The Bat Cave

Was sick last week and watched more movies than usual, but I don’t feel like going through my whole individual review process… so here’s my quick thoughts on these films:

Creed (2015) – I love Michael B. Jordan and he’s great in this continuation/reboot of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky franchise as Apollo Creed’s son Adonis, an unknown up-and-coming boxer that wants to make it to the big time on his own merit, yet hunts down the legendary Rocky Balboa to be his trainer. Sylvester Stallone is good in this movie, but Oscar worthy? Wow. It’s crazy that this franchise is still relevant and not terrible in 2016 – 2006’s Rocky Balboa was enjoyable too – and yet this was another solid sequel.

6/10 (Recommended)

Trumbo (2015) – This movie inspired me to write this post on the basis of another great performance from star Bryan Cranston. Here, he plays Dalton Trumbo, one of Hollywood’s premier screenwriters in the 1940s before getting blacklisted for being a communist. I’m honestly not sure what it means to be a “commie,” but this movie makes it not seem like such a bad thing and you get the feeling that The List was highly unfair. Cranston is great in Trumbo but the movie itself wasn’t all that entertaining.

5.5/10 (Watchable/Recommended)

Popstar (2016) – Andy Samberg is hilarious as Conner, the world’s biggest pop star that has to deal with flopping as a solo artist after a mega successful career in a boy band. This movie is funny, absurd, and very enjoyable.

6.5/10 (Recommended/Highly Enjoyable)

Star Trek Beyond (2016) – It seemed like a lot happened in this movie and there was a lot of action, but man, it was super boring. I really loved the first movie in this rebooted franchise, but the films following have gotten progressively less interesting despite casting huge stars in the villain roles. Idris Elba isn’t given much to work with here as Krall, spending 90% of the film unrecognizable in full makeup. Dude has way too much talent to waste his time on roles like this. I still like the cast that makes up the crew of the Enterprise, but Star Trek was in much better hands with J.J. Abrams.

4/10 (Forgettable)

I also updated my Heavy Rotation page and, as always, my 2016 albums page is being updated almost every day.