There’s a lot going on with La La Land, including a great deal of Oscar buzz. If you’re a fan of the early movie musicals like Singin’ in the Rain, you’re going to love this LA homage to the musicals of the past.

Release Date: December 25, 2016
Writer: Damien Chazelle
Director: Damien Chazelle
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone

La La Land follows with romance of frustrated jazz musician, Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and struggling actress, Mia (Emma Stone). Sebastian languishes playing in piano bars hoping one day to open his own jazz club in Los Angeles. Mia works as a barista in a coffee shop on the Warner Brothers studio lot. She hopes one day to become a successful actress.

Through a series of coincidental and non-coincidental encounters, our heroes meet, fight, one-up each other and fall in love. Did I mention this is a musical? All this happens through song and dance.  Did I also mention the movie takes place in Los Angeles? All this happens at various iconic LA landmarks.

The love story of La La Land intertwines the dreams of our two star-crossed lovers. Mia is a struggling actress looking for that all important first role. After a series of rejections and disappointments, Mia produces her heartfelt one-woman show as her final chance to be discovered.

Sebastian, on the other hand, laments the decline of jazz. He gives Mia an impassioned lesson on jazz theory and turns her into a convert (sort of). Sebastian hopes, one day, to open his own Jazz club…and start a relationship with Mia. Though, neither pays enough to support his dream–let alone a relationship.

If you like musicals, La La Land was made just for you. Writer/Director Damien Chazelle offers his homage to the Hollywood musical of the past. La La Land is clearly the over-the-top musical from opening number featuring dozens of singer-dancers strutting their stuff on a gridlocked freeway traffic, dancing in the stars at Griffith Observatory to the surreal ending akin to Gene Kelly’s ballet finale of Singin’ in the Rain.

The songs also have the feel of the musicals of long ago. Composer Justin Hurwitz wrote actual songs for our characters and not the sing/talk songs of Broadway. The music of La La Land is above average. The musical themes are fantastic, but sadly the lyrics are forgettable. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are above average dancers and average singers, but they convincingly play the roles of lovers and artists. I don’t know if Gosling can actually play the piano at the level his character should, but the way the piano playing is shot is extremely convincing.

La La Land is a hard sell to the non-theater geek. It’s clearly not for everyone. Actors instantly break into song. They dance in inexplicable locations and the story follows one cliché after the other. I get it. It’s weird, but musicals have the ability to lift our souls to the heavens (with a little suspension of disbelief). The song and dance of La La Land convey the beauty of love, the giddy fun of falling in love and the melancholy of losing your dream. That’s why we go to musicals.

By no means is La La Land a perfect movie. It drags severely in the third act. I really wanted to see this movie wrap up quickly. Like many of this year’s Oscar contenders, the ending saves the movie. Good movies tap into your emotions and force you to feel and connect with the emotions of the characters good or bad. The ending of La La Land connects with you and uplifts your spirits with the love of the two main characters.

9 out of 10 stars

For our favorite X-Men Wolverine, three times is a charm. Logan is clearly the best of the Wolverine movies and ranks high among the X-Men movies as well. Logan (Hugh Jackman) is forced to care of an aging and mentally decaying Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and protect a young mutant, X-23 (Dafne Keen) from a gang of mutant hunters.

Release Date: March 3, 2017
Writer: James Mangold, Scott Frank
Director: James Mangold
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen, Steven Merchant, Boyd Holbrook

The movie Logan takes place in the year 2024. Almost all known mutants are gone, except Logan, Professor X and Caliban (Steven Merchant), whose power is mutant tracking. Logan has given up on the hero business and works as a limo driver. His pay goes to purchase medication for Professor X, who is unable to effectively control his powers. Uncontrolled Charles unleashes a strong mental force that causes intense paralysis for those surrounding him.

Logan himself is not doing well. After decades of Adamantium poisoning, Wolverine’s healing factor is slowing down. Yes, Wolverine is slowly dying. Along with the professor’s medicine, Logan is also saving money to buy and boat and live the rest of his and Charles’ days on the open sea.

Things get complicated when a mysterious woman and her daughter appear. She offers Logan enough money to purchase the boat. All he needs to do is deliver the young girl safely to “Eden.” This young girl is not what she appears to be. She is a new mutant created at a nearby laboratory. The lab was recently shut down and the children, who served as mutant experiments, were destroyed—except for X-23. This young girl has the same powers as Logan with claws, dexterity and healing factor.

The girl is being chased by mutant hunter and former lab enforcer, Pierce (Boyd Holbrook). His job is simple, stop at nothing to return X-23 or Laura to the lab.

What’s Good

Grounded Rated R Movie. One of the best things about Logan is that its rated R. Not just because of the gruesome violence and there is a lot of violence. This is the first time audiences get to truly see the real consequences of being sliced with razor sharp claws. Unlike the other X-Men movies there is blood, death and dismemberment.

The best thing about the R-rating is that it has freed writer/director James Mangold to make a superhero film that is grounded in reality. No over-the-top super powers, but a story of an eternal killing machine who is constantly confronted with his long life of murder and destruction.

Logan is a focused film. Logan is the story of Charles Xavier, James Howlett and Laura. While the X-Men films are about the survival of mutant-kind, Logan is about this strange new family. The stakes are focused on these three individuals. There are very real moments of family including Logan helping Charles go to the bathroom. Logan also is faced with the responsibility of passing on wisdom and experience to a young girl, who is basically his daughter.

Life Lesson for Aging Mutants. Uncovering cool new powers are not the focus in Logan. As mentioned before, Logan is dying. He just wants to die in peace, but deep down he knows that his bloody past will not allow that to happen. There is a moment of peace (the peaceful break of the film) when our heroes are befriended by the Munson family (Eric La Salle) and taken in for a homemade dinner and night’s rest. It is this moment that bring solace and peace to Professor X. Finally, the moment that Logan faces when he sees X-23 heading down the same road of killing he walked down.

Action Set Pieces. Emotions aside, Logan is still an action movie. The fight scenes are varied and exciting. They take place on the hot dry Mexican border, a quiet country farm, the mountainous Canadian border and the best fight in an small Arizona Casino.

What’s Not So Good

Child Actors. Logan has very few bad moments. There is a group of new mutant played by children and the acting of these children did not sit well. Admittedly, finding good child actors is not any easy task and trying to find a large group is even harder.

From there, it’s hard to pick apart a great movie. Interviews with the actors seem to indicate this is Jackman’s last foray into the role of Wolverine, unless Marvel Studios can pull off an Avengers-Wolverine crossover (highly unlikely). Logan is a touching send-off for one of movies most popular unknown heroes.

9 out of 10 stars

Hacksaw Ridge is the true story of WWII Army Medic Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield). Director Mel Gibson brings the unique story of this heroic army medic to light.

Release Date: November 4, 2016
Writer: Robert Schenkken, Andrew Knight
Director: Mel Gibson
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Rachel Griffiths, Hugo Weaving

The best you can say about Desmond Doss is that he’s a conscientious objector, who suffers from a great deal of guilt. As the son of a WWI Veteran Tom Doss (Hugo Weaving), Desmond lives under the tough reign of his father. As a Seventh-Day Adventist, Desmond has vowed never to hold a gun or any other instrument of death. And as an American, he enters the military as a medic to fight along with his countrymen.

At first, Doss excels at boot camp in the areas of fitness and endurance, but everything goes south when Doss refuses to hold a gun. Squad leader Sargent Howell (Vince Vaughn) takes personal offense and presses Doss to be court martialed.

Hacksaw Ridge tells Doss’ story in three parts. The first is his upbringing. Young Desmond is somewhat of an outcast. His father is especially harsh with him and there is a level of fear in Desmond who has to cope with his father’s PTSD from his war days. It is eventually revealed the reason Doss will not so much as touch a gun.

Next, we follow Doss through boot camp. We are treated to the obligatory training sequences, but it is his struggle to stand-up for his pacifism that filmmaker Gibson focuses on. Doss goes through physical punishment from his squad and he ultimately faces court martial for insubordination.

Finally, the battle of Hacksaw Ridge itself in Okinawa. The battle is especially brutal. The Japanese outnumber the Americans. Just entering the battle requires soldiers to climb up netting along a steep cliff.  As brutal as the battle is, we are reminded that Doss is on his own unarmed.

There is a trend in war film to accurately portray the savagery of battle and the realism of bullets flying through bodies. Hacksaw Ridge is especially gruesome as one of the bloodiest battles of WWII with an abundance of exploding heads and dismembered limbs. Medic Doss attends to each man alive, applying pressure, administering pain medicine and transporting bodies to safety.

After the first wave, the Americans are driven back to the sea at the base of the cliffs as nightfall arrives. Doss is alone on the battlefield. It is here when the movie takes off and as Doss begins to literally grab the wounded on the battlefield and lower them to back to camp from atop the cliff. He grabs man after man, praying “Help me get one more.” There are moments where Doss is forced to face his enemy without weapons.

Hacksaw Ridge is an amazing film. It is hard to realize that there are battles that we as Americans have never known if it were not for film. Hacksaw Ridge is a story of faith and conviction. Garfield’s portrayal of Doss is at first a little goofy and overly religious, but you follow and feel his pain through the trials of boot camp to his final heroism in the third act.

As a whole, Hacksaw Ridge ranks high in the world of war films. The acting is top notch. The production values and realism are haunting. But like any biopic, there are certainly forced moments of amazement. For example, when bodies are being lowered to camp, of course someone is going to ask, “Who’s up there?” or “Where did all this wounded come from?”  Heroism is our greatest form of inspiration for times like today.

9 out of 10 stars

There’s an old saying about honor among thieves. Apparently, that saying applies to assassins too. The world and code of assassins expands in the world of John Wick, Chapter 2. Let’s face it, the movie is a car chase, gun play, hand-to-hand kill fest. But it helps to have a compelling story to link the action together and Chapter 2 is an excellent sequel to the first.

Release Date: February 10, 2017
Writer: Derek Kolstad
Director: Chad Stahelski
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishburne, Ian McShane, Common, Ruby Rose, Riccardo Scamarcio

Shortly after the events of John Wick, Chapter 1, John (Keanu Reeves) thinks he’s finally out of the assassination game, until he is visited by an old acquaintance, Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio). Santino has come to call in a marker, a blood oath, from when Wick needed Santino to help him with the impossible task. Wick refuses to honor the marker and Santino blows up Wick home and he loses everything.

While seeking refuge at the Continental, the assassin’s safehaven, Wick is informed by manager Winston (Ian McShane) that he is honor-bound to fulfill the marker. There is nothing the society can do to release him from this contract. Agreeing to fulfill this final oath, Wick must assassinate Santino’s sister, Gianna D’Antonio (Claudia Gerini), the current leader of the D’Antonio crime family. Of course, with Gianna’s removal, Santino can now takeover the family.

Wick decides to murder Gianna at her installation ceremony in Italy. As with any good crime story, things go horribly wrong. Wick is confronted by Gianna’s bodyguard Cassian (Common), who appears to be the athletic equal of Wick. Santino, you guessed it, turns on Wick and is now being hunted by hearing-impaired body guard of Santino, Ares (Ruby Rose).

First, John Wick: Chapter 2 is an action film. Its starts with a clever car fight, not a car chase. It’s an actual fight with cars. But then the movies becomes one fight sequence after another. Each sequence is a combination of hand-to-hand and gun fights. Watch closely the fights with Cassian, where Wick is pushed to the edge fighting an opponents that is as good as he is. Near the end though the sequences can feel quite labored.

Second, John Wick is a fantasy film. Just like Chapter 1, the real fun of the film is the world of assassin’s and the Continental society. From a story standpoint, Chapter 2 is less about John Wick and his desire to return to normal life. The real movie is about the secret society and its rules that bind one to blood oaths, membership benefits and what happens when a members break its most cardinal rule—“never conduct business on Continental property.”

Third, John Wick is a sequel and just as good a movie as the first. Sequels give filmmakers time because there is no need to introduce the main characters. So, the world of the Continental gets to be expanded with the cool and obligatory weapons and armor store demos. We also get to see the consequences of challenging this elite society. And like a good sequel, it ends is an intriguing cliffhanger, which demands the story to continue.

John Wick: Chapter 2 succeeds as a sequel because it captures the flavor and spirit of the first film and tells a good story. The only negative is it leaves audiences a little frazzled by repetitive fight sequences. One also has to wonder with such a high body count, are there any people left in the world to kill?

7 out of 10 stars

The Resurrection of Gavin Stone is a faith-based film that tells a predictable but fun story of a washed-up child actor who must confront his Hollywood past, while at the same time playing Jesus in order to impress a girl. Thanks to the financial and talent backing of WWE Studios, this low-budget story of salvation is transformed into a professional touching and funny movie.

Release Date: January 20, 2017
Writer: Andrea Gyertson Nasfell
Director: Dallas Jenkins
Cast: Brett Dalton

Gavin Stone (Brett Dalton) is a former child actor, who lost his way as a young adult. After trashing a hotel room, Gavin finds himself needing to complete 80 hours of community service or jail. Inconvenienced by this pause in his career, Gavin is forced to return to his hometown near Chicago and work at the local church.

The church’s pastor, Allen Richardson (D.B. Sweeney) is a good honest pastor, who sees behind Stone’s desire to simply fulfill his hours. Seeing that Stone needs to keep his high-profile persona low profile, Richardson puts Stone on janitorial duty. While cleaning the women’s bathroom, Stone meets Kelly (Anjelah Johnson-Reyes), who runs the children’s ministry and also happens to be the director of the church’s passion play.

Seizing the opportunity to act instead of cleaning bathrooms, Stone immediately auditions for the role of Jesus. Since only Christians can audition for the play, Stone quickly searches Google to help put his Christian “testimony” together. Stone manages to impress the crowd with his testimony, except for Kelly, who is quickly revealed as the pastor’s daughter and remains skeptical of Stone’s motives.

Returning to his hometown, Stone also has demons to face and Stone’s demon is his estranged father, Waylon (Neil Flynn). Gavin and his father have not spoken since the death of Gavin’s mother/Waylon’s wife. Having no money, Gavin is forced to ask his father if he can live in his childhood home for the duration of his community service.

The Resurrection of Gavin Stone is a sweet, funny story of faith. It is by no means groundbreaking, but the script is solid and extremely predictable. Everything ends as it should and lives are changed. Predictability is not bad provided the journey to the end is entertaining.

For a faith movie to have the backing of the sport entertainment company, WWE Studios and the horror film studio Blumhouse, means that the film has a bigger budget and access to actors, who would not otherwise appear in a faith film. The Resurrection of Gavin Stone benefits from its star power to provide amazing performances. Let’s put it this way, good actors reduce the number of “eye-roll” moments commonly associated with faith films.

As the lead character Gavin Stone, Brett Dalton seems to be born to play this role. He brings the range necessary as the conflicted actor, which many in the faith film genre would have a hard time pulling off. Stand-up comedian, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes is also great as the pastor’s daughter but stern leader.

As with all movies about churches, there are the goofy church members and The Resurrection of Gavin Stone has plenty. Funny are Tim Franks, who plays the nerdy John Mark and Patrick Gagnon as the no-it-all Anthony. Of course, the reason I went to see this movie was to see one of my favorite wrestlers, Shawn Michaels as the former con, Doug.

If you’re a fan of faith-based movies, The Resurrection of Gavin Stone is a fun movie and worth seeing. It’s safe for the whole family. The church scenes are real and somewhat eye-opening when you see church through the eyes of the unchurched Gavin Stone. It does what all feel good movies should do…make you feel good.

7 out of 10 stars

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story follows the small crew of rebel outlaws and misfits as they attempt to steal the plans of the Empire’s new weapon—The Death Star. Rogue One is the first of the Star Wars stand-alone movies and director Gareth Edwards comes out swinging with the most intense Star Wars film.

Release Date: December 16, 2016
Writer: Chris Weitz, Tony Gilroy
Director: Gareth Edwards
Cast: Felicity Jones, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk

Rogue One is the story of a ragtag band of misfits, who take the ultimate step of bravery to steal the plans of the Death Star and in hopes of the saving the Republic. The movie starts on a desolate farm run by former Imperial scientist Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelson). Erso is soon approached by the Empire’s chief architect Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) to build a super weapon, famously known as the Death Star. As Erso is taken away, his young daughter, Jyn (Felicity Jones), goes into hiding. She is soon rescued and raised by Rebel sympathizer, Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) who comes from the Star Wars Clone Wars television show.

Years later, Jyn makes one last attempt to rescue her father and retrieve the plans for the super weapon. She is aided by her misfit friends and a small number of dedicated soldiers. Her band includes a morally compromised rebel soldier—Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), captured imperial pilot—Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), reprogrammed Imperial droid—K2SO (Alan Tudyk) and Jedi temple guards, Chirrut Inwe (Donnie Yen) and Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang).

It’s a different kind of Star Wars movie. Many of the filmmaking devices of Star Wars are discarded for more traditional story telling. Rogue One dispenses with the opening crawl and cinematic wipes, now reserved for the sagas. Rogue One for the most part is a war movie. What it lacks in character development, it makes up in great storytelling.

Rogue One is not perfect. A story that drags a little on the front end, where there is a great deal of revealing the large cast and talking about back story. But ultimately the movie moves quickly to the task at hand…stealing the plans of the Death Star. Star Wars fans know the ending, i.e. they steal the plans to the Death Star. Without giving away the entire story, Rogue One is the story of how far will individuals go and how much will they sacrifice for the greater good.

Already revealed is the return, not only of Darth Vader, but of Grand Moff Tarken and another surprise character. Technology we’ve seen in Ant-Man and Captain America: Civil War, which created a young looking Michael Douglas and teenage Robert Downey Jr. In Rogue One, LucasFilm brings a character from the past into a fully realized actor with the exact facial features of the late Peter Cushing. While the likeness and performance of this CGI character was amazing, its imperfections are noticeable. We’re close, but will we ever be able to bring an actor back to life?

In the end, I left Rogue One feeling like my heart was ripped out. It’s a story of heroism and the price of freedom. The movie will leave you inspired and grateful that the Star Wars franchise has been left in capable hands.

9 out of 10 stars

The young girl, Moana (Auli’l Cravalho) is destined to be the leader of her people, but is she destined to be something bigger? Disney’s Moana is the story of a princess looking to find who she is…just like Rapunzel, Frozen, and every princess before her.

Release Date: November 23, 2016
Writer: Jared Bush
Director: Ron Clemets, Don Hall
Music: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa’I, Mark Mancina
Cast: Auli’l Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House, Jemaine Clement, Nicole Scherzinger, Alan Tudyk

As an infant, Moana was drawn to the ocean. As the future leader of her people, her father and chief Tui (Temuera Morrison) needs her to be safe on dry land and never venture away from the island. Meanwhile, many years before, the Demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) has stolen the Heart of Te Fiti, the Goddess of the Islands. Her heart takes shape in the form of a small pounamu stone. When Maui stole the heart, a cursed was placed over the island and over time, each island would slowly die.

All through her life, Moana’s father trained her to be a leader, but it was her Gramma Tala (Rachel House), who encouraged her to follow her heart and seek the ocean. Unbeknownst to the others Gramma Tala possessed the Heart of Te Fiti. When the trees of the island begin to produced rancid fruit and the fishing traps no longer catch fish, Moana decides to take the Heart of Te Fiti, find the demigod Maui and restore the gem to the Goddess Te Fiti.

Moana is a solid story about a princess discovering who she really is. It is an inspirational tale for young girls and it also shows a girl who has leadership thrust upon her and embraces it.

As a reviewer, I have to judge Moana as a standalone, but it’s hard not to compare Moana not only to the last few Disney princess film, but also the string of female empowerment tales. Almost from the very beginning, I could not help but notice, I’ve heard this story over and over again in Disney Princess movies. In Frozen, Elsa has to embrace who she is. Rapunzel is on a quest to discover her true identity. The problem with Moana is that it tells the same story, but differently.

Moana has your basic cast of adorable characters. Moana’s parents, Chief Tui and Sina (Nicole Scherzinger) are good but overprotective parents. Pua the pig is cute, but like Mulan’s Little Brother shows up only in the beginning and the end. Heihei the chicken is an incredibly stupid chicken that serves as comic relief and important in a spot or two.

Moana has wise counsel, no not her father, but her Grandmother Tala and the Ocean. Yes, the Ocean plays a role in guiding and protecting our heroine.

Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson shines as Maui, the Demigod. Arrogant, but likeable, Maui is powerful but wants nothing to do with the mission of returning the Heart of Te Fiti. He is a has-been Hercules and only wants to return to the fame and glory he once had. In order to defeat the foes, Maui needs to retrieve his staff, which is lodged in the back of the giant coconut crab, Tamotoa (Jemaine Clement).

Disney continues to perfect the 3-D animation project. Moana boasts some of the most gorgeous and colorful backgrounds. The water effects are perfect. I used to lament the end of hand-drawn animation, but ever since Tangled, Disney make me a believer in their ability to tell compelling stories with computers.

Moana is also a Disney musical. Broadway composer Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote all of the main songs, while Opetaia Foa’l provides the Polynesian songs. Background music is composed beautifully by Mark Mancina.

The world knows Lin-Manuel Miranda from his hit Broadway play, Hamilton and he brings a great deal of Broadway sensibility to Moana. That’s the main problem with the music of Moana. We have an opener, an inspirational ballad, comic relief song, villain song and pretentious callbacks to the inspirational ballad. It’s as if he took a broadway checklist and after each type of song is written, he would check it off and move to the next. It felt staged versus organic.

Some songs are such as Maui’s “You’re Welcome.” The inspirational ballad “How Far I’ll Go” barely reaches the line of pretentious before backing off to a beautiful song, but the rest is Broadway sing-talk and the villain song, “Shiny” is the wordiest song in the world and incredibly hard to follow. You miss the days of the clever wordsmithing of Howard Ashman.

Moana may not be the greatest of the Disney Animated film, but it still shines brighter than its 2016 competition.

7 out of 10 stars