Spotlight

LANDON ***1/2
Tom McCarthy is a force to be reckoned with.  Directing a movie like "Spotlight" was probably extremely difficult.  It seems hard to direct a narrative concerning a subject as sensitive as the child sex abuse scandal involving the Catholic church in Boston without stepping on a lot of toes.  McCarthy pulled it off with flying colors.  "Spotlight" is one of the most fascinating and engaging movies I've seen in years.  A lot of it is due to McCarthy's sensitive directing, but a lot of credit is also due to the actors as well.  Everyone is completely focused and into their roles, especially Keaton, Ruffalo, and McAdams, who are all fantastic.  You couple all of that with a smart screenplay and some chilling music from Howard Shore, and you have what is undeniably one of the best movies of the year.  "Spotlight" is a force to be reckoned with.

BRYCE ***1/2
CHASE ***1/2
LOGAN ***1/2

BANGERANG SCORE: ***1/2

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

CHASE ***1/2
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" has finally arrived and it was worth the wait.  While it’s not the best "Star Wars" movie (that award goes to "The Empire Strikes Back"), I do think it is a great addition to the series.  One of the things I think the filmmakers did very well was captured the feel of the original films.  The action scenes were fun, it had a great sense of humor and the character drama is done really well.  It is a bit disappointing, however, that they borrowed a little bit too much from the original movie.  That being said, my favorite aspect of the movie, by far, is that the new characters are fantastic!  I honestly believe we will remember these characters as fondly as those from the original trilogy.  They include Finn, who is super entertaining, BB-8, who is charming and funny and Kylo Ren, who is a great villain that doesn’t feel like the rehash of Darth Vader that many feared.  My personal favorite character is the female lead, Rey.  She is smart, interesting, and has great emotional depth.  I’m really satisfied with this movie and I cannot wait to watch the next episode.

BRYCE ***
LANDON ***1/2
LOGAN ***1/2

BANGERANG SCORE: ***1/2

Creed

LANDON ***1/2
I'll be the first to admit that I thought the original "Rocky" was a little overrated.  You have some good characters and good inspirational story, but there was an emotional connection that was lacking for me.  "Creed" more than makes up for that.  This is one of the best movies of the year.  Instead of Rocky Balboa, we have the son of Apollo Creed, Adonis Creed, taking the spotlight.  Michael B. Jordan is fantastic as the lead character and brings a lot of heart to his performance.  Sylvester Stallone gives perhaps the best performance of his career and certainly of the year as the aged Italian Stallion.  This is a film that's sensitive, steady, and surprisingly emotional.  I haven't even started talking about the fight scenes.  They're all exhilarating and totally immersive.  I'm especially talking about Adonis' first professional boxing match, which uses only one take and is utterly gripping and incredibly filmed.  There's really no other way to say it.  This movie is awesome.

BRYCE ***
CHASE ***1/2
LOGAN ***

BANGERANG SCORE: ***

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

CHASE ***
We have finally meet the final movie of the popular Hunger Games franchise.  Just like in the fashion that most franchises are taking, they split the last story into two movies.  While I hate the idea of them splitting the movie in two, what the filmmakers did with the last one was actually well done.  A huge part of it has to be in thanks of the good actors that we have, especially Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss as she gives a really good and surprisingly emotional performance.  They also do a lot of interesting action scenes to keep the movie engaging and even intense.  It's also satisfying on how they wrapped everything up and it feel really fitting on how everything concluded.  It's not the best one of the franchise, but it did a good job to make itself an entertaining movie, despite stretching the story more than they should.

BRYCE **1/2
LANDON ***
LOGAN ***

BANGERANG SCORE: ***