Author: Dan Gardner

Grade: B- After seeing what Maleficent – Angelina Jolie – looked like in the previews I had hopes this was going to be a strictly adult oriented movie. That’s not the case. The movie, especially the first 30 minutes, is very much oriented toward children. There is a frequent voice over that tells us what’s…

Grade: A Brian Singer (director), and the writers, set the bar sky high in this film. It’s going to be a chore to top this in the scheduled X-Men sequel, due May 27, 2016. The acting was spectacular. All the main characters are reprising roles that they have already performed with aplomb. However, I think Hugh…

Grade: B- Million Dollar Arm was a good movie, but I doubt anyone’s going to put it on their list of favorite inspirational sports movies. The performances were all solid. John Hamm especially stood out, which is good since he’s the main character. He does a good job with his expressions saying more than his…

Grade: B- Because of the way movie releases shook out this week I had to see *Mom’s Night Out* – not exactly my genre. Going in I hadn’t seen a single preview for this movie, a rarity, so I had no expectations whatsoever. *Mom’s Night Out* isn’t a good movie, but you’re probably going to…

Grade: C+ Overall I’m not terribly impressed with Spider-Man 2, but I’ve not been much impressed with any of the movies in either Spider-Man series. My general feeling is that the characters, especially the villains, lack depth and believable motivation – more on that later. The story was a little jumpy to me. There’s apparently…

Grade: C I didn’t find Transcendence to be bad, but I didn’t think it was very good either. First, the opening scene in the movie is 5 years after the events that transpire. It leaves no room for suspense during the movie because you already know pretty much how things turn out – not well.…

Grade: B+ I’m a huge football fan. (Roll Tide) When I first saw the previews to Draft Day I thought, “Okay, maybe hard core football fans can get behind this but no one else is going to want to see it.” Then I discovered that it’s directed by Ivan Reitman, who also directed Dave, Ghost…

Grade: A- Captain America: The Winter Soldier has everything you want in an Action/Adventure: action in spades, well paced, great acting, largely believable, and a few good laughs sprinkled throughout. The Action was pretty much all you could ask for. Chris Evans, as Captain America, is a great combination of grace and brute force. His…