War Dogs from a Teenage Perspective : A Review of Max

I like dogs. I also really like working dogs.  The fact that people can train them to do important work always amazes me and enjoy seeing how loyal they do their jobs.

With that in mind, I decided to rent Max which is the fictional story of a German Shepherd that helped Army troups in war zones.  Max was a loyal dog who did his job well, but there were complications involving people to this story and Max is narrowly saved from death.

I initially rented this movie for my family.  However my kids were a bit young for the subject matter of this PG rated movie.  There are definitely complicated themes in this movie, and young children will probably not understand all that is going on.

Acting in this movie was well done. I believe the target audience might be teenagers and dog lovers.  There is definitely a teenage vibe coming from this movie as far as how to relate to other family members and deal with grief and distant parental relationships.  The other thing about this movie is that it is fiction.   I realize that the old show "Rin-Tin-Tin" was also fiction, but true stories have a little more impact I think.  I have also viewed the movie Megan Leavey which is another German Shepherd army dog movie.  That one was even less of a family movie, but both of them delivered in showing the value of trained working dogs in a war.   I liked them both.   I liked Max, but I also would have preferred A. either more true tales of working war dogs, or B. more of a kid-friendly look at war dogs and less teenage drama. 

Max was a good movie.  It showed the challenges of a war dog even showing the effect of PTSD on animals.  Don't expect mind-blowing plot points or deep philosophical points in Max and you will probably enjoy it quite a bit.  It shows the value of war dogs, and in some ways I enjoyed it more than the recent movie Megan Leavey.   Good movie and 3.5 stars out of 5. 

When Disney Tries Science Fiction Stories - Tomorrowland Review

Ok this movie didn't great reviews, but sometimes the reviews are wrong.  I rented Tomorrowland starring Hugh Laurie (from House), also starring George Clooney and someone who also plays in it is singer/actor Tim McGraw.    This starts out kind of interesting - but unfortunately the negative reviews are kind of true.  The main character - Casey Newton (played by Britt Robertson)  is a typical teenage girl and unfortunately they don't make her endearing AT ALL. She is annoying and never really grows on you as worth rooting for in this movie.  Tomorrowland has potential - but it is one of those movies where tight plot lines and good characters make or break the movie.  Unfortunately the movie plots kind of break the movie and the plot lines really never deliver the movie enough to get a high score.  Casey Newton screams most of the movie, and as the viewer tries to understand what exactly is happening, you never really feel for the characters. George Clooney's character is bossed around constantly and you feel like he never got off the ground.  Although he may have had a chance to develop as a younger version of himself, that story is left alone so that other less important pieces of the story can be developed.  Unfortunately the writers of Tomorrowland try to add in some mysterious pieces that come off like Terminator 2, yet still don't deliver as effectively as the characters in Terminator 2.   Sadly this is a science fiction movie that tries to show you the hopeful future, but has been done much better in other movies.  I wanted to like this Disney movie starring George Clooney and Tim McGraw - but I just couldn't.  So,  how could this scifi movie been much better and warranted a second watch?   Here are my recommendations:

1. Make Casey Newton scream and whine 75% less.  Yeah I realize teenage girls may accurately show the behavior of Casey - it STILL doesn't make a great movie watching her behave that way. It is annoying and disrespectful.

2. Make George Clooney have a more major role in the movie - show his younger self more in the movie, and develop an actual story rather than letting Casey's story overtake any sort of character development he may have.

3. Keep the message of hope, but make it build-up to the message much more throughout the whole movie.  Maybe remove some characters so the audience can be invested in the story and really see where it is developing to.  Instead we are left with a bunch of side characters all trying to make a hodge-podge of a plot into a semi-hopeful ending.    Not well executed. 

4. Never underestimate the power of a good screen writer.  I think this movie tried to do things well, but it just failed in many departments.  The special effects were nicely done, but people long for a good story.  Too many directors seem to think that special effects can make/break the movie.  They can't.   A good story is enhanced by them, but even a poorly produced movie has a chance if it is told well with good writing. 

Good science fiction is hard to pull off and rarely ever wins awards.  I wanted to like the movie Tomorrowland but unfortunately it wasn't one I would watch over again.   This one you may want to skip.  One thumb up for encouraging ending, and one thumb down for execution. 

Justice League - Did it Do Justice?

I heard reviews of this movie and decided to see what it was like.  I wanted to like it.  I think DC Comics heros have great potential to become some great movies (as Batman movies have already proved),  but yet this one just wasn't one I would re-watch and return to. 

First - a bit about the plot.  The plot is that Superman is dead (watch Superman vs. Batman to find out why that is), and it seems that Batman and Wonderwoman are the two main characters trying to fill in for him.  I do think that both Ben Afflect and Gal Gadot did great with the material they were given.  The plot is one bad guy (forget his name) is trying to get 3 powerful pieces so that he can get superpowers (who would have thought?) and take over the world.  The Justice League becomes aware of this and realizes he must be stopped before the world is no more. However, in order to stop this insane bad guy, they most rely on the strengths of all of the league characters to be successful.

Now that you know the overall plot, let me go into the 3 new characters : The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg.  Out of these 3 characters,  I think Aquaman has the best potential for a spin-off movie, and after watching a recent movie in the theaters see that a stand-alone movie of him is coming out soon.  Cyborg seems confused in this movie - either that or his introduction wasn't very well done.  The Flash in my opinion probably shouldn't have been included or his character and dialog should have been re-written.  His humor is juvenile and stupid.  His dialog is lame.  He comes off as annoying and really distracts from the story in my opinion.   Now to be fair,  maybe that is how his character is in the comic book stories, but in this story it just sort of distracted from the true character development of the others.   I like good superhero movies where the characters are good, the humor well executed and the action complimentary.  One of the better superhero movies for me was Ironman 3.   I also really enjoyed Captain America: Civil War.   These movies were able to intertwine many characters, great story and action, and keep the pace so you never got bored.  Plus you wanted to root for the heroes and didn't get lost in poorly written jokes that are poorly delivered.  Somehow I felt like Justice League somehow missed it in a few places.  I thought overall the movie wasn't bad,  it just could have been much better with some better writing for the characters and a tighter plot that made you care a little more about the outcome.

TLDR : Good movie, but not great.  Could have been better, but if you like DC comics you should still check it out.  If you are a Marvel fan mainly, save yourself the time.