All That Glitters..."Gold"

Gold (2016)

Rated R

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Edgar Ramirez, Bryce Dallas Howard,

Directed by

The Story:

Kenny Wells (McConaughey) is a down on his luck miner who has one last shot at the big time. He heads to Indonesia to meet Michael Acosta (Ramirez) and promises to get him the money to search for gold. Kenny gets the investments to come pouring in, and Acosta gets Kenny the gold that he promised, and even more money pours in.

Of course if that were the full story, it wouldn't be a very good movie.

And since this story is based on true events, it seems like something is missing.

Ah yes, the fact that there was no gold, or at least, not where they were looking.

Acosta delivers some gold in the core samples to Kenny to pass off to Wall Street and other investors.

They hear "gold strike" and they literally threw money hand over fist to get in on the deal before it passed them by.

Follow the twists and turns as Kenny balances the high-wire act to secure the financing and all the ups and downs that met him along the way.

Then there is the finale of the movie and it resonates with a did it or did it not really happen that way?

Only a few people know for certain, and they sure aren't telling.

Final Grade: C+

The Race To Recover History..."The Monuments Men"

The Monuments Men (2014)
Rated PG-13 for language and violence

Starring: George Clooney, Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin, Hugh Bonneville, Bob Balaban

Directed by George Clooney

The Story:

Frank Stokes (Clooney) convinces FDR that finding all of the stolen art that the Nazis have made disappear across Europe is a noble pursuit.  Allowing him to assemble his own team, Frank recruits some of the finest art historians of the time and asks them to go in harm's way in search of thousands of years worth of world history.  They will mostly succeed, but there will be casualties along the way.

But of course, it is based on a true story.

This is an odd duck of a story.

The truth behind the assignment should have been more than enough to make this movie work.

And yet...

As noted by the trailer, much humor is attempted to be infused into the situations.

Some of the jokes work better than others.

Essentially, the team splinters into 1 or 2 man teams in search of clues to the whereabouts of thousands of missing paintinings, sculptures and other works of art.

As the war draws to a close, the team reunites to get to the large cache of art before the Nazis can destroy it all.

For the most part, the team succeeds.

They also recount the more famous finding: the millions of gold bars also hidden in the mines.

Everyone in the cast does a fine job.  Some characters seem less fleshed out than others.  You can probably figure out which characters are more likely to not survive the war than their counterparts.

It was good.

It should have been better.

Final Grade: Going with a B-

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I wanted to like this one more than I did, and add it to the World War II library of films.  Maybe someday, but no real hurry.

What Happens In Vegas..."The Hangover: Part III"

I can't believe I watched the whole thing...

The Story:

The Wolfpack returns, one last time as things come full circle.  Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) must track down Chow (Ken Jeong) who has $21 Million in stolen gold from Marshall (John Goodman) or Marshall is going to kill Doug (Justin Bartha).  Strangely, this time everyone remembers everything that has happened to them, so there is no memory loss aspect this go-round.

As I said, this film brings the trilogy full-circle to a conclusion.  How satisfying it is, totally depends on how much you enjoyed these films.

I've been firmly in the camp of "they're okay, but nowhere near as great as people make them out to be".  At least, I guess the first one.  I'm not sure the same acclaim came with the second one.

This series has provided a series of gags which elicit smiles, smirks, chuckles, groans or outright laughs.

Sadly, the outright laughs usually number single digits in each of the films.

How Mr. Chow became the focal point of the series is a strange twist of events.  He's begun to overshadow the movie himself, which is weird for what should be an outrageous buddy film.

The three leads have their parts down pat, and they seem to quite enjoy doing these films, but I think they're probably all glad that this series is hopefully behind them.

It's run out of steam, and it's best to part ways now, though the filmmakers definitely leave an opening if they want to make a 4th film.

How Stu is going to get out of that mess is anyone's guess.

Again, depending on your enjoyment of the first two will help gauge your enjoyment of this one.

Final Grade: C, which is about on par for the whole series for me.  This is not as good as the first but better than the second.

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Nope, not a franchise I need to see again.