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Movies

John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) A (mildly) belated review

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Back in 2014 and after a series of critical and box office duds, Keanu Reeves’ star appeared to be on the wane.  The actor himself noted that after the failure of 2008’s The Day The Earth Stood Still remake, he was no longer viewed as a very in demand actor.

But things got considerably brighter for Mr. Reeves when, in 2014, he starred in the quirky, action-filled John Wick.

The film concerned a proverbial cliched bad ass hit man who had retired.  When we first meet Mr. Wick, he’s morose.  His wife, we find, has died of cancer but not before leaving him a puppy.  One day, while going out, his flashy 1969 Mustang captures the eyes of some youthful thugs and they want to buy the car.  Wick says no and, later that day, they assault his house, beat him up, kill his puppy, and steal his car.

The rest of the movie concerns Mr. Wick getting back at the ones who wronged him, who turned out to be the son of a powerful Russian mobster Mr. Wick has worked with before.

John Wick, in my opinion, was a good -if not quite great- action film filled with great stunts and at times brutal gun play.  Keanu Reeves was quite good as the driven hit man who seeks justice.  There were other interesting touches in the film, including a sense of some kind of hit man/gangster order, including a “safe haven” hotel in the middle of New York where the dregs of society can stay at and be safe and woe be it to anyone who creates any chaos in this safe haven.

As I said, I liked the film.  In my original review of it (you can read it here), I said the following:

(John Wick) builds on and on, reaching its climax and conclusion and leaving at least me hoping to see more.

As the saying goes, beware of what you wish for.

Earlier this year John Wick: Chapter 2 was released to generally good reviews and positive fan reaction.  At this moment and on this day, Rottentomatoes.com has the film scoring a damn good 89% positive among critics and a near equal 87% positive among audiences.  This score, by the way, is slightly higher than the 85% positive among critics and 80% positive among audiences for the original John Wick.

And like my reaction versus everyone’s else to Guardians of the Galaxy, I can’t help but shake my damn head.

John Wick 2 is more… and more… and more of the same.

And after about a half hour of seeing what to my eyes was essentially the same gunfight pattern again and again (close quarter combat, shooting people in the head, flipping and fightin’, etc.), I was bored.

To tears.

The plot this time around concerns a marker mobster Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio being at best only an “ok” slimeball) has on John Wick.  Said marker entitles Santino to call in a favor from Wick and, while he refuses at first to do so, because of the hit man rules, Wick soon realizes he has to.

Them’s the breaks.

The favor Santino asks?  He wants his sister killed.  Seems his father recently passed away and willed her his power and seat at the prestigious “Table of 12”, a worldwide mobster power.  Santino wants her out of the way so he can rule the clan and take that seat.

So after Wick realizes he has to do the job he heads to Italy and, eventually, gets down to business.  He is then (surprise!) betrayed and gunfire, fights, CGI blood, close quarter shootouts, flips, punches, stabbings, etc. etc. yawn etc. etc. occur.  Over and over and over and over again.

I honestly can’t think of another more action filled movie that bored me as much as this one did.

And I’m even more bewildered, as I was with the extremely positive reaction to Guardians of the Galaxy, as to why my opinion of this film is so at odds with the “mainstream”.

So for me, John Wick: Chapter 2 was a near total bust and, given I liked the first film, a big shame.  However, given how much others seemed to like the film versus me, perhaps you should take my opinion with a proverbial grain of salt… it looks like I’m in the minority here.

Movies

The Void (2016) a (mildly) belated review

I heard good things about The Void since last year and most likely around the time it was originally released.  Word was this was a film that evoked the works of John Carpenter and H. P. Lovecraft and that sort of stuff is most surely in my wheelhouse.

Here’s the movie’s trailer: Not too bad looking and some of the other reviews presented within that trailer are pretty strong, no?

Alas…

Look, I didn’t hate the film.  It was pretty well done and the acting, while not always uniformly great by all participants -nor terrible, it should be noted- nonetheless presented some very good practical (gore) effects.

But the story…jeeze.

A number of years ago I went to a local -and relatively small- Czech club for an event.  The highlight of the event was a Czech band that emulated and performed -quite excellently- early Beatles music.  The four members of the band looked uncannily like John, Paul, George, and Ringo during their earlier years, complete with mop tops and dressed in dark suits ala Hard Day’s Night.  As I said before, their performance was excellent and their voices and use of musical instruments were incredibly near to what The Beatles did back in their earlier years.

So good were they that I wondered why they hadn’t tried to do their own music instead of covering The Beatles so damn well.

Watching The Void was sorta/kinda like watching those pseudo-Beatles.

The Void cribs (or, if you’re less tolerant, rips off) the general plot/set-up of John Carpenter’s first big hit, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), mixes it with some of the monster effects of his 1982 classic The Thing, features a conclusion that is awfully similar to the conclusion of his 1987 film Prince Of Darkness, while also featuring a villain/cult and an alternate world setting which, once it shows up, feels an awful lot like stuff found in Clive Barker films like 1987’s Hellraiser.

Of course, John Carpenter was inspired by other works as well.  So too Clive Barker.  They both clearly love the works of H. P. Lovecraft and there are elements of it in their works.  In the case of John Carpenter, one can argue Assault on Precinct 13 itself was inspired by such “siege” films as the original Night of the Living Dead or Gunga Din.

The thing is that at least John Carpenter and Clive Barker took those inspirations and created something interesting and clever in its own way, the same of which cannot be said of The Void.  Too much was taken directly from these listed works and little new was added to the mix.

Having said that, the movie’s first 20 or so minutes are easily its best.

The Void starts with a genuinely creepy and horrifying shoot up in a home in the woods in the dead of the night.  We have a weird father/son (Daniel Fathers, Mik Byskov) pair shoot up said home and quite nastily murder one of its occupants, a fleeing woman.  However, a young man also manages to get away and, later that night, is spotted by deputy Daniel Carter (Aaron Poole).

The man is near hysterical and unresponsive when Carter finds him.  He takes the man to the nearest hospital which happens to be where his wife Allison (Kathleen Munroe) works.  We quickly find that things aren’t the greatest between husband and wife.  The hospital, like the previously mentioned Precinct 13, is lightly staffed and has only two patients, a very pregnant woman in the outpatient waiting area accompanied by her father (or was it grandfather?  I’m not certain), and a young man who is spending the night in a hospital bed.

To make a long story short, the small group soon finds they’re under siege by what appear to be cultists (again, very much like Precinct 13), while within the hospital eerie secrets are eventually revealed and corpses tend to not stay still.

In sum, The Void is a well made film with good acting and effects which, unfortunately, features a story that to this viewer relied a little -hell, too much– on other movies without bringing enough of its own interesting new material to the table, which is a shame.

Therefore it is difficult for me to recommend The Void unless you’re willing to ignore the way it takes from so many other, better films.

So, if you’re in the mood for some creepy thrills, rather than checking out The Void you may want to catch the films I’ve listed above and, especially, these three whose trailers I present below…

Movies

Wonder Woman (2017) a (for the most part) right on time review!

Add me to the masses.

I really liked Wonder Woman and would give it a solid “B” or 3 stars out of 4.  As many other critics have said -and, again, I’m going with the flow here- the film has a few problems but overall its positives far outweigh its negatives.

Gal Gadot is simply the absolutely right actress at the very right moment for the role, an important thing given the fact that the film follows Diana/Wonder Woman throughout maybe 90% of the its run time.  Even more intriguing -and shows the care Director Patty Jenkins had in the making of this film- is the fact that two other actresses also played Diana/Wonder Woman and, incredibly, both were also very good in the role: Lilly Aspell played the 8 year old Diana and Emily Carey played her at 12 years of age.

Further kudos have to be given to Chris Pine’s acting as Steve Trevor.  He is at Diana’s side for much of the film and provides a welcome counterpoint/guide to her character while she navigates a world ravaged by the horrors of World War I.  He’s never patronizing and more often than not takes her side while showing his growing affection and thrill at her displays of power.

But before we get to their adventure together, we spend time on Paradise Island, the home of the Amazons and of Diana and there we are presented its culture and characters.  Standouts during these sequences are Robin Wright as the warrior Antiope (Ms. Wright’s come a long way since Princess Bride!) and Connie Nielson as Hippolyta, Diana’s mother (I just checked IMDB and it looks like she’ll be back in the role for the upcoming Justice League movie.  Hurrah!).

Later in the film we’re also introduced to Wonder Woman’s quirky companion, Etta Candy, played delightfully by Lucy Davis.  I swear this film is filled with so many interesting characters that I wish there was even more screen time afforded to them than ultimately was!

The villains, alas, are a little less interesting though I did enjoy the enigmatic turn of Elena Anaya as Dr. Maru, aka Dr. Poison.

As for the film itself, its story goes like this: Diana is a restless soul within Paradise Island even as a young child.  After a fashion, she trains to be a warrior.  One day, when she’s grown, the outside world intrudes upon Paradise Island in the form of Steve Trevor, a spy for the allies whose airplane crash lands just off the island’s coast.

Diana saves Trevor but a German warship which has been hunting him also makes their way into Paradise Island.  A battle ensues and, afterwards, the Island folks are, via Steve Trevor, given an update on the world outside and the war being waged.

Diana decides she must venture forth and stop the fighting.  She believes Ares, the Greek God of War, is behind all this and it is her duty to stop him.

She leaves Paradise Island with Trevor, and the rest of the film follows her as she encounters the “real” world of 1917 and its many perils.

Again, I give this film a very solid “B”.  While it may not reach the heights of the original 1978 Superman, a film the makers of Wonder Woman clearly used as their guiding star, it does enough things very right to make us not only care for the characters, but to look forward to their further adventures.

One last note: The soundtrack to the film is awesome.  Gonna buy it real soon.

Recommended.

Movies

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) a (mildly) belated review

Call the Resident Evil films  one of my guilty pleasures.  There are, with the one I’m about to review here, six of them.  Arguably that’s at least three too many and yet…

I dunno.

I dig ’em.

Having said that, I’d also be the last person in the world to argue these movies represent some kind of high water mark in the annals of actions/suspense/horror cinema.  Indeed, the second to last film in the series, Resident Evil: Retribution, I thought apart from an interesting setting proved to be pretty bad.

However, the first two films in the series, Resident Evil and Resident Evil: Apocalypse, were, again in my opinion, quite good at delivering on the promise of action and suspense along with apocalyptic zombie related gore.

Almost all these films were written and/or directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, whose wife happens to be Milla Jovovich, the movies’ star.

So, after all these years, what do I think of the supposed “final chapter” in this series?

I think its a decent enough film that never swings too high nor falls too low, which is something of a shame as I wish I could say this was a truly brilliant send of to this series and Ms. Jovovich in what is arguably her best known role.

The movie opens with Alice (Jovovich) emerging into a devastated Washington D.C. and facing off against some of the nasties that now reside there.  Soon, she is contacted by the enigmatic A.I. which has alternately helped and hindered her.  In this case the A.I. tells her she must return to Racoon City, where this whole mess started, and release a chemical which will neutralize the man-made virus that devastated the world. (Most of this is found in the video I’ve embedded below)

Only problem is that Alice carries this virus within her and while it hasn’t made her a zombie like all the others -in fact, it may have made her the bad-ass super-hero she is- if she releases the counter-toxin, she will likely die along with all the other zombies.

I won’t give away too much more of the story -not that there is all that much more story to give away- but Alice meets at least one old friend along the way back and, together, they face off against another pair of old foes.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter does feel like a conclusion of sorts even though the film’s makers couldn’t quite bring themselves to ending it all.  There is wiggle room for another chapter in the saga though news of a “new” Resident Evil film series (you can read about that here) indicates that perhaps this might well be the last rodeo for Alice and her particular company.

If this is the case, this six film series was, at least to me, a pleasant enough diversion while it lasted.  Even if these works were never quite classics, they were entertaining and, sometimes, that’s the best you can hope for in a movie.

So, I raise a toast to Ms. Jovovich’s ass-kicking Alice.

If this is the last we’ll see of you, it’s been a fun ride.

Movies

Tumbledown (2015) a (mildly) belated review

Sometimes while scanning the various channels on your tube you run into something that intrigues and/or surprises you.

Such was the case with the 2015 Rebecca Hall and Jason Sudeikis starring, Sean Mewshaw directed/co-written romantic comedy/drama Tumbledown.  I had never heard of this film before seeing it yesterday and I suspect not many others have, either.  Here’s the movie’s trailer:

This trailer tries to emphasize the humor in the movie -and, as you see, there certainly is some- but the film to my mind is more a romantic drama than a comedy… and one that takes on some darker themes.

Without giving too much away, Rebecca Hall plays Hannah, a young widow whose husband Hunter released one folklore album with 12 songs on it before unexpectedly passing away.  Jason Sudeikis is Andrew McDonnell, a New York bred and raised intellectual who teaches at a university and hopes to write a book about Hannah’s husband.

Hannah, though, is still in considerable pain and quite depressed because of the sudden loss of her husband.  She is emotionally stuck in time, smart enough to realize she’s wallowing in her depression and wanting to move on yet unwilling and/or unable to do so.  She devotes her time to writing for a local newspaper while hoping to write a biography about her husband.

Into town appears Andrew and, as the trailer above notes, their meeting is not all that pleasant.

I should stop right here and mention this is romantic comedy 101: The characters at first hate each other but eventually prove to be perfect for each other.  I’ve written before how romantic comedies tend to have very formulaic plots and Tumbledown certainly checks off many romantic comedy elements.

Having said that, I’ll further state that the film could have used another draft.  The fact of the matter is that the character of Curtis (Joe Manganiello), who is essentially Hannah’s go-to guy for sexual satisfaction and Finley (Dianna Agron), Andrew’s New York girlfriend, could have easily been cut from the film without affecting it too much.  Not that they were bad in the movie, its just that as written they didn’t add all that much to the proceedings.

With that out of the way, let me say that while Tumbleweed isn’t perfect and in some ways it adheres to that formula, there was enough other stuff here to intrigue me and, ultimately, recommend the film.

What makes the film work is that both Rebecca Hall and Jason Sudeikis are quite good in their respective roles.  Rebecca Hall presents a brave front but one feels the pain of her loss.  Jason Sudeikis, too, delivers a fascinating character who -and I’m trying real hard not to spoil things here- the viewer thinks early on knows more than the others about Hunter’s death but, ultimately, is revealed to be suffering as much internal pain as Hannah.

The scene where he discovers this was, to me, devastating yet played out as most of the film, subtly and without huge fanfare.

As much as I personally liked it, Tumbleweed will not appeal to everyone.  Those who want things to move more quickly may find their patience tried and those all too familiar with romantic comedy elements may wish the writers had eschewed some of them.

But for those who want a quiet drama with some comedic elements and a genuinely interesting plot, you may find the movie well worth checking out.

Movies

The Fate of the Furious (2017) a (for the most part on time) review

How does one go about reviewing a film like The Fate of the Furious, the eighth film in The Fast and the Furious franchise (F8 from here on in)?

I mean, if there is any franchise that seems impervious to critical reaction, it is this one.

Why?  Because the movies feature a wild assortment of big and very charismatic stars, big -and absolutely bonkers- action set pieces, humor, and that one ingredient many action blockbusters lack: A sense of heart.  Or is it family?

Don’t get me wrong:  The Fast and Furious films are ridiculous and, if you take even a few minutes to go over any of their plots, you realize the whole thing makes virtually zero sense.

Which is why F8 is no different than the last three films in the franchise yet another success.

The plot involves our F&F papa bear, Dom (Vin Diesel), going “dark” and working for the mysterious and well named Cipher (Charlize Theron, looking like she’s having a blast playing the movie’s central eeeeevvvvviiiillllleee character).

He betrays his group (which includes returning characters played by Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, and Ludacris).  The F&F group is, understandably, dumbfounded by this strange development.  Some can’t believe Dom would turn on them.  Others aren’t so certain.

However, things go from bad to strange when Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is imprisoned following Dom’s betrayal and winds up getting a cell directly across from the villainous Deckard (Jason Statham).  Through the machinations of Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) and his new sidekick Little Nobody (Scott Eastwood), the two are released and along with the rest of the F&F gang tasked with bringing in Cipher…and Dom, if indeed he has turned bad.

The film moves along at a brisk pace and, provided you don’t think too hard about what you’re seeing, will prove a pleasant diversion.

For those who care, I’ll get into a few SPOILERS following the trailer to point out some of the film’s… uh… story problems.  That is, if you care at all to hear about them.

Meanwhile and despite these issues, I can’t help but recommend the film.  It’s as good as the previous two or three which, if you liked them, is a good thing indeed.

Ok, now for some of those dastardly…

SPOILERS

LOOK AWAY!!!

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!!!

 

Ok, so the movie’s basic plot, pretty well presented in the above trailer, points out how Dom apparently betrays his gang and goes rogue.  Anyone who believes the F&F’s papa bear would “actually” go evil needs to brush up on their Basic Moviewatching 101 skills.

So on the one side we got Dom and Cipher and on the other the “new” and remaining F&F gang, who are determined to stop them.

Sounds good, right?

Here’s the thing: the character of Deckard (Jason Statham), is suddenly presented as a good guy.  This despite the fact that he brutally immolated one of the F&F gang in a previous film and did all he could to eliminate the rest of them in the last film.

Ok, so that was brushed aside and now he’s not only a good guy, he comes to be accepted into the group!  All’s good because he interacts so well/humorously with Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson)!

Setting that aside, if one looks closer at the movie’s plot, there is very little reason for Cipher to take Dom and use him for her purposes.  In the course of the movie, Dom is tasked to do four things: 1. Betray his group so that he can steal the EMP bomb they are trying to get into the proper hands, 2. Break into Mr. Nobody’s headquarters so they can steal the “Gods-eye”, 3. Steal a Russian nuclear “football”, a briefcase with nuclear codes, from a Russian diplomat driving on a heavily fortified convoy through the streets of New York, and 4. Drive into a Russian naval base and set off that stolen EMP under a nuclear sub which will allow Cipher to gain control of it.

Of the four tasks, the first and last are the only ones that somewhat logically makes sense to force upon Dom.  The first because he’s right there, with the device within arm’s length, and can most easily steal it because the group doesn’t know he’s about to betray them. The last task, too, makes a certain sense as it involves Dom’s driving skills.

However…

The second task didn’t need Dom as in a matter of two seconds Cipher knocked out everyone at Mr. Nobody’s base and, while the F&F group were squirming on the floor, appropriated the God’s Eye.

Note that she had everyone in the F&F group at her mercy during this scene and could easily have shoot them all dead.

So why didn’t she?

There was no real reason to show any mercy and, worse, later in the film it is made clear Cipher has no compunction about killing people… which makes that act of mercy all the more baffling.

The third task is all but completed by Cipher and her right hand man through computer control of New York’s civilian vehicles.  The actual taking of the nuclear “football” could have been done by anyone in Cipher’s group and there was no real reason for making Dom do it.  Further, there’s an odd scene following the actual theft where Dom removes the mask he was wearing while taking the suitcase.  I strongly suspect this scene was added in later on down the line so audiences would realize he was the one who took the material.

That part of the film also involves the seeming “death” of Jason Statham’s Deckard, but that too is presented in a very weird way and never adequately explained.

How exactly does Deckard get fake “killed”?  Dom does this by seemingly shooting him dead yet later in the film Deckard is brought back to life by being injected with something (it should be noted whatever he was injected with isn’t explained either!).

Were the bullets in Dom’s gun some kind of tranquilizer rounds?  Assuming this is the case (understand: This is never explained!), how did Dom get those bullets?  For that matter, how did he get in touch with the Cuban fellow from the beginning of the film who then runs interference for him in the New York scenes to set up the meeting he takes shortly before that sequence?

That’s a lot of planning and scheming to do while under Cipher’s supposed all-seeing eyes!

Anyway, enough of the questions.

Sit back, put your brain in neutral (pun intended), and enjoy.

And whatever you do, don’t think too hard about what’s going on.

Movies

Justice League Dark (2017) a (mildly) belated review

DC Comics has been doing quite well with both their TV shows and animated films.  I don’t want to get into an argument over the merits of lack thereof of their movies, but they too have been great money-makers as well, if not critical darlings, so I suspect things in DC land are going quite well.

This year, to much anticipation, Justice League Dark (JLD from here on) was released to home video.  Here’s the movie’s trailer:

One of the film’s biggest draws was the return of Matt Ryan in the role of John Constantine, whom he voices in this animated movie and whom he famously played in the aborted Constantine TV series and, for one episode, in the Arrow TV show.

Also intriguing was the idea of seeing some of DC Comic’s most famous magical/mystical heroes in one setting.  In this film you get not only Constantine, but Deadman, Zatanna, Swamp Thing, Jason Blood/The Demon, and the Black Orchid, along with a couple of mystical villains from the company’s comic book pantheon (I don’t want to reveal too much there).

The movie was entertaining though the story may not be the most spectacular you’ve ever seen.  The animation, too, was decent but not out of this world.  Allowances can be made to both as we are dealing with a direct video release and not a higher level theatrical “A” movie.

Apart from seeing these wonderful characters drawn to life, we also get brief appearances by the Justice League and a larger role for Batman.  All were quite fun to see and, in the end, I recommend this film to anyone who is a fan of these characters and/or likes the DC animated features.

Note, however, that the film is rated “R” for language and violence and should probably not be shown to children younger than 13 or so.  You have been warned.

There is one major quibble I had with the movie’s conclusion or, more specifically, the way it leaves a couple of characters.  These two characters, part of the DC pantheon, are given very big changes and I’m not exactly certain why it was decided to do these things in this film.

Writing about these things demands a SPOILER, so here you have it…

SPOILER ALERT

DON’T READ ANY MORE UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE SPOILED!

 

 

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!

 

Ok, so the film involves our mystical heroes banding together for an “end of the world”-type scenario.  They’re not certain who their enemy is -indeed, this is one of the stronger elements of the story- yet know there is considerable power behind them.

In the course of the film, Jason Blood, aka The Demon, joins the group.  Later still the Swamp Thing is called upon to help them get to one of the villains and, while reluctant (he and John Constantine are often presented as being at each other’s throats) toward the film’s end het comes to help.

During the film’s climax, Swamp Thing gets his “humanity” forcefully stripped from him and, while tears roll down his (its?) eyes, the creature melts away into a mass of vines and leaves.  Is Swamp Thing dead?  I’m guessing not although this plot point is left completely unresolved and with a huge (and imaginary) “to be continued” sign hung right next to it.

However, the fate of Jason Blood is presented in far more stark terms.  For those who don’t know, Jason Blood is the human “host” of the Demon Etrigan.  They are two different beings and when Jason Blood needs the Demon, he calls for him.

Anyway, Jason Blood dies at the end of the film, thus releasing the Demon Etrigan of the dual nature they share/are cursed with.

And I can’t help but wonder why this was done.

I mean, we are talking comic book stories and death has a way of being very impermanent yet why was there was a need to make such big change to this character?

Again, I suppose this could be another “to be continued” element but given that we were presented with Jason Blood’s grave and funeral, it seems unlikely.

When Tim Burton’s Batman film was released way back in 1989 the fact that the producers were able to hire Jack Nicholson to play the Joker was an incredible coup.  The actor seemed tailor made for the role and, for most of the movie, didn’t disappoint.

When I saw the film I was stunned, however, when at the movie’s conclusion the Joker falls to his death.  Unlike the comic books which often showed the Joker apparently dying but his body never found, thus leaving the door is open to his return, in the Batman movie we see the Joker’s dead corpse.

At the time I felt this was a big mistake.  Why not show Batman go down to the street and find a crater where Joker’s body should be, but find there is no body?

In time I understood there was a very slim, perhaps nonexistent, chance of getting Jack Nicholson to reprise the Joker role.  Given it probably took moving mountains -mountains of cash, that is- to get Jack Nicholson in once, perhaps the producers felt there was no sense in kidding themselves or audiences with the possibility that Mr. Nicholson could come back, so the decision was made to make his “death” in the film a permanent one.

Movie-wise this made sense even if it didn’t do so character-wise.

In the case of JLD, there are “only” voice actors involved in the feature and one could (and they have!) had multiple people play the various characters.  Unlike the Jack Nicholson situation, there is no real need to permanently “off” anyone because they can be replaced with far less fuss should they not return for a voice role.  We’ve had others do the work without missing too much of a beat, though there clearly are favorites, so why “kill” a character that can be used in other features?

To that point, I would love to see another animated feature with the Demon in it but if one were made, the producers would now have to explain/resolve how it is the character is alive given what happened in JLD.

Further, if a Swamp Thing animated film were made (not an out of this world possibility), you would also have to explain what happened to that character following the events of JLD.

My point is that a story like the one presented in JLD, regardless of how much one may like it, has things occur within it that lay down some strong continuity which, for better or worse, will now have to be dealt with in future animated films that might feature these two characters.

And if such films are made and this continuity is ignored (another possibility, certainly) many may wonder why.

Movies

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016) a (mildly) belated review

Back in 2012 actor Tom Cruise starred as Lee Child’s literary hero Jack Reacher in the film that went by the same name.  The collaboration between Mr. Cruise and the film’s director/screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie would prove a fruitful one.  The two have gone on to make Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and Mission Impossible 6 (currently filming) together.

The original Jack Reacher film, to me, was at best an “ok” actioner that benefited enormously from the various stars littered about (Robert Duvall, Rosamund Pike, and, in a delicious villainous turn, director Werner Herzog) but, as I put it in my original review (you can read the whole thing here):

…the main problem with Jack Reacher and what keeps it from rising from being a good action film to being a truly great one is that there is never a point you don’t feel like you’re watching a movie.  There is an artificiality to the product…

So a few years pass and in 2016 Tom Cruise returns to the role of Jack Reacher in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.  Gone is director/screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie (I guess he was too busy with the last two MI films) and in his place is Edward Zwick, who collaborated previously with Mr. Cruise on 2003’s The Last Samurai.

What immediately, to my mind, distinguishes Jack Reacher from Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (JRNGB from now on) is that while the first film appeared to be well funded and the makers attempted to create an “A” level action film (though, again, I felt it didn’t succeed quite like it should have), JRNGB plays out like a far cheaper product, as if the producers slashed the budget considerably and, apart from the presence of Tom Cruise, the rest of the film plays out like any number of cheaper “B” movies out there.

JRNGB does not feature any very big star, in a cameo role or longer, other than Mr. Cruise and the action set pieces are relatively modest and never spectacular.  Though I don’t mean to denigrate him, this movie falls more in the range of the many Jason Statham’s “B” movies versus the usual Tom Cruise ones.  It says something that I could just as easily see Mr. Statham as this movie’s hero as I could Mr. Cruise.

As for the movie’s plot, Cobie Smulders plays Major Turner, a woman who now occupies the office and job that Jack Reacher held when he was a Major in the army.  As with the first film, Reacher is essentially a hobo, wandering from town to town with very little money on him and helping out anyone in need.

He is curious to meet the person who replaced him in the army and heads to Washington to see her but, when he arrives, he finds she is imprisoned and charged with treason.  Worse, Jack Reacher immediately smells a rat and realizes she’s being railroaded.  The chances she’ll live long enough to see a trial are slim indeed.

While meeting up with Turner’s lawyer, Reacher is also told (in a bit of information which is plopped into this movie in a truly clumsy way) that he may have a teenage daughter named Samantha (Danika Yarosh) and that he’s viewed by the military as a deadbeat dad.

The two story lines intersect, of course, because the movie wants to make Turner a woman capable of taking care of herself and therefore the “damsel in distress” role goes to the teenage Samantha.

I will say this about JRNGB: The artificiality I felt in the first film is no longer there.  But, again, this movie plays out like a low budget actioner, with our characters running from one place to the next and building up the information needed to arrest the big bad guy while staying one step ahead of his very deadly henchman.

Unfortunately, this is nothing we haven’t seen many, many times before and, now and again, done much better.

Despite this, the worst one can say about JRNGB is that it falls in the middle of the action/adventure film pack.  Its a film you don’t hate as you watch it but, after you’re done, you realize there wasn’t all that much “there” there.

If you have absolutely nothing better to do and have a couple of hours to kill, you could do far worse than spend the time with JRNGB.  Having said that, there are far better things you could do with that time as well.

Take that as you will.

Movies

Keeping Up With The Joneses (2016) a (mildly) belated review

Disappointments come in sizes large and small.  In part, being disappointed about something can be the result of expectations and, in the case of Keeping Up With The Joneses, that may well be the biggest problem with this film.

With a cast consisting of Zach Galifianakis, Isla Fisher, Jon Hamm, and Gal Gadot (plus at least one more surprise star who shows up at the end of the film…you can easily look up who it is but its better to let the film surprise you at least once there) and directed by Greg Mottola (who directed episodes of Arrested Development along with films like Superbad and Adventureland), one comes into the film hoping, nay, expecting to be entertained by the hilarity.

Yet following seeing this pleasant but forgettable film, one can’t help but be, as I said above, disappointed.

Look, Keeping Up With The Joneses is not a terrible film.  What it is is a surprising toothless comedy wherein the cast and situations presented are often so tame as to make you wonder exactly what the makers of this film were up to.

I’m not saying the movie would have been better as some kind of bawdy hard “R” comedy, its just that everyone here seems so pleasant and nice and the situations they encounter, with the exception of two action sequences, so mild and toothless that you wonder why anyone bothered.

Zach Galifianakis, who has been quite good in past comedies, plays Jeff Gaffney, a boring family man who works for the Human Resources division in a high tech company.  He and Karen (Isla Fisher), his wife, let their kids go to summer camp and, for the first time in years, have an “empty nest”.  Instead of getting down to that lovin’ business, they continue their boring lives while across the street and in their cul de sac neighborhood a house is sold and its new owners, played by Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot, move in.

They have movie star looks (duh) and what appears to be a very exciting life versus the boring ones this suburban neighborhood has.

They are also, as you know from the commercials, more than they’re letting on.  It turns out they’re some kind of super-spies investigating the company Jeff Gaffney works for.

Of the plot, there’s little else to be said.  The movie rolls along, pleasant enough and with a few chuckles here and there (and, to be fair, a few bigger laughs as well, though they are few and far between) but when all is said and done you can’t help but wonder why everyone bothered.

This is a film that could have used a far sharper script and perhaps an edgier presentation.  Something, anything, to get it out of being what it is: Mediocre.

Movies

The Killer Elite (1975) a (very) belated review

Its been said that if you work in the creative field, it is often more instructive to look at fellow artist’s failures versus their successes; that you can learn more about what not to do and, therefore, avoid those pitfalls.

For me and as a writer, I often find myself reading a book or seeing a film not only to get enjoyment out of them (their primary goals, obviously!) but also to scrutinize their strengths and weaknesses.  And to that extent I agree strongly with what I wrote above, that sometimes seeing what does not work in a movie/book/story/etc. is more instructive than seeing what does.

Which brings us to the 1975 film The Killer Elite.  Here’s the movie’s trailer (sorry for the quality, its the best I could find):

I’ve seen the film before and found it a fascinating failure.  Directed by the legendary -and controversial- Sam Peckinpah, it can be argued that after achieving a high level of both praise for his at times incendiary works (The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs), The Killer Elite marks the moment his career first began to falter.  Those who know of Mr. Peckinpah know he was a very heavy drinker and combative writer/director who had many run ins with the studios.  Following the release of 1978’s Convoy, he all but burned every bridge he had within the Hollywood establishment.  Including that later film, Mr. Peckinpah would direct only three more films following The Killer Elite before passing away in 1984.

The Killer Elite, as the above trailer indicates, concerns Mike Locken (James Caan, quite good) who, along with his partner George Hansen (Robert Duvall, also quite good) are wetworks specialists who work for an agency that the CIA contracts when they need someone to do that “special” job.  By hiring this agency, the CIA keeps their hands clean should anything go wrong.

Following a mission presented in the film’s opening, things do indeed go very wrong.  Hansen turns on Locken and, as the trailer shows, cripples him with two well placed bullets.  Down and seemingly out, Locken doesn’t give up on himself even as his employers do.  He trains and strengthens himself as best he can with his limitations.

Meanwhile, a dissident Chinese national arrives in the US and is instantly targeted for assassination.  This national is an asset to the US and therefore the CIA.  The CIA goes to Locken’s employers and wants to hire them to protect the National.  The agency, stung by Hansen’s betrayal and suspicious the CIA might have secretly sanctioned it, at first rejects the job.

They instantly change their mind when the CIA operative reveals it is Hansen who was hired to assassinate the Chinese national and they not only want to protect this national, they also want Hansen taken out.

Because of his intimate knowledge of Hansen, Locken is brought back into the fold to take on this job but as the movie progresses, it becomes clear there is even more intrigue hiding beneath the surface.

As I re-read my description, I can’t help but think this film is just so in my wheelhouse.  Assassins, betrayal, intrigue.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, based on what I wrote in the very first paragraph of this review, plenty.  As I said before, The Killer Elite marks, in my opinion, Sam Peckinpah’s first major misstep following creating a string of classic and cult hit movies.

The reason The Killer Elite fails, despite some really good acting by both James Caan and Robert Duvall (sharing the screen together for the first time since the classic The Godfather), is in the fact that Sam Peckinpah seemed unable to take the material seriously.  The moment the Chinese national appeared, and then the ninjas coming after him, things turn mighty silly and tongue in cheek.

Further, the action sequences, while decent, aren’t quite up to the classic nihilism found in The Wild Bunch.

And then there are the scenes that, frankly, are complete head-scratchers.

One of the bigger ones is presented in the above trailer above, the “bomb planted under the taxi” scene.  I don’t want to spoil too much, but during the course of the film the taxi’s driver, one of Locken’s men, suddenly stops his cab.  He’s asked, in voice over, why he’s stopped the cab and replies -also in voice over- that he hears a strange rattling.

This after a major car chase and slamming the taxi against another car!  I’d find it strange if he didn’t hear any strange rattling!

Anyway, he goes under the cab and, voila, finds and removes the explosive device, which as you see in the trailer he then gives to a motorcycle cop and -hilarity!- the motorcycle cop runs away with it to dump it in the bay.

That whole sequence, it seems to me, was a very late add-on/fix-up to the film.  First off, there’s the fact that important information is given via voice over.  If the scene was originally meant to play out as it was, why not show the characters saying these words?  After they get away from the motorcycle cop and drive off, they stop their cab elsewhere and get out.  As they do, you hear the distant sound of the explosion yet don’t react to it at all.  It was as if that whole bomb and explosion was something created in post-production!

Why?

I truly don’t know.  Perhaps the sequence was more “serious” initially.  Could it be the motorcycle cop was a bad guy in disguise and our heroes had to kill him to get away?  Is it possible that as filmed, this sequence was too confusing and maybe audiences thought our “heroes” were forced to kill a real cop?  Perhaps they originally did kill a “real” cop to get away?

I truly don’t know but the scene, as presented, is a mess and feels like the product of some very hasty last minute work.

Later in the film, when the ninjas appear, any attempt at hard-hitting realism is thoroughly flung out the window, but not before we get one really odd scene involving James Caan’s Locken talking with the Chinese national’s daughter, who talks to him about sex and then, bizarrely, confesses she’s a virgin.  I suppose it was meant to be a humorous scene as the bewildered Locken tells her to go away.

More bewildered was I as to the inclusion of the scene, which was not only silly but completely unnecessary.  It added absolutely nothing to the film and felt like something you would expect would be clipped and discarded well before the film is released to the theaters.

But perhaps the film’s biggest sin is that even as it builds up the confrontation and cat/mouse struggle between Hansen and Locken, it subsequently deals with it well before the film’s climax.

Unforgivable!

I obviously can’t recommend The Killer Elite to anyone yet it still fascinated me.  A failure, certainly, but an interesting one that features some interesting actors in a film that should have been a lot better than it ultimately was.

Ah well!

POSTSCRIPT: In 2011 Jason Statham, Clive Owen, and Robert DeNiro stared in a film called Killer Elite.  While it looks like its a remake/reworking of The Killer Elite, it appears not to be.  Here’s its trailer, if you’re curious…