Nerd in the 'Noke

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), PG-13, 136 minutes - Writer/Director James Gunn's original Guardians of the Galaxy became a pop culture phenomenon three years ago when he took relatively little known characters from the cosmic corner of Marvel's comic book universe and created a fun, humorous, heartfelt, space opera with a nostalgic soundtrack.  The film was so successful that within days of its release, it was announced that Gunn would immediately begin working on a sequel.  This weekend that sequel has hit theaters and despite the three year build up of hype, it has proven to be well worth the wait. Volume 2 takes place about a year after the events of Guardians of the Galaxy and picks up with Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), and Baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) fighting off a space monster on behalf of the Sovereign, a genetically engineered 'perfect' race led by Ayesha (Elizabeth D...

The Hateful Eight (2015), R, 167 minutes (187 minutes Roadshow 70mm)  - Quentin Tarantino announced this film in late 2013, about a year after he released 2012's  Django Unchained .  Shortly thereafter, the script leaked online and he threatened to cancel the film entirely.  Fortunately for those of us who are fans of his work, he changed his mind after hosting a live reading of the script in Los Angeles and by the end of 2014 had begun production on his eighth feature length film. The Hateful Eight (which is the second western in Tarantino's stable of films) takes place just years after the Civil War on a Wyoming mountain pass leading to Red Rock and finds a colorful bunch of characters holed up at Minnie's Haberdashery while a nasty blizzard blows by.  This bunch includes two bounty hunters - Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) and John 'The Hangman' Ruth (Kurt Russell), their bounties - including Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the new Sh...

Furious 7 (2015), PG-13, 137 minutes - It's been fourteen years since 2001's The Fast and the Furious launched what has now become a seven movie strong franchise.  If you had told me at the time that it would grow into what it is today, I would have told you that you were nuts.  The fact that that small action film, equal parts fast cars, crazy action scenes, good looking cast, and outlaw lifestyle has spawned six sequels and morphed into a big budget, action packed, global spy-like force at the box office is truly incredible. This latest - and possibly last - installment finds Dom (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker) and their crew trying to track down Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), before he finds them and exacts revenge for his younger brother's death (Fast & Furious 6 villain Owen Shaw).  The plot is actually pretty convoluted, with Dom's crew having to pull off Mission: Impossible-like missions in order to obtain a surveillance program that will allow them to ...