The Reel World

"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.

I’ll say this for Vin Diesel, he always returns to a franchise. It doesn’t matter how long has passed between his introduction and his exit; you can always count on him returning and stepping back into a role regardless of how many years it’s been, like nothing has ever changed. Doesn’t matter what it is; Fast and Furious, Riddick, and now XXX: the Return of Xander Cage. For those not familiar with the franchise (though I’m sure there few people who don’t already know about the original), XXX was an action film that was released in 2002 featuring Diesel as Xander Cage, an extreme sports enthusiast who is recruited by the NSA to foil a terrorist plot, which he accomplishes with such flair that an idea is born: create a program for a group of rebels who can get close to the criminals that the government can only dream of. Thus a franchise was born. Sadly, Diesel’s involvement appeared to end with the killing off of his character in the 2005 sequel (thus making way for Ice Cube’s involvement with the franchise). However, Xander Cage has apparently returned from the grave. Now going into this film there was only one burning question plaguing me: how did Cage survive his own assassination attempt?

Though I don’t feel like my question was completely answered, I will say that that stopped mattering so much once Diesel appeared on the screen. Following the attempt on his life, Xander Cage has assumed a nomadic life, moving from place to place in order to avoid being found. Although I wouldn’t necessarily say he is keeping a low profile; I mean, he’s still Xander Cage. He has to chase the rush. He is eventually found by Marke (Toni Collette), a high-ranking government official in need of his services after a group of operatives (Donnie Yen, Deepika Padukone, Tony Jaa, and Michael Bisping) who, like him, live life on the edge, steal a cutting-edge technology capable of turning satellites into warheads. Tasked with retrieving the technology, Xander realizes he can’t accomplish this alone and refuses help from the suits, with the exception of his new technical support liaison, Becky (Nina Dobrev), Xander recruits some young blood (Ruby Rose, Kris Wu, Rory McCann) to help him with his mission. Before long, Xander finds himself embroiled in a situation that he doesn’t fully understand but is likely to lead him down a rabbit hole that he is gonna have to use every trick in his arsenal in order to survive, and he’s loving every second of it.

Too soon? That’s a question filmmakers looking to tackle a real-life tragedy from the recent past must ask themselves. The past several months have nevertheless brought us a mini-run of movies based on true calamities. Clint Eastwood’s Sully used the “Miracle on the Hudson” to explore the nature (and context) of heroism. Peter Berg’s Deepwater Horizon painstakingly chronicled the events that led to the famous oil rig disaster on the Gulf of Mexico. But the best movie of that bunch is Patriots Day, Berg’s visceral, all-encompassing, and thrilling account of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.

Patriots’ Day is a state holiday that commemorates the first battles of the American Revolution, and it is most closely associated with Massachusetts. The Boston Red Sox play a morning game at home, and (more famously) the city hosts the Boston Marathon, the world’s oldest annual event of its kind. The film’s surprisingly humorous opening scene takes place on the eve of the big day and introduces us to Boston P.D. Sgt. Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg), who is stuck in the department’s doghouse for some unspecified reason. Part of Tommy’s punishment is being forced to work near the marathon’s finish line the following day.

When the closing credits rolled the first time I saw this, I was stuck in my seat paying some attention to members of the cast and crew, but mostly I was sitting there in awe.  I’m honestly struggling to think of a film that has affected me on the screen so deeply, and the closest I can get is The Shawshank Redemption. While I’ve certainly seen many good films over the years, and I’ve seen some I would even call great, La La Land is something more, something special that came along that achieved what few would even dare to believe.  It is an achievement that writer and director Damien Chazelle deserves the many accolades that he will soon be showered with as we enter into the award season as 2016 comes to a close.  Just what is it that he managed to capture?  In my most humble opinion, he captured all that was and is great from the Golden Age of Hollywood.  This is a film that opens the door to the past, to when greats like Humphrey Bogart, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, and Fred Astaire were the giants of the silver screen, a time that it seems Hollywood has all but turned its back on and become an industry of making CGI cash-making franchises and neglecting what brought us to the theaters to begin with: to show us how to dream, and to not be afraid to dream big.

Our introduction into the film (proudly boasts to be shot in Cinemascope), brings us into gridlock Los Angeles traffic and without warning passengers exit their cars to perform the film’s opening number, “Another Day of Sun”.  It’s a big number filled with dozens of performers singing and jumping from car to car as the camera moves beautifully between the performers.  The color in all the costumes simply pops across the screen, and this is simply a taste of what’s to come.

With talks going on about setting up colonies on Mars, long distance space travel is quickly moving away from the pages of science fiction to the next step in space exploration. Passengers is a film that taps into the possibilities of what this could mean for us as a species but also takes a look at the great risk that we would be facing. At a glance it would seem like a surefire Hollywood blockbuster to end the year, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that is a sure thing.  Despite the great effects and set designs, two bankable stars, and a more than capable director, Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game and Headhunters), what you still need is a story that will not only fill those seats but keep people wanting to come back for more.  Sadly, what we have here is so much potential that caves into telling a safe and unfortunately predictable story that we have seen time and time again.  Strap in, folks, you’re in for a bit of a bumpy ride.

Welcome aboard starship Avalon, a ship filled with 5000 passengers and a crew of 258.  The ship is on its way to Homestead 2, a planet that the people of Earth are planning to colonize.  The trouble is, to get to Homestead 2 it’s going to take 120 years, so the passengers and crew need to use sleep chambers to keep them in a cryogenic state until they arrive.  Unfortunately for Jim Preston (Pratt), his chamber malfunctions and he wakes up 90 years too soon without any way to fix his chamber and get back to sleep.