Robocop (February 12, 2014) PG-13

Robocop's owners made him black so he'd appear more
"Tactical."  Here we see him on his cycle.
(Photo taken from ruthlessreviews.com)

Starring:

Joel Kinnaman (Safe House, The Darkest Hour)

Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight, The Book of Eli)

Michael Keaton (Batman, Beetlejuice)

Abbie Cornish (A Good Year, Seven Psychopaths)

Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen, Shutter Island)

Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers, Pulp Fiction)

Waaaaaaaaaaay smarter and better than I expected from a Robocop reboot.

In the not-so-distant future, Detective Alex Murphy ends up on the wrong side of a car-bomb and wakes up "Robocop"!  I wanna say "half man--half machine," but really it was more like 1 part man--9 parts robot.

Is there a right side of a car-bomb?

Immediately questions of free will and "How do we control him?" begin arising and the deeper plot is revealed.  What does it mean to be human?  What makes us human?  How do we maintain our humanity in an inhuman world?

This movie really struck home for me too, because when Murphy began "acting up" drugs were used to

Murphy, having seen some action, has a "sit down."
(Photo taken from insidemovies.ew.com)

control his behavior, and made him act inhuman and soulless.  Reminded me of when I was on Ritalin... 

The acting from Kinnaman as Alex Murphy/Robocop was spot-on also.  Especially during those scenes where he acted totally robotic.  Maybe Kinnaman took Ritalin for those scenes so he could be "dead inside" more effectively.  Ritalin would do it.

Michael Keaton plays Raymond Sellars CEO of Omnicorp,
the multi-billion dollar company who developed Robocop.
(Photo taken from Movieweb.com)

The computer animation was seamless.  Throughout the movie there were sophisticated robots walking around interacting with humans, and at no point did I go, "Oh look a computer animated robot!"

One of the coolest parts, and my Brother-in-law, James agrees, was when Robocop did what he was made to do.  He chose a suspect, integrated with surveillance to find a last known location, and if he couldn't find one he'd find known associates, track them, and get them to talk.  Smart action.  Not a second wasted.

I highly recommend this movie.  I don't wanna call it just a "guy movie," because it's more than that.  This movie has heart, brains, a good plot, and great acting.  Definitely a different role than I'm used to seeing Keaton in, also...

Here's a list of actors who auditioned for, turned down roles for, or were approached to be in Robocop:

Edward Norton

Michael Fassbender

Matthias Schoenaerts

Russell Crowe

Hugh Laurie

Clive Owen

Rebecca Hall

Jessica Alba

Keri Russell

Kate Mara

Sean Penn

Gael Garcia Bernal

Alexander Skarsgard

Logan Marshall-Green

"Thank you for your cooperation."

The Lego Movie (February 7, 2014) PG

Naturally, they made a video game too.  Probably
TONS of fun... hmmm... Red Box?
(Photo taken from nintendoeverything.com)

Starring:

Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation, Moneyball)

Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games, Pitch Perfect)

Alison Brie (Community, Mad Men)

Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Pacific Rim)

Will Ferrell (Step Brothers, The Other Guys)

Morgan Freeman (Batman Begins, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves)

Jonah Hill (21 Jump Street, Moneyball)

Liam Neeson (Batman Begins, Taken)

Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation, 21 Jump Street)

Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street, The Vow)

Billy Dee Williams (Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, The Ladies Man)

Anthony Daniels (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace)

Liam Neeson as "Bad Cop" next to
Will Ferrell as "Lord Business"
(Photo taken from nerdist.com)

Legos?  Batman?  Histerically typical "chosen one" plot with anti-establishment undertones throughout?

If you like those things then you'll LOVE The Lego Movie.

The cast is great!  All of them, they were brilliant!  Liam Neeson especially stood out as Good Cop/Bad
Cop.  His character had a lot of depth and heart.

As a kid I grew up with tubs of Legos.  I made a LOT of spaceships... so I found Charlie Day's character especially relate-able.

Emmet (our main hero) played by Chris Pratt, next to
Batman played by Will Arnett.
(Photo taken from Businessinsider.com)

I saw this with my sister, Jewely, and her husband, James.  We all laughed really hard throughout.

This is a movie for everyone.  Especially families.  Don't feel dumb if you're an adult going to see this with other adults, because this is the best animated movie I've seen since Wreck-It Ralph.

Factoid: The entire movie is computer animated, but designed to look like stop-motion Lego effects.  I myself wondered numerous times throughout the movie, "Is this computer animated?"