Average Joe's Movie Reviews

Official Synopsis:  Riley North awakens from a coma after surviving a brutal attack that killed her husband and daughter. When the system shields the murderers from justice, Riley sets out to transform herself from citizen to urban guerrilla. Channeling frustration into motivation, the young widow spends years in hidin g -- honing her mind, body and spirit to become an unstoppable force. Eluding the underworld, the police and the FBI, Riley embarks on a deadly quest to deliver her own personal brand of punishment. Official Review:   Peppermint comes to us from Pierre Morel, the man who brought us Taken , the action adventure hit that helped revitalize Liam Neeson's career and sell him as action hero. Many had believed  Peppermint might do the same for Jennifer Garner, I can say with absolute certainty, it did not. I didn't have much prior knowledge to Peppermint before my viewing- I knew a basic plot synopsis and that it starred Jennifer Garner. So when the fi...

Official Synopsis:  Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time after a mission gone wrong. Official Review:  Mission: Impossible- Fallout is the 6th movie in the  Mission: Impossible  franchise and by far my favorite of the series. Fallout opens up in true Mission: Impossible fashion, wasting no time in setting up the next mission IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) must go on. The Mission: Impossible films have always been talked about when it comes to daring stunts, fun action and exciting stories but Fallout has truly pushed the limits of the series and spy-thrillers as a whole. Mission: Impossible - Fallout has had some of the best and most exciting action sequences of recent years, a large part of this is due to Tom Cruise's dedication and death defying stunt-work. Christopher McQuarrie and cinemtographer Rob Hardy created action sequences so incredibly real and smooth flowing, it all feels natural and impromptu. T...

Official Synopsis:   Three years after the destruction of the Jurassic World theme park, Owen Grady and Claire Dearing return to the island of Isla Nublar to save the remaining dinosaurs from a volcano that's about to erupt. They soon encounter terrifying new breeds of gigantic dinosaurs, while uncovering a conspiracy t hat threatens the entire planet. Official Review: Jurassic World: Fallen  Kingdom is the direct sequel to 2015's Jurassic World. To be honest I had virtually no excitement when this movie was announced and it stayed that way up until the release date. I went into Fallen Kingdom with low expectations and none of them were exceeded. The entire run time of this film I just kept waiting for this movie to get more exciting. I was not a fan of the first Jurassic World , finding it to be pretty sub-par and generic. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom didn't prove to be any better. After taking sometime to really think about why this movie failed to exceed expe...

Official Synopsis:  Debbie Ocean gathers an all-female crew to attempt an impossible heist at New York City's yearly Met Gala. Official Review: Ocean's 8 is the most recent film in the Ocean's franchise. It takes place several years after the conclusion of Ocean's 13 and follows the life of Debbie Ocean, the smooth talking criminal sister of late great Con-Man Danny Ocean. This film opened up with a wonderful sequence that painted the tone of and style of Ocean's 8  perfectly. Within a few moments of the opening sequence I said to myself this movie is going to be a lot of fun. Ocean's 8 lead a very breakneck pace throughout the entire run time never slowing down and always posing to be able to handle the quick transitions while keeping the viewer interested in the story. However, there were times in Ocean's 8 when the film's sprint like pacing called for a sacrifice to be made. Unfortunately, the writers and director chose to sacrifice the ch...

Official Synopsis:  During an adventure into the criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his future copilot Chewbacca and encounters Lando Calrissian years before joining the Rebellion. Official Review:   Solo: A Star Wars Film is the latest in the Star Wars franchise and the second non episode feature to hit the big screen. The film follows beloved and iconic Han Solo and his faithful partner Chewbacca as they team up for the first time with a group of smugglers to steal the precious fuel source coaxium. I am a fan of the Star Wars franchise but I wouldn't consider myself to be a die hard fan. So when I heard the well known character was getting his own spin-off prequel I was mildly interested in this film until they hired Ron Howard to direct and then I was on board. I have always been a fan of Howard's work especially in titles like Cinderella Man and Apollo 13 . So to see Ron Howard given the creative freedom over a Star Wars film was an interesting and exc...

Official Synopsis:  Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and the rest of the Avengers unite to battle their most powerful enemy yet -- the evil Thanos. On a mission to collect all six Infinity Stones, Thanos plans to use the artifacts to inflict his twisted will on reality. The fate of the planet and existence itself has never bee n more uncertain as everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment. Official Review: Avengers: Infinity War  was directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and stars virtually every MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universal) hero to date.  Avengers: Infinity War  follows the Avengers and their allies as they attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos before his blitz of devastation and ruin puts an end to the universe. In doing so they must be willing to sacrfice all. Now, going into Infinity War I had pretty mixed emotions and expectations as I was a very big fan of both  Black Panther  and  Thor: Ragnarok  but not a gigantic...

Official Synopsis:  In the year 2045, the real world is a harsh place. The only time Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) truly feels alive is when he escapes to the OASIS, an immersive virtual universe where most of humanity spends their days. In the OASIS, you can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone-the only limits are your own imagination. The OASIS was created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance), who left his immense fortune and total control of the Oasis to the winner of a three-part contest he designed to find a worthy heir. When Wade conquers the first challenge of the reality-bending treasure hunt, he and his friends-aka the High Five-are hurled into a fantastical universe of discovery and danger to save the OASIS. Review Summary: Ready Player One is an exciting and well directed film that delivered with strong and perfectly crafted action sequences. Ready Player One suffer's from over reliance on nostalgia and unnecessary narration that bogs...

Director: Steven S. DeKnight Starring: John Boyega, Charlie Day, Scott Eastwood and Jing Tian Run Time: 1h 51 min MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sequences of Sci-Fi viloence and action, and some language Grade: C+ Synopsis: Jake Pentecost is a once-promising Jaeger pilot whose legendary father gave his life to secure humanity's victory against the monstrous Kaiju. Jake has since abandoned his training only to become caught up in a criminal underworld. But when an even more unstoppable threat is unleashed to tear throug h cities and bring the world to its knees, Jake is given one last chance by his estranged sister, Mako Mori, to live up to his father's legacy. Review Summary: Pacific Rim Uprising was an extremely bland movie,that failed to prove to be anything special throughout it's short and poorly paced run time. However, Pacific Rim Uprising did deliver in entertaining and well directed action sequences. 

Game Night was directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein and stars Jason Bateman along side Rachael McAdams as an eccentric couple, Max and Annie, who host a weekly game night with their close friends. When Max's brother arranges a murder mystery party - complete with fake thugs and federal agents - goes wrong all participants of the game night think it's just apart of the game, but soon find out the kidnapping and crimes associated with the game are real. This leads the group of friends into uncharted territory as they attempt to solve the real world crimes happening.  Game Night is an exceptionally funny and creative movie that had the audience in my theater laughing the entire duration of the film. The vision created by Daley and Goldstein was something that really showed strong in Game Night , after their lousy paring with the remake of Vacation I was a little hesitant to engage this film fully. This directing duo did prove me wrong, in the best way possib...

Annihilation was written and directed by Alex Garland and is the direct adaption Jeff VanderMeer's trilogy Southern Reach. Annihilation stars Natalie Portman as biologist, Lena, who signs up for a dangerous mission leading her into an environmental disaster zone where rules of nature don't apply. Let me be honest and open right up front. I loved Annihilation . Quite a bit, almost everything about this movie was unexpected and masterfully filmed. I will say if you are not a fan of Science Fiction this movie will be very challenging to watch. It is by far a strong genre film. As a fan of Science Fiction I really found this movie to be exciting and a fun watch. My first thoughts on Annihilation were hard to form as this is a film that really pushed me in my suspension of disbelief and willingness to go where the director was taking me. After I bought into the vision that Garland had for this film, I was swept away by a very fun and exciting movie that immediately left me a...

Black Panther was written and directed by Ryan Coogler and follows the story of T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) as he returns home to claim his mantle of King of his beloved land of Wakanda after the death of his father. I was beyond excited for the movie when hearing Ryan Coogler was going to be directing this film. After his work on movies like Creed and Fruitvale Station he quickly grew to be a director I loved. I am also a pretty big Black Panther fan as well. I was always fascinated with him growing up and was a pretty big fan of his comic story arc of The Man Without Fear where he took over defending Hells Kitchen from Daredevil. I had a lot of expectations for this film going in probably more than I have had for other marvel films the story lines available and the directors prior work. Leaving the theater I was very satisfied with the movie we got. I don't think this film could have been done better, it immediately grew to the top of my favorite Marvel films. ...

The Cloverfield Paradox was directed by Julius Onah and is the 3rd installment of the Cloverfield Franchise. It is no secret I am a big fan of the previous Cloverfield films, 10 Cloverfield Lane being one of my favorite films of 2016, so watching the announcement trailer during the Super Bowl was easily the highlight of my evening. After watching the film, I was immediately perplexed by how I felt about this film. Part of me loved it and the other part was a little hesitant to dive into this movie fully. I think the reason for this is this movie is beyond abstract, it is a Sci-Fi horror movie that doesn't deal with conventional Sci-Fi Horror tropes. The Cloverfield Paradox is by far the most far-fetched on the Cloverfield movies.. Which is saying something because the original Cloverfield was a little out there. So as a viewer if you jump on the crazy train along with Onah you will be in for a very fun and exciting ride. Let's dive deep into what worked best for ...