Nerd in the 'Noke

Spy (2015), R, 119 minutes - Our rental of The Gallows  Friday night earned us a freebie from Redbox, so last night my wife and I decided to change things up a bit with this comedy starring Melissa McCarthy, Jude Law, Jason Statham, Rose Byrne, Allison Janney, and Miranda Hart.  The aptly named Spy is probably the best mockery of the super spy genre since Austin Powers, although it doesn't quite go full-parody.  It finds itself more in the homage/parody range similar to films like Hot Fuzz (2007) or 21 Jump Street (2012). Susan Cooper (McCarthy) is an analyst working in the 'basement' of the CIA.  She acts as eyes and ears for super secret agent Bradley Fine (Law) when he's in the field.  A mission mis-hap by Fine leads to the death a weapons dealer who knows the location of a stolen portable nuclear bomb.  In an attempt to right his wrong, Fine tracks down the dealer's daughter Rayna Boyanov (Byrne).  Cooper believes that finding Boyano...

Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013), PG-13, 106 minutes - Last fall when this film was released, my wife (fiance at the time) and I still hadn't seen the original from 2010.  We made sure to sit down and watch it in preparation for this sequel (my review for it can be seen here ).  We then got caught up in the final stages of wedding/honeymoon planning and missed Chapter 2 in theaters.  A couple of weeks ago we finally had the opportunity to sit down and give this one a watch. Insidious: Chapter 2 is a direct sequel to the first film and picks up right where the first one ends.  That being said, as spoiler friendly as I try to be, if you haven't seen Insidious yet read no further as some spoilery stuff is imminent. Chapter 2 continues the story of the Lamberts, a family with deep and strong ties to the spirit world.  They have seemingly been victorious in their attempt to save their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) from the spirit world after learning that his father Jos...

Insidious (2010), PG-13, 103 minutes - My fiance and I had both heard how creepy Insidious was for a while when we bought it about a year ago.  We picked it up in hopes of having a scary movie night around Halloween.  Unfortunately, our six month old puppy (at the time) didn't agree with the idea of there being quiet time in the house.  Last week we realized that Insidious: Chapter 2 was being released this weekend.  So we figured we should finally make some time to sit down and see what the Insidious was all about. A couple of years back when Insidious first came out, I had absolutely no desire to see it.  I recognize now that is almost entirely because the trailer and movie posters hailed it as being directed by James Wan, the director of Saw.  As soon as I saw the connection with Saw, I tuned out.  As many who know me could tell you, I'm not big on horror of the slasher/gore variety.  So before anyone else jumps to the same conclusion whil...

The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), R, 140 minutes - Back in 2010, Derek Cianfrance, who had previously directed television documentaries broke through with the critically acclaimed film Blue Valentine.  Now he is back with his latest project: The Place Beyond the Pines, which just so happens to be generating its own fair share of acclaim. I first saw the trailer for Pines a couple of months ago and was instantly interested.  I was curious to see what came next from Cianfrance, especially considering the cast he was working with: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta, Rose Byrne, Bruce Greenwood.  All have been in films that I've really enjoyed.  As I learned more about the film, I found out that it is set in Schenectady, New York.  A good friend of mine grew up in Schenectady and I had the chance to visit there when I went to his wedding a few years back.  That's a fairly small tie to a place I know, but it still added to my interest in ...