The Deliverance

My View:  The Deliverance  (2024) R  In The Deliverance, Ebony Jackson (Andra Day) is a single parent who moves her family into a new home, hoping for a fresh start. Ebony is determined to put her troubles behind her, but something in the house is causing trouble. With Child Protective Services threatening to tear her family apart, she must battle a demon in a battle for her life and the souls of her children. This is a mess of a film that doesn’t quite know what it aspires to be. The Deliverance is from Lee Daniels, who gave us Precious (2009) and The Butler (2013). The film starts as a drama about a family trying to survive. The family is in turmoil, as their father is away overseas in the military, and the mother, Ebony, played by the always interesting Andra Day, is a woman who handles the pressures of life by either lashing out at her children or drinking. Bill collectors are constantly hounding Ebony, making it difficult for her to keep a roof over her head. The situation is not helped by Ebony’s mother, played by Glen Close, who is full of opinions on how Ebony should raise her children while she is dealing with cancer. There is a brilliant scene that lets Close have fun with the role of her character. While hooked up to a machine for her treatment, she shows off her red bra and flirts with a medical technician (Omar Epps). And then there is the Department of Child Services woman, played by Mo’Nique, who shows up to check on the children without warning and with an attitude. If the film had continued along those lines, I think we would have a film that could have had an impact. Instead, we start having weird things happen. The basement becomes a breeding ground for flies, and Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins) begins to behave strangely. Andre begins talking to an imaginary friend, gets up in the middle of the night to drink a whole carton of milk and keeps going down to the basement. This is where the film goes off its rails, as the weirdness goes overboard. The scene where the film lost me was when Ebony hears a pounding on the basement door. She opens it up and Andre has been pounding his head against the door. Now, it’s a pounding that is cracking the outside of the door and the kid has a massive bump on his head. How does Ebony react? Asking what the heck was he doing down there. Not a worry about the huge bump on his head (one that stays there for a few days). The film goes into a bad ripoff of The Exorcist; this time, instead of a priest, we get a woman who calls herself an ‘Apostle’, who wants to do a ‘Deliverance’ in the house and get the Devil out of Andre. The last 30 minutes of the film is a mishmash of every possession movie you’ve seen (minus the projectile vomiting), with the usual devil high-jinks. Andra Day's outstanding performance is wasted in the film, which portrays a mother you won't like very much but still care for. The Deliverance is a drama that stops midway through and becomes a horror film with very little horror in it. To put it frankly, The Deliverance just doesn't deliver.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  The Deliverance Website  Now playing on the Netflix platform.

Indiefest:  City of Dreams  (2024)  R  City of Dreams is about Jesús (Ari Lopez), who dreams of becoming a soccer star for his local team. His father surprisingly sends him to Los Angeles to train, but Jesús learns his destination isn’t a training camp but a sweatshop that his father has sold his son to. Jesús now dreams of escaping from his nightmare. This is another in a long line of films that have their heart and intent in the right place but don’t quite know how to get their idea across. We follow Jesús, who dreams (a lot) of becoming a soccer player for his favorite team, as he becomes part of a sweatshop that makes dresses in an old house run by a ruthless boss (Alfredo Castro) and his evil assistant (Andres Delgado). The film shows us the horrible conditions through the eyes of Jesús, a young man who doesn’t speak. With Jesús not being able to speak, it unfortunately gives us a lot of shots of Jesús, with his face always full of sweat and his mouth permanently open in horror. Anytime Jesús is in a situation that is too hard for him to handle, he imagines himself on a soccer field playing for his favorite professional team. Often those thoughts are interrupted by some sort of the Aztec warrior. I'm not entirely sure why. The film tries to do too much, as Jesús  realizes that not only is the place a sweat factory, but also involved in sex trafficking. And we have the treatment of Jesús when he attempts several escapes, which end with him being whipped while on what looks like a prayer bench. The film constantly uses religious symbolism to make Jesús a martyr and a possible savior. The ending of the film is strange and unsatisfying, with a scene that feels too staged to have any impact. City of Dreams, after the final scene, makes a plea from the filmmakers for people to become more involved with ending child slavery. As I said, the film’s heart is in the right place; it just delivers a film that never provides the impact it wants to.  My Rating: Cable  City of Dreams Website Now playing in theaters. 

My View:  You Gotta Believe  (2024)  PG  You Gotta Believe is about a Little League baseball team of misfits who dedicate their season to their best player’s dying father. Things begin to turn around and they achieve what they had previously believed was impossible: playing in the World Series. You Gotta Believe is a feel-good movie, which is strange because one of the main characters has terminal brain cancer. You Gotta Believe is helped by a solid cast, including Greg Kinnear, a too-busy father who takes over coaching the team when his best friend, played by Luke Wilson, is diagnosed with cancer and can’t continue coaching the team he loves. The film is also aided by Sarah Gadon and Molly Parker, who play the coach's wives with some humor and warmth. The cast makes this film watchable, and the chemistry between Kinnear and Wilson makes their characters’ relationship fun and believable. It’s an inspiring story of a coach who finds his talent in figuring out why particular players aren’t doing well and changing their positions or beliefs to where their strengths lay. I wish the director had opted for a more traditional storytelling approach. Instead, he tries too many cute camera shots, and there is a horrible sequence where we see the team on a winning streak as everyone from the coaches to the players and even the umpires sing the theme song to the old 60s Rawhide TV show. Those scenes take away from the film’s heart, which is about love and believing in yourself. That’s a shame, as You Gotta Believe is based on a true story about a team that went to the Little League World Series against all the odds.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee  You Gotta Believe Website  Now playing in theaters. 

Indiefest:  Tokyo Cowboy  (2023)  PG   Tokyo Cowboy is about Hideki (Arata Iura), a Japanese corporate executive known for turning failing companies around. When his company is about to liquidate a money-hemorrhaging cattle ranch in Montana, Hideki decides he can go to America and turn the ranch into a money-maker. Hideki is about to learn firsthand about life on a cattle ranch, and it’s going to be a bumpy ride. I loved this film and hope it will find the audience it deserves. The film reminds me of the wonderful 1983 film Local Hero, which starred Burt Lancaster and Peter Riegert, about an oil executive sent to buy out a small village in Scotland. Tokyo Cowboy is also a fish out of water story as Hideki is a brash corporate executive who has gotten his company’s attention by finding companies to buy and turning them into money-making machines. He is in a long-term relationship with Keiko (Ayako Fujitani), who happens to be his boss. Hideki is a headstrong guy, confident that he has the Midas touch, and at a big meeting, proposes that he can turn a failing Montana cattle ranch into a success by switching them to Japanese beef, the rare Wagyu cattle. He does this behind his boss/girlfriend’s back and is given the go-ahead to go to Montana. From the start, Hideki’s trip is a disaster. His luggage is lost, he insists on a small, cheaper car instead of a 4-wheel drive model, and his traveling companion, an expert in everything Wagyu, is more interested in having fun with the Montana ranch hands than listening to Hideki. Things go from bad to worse, and it’s very apparent that Hideki’s grandiose plans won’t work, but he keeps trying. Slowly, through the interaction of a ranch hand named Javier (Goya Robles) and the beauty of the Big Sky country, Hideki begins to realize that maybe he isn’t always right and, more importantly, isn’t happy with his life. There are some wonderful moments in this film, where characters feel real and are able to connect with each other. I loved a sequence where Javier takes Hideki to a Quinceanera, and Hideki not only has fun but suddenly realizes that he wants more from his relationship with Keiko. Tokyo Cowboy is filled with small moments that make the film feel warm, fun, and honest. I loved the performances of Goya Robles, a cowboy who wants to find a way to make money so that he can marry his girlfriend, and Robin Weigert as the Ranch manager whose family used to own the ranch she now manages and has seen company executives come into her home before. Arata Iura makes this film work as his character goes through a drastic change from a stuck-up corporate shill to a man who can find beauty and meaning in his life and his surroundings. It’s a fantastic multi-level performance that brings his character to life. So put on some boots, jump on a horse and take a ride with Hideki and maybe learn a few things about being a cowboy.   My Rating: Full Price  Tokyo Cowboy Website  Now playing in select theaters. 

Forgotten Film:  Telling Lies in America (1997) PG-13 Karchy (Brad Renfro) is the son of a Hungarian immigrant (Maximilian Schell) who works as a janitor. Karchy goes to a Catholic high school, where the rich kids mock him for being poor. Karchy, to pique the interest of a girl (Calista Flockhart), whom he has a crush on, goes to work for a local DJ (Kevin Bacon) who goes by the name of Billy Magic. The kid lies to get the job, and Billy sees that as a plus since he is going to use Karchy to receive the payola that Billy is getting to play certain records on the radio. This film is a blast to watch because of the cast. Bacon is perfect as the slick Billy Magic, who stays in a town only long enough to make some money, staying ahead of his child support payments. Brad Renfro is superbly portraying the boy who believes he has found the perfect role model in Billy, but eventually realizes that perhaps Billy's life isn't as great as it appears. A charming Calista Flockhart steals every scene she is in and is a delight as the girl who Karchy has fallen for. The film was written by Joe Eszterhas, who at one time was Hollywood’s highest-paid screenwriter with his mega-hit Basic Instinct (1993). Telling Lies in America was a passion project for Eszterhas, and it doesn’t have the crass and coarseness of his usual work, making the film feel more about its characters and how Karchy learns that appearances and brashness can cover up a lot of flaws.   My Rating: Full Price  Telling Lies in America Info  The film is available on most online screeners.

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Tokyo Cowboy:  Boss Wrangler

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: The Substance (2024) R A celebrity (Demi Moore) believes that her days as a beauty have passed until she finds a black market drug. This cell-replicating formula temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself. The film received a huge standing ovation and won the Best Screenplay award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. I have always been a fan of Demi Moore, and I hope the film will give her more lead roles in the future.  The Substance Info   The film is in theaters on Friday, September 20, 2024.

Until Next Time!

 

Dragon Con 2024 - Aug. 29th - Sept. 2nd

It’s Labor Day Weekend, which means it’s time for Dragon Con! Located in 5 downtown hotels at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Hilton Atlanta, Sheraton Atlanta, Westin Peachtree Plaza, and AmericasMart. Plus, there are special events at the Center for Puppetry Arts and Landmark Midtown Arts Theatre. Dragon Con brings together actors, writers, comic book artists, singers, dancers, and cosplayers to celebrate all things pop-culture-related.

There is a fantastic lineup of creators, writers, artists, and actors at this year’s Dragon Con, including writers Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files) and Kim Harrison (The Hollows), voice actors Neil Newborn (Baldur’s Gate 3) and Townsend Coleman (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), comic artists Kevin Maguire (Justice League) and Antonio Fuso (G.I. Joe).

Dragon Con this year will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons with the son of the late creator Gary Gygax, with Luke Gygax headlining a weekend of tournaments and panels with designers and writers of the legendary tabletop game.

The stars will be out at Dragon Con with a lineup that includes Jared Padalecki (Supernatural), Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who), Nathan Fillion (Firefly), Gates McFadden (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Kristin Kreuk (Smallville), Eddie McClintock (Warehouse 13), Cobie Smulders (Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D.) Mike Colter (Luke Cage), Ming Chen (Comic Book Men), Adrian Pasdar (Heroes), Alan Tudyk (Resident Alien), and Patrick Warburton (The Tick).

While you need a pass to get into Dragon Con, you can watch the famous Dragon Con parade on Saturday morning for free. You will see just about every cartoon, anime, and superhero character, along with a variety of other delightful cosplayers in the procession. The parade’s highlight is the legion of “Star Wars” Stormtroopers that finish the parade. The Parade is a fan favorite, with the festivities starting at 10 am. Check the Dragon Con website for details of the parade route. Be sure to get to the parade site early, as the sidewalks along the parade route fill up quickly, and taking Marta to the parade is highly suggested. If you can’t make it to the parade, stay home and watch it on Atlanta 69 starting at 10 am. You will beat the crowds and still have all the fun of watching the fantastic costumes and floats in a uniquely Atlanta parade.

The cool thing about Dragon Con is that no matter what your interest is in, there is probably a panel or even a track (panels and events that fall under one subject like Star Wars, Star Trek, or even just Space) that will peak your knowledge of your favorite Sci-Fi subjects.

The Dragon Con Dealers Hall, located in AmericasMart, is where you can buy just about anything your geeky heart desires–from Steampunk clothing to comic books and rare collectible artwork.

Cosplay is an integral part of Dragon Con, and costumes will always be out and about. There are many Costume Contests during Dragon Con, including the Bunny Hutch Costume Contest, the Cults of Dragon Con Contest, the Animation/Anime Costume Contest, and the ever-popular Masquerade Costume Contest.

There are a ton of panels throughout the weekend. Some are located in enormous halls, while others occupy smaller conference rooms. You can find panels on almost everything you can imagine covering the gambit of fandom, from your favorite current and past Sci-Fi shows. Featured panels this year are on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Roswell, Doctor Who and Baldur’s Gate III.

Gaming runs throughout the con, with some gaming contests going on 24 hours a day. No matter what kind of gaming you are into, Dragon Con has it, including Board Games, Collectible Card Games, LAN Gaming, Live Action Role Playing, Table Top Gaming, and of course, all types of Video Gaming.

Dragon Con Dealers Hall, located in AmericasMart, is where you can buy just about anything your geeky heart desires–from Steampunk clothing to comic books and rare collectible artwork.

If art is your thing, you will want to go to the Comic and Pop Art Alley. You can talk to and buy work from comic book writers, artists, and publishers. Panels and how-to-workshops on comics are held throughout the con. There are also a bunch of live performances by bands of just about every genre, including jazz, punk, rock, and folk.

In the spirit of the Dragon and with infinite admiration, Dragon Con has created The Dragon Award as a vessel to recognize excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy. These awards will be by the fans, for the fans, and are a chance to reward those who have made real contributions to SF, books, games, comics, and movies.

And, of course, the Walk of Fame will be ongoing throughout Dragon Con, where you can get an autograph of your favorite personality.

Dragon Con is in downtown Atlanta, GA, from Thursday, Aug. 29th, through Monday, Sept. 2nd.

For more information, go to dragoncon.org

Blink Twice

My View:  Blink Twice  (2024)  R  Blink Twice starts when Frida (Naomi Ackie) and her best friend Jess ( Alia Shawkat) sneak into a big fundraiser party for tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum). Never in their wildest dreams did they think they would be invited to Slater’s private island to party with his friends. What follows is a dream of wild nights and sun-soaked days that slowly reveals itself to be a nightmare. Blink Twice is a solid debut by Zoë Kravitz as a director, with a film that tries a little too hard to impress with images and loses its intent to create a message at the end. The film is part mystery, part horror, as Frida slowly figures out that not everything is right on the island and that maybe her luck at meeting Slater wasn’t as lucky as she thought. Channing Tatum is perfect as the tech guru who thinks he is smarter than everyone in the room and oozes with a little too much charm and caring for it to be true. I believe that most moviegoers will recognize the clues that Frida begins to assemble, and that's the enjoyable part of the film. Where I felt the film fell apart was when it tried too hard to hit the landing of the ending too cleanly. When we see the horrors start happening, they don’t have the impact we need. Sorry about the bit of spoiler there, but this is what I would call a dark comedy with a lot of horror thrown in. It’s just not horrific enough to make it a great film. Still, Blink Twice is worth seeing for the performances and all the fantastic shots that Kravitz throws in. I look forward to seeing what Zoë Kravitz does next.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Blink Twice Website   Now playing in theatres.

My View:  The Crow  (2024)  R   In The Crow, soulmates Eric Draven (Bill Skarsgård) and Shelly Webster (FKA Twigs) are brutally murdered when Shelly’s dark past catches up with them. Eric is given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, becoming a man who rises from the dead to seek revenge, traveling between the worlds of the living and the dead. The 1994 version of The Crow starred Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee. Unfortunately, Brandon Lee died due to an accident on the set. The entire film was dark, gothic and Lee looked amazing in the black trench coat as Eric, who rises from the dead with the help of a crow, kicks bad guys’ butts right and left. The film had a dual theme of revenge and protecting the innocent. This version is so chaotic I’m not quite sure what happened for most of the film. In this version, Eric is a troubled youth. We know that because when we meet him, he is being bullied by other ‘youths’ at some sort of facility. He meets Shelly, and they instantly fall in love, but she has a video that implicates some big whig, played by Danny Huston. I never figured out how it implicates him, but he wants that video and sends his bad guys to get it back, killing Eric and Shelly. Eric goes to an afterlife-holding place, and a weird guy tells him that if he kills Danny Huston’s character, he and Shelly can go back to living on Earth. I have no idea why. And I don’t care. The plot gets messier from there as Danny Huston’s character is some kind of demon that can make people kill. Eric finds a sword with the strongest and sharpest blade I’ve ever seen, and many people die. I like Bill Skarsgård as an actor, but he’s no Brandon Lee, and Bill’s Crow character can’t fight, only shoot a gun and swing an incredibly sharp sword. Once Eric turns into the full Crow, he looks like an punk rock kid from a low budget 80s film, bad makeup and all. The film never creates a backdrop of darkness and creepiness that is needed for this film to have a chance to succeed. Instead, we get a story that takes forever to start moving forward, and we never find the magic feeling that the original film had.  My Rating: Cable   The Crow Website  Now playing in theaters.

Indiefest:  Between the Temples  (2024)  R Between the Temples tells the story of Ben (Jason Schwartzman), a cantor who is grief stricken over the death of his wife and has lost his voice. Ben is a man who is lost until he meets Carla, his 70-year-old grade school music teacher (Carol Kane). Carla longs for her bat mitzvah, which she had never had the opportunity to experience, and it could be the turning point in Ben’s life. Between the Temples is a film that is both quirky and funny, depicting a man who is lost and the woman who helps him find his way back. Despite the constant attempt by everyone to find Ben a date (including his Rabbi, who throws his willing daughter at him), Ben has found someone he likes. The problem is that she is 70 years old. But Carla isn't your ordinary 70-year-old, but someone who shows Ben that life is something to be treasured and explored. The chemistry between Kane and Schwartzman is incredible and their timing is superb. The film drags a bit in places, spending too much time on a sequence when the two get high together, but the two leads make this film move along. The ending is a little different, but so is the couple it highlights.  My Rating:Bargin Maintee  Between the Temples Website  Now playing theaters.

Sorry I Missed It (A film that I didn’t see in theatres but have seen recently): Dance First  (2023)   As the ceremony that gave him the Nobel Prize, Irish writer Samuel Beckett (Gabriel Byrne) leaves his body to have a conversation with himself. The two Beckett’s revisit his childhood, his early days in France interning for James Joyce, working for the French Resistance in WWII, his successes, and all his loves. A film about the playwright who created one of the most puzzling plays of all time, Waiting for Godot, has to be a little weird, right? Other than Beckett talking to Beckett as they introduce another flashback sequence, the film is rather conventional. Certainly, the film gives us a few clues about what made up Beckett, including a childhood that wasn’t a lot of fun. And we see Beckett has a lot of guilt, as it is brought up at almost every conversation the two Beckett’s have. The problem is that we don’t get a handle on the man’s work. It’s almost as if the film thinks we are all Beckett scholars, knowing which play, book, or short story was reflected in his personal life. The only time we see his personal life in his work is when he wrote Play, a work we see performed for about a minute (it’s notable because of the three actors throughout the play are immersed up to their necks in funeral urns). I did enjoy the performances of Byrne as Beckett from the 50s on and the brilliant, reserved performance by Fionn O’Shea as the Beckett of his late teens and twenties when he was still trying to figure out what he would do with his life. Dance First is an attempt to tell us the story of a man who was so full of mysteries while being someone who didn’t want the spotlight that maybe the story should have been told less conventionally.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Dance First Website  Now available for rent on most online services including Amazon and Apple TV. 

Indiefest:  Strange Darling  (2023) R  Strange Darling is a story where nothing is what it seems when a one-night stand between two people (Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner) turns into a tale of a murder spree of a serial killer or does it? It's been awhile since I've been on such a wild and crazy ride with a film. The film is broken up into six chapters, but they don't always follow the order, so you're constantly trying to figure out what just happened and why. There are so many twists and turns in this film that when you see the final credits, you aren’t sure the film is over. Willa Fitzgerald as ‘The Lady’ and Kyle Gallner as ‘The Demon’ (remember, things aren’t always as they seem) are so much fun to watch in this film as their characters try to best the other in a battle of wits and endurance. The film is a bloody mess (in a good way) as your brain tries to keep up with what is happening on screen. Just when you think you have it figured out, I guarantee you that you haven’t. Strange Darling is a violent mess, where there are lots of surprises, including Barbara Hershey and Ed Begley Jr. as two former hippies that…never mind, you’ll find out. This is the best thriller of the year, one that needs to be seen in the theater so you can hear your fellow theatergoers gasp. Strange Darling is one big, long, bloody rollercoaster of a ride where the designer decided you needed one last big unexpected drop before trying to find your sea legs to get off the ride.   My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again  Strange Darling Website Now playing in theaters. 

Forgotten Film:  Into the West (1992)  PG  Two young boys growing up in a high-rise slum in Dublin with their alcoholic father (Gabriel Byrne) are given a white horse by their grandfather. They move the horse into their apartment, but that doesn’t last long as the police show up, and through a shady deal, the horse ends up in the hands of a horse breeder. The boys go to get their horse, and they are off on an adventure that all of Ireland will soon know about. The cast is outstanding, with David Kelly as the grandfather and Ellen Barkin and Colm Meaney as friends of the father who enlists them to help find his boys and stop the horse breeder from taking the horse. This film reminds me a lot of The Black Stallion, as one of the boys (Ciaran Fitzgerald) has such an instant report with the horse that it can almost read his mind. Into the West is a beautiful tale that families will enjoy as they ride on the back of a white horse through the beautiful countryside of Ireland. My Rating: Full Price  Into the West Info  The film is available on online services, including Amazon and Google Play.

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Blink Twice:  Dental Prosthetics 

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You:  Joker: Folie à Deux  (2024)  R  Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), the failed comedian, has caused a lot of trouble and has been put away in the Arkham State Hospital. There he meets the love of his life, Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga), and they soon embark on a journey of mayhem and romance. This is the sequel to Todd Phillips’s Oscar-winning 2019 film Joker. Joker: Folie à Deux is one of the most anticipated films of the year and the only question is: is it a musical or not?   Joker Website  The film will be in theaters on Friday, October 4, 2024.

Until Next Time!

Alien: Romulus

My View:  Alien: Romulus  (2024)  R  In Alien: Romulus, a group of young space colonizers travel to a derelict space station named Romulus to make some quick money stealing equipment. Little do they know they are about to come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe. I am a huge fan of the first two films of the series, with the first scaring the crap out of me at a midnight showing that I saw while I was a college student. Since then, I haven’t been much of a fan. Alien: Romulus does something that was lacking in those editions: fear. This is a fun thrill ride with plenty of scares, filled with tension as a clock is set for us and the team of young space raiders as they try to get out of a situation that goes from bad to worse. The film takes place between the first and second films, with a group of young people going to raid a ship without any idea what they are getting into. And that’s one of the cool things. As an audience, we know what they are walking into right when we see what's inside the ship they are raiding. The film centers on Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her android sidekick Andy (David Jonsson), who has a few problems. Rain sees Andy as a brother rather than an android. That relationship is the key to the film, making the stakes higher as terror comes at them from every direction. The film excels in creating its own horror and providing us with a few Easter eggs from the past. There is a glaring weakness in the plot that I won’t go into (which is very apparent when you see it) that brings the film down a bit, but it’s not something that takes away from the overall experience. So get ready and remember: no one can hear you scream in space. But they can hear you scream in a theater.  My Rating: Full Price  Alien: Romulus Website    Now playing in theatres, including IMAX theaters.

My View:  Jackpot!  (2024)  R  Jackpot! takes place in 2030, as a Grand Lottery has been established in California with a giant payout. The only catch is that if you kill the winner (no guns allowed) before sundown, you can claim their prize. Katie (Awkwafina), an out-of-work actress, realizes that she is suddenly the winner and everyone is out to kill her. Her only hope of survival is amateur jackpot protector Noel (John Cena), but can Katie trust him? From the ton of footage accompanying the end credits, I am guessing that much of the film’s dialogue was improvised. While there are some funny scenes, the film feels as if an action film and a comedy film got together to make a movie, but only after each other had filmed their scenes separately. The film wastes the talents of Cena and Awkwafina, who try to right the ship many times, only to put in another action sequence that doesn’t work. I think the film could have done a better job if it had been darker and less slap-sticky. Jackpot! never finds a comic tone and pace to settle on, making it one long adventure to follow Katie around while people try to kill her. There is a bonus scene at the end of all the credits, if you make it that far.   My Rating: Cable  Jackpot! Website  Now playing on Amazon Prime. 

Indiefest: My Penguin Friend  (2024)  PG  My Penguin Friend is the story of a penguin rescued from an oil spill by a heartbroken fisherman, Joao (Jean Reno). Their friendship is so strong that 5,000 miles cannot separate them. Who doesn’t love penguins with their waddle and tuxedo look? Along comes a film about an unusual friendship between a penguin and a fisherman. Saved from near death, Joao, an old fisherman, against the odds, nurses the penguin back to health and is rewarded with a friend who follows him around like a puppy. But everything must come to an end, and one day, the penguin, now named Din Dim, goes back to the ocean and travels back to his breeding grounds, 5,000 miles away. However, what's 5,000 miles between friends? When it's time, Din Dim returns to Joao, and both his friend and the rest of the village are amazed. My Penguin Friend is a charming film that depicts the healing power of friendship and the benefits of showing kindness. Kids will fall in love with the little guy, and parents won’t mind the storyline (though it tries a little too hard to create some problems for the penguin to overcome). Hey, everyone needs a penguin best friend.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee  My Penguin Friend Website  Now playing in theaters.

Indiefest:  Close to You  (2023)  R  In Close to You, Sam (Elliot Page), a trans man, is coming back to his hometown for the first time in years. He will try to reconnect with his family, maybe reunite with his first love, and discover if the world can change or will things remain the same. Close to You, Elliot Page’s first film post-transition, is obviously a way for Elliot to express to the world some of his feelings about his life now and how people see him. The film’s strengths are the performances, especially Page and Hillary Baack, who plays Sam’s old high school best friend, Katharine. Their scenes together are some of the best parts in the film, as Katharine slowly and unsteadily deals with not only Sam’s new life but also the realization that they were each other’s first loves. As the film progresses, their encounters, which become longer, are about two people discovering what they had. We see them feel each other out, figuring out a connection they had forgotten. The film's execution is uneven, with some scenes (with most of the dialogue improvised) feeling choppy and not fully formed, often resulting in an abrupt conclusion to the scene. The film's momentum is lost in the scenes with the whole family because there are too many cooks at the fire. Still, Close to You hits a lot of right notes, and in the end, we feel that we have been on a journey in which Sam has learned a bit more about himself and how to find the happiness that his childhood never gave him.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Close to You Website   Now playing in theaters. 

My View:  The Union  (2024)  PG-13  In The Union, it has been twenty years since Mike (Mark Wahlberg), an ordinary construction worker, has seen his high school ex-girlfriend Roxanne (Halle Berry). Out of the blue, Roxanne returns to Mike’s life, and the girl he has always loved is back in his life. One problem: Roxanne is a member of The Union, a top-secret government agency that does the dirty work that the CIA doesn’t want to do, and she needs Mike’s help on a mission. Anything for love. Right, Mike? So let me get this straight: a highly trained secret organization that does the stuff that the CIA doesn’t want to do picks a guy like Mike, with absolutely no training, because he was once the boyfriend of one of your top operatives and is a good guy? That right there should tell you how bad the plot of The Union is. Boasting a cast that includes two Oscar-winning actors in Halle Berry and J. K. Simmons, three Oscar nominees in Mark Wahlberg, Jackie Earle Haley, and Lorraine Bracco, and two-time Prime-time Emmy winner Dana Delany, how could a film be this bad? By the way, what bet did Dana Delany lose to be cast in such a throwaway role as Mike's old schoolteacher, who he is sleeping with? Truthfully, I was so bored with the plot that I lost track of who had the list of operatives everyone wanted. It’s in a backpack, no, a briefcase, no, a phone, no wait, it’s back in a briefcase. The sequence where they try to train Mike in all that he needs to know how to be a spy is incredibly badly done, but hey, so is the rest of the film. The end of The Union is so abrupt and badly executed that it makes that training sequence look Oscar-worthy. By the way, there is more chemistry between Dana Delany, as the former teacher, and Mark than there is between Wahlberg and Berry. And guess what? Netflix wants to make two more of these films. That’s the reason they give that Mark and Roxanne never kiss in the film. They want us to leave wanting more. I just want to leave.   My Rating: You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again. The Union Website  Now playing on Netflix.

Sorry I Missed It (A film that I didn’t see in theatres but have seen recently):  Snack Shack  (2024)  R  Snack Shack takes place in the summer of 1991, when two best friends, A.J. (Conor Sherry) and Moose (Gabriel Labelle), get the chance to run the swimming pool snack shack. In walks a new neighbor, Brooke (Mika Abdalla), who A.J. falls for at first sight. The small town pool and the two best friends will never be the same. It took me a bit to get into this film, as we are bombarded by the make-money schemes that A.J. and Moose are throwing out fast and furious at the beginning. Those scenes include betting at an off-track site across the highway from a zoo field trip from which they have escaped from without the school knowing. Once the idea of taking over a snack shack at a local community pool becomes their money maker (and it is), the film settles down to a fun and enjoyable coming-of-age film with a cast that hits all the right notes. Conor Sherry is just the right portion of geeky awkwardness with a bit of sexiness that you can see why Brooke instantly flirts with him. Mika Abdalla is the find of the movie as she steals every scene that she is in with great charisma and just the right amount of worldliness that her character exudes. Snack Shack is a fun film with some heart and hits a few tender moments as well. Just be warned, the guys smoke, drink (they brew their own beer), and constantly throw out a lot of profanity (sometimes spelled out in ketchup on the hot dogs they sell). So grab some sunscreen and jump in the pool. You’ll need a drink from the Snack Shack to cool down, and the guys will be ready to sell you one.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Snack Shack Website  Available for rent on most streaming services.

Forgotten Film:  We Were Soldiers  (2002)  R  The film tells the story of the first major battle of the American phase of the Vietnam War in 1965. Newly arrived in Vietnam, Lt. Col. Hal Moore (Mel Gibson) takes command of a battalion that is given the task of finding a group of North Vietnamese troops that attacked an army base. The army is unaware that the 400 men under Moore will soon be trapped by an army of 2,000 North Vietnamese. The film follows Moore and his men as they have to shift their objective from finding the enemy to defending a portion of the ground. The movie provides us with insight into the North Vietnamese, as we learn how the commander plans his attacks. We go back to the States to check on the well-being of the wives while their husbands are engaged in a war that America will soon hate. The outstanding cast includes Sam Elliot, Greg Kinnear, Chris Klein, Barry Pepper, Madeleine Stowe, Keri Russell, and Do’n Duro’ng. The film got lost at the box office, overshadowed by Black Hawk Down, but is an action film with some heart.  My Rating: Full Price  We Were Soldiers Info   The film is available to rent or buy on Amazon and Apple TV.

Weird Credits: From the credits of Alien: Romulus:  Offspring Application Team

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You:  Transformers One (2024)  PG  The origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, who, when they were young, were friends who bonded like brothers. Little did they know the two would change the fate of Cybertron forever. I’m not a huge Transformers fan, but I do know that this film is based on a blend of the original toys, the first games, and the early cartoons. The voice cast includes Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm, and Laurence Fishburne.  Tranformers One Website The film is in theaters nationwide on Friday, September 20, 2024. 

Until Next Time!

Borderlands

My View:  Borderlands  (2024)  PG-13    Borderlands tells the tale of Lilith (Cate Blanchett), an infamous bounty hunter who has reluctantly returned to her home planet, Pandora, to find the missing daughter of Atlas (Edgar Ramirez), the universe’s most powerful villain. Lilith recruits a ragtag team to find the missing daughter, who might be the key to saving the universe. What drunken bet did Cate Blanchett make to be forced into making this movie? I can see why Kevin Hart would do it. He gets to be a hero in a sci-fi film, and it was probably a week’s worth of filming for Jamie Lee to do. Blanchett does give it her all, and it’s fun for a while to see her play the tough, spit-in-their-face bounty hunter with the red hair and the fun gunslinger outfit. She gives off her usual glow of charisma, which helps give the film some energy, but she’s just about the only one, as some of the cast seem to think they are doing a walk-through and not actually filming. The delivery of Edgar Ramirez's lines as Atlas, the film's bad guy, was so bad that fellow moviegoers at my theater laughed every time he spoke. I guess the film aspires to be a throwback to those late 70s/early 80s sci-fi movies that came out after Star Wars was a hit. Those films were often stupid and the special effects were bad, but they were fun to watch. Borderlands is not cheesy enough to be fun; instead, it’s just dull with a bunch of characters thrown together from the video game. I am guessing gamers who have played the game will be disappointed. Ariana Greenblatt, as Tiny Tina, the daughter of Atlas, tries to bring Cate some help as a pixie girl with a thing for bombs, but it doesn’t help. I don’t know; maybe this will become a campy cult film like Tank Girl or Buckaroo Banzai, but I think it will be forgotten like those 70s knockoffs of Star Wars. And by the way, Jack Black, as the voice of the sidekick robot Claptrap, has to be one of the most annoying characters in film since a certain Star Wars character that shall remain nameless. After the main credits, there is a brief bonus scene that features Claptrap, but it's not worth staying for. But then again, neither is the rest of the film.  My Rating: You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again  Borderlands Website  Now Playing in theaters. 

My View:  It Ends With Us  (2024)  PG-14   It Ends with Us tells the story of Lily (Blake Lively), who has overcome a traumatic childhood and has moved to Boston to open her flower shop. There, she meets the man of her dreams, a neurosurgeon, Ryle (Justin Baldoni), and falls in love. However, she starts to see a pattern in Kyle that brings up the mistakes of her childhood. Then Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), Lily’s first love, reenters her life, and Lily must rely on her strength to make tough decisions. Much was made online when the casting of this film was announced because the book’s characters were much younger than leads Lively and Baldoni. However, the author of the best-selling book, Colleen Hoover, wanted to escape the YA label for the movie and make the characters older. Good idea, since there are very few 28-year-olds (how old Ryle is in the book) that are neurosurgeons about to do a new technique in surgery. The film does an interesting thing, allowing us to see events through Lily’s eyes, and when things go slightly wrong (in her eyes) with Ryle, she doesn’t remember how serious those incidents were. First, the good: Blake Lively, as expected, is terrific as Lily, and she gives us a character that we instantly fall in love with. She deserves much better than the plot or the dialogue gives her. As Lily’s best friend, Jenny Slate brings light and happiness to every scene she is in, stealing each scene and our hearts. The problem in this film is twofold. One is Justin Baldoni as Ryle. Baldoni is not much more than a lot of abs. He just doesn’t have the star power or charisma for us to think from the start that Ryle is a match for Lily. Then, we don’t get enough of Atlas as an adult to see the contrast between the two loves of Lily’s life. And don’t get me started on where the heck do all these people (excluding Ryle) get their money. Lily has more designer costume changes than a Taylor Swift concert. And both Atlas and Lily are able to open their own businesses in a big city like Boston and almost instantly become a hit. The film tries to address violence and how it can follow people from their childhood into adulthood, which is great, but it’s done in such a clumsy way that we never get that feeling at the end that justice has been served. It’s only moved on.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  It Ends with Us Website  Now Playing in theaters. 

My View:  Cuckoo  (2024)  R  In Cuckoo, Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) is seventeen and is mad at the world after her mother died and her father remarried. She and her family move into a resort, where Gretchen’s father (Marton Csókás) and stepmother (Mila Lieu) have been hired to design a new resort to replace the aging one. Gretchen takes a job as a receptionist at the resort, and strange things start happening. It’s a job that just might be Gretchen’s last. Hunter Schafer is brilliant and fun to watch in this weird horror film that takes you down a road you didn’t know you wanted to be on. While playing the angry teen, Schafer gives us a reason to root for her early on and she doesn’t disappoint when the action scenes start. Schafer plays the outcast, having to join her dad’s new family because her mother has died. What makes it worse is dad has a new job at a really creepy European resort where you aren’t supposed to go out after 10 pm, and people throw up all the time. Add in the resort owner, Herr Konig (played with a great accent by Dan Stevens), who is just as creepy as his resort, touching everyone too long and always talking about science in a way that just seems personal. Gretchen takes the job at the resort to make money so she can return to her home in America. Then things get weird, with people throwing up in the lobby, then disappearing, and Herr Konig keeps warning Gretchen not to go out by herself after 10 pm. The film has some terrifying moments, with most of the scares building up to create tension that doesn’t let up. When things start going off the rails, Gretchen decides to find out what the hell is going on, and we know when she does, it is going to be off-the-charts bizarre. Cuckoo is a film you want to keep watching just to hopefully figure out what the heck is happening at this ‘cuckoo’ resort.  My Rating: Full Price  Cuckoo Website  Now playing in theaters. 

My View:  The Instigators  (2024)  R   In The Instigators, two robbers (Matt Damon, Casey Affleck) are part of a heist that goes bad. With the assistance of one of their therapists (Hong Chau), they go on the run. To put it simply, they have a lot of problems to work out. The Instigators is a heist movie where things keep going wrong. It’s supposed to be a fun romp, but like Matt Damon’s character Rory, who won’t laugh at any of Cobby’s (Casey Affleck) jokes, we also never get it. The film feels like Casey Affleck, who co-wrote the film, wanted to do a buddy pic but didn’t want to be a buddy to anybody. The Instigators is a film that works hard at trying to be clever, but it never is, as it uses car chases and blowing up buildings to try and build excitement, but we never get that feeling that the stakes are very high, especially when they ‘kidnap’ Dr. Rivera (Hong Chau), a character that is there to add humor and meaning to the movie but instead adds nothing but another person to look like they aren’t having any fun making this film. This may be one of Matt Damon’s worst performances, but it’s hard to tell if he is even in this film; his character is so dull. The ending is as unbelievable as the rest of the film and as just as unexciting and humorless as the rest of the film.  My Rating: Cable  The Instigators Info Now playing on Apple TV+

Indiefest:  Sing Sing  (2023)  R  I am rerunning this review from July 12th because the film is finally releasing wider and it’s that good! Devine G (Colman Domingo), a man in jail for a crime he did not commit, survives by acting in a theater group with other inmates. This is a powerful and emotional film about a group of men in a hopeless situation who find comfort and power in the theater. Led by an incredibly moving performance by Colman Domingo, we see how inspired the men are to find an outlet for their emotions and thoughts. The cast is made up mostly of former convicts who were in the theater program. Because of the casting, we see how moving and powerful acting is to let the men get in touch with their feelings and emotions in a system that doesn’t always allow you to do so. We get to see the men start the process of finding a play, in this case, written for them, that melds Shakespeare with modern spoken word to significant effect. I was struck by how much this cast made us feel what they were going through, giving us an inside look at a world we can only imagine. Sing Sing is a film about healing, no matter what you have done in the past, and using the power of theater and acting to find that way.   My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again  Sing Sing Website   Now playing in theaters.

Indiefest: Coup!  (2023)  Coup! takes place during the 1918 influenza epidemic, when a new cook named Floyd Monk (Peter Sarsgaard) comes to work for the family of wealthy journalist Jay (Billy Magnussen) and his socialite wife Julie (Gadon) at their family estate on an island. It’s a hiring that will turn the family’s idyllic life upside down. The film is set during the 1918 influenza epidemic but the film certainly has COVID overtones as a family has camped out in a lush estate on an island in what they hope is isolation to wait out the flu epidemic. In walks Floyd Monk, who we know from the movie’s first few scenes, isn’t really Mr. Monk, but someone who has taken the late Mr. Monk’s identity. Right from the first appearance on the island, the now Mr. Monk, played by the wonderful Peter Sarsgarrd, starts causing trouble. From catching the eye of the socialite wife to pushing back at how the family treats the staff, Mr. Monk starts up the fire on Jay, the wealthy journalist who prides himself on being a voice for the working man. Peter Sarsgarrd is the reason to see this film because he has a blast as Mr. Monk, a man who enjoys pushing boundaries. The phrase ‘give someone an itch and they’ll take a mile’ fits Mr. Monk. He’s like the somewhat cool guy in the bar who is fun to hang around for an hour or two, but don’t invite him to do anything else because he will take every advantage of you. Billy Magnussen is fun as the put-upon head of the household, Jay, who thinks he is smarter than everyone else, but Mr. Monk runs rings around him, taking advantage of every little slip Jay makes. Coup! is a movie about class and how it sometimes breeds hypocrisy. So take a sip of the flask of Jay’s whiskey that Mr. Monk hands you and join him on a ride to see who actually runs the household. It may not last, but it’s going to be fun for a while.  My Rating: Full Price   Coup! Website  Now playing in theaters. 

My View:  Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes  (2024)  TV-MA  The documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes uses newly discovered interviews with Elizabeth Taylor to give us an inside look at a star who fascinated a world long before the internet and social media. In interviews given to a writer for a book that was never published and recordings that Liz did with friends and husbands, we follow Elizabeth’s path from child star to the highest-paid actor of her time. It’s a fascinating and insightful look at a woman who wasn’t always happy with her life, loves, and career. From being forced by the MGM studio to do movies, she felt didn’t show off her talent and only exploited her looks, Elizabeth wanted to be out on her own but also continually desired to be married. That conflict shows up time after time as she marries the wrong man almost every time. From watching the film, I feel that Mike Todd, the movie producer, was the only man who could have stayed married to Liz and made her happy. Unfortunately, he died in a plane crash, and her next husband, the sleazy singer Eddie Fisher, moved in. The film does a great job of giving us an inside look at the disastrous making of Cleopatra and the romance of Liz and Richard Burton. And she does talk about her first Academy Award win for Butterfield 8, which she felt was not deserved. That she only got the award (for a film she calls shit many times) because she almost died. The Lost Tapes is a wonderful celebration of a woman who captivated a world not only with her beauty and talent but also with her kindness and compassion. My Rating: Full Price  The Lost Tapes Website Now playing on Max.

Indiefest:  Didi (2024)  R  In 2008, during the last month of summer, before he starts high school, Chris (Izaac Wang), a thirteen-year-old at the horror of his mother (Joan Chen), is constantly shooting videos and trying to make friends instead of studying. He is a typical American boy, learning to be a teenager while trying not to disappoint his Taiwanese family. This is a touching, heartfelt coming-of-age film about a teen trying to find something, anything that he is good at because it seems all he does is disappoint his family. Chris is called Wang by his buddies and Didi by his family, but when he meets some older skating guys, he tells them his name is Chris. Chris decides to make his mark by being a skateboard filmmaker and googles everything he can on the subject. He tells a group of skaters that he is a filmmaker and will create videos for them. Then runs home and googles how to do it. Chris is surrounded by women in his family (his father is overseas), and his mother Chungsing, played by the fabulous Joan Chen, is holding down the fort. He has an older sister who is getting ready to go to college and is constantly at war with Chris. And then there is the opinionated grandmother (his father’s mother) who constantly tells the family what to do and puts down Chungsing every chance she gets. Chris has a crush on a girl named Madi, who he secretly stalks until one day, it turns out she might be interested in him. Chris tries what he thinks is the right thing, but often, he misjudges his audience or himself. In the end, Chris’s plans come crashing down, and he discovers that life can’t be learned on the internet. Didi is a wonderful film, full of laughs and a few heartbreaks, just like a thirteen-year-old kid’s life should be.  My Rating: Full Price  Didi Website  Now playing in theaters.

Forgotten Film:  Regeneration (also known as Behind the Lines) (1997) R  The story of soldiers from WWI who have been sent to a special asylum for emotional troubles. Two of the soldiers sent there are Wilfred Owen (Stuart Bruce) and Siegfried (James Wilby), two of England’s most important WW1 poets. Sassoon has been sent there after winning a medal for bravery, wrote a document citing his objections to war, which caused a stir when it was read in the halls of Parliament. He was given the choice of court-martial or treatment. The soldiers are under the treatment of Dr. William Rivers (Jonathan Pryce), who slowly comes to understand that the road to recovery is long, some of which may never recover from the horrors that they saw. The film shows the lives that are ruined by war and how hard it is to get back to the everyday world when you have experienced war. It’s a thoughtful and intense movie that has some outstanding performances.  My Rating: Full Price   Regeneration Info  The film is available on most streaming services under the title Behind the Lines.

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Cuckoo: Mood Storyboard 

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: Speak No Evil  (2024)  R    A married couple, Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Louise Dalton Mackenzie Davis) and their young daughter, Agnes (Alix West Lefler), on vacation, meet another couple (James McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi), along with their daughter and son. A friendship is developed, and the other family invites the Daltons to stay at their country home for the weekend. Their stay is fun at the start, then the hosts’ behavior soon turns sinister as dark secrets are exposed and the family realizes that they will be lucky to get out alive. The film is a remake of a Dutch movie of the same name and is already causing a stir among horror/suspense fans. The film comes out in theaters on Sept. 13, 2024.  Speak No Evil Website

Until Next Time