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Kim Hollis: What movies have you watched lately, and what are your thoughts on them?

Jason Barney: We went to see The LEGO Movie this weekend and it is as good as everyone is saying. I never would have thought it would quadruple its $60 million budget, but all of the praise is well deserved. The visuals and animation are impressive and the story has something for adults and kids.

The Girl from Paris was a small French film that was actually pretty good. It’s definitely different from typical American story telling.

I am on a bit of a science fiction kick, so I have gone back and watched three of the original five Planet of the Apes films. I was surprised by how much I liked Planet of the Apes. Beneath Planet of the Apes was surprising and different, especially the ending. Escape from Planet of the Apes had a good story to it, but it was much different, slower, than the original two.

Matthew Huntley: I too saw The LEGO Movie this weekend, but I disagree with Jason Barney that it's as good as everyone says it is. Don't get me wrong - it's good, but it's far from great, and it ended up being a lot more streamlined than the audience/critical response would indicates. I felt the same about Frozen, which I wish would just go away already.

On another note, I did see RoboCop, and dare I say, it actually impressed me (bear in mind my expectations were rather low going in).

Finally, if you haven't seen Cutie and the Boxer, it's a great documentary that I think should win the Oscar. It's now on Netflix.

Edwin Davies: The two most recent films I've seen in theaters were Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and The LEGO Movie, one of which wasn't quite as good as I hoped it would be and the other was slightly better. Shadow Recruit was such a generic spy thriller that it needn't have been a Jack Ryan film at all, but it was a slick and well put together piece of fluff. The LEGO Movie was great, but I felt like it wasn't as great as it should have been. This is largely because I'm such a fan of Lord and Miller's work that I expect utter brilliance from them every time, and this time they crafted something that was often more energetic than it was funny. However, since watching it, I've been turning it over and over in my mind and I find more and more to like about it. I imagine that re-watching it will turn it into a firm favorite.

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