The Reel World

When you look back on the impressive 40-year career of Nicolas Cage, it’s pretty hard to pick a favorite performance. I can’t even think of another actor who has such a diverse batch of performances. Sure, the man is known for being a bit over-the-top, but that’s part of the charm of a Nicolas Cage film. People can be quick to point out that in recent years his “movie star” appeal has been fading with the amount of direct-to-video films he’s put out in the past decade. It even seems like there just isn’t a movie he’ll say no to so long as the check clears. Most likely you’d be half right in thinking that the man’s been through some financial issues, BUT at the same time he’s been in some fun and wild movies in the past decade as well. Mandy (2018) has become a bit of a cult success. Color Out of Space is another film in recent years to gain a cult following; then there is the fun Willy’s Wonderland, the bonkers Prisoners of the Ghostland, and the critically acclaimed Pig, which has a near-career-best performance from Cage. Basically, he’s stayed busy and put out some great work even if none of these films created anything close to a blip on the box office charts. When it comes to The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, it takes not just this past decade of Nicolas Cage’s career but the last 40 years and delves into the myth and the legend of the man off screen and creates a hilarious meta-film that comes so close to greatness that it’s hard to not feel this may be one of Nicolas Cage’s best films.

The film starts things off with a kidnapping. Just who this girl is is something we don’t find out till later in the film, but it’s a strong opening that then cuts to Nicolas Cage (obviously playing himself) taking a meeting with a director about what could be a career-defining role. In the film’s version of Nicolas Cage, we see him as a man struggling with his ex-wife Olivia (Sharon Horgan), while being an out-of-touch father to his teenage daughter, Addy (Lily Mo Sheen). It’s his relationships in his personal life that really work with connecting the audience to the character. We see he’s genuine in his own way with trying to maintain these relationships. It’s just that his passion towards his career just seems to get in the way. The heart of this film is about Cage needing to learn how to shift these priorities to be a better person. It seems simple, and we’ve seen this trope in many films before but never quite executed in this fashion.

This was a bit of a letdown, if I’m being honest. It just didn’t deliver the epic conclusion that I was expecting. Honestly, it felt more like part 1 of a two-part conclusion. While it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that there is another upcoming installment in the franchise, at this moment I am unaware of any intentions to continue the series with this group of characters. Bearing that in mind, I must defer to my original statement: it was a bit of a letdown. In recent years, my fandom for the Wizarding World has been rekindled due my daughter’s discovery, and now obsession, for all things Harry Potter. I was especially glad when I learned that I would be able to bring her along for what I expected, at the time, to be an epic conclusion. And while the film got her stamp of approval, my approval is a little harder to receive.

When we last saw Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), he and his group barely survived a battle with Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen), who’d managed to gather his supporters. Newt and gang only survived due to the sacrifice of his brother, Theseus’ (Callum Turner), fiancé Leta (R.I.P. Zoe Kravitz). Following her sacrifice, Newt, who tended to stay out of the magical politics, had chosen to stand with his brother and Dumbledore (Jude Law) against Grindelwald. In case of Dumbledore, this was more of a symbolic gesture thanks to a blood pact that prevented Dumbledore and Grindelwald from fighting one another.

When I was a young boy I loved playing with my toys. We had some cool toys back then. Major Matt Mason, plastic dinosaurs, Hot Wheels, and Creepy Crawlers Thingmaker sets. Yeah, in those days a toy could cause third-degree burns and no one really worried about getting sued. Kind of takes the fun out of being a kid today. You know who else, I bet, loved to play with his toys? Michael Bay. I bet he had the coolest toys in his neighborhood. He probably wasn't the best guy to be friends with, however. He didn't invite the kids over to play with his toys. He likely charged you a nickel to watch him play with them. It's many decades later, and Michael still has the coolest toys on the block. Only now you have to cough up twenty bucks if you want to watch him playing with them. I'll bet he wasn't the best guy to lend your toys too, either. He probably loved breaking stuff. There were likely plenty of toy casualties in the Bay home in those days. So you didn't want him playing with your toys. Michael is still breaking a lot of toys. For a while he used giant robots to do his dirty work. Now he kinda feels like he's played that game enough. Now he's back to breaking cars ... lots of cars. Ambulance is Bay's latest adrenaline fix, and the damage is considerable. But is it worth the 20 bucks this time around?

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays Will Sharp. He's a desperate man. He's returned from a tour of duty serving his country, and his wife needs surgery that is considered experimental so not covered by insurance. He needs a couple hundred grand or he's going to lose his wife. He tells her he's going on a job interview, but he's really going to see his brother Danny, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Their father was a renowned criminal who wouldn't hesitate to kill while robbing banks. Danny ropes his brother into a robbery that will pull in many millions for each member of the crew. Of course, things go sideways, and the next thing you know a cop's been shot, and the two brothers hijack the ambulance taking him to the hospital along with a young EMT named Cam Thompson, played by Eiza Gonzalez. It might sound thin, but that's pretty much the plot behind Michael Bay's Ambulance.

From the moment I saw the trailer for The Lost City, it immediately gave me vibes of Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile, the adventure-romance films that starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner back in the mid-eighties. The basic story for those films were simple: a romance writer who finds herself in an adventure to find a rare jewel alongside a handsome rogue with bad guys coming after them around every corner. I loved these films as a kid, and getting to see a modern twist on these stories is something I found welcome. What is even more welcome is getting to see Sandra Bullock back in a comedic role. I’ve been a fan of just about everything Bullock has done since she graced the screen in Demolition Man and then the following year in Speed. My only concern was seeing Channing Tatum as her co-star; while I like him in numerous supporting roles like Logan Lucky and Foxcatcher, he’s never really convinced me that he has what it takes for leading-man status. Well, that changed after seeing The Lost City, and my feeling about this film is that it’s the movie audiences don’t yet realize they needed, and I hope it becomes the box office success it deserves to be.

Loretta Sage (Bullock) is a successful romance novelist who is mourning the passing of her husband. She’s become a bit of a shut-in, and after struggling to finish her book “The Lost City of D” her manager Beth (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) has put together a book tour for Loretta and her cover model, Alan “Dash” (Tatum) to promote the book. Loretta seems to be content with giving up with her romance adventure series, though this could possibly mean an early retirement for Alan, who has embraced being a sex symbol for her readers wearing a ridiculous wig, acid-wash jeans, and a shirt that seems to have lost most of its buttons. Channing Tatum immediately stands out in this performance as he hams it up on stage for the adoring fans but is charming when he’s off stage trying to convince Loretta to not stop writing. It’s after the near-disastrous promo appearance where the plot escalates after Loretta is kidnapped and taken to see an eccentric billionaire, Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe). Fairfax believes the island in Loretta’s new book is based off the island he has recently purchased and is in search of a lost city that contains a rare treasure.

"They think I'm hiding in the shadows, but I am the shadows."

You have certain expectations when you go to a superhero/comic book movie. Sure, it changes a little depending on the character that you're going to see. But there are certain things that all of these films tend to have in common. There's an expectation of frantic action and some mind-bending special f/x. You're looking for colorful villains who tend to act over-the-top and always provide that gentle wink back at the audience. When these expectations aren't met, audiences tend to be disappointed, and big budget films can end up costing the studios huge in the end. Even as we appear to be reaching the last days of the limited pandemic crowds, that risk gets multiplied. It also doesn't help if audiences are still riding the high off the first big global billion-dollar film in almost three years. That's the kind of headwinds The Batman is facing when audiences line up to see the return of one of the oldest and most famous heroes in comic history. What if I were to tell you that you won't get a lot of any of those things, but you're going to love it anyway? That's exactly what I am telling you about Warner Brothers' newest Batman film, simply titled The Batman.

The Naughty Dog series Uncharted has been a bit of an obsession in my home since I played the first game. I always viewed the series as the Indiana Jones video game fans always wanted but just never got. There’s a reason for the game’s popularity. Each game comes with a great story, fun action game play, and memorable set pieces. It’s no surprise that it would eventually become a blockbuster movie, but what has surprised me is how long it has taken to bring the character of Nathan Drake to the big screen. Sure, you can argue we’ve gotten a new Tomb Raider film, and some could argue Uncharted is simply an Indiana Jones knockoff. But then I’d have to ask those people, have they actually played the game? Even with another Indiana Jones film in post production, and as much as I love that franchise, that fourth film simply left a bad taste in my mouth, and I’m slightly concerned about what could happen with a fifth film not helmed by Spielberg.  It’s these thoughts that have me  gotten me so excited about the prospect of an Uncharted film, a passing of the torch for a new adventure franchise that’s filled with treasure hunting, exotic locations, and plenty of action. After a decade of development, does the film live up to my expectations, or does it disappoint like so many other video game adaptations that have been released over the years?

Tom Holland steps into the role of Nathan Drake. When we meet this character he’s nothing more than a clever pickpocket, and though he’s a fan of history and legends of treasure, he hasn’t yet become the treasure hunter we know and love. Nathan is approached by Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg), a professional thief/treasure hunter who wants to recruit Nathan for a job, and it’s Sully’s connection to Drake’s long-lost brother that convinces Nathan to go ahead and help with the job that involves stealing a rare cross from an auction house. Also after the cross is Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas). The cross happens to be a key that leads to a fortune that is valued at $5 billion dollars. The cross is only the start of this globetrotting adventure that is filled with double-crosses and clues to solve the mystery of this lost treasure.

“It’s simple. You’ll grow a mustache.”

Now here is a movie that the pandemic hit hard. Originally slated for December 2019 release, this Kenneth Branagh directed and starred sequel film is finally coming to theaters after a two-year-and-some-change delay. Branagh reprises his role as director, as well as his role as one of the most famous detectives both fictionally and in the reality, Hercule Poirot. Adapted from another Agatha Christie classic novel, this follow up to the Murder on the Orient Express takes us from the railroad tracks to the Egyptian Nile River, as Poirot once again finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation, where the suspects are aplenty. Just like in the previous film, Branagh is joined by a star-studded cast that includes Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Leticia Wright, Annette Benning, Rose Leslie, Russell Brand, and Sophie Okonedo. While there some obvious changes to the source material, such downsizing the number of characters from the book and distributing their attributes to other members of the cast; the story loses none of the quality that made this whodunit tale a classic.

In the 1970's Irwin Allen went from doing campy television science fiction shows like Lost In Space, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, and Lost In Space to becoming the king of the disaster movie. From The Poseidon Adventure to The Towering Inferno, Allen brought us to the brink of disaster time and time again. While others have followed in his footsteps, no one has taken that genre to heart as much as Roland Emmerich. Films like Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow filled our screens with technology that Irwin Allen could only dream about. But Emmerich worked best when he was partnered with Dean Devlin. Since that collaboration ended it appears that Emmerich has been in a kind of a rut. That wouldn't be so bad, because he knows how to put a big budget film together and give us a lot of bang for our buck with milestone f/x and mind-blowing set pieces. But it appears that a lot of that luster has been eclipsed by his latest sci-fi/disaster entry, Moonfall.

Moonfall begins familiarly enough for Emmerich fans with a rather eccentric "professor" who appears to have made a breakthrough discovery. He has learned that the moon's orbit is shrinking and bringing it closer and closer to Earth until eventually it will rain fire and brimstone down on our hapless planet. Of course, no one will believe him, and NASA has stopped taking his calls. Most of the problem is that he has for years been associated with a theory that the moon is actually an ancient alien construct and not a natural celestial body at all. It's the part played on Independence Day by Jeff Goldblum and on Stargate by James Spader. Here he's KC Houseman, played by John Bradley. He eventually gets the attention of washed-up astronaut Brian Harper, played by Patrick Wilson, who experienced something a few years ago on a shuttle mission that no one believes happened. At the heart of both of their problems is a black wave of material that is somehow sentient and a part of this moon structure left over by the little gray guys millions of years ago. Of course, by the time anyone listens to either of them, the real scientists have already discovered the shrinking orbit and have sent a mission to investigate. That goes badly, and eventually it's up to Houseman, Harper, and Harper's once-astronaut partner Jo Fowler, played by Halle Berry, to save the day.

Over twenty years ago, we were introduced to a slapstick television series known as Jackass. While the series only ran for three seasons, it was a show like no other, as it featured its cast intentional doing dangerous things and often risking injury and death for our entertainment. It also went on to spawn multiple spin-off series before transiting to the big screen in what is now four movie adaptations. It also introduced the world to the charisma of Johnny Knoxville, who without question was the most fearless and daring member of the cast; on several episodes, we witnessed as he got seriously injured while performing stunts that included getting gored by bulls, shot with tasers, shot from cannons, and contending with professional heavyweight boxers.

And now twenty years later, after seeing Jackass Forever, I can personally attest, and Chris Pontius said it best, “Even after twenty years, we are still doing the same stupid s#$%.”  It is literally like for the Jackass crew time has stood still. Now that is normally not a good thing, as change is necessary, but when it comes to this success of this popular franchise, consistency is paramount. Similar to how they used to give you disclaimer at the beginning cautioning you against attempt to replicate any of their stunts, I feel obligated to issue a disclaimer of my own: Warning! While the film is wildly entertaining, a strong stomach is needed to fully enjoy its contents. If you are lacking in that department, it may be best to avoid it.

In 1996 when Scream first came out, it’s hard to explain to this new generation of teens just how much it changed the genre and the film industry. To say the horror genre was dead is an understatement. Sure, the early 90’s had a handful of good films, but when you look at where the genre was in the 80’s and earlier, you can see the difference. Then when you look at how the genre has evolved since the first film premiered, what Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven did has been emulated but not quite surpassed. Even with the three sequels that followed, they had the same spirit but just not quite as good. Sure, better horror films have come along in the 25 years since, and several have changed the genre for better or worse. We’ve seen horror go with the intense hyper realism and the re-boot which Scream 4 (2011) took its meta take on, but where could the series go next?  Honestly, when Wes Craven passed in 2015, I figured the franchise was done unless they rebooted the series from scratch with a new cast and director, but I don’t think that’s what any of the fans wanted. For the intense and loyal fans, this is a franchise  that many seemed protective over. I’ll admit to being one of them, so when the talk came of a fifth film going into development, I was just at a loss. After all, how do you replace Wes Craven? The guy is quite literally a master of horror. My first choice would have been the team behind Turbo Kid and Summer of 84 . I like their style and their love for nostalgia, but instead the studio went with the directing team of Radio Silence (Tyler Gillett and  Matt Bettinelli-Olpin) who are responsible for the insanely fun Ready or Not. So how does the new film hold up with these new directors taking a “Stab” at the franchise?

The opening takes us into some familiar territory, as we have Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) as the teen who is home alone and is tormented by a suspicious caller who of course turns out to be the Ghost Face killer. This sequence sets the tone nicely and definitely is wanting to remind viewers of the first film but shows us there are going to be some modern twists along the way. No, I don’t think this scene holds up to the amazing opening of the first film, but it is definitely one of the best starts of the sequels, and the film only continues to impress going forward.