Nerd in the 'Noke

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), R, 99 minutes - I actually saw this film a couple of weeks ago, but between trying to get our house cleaned up in preparation for putting it on the market and my excitement over Captain America: The Winter Soldier last week, I haven't had a chance to get this review together.  Wes Anderson films tend to be a bit unique and this one, revolving around The Grand Budapest Hotel and its ownership through the years is certainly no different. M. Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes), concierge extraordinaire, is one of the more memorable Wes Anderson creations in my opinion.  Gustave is at the center of it all: from hiring and training Zero (Tony Revolori), a new Lobby Boy at the hotel to taking care of the hotel's guests in every way possible (yes, every way), to being bequeathed the rare 'Boy with Apple' painting by hotel owner Madame D. (Tilda Swinton) when she passes away.  The reading of her will by estate lawyer Deputy Kovacs (Jeff Goldblum) is ...

Predators (2010), R, 106 minutes - I've been a little torn over the past couple of months leading up to this week's release of Predators. When I had first heard that another installment in franchise was going to be made (and produced by Robert Rodriguez) I was pretty excited. Then I saw the first teaser trailer and my hopes dropped as it was obvious that Adrien Brody was going to be the primary character. It wasn't that I don't like Brody as an actor, I just don't think 'alpha dog, ex-military badass' when I hear his name. That feeling sort of wore off as I began to get excited about the fact that Predators was getting back to the basics of the original classic: following a group of elite killers through the jungle as they faced off with this alien race of superior hunters. Predators opens with Adrien Brody and a handful of other extremely dangerous individuals being air dropped into a jungle in an undisclosed location. There's an initial 'get...

Splice (2009), R, 104 minutes - Splice is the story of a pair of scientists, Clive and Elsa (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley respectively) push the edge of accepted legal and ethical practices when they splice human DNA into their latest experiment. They had previously made a scientific breakthrough when they spliced together DNA strands from a handful of species to create an entirely new species. The goal that they hoped to reach with the new species was to be able to synthesize it's genes to create vaccines for livestock. Clive and Elsa believe that with the inclusion of human DNA, they would be able to instead synthesize genes that could lead to cures for many human diseases. When their financial backers want to focus on the development of the genes for livestock vaccines as opposed to pushing ahead with the ethical question mark that would be working with human DNA, the pair decide to conduct an experiment including human DNA off the books. The result is a creature they co...