Jake's Cinema Room

There is nothing like a modern-day Western. Westerns are a genre that continually get forgotten and I'm not sure why because when they are well crafted, westerns can be some of the best movies. When done the right way with great direction, amazing writing, and great performances you get a film like Hell or High Water. Hell or High Water stars Chris Pine and Ben Foster as a couple of brothers in West Texas who resort to robbing banks in order to save their family's ranch. Hot on their trail is Ranger Marcus Hamilton, played by Jeff Bridges, who is determined to track down these boys and put them behind bars. As the boys get closer to saving their family's ranch, the closer the ranger gets to putting a stop to the boy's crimes. This film kind of came out of nowhere for me. It opened during the later part of the summer with not a lot of promotion but was surprisingly met with overwhelming reception by critics. After seeing the film it is easy to see why their is...

Cheerleader follows the character of Mickey (Catherine Blades), a high school cheerleader who's got it made. She's one of the more popular girls in school, has a group of girls she considers her best friends and a boyfriend to round it all out. Unfortunately, she and her boyfriend break up which leaves Mickey feeling hurt and used. Being the quite the promiscuous girl, Mickey decides to get back at her boyfriend by going out with another guy to make him jealous. She chooses Buttons (Chris Bert), one of the nerdier boys in her school, as the guy she's going to go out with. Going out with someone like Buttons with either make her ex-boyfriend extremely jealous or cause him to lose his mind. This little film was quite the surprise for me. On the surface it doesn't look like there is much to offer other than a typical revenge type of story but director Irving Franco is able to put together a solid drama about the awkwardness and hardships of being in high school. On...

Cardboard Boxer stars Thomas Haden Church as Willie, a down on his luck homeless man who is a genuine soul. He spends most of his days roaming the streets, doing what he can to earn a little money for food and reading the diary of a young girl that he found in a dumpster. His nights are a little more exciting thanks to a couple of young guys paying the homeless folks on Willie's block to fight one another. Willie knows it's not the right thing to do but he will do whatever he can to earn some extra money to take care of himself. While this is a small film it certainly has a lot of heart. Director Knate Lee does a nice job and showing this man's hardships having to live on the streets and the conditions that some of these people have to deal with on a daily basis. None of this would be possible without a good performance from the leading man. Thomas Haden Church gives a lot of depth to his character, which is great considering he doesn't say much, and is able to ...

A secret government agency run by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) puts together a team of super villains to execute black ops missions to help protect the citizens of the country from super human beings such as Superman. Waller and the agency may have more up their sleeve than the team realizes but they are willing to do whatever they can to gain freedom from being imprisoned. Their first mission, to stop an evil force in the form on Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), a magical witch who has taken the form of archaeologist June Moone. This is a film that seems to have everyone split with their opinions and I'm right there in the middle being on both sides of the argument. There is a lot to enjoy here and despite some downright awful parts I feel the good slightly outweighs the bad. The best parts here are the members of the cast who do give good performances and do their comic book characters justice, Most of the film is focused heavily on Deadshot (Will Smith and Harley Quinn (...

The Shallows tells the story of Nancy, a college medical student who travels to a secluded beach that was one of the favorite spots of her late mother. Nancy arrives and immediately sees it as the paradise that her mother always told her it was and the perfect place to surf. As the day goes on she meets a few locals, takes in more of the scenery and eventually comes in contact with a great white shark. After being attacked by the shark she finds a small spot of rocks where she is stranded about 200 yards from the shore. With no one around and nothing in her reach to help her she must find a way to get by this shark that won't stop stalking her. For a film set up like this where we have essentially only one character for the duration of the film, you need to see a fairly strong performance by that actor. Thankfully, Blake Lively gives it her all here and carries the film from start to finish. This is a tense film that leaves you on the edge of your seat. Watching this girl ...

Blake Jenner stars as Jake Bradford, a freshman heading to college early to get settled and spend some time with his housemates. Jake will be a pitcher on the school's baseball team and he gets to stay with his teammates in a house on campus. We meet an array of different guys that are all on the team and watch as they have the time of their lives over a three day weekend. From girls to drugs to getting into the baseball spirit these guys get to experience it all. This is what director Richard Linklater calls his "spiritual sequel" to his hit Dazed and Confused and that couldn't be a better way to describe it. Linklater takes what was so great about that film and possibly makes an even better film with Everybody Wants Some!! It hits a lot of the same beats that Dazed and Confused does but it's able to stand on it's own and be different enough to make it stand out. A lot of that should be credited to Linklater but the cast of guys here are a big part o...

The Do-Over (2016) The Do-Over marks the second of four films for Adam Sandler to go straight to Netflix. There isn't much good to describe this particular film although I can say it is quite a bit better than his previous film, The Ridiculous 6. In this film we follow Charlie (David Spade) who runs into his old friend Max (Adam Sandler) at their high school reunion. While the guys catch up Charlie admits to not doing much with his life and basically hating every aspect of it. After hearing how bad Charlie has got it Max decides to take Charlie out for an awesome weekend on his boat where the guys have the time of their lives. That is until Charlie wakes up after Max's boats explodes to find out that Max has faked their deaths and given them both a fresh start with new identities. All seems well until the guys find out the identities they've taken are in deep trouble. It's amazing to me how somebody like Sandler can go from having so much potential early on ...

Triple 9 (2016) Triple 9 is the latest corrupt crime thriller to hit theaters. Here we follow a crew of dirty cops who have to pull off an impossible heist after being black mailed by the Russian mob, led by Irina (Kate Winslet). Along for the ride is Mike (Chiwetel Ejiofor), whose son is also being held by the mob, Marcus (Anthony Mackie), Gabe (Aaron Paul), Russell (Norman Reedus) and Franco (Clifton Collins Jr.). Realizing the difficulty of this heist the team decides they need to pull off a 999, the police code for "officer down," so all the police officers in town will be responding to the officer down leaving them free for the heist. Now the question is what officer is going to be their target? That question is answered when Chris (Casey Affleck) becomes Marcus' new partner. Right off the bat the film sets up the intensity with a great heist sequence to get things started. From there until the end the film never lets up and keeps you on edge until the final s...