Ryan Reynolds

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

/ / Home Video
  • Title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
  • IMDb: link

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Blu-ray reviewIt’s somewhat amazing that between X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine that 20th Century Fox didn’t manage to destroy their X-Men movie franchise. For Throwback Thursday we take a look back at the first of the Wolverine standalone films. X-Men Origins: Wolverine delves into the unexplored past of Logan (Hugh Jackman) while continuing to refuse to quite nail down the exact date of his birth. Not fitting in at all with the timeline of the other X-Men films, the movie has been largely ignored in current continuity (although one important aspect does return in Logan).

Along with a brief introduction of Logan as a child, and a montage of him working with Team X, the story jumps forward to events which will pull him out of his quiet life in the Canadian wilderness with Silverfox (Lynn Collins) and lead to both his adamantium upgrade and events which will cause him to lose memories of his past.

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The Top 10 Movies of 2016

/ / Top Tens & Lists

the-best-movies-of-2016

2016 may have lacked the one knockout film to top my list, but as a whole the year produced a number of quality movies adding a depth that made it difficult to cut down the list to a meager ten. Honorable mentions include animated features Kubo and the Two Strings and Finding Dory, Mel Gibson‘s divisive Hacksaw Ridge, and the bizarrely fascinating indie gems The Eyes of My Mother, Swiss Army Man, and The Neon Demon. Enough of what didn’t make the list, on to the Best Movies of 2016!

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Criminal

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Criminal
  • IMDb: link

CriminalThe premise behind screenwriters Douglas Cook and David Weisberg‘s Criminal is fairly ridiculous, even for B-movie action flick. Sadly, it’s not nearly as entertaining as the pair’s 20 year-old collaboration – The Rock. Set in present day, the death of Agent Bill Pope (Ryan Reynolds), who alone has vital information to keep backdoor access into the missile command of the United States out of the hands of a terrorist (Jordi Mollà), causes the CIA to attempt an experimental procedure to implant Pope’s memories into a brain-damaged convict named Jericho (Kevin Costner).

Costner is an interesting choice for a remorseless cold-blooded killer forced to deal with unexpected feelings for a wife (Gal Gadot) and child (Lara Decaro) who are not his own and a mission he never signed-up for. His casting looks to be a huge misstep in the early scenes before Jericho’s operation, but the more conflicted the character becomes over the course of the film Costner’s performance begins to become one of the movie’s biggest strengths.

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Deadpool

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Deadpool
  • IMDb: link

DeadpoolFans of Deadpool rejoice, the Merc with a Mouth has made it to the big screen and has brought his raunchy hard R-rating humor with him. Not pulling any punches, director Tim Miller and screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick succeed in capturing the core of one of Marvel’s most insane smart-ass characters as 20th Century and Ryan Reynolds both redeem themselves for their previous (and regrettable) collaboration of the character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Kicking ass and cracking wise, Deadpool continually breaks the fourth wall while killing many, many people and making comments about the movie, various characters (and the real-life actors who play them), and even Ryan Reynolds’ other super-hero movie. Along for the ride are Morena Baccarin as Wade Wilson’s stripper girlfriend Vanessa and T.J. Miller as Wade’s equally wise-cracking best bud Weasel. And Leslie Uggams provides a couple of cheap laughs as the Merc with a Mouth’s blind roommate. Deadpool comic readers should also watch out for Deadpool’s long-suffering comic-book sidekick Bob (Rob Hayter) who earns his own cameo.

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Woman in Gold

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Woman in Gold
  • IMDb: link

Woman in GoldDirector Simon Curtis‘ Woman in Gold is an odd film not good enough for awards consideration but also choosing not to become an action-suspense film about stolen Nazi art. Much more a straightforward drama, I’d compare it to 1998’s A Civil Action, a more engaging film with a similar arc of a lawyer whose money-first philosophy is changed by taking on an emotional case he can’t possibly win.

Based on the true story of Maria Altmann‘s (Helen Mirren) attempts to regain possession of her family’s lost masterpiece from the Austrian government, Woman in Gold is a slow-moving drama starring Ryan Reynolds as the lawyer hired by Maria to take on a foreign government. Reynolds and Mirren work well together as the unlikely pair to take on Austria (even if Reynolds casting seems like an odd choice). Well-acted and shot against the backdrops of Vienna and southern California, the story is intriguing if never fully engaging. Despite its cast (which also includes Katie Holmes, Tatiana Maslany, Elizabeth McGovern, and Jonathan Pryce) Woman in Gold is a good film that never fully lives up to the promise it offers flashes of early on.

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