13 Hours

Movie is based on true events centered around the 2012 Bengazi uprising. Small group of ex-Seals defend the US consulate that is housing a secret CIA intelligence group. Under manned and with no help from their command center, group fights bravely against a well armed and well directed enemy. Unbelievable that in today's age help could not be sent; Anyone voting in 2016 should view this movie to see how our government fails miserably!! 3 1/2 bananas

The Big Short

Terrifically entertaining as well as based on factual information of what went wrong and who saw the future outcome of the housing/banking crisis of 2008. A few wall streeters dug into how bundled mortgages were being put together and saw that a major bubble was soon to burst on the US economy. Well told story of the few who profited handsomely by shorting incredibly bad mortgage related investments sold by the major banks as AAA rated funds. Great cast makes this  4 bananas

Hunger Games part 2: MockingJay

Katniss Evergreen and her loyal band of outcasts finally get the populace to rise up and dispose of Snow the evil ruler. Not a minute to soon as this movie could have been shot in 20 minutes not two hours. 1 banana

Hateful Eight

Old time western wrapped around an intriguing mystery. 8 very bad men are stranded in a stage coach halfway house by a snow storm in the wyoming wilderness. One is bringing  in a woman to be hanged while someone else is out to prevent the hanging. Movie starts out a bit slow but the 2 hours and 40 minutes get very interesting once the plot is established. Samuel Jackson and Kurt Russel are great in this bloody action packed shootem up. 3 1/2 bananas

Trumbo

Brian Cranston is outstanding in this early 50,s drama of when congress blacklisted  many Hollywood types who had communist leanings. Cranston  is Dayton Trumbo a noted movie writer who finds that he can not get any work under his own name, thus he reverts to writing under aliases for shabby movie production companies. True story of how a brilliant writer wins two Oscars and many awards unknown by his true name. 3 1/2 bananas

Scepter

James Bond is back chasing an international cartel that wants to be in control of a worldwide intelligence gathering operation. I think the Bond series is finally wearing down, not up to the past movies. 1 1/2 bananas

Truth

True story of how the George W. Bush scandal of being aol from the national guard is turned from that to one of discrediting the journalists who dug deep for the story. Mary Mapes a 60 Minutes TV producer, her reporting team and Dan Rather develop what appears to be solid evidence that Bush had been given special priviledges to avoid the Vietnam War only to have some very powerful lobbies turn the tables on them to discreet their reporting. Probably not going to be in the theaters long. 3 bananas

Bridge of Spies

Tom Hanks, a real estate lawyer, is recruited by the Federal government to  first , represent a Russian spy in court and later to help negotiate his swap between the Russian for Francis Gary Powers,, the pilot of the super secret U.S. spy plane that is shot down by a Russian rocket. Everything seems to go off the rails when the East Germans become involved. Well done re-enactment of a very dark time during the cold war. 4 bananas

99 Homes

Very dark drama of how mortgage foreclosures were gamed by real estate agents. Story depicks a young single dad being evicted from his house and then joining forces with the real estate agent who had him evicted. As the money flows in the young dad sees himself in the evictees and has to face the consequences. Hard to watch at times as you know that this is happening all around us, but a good under view of the misery of foreclosure. 3 bananas

The Martian

Matt Damon is terrific in this drama/comedy as an astronaut stranded on Mars. With little hope of being rescued Damon puts his botanist training to work in order to survive. Eventually Damon is able to McGiver transmissions to earth and the race is on to save him. Best movie of the year to date with Damon giving a great performance; a great supporting cast makes  for a fun, entertaining 2+ hours. 4 bananas