Worth

Worth; Interesting behind the scenes of the work most people wouldn’t ever want to be tasked with. Dynamite actors Keaton and Tucci give nuanced performances reflecting the type of nuance required to determine what a life is worth. Slightly elevated from melodrama; B

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty & the Beast; Faithful, extravagant, cleverly cast feast for the eyes. More emotionally impacting & frightening. Missed Human Again; A-

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

Hunger Games:Mockingjay Pt. 2; Needlessly split second instalment misses emotional beats for action sequences. Too big for novel details; B-

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

The Hunger Games:Mockingjay Part 1; Slow moving cash grab prologue tries valiantly to film unfilmable mental horror & anguish of Katniss; B-

Mr. Peabody & Sherman

Mr. Peabody & Sherman; Standard kiddie fare that solidly entertains w/o truly delighting or surprising. Very few laughs in my theatre; B-

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire; Hits all the right emotional notes while amping up the action from the first one. Cast delivers spot on; A

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters; What Harry Potter would be with less story development and subpar acting. Fun, nonetheless. CG overload; C+

Robots

Robots; Inventiveness is seen throughout with great voice casting, Rube Goldberg world design, clever word play and double entendres; A-

Jack the Giant Slayer

Jack the Giant Slayer; Delivers F/X heavy fun in a way Pirates & Mummy franchises did. Big on adventure, light on any profound message; B+

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games; Like Potter, if you are only experiencing this through the movies, you are only getting a fraction of the enjoyment; B+

Big Night

Directed by:  Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott
Starring:  Stanley Tucci, Minnie Driver, Isabella Rossellini, Tony Shalhoub
Running Time:  1h 47min

This movie is fun to watch, with bits of humour tossed about two brothers from Italy and their failing restaurant.  Minnie Driver has never looked so beautiful, holding her own opposite screen legend Rossellini.  However, it seems like this movie could have been a short film.  The content doesn't warrant feature length, as it's proven throughout the film with what seems like unnecessary scenes or simple scenes dragged on or just overdone.  The most convincing argument for this are the silent, from speech that is, scenes.  These scenes say so much more, especially the last five minutes.  Those last few minutes seem to say so much more than the rest of the film.  The beauty of the food preparation and the silent interaction.  A contrast of countries?

Grade: B