Straight Outta Compton

A heartwarming story about 5 gay men living on the streets of inner city Compton, CA.  The year is 1986, the setting is the gang world and the story is courageous.  These five young African American men come together through the trials and tribulations of the most dangerous city in America.  With only one outlet for homosexual, minorities they start an underground knitting club that catches America by storm!  The rest they say, is history!  Seriously, this movie was awesome!  I read a review the other day from an IMDB member who said it was disgusting, pornographic, and was a false depiction of inner city youth.  Not where I'm from yo!  The streets of Palmyra taught me the game!  The acting was excellent, the cast was outstanding especially Eazy-E and Ice Cube.  The story brought back some great memories of discovering this group for the first time in the late 80's and thinking they were the coolest thing ever.  I did have a few problems of what the movie left out.  The 90's war between Dre and Eazy was huge but in the movie they only touched on it for a few minutes.  Also, some of the iconic pictures taken weren't shown when they were getting famous.  Lastly, the story kind of left out a lot of the contributions MC Ren and DJ Yella gave to the group.  It was a little like the Ice Cube and Eazy story.  Apparently the original cut was 3 1/2 hours long so they had to edit some.  So far, this is one of my favorites of 2015 and would recommend it to anyone who thought they were a gangster in the 90's.  Not naming any names, Mark, Jason, Colby, Zach, Hoser!

FYI:  The Jheri Curl wigs used in this film were $15,000 a piece!!!

****1/2

April Fool's Day

Surprise!  you're dead!  Hahaha, Happy April Fool's Day!  Here is an oldie but a goodie that I just re-watched last night.  It was one of my favorites when I was a kid and remember watching it over and over again.  Well my lucky, reluctant wife got to sit through it with me and I am sure she followed it well as her eyes were glued to her phone the entire time.  What I love best about this film is the true 80's blanket that wraps you up and takes you back to your days of youth.  Everything from the clothes, to the language, to the cheese.  Not to mention a young Biff Tannon has a great role in this.  The best part is the twist this movie has and maybe a little played out at this point but in the 80's it was fresh and new.  Basically a group of college kids are invited to "Muffy's" lake home for spring break.  They dont all know each other but all hold some dark secret that will be exposed when the killings begin!  Its a good, fun trip down memory lane and is a must watch if you ask me.  Or is it?  April Fools!

FYI:  This film was titled Horror Party when released in Germany.

****

San Andreas

Look Out!  It's an earthquake!  No wait, its a tsunami!  Wait, scratch that, its a fire!  Hold, nope, its a building collapsing!  Stop, just stop, its everything at once!  Leave it to The Rock, to play in yet another throw away blockbuster.  Don't get me wrong, I really like everything he is in, and secretly have a man crush on him, but damn Dwayne, really?  This natural disaster movie is the same as every other natural disaster movie.  We have key elements that are a core function of these types of movies all complete with unbelievable, unrealistic acts of heroism using boats, planes, helicopters, cars, and pure brute strength.  Here are the automatic characters of every disaster movie:  #1 Daughter of hero who is beyond super street smart having all of the skills to survive any situation without messing up a single hair.  #2 Divorcee rekindling love in the face of disaster.  #3 Young witty kid with all the resources to survive.  #4 Genius professor who knows more than the rest of the world but continues to be a basement dweller until the time is right.  #5 Super human strength and speed to out run any explosions, falling buildings, and debris.  And last but not least, some weak foreigner who gets hurt and slows down the pack.  Tired of my bashing yet?  It wasn't all that bad, if you include cool special effects, some good karma, and the man himself, I would probably watch it again.  As a matter of fact, I will have to along with the rest of you as it will soon be a TBS, TNT, Spike, and AMC run over, and over again.  Give it a shot, it was enjoyable.

FYI:  An actual earthquake professor said most of the disaster in this movie wouldn't or couldn't happen.

***1/2

Entourage

Tune in for the latest wacky adventures of E, Drama, Turtle, Vince and Ari!  These zany cats are at it again with larger than lifestyle, Hollywood shenanigans!  Oh, did you think I was talking about the HBO series?  I was, just a longer, more expensive version that was released in theaters.  I loved the series and kind of liked the movie but it was very unnecessary.  With this amount of pub, they should have just started the series again.  Here are some of the problems I had with this film.  Wayyyy to many cameos, most of which are on set for a mili-second.  The wardrobe director for Drama should be shot!  The plot was a stretched out version of the 1/2 hour show, and no one ever says what real people in real life would say.  I mean, I know its about Hollywood actors but c'mon!  Pudgy little Haley Joel Osment does a pretty good job of making you hate him, and Ari basically steals the show, again.  All in all it was a pretty good easy to watch film but if you didn't like the series you wont like this.  I wouldn't waste anymore than a dollar on it, unless you are going to a special screening at Vince's house.

FYI:  An early Tuesday night screening of this film grossed over $2 million!

**1/2

Cop Car

Leave it up to Bacon to play a PIG!  Cops these days, always getting a bad rap.  Seriously, this sheriff is just trying to take out the trash and ends up with the worst luck.  So he has a bit of a cocaine, illegal gun, and money laundering problem.  What good cop doesn't?  This tale starts off with two 10 year old boys running away from home (who reminded me of Jason and myself long ago) and they run across a cop car, complete with keys and unlocked doors.  They did what any curious young man would do, take it for a joyride!  Well things aren't as easy as these kids planned, especially when they try out the CB, guns, and the gas pedal.  Bacon finds the car missing and goes into a frenzy!  This was an amazingly told story and had a great flow to it.  It becomes pretty tense and really brings you into the story.  You find yourself over-routing for the young boys and get nervous for them at every turn.  This movie really showed how innocence and ignorance can certainly turn the tables on a kid, especially if they end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.  There are a few unrealistic parts of the movie and it is always hard for me to put suck a young kid in adult situations having them do just fine, but then again I may just be a grumpy old man.  This was a great movie and I would pay to see it.  Bacon is yet again creepy, and makes me think of Jim Carey from Me, Myself and Irene but nails the part like always.  A must see.

FYI:  The piano score for this movie was written by a 13 year old kid.

*****

These Final Hours

And the Million Dollar Question is:  The end of the world is just hours away, what do you do?  A. Party like a Rockstar?  B.  Church it up and beg for forgiveness in the afterlife?  of C.  Gather up your family and start the executions?  This hidden Netflix gem will help you through these thoughts and possibly give you a good idea of what you will end up doing in the end.  Glad the Bro's pushed me to watch this film sooner than I had planned, it was great!  Set in Australia, the world is mere hours from becoming a ball of fire from the planet killing asteroid headed our way.  Everyone is in pure chaos and the streets are filled with lunatics, rapists, killers, and one saint.  The main character who is on his way to an epic worlds end party fueled with drugs, alcohol, and naked women gets sidetracked to save a little girl from being raped and tortured by some disgusting bottom dwellers.  His moral compass sets in and decides to spend the rest of his life trying to help her.  Of course you can imagine they run into some crazy situations along the way, and where they end up...watch the movie!  After watching this movie I had the discussion of what would you do, and came to the conclusion that the Rockstar parts sounded pretty nice!  Give this one a shot, its well worth it!

FYI:  The drug fueled party scene is how James Franco's house looks every Wednesday night!

**** 

Aloha

Depressed living in Hawaii kind of seems like saying, money doesn't buy happiness.  It just doesn't make any sense!  When you are a movie character without a care in the world, living in the most beautiful place in America, and have a hot chick with job security, you should probably just shut up and live in the moment.  Cameron Crowe has a different opinion with Aloha.  Start off with an all star cast of A Lister's, throw in an amazing setting and you are well on your way to a PG, TBS, every Saturday film.  Here is the scoop;  Cooper, an ex-military man working in the private space sector returns to his glory days in Hawaii to take on a once in a lifetime gig.  Once there he meets up with his old fling, gets confusing feelings and starts to meddle.  Meanwhile he is followed by a military watch dog (Stone) who he falls for but cant quite compete with her moral compass.  The tone of this movie which jumps all over the place, starts to flirt with an ethical message, only to left turn into an anti-climatic half witted love story.  There were some really good scenes, the best is with Cooper and Krasinski and the no word conversation.  It was cinema gold.  Baldwin, Murray, McBride all had good parts but seemed a little thrown together.  I was entertained but not impressed.  Give this one a watch but you will be better off waiting for TV.

FYI:  Emma Stone's character is based on an actual person who's Dad was half Asian, half Hawaiian.

**