2015 – Movie Mavericks Podcast

American Ultra (2015) – Review

February 8, 2021January 19, 2021 Jason Rugaard 0 Comments 2015, American Ultra, Bill Pullman, Connie Britton, jesse eisenberg, john leguizamo, kristen stewart, Nima Nourizadeh, Tony Hale, Topher Grace, Walton Goggins

American Ultra is the junior varsity version of Jason Bourne and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. It features a young cast

Comedy Horror Reviews

Krampus (2015) – Review

January 25, 2021December 26, 2020 Jason Rugaard 0 Comments 2015, Adam Scott, Allison Tolman, Conchata Ferrell, David Koechner, Emjay Anthony, Krampus, Krista Stadler, Michael Doughtery, Stefania LaVie Owen, Toni Collette

Krampus looks great, is cast well, and has a festive yule-tide tone. But this is a feature-length film with only

Action Reviews

Outcast (2015) – Review

May 12, 2020May 13, 2020 Jason Rugaard 0 Comments 2015, Andy On, Hayden Christensen, Nick Powell, Nicolas Cage, Outcast

American “name stars” dominate the marketing materials, but Outcast is actually a foreign production designed to entice western viewers into

Action Family Reviews

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) – Review

January 23, 2019January 30, 2019 Jason Rugaard 0 Comments 2015, aidan gillen, Barry Pepper, Dylan O'Brien, Giancarlo Esposito, Kaya Scodelario, Ki Hong Lee, Lili Taylor, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, Patricia Clarkson, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Wes Ball

Turns out if you take the maze runner out of the maze, things become a lot less interesting. The first

Action Reviews

War Pigs (2015) – Review

August 28, 2017 Jason Rugaard 0 Comments 2015, Ryan Little, War Pigs

There is only so much a filmmaker can do when working on a war movie with a limited budget. Period

Comedy Reviews

Pixels (2015) – Review

May 14, 2017July 5, 2017 Jason Rugaard 0 Comments 2015, adam sandler, brian cox, Chris Columbus, josh gad, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, peter dinklage, pixels

The logos roll, the movie begins, a classic rock tune blasts through the speakers, and I immediately feel comfortable and

Drama Featured Reviews

Magic Mike XXL (2015) – Review

October 1, 2016October 21, 2016 Jason Rugaard 0 Comments 2015, Amber Heard, channing tatum, Gregory Jacobs, Joe Manganiello, Magic Mike XXL

This sequel to 2012’s surprise smash hit, is a lesser film of quality in terms of writing and direction, while

Drama Featured Reviews

We Are Your Friends (2015) – Review

July 14, 2016July 14, 2016 Jason Rugaard 0 Comments 2015, Alex Shaffer, Emily Ratajkowski, Jonny Weston, Shiloh Fernandez, We Are Your Friends, Wes Bentley, Zac Efron

The sheer charisma of the cast nearly offsets the banality of the plotting in We Are Your Friends. Obviously inspired

Comedy Featured Reviews

Get Hard (2015) – Review

March 9, 2016 Jason Rugaard 0 Comments 2015, Alison Brie, Craig T. Nelson, Edwina Findley, Etan Cohen, get hard, kevin hart, T.I., will ferrell

Get Hard is an embarrassingly bad, misguided, offensive and somewhat depressing movie that is supposedly a comedy. Farrell has to

Family Featured Reviews

Strange Magic (2015) – Review

January 14, 2016 Jason Rugaard 0 Comments 2015, Alan Cumming, Alfred Molina, Evan Rachel Wood, Gary Rydstrom, Kristin Chenoweth, maya rudolph, Strange Magic

A rebellious fairy princess challenges an insect king’s hatred of love and affection in Strange Magic. This is the latest

Action Featured Reviews

Point Break (2015) – Review

January 11, 2016 Jason Rugaard 0 Comments 2015, Delroy Lindo, Edgar Ramirez, Ericson Core, Luke Bracey, point break, ray winstone, teresa palmer

Katherine Bigelow’s classic 1991 action film Point Break has been remade nearly 25 years later. This update on the original

Drama Featured Reviews

The Hateful Eight (2015) – Review

January 7, 2016 Jason Rugaard 0 Comments 2015, Bruce Dern, Demián Bichir, Jennifer Jason Leigh, kurt russell, michael madsen, quentin tarantino, samuel l. jackson, The Hateful Eight, Tim Roth, Walton Goggins, western, Westerns

Each Quentin Tarantino film is such a unique movie-going experience that any new entry is guaranteed to be greeted with

Drama Featured Reviews

The Big Short (2015) – Review

January 4, 2016January 5, 2016 Jason Rugaard 0 Comments 2015, brad pitt, Christian Bale, ryan gosling, Steve Carrell, The Big Short

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the movies after space opera fantasies, along comes The

Drama Featured Reviews

Concussion (2015) – Review

December 29, 2015December 30, 2015 Jason Rugaard 0 Comments 2015, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Albert Brooks, alec baldwin, Arliss Howard, Concussion, David Morse, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Luke Wilson, Paul Reiser, Peter Landesman, will smith

Will Smith is spot-on in his depiction of Nigerian-born pathologist Bennet Omalu. However, The performance is greater than the movie,

Action Drama Featured Reviews

Creed (2015) – Review

November 27, 2015November 27, 2015 Jason Rugaard 1 Comment 2015, Creed, Michael B. Jordan, Phylicia Rashad, Ryan Coogler, sylvester stallone, Tessa Thompson, Tony Bellew

Earlier this year there was much pre-release Oscar buzz for the boxing flick Southpaw. That film and its lead actor

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