention to the score.

Creed- It was pretty good. I give props to Stalone for allowing someone else to finally be the main character in the Rocky universe. I give it 7.3

Bridge of Spies- Very good spy thriller.  It relies on suspense more than action. Tom Hanks can do no wrong. 7.8

The Fifth Wave- Teenage science fiction. Better than I expected when it started but then it dropped off quickly.  5.9


Central Intelligence- It had some funny parts but I didn't like the Rock in this quite as much as I have in his other stuff. 6.7

The Legend of Tarzan- Pretty decent Tarzan adaptation but I only give it 6.8

Suicide Squad- Entertaining but there were several things I didn't like about it. 3 or 4 characters carried the show, the rest were just filler. 6.5

Ben Hur- The original is one of my favorite movies and one of the greatest movies of all time so I was expecting a crapfest with this remake. It took a bit of a different direction with many artistic liberties, but it was much better than I thought it would be. I'm shocked that I'm giving it 6.6 stars.

Thanks to VidAngel I have caught up on a bunch of rated R movies I had not seen before. Some of these movies are current but many came out years ago.

10 Cloverfield Lane- Suspenseful. John Goodman had a great performance. It was better before the aliens appeared. 7.4

The Revenant- Very intense and grizzly. 7.8

Gran Torino- I love Clint Eastwood's work but I was expecting more from all the hype I had heard over the years but it was still very good. 7.8

The Kingdom- I really liked this suspenseful war movie about the middle east and terrorism. I was captivated the whole time. 8.0 stars.

127 Hours- I had heard about the true story this was based on so I was looking forward to it. Good acting by James Franco but it was kind of hard to watch. 7.4

The Butterfly Effect- I like most movies involving time travel and do overs. It's not a pick me up movie but had some good stuff in it. 7.9

District 9- Kind of depressing science fiction especially for someone who thought we were mean to E.T. back in the 80's. 7.6

London Has Fallen- Totally fake action movie but still entertaining. 6.4

Safe House- Is Denzel Washington a good guy or bad guy? 7.0

Looper- Again I have to give time travel extra points. It stretches your mind 7.7

John Wick- Extremely violent but pretty well done. 7.2

28 Days Later- I got into this Zombie movie 7.8

Escape Plan- I fell asleep watching it 6.1

13 Hours: The Soldiers of Benghazi- Pretty Intense. It was good to see Jim and Roy from The Office Reunited.  7.6 stars.

Captain America vs. X-Men

Several months ago I saw Captain America: Civil War as well as X-Men: Apocalypse. Here are some of my thoughts on the two movies.

Both movies are about superheroes and super villains who have powers we will never have so that is kind of depressing to start off with. When Hollywood actors prepare for roles in a movie these days they get in way better shape than most people ever will so that is also depressing for most of us. When they finish the movie many of these actors drop the chicken breast and broccoli diet and stop working out 4 hours a day like they have been for the past 9 months and then they look like they did before. That is probably depressing for them. I didn't mean for this review to be so depressing so I will address something else.

Both movies have a familiar theme of friends fighting against each other much like Superman vs. Batman did. I hate seeing good guys fight each other. It breaks my heart and is actually a little depressing.

In summary, I give the latest Captain America 7.9 stars and X-Men 7.2 stars. If you want more details or something of actual substance then you should probably go see the actual movies instead of just relying on my crappy reviews.