We quickly review the latest movies, so you don’t have to!

The Dark Knight Rises

Of course Christopher Nolan’s last movie in the franchise is going to rock the house. Just based on his doing MEMENTO alone, you have to see this movie. The 3rd installment in Nolan’s rebooting of the Batman franchise, pulls no punches and ends with a bang (LITERALLY!). This time around, Catwoman (sexily played by Ann Hathaway) and Bane (played by Warrior’s Tom Hardy) join the fun, as does Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a young cop who.. but that would be telling. If you can stand the epic length 2 hr 45 minute running time, you’re in for some fun!

Ice Age: Continental Drift 3D

Like every other Ice Age movie, it is what it is and probably won’t appeal to you if you’re over the age of 10. That being said, your kids will probably enjoy it quite a bit.

The Watch

A neighborhood watch has a run-in with aliens invading their neighborhood, posing as locals, and they must fight to save the world – and their neighborhood from extermination. Sound like a dumb film? You’d be right! An ensemble cast of Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade (some English guy I hadn’t heard of either) stars. Like EVERY other film Vince Vaughn has made since Swingers, this should be avoided like the plague.

Step Up Revolution

Like every other STEP UP film that’s come out, I’m avoiding this. If it follows the other film in the franchise, it involves some new to school or town, who arrives with dreams of becoming a professional dancer. Some loose plot is hung over what’s essentially a bunch of over-choreographed dance scenes. They win the competition somehow and get the guy/girl. Everybody dances. End credits. Someone must watch this stuff!

Killer Joe

A dark comedy directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection, To Live & Die in LA) about a hit-man played by Matthew McConaughey who has the manners of a Southern gentleman, who’s hired by a down on his luck drug dealer to kill his universally hated mother in order to collect on her insurance plan. Supposedly has one of the best performances of McConaughey’s career and has a Tarantino-esque vibe to it. Supposed to be extremely enjoyable!

Ruby Sparks

A strange romantic comedy, about a writer who is amazed to find that his favorite “creation” has come to life and sitting on the couch in his living room, he can’t help but fall in love with her. All of a sudden it gets weird. Because he can, he can’t help but change her. It’s a quirky examination of what love and relationships are, sounds more like an indy film. If you like quirky, this may be your thing.

Movies opening up this weekend are: The Amazing Spider-Man, Savages and Katy Perry: Part of Me.

Director Marc Webb, who wowed us with (500) Days of Summer, replaces Sam Raimi as the director – Andrew Garfield, who was amazing in Red Riding Trilogy, replaces Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man/Peter Parker – Emma Stone replaces Kirsten Durnst as the love interest, this time playing Gwen Stacey instead of Mary Jane Watson. Like Christopher Nolan did with the Batman franchise, Marc Webb has come along and rebooted Spider-Man a mere 5 years after the last one Spider-Man 3, the BIG question is, was it necessary?

In terms of Sony’s maintaining the rights to keep making the movies and not letting the rights revert back to Marvel Entertainment/Disney, they had to make this film now or lose the rights. Director Sam Raimi couldn’t do it, so rather than having Tobey and the rest of the cast suit up under another director’s vision or force another director to ape Raimi’s unique style – the decision was made to reboot the whole thing including the kitchen sink. The fact that the last Spider-Man movie, part 3, was pretty much disliked by everyone, made it an even easier decision.

The result, is a Spider-Man movie that’s a bit different than what we’ve seen before. Garfield’s Peter Parker is still a bit of a geek and a loner than the Parker that Maguire played, but so has what we consider a “geek”. By comparison, Maguire was so much a social outcast, that he was almost unlikable outside the Spidey costume. At times it was hard to imagine someone cool like Harry Osborn being his friend or someone hot like MJ be interested in him. He’s still a social outcast, but you know it’s more by the fact of being socially awkward than anything else. This is a Peter Parker who’s brooding, who feels like his parents abandoned and dumped him on his much older aunt and uncle, played by Sally Fields and Martin Sheen, it goes more to explain why he is the way he is. When he plays Spider-Man, he’s a bit more sarcastic, a bit more of a rebel. His Spider-Man is cool, and with mechanical web-shooters, not organic yucky ones.

Emma Watson as Gwen Stacey, is a revelation compared to Durnst as Mary Jane, she’s the girlfriend that you’ll fall in love with. If you’re a comic book fan, you’re probably already depressed by what will surely be happening in upcoming films if they keep her as a character. Dennis Leary is incredible as Captain George Stacey, a NYC cop who considers Spidey a vigilante who shouldn’t be out there doing a cop’s job. He brings a “real world” perspective to the debate over whether or not we’d accept these so-called “heroes”.

Rhys Ifans plays Dr. Curt Connors, who becomes the monstrous Lizard that Spidey ends up fighting. Compared to the rest of the movie, he almost feels shoe-horned in, which is not to say that he didn’t do a great job, just that he wasn’t really needed.

The main difference between the reboot and the Sam Raimi movies, is the focus on Peter’s parents who seemingly abandoned him. This focus wasn’t touched at all in Raimi’s movies and is scarcely a part of the comics themselves. It’s something that helps explain why Peter is the way that he is, and does help connect a lot of things together that normally wouldn’t. Peter is more of a brooding young kid with abandonment issues than some social outcast that most of us would have a hard time liking.

It’s a much different Spider-Man movie than what we saw before , but that’s really what you need after a director with as distinctive a voice as Raimi had. If you miss Raimi’s vision, you can still buy Spider-Man DVD’s cheap, this is something new that you’ll have fun and be entertained by!

Oliver Stone is back and directing a story about a bunch of friends who are pot farmers, whose idyllic life is broken up when a Mexican cartel decides to essentially take them over. They decide to fight back with the aid of a dirty DEA agent played by John Travolta. It’s an over-the-top uber-violent movie that has dark humor and convincing performances. It’s a great crime thriller that will keep you watching and entertained.

Both a concert movie, as well as a “behind the scenes” documentary, it’s fun because it’s Katy Perry. If you’re a fan, you’ll have fun watching this, if you’re not – it won’t mean much to you anyways.