Tigerland: Colin Ferrell's Start

I found Tigerland for under $2.00 and jumped in. I remember this is what Ferrell's big break was, then all of the sudden he was in Minority Report, Phone Booth, and Recruit, SWAT and Alexander. Tigerland follows a group through their initial training in the Army knowing that at the end of training they are heading right to Vietnam. Colin Ferrell is Roland Bozz, a dissenter who has a penchant for getting people excused from service. He doesn't get himself excused, but tell him your story and he may be able to get you excused from the Army. It's very odd, but it follows them through basic training and into "Tigerland", the closest training to real, live combat action the Army can create. The different characters in the unit become exposed and you'll recognize Shea Whigham, Clifton Collins, Tom Guiry, and Michael Davis, though none are "stars", they pull together a very good cast. It's a good mix of characters coming from different places and circumstances. Bottom Line: 6.8 out of 10. Glad I re-watched it to see how a lot of the cast is now known, but nothing amazing.

Michael Moore: Who We Should Invade Next

The pinnacle of Smugness, Mike Moore, made a documentary highlighting a bunch of strengths of other countries and how much better these ideas are than how they are done in America. It highlights workplaces, schools, even how we approach our shameful history of slavery. The part that always gets in the way is Moore himself. He's insufferable, self-serving, and always debatably leads people into what he wants. His editing tactics have always come under fire, most notably from Marilyn Manson and the South Park guys who after being interviewed by him and having their words twisted, blew him up on Team America: World Police. I can't stand him, therefore this movie wasn't for me. It should surprise not a single person that other countries are better at a few things than America and watching Moore parade himself around looking like Rosie O'Donnell's homeless, fatter, uglier brother is awful to watch. Bottom Line: 2.3 out of 10. Read about it, don't bother watching it. Synopsis: Sweden has better schools than us because kid's get to do what they want and have no homework, Italy is a better place to work because you get six weeks vacation and don't have to work as hard, Germany is better than us because they teach their children in school about the evils of the Nazi regime and Holocaust, Iceland is better than us because women have more political power and they punish their white collar criminals. There you go, saved you wasting almost two hours.

X-Men: Apocalpyse

There was excitement with the introduction of an excellent villain in Apocalypse. Then, I noticed it was Oscar Isaac, who I really like, but they didn't DO enough to him. He was short, with a big coat and some blue facepaint. He looked too human for my liking. Interesting premise in that he existed for centuries accumulating various mutant powers throughout, yet he consistently fails in using them well... Fassbender is awesome in being domesticated Magneto. I like McAvoy's Professor X. I really like Jennifer Lawrence in any capacity. This tries way too hard to introduce various X-Men themes and it ends up being exhausting and sloppy. It's like Singer took a bet to see how many X-Men plotlines he could tie into this thing. The simple premise is Apocalypse is trying to end the world by gathering his Four Horseman and getting to it, but the subplots really get in the way. It's a pleasure to see Olivia Munn as Psylocke, but she is seldom used. I enjoyed some of the film, for the most part besides a sloppy scene with a ship and containers the CGI is top notch. The acting is generally decent. There's just too much stuff getting thrown into the pot for this film that for me, it ruined the stew. Bottom Line: 6.5 out of 10. Just not much to be impressed by and those fleeting moments get furthered buried by 34 different subplots.