Spirit Untamed – Movie Review

Directed by: Elaine Bogan and Ennio Torresan

Written by: Aury Wallington and Kristin Hahn

Starring: Isabela Merced, Jake Gyllenhaal, Julianne Moore, Marsai Martin, and Mckenna Grace

Runtime: 87 minutes

‘Spirit Untamed’ is cute, but it’s also a paint-by-numbers ride

Lucky Prescott’s (Isabela Merced) name doesn’t suit her, at least for the first 10-plus years of her life. Her mom - Milagro Navarro (Elza Gonzalez), a world-class horse rider – dies in a circus accident (within the opening few minutes of this movie). To make matters worse, instead of her father, Jim Prescott (Jake Gyllenhaal), providing oceans of support, he unilaterally and inexplicably decides that his sister, Cora (Julianne Moore), will care for Lucky.

Cora says to Lucky, “Something broke in your father.”

And how!

Jim later explains his actions. He wanted to keep his daughter safe rather than raise her under his roof. If that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to you, then you and I agree.

So, Lucky lives with her Aunt Cora in a large, east coast city, while Jim resides in Miradero, which seems to sit in the American Southwest or Mexico base on the animated topography.

All seems well and good until Lucky – who’s a bit wild at heart – ruins her grandfather’s run-for-governor campaign announcement. So, for some sudden, oddball reason, Aunt Cora immediately decides that she and Lucky should move to Miradero faster than you can say, “We’re doing what now? Sure, whatever.”

Now, Jim, Lucky, and Cora all reside in one spot, and miraculously, our 10-year-old girl shows zero resentment towards her father for giving her up a decade ago. Hey, Jim seems like a nice enough guy, even though he sports the spine of a single stand of boiled angel hair pasta. All is forgiven, or actually, barely acknowledged. Since Cora is also in Miradero, they both can care for Lucky, but this plan could’ve been employed immediately after Milagro’s death, right?

Narratively, the script bumps into a few of these head-scratching logic issues, but one can suppose that these problems are less important than the animated movie’s primary goal, which is to grant Lucky a horse adventure, one geared towards small children, especially girls.

In that respect, directors Elaine Bogan and Ennio Torresan’s film delivers its promise, but adults might wish for a more regal, complex tale. Then again, this DreamWorks feature does follow Disney’s playbook of killing off the mom, so even though “Spirit Untamed” doesn’t offer a whole lot of depth, a least there’s some familiarity, albeit twisted and deeply frustrating. See also “Bambi” (1942), “Finding Nemo” (2003), and countless others, including “Cruella” (2021).

“Spirit Untamed” is preceded by the feature “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” (2002) and eight seasons of “Spirit Riding Free” (2017 – 2019) on Netflix. Admittedly, I haven’t seen the previous film or animated series, but wow, eight seasons!

Anyway, Lucky settles into this new town by meeting a couple of friends her age, Abigail (Mckenna Grace) and Pru (Marsai Martin), and also a wild Mustang named Spirit. These two kiddos ride horses, and soon enough, so does Lucky. She feels that Spirit is her kindred spirit. They are both fierce and carefree, and Lucky chooses Spirit as her horse, but does Spirit choose her?

Well, the girls tell the young Ms. Prescott that a way to a horse’s heart is through the 3 C’s: care, confidence, and carrots, so naturally, she wins over Spirit with…apples.

This genuine bliss immediately fades, however, when a crude wrangler named Hendricks (Walton Goggins) rustles Spirit’s family for auction, and Lucky, Abigail, and Pru form a girl-power triad to rescue the horse troupe. They are three tiny kids riding their ponies through rugged, mountainous terrain that would give old-school western actors John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Jimmy Stewart reason for pause, but these girls got this, and they have bracelets too! Think of the “Stand by Me” (1986) boys, except without the personal reflections, infighting, mental illness, and of course, walking. No, these girls giggle and ride their way to catch Hendricks and his associate baddies, hopefully.

Arran Baker and his animators do a commendable job with bringing the American West (or Mexico) on the big screen. It resembles a more sophisticated version of the Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner backdrops, and the perilous journey includes a daunting climb up Heck Mountain.

(Note, This critic watched “Spirit Untamed” at home, but the purple buttes and orange skies probably pop even better on the big screen.)

Meanwhile, Jim fails miserably at preserving Lucky’s safety or even keeping track of his daughter, but then again, he is way out of parenting practice after abandoning her. Still, he and Cora may find a way to catch up with this determined preteen.

You’ll have no problem keeping up with “Spirit Untamed”, a paint-by-numbers animated feature that will probably delight kids under 8 years young, as it delivers its aforementioned intentions. It’s cute and harmless, but it’s also generally forgettable, although it’ll be difficult not to shake Jim’s lousy decision-making. Well, I guess there’s a lesson for adults too.

Jeff’s ranking

2/4 stars

A Quiet Place Part II - Movie Review

Dir: John Krasinski

Starring: Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Cillian Murphy, Djimon Hounsou, and John Krasinski

1 hr 37 min

In the beginning moments of John Krasinski's A Quiet Place Part II we are placed in the past, on Main Street somewhere in Small-town, U.S.A. The Abbott family gathers at a Little League game for Marcus (Noah Jupe), who tentatively stands in batting position while fastballs whiz past him. Lee (John Krasinski) arrives a little late to the game, having to stop at a general store for snacks before sitting atop the bleachers with his daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds). Suddenly, something strange happens; a large fiery object explodes and streaks across the cloudy skyline as the crowd scatters in confusion. Alien creatures crash onto the scene, smashing into vehicles and chasing down running humans. It's chaotic, scary, and emotional. It's also cinematic, a brilliantly executed introduction for this exciting sequel.

In A Quiet Place, the tension-filled horror origin story, the Abbott's survived the creature invasion by building a shelter, growing their food, and using sign language (their oldest child Regan is deaf) to communicate with each other. The arrival of a newborn baby, a brilliant character to introduce into a world that is ultimately supposed to remain silent, and the domino effect of decisions that call the monsters into play leads the family to abandon their shelter. Lee, making the heroic sacrifice, saves his children from death by offering himself to the alien beings.

A Quiet Place Part II takes place immediately following the events of the previous film. Evelyn (Emily Blunt) leads her children from their home and into the wilderness towards a signal fire that serves as the only beacon of hope for the mourning and traumatized family. Evelyn plays the role of sole protector for her family, carrying a newborn across her chest and trying to instill a level of comfort and safety for her older children. Emily Blunt is excellent in this role, combining emotions of disbelief and grief with grit and tenacity in the face of everything that is falling to pieces.

Krasinski demonstrates with this film a keen understanding of horror characteristics and, most impressively, the expectations that smart movie fans have for the genre. On numerous occasions, Krasinski will indicate that a scare is coming, whether through framing, with the exceptional immersive sound design, or with a shadow that feels out of place. Then, just as the audience thinks they grasp what is coming or how it might present, the big scare will come from a different location or with a different emotional emphasis.

Krasinski, who also wrote the film, does this manipulation of expectations with the narrative also. There is a sense of where this story is going, but figuring out how the start will meet the finish is composed of ingenious trips and traps. However, beyond these finely tuned moments of tension and terror is where Krasinski shines with the narrative, with the story of parents and children and the roles that shift and emerge as they continually grow in the apocalyptic landscape. The young actors Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe do a great job of embodying their characters' contrasting emotions at the beginning of the film. Where one is strong-willed and impulsive, the other is timid and cautious. As the film moves into a place where the children must fight for their future, the young characters become the focus of the action. It's an interesting transition that separates the sequel from its predecessor.

A Quiet Place Part II has a few noise-induced jump scares but again establishes its horror focus with a motive of tension-building driven by character and the bonds formed between them. There are only a few moments when the film loses track of its emotional core, mainly when the family must separate, but Krasinski masks this issue by ramping up the action and tension. When three separate stories converge during the finale, it's wholly cinematic and will have you on the edge of your seat.

Monte's Rating

4.00 out of 5.00

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Cruella - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Directed by: Craig Gillespie

Written by: Dana Fox and Tony McNamara

Starring: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Tipper Seifert-Cleveland, Paul Walter Hauser, Joel Fry, and Mark Strong

Runtime: 124 minutes

‘Cruella’: A film to behold rather than enjoy

Cruella de Vil is one of Disney’s most feared villains, right up there with Maleficent, Ursula, and Scar. The Hunter in “Bambi” (1942) won’t win any Man of the Year awards, especially from this critic. “Bambi” was my first movie experience in 1975, and I remember crying my eyes out when the title character’s mom died. I haven’t watched that film since, so yea, Disney antagonists sometimes leave a mark. In that case, a permanent one.

Of course, Cruella originates from “One Hundred and One Dalmatians” (1961). She sets her sights on the animal kingdom too, as she wishes to make a fur coat out of Dalmatian skins. Nice. That’s a demented endeavor on par with dumping toxic waste in the Colorado River or suggesting to watch the Adam Sandler (so-called) comedy “Jack and Jill” (2011) for date night. Glenn Close also starred as the infamous anti-PETA baddie in the 1996 live-action remake and 2000 sequel. Twenty-one years later, we have a Cruella origin story, whether the world needed one or not.

Disney tapped director Craig Gillespie to tap into this ominous character, and he helmed the fabulous “I, Tonya” (2017), so he knows a thing or two about disreputable female leads. For Cruella, physically, she sports naturally bloodshot eyes, a unique salt and pepper hairstyle, an angular face that could cause paper cuts, and according to Google, she stands – in the cartoon world – somewhere between 5’ 7” and 5’ 9”. To an 8-year-old kid in a theatre, Ms. de Vil stands about 6’ 8” and a straight-up 7-foot with heels.

She’s an intimidating soul, but does she have one? “Cruella” tries to answer that question, and Emma Stone plays the lead as an early 20-something, and Tipper Seifert-Cleveland is a 12-year-old Cruella for a hot minute, or rather an unhealthy 15. Actually, Emma and Tipper are Estella, but Cruella is their alter-ego when they feel an “I am woman, hear me roar” moment coming on.

The picture doesn’t run for a moment but for a lengthy, winding 124 minutes. The narrative’s twists and turns are compelling, but who knows how long young kids can hang. Then again, “Cruella” is rated PG-13.

Anyway, the first hour pits pre-teen and adult Estella as a big-time victim(s), a human being slighted, bullied, overlooked, disrespected, and something far more brutal. The latter is a plot point that Disney loves because it’s a featured tragedy that they’ve paraded around for 80 years, but hey, why mess with a “winning” formula.

The screenplay effectively plays on our sympathies, but thankfully, Estella (or Stella) finds some reprieve from her pain in the form of new bosom buddies, Horace (Paul Walter Hauser) and Jasper (Joel Fry). They are two lifelines when no one else accepts her. However, the moral dilemma is that this dubious duo begs, borrows, and steals to make a living but scratch out the first two interests. Horace and Jasper are grifters all the way and always looking for an angle. Our featured personality soon shares their slanted perspective, as theft – in countless forms – is their business, and business is booming!

Filmed in London, Gillespie captures the pomp and circumstance of The Swinging City. Since the movie is set in 1964 and then 1974, he and his team offer almost two dozen music snippets from the period. Generally speaking, there’s a distinct joy in listening to fond tracks that match the on-screen events, and The Zombies’ “Time of the Season”, The Doors’ “Five to One”, and Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” help fit that toe-tapping, head-bobbing bill. After a short while, however, this precise novelty wears off, because instantly recognizable songs constantly pop over the speakers throughout the movie, and the 20-second clips feel like gimmicks rather than organic harmonies.

Ohio Players’ “Fire”, Deep Purple’s “Hush”, ELO’s “Livin’ Thing”, Queen’s “Stone Cold Crazy”, and the platinum record list goes on and on. Since the film cost about 200 million, perhaps 10 million quid went into music rights. How much does Blondie’s “One Way or Another” cost?

The soundtrack feels overplayed, but Gillespie and cinematographer Nicolas Karakatsanis offer glorious visual captures of the fashion world and the land of galas and cotillions. Stella eventually lands a designer gig with The Baroness (Emma Thompson), and the film delivers dizzying, gorgeous set pieces, and every color in Crayola’s The Ultimate Crayon Bucket models themselves on the latest perfectly cut and draped fabric imaginable.

The on-screen textile cornucopia will bring tears to Tim Gunn’s eyes and massive appreciation from style pros and novices alike.

So, with high-profile music, Martin Foley’s sweeping art direction, Jenny Beavan’s glorious costume designs, a fabulous locale, and Disney’s towering support, one would surmise that “Cruella” would be a blast. Sure, the movie captures plenty of eye and ear candy – and Cruella’s chalky-white plastered cheeks and two-tone hairdo is a look that simultaneously draws awe and nightmares, but the story is a bleak and dreary tale, and purposely so.

Hauser and Fry – who would hopefully provide some comic relief – aren’t given many chances, if any, to bump some funny bones, and the former was a hilarious scream as Shawn Eckhardt in Gillespie’s “I, Tonya”. Just check out Hauser’s Eckhardt mock interview or any of his moments in that film. This triad even has two dogs for good measure, but other than a Chihuahua named Wink sporting an eye patch and playing a rodent for an important grift, their natural cute and mischievous gifts are lost or forgotten.

Here’s what’s not lost. “Cruella” is a dark tale of revenge, and murder looms over the entire movie. Cruella is an anti-hero because her foe (who will not be named in this review) is much worse than her, at least at this point. The narrative is not exactly a party, but the chess match against her adversary delivers some surprises…during Estella’s schizophrenic journey. Horace and Jasper refer to their friend as two entirely different people without a second thought, and she appears to snap into a psychotic break to begin the second half of the picture.

Hey, Venom (Thomas Hardy) is a demented, schizophrenic, outer-space, murderous anti-hero, but “Venom” (2018) is a noticeably more festive time at the movies. If only Cruella jumped into a lobster tank and bit the head off some live seafood. Let’s save that for the next prequel.

“Cruella” is a movie to behold rather than enjoy, and if your 8-year-old does watch it, brush up your knowledge on mental illness and mommy issues when your child inevitably comes to you with questions. On the positive side, you can reminisce about the visual magic of movies and brag about your The Clash and The J. Geils Band record collections too.

Jeff’s ranking

2.5/4 stars

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Cruella - Movie Review by Monte Yazzie

Directed by: Craig Gillespie

Written by: Dana Fox and Tony McNamara

Starring: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Tipper Seifert-Cleveland, Paul Walter Hauser, Joel Fry, and Mark Strong

Runtime: 124 minutes

By: Monte Yazzie

In Disney's 1961 animated classic, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, audiences were introduced to one of the most memorable, inherently evil, villains in cinema history with Cruella de Vil. The apparent motivation of the chic, flamboyant, and unstable London heiress is simple, to make fur coats out of Dalmatian puppies!! It seems like a hard corner to turn this devilish designer into someone moviegoers would care to watch.

Director Craig Gillespie, who last helmed the darkly humorous yet heartfelt I, Tonya, takes the iconic villain from its animated inspirations and crafts an origin story of a young woman living outside the realms of good conduct. Cruella, which arrives in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access on Friday, is simply a fun time at the movies. Gillespie imbues the film with filmmaking and costume style, allows two magnificent actors the opportunity to compose campy and colorful characters, and wraps the entirety in a killer soundtrack.

Estella (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland) is a troublemaker in the best sense, a curious and rebellious young girl with an appetite for fashion and a hairstyle that matches her bold tendencies. Adult Estella (Emma Stone) narrates her upbringing, which tragically includes the death of her mother (Emily Beecham) and the journey to London into a life of pickpocketing and thievery. She finds a makeshift family with two other orphans, Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser). But Estella is still drawn to her fashion dreams, and with some help, she finds herself employed and quickly in the limelight working for a ruthless fashion designer known as The Baroness (Emma Thompson).

The first hour of Cruella is an absolute feast for the senses. Gillespie composes the roots of Estella's story like a music video, keeping the camera in perpetual motion while choreographing music needle drops with absolute precision. The Doors, Ike & Tina Turner, Queen, The Clash, Nina Simone, and a show-stopping cover of the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" make appearances throughout the film. It offers unique pacing and presentation that makes the story sizzle with high energy.

Oscar-winning costume designer Jenny Beavan, who is sure to be back in awards consideration after this display, adorns the screen with unique visions of fashion that embody a range of elegance. Whether in a messy shopping window display, with an evening gown that glimmers with life, or in the abandonment of thrown-away dresses from the back of a trash dump truck, it's all so beautiful to watch.

Emma Stone gives Estella a charming attitude, transitioning into more punk-rock aesthetics with every turn of the story. Once Cruella makes her inevitable appearance, new accent and style intact, Stone chews the scenery with absolute glee. She is a joy to watch. On the other side playing, unusually, the film's real villain is Emma Thompson as The Baroness. The cutthroat, unforgiving fashionista may feel sewn from the same cloth as Meryl Streep's character in The Devil Wears Prada, but Thompson makes the role her unique portrayal. When the actress stares daggers, with three snarling Dalmatians sauntering around her presence, it's hard not to smile at the performance on display.

All the visual bravado hides the narrative flaws, which never makes a villain out of Cruella. Yes, the character grows snobbish and less concerned about the well-being of her improvised family once Cruella takes over, but still, there is a heroic quality surrounding her quest in the third act. While, in a different movie not connected to the 1961 Disney property, this wouldn't be so much of a complaint. But the way Cruella is composed in this film almost eliminates the character seen in the animated movie.

Cruella might have worked better as a story without the ties to the original animated icon. But that doesn't stop Gillespie and the team from making a thoroughly entertaining, crowd-pleasing film.

Monte's Rating

3.50 out of 5.00

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Emily Blunt Triple Feature

Emily Blunt stars in “A Quiet Place Part II”, the much-anticipated sequel to the 2018 science-fiction/horror masterpiece. In celebration of the new film and her career, here is a terrific Emily Blunt Triple Feature that features this London-born actress’ turns at comedy, romance, and action-adventure.

These three movies are available to stream right now.

“A Quiet Place Part II” arrives in theatres on May 28.

Emily Charlton

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Even the most oblivious fashion-novices will appreciate director David Frankel’s light and bright adaption of Lauren Weisberger’s novel. In “The Devil Wears Prada”, a recent Northwestern Journalism School graduate, Andrea “Andy” Sachs (Anne Hathaway), accepts a second assistant position for Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), “Runway” magazine’s editor-in-chief. Sounds simple enough for a young woman who turned down Stanford Law School, but Miranda – nicknamed The Dragon Lady - is so demanding that the late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner would quake in his boots. Andy has big shoes to fill because she’s taken over the job from Emily Charlton (Blunt), who is now Miranda’s first assistant. While Andy initially fumbles over the new culture and her sense of style, Emily is right there with jabs, put downs, and criticisms that would make Regina George (Rachel McAdams) from “Mean Girls” (2004) green with envy, including their first meeting.

“Human resources certainly has an odd sense of humor,” Emily quips.

Despite Emily C.’s coarse verbal shade, she isn’t a monster. She’s a semi-neurotic upstart looking to find her place in the world, and Blunt delivers proper empathy for this highly memorable supporting character and leverages a legit hurdle for Andy to leap over. Blunt’s breakout performance in this big-time blockbuster launched her career, so thank you, “Runway”!

Elise Sellas

The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

U.S. Congressman David Norris (Matt Damon) loses his U.S. Senate race but walks into momentary success when he unexpectedly meets Elise Sellas (Blunt), a ballerina, while rehearsing his concession speech. It’s love at first sight, and David and Elise make an emotional connection, even for just a few minutes.

Unfortunately, a collection of cryptic “case officers” actively sabotage a potential relationship between the newly acquainted pair and offer bizarre, science-fiction reasoning for their measures. Writer/director George Nolfi adapts Philip K. Dick’s short story for the big screen that’s a 21st-century thriller and old-fashioned romance mash-up, and Blunt flawlessly balances Elise’s first-encounter magic with congenial warmth.

These mysterious, fedora-sporting fellas continue to keep them apart, but David is determined not to let Elise get away, and just about every straight male watching the film will feel just as desperate for our ill-fated lead. In a 2011 Self.com interview, Blunt reportedly said that she “never bloody danced before.” Well, after six weeks of training, she danced beautifully on screen, like she studied ballet for years.

Sgt. Rita Vrataski

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

– Sgt. Rita Vrataski (Blunt) - a deadly-efficient hired gun against the Mimics, a murderous, vicious race of aliens - owns a couple of proud monikers. Fellow soldiers refer to her as The Angel of Verdun and Full Metal Bitch, but Maj. William Cage (Tom Cruise) knows her as a brave warrior who slices up the aforementioned invaders - like Beatrix Kiddo carves up the Crazy 88s - during a chaotic, futuristic D-Day-clash.

They soon partner up in the hopes of defeating the Mimics and saving the human race from global genocide. In director Doug Liman’s massively entertaining sci-fi puzzler, adapted from Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s novel, Cage finds himself repeatedly dying on the battlefield (and countless other locales) and then reliving the day…over and over again, not unlike Nyles (Andy Samberg) and Sarah (Cristin Milioti) in “Palm Springs” (2020).

It turns out that Rita attained that same “gift” but lost it. Hence, she relies upon William for guidance because this aptitude for uncanny resurrection might be the key to winning the extraterrestrial war. Blunt is an entirely credible badass, and she and Cruise light up the screen with tough-girl and tough-guy vibes, and get this, a sequel – “Live Die Repeat and Repeat” – is supposedly in pre-production. Oh, sign me up…and again…and again.

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Dream Horse – Movie Review

Directed by: Euros Lyn

Written by: Neil McKay

Starring: Toni Collette, Damian Lewis, and Owen Teale

Runtime: 107 minutes

Experience every uphill step and thrilling downhill gallop

“Can’t be that bad. The pigeons keep coming back.”

Jan Vokes (Toni Collette) walks by the aforementioned message – purposely painted on a closed florist shop - when walking home with a couple of plastic grocery bags in hand. Economic hard times have hit her little Welsh community, as high-dollar corporations haven’t yet discovered this village that charmingly sits like a dollop on the bank of a rolling green knoll assembly, a classic example of the country’s landscape.

It’s not a surprise that director Euros Lyn captured Jan at this moment – while filming in Blaenavon, Wales - because she’s striding uphill, not both ways, but it feels like it. She and her husband Brian (Owen Teale) struggle to make ends meet. Jan works two jobs – at a local supermarket and a neighborhood pub – while Brian spends his days watching television. He’s a pleasant sort but believes that his best days are long gone and isn’t shy about asking Jan for a refreshment just after planting himself in his favorite chair.

He frequently asks, “What’s with tea, Love?”

Jan will make his beverage straight away, but she burns for a more purposeful life now that they are empty nesters.

A vision.

A dream.

She hopes to find it in the form of a gorgeous, regal colt named Dream Alliance.

We do too.

“Dream Horse” is a lump-in-your-throat, put-a-smile-on-your-face, stand-up-and-cheer, and sometimes hold-on-for-dear-life underdog movie, one based on the Vokes and Dream Alliance’s true story. Yes, we’ve seen this type of film play out in all forms and walks of life, but Lyn’s picture finds righteous, authentic beats, led by Collette’s approachable, relatable performance, some flat-out exciting horse races, and featuring Wales as the backdrop.

Regrettably, this critic tends to overlook Wales when thinking about the UK, as England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland first come to mind. However, there’s no reason to skip this seaside nation - about the size of New Jersey with a population of 3.1 million - especially from a film point of view.

Anthony Hopkins accepted his 2021 Best Actor Oscar – for “The Father” (2020) - from his home in Wales. His “The Two Popes” co-star Jonathan Pryce is from The Land of Castles, and so are Richard Burton, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michael Sheen, and Collette’s co-star Teale.

“Pride” (2014) - a true-story feature about London-based gay activists supporting striking Welsh miners - is the most recent stand-out film with a Wales-based tale that I can recall.

Well, add “Dream Horse” to the list. No, it won’t win a Best Picture Oscar, but it’s a lovely time at the movies.

It’s about ordinary folks attempting to stake their claim in the game of life. Jan jump-starts this aspiration by rolling the dice but also supplying a gameboard and inviting all the players. Not too long ago, she enjoyed breeding and raising pigeons, so why not elevate the stakes to horses, or in this case, one? Of course, the horse racing business falls well outside the Vokes’ budget, so they form a syndicate. Fourteen additional townsfolk chip in every week for Dream Alliance’s stable and training expenditures.

No, Lyn and screenwriter Neil McKay don’t burn too many calories into each investor’s backstories; save a couple, including Howard Davies (Damian Lewis), an accountant who daydreams about the track rather than tracking down tax loopholes for his wealthy clients. Sure, it would be wonderful to learn everyone’s personal yarns, but this is a 107-minute feature, not a television series. Ah, just know that they are a colorful bunch who scrape up enough spare quid together each week to grant the finest for their young, four-legged boy. For the most part, this enthusiastic lot see green, not necessarily from cold, hard cash, but the lush, emerald track.

In fact, the new owners aptly named Dream Alliance. During the contests, several characters cheer on their beloved hero.

“Come on, Dream!”

“Let’s go, Dream!”

“Dream!”

After absorbing one or two shouts of on-screen encouragement, it becomes clear that this proper noun also doubles as a verb. Dream’s supporters seem to declare these earnest, pure moments as theirs too, and it’s infectious, at least to this movie spectator. Lyn grants us a front-row seat to the heated contests as his camera takes a first-person – err, first-horse - perspective. He throws us in the middle of Dream’s Hurdle races, which carry a legit sense of danger. These 2-minute matches have us biting our nails, pumping our fists, and silently screaming, “Dream!”

Maybe not so silently.

Collette – who is grand in everything - stands front and center in “Dream Horse”. She completely sells Jan’s challenges, love for Dream Alliance, and all other emotions across the spectrum. We feel them too…during every uphill step and thrilling downhill gallop.

Jeff’s ranking

3/4 stars

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The Dry - Movie Review

Director: Robert Connolly

Cast: Eric Bana, Keir O'Donnell, & Genevieve O'Reilly

From the desolate, sun-drenched terrain of beige, brown, and yellow as far as the eye can see to the constant threat of bushfire thanks to the dryness of the environment and its unforgiving temperatures, the moody mythos of rural Australia is perfectly suited to western noir storytelling.

Not quite John Ford and not quite John Dahl – to audiences in the American southwest watching director Robert Connolly's new adaptation of Jane Harper's award-winning first novel “The Dry,” the film's overwhelmingly massive landscape seems equal parts foreign and familiar as it spools out before us onscreen.

Easily the most important character in this slow-burn thriller, in the hands of Connolly, his co-scripters Harry Cripps and Samantha Strauss, and his gifted lead actor Eric Bana (who also produced), the setting serves as a terrific allegory for the internal battle playing out in the mind of our main character as well.

As Australian federal police officer Aaron Falk, Bana's conflicted protagonist leaves his residence in Melbourne to return to his rural hometown of Kiewarra for the first time in over twenty years in order to bury his best high school friend Luke (Martin Dingle Wall) who killed his wife and young son in an alleged murder-suicide. Unwilling to believe that their son could do such a thing, after visiting with Luke's parents, Aaron promises them that he'll look into his family's deaths, even though he has no jurisdiction or any real link to the man his former friend had become after all this time.

An intelligent, evocative look at the way that the past and the present can coexist simultaneously, as Aaron investigates the present-day crime alongside a young sergeant (played by Keir O'Donnell), the film reveals more about his complicated history with Luke, including the suspicious death of a beautiful young woman they knew in high school that still haunts Aaron to this day. Feeling like the two cases are inextricably linked (or perhaps just needing them to be in order to find closure), just like the dry tinder of the ground beneath his feet that could catch fire at any moment, Aaron must figure out what is and what is not in his power to control.

A methodical actor who's at his best when playing contemplative characters who keep their cards close to their chest while embarking on external missions that wind up having to do more with what's going on internally than anything else, “The Dry” boasts one of Bana's strongest and most introspective turns in years.

Shot four-and-a-half hours outside of Melbourne in the flat, dry landscape of the Wimmera region of Victoria with its wide-open spaces that convey both mystery and danger and the secrets of a small, deceptively close-knit community beginning to come undone, “The Dry” feels like a western neo-noir descendant of “One False Move” and “Flesh and Bone.” But like an existential mystery made by a post-“Paris, Texas” era Wim Wenders, “The Dry” is much more intrigued by the psychology of its people rather than the traditionally plot-heavy machinations of a '90s thriller. Richly atmospheric and decidedly deliberate, it's the best Australian film of this type since director Ivan Sen released the brilliant sequel to his breakout hit “Mystery Road” in 2016 with “Goldstone.”

Taking time to develop, as we meet the people of Kiewarra, we aren't quite sure who and how many of these citizens and threads might prove to be connected in nefarious ways. One of those films where you find yourself following Bana into a small-town bar, look around and instantly know that every single person onscreen has an unpredictable story to tell, while a few of its supporting characters – including Aaron and Luke's old friend Gretchen (well played by Genevieve O'Reilly) – are a bit shortchanged by the narrative as a whole, it's a truly effective sleeper overall. Preferring to take the long way around in such a way that the film's first hour requires the patience of a prestige TV mystery series, once “The Dry” finds its footing, everything clicks into place.

Building up energy as it continues like a cyclone whipping around dust in the Victorian flatlands, as Aaron works to solve both cases using his heart as well as his head, the film reaches a conclusion as shocking as it is true. Surprisingly stellar in its deployment of red herrings and misdirection, in offering viewers a brainy, unexpected respite from mindless studio ventures, “The Dry” strikes a match against celluloid and brings the heat of summer movie season directly to the screen.

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Those Who Wish Me Dead – Movie Review

Directed by: Taylor Sheridan

Written by: Taylor Sheridan, Charles Leavitt, and Michael Koryta

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Jon Bernthal, Finn Little, Jake Weber, Medina Senghore, Aidan Gillen, Nicholas Hoult, and Tyler Perry

Runtime: 93 minutes

‘Those Who Wish Me Dead’ plays it safe and flatlines

Connor Casserly (Finn Little) lives a comfortable, orderly existence in Jacksonville, Fla. His attentive dad (Jake Weber) and he enjoy a strong relationship and play by the rules at home, school, and work.

He’s about 11, an age when boys still listen to the fathers. If need be, Connor will follow his pop to the ends of the earth. In director/co-writer Taylor Sheridan’s “Those Who Wish Me Dead”, he does. Owen (Weber) and Connor find themselves in grave danger because two assassins decide to hunt them down and play for keeps.

So, the Casserlys make a cross-country road trip to Montana for safe harbor to stay with Owen’s brother-in-law, Ethan (Jon Bernthal). Not only is Montana about as far away from Florida in the continental United States as one can imagine (and please disregard Idaho and Washington from this conversation), but culturally opposite as well.

Sheridan’s first three screenplays – “Sicario” (2015), “Hell or High Water” (2016), and “Wind River” (2017) – are set in the spacious west, so adapting Michael Koryta’s novel - for the big and small screens – is on point. During a 2014 Amazon Books interview, Koryta explains that he felt inspired by our nation’s massive landscapes during a backpacking trip through the Beartooth Mountains in Montana and Wyoming.

“I was standing on the edge of this cliff looking out, and I realized I (could not) see another soul, quite literally. I think we were 40 miles away from cellphone reception at that point, and with my warped, twisted mind, I immediately began to think, ‘I could put a character in a lot of trouble up here,’” Koryta said.

Koryta, screenwriter Charles Leavitt, and Sheridan do precisely that, as Connor finds himself (due to events that will not be revealed in this review) caught in the middle of nowhere on his own. By the looks of things, our young protagonist seems about 40 miles away from cellphone reception as well.

The film’s title, “Those Who Wish Me Dead”, speaks for itself, as Sheridan isn’t placing any hidden double meanings here. This story is a straight-up chase picture set in the Big Sky Country wilderness, but the cast and crew actually filmed in New Mexico. Unfortunately, that’s about the only surprise in this movie, and that’s a problem.

The picture has all the elements for a nail-biting, twisty thriller that we have come to expect from Sheridan, including the great outdoors, murder attempts, and big-time actors. He corralled a terrific ensemble with Angelina Jolie, Bernthal, Nicholas Hoult, Aidan Gillen, Weber, and even Tyler Perry makes a brief appearance. Weber is especially welcome to this critic, as he played the grounded husband for seven seasons on NBC’s “Medium” (2005 – 2011) with Patricia Arquette. Here, Weber plays the same sort of responsible, resourceful rock, but the leading players are Jolie’s Hannah – a gritty but caring firefighter – and Connor. She finds him treading through the wild and attempts to escort him on his journey.

The movie doesn’t focus on the specific details for the Casserlys’ misfortune, such as who are these assassins? What specifically did Owen do (or discover)? Who are the larger forces at work? These questions fall by the wayside, or since we’re in Montana…off a cliff.

Instead, Sheridan pits Hannah and Connor on the run against the aforementioned baddies (Gillen and Hoult), the rugged terrain, and a forest fire for good measure. Although the film places this woman and kid in harm’s way, there are just a scant few moments when the tension resonates.

Rather than face and climb intimidating gradients constructed from Mother Nature’s granite, this motherly figure and her young protégé – in many cases – casually stroll over flat open fields.

Does anyone have a frisbee?

Perhaps, a couple of absurd, first act moments – including Jolie surviving a 50-foot drop from a tower, landing flat on her back, and simply (although slowly) standing up – creates an insincere, fabricated mood. Rather than sharing the on-screen struggles, I could almost see the film crew standing just off-camera and Sheridan declaring, “Action.”

The movie’s frank mission becomes more character-driven. Hannah seeks redemption (for a past on-the-job error) by steering Connor to safety, and with a scant 93-minute runtime, there’s not a lot of runway for much else. Early in the first act, the film attempts to establish Hannah’s post-traumatic stress for a heartbeat or two, but the emotive thumping doesn’t punch through.

We get that Hannah swallows her sorrow through some daredevil antics and bonding with her male firefighting crew. She’s a sympathetic character, but her banter with Connor is paint-by-the-numbers with familiar, scripted ink. Hannah builds Connor’s spirits by talking about trust and his future girlfriends, but their arc is safe and uninspired.

Anyway, Bernthal and Medina Senghore play a likable couple with a baby on the way, and Gillen and Hoult deliver some degree of menace. Probably the movie’s best scenes are Allison (Senghore) trying to fend off the pair of mercenaries and Ethan’s breakfast meeting with his boss, a crusty but fair sheriff (Boots Southerland). He seems like a first cousin to Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) from “Hell or High Water” or retired lawman Ellis (Barry Corbin) from “No Country for Old Men” (2007).

Whoo-hoo! Geez, let’s give this sheriff more than three minutes of screen time.

Look, there’s nothing horribly wrong with “Those Who Wish Me Dead”, but I can’t help but think about a line that Ellis said to Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones).

“What you got ain’t nothing new.”

Jeff’s ranking

2/4 stars

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Spiral: From the Book of Saw - Movie Review

Dir: Darren Lynn Bousman

Starring: Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson, Max Minghella, and Marisol Nichols

1h 33m

In 2004, the genre film world of horror movies was crowded with depictions of the walking dead and seeing tremendous influence from Asia with long-haired ghosts frightening audiences in theaters and on home video. In October 2004, a film called Saw changed the scary movie landscape. It turned a low-budget, ultra-gory film about a murderer named Jigsaw who creates grotesque games of life or death into a horror tentpole, now one of the genres defining franchise.

Spiral: From the Book of Saw continues the deranged work of Jigsaw, this time taking torturous focus on a corrupt police department in a sweltering big city dripping in detective story color palettes. Chris Rock, who may seem an odd choice for this franchise, has a significant screen presence throughout this familiar franchise exercise.

Zeke Banks (Chris Rock) is a detective who his fellow law enforcers have rejected after turning in a crooked cop. A dead rat in a trap, left on his desk, describes how respected Zeke is amongst his peers on the force. Rookie detective William Schenk (Max Minghella) is forcefully paired as Zeke's new partner. The first case for the new teammates involves the gruesome death of a fellow officer, one of the few in the department that Zeke called a friend. The officer's death, involving a subway train and a trap placed directly on the tongue, echoes a resemblance to John Kramer, the mastermind behind the infamous Jigsaw murders. Zeke and William become intertwined in a new game with new stakes involving a corrupt law enforcement department.

Spiral begins unlike no other Saw film in the franchise, with a hefty dose of humor brought by an entertaining Chris Rock telling a story about how Forrest Gump couldn't be made in present times. Rock, a seasoned comedy icon, injects personality and presence throughout the entire film. Rock's dramatic turns struggle to come off as smoothly during moments of despair or frustration. However, underneath the messy detective shirt and ties and dark sunglasses, the actor's laid-back demeanor and coolness help make the clichéd detective story twist and turns to play out with more intrigue. Samuel L. Jackson shows up briefly as Zeke's dad, the former police chief, and their chemistry offers some of the best moments of the entire film.

Spiral starts with some exciting narrative angles, social commentary about police concerns brought to the forefront, and an investigation-driven procedure that steps away from the splatter spectacle that defines the Saw franchise. These bright moments fade as Spiral: From the Book of Saw reverts to the franchise formula of retreaded plot twists and pig-masked trappings that are easily identified.

Still, this is a memorable return and easily one of the best Saw films of recent memory. Chris Rock's screen presence keeps the one-dimensional story engaging. While the horror, the visceral and gory exhibition, of this franchise, part nine, remains the primary connective tissue that supports the puzzle from completely falling apart.

Monte's Rating

3.00 out of 5.00

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Riders of Justice - Movie Review

Director: Anders Thomas Jensen

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Lars Brygmann, & Nicolas Bro

After making a striking first impression in his earliest screen role in Nicolas Winding Refn's gritty and groundbreaking feature filmmaking debut “Pusher” in 1996, actor Mads Mikkelsen became a sensation in his native Denmark. And although Refn's film had more in common with say, Martin Scorsese's “Mean Streets” than it did with the newly launched naturalism based Dogme '95 film movement from directors Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, Mikkelsen evolved into one of the most internationally recognizable stars from this school of filmmaking, thanks to a vital, early collaboration with writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen.

Following Jensen's 1998 Oscar for Best Short Film, fresh off the heels of having been nominated in the same category the two years prior as well, Mikkelsen's alliance with the filmmaker began with Jensen's feature directorial debut "Flickering Lights” in 2000. But their partnership really reached the height of its power in the films "Open Hearts" and "After the Wedding," which Jensen co-wrote with their director Susanne Bier (and the latter of which garnered Bier her first of two Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film). The global success of those films, along with some which made Mikkelsen the muse of other Dogme vets led directly to his Hollywood crossover and subsequent popularity as a franchise favorite with turns in new Marvel, James Bond, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Indiana Jones properties.

Unwilling to leave his friends, language, and country behind, the loyal chameleon regularly alternates between huge studio tentpoles and the latest films from those he first found success alongside decades earlier. And this is not only true of Vinterberg, for whom he just starred in the Oscar winning "Another Round," but especially Jensen, who has written and/or directed Mikkelsen in some of his most surprising fare over the years, from the morality tale "Adam's Apples" to the western "The Salvation" (for director Kristian Levring) to the new unorthodox holiday revenge dramedy "Riders of Justice."

Playing a recently deployed soldier who's sent home to care for his teenage daughter after she survives the train explosion that claimed the life of his wife, Mikkelsen's Markus is given an unexpected outlet for his rage when he's visited by two statisticians, including a survivor played by Nikolaj Lie Kaas, who was the last person besides his daughter to see his wife alive. Presenting Markus with evidence indicating that her death might have been part of a coordinated attack to prevent a man from testifying against the head of a notorious street gang, after a colleague in facial recognition manages to narrow down a suspect, these three odd wise men join forces with their new soldier friend.

Having neglected to figure out precisely what they should do once they confront the man, when their first interaction impulsively escalates into murder, the motley crew decides they're not done just yet and soon find themselves in the midst of a war with one of Denmark's deadliest crime syndicates.

But rather than give into the basest instincts of the revenge genre and turn the film into something resembling "Death Wish," by setting the film around the Christmas holiday and populating it with social misfits just out of step with society, Jensen takes the opportunity to explore the questions of faith, chance, fate, and human connection that have fascinated him throughout his entire career.

While not entirely successful, most likely owing to differences in culture and translation, Jensen's tendency to weave startling bits of humor into the plotline, ranging from a recurring focus on weight regarding the teenage daughter of Markus or the blunt handling of a Ukrainian male sex slave they liberate makes the film hit a few discordant notes here and there. Still, with this talented cast, including men like Mikkelsen and Kaas – who've worked together for decades – once again able to add new layers to these at times tonally uneven yet undeniably complex characters, it works much better than you fear it will early on.

Culminating in a thrillingly photographed violent western-style showdown in the snow where the wounded and outnumbered men must figure out how to get out of this situation alive, Jensen punctuates his final act with a few true surprises as his characters struggle to figure things out amid the chaos.

Though unable to authentically balance its swings from sardonic to brutal to funny to sad without the film feeling the least bit artificial, Mikkelsen and company ensure that although – like their characters – they always remain ready to battle, the real thing that sets "Riders" apart is in the ensemble's journey towards one another and away from revenge. Of course, having proven it again and again over the years, it seems as though that kind of loyalty is more than just a plot point, in the end, it's the Mikkelsen way.

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The Boy from Medellin – Movie Review

Directed by: Matthew Heineman

Starring: J Balvin

Runtime: 91 minutes

'The Boy from Medellin': The J Balvin doc doesn't hit the right notes

Medellin is the capital city of Colombia’s Antioquia province. It has a population of just over 2.5 million, and one of its favorite sons filmed his documentary here. International reggaetón megastar J Balvin makes a triumphant return home to put on a massive show, but then again, “the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

Director Matthew Heineman follows this chart-busting marvel to his hometown for one week leading up to the planned live spectacular, but a set of soccer-stadium-sized stumbling blocks place Jose Alvaro Osorio Balvin’s concert in jeopardy. On the surface, “The Boy from Medellin” was supposed to be a celebration of J Balvin’s accomplishments and his embrace of this beautiful South American country. Instead, Heineman’s film grows into a hybrid of traditional documentary rhythms and uncomfortable drama.

The result? Not to take away from the artist’s gifts and worldwide successes, but we don’t get enough of each documentary pillar here. With just a 91-minute runtime, this critic wanted more…and a different focus.

A double-whammy drama emerges through internal demons from both the headline performer and his country. From J, he faces the camera and opens up about his anxiety and depression. It’s a brave move, and Heineman and J Balvin – a slender, gregarious man with a bleach-blond dome - offer a confessional, baring-one’s-soul approach in recalling history, which feels relatable and accessible to us at home. One might have 55 million Spotify monthly listeners, 30 million YouTube subscribers, and 47 million Instagram followers and still feel anxious and depressed. These afflictions don’t size up their victims’ bank accounts and fame quotients, nor do they offer mercy.

Balvin says, “Ninety-nine percent of my dreams have come true.”

The one percent remainder is his first solo stadium concert. He’s never done one, and because Jose is a living, breathing human being, his apprehension feels like a natural response, even for one of the world’s biggest performers.

The second portion of the real-life theatre is a nationwide uprising against the current conservative government. Protests break out all over the country, including Medellin. Suddenly, life becomes disrupted, a specific tragedy strikes, and venues start canceling concerts, which puts J’s gig in serious jeopardy. Not only are Colombian citizens speaking out, but they want their heroes to express themselves as well. J Balvin has historically claimed – including on-stage - that he “is not left or right” and wants “to give life to the world.”

At the moment, he’s staying silent, but for how long?

Jose didn’t sign up for political intervention, but perhaps his alter-ego needs to opine publicly. This particular conflict becomes the film’s focus, but the struggle - unfortunately - feels very 21st century…and not in a good way. Instagram arguments and flipping through iPhone screens fill the void, rather than tangible, physical actions during the film’s precious minutes.

Decades ago, critics complained that Michael Jordan didn’t speak out against political injustices, and he infamously responded with, “Republicans buy sneakers too.” However, comparing Balvin to Jordan is not fair. The illustrious basketball player stayed silent for years, while J Balvin’s momentary inaction is for a day (or a few). Still, the comparison immediately comes to mind.

Even though this real-life drama unexpectedly drops in the filmmakers’ lap, not enough compelling on-screen achievements materialize. Think about grabbing a camera and recording your reactions – from inside your home - to the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. It won’t have the same effect as stepping out of the house and joining the masses.

“The Boy from Medellin”, however, gets a lot of credit for capturing the scenic beauty of the city and J Balvin explaining his humble beginnings, historic rise, and battles.

The viewpoints are primarily from our 30-something Man from Medellin, but that’s a limitation. Why not interview Medellin locals, friends, family, or other artists about J Balvin’s essential contributions to music and Colombia? The film offers old clips, like from Jimmy Fallon’s “The Tonight Show”, and Heineman’s camera does glance into Jose’s phone during celebrity calls from will.i.am and a couple of others, but comprehensive interviews from the aforementioned suggestions don’t occur.

Instead, teenage girls and middle-aged men walk up to J Balvin and ask for selfies, which really isn’t the same thing as sit-down testimonials that describe his rightful place within the Colombian and global communities.

For fans, perhaps none of this matters.

A J Balvin full-length doc is here, and yes, his hits – like “Loco Contigo”, “RITMO”, and more - land on-screen, whether it’s during a hopeful concert or not. Unfortunately, we get snippets of these songs rather than longer cuts or the entire tracks. It doesn’t feel like enough. By contrast, another 2021 music star doc “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry” runs for 140 minutes, and Eilish supporters and brand-new beginners are well-served, as director R.J. Cutler, the star, and her family tender plenty of story and music.

For this film, I wish we had an additional 50 minutes…and a different focus.

Jeff’s ranking

2/4 stars

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Wrath of Man - Movie Review

Dir: Guy Ritchie

Starring: Jason Statham, Holt McCallany, Jeffrey Donovan, Josh Hartnett, Laz Alonso, Eddie Marsen, and Scott Eastwood

1 h 58 m

By Monte Yazzie

Director Guy Ritchie and longtime collaborator Jason Statham reunite with the gritty and violent heist story Wrath of Man. Ritchie, who has dabbled in a range of different genres with recent films like Aladdin, Sherlock Holmes, and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, returns to the tough and tumultuous crime drama genre that helped launch his career and continues to be the sweet spot for the director's unique style of filmmaking.

Wrath of Man, a remake of the 2004 French film Le Convoyeur, displays the chaotic flair of bullets, blood, and brutality that Ritchie has become savvy at implementing into his movies. Jason Statham's quiet menace, a quality that helps separate the actor from other action stars in the genre, always works best in Ritchie's textured, if minimal, character developments. While Ritchie's style helps and distracts from the thin plot, Wrath of Man works to find the balance between the dishonorable, many times heartless, characters that populate the story and the vengeful stakes that push the narrative towards a climax of greed and revenge.

The calm and calculated H (Jason Statham) barely passes his field examinations to join a crew of cash truck guards responsible for moving millions of dollars around greater Los Angeles. During his first few days on the job, H's armored truck detail is caught in a hijack. However, before any money is stolen, H meticulously assassinates the masked thieves, cornering and interrogating the last thief standing before finally killing him. The crew at the security company is left wondering where this mysterious man came from. H's motives become apparent as he takes deadly and irrevocable steps to settle a revengeful score.

Ritchie's unique style, which can be methodically hectic and indulgently flashy in both the best and worst ways, is restrained a touch in Wrath of Man. While elements are still present, specifically within the editing design, which can become distracting at times, the film focuses a majority of the flourishes on helping mold the mystery of H's dubious intentions. Ritchie has become quite accomplished at composing action scenes; here, the composition is sharp and exciting.

Jason Statham helps immensely in making the journey in Wrath of Man exciting and fun to watch. Statham pushes the grittier elements of the story into exciting territory with his menacing demeanor and tough-as-nails action persona. Ritchie understands how to use Statham to punctuate a scene. Whether in moments of frenzied action or during stages of quiet intimidation, Statham is one of the best things about this film.

The narrative design is a simplistic setup that tries its best to make the most out of the complicated nature of the revenge motivations. Ritchie's character composition in this film is packed with unredeemable people; those whose hands remain somewhat clean have fortunes left to the impulses of the bad guys who hold priority in the script. When the stakes reach their inevitable culmination, placing all the complicated characters in the same room, it's hard to care about what happens to them. Ritchie and writers Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies do their best to add drama into their revenge tale, and in small moments they succeed, but the characters make it hard to invest in the outcome truly.

Wrath of Man is a fun return for Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham. The calm approach for the typical style-driven director is a welcome surprise and proves that Ritchie can still compose hard-boiled crime capers with the best of them.

Monte's Rating

3.50 out of 5.00

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by Jen Johans

With his mischievous wit, jaw-dropping athleticism, and old-fashioned charm seducing us right from the start of his very first movie – writer-director Guy Ritchie's auspicious 1998 feature filmmaking debut "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'' – enigmatic British actor Jason Statham taught viewers to expect the unexpected whenever he hit the screen. But, unable to be pigeonholed as one specific thing in an industry that thrives on packaging people like products to be marketed, sold, and moved with the same felicity as a bottle of salad dressing, Hollywood has never quite figured out what to do with the unique skill-set of Jason Statham.

Equally at home in comedic, dramatic, and action-focused fare, Statham's ease and dexterity in conveying emotion and information both verbally and nonverbally have, in the years following his last film with Ritchie in 2005's "Revolver" made him something of a half Cary Grant, half Jackie Chan, twenty-first-century unicorn film star. Serving up different sides of himself in everything from "The Bank Job" to the "Fast and Furious" franchise to "Spy," while he's consistently done good work, the 2010s found Statham playing a few too many interchangeable smartass badasses as he coasted from one hit-or-miss action movie to the next.

Having left the clever ensemble oriented crime dramedies that first put him on the map behind, as it turns out, Statham's situation is remarkably similar to the one faced by Guy Ritchie who's struggled to put his own stamp on summer studio tentpoles like "King Arthur" and "Aladdin" in recent years. Now, with the two old friends who first hit fame alongside one another a generation ago agreeing to re-team for a smaller and more intimate, but nonetheless compelling character-driven action film, they've both made the bold decision to address their creative habits and strip their work back to its essence in the stealthily efficient '70s style heist revenge movie "Wrath of Man."

Based upon the 2004 French film “Le convoyeur” aka “Cash Truck” from director Nicolas Boukhrief, which Ritchie adapted alongside his frequent screenwriting collaborators Marn Davies and Ivan Atkinson, “Wrath of Man” is a sharp left-hand turn for the British helmer away from the hyper-kinetic brand of filmmaking most synonymous with his name.

Gone here is Ritchie's obsessive kid in a candy store aesthetic of near eye-twitching levels of fast-motion stimuli, which at its best, dazzled viewers and worst, drove us to distraction right along with his penchant for camera trickery. In in its place, he's placed greater emphasis on his man-on-a-mission character-centric storytelling, which makes sense for this tale about a mysterious man (Statham) who walks in off the street and gets a job working for a frequently hijacked L.A. armored car company, only for us to discover that his reasons are far more personal than they are professional.

Taking an unexpectedly understated approach, for the film's first act, I could barely distinguish the U.K. based director of this film from men like Steven Knight or Simon West who'd helmed other vengeance fueled works of this type like “Redemption” and “The Mechanic” for Statham in the late aughts to early '10s. And while initially, it feels more like Ritchie is a director for hire than say, the man that made the newest versions of “Sherlock Holmes” and “The Man From Uncle,” I like how secure he is as a more mature filmmaker to know that the last thing this film needs is a bunch of sudden jump-cuts or shots from the point-of-view of bullets being fired from a machine gun. Ritchie’s strength here is in knowing who, what, and why we’re watching and getting us so lost in the story that when he finally decides to let us behind the curtain, we’re hooked.

Unwilling to mug for the camera or flash that megawatt smile that sometimes makes it impossible to separate a Statham character from the man himself, Ritchie's more restrained technique compliments the quiet power of his leading man very well.Uncovering the real reason why Statham's protagonist joined the armored car company, when the film finally abandons its early over-reliance on male bravado as its employees (played by Holt McCallany and Josh Hartnett) try sizing up the new guy, we begin to see “Wrath of Man” for the bare-bones revenge film that it is.

A terrific director of actors who's known for his ability to attract stellar talent from all corners of the globe, one of the best things about Ritchie's latest work is the trust and patience he places in his cast to reel us in. Developing slowly like a Polaroid that Ritchie's unwilling to shake, once “Wrath” introduces its second group of characters led by Jeffrey Donovan (who's been tacitly doing some of the best work of his career recently elevating even B-movies like “Let Him Go” and “Honest Thief”), we see precisely why everyone said yes to this remake.

Becoming as involved in Donovan's morally complicated plight as we are in Statham's as though they're two flip-sides of the same coin, it's the actors who invest us in watching what (on paper, at least) would otherwise be an admittedly standard heist drama unfold. Featuring a chilling turn by Scott Eastwood (visibly relishing the opportunity to star in the kind of film his father would've certainly gravitated to in the '70s), “Wrath of Man” is a crackerjack B-movie that works so much better than it should because of the A-talent involved on both sides of the screen. And as one of the film's screenwriters, Ritchie understands this well.

Reuniting with his old friend Statham who, in shifting from one genre to the next over the years, lives to astonish, “Wrath” finds the two in the mood to reevaluate just what it is they can and should bring to a film when they're planning a stripped-down heist as opposed to an over-inflated tentpole.

Relatively straightforward both stylistically and narratively, save for a few flourishes because Guy is Guy after all and he loves to turn a straight line into a maze, “Wrath of Man” might not be what most people would think of when you hear the name Guy Ritchie, but this only works to the film’s advantage. Playing against audience expectations Statham-style, while this is one stellar vehicle for the movie star he put on the map, the biggest surprise of all in “Wrath of Man,” is that twenty-three years after “Lock, Stock,” Guy Ritchie is introducing himself to the world once again, saying, “Okay, you've seen that. Now, look what else I can do.”

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Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse - Movie Review

Dir: Stefano Sollima

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Guy Pearce, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Brett Gelman

1 hr 49 min

Author Tom Clancy crafted an entire empire of stories built around behind-the-scenes military operations and C.I.A. spy games. These narratives transitioned from paper pages to silver screen summer blockbusters with the adaptation of the “Ryanverse,” a string of films built around Clancy’s heroic patriot Jack Ryan. Clancy’s legacy of espionage fiction progressed into the world of modern-day gaming at the turn of the millennium, with video games like Rainbow Six and Splinter Cell introducing a new generation to the author’s name and brand of action.

Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse is based on the author’s 1993 novel of the same name. But instead of centering the story around Jack Ryan, this movie tells the origin story of Navy SEAL John Clark, a character familiar to the “Ryanverse” and played by Willem Dafoe in Clear and Present Danger and Liev Schrieber in The Sum of All Fears. Taking over the role for this new film franchise is Michael B. Jordan, who arrives amidst a fury of bullets and explosions with all the magnetism and tough guy qualities the actor is known to bring to a character. The methodical story style familiar to a Tom Clancy novel almost disappears in Without Remorse; this story is more concerned with the future adaptations than providing a foundation to build on.

John Clark (Michael B. Jordan) and his extraction team are on a mission in Syria to save a captured C.I.A. operative. The mission ends up being a setup, one involving some unexpected Russian targets. Once back on American soil, the SEAL team finds themselves in the crosshairs of a shadowy group of assassins. John and his pregnant wife Pam (Lauren London) are attacked during a home invasion, John narrowly escapes, but Pam does not. Her death sends John into a fight for vengeance, leading to a mission in Russia and ultimately a master plan that goes far beyond the surface conflicts.

Director Stefano Sollima does a decent job of composing some inventive action sequences. Writers Taylor Sheridan and Will Staples craft a character who becomes an enraged machine of sorts; no bullet or explosion will stop him. Revenge is the primary emotion of focus, and it makes John Clark feel more like John Wick. While Clancy composed John Clark as a darker version of the Jack Ryan character, there was also more emphasis on the story beyond revenge. When Without Remorse ventures into more complicated global political territory, the film becomes a mess of unnecessary and somewhat confusing plot turns.

Michael B. Jordan carries the character with one emotional intention, revenge. And when the film allows that vengeance to take control, like in one scene where John douses a car in gasoline, sets it ablaze, and jumps in to interrogate the passenger, Without Remorse entertainingly comes to life. But the film has difficulty sustaining the tension achieved during the fierier moments.

The film has a good cast. Jodie Turner-Smith plays John’s military ally, Karen Greer. Jamie Bell arrives as the duplicitous C.I.A. higher-up Robert Ritter; they do a good job, but the film doesn’t seem too concerned with exploring their characters. Even Jordan’s lead hero isn’t provided much exploration beyond the initial emotions that define the qualities of the character until the end credits. It’s not completely bad, but it’s not entirely satisfying.

Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse is just the beginning of the John Clark saga of stories coming in the future. While this film may serve as a passable action vessel for Michael B. Jordan to introduce the Clancy character, the hope is that future installments will allow more growth beyond this initial offering.

Monte’s Rating

2.50 out of 5.00

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Limbo – Movie Review

Directed and written by: Ben Sharrock

Starring: Amir El-Masry, Vikash Bhai, Ola Orebiyi, and Kwabena Ansah

Runtime: 103 minutes

Don’t wait to see ‘Limbo’, an unconventional immigrant story

Immigrant feature films frequently land in theatres and streaming services for probably a couple of reasons. These stories are commonplace threads within societies’ fabrics, and the protagonists face built-in conflicts simply by existing in their newfound environments.

In the U.S., we rightfully boast about our immigrant roots, and President John F. Kennedy said, “Everywhere, immigrants have enriched and strengthened the fabric of American life.”

While the homeland may become enriched, many times, the aforementioned residents do individually struggle to find their way. Look to “Minari” (2020) and “Brooklyn” (2015) as recent examples. The Sullivan family had their troubles in “In America” (2002), and so did Carlos Galindo (Damian Bichir) in the aptly named “A Better Life” (2011), as he hoped for a better one.

Even though the on-screen leads wrestle with acceptance, they usually throw themselves into the foreign ecosystems, jockey for some footing, and attempt to survive and thrive. Naturally, the United States hasn’t cornered the market on immigration narratives, and “Lorna’s Silence” (2008) and “Monsieur Lazhar” (2011) - set in Belgium and Montreal, respectively - are two more of this critic’s favorites.

Writer/director Ben Sharrock’s eccentric dramedy is a notable immigrant story, but one with a twist. In “Limbo”, Omar (Amir El-Masry), a 20-something Syrian refugee, wishes to reside in the U.K., but he’s stranded on a desolate Scottish island while waiting for his paperwork to clear. In 2021, we live in a world of instant gratification, but the United Kingdom’s official “like” on his request doesn’t seem imminent, especially when his friend Farhad (Vikash Bhai), an Afghan native, has been stuck at this far northern outpost for 32 months and five days.

How far north? Omar, Farhad, and about two dozen others are waiting on the 57th parallel at a locale with barren, rocky grasslands that may resemble Washington’s Palouse commingled with gloomy, dormant volcanic buttes. You won’t find a Starbucks on every corner. Not on this isle because no such metropolitan districts exist. It does have a convenience store, but one with few creature comforts. Omar pops in one day and asks for sumac spice, but he might as well inquire about a Northern Californian wine, a Tesla sedan, or a one-way plane ticket to London.

Although this modest, sparse colony has some quirky charm, Sharrock’s setting of never-ending barren space - with an occasional domicile to lodge our lingering British-applicants – resembles a depressed Wes Anderson setting, one in desperate need of a humongous dose of Zoloft or maybe an array of pink and purple windmills.

Geez, something.

Then again, that’s the point. While Omar, Farhad, brothers Wasef (Ola Orebiyi) and Abedi (Kwabena Ansah), and others sit in limbo, their environment doesn’t offer much reprieve, stimulus, or any path towards joy. Sharrock films his subjects with straight-on long shots, where his protagonists are small features within the frame. They could be leaning against a wall, standing at a bus stop, or calling on a pay phone, and the great, spacious outdoors dominates as a looming, unforgiving co-star.

The movie visually expresses that it’s a cold, cruel world out there with no obvious route towards salvation, and our heroes (and we) deeply feel it. This downer symbolism and stark reality blankets dozens of one-on-one exchanges that sometimes double as confessionals, as we learn about Omar’s and his compadres’ histories and explanations for attempting this impossible migration.

For Omar, he’s a musician and plays the oud (a type of guitar), but he’s lost his desire to perform. He usually sports a blue skiing jacket and a pair of khakis, but he (nearly) always wears the same glum face. Omar had a life back in Syria, but out of pure necessity to escape the violence, he copes with this legislated shelter-in-place, a concept that most of us living and breathing in 2020 and 2021 can unhappily relate.

El-Masry delivers a compelling, restrained performance, as his somber, stoic mood reflects his present happenstance, but not necessarily against the locals. Although a few detractors, including a pair of young hooligans, question Omar’s motivations, most of the resident Scots consider the in-process immigrants part of the community. Distrust is rare, and instead, a cautious, distant embrace fills the void. Omar’s reciprocity is with his purgatory predicament, not the native inhabitants.

Throughout the movie’s 103-minute runtime, Sharrock slowly reveals Omar’s celebrated and troubled past, and the character’s family actively imprints on both sides of his life-coin. Thankfully, our lead isn’t facing this abyss alone, as Farhad - his trusty brother-from-another-mother who appoints himself as his agent/manager for a future oud gig – offers guidance and friendship. Not only does Omar seek out him, but we do too! Bhai’s Farhad projects a subdued persona, but he’s a welcome joy with inciteful pearls of wisdom.

He may or may not have answers to, “How do you find it so easy?”, or “Do you think about who you were before all this?”

Still, he’s lived in this isolated in-between for nearly three years, so perhaps he can make sense of the absurdity.

“Limbo” does have some comedic elements, including a surreal opening scene with Hot Chocolate’s “It Started With a Kiss” as the musical accompaniment, but Sharrock’s film truly is thoughtful drama. It’s a deep character study about the immigrant experience, where a numbing waiting game and reflection about one’s self-worth are the built-in conflicts.

Jeff’s ranking

3.5/4 stars

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The Virtuoso - Film Review

Director: Nick Stagliano

Writer: James C. Wolf

Cast: Anson Mount, Anthony Hopkins, Abbie Cornish, Eddie Marsan, & David Morse

As we watch him execute his target at the beginning of the largely lifeless “The Virtuoso,” Anson Mount's unnamed hitman regales us with tongue-twister levels of alliteration. In his clunky voice-over narration, Mount describes the tricks of his trade. This means that for professional killers hoping for pristine, precise hits, it’s of paramount procedure to follow the protocols of planning and position in order to persevere. I'm paraphrasing, of course, but as Mount punches those alliterative words with purpose – undoubtedly trying to make sense of it all – it's hard not to feel like you're getting hit in the face by the “P” key of an old-fashioned typewriter for how often they're used.

Following up one surgically precise assassination with a rushed hit that goes wrong almost as soon as it starts, writer James C. Wolf's “Virtuoso” screenplay loosens up after that. Abandoning the emphasis on “P,” as though one consequence of the botched job was to cause the pages of Wolf's thesaurus to become unstuck, we watch as our virtuoso killer is lured away from his rustic, self-imposed isolation in the woods by his trusted employer (a game yet wasted Anthony Hopkins).

Making a horrifying meal out of a matter-of-fact monologue about the time his character was ordered to slaughter men, women, and children in Vietnam, Hopkins proves why he and he alone is the film's true virtuoso. Dropping in like a veritable hired gun for a few scenes before he presumably goes off to work on grander fare like “The Father,” Hopkins is easily the best thing in this self-important mess of a B-movie.

Sending Mount on a cryptic assignment where the quarry is given a code name like he's The Riddler in a Batman movie, our virtuoso ventures to a country town in the middle of nowhere. After a chance run-in with a few suspicious strangers at a gas station, he suddenly finds himself in a diner full of shady figures he's supposed to covertly assess as potential targets. Forgetting his lofty voice-over protocols of planning and precision, illogically, Mount just starts running the code name past people, quickly becoming the most conspicuous man in town.

One of those films with classic or neo-noir ambitions that at times you think might've been attempting to strive for “Key Largo” or even “Identity” like atmosphere and tension with its ensemble cast of characters in a small setting, the most surprising thing about director Nick Stagliano's muted, muddied “Virtuoso” is just how unsurprising it is from start to finish.

Almost as soon as one particular stranger is introduced, genre conventions tell you precisely where this thing is headed and like its hitman (well, in the first hit anyway) it doesn't deviate from its plan. Saddled with wooden dialogue and zero chemistry between the leads, “The Virtuoso” spends the rest of its 110 minute running time trying to make you believe another twist is coming. Sadly, it doesn't take long to realize that, despite the film's allusions to the contrary, Mount's visibly bored main character is many things but a virtuoso is not one of them.

Hoping to stack the deck, the movie is loaded with terrific character actors like the aforementioned Hopkins as well as Abbie Cornish, Eddie Marsan, and David Morse, some of whom appear for only the briefest of scenes to hopefully follow Hopkins' lead to show up, do the work, collect the paycheck, and get the hell out.

Still, whether it's with its talented cast, the film's few bursts of violence, or its near-bookended, gratuitously clinical depictions of nudity/sex which only call attention to themselves, no matter how hard “The Virtuoso” tries to command our attention, it's impossible to camouflage just how dull it is overall.

Bowing into theaters in some markets (including Phoenix) only five days after Hopkins garnered his second Oscar and four days before it bows onto DVD and Blu-ray, since curiosity over Hopkins' involvement is sure to drive some people to see this on the big screen, the timing of the film couldn't be better. Reinforcing Mount's words about the importance of his many professional “P”'s, what “The Virtuoso” lacks in pristine precision, its marketing team more than makes up for with their plan to persevere with a little help from gold.

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The Mitchells vs. The Machines – Movie Review

Directed and written by: Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe

Starring: Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Olivia Colman, Abbi Jacobson, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Fred Armisen, Conan O’Brien

Runtime: 101 minutes

‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ is a zany and sincere mash-up

“Mitchells have always been weird, and that’s what makes us great!” – Rick Mitchell (Danny McBride)

Directors/writers Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe’s animated feature – about an everyday family taking a cross-country road trip and running into a machine apocalypse – is a weird mash-up of ideas, and it’s pretty great.

Yes, you heard correctly: a machine apocalypse.

On the surface, this flick is “The Terminator” (1984) meets “National Lampoon’s Vacation” (1983). Just pretend that Skynet becomes self-aware and abruptly disrupts the Griswolds’ Wally World vacation.

In this case, Rick – the affable but sometimes emotionally klutzy patriarch - desperately wants to reconnect with his teenage daughter (Abbi Jacobson). He then convinces his wife, two kids, and dog to hop on Interstate 131 West in their 1993 burnt-orange station wagon and drive Katie (Jacobson) to college.

Hey, dropping off Katie at the airport was the original plan, but then we wouldn’t have a movie. Well, somewhere west of The Gateway Arch and east of Los Angeles, technology goes awry. Rather than cope with car ride antics, back-seat arguments, and side attractions (like a 7-hour mule tour), the Mitchells and the rest of the planet face an overwhelming robot army, one bound and determined to round up every human and send them on a one-way journey to Not On Earth Any Longer.

It’s up to the Mitchells – Rick, Linda (Maya Rudolph), Katie, Katie’s pre-teen brother Aaron (Michael Rianda), and their dog Monchi – to save humanity. They’re sort of like the Incredibles, but minus superpowers. They do, however, possess quirky traits, and that includes Monchi, a congenial pug with a chronic case of Strabismus. Also, Rick resembles Bob Parr (a.k.a. Mr. Incredible), but his less fit first cousin.

Anyway, they miraculously pose as a match for PAL (Olivia Colman), a twisted, rogue A.I. version of Alexa and her relentless metallic/silicon militia.

It’s a zany PG-rated flick that households of all ages can enjoy, although mom and dad might feel a bit dizzy because of the rapid-fire visuals and kinetic pacing.

Rianda and Rowe helped write the Disney cartoon series “Gravity Falls” (2012 -2016), but this is their first directorial effort, which is a massive undertaking. This pair did recruit plenty of help and turn to the “The Mitchells vs. The Machines” IMDb page for the lengthy list of art, sound, and visual department collaborators. The teams’ and directors’ efforts indeed burst with an imaginative, ingenious potpourri.

In an April 26 interview with Inbtwn Animation Fest, Rianda explains his excitement with the on-screen possibilities.

“We have an animated movie. We could do everything,” and Rianda adds, “We really wanted to bring a stew of our influences. I wanted to bring the chaotic energy of Warner Bros. cartoons, and these Hal Ashby movies that are more grounded, mixed with “2001” (1968), “Enter the Void” (2009), and these crazy, more adult movies for the robot-side of things.”

Rianda’s right. He and Rowe cooked their cinematic concoction with seemingly 100,000 ingredients that vary from bold, wide-shot end-of-the-world imagery, slapstick sitcom humor, and famous and infamous pop culture references. Their film doesn’t have nearly as many nods to other movies or television shows as the Lego movies do, but “The Mitchells vs. The Machines” has its broad influences, including “Battlestar Galactica” (1978-1979, 2004-2009), “Maximum Overdrive” (1986), and “Kill Bill” (2003).

Add “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” (2015) to the mix as well, because Katie dreams of attending the California College of Film and has been making small parody films – like “Dial ‘B’ for Burger” – for years.

Even with all the purposeful on-screen madness, at its core, this adventure centers around personal family connections, repairing and strengthening them. The narrative directly addresses the emotional strain – from both parents and children - of kids growing up.

Sure, it’s a familiar theme, but Rianda and Rowe put a lot of thought into establishing the Mitchells as meaningful characters during the generous 15-minute introduction to this likable, eccentric clan. The one possible exception is Linda because she fills a ho-hum, traditional-mom peacekeeper role, but the film’s third act makes up for any generalization slights in the beginning.

Geez, what do Rianda and Rowe do for a second act? They set the bar pretty high, but I recommend that they include the Mitchells in their next film. Yes, this family is weird and great, and for the record, their surname rocks.

Jeff’s ranking

3.5/4 stars

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Mortal Kombat - Movie Review

Dir: Simon McQuoid

Starring: Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Joe Taslim, Mehcad Brooks, Tadanobu Asano, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ludi Lin, and Chin Han

1h 50m

Once upon a time, there were these places called "arcades". You could play on stand-up consoles with built-in joysticks and buttons; gamers would place their quarters in a row on the screen waiting for their chance to play the winner of the latest fighting game to enter the arcade.

In 1992 a new game entered the arcade, a violent fighting game with digitized blood and an array of amusing combatants called Mortal Kombat. It would revolutionize the fighting game possibilities for its unique fight style and, most controversially, its ability to do customized "fatalities" on defeated characters. 

Mortal Kombat spawned 18 different games, two motion pictures made in the 1990s, and a few animated and television spinoffs. Director Simon McQuoid takes the task of revamping this iconic popular culture mainstay with a film version that barely offers a narrative to be invested in and is more concerned about cool fights, bloody fatalities, and simplistic fan service.

For centuries a battle has taken place to determine the fate of Earth, a deadly confrontation between Earthrealm's finest protectors and an area known as Outworld's most lethal invaders. Cole Young (Lewis Tan) is an MMA fighter for hire and, unknowingly, a descendant of a great ninja named Hanzo Hasashi (Hiroyuki Sanada). Cole and his family are pursued by a powerful assassin named Sub-Zero, a nemesis who can conjure ice. Born with a strange dragon marking on his chest, Cole seeks out Sonja Blade (Jessica McNamee), who has answers about his heritage and the upcoming battle against Outworld's Emperor Shang Tsung (Chin Han).

Mortal Kombat starts as a deceptive origin story, initially backdropped with a theme of family and tradition that transitions into violence and vengeance. The beautiful forestry landscape and deliberate pathos of the introduction will make you think you are watching a Zhang Yimou historical epic or a Zatoichi blind swordsman film. However, this all disappears for a story that is primarily concerned with sensation over substance, the thrill of button mashing an arcade game for three minutes, and hearing things like "flawless victory" or "Kano wins." 

Still, for fans of the video game, the joy of seeing the background stories, specifically for two of the most beloved characters from the game, is such a welcome surprise. This specific background story helps establish the journey of discovery for the new to the mythology lead character Cole. 

Actor Lewis Tan has a pleasant screen presence. His character Cole is a reluctant hero, forced into action because of a family lineage and heritage. Cole's story is as much narrative and character development as Mortal Kombat provides to any of the lead characters marching towards the great tournament for Earthrealm. 

A few characters arrive to add amusement to the journey. Josh Lawson plays the hot-headed, laser-eyed bad guy Kano with pure glee, his one-liners and snarky remarks are the only bits of humor in this serious adaptation. Jessica McNamee and Mehcad Brooks join the hero squad playing the military team of Sonja Blade and Jax, who are slowly uncovering the mystery of the long-standing Kombat. They aren't given much to develop. Many of the supporting characters show up with a name introduction and immediately jump into a fighting stance. Still, their personalities are provided the care game fans will appreciate. The characters are fashioned in service to the gameplay experience, from signature moves to fatalities pulled from all the different games. It helps keep the film focused on fun and fast-moving action but creates a dull satisfaction for the story that runs out of steam well before the film's climax.

Mortal Kombat is more watchable than the 1995 version of the film ever was, providing game fans with the kind of fun experienced while trying to remember the button combinations for fatalities for this game. While the story is serviceable in the most fundamental ways and the characters compose as much depth as the original 2-dimensional game composition, many are simply coming for the spectacle and nostalgia of seeing this iconic game brought to movie life again. Mortal Kombat achieves this simple feat. 

Monte's Rating

3.00 out of 5.00

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Celebrate Al Pacino’s birthday with This Triple Feature

On April 25, acting legend Alfredo James “Al” Pacino turns 81 years young, and with dozens of films and nine Oscar nominations (and one win for “Scent of a Woman” (1992)) on his resume, this Manhattan native has plenty of fabulous and celebrated movies to watch on his birthday.  My personal favorite Pacino performance is his masterful turn as Carlito Brigante – a career criminal trying to go straight - in Brian De Palma’s “Carlito’s Way” (1993), but let’s look at three other films.  This cinematic trio might not reside on the first page of Pacino’s catalog, but his work and these movies are proud events in Al’s glorious 52-year big-screen career. 

Scarecrow (1973)

Pacino starred in five movies from 1972 through 1975, and The Academy nominated him for four Oscars for his Herculean efforts in “The Godfather” (1972), “Serpico” (1973), “The Godfather: Part II” (1974), and “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975).  Well, his fifth film during this petite period of grand honors - a road trip picture named “Scarecrow” - didn’t win Oscar gold, but it did take home Cannes’ 1973 Palme d’Or.  

Well, the two lead characters in director Jerry Schatzberg’s award-winning flick haven’t won anything in their lives, but Max (Gene Hackman) and Lionel (Pacino) – drifters by “trade” –connected via a pseudo-happy accident while hitchhiking east.  These dysfunctional opposites did attract, and Max, a cantankerous ex-con, recruits the boyish, happy-go-lucky Lionel for a business proposition.  Our recently-freed jailbird has an implausible dream of opening a car wash in Pittsburgh, which is an awfully long ways from their current position in Bakersfield, Calif.  

For most of the 112-minute runtime, Schatzberg places this 1970s Mutt and Jeff team in the middle of nowhere – without another visible soul for miles - or into working-class neighborhoods, where verbal or physical assaults solve random disputes.  Max calls himself “the meanest son of a bitch alive,” and who could argue with his imposing 6’ 2” frame and short fuse.  Thankfully, Lionel – a Navy vet whose first name is actually Francis – is a full-time pacifist goofball, a court jester who attempts to diffuse any hint of conflict with weird faces or a Three Stooges routine.  Hackman and Pacino hook our interest with the makeshift entrepreneurs’ everyday dynamics because their protracted pace on their prolonged Promise-Land path promotes profound uncertainties.  

Can they get past Denver, let alone Lionel’s vitally important stop in Detroit before their eventual landing in the Steel City?  Max’s combustible persona might blow up their plans before crossing The Great Divide.  Well, geographically speaking, “Scarecrow” is an American story, but it’s also a demonstrative one, a tale filled with hard knocks, the freedom to make questionable choices, and an unlikely friendship.  

Sea of Love (1989)

New York City Police Detective Frank Keller (Pacino) reaches 20 years on the force, and his colleagues start whispering, “Retirement.”  Hey, let’s face it, no one murmurs in NYC, so yes, he hears their calls.  Walking away with his pension has its appeals, but Frank’s a homicide detective through and through.  He has no plans to open a B&B in Clearwater Beach because solving murder cases is his life’s work, and he’ll have to roll up his sleeves for this puzzling new one.

In director Harold Becker’s whodunit, someone forces a Manhattan man to lay face down on a bed and then shoots him in the back of the head while Phil Phillips’ “Sea of Love” (1959) 45 record plays on a repeat loop.  No, that’s not the best way to fondly “remember when we met.”  

When a similar shooting occurs across town, Queens Det. Sherman (John Goodman) joins Keller to find their suspect, and they discover that both victims put ads in “NY Weekly Magazine” for blind dates.  Hey, this was 1989.  Match.com and eHarmony.com weren’t invented yet.  Anyway, Sherman and Keller decide to place a fake advertisement in the same paper to lure this femme fatale out in the open.  When an alluring lady, Helen Cruger (Ellen Barkin), arrives with a red leather jacket and plenty of attitude, they may have found their killer, but Frank – still trying to get over his ex-wife – starts dating her.  

Oh, walk away, Frank!    

“Sea of Love” arrived in theatres two years after “Fatal Attraction” (1987), so the threat of a murderous blonde girlfriend feels a little familiar, but Pacino and Barkin sell this anxious relationship.  Barkin’s Helen seems dangerous in the dead of night and broad daylight.  Still, she has emotional and physical holds on Frank, and his attraction to - and fear of - the flame easily translates from the screen to theatres and living rooms everywhere.  Should Frank propose or call for backup?  It’s a great question because let’s not forget why Frank and Helen met.  

Insomnia (2002)

Christopher Nolan has directed some of the 21st century’s most celebrated big-budget blockbusters.  Which one do you prefer?  “The Dark Knight” (2008), “Inception” (2010), “Interstellar” (2014), or “Dunkirk” (2017) might be your first choice, but one of my favorites is his guarded, tightly-wound psychological thriller set in the tiny village of Nightmute within the nation’s biggest state.  In “Insomnia”, the local police chief calls up Los Angeles detectives Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) and Will Dormer (Pacino) to help crack a disturbing murder investigation.  Dormer enjoys a great deal of fame in law enforcement circles for his no-nonsense approach and impeccable record, and a local upstart officer, Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank), thinks a rock star just arrived in her small seaside town.    

Well, Dormer doesn’t even finish “his first set” when he already lays a trap for the murderer, but this crystal clear case suddenly becomes desperately foggy – literally and figuratively – during the pursuit.  Nolan’s “Insomnia” is a most worthy remake of director Erik Skjoldbjaerg’s 1997 movie – starring Stellan Skarsgard – and both films feature a critical character native to the Alaskan and Norwegian summers:  24 hours of daylight.  The constant sun hampers Dormer’s sleep, and when the case doesn’t fall into open-and-shut crime-solving spaces, his head is soon filled with paranoia, doubt, and worse.  Slumber is impossible, and his judgment becomes increasingly dubious.  This is new territory for Will, and as Nolan’s narrative slowly sides down a slippery slope, our lead feels the earth swallow him up.  

Think of Pacino’s bold, confident Lt. Vincent Hanna from Michael Mann’s “Heat” (1995) falling into brutally compromising quandaries and suffering massive emotional and physical tolls as a result, and that’s Dormer.  Pacino delivers a gut-wrenching performance, and Robin Williams is equally convincing as an unexpected villain, although that same year, he also played a troubled antagonist in “One Hour Photo”, so he took quite a departure from “Mrs. Doubtfire” (1993) in 2002.  Complete with a gorgeous backdrop of our 49th state, this twisted morality tale is one of Nolan’s best efforts and Pacino’s too.  

The Year Earth Changed – Movie Review

Directed by:  Tom Beard

Narrated by:  David Attenborough  

Runtime:  48 minutes

 ‘The Year Earth Changed’ offers a silver lining to our cloudy year

“As we stop, remarkable things happen in the natural world.”  - David Attenborough

COVID-19 has taken 3 million lives and disrupted almost 8 billion, and many of us have sheltered in place over the past year-plus.  It’s been a brutal time for the human race, and – countless times - I’ve said to myself and out loud, “Good riddance, 2020.”

I assume that I’m not alone.

With so much death and disruption, it’s challenging to find pandemic positives within our emotional spaces, especially when a typical week’s highlight is a single, solitary trip to the supermarket; if one can afford groceries, that is.

Thankfully, director Tom Beard and narrator David Attenborough offer a reprieve from our doldrums, an encouraging silver lining peeking out from the mental and physical-health storms.  Their inspiring documentary “The Year Earth Changed” might have a slender 48-minute runtime, but its vast, soaring message will sit with you long after the end credits.

The film’s premise is our reality: human beings – by and large – have stopped commuting to work, flying to getaway destinations, and hopping in cars and trains to visit close friends and grandkids, but Mother Nature has responded in promising ways.  Beard and his team crisscrossed the globe, interviewed scientists, and found hopeful stories on land, sea, and air where our environment and the animal kingdom have made slight comebacks.  Without crowded roadways and skies, air pollution dissipates.  Dramatically less ship traffic offers quieter oceans for whales and dolphins.  Sparser beaches and land-locked acreage allow our four-legged friends to roam and socialize.

For environmentally-conscious individuals – including this critic - who shed tears at the news of dwindling elephant populations, polluted oceans, and increased carbon emissions, this little documentary with bold outcomes will brighten your day...and year.  For example, 2020 saw the atmosphere’s greatest drop in carbon dioxide in modern, industrial history.  Sure, it makes logical sense, but it’s awfully reassuring when Attenborough states it.

This 94-years-young, well-traveled Brit earned a colossal, lengthy resume of writing, producing, narrating, and directing television programs and films about our planet.  He’s our guide to six continents, and Beard’s cameras capture individual, diverse slices of tree-hugging joy.  After experiencing “The Year Earth Changed”, I would love to share many specifics, but it’s better to absorb them while watching the doc.  Let’s just say that animal and marine mamas and their babies are connecting more easily and growing closer with fewer people roaming around, and that’s one example of the planet’s upbeat springs in its step.

Still, this current interlude of nature’s progress doesn’t translate to a complete ecological turnaround.  It doesn’t, and not by a long shot.  Beard’s film calls out small strides, but they could be short-lived.  Once I, you, and everyone else we know return to our traveling, consuming selves, Earth’s ecosystem will fall back into desperate territory.  On the other hand, “The Year Earth Changed” may help inspire us to transform our daily routines for years, decades, and centuries to come.  Maybe.  One can hope, because as downright cruel as last year was, it also sent a motivating wake-up call.  On a personal note, I'd love to work from home for the rest of my days.

("The Year Earth Changed" is streaming on Apple TV+)

Jeff’s ranking

3/4 stars

Voyagers - Movie Review

Dir: Neil Burger

Starring: Colin Farrell, Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp, Fionn Whitehead, and Chanté Adams

1h 48m

PG-13

Writer/director Neil Burger takes William Golding's seminal novel, Lord of the Flies, and reframes it on a spaceship on an interplanetary mission to save humanity in Voyagers. Instead of an abandoned island, the drama shifts to deep space isolation inside a technologically advanced life vessel slowly hurtling towards new horizons. The idea is ripe for exploration, but Voyagers often relies on familiar archetypes and generic solutions to define its path.

Earth is becoming uninhabitable, and a group of scientifically bred children is the only hope for humanity. On a spaceship capable of sustaining life for an 86-year voyage, the mission consists of a mix of young men and women who have roles and responsibilities to keep the mission alive. To maintain a docile harmony between the young people living in the secluded craft, they are chemically altered with a drink known as "blue." The beverage keeps the typically hormonal teens from becoming too preoccupied with complicated feelings or impulses that would jeopardize the mission.

Christopher (Tye Sheridan) and Zac (Fionn Whitehead) are the first to discover that "blue" is a drug to control their urges and suppress their maturing hormones. The ship's captain, Richard (Colin Farrell), the father-figure on board the vessel who has been with the mission since the children were born, is the only crew member who understands the delicate nature of blossoming emotions for these young people. Christopher and Zac, wanting to "feel" everything, are the first to stop drinking "blue." They slowly begin to feel sensations they have never felt before, the surge of testosterone that finds them competitively racing down the ship's long corridors and wrestling aggressively in front of their bemused fellow crew members. These feelings grow more robust, rule-breaking, sexual frustrations, and violence begin to take hold.

Voyagers' beginning introduces fascinating ideas about human nature's struggles, the urges, temptations, and needs that compose many of life's moral challenges. These questions and insights are slighted for much broader, more familiar strokes of narrative conflict. Burger's drama focuses on the power struggle between Christopher and Zac, and because these characters aren't complex individuals, the result only composes surface-level suspense and rudimentary thrills.

Sheridan and Whitehead do the best they can with the characters they are provided. Lily-Rose Depp is a strong presence who deserves more character-building than simply fueling the conflict between the two male leads. Farrell isn't offered much time to shine aside from a few video diary entries that propose the interesting narrative elements not explored.

Voyagers may not have the story to sustain engagement from start to finish. Still, the technical design is visually striking and keeps attention connected to the action happening within the frame. The production design makes a maze out of the spaceship's interior, with long corridors and hidden rooms assisting the tension when the chase eventually happens. Director of photography, Enrique Chediak, does a good job of using the spaceship to the highest benefit of the rising conflict. As attitudes grow more aggressive and ambitions turn dangerous between the crew, the spacecraft seems to grow more claustrophobic. Chediak compliments the story's themes, helping to keep the action engaging and attractive even when the narrative runs out of steam.

Voyagers has an engaging story hiding between the scenes that compose this film. While the movie maintains a decent pace from start to finish, this familiar tale's journey rarely explores the intriguing themes within this Lord of the Flies inspired space story.

Monte's Rating

2.25 out of 5.00

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