Despite being June, Super 8 might be the best movie of the summer.  As much a family drama about loss and friendship as it is a sci-fi adventure, it’s one all ages can thoroughly enjoy.  Set in 1979 Ohio, the film follows 13-year old Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) as he tries to get past his mother’s recent death in a factory accident.  While Joel deals by making a homemade zombie movie with his adorable rag-tag bunch of friends, Joel’s father Jackson (Kyle Chandler) copes by throwing himself into his work as a deputy sheriff.  All of that would have made for a great two-hour movie on its own, but after the kids- and eventually the whole town- get caught in a government conspiracy involving an alien, things take a turn. 

There have been a lot of comparisons in the media of Super 8 to ‘80s classics like Stand By Me and The Goonies. Considering the strong friendship between the gang and their coming-of-age, as well as the adventure they experience, the comparisons aren’t unfounded.  There’s also many endearing, albeit a little hokey, comic moments.  This all makes it feel like the kind of summer movie you would’ve watched in theaters in 1985. It’s also a reason a lot of people will like it- especially, if today’s theater-goers are tired of prequels, sequels, and Superhero movies.  Also, it’s not a mistake Steven Spielberg produced this throwback. The film often recalls his hit E.T. as well.  READ MORE

Smashing good fun, brilliant CGI and hilariously funny, Kenneth Branagh manages to make Thor one of the best super hero films ever. Branagh, known best for his Shakespearean hits like Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing and Henry V, brings to bear all of his considerable talents to create a believable story and wonderful characters.  Branagh creates an Asgard that is stunningly beautiful, glorious and majestic without ever crossing the line to excess. It just somehow works.

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Fast Five is out and it knocks the hell out of its predecessors. Packed with heart stopping action, laugh out loud humor and muscles, (cars and heroes) Fast Five blasts into the theater with a massive nitrous oxide burn. Paul Walker (Brian O’Connor) and Vin Diesel (Dominic Toretto) are back and with a vengeance. READ MORE

Fractured, disjointed and clearly unfocused, The Green Hornet offers little to further the comic book hero's mythology and even less to a movie audience. Trying to be satirical yet with a serious understory, this latest iteration of the playboy-turned-crime fighter misses at every turn.

Seth Rogen is Britt Reid, millionaire playboy and son of the owner of The Daily Sentinel, Los Angeles’ only independent newspaper. Scorning his father’s attempts at making him care, Reid is a hard partying selfish egotist whose only concern is his next drink and/or one night stand. Only, things are not so rosy for Britt’s father, James Reid (Tom Wilkinson). While Britt is scandalizing LA, his father’s newspaper has taken on Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz), LA’s chief crime lord and a particularly nasty one. Only after his father’s death does Britt realize that perhaps there is more to life than debauchery.

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Take a classic western from 1969, add Jeff Bridges for John Wayne, Matt Damon for Glen Campbell and Joel and Ethan Coen at the helm and you get damn near the best remake ever made. True Grit (2010) has all the elements of the original: crusty old Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Bridges), an arrogant young Texas Ranger named LaBeouf (Damon) and a precocious, if annoying, 14 year old thorn in everyone’s side, Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) all in search of Tom Chaney, a ne’er do well outlaw that killed Mattie’s father.

Tom Chaney has disappeared into the Choctaw Nation to escape the law and to join “Lucky” Ned Pepper’s gang, a particularly heinous criminal and an old enemy of Rooster’s. What Chaney does not count on is the obsessive single mindedness of Mattie and her hired marshal, Rooster. Rooster, a notorious drunk and amoral, if efficient, killer is only slightly less obsessed with catching Pepper and figures Chaney will lead him to his old nemesis. Joined by Ranger LaBeouf, who’s hunted Chaney for many months, the three form an uneasy alliance marked by constant bickering and a deep dislike that Rooster seems to have for everyone. READ MORE

Outrageously funny and a barrel of belly laughs, Due Date is one of the funniest movie of the year. The flick seems a great reimagining of the 1987 comic hit Plains, Trains and Automobiles, without the trains. Modernized with tons of pot, rampant references to masturbation and a hilarious border crossing, Due Date transcends the Steve Martin John Candy classic with a vengeance. Bad boy Robert Downey Jr. and new comic superstar Zach Galifianakis manage to create a relationship so mutually destructive that it’s impossible to believe either survived.

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