Category Archives: Action

True History of the Kelly Gang

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True History of the Kelly Gang                    4 stars

Although violent in the extreme, I recommend seeing this modern telling of the story of Ned Kelly, the Irish Catholic outlaw who terrorized Australia in the late 1800’s. George Mackay of 1917 plays the violent adult Ned to perfection as we follow his very troubled life running afoul of authorities (all British) in the Australian outback. The filming of a desolate landscape contributes to the bleak outlook that director Justin Kurzel wants to convey. The varied score that includes punk rock pieces gives the movie a surrealistic feeling. This is a violent, brutal and bloody film that will put many viewers off, but it is necessary to tell what life was like for the Irish lower class under British rule. The first part of the movie shows Ned Kelly as a young boy growing up dirt poor with a drunk Irish father and a foul mouthed mother (Essie Davis of Babadook). The young Ned has encounters with cruel individuals that will form his character including Sgt. O’Neil (Charlie Hunnan) and the thief Harry Power (Russell Crowe). Crowe’s time on screen is short so it is almost criminal that he gets top casting credit while the boy playing Kelly, who is on screen much longer is barely mentioned. Other notable actors playing scoundrels are Nicolas Hoult as a British cop who teasingly alternates between being Kelly’s friend and trying to bring him down, and Marlon Williams as George King, an American who seeks to take advantage of the poor Kelly family. Thomasin McKenzie of Lost Girls and Jojo Rabbit portrays Kelly’s love and mother of his daughter. Besides the violence, there is a theme of cross dressing as the Kelly gang wears flowing dresses while committing their crimes, a practice meant to instill fear in their victims apparently originating in Ireland. None of the characters have any redeeming features, all contributing to the lawless environment they find themselves in. The film has a very violent shootout scene to end on featuring strobe lighting and a seemingly endless supply of blood. This film is not for everyone, but a good one for lovers of Westerns. I strongly advise that you see the movie with closed captions as I find much of the Australian dialect is difficult to understand.

Tenet

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Tenet                    2 ½ stars

From the director of Inception and Dunkirk comes a truly mind bending work called Tenet that arrived in theaters last summer in the middle of the pandemic. Christopher Nolan has created an espionage spy thriller featuring time travel with a twist. John David Washington, known for BlacKKKlansman, is simply called Protagonist and is a sort of special agent who must save the world from a weapon sent from the future that is intended to destroy the world. The premise of the weapon, inverted matter that moves backwards through time while interacting with our world is much too involved to try to explain so I won’t even try. In fact one has a hard time comprehending what is going on through much of the movie as people can alternately move forward and backwards. That’s what is wrong with the movie since the more you think about it the less it seems to make sense. This is even implied by some of the lines of Robert Pattinson who plays Neil, a team member of the Protagonist. The film is beautifully shot in many parts of the world which gives it a look of a 007 movie with just as much action. The score is interesting, but I wouldn’t call it exactly musical. Tenet is nominated for Best Production Design and for Best Visual Effects in the upcoming Academy Awards. I found Nolan’s earlier works to be more entertaining than this film.

News of the World

News of the World                           3 ½ stars

The man who directed the Jason Bourne films and Captain Phillips, Paul Greengrass brought us the film adaptation of News of the World last year, working again with Tom Hanks who stars again as a true to life hero. Hanks is well cast as Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a former Confederate officer who, in the years since the Civil War has become a traveling reader, who brings stories of the outside world to the townsfolk of Texas towns who are willing to listen. The animosity present during the war has not been lost and there are plenty of expressions of intolerance in this part of the country and with it the accompanying violence. Kidd happens upon a lost ten year old girl on his journey who knows no English as she was captured by the Kiowa years earlier and only thinks of herself as an Indian. She is an orphan twice, having lost her German immigrant family and then her Kiowa family. It then becomes Kidd’s reluctant responsibility to take her to her only known relatives who live hundreds of miles away. Much of the movie centers on the moments when the unlikely pair get to know each other despite the great language barrier between them, but then there are the incidents of terror when Kidd becomes protector from the unsavory inhabitants of this savage world. The movie is aided by some impressive cinematography of the Texas landscape (actually filmed in New Mexico), a good score as well as the supporting cast that includes Mare Winningham, Bill Camp and Elizabeth Marvel. It is a bit on the long side with some slow stretches. It is mainly the performances of Hanks and the girl (Helena Zengal) that will keep your attention. News of the World has earned four Academy Awards nominations that include Original Score, Best Sound, Best Cinematography and Best Production Design.

Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker

Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker                     3 ½ stars

The long Star Wars saga that started back in 1977 finally comes to a conclusion in 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. J. J. Abrams packs a lot into the 2 hour, 20 minute running time bringing many familiar characters together for the last go round. We have the usual gang, Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2, BB-8, Rey, Poe and Finn. There are also appearances by the dead including Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, and a pieced together role for the late Carrie Fisher as Princess (now General) Leia. Naturally, there is one more cute droid in this one who goes by the name Coneface. There are all the usual elements in a Star Wars story such as X-Wing dogfights, light saber duels and a character (Rey here) seeking to find their true identity and purpose. This time the evil emperor Palpatine has mysteriously returned from the dead and seeks to control Darth Vader’s grandson, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver, excellent in the role) to bring Rey (Daisy Ridley) to the dark side and destroy the resistance to the Sith and the First Order for good. It’s a long story of how this comes to be, but suffice it to say, at least the final battle is not a repeated sequence like The Force Awakens was. There are a few too many minor characters that clutter up the story including Lando Calrissian (now 83 year-old Billy Dee Williams) that have little to do in advancing the story. While Skywalker doesn’t rise to the level of A New Hope or The Empire Strikes Back, it is certainly superior to the dreaded The Phantom Menace. Now that the Star Wars story has come to a definite conclusion will there be more sequels to come? Do not bet against it.

Avengers: Endgame

Avengers: Endgame                        4 stars

Avengers: Endgame picks up where Avengers: Infinity War left off with the defeat of the Avengers at the hands of supervillain Thanos (Josh Brolin) leaving many of the heroes turned to dust along with half of all living creatures. Earth has been left a shell of its former self with many of the remaining Avengers: Tony Stark/Ironman (Robert Downey, Jr.); Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo); Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans); Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson); Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) struggling to adapt to bleak prospects without so many of their companions and family. Then five years later Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) suddenly reappears from the past giving the heroes the idea of time traveling to the past, collecting the six Infinity Stones from before the tragedy and bringing everybody back to life. Any story involving time travel and superpowers is going to be mind bending, but the overall premise seems to work in this culmination of the Avengers story that was started back in 2008 with Ironman. The movie is certainly bloated with too many characters and an over long at a three-hour running time. But it has plenty to offer with memorable scenes (like Tony Stark meeting his long gone father), comic relief (especially from fat, alcoholic Thor and Smart Hulk) and of course all that action with our heroes battling the evil Thanos and his army of bizarre creatures. With so many characters it is inevitable that many of the cast are reduced to just cameo appearances displaying brief acts of heroism. (There’s Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olson) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to name a few.) I hope it is not a spoiler to suggest that events in the movie would tend to rule out additional Avengers movies, but we shall see. Even though I have not seen anything close to all of the movies of the series, I think the latest film should be satisfying to the devoted fans of the franchise.

Shadow in the Cloud

Shadow in the Cloud                       4 stars

In this year’s Shadow in the Cloud we follow a young female pilot, Maude (Chloe Grace Moretz) on a secret mission on a World War II B-17 bomber out of New Zealand. This is without a doubt the best B-movie of the year so far. You can tell it’s a B-movie at the outset by the seventies style rock music so you know you are in for a treat. Maude is a last minute passenger on the mission and the all male crew is not at all happy about it, as they berate her with sexist language and force her to ride in the Sperry turret in the belly of the plane, the only place where there is room. We soon see that she can handle herself well in the aircraft as she maneuvers the turret, and fires the machine gun at approaching enemy aircraft. Then there is the matter of an actual gremlin on the outside of the plane who is determined to rip it apart and kill everyone inside. For much of the movie we only see Maude in the turret as she must content with the abusive crew, enemy planes and the destructive creature. After we see the premise of the movie, things only get more intense as Maude performs incredible stunts with determination to stay alive and defeat both monster and Jap fighters with actions that only get more and more preposterous. Like any good B-movie the audience must take it all in stride and just go along for the action. Moretz is very convincing in the role making us believe she is a 40’s star who can dish it out better than she gets. Shadow in the Cloud is the best B-movie I’ve seen since 2018’s Revenge, also a movie where the female lead must take command of life-threatening situations with implausible results. The movie is available on Hulu and is recommended for all action movie lovers!

Mulan

Mulan                4 stars

Disney gives its live treatment to another of their classic animated films in Mulan, with director Niko Caro of Whale Rider and The Zookeeper’s Wife, bringing us the story of Mulan, the young Chinese girl (played by Yifei Liu) who feels called to join the emperor’s army as a man to help fight off an invader determined to kill the emperor (a royal looking Jet Li). The story, based on a Chinese legend, is much the same as the 1998 animated movie but there are no musical numbers nor is there the small comical dragon, Mushu to provide comic relief. But we do get very colorful scenes showing Mulan’s village, the emperor’s palace and the natural expanse of China. There are plenty of action sequences featuring Mulan, the soldiers and the battles with the enemy and Bori Khan, the rebel leader (Jason Scott Lee). Khan is aided by a shape shifting sorceress (Gong Li) who can transform into an animal or impersonate another human with dire consequences. Since the movie is done with live actors it asks a lot of the viewer to believe that Mulan looks like a boy to the other characters, unlike the animated version. The strength of the movie is the story and the action sequences that are almost but not quite at the level of a Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Liu’s acting also aids the personal moments of her character, though that is not the main focus of the movie. The violent battle scenes may make it not so suitable for very young viewers, but it is mostly bloodless battles that do leave quite a few casualties. Some of the soldiers of Mulan’s unit provide the comedic moments of the movie. I definitely liked the movie better than most of the audience reviewers seemed to. Some people must have wanted the musical animated version again. Mulan earned Academy Award nominations in Visual Effects and Costume Design. It was released during the height of the pandemic so it never got a theatrical release and could only be seen on streaming services. I recommend it for action fans and for fans of artistic movies.

Jungle Cruise

Jungle Cruise      2 ½ stars

It’s back to the world of Disney once again, this time with Disney’s latest movie based on a Disney theme park ride. Jungle Cruise takes us on an adventure in the Brazilian jungle with Dwayne Johnson as a wisecracking scallywag named Frank who operates a river boat ride on the Amazon for rich tourists. Johnson is his usual charming self that we have grown so accustomed to in his roles. Like many Disney adventure movies there is a lot of background involving old legends and villains that this time brings a wealthy adventurous woman, Lily Houghton (a very self-assured Emily Blunt) and her brother, MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) from 1916 England to the Amazon in search of the petals of a legendary Tree of Life that is reputed to have mysterious healing powers. She of course hires Frank to take the pair deep into the jungle in search of famed flowers, but they are pursued by a reanimated 400 year old Spanish Conquistador? as well as an evil German Saxon Prince (Jesse Plemons) and his U-boat who are all interested in the same tree for their own reasons. This is all we need for two hours plus of action and conflicts between the various factions interspersed with Frank’s corny one-liners that will have you begging him to stop! There is danger to be had from vicious animals and fish and a primitive jungle tribe just like in the Disney ride. Then there is the ongoing joke of Frank referring to Lily as “Pants” since she insists on wearing trousers, something unheard of in 1916. The movie is reminiscent of Pirates of the Caribbean with an equal amount of action and supernatural beings that are always returning for more. By the time the movie was over I thought I had seen multiple endings as the villains seemed to have been dispatched several times. I am sure that the kids will love this one, but at times it got a bit tiresome. Expect the ending to leave you feeling that a sequel is in the works just like the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Venom: Let There Be Carnage    4 stars

I went to see Venom: Let There Be Carnage without having seen the original Venom, thus not knowing what to expect. This movie out of the Marvel universe can be described as a buddy B-movie with plenty of humor about a codependent relationship between a man and his alien symbiote. The premise had been set up in the original with failed journalist, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) having formed a bond with a bodyless alien intelligent being called Venom. Venom helps Eddie out with his writing, crime solving career and in return Venom, gets to eat the heads of bad guys. The charm of the movie comes with the comic banter between the two with Venom using an inner voice in conversations with Eddie. And there is a tremendous amount of energy involved in Venom’s antics with his tentacles in the small apartment they share with a pair of chickens. The relatively short movie (for a Marvel movie) does have something of a plot involving a serial killer on death row named Cletus (a fiendish Woody Harrelson) who grants an interview to Eddie with dire consequences. It takes about half the movie before the real villain appears in the form of another alien symbiote who calls himself Carnage and the inevitable battle ensues. (Just the name of this movie gives you a good clue about the level of violence you are about to see.) Director Andy Serkis uses Hardy’s acting skills well in the funny codependent conversations in which Hardy voices both Eddie and Venom. I occasionally like to try out a good B-movie and this one was just the ticket.

Love and Monsters

Love and Monsters         4 ½ stars

It’s almost Christmas so what better time to see a movie about the end of the world? In the action comedy Love and Monsters we follow the exploits of Joel, a young twenty something man on a journey to be reunited with his high school sweetheart. The only thing is that most of the human population has been wiped out by giant mutant creatures that have infested the planet after multiple rockets were fired into space to destroy a comet that was on a collision course with earth. But the pollution from the rockets resulted in said mutant creatures. Does this sound completely implausible? Yes, but don’t worry about it. Joel leaves his underground colony of fellow citizens on an 85 mile journey across hostile terrain to find his love, Aimee, who he has not seen in seven years. Along the way he is accompanied by a dog named Boy who aids him as he battles some giant carnivorous creatures. So far this sounds like a very tame variation on A Boy and His Dog. (If you haven’t seen the movie from the seventies you should check it out.) This movie, though is very family friendly due to the personality of the star, Dylan O’Brien as Joel. Like any family oriented movie it has a positive message like learning to gain self confidence and to appreciate those we love. It deserves some special recognition for some impressive effects that bring the monsters to life. I didn’t know what to expect when I started the movie, but found it enjoyable. It seemed odd though that there was a near lack of firearms with the humans relying mostly on crossbows, spears and swords for defense. Along with an occasional hand grenade.