Rent or Not to Rent…

Deadpool: A surprising monster hit in theaters, Ryan Reynolds is funny enough to make this comic book action film a hit at home too. “Breaking the Fourth Wall” works here as Marvel fully embraces an R-rated superhero movie that speaks to the audience, literally. A vast improvement over Reynold’s turn as Green Lantern and even his first appearance as Deadpool in Wolverine Origins.

With Whom/How: Adult Audience / Amazon.com rental 

Pawn Sacrifice: This is not the Bobby Fischer people went searching for in 1993…or is it? Tobey Maguire takes a turn as the paranoid chess Grandmaster who faces down the USSR and he does it well. The Edward Zwick (”Glory”, “Blood Diamond”) film went largely unnoticed and unheralded, but the tale is compelling and the cast is strong. It’s not one that necessarily deserved award talk, but it certainly deserves talk as a quality addition to the canon of Cold War competition films. No, it’s not Rocky IV, but it is mostly true.

With Whom/How: Too much dialogue and too mature for most under 13 / rent on Amazon Prime! 

Concussion: Should Will Smith have boycotted the Oscars? Hmm…he is good. Very good. Even more outrageous: how was this film so undervalued and ignored like the very issue it attempts to expose? It seemed to be set for such success as it had: the star, the football theme, the release date (Christmas). Ironically, its take on football may very well have turned off the very people who love the pigskin? I hope not but… The film itself is not perfect, but Smith excels and the plot unfolds in an informative, thrilling manner. Wake up, NFL!