Movie Review: **** Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)

 Daniel Craig again stars as detective Benoit Blanc.  He shows up at a murder scene at a Catholic Church.  He is brought in at the request of the chief of police, Chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis).  The priest, Monsignor Wicks (Josh Brolin) has been murdered, and the new assistant priest, Father Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor) is set up to take the fall.  But there are many suspects.  Wicks had made enemies of most the parish; or driven them off.  This includes Martha Delacroix (Glen Close) who has been with the church since being a child, DR. Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner) the local doctor.  Vera Draven (Kerry Washington) a local lawyer.  Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack) who turns out to be the Monsignor's illegitimate son.  The Monsignor was murdered in a closet off of the chapel where he was drinking some alcohol before delivering his sermon.  He collapses and is found with a "devil's blade" in his back.  The father was the first to him, and the doctor the second.  After they leave, the father returns and removes the Monsignor's flask.  This was a vital clue.  He removes it to prevent embarrassment for the head priest now that he is dead.  The twist in the plot is when the Monsignor resurrects and the priest chases after him, to wake up with the gardner murdered, by him.  Duplenticy is about to confess, when Blanc steps in the divulge the truth of what happened.  Too much to tell here, and not wanting to divulge the murdered, this movie is a good mystery thriller with a couple of twists.  

Bourne Movie Review: ****^ Bourne Legacy (2012)

 This movie is in the Bourne world, but is not about Jason Bourne.  Instead it is about another operative.  It coincides with Bourne ultimatum and talks about how the people high in government were cleaning up their mess with Treadstone and Blackbriar.  They were doing this by killing people involved with the program, including all of the enhanced agents like Bourne.  There are nine of them and in this case it is Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) who is running.  They also want to kill the lab team that has been working on the meds and viruses that gives them their powers.  They kill most of the agents by giving them poison instead of their regular pills.  Cross was on a mission, and able to evade the drone sent to kill he and another agent (Oscar Isaac).  It gets the other agent, but Dross avoids being blown up, and tricks the monitors when he puts his tracking device in the wolf.  

Dross also manages to save a lab scientist, Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz).  The rest of the lab people were killed.  He is able to deal with the team sent to Shearing's house to kill her.  A final lab enhanced person is sent to kill them.  Very intense chases and fight scenes.  Renner is fun as an enhanced agent.  We learn much more about the program and how it came to be. 

Movie Review: ****Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015)

 Tom Cruise and the gang are back for another adventure as they try to discover a rogue spy network called the Syndicate which is working to thin the population and destabilize governments.  An ex British agent is in charge of this terror network.  The regular crew is all back for this movie with the addition of Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson).  Faust is with British intelligence.  But British intelligence has a secret.  They funded the Syndicate until one of their agents went rogue, Lane (Sean Harris).  Lane is a worthy opponent; and there are many tense situations.  It seems they are always pulling things out at the last second.  

TV Review: Disney+ Hawkeye

 Hawkeye is available on Disney+.  It is a post End Game show, and Hawkeye/ Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) is drawn into the action when a sort of self-proclaimed super hero, archer wantobe, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) comes across the Ronin suit, which Clint Barton used to work evil when his family had been blipped away.  This leads to their becoming the targets of a New York gang, as Ronin killed their leader and the leader's niece, Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) is now intent on revenge.  Turns out Bishop's mother is working for King Pin (Vincent D'Onofrio).  She has framed her fiánce for murder.  Also muddling the picture is Black Widow's sister, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh).  She is a highly trained assassin after Clint Barton as she has been told he killed Black Widow.

This is six episodes of super fun.  In the final episode we have the gang of thugs, King Pin, Belova, Lopez, all converging on Rockefeller Plaza and the ice skate ring in New York.  I highly recommend this show if you haven't already watched.

In Theaters: Avengers: *****End Game (2019)

Avengers: End Game:  This is the most anticipated movie in some time; and it more than lives up to all the hype.  From Thanos’ “I am inevitable” to “I am Iron Man” and all the ride along the way, this movie is great.  Of course the thing about this movie is having all the characters together.  There is too much here to give a plot summary, but suffice it to say this movie entertains and appeals to Avenger fans, as well as Guardians of the Galaxy and Dr. Strange.  It has all the characters taking part in their turn.  There is a part during the major battle where all the women are going to protect the glove and it just seemed to miss as tried to make a politically correct statement.  And then of course the fumbled the glove anyway as Thanos had said, :He is inevitable.”  However that is my only complaint.  A couple of our major Avenger friends will not be coming back it appears, but there are plenty others who are ready for the continued Avenger Universe, including Peter parker and Spider man later this year.  This is a must see.  In fact it warrants going back and seeing all the Avenger movies.

Robert Downey Jr.     Tony Stark/ Iron Man
Chris Evans                Steve Rogers/ Captain America
Mark Ruffalo               Bruce Banner / Hulk
Chris Hemsworth        Thor
Scarlett Johansson     Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
Jeremy Renner            Clint Barton / Hawkeye
Paul Rudd                   Scott Lang / Ant-Man
Benedict Cumberbatch  Doctor Strange
Chadwick Boseman    T'Challa / Black Panther
Brie Larson                  Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel
Tom Holland                Peter Parker / Spider-Man
Karen Gillan                 Nebula
Zoe Saldana                Gamora
and many more
Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ***^ Captain America: Civil War

This battle has lots of violence.  It pits Avengers against Avengers, as is the plan of Zemo (Daniel Bruhl).  His family was killed in fall out from past episodes of the Avengers battling evil.  Now he wants revenge.  Fall out from Avenger heroics has lead the United Nations to want to control the Avengers.  Differences in opinion cause the initial rift between the two groups.
Zemo manipulates people and things to bring Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) and finds the secret clues to trigger his evil personality.  Captain American (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) are on a collision course.  With some new and some old Avengers taking sides.  This includes Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Ant Man (Paul Rudd), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and introducing Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman.)  Even Spider Man (Tom Holland) gets into the action.  His youth attracted Tony and I must admit his character brought humor to a movie that was really action-packed, violent and dark.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Marvel Comics is out with another Avengers, and this is as exciting as the first.  I thought I might hit overload with all the action taking place.  However this movie also has some humor and some drama mixed in.  We discover that Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) has a family.  The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) is still caught up with "I can't trust myself," and Iron Man (Robert Downing Jr.) is not willing to listen to anyone's advise, which gets him in  trouble as Ultron (James Spader) is born.  Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) is in love with the Hulk, and using this love to control him, at times.  We learn more about all of the Avengers, (other than Hawkeye) when they are put under mind control by a new nemesis, Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen).  Another nemesis is the the witch's twin, Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who has incredible speed.  Thor (Chris Hemsworth) also deals with past issues so he is more effective in the present.  Captain America (Chris Evans) is everyone's favorite leader.  He too deals with issues of having outlived his time.  We are also introduced to a new character, Vision (Paul Bettany) who is the physical version of Iron man's computer, Jarvis.  Fury (Samuel Jackson) also shows up, and his support is needed in the end.  This movie is lots of fun as our heroes try to save the world with as little collateral damage as possible.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ****^The Avengers

The Avengers in 3-D is a fun movie.  I had seen Iron Man I and II, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America.  This show adds the Black Widow and Hawkeye as well as the organizer, manipulator Nick Fury.  All of these stories come together with the brother of Thor, adopted, coming to earth with the hopes of conquest, and making people bow to him.  Of course Thor comes to stop him.  The brother has a source of mind control and takes over the mind of one of Avengers, Hawkeye, who shots arrows.

The theme of the show is you are more together than just a sum of the parts.  Each of these super heroes has a big ego, and it takes a lot for them to com together.  Bickering and fighting, they finally join together to save the world from an alien invasion.  The robot monsters are cool, especially the worm like space ships.  But cooler are the skills of the Avengers, and the Hulk tackling one of those worms is too much.  This movie was a good ride and kept me on the edge of my seat.  It was almost too much action non stop at one point, but that is just me.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ****Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol stars Tom Cruise.  Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist) is intent on causing a nuclear war, and has gottn the Russian nuclear codes.  However the IMF has been shut down because of impolications in blowing up the Kremlin in Russia.  They are limited to their current team and materials.  Jeremy Renner portrays Brandt.  The techno person is Benjamin (Simon Pegg) and the woman assistant is Jane (Paula Patton).  This show is like the typical Mission Impossible, action from start to finish, with bombs exploding and a number of chases.  They have a chase in an Arabian dust storm which adds to the trouble.  They also have the outside climbing of that tallest building in the world in Dubai.  Plenty of close calls keep you guessing in this show.  Tom Cruise thrives in the action genre.  This movie also explores the sacrifices a spy must make in terms of family and love life.  If you are into action, this show is also for you, and you will throughly enjoy it.  Sheri, my wife, really enjoyed it.  She likes the handsome man more than the intellectual.