Tag: review

Sometimes you want to watch a movie as brainless as a big, giant, hairy ape. Kong: Skull Island is just the sort of movie, and it is literally a big, giant, hairy ape. Brainless, though? The film was, but Kong not so much.

Kong: Skull Island situates itself in the early 70s after the US withdraws from the debacle in Vietnam. Yet, not all are happy about it. Samuel L. Jackson’s Lt. Col. Packard is disgusted with the ending of the only thing he knows to do — fight an enemy. When he is given a chance of escorting a scientific mission with his air cavalry corps, he relishes the opportunity. He’s not ready to go back to America where his sense of worth would be questioned and the duty and honor of being a military man is left in the rice paddies of Vietnam to die.

So, Monarch, a name familiar to latest US Godzilla fans, recruits Jackson and they fly off to a mist shrouded island in the middle of the pacific to conduct “scientific experiments” mapping the last unmappable place on the planet. They do so by dropping bombs which scare up all kinds of denizens of the island least of which is King Kong. Kong is not alone. There’s a bunch of lizard-esque creatures. And like the latest Godzilla, Kong is force of nature meant to balance the evil of it all.

Yet, it is Jackson’s crew that take a pounding. By scaring up Kong, he kicks their asses. And in losing, Jackson becomes Ahab and Kong Moby Dick. Jackson will suffer nothing to destroy the beast that destroyed his men even though said men just want to get home. “Dear Billy, we be battling’ a tall ape!” Everyone wants home, but not Jackson.

In the end, it’s man versus the beast versus the lizard-esque creatures versus nature. It is such a mess that you should go along for the ride. But realize, it’s one hodgepodge of a film with many things going on. I didn’t even get to Charles C. Reilly’s cool stranded pilot or whatever it was Oscar winner, Brie Larson, was doing. Just behold Samuel L. Jackson chewing scenery.

3 of 5 stars.

Who would’ve thought that Jordan Peele of Key and Peele fame had a thriller like Get Out in him? Not me, but for a comedian, he sure wrote a disturbing movie.

The film is on the surface about a neighborhood that abducts black men whose bodies are used as vessels by older white men. The film’s subtext is about the appropriation of black culture by whites.

4 of 5 stars.

Why has it taken me two weeks to write a review about the final Wolverine movie, Logan? Am I keeping to my resolutions? Was it a good film?

First. I am lazy. Second. Somewhat. Third. Yes.

The film probably got its reason for being because of the ‘Old Man Logan’ comics which saw the immortal X-Man old in the future. It was a hit with the comic geeks. I’ve never read it as keeping up with X-Men comics is a suckers bet. Plus, I’m more a Cyclops or Colossus fan, but they get no love from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This was a hard R. Lots of blood and gore and claws through the head. It is everything you wanted to see in a Wolverine film. It’s as if his oft repeated catch phrase was taken literally. “I’m the best at what I do, and what I do and so nice.” Or something like that I think.

It was good. The more serious film made it feel more grave. That’s where all the X-Men really end up. Dead and buried.

4 of 5 stars.

The Great Wall is junk. It is Hong Kong action masquerading as Hollywood action. Lots of it doesn’t make sense as a Hollywood movie. It makes complete sense as a Hong Kong movie. How did we get this in the West?

Matt Damon is in pursuit of the fabled ‘black powder,’ and he stumbles upon the Great Wall. It is meant to keep an alien horde out of China and it protects the world. The Chinese have been training for years in color coded teams to defeat these aliens. Matt Damon has gotten himself into the war of the worlds. Can he get himself out?

It’s like Matt Damon was slumming. Did he need the money? I know that the director, Yimou Zhang, did a few well received movies, like House of the Flying Daggers and Hero, from the silver age of Hong Kong movies in Hollywood in the early 2000s. This one feels like he didn’t need the artiness of those previous ones and he’ll make a film with dragons.

It was alright. I think I want to see those classic supernatural kung fu Hong Kong films from the late 80s and early 90s.

3 of 5 stars.

John Wick Chapter 2 begins where the first one ends. John Wick getting his car from the Russian mob boss that had it. And like the first installment, it’s a lot of dead people flying.

John Wick is definitely back in the sequel. It continues because the story has to. The implications of his retiring from his retirement come back to haunt him. A marker which allowed him to retire was called in and he must do a job to cash in the marker. Reluctantly he does it and thus begins the big gang war in the the John Wick world.

This installment expands on the previous by fleshing out the rest of the world. From the Continental, the hotel for hitmen, to the gangs of the world who are try to rule the underground. It adds in a female hitman who doesn’t say a word. It puts in Common who was a John Wick friend but is now an adversary. It opens the world up to being a self-contained universe. Now there will be other parts of the story — the comic book, the novelization, the prequel, the direct-to-streaming animated web series. There will be lots of Wick to consume later.

That’s why I didn’t like it in the end as I knew that we are in another ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ situation. There will be more and more interconnected stories that will dilute the power of the first film. It will not stop until John Wick puts a bullet in its head.

3 of 5 stars.

Man, I feel for Britt Robertson. She’s played in lots of poorly received films and The Space Between Us is another one. This one is a stinker of a film trying to make a sentimental galaxy spanning love story. It’s pretty saccharine and it doesn’t really come off well. I think the biggest misstep was how the story and the kid was conceived. Totally terrible which shaded the rest of the film if you didn’t know it from the start.

The kid is Asa Butterfield’s kid who was born on Mars. His story was hidden from the entire planet because it would’ve been a scandal. Except that it wasn’t told and the director of the space company, Gary Oldman, treated it like a scandal and resigned soon after leaving the kid to grow up in Mars without his mom and being a hidden figure. He is determined to come back to Earth even though it would kill him. He is determined to meet Tulsa (Robertson) because he fell in love with her from afar.

There’s an escape. He makes it to Earth. He treats it like an alien place. Except Butterfield acts weird. Geeky but smart.

I would love to have liked this movie. It tries, but the last third of the movie, when the big reveal, comes destroys any promise in liking the film. It is hard to sympathize with the people involved – the actors, director, writers. They made the ending and they gambled to throw out the good will of the first 2/3 of the films.

2 of 5 stars.

Hidden Figures highlights the contribution of three African Americans women to the US space race. The film also highlights the roadblocks and prejudice confronting the women. Sometimes it was as straight forward as the suspicion of trouble making as by a police man. Sometimes it was as subtle as assuming they’re not hard workers. Other times it was institutional because they keep the only available bathroom far, far away. The women did overcome this to contribute very much to making NASA meet it goals and explore space.

It’s an uplifting story. Not sure that it was a great film because it seemed to stick too much to the ‘triumph and tragedy’ formula of many biopics. It felt rote in the way that the story checks off plot points for any biography.

3 of 5 stars.

Martin Scorsese’s Silence is about religion in Japan and also about faith in God. How far will one go to preach the Gospel? Are you still holy if you don’t follow the faith faithfully every day of your life?

I’ve been silent on this film for several weeks now since I saw it at the theatre back in January. It is a difficult film to understand. At first, it is a straight story about missionary priests in Japan fighting to bring the Church to a country which is actively hostile to their teachings. Then you wonder why the country is so antithetical to the religion. Is it because of how it brings hope to the lowest in society? Or is it because the Japanese at the time where prejudiced against the West?

It is a film that asks us about our faith but also about our own prejudice. Should we all be so humble in life? And so strong in our faith.

There was a character who kept failing to not renounce Christ — the Japanese doubting Thomas. To avoid persecution, he would deny that he was a believer. Yet, he kept coming back to the faith. Was he faithful or faithless?

The priests who renounced Christ, the ending revealed that maybe he was still a man of Christ. Was he faithful or faithless?

In the end, it is redemption that is available to all of Christ’s children.

3 of 5 stars.

Last week, I downloaded the soundtrack to 20th Century Women. It is a mix of big band, punk, New Wave, and a film score. The punk/New Wave stuff occurred in the late 70s/early 80s just as I was a kid. The film’s sound track made me remember my youth.

20th Century Woman is about a young precocious kid who lives with his carefree mom and her tenants in Santa Barbara of the late 70s. The kid lives his life amongst three women: his mom, a slightly older neighbor girl, and one the punky tenants who has survived ovarian cancer. His mom is in her forties but grew up during the war period. His neighbor is a flibbertigibbet, sleeps around, but always ends up sleeping in the kids bed. The punky tenant is living a life she wants to live. That’s how he becomes such a punk himself. The film is autobiographical take on the director’s life.

I really liked this film. I would’ve given this 5 stars, but I can’t because that rating is for films that are truly awesome. This one isn’t that awesome, but I do think it is one of the best films I’ve seen in several years. Assume that it has a 3/4 stars extra.

4 of 5 stars.