JoeMama's Movie Reviews

Mile 22 Starring Mark Wahlberg, Lauren Cohan, Ronda Rousey, John Malkovich Directed by Peter Berg   Mark Wahlberg teams up again with director Peter Berg - after working with him on hits like "Lone Survivor", "Patriots Day" and "Deepwater Horizon" - so you already expect greatness between the two.  However, as things go, there's bound to be a dud when you work with someone as often as these two have, and "Mile 22" is their dud - which is unfortunate because they were planning on turning this into a trilogy, which now doesn't seem likely. Walberg stars as Jimmy, a man who works for a strike team called Overwatch who's called on when diplomacy and the military fail.  Jimmy and his team are sent to Indonesia after a police officer named Noor surrenders himself, saying he has codes to reveal where missing shipments of a deadly toxic substance called cesium are located,  but will only give it after being transferred out o...

Worst2First: My Top Ten Villains in Film Sometimes, it's good to be bad. There's a basic rule in film that we root for the good guy, and hate the bad guy.  In most instances, this is the case.  However, there's certain films where the villain is so well done, so well acted, that you can't help but root for them and they become your favorite character. Here are my personal top ten favorite villains in film, worst2first.  As always, there will be no spoilers. #10 Gordon Gekko "Wall Street" Greed is good.  Greed is right.  Greed works.  Despite other villains on this list, Gordon Gekko never tried to take over the world by violence or malice, but rather chose to rule with the iron fist of greed.  In the Oliver Stone film "Wall Street," Michael Douglas gives his Oscar-winning performance as a man who has absolutely no morals or conscience, who will stop at nothing to make another million dollars including bribing, breaking the l...

Worst2First:  My Most Anticipated Films of Fall 2018 The months of September, October, and November appear to have a plethora of amazing films hitting cinemas, and has something for everyone - from long-awaited horror franchise continuations to another long-awaited film from a beloved franchise, to some strong Oscar contenders to comic book villains, there's no shortage of exciting films coming out this fall. Here are my personal top ten films I'm most excited to see this fall, worst2first...  **THERE WILL BE NO SPOILERS Also, dates of films are subject to change** #10 The Girl in the Spider's Web November 9 Now here's the story behind this:  The character of Lisbeth Salander was created by Swedish author Steig Larsson, who wrote three books known as the Millennium collection before his death in 2004.  Author David Lagercrantz picked up his work and wrote two more books with Salander as the main character.  There was a tri...

The Darkest Minds Starring Amandla Stenberg, Harris Dickinson, Skylan Brooks, Miya Chech Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson    The Story: A mysterious illness has killed countless children, but for those who survived, they've acquired superhuman abilities.  The adults fear these children, so they take them to camps where they designate them by colors - green are harmless and uber-intelligent, blue can manipulate matter, yellow can manipulate electricity, but those who are designated red or orange are deemed too dangerous and are immediately terminated. Ruby Daly (Amandla Stenberg) is one of those orange-level children, but she has the ability to make people do whatever she wants, as well as see into their minds and also erase herself from their existence.  She manages to avoid detection at the camp for six years, when she's finally found out.  Doctor Cate Begby (Mandy Moore) rescues Ruby before the government kills her, telling her that she's a membe...

Special Review:  My Thoughts On MoviePass About a year ago, I received a message on my Facebook wall by a friend who knew I am a diehard cinephile ("a person who is fond of motion pictures"), introducing me to the idea of MoviePass.  At first I thought it was a scam - $9.95 a month to see one movie a day in theaters?  How the heck can a company like that even think of making any money at all?  Still, the idea intrigued me, and I figured if all I would lose is $9.95, why not try it out? A month and a half later I finally received my MoviePass card (they said it took so long because there was a large volume of new members), and I immediately went to the movies to see "The Mountain Between Us."  To my pleasant surprise, the MoviePass card worked, and I was able to enjoy a film without technically paying for it. That was on October 11, 2017, so my recent renewal was up on August 11, 2018 - that means it's been ten months since I've had the program, and...

Worst2First:  My Top Ten Serious Films That Were Unintentionally Hilarious There are some films out there that are considered classics, ones that should be seen by everyone to better enrich their lives.  Yet, for every "The Shawshank Redemption," there's a slew of films made by serious directors and actors who wanted to be the next "Shawshank," but instead shanked themselves in the back with their own shiv.  Films that wanted to be taken seriously, but instead resulted in guffaws and groans. Here are my personal top ten serious films that were unintentionally hilarious, worst2first (the "first" here actually being the "worst")... **THERE WILL BE NO SPOILERS** #10  Truth Or Dare Be it the insanely stupid script, the unlikable cast, or pure and simply the "Willem Dafoe" smiles, "Truth or Dare" is a hodgepodge of horror generalities that resulted in unintentional humor throughout.  The true dare he...

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation Starring Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Kathryn Hahn, Jim Gaffigan Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky The Story: Count Dracula (Adam Sandler) is lonely since the death of his wife, and his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) mistakes this depression for working too hard, so she secretly books her dad and several patrons of the hotel a cruise to the Bermuda Triangle.  On board, he meets Captain Ericka (Kathryn Hahn), and immediately "zings" with her - even though he believed you could only "zing" with one other person. However, Ericka is keeping a deadly secret - she's the latest descendant of the Van Helsing family, whose great grandfather Abraham (Jim Gaffigan) kept trying to kill Dracula and his friends centuries earlier to no avail.  She decides to go undercover and fake wanting to date Dracula so she can get close enough to kill him, but soon realizes she might actually be developing feelings for the Lord of Darkness. ...