The Bearded Trio

12 STRONG Starring Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Peña, Navid Negahban,   Trevante Rhodes, Elsa Pataky and William Fichtner Based on the book The Horse Soldiers  by Doug Stanton Screenplay by Ted Tally and Peter Craig Directed by Nicolai Fuglsig Reviewed by Paul & Patrick Gibbs  Out of Four For some reason, January has become "hug a Republican" month in Hollywood, with a one major release per year aimed at the American Sniper or Lone Survivor crowd, you know who I mean, the people that deeply resents you because you don't have an American flag on your garbage can, or "Support the Troops" or "Shoot A Duck For Jesus" bumper stickers on the truck you don't own. This year's entry comes from Hollywood mega-producer and Jerry Bruckheimer, who used to specialize in macho military recruiting films back in the pre-Johnny Depp phase of his career.  But this is his first major foray into the genre post 9/11 ( Blackh...

THOR: RAGNOROK Starring Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston,  Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson, Idris Elba, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban,  Jeff Goldblum  Anthony Hopkins and Mark Ruffalo Screenplay by Eric Pearson and Craig Kyle & Christopher Yost Directed by Taika Waititi Reviewed by by Patrick & Paul Gibbs  Out of Four It seems there has been a backlash against the original Thor over time,   but personally we are quite fond of Kenneth Branagh's film .  Natalie Portman's Jane Foster character has been vilified by many, and she was indeed a bit of of a swooning Mary Swann (a hybrid of the Mary Sue designation and Twilight' s Bella Swann, who is basically a Mary Sue without the "good at things" element), but the combination of King Lear (Edgar and Edmund, the sons of Glouchester, to be specific) and  Crocodile Dundee with a Norse God was an awful lot of fun, and after the misfire of Iron Man 2 it was the movie that sold us ...