Alan Rapp

Brooklyn

  • Title: Brooklyn
  • IMDb: link

BrooklynBased on Colm Tóibín‘s novel, Brooklyn is an old fashioned immigrant story following the wide-eyed Ellis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) from her small Irish town to New York where her life slowly begins to change. When the pull of home beckons, however, she will be forced to make hard decisions regarding her future, the man she loves, and which side of the Atlantic Ocean she truly wants to call home.

The film quickly becomes more romance-driven than historical drama and features a ponderously-paced first half-hour. That said, once Ellis’ life in Brooklyn truly begins the film opens up a bit, is able to breathe, and Ronan is allowed to shine. The film’s star is without doubt the movie’s biggest strength smoothing over the film’s rougher edges when it drifts dangerously close to melodrama.

The supporting cast is solid throughout highlighted by Jim Broadbent as the preacher and family friend who helps Ellis in America, Fiona Glascott as Ellis’ sister Rose, and Emory Cohen as Ellis’ suitor. Arrow fans will also take note of Emily Bett Rickards as one of the women from the Brooklyn boarding house.

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Creed

  • Title: Creed
  • IMDb: link

CreedNine years after Rocky Balboa allowed Philadelphia’s favorite son to step into the ring one last time comes an unexpected sequel in Creed. Written and directed by Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station), the new film hearkens back to the themes of the original Rocky while putting a fresh take on the tale of an underdog boxer overcoming the odds to earn his big chance. Creed is as close to a reboot as you could get without recasting the Italian Stallion as a young man and not only pays tribute to the original series but sets the stage or any number of possible sequels. It may not be as good as the original, but it stands up well in comparison to any of the Rocky sequels.

With the aging Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) taking on the Burgess Meredith role of mentor and reluctant trainer, Creed‘s star is Adonis “Donnie” Johnson (Michael B. Jordan). The bastard son of Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), Donnie’s love for fighting and need to prove himself inside the square circle leads him from a desk job in Los Angeles, and underground boxing in Mexico, to Philly. His first step is to convince his father’s friend to give Donnie the training and help he needs to make it to the big time.

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Agent X – The Devil & John Case

  • Title: Agent X – The Devil & John Case
  • IMDb: link

Agent X - The Devil & John Case

A lead about the group attempting to overthrow the government sends John (Jeff Hephner) to a Mexican town in search of the journal of a dead agent killed by a local thug known as El Diablo (Arturo del Puerto). With the local populace scared to death of El Diablo the only friend John makes on his trip is a local police officer (Angélica Celaya) willing to risk anything to get justice for her slain friend and bring real change to the town.

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Trainwreck

  • Title: Trainwreck
  • IMDb: link

TrainwreckAmy Schumer, who also wrote the script, stars as a relationship-averse mess of a woman whose world view is changed after interviewing a doctor (Bill Hader) for a local magazine. Trainwreck is a pretty straightforward romcom focusing on Amy’s struggles with love and her dysfunctional relationships with her father (Colin Quinn), sister (Brie Larson), and former boyfriend (John Cena). Like many scripts written by stand-up comedians, Trainwreck is a bit uneven. At times the film is quite funny even if all of its jokes don’t quite hit home.

Directed by Judd Apatow, the film boasts an odd collection of unlikely supporting characters. Along with Cena we also get LeBron James (playing himself) as Hader’s client and friend, Amar’e Stoudemire, Tilda Swinton as Amy’s demanding boss, and Daniel Radcliffe and Marisa Tomei as the stars of a movie within the movie about a dogwalker and his client in a running gag that never pays off.

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The Librarians and the Hollow Men

  • Title: The Librarians – And the Hollow Men
  • wiki: link

“Please do not fan-girl over the arch-villain!”

The Librarians and the Hollow Men

Flynn (Noah Wyle) and Moriarty (David S. Lee) both return in the latest episode as Flynn is kidnapped by a confused stranger (Drew Powell) while working to recover items which have disappeared from The Library. While Eve (Rebecca Romijn) teams-up with the fictional villain to find the missing Librarian, the rest of the group returns to an increasingly erratic Library which Jenkins (John Larroquette) believes is slowly dying.

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