JoeMama's Movie Reviews

Why Him? Starring James Franco, Bryan Cranston, Zoey Deutch, Keegan-Michael Key Directed by John Hamburg The Story: In rural Michigan, Ned Fleming (Bryan Cranston) is the longtime owner of a printing business, and obviously business isn't booming with technology on the rise.  He's an overprotective, yet loving, father to teenage son Scotty (Griffin Gluck) and Stanford college daughter Stephanie (Zoey Deutch), and doting husband to Barb (Megan Mullally).  He's especially close with Stephanie, as the two have had a very tight bond throughout her childhood years. So when he discovers she has a boyfriend she never told him about, he's wary of the new man.  Stephanie invites the family to California for Christmas to meet her new boyfriend, and he's not exactly the normal type.  Laird Mayhew (James Franco) is ten years older, a high school dropout, riddled with tattoos, and is also a tech millionaire video game developer.  Laird invites the family to sta...

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Starring Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Colin Farrell Directed by David Yates The Story: Set in the roaring 20s in New York City, the worlds of wizards and No-Maj (the American word for Muggle, or "no magic") are in direct conflict with one another, as both are wary of the other.  There's also a powerful dark wizard known as Gellert Grindelwald on the loose, and to top it all off British wizard Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) arrives with a briefcase holding several magical beasts, which is forbidden in the wizarding community. After he arrives in New York he meets No-Maj Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), and accidentally lets loose several beasts from the suitcase.  He's apprehended by Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), who works for the Magical Congress of the United States of America, but is released after they find his suitcase had been swapped with Jacob's on accident.  They find Jacob and h...

Nocturnal Animals Starring Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson Directed by Tom Ford The Story: "Nocturnal Animals" is a unique film that incorporates two different stories that have a underlying theme and connection to both. In the real world, Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) is a successful, rich, debonair art gallery owner who seemingly has it all - an attractive husband, a huge house, the most beautiful clothes and an admiring public.  Yet, once the facade is stripped away, she is a rather unhappy person.  Her husband is cheating on her, and she pines for her lost love Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal), her childhood crush who she married but divorced due to perceiving him as not having a bright enough future for her. One day she receives a novel Edward wrote called "Nocturnal Animals," which was a nickname he had given to the couple when they were together.  In the story, we meet Tony (Jake Gyllenhaal), a mild-mannered motorist tra...

Passengers Starring Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne Directed by Morten Tyldum The Story: In the distant future, 5,000 passengers from Earth have boarded the Avalon to relocate to a new planet called Homestead II.  The trek would take 125 years, so everyone was put in hibernation stasis, and would be woken up a few months before arrival. When the ship hits an asteroid belt, it jars one of the pods open and mechanical engineer Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) is accidentally awakened.  He learns he can't go back to sleep, no one else is awake, and he's alone on the ship 90 years before he was supposed to wake up.  The only other thing he can communicate with is bartender Arthur (Michael Sheen), a robot who works on the ship. After one year of complete isolation, he finds a pod belonging to author Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence).  Jim is immediately smitten and makes the decision to wake her up.  As the two begin a budding...

Incarnate Starring Aaron Eckhart, Carice van Houten, David Mazouz, Catalina Sandino Moreno Directed by Brad Peyton The Story: Dr. Seth Ember (Aaron Eckhart) is a man with a gift: he can go into the minds of people and help draw out demons possessing them.  However, he doesn't consider them demons, but rather as parasitic entities that he evicts from the person - he doesn't do exorcists because he doesn't believe in religion. He is on the hunt for an elusive demon known as Maggie, who he holds responsible for the deaths of his wife and child and leaving him in a wheelchair.  When eleven-year-old Cameron (David Mazouz) comes under demonic control, the Vatican - led by Camilla (Catalina Sandino Moreno) - wants Dr. Ember to get the demon out.  He doesn't agree at first, but they reveal to him that the demon is Maggie, so he takes the case and goes into the child's mind to evict the entity and get his final revenge. The Synopsis: I feel like with every w...

Miss Sloane Starring Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alison Pill Directed by John Madden The Story: Elizabeth Sloane (Jessica Chastain) is one of D.C.'s most formidable lobbyists, and someone who doesn't give up and doesn't lose.  She is fast talking, hard hitting, and often draws her own lines of ethical behavior, which lands her in some deep trouble with Congress. She worked for a conservative lobbying firm who want to press the issue of gun control and trying to convince women in particular to become favorable to having less taxing gun control laws, but she chooses to abandon the firm and join Rodolfo Schimdt (Mark Strong) and his group - a small, ragtag lobbying firm who is pushing for stricter gun control laws - instead, mostly because she desires the challenge to take down a big corporate identity. She unleashes all her lobbying know-how and intellectual prowess to turn the public - and Congressmen - to their side, despite the nearly imp...

Collateral Beauty Starring Will Smith, Edward Norton, Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren  Directed by David Frankel The Story: Howard Inlet (Will Smith) is a successful advertising executive with a bunch of co-workers who consider him as family: Whit (Edward Norton) - who's dealing with a divorce and a young daughter who doesn't love him anymore; Claire (Kate Winslet) - who's devoted so much of her life to work she fears she might've missed out on motherhood; and Simon (Michael Pena) - who's got a loving family but seems to be coughing an awful lot lately. The film begins with everyone being all happy and healthy, a part of a vibrant ad company in New York that's booming.  Then, three years later, everything is falling apart.  Howard lost his young daughter, and is now reclusive, despondent and depressed, and his friends are worried about him - and more importantly worried about their jobs. They hire a private investigator who tells them that Howard ...

Manchester By the Sea Starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges Directed by Kenneth Lonergan The Story: Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is working as a janitor for an apartment complex in Boston, and clearly has some personal issues he's dealing with, as he gets into verbal confrontations with tenants and fights at the bar.  He then receives word that his brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) had a heart attack and he drives back to his hometown of Manchester-by-the-Sea to be with him, but receives word after he arrived that Joe had passed away. He stays at Joe's home with Joe's teenage son Patrick (Lucas Hedges) while he arranges the funeral, and tries to avoid the pains of the past by avoiding his ex-wife Randi (Michelle Williams).  He then finds out through Joe's will that he is now Patrick's guardian, and Lee says he can't take care of him, that he was just a "backup."  He tells Patrick that he can't take care of h...

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Forest Whitaker Directed by Gareth Edwards The Story: The Empire is building a massive, planet-destroying weapon known as the Death Star, and needs Imperial weapons developer Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) to finish it.  He's reluctant to join the Empire, and is taken by Imperial Military commander Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) against his will.  His young daughter, Jyn, manages to hide and is rescued by Rebel extremist Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker). Fifteen years later, Jyn (Felicity Jones) is recruited by the Rebel Alliance and joins a ragtag group of rebels to find her father and gather information on the Death Star.  Joining her is Intelligence officer Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), Imwe (Donnie Yen) - a blind warrior who strongly believes in the Force, mercenary Malbus (Jiang Wen) who is also Imwe's best friend, Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) - a former Imperial pilot who defects to th...

The Walking Dead Hearts Still Beating Season 7 Episode 8 Review **SPOILERS FOR THE SHOW, EPISODE AND COMICS FOLLOW, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK** The mid-season finale of "The Walking Dead" has always been one of their stronger episodes.  In fact, "The Walking Dead" has a particular ebb and flow to it that's the same pretty much every season.  They open with a superior, undeniably strong episode, have some highs and lows in between, and ends each half of the season with a big bang.  The first season was only six episodes, so we go to the second mid-season finale, which featured the discovery of young Sophia, who had turned into a Walker.  The third mid-season saw Daryl being taken captive by the Governor and forced to fight his brother Merle in the Walker arena.  Season four saw the Governor's destruction of the prison, the scattering of our heroes and the beheading of the beloved Hershel.  Season five's mid-season finale saw the tragic, ...

31 Starring Sheri Moon Zombie, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Meg Foster, Malcolm McDowell Directed by Rob Zombie The Story: On Halloween in 1976, a gang of carnival workers are traveling when they're ambushed and taken prisoner by a group of aristocrats led by Father Napoleon (Malcolm McDowell) and are forced to participate in a game of 31: if they can survive twelve hours in his hell on earth, they get to live.  Led by Charly (Sheri Moon Zombie), the carnies go up against several of Napoleon's men, especially the leader Doom-Head (Richard Brake) as they fight to survive the night. The Synopsis: Rob Zombie is a very unique, oddly visionary director.  Not only is he known for his out-of-the-box music, but lately for his directing as well.  He's brought to the screen some of the sickest (I mean that in a good way) films such as "House of 1,000 Corpses," "The Devil's Rejects" and "The Lords of Salem," and also re-imagined the John Carpe...

The Jungle Book Starring Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba Directed by Jon Favreau The Story: Having been raised in the jungle by a pack of wolves, Mowgli (Neel Sethi) lives a pretty carefree life, frolicking through the woods with his black panther teacher Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), having a family of little cubs to play with, and doting, loving mother Raksha (Lupita Nyong'o).  However, all that changes when tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba) demands Mowgli's blood because he was scarred by his father years earlier.  Bagheera takes Mowgli away and leads him on a journey to the man's home, but along the way they get separated and Mowgli finds himself with Baloo the bear (Bill Murray), and the two strike up a friendship and partnership, as Baloo uses Mowgli's human tricks to get him honey.  All the while, Shere Khan continues his desperate search for revenge, and the young boy's life remains in the balance. The Synopsis: "The Jungle Boo...

Spirited Away Starring Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takashi Naito Directed by Hayao Miyazaki The Story: When ten year old Chihiro Ogino (Rumi Hiiragi) and her family move to a new town, she's very sullen about it, claiming her first bouquet of flowers ever was for a farewell sendoff, and she misses her friends back at her old home.  Her father takes a wrong turn and end up at a tunnel, and after crossing it, discover an abandoned amusement park.  As they investigate, they smell food and her parents start gorging on the delicious meal, while Chihiro pouts and walks off.  She meets Haku (Miyu Irino), who warns her to leave the area before sundown, but she doesn't make it in time and starts seeing spirits forming.  She goes to her parents, but find they've been turned into pigs, and realizes she's stuck in this spirit world. Haku, who works for the evil witch Yubaba (Mari Natsuki), tells Chihiro she needs to get a job, otherwise the spirits will...