Reviews
Lean on Pete (2017)
Way Too Long
How to start? How to start? I see a picture of a boy and a horse on the DVD package. So I think this is another story about a boy who believes in an over-the-hill horse who wins the big race and everyone goes home happy. Not so. This story goes in an entirely different direction. Who knew?
Sometime in the 1990s In Portland, Oregon, 15-yr old Charlie (Charlie Plummer) gets a job with horse trainer Del (Steve Buscemi) who teaches Charlie about eating manners, his horse Lean on Pete and about the horse racing arena in general. When Dell tells Charlie he is going to sell Lean on Pete, Charlie decides to save the horse and takes Del's truck, trailer and Lean on Pete to go look for his aunt Marge (Allison Elliott) his only living relative, who was on the outs with Charlie's father Ray (Travis Fimmel) who just died. Charlie believes Marge is in Wyoming or Montana. Charlie's mother had abandoned Ray and Charlie.
So most of the movie is Charlie and Lean on Pete traveling to Wyoming until a car hits and kills Lean on Pete in the desert, and Charlie goes onward on foot. He commits several crimes just to survive and escapes any close encounter the police.
Now here's the thing. This story is based upon a novel and my guess is that within the novel Charlie and Lean on Pete somehow bonded. This movie didn't show any such bonding. Charlie was respectful to Lean on Pete and as far the horse was concerned as long as he was fed, watered and treated nice he was agreeable to anything Charlie wanted. Maybe the title of this version of the story should have been changed to something different. We hardly ever saw Lean on Pete except as a horse Charlie wanted to save.
Here's the other thing. This movie is just too long to keep anyone's interest, especially when Charlie and Pete head out for Wyoming. And the real story should have been when Charlie meets Marge and will he go to jail for those crimes he committed? But everything ends there. Bummer.
Notables: Travis Fimmel as Ray, Charlie's father, who had a habit of getting next to other men's wives; Chloe Sevigny as Bonnie, Del's jockey and she has a long history of serious racing accidents.
The photography and cinematography were exceptional. Saw some pastel skies. Nice.
The best thing to come out of this movie is the performance of Steve Buscemi and I had hoped he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Didn't happen. I really enjoyed his performance. The scenes in the beginning with Del were pure gold. Charlie Plummer was very good, too, and we'll see more of him in future movies I am sure. (5/10)
Violence: Yes, brief when Ray gets shot by an outraged husband.
Sex: No.
Nudity: No.
Humor: Some, not much.
Language: Yes.
Rating: C
211 (2018)
A Bloody Bank Heist
As punishment for bullying/ fighting (not his fault) in school , Kenny (Michael Rainey Jr) has to go on a Ride-Along with officers: Mike Chandler (Nicolas Cage) and his brother-in-law partner officer Steve MacAvoy (Dwayne Cameron). Meanwhile bad guy Tre (Ori Pfeffer) and his guys are about to rob a bank and Mike notices a suspicious black SUV parked in the red zone near the bank. Here we go. Oh, 211 is police code for a robbery.
This starts out in Afghanistan and we see money being transferred to various banks around the world and to the US, but Tre and his crew were never paid and decide to rob that bank when they get home. So that is why the bank is being robbed.
We will see one of the bloodiest standoffs between the robbers, police and SWAT. There was an attempt to humanize things or make it more real by Kenny's mom concerned about her boy on a Ride-Along; the waitress in the restaurant where the bomb was planted to act as a diversion so the police would go there and not to the bank; Sophie Skelton as Lisa, Mike's estranged daughter who just found out she is pregnant.
Another notable: Alexandra Dinu as Interpol Agent Rossi, who helps give some clues to the police and she was in Afghanistan and knows how Tre and his men operate.
Cage plays a good part but his IMPERSONATORS didn't have much to crow about. Too bad. Maybe next time. (Well, wait a minute. What about that time that Mike shouts that his son is dead?) That refers to his son-in-law partner being shot. Okay, maybe they can use that somehow.
We do see some very exciting explosions where cars are lifted way off the ground.
So with all that going on the pacing was excellent and the story never dragged. (7/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: No.
Nudity: No.
Humor: Not really.
Language: Yes.
Rating: B
Beirut (2018)
It Was Okay
State Dept Diplomat and Mid-East Negotiator Mason Skiles (John Hamm) had mentored young Karim with wife Nadia (Leila Bekhti) and learns from Cal Riley (Mark Pellegrinn) that Karim, now 12-yrs old, is the brother of Abu Rajal (Hicham Ourraqa) who is responsible for the murder of Jews at the Munich Olympics. Then Karim is kidnapped. Ten years later Skiles learns that his colleague Cal Riley has been kidnapped and now the adult Karim (Idar Chenbder) wants his brother back from the Israelis and he turns to Skiles to negotiate the transfer of Cal for Abu Rajal.
There is so much talking that it is hard to know who are the good guys and who are not. There is a bad guy in here and it is NOT the reason that Cal was kidnapped as he was about to whistle blow on someone. Of course, the Israelis say they don 't have Abu Rajal and Skiles turns to the PLO who say they don't have him either. As long as you follow Skiles and what he is trying to do you can almost not pay too much attention to the rest of the CIA agents and State Department people. They can be a confusing bunch.
Notables: Rosamund Pike as Sandy, a State Dept person who eventually lets Skiles run with a plan that may or may not work.
Many darkened scenes don't help listening to characters and we are never sure if they are on the up and up.
Both John Hamm and Rosamund Pike more or less control this story and the chemistry between them is good. It was fun to watch Skiles use some bargaining chips to both the Israelis and the PLO. (7/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: No.
Nudity: No.
Humor: Not really.
Language: Yes.
Rating: B
Blackthorn (2011)
Good Western Well Told
Since the movie didn't say this was a true story, there are no statements at the end telling us what happened to everyone. I suppose we do wish that this was a true story.
James Blackthorn (Sam Shepard) once known as Butch Cassidy seems to be alive in Bolivia and wants to go to the United States to see his nephew Ryan. On the way, he is almost bushwhacked by Eduardo (Eduardo Noriega), who fails, and Blackthorn kind of agrees to help him retrieve money he says he stole from a mine where he was an engineer and there is a posse after him.
The rest of the movie has Blackthorn and Eduardo racing across the desert with the posse close behind. There will be a major twist later on. (Oh, oh!)
The cinematography is excellent and many scenes were shot in Bolivia.
There are many flashbacks of Butch and Sun Dance together to help fill in some gaps.
Notables: Magaly Solier as Yana, love interest to Blackthorn; Dominique McElligott as Etta, who traveled with Butch and Sundance initially to Bolivia and later is shown as pregnant seemingly with Sun Dance's child; Padraic Delaney as Sun Dance; Stephen Rea as Mackinley the Pinkerton man who takes Blackthorn to safety.
This was well told and acted throughout. (9/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: No.
Nudity: No.
Humor: Some may think some things were funny. I didn't see that.
Language: Yes, some not much.
Rating: A
Spinning Man (2018)
Almost A Good Mystery
A college student Joyce Bonner (Odeya Rush) goes missing and police detective Malloy (Pierce Brosnan) keys in on Philosophy professor Evan Birch (Guy Pearce) who is known to have affairs with students.
This really needed more suspects, but we have only one and I couldn't make up my mind if he was guilty or not. He acted so innocent and uncaring that I thought it couldn't be him. Yet, maybe that is what they wanted me to think. Yet there was no one else. His wife Ellen (Minnie Driver) was coming to believe their 5-yrs ago in another town was closing in on her and she doesn't want to move again.
Detective Malloy tells Professor Evan that they both have something in common: they both seek the truth.
I liked Pierce Brosnan as the detective and kind of hope he will do more of this kind of character in other movies. Hey, we need a good guy in movies once in a while. I just couldn't read Guy Pearce as the professor as everything told me he was innocent............yet.........there was no one else.
Notables: Alexandra Shipp as Ana, a student who had some kind of history with the professor; Clark Gregg as Paul, Evan's lawyer.
The title indicates a spinning man, but Evan wasn't shown spinning any which way. Yes, he may have felt the spinning inside. The last scene shows the mouse the family caught spinning on a wheel. Kind of contrived I thought.
Will you be surprised when you see the ending? I was. (5/10)
Violence: No.
Sex: No.
Nudity: No.
Humor: No.
Language: Yes, near the end.
Rating: C
An Ordinary Man (2017)
Not An Ordinary Story
The statements at the beginning of the movie say that War Criminals are usually caught in time, except one, this one: The General (Ben Kingsley).
The General is hiding in Yugoslavia, the place where he is hunted and his handler Miro (Peter Serafinowicz) has had to move him numerous times because The General won't stay put and goes out in public often. He says he won't hide. At his new place he is given a maid, Tanja (Hera Milmar). He makes her strip to be assured she is not wired and has no tattoos.
I maintain that when Ben Kingsley is in a movie, give him the Oscar for Best Actor (the same applies to Woody Harrelson as I have mentioned many times before). In a word both are "great" But as great as Ben Kingsley is, my focus - in here - was always on Tanja (Figures), a very pretty woman and we hope we see more of her in future movies. When they go out dancing Tanja is afraid he will be spotted and arrested as she knows who he is, but he says, "Men are invisible in the presence of beauty." He has a point
This starts out almost like a comedy with The General doing most of the talking and teaching his Maid to cook. He gets annoyed when Tanja professes she doesn't know how to play chess.
We are mesmerized by the banter between The General and Tanja, although The General doses most of the talking, and we had the feeling that he was warming to Tanja, but not in a physical way; he does this by talking about his wife and daughter and asking about her parents. In some respects it will be hard to know who was the more influential.
The General has maintained that he just wanted to be an ordinary man, but that is not possible, especially now that he is in hiding for war crimes against his own people. To be fair many of his own people still consider him a hero.
Let's be clear about one thing. I am very glad that accents or sub-titles weren't used. English is fine and actually, preferred.
There are 2-twists in here and you will be surprised by one and not like the other. (9/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: No.
Nudity: Yes, Tanja strips for The General as mentioned.
Humor: Yes, in the beginning.
Language: Yes.
Rating: A
In Darkness (2018)
Nothing Simple in Here
In her London apartment Sofia ( Natalie Dormer), a blind concert pianist, hears a commotion on the floor above her apartment and later discovers the woman Veronique (Emily Ratajkowski) who she barely knew either jumped or was pushed out of the window and died. The possible killer Marc (Ed Skrein) believes Sofia saw him, but learns later that she is blind, but he keeps an eye on her anyway. Why?
I thought this would be a simple murder mystery, but I was wrong as there is a lot more to the story than meets the eye. There are a lot of twists and you have to keep up. But here are some clues anyway: Sofia had agreed to play for the father of Veronique and his name is Radic (Jan Bijvoet) a suspected war criminal during his time in Bosnia and allowed to stay safely in England. Detective Mills (Neil Maskell) simply doesn't believe that a blind woman with heightened senses for hearing cannot be of more help. Marc believes Veronique gave something to Sofia and he needs it to keep Radic safe.
There are too may darkened scenes. Seems to be a thing for this type movie. Acting all around is good.
Notables: Joly Richardson as Alex, Marc's sister; James Cosmo as Niall, the person who carried Sofia out of war torn Bosnia when she was a child.
There is one very last twist and this is after all is said and done as Sofia walks away. (7/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: Yes.
Nudity: Yes.
Humor: No.
Language: yes, but not much.
Rating: B
Greater (2016)
Uplifting and Impressive
This is based upon a true story
The story will open with the death of Brandon Burlsworth although we won't see any of the accident he was in. We see the beginnings of funeral arrangements for him and why his brother Marty (Neal McDonough ) cannot understand why this happened.
Brandon Burlsworth (Christopher Severio) had always wanted to be a Arkansas Razorback football player and he had to try harder than most to achieve it even when it was always in doubt, mostly because of his weight. High School Coach Bender (Fredric Lehne) called him a "diamond in the rough" and hoped someone would notice. His brother Marty was 17-yrs older than Brandon and many thought he was Brandon's father. Marty wanted the best for Brandon but really didn't believe Brandon would achieve his dreams.
This really isn't a football story It's a story about determination, faith and trust. Christian undertones dominate this film, but is not preachy. We see a little football, of course, but we mostly see the struggles Brandon went thru at different stages to achieve his dreams and never gave up and always tried to do better. We will see Brandon take a lot of abuse from just about everyone especially from the players he hoped to play with. Some of this will tear at your heart. Oh, and have box of Kleenex handy.
It was nice to see Neal McDonough finally in a good guy role. He is a great, perhaps underrated, actor even though he plays the bad guys a lot. He always gives a very good performance and he did in here.
Notables: Nick Searcy as The Farmer who tries to shake Marty's faith and it is fragile at best; Michael Parks as Leo, Brandon and Marty's alcoholic father; Leslie Easterbrook as Brandon and Marthy's adoring mother; and Mark Dobies as Coach Nutt, the coach in Brandon's senior year and he convinces the new coach not to go into a rebuild program and not to give up on this team as things will change.
At the end there will be statements about how Brandon Burlsworth's life impacts many today. This is a very uplifting and impressive story about a young very impressive young man. Christopher Severio has done an excellent job portraying Brandon Burlsworth. Kudos. (9/10)
Violence: Yes. Football scenes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Humor: Yes, at times. Language: No
Rating: A
Tomb Raider (2018)
Very Entertaining and Exciting
Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) won't sign papers giving her control of her father's (Dominic West as Richard Croft) estate and businesses because she doesn't believe he is dead after 7-yrs of his leaving. She finds her father's notes regarding a Japanese island that housed a mythical sorceress Himiko with whom he hoped would help him reunite with his deceased wife. Lara sets out to find what happened to him.
I don't remember much about the Tomb Raider movie with Angelina Joli so I cannot make any good comparisons, but this one is truly awesome. The only thing I do kind of remember is that this Tomb Raider has Lara more vulnerable and not such a hard ass as Joli's Lara was. And this made much more sense to me and I rooted harder for her. Wouldn't you?
A lot of CGI was expertly used to create ocean storms and movable rocks housing the sorceress Himiko's tomb. On the island there is a group of men digging and blowing up the mountain to find the tomb led by a ruthless Mathias Vogel (Wallton Goggins) who is working on behalf of a secret organization called Trinity. The belief is that Trinity would rule the world once they bring Himiko back to life. Vogel tells a captured Lara that he killed Richard years ago. Lara and Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) are now workers guarded by Vogel's army with machine guns and there doesn't seem to be any way to escape. Her father is dead and she needs to get off the island. How to do that?
The CGI was incredible and -for sure - Alicia Vikander was put thru a lot of physical exertions and so was I watching from the couch where I was as winded as she was. Hey, I was exhausted. Watch this and you'll see for yourself. Yes, it's only a movie but Miss Vikander had to be in tip top shape. Kudos.
Notables: Daniel Wu as Lu Ren, whose ship brought Lara to the Japanese island; Nick Frost as the pawn shop clerk; Kristin Scott Thomas as Ana, Lara's former guardian and Richard's business partner.
This is a very entertaining and exciting movie and the pace is perfect. This time we will - for sure - see sequels because Lara knows that Trinity has to be dealt with because she sees where her company also owns Trinity. What???? Can't wait. (9/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: No.
Nudity: No.
Humor: Yes, at times.
Language: Brief soft stuff.
Rating: A
The Shallows (2016)
A So-So Movie
Former police officer Danny Gallagher (Karl Urban) gets out of prison for serving his time for killing an undercover police officer during a failed drug bust. As a private citizen he gets involved in another case where a woman is blown up in a car, but is also wants to kill Driscoll (John Finn) who betrayed him and his partner during that failed bust.
The word Bent is meant to mean a dirty cop and it is used a lot during the movie. Danny Gallagher was never Bent. See? This was the first time I ever heard "Bent" from any movie.
Most of the movie is taken up with solving Jennifer's (Cherish Gaines) murder who was blown up in the car in the beginning of the movie. Danny is helping her brother find out what exactly happened. We learn that all this has to do with a money laundering scheme and a government conspiracy that the FBI is keeping tabs on via Agent Rebecca (Sofia Vergara).
Now do we care about any of this? Of course not. We have seen this story a million times. Was it good? No, mostly because we didn't care about anything in the movie. Sofia Vergara needs to stick to comedy because she was quite wooden in here. What we could have cared about was that Danny would find a way to clear himself of accidently killing that undercover police officer and getting back into the good graces of the police department. This never happened. Danny claims he was framed for that killing. So Danny is focused on killing Driscoll who killed Danny's partner, and who gets out of prison soon.
Notables: Andy Garcia as Jimmy, Danny's mentor; Grace Byers as Kate, Danny's love interest; Tonya Cornelisse as Helen, Danny's one night stand; Bill Pacheco as Pierce, husband of Jennifer and he watched her being blown up in that car.
This is a so-so movie where there is no actual pull to keep watching. (But you did anyway). The story could have been better told. (5/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: No.
Nudity: Yes.
Lesbian Kiss: Brief.
Language: Yes, near the end.
Humor: No. Could have used some in here.
Rating: C
Za granyu realnosti (2018)
Could Have Been Good
Con man Maykl (pronounced Michael) (Milos Bikovic) is conned out of $5-Million and gathers a group of people with Supernatural and Psychic powers to get it back within 7-days, before the Casino boss kills him..
This started out really good, but degraded into something else mostly because the background music was too loud and it was very difficult to hear conversations especially when Gordon (Antonio Banderas) is on screen. Sometimes it's difficult to hear him (Banderas) because of his accent, but when the background music chimes in, then it's almost impossible. All we really know about him is that he is aware of what Michael is up to and kind of lets us know he was pulling the strings all along. But is that true because we couldn't really hear his explanations; and, oh, yes he is Michael's father and wants Michael to team up with him for more con games.
Okay, add one more thing: most of the dialogues were dubbed in and this was most annoying.
Much CGI is used and it was okay, but ran a little long sometimes when a character goes into oblivion in his or her own mind. Okay, we get it, these people are not normal in the normal sense.
When a pretty Veronica (Lyubov Aksyonaova) goes into a coma we go into a series of strange sights and emotions as Michael get s into her mind and tries to get her back to normalcy. Her power was that she could make anyone do what she wanted, and this led me to believe that Michael didn't need all the others to get the $5-million back. He could have just used her, but then we wouldn't have had a movie, right? (right, except not sure we have one now)
Basically, this is a Russian production with a lot of CGI going on. Cut out the loud background music and dubbing and we might have had a good movie. Okay, okay and cut down on some of the CGI, too.
Like I said, this started out very good with Michael narrating what he is up to. Then when he gets conned, we lose the narrative and have to guess about everything else. When he recruits his "special people" it's done in such a way that we are not too convinced these "people "are convinced to follow him, but they do (movies can do anything they want). Kind of loose scenes here, see? (3/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: No.
Nudity: No.
Humor: Brief.
Language: Only one GDI heard.
Rating: D
The Hurricane Heist (2018)
Very Good Sleeper Movie
During an impending Cat-5 Hurricane a group of men attempt a heist at a US Treasury building where old money is taken out of circulation and shredded. Meteorologist Will (Tony Kebbell) keeps warning everyone that a big Cat- 5 will be upon them soon, but no one believes him.
I call this a Sleeper Movie as it is very, very good. If higher profile stars were in this, it may have received more promotion. A lot of CGI is used, but when you see the movie everything looks too real and you wonder how this movie was made. (You're too easy) Yes, it's all an inside job and Casey's partner Connor Perkins (Ralph Ineson) betrays Casey (Maggie Grace) and he is the bad guys' ring leader.
The generator goes out and Casey is sent to get the repairman, Breeze (Ryan Kwanten). The bad guys led by Connor Perkins need the Vault open to get the money, but Casey changed the code. The rest of the movie has the bad guys trying to get Casey back to open the Vault.
One really good scene has the bad guys being thrown into space when the Mall glass ceiling is blown by Will and Casey and a huge vacuum results.
You will be on the edge of your seat near the end when 3-tractor trailers take off with the money and the brothers Will and Breeze attempt to stop them. Not sure how much CGI or actual stunts were used but we see some of the most exciting scenes I have ever seen watching on the edge of my seat. Kudos.
The cinematography is breathtaking and the acting all around is very good. We hope to see more of a pretty Maggie Grace in future movies. (Thought you might say that)
Notable: Ben Cross as Sheriff Dixon and his police force who are now in on the heist. (Can't trust anyone, can we?)
The only bad thing I noticed was the movie does jump around a little with no continuity how players moved around. We see the good guys in the Mall, then in Breeze's repair shop, then back at the Treasury building all in a very short period of time. But this shouldn't take away from a good disaster movie. (It didn't )
All in all a very good and exciting thriller during a Cat-5 Hurricane. A real Sleeper. (7.10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: No.
Nudity: No.
Humor: Not much.
Language: Yes, but brief.
Rating: B
Death Wish (2018)
It Was Okay
In Chicago, Lucy Kersey (Elizabeth Shue) and Jordan Kersey (Camila Morrone) the wife and daughter of Surgeon Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis) are brought into the hospital after being attacked, but Lucy cannot be saved and dies, and Jordan is in a coma. Rage builds in Paul and he gets a gun (not legally) and decides to take actions on his own to get those responsible. He comes to be known in Chicago as the Grim Reaper hero for fighting (read shooting) bad guys for muggings, and car jackings and the same when he finds who has his belongings from the original attack at his house.
This is a remake of the 1974 Death Wish movie starring Charles Bronson so if you are not familiar with that movie here it is for you with more technology (cell phones, video uploads, I-Pads ). Didn't really see any CGI to speak of, but did see some pretty good vehicle stunts.
We follow Dr. Paul as he goes about getting those responsible. Some scenes are hard to watch as Dr. Paul tries to get information from some bad guys: like he shoots them and then presses on the wound. See? Cringe worthy indeed. Oh, and he lets a car drop on a bad guy. More cringe worthy stuff. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
Notables: Vincent O'Onofrio as brother Frank Kersey; Dean Norris as Detective Raines; Kimberely Clise as Detective Jackson; and Wendy Crewson as Dr Jill Klavens; and Len Cariou as Ben, Dr. Paul's father-in-law.
Notable Bad guys: Jack Kesy as The Fish; Ronnie Gene Blevins as Joe; and Beau Knapp as Knox; Ian Matthews as Ponytail; Moe Jeudy Lamour as the Ice Cream Man; and Luis Oliva as Miguel.
For most of the movie, the police are not aware who the Grim Reaper is but when they find out without actually saying so Det Jackson asks Det Raines if he is satisfied. He says, "No" and reaches for a slice of pizza on the table at Paul's house and then as he takes a bite says, "Now I'm satisfied." Jackson laughs.
The original Death Wish movie went into 2 or was it 3-sequels? Let's hope this movie doesn't do that. This was okay, but not "Must See Sequels." See? (7/10)
Violence: Yes
Sex: No.
Nudity: No.
Humor: Not really.
Language: Yes, mostly in the beginning.
Rating: B.
12 Strong (2018)
Well Told
Predictable, yes, because it's a true story
I swore I wasn't going to watch movies or do reviews on Seal Team this and that and similar titles, but this one caught my eye because the mission was completed using horses in Afghanistan. Yes, horses.
Yes, most of the movie is about a Green Beret Team of 12 that needs to capture this town and that town in Afghanistan to get to the objective Mazar-i-Sharif (Taliban Stronghold) which would put a serious crimp in Taliban operations. So we will see a lot of war fighting with CGI, of course, and these scenes are absolutely brilliant. Yes, we must keep in mind that this is not just a movie, but what we see on the screen had actually happened, maybe not in the exact same way, but happened nevertheless. We are looking at true heroes as we would have seen in those other war movies I chose not to watch. Because of the success of Seal Team 6, we will be inundated with these war movies for some time.
The area of contention in here, besides all the fighting is the small war between Captain Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth), the leader of the Green Berets and General Dostum (Navid Negahban), the leader of the Afghanistan Army (actually a tribal War Lord). They go at each other mostly because the General won't tell Captain Nelson all he needs to know. That spilling of info was a long time in coming, but it finally did. Then later they differed on strategy. Hey, can't have everything to run smoothly and this is a serious war, don't you know?
The acting all around was excellent and very convincing . The cinematography and overall photography was stunning.
Yes, they used horses to knock out the big missile battery and now there is statue of a Green Beret on a horse near the site where the Twin Towers used to be. Why? The 12 Green Berets that went on that mission were bound not to talk about it because it was a very classified mission. Also, this was the First foray into Afghanistan after the 911 attack. Now you know.
Notables: William Fichtner as Col Mulholland who sent Captain Nelson on that mission even though Capt Nelson had never been in combat; Rob Riggle (Yes, that "comedian" on NFL Today) as LTC Bowers, Capt Nelson's Commander; Michael Pena as Sam Diller a key member of the Team; and Michael Shannon as Warrant Officer Hal Spenser, 2nd in command to Capt Nelson.
Even though you know most things that happened, this is still worthwhile movie to see. The conversations between Capt Nelson and General Dostum are worth hearing. This is history and we must never forget 911 and the reason we went to war. (9/10)
Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Humor: Some. Language: Yes.
Rating: A
Game Night (2018)
Better Than Expected
A group of guys and gals get together, quite often, to play Game Night, but this time something goes wrong when Max's (Jason Bateman) brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) joins in.
As comedies go this is better than expected with lots of good lines and very little raunchy stuff. The pacing is very good as is all the acting performances which is to say no one overacted and that's a good thing.
There are some twists in here and at one point one would think the story ends, but no, not finished yet.
The choreography for the fight scenes is spot on just like In a Jackie Chan movie. Kudos.
The funniest part, for me, was when Max's wife Annie (Rachel McAdams) tries to take a bullet out of Max's arm and gives him a squeaky toy to bite down on for the pain that will ensue and it works, as this is a very funny scene. Well, maybe it was just me.
Jesse Plemons plays Gary, a next door neighbor who is also a policeman and who is always seen in his uniform and is someone the group doesn't want to play Game Night with. You'll see why.
Notables: Danny Huston as Donald Anderton, who hosts Fight Club in his house; Jeffrey Wright as Agent Henderson; Camille Chen as Dr. Chin.
The other Game Night players: Lamorne Moris as Kevin; Kylie Bunbury as Michelle; Billy Magnussen as Ryan; Sharon Horgan as Sarah;
I still maintain that Jason Bateman has the best timing for comedic roles than anyone else in Hollywood and should actually give lessons to many "so-called" comics. (7/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: No.
Nudity: No.
Humor: Yes.
Language: Yes, but very brief.
Rating: B
The 15:17 to Paris (2018)
It Was Okay. Watchable
This is based upon a true story
Three best friends from America foil a terrorist attempt to kill everyone on a train from Amsterdam to Paris. They are awarded France's highest medal for their bravery.
I think we have to give Director Clint Eastwood a break here. The foiled terrorist attempt lasted about 8-minutes and Mr. Eastwood decided to go into the childhoods of these three men to extend movie time. There was no other choice and to be honest it didn't really work out the way intended.
I would have imagined that the movie would focus on the terrorist and his preparations and okay, his philosophy for what he was about to do. Then add in passenger comments about where they are going and hoping for a good time etc. Then add in the idea for all three men to join up overseas. And then add in brief flashbacks regarding the childhoods of the three men. But that's just me.
It was okay and I realized that Mr Eastwood decided to use the same three men who foiled the terrorist attempt in his movie. Using other professionally named actors would not have made that big a difference. Yes, these men are not professional actors (They are now), and all things considered they were fine. What is most important is what they did when the time came to defeat the terrorist and saving many lives.
Also - and this is very important - keep in mind if the terrorist's gun didn't jam when Spenser Stone was charging at him this would have been a different story entirely and maybe no story at all and possibly just a huge tragedy.
If the movie was never made we probably would not ever remember or even know what these three brave men did. Don't be too hard on Clint Eastwood. I think he wanted to show humbleness, humanity and core values of these three heroes. And he succeeded. Kudos. (5/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: No.
Nudity: No.
Humor: Brief.
Language: Brief small stuff only.
Rating: C
Red Sparrow (2018)
Good Thriller and Very Engaging
Dominika Egorova (Jenifer Lawrence) has an injury that ends her career as a prima ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet. She is sent by her uncle Vanya Egorov (Matthias Schoenaerts) to the Secret Agent Sparrow School to learn how to use her body and mind as a weapon to manipulate strategic targets. Dominika later calls the school " A Whore School." She goes through with the school so the government will pay for her mother's medical bills and for the apartment. Her new mission is to make contact with CIA Agent Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton) to find out who his informant is as the Russians believe there is a mole among them. Dominika is not too happy with her uncle, but he gives her no choice.
This is actually quite a story and there are twists and turns before the BIG REVEAL (the mole). There are some very disturbing beatings and torture and these scenes are not comfortable to watch.
When I first saw Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone, I knew she would be a very great actress and she has never disappointed. She invests herself into roles completely and that makes her great in my eyes. And, yes, she is very beautiful too. (that never hurts)
I enjoyed Lawrence's Russian accent. Hey, a lot of dialogues could have been in captions and I was happy English worked just fine.
All acting performances were spot on. And yes, we see where CIA Agent Nate Nash tries to turn Dominika to work for the CIA.
Notables: Charlotte Rampling as Matron, Dominika's instructor at the Sparrow School; Jeremy Irons as General Korechnoi who agrees to allow Dominika to get close to the CIA agent Nash; Mary-Louise Parker as Stephanie Boucher, a Chief of Staff to an American Senator and she has supplied the Russians with classified information for money; Sergej Onopko as Simyonov who does the torture and really likes to use the skin removal tool. Very hard to watch. (It's only a movie)
Jennifer Lawrence as Dominika takes over this movie and we are not always sure what she will do next, but we are thoroughly engaged. (9/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: Yes.
Nudity: Yes.
Humor: No.
Language: Yes, but not much.
Rating: A
Red Sparrow (2018)
Good Thriller and Very Engaging
Dominika Egorova (Jenifer Lawrence) has an injury that ends her career as a prima ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet. She is sent by her uncle Vanya Egorov (Matthias Schoenaerts) to the Secret Agent Sparrow School to learn how to use her body and mind as a weapon to manipulate strategic targets. Dominika later calls the school " A Whore School." She goes through with the school so the government will pay for her mother's medical bills and for the apartment. Her new mission is to make contact with CIA Agent Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton) to find out who his informant is as the Russians believe there is a mole among them. Dominika is not too happy with her uncle, but he gives her no choice.
This is actually quite a story and there are twists and turns before the BIG REVEAL (the mole). There are some very disturbing beatings and torture and these scenes are not comfortable to watch.
When I first saw Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone, I knew she would be a very great actress and she has never disappointed. She invests herself into roles completely and that makes her great in my eyes. And, yes, she is very beautiful too. (that never hurts)
I enjoyed Lawrence's Russian accent. Hey, a lot of dialogues could have been in captions and I was happy English worked just fine.
All acting performances were spot on. And yes, we see where CIA Agent Nate Nash tries to turn Dominika to work for the CIA.
Notables: Charlotte Rampling as Matron, Dominika's instructor at the Sparrow School; Jeremy Irons as General Korechnoi who agrees to allow Dominika to get close to the CIA agent Nash; Mary-Louise Parker as Stephanie Boucher, a Chief of Staff to an American Senator and she has supplied the Russians with classified information for money; Sergej Onopko as Simyonov who does the torture and really likes to use the skin removal tool. Very hard to watch. (It's only a movie)
Jennifer Lawrence as Dominika takes over this movie and we are not always sure what she will do next, but we are thoroughly engaged. (9/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: Yes.
Nudity: Yes.
Humor: No.
Language: Yes, but not much.
Rating: A
Cocaine Godmother (2017)
It Was Okay
This is based upon a true story
DEA Agent Jimmy (Warren Christie) narrates most of this movie in his efforts to find and put the Cocaine Godmother, Griselda Blanco (Catherine Zeta Jones) in jail.
Griselda ruled the 1970s drug trade and was creative in using: the elderly to act as mules to carry drugs, suitcases with false bottoms, drive-by hits on motorcycles and beautiful women who hid drugs on their person. She is also credited with over 200 murders to include children and didn't let anyone get In her way. She was a cocaine addict and murdered three of her husbands. She was also openly bi-sexual. One of her partners was Pablo Escobar (Darcy Laurie), who didn't like her methods but left her alone because she moved more product than anyone else.
Griselda was always one step ahead of the DEA as she moved around a lot from Colombia, New York, Miami, and California. Her sons were also in her drug business.
Catherine Zeta Jones did a good job as Griselda although there were many Latino women who could have played the role. Since we don't know what Griselda was really like, we cannot criticize how Catherine Zeta Jones performed, but from what we saw, she did okay. There was a lot put in to this 2-hr production, and the pacing and the acting all around were good.
Notables: Jenny Pellicer as Carolina, Griselda's main squeeze; Raul Mendez as Dario Sepulveda, who was Pablo Escobar's informant and later he becomes Griselda's third husband.
It is kind of strange that we always knew about Pablo Escobar, but never heard of Griselda Blanco until now. What else is out there for us to find out about? Huh? (7/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: Yes.
Nudity: No.
Lesbian scenes: Yes.
Humor: No.
Language: No.
Rating: B
Submergence (2017)
It's a Love Story, but.......
MI-6 Agent James Moore (James McAvoy) meets Oceanographer Danielle (Alicia Vikander) on a beach and they fall in love. Both want to save the world in their own way as both feel everything is connected and it's up to us to get involved to help save the world. The chemistry between them was very good and I know this because I wanted them to work. (You're too easy)
It's a love story, but we find that James Moore is in a ISIS prison in Somalia and see he survives mostly due to his memories of Danielle; and she does the same finding out that for once in her life she is lonely and she tries to contact James Moore via text but since he is in prison, he cannot respond.
It's a love story, but there doesn't seem to be any resolution in sight. He is taken to an isolated island where ISIS cannot be seen by military planes. However, it seems that James Moore has the perfect solution for that, but does he save himself? And again his memories center on Danielle. Meanwhile Danielle is in a submersible to explore life in the ocean and then things go wrong down there and I am not sure they save themselves, and, of course, her thought are of James Moore still. Hey, it's a love story......
..
It's a very slow love story, and they are thousands of miles apart, but seem to connect with their thoughts. But is that enough for we the viewers? Probably not as there was a beginning, a middle and we are not sure there was a proper ending. (Do we have to make up an ending again?) The music sometimes drowned out dialogues and because of accents conversations were not always clear.
James McAvoy probably played his best role ever and is in the same class as Jude Law who he looked like at times. I had to check the credit list to make sure he was James McAvoy, but he did a great job regardless of who he looked like. But, come on: if you are going to have actors with accents, have them talk slower and not into their chests. The cinematography was absolutely stunning with scenes rarely seen in other movies.
Alicia Vikander is truly beautiful and it was easy to fall in love with her. Yes, this is a love story and we wanted more, but nothing came. Again, we are not sure about the ending.
Notable: Alexander Suddig as Dr. Shadid who helped prisoner James Moore as much as he could and yet James Moore says of him, "you help people, but live with killers." Dr. Shadid knows he is in a dark place.
It's a love story, but there were too many scenes of James Moore in that cell with barely any light and we had to watch his suffering and, we too, suffered because of that. We enjoyed the scenes when both James Moore and Danielle were in them, but again there was no definitive ending. (Here we go again) (7/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: No.
Nudity: No.
Humor: Some, very little.
Language: No.
Rating: B
Black Panther (2018)
Delivers as Promised
T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) returns as King to his homeland Wakanda. Wakanda is considered a third world country isolated from the rest of the world, but due to a meteorite that landed in Wakanda that contained Vibranium, the hardest metal in the Universe, the people were able to advance in technology and do not want to share their technology with the rest of the world for fear the Vibranium would be weaponized and constant wars would result. When T'Challa drinks a special herb affected by the Vibranium he gains superhuman powers and is known as the Black Panther.
Okay, that's only half of the story that you need. The next half is that M'Baku (Winston Duke) challenges King T'Challa and beats him in a King's Challenge and throws him over the waterfall and all believe T'Challa is dead; M'Baku wants to sell Vibranium to all countries to help the downtrodden peoples of the world have a chance at a better life and not caring about the consequences of wars among the countries.
So these are the 2-issues you need to focus on. There are some other issues, but you only need these two main ones. Oh, Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) T'Challa's love interest wants Wakanda to share its technology with the rest of the world. T'Challa isn't too keen on this.
The Hype this movie received is well worth all the publicity. The sets are outstanding, the fight scenes and plane battles are expertly choreographed as much CGI is incorporated. The acting all around is spot on. No doubt about it, this movie delivers.
The only thing I had trouble with were the darkened scenes in the beginning. Then later at the end we see the fight between the NOW Two Kings and Black Panthers: T'Challa and M'Baku at the end as those scenes were very dark taking place in an underground railroad of sorts.
Normally, in a movie like this there is some humor and here there is only one instance. When T'Challa's mother asks for help from another regional King to help defeat new King M'Baku, he gets annoyed and says he will feed these people to his children. Then he laughs and says, "No that is not true as we are Vegans" and he continues to laugh at his own joke.
Notables: Forest Whitaker as Zuri; Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue; Martin freeman as Everett K. Ross, a CIA agent.
Stan Lee makes an appearance at a casino craps table. He is now probably busy writing a sequel.
There is very good heart stomping music throughout.
The hype was good and the movie delivered and now we wait for the sequels. (9/10)
Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Humor: Brief. Language: Brief soft stuff.
Rating: A
Gone Are the Days (2018)
Very Sow, but saves itself
Taylon Flynn (Lance Henriksen) is an aging and very ill former outlaw and makes it his purpose in life to square things with his estranged daughter Heidi (Meg Steedle), but unknown to him she leads a sordid life and she doesn't know he is her father.
This is perhaps the slowest western I have ever seen. Many scenes were too dragged out to the point I almost shut this down, but I didn't. We see Taylon cough and spit his way to finally getting up, dressed and ready to meet Heidi. It got so bad, I felt I had to rush to the Pharmacy to get him some medicines to get through the day. His plan is also to rob one last bank with Virgil (Billly Lush) who rode with him back in the day.
Now here's the thing: Virgil is a figment of Taylon's imagination and we learn things about Taylon during these made-up conversations. Virgil was shot by Will (Tom Berenger) long ago when Will was a Texas Ranger, but is now the Sheriff. It's not too clear but there was a hint that Will once rode with Taylon back in the day as we kept hearing that there was a third man who rode with Taylon, now known as famed gunman Wesley Flynn.
Notables: Danny Trejo as the River Man; Steve Railsback as Jaden, the bar owner who controlled the prostitutes.
The cinematography could have been better. The music had that effective low hum of impending doom.
The scenes near the end with Tom Berenger as Will saves this movie and I was glad I didn't shut it down. We don't get all the answers to our questions, but what we come away with is that redemption is hard to come by. (5/10)
Violence: yes.
Sex: No
Nudity: No.
Humor: No.
Language: Yes, but brief.
The Humanity Bureau (2017)
It Was Okay
Noah Kross (Nicolas Cage) works for the Humanity Bureau and they try to get people to go to the city to enjoy a better life. The land is a desert the results of climate warming and water has to be boiled to be able to drink if you can find it. There are no rivers or lakes anywhere. Many people reject the government plan to move them because they do not trust the government. This disturbs Noah.
Noah comes across a woman, Rachael Weller (Sarah Lind) , who he didn't know, but did know Rachael Weller and she is not her and she has a son Lucas (Jakob Davies). It turns out this Rachael took the real Rachael's identity and cared for the real Rachael's son, Lucas, as if he were her son. The real Rachael died and this Rachael took her identity to prove the birth of Lucas. Noah is supposed to insure that Rachael and Lucas leave, but delays their departure.
So Noah, Rachael and Lucas take off and try to go to Canada where the waters are still there or so they want to believe. Agent Westinghouse (Hugh Dillon) is on their trail and he believes Noah is going Rogue.
This could have been a better story if it were more developed, but sometimes when you write a script while on roller skates, there isn't much time and you are afraid of crashing. So we are left with an outline of a story. One day Nicolas Cage will pick a good script. We just have to wait. The Nicolas Cage Impersonators are hoping for a better script too. They need more material. Ha!
Not such a good cat and mouse game and the ending will surprise. I supposed most of you already know what the government did to those people who they conned into leaving. (5/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: No.
Nudity: No.
Humor: None.
Language: Brief small stuff only.
Rating: C
Looking Glass (2018)
Not Good by any stretch
With most stories, we see a beginning, a middle and an ending. This one has a sort of beginning, a middle and really no ending. Ray (Nicolas Cage) and Maggie (Robin Tunney) buy a motel in the hope of starting a new beginning after the death of their child. The motel is a can of worms and we know this by things that happen for no apparent reason and we never know who did them: a dead pig in their pool, paint on the motel walls, comings and goings of really strange people.
We see Ray work on fixing things around the motel, perhaps too many scenes with this going on, then he discovers a 2-way mirror and watches lesbians kiss, dominatrix scenes and the usual sex scenes. He is shocked, but looks anyway, but never stays for too long. We don't see anything erotic.
Policeman Howard (Marc Blucas) keeps coming around and we feel he is looking at Ray as a person of interest in the murder of a girl some time ago when Ray came around looking at the possibility of buying the motel. The director could have fitted Howard with more of a form fitting shirt too. Very distracting, like 3-sizes too big.
Ben (Bill Bolender) the previous owner of the motel is nowhere to be found to explain all the goings on at the motel. He just has had enough and got out and now it's Ray's problem.
Some scenes are uncomfortable to watch, but that only lasts for a few minutes and we see there is nothing there.
The ending is just cut short and this is where we should know everything that went on and why. Didn't happen.
I am giving a somewhat spoiler alert because this is not a good movie, and actually, hardly any movie at all. Nicolas Cage needs to adjust and pick better scripts. Remember he just recently did a movie where the parents are out to kill their kids? Not good by any stretch. See? And now this one that goes nowhere. Strong advice: stay away. (1/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: Yes, one time.
Nudity: No.
Humor: No.
Language: Yes.
Rating: F
Braven (2018)
Pretty Good Thriller
Joe Braven (Jason Momoa) takes his father, Linden (Stephen Lang) to the cabin for a talk regarding new supervision as Linden is bordering on Dementia . Joe finds the cocaine his driver and another man hid there when they crashed the logging truck and didn't want the police to find the drugs.
There is a license plate in the cabin that says "World's Fair" so we can assume the location is supposed to be the state of Washington. However, we know the location is Newfoundland.
The opening scenes before the story starts show some breathtaking scenery and later on it's snow, snow, and more snow. Really nice.
The fight scenes are truly brutal and so good and I had to check in to the ER to make sure all was okay. Thanks for asking. Some of the killing of his own men by chief bad guy Kassen (Garret Dillahunt) was unnecessary, but there seems to be a trend in these types of movies to allow this behavior. Not good.
Notables: Jill Wagner as Stephanie, Joe's wife and she is quite handy with a crossbow; Sasha Rossof as Charlotte, Joe's daughter.
All in all a good cat and mouse thing between Kassen's men and Joe and his father in the cabin. Be warned that Joe can throw a mean ax.
So why we wait for Jason Momoa to become Aquaman again, he is known to produce and star in movies such as this one and it was a pretty good thriller. (7/10)
Violence: Yes.
Sex: No.
Nudity: No.
Humor: None.
Language: Yes.
Rating: B