"What we do in life echoes in eternity."

What Ridley Scott does often echoes quite nicely at the box office. In 2000 Ridley Scott released Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe as the Roman Legion turned gladiator that ended in a fight to return Rome to the Senate and its citizens. Maximus fought gallantly and fell just short of his goal. But the story that the film wove was truly a masterpiece and stands as one of my top 10 films of all time, up there with Unforgiven and the first two Godfather films. I've often said in these pages that expectations kill, and I was well prepared for that to be the result when I sat down to the press screening for Gladiator II. Scott himself calls this the best film he's ever made. That's a big boast coming from the guy who brought us Alien, Blade Runner, and, of course, the original Gladiator. I disagree. While I found Gladiator II to be an impressive film from every perspective, it didn't quite make me feel the way I did when I left the theater for the first time after seeing Gladiator. But take heart. It's a damn good movie, and it's a can't-miss for any true film fans out there in the arena. The question is pretty simple. Are we not entertained? The answer is, "oh yeah".

It has been a while since I’ve seen a movie as clever and as bonkers as Hundreds of Beavers. This is a movie that no studio would ever consider doing; it’s a fun and wild homage to the silent film era and the old B&W cartoons, most notably the Warner Brothers cartoons. But really this film is more than that. It is rich with so much slapstick influence, while visually it’s a marvel with its use of miniatures and creating images that make it look like cell animation that has come to life … all while looking like a film that a group of friends got together and decided to make. On a surface level this film seems like it would fail, but after the first 15 minutes I was mesmerized and in love. I’d imagine the casual filmgoer would take a look at this film and immediately check out, and that’s fine. This is a movie for a niche audience and is destined for cult status … It’s funny … It’s weird … But what’s it all about?

At first glance it would appear that the crew for Red One is made up of folks who have had long associations with Dwayne Johnson, from director Jack Kasdan, who also directed two of the Jumanji films, to writer Chris Morgan, who wrote many of The Fast And Furious films including the Johnson-led spin-off Hobbs And Shaw. He also wrote the last Shazam film, which led to Johnson's spin-off black hole Black Adam. It's a working environment friendly to the actor. But the rumors from this set are loaded with tales of Johnson blowing off work and/or showing up late and unprepared. It's honestly not his usual vibe, and when you consider his divorce from Fast And The Furious's Vin Diesel revolved around Johnson throwing the same kind of shade on that actor's behavior, I was curious if the on-set issues and also word of a ballooning budget would show up on the finished product. I'm happy to report there doesn't appear to be any disrupted chemistry on the film, and it became easy to dismiss all of that with just a few minutes on the Red One ride.