Hardcore Henry

Review Written by Michael J. Ruhland



















Michael's Movie Grade: F

Review: This film has some very clever ideas about filmmaking and a new style of action films. However all these ideas fail miserably.

The ideas of doing an action movie in all first person shots and with a main character without dialog sound like good ideas, but are completely wasted here. They simply add nothing and we are left with bland characters, a horrible story, and gore that exists for no reason other than being gory. All of this is horribly handled.

I hope a film in the future will use this style of film making better, but this film stands as a miserably failed experiment.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland
















Michael's Movie Grade:F

Review: Easily the worst superhero movie ever made, and one of the worst films I have ever seen. This film not only earns it's bad reputation, but it's much worse than that reputation could ever make it seem like.

The whole film is somehow both very unpleasant and bland. The dark look of this movie does not make the film seem more serious, but rather just makes it unpleasant without adding anything. This film is even unpleasant to look at (I can't overuse the word unpleasant because that is simply what the film is). Also with all the versions of these characters this is easily the most bland. There is nothing interesting about the characters here and they are devoid of any personality. The only exception to the bland character is Lex Luther. Instead of being bland he was extremely annoying. Every time this character appeared on screen he just irritated me to seemingly no end. Jesse Eisenberg's performance here was bafflingly bad. He is simply a better actor than this performance, and I don't know what he was thinking here. To make it worse the character's motives are horrible. These motives are for an amateurish pseudo-philosophy reason that this film somehow expects us to take seriously. More than anything though this film is unbelievably boring. However the worst thing I can say about this movie is that there is nothing good about it at all.

Horrible, Horrible movie.

-Michael J. Ruhland

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland












Michael's Movie Grade:C+

Review: While this is far from a classic, it is a charming film.

There may be more jokes that miss the mark than ones that work, but the ones that do work work quite well. The story also has been done many times before, and nothing new is added here. However stating that it works well here. This film is very unoriginal and may not need to exist but it still has a nice charm, a few good jokes and is quite entertaining.

-Michael J. Ruhland

The Lady in the Van

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland














Michael's Movie Grade:A-

Review: Fantastic film.

This movie is very well written, touching and funny, but what really makes the film work is Maggie Smith (reprising a role she played on stage and on radio) brilliant performance. She becomes almost consumed with the character, and all you see on screen is that character.

This film's combination of comedy and drama is fantastic. Both the comedy and drama work very well, and neither gets in the way of the other. Instead they complement each other very well.

It is worth noting that this film was written by Alan Bennett, who also wrote the source material. This mostly true story also was based off his own life. His honesty helps make this film work even better.

Overall this is a great movie.

-Michael J. Ruhland

God's Not Dead 2

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland


















Michael's Movie Grade:B-

Review: A quite enjoyable movie. What really works in this movie is it's story which is great, and the characters who if underdeveloped were quite likable.  The story does get you to root for the characters. Even if this story seems very familiar to the first film, it offers enough variety to make it not a repeat of that movie.

On the downside the film trying to tie itself to the first one seems really forced. The Newsboys especially feel like they are in this movie because of the first movie and to sing the catchy theme song for the first film. However judging from the scene after the trailer hopefully the next movie will do this better. However this movie is sincere and heartfelt as well as entertaining.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Miracles From Heaven

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland



















Michael's Movie Grade:B

Review: Quite effective uplifting tearjerker.

While this film follows the standard formula for these types of films very closely, it is still very well done and quite effective. Part of the reason for this is that the characters are very likable. You care about the characters, and want the best for them. This film also features some pretty good visual film making. The message is quite beautiful and life being a miracle, is something we all need to be reminded of.

Also for Third Day fans this film contains Mac Powell as the church's worship leader, and gives the movie some quite good music.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Zootopia

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland


















Michael's Movie Grade:A-

Review: Fantastic movie. Funny, clever, likable, and very well animated film.

This movie has everything going for it. It has very likable characters, a great story, and the jokes are very funny. We especially have all felt like Judy and Nick at times. This characters are quite real to us. Helping very much is that the message is more complex than much of what is coming out Hollywood today. This message is presented very cleverly and is at the service of the characters and story instead of being forced in.

Disney buffs pay attention for a very clever reference to 101 Dalmatians.

-Michael J. Ruhland