Jake's Cinema Room

Room is one of the most emotional and heartwarming films to come out this year. Director Lenny Abrahamson along with actress Brie Larson and newcomer Jacob Tremblay knock it out of the park with what is without a doubt one of the best films of the year. The story is told from the perspective of Jack (Jacob Tremblay), his mother (Brie Larson) and him live in a very small place that they call room. This is the only place Jack has known his whole life, he's never been able to see the outside world. As he turns five years old Jack's mother decides it's time for them to get out of their current situation. She hatches up a plan to get them out of room and once they do Jack finally gets to witness what the outside world has to offer. Let me just say that going in to this film I really had no idea what it was about. All the descriptions and synopsis' I read didn't leave much to the imagination, but that is how this film should be viewed. Going in without much knowledge ...

The End of the Tour is the latest film directed by James Ponsoldt, which shows the real life story of Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) spending five days with acclaimed writer David Frank Wallace (Jason Segel) and interviewing him for the famous magazine. This takes place just after Wallace's groundbreaking novel 'Infinite Jest' was released. Director James Ponsoldt takes us through the five day interview and we see as these two guy become good friends but start to constantly bicker and argue the more they get to know one another. It's a real in depth look inside the mind of two clearly talented writers and how much they differ from one another as we watch over the course of the film. This was a pleasantly surprising little film. Not that I expected it to be a disappointment but it surprised me in how genuine and real it felt as the story went along. Watching these two guys and listening to the conversations they have together, you really get a ...

Summertime always seems to be the best time to showcase a coming of age story. That's the setting for the latest film trying to go the coming of age route and that film is Staten Island Summer. In the film we follow Danny (Graham Phillips) and Frank (Zack Pearlman), two best friends who are working as lifeguards during the summer after graduating high school. Both guys are unsure of what they want to do now that they are out of high school but they know for sure that they want to have a great summer. Summer consists of them getting into all kinds of shenanigans with some of their fellow co-workers and it all leads up to one last blow out party to end the summer on the right note. This was a surprising little film. It was completely off my radar until I was able to catch it on Netflix and I must say that it was well worth the watch. While the film does hit many of the same beats other films like it hit and it is really cliche in a lot of parts, it was able to win me over with wi...

Another year goes by and here we have another big budget Adam Sandler comedy. Every time I review a Sandler film I always say the same thing, the guy is talented but he continues to make films that are so low brow with their humor that they just aren't funny. He consistently does this because he knows those types of films are what's going to make him more money. With this latest film, Pixels, the trailer actually had me pretty interested. I though hey maybe this could finally be a decent film with Sandler that will be a step above all his other bad comedies he's put out over the last 10 years. The end result has me kind of split because the film really isn't that good but it's not as bad as everyone else has made it out to be, The basic premise here is that we follow Sandler as Sam Brenner, who as a kid was one of the best arcade game players in the country but now he works for a Geek Squad type company because he lost an arcade game championship when he was you...

It's been 14 years now since Joe Dirt came out back in 2001. The film has garnered a small cult following despite the fact that it's not the greatest comedy to ever come out. I'll be the first to admit that while I don't find the film to be particularly good there are some parts that do make me laugh and it's something I can throw on everyone once in a while. Now here we are in 2015 and for whatever reason we're getting a sequel that I'm pretty sure nobody asked for. We can thank the streaming site Crackle for this sequel, who got the exclusive rights to show this instead of it going to theaters or straight to DVD. That should give you some perspective on how good this could possibly be. When we last left Joe (David Spade) he had gotten back with his girlfriend Brandy (Brittany Daniel) and everything was going well for him. We watch as Joe and Brandy get married, go on to have three daughters and have a fairly nice life together. That is until a terrible...

Kevin James is back as Paul Blart in the sequel that nobody asked for. I'll be the first to admit that I didn't mind the first film. Sure it wasn't great but I didn't flat out hate it either. Also despite his very lackluster film career so far I do like Kevin James and think he can be funny given the right material, just look at Hitch and his years on The King of Queens. Since the first film was a surprising box office success it was inevitable that a sequel would probably follow, it's just a shame that nobody thought about even trying when it came to making a second film. This time around we pick up where the last film left off. We see Paul marry his love interest Amy (Jayma Mays) only for her to leave him just six days later. This depresses Paul but he continues on keeping his mall safe. His daughter Maya (Raini Rodriguez) is tired of seeing her dad so depressed and talks him into taking a much needed vacation. She recently got an acceptance letter to college ...

Channing Tatum and the boys are back for a second go around in  Magic Mike XXL . It’s been three years since we last saw Mike (Channing Tatum) who has since left the stripping world and is hard at work running his own custom furniture business. One day he gets a call from one of his old buddies who gets him to meet up with the old crew who are planning on going up to Myrtle Beach for a stripper convention to put on one last spectacular performance. Along the way they team up with some old friends of Mike’s led by Rome (Jada Pinkett-Smith) who help them out in putting together their final performance. >When the first  Magic Mike  came out in 2012 it was quite a surprise for me. Not because it was actually good but because of how good it ended up being. It was surprising to see that it was more a character study about a guy trying to get out of a life he was unhappy with and do something he was more passionate about. This time around we get less of a character study...

In high school trying to fit in is one of the hardest things to do. Being friends with two of the most popular and attractive girls should help your popularity. At least that's what someone would think until they find out they may only being your friends because you make them look better. That's the situation we find Bianca (Mae Whitman) in when she finds out that she is her friends DUFF, designated ugly fat friend. Bianca and her friends Casey (Bianca A. Santos) and Jess (Skyler Samuels) have been best friends for years and Bianca has never noticed how much more attention everyone gives Casey and Jess over her until she's told at a party by her neighbor Wes (Robbie Amell). With this new information Bianca questions her friendship with Casey and Jess and with the help of Wes tries to do everything in her power to get away from the title of the DUFF. On the surface The DUFF seems like a fairly generic teen comedy with not much going for it. And while it does have some mo...

Just a few years ago we were introduced to the first Pitch Perfect . From the trailers it looked like it could be the movie version of Glee , which could be a good or bad thing, or it could just be an absolute train wreck. Surprisingly enough the film turned out to be extremely funny and went on to become a huge hit with critics and audiences. After so much success it was inevitable there would probably be a sequel which, when it comes to comedies, isn't always a good thing. Sure every once in a while you a get something like 22 Jump Street that ends up being better than the first film but that is a rare occurrence. However, Pitch Perfect 2 might just be in that same category. This time around we continue to follow the Barden Bellas as they have become quite popular since the end of the last film. So popular in fact that they get to perform in front of the President and his wife. Unfortunately for them something goes haywire that causes Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) to flash everyon...

Melissa McCarthy has really blown up over the past few years after her hilarious performance in Bridesmaids . Since then she's gone on to headline a ton of different films and has started to make herself a household name. Despite having made a good deal of films in the last few years, not all of them have been winners. Last year's Tammy was a dreadful outing and 2013's Identity Thief where she starred alongside Jason Bateman was pretty rough as well. It seems that when she's paired up with the right people it can be a comedic success which was the case with The Heat which also starred Sandra Bullock and was directed by Paul Feig who just so happens to direct this film. Do McCarthy and Feig strike gold again or is this another flop on McCarthy's rise to the top? In Spy we follow Melissa McCarthy as Susan Cooper, a CIA analyst who is the eyes and ears for super spy Bradley Fine (Jude Law). Fine is one of the best agents the CIA has to offer and with Susan guid...

Aside from a CGI film in 2007, it has been over 20 years since we've seen a live action film of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . While that film didn't really spark a ton of interest in the property, it did lead to a Nickelodeon series that has been somewhat popular since it started in 2012. With Nickelodeon taking over the property they decided to reboot the series with a new live action film in 2014, bringing the Ninja Turtles back into the spotlight. It's a shame that they couldn't have brought them back in a fun or entertaining film. In the new reboot we once again follow April O'Neil, this time played by a less than stellar Megan Fox, a news reporter who can't catch a break when it comes to her job. When an evil group called the Foot Clan and their leader Shredder try and take over the city April discovers a group a sewer-dwelling human sized turtles with the right skills to help protect the city. The turtles have always been kept away from society by...