Movie Scum

Terminator Genisys : Opening July 1 The Good : Reboots are all the rage these days in Hollywood, especially since that means they can make a buck from movie-goers dying to see their favorite franchise in better places than ... say Terminator Salvation. Genisys (stupid spelling aside) seems to sort-of buck that trend with a page ripped out of Back to the Future 2: revisiting familiar faces and places but with a different twist. Given the complexity of the time-travel machinations, this doesn’t seem to be a bad choice. Also, the Mother of Dragons as Sarah Conner looks pretty good too. The Bad : This is the fifth movie in this franchise. James Cameron pulled off a miracle in Terminator 2 with larger stakes, bigger action pieces, and a story that mattered. Most sequels these days apply that template but forget to fill in the rest of the details. It is possible this is one such tale that leaves the paint-by-numbers pieces blank. The Prognostication : Decent reception if only beca...

San Andreas : Opening May 29 The Good : Disaster movies are fun, especially when they take place (like they seem to do the majority of the time) on the West Coast full of granola-crunching hippies singing Kumbaya (note: I’ve never been further west than Ohio). Disaster movies these days are also good for mediocre special effects showing the complete destruction of iconic areas and landmarks and San Andreas looks no different. But if anyone can take on the mother of all earthquakes, it’s The Rock with sidekick Carla Gugino. The Bad : Let’s be honest though. The disaster movie genre of the 70s is long gone and it took with it any sense of characterization or possible realism. San Andreas is a Hollywood producer’s wet dream with big blockbustin’ stars, action, effects ... the whole nine yards. And boy, does it show it in every single trailer or TV spot I’ve seen for this with the crumbling buildings, massive chasms in the ground and a 100’ tidal wave that The Rock(!) powers a speed...

Mad Max: Fury Road : Opening May 15 The Good : Tom Hardy. Charlize Theron. Original director George Miller. Lots of car chases and explosions. The trailers look absolutely insane filled with completely over-the-top violence and grungy people. The Bad : This is a reported straight sequel to the series started in 1979 and typically, franchises with long gaps in between films tend to not be too well regarded. Given that Mad Mel Gibson is way too old and way too crazy to reprise his role, it may or may not be a good thing that Hardy is taking over. But then again, Ol’ Mel spouting anti-semantic rants while chasing makeshift dune buggies could be an interesting watch. The Prognostication : It’ll be crazy and action-packed. But other than the completely insane trailers and TV spots that have been released, would there really be much of an interest for a thirty-year-old series? We’ll see but I don’t expect it to trump Avengers in it’s third weekend.

Avengers: Age of Ultron : Opening May 1 The Good : Have you seen The Avenger s ? Considering that it made about $1 and a half billion worldwide, I’d guess it’s a safe assumption that you have. And don’t you remember? It was awesome. Everyone, myself included, was quite skeptical about how Marvel and director Joss Whedon would pull together five movies worth of backstory and characterizations for our titular heroes in any sort of coherent sense that was not just 150 minutes of explosions. But Whedon managed not only to make a coherent movie of a Norse god, an unfrozen man from the ‘40s, and a playboy but make it fun and immensely enjoyable. Since then, Marvel’s “Phase 2” pictures have been pretty solid, especially last years Captain America: The Winter Soldier . And of course, in my opinion, Marvel has never made a bad movie so the main question would really just be: will Avengers: Age of Ultron be great or be better than its predecessor. Not to mention that all of the advan...

Furious 7 : Opening April 3 Full disclaimer: I have not seen a single Fast and Furious movie since the first upon it's initial release. That hasn't stopped me from wanting, and failing, to see at least the last two. The Good : In spite of every other long running franchise, this series (again, based on general perception and reviews since I haven't endured them myself) seem to have only gotten better over time. I have caught bits and pieces of Fast 5 and Furries 6 or whatever nomenclature they went by and was impressed. One day, I'll get to the rest. Director James Wan comes onboard to the franchise after a few mainstream horror films you may have heard of such as Saw, Insidious, or The Conjuring. At the very least, his unique style of direction should lead to good things. Also of note, in the spirit of the series adding antagonists to later be recruited into whatever Vin Diesel and Paul Walker aim to do, both Kurt Russell and Jason Statham appear to be the ...