Nerd in the 'Noke

Inherent Vice (2014), R, 148 minutes - I'm not familiar with Thomas Pynchon's novel of the same that is the basis for this film, but the trailer caught my eye with its kooky 'who done it?' feel, 1970's setting, and expansive cast led by Joaquin Phoenix. At the urging of his ex, Shasta Fay Hepworth (Katherine Waterston), private investigator Larry 'Doc' Sportello (Phoenix) decides to look into the disappearance of real estate mogul Michael Wolfman (Eric Roberts). She was concerned about her lover's safety after having been asked by Wolfman's wife and her lover to join a plot to disappear him and split his enormous wealth. The plot only gets more convoluted from there, but pulls in Los Angeles Lt. Det. Christian F. 'Bigfoot' Bjornsen (Josh Brolin), a drug cartel known as the Golden Fang, the Aryan Brotherhood, and an undercover police informant (Owen Wilson's Coy Harlingen), among other things. Basically, along each step of his inv...

RoboCop (2014), PG-13, 108 minutes - I'm not sure when it started, but a trend has come to my attention over the last couple of years.  That of movie studios dropping macho-centric flicks over Valentine's Day weekend.  Last year it was A Good Day to Die Hard and this year it was this reboot of the RoboCop franchise.  I see what they are trying to do, but I'm not sure it has been all that successful.  Although, I suppose that could be in part because neither of the films mentioned were all that spectacular.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this reboot, but it wasn't Earth-shattering enough that I would have been able to talk my wife into seeing it over something more romantic!   To be honest, this new version of RoboCop was better than I expected.  The same basic idea of the original was kept in place: in the not-too-distant future (2028) a private defense firm (OmniCorp) is developing drones to help combat crime and must find a way to 'humanize' t...