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Drama, True Story
4.5 stars
Good movie starring Chadwick Boseman as baseball great Jackie Robinson.  Harrison Ford co-stars as MLB executive Branch Rickey who decided it was time to integrate baseball to attract more fans and ultimately make more money.  Most films about athletic heroes tend to be sappy but this film only crossed that line once or twice; mostly, it’s just a really good baseball movie about racism and acceptance. 

Scary MoVie 5

Comedy, Horror
2 stars
Dumb.  Silly parody of current popular horror films, mostly following the storyline of Mama.  This looked so funny in the previews, so I was really disappointed especially with the Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan “sex” scene – I’m not sure they even touched each other and it was too ridiculous for me.  I was really hoping for some laughs and I’m embarrassed to admit that the only time I laughed was when Simon Rex and Ashley Tisdale started punching the creepy little savage girls (in self-defense, of course!).  The other audience members weren’t laughing much either.  Only for fans of this genre.

The Place Beyond the Pines

Drama, Crime
4 stars
Good but kinda sad movie starring Ryan Gosling as an extreme motorcyclist who starts robbing banks for a living when he learns he has an infant son with former fling Eva Mendes.  Bradley Cooper plays a cop just trying to do the right thing but has difficulty when some dirty cops (including Ray Liotta) try to corrupt him.  Dane DeHaan is a fine young actor (True Blood, Lawless) but one would hope the offspring of Gosling and Mendez would be better looking?  Anyway, he plays an angry teen later on in this film which is really good, but I didn’t care for the ending.

GI Joe: Retaliation

2.5 stars
Action, Drama
Seriously?  I had no idea who was who in this silly film.  Dwayne Johnson takes over the helm of the G.I Joes who are arch enemies of Cobra, whoever they are…  Anyway, the Cobra guys take over the White House by impersonating the President, played by Jonathan Pryce.  There’s some fun Ninja Kung Fu whatever it is.  This is a Guy movie, hence the couple of hot chicks mixed in.  When I tried to explain what I saw to my husband he understood exactly the whole story and all the characters, so I guess you have to be a guy to get into this film.  I just wanted to see Bruce Willis, but his part was too small and not his best. 

Olympus Has Fallen

3.5
Action, Drama
Fun action flick starring Gerard Butler as a Secret Service sort of one man killing machine.  Butler must save the POTUS, played by Aaron Eckhart, after the White House is taken over by North Koreans (pretty timely, don’t ya think?).  The body count feels like a Tarantino film, but it’s still fun to watch.  My only complaint would be that car accident near the beginning of the film.  Other than driving too fast and in too tight formation during a slippery snowfall, they don’t really show what caused the car accident.  They could have showed a deer or moose in the road, or was it malice planned by the enemy?  Maybe they just never drove in snow before…  Jim and I both liked this film.