At the Cinema - June 2017

Wonder Woman – 8

So close.  Gal Gadot blazes her way through the long-awaited Wonder Woman, and it’s like seeing Sean Connery for the first time as James Bond.  You just know she’s going to be doing this for a long time, and we should be happy.  She’s got that elusive on-screen charisma that is talked so much about, but rarely seen.  The problem is that there are a bunch of producers in the way.  

Wonder Woman is two thirds of a great movie.  It starts with the Wonder Girl backstory of how she was raised on an Amazon island, and that’s the kind of beginning I usually can’t stand – but here it’s enthralling.  Then comes her World War II adventures beside her side kick Steve Trevor, played to the hilt by Chris Pine, including an Ursula Andress type chemistry with the star.  It all progresses nicely until the usual Hollywood overblown special effects conclusion, this time a battle of the Gods that is totally ridiculous and unnecessary.  Too bad, so close to a classic.

Baby Driver – 8

Be careful.  When you come out of this movie your foot may be a little heavy.  Like most car chase movies, this one causes that little adrenaline spike, at least in the males, that says, “yeah, I could do that.”

Baby is a getaway driver and he does it all to music!  He pops in his earplugs and the music blares while he spins and shifts his car.  It’s almost a musical.  There’s a touch of realism in the action, even though most of it is ridiculous, that keeps you on the edge of your bucket seat.  Jamie Foxx and Jon Hamm are effective evildoers, while Kevin Spacey is just hammy, in support of Baby (Ansel Elgort) and his true love-to-be Deborah (the effervescent Lily Harris).  The movie races in cars, but drops to first gear of clichés when Baby is not behind the wheel, although another star is born in the beautiful Eiza Gonzales who plays Hamm’s partner in crime and life.  There’s a lot of fun here, and I suspect it will be a movie to be watched many times.

The Mummy – 4

On the other hand, The Mummy is a movie best forgotten, and very quickly.  There’s never been a movie that better exemplifies what is wrong with the movies of today.  Box office spectaculars with overblown and meaningless special effects that will play only briefly to the American Audience, then hope to make that ridiculous budget back overseas.  It may be a good business model, but it’s a horrible artistic one.

There are a few good scenes, and Tom Cruise is his usual “running” self, but how Cruise ever agreed to this script is beyond me.  The only other Cruise constant in a movie is he brings along an unknown female of his choosing to showcase, and here it’s Annabella Wallis who emerges as a star of the future.  Meanwhile Russel Crowe, who looks like he has been inflated, plays a Jekyll/Hyde Doctor because I guess this is supposed to be the beginning of a series of monster pictures, to which I’ll simply sum up with “I’ll pass.”

Scanning the Satellite (and the home theater)

A Dog’s Life (2016) – 8

This is as obvious a movie as there can be.  The idea presented in the movie is that dogs come back, their souls reincarnated over and over until they’re back with their original owner.  Well, as a friend of mine often says, “who don’t know that?”  My dog Bella gave me this blu-ray as a Father’s Day gift as if to tell me she’ll be back again. 
As for the execution of the movie, it’s predictable and fine, heartwarming and heartbreaking.  If you like dogs, you’ll probably like this movie.  It will just reaffirm what you already know.  They come back.

Birth of a Nation (2016)–  8

There were big expectations for this movie, but it underperformed when the lurid past of director Nate Parker was revealed.  There are two words for this movie.  Graphic and brutal. This is the story of the slavery rebellion led by Nat Turner, a literate preacher and slave.  Parker plays Turner, and there is not a single punch pulled in the movie.  I often had to turn away from the screen.  I guess everyone should see this movie – it’s certainly well done - but don’t expect to enjoy it.

Fargo –  10

My favorite of the last 3 years has been this FX series.  The latest season was complex and unpredictable.  I think there’s been slight slippage from season to season but it’s still terrific story-telling.  What has made this series so good is that the terrific portrayals of both the good guys and the bad guys each year are brilliant.