Wrath of Man

Note to readers: I currently am not willing to risk my health (I’m 63 and an asthmatic) by visiting a theatre. All films that I have seen for review have been screened in my home. I am not going to tell you whether or not to attend a theatre. Just be aware of the risks, do your research, and follow the instructions to the letter.

My View:  Wrath of Man (2021) R    A man only known as H (Jason Statham) is hired by a delivery company responsible for moving hundreds of millions of dollars around Los Angeles each week. On one such job, H’s truck gets held up at gunpoint, and H handles the robbers alone with advanced combat skills and training. There is more to H than meets the eye. Of course, there is, otherwise it wouldn’t be a Jason Statham film. First, the dialogue is horrible, and there are a few scenes meant to show us how H is a man not to be messed with that are downright laughable, but you don’t go to a Statham movie to see those. You go to see Jason Statham kick butt, and he does it quite a lot. The film can be a little confusing at times, and there is a scene that is the key to the reason H is the way he is, that we see way too many times in flashbacks, but you do get to see H kill a whole lot of bad guys. Up until the final battle, there isn’t a lot of hand-to-hand fighting that H does, which may disappoint Statham fans, as H is more a gunfighter than a fist-fighter. Still, I enjoyed Wrath of Man for what it does well, let Jason Statham be tough, menacing, and kill a whole bunch of people without breaking much of a sweat.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee     Wrath of Man Website   Now playing in select theaters.

My View: Here Today (2021) PG-13   A veteran comedy writer working on a TV show with a group of writers 50 years younger than he is, Charlie (Billy Crystal) meets New York street singer Emma (Tiffany Haddish), and they form an unlikely friendship. My first problem with the film, like many films before it that try to show the world of comedy, is that the skits that the writers come up with just are not funny, not even close. Charlie has a problem; he is at the start of oncoming dementia. In walks Emma, who he meets a lunch where she has an allergic reaction to something she eats. This is meant to be funny and cute but comes off so heavy-handed that it is painful to watch. Emma becomes friends with Charlie, and the film starts to fall apart when Emma gives up a promising career to take care of Charlie. The film feels too much like Billy Crystal, who directed and co-wrote the film, is patting himself on the back all the time. Emma doesn’t know anything about Charlie initially, but he is quick to tell her about all the famous people he has worked with and shows off all the awards he has won. Haddish tries to save the film, especially when she gets to sing a few numbers, showing off that charisma and talent that we love her for, but Here Today tries way too hard to tug on the heartstrings and the ending is just too sappy to endure.    My Rating: Cable   Here Today Website    Now playing in select theaters.

Indiefest: The Truffle Hunters (2020) PG-13   Documentary about a handful of men in Italy, all between seventy and eighty, that use dogs to hunt the rare and expensive white Alba truffle. This is a sweet and, at times, hilarious film about a group of complex, eccentric characters who love the hunt of finding truffles almost as much as they love the dogs that find the buried treasure. These are men who are a dying breed, who have honor and would rather die than give up where they find their precious bounty. The cinematography is breathtaking, and you haven’t lived until you go on a truffle hunt from the perspective of the truffle sniffing dog. The film at times feels as if you are back in time, with men who would be at home in the 1800s until things like money and greed rear their ugly heads to tell you that you are in the modern world. It’s an occupation that we knew little about where the prize is a delicacy that most of us will never experience, but for a while, we can experience the joy that a dog has in finding that treasure.   My Rating: Full Price    The Truffle Hunters Website     Now playing in select theaters.

Indiefest: Undergods (2020)   In a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, K (Johann Myers) and Z (Géza Röhrig) roam the streets on the lookout for corpses and something even more valuable — fresh meat. This is a collection of loosely connected tales of a world where things have gotten really bad. A world that is permanently grey, with lives full of sadness and doom, where one false move could get you killed. Where greed and capitalism has taken over everyone's lives, and there seems no hope. I really enjoyed escaping into this world of despair, though I wouldn’t want to stay there. The stories the film tells were all different, but they all had that feeling that things wouldn’t turn out well. Some of the stories told have endings, and others just end, which seems to be a way of life in the Undergods film world.    My Rating: Full Price    Undergods Info   Now playing in select theaters and is available for rent on participating on-demand services.

Indiefest: Queen Marie (2019)   Devastated by the First World War and with a country divided into political controversy, Romania’s only hope is if its Queen (Roxana Lupu) can persuade the world to recognize its unification at the 1919 peace talks. It's hard to make a biopic about a subject where most of the action took place in a meeting room where men make speeches to each other. The storyline is filled with exposition to tell us just what the stakes are and how rare it was that a woman would be sent on such a critical diplomatic mission. The problem with the film is that it takes forever to get to the Paris Peace talks, with lots of speeches given about what will or could happen, and then the final result is so anticlimactic that you wonder if it was worth it. Queen Marie is a dull, slow ride down, a piece of history that is incredibly important to the country of Romania but, on-screen becomes unimportant to us in the movie theatre.   My Rating: Cable   Queen Marie Website   The film is available for rent on participating on-demand services.

My View: Monster (2020)    Steve (Kelvin Harrison, Jr. ) is a brilliant, well-liked film student from Harlem attending an elite high school when he is charged with felony murder. Now Steve is in the battle for his life that, if he loses, could leave him spending the rest of his life in prison. Steve is a high-school student whose favorite movie is Dead Presidents and knows the locations of every movie filmed in New York City. Steve dreams of making movies, and his fate is changed when he meets and befriends a local dealer (ASAP Rocky). Steve has a good life; his parents (Jeffrey Wright, Jennifer Hudson) have given him a loving, stable family home, and he goes to a prestigious high school. But Steve, wanting to experience life on the streets, falls into a friendship with the dealer, and because of that, he becomes a suspect in a murder of a shopkeeper. Kelvin Harrison Jr. gives a strong, poignant performance that can’t quite overcome a script that takes too long to develop and at times feels like an episode of a generic lawyer show on TV. The film gets a little too caught up in Steve’s obsession with filmmaking, making the narrative like it was part of a script Steve has written, filled with shots of Steve always looking through the lens of his camera. Monster is a story about a young man who is being tried by the system before he even gets into the courtroom but gets lost in its storytelling technique and can’t find its way back in what could have been a powerful film.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee    Monster Website  The film is currently available on the Netflix platform.

Forgotten Film: Candleshoe (1977) G   Candleshoe is a once-stately English manor that has seen better days. It’s the home of Lady St. Edmund (Helen Hayes), and with the help of her butler Priory (David Niven), is a home for orphans. Rumor has it that the manor is the resting place of a fortune in Spanish doubloons that a swashbuckling pirate hid long ago. Bundage (Leo McKern) is a con man who recruits Casey (Jodie Foster) to pose as Lady St. Edmund’s long lost granddaughter so that she can search for the location of the treasure. This is one of those live-action films that Walt Disney did a lot of in the 60s and 70s. It's not a great film, but it sure is fun watching Josie Foster work her magic on the screen, and David Niven has a blast as the butler who puts on disguises to fool Lady St. Edmund that she has a more significant staff to keep her from knowing how badly things have gotten. The film is notable for being the last feature film that legendary actress Helen Hayes was in and also that Jodie Foster turned down the role of Violet in Pretty Baby to make this film (the part then went to Brooke Shields).  My Rating: Bargain Matinee   Candleshoe Info

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Wrath of Man: Balloon Electricians

Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You: Finding You (2021) PG   Finley (Rose Reid), an aspiring violinist, is spending a college semester abroad in a small coastal village in Ireland. There she meets Beckett (Jedidiah Goodacre), a famous young movie star, in town to shoot a movie. Beckett takes the uptight Finley on an adventurous reawakening, and a romance blooms. Unfortunately, life and stardom get in the way. Hey, a romantic film set in Ireland? I’m in!      Finding You Website

Until Next Time!

Mortal Kombat

Note to readers: I currently am not willing to risk my health (I’m 63 and an asthmatic) by visiting a theatre. All films that I have seen for review have been screened in my home. I am not going to tell you whether or not to attend a theatre. Just be aware of the risks, do your research, and follow the instructions

My View: Mortal Kombat (2021) R   MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan) goes on a quest to find the Earth’s greatest champions in order to stand against the enemies of the Outworld to battle over who will control the universe. Short on plot and filled with plenty of blood and gore, the film is one long video game. I never played, but I watched my friends spend hours after hours on this game to be familiar with the characters that I knew who had what kind of fighting style and power. The film is not for young kids as the death scenes are over-the-top brutal, and there is a lot of cussing. The fight sequences are fun to watch, but this film is way too long at almost 2 hours in length. I enjoyed some of the banter between the fighters, especially Josh Lawson, who plays the rough and tumble Kane and Jessica McNamee has some flair as one of the heroes, Sonya Blade, making her scenes fun to watch. Lewis Tan plays the main hero of the story, and though he lacks some acting skills, he does pull off the fighting sequences with flash and skill. The dialogue is cheesy, especially when the bad guys show up, and the storyline is pretty simplistic, but you came for the spurting blood, the gnarly deaths, and lots and lots of fighting, and that’s what you get with this film.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee     Mortal Kombat Website  The film is currently playing in select theatres and on the HBO Max Format.

Indiefest: Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street (2021) PG   Documentary on the creators, artists, writers, and educators who started one of the most influential children’s program in the history of television. It is just a wonderful documentary on how a group of educators, TV people, and some puppeteers changed the world of television for children and their parents. The film has excellent interviews from both the past and the present that helps tell this fantastic story. Is it nostalgic? You bet it is, but I thought I knew a lot about Sesame Street and the Muppets, and yet, I found that this film kept bringing up new information about the show that I had never known. There is a ton of behind-the-scenes footage, including a hilarious bit of outtakes when the puppeteers go way off-script. The film gives you great insight into the making of the show, both creatively and technically, and lovingly lets us go back in time when people like Jim Henson was making the world a brighter and better place. We should all spend a little time on that magical place called Sesame Street.   My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again     Street Gang Website  The film is currently playing in select theatres including in Atlanta at the Landmark Midtown Art

Indiefest:  Tu Me Manques  (2019)   Following the death of his son, Jorge travels from Bolivia to New York City to confront Sebastian, his son’s boyfriend. While Jorge works to accept the death of his son, Sebastian decides to channel his grief into a play to honor the love that he shared with his boyfriend. This is a wonderful but, at times, strange film about two things; a father going on a journey to try to understand who his son was and why he ended his life and a former lover of the son who wants to put on a play in Bolivia about his lover to explore what it means to be a gay man in a world that doesn’t accept you or your lifestyle. One thing to fully understand about this film is that the play, also called Tu Me Manques, was a massive hit in Bolivia and was groundbreaking in getting a conversation going about homophobia in that country. The film, at times, feels a little overbearing with some of the tricks that it employs; going back and forth in time, using different actors to portray the same characters, and the meshing of the play and real-life together, all of which can be a little confusing. The film, though, with these tricks, makes the film's message of acceptance, understanding, and that all people deserve to find love so meaningful and emotional.   My Rating: Full Price    Tu Me Mangues Info  The film is currently playing in select theatres.

Indiefest:  Together Together (2021) R Matt (Ed Helms) is a man in his forties who is alone but wants to have a baby. Anna (Patti Harrison) is in her twenties and decides to become the gestational surrogate for Matt. Now two strangers have to come together to challenge their perceptions of boundaries, connections, and love. This is a sweet and lovely film about two people who are alone and fine with that, no matter what everyone around them thinks and says about it. What I loved about this film is we start off with the interview between Matt and Anna, so we slowly find about them through their discovery of each other. This film has a lot to say, mainly in a funny, smart and kind way, about gender roles and how we see single parents, especially ones that choose to take on that role. As you can imagine, Ed Helms is simply superb in the role of Matt, a man who wants to become a father, deciding that he is ready for the challenge. Matt is a man with a good heart and, yes, a little goofy (calling the TV show Friends ‘the godfather of sitcoms’ tells you a lot about the man). Patti Harrison is perfect as the independent woman who slowly warms up to Matt but has to figure out just what role she plays in the relationship as the surrogate. Harrison plays Anna as a woman who has a sly sense of humor and is cautious on how much she shares about herself with others.  Together Together is a fun, witty look at a couple of people who get together to have a baby and maybe, just maybe, make a friend along the way.   My Rating: Full Price    Together Together Website  The film is currently playing in select theatres.

Forgotten Film: Gambit (1966) A con man/cat burglar (Michael Caine) involves a dancer (Shirley MacLaine) in a plot to pull off the perfect heist, but then everything goes wrong. I can’t give too much of the plot away because there is a massive twist at almost the beginning of the film, but this is a fun caper film with a great sense of humor. Add in Michael Caine at the start of his career and MacLaine as the perfect companion for Caine’s character, and you have a movie that is a blast to watch. The film was nominated for 3 Oscars but didn’t win anything that year. Don’t fall for watching the much, much less fun 2012 remake with Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz.   My Rating: Full Price   Gambit Info

Weird Credits: From the credits of Tu Me Manques: Barber/Groomer

Where Have I Seen You Before?: Matt Robinson was the original Gordon on Sesame Street. He is the father to actress Holly Robinson Peete (21 Jump Street, Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper).

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: Here Today  (2021) PG-13  A veteran comedy writer, Charlie (Billy Crystal), meets New York street singer Emma (Tiffany Haddish), and they form an unlikely friendship. Billy Crystal directed the film and co-wrote the film with legendary comedy writer Alan Zweibel. If that wasn’t enough to see it, the cast includes Sharon Stone, Kevin Kline, and Barry Levinson.      Here Today Info

Until Next Time!