Straight Outta Compton, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Shaun the Sheep, Dark Places Reviews

Straight Outta Compton
Dir. F. Gary Gray
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The time just seems right for a biopic based on the artists responsible for the gangsta rap anthem "Fuck tha Police." N.W.A. (an acronym for "Niggaz with Attitude") was a groundbreaking musical outfit from the late 80's to the early '90s commonly referred to as the "World's Most Dangerous Group." They were among the first artists to rap about the reality around them, dealing with explicit lyrics that some viewed as glorifying drugs, disrespecting women, and encouraging the gangster lifestyle.  Although their material is rough, and it's right to question some of it, N.W.A. remains an important piece of hip-hop history, and in a world where it seems like every day we hear of police officers shooting unarmed black youths, their raw "reality rap" seems more relevant than ever. It's very strange for such a hardcore group to get the traditional music biopic treatment, but Straight Outta Compton is an absorbing re-telling of the group's story with some great performances and (obviously) a kick-ass soundtrack.

Fantastic Four, Vacation, The Gift, The Look of Silence Reviews

Fantastic Four
Dir. Josh Trank
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Fantastic Four is really one of the saddest movies of the year - for what it could have been. Josh Trank, the relatively young director who directed the surprise success Chronicle in his late twenties, seemed like the perfect choice to revitalize this franchise from the dopey first two Tim Story films into something much richer. Chronicle took the superhero genre and spun it on its head; using the "found footage" format, it was a much more realistic take on what a group of teenagers would actually do if given telekinetic powers (which turns from pranks at the supermarket to unchecked destruction - it's a great film if you've yet to check it out). But after many stories of Trank's backstage problems with Fox Studios and the actors not getting along on set, things weren't looking bright. Fantastic Four (2015) shows some promise in its first act, but by the end, everything derails. You can pretty much see the studio's meddling on-screen, and it's a shame, because it will likely ruin the "Fantastic Four" brand for years to come, and also Trank's chances with another big project like this.

Mission Impossible 5, Mr Holmes, Tangerine, The Stanford Prison Experiment Reviews

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
Dir. Christopher McQarrie
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I'm pretty sure Tom Cruise has a death wish. At 53 years old, he's still trying to top himself with death-defying stunts, and Rogue Nation, the fifth movie in the Mission: Impossible franchise, is filled with ridiculously dangerous situations that Cruise chose to do himself, without the aid of a stunt double. What results are some of the most exciting action set pieces you'll likely see all year, including Tom hanging onto an airplane taking off, Tom holding his breath underwater for minutes at a time, and Tom riding a motorcycle at really high speeds without a helmet - all the while being more in shape than I will likely ever be in my entire life. Even though Rogue Nation has a bland and generic spy plot, and doesn't quite have the same level of humor and camaraderie between the characters as Ghost Protocol (the best in the series), the action is so well handled that it will certainly whet the appetite of any action junkie or Cruise-ophile.

Pixels, Paper Towns, Southpaw, Amy Reviews

Pixels

Dir. Chris Columbus

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Pixels, based on the French animated short film of the same name, seemed like it had the potential to pull Adam Sandler out of the box office quicksand he's currently in. With Sandler vehicles That's My Boy, Jack and Jill, and Blended all bombing both critically and financially, a lot seemed to be riding on this ode to 80's-era arcade games. But at this point, I think audiences are catching onto Sandler's laziness, and Pixels was yet another stinker. With no new films on the horizon (only his controversial new Netflix projects), who knows, maybe this marks the end of Sandler's big-budget Hollywood comedy career. Perhaps that's just wishful thinking though, because Pixels, like those aforementioned Happy Madison productions, is just abysmal.

Ant-Man, Trainwreck, The Gallows, Self/Less Reviews

Ant-Man

Dir. Peyton Reed

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It seems like superhero movies can only get so big. After a while saving/destroying an entire city just doesn't do it anymore. That's one of the reasons Ant-Man, the final "Phase Two" Marvel movie before Civil War next year, is so refreshing: it literally scales everything back. Ant-Man's power is shrinking down to the size of an ant and the film is kind of the superhero version of Honey I Shrunk the Kids. The way director Peyton Reed (a self-professed hardcore Ant-Man fan) and his cinematographer Russell Carpenter captured the small scale "epic" action was unlike anything I've seen before, and it's fun and hilarious to boot!

Terminator Genisys, Magic Mike XXL, Love and Mercy, The Overnight Reviews

Terminator Genisys
Dir. Alan Taylor
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Terminator Genisys feels like the backbreaking result of dozens of board meetings demanding the next Terminator film include Arnold Schwarzenegger. After the Arnie-less critical and financial disappointment of Terminator Salvation (aka, the Christian Bale-freakout movie you forgot existed), it seems to me that writers Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier manipulated the time travel aspect of the series to its absolute "jumping the shark" point in order to bring the once-box office king back to the franchise. Like Jurassic World, Genisys seems to exist only as a product of pure nostalgia pandering.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Max, Heaven Knows What, When Marnie Was There Reviews

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Dir. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
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Me and Earl and the Dying Girl won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for Drama at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, which is no surprise seeing as it's such a "Sundance-y" movie. You've got an energetic young director doing crazy camera stuff, a sickeningly quirky sense of humor balanced with teen drama, you've got a girl dying of cancer, you've got snobby references to "Criterion" movies and Werner Herzog, and throw in an angsty white kid at the center and you've got a standing ovation in Colorado. Although it's been getting a lot of buzz, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl just sort of rubbed me the wrong way. It's twee to a fault.