JoeMama's Movie Reviews

Lights Out Starring Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Maria Bello, Alexander DiPersia Directed by David Sandberg The Story: After his father was killed by an unseen entity, young Martin (Gabriel Bateman) fears for his life and the life of his mother Sophie (Maria Bello), who takes medication but still talks to an imaginary woman named Diana.  His stepsister Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) and her boyfriend Bret (Alexander DiPersia) take Martin in while they try to uncover the truth behind Diana and what she really is, and whether or not Martin is safe to be at home. The Synopsis: First-time director David Sandberg propelled to the horror scene with the short film "Lights Out" that's very prominent on YouTube.  It's a three minute story about a woman in a home alone when she sees an entity in the dark that disappears when the lights are on.  It's simple, but simply jarring as well, especially in the final scene.  As an homage to the short film, Sandberg even c...

La La Land Starring Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, J.K. Simmons Directed by Damien Chazelle The Story: Aspiring actress and barista Mia Dolan (Emma Stone) wants to be an actress in the era of old Hollywood, as she works on the lot of a major studio company and often reminisces about scenes that took place there.  She's a young, free-spirited woman who pursues her dreams relentlessly, even though they haven't panned out yet. Sebastian Wilder (Ryan Gosling) is an expert pianist whose heart bleeds classic jazz.  He knows its a dying musical art form, but his passion doesn't allow him to give up on it.  In fact, he desires to eventually open a club in Los Angeles that caters specifically to the old jazz style. When these two star-crossed lovers meet, it's not necessarily love at first sight.  Yet their friendship soon buds into a passionate romance, and as they work to achieve their dreams, they come face-to-face with the possibility that those dr...

Golden Globe 2017 Predictions The only good thing about winter is the arrival of Awards season, and this Sunday is Oscar's red-headed stepchild, the Golden Globes. Here are my predictions for who will win on Sunday, and for the television categories I'm pretty much guessing, but with the films I have more in-depth thoughts on them. TELEVISION Best Television Series - Drama Game of Thrones Stranger Things This is Us Westworld The Crown WINNER: STRANGER THINGS Best Television Series - Musical/Comedy Atlanta Black-ish Mozart in the Jungle Transparent Veep WINNER: MOZART IN THE JUNGLE Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television American Crime The Dresser The Night Manager The Night Of The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story WINNER: THE PEOPLE VS. O.J. SIMPSON Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television Riley Keough - The Girlfriend Experience Sarah Paulson - The Peo...

Worst2First: The Best Films of 2016 Just as there were awful, truly awful movies in 2016, there were some truly amazing pieces of cinema that everyone should see.  If you don’t see a review of mine on this site, it means I haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t include it in my best OR worst of 2016, since I haven’t seen them yet. So here are the ten best films of 2016, Worst2First...     **There will be no spoilers.** #10 Doctor Strange Leave it to Marvel to give even their B-level heroes the most amazing origin movies.  First there was the surprise hit "Ant-Man," and now it's the Sorcerer Supreme who gets the supreme filming treatment with "Doctor Strange," which was a dazzling visual effects spectacle with the most on-point choice for Dr. Strange in the form of the ever-amazing Benedict Cumberbatch. #9 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Brilliantly serving as the bridge between the prequels and originals, "Rogue One" answe...

Worst2First: The Worst Films of 2016 Another year over, another list of movies that were absolutely terrible.  Thankfully it wasn't as hard narrowing the list down like it was last year, but its still disappointing that there were so many stinkers out there in 2016. If you don’t see a review of mine on this site, it means I haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t include it in my best OR worst of 2016, since I haven’t seen them yet. So here are the ten worst films of 2016, Worst2First… **There will be no spoilers.** #10  Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice One of the most anticipated films of the year was seeing the Dark Knight take on the Man of Steel in their first big-budget epic showdown.  After a series of rewrites and changes to include hints of the other Justice League members, what came out was a mitigated mess with a highly convoluted story, terrible acting choices (Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor?), and a far-too-bloated runtime.  Whe...

Major Theatrical Releases January 2017 Typically the first few months of the new year brings the films that studios aren't all that excited about, and want to dump them out before the upcoming sizzling summer season, while also showcasing a certain few prestige films to entice the Oscar voters before the nominees are announced at the end of the month. January brings two female-centric fledgling franchises that should've ended many films before, another sequel from a series that ended well over ten years ago (looking at last year's films you can judge how well this one will do), three films geared towards families, some Oscar-bait films and some intriguing horror movies. Here are the major theatrical movies being released in January 2017. (Dates are subject to change) January 6 Hidden Figures "Hidden Figures" is the true-life story of three African American women who assisted with NASA in sending John Glenn to orbit the earth successfull...

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...