Every con has its pros…
OCEAN’S 8:
The tide has turned and it’s a whole new “Ocean’s” when a group of 8 plan and execute a heist in New York.  #OCEANS8 is in theaters June 8th, 2018.
The film stars Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, and Awkwafina.
http://www.fandango.com
Movie Screening Summary: WONDER WHEEL tells the story of four characters whose lives intertwine amid the hustle and bustle of the Coney Island amusement park in the 1950s: Ginny (Kate Winslet), an emotionally volatile former actress now working as a waitress in a clam house; Humpty (Jim Belushi), Ginny’s rough-hewn carousel operator husband; Mickey (Justin Timberlake), a handsome young lifeguard who dreams of becoming a playwright; and Carolina (Juno Temple), Humpty’s long-estranged daughter, who is now hiding out from gangsters at her father’s apartment. Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro captures a tale of passion, violence, and betrayal that plays out against the picturesque tableau of 1950s Coney Island. Starring: Jim Belushi, Juno Temple, Justin Timberlake and Kate Winslet. Written and Directed by Woody Allen.
Official Site: www.WonderWheelMovie.com
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Hashtag: #WonderWheel
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Movie Screening Date: Wednesday, December 6
Location: Harkins Scottsdale 101
Movie Screening Time: 7:00pm
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Movie Screening Date: Wednesday, December 13
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Movie Screening Time: 7:00pm
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To redeem a pass, simply click the Get Passes button. You will taken to our movie screening partner site (where you can sign up for a free account). Once you’ve done so, you’ll be able to print out your pass and bring it with you to your screening or event.
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IF THEY CAN’T HEAR YOU, THEY CAN’T HUNT YOU…
“A QUIET PLACE”
STARRING
EMILY BLUNT
JOHN KRASINSKI
NOAH JUPE
MILLICENT SIMMONDS
A QUIET PLACE Official Channels
Official Site: http://www.paramount.com/
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#AQuietPlace
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A young woman is begging for her life, trying to escape the clutches of a sadistic… John Cusack?! I know. Doesn’t sound right, does it? Exactly! But, as he often does, he pulls it off even though he would never have fit the role… on paper, that is. I don’t know what it is with him but he manages to always surprise his audience and never lets them down. The movie itself, well, that’s a different story, but let me tell you the story first.Â
The credits roll with extremely fitting music that puts you in the mood to see a good thriller. Popcorn in hand, drink nearby… we’re ready for a good flick. We start the process of learning who the characters in the film are and we’re on our way. We meet three people right away, Lynn (Fitzgerald), the girl everyone wants, Vic (Coltrane) the clingy type, and Jeff (Artist) the one to use when all hope is lost. They’re three friends about to enjoy themselves in the wilderness when we cut to a man we find out is Miller (Cusack) propelling himself out of a plane after he first tosses bags of cargo out the side door. The plane then continues flying itself before crashing into the forest below.Â
To our surprise (not really), our young wandering besties seem to be heading in the same direction the bags are tossed They run into Miller and outside of Lynn thinking he’s sexy, which I assure you, unlike when he was in Serendipity, Cusack is NOT sexy in the film, they find him odd. Why do I sense this is going to get ugly? OH! I know… because they already show that to me in the first few moments of the movie. You’re watching the movie because you’ve already been intrigued by the trailer, am I right? There is no need to jump ahead in the story when I’m already watching. I digress.Â
So, our campers continue their deep forest frolic filled with friendship and FRUSTRATION. Frustration due to the green-eyed monster rearing its horrid head.  Our buddies are caught in a love triangle which has the only female in the group running off in a huff and, as predicted, running into the money. You’d think that instinct would kick in and that she’s run like hell away from big black bags of cash but nope; she takes it without for one moment considering who might be looking for it.
Both Jeff and Lynn (I wonder if either of the writers, Jared Butler or Lars Norberg, are ELO fans), salivate at the idea of going home with this kind of money and are spending it before it’s even counted. Vic, the wiser head, bails. And here were get a bit weird. As Vic treks through the woods alone, he runs into Miller again. They begin talking and through their shared resentment or disenchantment with women, strike or sort of bond. It’s an interesting plot twist to be sure.Â
Cusack’s ability to deliver a line far exceeds Coltrane’s who’s too flat, but the filmmakers manage a few moments of cat playing with mouse and it works really well. However, when we go back to Jeff and Lynn, things aren’t going quite so smoothly. Lynn is getting a bit ridiculous and I don’t say that lightly. She’s acting crazy. The idea of being rich has turned her into a maniac. The dialogue written for these two is a bit far-fetched, Lynn has become a cold, witch with a capital B but when we’re on Vic and Miller, the story is much more interesting. What you find out as they get to know one another is that Miller isn’t a killer, isn’t a terrible, evil person but, much like the case with Lynn, he got the money and intends to do whatever it takes to keep it.Â
It’s said that money changes people. That would be the perfect tagline for this film because, damn!  The two people in the power play positions here are almost savage.
*Opens at AMC Arizona Center and On Demand October 13th
What’s old is new again, sort of. In the movie “The Foreigner”, Jackie Chan is – um – not young, but he can still hold his own against an army of bad guys. And the bad guys are — the IRA? Yes, the defunct Irish Republican Army comes back, but only in cinema, to be the evil doers. And they are led by James B… I mean Pierce Brosnan (who has played Bond in the past). And the movie is directed by Martin Campbell, who has also directed prior Bond movies. So three cheers for the AARP crowd!
In London, a simple noodle shop owner named Quan (Jackie Chan) drops off his beloved daughter at a SOHO dress shop to find a wedding dress. Blink your eyes and will miss the IRA terrorist attack on the street, which destroys the shop. Quan’s daughter is dead. He is heartbroken, but determined to find answers. He finds out about a Northern Ireland deputy minister who is part of the British government. Liam Hennessy (Pierce Brosnan) is a long standing politician in Belfast, and he once was a part of the old IRA.
Quan goes to the police and to Scotland Yard, but gets no answers. He decides to try and get the names of the bombers from Hennessy, but he just shrugs him off. “Surely, I don’t have any knowledge of who did this” Hennessy tells Quan. But Quan is determined, persistent and trained by many years in Special Forces Jungle Ops. So Quan knows a thing or two about making a homemade bomb that will rattle the windows and the rattle the deputy minister. Hennessy is put on notice that Quan is not taking no for an answer. Quan does his best ‘Jason Bourne’ to take control of the situation.
Hennessy keeps having major difficulties with his prior IRA contacts, who hate him for giving up. He has problems with his wife (Orla Brady), and also with his mistress (Charlie Murphy) – who might be deeply involved in the terrorist action. He has a problem with his nephew, who is visiting from New York – but still many connections with the old IRA.
But mostly Hennessy has problems with Quan. Hennessy’s office bathroom gets bombed, and then Quan targets his country estate barn and his car. Then Hennessy loses a few men who try and track Quan. He will not give up until he finds the people who killed his daughter…
Jackie Chan is an actor who can use his physical abilities to comedic or dramatic use. He plays an older character than he usually does, and his age does require that. Quan is smart and noble and dedicated, and he can MacGyver his way into gaining the upper hand. Pierce Brosnan also plays a character who attempts to scrape and claw his way into keeping a good thing that he has going. He does not know that his actions have triggered a relentless time bomb called Quan.
“The Foreigner” has the distinction of raising the specter of IRA terrorism in the modern day and age. It might be straight from the original novel, but that was written well before the peace accords in Northern Ireland. Perhaps not since “Patriot Games” has the IRA been cast as a boogeyman. It does not ruin the story, but it really stretches out the plausibility.
This movie will make you want to allow Jackie Chan to overstay his visa any day!
Happy Death Day is produced by Jason Blum, who produced Purge, Ouija, The Gift, Split and much, much more, so no matter what, you know you’re in for some fun… that’s just what he does. And, yes! You read that right, it’s PG-13 so the horror is weak but the thrills are a payoff, once you get over what an awful person the main character Tree (Rothe) is.Â
Jessica Rothe does a fairly good job of portraying the character so, it isn’t her acting, it’s that maybe she was too good because she’s such a bitch… you kinda want the killer to succeed in his efforts to rid the planet of this foul beast. She has friends who are as truly detestable as she! It takes an effort to wrap your head around the good guy, Carter (Broussard) ever wanting anything to do with her.Â
Our young, sorority girl heroine has found herself having DĂ©jĂ vu issues. Every morning when she awakens, she finds it’s the same day… her birthday. Not only does she wake up to discover this reparative situation going on but at the end of her birthday, she is murdered in a new and horrific manner.Â
If you feel you’re having DĂ©jĂ vu, you’re not. This is very much the structure of the plotlines in the films Edge of Tomorrow, Before I Fall and, most notably, Groundhog Day. Happy Death Day is very aware of this and at the end of the film lets us know that loud and clear. What you can find pleasing in this movie is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously and once you get beyond Tree finding out that she is repeating the same day over and over, you can more focus on how the day ends.Â
She is, as I mentioned previously, not a nice person and discovers this about herself while she’s looking for someone to help her and there are no true friends to turn to. Instead of friends, she is also waking up to the fact that what she’s finding instead is a new list of suspects. Tree becomes more and more likable as Carter becomes more of an influence. Knowing that you’ll be going through these days with her, you watch for the clues, you look for who it might be, but I’ll be honest… I didn’t see it.Â
The ending, though a bit flimsy at times, was amusing. But I did find myself wanting to shout, ‘Come on! No one is going to be able to have their head bashed on the floor half a dozen times and walk away without a scratch!’ Continuity, guys! Little things like that, and a man throwing Tree against the wall with such ease, could eat away at you and spoil your full enjoyment of it all but I don’t think so. Is it a silly premise? Yes. Had this been a bit more of a fright, it would have been the perfect Friday the 13th release but I can’t say it was.Â
Is it entertaining? Yes. If you haven’t seen Groundhog Day and the others listed, do… but check this one out, too. I don’t recommend seeing it this weekend at the theatre; best saved for home viewing but the mystery was there and you’ll have a blast with the absurdity of it all. I must say, however, that the waking up to the same day over and over loop gag should end here. I haven’t seen it in a big children’s movie yet so they could be next to give it a go but no more after that. It’s a bit tasking on the viewer.Â
WOODSHOCK
Kirstin Dunst has been working a lot lately, most recently in the remake of the film The Beguiled and her presence is very comforting. She’s showing range with the characters she’s picking… she’s not a little girl anymore. With this role, she’s a wee bit of a killer. She plays Theresa, and also plays Executive Producer to the film itself. Theresa is married to Nick (Cole), who works as a day laborer cutting down trees not far from home. They live in an area surrounded by trees, live and dead ones, in a tiny home where they’ve also housed her very sick mother. She talks to her mother about the pain she endures, which is making them both miserable. Knowing a lot about extracts, Theresa decides to roll her a joint. The joint has been laced with a few drops of something that will help the pain go away… forever. She promises her mother a painless release. Her mother smokes the joint and drifts away. Having been incredibly close to her, Theresa finds it difficult to move on. She does things anyone might do after the death of their mother. She wears her clothes, looks in the mirror to find her mother inside of her and lays on the bed where she took her last breath.
She starts to smoke some of the special herb herself and here is where the movie turns into a nightmare for her. Up until now, it has been a beautiful yet heartbreaking story of loss with fascinating cinematography by Peter Flinckenberg. If you don’t like movies that are too alive and filled with motion, this could bother you some but the old-fashioned look they were going for, using filters and interesting fades, makes the film much more appealing during the trips Theresa takes in her mind. She ends up there often and we see less and less of a truly clear picture. The score was equally as engaging if not more so. It was done by veteran Jake Jackson who has worked on such films as Love Actually, Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, The Road and Hell or High Water to name but a few. These two artists enhance the splendor of watching Theresa’s struggle as she moves between being lucid and delusional.
She doesn’t spend much time with her husband anymore which isn’t helping her with her loneliness. She starts working again at a friend, Keith’s (Asbaek), marijuana dispensary to feel a part of this world and to re-connect with life in general. Store regular, Johnny (Kilmer) comes into the store and they hang out at a party. This doesn’t lift her grief as she’d like so she retreats back into her habit of smoking her magic elixir. When she does this, she isn’t sure of what it’s doing to her or what she’s doing to herself while under its influence. She begins to rely on it and smokes so often that she’s starting to blend in with her surroundings and is barely able to recognize herself anymore. She doesn’t smile and walks around almost completely lifeless. Ed, an older gentleman who’s suffering from an unknown illness, comes into the store. Per Keith’s instruction, she gives him what was given to her mother. Somehow, the batches are mixed and it’s not Ed that gets the special mix. Johnny does. What has she done? Not only is she torturing herself over this question, but Keith loses his mind and unleashes a ferocity on her she’s unable to handle.
The film gets rather twisted, as much as she is internally. It’s very delicate in the way it treats her mother and Theresa’s clarity of mind to help her kill herself, but she is unable to handle her decision later and the filmmakers seem to somewhat lose the audience. Again, Theresa walks amongst live trees but is surrounded by dead ones. She doesn’t like trees being chopped down as they are alive and have the right to live. She killed her mother. She has a relationship with nature, loves it but is almost incapable of loving anything else.Â
The movie draws from her pain and her desire to love and be loved; to be like her mother but the way it gets you to the end credits is slow moving and sometimes tiring. A thrilling moment in the end when Theresa balances nature and rights things. How we get to this point is by seemingly taking a long path through a thick brush and though you may enjoy the harmony of the music, editing and cinematography working together to create this dream state… you might not be able to get to the clearing. If you’re a fan of the more ornamental, dramatic and eerily mysterious pictures, this is for you. If a movie that decreases in its pacing and uses little dialogue that often acts more like a 3D piece of art than a film distracts you from your enjoyment of the said film, it isn’t. Dunst and the rest of the cast are wonderful in their roles but will do little to help when the pacing gets you yawning.
*Playing exclusively at Harkins Camelview @ Fashion Square and Harkins Shea
Here’s the first trailer for the upcoming spy thriller RED SPARROW starring Jennifer Lawrence has just been released by 20th Century Fox. Directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling, Mary-Louise Parker and Jeremy Irons
RED SPARROW

Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Screenplay by: Justin Haythe
Based upon the book by: Jason Matthews
Produced by: Peter Chernin, Steve Zaillian, Jenno Topping
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling, Mary-Louise Parker and Jeremy Irons
SYNOPSIS
Dominika Egorova is many things.
A devoted daughter determined to protect her mother at all costs.
A prima ballerina whose ferocity has pushed her body and mind to the absolute limit.
A master of seductive and manipulative combat.
When she suffers a career-ending injury, Dominika and her mother are facing a bleak and uncertain future. That is why she finds herself manipulated into becoming the newest recruit for Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people like her to use their bodies and minds as weapons. After enduring the perverse and sadistic training process, she emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow the program has ever produced. Dominika must now reconcile the person she was with the power she now commands, with her own life and everyone she cares about at risk, including an American CIA agent who tries to convince her he is the only person she can trust.
RED SPARROW Official Channels
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: RedSparrowMovie.com   

FACEBOOK: http://fb.com/RedSparrowMovie 

TWITTER: http://twitter.com/RedSparrowMovie 

INSTAGRAM:Â http://instagram.com/RedSparrowMovie
HASHTAG: #RedSparrow
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American Assassin is kind of your typical spy thriller in that it has a very Jack Reacher or Jack Ryan or whoever has the name Jack and is a detective of some sort these days, feel to it with one very big exception; those guys don’t have Michael Keaton walking around in their movie. Keaton gives every performance a little something special and this is no different. Mitch Rapp, the hero in the book series by Vince Flynn, and what will no doubt be a successful movie franchise now, does have Keaton.Â
Mitch has the drive, strength and the determination to get his immediate goals accomplished, even sometimes acting before he thinks. What I like about the characters is that he is rarely ever wrong and his mentor and guru, Stan Hurley (Keaton), has to bang his head against the walls to try and pound sense and procedure into him. However, Mitch runs on adrenaline and something else… the sense of what is right and wrong. Love drove him to be a vigilante and is what, ultimately, led him to Hurley, a retired SEAL. Hurley’s now training a Black Ops mission led by Irene (Lathan) of the CIA. Hurley knew and worked with Irene’s dad and though he doesn’t trust her instinct on young Mitch, he agrees to train him and see if he’s what they need for their counterterrorism operation.Â
Irene first stumbled onto Mitch while following his digital footprint. At the beginning of the film, Mitch (O’Brien) was proposing to his girlfriend on the beach when terrorists struck the area and started shooting everyone in sight. Mitch was struck several times but not fatally. While passing out from his wounds, his beautiful fiance’ lies dying beside him. After, he is determined to bring down every terror cell he can. He learns Arabic and studies their history and ideology. He learns to fight, practices martial arts and masters weaponry. He grows a beard and becomes a one-man killing machine out for revenge. Everything you could want in a good guy and your new spy.Â
On his own and without the help of anyone, Mitch gets close to a terrorist cell but is captured. He’s saved at the last minute by the CIA. When they tell him how stupid, naĂŻve and dangerous his scheme was and tells him he was lucky to have been rescued, he reminds them of the fact that they followed him in, not the other way around. However, what remains a recurring theme in the film is a question, ‘is Mitch too driven by emotion to be any good to a team?’ A big lesson Hurley needs to get through to him is to never let it get personal… it clouds the judgment. The scenes where Mitch is being trained are difficult but he takes his licks and remembers his training. These scenes are entertaining and imaginative but in thinking of the training the actors had to go through to get all the training and fighting scenes shot, I couldn’t help but wince some watching it.Â
Before long, Hurley decides Mitch is their guy and they go out on a mission to recover stolen plutonium. Iranian operatives intend on making a nuclear weapon and must be stopped. There are other characters introduced and some character driven subplots come and go, which all work in the film’s favor, especially when it comes to the most important one of all, Ghost (Kitsch). He is a former student of Hurley’s with a chip on his shoulder. He has different plans for the bomb once the trigger and a physicist is found to make it complete. His plans are to get back at Hurley and the country that let him down. Taylor Kitsch does a good job in a scene having fun torturing his old guru. He may have had too much fun with it, in fact. Dylan O’Brien, almost a Taylor Kitsch look alike, is terrific in this film, both looking the part and handling the script. He’ll make a very admirable spy movie hero for both new and old fans of the genre, alike.
I liked American Assassin and I think you will, too. Don’t take it too seriously; know you’re going to be captivated by this world for a while. Just sit back and enjoy the show. I did and I was in no way influenced by the audience I watched the screening of the movie with, which were a whole lot of Phoenix police officers who have read the series, love Mitch Rapp and are going to be there to support this film and any that follow. I support it because it did one thing and that was, it entertained the hell out of me. I am looking very forward to the next one. This is a fresh perspective on an overly used but seemingly timeless subject and was appreciated. It’ll be enjoyed by anyone who likes action thrillers and it’ll please them more by giving them a new hero to look up to.
Should I assume that I will not give away anything new in the plot or reveal any spoilers? After all, this movie was originally released in 1991. Just about everyone has seen it by now. There will be some people in the audience who may not have been born back then, but they have probably seen this movie on DVD. So, will a reboot to make a 3-D version of “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” do justice to the original? I mean, this was one of the greatest Sci-Fi action movies ever! Putting a new depth into the action SHOULD just make it better…
“The Terminator” (1984) brought out Arnold Schwarzenegger as the killing machine android type T-800. He was a relentless assassin sent from the future to kill Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton). But that movie was so popular that “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” was created to carry on the story. In the future, Skynet dominates the world, and schemes to destroy the person(s) who could end the future artificial intelligence, before it becomes self-aware. The plan is to send a new, better quality Terminator back to the past to kill John Connor (Edward Furlong).
The upgraded Terminator is a type T-1000 (Robert Patrick). It arrives in 1995 to find and eliminate John. However the future Resistance (led by an older John Connor) sends back a type T-800 (Schwarzenegger). But this android is reprogrammed to find and protect John. The T-800 will face off against the T-1000, and will keep John safe. Sarah and John go with the T-800 to Cyberdyne Systems, which is the place where the future androids are being developed. The chief engineer is Miles Dyson (Joe Norton), who does not believe that the future will be filled with Terminators that he helped to create.
But by the sacrifice of Dyson, Cyberdyne Systems is destroyed. That puts an end to the development of a neural net processor that would form the basis of the future SkyNet. But the chase is not yet over. The T-1000 is still hot on the trail of Sarah, John and the reconfigured T-800. There is still more action yet to happen. Before you can say “Hasta la vista, Baby!”, the three of them are found by the T-1000 and more mayhem ensues. They get trapped in an old steel mill, and the T-800 seems to be out for the count. But he prevails and the T-1000 is defeated. All traces of the future androids are destroyed, so nobody can reverse engineer the future tech. So, there can be no more sequels, right? Don’t bet on it!
“Terminator 2: Judgment Day” was always considered a rare sequel that lived up to, and improved on the original. James Cameron had quite a few restraints in 1984 that were gone in 1991. Movie making technology had gotten so much better that “T2” now seems better than the first one. The carryover of the two main stars, Schwarzenegger & Hamilton, also gave it a big boost. Even a minor character Dr. Peter Silberman (played by Earl Boen) gave a continuity to both movies. Computer Graphic Imagery (CGI) also was way ahead by 1991. However, the movie used CGI in some scenes but did not go overboard.
All the acting in right on point. Arnold Schwarzenegger makes an about-face from the original movie – where he was the ultimate bad guy. Here he works on the side of angels to protect young John Connor. Linda Hamilton makes Sarah into one tough chick, and she does not back down. Robert Patrick plays the creepy T-1000 with a strange detachment from humanity. Joe Norton plays the doomed engineer Dyson, and he is perfect in the critical role. If there is any quibble, it could be with Edward Furlong, but he does just enough to get by…
The biggest role is in the movie is the action and special effects. The story mixes quite well with the original movie, and the new aspects relate with most of the first story. Making the T-800 out to be a savior rather than the original mechanical death machine is a smart move. Making the T-1000 into a major upgrade of the earlier T-800 also works out great. The story sizzles along with a lot of energy, especially when the T-800 (Schwarzenegger) is taking on the T-1000 (Patrick). There are chases and fights and a few slower periods, but all are mixed together beautifully.
But why this re-release? Because now there are 3-D effects added to the original movie. The addition of 3-D is pretty minimal, but there are some scenes where it does stand out and you can notice extra depth. So while it does not substantially improve the viewing experience, it does not distract.
Does it matter why “T2” is again on the big screen? Not really, and as long as it can be viewed in the regular theater…
I’ll Be Back!
