22 Jump Street

Picking up where 21 Jump Street left off, Tatum and Hill are now sent undercover in college to (again) bust up a drug ring. While I was not particularly enamored with the first, I found this more entertaining as a send-up of the genre. The established bro-mance between the two principles allows the story to have more fun with the ongoing relationship. They go through all the stages of a stereotypical film romance (clingy, therapy, breaking up, etc.) which is not particularly funny, but comical as satire and commentary on the genre. The culmination of this send-up comes after the credits with the "previews" for future installments of the franchise (all the way up to 34 Jump Street or so). Nice.
3 stars (out of 5)

Chappie

Set in Johannesburg South Africa, the police force has installed a robotic peacekeeping unit that has helped to decrease the crime rate to almost nothing. Dev Patel is the inventor of the robot, but has bigger dreams of developing an actual autonomous AI for the peacekeepers. His competitor is Hugh Jackman, who has developed a larger, meaner robot that is controlled by a human via neural connector. Patel finds a way to install his AI prototype on a robot destined for the trash heap and it is born as Chappie (to a criminal mom and dad by the way). What I particularly liked about this film was the way it made me think about AI, and the development of consciousness. Of course, there are tons of holes in Chappie's development which were necessary to make an appropriately paced film. But how an AI would learn and grow and develop ethics are interesting. And how having a single AI takes the cat out of pandora's bag (so to speak).
4 stars (out of 5)

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Colin Firth is a straight up James Bond character who saves the world on a regular basis. His organization (Kingsman) is a private club organized as Arthur's Round Table, and the film opens with a need to replace one of the knights. The first half of the film is the training/selection process for the young potential candidates and the kid Firth sponsors is non-traditional at best. Near the end of the training, an evil villain initiates his plan to decrease world population by 70% (to prevent global climate change of course) and the Kingsman crew must save the day. Clearly a spoof on the cheeky James Bond style presented in the 80's and acted straight (as can be) by Firth, Jackson, and company. In fact, this walks a line closer to Austin Powers than James Bond, and is quite graphically violent throughout.
3 stars (out of 5)

The Book of Life

An animated story telling of the Mexican festival of the day of the dead. Brilliant colors, clever story. Entertaining for all ages. Watched this right after watching photos of my parents recent trip to Mexico and the animated coloring was not exaggerated at all.
4 stars (out of 5)

Living on One Dollar

Two econ grad students are studying global wage distribution and decide they need to experience global wage inequity first hand. They travel to rural Guatemala, move into a small village, and plan to live for 8 weeks on 1 dollar per day. They actually do it pretty well to mimic real world scenarios, with a variable daily income that will average $1. They set about renting a house, and getting a bit of instruction on how to plant radishes as a cash crop. All told, this isn't a perfect portrayal (they get to opt out of the system when one of them gets sick and pull out the "emergency drugs"), but it really does reflect what life is like in rural Guatemala. Well worth seeing, and only one hour long.

4 stars (out of 5)

Top Five

Chris Rock is the lead character, playing a comedic, big-screen actor who is interested in becoming a serious big-screen actor. His fiance is a reality TV super-star whose entire life is public. The premise of the film is that Rock is being shadowed by a journalist doing an entertainment piece trying to find out what really makes the comedian tick. Throughout, comedians make appearances and the running discussion is "list your top five rappers". Turns out that this is a moderately interesting look at comedy, confidence, and self worth. But moderately interesting does not mean hilarious or thought provoking or worth your time.
2 stars (out of 5)

Wild

I didn't read the book, but having recently seen another single woman trek in the wilderness film (Tracks), which I really liked, I was up for another adventure. Here Reese Witherspoon plays the woman who is using the Pacific Coast Trail as her personal therapy. She is walking from Mojave to Washington state to change her life after losing her mother and (apparently) making some poor life decisions. Unfortunately, the film is more focused on the backstory of the daughter/mother relationship than about the adventure travel. We get 1-2 minutes of walking followed by 5-6 minutes of flashback. We didn't really ever sink into the true physical enormity of making this walk, or the emotional strength needed to maintain forward momentum. It could have been so much better.
2 stars (out of 5)