The Equalizer 3

My View: The Equalizer 3 (2023) R  Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) has finally found a home in Southern Italy. That home is being threatened by the mafia and its local crime boss. As the mafia flex their muscle and threaten McCall’s new friends, McCall does what he always does: protect his friends by any means possible. So McCall is having a bit of a personal crisis and finds himself in a sleepy seaside town in Sicily. Of course, bad things tend to follow McCall around; in this case, the village that McCall is falling in love with has a Mafia problem. You can imagine what happens next. Plenty of bad guys getting killed in lots of imaginative ways. I loved the first film of the series and enjoyed the second one. This one works because it’s so much fun to watch Denzel on the screen, doing that Denzel thing of saying something ordinary but giving it special meaning. Dakota Fanning is thrown into the mix as a CIA agent that McCall guides from afar. The plot is a little weak, and the whole Fanning side-plot feels thrown together, though there is a nice payoff in the end. I don’t know if there will be another Equalizer film. I hope there isn’t because I would like to think that McCall is having too good a time with his unfolded napkins and tea to disturb him with more killing.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee    The Equalizer 3 Website  Now playing in theatres nationwide.  

My View: Bottoms (2023) R  Two lesbian high school friends (Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri) decide to start a girls’ club after school. It’s all to impress their crushes, Isabel (Havana Rose Lui) and Brittany (Kaia Gerber), two of the most popular girls in school. What starts as a club for girl power becomes a fight club, and then things get really weird. This is a funny and absurd comedy where the football players wear their uniforms with pads to class every day, and horrible deaths caused by the rival high school are just accepted as normal. I loved this film, and the sold-out advanced screening audience I saw it with did, too. It’s goofy and surreal that utilizes the comedy chops of Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri. Sennott, who was terrific in Emma Seligman’s earlier film, Shiva Baby, is brilliant as PJ, who is always thinking of ways for the two girls to find someone to love or at least make out with. Sennott gives us a smart performance that almost dominates the film, as PJ jumps into any and everything without thinking about the consequences. Ayo Edebiri, as Josie, the more responsible of the two, is willing to go along with PJ’s plans because, frankly, they are nuts and desperate. The film has a great supporting cast, including a remarkable performance by Ruby Cruz as Hazel, someone who desperately wants to be apart of the PJ/Josie gang but isn’t confident enough to speak up. The film also has a hilarious performance by Marshawn Lynch as Mr. G, a laid-back teacher whose concepts of history are, shall we say, challenging. I loved the ending, which is as weird and funny as the rest of the film, and I want to see these characters again at college. Hopefully, one as strange and goofy as this high school.   My Rating: I Would Pay to See It Again  Bottoms Website  Now playing in theatres. 

My View: Choose Love (2023)   Cami (Laura Marano) is a young woman who seems to have it all: a great boyfriend, Paul (Scott Michael Foster), good friends, and a fantastic job. However, when a fortune teller tells Cami she has something missing in her life, and the clock is ticking, she starts to feel like it’s true. Cami soon, two guys come into her life. Rex (Avan Jogia) is a rock star, and Jack (Jordi Webber) is an old boyfriend, and now Cami has some choices to make. So this is an interactive film where Cami will talk directly to you and ask you to decide what she should do. Then, you get to see the consequences of what you picked. The film is very short, but it’s meant for you to go back and choose other choices, including who Cami ultimately ends up with. Choose Love is a very plain romantic film, even when you pick the different options. Which will you choose for Cami? The steady boyfriend, the activist boyfriend from the past, or the rockstar that will give Cami a life on the road? Or will you choose all three?   My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Choose Love Website  Now playing on the Netflix platform.

My View: The Good Mother (2023)  Journalist Marissa (Hilary Swank), who, after the murder of her estranged son, forms an alliance with his pregnant girlfriend (Olivia Cooke) to track down those responsible for his death. They are about to travel into a world of drugs, corruption, and danger. This is a film where, once again, the performances are better than the film itself. With a murder that is incredibly easy to figure out, Swank isn’t given much to work with. She is a journalist who has lost her spark, suffering from a death and finding relief only in the bottom of a bottle. When her son, a druggie, is murdered on the street, she and his girlfriend decide to find out what happened. The plot is a cluttered mess as the film loses its way as it tries to be either a whodunit or a sad commentary on how we treat drug addicts, and it doesn’t succeed in either storyline. I liked the chemistry between Swank and Cooke, the girlfriend whom Swank at first blames for her son’s death, but we never get any back story on the girlfriend, and it’s hard to root for anyone in this film. The ending is as messy as the rest of the film, making it feel very unsatisfying.   My Rating: Cable  The Good Mother Website  Now playing in theatres.

Indiefest: Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose (2023) PG-13 The story of Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose takes place in 1935 when a para-psychologist named Nandor Fodor (Simon Pegg) travels to the Isle of Man, where a British family claims that a mysterious entity on their farm has contacted them. That entity, a talking mongoose named Gef. This strange little film starts and ends with two friends discussing the possibility that a mongoose on a farm can not only talk but can tell you secrets about yourself. The film can’t decide if it wants to be a comedy or a drama, and it unfortunately fails at both. I did like the chemistry between Simon Pegg as the stuck-up professor and Minnie Driver as his put-upon assistant. The film jumps between us believing that Gef can talk (we never see him, just bits of hair and tail) or if it is all a big joke put on by a strange little family. The film never finds its footing, and the mystery (based loosely on a true story) is never solved. Unfortunately for us, the tone of the film is never solved either.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose Website  Now playing in select theatres

Indiefest: Slotherhouse (2023) PG-13  Emily (Lisa Ambalavanar) is a senior and is desperate to be elected as her sorority’s president. She adopts a sloth named Alpha as the sorority’s mascot, hoping that it will help her win. It starts out well, but then the sloth becomes the prime suspect in a series of murders. Well, this is one of those films, which I seem to see a lot of lately, that would work much better as a midnight film at a horror film festival, rather than one that will work well in a midday theatre like where I saw this film. The idea is that this sloth differs from the slow-moving sloths of the jungle. This sloth is fast and a killer, as we see in the film's first scene when she is attacked by a crocodile and not only survives but kills the croc. The film is meant to be funny, but the deaths aren’t creative enough, the script is sloppy, and the movie is never scary. Overall, I got bored by about a third into the film. Because of the success of Cocaine Bear, the Sharknado film series, and the Winnie the Pooh horror film, I think we will see more of these animals gone murdering. I just hope they have better scripts.   My Rating: Cable  Slotherhouse Website  Now playing in theatres. 

Forgotten Film: Career Girls (1997) R Two young women, Hannah (Katrin Cartlidge) and Annie (Lynda Steadman) are former college roommates who are reconnecting after being apart for six years. Hannah still lives in the same apartment in London, and Annie is visiting with the idea of moving back. They will soon realize that nothing much has changed in six years, including how their lives are going. This film is from seven-time Oscar-nominated Mike Leigh (Topsy-Turvy, Vera Drake, Happy-Go-Lucky, Another Year). Leigh likes to give us interesting characters in how they see life, but the stories are more about how they react or talk about their lives than actually live it. In this film, we have two women who come to realize that they may never attain what they thought their lives would become. They aren’t necessarily failures, but neither are they a success. They are just living.   My Rating: Full Price  Career Girls Info Available on DVD. 

Weird Credits: From the credits of Bottoms: Conform Editor

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: The Creator (2023) PG-13   There is a war going on between humans and the forces of artificial intelligence. Joshua (John David Washington) is recruited to hunt down and kill The Creator, the architect of the advanced AI. The Creator has made a mysterious weapon with the power to end the human race, and it just might be the little girl that Joshua has just rescued. The Creator is one of those films creating a lot of excitement for sci-fi fans.  The Creator Website  Arriving in theaters in late September.

Until Next Time!

Red, White & Royal Blue

My View: Red, White & Royal Blue (2023) R  Alex (Taylor Zakhar Perez) is the son of a current President (Uma Thurman), the first woman in the job and seeking re-election. Alex has a rivalry with the young Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine), which has gotten heated after an incident at the older Prince’s brother’s wedding. The two must act like friends on a goodwill visit to the UK to avoid a scandal. Their rivalry will soon turn to friendship, and maybe even more. This is one more of the recent additions to the Hallmark-like romance stories, but this one has a bit of a twist. First, I was surprised at how the film went in the romance department between the two, and while I don’t think it deserves the R rating, it does get a little risqué in their love scenes. The film works because of the chemistry between the two leads. The movie takes a bit to get going, and the incident at the wedding is a little forced. However, the rest of the film picks up when the two men figure out they are interested in each other, and their romance takes off. I loved we get to see how the romance starts as a friendship and that one of the two isn’t as experienced as you think he would be (I won’t tell you which one, let that be a bit of an eye-opener). The film is helped by a strong supporting cast (though I hated Uma Thurman’s attempt at a Texas accent), and I loved Sarah Shahi’s performance as the President’s chief of staff. Shahi’s reaction when she finds the two men together after a night of passion is worth watching the film just for that scene. I am sure that everyone who read the best-selling book will be satisfied with this adaptation and will go home happy.   My Rating: Full Price  Red, White & Royal Blue Website  Now playing on the Amazon Prime Website.

My View: The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023) R  Based on a single chapter from Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is the story of the Russian schooner Demeter, which is chartered to carry a private cargo from Carpathia to London. On board are twenty-four unmarked wooden crates. There is something or someone in one of those crates that means that no one will survive this voyage. This is a film that is all picture and no bite. The film creates a great look and feel but never delivers the scares you want. I did love the creature himself as it harks back to the 1922 silent film Nosferatu in his appearance. However, the story takes too long to develop, and it seems to follow a script that quickly runs out of ideas. The film is about as weak as the lone chapter that it is based on. My Rating: Cable  The Last Voyage of the Demeter Website  Now playing in theatres nationwide.

My View: Heart of Stone (2023) PG-13  Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot) is someone the world knows as an inexperienced tech working for an MI6 team headed by agent Parker (Jamie Dornan). What MI6 doesn’t know is that Stone actually works for the Charter, an elite covert peacekeeping organization that uses cutting-edge technology to neutralize global threats. When a routine mission is derailed by a mysterious hacker (Alia Bhatt), Rachel must use all her skills to stop the hacker from stealing a weapon that could change the balance of power. After a rousing opening sequence with moments from a few Bond films, a very cool chase sequence on the streets of Lisbon, and a sky-diving scene that would fit into any Mission Impossible, this film falls apart with a storyline that is all over the place and a finale that seems too easy to accomplish. Gal Gadot gets to do some fun stunts, and she is excellent in the action sequences, but the film lets her down with a simple plot that I had figured out who the bad guy was from almost the get-go. Let’s hope that if there are more of these Gal Gadot Charter films, they come up with a more complex villain and a better ending. My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Heart of Stone Website  Now playing on the Netflix platform. 

Indiefest: Jules (2023) PG-13   Jules is about Milton (Ben Kingsley), who lives a quiet life in a small Pennsylvania town until his life is upended when a UFO and its extra-terrestrial passenger crash land in his backyard. He names his new friend Jules. Things get complicated when Milton’s two neighbors (Jane Curtin and Harriet Sansom Harris) find out about Jules. And then Milton’s daughter (Zoe Winters) gets suspicious, and the government starts sniffing around. Can’t a guy just be let alone to live with an alien from another planet? I loved this quiet and fun film about a strange set in his ways, Milton, who is awakened in the middle of the night by a UFO crashing into his flower bed. He is at first more upset that his flowers have been destroyed than that a UFO is in his backyard, but he soon meets the alien from another planet and becomes his host. Ben Kingsley is brilliant as Milton, a man losing his way in life, and takes having an alien for a houseguest as another thing to handle. The film is helped by Jane Curtin and Harriet Sansom Harris, who play neighbors of Milton, who decide to help take care of the alien and keep the secret from the rest of the town. Jules is a warm, funny film that moves along at its own pace, much like Milton.   My Rating: Full Price  Jules Website  Now playing in select theatres. 

Indiefest: Medusa Deluxe (2022) R  Set in the throes of a competitive hairdressing contest, one of the contestants has been murdered. Waiting for the police to interview them, what’s a group of hairdressers going to do but gossip? Medusa Deluxe is a film that uses the gimmick of giving us the appearance of the film being on one long continuous shot. The film opens with us being introduced to all the suspects who could have done the murder as we spend time with the hairdressing contestants and hangers-on backstage, waiting to be interviewed by the police. The problem is this film is all flash and very little substance. We get a lot of conversations between the suspects, but the mystery of who did the killing is never really explored. The camerawork is impressive, as are the performances that continue as the camera moves from one character to another. However, the film never creates any tension, and when we find the killer, the reveal is somewhat subdued and unsatisfying. Medusa Deluxe is one of those films that plays better at a film festival (where I saw it) than in a regular movie theatre or on an online screener.  My Rating; Bargain Matinee  Medusa Deluxe Website  Now playing in select theatres. 

Indiefest: Aporia (2023) R  Sophie (Judy Greer) is a woman who has lost her husband (Edi Gathegi) to a drunk driver accident and is struggling to manage her grief while trying to be a good mother to her devastated daughter (Faithe Herman. She discovers that a friend, a former physicist (Payman Maadi), has invented a time machine, and Sophie might be able to go back in time to save her husband. However, choices like that always have consequences. Aporia is a film about making choices and living with the results. Sophie is a mom who loves her family and will do anything to stop the hurt and suffering of others. Greer gives a touching and lovely performance as the mom whose heart controls her every move. Nonetheless, once you go down the path of changing history, it’s a slope that is hard to climb back up from. The film explores people’s choices and whether they can live with their decisions. The big question is, when do you stop once you start changing the past?   My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Aporia Website   Now playing in select theatres.

Indiefest: Passages (2023) R  Passages is about the choices we make in relationships. Even though filmmaker Tomas (Franz Rogowski) is married to Martin (Ben Whishaw, Tomas starts an affair with a young schoolteacher, Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and is excited by the novelty of being with a woman. Everything seems great until Martin starts an affair of his own, and now Tomas is torn between his husband and his new lover. This is one of those films where you instantly don’t like the main character, and you continue to not only not like the person but end up hating him because of how he treats everyone who cares about him. Tomas is an unlikable jerk who somehow makes two people fall in love with him. Martin and Agathe are too good for Tomas, and why either would want to stay with such an egotistical, self-centered person is beyond me. I liked that we don’t get background on anyone but are thrown into this world at break-net speed, and we have to hang on, much like the two people Tomas is toying with. Passages is not a feel-good film, and that is the point, as sometimes life is messy, and people fall in love with the wrong person. Passages is a messy and often frustrating look at a man who doesn’t care about anyone but himself and his needs.   My Rating: Full Price  Passages Info Now playing in select theatres. 

Forgotten Film: The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968) PG-13  A young Amish woman (Britt Ekland) runs away from home and her strict father to the big city of New York in 1925. She hopes to act in religious stage plays but meets two vaudeville performers (Jason Robards and Norman Wisdom) who get her a part in their burlesque show. What follows is the invention of the striptease, and burlesque would never be the same. The film is co-written by Norman Lear (creator of All in the Family) and is a little too heavy with corny jokes. Still, the film is worth watching for the performances of Norman Wisdom, a legendary British music-hall veteran and the last role for Bert Lahr. The film is directed by the late William Friedkin, known for his movies The Exorcist (1973), The French Connection (1971), and To Live and Die in L.A. (1985).  My Rating; Bargain Matinee   The Night They Raided Minsky's Info The film is available on DVD.

Weird Credits: From the credits of Red, White & Royal Blue: Royal Etiquette Advisor

Coming Soon to Screen Near You: Bottoms (2023) Two lesbian high school friends (Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri) decide to start a girls’ club after school. It’s all to impress their crushes, Isabel (Havana Rose Lui) and Brittany (Kaia Gerber), two of the most popular girls in school. What starts as a club for girl power becomes a fight club, and then things get really weird. The film is from Emma Seligman, whose film Shiva Baby (2020) became a big Indie hit. Bottoms was one of the most talked about movies at the SXSW Film Festival back in March.  Bottoms Website  The film is in theatres on August 25th.   

Until Next Time!