cschultz-2 Reviews

Copshop (2021)

Viciously Entertaining

[9/10 · 19 September 2021]

"Copshop" Distributed by Open Road Films, 107 Minutes, Rated R, Released September 17, 2021:

Swindler and career criminal Teddy Muretto (Frank Grillo), on the run from the cops, the FBI, and the Mob after being implicated in the murder of a prominent and influential Nevada politician, assaults a police officer as a means of getting himself thrown into jail for temporary sanctuary. Hot on Muretto's trail, resourceful hitman Bob Viddick (Gerard Butler) feigns a drunk driving incident to get himself thrown into a cell adjacent to Muretto's.

As the two men bicker, insult each other, swap tough talk, and plan their next moves, they're dismayed when the police station comes under siege from Anthony Lamb (Toby Huss), still another hitman on Muretto's trail--one who's genuinely disturbed. Worse, Lamb has accomplices among both the cops at the precinct and the district attorney's office.

A rollicking, tough-as-nails, testosterone-fueled explosion of a movie, "Copshop" benefits enormously from a sharp and mordantly funny script from Kurt McLeod and director Joe Carnahan that contains a number of surprises and double-crosses and consistently goes in unexpected directions. Sort of a mishmash of early Quentin Tarantino classics such as "Reservoir Dogs" and "From Dusk 'til Dawn" and an especially demented Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoon, the picture is loud, violent...and viciously entertaining.

Action movie veterans Gerard Butler ("Machine Gun Preacher," "Olympus Has Fallen") and Frank Grillo ("The Purge: Anarchy," "The Purge: Election Year") plainly have a ball doing what they do best. But while Grillo and Butler strut, swagger, and sneer, "Copshop" is all but stolen away from them by Alexis Louder as an amazingly resilient rookie police officer who's every bit their equal, and then some. Also contributing a scene-stealing turn to the picture is Toby Huss as a cheerfully sadistic professional assassin who enjoys his job way, way too much.

Directed by action/adventure specialist Joe Carnahan ("Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane," "The A-Team"), "Copshop" is more than a little reminiscent of "Rio Bravo" from 1959 (and John Carpenter's 1976 remake, "Assault on Precinct 13"). The movie takes a while to work itself up to full speed, but when it finally gets revved up the picture establishes its own rowdy identity and really comes into its own. This is a movie that would've been right at home at a drive-in theater during the 1970s. In its bullet-riddled glory, "Copshop" is Joe Carnahan's masterpiece.

"Copshop" is rated R for strong, bloody violence and pervasive adult language throughout.

Cry Macho (2021)

More Elegy Than Western

[6/10 · 19 September 2021]

"Cry Macho" Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, 104 Minutes, Rated PG-13, Released September 17, 2021:

"I'll tell you something, kid," movie legend Clint Eastwood's character tells his young traveling companion in "Cry Macho," the new movie from Warner Bros. Pictures now playing in theaters across the country, "This macho thing is overrated." It's a startling admission from an actor who in the course of some 72 motion pictures over 66 years has staked his career on proving exactly the opposite.

In "Cry Macho" elderly former Texas rodeo star Mike Milo (Eastwood) is compelled by his landlord and ex-employer Howard Polk (a whiny Dwight Yoakam) to travel into Mexico, snatch his estranged teenage son Rafo (Eduardo Minett) from his irresponsible mother (Fernanda Urrejola), and spirit the boy illegally across the border into the US. Little does Milo know that Polk is motivated not by fatherly love, but by clandestine financial concerns.

Adapted by Nick Schenk from N. Richard Nash's 1975 novel of the same name and directed by Eastwood, "Cry Macho" is mostly a by-the-numbers enterprise, a minor western that would likely attract little attention without the participation of its director and star. With a plot that's about halfway between 1920's "The Kid" and "The Marksman" a century later, the picture moseys along a predictable trail precisely where you expect it to go, allowing star Eastwood to bond with the teenaged Minett, impart a few of life's lessons, and share a few adventures and campfires along the way.

Of course, when Mike and Rafo hole up for a few days in a sleepy Mexican village about halfway through the picture and encounter a kind and attractive middle-aged widow (Natalia Traven), the owner of the local cantina who's raising her own orphaned granddaughters...well, you know the picture might not end up in Texas after all. Milo hires on as a sort of all-purpose animal whisperer and even repairs the cantina's broken jukebox so he and the widow can have some music to fall in love to. And by that point in the movie, that's more than okay with the viewer.

At age 91, Clint Eastwood has aged amazingly well. But he can't perform miracles, and it's impossible to watch "Cry Macho" without realizing almost every step of the way that he's exactly that--a 91-year-old man. Stooped and bent, Eastwood walks slowly, and his movements are tentative and halting. His voice is reedy and he's frail, as a 91-year-old has every right to be. When he throws a punch or, even worse, climbs up onto the back of a wild stallion, the audience gasps and holds its breath. In the context of the movie's narrative, the star's age becomes a real distraction.

Oh, there are brief flashes of the younger Eastwood, to be sure--if you hold your head a certain way and sort of squint you can sometimes almost see shadows of Dirty Harry or Josey Wales, or Bill Munny...or even Rowdy Yates, from all the way back in "Rawhide" days. Plainly Eastwood is attempting with "Cry Macho" the same feat John Wayne barely carried off in "The Shootist" and Henry Fonda won an Academy Award for in "On Golden Pond"--that is, to script a graceful end to his film legacy and ride off into the sunset of motion picture history.

But he's only half successful. Since Eastwood's debut as a director with 1973's "Breezy" (in which he did not appear), he's matured into one of America's premier filmmakers, a modern equivalent to the legendary John Ford. As a filmmaker, Eastwood still has a viable contribution to make--and he does. "Cry Macho" unfolds briskly, but Eastwood's a seasoned enough director to slow down and linger on the more soulful interludes. Photographed majestically by British cinematographer Ben Davis, the sum total of the picture is beautiful and elegiac, a tribute to Eastwood as a filmmaker.

Maybe the real problem with "Cry Macho" is that the film's poster tells the whole story. Rendered in classic sepia tones like the cover of an old dime novel, the poster shows an ancient-looking cowboy staring with steely resolve into an uncertain future. Only after a moment does it become apparent that the cowboy is Clint Eastwood. It might've been best if the movie company had just released the poster instead of the movie, and let it go at that.

Or even better--if Warner Bros. Had retained Eastwood as director and hired 57-year-old Brad Pitt to play the aging cowboy, maybe with Salma Hayek as the widow. It might've made "Cry Macho" an even more poignant picture. Or at least a less awkward one.

"Cry Macho" is rated PG-13 for language and thematic elements.

The Greatest Showman (2017)

Superb Family Entertainment

[10/10 · 30 December 2017]

Like Johnny Appleseed, Annie Oakley, and possibly Harry Houdini, P.T. Barnum has become less a figure of history than a giant of American popular folklore. And since Barnum himself never pretended to possess more than a passing relationship with the truth, it's richly appropriate that "The Greatest Showman," the new movie which uses as its foundation the life of the father of the circus, does not even bother to use the usual opening gambit, "based on a true story." Because it rarely is.

Instead, before the opening credits even hit the screen the movie throws the audience by the seat of its pants into the most foot-stomping, pulse-pounding, show-stopping entertainment since the circus came to town. The picture grabs the viewer by his nose and doesn't let go from the first frame of film until the last. And after the show is over, the viewer leaves with a song in his heart, a smile on his face, a spring in his step, and a tear in his eye.

"The Greatest Showman" follows the tried-and-true formula of Horatio Alger and dozens of motion pictures biographies, from "Rhapsody in Blue" to "Night and Day" to "Yankee Doodle Dandy": Through hard work and dedication, the hero rises from poverty to the pinnacle of success, falters for a moment, and then through faith and love achieves an even more lofty and soul-satisfying conclusion.

But "The Greatest Showman" continues the hallowed entertainment tradition to the beat of a percussive and pounding drum-driven hip-hop tempo of street music, accompanied by the most jaw-dropping breakdance moves you'll ever see in an ensemble performance.

During the opening scene the world explodes into a panorama of vivid colors embracing in its entirety the world of the circus-flying acrobats, prancing horses, fire-breathers, elephants, and clowns. When the song ends, it's all you can do to stop yourself from jumping to your feet to applaud. And then the movie tops itself, over and over and over again.

Anyone who's seen Hugh Jackman appearing on an interview show-and he's doing a lot of them in support of this movie-knows that his signature role as the caustic and violent Wolverine in eight "X-Men" movies are the real stretch for the actor.

The very definition of the term "amiable bloke," the Australian Jackman at heart is a song-and-dance man. And in "The Greatest Showman" Jackman proves it-the actor whirls, jumps, kicks, cakewalks, and struts with such loose-limbed dexterity that he often seems immune to laws of gravity.

Matching Jackman almost step-by-step, scene-by-scene, and note-by-note are a talented array of supporting performers, including Zac Efron as a highbrow New York playwright persuaded by Barnum to join the circus as a means of broadening the show's appeal, and the platinum-selling pop star Zendaya as the trapeze artist Efron falls for. One highlight among many in the picture is the ballad "Rewrite the Stars," performed by Zendaya and Efron in a sort of aerial ballet courting ritual under the big top.

Likewise, the exotic Keala Settle, playing the bearded lady among the uniquely-gifted and physically distinctive show people recruited by Barnum to star in his "Greatest Show," provides much of the heart and soul of the movie. Settle's performance of "This is Me" adds real spirit to an anthem for the heartbreaking loneliness of individuality, and the empowerment found in accepting yourself as you are.

The gifted Michelle Williams is as adorable as usual as Barnum's patient wife, Charity, and the Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson adds European flavor as opera star Jenny Lind, persuaded by impresario Barnum to undertake a series of US concerts under his tutelage in a bid to gain acceptance among the more rarefied echelons of society.

Surprisingly, "The Greatest Showman" is receiving mixed reviews from some of the country's more influential critics. Some are turning up their collective noses at the movie's "soupy soulfulness" and shallow, populist aspirations.

But the picture in its depiction of the contentious "friendly enemy" relationship between Barnum and newspaper critic James Gordon Bennett seems to anticipate the unflattering reviews. When Barnum is confronted with the challenge that everything connected with his show is "fake," Barnum points to the circus' audience and smilingly replies, "Those smiles seem real enough." And you know what? He's right.

Written by Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon and guided to the screen by first-time director Michael Gracey, "The Greatest Showman" steps up to the plate and bats a grand slam home run in just about every single department. And with a dozen or so rousing, showstopping songs courtesy of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the Academy Award-winning lyricists from last year's "La La Land," the viewer might even want to stop on the way home after the movie to pick up a copy of the soundtrack album.

"The Greatest Showman" is superb motion picture entertainment in the tradition of the great Hollywood musicals, and as close as we're likely to get to a Broadway experience simulated in a movie auditorium. There's real movie magic at work here: This is one picture packed with an ingredient rarely found in films these days-it's spelled J-O-Y, and it has a big exclamation point at the end.

There's a lot of competition out there for your family entertainment dollar during this holiday season. If you can only see one movie this month, "The Greatest Showman" is the choice you want to make. Any movie which depicts a father riding to his daughter's musical recital on a dancing elephant is doing something awfully right.

The highest praise-P.T. Barnum would love this picture. And so will you.

Just Getting Started (2017)

A Waste of Time

[2/10 · 14 December 2017]

At first glance, it seems as if "Just Getting Started" is going to resemble one of the old Bob Hope and Bing Crosby collaborations from decades ago-two footloose con men ambling along in search of a life of ease, avoiding responsibility and matrimonial entanglements by relying largely on their wits and their engaging personalities.

But before you start getting excited by a sense of nostalgia, you might want to remember that the Hope and Crosby comedies coasted along on the most threadbare of plots, leaning instead on the rapport between the two stars and their often unscripted and improvised dialogue, which mostly consisted of in-jokes and references to each other's entertainment personas.

And that's one of the many problems of "Just Getting Started"-unlike Hope and Crosby, stars Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones have absolutely no chemistry in their scenes together. While the dialogue in the picture might seem spontaneous and unscripted, it's not-it just isn't funny. And as anyone knows who's seen either Jones or Freeman appearing on a television talk show, without a script in his hands neither actor has a great deal of personality to contribute to the party.

"Just Getting Started" has no discernible plot-there's barely even a pulse. As a result, the picture after a while begins to resemble one long and pointless comedy sketch rejected by some obscure television variety show from the 1970s. Worse, Freeman and Jones often mutter and mumble their lines inaudibly, under their breath, as if they're embarrassed.

They have reason to be-writer and director Ron Shelton has created for the two aging stars a script which meanders all over the screen. The story seems to travel in one direction for a few minutes, then wanders off in another direction, and then repeats the pattern again and again until we don't really know what the picture's about. Is it a mob comedy? A satire?

Rene Russo, cast in the role Dorothy Lamour would've played in a Hope and Crosby comedy, at least gives the movie her best effort-in marked contrast to Jones and Freeman, Russo seems to be pointedly enunciating her lines, but in the process she also unfortunately removes every dramatic nuance or hint of intentional humor. And Jane Seymour in a guest-star role literally phones in her performance-she has no scenes with any of the other actors, appearing almost unrecognized in elaborate wigs and slinky metallic outfits, shrieking with a Noo Yawk accent into a gold telephone.

Dumped into 2146 theaters nationwide, "Just Getting Started" has earned a 9% approval rating from the critics on the Rotten Tomatoes website, and a score of 25 out of 100 on Metacritic, signaling generally unfavorable reviews. The more charitable audiences polled by CinemaScore assign the picture a C grade.

"Just Getting Started" is a mess. Skip this one entirely, and save your money to buy extra Christmas gifts.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Difficult and Challenging

[8/10 · 14 December 2017]

The critics are practically falling all over themselves in their efforts to find new ways to praise "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri." But it's not the kind of praise somebody uses when they enjoy a picture, or are entertained by it.

Rather, the critics seem be heaping upon this movie the kind of praise you'd give to a complete stranger if he made an unflattering but surprisingly accurate observation about you in the presence of your friends-either you compliment him on his comprehension, or risk looking like a fool.

In "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri," when after seven months no arrest is made for the rape and murder of her teenaged daughter, a grieving mother rents three deserted billboards on the outskirts of town and displays on them messages designed to provoke the local police chief into placing a priority on her daughter's case, and renewing his efforts to locate and arrest her killer.

Written, produced, and directed by the Irish playwright Martin McDonagh-the writer and director of the critically-acclaimed "In Bruges" in 2008 and "Seven Psychopaths" in 2012-"Three Billboards" is being described as a black comedy. But more accurately, the picture is a tragedy which occasionally incites a sort of ironic humor. What laughter comes from the picture is rueful, self-conscious, and sometimes even nervous-chuckles with a question mark at the end.

The billboards are at first tolerated by the grieving mother's sympathetic neighbors, then openly criticized. Finally, the community begins to ostracize the woman. And after her billboards fail to achieve the desired result, she escalates her campaign to provoke the police into action, with methods which include assault, vigilantism, and eventually even domestic terrorism.

At the center of "Three Billboards" is a riveting, virtuoso performance by Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes, the grieving mother. In intimately-adjusted levels, McDormand's Mildred slowly loses her sense of rationality, and her ability to interact with society. Her difficulties and emotional agony are reflected in her eyes-as she grows more and more estranged from her neighbors, the light of reason begins to fade from her eyes, and the viewer senses she's losing her sanity, and even her soul.

Along the way, the audience's reaction is tested also. Like the townspeople of Ebbing, the viewer is at first sympathetic to the mother and patronizing of her eccentricities. But as we grow more uncomfortable with her actions-and before long are even horrified by them-we conversely become more sympathetic to the police chief, played with a sense of canny, homespun wisdom by the wonderfully-talented Woody Harrelson.

In case you haven't noticed, Woody Harrelson has matured and developed into one of our most solid, dependable, and inventive character actors. Harrelson's presence in a picture all but guarantees its quality. Those viewers who doubt the actor's ability to stray from his television persona are advised to look at Harrelson's genuinely terrifying characterization in 2013's "Out of the Furnace," filmed in and around Pittsburgh. And in "Three Billboards," Harrelson contributes a customarily thoughtful and multidimensional performance.

Martin McDonagh's script and direction of "Three Billboards" makes it heartbreakingly plain for the viewer to observe how easy it is for a person to surrender to bitterness and despair. A flashback scene halfway through showing Mildred and her family interacting with love and warmth prior to the daughter's murder becomes almost unbearable in its contrast to the bitter cynicism of the rest of the picture.

It's during the flashback that we realize that part of Mildred's mania-her growing outrageousness, and her motivation to maintain the billboards-is a hysterical need to shift the responsibility and blame for her daughter's death away from herself. And it's the growing affection we feel for the grieving mother, the police, and the townspeople of Ebbing which contributes more than any other factor to the ultimately unsettling nature of the picture's conclusion.

Already nominated for six Critics' Choice Awards, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri" is a great film-challenging, and often difficult to watch. In seeing the residents of Ebbing Missouri, we're seeing ourselves through the eyes of outsiders-our strengths and weaknesses, our foibles and eccentricities, our reflexive and conditioned sense of justice. The success of the picture depends almost entirely upon the audience's ability and willingness to recognize and acknowledge in ourselves the unflattering realities as well as the greatness.

It's not easy to hold a mirror to ourselves and ask, "Is this how the world sees us?" Especially when the answer is, "Yes, it probably is."

Wonder (I) (2017)

Bring the Kleenex

[7/10 · 21 November 2017]

Based on R.J. Palacio's best-selling 2012 novel and directed by Stephen Chbosky, "Wonder" is about Augie, an eleven-year-old child suffering with the disfiguring effects of Treacher Collins syndrome, and his attempts to fit in at a tony New York prep school. Rejected and mocked at first, the child with the support of his family persists in his attempts to gain the acceptance of his classmates.

"Wonder" succeeds largely on the talents of the likable young Jacob Tremblay, buried behind elaborate latex prosthetics as Augie, and benefits from a storytelling structure transferred from the novel— individual segments of the story are assigned to characters peripheral to Augie, to explain the motivations and reasons for various actions and interactions involving the boy.

Unfortunately, "Wonder" doesn't work quite as well during the scenes featuring grownups. Julia Roberts and especially Owen Wilson contribute wonderful performances as Augie's loving and supportive parents, but are never quite persuasive as a family—the scenes set among the children and their friends reduce Wilson and Owens to guest star status in their own movie. Mandy Patinkin also contributes rumpled warmth and crinkle-eyed benevolence as the school's headmaster.

While "Wonder" looks and feels like a true story, it is not—Palacio's Mark Twain Award-winning novel was in fact inspired by a 1995 pop song by Natalie Merchant, also titled "Wonder." Merchant's song has a lyric which reads, "Know this child will be gifted/With love, with patience, and with faith," a sentiment richly echoed in the film.

"Wonder"—the movie—has so far been surprisingly successful with critics and audiences alike. Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 84%, based on 68 reviews. And viewers polled by CinemaScore assign "Wonder" the rare audience grade of A+.

Released to over 3000 theaters across the United States, "Wonder" was expected to earn around $9 million during its opening weekend—optimistic when considering that the picture was released simultaneously with the highly-anticipated "Justice League." When "Wonder" exceeded the expected weekend gross on opening day alone, the opening expectation was adjusted by experts to something around $28 million.

"Wonder" is recommended for family audiences. Viewers are encouraged to bring plenty of Kleenex.

The Star (2017)

Good for the Kiddies

[7/10 · 21 November 2017]

Set in "nine months B.C.," "The Star" is a gentle and affectionately- irreverent computer-animated retelling of The Nativity, as seen through the eyes of a clumsy and accident-prone donkey and his friends as they accompany Mary and Joseph on their journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

With animation by Cinesite in collaboration with The Jim Henson Company— Cinesite provided the special effects for several of the recent hits from Marvel Entertainment, and the Hensons are the people behind The Muppets—"The Star" mostly abounds with mild slapstick, as animal characters support each through mildly perilous situations on their way to the very first Christmas pageant.

Along with his friends, the donkey—named "Boaz" by Mary, or Bo for short —seeks to protect the Holy Family from King Herod's Roman Centurion hit- man and his two ferocious hounds, occasionally encountering along the way the camels transporting the Three Wise Men along a parallel path to the same event.

Bo is also trying to elude his disgruntled owner, from whom he recently escaped chasing dreams of glory. Mary and Joseph are unaware of the dangers of their journey, due partly to Bo's inability to communicate beyond the elaborate comic pantomime which sometimes earns him a belly- rub from Mary.

Possibly "The Star" with its gentle humor, colorful characters, and superb animation works best as a means of introducing small children to the story of the first Christmas. And the picture receives considerable help from its all-star assembly of voice talent, including Steven Yeun as Boaz, supported by Keegan-Michael Key, Kelly Clarkson, Aidy Bryant from television's SNL, Patricia Heaton, Kristin Chenoweth, Kris Kristofferson, and Ving Rhames.

The unlikely team of Tyler Perry, Oprah Winfrey, and the wonderful Tracy Morgan are heard as the bickering camels transporting the Three Wise Men, Christopher Plummer voices Herod, and Zachary Levi and Gina Rodriguez are the frequently-harried Joseph and his practical but playfully affectionate young wife, Mary.

The picture itself has received mixed reviews—Rotten Tomatoes reports a 62% approval rating from 26 critics, with an average score of 5.2 out of 10—but audiences polled by CinemaScore give "The Star" an average grade of A.

That's the only score that really matters. "The Star" is appropriate for viewing by all audiences, but is especially recommended for the very young.

Justice League (2017)

A Step In The Right Direction

[7/10 · 21 November 2017]

Batman needs a shave.

He can also use a shower, by the look of things—the brooding countenance he's displayed in more recent motion picture adventures seems to have developed into a full-scale funk in "Justice League," or at least a particularly sullen attitude which eventually results in a couple of beatings at the hands of his superhero friends.

In "Justice League," when an alien despot named Steppenwolf arrives on Earth with his army of deadly cicada-like minions, Batman must recruit a league of superheroes, including Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Flash, to work in tandem with himself and Wonder Woman to defeat the alien threat and save the world.

The alien invaders are the least of the superheroes' worries in this picture, compared with the obstacles of clunky dialogue, one tired characterization, and a few plot details which just don't make any sense.

From that perspective, Batman's attitude and unkempt appearance are probably understandable, and even more so considering the troubled history of this latest picture from the DC Comics universe. In fact, Steppenwolf and his alien friends might be partly responsible for saving "Justice League" from complete failure.

In development since 2007, "Justice League" was as of 2014 meant to be the first installment of a two-part series, Zack Snyder's next project after 2013's "Man of Steel" and 2016's "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice."

Once begun, the picture's principal photography lasted from April until October of 2016, after which Snyder brought aboard writer/director Joss Whedon to write a few extra scenes to be shot later, during May of 2017. But the expanded production schedule of the picture was interrupted in March by the tragic death of Zack Snyder's adult daughter (wife Deborah is also one of the producers of "Justice League").

After the funeral of their daughter, both Snyders returned briefly to the production, but soon abandoned the project to grieve their loss.

Whedon's duties were expanded by Warner Bros to include directing the additional scenes he'd written for the picture. Whedon had previously guided 2012's "The Avengers" and 2015's "Avengers: Age of Ultron" for DC's comic book rival, Marvel Entertainment.

Following the surprise worldwide success of "Wonder Woman" in June, two more months of additional reshoots were added to the production schedule. And along the way, the picture's budget kept growing until the final cost reached a mammoth $300 million, making "Justice League" the third most expensive movie in motion picture history, behind the two latest installments in Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise.

Whedon was given three objectives by Warner Bros.—lighten the picture's tone, expand Wonder Woman's presence, and deliver a picture with a running time of two hours or less Both "Man of Steel" and "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" had drawn severe criticism for their overlength.

The good news is that Joss Whedon has accomplished all three of the Warner objectives. Despite its failings, "Justice League" moves like lightening at 119 minutes, and contains a plot which is both compelling and relatively easy to comprehend—no small accomplishment in these days of absurdly complicated science fiction.

In addition, during the action sequences which occupy much of the film, the screen is filled with images which are eye-filling, and colorful in every sense of the word.

The single worst-kept secret in the DC universe is the identity of the iconic superhero who's resurrected from the dead in "Justice League." And of the dozens of ways available to regenerate a departed character in comic book-driven science fiction, the filmmakers in this picture have chosen the solitary option which involves grave-robbery, resulting in the film's gamier moments.

As an example of the film's clunky dialogue, after the character is revived, his description of the experience is the single word, "Weird." When pressed on the point, he elaborates, "Really weird."

The rookie members of the Justice League fare quite well in the picture— Jason Momoa as Aquaman is earthy, plain-spoken, and raucous, Ray Fisher as Cyborg gives Batman competition for sullen attitude and self-pity, and young Ezra Miller as The Flash displays a hyperactive Howie Mandel- like persona—endearing or grating, depending on your taste. In a world of demigods, Miller's Flash is the audience's surrogate, delivering observations and asking questions the viewer might, if given the chance.

But the lion's share of "Justice League" belongs to Ben Affleck as Batman and especially the delightful Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Despite Affleck's lazy and repressed performance, his character moves the plot along…effectively allowing an opportunity for Gadot's star to shine even brighter. If Affleck's performance seems tired and stale, Gadot's is a breath of pure oxygen.

"Justice League" moves the DC superheroes closer to the rarefied air of their rivals at Marvel. And while DC has a way to go before becoming a real threat to the Marvel entertainment colossus, "Justice League" is a big, and very entertaining, step in the right direction.

The Snowman (2017)

Pretty Dismal

[2/10 · 22 October 2017]

Based upon Norwegian author Jo Nesbo's 2007 novel of the same name, "The Snowman" follows Oslo police detective Harry Hole as the tries to identify and apprehend a serial killer who uses the likeness of a snowman as sort of a calling card and trademark image.

This is a picture which seems to want to punish the audience for shelling out the money to buy a ticket to see it. Despite a talented cast and some picturesque Norwegian location photography, it's difficult to imagine a more dreary, inaccessible, humorless, or uninvolving movie.

Although originally planned to be the first of a series of pictures featuring the character of Harry Hole—there are eight titles to date in Nesbo's series of books—the filmmakers and producers seemed to anticipate the movie's critical and commercial failure.

Shortly after the picture's October 13 European release, director Tomas Alfredson candidly blamed the movie's failure on a lack of preparation time and a short production schedule. According to Alfredson, the short production schedule resulted in some 15% of the screenplay not being filmed, causing both inconsistencies and substantial narrative difficulties in the completed picture.

And the reviews for "The Snowman" have been devastating—the Rotten Tomatoes website reports an approval rating of 9%, based on 116 critical reviews. And the CinemaScore market research film reports an average audience grade of D for "The Snowman" from a scale of A+ to F, based on exit polls of audiences who viewed the picture.

Distributor Universal Pictures originally estimated an opening weekend gross of some $10 million for the picture from 1813 theaters across the United States. But after the negative reviews and a discouraging opening day, the projected gross income was adjusted to a more realistic $4 million.

Only the Brave (2017)

A Fitting Tribute

[8/10 · 22 October 2017]

A "hotshot" is a firefighter whose specialty is working the front lines of a forest fire. And the new motion picture "Only the Brave" is about the Granite Mountain Hotshots, an elite crew of forest firefighters from Prescott, Arizona who established a remarkable record of success in their specialty but collided with fate and tragedy during Arizona's Yarnell Hill Fire in June of 2013.

Written by Ken Nolan and Eric Warren Singer and directed by Joseph Kosinski, "Only the Brave" is one biographical picture which doesn't gild the lily, or idealize the subject of the drama.

The firefighters depicted in the movie are human, and have flaws and weaknesses: Three of the leading characters are recovering substance abusers, and some of the picture's best acting is screamed between actors Josh Brolin and Jennifer Connelly, playing the Hotshots' commanding officer and his spirited and independent wife.

If you're unfamiliar with the story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, "Only the Brave" is a genuinely effective real-life adventure picture which does justice to not only that famed battalion but also to firefighters and emergency responders everywhere.

And even if you already know the story, the picture works as a tribute to the people who place themselves between us and danger, and the families who support them.

Geostorm (2017)

Not A Bad Movie, Just A Silly One

[6/10 · 22 October 2017]

"Geostorm" is a big, splashy science fiction disaster picture, the likes of which we haven't seen since…well, since the last big splashy Dean Devlin science fiction disaster picture.

Devlin, who usually has worked in tandem with director and occasional partner Roland Emmerich, is the producer 1996's megahit "Independence Day" and its sequel, last year's "Independence Day: Resurgence." "Geostorm" is Devlin's first picture as a director.

And if you didn't know Devlin was the director of "Geostorm," you'd probably guess that he had something to do with it anyway, because the movie closely resembles the style of his previous movies.

In "Geostorm," decades of pollution and global warming cause the world's weather to go kerflooey. A scientist played by Gerard Butler devises a network of global satellites, which form a sort of electronic net around the world to regulate and control the weather.

But somehow a gasket blows in the satellite weather system, and parts of the world develop a bad case of opposite weather—a deep freeze in Saudi Arabia, tornadoes in India, and a tsunami in Dubai, as if Mother Nature is trying to teach us a lesson in irony.

So the scientist boards a shuttle to the International Space Station in order to figure out the problem with the system and fix it. And he soon learns that the glitch is not an accident—somebody sabotaged the controls. And the person who vandalized the system is a top official in the US government.

Gerard Butler plays the scientist in "Geostorm" with an appropriate blend of irreverence, bravado, and attitude. His performance is like all the characters played by Charlton Heston in all the disaster movies of the 1970s rolled into one.

Also having fun in "Geostorm" are Ed Harris, chewing the scenery as the president's right hand man, and Andy Garcia, pretending he's doing some heavy lifting as the president. Garcia somehow manages to overact just by being present, and by all appearances nearly gives himself a hernia when he has actual lines to speak.

"Geostorm" is not a bad picture, just a silly one. Also co-written by Devlin, this is one movie which should've been released on Memorial Day or the Fourth of July—it might've played better with a drive-in theater wrapped around it.

The Foreigner (I) (2017)

A Dreary Slog Through Irish Politics

[5/10 · 22 October 2017]

At one point in "The Foreigner," sixty-four-year-old Pierce Brosnan, playing an Irish diplomat, refers to sixty-three-year-old Jackie Chan, playing a sixty-two-year-old former special forces agent, as "that old man." Astonishingly, that's not the most confusing moment in the picture.

The plot of "The Foreigner" concerns a Chinese-born London restaurant owner whose beloved college-aged daughter is killed in a terrorist act claimed by a new renegade branch of the Irish Republican Army.

The man attempts to obtain the identity of the murderers from an Irish diplomat with ties to the IRA. But when the diplomat at first dismisses and then unfortunately ignores the grieving man, he begins to use his past training in the US special forces to obtain the information he needs and enact justice for his daughter's killers.

What promises to be an action revenge fantasy in the tradition of "Death Wish" quickly becomes a dreary slog through the intricacies of Irish politics. And in the process "The Foreigner" somehow reduces the top- billed Jackie Chan to a supporting role in his own movie.

The picture eventually arrives where the audience expects it to go, but takes much, much too long to get there. The final twenty minutes deliver the goods, but you might want to consider taking a nap until then. And twenty minutes after the movie ends you'll likely forget the whole thing ever happened.

Premiering in Beijing on September 24 and throughout China on September 30, "The Foreigner" during its Chinese release earned gross receipts of over $88 million against its $35 million budget, giving the filmmakers and studio a profit even prior to the picture's October 13 opening in 2515 theaters across the United States.

In the US, "The Foreigner" earned a little less than $13 million during its first weekend, placing the film in third place in box office receipts, behind "Happy Death Day," which opened simultaneously, and "Blade Runner 2049," which premiered the week before.

Translation—"The Foreigner" is already a big success. So don't feel guilty if you want to skip it entirely.

Boo 2! A Madea Halloween (2017)

Neither The Best Nor The Worst

[6/10 · 22 October 2017]

Tyler Perry is something of an American phenomenon—a one-man motion picture industry. As a director, writer, or producer—and frequently all three—Perry since 2005 has been responsible for some twenty remarkably successful motion pictures. And that's in addition to the pictures of other filmmakers in which Perry has appeared only as an actor—popular films such as "Star Trek," "Alex Cross," and "Gone Girl."

To date, nine of Tyler Perry's twenty pictures as a producer, writer, or director have featured the character Madea, a plain-spoken and tough- loving elderly woman with a nurturing heart, a highly-acute antenna for the difference between right and wrong, and a penchant for involving herself in the troubles of other people.

Madea, who's played in elaborate makeup and costuming by Perry himself, is based in equal measures upon the filmmaker's mother and aunt, and is partially inspired by the characterizations and performances by comic Eddie Murphy in the 2000 comedy "The Nutty Professor II."

Tyler Perry's comedies are remarkably accessible to filmgoing audiences. While the motion pictures of other filmmaking multi-taskers often appeal to an especially exclusive and rarefied demographic—Woody Allen springs to mind—Perry's movies are popular entertainment for anyone who loves to laugh.

Unfortunately, "Boo 2!" is not among Perry's best pictures…or even among his best Madea pictures. While the laughs are there, especially for Perry's legions of fans and Madea aficionados, they're more sparse than usual, and less frequent. Both the filmmaker and the character he created seem to be going through the motions by rote, and without heart.

"Boo 2!" is enjoyable enough. But audiences unfamiliar with Tyler Perry or Madea might find themselves wondering what all the fuss is about.

Professor Marston & the Wonder Women (2017)

Squalid, Lurid, Distasteful...and Inaccurate

[3/10 · 16 October 2017]

If the intended purpose of "Professor Marston and the Wonder Women" is to illustrate the persecution of an American visionary for his family's unconventional lifestyle, the movie is a failure. The picture can be interpreted that way, but only if the viewer sort of squints and turns his head sideways, just so.

But it's just as easy to see the picture as a cautionary tale, not unlike the exploitation pictures from the 1930s including "Reefer Madness" and "The Cocaine Fiends," but instead of depicting the dangers of narcotics detailing one man's undoing and eventual downfall as a result of his addiction to pornography.

Written and directed by Angela Robinson, "Professor Marston and the Wonder Women" purports to depict the life of William Moulton Marston, a prominent American psychologist during the 1930s. Believing the loving authority and instinctive empathy of women could greatly advance the development of civilization especially during an era of anarchy, Dr. Marston advocated the advancement of the female gender to positions of power.

Eventually, as a means of illustrating his beliefs, Dr. Marston created the comic book character Wonder Woman, basing the character on qualities he observed in both his wife, psychologist Elizabeth Holloway, and their live-in lover, a former graduate student named Olive Byrne. Both Marston's wife and their lover bore children to Marston, and in fact were on occasion pregnant simultaneously.

Despite an honest, earnest performance by actor Luke Evans as Marston, the picture becomes hopelessly mired in inaccuracies presumably formulated to either sensationalize the subject matter or titillate the audience. Its dubious premise—that the Wonder Woman comic books of the 1940s were a means of proselytizing to children Marston's uncommon beliefs, colored by his own fevered obsession with an alternative lifestyle—is illustrated by the inclusion of laughably suggestive individual panels from the Wonder Woman comic books of the time.

Obviously influenced by the 2014 Smithsonian Magazine article which revealed after several decades the details of Marston's life, influences, and lifestyle, this is one movie which plainly hitches its production's wagon to the unexpected worldwide success of this year's "Wonder Woman" motion picture adaptation.

Accordingly, "Professor Marston and the Wonder Women" has been criticized as inaccurate by Marston's family, who contend the picture is "based on someone's imagination," that "the depiction of the family and Wonder Woman's origins are made up."

"Professor Marston and the Wonder Women" is squalid, lurid, and distasteful. Marston's story is mildly interesting, but should've been confined to a few sentences and an asterisk in an encyclopedia of comic book history.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Glacial Pace, Ponderous...But Seamless Continuity

[7/10 · 9 October 2017]

Occasionally a major motion picture will be modified by a film studio based on the criticisms of test audiences prior to the movie's release, and without the creative participation of its director or screenwriters.

Such a movie was 1982's "Blade Runner," directed by Ridley Scott and released by Warner Bros. At last count, "Blade Runner" existed in some seven different incarnations, including the original version, the studio-modified version, the restored version, one with narration by star Harrison Ford, another with the narration removed, and others with scenes either augmented with additional footage, or removed entirely.

Set in a bleak and hopeless Los Angeles in the year 2019, "Blade Runner" imagined a future in which human-like androids, called replicants, are manufactured to toil as slave labor in off-world colonies. Mostly indistinguishable from actual humans but with superior endurance, intelligence, and strength, a group of replicants escape to Earth from their off-world settlements. A burned-out LA police detective is assigned the task of hunting down the escaped replicants and destroying them. The term "blade runner" describes a hunter of replicants.

Despite its troubled production history, many consider "Blade Runner," in either or all of its incarnations, to be among the best science fiction movies ever produced. And in the thirty-five years since its original release, fans have been clamoring for a sequel.

"Blade Runner 2049," released on October 06, is that long-awaited sequel. Set thirty years after the original, "Blade Runner 2049" follows yet another blade runner, now investigating the remains of a replicant who displays postmortem evidence of having produced a child— unthinkable to their technology. The officer is assigned the clandestine task of locating the child of the replicant, if it exists, and destroying all evidence surrounding the pregnancy and the birth.

Produced by many of the same people responsible for "Blade Runner"— Ridley Scott returns, this time as a producer, leaving the direction in the able hands of Denis Villenueve—the sequel is a worthy follow-up to the legendary original, although the picture is not without problems.

Presumably because so many versions of the original picture exist, the sequel seemingly attempts to embrace them all. And as a result, the movie displays a tendency to over-explain even the most rudimentary points, accounting for both the picture's glacial pace and its mammoth running time of nearly three hours.

As a means of compensation, "Blade Runner 2049," with an estimated budget of some $180 million, is also bigger than the original in every way possible—visually stunning, filled with sometimes astonishing optical effects, and with a booming synthesized music soundtrack strongly reminiscent of the popular Vangelis-composed original.

Much like the music from Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" from 1968, the "Blade Runner 2049" soundtrack emphasizes music tones so low on the chromatic scale that they're often felt rather than heard, underscoring the audience's frequent sense of awe.

Actor Ryan Gosling, playing the 2049 blade runner, is appropriately conflicted by his assignment, and eventually troubled with dividing loyalties. Harrison Ford also turns up somewhat late in the picture to reprise his role from the 1982 production. And to the filmmakers' credit, the continuity is nearly seamless even after a thirty-five year hiatus.

Despite his prominent billing in the picture's advertising, Ford's role is relatively small, but the resolution of the film's plot relies on his character's participation.

Which begs a question—since Ford's participation in "Blade Runner 2049" was far from a sure thing until almost the beginning of production, what would the filmmakers have done had the actor declined to participate?

Battle of the Sexes (2017)

Refreshingly Accurate

[9/10 · 9 October 2017]

Audiences sometimes show a tendency to stay away from movies founded upon actual people or events, possibly resisting the feeling of allowing a history lesson to interfere with their entertainment. Even a terrific movie such as "The Right Stuff" in 1983 suffered at the box office because many film-goers mistakenly believed the picture to be a documentary.

Possibly that's the reason Fox Searchlight Pictures is opening the wonderful new movie "Battle of the Sexes" with such apparent caution, debuting first in major cities and adding additional locations as the picture builds critical and popular momentum.

"Battle of the Sexes" depicts with refreshing accuracy an actual 1973 event, at a time when women in sports were achieving some parity with men. The aging Bobby Riggs, sensing in the times an opportunity for self-promotion and financial gain, publicly challenged in turn two of tennis' reigning female champions—first Margaret Court and then Billie Jean King—to matches against him, boasting no woman could compete and prevail in a sporting activity against a man.

It seems like the only person who's trying to turn "Battle of the Sexes" into a history lesson is actor Steve Carell, playing the real-life former tennis champion turned gambler, promoter, and hustler Bobby Riggs. Carell disappears so completely into his characterization of Bobby Riggs that it often seems like there's no Steve Carell left.

That might be a wonderful achievement for Carell as an actor. But in vanishing so completely into his role, Carell risks alienating the audience in much the same way Dustin Hoffman and Jim Carrey did in 1974's "Lenny" and 1999's "Man on the Moon." Both Hoffman and Carrey were consumed so completely by their impersonations that they forgot their primary goal was to entertain the audience—in their characterizations, Lenny Bruce and Andy Kaufman, the real-life comics they portrayed, became deeply unfunny and unsympathetic people.

Faring better in "Battle of the Sexes" is actress Emma Stone as Billie Jean King. With little cosmetic modification beyond her hair style and the addition of King's trademark glasses, Stone easily captures the iconic tennis star's natural dignity and poise. That King is depicted as also coming to terms with her sexuality might be the telescoping of events for dramatic purposes, but the point works well in creating a human dimension in a character who might otherwise have been depicted as too driven, goal-oriented, and bloodless.

Written by Simon Beaufoy and directed by the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, "Battle of the Sexes" becomes a richly enjoyable chronicle of a time and event modern audiences might find difficult to imagine. Those fearing a civics seminar or a documentary can relax—in this retelling, history takes a backseat to superb entertainment.

American Made (2017)

Based On A True Story...Not!

[6/10 · 9 October 2017]

The MPAA should probably consider a "Whopper Alert" warning for audiences who attend a motion picture prefaced with the phrase "based on a true story." And the first movie to feature the designation—in big red letters—should be "American Made."

"American Made" is purportedly the true story of Barry Seal, a onetime TWA pilot who eventually became a minor peripheral player in the Iran- Contra political scandal which plagued the second term of the Ronald Reagan Administration.

The picture depicts Seal as an innocent adventurer recruited and co- opted by the CIA to fly clandestine reconnaissance missions over Central America. As Seals' value to the CIA increases, he's asked to become more deeply involved in highly illegal diplomatic interactions.

The film shows Seal becoming a courier between the US and Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, transporting weapons to Nicaraguan rebels based in Honduras and eventually building an army of Contras training at a secret base in Arkansas. It's only a matter of time before Seal is captured by Columbian drug-lord Pablo Escobar, and compelled to run shipments of cocaine from Medellin to the US.

According to "American Made," Barry Seal was the Forrest Gump of the Reagan Administration and Iran-Contra. In real life, Barry Seal was a reprobate and career criminal who was sentenced to ten years in a federal penitentiary before avoiding imprisonment by offering to become an informant against Escobar and the Medellin Cartel. The extent of the "based on a true story" designation is apparently that both the movie and the history books agree that Seal was once a pilot for TWA.

You'll never find an entertainer who works harder to please an audience than Tom Cruise. And in "American Made," Cruise as Seal is the whole show, a fun-lovin' good ol' boy, a-servin' his country "Air America"- style, and making a little money in the bargain. And it's astonishing how many audience members—and even film critics—are accepting "American Made" as a factual account of a confusing time in history.

But it just ain't so. Director Doug Liman, who also teamed with Cruise on the well-received "Edge of Tomorrow" in 2014, excuses "American Made" as "a fun lie based on a true story." And from his perspective, maybe it is.

Warner Bros. studios during the 1930s turned this sort of story into an art form, in a series of cautionary tales such as "Little Caesar," "The Public Enemy," and "Bullets or Ballots." And in each of those pictures, the message came through, loud and clear—Crime Doesn't Pay.

In "American Made," that message is mostly lost in translation. A running gag in the movie is that every time Cruise as Seal leaves home to commit another abomination in the name of Uncle Sam, as a gesture of farewell he drops his pants and bares his butt to his family.

And in the end, that's the image we're left with—Tom Cruise, his famously dazzling grin turned away from the camera, mooning the audience in the name of democracy.

That's show biz, folks!

Flatliners (2017)

Just Another Stupid Horror Picture

[2/10 · 9 October 2017]

Somebody should open a "GoFundMe" account where movie fans can raise enough money to produce a major motion picture worthy of the remarkable talents of actress Ellen Page.

Following her Academy Award-nominated breakthrough performance as a strong-minded teenager confronting an unplanned pregnancy in 2007's "Juno," Page has been mostly toiling in low-budget independent pictures, which often showcase her talents but don't afford her the exposure necessary to propel her into the front ranks of American actors.

Instead, when Page appears in a movie sponsored by a major studio, it's likely either a supporting role in an "X-Men" picture, or in lurid garbage like "Flatliners," released by Sony on September 29.

More of a continuation than a remake of the surprise 1990 hit "Flatliners," this new version again concerns the adventures of five medical school students experimenting in near-death experiences, as a means of gaining insight and knowledge of the afterlife.

The 1990 version of "Flatliners" contained the solitary distinction of employing an inordinate number of cast members who later graduated to stardom, giving the picture something of a cult following. But even accounting for a characteristically strong performance from Page, it's doubtful than any of the cast members from this new updated version will achieve the same results as the 1990 personnel.

Despite a relatively large budget and the backing of a major studio, in the end this new incarnation is nothing more than another mindless horror movie, little different in quality than the recent low-budget pictures "Rings" or "Wish Upon," or dozens of others.

As a more practical concern, research indicates that young people are inspired to simulate actions and events they witness in motion pictures.

This notion was augmented by the deaths of at least two young men recreating a stunt depicted in the 1993 picture "The Program," and the deaths or serious injuries of others mimicking activities they witnessed on television's "Jackass."

After viewing a picture like "Flatliners," which depicts a group of young people inducing death in themselves and their friends—a notion of temporary suicide—who knows what asinine acts of cardinal irresponsibility might follow?

The Mountain Between Us (2017)

A Man and a Woman

[9 October 2017]

In "The Mountain Between Us," two attractive strangers played by Idris Elba and Kate Winslet agree to split the cost of a charter when their airline transportation is cancelled due to an impending storm. After their pilot suffers a fatal stroke and the plane crashes in Utah's mountaintop wilderness, the two travelers despite sustaining serious wounds must rely on instinct, determination, and each other to survive the environment and find their way back to civilization.

"The Mountain Between Us" begins to lose any sense of credibility shortly following its horrendously realistic plane crash—after burying the pilot in the mountain's permafrost and still using the destroyed plane's fuselage for shelter against the deadly wintertime elements, Winslet at one point deploys subterfuge to send Elba outside while she brushes her teeth and primps. It's then that the watchful viewer realizes the picture is less "Man in the Wilderness" than "A Man and a Woman."

Based on a novel by Charles Martin and adapted to the screen by Chris Weitz and J. Mills Goodloe, "The Mountain Between Us" is being billed as "a romance-survival-adventure film." But the picture might be more accurately described as a melodrama, and later even something close to a soap opera, particularly as the two actors descend below the mountain's tree-line and the scenery transforms almost instantly from bleak arctic wilderness to an idyllic, Eden-like Thomas Kinkade painting.

Still, in spite of predictability and a number of continuity issues— Winslet's wounds in particular seem to wax and wane in severity—"The Mountain Between Us" ultimately becomes both an effective source of entertainment and a fairly engrossing two-hour journey. Directed by Hany Abu-Assad and filmed on spectacular locations in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, the picture succeeds on the strength of the performances of Kate Winslet and Idris Elba.

The actors invest so much personality into their characters that before long it becomes unthinkable to the audience that either of them might not survive their ordeal. And when it seems apparent that the two will be able to overcome their predicament and rejoin civilization, it becomes equally unthinkable that they won't eventually fall into each other's arms.

But although "The Mountain Between Us" might actually be too accurate to the Charles Martin source material and therefore continue too long after the plot's nominal resolution, Winslet and Elba are talented, charismatic, and attractive enough to make us want to accompany them to the end of their journey…even after we know where they're going.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

Takes The Low Road

[4/10 · 24 September 2017]

If a movie would ever be produced to show the backstory of the Roger Moore version of James Bond—what his childhood was like, and how he became who he was—that movie would probably closely resemble 2015's "Kingsman: The Secret Service."

Under Moore's stewardship, the Bond series drifted toward a critical nadir, growing progressively more silly and ineffectual until by the end the pictures were little more than parlor comedies with nifty gadgets and occasional off-color gags—in other words, much like "Kingsman."

Based on a series of comic books, the primary similarity between the first "Kingsman" movie and its sequel is in the quality of the humor— sophomoric. But the first picture had the advantage of being innovative —its immediate focus was to introduce and establish the characters, which it did in an acceptably entertaining fashion. The actual story, such as it was, became of secondary importance.

In "Kingsman: The Golden Circle," the level of maturity is about the same as in the first. The difference with "Kingsman 2" is that when a gag is set up, if there's a choice between aiming high toward genuine wit or aiming low toward a cheap laugh, the script will invariably follow the low road.

And that's only when there's a payoff at all—there are plenty of set-ups in "Kingsman 2" which lead nowhere, as if the filmmakers forgot where they were going, or that their primary purpose was to entertain the audience instead of simply amusing themselves.

This problem extends to the casting: After the first "Kingsman" picture earned over $414 million in worldwide revenues, the studio raised the budget of the second installment by over $20 million. Much of the budget was presumably spent on luring a number of veteran Academy Award- winning motion picture actors to the series—Julianne Moore, Halle Berry, and Jeff Bridges are among the familiar faces joining the "Kingsman" cast for the second installment.

But apparently after the expense of paying for the extra acting talent, little or no money remained to invest in developing the story or the screenplay for the actors to work with. This problem is especially apparent in the picture's third act, which dissolves into a melee of senseless, violent silliness.

As in the first picture, "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" embraces the sort of cartoonish brutality familiar to fans of videogames. Considering the picture's unfunny gags, unpersuasive effects, absence of a compelling plot, and lethal overlength—a totally unnecessary 141 minutes—"Kingsman" time passes slowly indeed.

Even the old Roger Moore James Bond pictures were better than this.

The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017)

Not Up To Predecessors

[7/10 · 24 September 2017]

While the folks as Disney/Pixar don't have anything to worry about quite yet, the creative minds behind the Lego Movie franchise have created a nifty little enterprise for themselves.

After "The Lego Movie" in 2014 became a surprise hit, earning $469 million on a budget of $60 million, and "The Lego Batman Movie" this year did nearly as well, the folks at Denmark's The Lego Group found themselves with a solid foothold in the animated movie business.

The Lego Group's signature product, of course, is their line of toys, the colorful and seemingly-indestructible plastic bricks children can use to design and build virtually anything. Lego bricks have since their introduction in 1949 become a worldwide phenomenon, actually replacing Ferrari in 2015 as the world's most powerful brand name.

The creative minds behind the Lego movies so far are navigating with remarkable grace the razor-thin line which separates silliness from camp, and archness from innocence. And they're doing it by somehow channeling the undiluted wonder of a child's infinite imagination and combining it with the elbow-in-the-ribs, wiseguy brand humor of the animators at the Warner Bros. studios, the creators of Bugs Bunny, the Road Runner, and dozens of other beloved characters.

"The Lego Ninjago Movie" is the first Lego production to be based on a specific Lego product instead of a genre or a character, and therefore bears the faint scent of commercialism. Such an enterprise has worked quite well, however, for the Walt Disney organization, which has built entire film franchises around individual attractions at their theme parks—the "Pirates of the Caribbean" film series after five installments has earned a worldwide total of nearly $4.5 trillion.

Opening in 4047 theaters across the country, "The Lego Ninjago Movie" was expected to earn over $27 million during its opening weekend, but due to lackluster ticket sales the picture actually finished with a little over $21 million in gross earnings.

The picture has received a 53% average approval rating from 64 reviews included on the Rotten Tomatoes website, and an average audience rating of B-plus from CinemaScore—fairly undistinguished by Lego Movie standards, but still eminently respectable for an animated motion picture.

"The Lego Ninjago Movie," with a PG rating from the MPAA, is suitable for all audiences...and recommended for most.

Friend Request (2016)

New in the US--Not So Much Elsewhere

[3/10 · 24 September 2017]

While only released in the United States on September 22, "Friend Request" has actually been around for quite a while—the picture was released in Germany well over a year ago, in January of 2016.

With an intriguing premise suggesting an examination of the power and impact of social media on the young, "Friend Request" instead becomes a routine horror picture, featuring obsession and stalking and leading to elements of reincarnation and possession. As such, "Friend Request" is nearly indistinguishable from whatever horror picture was released last week, and whichever one will be released next week.

Critical response has been just short of scathing, with the Rotten Tomatoes website reporting an average approval rating of 20% based on the reviews of 45 critics.

Audience response has been more emphatic—distributor Warner Bros. Pictures expected gross revenues of around $5 million during the picture's opening weekend. But after "Friend Request" earned only a dismal $750,000 nationally on its opening day, the studio needed to adjust it expectations substantially downward.

"Friend Request" ended up with a total of a little less than $2.5 million in earnings for its opening weekend. And based on audience responses, CinemaScore reports an average grade of C-plus from a cross section of viewers.

Your decision is much easier—just skip it.

American Assassin (2017)

Flawed, But Effective

[6/10 · 17 September 2017]

In motion pictures, as in practically every other art form, the effectiveness of a performance relies heavily upon the enjoyment the artist experiences while delivering it. And Michael Keaton in "American Assassin" is plainly having the time of his life.

As Stan Hurley, a veteran CIA black ops agent now running a training camp in Virginia for rookie agents, Keaton practically chews the scenery in his tightly-wired relish for a colorful role once rumored to have been sought by Bruce Willis.

After watching Keaton's scene-stealing performance in "American Assassin," it's difficult to imagine that the actor was once so indelibly associated with comedy roles that a major outcry among comic book fans was caused by his casting in the title role of director Tim Burton's 1989 version of "Batman."

In fact, "Batman" changed the course of Keaton's career: Not only did the actor contribute possibly the definitive characterization to date as the conflicted, two-sided superhero, Keaton also possessed the artistic integrity to walk away from an almost-absurdly lucrative deal to continue playing the role in inferior, increasingly-cartoonish sequels after director Burton abandoned the series over creative differences with the studio's administration.

That Keaton's performance in "American Assassin" is so enjoyable makes it even disappointing that the rest of the production does not match Keaton's exulted standards. Based on the sixth of the series of fifteen novels by the late author Vince Flynn, "American Assassin" details the genesis of that series' primary character, Mitch Rapp.

After Rapp witnesses the brutal slaying of his fiancée during a terrorist attack on the island of Ibiza, he attempts to avenge the death on his own. But the young Rapp's aggressive, inventive, and unusually extreme solitary measures attract the attention of the CIA. The intelligence agency recruits Rapp, with the notion that partnering the young man with the seasoned operative Stan Hurley as a mentor might provide the rookie with the discipline necessary to become a more effective assassin, a killing machine, an American James Bond.

Adapted from Flynn's novels by a distinguished team of writers which includes the Academy Award-winning team of Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz and directed with spirit by Michael Cuesta, the first half of "American Assassin" is successful in its repeating a tried-and-true formula familiar to motion pictures all the way back to "Tell It to the Marines" in 1926—the reluctant rookie in the charge of the hard-as-nails professional.

The second half of the picture, in which Rapp and Hurley as professional equals are sent into the field to foil the detonation of a nuclear weapon by terrorists in the Middle East, is another story entirely.

The major problem with "American Assassin" is the casting of Dylan O'Brien in the central role of Mitch Rapp. Although at age 26 the actor is familiar to adolescent audiences from his supporting role on the MTV "Teen Wolf" series and the "The Maze Runner" series of films, O'Brien seems too callow, immature, and juvenile in a role for which Gerard Butler, Matthew Fox, and Colin Farrell were also considered.

Despite the fake-looking beard O'Brien sports as he's trying to infiltrate a Middle Eastern terrorist cell, the actor too often resembles a boy trying on the oversized shoes of an adult.

But possibly that's the point—since "American Assassin" is one title in a series of fifteen, Lionsgate is plainly anticipating a Mitch Rapp series of films. In that event, O'Brien might possibly eventually grow into his role, even if he never quite carries off the dramatic gravitas of a James Bond.

Or a Michael Keaton.

Mother! (2017)

A Polarizing Failure

[1/10 · 16 September 2017]

Rarely has there been a motion picture as polarizing as "Mother!" Critics seem to be split almost down the middle in their consensus— about half seem euphoric over the picture, and the other half are furious. Of those critics who endorse "Mother!" many seem to be leading their defense of the picture with a vague suggestion that they like it because they're really, really smart, and the rest of us in the audience are dumb, dumb, dumb. And cousin, we all know that just ain't the way it is.

Of course, it doesn't matter one bit whether the critics love or hate "Mother!" Plenty of motion pictures open to enormous critical acclaim and still die a slow, painful death at the box office. The difference to a motion picture's success or failure is the audience, the people who pay to see it.

Most movie critics approach a picture with the advantage of not having to shell out their own do-re-mi for tickets. Audiences who have to actually reach for their wallets in order to see a movie might—and sometimes do—have a completely different reaction to the picture than the critics. And the audience's reaction to "Mother!" is historic in its emphasis.

CinemaScore, a Las Vegas-based polling service which surveys audience opinion of a motion picture on a scale from A to F based on exit interviews with theater patrons, reports an average audience score of F for "Mother!" In the history of CinemaScore, no other movie's rating has ever been that low—never, ever, ever.

In fairness to "Mother!" CinemaScore conducted their interviews with movie patrons while they were on their way out of a screening, undoubtedly still furious for having spent a substantial chunk of change on the experience. Had CinemaScore given audience members a day or two to calm down, the grade might have improved to something more like a D, or a D-minus.

"Mother!" after 2014's "Noah," is writer/director Darren Aronofsky's second whack at rewriting the Bible's Book of Genesis. Some viewers might remember "Noah" as the movie which revealed that giant three- armed monsters made of rocks did most of the heavy lifting as Noah built the Ark—a point later explained to have been subjective, but was suspected by many observers to have been included in the picture as a means of luring in the "Transformers" audience.

Starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem, "Mother!" nominally depicts the disruption of a married couple's tranquil life when unexpected guests arrive at their home. But actually, "Mother!" is an allegory—nothing is what it seems. The characters and situations are symbolic, and are designed to illustrate the director's interpretation of events described in the Old Testament. This notion is augmented by the names of the characters—Man, Woman, Him, Oldest Son, Younger Brother…and naturally, Mother.

One of the likely problems with the reception is that "Mother!" has been seemingly marketed as a horror picture, a sort of distaff, opposite version of 1968's "Rosemary's Baby." The misleading marketing was an error which "Mother!" star Jennifer Lawrence took to the television talk show circuit to correct, prior to the picture's release.

But instead of clarifying the issue, the infallibly candid Lawrence effectively further obscured the point by acknowledging that she didn't know precisely what "Mother!" is, except that it's brilliant and intense. During post-premiere interviews, Lawrence even actually seemed acknowledge that "Mother!" goes at least a little too far.

Which might be the understatement of the week. More than a reimagining of the Book of Genesis, "Mother!" sometimes more closely resembles a reimagining of Edward Albee, and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." And certainly there's no disguising the knowledge that during a week when only two new major motion pictures were released to theaters, "Mother!" came in third at the box office, and debuted to an audience which by all appearances plainly despised it.

Should you decide to attend "Mother!" be prepared to hate yourself later for having wasted a fistful of dollars, on a movie which probably shouldn't have been made at all.

It (I) (2017)

Faithful to the Novel

[8/10 · 11 September 2017]

While not the best picture based on a novel by perennial bestselling author Stephen King—that distinction would probably be held by 1994's "The Shawshank Redemption"—"It" is probably the most comprehensive.

At a whopping 1138 pages, Stephen King's novel "It" reads like an encyclopedia of not only horror, but also horror movies and rock 'n roll music. Iconic movie monsters from Frankenstein to the Creature from the Black Lagoon make brief guest appearances in the book, and a bibliography of musical selections quoted in the novel takes up two full pages at the end, as sort of required listening.

While the new motion picture version is not quite as detailed as the book—to accomplish that, "It" would need to have a running time numbering in days instead of hours—the picture does certainly have an epic feel, with the movie's seven or eight major set-pieces based solidly, accurately, and even lovingly upon the events described by King in his novel...although mercifully the metaphysical aspects of the tale are eliminated.

Although the filmmakers nominally set the film in the late 1980s instead of the late 1950s era specified in the novel, in essence the movie exists in sort of a generic time-frame which might almost be any era from the 1930s forward, to the present day. The only actual visible milestone in the picture is the advertising of "Batman" and "Lethal Weapon" at the local Bijou—presumably as a sort of in-joke, since both pictures were also Warner Bros. releases.

Briefly, in "It" a group of seven children identify in an otherworldly, malignant, psychotic clown the living source of all worldly evil, and seek to destroy it…particularly after the younger sibling of one of the children becomes one of its victims, and the children deduce that the monstrous clown feeds not only on fear, but also on actual human lives, especially those of the young.

The scares keep coming in "It" at such a pace that the audience has little chance to catch its breath, let alone collect its thoughts. Although the picture does not contain as many sucker punches or low blows as, say, 1973's "The Exorcist"—another Warner Bros. release, by the way, based on a bestselling novel—"It" plays not only on the audience's fear but also on certain paranoias and even a handful of phobias.

The images depicted in the movie run the gamut from the mildly disturbing to the genuinely shocking to the jaw-droppingly horrific. This might be the rare movie which is rated R for its fright ratio, although the violence and bloodshed are present in abundance—in one scene a geyser of blood erupts from a bathroom drain.

Adapted from King's novel by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, and Gary Dauberman, and directed by Andy Muschietti, the movie benefits enormously from the casting of the children. The seven young actors appearing as the group of friends in the movie are a remarkably talented and persuasive group of children, with young Jeremy Ray Taylor and Sophia Lillis contributing particularly vivid characterizations as an overweight outcast and the supposedly "loose" girl from the wrong side of the town's tracks, respectively.

Also an asset to "It" is the casting of young Finn Wolfhard as the most sarcastic and irreverent member of the seven. Already familiar to many viewers from his role on television's "Stranger Things," Wolfhard with his constant flow of cynical wisecracks provides a nice counterpoint—possibly even an emotionally-necessary one—to the movie's seemingly inexhaustible supply of horrific images and scenarios. Actor Bill Murray performed much the same function in 1984's "Ghostbusters."

Although self-contained as a stand-alone feature, a title superimposed on screen at the very end of the picture designates "It" as chapter one of a larger story. Readers of the novel are already aware that the group of children must reunite as grownups to again battle the clown monster—indeed, even in this picture the children recognize that the evil returns to their town in twenty-seven-year cycles.

Still apparently undecided is the number of sequels which will be necessary to complete the story, but educated guesswork suggests more than one—"It" has earned gross receipts exceeding $179 million in the first four days of international release, and at the present time exhibits no trend toward slowing its rate of commerce. Hollywood rarely turns its back on a moneymaker prior to exhausting the supply of financial resources. There's already talk of a continuing television franchise.

Needless to say, "It" is not for very young children, or even sensitive adults. And for viewers troubled with coulrophobia—the irrational, paralyzing fear of clowns—"It" additionally presents an enormously satisfying opportunity to whisper to the world, "I told you so."