Quick Reviews – Passengers, Money Monster, The Nice Guys

(Some quick looks at more recent movies)

Passengers (2016) – Two passengers on a long range hibernation ship wake up years too early and face personal and life challenges.  I’ve mentioned in other places that good actors can overcome mediocre scripts.  Not sure that Chris Pine and Jennifer Lawrence quite manage the feat here.  They are their usual personable selves but they are stuck with a slow, predictable script and a bit of a hokey ending.  More romance than science fiction flick (and with enough bad basic science to drive the hard science fans nuts).

Rating – *** Worth A Look

Money Monster (2016) – A man who lost all his money to a stock fraud invades a TV studio to try and find justice.  George Clooney and Julia Roberts turn in a tight little thriller under Jodie Foster’s direction.  Not long on action but there’s enough to keep you glued to your seat. Script might be short one small something, but the leads cover that up.

Rating – *** Worth A Look


The Nice Guys (2016) – Two private investigators find themselves involved in the same missing girl case in 1970s Hollywood.  There are a couple interesting movie ideas that die from lack of attention here.  Is this a parody of ’70s buddy/detective films?  Is this a neo-noir thriller?  In the end, it’s neither.  That wastes perfectly decent performances by Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling.  Gosling is given a muddled mess of a character and soldiers through it.  Several very funny moments, several decent action moments.  A lot of disjointed nonsense in between

Rating – ** Not Impressed