Netflix viewing on a flight from Dallas to Chicago on May 6th. Andrew Niccol wrote and directed this sci-fi noirish thriller starring Clive Owen as a detective trying to solve a string of murders in a society where privacy and anonymity no longer exist.
Set in the not too distant future in an unnamed city where crime is almost non-existent because everyones' personal information can be pulled up immediately, in a very Black Mirror kind of way, and everything is recorded and stored in the "Ether." Detective Sal Frieland is called into investigate a series of murders that appear to be linked but have baffled the police. Since everyone's actions are recorded and stored, this killer has no identity and leaves no clues. Frieland comes across a woman (Amanda Seyfried) who has no record on the ether. Frieland goes undercover and uses her to "erase" a moment of weakness. Soon, Frieland discovers that the woman is either the killer or the next victim. He must race to save her and himself.
The film has an interesting premise. It seems to borrow heavily from several Black Mirror episodes and has a kind of almost Minority Report like vibe to it. The film has its moments but in the end it left me unsatisfied. It has a 100 minute run time and it moves a little slow. I felt that the murderer reveal was weak. There's a good amount of predictability within the plot. Overall it seemed to me that the authorities would be more vigilant against hackers. Regular crime is all but gone. Anonymity and privacy are enemies of the state but the authorities are caught off guard. There's also no sense of urgency. I understand that people are in a general malaise but I never thought the Frieland was desperate to crack the case. Sure he wanted to solve it, especially when he becomes the primary suspect, but he doesn't seem to be in a hurry. The film had potential but in the end it was disappointing.
May 4th in Grand Prairie, TX. It's been six years since Thanos was teased in a post credits scene from 2012's The Avengers.
Has it really been six years?
Everything in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been leading up to this film. If you've invested as much time as I have then it's about time. It all comes together here.
Speaking of post credit scenes, Infinity War picks up right after the Thor: Ragnarok post credit scene.
That's Thanos' ship intercepting the Asgardian refugee ship and things go downhill from there. Thanos and his thugs defeat Thor and the Hulk. Heimdall manages to send Banner to Earth to warn the others, the ship is destroyed and Thor is cast into space.
Thanos is on a quest to bring the Infinity Stones together. He acquired the Power Stone offscreen by destroying Xandar and he gets the Space Stone from the Tessaract which in case you forgot was kept in Asgard. Thor meets up with the Guardians of the Galaxy and they decide to split up. Thor, Groot and Rocket go to Nedvallir to have Eitri make him a new weapon (spoiler, it's Stormbreaker, originally given to Beta Ray Bill in Thor #337 and no I did not need to look that up). Quill, Gamora, Mantis and Drax try to intercept Thanos at the location of the Reality Stone which is in the custody of The Collector on Knowhere. They're too late and Thanos kidnaps Gamora.
Meanwhile on Earth, Thanos' goons; Ebony Maw, Midnight and Glaive arrive to obtain the Time and Mind Stone. Dr. Strange is the keeper of the Time Stone, it powers the Eye of Agamotto and the Mind Stone is infused into Vision. Vision and Scarlet Witchescape an attack with help from Captain America, Falcon and Black Widow. Maw however defeats Iron Man, Strange and Spider-man and leaves Earth with Strange in tow as he us unable to remove the stone due to enchantment. Iron Man and Spider-man stow away on the ship and rescue Strange but are not able to get off the ship.
Thanos is able to get Gamora to reveal the location of the Soul Stone by torturing her little sister Nebula. The catch here is that in order to get the Soul Stone, Thanos must sacrifice what he loves the most. Now everyone knows that Thanos, the "Mad Titan," loves only himself. See the paradox? Thanos gets the stone.
Thanos heads back to his home planet Titan where Iron Man, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange and the rest of the Guardians lay in wait. But before they spring the trap, Thanos gives some exposition about Titan and his plans for the stones. He knows that the universe is a crowded place with limited resources. With the Infinity Stones, he could eliminate half of the universe's population so that the other half will flourish. Less talking more fighting. To their credit, the heroes almost get the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos but to no avail. Strange, in order to save Stark's life, gives up the Time Stone (something he told Tony he would absolutely not do earlier).
Now the battle returns to Earth for the finale. The Earth group realizes that if they destroy the Mind Stone, Thanos loses. Vision offers to sacrifice himself for the greater good but Captain America gives him the "we don't trade lives" line. So the team head to Wakanda in hopes that Black Panther's sister Shuri can removed the stone. Shuri mocks Banner for not doing the job correctly the first time, her theory is very sciencey. She can take care of it given, but the process will take time. The final battle awaits.
Seriously? A shot by shot scene steal. Boy, they really went there.
During the battle, neither side can seem to get the upper hand. Thor arrives to help turn the tide and it looks like they might win out. However, just when the light at the end of the tunnel is seen, Thanos shows up and extracts the stone. Despite a furious attack from Thor, Thanos is able to snap his fingers. His dream complete. Half the universe's population is gone. In a last heroic effort, Nick Fury is able to use a beeper(?) to get a sub space message to Captain Marvel before disintegrating.
Set for theatrical release in 2019.
There's a lot going on here. The film has just about everything. Directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo keep the plot moving despite multiple story lines in simultaneous multiple locations. This was not an easy task. The story is very fluid and moves along nicely. The story takes some key points from Marvel Comics' 1991 Infinity Gauntlet and 2013 Infinity crossover events. This crossover came after my time, I pretty much stuck with X-Men titles for another year before fading away from comics. Screenwriters Christopher Markus and Steven McFeely did a nice job of incorporating the source material while keeping everything that has happened in the MCU in line. Not an easy task. Great special effects, great sound and great acting from the from the ensemble cast. My only issue with the cast was there was not enough Shuri. They are a few Avengers that weren't in the film but it gets explained away in a fashion that made me not care where they were.
Since Thanos was able to snap his fingers, half the population of the universe died. This includes a few popular Avengers. The problem is that it's no secret that some cast members are signed on for more films. I mean, T'Challa died and his stand alone film grossed over $1.3 BILLION worldwide so you know that character isn't going anywhere. Plus Dr. Strange used the Eye of Agamotto to view the over 14 million outcomes of the fight with Thanos on Titan. Of the outcomes there is only one where the Avengers are victorious. Thanos' act is devalued (they already filmed the sequel too). Other than that, the film is a lot of fun. It's a solid cinematic experience that just does not come around all that often. Unless of course it's a superhero film. The next film and the next phase will be interesting.
This was probably the most expensive film ever made coming in a nearly $400 million. The box office receipts are nothing short of staggering. Over $257 million on its opening weekend. To date it has grossed over $600 million domestically and over $1.8 BILLION worldwide.
April 26th in Pasadena CA. Ernest Cline's bestselling novel gets brought to the big screen by legendary director Steven Spielberg. This has been a long awaited film and I jumped on that bandwagon after I read the book in 2016.
The film is set in the year 2045 and the human race is not in a very good place. The world is kind of a cesspool controlled by giant corporations. People have escaped into a virtual reality world of the OASIS. The OASIS is the world's greatest resource. It is used for education and for the general escape from everyone's miserable life (the general populace is dirt poor). The OASIS was created by a man named James Halliday (Mark Rylance) and upon his death, he wills his estate and the OASIS to the person who can find three keys and unlock an easter egg. Thus giving the person full control of the OASIS. Suffice to say, everyone on Earth is going after the keys. Including evil video game conglomerate Innovative Online Industries or IOI. The IOI CEO, Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn, who's really good at playing a pr*ck by the way), will stop at nothing to get control of the OASIS in order to exploit it for profits.
Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) lives in the Columbus stacks, a series of trailers in tower form, and leads a generally lousy life with no hope of upward mobility. In the OASIS he is known as Parzival and he teams up with his pal Aech, a male avatar but who's female (Lena Waithe) in the real world and Parzival's love interest Art3mis, Samantha (Olivia Cooke) in the real world. Rounding out the rest of their group, the High Five, is Daito/Toshiro (Win Morisaki) and 11 year-old kid known as Sho/Zhou (Philip Zhao).
The High Five work together to solve the clues and try to stay one step ahead of the army of IOI participants known as "sixers. Of course IOI plays dirty (they blow up the stack that Wade lives), are actively looking for the High Five in real life and are trying to stack the deck in their favor. TO help even the odds, Parzival enlists the aid of all the of "gunters" in order to defeat IOI and keep the OASIS free. Guess who wins?
There a lot of pop culture references in the book and that's what made it hard to put down. This what made the movie so much fun was spotting all of the subtle and not so subtle references. The amount money it must have taken to secure the rights to the properties must have been staggering.
The film took in over $41 million on it's opening weekend. To date it has grossed over $135 million domestically (that's a little disappointing) and over $576 million worldwide. To be fair, 2018 was set up to big a tough Spring/Summer film season. There was a lot of competition with Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War out. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 73% rating which is about where it should be. A lot of details from the book were either omitted or changed in order to fit the 140 minute run time. I attribute the score to the changes from the book to the film. That's how I felt. There's a lot of CGI and there are times when I felt I was watching a video game but that's kind of the reality where the film takes place. The only real problem I had was when Samantha and Wade meet in real life, it takes about 5 minutes for Sam to fall for Wade because he was really nice to her. Sam is an attractive woman and I just found it hard to believe that no one is her group ever tried that route in order to try and score with her. Samantha has a facial birthmark and she's self conscious about. She styles her hair to cover up half her face but after a few minutes of Wade saying how beautiful she is, she changes her hairstyle. I guess they had to speed up the romance angle as well.
Spielberg excels at bringing the viewer a cinematic experience. His films are made for the big screen. The film is technically stunning. Great visuals (some may seem derivative but they're great) and great sound. The type of film that's a must see in a theater. It's not for everyone and with a PG13 rating it's a little more kid friendly but it's a lot of fun.
April 21st in Chicago, IL. Wes Anderson's 9th directorial effort is his 2nd foray into stop motion animation. The film is set in the Japanese city of Megasaki. A dog flu has spread through the city and Mayor Kobayasi, a cat lover, decrees that all remaining dogs are to be sent to Trash Island. The mayor's youthful ward and nephew Atari steals a plane to in order to rescue his dog Spots, the first dog sent over to Trash Island.
Atari is injured during a crash landing and is helped by a reasonably friendly group of canines (Chief, Boss, King Duke and Rex). As they journey across Trash Island to try and find Spots, Mayor Kobayashi is tightening his grip on Megasaki by eliminating political rivals and setting a plan in motion to put down all the dogs on Trash Island. A plucky exchange student, Tracy Walker, is skeptical of the mayor so she and a student group begin to investigate (meddling kids). Atari and Spots are reunited and the mayor's plans are thwarted. Atari is made mayor and orders that the dogs are to be reintegrated into society.
Anderson received some criticism from some critics about cultural stereotypes and "whitewashing." Japanese characters speak in their native tongue and there are no subtitles. The humans that speak in English are white (Tracy and an interpreter delivering news updates) and of course the dogs speak English to each other. Subtitles would have helped for sure. Tracy is a "white savior" cliche but I was more bothered by the fact that she was high school aged, develops a crush on 12 year old Atari and they become an item at the end of the film.
A standard theme in Anderson's films is family. This film is not different. Atari steals a plane in order to locate his faithful dog whom he had grown to love. Spots was devoted to Atari. Then there's the fact that Spots and Chief are from the same litter, unbeknownst to Chief. When Chief's identity is revealed, he asks Spots if he was the "runt" of the litter and Spots replies, "not anymore." Great line. Spots bestows upon Chief the role of Atari's protector, a position he once held and raises his family with Peppermint. Chief gets together with Nutmeg to start their own family.
The picture received an 89% Rotten Tomatoes rating which is maybe a few points, but not many, too high but none the less a good film. I liked The Fantastic Mr. Fox a little better. The dialogue is what I expect from an Anderson film. Technically, there are few directors that pay as much attention to detail as Anderson does. It's not just the stop motion of the characters, it's the detailed sets. Lighting and color also play a big factor, another Anderson staple. The cast of voice talents is extensive and it feature several Anderson veterans like Bill Murray and Jeff Goldblum. Harvey Keitel, Greta Gerwig, Scarlett Johansson, Liev Schreiber and Bryan Cranston are also involved.
If you're an Anderson fan, as I am, then this is a must see. If you're not an Anderson fan or not a fan of stop motion animation then this is not a film for you. The criticisms are not wrong but I liked the film and will continue to view Anderson features.
April 7th in Chicago, IL. Jim from "The Office" directs, stars and even had a hand in the screenplay of this horror film that also stars his real life wife Emily Blunt.
Set in the not too distant future, the earth has been invaded by aliens and the human race is now the hunted. The aliens hunt by sound and possess an armored exoskeleton that make them difficult to kill. The Abbotts are a typical family of 5 that are out one day scavenging. On their way back home, a moment of carelessness leads to the death of their youngest son.
Fast forward a year and Evelyn is pregnant, teenage daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds, who stole the show) is acting like a teenage girl and acting out against her parents. Since Regan is deaf, the Abbotts communicate via sign language and have taken painstaking measures to keep hidden from the aliens. Things breakdown and the aliens discover them just as Evelyn gives birth. Regan and brother Marcus are trapped out in the open by the creatures and Lee sacrifices himself in order to escape. Regan and Marcus escape to the house where Regan discovers the secret of how to fight the creatures (thanks to her father's work on hearing aids, showing how much he cared about her).
A Quiet Place had a budget of $17 million and took in over $50 million on its opening weekend. To date it has grossed over $176 million domestically and nearly $300 million worldwide. In terms of horror films, this picture is the 2018 equivalent to 2017's Get Out, which had a budget of $4.5 million and grossed over $255 million worldwide. Good company to be in. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 95% rating which is a few points too high. Mostly because of its parallels to War of the Worlds and Independence Day. The only other issue I had is the fact that Lee had been working on finding a weapon to battle the creatures and couldn't figure it out or at least know how close he was. Yet Regan, who was forbidden to enter Lee's workshop, figures out in a few minutes. There are also some small items like, how is the power grid still working? But that's getting nit picky.
Krasinski does a real nice job with the pacing and ratcheting up the tension. Krasinski also uses the "hide the monster" trope well. The creatures are shown in small glimpses until the final act. Plus there isn't a need to show a high body count in order to pad the run time, which comes in at a clean 90 minutes. The acting is solid, especially since there's no dialogue, adding to the tension. I especially enjoyed the fact that Lee didn't use a witty quip to draw the creatures from Marcus and Regan. This is a very good film that is worth watching.
A Netflix original viewed April 5th on a flight from Los Angeles to Chicago. I came across this title while searching for something to watch with my wife. I happen to be sucker for Yakuza films. When the opportunity presented itself, I took a swing.
The film takes place in 1950's Japan and an American (Jared Leto) serving time in a Japanese prison, saves the life of a Yakuza higher up, Tadanobu Asano, and gets rewarded with his freedom. He soon goes to work for Kiyoshi's clan, the Shiromatsu. Nick does some low level muscle work and starts to work his way up the corporate ladder. The Shiromatsu are being pushed out by the Seizu clan because they're stubborn and are not adapting to the changing world. Things escalate between the two clans with tensions coming to a head when the Shiromatsu are betrayed and ambushed at the docks resulting in the deaths of Kiyoshi and the leader of the clan. Nick is wounded and is allowed to leave with the few remaining Shiromatsu loyalists. Nick takes it upon himself to head off the the Seizu dojo to kill the traitor. Which he does.
This film received a 20% Rotten Tomatoes rating, which seems a little low. It's not an awful film but it's not that great. There are more than a few plot lines that are lifted from Black Rain, The Last Samurai and any Takeshi "Beat" Kitano film. It turns out that Kiyoshi has a sister, Miyu (Shioli Kutsuna) and Nick is jut a little more that infatuated with her. Kiyoshi sees this and forbids Nick from hooking up with her but lo and behold, that's exactly what happens.
There are some redeeming scenes but I never bought that pretty boy Jared Leto could work his way into a high ranking position in a Japanese crime family. He was a pasty American for crying out loud. Plus, the biggest problem is that the film moves too slow. It has a two hour run time I got bored for some short stretches. The Nick/Miyu affair was too drawn out for being obvious that they were going to hook up. It was also obvious that the Shirmatsu clan was going to lose and that Nick was going to kill the traitor. He wasn't just going to go home and call it a day.
March 24th in Chicago, IL. My wife and I saw this trailer and got pretty excited for it. The film is directed by Steven Soderbergh, who surprisingly has only two directing credits since 2013. Soderbergh, always the auteur, shot the film with an iPhone 7 and he also edited the film. Almost like every shot is POV. The film was technically very well done.
The film stars Claire Foy as Sawyer Valentini, a young career woman who's trying to start her life over after problems with a stalker while she was living in Boston. Still feeling the effects, Sawyer seeks solace from a support group and lets it slip to a counselor that she thought about suicide. She gets referred to a facility but ends up getting unknowingly committed for 24 hours. Let this serve as a reminder, always read the fine print. Just don't sign your name on the dotted line.
Sawyer is not too happy with this arrangement, it leads her to strike an orderly that she sees as her stalker (it's not him) and to a fight with another patient, Violet (played by the underrated Juno Temple), That in turn ups the commitment to a week. Sawyer soon discovers that her stalker is indeed working at the facility and of course no one believes her. As Sawyer tries to figure a way out, she befriends another patient, Nate (played by Jay Pharoah), who turns out to be an undercover reporter. Nate is investigating insurance fraud at the facility and he gives his cell phone to Sawyer so she can call her mom (Amy Irving) for help.
While this is going on, the stalker (Joshua Leonard) is stepping up his efforts to discredit and get close to Sawyer. He drugs her to make her more violent. As it usually does with stalkers, he escalates, leading to some grisly behavior and a final showdown.
The film received a a 79% Rotten Tomatoes rating and I think that was a bit low. There are a few derivative scenes where it feels like you're watching Girl, Interrupted and there are some plot point that are a little predictable. But it's another wise solid story. As I mentioned earlier, I liked how Soderbergh shot and edited the film. Soderbergh kept things on edge as Sawyer slowly descends into madness. It turns out Sawyer was right all along and that's a shot at how our society has a tendency to disbelieve women and that men are somehow owed something from women (Sawyer and her stalker were co-workers, He saw something between that was not there). There's also the insurance fraud aspect. I find it very believable that a psychiatric facility can bilk payments from an insurance carrier. A patient gets "committed" and gets "cured" when the insurance runs out. Brilliant really. No one believes crazy people.
This is a solid film that is worth watching. It's a bit of a slow burn with the mounting tension but Soderbergh keeps a solid pace. Unsane had a short run in the theaters but keep an eye out for it on one of the big streaming sites.
Viewed in Chicago on February 24th. Back in August of 2014, Marvel's Phase Three was "leaked" and a lot of people, myself included, lost their collective minds when it was announced that Black Panther would be involved. T'Challa first showed up in Captain America: Civil War and suffice to say, he whetted everyone's appetite for his own franchise. It didn't disappoint. Chadwick Boseman reprises the role of T'Challa/Black Panther and the film is directed by Ryan Coogler.
The film opens with a flashback to Oakland, CA in 1992. T'Chaka, current Black Panther uncovers a traitor in his organization that is selling vibranium on the black market and deals with the problem rather harshly (this obviously comes back later in the film). Fast forward to today and T'Challa is returning home for his coronation. During the ceremony, T'Challa is challenged to a fight to the death by a rival tribal leader. T'Challa defeats his rival but spares his life because he's such a great guy (he really is).
T'Challa heads to South Korea in an attempt to apprehend Klaue (played brilliantly, as one would expect, by Andy Serkis), who is selling some vibranium to the highest bidder (in case you don't remember, Klaue last appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron). In Korea, T'Challa meets up with Everett Ross (Martin Freeman), takes down Klaue and turns him over to Ross. However, Klaue is sprung by Kilmonger, Ross is wounded and T'Challa opts to take him back to Wakanda for treatment.
Remember the opening scene in Oakland? Turns out the Wakandan traitor had a son, who went on to become a US military black ops soldier who goes by the name of Kilmonger (Michael B. Jordan, who is awesome). Kilmonger returns to Wakanda with a prize that T'Challa could not obtain, the body of Klaue (because Wakanda wanted him dead or alive and when you go by the name of Kilmonger, you choose the former). So Wakanda has a rule where someone of royal lineage can challenge the king to trial by combat. Kilmonger, being a cousin of T'Challa does just that and defeats him. Inevitably setting up a second showdown between Kilmonger and T'Challa. This time in their respective suits.
There is a lot to like, nay love about this film. Coogler adds a lot of color and landscapes jump off the screen. The wardrobe of the Wakandans is beautiful and vibrant. Coogler really brings the mythos of Wakanda to life. An advanced almost fairy tale land that has it all. Beauty. A symbiotic relationship with the environment and life altering technology.
Then there are the performances. Boseman, Jordan and Serkis are great. There are solid performances from Angela Basset (who doesn't look likes she's aged a day in the last 20 years) as T'Challa's mother. Forest Whitaker as Wakanda elder statesman Zuri, other than Battlefield Earth, when has Whitaker given a bad performance? Daniel Kaluuya (the guy from Get Out) as W'Kabi, leader of a Wakandan tribe. Lupita Nyong'o plays Nakia, T'Challa's love interest (she's not that into him) and undercover Wakandan spy. Danai Gurira is downright intimidating as Okoye, head of the Dora Milaje, the king's bodyguards.
Someone that is not to be trifled with.
But the best performance belongs to that of Letitia Wright as T'Challa's sister Shuri, the Wakandan equivalent of Tony Stark, Hank Pym and Peter Parker all rolled into one. In fact she might be better than them. She is the genius that develops the vibranium based paraphernalia of the Black Panther. She's smart, funny and doesn't back down from a fight.
Just your average 21st century teenager.
As great as this film is, it does fall victim to the standard superhero tropes. Mainly that the hero and villain are evenly matched. When they first fight, Kilmonger throws T'Challa over a waterfall but you know they're going to fight again and the final outcome is never in doubt. That's the worst that comes to mind.
The film received a 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating. That's a near perfect movie and I don't think this is a near perfect movie. It's close at 92-94% in my opinion and I think one can make an argument for this being the best film in the MCU to date. Black Panther took in over $200 million in it's opening weekend. Has a domestic gross of $696.6 million and a worldwide gross of over $1.3 BILLION. You will see T'Challa again when Avengers: Infinity War opens on April 27th. I think that Coogler is an up and coming director and I need to view his directorial debut, Fruitvale Station, in the not too distant future. Not to mention keep an eye out for his future work.
Here's another topic that I am late to the party on. I had actually been mulling this topic over for a quite some time but I am finally getting around to it.
On April 22nd at a Waffle House in Antioch, TN a WHITE MALE used an AR-15 to fire into the building, killing four people. While possibly reloading, Mr. Shaw was able to wrestle the gun away from the WHITE MALE forcing him to flee. Listen to Mr. Shaw describe the events...
Wow. Mr. Shaw was able to disarm the shooter while being unarmed. Read it again. MR. SHAW WAS ABLE TO DISARM THE SHOOTER WHILE BEING UNARMED. Maybe that's why there has not been the media exposure this kind of feat deserves. The NRA routinely says that only more guns can stop gun violence. but they have been quite silent. It even took President Trump three weeks to say "good job" to Mr. Shaw. Oh yea, Mr. Shaw is also Black. So an unarmed Black man disarmed a WHITE MALE gunman. Is it possible that Mr. Shaw being Black had something to do with the delayed congratulations from the President? It only took one day for the President to give a shout out to the man who took out the Texas Church shoot last November. That can't possibly be the reason.
I apologize for being a little late to the party on this entry. I had actually been mulling this topic over for a quite some time but I am just getting around to it. Better late than never.
Anyway, I wanted to say something about Captain Shults because this is by no means a small feat and I don't feel as if she got enough attention for this (she probably won't get a major motion picture made about it). An engine failure! Are you f*cking kidding me?! Not only does she lay that plane down ever so gently but she just seems to nonchalant it when she lets the tower know what happened like it's no big deal.
Tragically, one passenger lost her life when she was partially sucked out of the plane. Passengers managed to pull her back in but she succumbed to her injuries. Oh by the way, nice work passengers! That's some very quick thinking and they deserve credit for their efforts to try to save a total stranger under circumstances a regular person isn't supposed to face. There's no course on how to save a person from being sucked out a plane. There was a lot of heroic acts on this flight. Nice.
Captain Shults, thank you for your service and for the ice water in your veins. You are a special person.
March 3rd on HBO. My last 2017 viewing of 2017. I was making a mad rush to see a few extra titles from 2017 before the Academy Awards. I actually had wanted to see this while it was in the theater but never got around to it.
The film takes place in 1989 right around the time the Berlin Wall came down. MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) has to go to Berlin in order to retrieve a list of deep cover agents from an East German defector after a fellow agent and her lover is killed. She meets up with David Percival (James McAvoy), an agent on the edge who's also selling western goods like Jack Daniels and designer jeans in East Berlin. Lorraine works her way through intrigue and fistfights to try to get the list. I found it weird that a six foot blonde super model in heels manages to coast through cold war Berlin without being noticed.
She totally blends right in.
The film is based on a graphic novel and is very similar to any Bond, Bourne, Mission Impossible or John Wick film. In fact, director David Leitch was an uncredited co-director of the 1st John Wick film. The plot is pulled right from the 1st Mission Impossible film. The film is told in flashbacks. Lorraine is being debriefed about the mission and she tells her handlers what happened, much like Usual Suspects and very similar to Basic Instinct.
There are a lot of problems with this picture that my friends over at Cinema Sins can delve into better than I can. However, I did like the fact that Lorraine gets tired after a fight and even takes a beating. We get a scene where Lorraine has to take an ice bath to dull the pain. Bourne, Wick and Ethan Hunt never did that. The film received a 77% Rotten Tomatoes rating that is in the ballpark of where it should be. At the end of the day this is a nice change of pace because the protagonist is female (women can clearly kick as much ass as men). It's fun to watch but it's derivative, especially since John Wick 2 was released a few months earlier and trailers for the new Mission Impossible installment have been out.
Netflix viewing on March 2nd in Chicago. Since Black Panther was scheduled to be released in 2018, I had been wanting to see this film to get geared up for. However, that didn't happen as I saw Black Panther first. So I saw this to see Chadwick Boseman in a role other than T'Challa, King of Wakanda.
Fabrice du Welz directs this revenge film that plays out along the lines of 1999's Payback or any revenge/action film where the protagonist works his/her way through a criminal organization in order to bring it down. Not that there's anything wrong with that as there are a few plot twists that give it a little originality.
Boseman plays Jacob King, a South African citizen who comes to LA to find his sister whom he's lost contact with. He finds that his sister is dead and he needs to find her killers. While working his way through the criminal organization, he meets a cast of characters like the single mother hooker with a heart of gold, some sketchy Euro-mobsters and some creepy LA rich guys. Boseman can be as ruthless as his enemies and displays compassion when needed. He manages to outsmart the villains and escape an assassination attempt by some crooked cops. He brings down the organization, collects his sister's body and returns to South Africa, all in under a week, where it's revealed that he is a police detective.
The film has a really good cast with Teresa Palmer as the single mom hooker with a heart o gold, Kelly. Luke Evans is the creepy dentist who has his dirty hands in a dirty pie and Alfred Molina as a creepy Hollywood producer with some disturbing hobbies. To be honest, Boseman's character is like T'Challa without the Wakandan gadgets. He's singularly focused and has an iron will.
I feel that the film was short changed with only a 43% Rotten Tomatoes rating. It's not a great film but it's a good film within the genre. The film is paced well with a 102 minute run time, I never looked at my watch. It's a little derivative but it's a good film.
Viewed in Chicago on February 24th. Craig Gillespie directed this mockumentary style biopic about infamous figure skater, Tonya Harding. The film follows Harding's life from her start in figure skating as a 3 year old through her participation in the 1994 Winter Olympic and of course her involvement in the attack on her rival, Nancy Kerrigan.
Gillespie and writer Steven Rogers paint a sympathetic picture of Tonya's life. Her mother LaVona (played brilliantly by Allison Janney) makes the "The Great Santini" look like Ward Cleaver as a parent. Tonya makes suspect decisions, like her relationship with Jeff Gillooly that started when she was 15 years old but she never had a normal upbringing and never had a nurturing environment. She never really had a chance as a skater because she didn't "fit the mold" of what a female figure skater was. She got robbed by judges because she was poor and unrefined (to be fair, Kerrigan came from a working class family and was not privileged by any means but compared to Tonya she comes off that way) and was always an outsider.
Margot Robbie is excellent as Harding. Allison Janney won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance and Sebastian Stan did a very nice job as Gillooly (another gem of a human being). Gillooly and the guys he brought in to go after Kerrigan come off as bumbling criminals. Paul Walter Hauser is a scene stealer as Gillooly's delusional pal and bodyguard to Tonya, Shawn Eckhardt. The film does not explore Harding's involvement with the plot on Kerrigan, but it does let it sit out there to ponder.
This film received a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 90% that is right on the money. Well directed, well written and well acted. A picture that is worth watching.
Netflix viewing on March 2nd in Chicago. Jeremy Rush wrote and directed this thriller about an ex-con, Frank Grillo, who pays off a mob debt by being a getaway driver. "The Wheelman," as he's referred to in the film, is a family orientated working class guy who still has a good relationship with his ex-wife and visitation privileges with his teenage daughter despite the fact that he's a felon.
We start off with the cliche that this his last job that he has to pull. A simple robbery of a bank that is still open after 6pm. As if on cue, things go terribly wrong. His handler appears to have betrayed him, there's a guy on the phone that is threatening his family, the guys that he left behind at the bank are none too pleased about being left behind and his teenage daughter is doing rebellious teenage daughter things. It's just one of those nights.
"The Wheelman" drives around the rest of the night trying to get to keep his family safe and himself alive but goes from bad spot to bad spot. Eventually he has to trust some mobsters in order to put a plan in motion that will save his family and clear his debt.
This is a pretty good film. Lots of action and good dialogue. It lands somewhere in between The Driver and Baby Driver. Not as over the top as Baby Driver and it takes place over the course of one night so it's much more condensed than either of the previously mentioned pictures. The film got an 89% Rotten Tomatoes rating but that might be a bit on the high side. The film is gritty but derivative. A solid action film for sure. Rush kept things very tight and fast paced in it's 82 minute run time. Solid performances by the cast. It's a good film to watch on a Friday or Saturday night.
