Category Archives: Action

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2

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Guardians of the Galaxy 2             4 stars

It has been four years since we heard from those heroes from the Marvel universe that includes Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Baby Groot.  Now they are back again in their heroic fashion to once again save the universe from its latest threat.  This time circumstances force them to ally with enemies Yondu and Nebula as they must find out the true nature of Peter’s family.  Now they must deal with Peter’s recently found true father, Ego who turns out to be a millions of years old celestial being who inhabits entire planets and has desires to control the entire galaxy.  The team must battle to put their internal differences aside while they do the usual, engage in a colorful, explosion filled conflict of mega proportions in long action filled sequences.  One of the best performances has to go to Michael Rooker as the enemy turned friend, Yondu, who upon being betrayed by his barbarian like gang, must join with the misfit Guardians.  The second installment of Guardians may have lost a bit of its sparkle, but still has plenty of heart with its soundtrack of seventies and eighties music that seems to inspire their leader, Peter.  I am sure we will soon be hearing about the next sequel, Guardians 3.

Peppermint

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Peppermint                        1 star

In what has to be one of the worst movies of the year, Peppermint from director Pierre Morel puts Jennifer Garner on the screen as a vigilante mom who is out for revenge against the drug cartel that killed her husband and daughter.  There is nothing original in this poorly written action thriller as we go from one predictable scene to another.  The premise is that ordinary housewife, Riley North (Garner) disappears for five years as she trains to become a one woman killing machine to hunt down those responsible for killing her family including those in the criminal justice system who failed to convict the killers that she personally identified.  There is little background on how she achieved this.  There is no mentor, no account of the training that she went through.  She just appears one day when the killing starts and she is regarded as a hero on the local social media.  Law enforcement and the FBI are stymied in their efforts to find her.  All of the characters seem very stereotypical and one dimensional including the gang members who are all Hispanic and the police and prosecutors.  When Riley appears at the gang’s hideout it seems that she cannot miss, killing a gang member with every shot.  Such predictability just lead to the movie being boring.  Please do not go to see Peppermint.  It is automatically a candidate for worst movie of the year.

Kong: Skull Island

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Kong: Skull Island             2 ½ stars

Kong: Skull Island reimagines the classic Kong story with some significant revisions.  First instead of the setting being in the 30’s, this time it is set in the seventies right after America’s withdrawal from Vietnam. (Thus the anti-war references). Second, instead of being perhaps 30 feet tall, this Kong is the size of a skyscraper, thus eliminating any possibility of capturing the beast.  There are several spectacular action sequences that depend heavily on special effects that feature various giant creatures attacking and devouring various members of the cast while others devise clever means of surviving.  The scientists of this team are accompanied by a small army that seem to be equipped for all-out war until they meet the featured ape who easily dispatches everything the military can through at him.  The characters are mostly two dimensional other than John C. Reilly’s Hank, a soldier who has been left behind on Skull Island since the end of World War II.  Reilly gives the movie a much needed dose of comic release.  Other notable cast members are Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson and Shea Whigham.  Kong: Skull Island is mostly an updated version of Land of the Lost and not a great one at that.  Based on the end scene of the movie we can probably count on there being another in a series of these lost monster movies.

The Creator

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The Creator        1 star

There has been a lot of talk in the news about AI lately including that it may be a threat to the very existence of humanity. So, it is appropriate that I saw the 2023 movie The Creator by director Gareth Edwards (Rogue One). I don’t recall there being much promotion of it before it came out. The movie stars John David Washington (BlacKKKlansman) as Joshua, a retired soldier of the war against AI. In the opening sequence we learn that AI served people well as robot servants, then as police and soldiers, until a war started against humans. The US then banned AI, but the country of New Asia embraced it, developing it further. The US has a super weapon called NOMAD, a sort of space station armed with missiles that can be easily seen in the sky but cannot be attacked and can destroy any target. US intelligence discovered that the New Asian AI creator, Nirmata has created a new AI weapon called Alpha One that will be able to destroy NOMAD and thus win the war against humans. Joshua is called back into service as he is the only one familiar with the New Asia base where Nirmata is believed to be located. Now, the AI robots or “simulants” look and behave exactly like humans except for the hardware around their necks and head. (That is except for the police who are just human shaped hardware.) The Creator follows a cinematic tradition of AI beings that threaten mankind from films like Terminator and 2001: A Space Odyssey. What makes this movie different, and problematic is that the AI robots think and act just like humans to the point that many humans see them as people. This point is exemplified by the robot that Joshua finds that turns out to be the weapon, Alpha One. The robot looks like a small female child, to the point that it seems adorable and has no idea that it is a super weapon. Instead of destroying the child, Joshua abandons his mission and protects the child, who he calls Alphie, hoping it can lead him to his wife, who was believed to have been killed in the war but now is reported to be alive. All this is the setup for the action that ensues, consisting of the many violent combat scenes of the war between the Army and the New Asian military and their AI robots, all in Asian settings giving the movie a Vietnam War feel. The portrayal of robots as so humanlike went too far in my opinion, with them being thought of as alive. Whatever they may look like, they are still machines designed by people. The depiction of the weapon, NOMAD, was another problem. If a nation had the technology to create such a destructive device, why wouldn’t they make more of them? The movie seems to have borrowed elements from other science fiction movies like the Death Star in Star Wars, the dark sets of Blade Runner and the tentacled robot in The Matrix. Finally, it makes the US the bad guys who are trying to kill off the AI beings who just want to live. (This is illustrated in a scene when Alphie is asked what she wants and she simply says, “to be free”.) One would think that a war with AI would involve hacking through the internet, but no. There is no mention of the internet or computer servers. AI seems to exist only in the form of robots. The Creator does not help in our dilemma of what to do about the ever-expanding AI in today’s world.

The Girl in the Spider’s Web

The Girl in the Spider’s Web                        2 ½ stars

The Girl in the Spider’s Web is the new reboot of the “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” series of movies that first came from Sweden , then remade in the US.  It is the first based on a novel not written by author Stieg Larsson nor was it directed by David Fincher.  This movie continues the story of Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy), a brilliant cyber tech hacker and vigilante against men who hurt women.  The journalist she teamed up with before, Mikael Blomkvist is still here but has a much smaller role in this film, so the chemistry between the two has completely vanished this time around.  Also missing is the personal nature of the conflicts that are so unique to the earlier films.  Instead Salander has almost become a female James Bond who is seeking to protect the world from a nuclear threat posed by a sinister international terrorist organization called the Spiders.  There is plenty of action as Lisbeth makes many daring escapes and rescues the targets of these terrorists.  There is also a certain amount of intrigue as the intensions of many players are only slowly revealed, a trademark of any good international thriller.  The use of technological gadgetry leads to some amazing scenes that sometimes stretches the limits of believability.  I found that to be somewhat distracting at times.  Also, I found that there were a little too many references to the name Spider.  About the sixth time that a spider crawls out of a hole or crevice I wanted to scream “OK. I get it already. It’s about spiders!”  Hopefully, this will be the last of the Dragon Tattoo series.  This story has been pretty well spent.

The End of Oak Street

The End of Oak Street    4 stars

Have you ever wondered what you would do if you happened to see a dinosaur outside your house one day? That is the question addressed by the filmmaker of It Follows and Under the Silver Lake, David Robert Mitchell. He takes his penchant for freakish happenings and applies it to the creatures run amok genre in The End of Oak Street. He starts us out by following the Pratt family at an outdoor block party in a 1984 suburb complete with sack races and hot dog roasting. This all-American family consists of husband Greg (Ewan McGregor of Star Wars and Moulin Rouge) and wife Denise (Anne Hathaway (who seems to be working non-stop this year. See Mother Mary and The Odyssey.)) and their children Audrey (Maisy Stella of My Old Ass) and Brian (Christian Convery). Although they appear to be normal from the outside there are hints that something is not right in this family. Greg is troubled and has been taking odd jobs to earn more money. Daughter Audrey is very interested in science and wants to attend Cornell. (She even mentions Carl Sagan.) Brian has taken an interest in a new girl who has moved into the neighborhood but is also avoiding contact with the local bully. Denise is the strong member of the family who is holding it together while working on her novel hoping to be published. She has a very direct way of dealing with a particularly irritating neighbor. But then after some strange happenings involving flashing lights at night and loud noises, things are profoundly different for the family and everyone else in the neighborhood when large dinosaurs, straight out of Jurassic Park appear and chase down the residents, occasionally turning them into a light snack. Some investigations of the surroundings reveal that the entire neighborhood has been transported back in time for hundreds of millions of years and now exists surrounded by jungle in a prehistoric era which is inhabited by dinosaurs of all varieties. Between episodes of being chased by these creatures and keeping the family alive, we see the fear on Denise’s face, but also the frustration of dealing with Greg’s inability to come to grips with the reality of their dire situation. The movie is really sold by the acting talents of Anne Hathaway who surely will get at least one Academy Award nomination this year. A great deal of the movie is devoted to the characters facing each new threat from a different creature and successfully handling it. (The same cannot be said about some of the neighbors who become dino food.) Things become more terrifying when the family members become separated from one another. In one notable scene, an enormous boa is seen wandering silently through the house until the moment it is about to strike. The End of Oak Street is obviously influenced by Steven Spielberg’s films, but it definitely has a sharper tone to it. There are some scenes you would not see in a Spielberg movie, such as the enormous piles of dinosaur excrement dotting the lawns and some of the graphic deaths. There are a few “Holy Shit” moments. It shares some aspects of certain Twilight Zone episodes as it shifts into another dimension. Without revealing anything about the ending I will say that the resolution of the whole situation feels rather convenient. Overall, I highly recommend seeing this one. David Robert Mitchell is reportedly working on a sequel to his hit horror movie, It Follows, which I will be watching for.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Spider-Man: Brand New Day                       3 ½ stars

One of the most highly anticipated movies of the year appeared this month in the form of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Tom Holland takes on this iconic MCU role for the fourth time of this iteration of the webslinger (there being two earlier iterations this century and that doesn’t include the popular Spider-Verse movies). Previously, you might recall from Spider-Man: No Way Home, that Spider-Man had to erase the knowledge of his identity as Peter Parker from the memories of his closest friends, MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon), and anyone else with close contact with him. Thus, Peter is left completely alone with no one to confide in. His closest acquaintance seems to be the police detective named DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas of The Bear) who he talks to over the phone between catching bad guys. Besides this, Spider-Man is experiencing hormonal imbalances from the arachnid hormones in his bloodstream, causing mutations to occur, so he is really displeased with his situation. He spends much time tinkering with gadgets to control hormone inhibitors. (By the way, that is the voice of Naomi Watts as Peter Parker’s digital companion.) There is a lot else going on besides Spider-Man’s personal problems here. Filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton, directing his first Spider-Man movie has packed a long and complicated plot into this story including crossovers, relationships with other MCU Superheroes, and what seems to be another superhero origin story. So much so, that at times I wondered if this was just Spider-Man’s story or a marketing ploy for future MCU movies. (The theater showed a trailer for The Avengers: Doomsday, so you can bet that the Spider-Man movies serve as a set up for that one.) We get an introduction to the government agency, Damage Control, a sort of super police force set up to counter threats from supervillains. It is led by William Metzger (Tramell Tilman of Severance), a corporate bureaucrat type who may have something to hide. Early on Spider-Man is confronted by a mysterious criminal mastermind who has made repeated attempts to break into Damage Control headquarters to find something that is very valuable hidden there. This evil genius has the ability to instantly transfer their consciousness from one person to another, read the subject’s thoughts and control their actions. Thus, they are nearly impossible to stop. But since this mind control does not work on Spider-Man, he is the only hope to stop this sinister threat. Fortunately, he is able to enlist the help of Frank Castle, a.k.a. The Punisher (Jon Bernthal), Bruce Banner a.k.a. Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Yelena Belova a.k.a. Black Widow (Florence Pugh). But they are not always as helpful as needed. The usual extended action scenes with extreme damage to New York City and plenty of web swinging across the urban landscape are there. I think that Cretton has way overdone the drama, the pining over MJ and the interconnecting storylines with other superheroes. Don’t be surprised if future crossovers extend to the X-Men. I hope I’m not giving anything away!

Creed II

Creed II                 4 ½ stars

The sequel to 2015’s Creed continues the story of Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) after he has achieved his goal of heavy weight champion and has to defend the title against a challenging adversary.  Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is back again at Creed’s side at the right time to help Creed through circumstances that have tied the two together.  Ivan Drago (Dolph Lungren) who Rocky defeated over thirty years earlier has returned to have his Russian boxing legend son, Victor challenge Creed to a fight.  Since it was Drago who killed Adonis father in the ring, Adonis cannot turn down the fight and it will be up to Rocky to get Creed to understand his desire to face this opponent and to get properly trained for this life changing event.  To further complicate things for Creed, he has married his girlfriend Bianca (Tessa Thompson returning in the role) and learned that he will soon be a father.  This movie brings much of the thrill of the earlier movie and combines it with the heartfelt moments when the fighter has to question what is really important in his life.  The choreography of the fight scenes combined with a sound track that combines the old Bill Conti songs with a modern rap style music will keep your attention on the action.  Much about the movie is meant to appeal to a black audience, but there is a solid about perseverance through life’s challenges that all viewers should love.  The director of the first Creed, Ryan Coogler stepped aside for this one in favor of new comer Steven Caple, Jr. whom I have not heard of before.  Judging by this effort he should have a long future ahead as a director.

Disclosure Day

Disclosure Day                   4 ½ stars

We are not alone. Movies and TV have been exploring this subject for decades. On TV there were episodes of The Twilight Zone and The X-Files. In the movies we have seen Men in Black, Arrival and Cowboys and Aliens. Then there are the Steven Spielberg films of E.T: The Extraterrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and War of the Worlds. They consider what it would be like if we are visited by beings from another world. This weekend we saw that Mr. Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic World Rebirth and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) are still very much interested in this subject with the release of the much-anticipated Disclosure Day. Disclosure Day captures the current mood of the country with the backdrop of turmoil and distrust in the government. In the movie tensions start out high with the threat of a coming war. From the opening scenes we find out that there are government agents trying to prevent a closely guarded secret from getting out to the public. There is a not well-known private organization hired by the government called Wardex that is charged with hiding the fact that aliens have been visiting Earth ever since that first incident in Roswell back in 1947. (This organization is so secret that not even the President knows about it.) Wardex is led by the villainous Noah Scanlon (brilliantly played by Colin Firth) who will stop at nothing including murder to keep the secret from getting out. There is a pair of especially gifted individuals that Scanlon is after. Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor (Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery and Challengers)) is an ex-employee of Wardex who has joined a wider group of ex-Wardex folks led by Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo (The Color Purple and Drive-Away Dolls)). Hugo has entrusted Daniel with a backpack full of hard drives that contain decades worth of evidence about the truth, but Daniel is reluctant to take on this role. Then there is Margaret Fairchild (the extremely talented Emily Blunt in one of her best performances yet), the weather person at the local Kansas City TV station, who believes she belongs somewhere else. (Along the way she will discover talents she didn’t know she had, like the ability to speak and understand foreign languages and read minds.) Spielberg uses his established methods in storytelling by alternately allowing us to get to know the characters in personal conversations and then giving us an intense action sequence with lives on the line. The truth is an often-used term in the movie as some of the characters are determined that people must see the truth on what is referred to as Disclosure Day. The question of what the known presence of alien beings will do to the faith of the God-fearing public is raised, particularly by Daniel’s girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson). Will they still believe in a supreme being if they see that they are not alone? Unfortunately for Jane, at the hands of Scanlon she will experience a powerful alien technology that allows one person to invade the consciousness of another and influence their actions. Can she resist his evil intensions? Besides all the action and the fast-moving plot, the film delivers a message of empathy; that is, if we can just recognize the pain that others are going through, this will be a much better world. Spielberg has once again put together a communal experience that will blow our minds and open our thoughts to the possibilities that the future holds. Disclosure Day looks like the big movie of the summer. You should not miss it.

Destroyer

Destroyer                            4 stars

In the new crime drama, Destroyer by director Karyn Kusama, Nicole Kidman gives her most gritty and unusual performance of her career.  She is Erin Bell, a corrupt and substance abusing detective with an appearance to match.  Her look is absolutely unrecognizable with bad skin and sunken eyes and a stare that can nearly kill.  In the story she is on the path of a criminal from her past, Silas, a leader of a gang of bank robbers who has resurfaced after nearly twenty years.  On a past undercover assignment, she failed to stop the deaths of several people in a robbery that Silas masterminded.  Now she is on a personal mission to right past wrongs as if she was somehow responsible for the deaths herself.  Along the way she has to deal with a sixteen year old daughter who is becoming a juvenile delinquent.  The story is likely similar to past police/crime dramas featuring a tough anti-hero, the difference being that here the main character is a woman.  There is no modern technology used here like we see in police procedurals today.  Erin Bell uses good basic police work in tracking down her target.  There are some creditable supporting roles here including Sebastian Stan as Bell’s undercover partner and Toby Kebbell as the evil Silas.  It is Kidman that is the true heart of the film as she is in virtually every scene.  One can’t help get the feeling that she is stretching for awards glory is taking on such a difficult role.  She already has received a Golden Globe nomination for the film.  One warning for viewers is that you need to pay close attention to the plot as it is told in a nonlinear fashion.  All is not as it initially appears.