Category Archives: Action

Tell It Like a Woman

Tell It Like a Woman       2 stars

Tell It Like Woman is an anthology series, one of those movies that is a collection of short films that have a common theme or characteristic. In this case, all seven of the films are by different women directors and have women as their primary subject. It is notable for its Academy Award nominated song that plays over the closing credits: Applause by Diane Warren. I do have to say that it is a memorable song. The movie that it’s attached to, not so much. A couple of the stories are interesting like A Week in My Life by Japanese director Mipo O about a single mother who is struggling to go through her daily routine of raising two young children by herself. We see over the course of one week just how challenging this job can be. In Pepcy & Kim directed by Taraji P. Henson, Jennifer Hudson plays a drug addicted prisoner who is trying to keep her act together so that she can be released and see her young son again. Hudson also plays the part of the prisoner’s inner voice that tries to steer her in the wrong direction. The other films were less interesting and incomplete. Unless you are really into seeing some of the directors’ work or the actresses, I recommend that you skip it.

Underwater

Underwater                       2 stars

While watching Underwater, the movie about a deep sea research facility that is suddenly attacked by strange sea creatures, I had the distinct impression that I had seen it before. Much of the elements of it are taken from The Abyss and Alien, both about mysterious creatures attacking a small group of survivors. This does not bode well. In Underwater we have a group of six survivors that must crawl their way through the wreckage of the laboratory that happens to be seven miles below the surface. As you would expect the suspense comes in as you wonder which one will be the next to die. The sets and effects look very authentic so this was an expensive movie to make. We know little about the characters as they try to stay together to protect each other and maintain sanity. The movie was derivative and you might say boring.

The Batman

The Batman        4 stars

In 2022 we got yet another incarnation of the most depicted, depressed superhero in movies, TV or comic books. This time it is Matt Reeves (two iterations of The Planet of the Apes movies) giving us his version of the caped crusader, otherwise known as Batman. What can he do that Tim Burton, Christopher Nolan or Joel Schumacher haven’t already done? Apparently, it is creating the darkest and moodiest Batman yet to hit the big screen. This Batman (Robert Pattinson) has seemingly been suffering from PTSD ever since his parents were murdered some twenty years before. He regularly goes skulking around Gotham City looking for criminal gangs to beat up on and shows them no mercy. Bruce Wayne, the millionaire, does appear in a few scenes, as well as his butler, Alfred (Andy Serkis), but he is not the playboy type that has been seen in other Batman movies. He typically shares in Batman’s moodiness. The entire movie takes place at night, with much of it in the rain to add to the gloomy feel of it. There isn’t even a hint of comedy throughout the movie. In Reeves’ movie Batman isn’t just a crime fighter. He must also take on the role of detective when a series of high-profile murders are taking the lives of the most prominent men in the city including the mayor and the DA. At each crime scene a letter is left addressed to Batman with a puzzling riddle that he, together with Commissioner Gordon (Jeffrey Wright (probably the finest actor in the movie)) must find the answer to. Slowly it is revealed that a web of corruption has infected every level of the local government, and this hidden psychopath has made it his mission to clean things up while also believing he can get Batman to help in the endeavor. Each victim seems to have ties to a crime boss named Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), a real slimeball who operates an exclusive club and hangout for criminals in Gotham City. One other character figures prominently in the story. Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz in her most athletic role yet) is a showgirl at Falcone’s club and wants answers as to what happened to her missing friend there. She can help Batman in finding the truth but tends to go off on her own with a vengeance. (She also provides a home for several cats.) There are hints of a love interest as well. When the murdering psychopath (Paul Dano) is finally unmasked, it seems that he and Batman are like two sides of the same coin, each having a deep need to root out the corruption in the city, only the murderer doesn’t care who gets hurt in the process. The Batman combines elements of what we’ve seen in the comics and the more recent movies as well as traditional detective noir stories. It has plenty of action and story packed into its almost three-hour running time. And there is word of another The Batman movie in the works!

Superman

Superman                           4 ½ stars

I finally joined the rest of the world by viewing the new James Gunn take on America’s oldest superhero Superman. This movie takes the very familiar story of the man from planet Krypton who came to Earth and fights criminals and super beings using his super abilities while wearing his familiar red cape and S sign on his chest while updating it for the twenty-first century. The first indication of differences comes at the very start with text on the screen revealing that “metahumans” first appeared on Earth three centuries ago. Then we learn that Superman (David Corenswet of Twisters) has just been defeated by an armored being called the Hammer of Boravia. The broken Superman is left badly beaten in the Antarctic where fortunately he is rescued by his cute companion Krypto, a misbehaving dog with superpowers who also wears a red cape. He is quite an amusing addition and undoubtedly a favorite with the audience. Superman is quickly rejuvenated thanks to his robots and facilities at the Fortress of Solitude. We soon learn that Superman’s troubles are due to his arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult of Mad Max: Fury Road and The Current War), the CEO of a mega corporation that has been selling billions of dollars in arms to the country of Boravia (clearly a stand in for Russia). We can see clearly that this is a case of the good guy, Superman against the bad guy, though that is not apparent to the public yet. Earlier, Superman became embroiled in world politics when he prevented Boravia from invading their next-door neighbor, Jarhanpur, an act which seems to have set public opinion against him. Luthor adds to Supermen’s distress when he is able to portray Superman as a power-hungry alien with strategically placed propaganda. We get to meet many familiar characters in Metropolis including Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), the Daily Planet reporter who already knows Superman’s alias identity as Clark Kent and is romantically involved with him. She even interviews Superman in a lengthy scene that reveals just how complex the political situation has become and that Supermen may not have considered all the implications of his actions. Also present are reporter Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) and Perry White (Wendell Pierce), the newspaper editor. Unlike earlier Superman movies, this version goes much more into the sci-fi aspects of the story, resembling the old comic books of the fifties and sixties. Luthor has a whole team of tech geniuses working for him and advanced weapons including a female “engineer” (Maria Gabriela de Faria) who has buzzsaws for hands and can act as a human computer server. And he has constructed access to a pocket universe where he can hide from the world’s governments and maintain his own prison where he holds anyone that he thinks has wronged him (even old girlfriends). All is not gloomy for Superman though as he has some allies on his side. There is a comical team of superheroes called “The Justice Gang” as that is the best name they have come up with so far. This unruly crew includes the Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion having a blast), alias Guy Gardner, Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi of The Harder They Fall) who has an assortment of high-tech gadgets, and Hawkgirl (Isabella Merced). Another superhero, Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) who can transform into any element, later comes to Superman’s aid and he needs it when the threats become too much for Superman to handle alone. Gunn, the creator of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, has given us a complex and entertaining take on a very familiar subject. The cast especially is first rate making some interesting characters, most notably Corenswet as an emotional Superman dedicated to doing the right thing, Brosnahan as a smart Lois Lane and Hoult who makes an especially menacing villain with his bald head. While most movie fans have been enjoying the film, there is a set of those on the far-right that are criticizing the film for emphasizing Superman’s status as an alien refugee who is in America illegally. For them, the commonly known elements of the story are too woke to be included. Fortunately, this view is limited to a small group of the anti-immigrant set. The rest of us can enjoy a traditional story of the good guys triumphing over the bad guys.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World      4 ½ stars

Last year brought the third chapter of the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy and it is a fitting ending to the story of the young Viking leader, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and his close dragon friend, Toothless, who is always by Hiccup’s side. This time the Vikings of Berk are living peacefully with their dragon friends, but things have gotten very overcrowded. You could also call the movie, “How to Train Your Dragon: The Love Chapter”, as there is a new character in Toothless’ life, a female all white Light Fury, who has captured the attention of Toothless. There is a new villain also in the person of Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham), a master dragon trapper who together with the Trappers are seeking to put an end to the peaceful cooperation between the Vikings and their dragon friends. As the leader of the Vikings, Hiccup can see they cannot safely remain in their village and leads humans and dragons with the support of his girlfriend, Astrid (America Ferrera), in a search for the mysterious hidden world, the legendary land from which the dragons originated. The movie excels once again with the Disney animation we have seen in the previous chapters, (which go way back to 2010 believe it or not). Besides giving us the thrills of its action sequences, the movie is best when focusing on the friendship between Hiccup and Toothless, which resembles traditional movies dealing with a boy and his dog (or horse). But this time Hiccup faces the new challenge of facing what is best for Toothless and everyone in his world. This third chapter in the How to Train Your Dragon series, I think measures up to the quality of the original, something we rarely see in this age of multiple movie sequels.

F1

F1                           3 ½ stars

Summer is here and with it comes the time of the summer blockbuster. Leading the way is F1, the very loud and action-filled movie about life on a Formula 1 racing team, the most prestigious motor sport in the world. And of course, a blockbuster must have an A list actor for the lead. Filling that role is Brad Pitt, looking his usual rugged and laid-back self as Sonny Hayes, a veteran driver who gave up the Formula 1 circuit long ago after being injured in a horrifying accident. (Pitt was last seen in last year’s Wolfs which I have not seen.) A blockbuster racing movie also requires plenty of camera shots of fast cars maneuvering around one another and shots from inside the cars showing the intensity of the drivers, all with the roar of the engines filling the room and an announcer describing the action. F1 has all this plus a story of two drivers on the same team often at odds with one another. Hayes is the sixty something veteran who has all the experience and confidence needed to win, while young Joshua Pierce (Damson Idris) is the rookie who has the right stuff but needs the experience. It is the owner, Rueben (Javier Bardem of Dune and Being the Ricardos) who convinces Sonny to come back to the race circuit and save his losing and nearly bankrupt team, APX. Thus, the drama revolves around these two drivers and the team as Sonny has to learn that it takes a team to win and it can’t be up to just one man. F1 deviates from the formula of most racing movies such as Ford v. Ferrari as there is no character portraying the opposition. The other cars and drivers are for the most part nameless faces that furnish the background without being a part of the story. And since APX is one of the worst teams on the track, their objective is not really to win a race, but just to be in the top 10 finishers. So, the premise is not what I am used to in a movie about race car drivers. Some of Sonny’s moves on the track would seem questionable. It’s hard to imagine him not being disqualified for them in a real race. Pitt is naturally at home in the role of the handsome, solemn veteran who can handle whatever is thrown at him, except perhaps for the lasting effects of the injuries he suffered years before. The movie does include a couple of subplots to give it some depth beyond the racing. The team’s technical director is Kate (Academy Award nominee Kerry Condon of The Banshees of Inisherin), an Irish woman who is an expert in her field of designing race car components. She has a few run ins with Sonny, not necessarily confined to race cars. And there is a member of the team’s board who may not share the interests of the team’s owner and seems to have his own agenda. The race scenes are exciting, but viewers who are not familiar with the jargon or the significance of changing the tires for varying conditions may find these scenes confusing. F1 is not my favorite racing movie, but for the action, it is worth seeing. It is of course a good one for Brad Pitt fans to check out too.

Okja

Okja                       3 ½ stars

I went back a few years to see an earlier film by Korean film director Bong Joon Ho. Ho is probably best known for the 2019 Academy Award winning film Parasite, about greed and class discrimination. His earlier movies that I have seen are The Host and Snowpiercer. His imaginative films typically contain elements of science fiction or fantasy with dark undertones, and this is certainly true of Okja, a tale about a genetically engineered super-pig that is loved by a Korean girl named Mija. Mija has been raising Okja from a piglet with her grandfather in the mountains of Korea for ten years and the two are quite close. But Okja is actually a genetically engineered animal intended to be a new food source along with hundreds of other such animals that was created by the conglomerate Mirando Corporation, led by the villainous Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton). One day the face of Mirando arrives at the farm in the form of Dr. Johnny Wilcox (Jake Gyllenhaal), a comically self-absorbed TV show host, who is there to take possession of Okja and take her back to New York where she will participate in a sort of beauty contest for the giant pigs before they are taken to slaughter. This doesn’t sit well with young Mija, so she sets off to free Okja before she is shipped to New York. But along the way she encounters a group of animal rights activists, called the ALF, or Animal Liberation Front, led by Jay (Paul Dano), who has some personal issues with violence. This sets off plenty of action and comical situations that are amusing, all created with some ingenious special effects. The movie is enjoyable to watch, though due to language it probably is not suitable for young children. This was Bong Joon Ho’s second English language movie, his first being the manga inspired Snowpiercer. Since that earlier movie didn’t do well in the foreign markets, he decided to go the streaming route teaming up with Netflix. When it was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, the audience booed the Netflix logo, showing their disapproval of the streaming platform. Though overall, the movie was well received. The movie is somewhat predictable and lighter than Ho’s other movies, especially the award-winning Parasite that came out two years later.

The Phoenician Scheme

The Phoenician Scheme                 4 stars

If you’ve seen a Wes Anderson movie before you already have an idea of what to expect. His best includes The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Asteroid City. (Also, remember The Fantastic Mr. Fox). Anderson has a unique style identified by faded colors, stationary cameras, and characters with stilted and rapid fire speaking that is instantly recognizable. His new film, The Phoenician Scheme, is no different and shares themes as well as actors from previous films. Common devices he uses are espionage and parental challenges, both of which are present in this one. There are two main characters that cover the entire film. There is the shady industrialist, Zsa Zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro of Sicario and The French Dispatch) who has an uncanny ability to survive multiple plane crashes and his estranged daughter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton who is a newcomer) who he wants to leave his empire to and who happens to be a nun. Korda is in the process of setting up a vast infrastructure project to secure his legacy, but he needs the cooperation of a series of odd characters to “cover the gap”; that is, to help fund his project. Thus, his travels to various parts of the globe to try to secure their cooperation by doing odd things like having a basketball shooting contest in a railroad tunnel. It’s also clear that these various businessmen have not been treated all that well by Korda. There is also an assembly of rival industrialists who are trying to thwart Korda’s plans, thus the assassination attempts. The all-star supporting cast includes Jeffrey Wright, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed and Scarlett Johansson. Bill Murray, a Wes Anderson regular even makes an appearance as God in what appears to be scenes of the afterlife. Throughout the movie it’s the great pairing of Del Toro and Threapleton with a little help from Michael Cera as Bjorn, a Norwegian tutor that really makes the movie. They have a good sense of comic timing while applying Anderson’s trademark style of deadpan delivery. Amid all the zany happenings lies a message of the care of a parent for their child even if it’s not delivered well. Considering all the movies that have been made by Wes Anderson over the past thirty years, The Phoenician Scheme is one of the better ones even if the style is very familiar.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning                            4 ½ stars

It has been two years since we last saw Ethan Hunt in multiple struggles against the bad guys and performing death defying acts of bravery as he once again fights to save mankind from extinction. That was in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, starring Tom Cruise in the seventh film of the long running franchise. Now in the eighth and presumably final film, the 62-year-old super action star steps up one more time to rescue the world. But not before we get multiple montages from the previous films showing endless fight scenes, spectacular stunts, previous cast members of his team, villains and love interests and all those disguises. You may recall that there was an AI being called “The Entity” that escaped from a Russian submarine and found residence in the servers throughout the world, and in the process sank the submarine. On the submarine is a hard drive containing the source code of The Entity that would allow the owner to control it, but only if they have the physical key that will allow access. The Entity has also earned a following of thousands of fanatics that will do its bidding. Plus, it seeks to sow discord and keep us divided making it a possible future Republican political candidate. Among them is Gabriel (Esai Morales) who wants to control The Entity for himself but needs Hunt to get the hard drive for him. In the earlier movie Ethan Hunt managed to obtain the key from Gabriel but now needs the cooperation of the US government to get to the sunken submarine so he can recover the hard drive and disable The Entity. Oh, and I should mention that The Entity is in the process of taking control of all the nuclear arsenals in the world so that it can launch the weapons and annihilate mankind because people are the main problem of the world in the mind of the AI being. Complicating things further is the aim of the government to control The Entity itself, while Hunt believes no one should control it as that would be too much power for anyone to hold. It is a race against time as the US president (Angela Bassett) may order a nuclear strike against all the nuclear control centers of the world before The Entity can get control of the US weapons, but that would kill millions of people. The hope is that Ethan Hunt’s impossible mission against The Entity will succeed in time, (because Hunt always disobeys orders, but he always gets the job done). There are many familiar faces that you will recognize from previous films that I won’t list here. Now, if you don’t understand all of that, that’s OK. Just enjoy all the prolonged fight scenes and improbable stunts in hostile environments that should kill Hunt but don’t just like all the previous Mission: Impossible movies. It’s a great way to spend nearly three hours of your time in a movie theater, especially since after nearly thirty years this is reputedly the final film of the Mission: Impossible series.

Sinners

Sinners                 5 stars

Ryan Coogler’s new movie, Sinners, about vampires invading a small rural Black town in 1930’s Mississippi, defies genre. While it certainly is a horror movie, it is also a gangster movie and a musical featuring an assortment of Blues numbers with varying styles. It’s hard to believe that this is only Coogler’s fifth time directing, previously directing Creed, two Black Panther movies from the Avengers universe and Fruitvale Station. This time it is in a setting he truly makes his own and is something that could only be made by Coogler. And it is also the fifth time he has featured Michael B. Jordan in a prominent role; this time actually making it two roles with Jordan playing twin brothers, Smoke and Stack. The pair were gangsters in Chicago having acquired a fortune during prohibition, and before that were soldiers in World War I, but now they have returned to their hometown and plan to open a juke joint and make more money. The pair are unsavory, certainly and won’t hesitate to hurt someone who crosses them. Smoke is the serious one of the two, while Stack is more flamboyant. The twins buy an old sawmill from a white man, paying cash, being assured that the Ku Klux Klan is a thing of the past, words that will haunt them later in the film. They link up with Sammie (Miles Caton), a young preacher’s kid who is a master Blues player on the guitar and will play a major part in the events to follow. The brothers reunite with a number of the townsfolk they knew from before and it is clear there is a long history at play here, especially with the women that includes Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) and Annie (Wunmi Wosaku). The recruiting of musicians, cooks and patrons for the evening’s entertainment takes a good hour of the movie during which we get a taste of the music of the time. It’s apparent to me that the Blues figures highly in Ryan Coogler’s background. It is only after the party starts that we get a hint at the bloodbath that is to come. But first we get a massive display of the music and dancing created here where we see figures from beyond the present dating back to old African culture and future entertainment with musicians on electric guitars and DJs. After the first of the vampires arrives at the venue, it occurred to me that this resembled Quentin Tarantino’s and Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn, the vampire movie from the nineties. As the action filled killing progresses, the characters are not sure who they can trust and suspicions fall on those who were previously close. This was a familiar element that I remember from John Carpenter’s The Thing, when a blood test was used to clear the suspects. Here the act is the forced eating of garlic, a plant fatal to vampires. Everything leads to a final confrontation that leaves few survivors. Not only is Sinners easily the best horror film of the year so far, it gives us an impressive collection of cultures that were a part of the South in the 1930’s including Black, Chinese, native American’s and Irish. I don’t know how long Coogler worked on this soon to be classic, but he certainly had a lot to say. Be sure that you stay all of the way through the credits and don’t miss the multiple endings.