Just before I began My Ultimate Global Adventure, I went to five movies on the same day. How many of you can say that? Surely enough, did not see any films until this weekend, when I went to:
Weekend Rotten Tomatoes My
Revenues Reviewers Audience Grade
Fast and Furious 6 1 72 95 B+
The Hangover Part 3 2 21 88 B+
Star Trek into Darkness 3 87 89 B-
Ironman 3 5 78 83 B
The Great Gatsby 6 50 84 B-
#4 for the weekend was Epic (I avoid animated films.)
None of these movies can be considered as great, but they were all entertaining. I saw a couple of them in that audio upgraded Titan XC. Kind of expensive, but why not splurge on occasion? The sound is terrific, but not much better than my home systems when I'm brave enough to kick the volume up.
Why only a B+ for F&F 3? Too many car crashes. Those only upset my equilibrium. In these days of green screens, computer animation and general safety, they actually used 300 cars, and many, many were destroyed. The final scene from Fast and Furious 6 was commercially promotive, for driving in Tokyo the Mercedes killing of Hans Seoul-Oh of the good gang was Jason Statham (right, to play Ian Shaw in F&F 7) brother of Owen Shaw, leader of the heist gang, who was killed in F&F 6.
There will be no Hangover 4, but, you never know for sure. The script was a stretch, and the film did not meet box office expectations. Those original Wolfpack four played their parts okay, especially Zach Galifianakis, but Ken Jeong (left) was wonderfully manic and added some spice. He actually is a medical doctor on a long sabbatical. Not, not in the movie as Leslie Chow, but in real life.
There most definitely will be a lot more Star Treks, perhaps film #13 in 2015, with #14 squeezed into 2016, the 50th year of Star Trek on television. The most commanding character in #12 was Benedict Cumberbatch's (right) Khan, a genetically engineered superhuman. Why only a B-? I'm not a Trekkie. 
Only a B for Ironman 3? Lots of high tech and action, good, but I'm at the stage of my life where super-duper performance beyond any reasonable logic leaves me cold. I dump vampire movies into this pot. Ben Kingsley was a surprise as the "evil" Mandarin, and you need to see the movie to appreciate this statement. The acting star no doubt, though, was Guy Pierce
as Aldrich Killian (right, I'm giving this away, but he is the truly bad guy). Gwyneth Paltrow could well be Iron Lady in the next sequel, but Robert Downey, Jr is indispensable. He has said he won't be part of Ironman 4, which will be filmed, as #3 has already made more than $1 billion worldwide. Maybe Downey is seeking more than $50 million for #4. The real winner of all these Marvel Comic (company formed the year before I was born) movies is Disney, which bought them out. The list includes Spider Man, X Men, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and Daredevil. Growing up reading these comics I could never have guessed.
I generally enjoy Baz Luhrmann's opulence and overplay, and Leonardo DiCaprio was fine. I liked the reality of the ending, but F. Scott Fitzgerald could have had a more twisted and satisfying ending. He did not write a sequel to The Great Gatsby, so, that should be the end of that. On the other hand, many of those follow-ups above featured creative modern-day screenwriting. But Jay Gatsby is killed, so what's the point? Many English classes read this book, but I never did, and never will.-
Out of nowhere came Hurricane Barbara, just now at 75 MPH and ready to plow north into a mostly isolated part of south Mexico, then, interestingly enough, into the Gulf of Mexico to become.....?
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