Nerd in the 'Noke

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019), PG, 1h 44 min - The third installment of the How to Train Your Dragon franchise has been out for a few weeks already and while I saw it myself a week or two back, I've been dragging my feet a bit in regards to getting my review together.  You see, my review for the original How to Train Your Dragon (2010)  was the first post I ever made to this blog.  That just so happened to have been nine years ago this week (April 10th to be exact).  So I couldn't help but sandbag a little and make this a 9th Anniversary post of sorts. The Hidden World continues to follow the life and adventures of the inhabitants of Berk, a viking settlement that has embraced dragons and given them a safe haven after having been feared and hunted for years.  Their outlook and appreciation for dragons has changed dramatically over the series of films.  If you have not seen the first two movies, I highly recommend that you do so befo...

22 Jump Street (2014), R, 112 minutes - I think that everyone can agree that 2012's 21 Jump Street was a surprisingly successful reboot of the Johnny Depp starring television show that aired between 1987 and 1991.  In my mind 22 Jump Street is almost as surprising, primarily because of the way it goes about continuing the buddy cop story of Officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum). Oftentimes a sequel - especially in the comedic genre - will try so hard to duplicate the successes of the film before it that it becomes formulaic and repetitive.  22 Jump Street actually wholeheartedly embraces this but manages not to overdo it.  Following a bust that goes wrong at the beginning of the film, both Deputy Chief Hardy (Nick Offerman) and Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) remind Schmidt and Jenko that they got where they are because they didn't do the same old thing, that they need to stick to what they know and go about things they way they did on their previous as...

How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014), PG, 102 minutes - I hadn't realized it until a couple of days ago, but this review is an anniversary post of sorts.  Not only was the original How to Train Your Dragon the first review posted here on the blog, but as it turns out, that was also five years ago! How to Train Your Dragon 2 takes place five years after the events of the first film, a time in which the people of Berk have learned to co-habitate with dragons and work together to build a thriving society.  Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) has become well respected and his father Stoic (Gerard Butler) the village chief has named him his successor.  Along with his dragon Toothless, Hiccup still likes to roam, explore, and map out previously uncharted territories surrounding Berk.  On one of their scouting trips, they come across what could be considered a dragon oasis.  Along with this exciting discovery, Hiccup uncovers the whereabouts of two people from Berk's past.  ...

The Lego Movie (2014), PG, 100 minutes - I can't even begin to guess how many hours of my youth were blown playing with Legos.  Either building whatever the directions intended or creating my own designs, Legos were a big part of my childhood.  In more recent years, the Lego brand has expanded from models of towns, castles, and spaceships to include licensed sets (Batman, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars for example) and have even extended to video games.  The latest advancement is a move to the big screen, and as the film's theme song rightly proclaims: 'Everything is Awesome'! The Lego Movie, while obviously targeting a younger audience (I was the only adult that did not have at least one kid accompany them at the screening I went to), has more than enough to offer adults as well (dialogue, situational humor).  Emmet Brickowoski (Chris Pratt) is your typical every-man.  He lives his life by the book, literally living life by Lego directions....

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), R, 180 minutes - Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio.  As far as I'm concerned, that's all you needed to tell me to get me into the theater to see The Wolf of Wall Street, negative reviews be damned.  Their track record together says it all: Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island.  You better believe I'd give them the benefit of the doubt. DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort, and we watch his meteoric rise to billionaire status thanks to some grooming from Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey), a lot of smarts, and a fair share of questionable (morally and legally speaking) business tactics.  He's joined on his journey by Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill) who quits his job and offers to work for Belfort when he is shown a pay stub for a single month that clears seventy grand.  Belfort collects a handful of other friends that have the drive to make big money and behind his brains they launch their own firm.  Success ...

The Watch (2012), R, 102 minutes - Ever wonder what your local neighborhood watch does?  Keep an eye on your house while you're out of town?  Make sure there are no unwanted loiterers running around?  Instill a sense of community and security?  How about sitting around arguing with each other and drinking beer before saving the world from an alien invasion?  As far fetched as that sounds, it is the basis for this comedy starring Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, and Richard Ayoade. Evan (Stiller) is a go-getter of a community man and the manager of the local Costco who organizes a neighborhood watch group after the security guard his store is brutally murdered.  Evan is quite serious about the crime and the continued potential threat to the neighborhood, but the only three guys to show up for his inaugural neighborhood watch meeting - Bob (Vaughn), Franklin (Hill), and Jamarcus (Ayoade) - see it more as an opportunity to hang out with the f...

I enjoy Westerns.  I enjoy Quentin Tarantino films.  I enjoy most films starring Jamie Foxx,  Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington, or Jonah Hill.  Tarantino has rolled all of them into his latest effort.  It is pretty safe to say that I am eagerly anticipating Django Unchained . It will be very interesting to see how Tarantino's violent, explicit styles mesh with the western genre.  I like the role reversal that Tarantino is using with DiCaprio and Waltz (DiCaprio as the villain and Waltz seemingly being an accomplice for good).  Samuel L. Jackson's almost obligatory appearance in a Tarantino film is always appreciated as well. If the movie itself plays half as well as the trailer does, I think we'll be looking at another excellent outing from Quentin Tarantino.  While I've never been one to run out to the theater on Christmas afternoon (and I don't really see myself making an exception in this case), you ...

Moneyball (2011), PG-13, 133 minutes - Ok, so this wasn't so much a rental as a 'I bought it months ago but just hadn't had a chance to watch it' movie.  I know I am way behind the curve on this one, but Moneyball was a wonderful film. Moneyball is based on the novel of the same name by Michael Lewis, and tells the story of Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane, and how, in the early 2000's he and his Assistant GM Peter Brand adopted what was considered a new and radical way of evaluating players.  They began focusing on statistics like on base percentage and other advanced metrics more than the long time 'tried and true' categories like batting average, home runs, and runs batted in.  Beane (played by Brad Pitt) came to this line of thinking after his Oakland A's team had been knocked out of the playoffs by the New York Yankees, then lost their three best players because they could not afford to match the monstrous contracts offered to those ...

How to Train Your Dragon (2010), PG, 98 minutes - I've been hearing really good things about this movie for the last two weeks and I finally got a chance to check it out myself. I must say, I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. The animation is excellent, the story is fun, and the use of 3D may be as good as it was in Avatar. How to Train Your Dragon is the story of a young viking named Hiccup who can't bring himself to kill the rare and dangerous Night Fury dragon after shooting it down amidst a dragon attack on his village. Hiccup's father (the leader of the village) enrolls him in dragon training in the hopes of toughening up his son and making a proper viking out of him. Hiccup attends the sessions and takes the verbal abuse from the other viking youth in his class then sneaks off in the afternoons to nurse the Night Fury back to health. In the process he learns that dragons and vikings can co-exist and that the dragons attack because they are just as s...