Avengers: Age of Ultron

Hawkeye’s housewife and Widow’s green envy only distract from endless avenging.  Spader’s voice and Bettany’s vision add solid sci-fi elements while Johnson and Olsen just wish dey had zese powers when ze Godzilla attacked.  Satisfies audience expectations of another fun fight fest but Ultron’s age proves to be… very young.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

The Perks of Being a Film Connoisseur enthusiastically embraces the indie vibe, with self-referential voiceover and occasion Wes Andermation.  Leading kids and supporting adults and clever writing make an otherwise heart (or hamster) crushing film resonant and enjoyable, if not entirely honest.  Could have used more Earl and less Me.

Love & Mercy

Masterfully presents the pitch perfect parallel performances of Dano and Cusack.  Integrates documentary, cinematic and surrealist styles with the flair and skill of Wilson armed with an animal army.  Banks certainly generates interest, but it’s Giamatti’s Eugene-ics that make for the most compelling and disturbing part of this Beach Boyopic.

Ted 2

McFarlane stuffs the same used plush formula with the same loveable live action Family jokes, but forgets the heartfelt story that made the first coming so accessible.  Amusing anecdotal episodes and silly celebrity cameos mesh horribly with the shoe-horned messages of the courtroom scenes and the bearly tolerable third act.

Jurassic World

Sequels find a way.  World extracts Park’s DNA and uses it to engineer a bastard movie equipped with all the technical weaponry of the past decade.  Our heroes run around the island, narrowly dodging dino-bullets and effectively ticking off all the obligatory Jurassic beats, while completely failing to evolve themselves.

Inside Out

Pixar uses emotion-capture technology to get inside the heads of their target market and the result is stimulating and sensational.  Brilliant visual renditions of mental machinations provide a perfect playground in which to run whimsically wild.  Perhaps weak on the story front, but still a great tool for teaching feeling.