Speak No Evil

My View:  Speak No Evil  (2024)  R  In Speak No Evil, a married couple, Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Louise Dalton (Mackenzie Davis), and their young daughter, Agnes (Alix West Lefler), on vacation, meet another couple, Paddy and Ciara (James McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi), along with their daughter and son. A friendship is develops, and the other family invites the Daltons to stay at their country home for the weekend. Their stay is fun at the start, but the hosts’ behavior soon turns sinister as dark secrets are exposed, and the family realizes that they will be lucky to get out alive. Speak No Evil is produced by Blumhouse, who gave us horror movies like the Paranormal Activity films, Insidious, The Purge, and Happy Death Day. So you would expect when buying a ticket it’s going to be another scary horror film. Not so fast. Speak No Evil is more a suspense film than a horror film. However, given the reaction of the audience that I saw the screening with, this is more of a black comedy than anything else. That’s the only way I can explain how this film pushes the boundaries of plot and common sense. While the audience I saw the movie with had fun shouting at Ben and Louise to get the hell out of Dodge, they also became frustrated as the couple continually did the old horror trick of ‘going back into the house’ or ‘going upstairs to escape the bad people’ tropes. A few times, I can accept, but this became a running joke as Ben, who has to be one of the weakest decision makers in the history of film, either can’t make a decision (one of the weaker moments in the movie) or keeps leading his family into worse positions. Louise is the hero of the story, someone who wants to leave almost immediately from the moment she enters Paddy’s home. She only agrees to go on the trip because her husband, Ben, has a little pity party fit. Unlike some of my fellow filmgoers, I did not enjoy Speak No Evil, except when watching James McAvoy just go nuts in almost every scene. It was a scary movie with no scares and a couple who couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag, much less a home filled with a couple of nutty people.  My Rating: Cable  Speak No Evil Website   Now playing in theaters nationwide.

My View:  The Killer’s Game  (2024) The Killer’s Game is about Joe (Dave Bautista), an assassin for hire who has been diagnosed that he will die in a few months, so he orders a hit on himself to get it over. Once the hit has been ordered, Joe finds out that the doctor made a mistake and he isn’t dying. The problem is an army of assassins are on the loose, and are out to kill him anyway. I had fun with this film for about the first hour, but then things were pushed too far; with a plot already put together with balling wire and bubblegum, it went off the deep end and never came back. I love Bautista, and I think he has become a delightful actor as he gives his character a clumsy charm that works so well you can see a woman (played by Sofia Boutella) being smitten by him. The film has fun with Joe as the killer with a heart of gold (he only does hits on bad people) but goes a little too far trying to be cute, giving us too many characters with cutesy names to follow, all introduced in a bloody haze of flying body parts and individual soundtracks. Wrestling fans may enjoy seeing WWE wrestler Drew McIntyre as one of the assassins sent out to kill Joe, but they will be disappointed by the fight sequence he takes part in.  The fight sequences are well done, but too often the film goes for the big ending for each assassin out to kill Joe, which becomes almost numbing to watch. The final thirty minutes doesn’t work at all, especially a trip to a church (flashbacks to John Woo’s The Killer, maybe?) that is so poorly done that it almost hurts to watch it. I had high hopes for The Killer's Game after seeing the trailer, but it was a disappointment because it tried too hard to be funny and cute.   My Rating: Cable  The Killer's Game Website  Now playing in theaters. 

My View:  Uglies  (2024)  PG-13  Uglies takes place in the future, where a society is obsessed with physical appearance, Tally (Joey King) is looking forward to when she turns sixteen. That’s when every citizen undergoes extreme cosmetic surgery to erase any imperfections, turning a person from an ‘Ugly’ into a ‘Pretty.’ Tally’s world is going to change when she meets Shay (Katherine Langford), who is part of a group of rebels living in the wilderness known as ‘the Smokies,’ who refuse to undergo the operation. For a while, we were getting a lot of these dystopian YA book-based films about a future where young people are the only hope for saving the world from tyranny and destruction. Films like The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, and Divergent came out, all based on YA best sellers. It’s been a few years, and now a new film has come out based on a best-selling YA series, Uglies. Joey King plays a young woman who can’t wait to become a ‘pretty’ on her sixteenth birthday. She soon learns that what she has been told her whole life might be a lie and that getting turned into a ‘Pretty’ comes at a price. Turning YA films into movies is not always a sure thing. For every Hunger Games, there is a Vampire Academy or Ender’s Game that doesn’t capture the magic that made those book series so successful. Despite the efforts of Joey King as our hero and Laverne Cox as our very stylish evil scientist, Uglies comes up short. The Uglies books were huge best-sellers, and fans have long waited for the series to be turned into movies, but I think those fans will be disappointed in this film. What works in a book doesn’t always translate to the visual medium of movies, and this film feels like they picked a few of what they thought were the best parts of the book and threw them against the wall to see what stuck. The CGI is at times lacking (there is a horrible hoverboard sequence that looks so bad I thought the sequence might be hand drawn) and the film seems like one long set up for the next movie, taking such a long time to set everything up. I think I’ll just read the books next time.  My Rating: Cable   Uglies Website  Now playing on the Netflix platform.

Indiefest:  Seeking Mavis Beacon  (2024) Seeking Mavis Beacon is a documentary about searching for the woman who graced the cover of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, an incredibly popular computer program in the 1980s. Jazmin Jones (director) and Olivia McKayla Ross (associate producer) go on a quest to find this mysterious woman who taught so many people to type. I saw this film at the Atlanta Film Festival and was enchanted by a film about solving the mystery of who Mavis was and why she was on the cover. This is a film about two people who go on a journey of discovery. What I loved about the film is that the heart of the film is really about the journey and the people that the two investigators meet. The lives that were impacted by this computer program and how just a simple photo could inspire people around the world to think they could learn to type from the person on the cover. And yes, they find out who the woman in the photograph is and give her the attention she deserves.   My Rating: Full Price  Seeking Mavis Beacon Website  Now playing in theaters.

Sorry I Missed It (A film that I didn’t see when it was first released but have seen recently): Rebel Ridge  (2024)  TV-MA  In Rebel Ridge, all Terry (Aaron Pierre), an ex-Marine, wanted to do was post bail for his cousin, but a small-town police chief, Chief Sandy Burne (Don Johnson) has taken his money, and Terry is about to get it back anyway he has to. Rebel Ridge is one of those films where you go, that actor is killing it, and I can’t wait to see what he does next. Up to this, Aaron Pierre has mostly been a TV actor, but I’m telling you that Aaron Pierre is a movie star. From the first moments of Rebel Ridge, the tension builds and builds. The film has been compared to the Stallone film First Blood (the first Rambo film), but that’s a misplaced comparison. In Rambo, there isn’t much of a plot other than a sheriff (played by Brian Dennehy) who hates another man and will do anything to get rid of him. Rebel Ridge slowly gives us reasons why Terry is so determined to get his cousin out on bail and why the police chief is trying to keep Terry’s money. Rebel Ridge isn’t your typical, one-man-against-the-system movie, though Aaron Pierre as Terry can kick a lot of butt, all without killing anyone. Terry gets help from a court staffer, Summer (played by AnnaSophia Robb), who becomes Terry’s ally in his quest to get his cousin out on bail. It turns out there is a lot to Summer’s story too. There are plenty of action sequences to keep the film moving, and then there is Don Johnson, who is so good at playing a slick, cocksure Chief who thinks he can get away with anything because he has a badge. Well, he hasn’t met a man like Terry.  My Rating: Full Price  Rebel Ridge Website  Now playing on the Netflix platform.

Indiefest:  How to Make Millions before Grandma Dies  (2023)  How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies is about M (Putthipong Assaratanakul), a university dropout without a job, who sees his cousin strike it rich, caring for a dying relative and then being named in the relative’s will. A motivated M volunteers to care for his terminally ill grandmother (Usha Seamkhum) with the goal of achieving the same outcome. This is a moving film about family, commitment, and how it takes time to know someone. M is someone who you don’t like at first, mostly because he is such a slacker, living off his mother while trying to make it as an online gamer, which he sucks at. Seeing his cousin hit it big, he moves in with his grandmother and trying to become the perfect grandson in her eyes, all so he can have her house to sell when she dies. However, the more he cares for his grandmother, the more he becomes attached to her. M also observes how the rest of the family doesn't pay much attention to her, even when she falls and needs to go to the hospital. The film doesn’t mince with making most of the characters self-involved, almost always showing us their worst sides, like Amah’s son, who she waits patiently for him to show up, which he only does when he is in trouble and needs money. M learns about his grandmother's life, both present-day (her loneliness) and in the past, when she was in an arranged marriage. What makes this film stand out is that the characters are fully fleshed out. We get to know them, and they seem real with all their flaws. I also loved that the film has a few twists and turns, some you don’t expect that take you down a few paths you didn’t know you needed to walk on. And yes, you will need a box of tissues for the ending, but I think you will come away feeling that M is a better person than he was when his scheme started.  My Rating: Full Price  How to Make Millions before Grandma Dies Info  Now playing in select theaters.

Forgotten Film:  Bright Young Things  (2003)  R  The film takes place in 1930s England when young aristocrats wore tuxes, partied all night, and slept all day. They all thought their days of fun and debauchery would go on forever. Adam (Stephen Campbell Moore) has written a novel he is convinced that the world is going to love. Having already spent the advance, his only manuscript is seized as pornography, and he is now out of luck. What’s a guy to do when his fiancé Nina (Emily Mortimer) expects to be supported in the life she has grown accustomed to. Adam, desperate for money, starts writing an anonymous column in the biggest newspaper in the country, giving everyone an inside scoop into what goes on at all those parties that everyday people are never invited to. Bright Young Things is a fun and enjoyable film with a cast of soon-to-be stars like Emily Mortimer, David Tennant, and James McAvoy. It also has some brilliant performances by Stockard Channing, Jim Broadbent, Dan Aykroyd, and scene-stealer Peter O’Toole. It’s a look at a life that didn’t last as long as they thought it would.  My Rating: Full Price  Bright Young Things Info  The film is available on most streaming services.

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Speak No Evil:  Skipper

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You:  Saturday Night  (2024)  R  On October 11th, 1975, at 11:30 pm, a group of young, wild performers and writers launched a new live TV show that changed the landscape forever. This is the story of what happened in the 90 minutes before the first broadcast of what was to be later named Saturday Night Live. I want to see it just to see J. K. Simmons as comedy legend Milton Berle.  Saturday Night Website  The film releases in theaters on Friday, October 11, 2024.  

Until Next Time!

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

My View:  Beetlejuice Beetlejuice  (2024) PG-13  Beetlejuice Beetlejuice begins after an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family have come home to Winter River and the house we all know so well. Lydia (Winona Ryder) is still haunted by Beetlejuice, and to make things worse, her daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), has discovered that mysterious model of the town. It’s only a matter of time before someone’s name will be uttered three times. So Tim Burton and Michael Keaton decided it was time to revisit the weird house up on the hill. So the big question is, does going back to see the ‘Juiceman’ work? Yeah, it does. Is it anywhere close to the original? No, but it’s still a good, funny popcorn film that you will have a great time watching. One thing that Burton did is realize that Keaton is in only about 15 minutes of the 1988 film because most of the film is about Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis’s characters dealing with being dead and then trying to get their unwanted houseguests the heck out of there. So Keaton is in this film a lot more; in fact, there seem to be about four plots going on simultaneously, and Keaton’s Beetlejuice is involved in all of them. Catherine O’Hara is back as Delia Deetz, and O’Hara steals every scene she is in, just as you would expect, with some of the film’s best lines. Ryder does an admirable job of playing the mom who has made a career as a woman who can see ghosts. Lydia is just trying to keep things together after her ex-husband disappeared on a trip to the Amazon. Besides Keaton, this is Ortega’s film, as she plays a young woman who had to grow up as the daughter of the ghost whisper, and she misses her father, who made things seem not quite as weird when he was around. Ortega does a great job of selling us on a person who is constantly giving the side eye to her mom, especially when she brings up seeing the afterlife around them. Keaton has a blast as the man we all came to see and he doesn’t disappoint with lots of quips that only Beetlejuice can say (or do). The film is a little bloated by a secondary plot led by a character played by Monica Bellucci, who never quite feels like her character really was needed. The film also has a bit of trouble trying to tie all the loose ends together, and some of the resolutions to big plot lines seem rushed. Still, I had a great time watching this film, and yes, there are plenty of callbacks to the first film, including the shrunken-head guys (one of who plays a pretty big part). I also loved that a lot of the special effects weren’t done with CGI but with things that made the first film so much fun to watch, with lots of strange and creepy puppet-controlled ghouls and some stop-motion animation. So get ready to say a certain guy’s name three times and go back to the world of the weird and creepy. You will have a fun time.  My Rating: Full Price  Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Website  Now playing in theaters nationwide. 

Indiefest:  His Three Daughters  (2024)  R  His Three Daughters is the story of three daughters (Elizabeth Olsen, Natasha Lyonne, and Carrie Coon) who converge on their father’s New York apartment to care for him in his last days. In the next three days, the daughters will try to heal old wounds and come together to patch together a family that has been separated for far too long. This is a film about how families aren’t always what they seem. Katie (Carrie Coon) is the woman who wants to plan everything, has opinions on everybody, and can’t seem to sit still. Christina (Elizabeth Olsen) is a free spirit who does yoga, tries to be the peacemaker, and seems to have a successful life. Rachel (Natasha Lyonne) is the daughter who has been living with their father for the past few years, taking care of him as his sickness took control of both their lives. Rachel, who has a different mother than the other two sisters, spends most of her days doing off-track betting and getting high. She would rather spend time in her room than interact with her sisters. The three are forced to work together to make their father’s last days as comfortable (aided by a couple of hostel nurses to help them make his death as painless as possible. His Three Daughters is a warm, funny, and touching film that also has a few tearful moments. All three women are wonderful in their roles. Coon has the most demanding role because Katie is not a likable person, and it’s Coon’s job to let us see beyond the hard shell that Katie has put up. Coon lets us know she does care but couldn’t always deal with the fact that her father was sick and dying. Olsen is fun to watch as the seemingly always positive Christina, who tries to keep things moving along but uses her yoga to escape when things get too tough. Of the three, Natasha Lyonne is the actor who shines throughout as a woman who just wants the whole thing to be over and uses her betting and getting high to escape the reality of her father’s soon-to-be death. Lyonne is perfect in the role, delivering the film’s center, as we see things through her (sometimes bloodshot) eyes. There are some incredible moments in this film, one of which is when Rachel’s boyfriend, played by Jovan Adepo, who knows how much Rachel has done for her father and lets the other two sisters have a piece of his mind on how they don’t known Rachel and what she has done this past year. I loved everything about His Three Daughters (though there is a section near the end that I wish wasn’t a part of the film, but that’s nitpicking), and the performances by these three outstanding actors are worth the price of admission alone. Just bring a tissue or two.  My Rating: Full Price  His Three Daughters Website    Now playing in select theaters and on the Netflix platform on September 20th. 

Sorry I Missed It (A film that I didn’t see in theatres but have seen recently):  The Killer  (2024) R   In The Killer, Zee (Nathalie Emmanuel) is the most lethal and feared assassin in the business. In fact, she is known by the name Queen of the Dead. Zee takes a job to kill a young blind woman (Jenna Silvers) and has a change of heart. Now, every hitman in Paris is out to kill her, and her only ally is a French detective (Omar Sy). A few directors have remade their own films through the years. Hitchcock is the one everyone remembers when he remade The Man Who Knew too Much. Was it a better film? I am a fan of Hitchcock’s early work, so I don’t think any film that has Doris Day sing Que Sera, Sera about a million times is a better film. In 1989, John Woo brought us The Killer, considered one of the best action films of all time, and brought Woo to Hollywood. So why would Woo remake this film? Sure, you can do a few more things with CGI than you could with actual stunts in 1989, but that’s what made that film stand out. Its action sequences are brilliant, and I loved how Ah Jong, the hitman played by the totally cool Chow Yun-fat, didn’t just shoot a person once (like so many of Hollywood’s action heroes). No, he shot them 6 to 10 times before moving on to the next guy. So, in this remake, Woo has our hero as a woman, Zee (Nathalie Emmanuel), known as the Queen of the Dead. It’s basically the same setup: our hero goes out to do a hit, and a singer gets caught up in the gunfire and is blinded by the firefight. Zee feels guilty, and instead of killing the singer, the only person who can testify against Zee, she saves her instead. The Killer has plenty of gunplay, some fun chase sequences, and a couple of well-choreographed firefights. However, Nathalie Emmanuel doesn’t have the star power to pull off the most feared assassin in the business. I also did not like the chemistry between Emmanuel and Omar Sy, who plays the cop who can’t be bought and slowly becomes Zee’s ally in bringing down the bad guys. One of the great things about the original was the chemistry and friendship that developed between the assassin and the cop. There just isn’t much there for us to care about either character. Woo pulls a few changes to the script (which I won’t give away), but I am incredibly disappointed by the ending of this film. It’s hard to revisit your old haunts, especially when they are shown so brightly in the past. Sometimes, it is best to let things stay in the past.   My Rating: Cable  The Killer Website   Now playing on the Peacock platform.

Indiefest:  Red Rooms  (2023)  Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) is a model by day and an online poker player at night. Although she excels at both, she doesn't find much pleasure in either (although she enjoys watching men lose). She starts attending a high-profile trial of a serial killer, but not just any serial killer, but one where the man kidnapped young teen women, held them captive, and tortured them to death, all while videotaping them. Kelly-Anne's obsession with the trial is so great that she sleeps outside the courthouse to be first in line to get into the proceedings. Kelly-Anne has started on a path that will become such an obsession that she will risk her career to keep going. Not only that, she is willing to pay any amount to obtain the missing footage of one of the girls. Red Rooms is a dark and disturbing film that looks at how people get so involved with serial killers, making them almost part of a weird kind of religion where they worship at the feet of the killer. We don't exactly understand why Kelly-Anne does what she does, but we watch her become more and more obsessed with the murderer and what he did. Juliette Gariépy does a magnificent job of keeping Kelly-Anne at an arm’s length from us, the audience, and we never see her waver, even when things seem at their most desperate. I saw the film at the 2024 Atlanta Film Festival and could hear the audience occasionally gasp as we followed Kelly-Anne down the rabbit hole. Red Rooms is a horror film without the bloodshed (we never see the footage, only hear the screams), but it’s still scary as a young woman seems to lose her self-worth as she delves deeper and deeper into an abyss that she may never come out of.  My Rating: Full Price  Red Rooms Website   Now playing in theaters.

Forgotten Film:  Boomerang (1992)  R  Marcus (Eddie Murphy) is a successful cosmetic company executive who loves to date women like they are just another conquest, another notch on his bedroom headboard. He meets his match when Jacqueline (Robin Givens) becomes his boss and plays Marcus like all the women he used to date. She flirts with him, sleeps with him, then dumps him, and then does it again. Marcus soon realizes he is being played with like he used to play women. His eyes are opened when he realizes there has been a remarkable woman right there all along, Angela (Halle Berry). The cast shines in this film with Givens perfect as the man-eater who doesn’t care who she hurts, as long as she is in power, and Berry as the sweet and wonderful Angela, a woman who is perfect for Marcus, if he would only realize it. Boomerang is one of those movies that makes me mad at Murphy because he is brilliant in this film and plays Marcus perfectly, but too often in Murphy’s career, he took the easy money and made a bunch of crap films that were below his talent. So see this film, revel in Berry and Murphy’s chemistry, and have fun with Givens giving Marcus his just turn at being used. My Rating: Full Price  Boomerang Info  Available on Amazon and Apple TV to rent or buy.

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: Shrinker Performers 

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You:  Never Let Go  (2024)  R  A mother (Halle Berry) and her two sons (Anthony B. Jenkins, Percy Daggs IV) have been haunted by an evil spirit for years. They stay connected at all times, even tethering themselves with ropes when they travel outside so they are always connected back to their house. When one of the boys questions if the evil is real and the ties that bind them together are severed, their fight for survival becomes life and death. I’ll go see Halle Berry in anything where she has to kick some evil butt.  Never Let Go Website   The film is in theaters on Friday, September 20, 2024. 

Until Next Time!