THE REVIEW CORNER

Starring: Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, and Maggie Gyllenhaal Directed by: Roland Emmerich Screenplay by: James Vanderbilt     The White House is under attack again!  This is the second time this year Hollywood's done this!     John Cale (Channing Tatum) is applying for a job in the secret service.  On the day he interviews for the job, he takes his daughter, Emily (Joey King), on a tour of the White House with him.  Well, on this particular day, weird stuff is to happen.  The U.S. Capitol building falls under attack and so does the White House.  This is no foreign attack, but an attack from within.  Now it's up to Cale to save his daughter and the President of the United States (Jamie Foxx) from this danger.     I don't know about many of you, but I find this concept to be rather dark and disturbing.  And frankly, it's not entirely original.  We saw this already once this year in Olympus Has Fallen.   The st...

Starring: Jaden Smith and Will Smith Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan Screenplay by: Gary Whitta and M. Night Shyamalan      So, we have another M. Night Shyamalan movie.  This is the guy who brought us great films like The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable.   He's also brought us pretty crappy movies like The Happening and The Last Airbender.  After Earth is his latest.  So how does this stack up with his other movies?  It goes in the crappy section.      When I first saw the trailer for this film last Thanksgiving, I was very intrigued by the concept and it looked really cool.  It's 1000 years after humans have devastated Earth so much that they needed to evacuate the planet to a satellite planet called Nova Prime.  There are creatures that live there that feed off of people's fear and Cypher Raige (Will Smith) is so fearless that he's become a legendary commander.  In this story, he and his son Kitai (Jaden Smith) em...

Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Diane Lane, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, and Laurence Fishburne Directed by: Zack Snyder Screenplay by: David S. Goyer     Superman is one of the oldest superheros ever.  He's been around for about 75 years and there have been about a million different movies and about him.  And, here's another one.  I guess we just can't get enough of Superman.  Or can we?     Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) is not of this world.  He's from the planet, Krypton, a planet whose race is dying due to the planet imploding.  He is sent to Earth to be a symbol of hope for the humans and a symbol that the Krypton race will once again live.  After being freed from prison once the planet implodes, General Zod (Michael Shannon) travels all the way to Earth to take Kent away from the humans in order to recreate the Krypton race and world.  So, once again, the fate of the world is in Kent's hands as he sh...

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, and Max Burkholder Directed by: James DeMonaco Screenplay by: James DeMonaco      A few years from now, America is a very different country.  Unemployment is at 1%, crime is at an all time low, and prosperity is everywhere.  This seems like a pretty good world to live in.  But then there's twelve hours of hell once a year.  All emergency and law enforcement services are suspended for twelve hours, once a year.  On this night, all crimes are legal, including murder.  This is known as The Purge.      So, since all this weird stuff happens on the night of the annual Purge, security systems are hot new things to invest in to protect oneself.  James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) sells such security systems and has one installed in his home to protect himself and his family from the dangers of the Purge.  When his son lets in a stranger who is trying to hide from people pursuing him, the fami...

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Isla Fisher,  Mélanie Laurent, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Dave Franco Directed by: Louis Leterrier Screenplay by: Ed Solomon and Boaz Yakin "Come in close, because the more you think you see, the easier it will be to fool you."     This is one of those movies in which the trailer doesn't show you the full picture of what's going to happen in the film.  I love movies like this.       The Four Horsemen is a group of magicians (all played by Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, and Dave Franco) whose talents have truly amazed the world.  But it's when they rob a bank in Paris during their show in Las Vegas that their skills truly shock people, and catches the attention of both the FBI and Interpol.  Now it's up to Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and his partner from Interpol ( Mélanie Laurent) to figure out their magic tricks.      This story has twists...

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, and Benedict Cumberbatch Directed by: J.J. Abrams Screenplay by: Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman     Another manhunt movie? Really?     There's a terrorist in Star Fleet.  He's caused mass damage and taken many lives.  When Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and the rest of the starship Enterprise find out who this guy is (Benedict Cumberbatch) and find that he's part of Star Fleet, they go after him.  And where does this manhunt take them?  The Klingon home world.  Will they catch this villain before he causes more damage and kills more people?     Stylistically, this film isn't a whole lot different from the first film in this series.  For example, in the first film, there is a very intense opening sequence in which Kirk's father becomes the captain of the star ship Kelvin for a few minutes during a crisis that ultimately gets him killed and the ship destr...