Talented Filmmakers and Actors Put Up a Grand Fight in Charlie Wilson's War

Laid bare, the political subtext of Charlie Wilson's War is not great. Now, I'm not saying the movies "offensive" or using this review to call for screenwriter Aaron Sorkin to get  "canceled". I' m merely stating that the premise does hinge on halcyon ideas of political cooperation. Charlie Wilson's War occupies the Ellen Degeneres mindset of there being no difference between Democratic and Republican politicians, why can't everyone get along? After all, much like Ellen, the two lead characters of Charlie Wilson's War are rich white people who don't suffer any consequences associated with idealogy in either political party. Sorkin's take on the true story events of Operation Cyclone is an idealistic vision of the status quo, one that doesn't tamper with how things are but rather imagines what would happen if everything as it were just ran smoother.

Ben Is Back Has Good Performances But Derivative Screenwriting

MILD SPOILERS FOR BEN IS BACK BELOW

On a seemingly routine Christmas Eve, Holly Burns (Julia Roberts) returns home to discover that her son, Ben (Lucas Hedges), has come home. Ben, the titular lead of Ben is Back,  has been away at a rehab center trying to get clean from his drug habit and now he's returned out of the blue into Holly's life. Holly is at first overjoyed just to see her son back in her life but Ben's siblings and Holly's husband, Neal (Courtney B. Vance), don't like this situation and want Ben to return to the rehab center. Holly proceeds to make her son a deal: he can stay with the family for the next 24 hours but she'll watch him like a hawk, he is to never leave her sight. A task already immensely difficult only increases in how arduous it is as the 24 hours march on and some figures from Ben's past re-emerge to threaten Ben and his family.

In Sharp Contrast To It's Predecessor, Ocean's Twelve Is a More Monotonous Kind of Heist

Ocean's Eleven made so much money at the box office that it might as well have been the haul the lead characters managed to grab after a successful heist. With all that dough in the bank, it was inevitable that a sequel would arise. Interestingly, for the follow-up project entitled Ocean's Twelve, the decision has been made to make this a direct sequel to Ocean's Eleven that basically starts off right where its predecessor left off and, instead of having everyone get away scott free after pulling off a heist, the guy who they robbed in the first film, Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), is looking to get every penny back that the eleven main characters of the first film stole from him.

No Wonder Audiences Have Connected With Wonder, It's A Real Heartfelt Treat

Live-action family movies that don't star CGI chipmunks or aren't remakes of classic animated Disney fare have become a rarity in theatrically released American cinema to the point that Pure Flix (the studio behind God's Not Dead and other pieces of cinema of similar top-caliber quality) is the only studio in America these days regularly producing such films. That makes Wonder a rarity for sure as well as a reminder of how good these movies can be when produced right. Live-action family movies don't just have to be vehicles for CGI versions of 1960's cartoon characters to make pop culture references, they can instead be actually entertaining movies with heart.

Money Monster Review

In the last three months of 2015, American cinema delivered two great films that delved into the concept of financial hardship, something that has been on everyone's mind since the 2008 Financial Crisis that dove our country into a financial pit. The first of these two motion pictures was 99 Homes, a drama centering on Andrew Garfield as an everyman trying to keep his head above water by working with the very man who tossed him, his mother and his young son out of their own home. Three months after 99 Homes came The Big Short, which took an appropriately stylized look at the events leading up to the market crash that sent the economy into a downward spiral.