The Qwipster Film Review Podcast

Batman, after some introductory scenes in which he battles some bad guys with the help of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, goes to confront The Joker at Arkham Asylum, only to discover he has made his escape and is out and about causing havoc. The Joker, out to prove that anyone can go as mad as he has given the right (or wrong) circumstances ("All it takes is one bad day", so he says), sets about committing some truly heinous acts toward some of the people who are fighting on the side of good. In between the contemporary story scenes, we get flashbacks to Joker's past as a failing comedian who ended up turning to a life of crime in order to support his wife and unborn child, resulting in tragedy that cracks his psyche, and physically transforms his appearance to look as maniacal on the outside as he feels on the inside.

The main story involves a dysfunctional family, who are particularly in dire trouble now that the depressed mother, Sophie, has begun to exhibit signs of mental illness that she thought her medications had all but completely eradicated. Sophie's first husband has gone missing under mysterious circumstances, though we get to see that hubby number two is actually brutally murdered by a supernatural force while in his workplace there's barely a mention of this event among the family afterward, curiously). Sophie's daughter, the long-suffering Rebecca, no longer chooses to visit her now that she has taken a turn for the worse, leaving Sophie's young son, Martin, in a very vulnerable spot, all alone with a sick mother and an entity that she is always talking to in the shadows. As Martin reaches out for help, half-sister Rebecca gets thrust back into the family issues that have haunted her over the years, having to get to the bottom of the jealous evil presence in the house that her mother has called "Diana", who lives and kills in the dark recesses of the house.

This one showcases the third year of their five-year mission, with Captain James T. Kirk pondering a career move for the better, thanks to the heroic deeds chronicled in previous entries. Decisions can wait, when they end up picking up an escape-pod survivor, leading the Enterprise to a strange part of the galaxy on a mission to rescue the rest of her ship's crew in uncharted territory. However, they've shuttled right into a trap, masterminded by a fierce adversary named Krall, who is hell-bent on obtaining an artifact on board the Enterprise. Krall sets about all but completely destroying the Kirk and company using a swarming fleet of insect-oid ships, severely damaging the Enterprise, and leaving the crew members to shuttle to the nearby planet.

Prolific documentarian Alex Gibney continues his roll of crafting some of the most intriguing and topical films in recent years with Zero Days, this time taking a look at a new and different kind of international warfare. It's not one fought with bullets or bombs, but with computer scripts, some so potent that they can infect a device, stop production in a factory, and perhaps, if one were powerful enough, take down a massive power grid that could end up costing billions of dollars to the country it is inflicted upon.

Julian Dennison plays Ricky Baker, a rebellious, chubby, twelve-year-old foster thug-life wanna-be who ends up dumped by an exasperated social worker to a childless couple, kind-hearted Bella and her cynical husband Hec, a last-chance effort from the foster placement, out on a remote farm in rural New Zealand. "Bad Egg" Ricky hates his new environment about as much as he's hated everyplace else he's been, choosing to run away at his first opportunity, only to find that he hasn't a clue where he can go or how to survive out in the wilderness that surrounds the farm. However, circumstances result in injured Hec and Ricky, who is adamant about never returning to foster child services, stuck out in that wilderness, becoming misunderstood fugitives caught up in a high-publicity manhunt (hence the title), and Ricky's going to have to learn "the knack" of survival out in "the Bush" of New Zealand.

Kristen Wiig plays Erin Gilbert, an ambitious associate professor seeking tenure at New York's prestigious Columbia University who ends up losing that when a book she published years ago on ghosts surfaces, putting the credibility of the institution in question should she remain in the faculty. Turns out that her writing partner, Abby Yates, republished the book that had previously been out of print, and ends up cajoling Erin to just come help her and her current research partner, the kooky gearhead engineer Jillian Holtzmann, in her studies in investigating paranormal activity further, . They initially find success in trapping ghosts with Jillian's devices and their continued pursuit leads them to start a business and take on a fourth team member in Patty Tolan, a street-wise MTA subway employee who has seen a particularly nasty apparition in the subways of New York, and whose knowledge of the city will be of particular help, plus an daft-but-hunky administrative assistant in Kevin. But the ghostly activity seems to be on the rise, with signs pointing toward an oddball loner janitor named Rowan, who seems to be Hell-bent on bringing the generally unseen demons and ghouls to the Earthly plane that hasn't been so kind to regarding his genius.

Bryan Cranston decides to go on the other side of the drug laws from his stint on the seminal "Breaking Bad" with The Infiltrator, playing a true-life U.S. Customs agent named Robert Mazur, who, in the 1980s, would go undercover as a money launderer to bust some of the country's most wanted traffickers at the height of the Reagan-era, "War on Drugs". Set in 1986, the highly effective operative, Mazur, is set for retirement when he decides to do one more case in "Operation C-Chase" to take down the drug men, only this time, he decides that the only way to actually stop the influx of product is to follow the money instead of the drugs, and take down the biggest fish in the game as he climbs up the proverbial food chain. Under his new identity of Bob Musella, Mazur plays a high roller with mafia ties who gains the trust of some men within a powerful and deadly Colombian drug cartel channeling through Miami, headed by the notorious Pablo Escobar, to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into his sham company operating as a legit business so that it won't draw suspicion.

Max is dog living a life of relative bliss in a New York City apartment who gets all of the love and attention he needs when his owner Katie's home, but now finds himself having to compete when bleeding-heart Katie brings home a shelter pooch in the form of the big, dopey, shaggy-haired Duke, who steals that attention, as well as a good deal of the food and pet bed. Squabbles result on who is going to be 'alpha dog' before both find themselves having to ally when they end up out in the streets of the city without an easy means of returning home in one piece. Out to the rescue are a few of their pet animal friends, who've made it their mission to bring Max back, and they have to do it fast, as the mutts have made enemies with a psychopathic bunny rabbit named Snowball, the gang leader of a rag-tag group of vicious street rejects who hate pampered, domesticated pets and their human owners.

The "Purge" of the title, for those who are still unaware, is an annual "celebration" in which, for a twelve-hour period, any crime you can think of is declared legal, as the police, fire fighters, and medical services take a break and let the U.S. citizens run amok without fear of prosecution for any misdeeds committed. The "patriotic" day now faces the biggest challenge since its inception, as independent senator Charlene 'Charlie' Roan, whose family was killed in front of her eyes on Purge Night eighteen years prior, is running in a hotly contested battle for the presidency with a platform on abolishing the practice because it is being used by the wealthy elite in business and government as a means to eradicate the poor and sick because they feel they are an economic burden on the rest of society. Her opposition for the seat is a representative of the status quo that has the backing of the NFFA (New Founding Fathers of America), which is a group of those mega-Christian right-wing elites (all older, white and rich), who desperately need to thwart the senator's momentum before they lose their stranglehold on the direction of American society to their favor. They market a "fair & balanced" change in the Purge Night law that protected government officials from harm during Purge Night as making things right to the downtrodden, because now no one is safe. However, it is all a ruse to get Senator Roan, who has decided she must hide in her home like everyone else so that it doesn't look like she's privileged, out of the way during the Purge. With big guns out to get her, it's up to chief security agent Barnes, as well as a kind and resourceful store owner named Joe and his cohorts, who all believe in the senator and what she stands for, to protect the vulnerable senator from being killed along with the plight of the nation's victimized poor through the acts of the Purge. Unfortunately, there's nowhere to hide when just about everyone out in the Washington DC streets is out to bask in the blood of the weak.

Eat That Question offers plenty of archival footage of various interview sessions Frank Zappa did for television, combining this with clips from some of his own personal movies, as well as a number of his stage performances in front of crowds both welcoming and skeptical. Some of the delights include a clean-cut younger Frank Zappa improvising music to an audience who clearly don't get it on "The Steve Allen Show" in 1963, where the witty host praised Zappa for his far-sighted courage to push the boundaries of his artistic expression, while also quipping to not ever perform that music around him again. We also get some insightful footage of Zappa's testimony to congress in the 1980s, taking on Tipper Gore's proposal to put warning labels on music of objectionable content to protect younger ears, while he fought back on trying to clamp down on artistic freedoms, feeling that there is no such thing as a bad word.

Based on characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Alexander Skarsgard stars as John Clayton III of Greystoke Manor, an earl living comfortably in London during the Victorian Era, whose past has made him something of a legend, where he was orphaned and raised by apes until adulthood. Margot Robbie plays his wife Jane, who was once saved by Tarzan while she was exploring the jungles of the Congo, soon entering into a steamy relationship with the feral man who would soon come to learn the customs and laguage of a proper Engish gentleman, abandoning his former life. Christoph Waltz emerges as the main nemesis, playing Captain Leon Rom, an emissary from the floundering Belgian regime who has been sent to the Congo in the late 19th Century in order to propogate, by any means necessary, the extraction of valuable diamonds from the mostly tribal lands, which they've also sought to colonize for further exploitation. Chief Mbonga, one of the powerful heads of those tribes, agrees to give Rom the riches he's seeking if the Belgian is able to secure Tarzan to him. To fulfill his part of the bargain, Rom entices Clayton to return to his former stomping grounds, ostensibly for humanitarian purposes. In tow are Jane and a U.S. envoy to the region named George Washington Williams out to thwart what he feels is the continued enslavement of Africans of the region. When Rom kidnaps Jane in order to bring Clayton out to the open, the latter finds himself having to use his old skills of the jungle to bring down powerful forces seeking to upend all that he has come to hold dear in this world.

Set in London, a clever but unhappy,insomnia-afflicted orphan named Sophie wakes up in the middle of the evening and sees something outside the orphanage window. Investigating, she discovers a giant man skulking around in the neighborhood outside, causing her to go into a panic. He grabs her and steals her away to protect his further discovery from others, taking the girl to his home in a nearby realm, Giant Country, an uncharted land mostly undiscovered by humans. Soon Sophie discovers the giant to be a much more gentle being than his size and demeanor would initially lend you to believe, especially compared to the nine much larger, bullying brutes that also inhabit the lands, who live to feast on "beans" (human beings), unlike her vegetarian protector. She dubs him, "BFG" ("Big Friendly Giant"), learning all about this curious realm and his eccentric ways, which includes his amazing ability to capture and control dreams, which he uses to try to bring joy to the children of the human town Sophie hails from.

Adam Devine and Zac Efron play the Mike and Dave of the film's title, respectively, two irresponsibly party animals who've merely used all their family get-togethers as excuses to get drunk, chase skirts, and invariably embarrass their kin through shenanigans that cause more mayhem than mirth (the Wedding Crashers comparisons are so obvious they're practically obvious to reference it during the movie). As such, when it comes time for their sister Jeanie's wedding in Hawaii, the family makes it an absolute requirement for them to bring dates along to, hopefully, keep their ids in check. They can't just bring any dates though, they must be "nice girls" that meet the approval of their sister and parents. Not really knowing any nice girls personally, Mike and Dave take to the internet to advertise an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii for women who would fit the criteria of not only being respectable enough for the family to give their blessing to, but also attractive enough for the young men to get it in the sack before the excursion is complete. After an extensive round of preliminary dates (the ad, understandably, goes viral), the boys settle on Tatiana and Alice, who pretend to be good girls in order to score the vacation, but secretly are even more irresponsible hedonists than Mike and Dave.

Blake Lively stars as Nancy, former medical school student from Galveston, TX, who travels to her recently deceased mother's favorite secret surfing spot in a lush spot on the Mexican coast to feel a connection with her as part of the grieving and healing process. When her friend bails on her at the last minute, she decides to go it alone, catching some hellacious waves and enjoying the brisk sunny air. However, she isn't really ever alone, as she soon encounters a massive great white shark when she inadvertently enters his feeding zone in shallow waters off the coast, and Nancy is the intended next course on its menu. With no easy way back to shore, it's a cat-and-mouse game of survival between woman and shark to see which one will ultimately prevail.

Elle Fanning stars as Jesse, an awkward and innocent 16-year-old who arrives from out of state and takes up residence at a fleabag motel in Pasadena, hoping to kick start a career as a model within a decadent version of Los Angeles as her beauty is the only marketable asset she has. During a promo shoot, she becomes friends with a make-up artist named Ruby, who introduces her to other models in the industry, though on the down side, where their age begins to show, and plastic surgery is employed to squeeze a few more years out before they're no longer wanted in front of the camera. Not much of a worry for Jesse, who is such a natural beauty and has a certain "thing" that those looking for models instantly see. As Jesse's star is on the rise, she becomes aware of the qualities she possesses in her beauty. Others see it too, especially her rivals, which brings forth a certain power to her position, as well as a certain danger.