'Bad Grandpa' & 'Thor: The Dark World' Reviews

Bad Grandpa is a family road-trip comedy using the Jackass prank style. After the death of his wife elderly Irving(Knoxville) drives cross-country with his grandson Billy(Jackson Nicoll) to drop him off with his biological father. This loose narrative ties together a string of hidden camera pranks perpetrated by the young Nicoll and old man Knoxville, ranging from simply approaching people on the street to a catastrophic visit to a male strip club to ruining a pre-teen beauty pageant.

There is a surprising amount of heart in the movie and a great deal of humor, not all of it blue. Knoxville and Nicoll have great chemistry, making their moments as characters carry weight while simultaneous sharing the joy of their antics.

There's not a whole lot to the movie but its simple premise creates a good delivery system for the shock and embarrassment Jackass is known for. The most surprising part of it is the actual bond Nicoll and Knoxvile create, crudely sweet.

Rent It.

Thor: The Dark World is the sequel to 2011's Thor and the latest edition in Marvel's ever expanding unwieldy cannon. Our hero Thor(Hemsworth) has just finished making peace in the nine realms in the wake of the uprisings insighted by the alien invasion of Earth featured in The Avengers. In this incarnation Thor finally seems like an actual person having put his stupidity and bravado behind after months of war and thoughts of his lost love Jane(Portman). Meanwhile Jane has been busy on Earth with scientific experiments and dates. She stumbles upon an ancient weapon created before the universe began, is possessed by it, and Thor comes to the rescue.

The resulting narrative is predictable. The visuals are stunning, the fights are cool, and the dialogue leaves a good deal to be desired. Hemsworth has a little more to do this time as Thor and comes off as three dimensional however still falls short of producing a performance that necessities it's own franchise. Portman does almost nothing and serves merely as Thor's object of affection. The bright spot of course is Tom Hiddleston as Loki- complicated, wry, and charming.

Thor: The Dark World is entertaining but not entertaining enough to warrant the money or time that went into it.

Rent It.