Excision

Aka Lizzie McGuire's worst day ever. Really involving from beginning to end and that end is a kick to the every reproductive organ you can find.

3/4 

Escape Room

Starts off with promise, but by the end it shoots for Cube and ends up at square

2/4

Everest

How can you warm up to a movie with characters as frosty and interchangeable as the mountain they are climbing?

2/4

Ex Machina

Though the central character is robotic, nothing about this fascinating and unsettling movie feels stiff or artificial. 

4/4

Edge of Tomorrow

The ending made me feel as lost as Cruise's character, but it's still an inventive, well-written and visually stunning blast. Never has repetition felt so fun.

3/4

Enough Said

Enough Said is a rom-com that easily could have failed but to its' credit the writing and performances are so irresistible disliking this movie is like disliking kittens. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini couldn't shine more as Eva and Albert, two lonely and seemingly hard to love divorcees who wind up meeting and falling in love. Only one problem; Albert's ex-wife; Marianne (Catherine Keener) turns out to become Eva's new bff. You know where it's going but the material just feels so authentic and warm it's worth it. Sometimes you can just enjoy the trip even though you know where it will end up.

3/4

End of Watch

        Being a cop is easily one of the most wild and unpredictable jobs out there. Every second is a question over whether or not you will leave to see the next day, who you can trust, and is there any good in sight? Such a turbulent ride, so why is it that End of Watch feels so by the numbers??

Luckily though, End of Watch is certainly far from being without merit. The two leads' chemistry is easily the strongest attribute of the film. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena shine as the lead cops. Their scenes of just regular conversation were easily some of my favorite parts of the movie. Nothing feels acted or contrived at all. Very natural and both actors play their role with charm when they're not beating the shit out of someone else.

End of Watch definitely has a genuine feel that definitely works in its' advantage. Even excluding the leads' chemistry, nothing in End of Watch feels staged or acted out. All of the performances exude a realism that's rarely depicted in many action movies these days where you're just watching caricatures of human beings blowing each other to pieces. Even the way the movie is shot feels 100% authentic, you would swear you're watching the world's longest episode of Cops at times.

Unfortunately though, End of Watch is a movie where you see most of the twists coming a mile away. It's not difficult to see that things won't end in the best of light, which is another way the movie depicts the life of an average cop; there isn't always a light at the end of the tunnel, for everyone that is.

End of Watch shines when it comes to the realism that cops face on the average day. The leads clearly gave it their all yet never come across as trying to give it their all. It's just a shame that the movie puts you in the position of one of the antagonists in this movie, always running one step ahead of the cops.

3/4



Evil Dead

****Update!***** Rewatched this recently, still found it a little tiring but not as bad as I first did

2/4

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Want a movie that has the gore and the brains? Keep on searching. Evil Dead will drive you to insomnia by the 10th time of watching someone lose a limb.

Evil Dead stars Jane Levy as Mia, a recovering addict trying not to relapse. Her friends and brother are taking her to a cabin in the woods (sound familiar?) in order to help her cope and keep an eye over her. After one of the less intelligent friends opens a book and reads the contents (despite the warning signs) something evil invades Mia's body.

She starts feeling the side effects of being, well, invaded by demon, and her friends (one of which is a nurse might I add) just pass off her symptoms as bad withdrawal symptoms. Soon she's on the run and she's bound to drive Hell into everyone else around her.

Every performance is so wooden and hollow you could be watching 5 dummies being brought to life. When the friends are in the early scenes, none of the performances are of any interest and fall flat. When they all turn demonic, everyone goes so ridiculously over the top the scenes of them causing havoc just come off as comedy.

Speaking of dummies, these have to be some of the dumbest characters in recent history. Isolating themselves, reading books that clearly state do not read, ignoring signs that people are possessed and not just drug-hungry. Shit like that. Really makes it impossible to care who lives or dies.

The biggest problem is that Evil Dead just falls into the typical trap of using gore over thrills. There's nothing remotely thrilling going on here. Limbs are cut off, faces are slashed, heads are bashed, people are split in half, and none of this feels remotely scary. Sure you can use the loud music tricks in order to get a cheap thrill or two, but when that's your only tactic it's time to do something different. Evil Dead is nothing but flash with no real pizazz behind it. 

1/4