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The Movie Reviews

"Jack the Giant Slayer"

With Nicholas Hoult, Eleanor Tomlinson, Stanley Tucci, Ian McShane, Bill Nighy, Ewan McGregor, Eddie Marsan, Ewen
Bremner, Christopher Fairbank, Warwick Davis

2013, Rated PG-13 for intense scenes of fantasy action violence, some frightening images and brief language, 114 minutes

This is, of course, Jack and the Beanstalk revisited. Jack (Hoult), a poor farm boy, whose uncle sends him to town to sell
their horse and wagon to buy materials to repair their house. He meets a monk who trades him magic beans for the horse.
His uncle thinks he was swindled, and throws the beans into the dirt where a rainstorm waters them, and they begin to grow
up to the sky carrying Jack's poor farm house containing the kingdom's princess (Tomlinson), who was out on a lark and
sought shelter from the storm. And it goes on and gets VERY BIG from there. It was quite entertaining.
★★★★

"Gangster Squad"

With Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Nick Nolte, Emma Stone, Michael Peña, Anthony Mackie, Holt McCallany,
Robert Patrick, Giovanni Ribisi, Mireille Enos

2013, Rated R for strong violence and language, 113 minutes

Based on true events in the life of Mickey Cohen (Penn), a brutal, murderous crime boss from Chicago. He plans to take
over the entire western third of the country and run all the gambling, mob activity, prostitution, shakedowns, graft, and
corruption. A small band of five LAPD cops (Brolin, Gosling, Peña, Patrick, and Ribisi) is recruited by the police chief
(Nolte) to harass the mobster and try to run him out of town. Just when it seems that all is lost, there is a good turn of
events. ***Spoiler Alert*** The best part of the movie for me was when Sean Penn got the snot kicked out of him.
★★★★