Summer Movie Preview and Movie of the Year Review

You can go to any number of a thousand sources for a Summer Movie Preview, so I'm going to keep this short and sweet. What follows are the five movies I'm most looking forward to seeing and the reasons why, and the couple of movies I'll be skipping. After the list, my review of Fast Five can be found, and I won't bury the lead, I LOVED the movie.

5. Green Lantern- I really dug the comic book as a kid, and I think Ryan Reynolds is great. Outside of the Batman franchise DC comic movies have not lived up to their Marvel counterparts, but I'm hopeful this one will deliver.

4. Friends with Benefits- As the title suggests a movie about friends who decide to explore a little more in their relationship, but not too much. Stars Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, two stars who I really like, and the previews make it look pretty funny. I did just see 'No Strings Attached' with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman, and that movie has the exact same theme. I enjoyed that film, but I anticipate this one will be better.

3. Captain America- Similar to 'Green Lantern', but I'm anticipating it to be much better. I think Chris Evans is very good, and from what I've seen with footage and previews, it appears the filmmakers have decided to approach the material fairly seriously, and not too campy.

2. Kung Fu Panda 2- I really like the first one, my 4 year old loves it, and this one looks as good. Good characters, good cast, and a proven franchise...I'm in. Ironically, this is the only movie on the entire list that it is a virtual lock that I'll probably see, because of my son. The others, I may or may not get to, but this one is almost guaranteed.

1. The Hangover Part II- I hold no illusions that there is any way that this thing will be nearly as good as the first one, but I still think it will be entertaining. For me the Thailand angle is intriguing, because other than that the entire movie looks rehashed.

Honorable Mentions:
*Bridesmaids- Already in release, and frankly I'm sure I'll see it in my living room. For the record I think Kristen Wiig is the funniest thing in film or television right now.

*X-Men; Transformers; Thor- All intriguing action films, but in all honesty none of them make me want to buy an overpriced ticket to the movies. Hopefully I'll catch up with each one of them, just not on the big screen.

*30 Seconds or Less- This is a comedy that stars, Danny McBride, Nick Swardson, and Jesse Eisenberg. The plot sounds funny, and I like all three of those guys, but like Bridesmaids, I'm sure I won't see it in the theater.

*Warrior- A MMA themed movie that looks WAY better than all the other crap that's been released about the sport. Would have definitely been in my top five, but it comes out September 9th, so I don't consider it a 'summer' movie.

Skipping for sure:
If you have Harry Potter, or Pirate in your title, I'll pass. I've seen multiple movies from both franchises, and neither one really entertained me. Nothing against those people who do like them, I get the appeal, they just aren't the films for me.

Movie Review: FAST FIVE

Look, I love the 'Fast' franchise, and I'm not afraid to admit it. In my opinion all five of the movies have delivered on everything they promise. (the second one is a little shaky, but still redeemable) These movies, unlike a lot of action movies these days, doesn't try and be anything but tremendously fun summer action. The acting is bad, the writing is a little thin, and you won't learn a damn thing, but if you want to melt into your seat and have a great time for two hours, this is your film.
Pros:
*Vin Diesel- This man is tremendous. His character's last name is Toretta, and I'm assuming that's Italian, but I dare anyway to identify his accent, especially in this movie. It literally changes from scene to scene. Having said all of that, he plays the role of Dom perfectly.

*The Rock- I love the Rock. I loved him WWE, I loved him in 'The Scorpion King' and pretty much anything. Outside of the tons of kids movies he's done, he's always fun to watch. In this movie he plays a federal agent with vigor and grit, and at one point even drops a 'F' bomb. Take that Tooth Fairy.

*The Fight Scenes- The 'Fast' franchise is all about the cars, but this one has some pretty damn good fight scenes. Paul Walker is a big MMA fan, and the fight scenes in this one are heavily MMA inspired.

*The writing- This thing is so full of cliches, bad jokes, and re-treaded action film standards, I would have to see it a dozen times just to catch them all. That seems like a bad thing, but I think it's awesome. It's like the writers just threw up two middle fingers and said, "Hey, we're ripping everything off, deal with it". I appreciate that extreme laziness, and at the same time, extreme awesomeness.

*The Setting- Brazil = Beautiful. Brazil = Dirty. This movies captures both very well, great setting that I would not have expected for a film of this ilk.

The Cons: there are very few, but a couple that bugged me.
*Jordana Brewster- Look up her IMDB sometime, with the list of absolute gigantic bad actors in these films (I'm looking at you Paul Walker) she takes the cake. She added absolutely nothing to this movie, and the scenes in where she tries to be dramatic, she's actually funny. They could have put any actress in the film, called her Mia Toretto and I would have been fine with it.

*Tyrese Gibson- Who in the blue hell does Tyrese have pictures of to get as featured as he did in this thing? I know he was Vin's replacement in the second film so they had to bring him back, but come on, he didn't need this many scenes.

*The ending- The one before the credits (hint, hint). It wasn't awful, but was a little blah. Normally that would ruin a movie for me, but the previous 108 minutes of this film were so damn good, I didn't mind that much.

I honestly love this movie so much, and it's been in release for a month now, so when making you're Memorial Day movie choices, don't fight the lines at Hangover II, or Kung Fu Panda II. Go see the best movie of the year, and still on the big screen.