JoeMama's Movie Reviews

The Campaign Starring Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis, Dylan McDermott Directed by Jay Roach Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) is North Carolina's 14th District Congressman four terms running, and is about to win his fifth term unopposed.  This outrages the Motch brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow), who wish to insource Chinese workers to the district so they can make a bigger profit.  So they bring on Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis), a mild-mannered everyman to oppose Cam's candidacy. Soon both men realize the real nasty nature of political campaigns, as their campaign chairmen pull their strings to make their man the winner, which results in several hilarious hijinks and smear campaigns which showcase how to really win (or lose) a congressional race. Director Jay Roach ("Meet the Parents," "Dinner for Schmucks") just recently finished his TV film "Game Change" when he took on this other highly politicized film, rele...

The Lords of Salem Starring Sheri Moon Zombie, Bruce Davison, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Judy Geeson Directed by Rob Zombie During the time of the Salem witch trials, Margaret Morgan (Meg Foster) and her coven were trying to give birth to the antichrist, but to no avail.  They ended up captured and burned at the stake, but not before placing a curse on the women of Salem. Decades later, disc jockey Heidi Hawthorne (Sheri Moon Zombie) receives an odd record at the studio with no return address, saying it was from the Lords of Salem.  She plays the music and the men in the town are unaffected, but the women fall into an odd trance-like state, including Heidi.  Shortly after, Heidi starts receiving odd visions and terrible apparitions, and it seems that she unwittingly unleashed a new kind of hell into Salem, and the spirit of Margaret Morgan is still wishing to bring the antichrist to life - this time through Heidi. Rob Zombie is well known for his eccentric an...

Insidious Chapter 2 Starring Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Barbara Hershey, Lin Shaye Directed by James Wan Picking up right where the first film ended, the Lambert family - father Josh (Patrick Wilson), wife Renai (Rose Byrne) and their young children - feel that their ordeal is at an end.  The demon haunting them was defeated, their son was returned from the Further, and life can get back to normal - well, after the investigation of the suspicious death of psychic Elise (Lin Shaye) ends.  Josh, Renai and their children stay with Josh's mother, Lorraine (Barbara Hershey) while the police investigate their house, and to Renai's horror the terror isn't over, as she is haunted by a ghostly female presence.  Then she notices weird things about Josh, and begin to suspect that he didn't come back from the Further with just himself and their son. Meanwhile, Lorraine and Elise's co-workers investigate the woman in the black wedding dress that's been hau...

Riddick Starring Vin Diesel, Jordi Molla, Matt Nable, Katee Sackhoff Directed by David Twohy Riddick (Vin Diesel) has been left abandoned on an isolated planet populated by deadly predators.  As he struggles for survival, he tunes into his more inner animalistic nature, and adapts to the planet around him. Then two sets of bounty hunters arrive on the planet, searching for Riddick's head.  However, one man (Matt Nable) has a more personal vendetta with Riddick, which comes to blows later on.  I could go on about the events of the movie, but that's basically it.  There was no real story given in this film, and it doesn't move the Riddick narrative forward.  It feels like a forced, pointless, unnecessary addition to the Riddick story, much like how the last "Resident Evil" movie didn't add anything new.  Sure, the action was amazing and the dialogue was quick and witty, but at the end we learn nothing new about Riddick, no real absolution to ...

Looper Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano Directed by Rian Johnson It's 2047, and thirty years from then time travel would have been invented and immediately outlawed, and five of the most powerful crime lords have access to them.  They send marks back in time so Loopers - people hired by the crime lords - can kill them in the past. For Looper Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), life is good.  He's getting rich off killing people, and he has no issues with it.  He spends his money on women, drugs and living the high life, until he discovers it's his turn to "close the loop," meaning kill your future self. In Joe's case, he's unable to kill his future self (Bruce Willis), who manages to escape.  Now Joe's bosses are out to kill them both, while young Joe is trying to figure out a sinister plot that the older Joe warns will cause death and destruction in the future.  The older Joe is in search of a child who w...

This has been an amazing summer for movies, but also has been a big bust.  There's several films I haven't seen yet (most of them being the animated ones because I refuse to go to a theater for a kids' film with a bunch of screaming kids around), so I only got to see twelve films this summer, so I've ranked them from the worst to the best. See if you agree... #12: White House Down Roland Emmerich once again gave an explosive, way-too-long epic about an attack on the White House.  Not even the chemistry between Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx could save this blunder of a film, perhaps it would've been better if it wasn't released only months after another (and better) White House abduction film, "Olympus Has Fallen." #11: The Great Gatsby An excellent source material, some excellent actors, but unfortunately all of that was overshadowed by way over-the-top effects and highly elaborate set pieces which should've accentuated the main story, but ...

Now You See Me Starring Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman Directed by Louis Leterrier A mysterious man invites four different types of magicians - Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg),  Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) - to join forces and become The Four Horsemen.  During a show in Las Vegas, they magically transport a man to a bank in Paris, where the money is taken and given to the audience. Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) lives to debunk magic, and works with special agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) to find out how the magicians were able to rob a bank in Paris while being in Las Vegas.  That is only the beginning of the mystery, as the Four Horsemen continue their Robin Hood-esque style of magic, which at first seems unconnected to each other, but as the pieces begin to add up, there's more than meets the eye with these particular magicians, and the person responsib...