Memorial Day Weekend of Sequels

It was a weekend full of sequels for Memorial Day, but only one of the three series represented was worth revisiting.

I'm not going to waste any more - well, not ink - space on the world wide webs or what have you on the "Fast and the Furious" and "The Hangover" franchises. But to be fair, I'll admit that the "Furious" sequels have gotten better as time goes on, whereas the latter series has gotten less funny. Not that I was a huge fan of either series from the beginning.

On the other hand, it was a pleasure to meet up once again with Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke), the central figures of "Before Midnight," which is the third in Richard Linklater's "Before" series of films.

While the first two pictures told an almost-storybook tale of romance, this one's much more grounded in reality, I suppose you could say. It's certainly the least romantic of the three films and the saddest. I'd argue that the "Before" pictures are the American equivalent of Michael Apted's brilliant "Up" series - the only difference being, of course, that "Before" is fiction, while "Up" is a documentary.

Here are my Patch reviews.

This coming weekend, I'll likely catch "Now You See Me," "After Earth" and "The East."

And, finally, Cannes Film Festival just wrapped up. Needless to say, there are a lot of movies I'm looking forward to down the road - namely, "Inside Llewyn Davis," "The Past," "Nebraska," "Only Lovers Left Alive," "A Touch of Sin," "Blue is the Warmest Color," "Venus in Fur," "Like Father, Like Son" and "Only God Forgives," despite the mostly negative reaction.