A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

A funny thing happened while I was watching this movie. And then a couple more funny things happened. There may be more funny things that happened in this film, than in "Ted" and all three cartoon sitcoms MacFarlane has on Fox combined. This isn't to say that the movie is really good, it just happens to be an improvement. Out of its 116 minute run-time, there is about 30 minutes worth of quality material. However, solid performances, and some expert cinematography are present in this film, and they were damn hard to ignore. MacFarlane even packs this movie full of some seriously funny cameos that make some of the lulls easier to take. I was 100% shocked at much I actually enjoyed the best parts of this movie.

Grade: C-
3D: N/A
Easter Egg: No

Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson
Director: Seth MacFarlane
Writer(s): Seth MacFarlane & Alec Sulkin & Wellesley Wild
RT: 116 min
Rating: Rated R for strong crude and sexual content, language throughout, some violence and drug material

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Marc Webb's newest entry into the "Spider-Man" franchise suffers from the same thing that Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3" suffered from: trying to do too much too fast, and sacrificing story elements in the process. No moment with emotional weight in this film is earned, because everything is so rushed in order to service three storylines that included two new villains. Neither of which are very interesting, or feel above two children throwing massive fits. Electro is completely static (shut up, I liked that pun), and Harry Osborn gets an undeserved emotional arc in which he is Peter's best friend, without so much of a mention in the first film.

On the plus side, Andrew Garfield remains a great Peter Parker, and a perfect goofball Spider-Man. Put him in the first two Raimi movies, and you have the perfect super hero flicks (especially the second one, which was damn near perfection). Emma Stone is mostly excellent as Gwen Stacy, even if the script doesn't give her much to do until the final fight. She does often feel bored with her tedious storyline, and its conclusion is telegraphed in pretty much every conversation she has with Peter. It was hard to not be pleased by the technical elements. They are so pleasing, that when I walked out of the film, I thought I enjoyed it more than I did. The more thought that went into it, however, the more I seemed to dislike it.

Grade: C
3D: Don't bother
Easter Egg: A scene from the new "X-Men", which was awful.

Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx
Director: Marc Webb
Writer(s): Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci & Jeff Pinker
RT: 142 min
Rating: PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action/violence

Draft Day (2014)

Ivan Reitman has directed many a great film, but seems to be on bit of a dry streak. There was hope that "Draft Day" would have pulled him out of it. Unfortunately, its melodramatic formula got in the way of what could have been the football equivalent to "Moneyball". Scott Rothman and Rajiv Joseph's script focuses too heavily on the personal problems of Kevin Costner's Sonny Weaver, Jr., the GM of the Cleveland Browns, and a lot less on the problems with the team. It never feels like you are in the moment with the draft, and the actual draft itself is only in about a quarter of the film. A few solid performances, from Costner, Chadwick Boseman (playing a potential draft pick), Frank Langella (as the Browns owner), and Ellen Burstyn (as Costner's mother), keep the film afloat and watchable. The dealings, however, become a little outlandish, and final resolution is too neat for such a chaotic concept. "Draft Day" amounted to nothing more than a fluff piece.

Grade: C+
3D: N/A
Easter Egg: No

Starring: Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Frank Langella
Director: Ivan Reitman
Writer(s): Scott Rothman & Rajiv Joseph
RT: 109 min
Rating: PG-13 on appeal for brief strong language and sexual references

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Sure, this film had a couple of story issues, but what film doesn't? It is the most solid, most thrilling, and most overall well-made film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Anthony and Joe Russo took the Marvel formula, and flipped it to create a spy thriller with great action sequences (including my new favorite car chase), and a stellar script that is a little transparent, but ultimately tense and funny. They were given a great leading cast, which they used to full advantage; not wasting a single talent on screen like a few others in the franchise have managed to do.

Chris Evans is utterly charming as Steve Rodgers (Captain America), he displays a idealistic innocence, even after surviving WWII and the "Battle of New York" from "The Avengers", that makes you instantly like him, and want to root for him at every turn. Samuel L. Jackson took his Nick Fury to a whole new level of badass, and Scarlett Johansson keeps making Black Widow one of the most well-rounded and intriguing characters in this universe. The addition of Anthony Mackie as the Falcon was very welcome. He has been the only interesting comic relief in the three Phase II films (the kid in "Iron Man 3" and Kat Dennings in "Thor 2" were unbearable).  The Russo Brothers even snagged a great performance out of Robert Redford, who is playing Nick Fury's mentor, and head of the World Security Council, Alexander Pierce. And any time I see Cobie Smulders on screen, I instantly melt... so, there is that. Did I mention this is my new favorite Marvel film?

Grade: A
3D: Meh. Not worth it.
Easter Egg: Two seems to be the new norm for Marvel Studios

Starring: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie
Director: Anthony and Joe Russo
Writer(s): Christopher Markus & Stephan McFeely - Story - Ed Brubaker
RT: 136 min
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, gunplay and action throughout

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

There is literally nothing I didn't love about Wes Anderson's newest movie. His writing only seems to get sharper with every film. Dripping with a mixture of wry wit and low brow slapstick, it is one of the funniest he has produced, as well as (possibly) the most exciting. It is actually quite exciting that an actor as great as Ralph Finnes fits into Anderson's style so effortlessly. He plays M. Gustave H. so beautifully, that his Oscar for it should already be lining his shelf. Actually, this entire cast hits their marks with a vibrant glee, and award caliber perfection. From Wes' mainstays like Bill Murray and Owen Wilson, to more new comers like F. Murray Abraham (and his hilarious younger self played by Toni Revolori) to the ever delightful Saoirse Ronan, there isn't a character wasted in this entire film. I could go on and on about my love of Robert D. Yeoman's cinematography, and the brilliant decisions of switching between aspect ratios depending on the era the story is set in, but this review is supposed to be short, so I won't. Just go see this movie already.

Grade: A+
Easter Egg: No
3D: N/A

Starring: Ralph Finnes, Jude Law, Toni Revolori
Director: Wes Anderson
Writer(s): Wes Anderson - Story: Wes Anderson and Hugo Guiness - Inspiration: Hugo Zweig
RT: 100 min
Rating: R for language, some sexual content and violence

Veronica Mars (2014)

Life on "Mars"

It isn't often that the best thing about a movie is also the worst thing about a movie. Such is the case with Rob Thomas' "Veronica Mars", based off of his show of the same name. This movie feels like a 107 minute episode of the television show, which is both good and bad for it. It is good because it brings its core audience (the people who helped fund the movie via Kickstarter) back into the world they loved so much, and introduces a new audience to something they have never seen before. It is bad because it doesn't expand the world which these characters inhabited, but instead feels like Thomas should have saved this for a season on Netflix instead.

I don't want this to sound like I didn't enjoy the film, because I did. I laughed at many of the references to the show, and almost all of the cameos that got paraded in front of the camera (especially Ira Glass). The cast was really enjoying being back in their old shoes, and the writing was sharp and witty, so they had plenty to play with. There really wasn't much about the movie to not like. There was just a feeling like they could have done more with it, and that the stakes weren't high enough to warrant a big screen revival.

Grade: B+
Easter Egg: Mid-credits sequence
3D: N/A

Starring: Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring, Enrico Colantoni
Director: Rob Thomas
Writer(s): Rob Thomas (also Story and Characters) & Diane Ruggiero
RT: 107 min
Rating: Rated PG-13 for sexuality including references, drug content, violence and some strong language

Pompeii (2014)

This was such a disaster of a disaster film, I was surprised not to see Roland Emmerich's name on it. Instead, Paul W. S. Anderson (3 "Resident Evil" films) directed this poor excuse for historical fiction, and instead of being the epic he obviously wanted it to be, it was just an epic waste of time. It took three people to write this goofy and horrifically unbelievable script, though I'm not completely positive it wasn't written by those hypothetical monkeys at their typewriters. On the bright side, everything is so lost in the cartoony CGI, that you hardly notice the scripting issue, because your eyes are busy envying blind people.

Kit Harrington is the film's lead, Milo, a Celt whose entire village is slaughtered in front him when he is child, and he later becomes a slave, forced into Gladitoring (that isn't a word!). His performance is one note, and full of complete awful. It wasn't as bad as Kellan Lutz in "Hercules" (by far the worst performance of this short year, so far), but coupled with the piss poor script, it isn't good in any way. Anderson also manages to waste a considerable amount of talent, Carrie-Anne Moss and Jared Harris among the roster. I'm not sure why Kiefer Sutherland was in this, but it surely isn't the first time he did something this far below his standards. I really wish that the Volcano scene would have happened roughly an hour and a half earlier.

Grade: D-
3D: Really, don't.
Easter Egg: No

Starring: Kit Harrington, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Browning
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Writer(s): Janet Scott Batchler, Lee Batchler, Michael Robert Johnson
RT: 98 min
Rating: PG-13 for intense battle sequences, disaster-related action and brief sexual content