Spy

Melissa McCarthy stars in Spy, a movie following Susan Cooper (McCarthy), a woman who helps CIA covert operations from the basement, where she directs Bradley Fine (Jude Law) during his covert ops. Fine is killed by a mystery woman "Reyna", played brilliantly by Rose Byrne. This prompts Susan to jump into the field and try to find Reyna and a stolen nuclear weapon. Jason Statham jumps in as a Rick Ford, another CIA agent in the field. There's some funny stuff, but the movie struggles in my opinion since I'm not much of a McCarthy fan. The action scenes they do an alright job of piecing together since McCarthy is obviously limited when it comes to stunts and action. The comedy is pretty good at times and the story isn't terrible, though you've certainly seen it before. Byrne and Statham are good in their roles, Law & McCarthy are pretty much their standard roles. Bottom Line: 6.2 out of 10. I enjoyed it at times, but the story seemed to just drag and bore me.

The Big Short: I Finally Know What Credit Default Swaps Are! (Kind Of...)

I finally took a night to see The Big Short. Knowing I really like the financial world, I was really excited to see this one. The cast of Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, and some Brad Pitt was also impressive. The movie jumps into the financial world in early 2007 when awkward mega-genius and hedge fund manager Dr. Michael Burry spent time investigating how bad the housing market loans really were. By investigating the sub-prime mortgage packages he determined way too many of the loans inside these packages were defaulting and the whole market was a problem. Sitting down with banks Dr. Burry negotiating creating credit default swaps insuring when the housing loans failed he'd get paid substantially, like 20/1 on it. Since the housing market was deemed infallible, he was assumed to be crazy. Only a bank employee and a couple of other hedge fund managers picked up on how bad the housing market really was. You find out about the world through primarily the eyes of Steve Carrell and his hedge fund managers. They meet mortgage brokers, explore some of the Florida homes in foreclosure, and go to a Vegas conference to meet up with the people who create the subprime mortgage portfolios. It's frustrating because, like usual, those who suffered the majority of a few people's out of control greeds backlash were primarily middle class Americans. Did the Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, and the other bailed out giant banks pay back the insane amount of money they fleeced by issuing brutal adjustable ARM and rates that people couldn't possibly handle. Did the CEO's pay back the variety of bonuses they continue to receive post-bailout? Of course not. There were no winner's really, but this at least shows some of the mavericks willing to work hard and not take S & P, Moody's, and other rating companies and banks at their word. Bottom Line: 8.9 out of 10. This is certainly worth watching. Bale is especially impressive, but the entire cast in excellent. The story is painful, but necessary to understand at least some of it. Understanding personal finance, loans, and investing is critically important and if YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SIGNING MAKE SURE SOMEONE EXPLAINS IT. IF THEY CAN'T EXPLAIN IT, FIND SOMEONE WHO CAN AND BUY FROM THEM.