The Reel World

Every year it seems the “summer” movie season starts sooner than the year before.  Here we are, the second Friday of March, and already we’ve seen the huge box office weekend for Logan, and now this weekend we have the release of Kong: Skull Island.  Ever since Kong first graced the big screen back in 1933, every film that followed was a mega-event. Personally it wasn’t till 2005 that theatergoers got to fully experience the massive beast in all his glory as he became worthy of the title “the 8th wonder of the world”.  Now we have Legendary Entertainment playing in the giant monster movie sandbox with plans to set up a series of monster films.  All this leads up to the inevitable clash of the kaiju monsters where we will finally see the showdown of Godzilla vs. King Kong.  Before we begin to get too excited, how does our current trip to Skull Island fare?

It doesn’t take long for us to get to Skull Island; in fact the film opens up on the shore of the island in 1944.  Two soldiers are shot down and crash on the island, and their fight to the death continues as they pursue one another into the heart of the island.  Their fight is quickly interrupted by none other than Kong, and the pair realizes they seriously have bigger things to worry about on the island.  OK, I’m fine with not drawing out the reveal of Kong, but really, the first five minutes?  Where’s the tension to build to his massive 300-ft-plus reveal?  Sure, we’ve all seen the trailers for about a year now, so seeing Kong should be no surprise, but come on, he deserves at least some kind of a buildup.

"I always know who you are. It's just that sometimes I don't recognize you."

Logan is perhaps one of the most interesting, endearing and popular characters in the Marvel universe. Wolverine has the distinction of having been created by someone other than Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. While they invented the X-Men team from which the adamantium-clawed warrior was born, he was actually created by the team of Len Wein and John Romita, Sr. in the mid 1970's. Since that time the character has taken on a life of his own, a life that is as much owed to actor Hugh Jackman as anyone else. The funny thing is that Jackman is really nothing at all like the comic book character, who was actually quite short. But it's Jackman who has come to personify the wirily Cannuck. He's appeared, if only briefly, in each of the X-Men films except for one and two less-than-stellar Wolverine films. It all comes to a rather fitting close with one of the best Marvel-character films to date. Logan is pure comic book film noir and an emotional ride from start to finish.

“Sometimes...if there's too many white people, I get nervous.”

Some of the very best horror films/psychological thrillers succeed by taking a relatable source of anxiety and cranking it to 11. For example, The Exorcist can be viewed as the worst-case scenario for anyone suffering a crisis of faith, while The Shining taps into the madness of being cooped up with your family for too long. Get Out works because it uses the nerve-wracking experience of meeting your significant other's parents for the first time as a jumping-off point to tell a subversive, insightful, and entertaining story that mashes together Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and The Stepford Wives.

It’s kind of a big deal when discussing the film The Great Wall to mention that it is the most expensive Chinese film made to date.  With an estimated budget of a $150 million, I can understand the stunt casting of putting Matt Damon in the film that takes place during the Great Wall’s construction.  It’s quite simple; Matt Damon is an international star, and he puts people in seats.  What’s more surprising is that at one time Edward Zwick was on board to direct, but eventually that position would be passed on to  Yimou Zhang. For those unfamiliar with Zhang, he’s responsible for such martial arts epics Hero and House of Flying Daggers, and for Zhang this would be his first Hollywood feature.  To bring another factoid to the table, the studio behind the film is Legendary East, the Chinese branch of Legendary, the studio that is responsible for such monster epics as Pacific Rim, Godzilla, and Kong: Skull Island; basically they are attempting to become the American version of TOHO, the studio that originally churned out all the hit giant monster films of the 50’s to today.  What this all means is, everyone on board this project was expecting this film to be a monster (pun intended) smash at the global box office. Sadly, this was a giant swing, but not quite a miss, because the film is actually pretty fun.
The film opens up with a band of mercenaries on the run; they are on a quest to find “black powder” and return home with it. Right from the start we are given some beautiful aerial cinematography as the camera sweeps over the landscape to capture this opening horse chase.  Everything about this opening sequence just screams epic, and it quickly elevated my hopes on what would soon follow.

During the night, the group of mercenaries are attacked by a dark creature that no one seems to get a good look at, but in the process of the struggle, William (Matt Damon) manages to sever the creature’s arm, and he keeps it to identify later. Later turns out to be the next day once William and his Spanish partner Tovar (Pedro Pascal) are separated by their group and are taken prisoner at the foot of the Wall.  The Wall is under the protection of The Order, a group of soldiers that have been trained to protect The Wall for centuries.  But protect it from what?

"You wanted me back. I'm back."

Keanu Reeves has enjoyed somewhat of a career renaissance thanks in no small part to the success of John Wick in 2014. There he teamed up with some stunt friends of his going back to The Matrix, and together they brought a new action hero to the screen that was as much graphic novel as it was action film. It would become the directing debut of the stunt team of Stahelsky and David Leitch. Along with their action star, everyone stuck to what they knew and refused to overcomplicate the whole thing. That led to a box office haul of $86 million worldwide and a respectful enough budget to make a sequel seem like a good possibility. It took three years, but that possibility has turned into John Wick: Chapter 2.

“Black...all important movies start with a black screen...”

I completely understand if you're Batman-ed out by now. The Caped Crusader barely had a chance to catch his breath since the end of Christopher Nolan's landmark superhero trilogy in 2012 and being pressed back into duty to help kickstart Warner Bros.' budding superhero universe last year. But between those two iterations, we got a glimpse at a fresh, knowingly funny version of a hero that takes himself entirely too seriously. Batman was a scene-stealing supporting player in 2014's block-buster The Lego Movie, and now he once again takes center stage in a sharp, hilarious, irreverent adventure that celebrates practically every version of the beloved character.

From the suggestion of the title, you would think that we would be diving deeper into the world of BDSM, but after watching, the only thing that I can say about Fifty Shades Darker is that it’s a love story. Yes, I know that it was always a love story, but the first film possessed an edge and intensity, which no longer exist in the sequel. Disappointing is too pale a word for the film. From its failure to properly capture the essence of the source material, less than engaging performance of the leads, and the vanilla nature of the sex scenes, the movie does not live up to the hype. If 50 Shades of Grey pushed the envelope with its sexuality, 50 Shades Darker embraces the commercialism of a sequel for profit rather than effect.

When last we saw Christian Grey (Jaime Dornan) and Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) they had just learned that Ana may not be compatible for the kind of relationship that Christian needs, and they broke up. Their separation is temporary as both parties notice the absence of the other quickly, resulting in Christian seeking Ana out, and attempting to renegotiate the terms of their relationship. Ana is all but willing to reconcile, but as soon as it seems that they are about to embrace their happily ever after, complications in the form of an ex-sub Leila and the reemergence of Christian’s original temptress, Elena Lincoln (Kim Basinger) threaten to tear the couple apart.

Robert De Niro is arguably one of the most talented actors living today. There's little doubt that he'll long be remembered as a legendary force in motion picture history. But there has long been a downside to the iconic actor. He hasn't had a good starring role in over a decade. It looks too often as if he's been more interested in chasing a likely unneeded paycheck than adding to his already established legacy. For every Godfather Part 2 or Deer Hunter, there's a Dirty Grandpa or Fockers sequel. For each Good Fellas or Raging Bull, there's a Stone. And since the turn of the millennium, De Niro has gravitated more and more to comedy. While I actually liked the Analyze films, I have found myself cringing most of the time. De Niro has always had a stare that can look right through you, but he has the worst forced laugh in Hollywood. So I was more than a little cautious when I went to see The Comedian.

De Niro stars as Jackie Burke, a washed-up "insult" comedian. By insult comedian we're not talking Don Rickles variety here. We're talking more like Andrew Dice Clay. By insult we're talking F-bombing one's way through a performance. He's playing dives or wherever he can score a few bucks. He's most known for a vintage television series called Eddie's Home where he played a police officer with a Jackie-Gleason-like trademark line that he's too often asked to perform both on stage and in the street. When one of his gigs is crashed by an internet video blogger, violence ensues and Jackie spends six months in jail and then has to do 100 hours of community service. That's where he meets Harmony, played by Leslie Mann. They have a bit of a flirtatious relationship and she invites him on a "date" to meet her domineering father, played by Harvey Keitel, who happens to be an "Eddie" fan, and meeting Jackie is a birthday present of sorts. All the while Jackie's manager, played by Sopranos star Edie Falco, tries to get his career going again. A few viral videos of Jackie give him the chance to get back on top. As his career climbs, Harmony is bullied into moving back to Florida to work for her father's resort. Of course, dad also doesn't want her involved with Jackie. When she stops answering his calls or texts, Jackie decides to confront her, with surprising results.

When The Ring (2002) first came out, if you looked hard enough you could still find movies on VHS, so the thought of a mysterious tape that kills you seven days after watching it wasn’t so entirely farfetched.  Now that we are in 2017, if someone were to find a mysterious VHS tape, well, they’d be out of luck for the most part, since I’d wager most of the US population no longer has a VCR.  But Hollywood won’t let this stop their successful franchise from moving forward, even though it’s been 12 years since The Ring Two, this weekend is the release of the third film in the series, and quite frankly, I have to wonder if anyone really wanted this. 

Samara is back, and she is hungry to take the lives of anyone foolish enough to watch the video, and as the film opens we’re in a plane along with a passenger who has seen the film and only has minutes to go before his seven days are up.  While this is a fun scene that gave me hope for what would continue, I couldn’t help but feel that the scene was perhaps a throwaway sequence from Final Destination. Then, oddly enough, the film seems to start again, two years later when we see Gabriel (Johnny Galecki), a college professor, purchasing an old VCR.  Once Gabriel gets to his apartment, he gets a surprise when he discovers a tape with the words “Watch Me” written on it.  Just like all foolish characters in horror films, he watches the film and immediately gets the phone call.

"I know what you're thinking: How the heck does a 52-year old milkshake machine salesman build a fast food empire with over 1600

restaurants and an annual income over $700 million? One word:" The Founder.