Always feels so refreshing watching a Western! Like those old days was where it was all at. All these stories so easily capturing the essence of it all. Of the fight. Of friendship. Of life.

The cinematic music might not always fit in - especially when they're riding slowly, and there are some roads that look like they've been tread by more mobile beasts. Auto mobile, if you know what I mean. But the atmosphere does feel as Western as it can possibly feel otherwise, and the people too. Rough, tough and leather. Maybe not as schooled by the hard life as they seem to be in some movies, the older movies, but rough all the same.

Our main characters: three friends by chance and oddity (played by Christoph Sanders, Scott Martin and Clint Hummel), run into a strange town, run by Johnny Kane (Lou Diamond Phillips), The Preacher (Jason Patric) and their gang, in search of Jim's brother, who happens to be mayor.

But the mayor isn't always a major player.

I guess Stephanie Beran and Elizabeth McLaughlin deserve a mention too. And Danny Trejo! A small and not so menacing role though his may be.

It's a Western, and I'm happy to see it. The language was truly courteous, unusually so, and maybe that's also the one downside to it. Sometimes it feels they're verbally limited even past their time, holding in on words as to not make it inappropriate to the era; simplifying the characters further than necessary for the quiet type.

But then again that's often also the charm. Just a little more balance there and this'd be perfect. As it is it's definitely the newest oldest Western out there. It feels indecisively toned down and/or authentic.

I imagine they often make things seem a lot rougher than they really were - at least it can't have been that rough everywhere - in a lot of older movies of the sort, so in that regard this has a welcome softness to it.

It doesn't have the hugest cast or location, but it's got a good one, and the lack of flashiness is part of the appeal. It's like it should be. Real.

I think I've said that enough times at this point.

Real close to a top score too. Almost like a modern day Tombstone.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

It'll be hard to find a darker revenge movie than this one! A colder one.

What starts out as the story of a woman who seeks out other women (or people, for that matter - though it's mostly women) who have trouble at home, and deal with that trouble in a somewhat unorthodox way, like a true modern day vigilante - asking only for the food or spare change the victims can spare, turns into something else entirely.

We're introduced to the cold her, but soon realize there's some pretty serious heart hiding behind the surface, and as the movie goes her trauma surfaces - the cause of her trauma - it takes on a material form, and it all ends with a savage but drawn out showdown. Face your torment.

In a way I like the simplicity of it all, and the emotion. Maybe authenticity's a better word for it. Maybe HATE. You see it in their eyes.

Another side of me misses a more superficial tale: one where you can actually somewhat enjoy the acts of vengeance in their pompous; all-out warfare-like bravado. Like Armed Response. Flashier. Ferocious in a funner way. Not so damn cold, and dark, and livid...

But you can't say it wasn't well done. Props Olivia Wilde on the greatest showcase of character I've seen in some time, and Morgan Spector too, even if I'm a little disappointed they take away his shield at the very end. It seemed like he was actually a threat. A danger. But then... he wasn't.

I guess there might be a message in that as well, in how the victim often sees the assailant as so much stronger than he really is.

Could it be an intentional visualization of that psychological barrier they have to cross to overcome... or is it just somewhat disappointing directing?

Reminds me a bit of Gone Girl. Both actress and premise. Both amazing.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

Earth. 1987. Bumblebee crash-lands on Earth. That yellow Transformer, y'know? My former and possibly reoccurring favorite.

But this movie didn't help.

More on that later.

First though: there's so much fascination with the eighties lately. Why don't we just make it the eighties again? Get the old cars back. The nature. The style of life. The time when everything was easier and better to live in. Though even though they say eighties... it sure doesn't look that way for long. There's not enough of it for it to really feel convincing.

The movie itself is a real love story too, between a girl and an Autobot alien. Like E.T. but with Transformers. Romance for all ages.

It's definitely the most un-adult-oriented part of the franchise so far, and even though Cena's in it, and it has some fun bits, and the transformations are cool as always, it just falls to cliche all too quickly.

I do like Cena, I do, and both Hailee Steinfeld and Jorge Lendeborg Jr. are great too, but the characters and their actions aren't strong enough to make it memorable.

It still is a good movie. A feelgood movie. I almost gave it a four just for the post-credit sequence and feelgood vibe, but it's just not enough, and not all that I expected. An hour with bumblebee without a stinger, and then when he finally gets it back it's all done so quickly.

For the most part of the movie he plays into all types of clumsy cliches instead, and the movie's not nearly as fierce or epic an adventure as it could've been, and yet that's the way they try to make it with all the emotional moments. It doesn't match.

Maybe I'm just getting tired of typical blockbusters, and this is most definitely one of those. Maybe it's the script. Maybe the predictability or lack of memorable moments. Maybe Cena's disappointingly unimportant role. It's definitely not the acting. Or the effects. It's not all bad after all.

 rated 3/5: not bad

Still going good! Yupp. The OPM saves the day edition.

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.

So true.

We must keep climbing this giant while it's still awake.

Go kickstart this thing! Just 6 days to go.