Day 307: Central Intelligence (2016)

It has been a little over a month since the last time we did an Ass Whoopin Wednesdays post so we didn’t want to waste anymore time. For this week’s Ass Whoopin Wednesdays film, we decided to do a tag team thing with the film Central Intelligence which stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (Pain & Gain) and Kevin Hart (Ride Along). For Calvin “The Golden Jet” Joyner (Hart), it looked like the sky was the limit when it came to his life in high school and that he could do anything. 20 years later, he is an accountant at a small company and he’s very unhappy with where he is at. One day, he gets a friend request from someone known as Bob Stone (Johnson) who ends up being a kid that was bullied when they were in high school together. Stone comes and he uses Joyner for his accounting skills to catch someone known as The Black Badger, but who does Joyner trust? Bob Stone or the CIA? The film also stars Amy Ryan (Escape Plan) as Agent Harris, Danielle Nicolet (The Flash) as Maggie, Jason Bateman (Juno) as Trevor, Aaron Paul (Triple 9) as Phil, Tim Griffin (American Sniper) as Agent Mitchell, Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong) as The Buyer, and the film was directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber (We’re The Millers). To see the rest of the review and the stats, please click here to go to Moshpits and Movies.

Day 158: The Iron Giant (1999)

I have always been a fan of animated films, but sometimes there are just films in the world that for some strange reason, you never get to watch them. The Iron Giant was certainly one of those films, but thanks to this challenge it is today’s film. It’s 1957 Rockwell, Maine where everything is pretty normal and nothing exciting happens until one faithful day. Something huge and gigantic hits the shores of Maine, but no one knows what it is except for one person. For Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal), he is your typical horror movie loving kid who really has no friends until one day when he saves the Iron Giant (Vin Diesel) from electrocuting. Now as the two become close, Hogarth has to hide the Iron Giant from a paranoid government agent before he has the military sent to town to destroy it. The film also stars Jennifer Aniston (We’re The Millers) as Annie Hughes, Harry Connick, Jr. (The Godfather: Part III) as Dean McCoppin, James Gammon (Major League) as Foreman Marv Loach, Cloris Leachman (Castle In The Sky) as Mrs. Tensedge, Christopher McDonald (Requiem For A Dream) as Kent Mansley, John Mahoney (Say Anything…) as General Rogard, and the film was directed by Brad Bird (Tomorrowland).

There are a lot of films that I have viewed for this challenge that I do not know why it took me this long just to see them. I am sometimes baffled by myself and how I have ignored certain movies that are obviously classics like The Iron Giant. What I loved about this film is how they set against cold war America and how it shows you how paranoid people were during those times. There’s a line when Kent is telling Hogarth that they have to find out what it is and where it came from so they can destroy because it’s obviously not American. Meanwhile, Hogarth is having one hell of a time teaching the Iron Giant which I had no idea was voiced by Vin Diesel and that Hogarth’s mom was Jennifer Aniston. I have to agree with Kent, but only on one thing and that is what kind of name is Hogarth? Anyways, I have to admit that I am a sucker for this type of animation cause it’s old school and it was cool for it’s time. He could have gone with the new kind of animation that was around like The Toy Story, but he kicked it old school. Like I said, I loved the animation, but most certainly I loved the story overall. It’s a story that has a meaningful ending where one discovers who they truly are and they make the ultimate sacrifice. The title is available on the HBOGO app and I really suggest that you check out this movie. I am going to give The Iron Giant an A- for a final grade.

Day 157: The Do-Over (2016)

I was at one point a huge fan of Adam Sandler films like Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy, etc. Then there was a period of time where I could care less, but today’s film, the Netflix Original Film, The Do-Over, had enough buzz that I had to watch. Charlie (David Spade) is a bank manager of a bank in a supermarket who sort of lives a crappy life with a wife who doesn’t care about him and her crappy kids. An old friend Max (Sandler) offers Charlie a do-over by faking their own deaths and assuming new identities. The only problem is that the identities they take over have problems of their own that Max and Charlie may not be able to handle on their own. What are the duo to do now that they are being targeted for death? The film also stars Paula Patton (Deja Vu) as Heather, Kathryn Hahn (We’re The Millers) as Becca, Nick Swardson (I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry) as Bob, Matt Walsh (The Hangover) as Shecky, Renée Taylor (The Nanny) as Mrs. Kessler, Luiz Guzman (Boogie Nights) as Jorge the shooter boy, Catherine Bell (Bruce Almighty) as Dawn, Torsten Voges (Funny People) as The Gymnast, and the film was directed by Steven Brill (Walk of Shame).

This honestly has to be one of the best Adam Sandler movies in a very long time even though I was a huge fan of That’s My Boy. At first, I was trying to figure out what kind of movie were they going to present to us because it could have gone any way. They could have given us an all out party fest of two guys enjoying their new identities, but I think they went the right way because it kind of kept you guessing. There were a couple of twists and turns that I thought were clever, but at the same time I should have seen them coming. Now, I am not taking anything away from the film by saying that because it was actually enjoyable to watch. David Spade acted like he never lost a step and Sandler added some machismo to his comedy in this film being the bad ass action Jackson type. This was film number two of six I believe for Adam Sandler and his Netflix deal and they get better by the film and you can only hope that it continues with the next. One of the funniest scenes in the film comes courtesy of Luiz Guzman and I won’t spoil it for you, but I couldn’t stop laughing. Seeing Luiz in this film was one of the smartest moves the casting director made because he is hilarious. There are some great shots of the island of Puerto Rico in the film as well as some other cool shots of Georgia. The film is available on Netflix of course and I think you should check it out. I am going to give the film an B+ for a final grade because it’s not the best Sandler film ever, but it’s up there.

Day 56: The Visit (2015)

Back in the 1990’s, The Blair Witch Project really kicked the found footage genre into overdrive especially in the horror genre. M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) had been in a dry spell for a while, but he returned in 2015 with The Visit. In the film, Katheryn Hahn’s (We’re The Millers) kids are making a documentary for her because they are going to visit their grandparents. The significance of it is that they’re mother hasn’t seen them in over 19 years and they want to document it for her in hopes that they can get them to shed light as to why and hopefully they can bring both parties together again. As soon as they get there, they start to notice that there grandparents are acting very weird and things don’t appear as they seem. The film stars Olivia DeJonge (The Sisterhood Of Night) as Becca, Ed Oxenbould (Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day) as Tyler, Deanna Dunagan (Running Scared) as Nana, Peter McRobbie (Brokeback Mountain) as Pop Pop, Celia Keenan-Bolger (Mariachi Gringo) as Stacey, Samuel Stricklen (Mozart In The Jungle) as The Conductor, Jorge Cordova (In Plain Sight) as Miguel, and Benjamin Kanes (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)) as Dad.

As far as found footage horror films go, this is one that I could actually tolerate because there isn’t all that annoying shaky camera effect to it. You’re basically watching the documentary the kids are creating and the character of Becca is obsessed with film so you know the camera quality will be good. As far as the story is concerned, I actually enjoyed the story because it kind of keeps you on the edge of your seat. You know that something just seems terribly wrong with the grandparents even though you side with Becca and you just say, “hey their old what do you expect.” Now as far as the acting is concerned, I have to give Deanna Dunagan a lot of credit because she really does an incredible job just acting very weird. She portrays on screen what kids are scared of when it comes to old people that they don’t really know. With Peter McRobbie, you don’t really get to see how crazy his character is until, but what he does is crazy. The reveal towards the end will either shock you or it’s something you may have seen coming, but I won’t give it away. No spoilers today on the blog for you. This was a decent return for M. Night Shayamalan who in my opinion hadn’t really been making anything worth watching in a while. If you want something fun to watch that you know is Oscar worthy in any way shape or form, then check this one out. I am going to give the film a B- for a final grade.

Day 7: Daddy’s Home (2015)

For today’s film, I traveled to my local theater to check out two men that make a hilarious unlikely combo come together for the first time in five years. Of course, I am talking about Will Farrell (Old School) and Mark Wahlberg (Fear) who star together once again for the first time since The Other Guys in the comedy Daddy’s Home. Farrell plays a radio disc jokey named Brad, who is desperately seeking the affection from his stand offish step children. Despite adhering to his wife’s warnings, Brad invited the children’s real dad over the house in the macho Dusty Mayron (Wahlberg) a man who just oozes machismo. Brad’s plans begin to fall apart once Dusty comes to town and the two compete for the children’s affection in this battle of wits. The film also stars Linda Cardellini (Grandma’s Boy) as Sara, Thomas Haden Church (Killer Joe) as Leo Holt, Scarlett Estevez (Lucifer) as Meagan, Owen Vaccaro (A Product Of Me) as Dylan, Bobby Cannavale (Boardwalk Empire) as Dr. Francisco, Hannibal Buress (Neighbors) as Griff, Jamie Denbo (Yes Man) as Doris, and Mark L. Young (We’re The Millers) as Dental Hygienist.

You can definitely not go wrong when trying to decide what movie to see and Wahlberg and Farrell’s names are attached to it. I have to agree with a friend of mine who made the statement that he enjoys seeing Wahlberg more when it comes to comedies. He was awesome in films like Date Night, Ted, The Other Guys, Pain & Gain, etc. So, it was a natural move for me to see this film because Walhberg and Farrell kept me entertained and laughing throughout the whole film. You add in the combo of the kids and Hannibal Buress as a handy man that moves in unexpectedly and you have a great combo that didn’t disappoint. You also cannot forget the addition of physical comedy which was plenty and awesome in the movie. Of course, it was great to see Linda Cardellini in the film, but there were a couple of cameos in the film that made me lose my mind. I am going to give you the spoiler alert because if you do not want to know any info then do not continue. It lost my mind when I saw Bill Burr in the film and then to top that, they thrown in WWE wrestler John Cena who has a habit of appearing in comedies lately (Sisters, Trainwreck). John Cena appearing could leave it up for a sequel, but I doubt they’ll do one. Wahlberg and Farrell make a great combo and we have evidence to back it up, it’s just a matter of when we’ll see them on screen again. I am going to give the movie an B+ for a final grade.