Jake Peffer Watches

2019. PG. 109 mins. Directed by Simon Curtis The Art of Racing in The Rain is the latest movie in the trend of following a dog as the central character as he narrates throughout his life. While the movie plans on obviously tugging at the heartstrings of it's audience it still manages to put together a thoroughly enjoyable story overall. In this movie we follow Enzo (voiced by Kevin Costner), a golden retriever with a heart of gold who lives our his days with his owner Denny (Milo Ventimiglia). Denny is a Formula One race car driver and he frequently takes Enzo to the track with him during his younger years. The story continues on as Denny falls in love with a girl (Amanda Seyfried), they have a daughter together and over the years Enzo and Denny go through many ups and downs while managing to keep their strong bond in tact. It seems like every year studios try to put out a new movie that features a dog as it's central character or has a dog play a major part in the story. ...

Dark Phoenix marks the final movie in the X-Men series produced by 20th Century Fox. This is a series that has definitely seen it's ups and downs but overall it's been slightly more positive than negative. X2 and Days of Future Past being the clear two best in the series and Apocalypse and X-Men Origins: Wolverine being at the bottom of the barrel. So the question is with Dark Phoenix being the last go around where does it fit in with the other movies in the series? Unfortunately, it may very well be the worst outing in the entire X-Men series. We jump to the 90's this time around following the X-Men as they travel to space to save a crew of astronauts from their rocket. While saving them Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) gets stuck on the rocket ship and is exposed to a dark and ancient power. Once back on Earth she begins to show signs that this new power could be deadly, not just for the X-Men but for the entire world. This puts the X-Men in a situation where they must deci...

Ma follows Maggie (Diana Silvers), a teenager who just moved with her mom (Juliette Lewis) back to the town where her mom grew up. Things start out not so great for Maggie at school but surprisingly enough it isn't long before she finds of a group of friends, who are all typical high school stereotypes, and they start hanging out. On one of the first days of them hanging out the friends get Maggie to beg adults to buy them beer from a local convenience store. That's when they meet Sue Ann (Octavia Spencer). She reluctantly buys the beer for them and they go on to have a good time. Sue Ann continues to show up around Maggie and her friends and starts to become a friend all her own. From continuing to buy them beer to letting them party in her basement, Sue Ann seems like the coolest adult in this small town. Things may not be what they seem as they continue to hang out with Sue Ann and things start to happen that question their relationship with this woman. Director T...

Mean Creek was released back in 2004. It had a very limited run in theaters so it didn't really get the chance to be seen during it's theatrical run. When it comes to indie films some get the right treatment and get a lot of exposure and others don't get much money put into getting the film out there for people to see. The latter is where Mean Creek falls and it's a shame because it is one of the best teen oriented films to come out in the early 2000's. Featuring a cast of, at the time, up and comers some of which have gone on to have pretty solid careers and the others for the most falling into obscurity. The story follows Sam (Rory Culkin). Sam gets picked on at school by George (Josh Peck). George is a troubled boy who has consistently been bullying kids for quite some time now. After their last altercation, Sam's brother Rocky (Trevor Morgan) has had enough and decides it's time for them to get back at George. Rocky and his friends Clyde (Ryan Kelly...

Murder Mystery marks the fifth movie from Adam Sandler to premiere on Netflix. Sixth if you count The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) but that one wasn't a Netflix original movie. The four movies preceding this have all been anywhere from flat out horrible to somewhat average. With not much in the way of competition, Murder Mystery makes its mark as the best Adam Sandler movie on Netflix. Is that enough to warrant a watch? Let's find out. Reuniting once again after the awkwardly bad Just Go With It, Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston play Nick and Audrey Spitz. They've recently been in somewhat of a rut. Nick is trying to become a New York City detective but has failed his test for third time. Their 15 year anniversary is coming up and Audrey can't stop thinking back to when they first got married and Nick promised her a trip to Europe. After feeling guilty being confronted by Audrey about why he still has never taken her, he books a vacation to Europe. While...

The How To Train Your Dragon series has become one of the more underrated animated series since the first one came out back in 2010. It spawned a really good sequel that was just as good, if not better than the first one. Now we come to the third and final movie in the series titled The Hidden World and it couldn't be more of a fitting ending to a really great franchise. In this outing we follow Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) as he is now the chief of his village. The village is starting to become over populated because of so many dragons that the humans share their village with. Hiccup plans to seek out the Hidden World, a place his father (Gerard Butler), used to tell him about when he was a little boy. This place is supposedly a sanctuary for all different kinds of dragons and would be a perfect place for the overabundance of dragons that are now in the village. To go along with seeking out a new place to live Hiccup's dragon Toothless has discovered he is not the only Night Fu...

When six friends decide to take a trip together to celebrate one of their 50th birthdays hilarity ensues and tensions from the past make their appearance. Wine Country reunites four Saturday Night Live cast members (Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer and Rachel Dratch) along with two writers (Paula Pell and Emily Spivey) who all worked on the show during the same era. Amy Poehler not only stars but also makes her directorial debut here in what ends up being a decent little comedy yet feels like a missed opportunity at the same time. One of the best aspects of Wine Country is its cast. Since they've spent so many years together on SNL and have been real life friends for years it really brings out the relationships of the characters as it all feels very authentic. These ladies know the right way to bounce one-liners off one another and Poehler does a good job behind the camera getting the most out of these actresses. Even Tina Fey, who was on SNL in the same era as the res...