Category Archives: Action

Zootopia 2

Zootopia 2           5 stars

Do you remember following the adventures of Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) as these two adventurers fought to solve crimes in the animal city of Zootopia? Well, they are back officially working together as partners on the police department in the Disney movie Zootopia 2. This time they really messed things up causing multiple mishaps and property damage, resulting in them being referred for remedial training for mismatched partners. In this colorful city where all species of land animals coexist, regardless of predator/prey statis or habitat, there are many amusing popular culture references to notice if you are watching close enough. They have streaming platforms like EweTube and HuluZoo. I saw references to Mulholland Drive, The Shining and Silence of the Lambs. I am sure if you look closer there will be a few more that I missed. In this film we learn of the origins of Zootopia as they are getting ready to celebrate the city’s centennial. Decades earlier the Weather Walls were designed by an ancestor of the Lynx family that made the city of animals possible. Only, all reptiles were excluded since they were regarded as enemies of the other animals and were not to be trusted, so they survive on the outskirts of the city. But at the city celebration Hopps and Wilde make acquaintance with Gary (Ke Huy Quan of Everything Everywhere All at Once), a snake who is out to clear his family’s name. Gary claims that it was his ancestor that created the Weather Walls and it was the Lynx family that stole it from the snakes. Hopps and Wilde are all too willing to accept his story and are off on a new quest to find out the truth. The charming thing about the movie is the way that Hopps and Wilde interact with one another. Hopps is very enthusiastic about the case, and Wilde is interested in his own safety but must go along with Hopps to keep her out of trouble. There is a certain amount of sexual tension between these male and female characters that reminded me a lot of Jake Peralta and Amy Santiago on my favorite cop show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. (It’s interesting that Andy Samberg is in the cast but here he is Pawbert, one of the Lynx family.) Just like in Zootopia, there is a wide variety of amusing characters, including Dr. Fuzby (Quinta Brunson), Police Chief Bogo (Idris Elba) and a politician named Brian Winddancer (Patrick Warburton). There is even an appearance by the slow moving three toed sloth, Flash Slothmore, one of the favorites from the first movie. Zootopia 2 is fun for all ages and in Disney fashion, teaches a lesson of acceptance of others despite our differences. I look for Zootopia 2 to be nominated for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award and possibly win just like the original. Let me know if you have noticed more pop culture references in the movie.

KPop Demon Hunters

KPop Demon Hunters                     4 ½ stars

I finally decided to see what all the fuss was about for the Netflix animated movie KPop Demon Hunters, so I viewed it months after it was in theaters and viewed by record crowds. I know very little about KPop, having some awareness of BTS but that is about it. The movie is very colorful and action packed, following a very popular female musical trio called Huntrix, voiced by Arden Cho, Ji-young Yoo and May Hong. The story is rather light with the premise being that there are demons trying to get into the souls of music fans by means of capturing them with popular tunes. Huntrix can resist the threat with their own popular tunes as long as they can write and perform the best songs for their fans. The problem for them happens when the main demon character comes up with a scheme to defeat Huntrix by enlisting a boy band that challenges them to a competition to become more popular with their fans. At least that is what I took from it. The real entertainment comes from the very catchy and upbeat tunes in the movie. These include their top hit, Golden. (I kept hearing it in my head for days afterward.) So, if you are ready for some rather mindless entertainment, you should see it. Then you can understand what all the kids are excited about. I understand that it broke the box office record for animated movies. And it is sure to receive an Academy Award nomination for Animated Film and probably will win.

1917

1917                       5 stars

1917 is a war movie that features no great battles of armies and no grand strategies of generals.  Yet it succeeds in conveying the horrors of war and the dangers of being a soldier in one of the greatest conflicts in human history.  Sam Mendes tells us the story of two British Lance Corporals who are sent on a mission to deliver a message to the commander of a British force that is about to launch an attack into what is described as a trap set by the German army.  This force is otherwise cutoff from communication in the days before wireless radios, so these two must venture through No Man’s Land in daylight to deliver the critical message.  Mendes, through the miracle of today’s special effects and tiny mobile cameras manages to film the scenes with an absolute minimum of cuts.  The result is a feeling that the audience is right there with the soldiers as one horror after another unfolds before them.  In addition the effect is aided by a superb score from Thomas Newman that captures the feeling of dread in No Man’s Land and the fast pace of the action sequences when the enemy is confronted.  The sets are just as I imagine what World War I looked like including the dead soldier’s bodies peering from the mud and the contrast of the construction of British trenches vs. German trenches.  Mendes used two unknown actors in the parts of the Corporals in order not to distract from the film’s focus.  The two young men are very effective in their roles so he made a good choice.  There are some well-known actors in supporting roles including Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch as commanding officers who perform well.  I had been rooting for Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood“ to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, but now I will have to go with 1917.  I find it even more compelling than Dunkirk from a couple of years ago.

Incredibles 2

Incredibles 2                                       4 stars

After an absence of 14 years, Pixar has brought us the sequel to their animated hit, The Incredibles.  At least they did in 2018, but I just got around to this one.  The colorful animation and fast moving action scenes are all still here as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl struggle to adapt to more mundane life as being a superhero has been declared illegal.  Apparently, the criminals didn’t get the message as first the Underminer tears up the city and then newcomer, Screenslaver arrives to take over the city.  The switch here is that it is now Elastigirl who must bring the criminals to justice while husband, Mr. Incredible stays home to take care of the kids.  Things of course don’t work out that way as it is discovered that baby Jack Jack has developed superpowers that outmatch anything the rest of the family has and then the criminal Screenslaver gets the upper hand over our superheroes.  It will be time for the whole family plus their friends to team up and protect the city from this threat.  There is plenty of action for the kids and funny dialogue for us adults in the two hour long return to The Incredibles world.  It’s too bad that we had to wait for 14 years for this sequel, perhaps one of Pixar’s best to find its way to the screen.

Ralph Breaks the Internet

Ralph Breaks the Internet            4 ½ stars

For my first movie while being stuck at home because of Coronavirus I picked Ralph Breaks the Internet, the sequel to Wreck It Ralph, the well received movie about a video arcade character from the eighties.  It’s appropriate to see this one as it includes the release of a virus that wreaks havoc on the population.  Ralph (John C. Reilly) spends his days either in his videogame at the arcade or hanging out with his best friend Vanellope (Sarah Silverman), that is, until an accident leaves Vanellope’s racing game, Sugar Rush, disabled making her a character without a game.  Ralph gets an idea when he learns about the internet and a thing called e-Bay, where almost anything can be found at a price, so the set off into the world of the internet where they meet all kinds of interesting characters.  The charm of the movie is the presentation of the things we run into when online, such as annoying pop-up ads, web searches, (Mr. KnowsMore), Chat pages and characters from popular movies.  Of course the best of these is the collection of all the Disney princesses in one place when they try to help out poor Vanellope.  The quest is aided by Yesss (Taraji P. Henson), the head algorithm of the website BuzzzTube who comes up with some hilarious ways for ralph to make money with ridiculous videos.  The breaking of the internet comes about with a misguided attempt by Ralph to try to change the path that Vanellope has chosen for herself.  It’s a funny family safe movie that has a lot going for it in spite of the virus.

Khartoum

Khartoum                                            5 stars

This is the last movie I saw in the theater before the Coronavirus shut down all the movie theaters in the state. Khartoum is the 1966 film that tells of the 1884 conflict in Sudan that occurred between the British led Egyptians and Sudanese against a Muslim army led by Muhammad Ahmad.  At the time Egypt was part of the British Empire and Ahmad was determined to take Egypt and the entire Arab world away from the Western powers and rule it himself.  I remember hearing the story of General Gordon and his doomed quest to keep the Egyptians and Sudanese from falling victim to the madman at the city of Khartoum on the Nile River.  In a purely political move the British Prime Minister, Gladstone knew he could not defend the city so he sent General Gordon, a hero in the eyes of the Sudanese, to the city to effect an evacuation of the city’s population, so that if he failed the blame would not fall on the British government.  The film brings these events to the big screen telling it as an epic tale aided with scenes involving hundreds of extras and a wide colorful screen.  The film stars the legendary Charlton Heston as General Gordon and Laurence Olivier as the evil and very tanned Ahmed.  These stars along with supporting cast of Richard Johnson and Ralph Richardson bring some of the most dramatic dialogue I’ve seen of the era.  One can compare it to the truly epic Lawrence of Arabia to give you an idea.  There is action too involving some well produced armed conflict in the desert, but the main attraction is the story itself.  It’s mainly about a man’s quest to do the right thing in the face of unbeatable odds.  I am really glad I finally got the chance to see it.  I don’t know when I will get the chance to go to the theaters again, unfortunately.

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War   2 stars

I finally got around to Avengers: Infinity War, the continued adventures of the Marvel characters that was in theaters two years ago.  This two and a half hour extravagant CGI production is about all the superheroes in the series joining forces to battle their greatest enemy ever, Thanos, a supervillain who has such great superpowers he aims to destroy half the universe to create his vision of what the universe should look like.  He can accomplish his mission by collecting all the special stones scattered throughout creation and putting them in his gauntlet, a special weapon created just for him.  This story is scattered through so many different worlds and includes so many different characters that many of them seem to get lost and buried in the background.  There is the usual wit and personalities that we remember and the usual giant set pieces of battles between the heroes and the various villains.  Why do stories like this have to threaten the entire universe?  The writers pretend that we have no concept of how vast the universe is, like one individual could affect all of creation.  In my view there is only one franchise/science fiction story that could involve the whole universe and that is of Doctor Who.  All others need to limit themselves to a portion of the universe.  Infinity War is memorable for its overblown special effects and super-being battles, but I don’t recommend it for much beyond that.  Everybody probably knows how it ends by now, but I won’t mention that, except that there is a sequel after this.

The Smashing Machine

The Smashing Machine                  4 stars

The Smashing Machine by writer director Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems, Daddy Longlegs) is the recently released biopic about the life of Mark Kerr, the mixed martial arts star of the nineties and early 2000’s. It is not a conventional sports movie where a team or individual overcomes the challenges of their sport and triumphs in the end. Instead, the film focuses mostly on the character of Kerr (played by Dwayne Johnson, the former wrestling star and movie action hero, but forget about Red One) and the struggles he faces in his life within the sport and in his personal life. A few fights are represented, but they only take up a small portion of the total screen time, so don’t expect an MMA version of Rocky. I don’t know much about the sport that became the UFC, but it seems like the objective is to tackle your opponent, hold him on the floor while you beat him in the face turning it into a bloody mess until he gives up. (At least this is what I took from it. The nation will get a first-hand look at UFC next year when it will be featured on the White House lawn on the occasion of President Trump’s eightieth birthday.) Much of the film has the look of being a documentary using long takes, making it seem like you are watching the real Mark Kerr. It shows us the various sides of him. As played by Johnson he is the nicest guy you can imagine while dealing with the public. He is polite in the extreme to the average person, being very humble and restrained. But when he loses a fight for the first time and then only focuses on his next fight he becomes completely absorbed, shutting out those around him. This gets to be a problem for his girlfriend, Dawn (Emily Blunt) as she comes to resent Kerr’s silence at these times. Much of the story is about these two people who can’t understand each other and who question the motives of the other’s decisions. The role of Dawn is a complete change from how we are used to seeing Blunt. Normally, her characters are of women who are adventurous and in complete control of their lives. Here Blunt is not her normal movie star self (think The Fall Guy and Jungle Cruise) but has an understated presence and is subservient to boyfriend Kerr. It is a testament to her acting talents that she can blend into the feel of the movie so effectively. Blunt may be in line for an acting Academy Award nomination for this role. There also seems to be talk of Johnson getting an acting nomination as well. It would be well deserved. The film is recommended, but again you shouldn’t expect a lot of action leading up to a traditional final climactic finish. (I hope I’m not giving too much away, but what kind of sports movie has the winner being awarded the trophy because of a cancelled final match?) You should go to see a person dealing with setbacks in their life and finding a way to get through them.

One Battle After Another

One Battle After Another                             5 stars

It’s only October and I feel I may have seen one of the Best Picture nominees or even the Best Picture with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. Anderson, the master storyteller (remember Licorice Pizza, Phantom Thread and There Will Be Blood) has created a film that is part social commentary and part family saga. It tackles matters that are relevant to today’s social situations and has some exceptional heart pounding action sequences. The main story follows an ex-revolutionary figure named Pat or Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his sixteen-year-old daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti in her first movie role) as they try to escape an enemy from their past, a certain army colonel named Lockjaw (Sean Penn) who is trying to hunt them both down. But first we must learn what led to this situation through the first part of the movie. Bob and Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) are part of an anti-establishment revolutionary group called the French 75, a loosely organized group of freedom fighters who try to free detained undocumented aliens and cause general chaos through destructive actions. Perfidia is one of leaders of the group while Bob has skills with explosives. Their actions could fit in almost any time period, but here it seems to be the early 2000’s. They run afoul of Colonel Lockjaw, a hardnosed tough as nails army officer with a really bad haircut who literally has a hard-on for black chicks. He is also part of a secret Neo-Nazi white supremacist society (called the Christmas Adventurers Club) which creates a conflict when he meets Perfidia during one of the 75’s missions. Pat and Perfidia have a baby daughter, who they are raising together that is, until most of the gang gets rolled up after a bank heist, including Perfidia. She is convinced to reveal names by Lockjaw and is placed into witness protection only to flee into the wind. Sixteen years go by during which time the gang goes dormant and Bob must live off the grid while raising the baby, now named Willa on his own. Bob is no criminal mastermind and by now has become a stoner regularly getting high and drunk. Other than his skills with explosives, he is not good for much. But DiCaprio is very convincing as a father who has a real attachment to his daughter. Bob has a real problem when he is alerted through his underground contacts that the authorities are on to them and he and Willa will need to disappear. Fortunately for Bob, there are still a few members of the group around that can help keep him and Willa out of the hands of the government. They include Sensai Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio del Toro also of Inherent Vice) and Deandra (Regina Hall of The Hate U Give) who finds Willa and gets her out of harm’s way (at least for a while). The latter part of the movie is very intense as Bob and Willa try to stay one step ahead of Lockjaw’s soldiers who are closing in. The scenes are aided by a fast-moving original score by Johnny Greenwood. The audience will really be glued to the screen during two car chase scenes, with an outcome that is not expected. (Also, look for Alana Haim in a small role. Anderson featured her in his film, Licorice Pizza.) I fully expect One Battle After Another to earn several Academy Award nominations. It could be Paul Thomas Anderson’s best to date. Do not miss it.

Ready Player One

Ready Player One             4 stars

Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg seems like an appropriate movie for now as we isolate from one another and communicate through electronic devices.  In this movie, set decades in the future, most people live in poverty while a small segment live well working for giant corporations.  The masses escape their reality by venturing into the Oasis, a virtual world where people meet through their avatars and compete to find the treasures that its creator, James Halliday left behind but he died.  Our hero, Wade Watts is determined to do what no one has been able to do, find the hidden keys that will lead to the Easter Egg, giving the recipient total control over Oasis.  Of course there is a sinister corporation called IOI headed by the evil Sorrento, who will stop at nothing to get control of Oasis even if it means hurting Wade and his friends.  The movie is filled with pop culture references to movies, comic books and video games that others will appreciate even more than I did with what I managed to notice.  I especially liked the scenes from The Shining.  The references to Saturday Night Fever, Back to the Future and The Iron Giant were fun as well.  Even though I am not a video game player I enjoyed the action sequences and the visual effects.  The scenes continually alternate between reality and the virtual world with the result being a well put together story.  I was not at all bored through the two hour and twenty minute running time.  Be sure and watch for the appearance of one Simon Pegg!