The Reel World

It’s an actioner with good special effects, and the setting for the flick is outstanding, but Breaking In is just another robbery-gone-bad film at the hands of a very upset mother.  Much like Kidnap where Halle Berry goes berserk because her son gets taken when her car is stolen, here Gabrielle Union turns into a determined killer mom to get her children free from robbers. Unfortunately there’ve been several movies with a similar plot, but in case you haven’t seen one, this movie should keep you on your toes.
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This Melissa McCarthy film flew completely under the radar for me, with me only hearing a few whispers about it. Ironically, I expected to see her in more films following the conclusion of Mike and Molly. Oh well, Life of the Party will have to suffice. Though it was not as entertaining as The Heat or Spy, it had its moments and exudes the charm that McCarthy has become famous for. I’m sure many of you are like: a movie about going back to college? it’s been done. Not by Melissa McCarthy.
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“Goodtime Charlie’s got the blues.”

Every once and again a film comes along that you can’t quite find the right label to describe. It doesn’t want to fit in any particular genre or category. Andrew Haigh appears to be the kind of director who thrives on that kind of a film. He received a well-deserved Oscar nomination for 45 Years, and while I don’t expect there will be any Oscar notice for Lean On Pete, it’s the kind of film that deserves more attention than it’s likely to get, including at the box office.
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“Thanos Is Coming…”

Whenever a filmmaker is doing a middle film in a trilogy, or merely a film that’s intended to be a companion film in a series, they often talk about attempting to capture The Empire Strikes Back. For years it’s been the standard-bearer for anyone trying to end a blockbuster with a cliffhanger knowing it might be years before the ending is resolved for the audience. That’s harder to do today than it was in the 1980’s. I often say that the only thing wrong with instant gratification is that it simply takes too darn long. The Avengers: Infinity War is exactly that kind of film. It ends with huge elements left up in the air, but at least we’ll only have to wait a year for its resolution.
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I’m going to go ahead and say Super Troopers is without a doubt one of my favorite comedies of all time.  Sure I know many will disagree with me, and that’s fine.  Since I first saw their film back in 2002 when I got the DVD I was always excited to see what would come next from the Broken Lizard comedy troop.  There was Club Dread which induced a few chuckles as they tackled the slasher genre, and then they had Beerfest which was pretty funny but simply didn’t hold up to their performances as Vermont’s Highway Patrolmen.  The antics from the first film are simply classic to me, and the film is something I manage to quote from on a weekly basis amongst friends and when I hear that someone has managed to go all these years without experiencing the film it’s something I feel the need to remedy immediately.
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Captivating, creepy, and chilling, the supernatural thriller Truth or Dare takes you on a never-ending journey of death.  Much like other horror films that have perfected the formula for surprise and contagious emotional terror, this film has it all bundled tightly and calculating to transfix the audience into believing. If you saw the films It Follows, The Ring, and the Final Destination series, you’ll relive the sensations those films made way beyond leaving the theater.
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Brad Anderson is a television actor who has puttered around that industry going back to David Simon’s Homicide: Life On The Streets and The Wire. This is pretty much his first feature film opportunity in the director’s chair, and Beirut certainly shows that he has a lot of talent… as a television director. No question the chops are there, but the framing and pacing of Beirut suffers from a kind of small thinking that fails to keep one’s attention for very long. He hasn’t learned how to take advantage of large set pieces and exotic locations to expand the experience for his audience. Some will believe I’m talking about action or the kind of cheap thrills that sell tickets, but that’s not exactly my point.
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Bold and incredibly compelling, the movie Chappaquiddick is a “tell all” with a lot of authority.  Much like last year’s The Post, it tells its story pulling no punches, playing out the characters and holding nothing back.  Although I’m familiar with the incident, many of the facts were clouded, squashed, or lost due to current events at the time.  If you liked The Post, then here’s a film that will enlighten you and make you cringe. In 1969 about one year after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy while he was touring for votes to be nominated for President, his brother Ted Kennedy (Jason Clarke) was already thinking about his chance at the highest position in America. On the fateful night of July 18, however, things ran amok, taking him out of any chance for the Presidency. 
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You might call me jaded, but I am pretty disappointed by the state of horror movies. It’s not just the last few years. The truth is I haven’t seen 10 really good horror movies in over a decade. Now that I’ve had a chance to see A Quiet Place, that number isn’t going up. A Quiet Place is not a really good horror movie. It ends up making a lot of the same mistakes that filmmakers think define a horror film in the modern age. It relies too heavily on jump scares and characters who do some of the most idiotic things, thus placing them in a somewhat self-created dangerous situation. But I will make the argument that A Quiet Place is still a pretty good horror film because of a rather clever and unique concept and a filming process that allows us care for these characters more than the usual horror film red shirt fodder that too often leaves me rooting for the monster in a Darwin-like weed-out-the-gene-pool kind of way.
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Like so many others, when I read the book Ready Player One by Ernest Cline I simply fell in love with the nostalgic ride through the 80’s, all thanks to the virtual reality world called The Oasis.  From start to finish it was a book filled with pop culture references that would make film and video game geeks squeal with delight, and it was no surprise that the book was a hit and would be turned into a film.  There were only two names I could think of that could ever come close to making this film a reality: Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg.  With Spielberg involved, he was the only person I could imagine that had the clout to get all the licensing rights needed to pull this adaption, but still the biggest question I had was does Spielberg still have it in him?
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When Pacific Rim first came out, I had a blast with the film.  It was the ultimate giant-monster-versus-giant-robot film that my inner ten-year-old has wanted to see for so long.  Sure, the film had some dialog issues, but the world that Guillermo del Toro created with the film was so over-the-top and beautiful that the bad dialog was easy to forget.  It knew what it was, brainless eye candy, and it delivered in a big way. Now we have the sequel coming out; del Toro is no longer at the helm, and in his place we have Steven S. DeKnight whose previous directorial efforts have been episodes from Daredevil and Dollhouse.  Does the sequel hold up?  Well, to put it bluntly, not even close.
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For some reason, adapting videogames into good films has been the nut Hollywood just can’t seem to crack. The Resident Evil series has been successful, but I wouldn’t say it really holds up to the game. Personally, Silent Hill has been the only adaption I’ve really enjoyed, and that film has divided fans as well. As for the Tomb Raider franchise that kicked off in 2001, sure it had some fun sequences. And with Angelina Jolie becoming a hot commodity at the time, it’s not too much of a surprise that it did well at the box office. Now 17 years later, the time has come for Tomb Raider to get a makeover
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“We can’t take any credit for our talents. It’s how we use them that counts.”

Much has been made about the fact that Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle in Time is the most expensive movie ever directed by a woman of color, carrying a reported $103 million price tag. The good news is the filmmaker has absolutely infused her own personality and perspective into this live-action Disney spectacle. (No small feat, by the way.) The bad news is that DuVernay has taken those considerable resources and made a wildly uneven movie that, at various points, somehow manages to look both way more expensive and way cheaper than its budget would suggest.
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“Don’t give them all of you Dominika. Hold something back. That is how you will survive.”

There appears to be nothing Jennifer Lawrence can’t do: she is an Oscar winner, the face of a successful movie franchise, and now she is a Russian spy that specializes in seduction techniques. Now in the looks department, there are scores of men that would gladly hand over their social security number for the opportunity to be seduced by J Law, so her casting was a no brainer. But she went much deeper than that, showing an unparalleled intellect and natural aptitude for the world of espionage.
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“Welcome to game night”.

Everybody loves playing games. OK, most people like playing games. Friends have been getting together for game nights since there have been games. From the couples’ bridge days of the 1950’s to poker night with the guys, most of us have gotten together to play some kind of a game with friends. The thing about games is that they’re frivolous. Playing games with some buddies is a good excuse to kill a few hours, maybe have a few drinks. You’re not solving the world’s problems, and it’s usually just a simple night of entertainment. The same can be said for New Line Cinema’s Game Night starring Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, and Kyle Chandler.
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Going into Annihilation a couple days ago I had only seen the trailer once but was excited for it based on the strength of Alex Gardner’s first directorial effort Ex Machina. The film is based on a series of books that I had never read, and from what I understand the film takes many liberties with the storyline and characters. As his sophomore effort behind the camera, there were high expectations for what Garland would do, and the result I believe is one of the most divisive films I’ve seen in a while. This is the kind of film that gets me excited for the future of cinema, not just because I loved the film, but I love the conversation it can provoke with other filmgoers.
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“Tell me a story.”

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the comic book character of Black Panther in 1966 for an issue of The Fantastic Four. He became the first black superhero in the comic world. He starred in Marvel’s Jungle Action title before getting his own comic. The character was popular, but through an unfortunate set of circumstances he was at times thought to be related to the militant group of the same name that popped up that same year. For a short time he went by the name Black Leopard, but the original name rose above the unintended connection and continued to enjoy on and off success over the decades. Black Panther was introduced to the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with Captain America: Civil War. He’s finally getting his own film
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Clint Eastwood has been at the top of the game both as an actor and a director, often both at the same time. There’s no question that he still has the skills. Unfortunately, 15:17 To Paris isn’t a great example of his direction skills. Don’t get me wrong. There is a nice intense film in here, but it only lasts for about 10 minutes and hungrily screams out for more of the same. Eastwood’s problem is much the same that he had in Sully. He doesn’t really have enough material for a truly great feature film, so he is forced to fill the screen time with something he hopes will entertain us long enough to stay with him for the good stuff. But as Clint said once as Dirty Harry: “A man’s got to know his limitations.“
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The world’s most erotic novel series is coming to an end with the release of the final chapter, 50 Shades Freed. Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan reprise their roles as Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, as the pair enters wedding bliss. Their romance has been a whirlwind, going from meeting to marriage in what seems to be less than six months. However, when it’s right, it’s right; besides, it’s rare that you find someone with the same taste, if you know what I mean. Naturally, happily ever after won’t come as easily as our couple will have to face an old enemy and a new challenge that could threaten to tear the two of them apart.
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For Dylan O’Brien, it just seems like his start just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Going from the awkward best friend on MTV’s Teen Wolf to becoming a leading man on the silver screen, he has shown charm and charisma normally only seen in veterans. Another great way a star distinguishes himself is to get attached to a franchise, something he has done with the Maze Runner trilogy. Of course, Maze Runner: The Death Cure spells the end of that run; given his performance in the film; it does not spell the end to his rise. An entertaining and engaging conclusion to the franchise, Maze Runner: The Death Cure follows former glader turned revolutionary Thomas as he continues his battle against his former employers
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“We just shoot you. Less paperwork.”

Most of us like a good heist film. It’s fun to watch clever crooks work out complicated plans and then execute them. It’s not hard to root for the crooks if they’re likable enough characters. With me I almost have a kind of reluctant respect for criminals who are able to outsmart sophisticated systems. There’s something about the perfect crime that fascinates a film lover like me. Logan Lucky was one of the better heist films I’ve seen in years, and I was ready to spend an hour and a half being impressed by ingenious crooked plan that runs like clockwork once again.
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The film Phantom Thread may be flying under the radar for most cinema-goers, but this little gem is a nice distraction from the big-budget fare that floods the theaters. While I’m a fan of director Paul Thomas Anderson’s earlier work (Boogie Nights and Magnolia), the big draw for this film is the perhaps last cinematic performance we may see from Daniel Day-Lewis, who last collaborated with Anderson in the 2007 film There Will Be Blood. While I have to admit the trailers for this film didn’t inspire much excitement from me, it’s the pairing of Anderson and Day-Lewis I was more curious about. The result is one of the more unexpected film experiences I’ve had in sometime. 
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“Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires.”

You will hear it said several times throughout 12 Strong: For over 2000 years invaders and conquerors throughout history have attempted to bring the mountainous country under a foreign flag. The Russians had been the latest power to attempt to fight there, and in the 1980’s that war quickly became their own Vietnam. Such was the plight of the American armed forces after Bin Laden sent planes crashing into buildings on September 11, 2001.
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The year kicks off with its first major action thriller The Commuter, and it’s a barn burner.  Total action after an introduction to the plot, the film takes you on the ride of your life with surprises on every turn.  If you like gripping films that work on your mind to try and figure out who the perpetrator is and what they want, then this movie should be on the top of your list. And it’s way better than last year’s Murder on the Orient Express. It’s becoming a monotonous routine for Michael MacCauley (Liam Neeson), a former police officer and now a life insurance agent. He gets up early in the morning, spends only minutes with his wife Karen MacCauley (Elizabeth McGovern) and the children.
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Several movies have been released over the past three decades that defend the press or show the importance of the media to inform the public.  This is one of them that for the most part does reveal the inner sanctum of one newspaper as it deals with exposing the government for wrong decisions leading to the death of thousands in the Vietnam War. While the script does reveal the sadness of human life losses that could have been avoided, unfortunately the film uses it to glorify newspapers using old news. A platoon starts taking heavy fire in a wooded area, and the body bags start to fill at a high rate.
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