CREED II (2018) – My rating: 8.5/10

Creed II is a drama directed by Steven Caple Jr. and written by Juel Taylor and Sylvester Stallone, from a story by Sascha Penn and Cheo Hodari Coker. A sequel to Creed (2015) and the eighth installment in the Rocky film series. Creed II was definitely a film I wanted to skip, I am so glad I didn’t, as the movie was quite entertaining, despite the same old plot and a predictable outcome.

Creed II follows a fight over 33 years in the making, as the current heavy weight champion meets a new adversary in the ring.  Three years after his loss to “Pretty” Ricky Conlan (Anthony Bellew), Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) scores several wins, culminating in a victory over Danny “Stuntman” Wheeler (Andre Ward) to win the WBC World Heavyweight Championship. Now a worldwide star, Adonis proposes to his girlfriend, Bianca Taylor (Tessa Thompson) who agrees to marry him.

**** SOME SPOILERS BELOW ****

Meanwhile, a former Soviet boxer named Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), who was responsible for the death of Adonis’ father, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) thirty-three years earlier, sees an opportunity to regain the glory he lost in Moscow fighting Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) by pitting his son, Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) against Adonis.  However, Rocky refuses to support Adonis’s decision to accept Viktor’s challenge, so feeling betrayed by Rocky’s decision, Adonis moves to Los Angeles where he and Bianca settle down in a luxurious apartment close to Adonis’s adoptive mother and Apollo’s widow, Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad). As Adonis and Bianca adjust to their new life on the west coast and prepare for the upcoming match with Viktor, Bianca learns that she is pregnant. Caused to choose a new trainer, Adonis recruits Tony “Little Duke” Evers (Wood Harris), son of his father’s trainer, as Rocky’s replacement.  Overwhelmed with all the recent developments in his life, Adonis rushes into the match, getting himself badly injured. Viktor gets disqualified for hitting Adonis while he is down, allowing Adonis to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.

At this point you might think I’ve revealed the entire story but I haven’t even gotten started.  Creed II is packed full of excitement and twisted plots.  There is much more to explore and learn about the life of Adonis.  Knowing that Adonis and Viktor will fight again you have to wonder how it happens and who will emerge the victor.  I liked Creed II very much but I wouldn’t want to see a Creed III.  The actors were brilliant and Creed II is a nice way to end the Rocky series.  Sylvester Stallone’s enunciation was better than any other movie I’ve seen him in, I actually understood every word.  I recommend seeing Creed II — Check it out!

 

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 (2017) – My rating: 9/10

What can I say about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 — history is repeating itself.  It’s even better than the first one, a different story, still a quality film.  Good humor, good plot, fantastic special effects, brilliant acting, awesome costumes, great makeup and great directing.  What else do you need.  I truly enjoyed this second sequel.

The Guardians of the Galaxy consist of: Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax  The Destroyer (Dave Bautista), voice of Rocket (Bradley Cooper), a genetically modified raccoon bounty hunter and mercenary who is also a master of weapons and military tactics, Voice of Baby Groot (Vin Diesel), a tree-like humanoid who began growing from a sapling at the end of the first film and is Rocket’s accomplice.   Vol. 2 opens with The Guardians of the Galaxy battling an inter-dimensional monster for Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), the golden High Priestess and leader of the Sovereign people, (a genetically engineered race who are “gold and perfect and wanting to be physically and mentally impeccable”) in exchange for Nebula (Karen Gillan), Gamora’s estranged, adopted sister who was captured while attempting to steal valuable batteries from Ayesha and her people.  The Guardians no sooner leave Ayesha before being attacked by a fleet of Sovereign drones because Rocket has stolen some of the batteries for himself.  The drones are mysteriously destroyed but the Guardians are forced to crash land on a nearby planet.  The mysterious attacker reveals himself to the Guardians as Ego (Kurt Russell), Peter’s father.

At this point the story begins to take shape.  We learn about the characters and their missions and many more are introduced and so the plot thickens.  We have a father who is meeting his son for the first time, and a son who never knew his father existed.  We also have sisters who have no love for each other, in fact one wants the other dead along with their father.  There is also Yondu Udonta (Michael Rooker), a blue-skinned buccaneer who is the leader of the Ravagers and also the father figure who raised Peter Quill as well as a member of the Guardians along with Kraglin (Sean Gunn), Yondu’s loyalist.  If that isn’t enough, there’s Ego’s pet empath, Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Taserface (Chris Sullivan) leader of a mutinous group of the Ravagers and the dumbest of all characters in the film. Lastly, another character introduced in Vol 2 is Stakar Ogord/Starhawk (Sylvester Stallone) a high-ranking Ravager who has an intense history with Yondu, a kind of father/son type of thing, according to Stallone.

A little about Peter Quill:
He is a Half-human, half-Celestial leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy and was abducted from Earth as a child, raised by a group of alien thieves and smugglers called the Ravagers and is now famous throughout the galaxy for having saved many people.

A little about Ego, Peter’s father:
Ego explains he is a god-like Celestial, an immortal consciousness that manipulated the matter around it to form the planet with itself at the core. Forming a human guise, he traveled the universe to escape his loneliness and discover a purpose, eventually falling in love with Quill’s mother, Meredith. Ego hired Yondu to deliver Quill after his mother’s death, but he was never showed up and Ego had been searching for him ever since.

Overall, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is quite entertaining and well worth seeing on the big screen.  I am happy to see Zoe Saldana’s character, Gamora being developed a little more. She seemed unfeeling and appeared to have an  angry attitude most of the time. In Vol. 2, she has warmed up a little and comes off a little more human. Hollywood has a tendency to drag out demolition and fight scenes as well as car chases, so you may find a couple of those drawn out scenes in Vol. 2, other than that, I think you’re in for a real treat!

 

Save

CREED (2015) – My rating: 8.3/10

Emotionally packed, Creed turned out to be a pretty good movie. Sylvester Stallone still speaks as though he has a mouth full of mush but he is who he is and he delivered a solid performance as the beloved Rocky Balboa. Old and completely out of the fighting game, Rocky is persuaded to help the illegitimate son of another famous boxer and old rival friend (Apollo Creed), to train as a fighter. After much convincing, Rocky consents to train Adonis “Donnie” Johnson (Michael B. Jordan) known for Fruitvale Station, only to find that they both would be up against the fights of their lives. Creed takes you places that will have you holding your breath to fight back tears and covering your mouth to hold back anger at some scenes.  After the death of Apollo, his wife, Mary Anne Creed (Phylicia Rashad) takes in Donnie (who’s mother is also deceased) and raises him.  Educated and working at a securities firm, Donnie quits to pursue his dream of being a professional fighter.  He  tries to get training at LA’s elite Delphi Boxing Academy but was turned down before traveling to Philadelphia to find Rocky.

Stallone won his first Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Rocky Balboa in Creed.  An award I’d say was way over due.  Creed is among one of the best Rocky movies.  You won’t be disappointed.

[CREED is nominated for BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR]
 

THE EXPENDABLES 3 – My rating 8.5/10

This was the best Expendable movie yet.  Director, Patrick Hughes managed to spring surprise after surprise after surprise. I especially liked the twist and turns in the story.  Some of the lines were hilarious and as usual we are taken on a real thrill ride.  The movie opens with the Expendable team rescuing an old friend (Surprise #1).  The team then goes on another mission before returning home.  After one of the team members gets shot pretty badly, Sylvester Stallone realizes how worn and torn the team has become, so he fires the current team (Jason Statham, Randy Couture, Dolph Lundgren and Terry Crews) and goes in search for a new team.  Another old friend (surprise #2) supplies Stallone with a selection  of candidates ready to do what’s needed to get the job done.  Some were accepted and some were not.  One rejected candidate goes out of his way to prove he belongs on the team (surprise #3) and is finally accepted.  After completing the new team, they embark on their new mission, authorized by (surprise #4).  Finally they are face to face with the enemy (surprise #5).   This is where the movie takes a twist, which I will not elaborate on because it’s a huge spoiler.  The end offers more surprises.  All in all the team is looking old and touched up but hey, we’re all getting old.  I think Expendables 3 is a good, solid movie worth seeing.  It is worth whatever they’re charging for a movie ticket these days.  Check it out, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

HOMEFRONT (2013) – My rating: 7/10

This was a quick Hollywood, holiday season throw-in.  Decent plot but nothing to get excited about.  A single dad and former, top DEA agent, played by Jason Statham, ends up having to clean up his new town by annihilating a current meth lab and teaching the locals a lesson or two.  There is lots of violence and action.  No surprise there — Jason is known for his fighting antics and no nonsense execution of lethal blows.  The big surprise for me was James Franco who played a drug warlord.  I’m not use to seeing James in this type of role.  He did a pretty good job for a guy who kind of zoned out on the academy awards presentation he was hosting.  Another surprise for me was that Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay.

If you’re looking for a nice family movie to take the kids, this is not the one.  Lots of profanity as well as the violence.  I wasn’t sorry I saw Homefront but it didn’t make me go WOW!