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Detailing the life events of Mr. Zero Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham), the wealthy owner of the Grand Budapest Hotel, a young writer (Jude Law) retells what he has learned of Mr. Moustafa and the man who helped to make him who he is, Monsieur Gustave (Ralph Fiennes). A tale of family in fighting, immeasurable wealth, fine art theft, murder, war, and law of the land in Zubrowka. Inspired by the works of Stefan Zweig, Wes Anderson takes a crack a telling this fantastic story, thick with ironic humor, impeccable dialogue, and art direction that is distinct and imaginative in a way that only Anderson seems able to capture. This gem features almost all of Anderson’s usual suspects, Adrien Brody, Bill Murray, Ed Norton, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, the list goes on and on. Anderson has also once again teamed up with Alexandre Desplat to create the scoring soundscape, magic and inspiring. Cinematic vision, use of miniatures, and rich story development make this a film to watch again and again just to catch everything. Fun! The Grand Budapest Hotel is rated R.

Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) is a life long street racer and car builder with one thing on his mind– revenge. Having been framed by an old colleague, Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper), Tobey is out to destroy Dino’s rep and record and restore the good name’s of his friends and associates. This will of course involve a cross country race with a bounty on his head and a beautiful but not totally helpless blonde (Imogen Poots). Win the race, win the girl, and put Dino away for life, let’s do this, 1 2 3 GO! Yup, time to suspend disbelief and just go for a ride, albeit a ride with the creative flare and panache of a 13 year old, but it’s a ride none the less. Oh did I mention Michael Keaton narrates the whole thing as a mysterious race promoter/podcaster? Yeah, that happens, and while that’s a moderately clever tool to mask the otherwise poor scripting and exposition, the hoakey factor ranks pretty high making for an idea germ that rides distinctly lower tier. But, assuming you can just stop thinking and just enjoy cars that go fast for two hours and ten minutes, this might just be the ticket. Need for Speed is rated PG-13.