2017 Films: #29. Justice League

Tuesday November 21st in Chicago, IL. It has been a long road. What started out as an as an idea over 10 years ago finally made it to the big screen, though one could argue that Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was kind of a Justice League film. Outside of Nolan's Batman films, the DCEU has paled in comparison to Marvel, the lone exception being Wonder Woman and the filmmakers wisely decided to make it a Marvel film.

Since Marvel has had a lot of success with the Avengers, DC decided that if you can't beat them, join them. Join them they did. They made an Avengers film with DC characters. Which is fine, that's the formula and Hollywood sticks to formulas. The problem is that Justice League is not a very good Avengers film. The film has made a lot of money. Over $600 million worldwide, but that doesn't make it a good film.

Anyway, Superman's death activated three Mother Boxes that were hidden on Earth since a huge battle that put the forces of Darkseid's henchman Steppenwolf and his army of parademons against an all-star line-up of heroes representing Earth that including the Amazons, Atlanteans, the Gods (of the Greek variety), metahumans and a member of the Green Lantern Corps (which would have made for a more interesting film). Steppenwolf is defeated and the Mother Boxes are hidden, instead of destroying them of course, so that they can't be united and bring about doom to the Earth.

Fast forward a few millennia and Steppenwolf is back and he's after the Mother Boxes. He easily defeats the Amazons in a pitched battle for the 1st Mother Box, a fact that was not touched upon in Wonder Woman by the way. He then goes to Atlantis and even more easily takes the 2nd Mother Box, there may not have been enough money it the films massive budget for this. The battle for the 3rd Mother Box take place in Gotham where the heroes manage to keep Steppenwolf at bay. Batman decides to use the final Mother Box to resurrect Superman despite not everyone on the team being in agreement that this is a good idea. Superman is resurrected (did anyone not see this coming?) and after a brief fight with the Justice League (if you're going to copy Marvel, you go all in) he simmers down. Steppenwolf easily gets the 3rd Mother Box which leads to a showdown in Russia of all places.

Steppenwolf's plan is merge the Mother Boxes together so they can terraform Earth into Apokolips friendly atmosphere ( because it worked so well for Zod in Man of Steel). The League battles Steppenwolf as he managed to merge the Mother Boxes. Wonder Woman and Aquaman battle Steppenwolf, Superman and Flash evacuate the town (though Superman could have been more useful in the battle as he is the most powerful being) leaving Cyborg to unmerge the boxes. Spoiler alert, the heroes save the day.

Rotten Tomatowise, this film was not that good, the plot is convoluted and predictable. Plus you get the same settings director Zach Snyder can't bear to stop using. Snyder has directed three films in the DCEU that range from bad to mediocre at best. Visually, they can barely be distinguished (which goes for most of his films) from one another. Give the next one to Patty Jenkins.

Much like SNL's "more cowbell" sketch, the DCEU needs more Wonder Woman. The presence of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman makes this film bearable. From her introduction to the film, great scene, to final scene, she is awesome. Affleck seems to have gotten tired of being Batman and it showed. When Batman is in his heavy armor for the final battle, CGI is needed to pull off the stunts and it shows. They're not good. Affleck's best scene is as Bruce Wayne when he responds with "I'm rich," after Flash inquires about his superpower.

Speaking of Flash, I thought Ezra Miller's performance of Flash/Barry Allen was fine except for the speed effects that were not as good as either Quicksilver from Marvel. The character's biggest non-effects related problem was the ridiculous the run time padding scenes with his father. It added nothing to the film and wasted the talents of Billy Crudup. I liked Ray Fisher (Cyborg/Victor Stone) a lot but as I mentioned before, the CGI needed to pull off the character seemed unfinished. Cyborg had the most depth of any of the new characters. The character had intelligence and was good in a fight. Jason Mamoa had some good moments as Aquaman but he was little more that a discount strongman. The film had a few good moments of humor but could've used more. It is my belief that neither of these three characters could hold their own in a stand alone film without cameos from the likes of Wonder Woman, Batman or Superman.

DC has had ten years and several Marvel films to copy and they still could not get it right. If you have been following the DCEU then you should see the film. Otherwise you're not missing much.

Moore vs. Jones: Who's the Better Guy? My worthless two cents.

We're all way too familiar with this race to fill an Alabama Senate seat. I would like to take a different approach and put the political aspect aside and look at Mr. Moore and Mr. Jones on their merits and past deeds (just the highlights), without going into too much research, given.

Mr. Moore was actually a Democrat before 1992. He attended West Point and served in Vietnam in the early 1970s. According to his autobiography, his troops really didn't think much of him. Discharged in 1974 he went to law school and into private practice by 1977 as a personal injury attorney. In the early to mid-80s Moore worked as a prosecutor where he was investigated for "suspect conduct(???)" in regards to sheriff's funding but nothing came of it. In 1982 he unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat for circuit court judge, losing a primary run off in a bitter campaign. Another bar complaint against Moore also came and went after the election. In 1986 he ran for District Attorney for Etowah County in Alabama and lost in the Democratic primary. Moore moves to Australia for a year, goes into private practice until 1992 where he becomes a Republican and gets appointed as a circuit court judge and wins the election in 1994.

In 1999 Moore wins a seat on the Alabama State Supreme Court on a slogan of returning "God to our public life and restore the moral foundation of our law." He became Chief Justice in 2001. His time on the sate supreme court is marked by controversy. Not controversy from legal decisions mind you, but religious ones. There was the Ten Commandments thing that would get him removed from the bench in 2003. Moore would get back on the State Supreme Court in 2012 and of course, more controversy. In 2016 Moore was suspended for putting his own religious beliefs above the rule of law when he failed to follow the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, where same sex couples were guaranteed the fundamental right to marry.

Mr. Jones graduated from the University of Alabama in 1976, got his law degree in 1979 and worked as an assistant US Attorney from 1980-84. From 1984-97 he was in private practice where he mainly dealt with commercial litigation and white collar criminal defense. Really underwhelming stuff. In 1997, Jones was appointed US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama by President Clinton where he would serve until 2001.

Who remembers the bombing of Centennial Olympic Park back in 1996? The man responsible, WHITE CHRISTIAN TERRORIST Eric Robert Rudolph, also bombed a few other places. One of which was an abortion clinic in Birmingham, AL that killed a police officer. Jones helped put together a task force to hunt Rudolph down as well as securing an indictment against him. Jones' big accomplishment was convicting two WHITE CHRISTIAN TERRORISTS of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing of 1963.

Watch Spike Lee's documentary 4 Little Girls for historical perspective. 

The FBI investigated the case and even named the culprits but no court proceedings were brought forth until 1977. I can only describe this is as a travesty of justice, it still falls short however. Seriously, watch the film and try not to get outraged. Over a decade after the conviction of Robert Chambliss, the FBI discretely re-opened the case and in 2000, Thomas Edwin Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry were indicted on multiple counts of first degree murder. Jones was able to win a conviction against Blanton in 2001 after the jury deliberated for two hours. Jones would eventually secure a conviction against Cherry in 2002 on four counts of first degree murder.

Again, eliminate political affiliation. Let's go further and not include into the equation the fact that one candidate was banned from a local mall for trying to pick up teenage girls while working as a prosecutor. Now who seems like a better person to serve in the Senate? An attention seeking guy who was removed from the state supreme court for violating federal law, twice? Or a guy who helps bring to justice a cop killer and who convicts murderers of children?

2017 Films: #28 Never Here

An OnDemand viewing on November 4th in Chicago, IL. After looking through iTunes, Netflix and finally OnDemand, this is the title my wife and I decided upon. It's a psychological thriller starring Mireille Enos (which is why we went with it) is Miranda Fall a conceptual artist (I had to look it up) that photographs strangers without their knowing. and turns the final product into an exhibit. The film opens up with her latest exhibit, a found cell found that she harvested the information from rather than return it, much to the chagrin of the owner, who expresses his dislike towards the exhibit and threatens to sue.

Later than evening  Miranda is with her art dealer and sometimes lover (it's ok because it's just sex, he's married and emotionally devoted to his terminally ill wife, what a guy!) Paul, Sam Shepard in his last role. After coitus, Paul witnesses a assault on a woman from the window but pulls the old "I don't want to get involved" card. Miranda, not wanting to hear that, decides that she will act as the witness. It's practically the same thing right?

Anyway the cop who questions her turns out to be an old boyfriend. It doesn't take long for Miranda and Detective Williams (Vincent Piazza) to fire up the old flame cliche. From there, weird sh*t starts to happen. Her exhibit gets vandalized, her dog acts really strange and things start moving around in her apartment. It also happens that the man who confessed to the assault didn't actually commit the crime and the perpetrator is still floating around. Miranda starts following a guy who is supposed to be her next exhibit but suddenly feels that he may be the culprit. Anyway, Miranda starts to lose her grip on reality and slips into madness.

There's a few things to like about this slow burning thriller. Enos does a fine job as Miranda. Camille Thoman wrote and directed the film and it kind of falls short at the end. I personally enjoy thrillers where the main character loses it but we do not really get a payoff. Or there was a payoff and it went over my head. Despite a 110 minute run time, the film feels incomplete but got an 82% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Solid acting, nice use of lighting but to me, it comes up short and ran a little long. 

2017 Films: #27. Thor: Ragnarok

Viewed on Friday November 3rd in Chicago, IL. The God of Thunder get his 3rd installment and based on the trailer, you know that Thor's hammer is destroyed, Thor fights the Hulk, Thor and Hulk team up, Thor gets a haircut, it looks like a city (perhaps Asgard), is consumed by fire and Hela is the villain because she's the one who crushes Mjolnir and wears a tremendous amount of eye make-up.

The film opens with Thor, who explains that he's been searching for the infinity stones, chained up in the clutches of the fire demon Surtur. Surtur monologues about how Odin is no longer on Asgard and that he will bring about the destruction of Asgard (foreshadowing). Once he reveals his one weakness, Thor pulls the old, "I allowed myself to be captured to learn the villain's plan" cliche and vanquishes Surtur. Thor returns to Asgard and almost immediately uncovers Odin to be his mischievous brother Loki. Thor and Loki travel to Earth to find Odin but the rest home where Loki stashed him is being demolished. While standing on the corner, Loki and Thor are brought to Doctor Strange's pad. This meeting is really just an extended scene of the Doctor Strange mid-credit scene from 2016.

Strange sends Thor and Loki to Norway to reunite with their dad. Odin then gives some much needed exposition about their sister, Hela that they never knew existed. Seems she was the 1st born and rightful heir to the Asgardian throne.

Capes are big in the underworld.

On a "take you daughter to work day", Odin and Hela conquer the nine realms. When Hela appears to be a bit more bloodthirsty than Odin would like, he banishes her to the underworld and erases her from history. He also mentioned that she will remain imprisoned until he dies. So what happens now in order to move the plot along? You guessed it. Hela is released, she battles Thor and Loki and makes her way to Asgard via the Bifrost Bridge while Thor and Loki are cast off into space.

Meanwhile, Thor ends up landing on Sakaar and is captured by Scrapper 142, a quick on the draw bounty hunter with a penchant for drinking. Kind of like the Waco Kid.

Scrapper 142 takes Thor to the Grandmaster so that he can put him in the arena to battle his champion. While in custody Thor runs into Loki who also crash landed on Sakaar but in a different time frame because he got kicked out of the Bifrost portal before Thor did (I am not really sure about the science on this but it moves the plot). Before Thor's big match with the champion he sees Scrapper 142 getting drunk at the bar and Thor notices that she has the tattoos of the Valkyrior, a group of elite female Asgardian warriors. Thor pleads with her to help him but she wants no part of it, despite the fact that the Valkyrior were sent by Odin to defeat Hela in the underworld and 142 was the only survivor.

So this leads to the big duke-a-roo between Thor and Hulk as seen in every trailer. After the fight, Thor eventually escapes with the Hulk, who turns back into Banner after seeing a video of Natasha Romanoff. Valkyrie, formerly Scrapper 142, shows up to help Thor escape and they all get back to Asgard for the final showdown with Hela (this backstory makes little sense. Sure it gives a reason for Scrapper 142 to reclaim the mantel of Valkyrie but it's not logical. Odin banishes Hela, he later decides to send his most elite unit down to the underworld to vanquish his daughter once and for all, despite the fact that she can only be freed by his death, the Valkyrior lose and that's the last of it. Odin never even tries to reform the Valkyrior).

Presently, this picture has a 93% Rotten Tomatoes rating, making it the highest rated Thor stand alone film, and has cleared over $154 million domestically at the box office since being released on November 3rd. To me this is by far the best Thor stand alone. It has a lot of the same plot elements that made the first installment successful, added humor and colorful characters. It's a fun movie even without the connections to the overall MCU.

The film is directed by Taika Waititi. I felt he did a real nice job putting scenes together and giving the cast the opportunity to make each character their own. Speaking of the cast; Hemsworth, Hiddleston, Hopkins, Elba and Stevenson reprise their roles (though Elba's role as Heimdall has been shrinking and Stevenson's Volstagg is on screen for barely a minute). Mark Ruffalo is the Hulk's alter-ego Bruce Banner, Tessa Thompson is Valkyrie (she's great and it's a shame that there are people out there who are up in arms because she's not the Valkryie from the comics), Karl Urban is Hela's lackey Skurge (Urban doesn't do much in the film, so it's a bit of letdown but that's the story's fault, not his), Jeff Goldblum is the Grandmaster (nicely played by Jeff) and of course Cate Blanchette as Hela. Blanchette's Hela is a bit like Galadriel when Frodo offers her the one ring ad she looks a bit like Siouxsie Sioux.

There's clearly a resemblance. Though one uses Aquanet more than the other.

Blanchette chews up the scenery as Hela. She appeared to have fun with the character, although she had to wear a motion capture suite instead of costume.

This is a really fun film. Sure there are some plot devices that make so sense that I mentioned earlier but it's to be expected. The film has a run time of 130 minutes but the pacing is quick and you're never bored. There's a lot going on but you never get caught up in anything as it all leads back to Thor and his mission.  Check out some of the youtube videos that delve into the Easter eggs and what not. That's fun too.

2017 Films: #26. What Happened to Monday

I viewed this picture as a Netflix download on my flight back from Phoenix on October 28th. As sucker for dystopian sci-fi films, I tok a chance on this title after watching the trailer. The film is directed by Norwegian Tommy Wirkola with a cast consisting of  Noomi Rapace, Glenn Close and Willem Dafoe.

The film is set in the not too distant dystopian future where the world stands along the edge of a knife, as usual. The world is overcrowded and food is scarce. In order to deal with this problem the government puts in place the Child Allocation Bureau headed by Nicolette Cayman (Close). With sweeping law enforcement powers the CAB makes sure that families have only one child and one child only. Any siblings caught are put into "cryogenic freeze" until all the problems can be fixed.

Enter the Settman family. Karen Settman gives birth to identical septuplet sisters in and dies during birth. The grandfather, Terrence (Dafoe), takes custody (the father's whereabouts are never mentioned) and names each child after a day of the week (so you can see where the plot goes). Terrence trains the girls to live in each other's particular day and to act as one personality in public. The training is brutal but necessary in order for them all to survive. They collectively take the identity of Karen Settman.

We fast forward to the women living together, with very distinct individual personalities but managed to get a successful career in banking. Then one day, Monday doesn't come home and the sisters need to figure what happened and also try to find their sister. Things go from bad to worse as the sisters pick up more knowledge about Monday's movements. The CAB eventually gets on to the sisters and sends hit teams after them. Without giving too much away, the CAB is surprisingly up to no good, Monday may not have been the goody-goody sister she appeared to be, Cayman has plans to tighten her grip on the CAB and the lid gets blown off their society.

The film received a 58% Rotten Tomatoes rating, which is not awful but not that good, and it's well deserved. To me the plot borrowed too heavily from films like The Matrix, Children of Men, Minority Report, V for Vendetta, Soylent Green and a bit of Run Lola Run to name a few. It just seemed like there was not a lot originality in the plot. The film was well acted and the action sequences, though derivative at times, were good. This film fails as a sci-fi but is an  ok action film.

The message of the film is a bit hard to grasp, for me anyway. Is it a shot at China's One-Child Policy that ran from 1979-2015, which would be weird considering how much the film industry relies on China as a market? To me it seemed to simultaneously take shots at both the pro-life and pro-choice side. Perhaps, it's just another film about a dystopia run by an oppressive regime. Anyway, the film is just not that good. 

2017 Films: #25. I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore

I watched this Netflix original film on a flight from Chicago to Phoenix on October 24th. This is a film that kept showing up in my "Suggestions for You" category on Netflix. I watched the trailer and the film looked interesting. I put the film in my and a few months later I got around to watching it. The picture is written and directed by Macon Blair. The film premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and put into wide release by Netflix on February 24th.

The film stars the crazy neighbor from Two and a Half Men as Ruth, a single woman with a mundane job and a relatively unfulfilling life. One day she comes home from work to find her home has been broken into and some personal items stolen. Her feelings of violation turn to helplessness as she feels the police will do nothing to help, which they pretty much don't. Ruth decides to take matters in her own hands and starts questioning neighbors. During this time she runs into Tony (Elijah Wood) a heavy metal, martial arts aficionado who decides to help Ruth in her investigation.

Ruth and Tony actually begin to get results in the investigation. Ruth and Tony even locate the stolen laptop and manage to get the location of the fence. Ruth gets more and more empowered along the way. They even manage to discover the identity of the burglar and confront his parents. I do not wish to giveaway too much so let's just say that Ruth start to get a little more than she bargained for and eventually people die.

The film received an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is very nicely done. The pace sometimes slows down too much and it would have been better served to have a run time closer to 95 minutes than 107 minutes in my opinion. The actors did a real nice job of making the characters interesting. Ruth's arc takes her from a bit player in her own life to the driver's seat, which at times can be scary as she finds out the hard way. The interesting thing to see would be how Ruth lives her life after all of the events of the film. Does she go back to her mundane life or try to do something different? My problems with the film lean toward the legal issues Ruth would have after everything goes down. It didn't seem based in reality to me. But in the celluloid world, who cares about that stuff anyway,

This a good start for first time director Blair. It may not be for everyone but it is a nice change of pace and worth watching. 

2017 Films: #24. Gerald's Game

A Netflix original film viewed on October 6th in Chicago. When this film became available on Netflix and I spotted during an extended period of looking for something to watch with my wife, I said something along the lines of, "a sexy thriller with Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwod , that could be interesting." It sat in the queue for a week or so until my wife got around to choosing it after looking for something to watch on a Friday. Suffice to say she informed me that it may not be the sexy thriller I thought. Apparently, the film is based on a Stephen King novel. Veteran horror film director Mike Flanagan, who also helped adapt the film to the screen, helms this picture.

Gugino and Greenwood go to an isolated home in the woods (Mistake Number One!) for some alone time to spice up their lackluster marriage. So Gerald seems to think that a little bondage will get things off to a nice start but Jessie isn't all that into it. While arguing on the bed, Gerald suffers a heart attack brought on by the viagra, perhaps if they were at a Marriott and not an isolated house in the woods. Oh and a stray dog enters the house and starts to get some good eats off of Gerald's corpse and naturally waits for Jessie to expire so he can gorge himself.

Jessie doesn't so much descend into madness as she jumps off a cliff into it. She hallucinates and has conversations with her dead husband. She even begins to hallucinate herself walking around freely and has three way conversations with herself and dead husband. These conversations eventually jogs her memory about some forgettable actions that help her survive the night. Jessie has flashbacks to her childhood that were discomforting for me to see. Jessie hallucinates/dreams about a disfigured man being in the room but Gerald points to a bloody footprint and says it's death coming for her.

A flashback of her cutting her hand gives her an idea of getting out of the cuffs. Jessie does the hold cut your hand to shred with broken glass to slip through a pair of cuffs. She manages to free herself and and bandage the wound but she passes out. She comes to and drives away but crashes the car as she's in no shape to drive. Fast forward to six months later and her life is almost back to normal, her had will never completely heal. There isn't too much commotion over how Gerald died. Research shows that the man that Jessie dreamed of in the room is actually a serial killer. Jessie visits the killer at his arraignment in Alabama and he of course recognizes her. This acts as closure.

This was a pretty interesting film. The pacing was fine but leaned a little toward the slow side, it was also about 8-10 minutes too long, but the plot was interesting enough that I didn't get bored. There would have been some parts that would have been weird but since it's based on a Stephen King novel, it makes sense. Gugino's performance was very good. I liked how she jumped into madness early but managed to get herself out. Freeing herself from not so much oppression but putting herself in bad situations.

The picture received an 89% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Flanagan does a very nice job with the tension and keeps things moving nicely. Bruce Greenwood gives another standout performance and even Henry Thomas gives a good performance as Jessie's creepy dad. The film is not for everyone but it's something worth watching. If you're a horror fan, keep an eye out for more of Flanagan's stuff. He does nice work. He creates good content and doesn't rely on gore or jump scares.

2017 Films: #21. Berlin Syndrome

Streamed via Netflix on September 4th. The picture is directed by Cate Shortland and based on a novel by Melanie Joosten. The premise of the film is simple enough, Clare is an Australian backpacking through Berlin. She ends up meeting up with Andi, a good looking guy who seems so nice she decides to spend the night as his place. When Andi goes to work and locks Clare in the apartment, she just shrugs it off as an honest mistake. When it happens again and she gives him the "what's the deal" speech, it becomes clear that she's not going anywhere and that Andi's apartment is built specifically for having guest over against their will.

Clare gets "pacified" by routinely being tied to the bed while Andi is out leading a regular life as a teacher and visiting his father, a retired professor (where its revealed that Clare is not his first "guest"). Clare kind of accepts her fate to a degree. One of Andi's students follows him home and she spots Clare in the apartment but Clare is unable to capitalize on the situation because Andi threatens to harm Franka. When Andi's father dies and he's gone for a few days, Clare is relieved when he returns.

Andi takes Clare for a drive in the woods, never a good spot, but is unable to chop her up when a little kid shows up. Clare tried to get the kid's help but he doesn't understand English. Time passes and Clare spots a flashlight in an apartment across the alley and manages to get the guy's attention. Unfortunately, Andi shows up and dispatches him.

Andi sees an article related to Clare's disappearance and decides its time to get rid of Clare. Andi tells Clare that the place is going to be fumigated. He gets rid of all the food and shuts off the water with the intention of starving Clare to death. However, Clare manages to place a photo in Franka's workbook that Andi is grading. Franka finds the photo and runs out of school but the photo falls out of the workbook in her haste and Andi then chases after her. Franka and Clare manage to outsmart Andi and escape.

This a good film that received 72% Rotten Tomatoes rating. It's knid of a combination of The Collector and Misery the ending is much more subtle than I expected from a film of this type. I was expecting a big showdown between Clare and Andi where someone dies and the Shortland goes in another direction. My only real problem with the film is that it has a 116 minute run time. It could have been cut to around 100 minutes and not lost any of the tension. At nearly two hours the film tends to grind along slowly. Otherwise it's a solid thriller. 

2017 Films: #22. Devil's Candy

A Netflix viewing on September 10th. This film was made in 2015 but wasn't released until March 2017. Usually there's a reason for such a lengthy delay, the film stinks. However this is not the case for this picture written and directed by Sean Byrne. This is only the 2nd film that Byrne has helmed and it's pretty darn good.

The film opens with Ray (Pruitt Taylor Vince) having an argument with his mother about his guitar playing being too loud. When Ray's mom threatens to send him back to the hospital, some rather severe misfortune befalls her. The house ends up being sold to the Hellman family, they can't afford it but it just so happens to be priced in their range but they never bother to ask why. Jesse, Ethan Embry as a discount Viggo Mortensen, is a struggling painter who is the quintessential cool heavy metal dad to his Motorhead loving daughter Zooey (Kiara Glasco) and Astrid (Shiri Appleby), the bread winner.

The Hellmans are getting acclimated when Jesse starts getting weird visions. Meanwhile Ray is in a motel playing his guitar and is told by the cops to keep it down. Ray ends up going back home and has a brief conversation with Zooey who takes a liking to Ray's Flying V guitar. Before Ray can enter, Jesse finally shows up and turns him away. Ray leaves the guitar as a gift for Zooey but Jesse insists that she can't keep it.

Jesse's visions start getting worse, he starts to black out and it causes him to be late picking up Zooey after school and to even take his commissioned painting and change it to reflect his visions, suffice to say the bank that commissioned the work will not like the new version.

It doesn't exactly say "we appreciate your business."

While this is going on, Ray kidnaps a young boy, chops him up, places the body in a suitcase and buries it on the property of his old home. There we see that there are several suitcases in the hole. Ray sneaks into Zooey's room and attempts to kidnap her but she screams and Ray flees. The next day, Jesse has a meeting with an art dealer who had previously told him to get lost but likes the darkness of the new work. Of course this makes Jesse lat to pick up Zooey at school. Again. By the time Jesse gets to the school, Zooey is nowhere to be found. In fact Zooey is in Ray's clutches about to be chopped. As Ray prepares to kill her by going through his ritual, all psychos have rituals, Zooey manages to free herself and escape.

The Hellmans are back at the house with the police about to be taking into protective custody when Ray shows up. Ray kills the two cops, shoots Ray and Astrid, takes Zooey upstairs and sets a fire. Jesse, with a bullet wound in the torso, manages pull himself and Astrid to safety, get a ladder from the barn, climb into Zooey's room, bludgeon Ray with his guitar and climb back out the window and down the ladder with Zooey in tow. Jesse manages to not only get the title of "cool dad" back but he even finds the spot where the suitcases were buried.

This is a good film but a  92% Rotten Tomatoes rating is a bit high. The story is very good and there are some solid performances. Byrne builds up the tension nicely throughout the film. Now since this was low budget film the visual affects were not good but I won't harp too much on that. I found it a little hard to believe that Ray could just snatch Zooey from school so easily, especially after an attempted kidnapping the night before. Hell! Why was she even in school? The film takes place in Texas so I am sure there was someone at the school with a gun who would have been more than happy to keep an eye on Zooey until Jesse showed up (to be fair, Jesse got a flat tire en route to the school and he had no cell coverage, given). Then there's the feats Jesse is able to accomplish with loss of blood and a bullet lodged in his torso.

Overall this is a good film that's worth watching if you like horror. 

2017 Films: #23. It Comes at Night

An OnDemand viewing on September 23rd. This picture was released back in June and had a limited run on a limited number of screens nationwide. It got a really good Rotten Tomatoes rating and looked interesting to me but it just didn't stick around long enough for me to get my butt to the cineplex.

The film has grossed around $14 million against a budget of $5 million. Trey Edward Shults, a relative newcomer who worked on three Terrence Malick films, wrote the screenplay and directed this dystopic, psychological  horror film about what could happen when a viral outbreak strikes.

The film opens with Paul (Joel Edgerton), his wife Sarah (Carmen Ejogo) and teenage son Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) having to dispose of the body of Sarah's father who contracted the disease.

Gross.

And by dispose I mean burn. We're talking bubonic plague type grossness. The smoke from the funeral pyre attracts some unwanted attention. Paul manages to subdue the intruder and keeps him quarantined.  Will (Christopher Abbott) tells Paul that he was out foraging for his family when he found the house. Sarah convinces Paul that it might be a good idea to let Will and his family move in as they have livestock. Paul and Will are ambushed when they leave the house but eventually get Will's family and bring them back safely.

Paul lays out the rules and everything seems to go well. Though Travis, being a teenage boy, develops a bit of a thing for Will's wife Kim (Riley Keough).

Young. Cute and fresh as a daisy considering the circumstances.

Travis peeps in on Will and Kim and starts to has fantasies about Kim but they end like this...

Gross drool does not make for a very sexy dream.

Eventually, Will and Kim's son develops a symptom of the disease and Paul decides that everyone should isolate themselves. Travis' eavesdropping comes in handy when he overhears Will and Kim talking about leaving. Will and Kim try to leave the next morning but there's a bit of an armed standoff and it goes badly. I don't want to spoil the ending but it's not a happy one.

This was a really good film. Strong performances by the cast. A really good story and nice pacing for a 91 minute run time. Shults does a nice job with the tension and paranoia of the characters. His story doesn't spends any time on exposition. It's a nice character study about how regular people will try to survive when society breaks down (hint: it's not good). Shults leaves a lot to the imagination. There's a scene when Paul's dog runs away and comes back a few days later badly injured. Is it a monster? We don't know and it's discomforting. This film is worth a view if you're into this type of film. 

2017 Films: #20. Wind River

August 19th in Chicago, IL. Taylor Sheridan directs and writes a tale of murder on a reservation in Wyoming. The cast includes Jeremy Renner as Corey Lambert, Elizabeth Olsen as Jane Banner and Graham Greene as Ben, the tribal police chief.

The film opens with a young girl seemingly running for her life through the deep snow. Lambert is called out to his in-laws place to investigate a cattle mauling as Lambert works for the Fish and Wildlife Service as a hunter. In the course of the tracking the animals, its believed that mountain lions are culprits, he comes across the frozen body of a young woman ill suited to be out in the weather; no shoes or proper winter attire. Lambert recognizes the girl as Natalie Lambert.

When Ben gets out to the scene, he suspects foul play and contacts the FBI. The FBI sends in the ill-prepared Jane Banner straight from Las Vegas to deal with the situation. Banner gets off on the wrong foot while questioning Natalie's family and butts heads with the coroner when he balks at calling Natalie's death a murder (his explanation makes perfect sense but Banner cannot get any additional FBI help if the death is not ruled a homicide.

During the course of chasing down a lead, Banner shoots a suspect and a second body is discovered. That of Matt (Jon Bernthal), a security guard at a drilling site, who was actually Natalie's boyfriend. During this time Lambert divulges to Banner that his own daughter, Emily, died about two years ago in similar circumstances to Natalie, both were friends. She had a party at the house, while the parents were away, and was found dead of exposure miles from the house. The next day Banner, Ben, Lambert and a few sheriff's deputies head out to the drilling site. They're met by the security team who show signs of brawling. In course of going to question one of the guards, Banner is ambushed and a fire fight ensues.

The audience is treated to a flashback scene that shows what went down the night Natalie died. Providing cover, Lambert shoots the remaining guards and goes after the suspect. When Lambert catches him, he drags him up to an isolated spot without any shoes and gives him the same opportunity to save himself as Natalie had.

Great cinematography (that really captures the near hopelessness of the harsh winter isolation) and solid acting. He story isn't a "whodunit" since you don't really get to the suspects until the end of the film. My only real issue is that the character that raped Natalie, was the weaseliest guy in the bunch, obviously the most likely to commit a rape. The gang that is involved, they also kill Matt and dump the body, go from drunken douche bags to murderers real fast. They're ok with beating up their friend when he gets pissed about them razzing Natalie, raping his unconscious girlfriend, eventually killing their friend and dumping the body. None of the guys show any problems with their actions when the authorities arrive and are even willing to kill law enforcement officials. It doesn't seem possible that they would escape. Even if they got away with what happened to Natalie, killing an FBI agent is not the way to go.

This is a really good film, not quite as good as Hell or High Water, Sheridan wrote that one, but you can mention Wind River in the same breath as Hell or High Water without any repercussions. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an 87% rating and it lives up to it. The pacing of the film was just right to me, it never seemed slow but never moves too fast either. Everything is deliberate. Since the deaths of Natalie and Emily are similar, Sheridan feints at the possibility of there being a serial killer at large but that's as close as it gets. The film has a post script about how no statistics on missing native american women are kept. This a really good picture that is worth seeing. Keep an eye out for more of Sheridan's work in the future. 

2017 Films: #19. Icarus

A Netflix viewing on August 18th. Writer/director Bryan Fogel is a bicycling enthusiast who competed in the Haute Route, the biggest amateur biking competition in the world. He manage to placed in the top 20 without taking any PEDs. He was going to compete in the next race while on a regimen of PEDs just to show how lax the anti-doping system is and to see if he could improve on his finish. He was steered toward Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of the anti-doping lab in Russia. Rodchenkov would help Fogel with getting him through any drug tests.

What happens is that Fogel's drug regimen and racing take a backseat to the the international doping scandal of Russia against the backdrop of the Rio Olympics in 2016. Fogel ends up doing worse in the Haute Route, still in the top 50, due to unforeseen circumstances but Rodchenkov becomes the centerpiece of Russian state sponsored doping of athletes.

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 93% rating and with good reason. Fogel begins with one story and follows the story down another road when it makes that turn. Fogel becomes to emotionally attached to Rodchenkov even helping him obtain legal counsel as well as putting him in touch with the media to tell his side of story. Suffice to say it does not put Vladomir Putin in a nice light and because of that, Rodchenkov eventually goes into protective custody. The film is a stark tale of the win at all costs mentality in international sports as well as how easy it is to avoid the anti-doping agencies. Very interesting film that is worth watching. 

2017 Films: #18. Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press

A Netflix viewing on August 17th. The film deals with the trial of Terry Bollea vs. Gawker. Not sure who Terry Bollea is? He's this guy...

The Ultimate Male himself, Thunderlips.

In case you were not aware of the facts around this case, Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan, had sex with the wife of "Bubba the Love Sponge" and a video recording of the some enchanted evening was made and Gawker released it. It also came out in the movie that "Bubba" often videotapes his wife having sex with others. WEIRD! Apparently the tape did not paint a very nice image of Mr. Bollea and he sued Gawker in Flordia for $100 million.

It turns that Gawker had made an enemy of Silicon Valley billionaire, Peter Thiel. Gawker outed him as a homosexual years earlier and Thiel still held a  grudge. So much so that he bankrolled Bollea's suit. Side note: it was wrong for Gawker to out Thiel. The article may not have been malicious but it was wrong. So Thiel wanted to use his wealth to crush Gawker. He was successful. What I found weird about this portion of the film was that Bollea managed to get the jury to believe that Hulk Hogan and Terry Bollea are separate people. He bragged about his male endowment on Howard Stern but in the trial he made it clear that Terry Bollea does not have a "ten inch penis" but the character of Hulk Hogan does. Weird.

Then the film switches gears to the sale of the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2015. It was later revealed that billionaire Sheldon Adelson was behind the purchase. Apparently, Adelson felt articles about him should have been more flowery, he even went so far as to offer to pay the medical expenses of a reporter's daughter if the reporter would retract an article about him. He wasn't satisfied with being filthy rich so he bought the paper out of spite.

The point the filmmakers wanted prove was that the free press is under siege. If a billionaire doesn't like the articles being written about him, it's usually a white male, then they will use their limitless wealth to crush the publication. Or just buy it out. Even Trump himself famously warned that he would open up the libel laws to make it easier to sue the media.

The film received an 89% Rotten Tomatoes rating. If the film's purpose is to solicit an emotional reaction from the viewer, then it was successful. If you are a free thinker, then this film is a must watch.

2017 Films: #17. The Saint

A Netflix viewing while on a trip from Baltimore to Chicago on August 14th. As a kid I was familiar with the Roger Moore tv series from the sixties and since I was looking for a short film to watch on a short flight, I took a chance.

Simon Templar has a history that dates back to 1928. The character has been in every form of entertainment since then. After Roger Moore played the character on television from 1962-69, there was a revival of the character in 1978 with a series called Return of the Saint that starred Ian Oglivy as the title character. It lasted one season. Val Kilmer played Templar in the 1997 film version but it was awful and the character went back to the shelf.

Which brings us to now. Adam Rayner plays the title character as an international Robin Hood type, stealing from bad people and doing something good with it. Luckily there's a backstory of him coming from a very wealthy English family, so he doesn't need to take a cut of the score. Eliza Dushku, plays Patricia Holm, an ex-spy who is Templar's partner and helps with all the technical stuff like getting IDs and disabling electrical alarms with a laptop from a poolside location.

The plot premise is that a crooked banker is stealing money set for relief of a fictional African nation. The banker has a change of heart and decides to hide the funds and go to the FBI. The main villain finds out and decides to pull the old daughter kidnap ploy to get his ill gotten booty back. The banker gets a message to Templar so he can save his daughter. Templar and Patricia embark to save the girl while being chased by the main henchman and the FBI. Basically, the case is solved in under 90 minutes.

The film is very tongue and cheek and never takes itself seriously. It seems more like a pilot for a series than anything else. Rayner plays Templar more like Roger Moore's James Bond. It's not a very good film per se but it was better than the 1997 film version. You can skip this film and not miss out on anything. There are better ways to kill 90 minutes but if you do watch this, you won't regret it. I only watched this film because I am familiar with the brand. If it had a different title, I would've passed it over.

2017 Films: #16. Spider-Man: Homecoming

August 13th in Owings Mills, MD. After viewing all five previous Spider-Man films since 2002, I finally got around to seeing the 2nd reboot of Spider-Man now that Marvel has the licensing rights back or something to that affect.

Tom Holland, who is 21 years old, is making his 2nd turn as 15 year old Peter Parker/Spider-man. Thankfully Marvel and director Jon Watts decided against giving us another version of the character's very well known origin story, instead they give the radioactive spider bite some lip service.

The film opens 8 years ago after The Avengers just defeated the Chitauri expeditionary force and the clean up of NYC is underway. Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) has the city contract to clear the Chitauri debris. All of a sudden, Detective Lacey, who's now working for the feds, declares that the the salvage is now under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Toomes' contract is void and he's sh*t out of luck. Toomes and his crew manage to steal some of the alien technology and eventually use the technology to create very high tech weapons, what I found interesting about this scene was that Toomes and his entire crew go from legitimate contractors to a criminal enterprise in the drop of a hat (plus, how did a small business get this contract to begin with? Toomes does not have the manpower to clear of New York of the debris).

So when we get to present day, Toomes and his crew are successful criminals. Toomes used the alien tech to create the Vulture suit and he steals whatever alien technology he can get his hands on. All while avoiding any sort of run in with the authorities or a Marvel superhero. Seems to me that it would be easy to track where criminals using the technology got their weapons. Toomes' turn to villainy only happens because the big, bad government went after his small business. All he had left was to turn to crime. He just steals stuff to sell on the secondary market. No one ever seems to get hurt when he pulls a job. So he's not a evil person. He's not out to rule the world or anything. However, he will not hesitate, nor feel any sympathy, to kill anyone who threatens his way of life/family. That's how he justifies his criminal ventures.

Anyway, the basic plot is that Peter Parker is juggling being a teenager and his ambition to be a part of the Avengers. He's pining away for the hottest girl in school as well as pining away for Tony Stark.

Obviously, two very attractive well to do people, with nice hair and great fashion sense. Who wouldn't want to hang around them? 

We see the trials and tribulations of Peter Parker the high school student and Peter Parker, the Spider-Man. As he steps up his Spider-Man duties, his school life slips a bit. He wants to be popular with his classmates but at the same time popular with Stark. He stumbles upon the Toomes' alien weapons and tracks them down. By doing this he missed out on the Academic Decathlon with his classmates, they manage to win without him in case you were wondering, in Washington, DC. As Spider-Man he puts his friends in danger by giving his pal Ned (played nicely by Jacob Batalon) a power source of a captured weapon that explodes while inside the elevator at the Washington Monument. Peter saves them given but he put them all in danger in the first place.

During this time, Peter and Ned manage to hack the suit, which they do quite easily, that Stark gave him so that Stark can't track him. Peter manages to foil a robbery that set in motion the monument crisis and learns about another Toomes sale about to go down. The sale is going to go down on the Staten Island Ferry and Peter shows up to stop it. As Peter crashes the deal, so does the FBI and things breakdown from there. The Vulture shows ups and causes havoc. Peter gets Vulture's weapon away from him and it causes catastrophic damage to the ferry. Peter has his Jesus moment...

Look familiar? Why mess with success.

But it fails and Iron Man shows up to save the day. Stark harshly reprimands Peter and goes so far as to take the suit back. Peter tells Stark that "he's nothing" without it. To which Stark says that maybe he "shouldn't have it" if that's the case. This is the new version of the "great power comes with great responsibility" scene. Peter goes meekly back into teenage life and manages to score a date with Liz (Laura Harrier) to homecoming (Liz is a senior and Peter is a sophomore, senior girls as beautiful as Liz DO NOT date sophomore boys in high school. It's not a thing. Liz would be dating college guys).

That all changes when Peter picks up Liz for the dance and meets her father. The Vulture. I found it funny that Toomes manages to deduce that Parker is Spider-Man in less than 30 seconds when no one else pieces it together. Peter has to ditch Liz at the dance and go after Toomes. Toomes however is ready for this contingency, even though he just deduced his identity a few moments earlier, and has The Shocker ambush Peter.  With Ned's help, Peter eludes the Shocker and heads off after Toomes. Peter is able to stop Toomes from hijacking a plane carrying alien and Stark tech. No one is hurt during the plane crash and he manages to save Toomes from a fiery death in order to turn him over to the police.

Back at school, Peter apologizes to Liz for running out on her and she's surprisingly cool about it. In fact, now that her father is going to prison, she and her mother are moving to Oregon. Just like that! This nicely ties the love interest loose end so that the a potential love interest can start with Michelle (Zendaya), who clearly likes Peter but he never notices her because he's so smitten with the most popular girl in school cliche.

This is what passes for awkward, nerdy yet edgy high school girl. 

The film ends with Peter getting his suit back and declining a bid to join the Avengers. Thus enabling Stark to avoid any child endangerment laws by putting Parker in danger as a member of the Avengers. The post credit scene shows us Toomes in prison meeting with the buyer of the weapons in the deal on the ferry. Its a foreshadowing of Spider-Man villain, the Scorpion. How do you know it's the Scorpion? Why because he's got a Scorpion tattoo on his neck that's why.

So far Spider-Man: Homecoming has grossed on $700 million worldwide. This was a fun movie but it got tedious for me at some points, those points coincided with the hamfisted product placement scenes. Of which Audi was extremely egregious. I feel that the 92% Rotten Tomatoes rating is a little high. This is the best Spider-Man film since 2004 by far but I felt that the high school dynamic was weak. Some of the scenes really agitated me and none of the high school characters looked high school aged, though Holland looked close. There are some nice references to the comics and I kind of dug the way Holland uses the suit in an attempt to impress Liz, because who among us wouldn't use their super powers to try and score with the babes. Secret identity be damned. I did like the fact that they went in a different direction with some of the secondary characters; do we really need to see a love interest with Mary Jane Watson or Gwen Stacy again?

 There were times I wondered if this was just an Iron Man film disguised as a Spider-Man film, kind of the way a tv show will showcase a spin off. In Addition to Stark, Happy Hogan plays a significant role and even Pepper Potts show up at the end. Making me wonder how much that cost. I understand that the reason Marvel got the licensing deal for Spider-Man was because Sony wasn't making enough money after a failed reboot and Marvel is going to go all out for the film to be successful so they bring out their biggest gun. Iron Man. To me, they didn't let Spider-Man stand on his own, even the suit had a (sexy) voice like Iron Man's suit. Iron Man/Tony Stark were never too far away. Tom Holland will be back as Spider-Man in the MCU but there won't be sequel to Homecoming until 2019. That's the way Marvel wants to play it.

They did a lot of things right and did some stuff I didn't much care for. There are also the same problems in cinematic universe, the setting up of the next installment. Parker nor anyone close to him was ever in any real danger. The film was ok but not a must see by any stretch.

2017 Films: #15. Salt and Fire

I watched this film on Netflix on a flight from BWI to Ft. Lauderdale on August 5th. The tricky part about this film was that it was released internationally in 2016 but premiered in the US in early April of 2017. Since Rotten Tomates refers to this picture as a 2017 film, then I will count it as a 2017 film.

Legendary director Werner Herzog wrote the screenplay and directed this picture. The film stars Veronica Ferres as Dr. Laura Sommerfield, Gael García Bernal  as Dr. Covani and Volker Michalowski as Dr. Meier are European scientists that are en route to South America to study an ecological disaster. Michael Shannon plays Matt Riley, the CEO of an international consortium that had a hand in the disaster. Obviously, he's the villain.

The three scientists are kidnapped and taken into the mountains. Dr. Sommerfield is brought to the masked leader of the villains. He knows why the scientists are in country and makes it clear it's not about ransom. When Sommerfield inquires about the statuis of Covani and Meier, she's informed that they were subdued via diarrhea inducing dumplings. It's revealed that the "host" is Matt Riley, the CEO of the consortium that caused the ecological disaster that Sommerfield and her team came to analyze. Riley explains that he's feels responsible for what happened. Riley is an intellectual who's love of art begins to make Sommerfield soften her stance on him. The two grow to mutually respect each other.

Riley then takes Sommerfield on a field trip to the salt flat that the disaster has become. The salt flat is spreading and threatens to destroy the environment. It's also revealed that the salt flat sits upon a super volcano and is due to erupt (kind of like Yellowstone) and an eruption of a super volcano would make the human race extinct. Riley ends up stranding Sommerfield on the flat with two boys and a week's worth of supplies. The boys are partially blind and Sommerfield cares for them.

When Riley comes back he reveals that the boys are his adopted sons. Their mother died after childbirth as a result of the salt flat and the boys will eventually become completely blind due to the poisoned environment. Riley wanted to make Sommerfield feel the emotional and human costs of the disaster firsthand instead of just giving a statistical report. Riley gives her a ticket to Rome and says that he will turn himself in. Sommerfield wants him to join her but he says he'd get caught. Film ends.

Werner Herzog is a film legend and if I come across a film of his then I am going to watch it. Sure he might be past his prime but he's capable of delivering. The film received a 30% Rotten Tomatoes rating which I think is a bit cruel. The story is more or less fluid and the cinematography is very good. Solid acting and a run time of only 98 minutes. The plot has its ups and downs and gets a bit cliche at times. The film has a pro-environmental message that man screws with nature at his own risk. Riley's character has some good qualities and some that are cliche. One of his henchmen though is a bit ridiculous. Herzog wastes the talents of Bernal as he's only briefly in the film. Could the film have been better? For sure. It's not Herzog's best work but it's ok. This film is definitely not for everyone though.

2017 Films: #14. Free Fire

An iTunes rental that I started on the flight from BWI to ORD but finished in the hotel after the flight was cancelled on August 3rd. This film was completed back in 2015 and was slated to have a US release last year but the distribution company ran into some financial trouble and didn't get into US theaters until April 21st of this year.

Ben Wheatley directed and wrote the screenplay. Wheatley has been directing films for only a few years but has done some pretty nice work. Though it's never mentioned, the film is set in 1978 and you can tell this because of the wardrobe...

I think the guy in the hat played with the Doobie Brothers and the collar on that shirt can double as a hang glider. The porn star mustaches are also a dead giveaway.

The plot is pretty simple, one group of people wants to buy some guns from another group of people. There are two intermediaries, one for the buyers and one for the sellers. Everyone involved is a character. On the the buyers side you have Frank (Michael Smiley) and Chris (Cillian Murphy) from the IRA. Stevo (Sam Riley) and Bernie (Enzo Cilenti) are brought in by Frank to help move the merchandise. The intermediary for the buyers is Justine (Brie Larson)...

The tough "chick" with the great hair and good fashion sense.

Before going to the buy, the group is met by Ord (Armie Hammer), the middle man of the purchase. It seemed to me that Frank and Chris called Justine to buy some guns. Justine calls Ord and Ord calls Vernon (Sharlto Copley). Vernon's crew consists of Martin (Babou Ceesay), Gordon (Noah Taylor) and Harry (Jack Reynor). The setting is an abandon warehouse on the docks. The sale goes smoothly despite the fact that Chris wanted to buy M16s and Vernon brought AR70s. Things go south when Stevo recognizes Harry as the guy who beat him up the night prior. Harry eventually spots Stevo and tempers flare. Chris offers a solution in order to broker a truce but when Stevo goes to apologize, he pulls out a gun and starts firing. All hell proceeds to break loose.

At some point everyone takes a bullet but somehow, none of the wounds are life threatening. So much so that Martin take a bullet to the head but is not quite dead a few scenes later. During the standoff a third group comes in to rob the sale but are soon killed. It's weird how much terrible shooting there is until another crew is introduced then everyone becomes Annie Oakley. Eventually people start dying off and its revealed that some of the players tried to pull a double cross and steal the money. In the end, only one survives.

The film received a 67% rating from Rotten Tomatoes and that's fair. There's a lot of witty dialogue, the acting is solid and the identity of the double crosser is a twist but, all of the characters who get killed off, are killed off predictably (by importance). The film is only 91 minutes long but the stand off drags on too much. The run time was spot on but there were 10 minutes in the warehouse that could've been replaced with some exposition.  I liked this movie, Larson and Copley had standout performances. I'm going to go back and view some Wheatley's prior films. Perhaps there's a reason that no one went to see this picture when it was in the theaters. It's not a dud by any means, it's just meh. A good start and a good ending and a lot of repetition in the middle. 

2017 Films: #13. Take Me

A Netflix viewing while in Baltimore on August 2nd. This is a small independent black comedy is brought to you by indie producers, the Duplass Brothers. The film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 25th then saw a limited theater and internet release on May 5th. Pat Healy directs and stars as Ray, a small business owner who's down on his luck. His business you ask? Simulated abductions.

Ray's business is dying and he has about $7 in his bank account. He's pretty much looked on as a loser by his sister and her family but he believes in his business and he's dedicated to it. Ray gets a call from a woman who wants to use his services. Not for the the standard 8 hours but a entire weekend and she's willing to pay. Ray then stalks her and eventually strikes. He concocts an elaborate scenario and holds Anna (Taylor Schilling) in his basement. Anna appears to play along but when her name is mentioned on a police scanner, Ray starts to worry. After she stabs him, the cops show up at his house because her neighbor recognized his van.

Ray's home is compromised and he moves Anna to his family's vacation home in the mountains. Anna starts to get into Ray's head as she finds out why he got divorced and how his once flourishing business failed. Eventually Anna turns the table on Ray and forces him into the trunk of her car and drives back to LA.

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 68% rating and that score seems a little low but not by much. Healy does a nice job with the pace of the film and the dynamic between Ray and Anna is good. The ending is a bit of a twist but it fits with the direction the film went in. Healy shows good range as he goes from confident professional fake kidnapper to panicked amateur to broken hostage. Schilling is equally good as a damsel in distress who turns femme fatale. Good dialogue between the characters. A decent small film that's worth watching. 

2017 Films: #12. Kong: Skull Island

Viewed on August 2nd as an iTunes rental on a flight from Chicago to Baltimore. To date the film has earned nearly $168 million domestically through June 9th and $398 million in foreign markets against a $185 million budget. Not exactly great numbers in North America but when you take home half a billion dollars worldwide, that's good. Rotten Tomatoes even gave the film a 76% rating. It's too high.

I originally balked at seeing this in theater because it just did not appeal to me at the time. The trailer tells you everything you need to know. Based on the style of the uniforms the military characters are wearing, the film takes place during the Vietnam War years. Kong smashes up a bunch of helicopters. The survivors of the helicopter incursion are lead by Samuel L. Jackson and he's going to kill Kong. The cast is scene running through the jungles of Skull Island trying to escape from something, probably Kong or some other creature. John C. Reilly is cast as the pseudo comedy relief and he appears to be an American pilot from a prior war, WWII, who found his way to Skull Island. Kong probably fights monsters.

Now this latest version of everyone's favorite giant gorilla manages to steal, or pay homage, to all of the prior films: King Kong (1933), King Kong (1976) and King Kong (2005). There's also some other film references that I may touch upon later. Now there are other films featuring Kong; Toho Studios gave the world two films featuring Kong in the sixties and there was a less than spectacular sequel to the 1976 De Laurentis version, this version was a modern remake of the 1933 version in case you were wondering, that is really too god awful to discuss in any detail.

Here's your cast:

• John Goodman plays Randa, head of the Monarch Corporation that gets government funding to hunt for monsters. His tie in is that he is the lone survivor of a monster attack on a naval vessel that was covered up by the government. 
• Corey Hawkins plays Houston Brooks, Randa's sidekick. He has a "hollow earth" theory that got him laughed out of the scientific community. Thus making him a perfect fit for Monarch.
• Samuel L. Jackson is Colonel Packard, the leader of an elite helicopter assault unit out of Da Nang. Who was going to be sent home from Vietnam but gets called back for one more mission cliche. He's pretty much Captain Ahab.
• Tom Hiddleston is Conrad. A former British SAS officer who, despite being decommissioned, just happens to be in the area of the mission. He's an expert tracker who's in it for the money.

He also has blonde highlights.

• Brie Larson plays Mason Weaver. Her character is very similar to Jeff Bridges' character from the 1976 version. In that version, Bridges was a plucky anthropologist with great hair who uses his guile stows away to Skull Island. Larson plays a plucky photo journalist with great hair that uses her pull to get on the ship to Skull Island.

See the similarities? 

• John C. Reilly is Lt. Hank Marlow, a fighter pilot who crash landed on Skull Island during WWII. 
• There are more cast members who mostly serve as canon fodder to show Kong's destructive power. 

The film takes place in 1973, Randa and Brooks get government funding for an expedition to Skull Island, a previously uncharted island in the SOuth Pacific. Randa and Brooks hire Conrad as a tracker and get a military escort in the form of Packard's helicopter assault unit. There scheduled to get sent home from Vietnam but get caught in the "one more mission" cliche so you know that the majority of them are going to die. Die horribly at that. So the military personnel, the mercenary, the journalist, the scientists and Monarch employees set out to island which is surrounded by a constant storm.

On the main deck of the ship, we visibly see about five Hueys and two cargo choppers but when all the choppers are airborne, there about a dozen helicopters but no other boats.

In theory the other helicopter could have been stored within the boat but the launch would have taken several hours then. I had to rewind the stream to count.

The helicopters cut through the storm and drop seismic charges which wakes Kong up. Suffice to say he's not a morning person and he lays waste to Packard's team. The majority of the insertion team manage to survive unsurvivable crashes and they have to try and link up to get to a rendezvous point with the refueling helicopters in three days. The survivors stumble upon the wonders of Skull Island and manage to go from frying pan to fire to frying pan and so on. One group meets up with local inhabitants and get introduced to Hank Marlow and gives the group some much need exposition. Kong good (he is a god to the indigenous population who keeps the bad monsters at bay). Skull-crawlers bad (these are the bad monsters that Kong keeps at bay). Marlow just happens to have an ex machina boat that's been working on since he became marooned on the island made from spare parts of crashed planes.

All Marlow needed was for one of Packard's soldiers to be mechanically inclined to make it work, A-Team style. He also managed to keep the fuel from going bad for 30 years! Guy's a genius.

Conrad, Mason, Marlow and the rest of their group finally meet up with Packard and his team. Packard is determined to kill Kong if it's the last thing he does and no one is leaving until he kills Kong. He doesn't care if they miss the rendezvous. The group gets further thinned out by a run in with a skull crawler that gives Marlow an "I told you so" opportunity. Eventually Kong and the dominant skull crawler fight it out and it's only Kong's fighting style and opposable thumbs that allow him to win the fight. 

Totally predictable fight choreography.

The survivors make the rendezvous. Marlow gets reunited with his family and the set-up to the MonsterVerse is complete. Because in the end, its all about creating a shared universe that produces hundreds of millions of dollars.

As I mentioned earlier, this film steals/borrows a lot from the other Kong films. There's the prehistoric creatures, smaller fights with said creatures and a downplayed love triangle between Kong, the female lead and the good looking male lead with the blonde highlights. It also must be a prerequisite that the female lead has to get wet somehow. Whether it's part of the escape (Fay Wray and Naomi Watts), a shower (Jessica Lange) or falling into a body of water only to have Kong save you (Larson). Kong has a very strong resemblance to Jackson's 2005 CGI Kong. Though Jackson made his CGI Kong more of a giant silverback gorilla, Skull Island Kong is an upright walking giant gorilla. The facial close ups of each creating are very similar. The CGI fight scenes from this version and the 2005 version are also very similar. Probably the same digital fight choreographer or something. In 1976, Kong went to town on a small helicopter assault group atop the WTC. In this version he dispatches a dozen or so quite quickly, the aftermath led to a nice exchange between two survivors where one says, "there was no tactical precedence" for what just happened, they did "the best we could."

There is also a scene where a Monarch rep gets snatched from the boat by some gruesome flesh eating birds a la the personal assistant from Jurassic World. Only in this film, he gets torn apart on screen. There's also some Predator and Apocalypse Now references. It's all stuff that's been done before. That of course is the problem with a shared universe conglomerate. Every movie sets up the next one. There's no drama because the monster has to come back in the next film. The film is fun and some cool stuff takes place but nothing interesting happens, its mostly predictable. You know who is going to live and who is going to die. I get that this happens in a lot of films and it's hit or miss as to why it works. This film didn't work for me. It was a good time killer.