MOVIES
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – 8
I’m a big fan of the Max Max storyline. It started in 1979 with Mad Max, which was eclipsed by The Road Warrior, a 1981 masterpiece. Then in 2015, director George Miller hit the jackpot with Mad Max: Fury Road which if not the best movie of the 2010’s was certainly the best action movie. Unfortunately, the 9 year gap between Furiosa movies was not an accension, but a little bit of a drop. Anya Taylor Young credibly takes over for Charlize Theron, and the story and action are strong, just not quite up to the standards of Fury Road. It was a big ask.
Miller chooses to tell this origination story in chapters and it
has a little bit of a let’s “fill in the blanks” feeling. Maybe that was necessary. Maybe not.
What’s inescapable is that the Australian Miller is now 79, and may have
come to the end of the road as far as Mad Max sagas go. The failure of this movie at the box office
is a commentary on the current state of movie theaters, not necessarily the
quality of the work. How much longer will
theaters last? That’s the real saga.
Twisters – 8
The special effects are truly amazing even if the story is as ridiculous as you would expect in this kind-of-a sequel/remake of the Twister of 1996. The Glen Powell effect continues as he capitalizes on his rising popularity by starring in as many movies as possible. Maybe he’s got Jake Gyllenhaal in his sites Meanwhile the charismatic newcomer Daisy Edgar Jones provides the complimentary eye candy of tornado storm chasers perusing the Oklahoma weather during the “storm season.”
Some of the dialogue is ludicrous, as are the details of the plot,
but it somehow builds momentum into a
fairly farfetched but riveting conclusion. Turns out riding a tornado can be fun,
but not all games. I’ve got to give them
credit for their portrayal of the devastation a storm can cause. Nice move, and probably what will pass for a
hit in the summer of 2024. Maybe there's hope for theaters.
Knox Goes Away – 8
Michael Keaton directs and plays Knox in a portrait of a fast-moving form of dementia. Knox has been diagnosed and told he has just a few weeks to get his affairs in order. That would have been enough of a storyline right there. But, you see, Knox is a trained assassin. Hollywood would have you believe that there are so many trained contract killers in the general population that they are everywhere.
Knox’s deteriorating condition is revealed when he loses his
shopping cart. I’m kidding of
course. A hit goes bad, and then his
estranged son kills the predator who impregnated his daughter and shows up,
begging for help. Thus the clock starts
running, and an action thriller begins where a character study would have been
just fine. Nevertheless, Keaton sells
the whole thing and it’s a good movie where a great one could have been.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F -
7
I have no idea where the brains at Netflix came up with such a ridiculous title
for the 4th installment of the Beverly Hill Cop movies, but there’s
no doubt where they came up with the script.
This movie is like going to a class reunion when you’re 70 and going on
a car chase for old times’ sake. The
snappy repartee is there because alzheimers hasn’t set in yet, but the body is
a tad old and creaky. So, in keeping
with the tradition of BHC, let’s have Axel get arrested a few times, have a
couple of ridiculous chase scenes, and befitting the name, end it with a
Beverly Hills mansion shoot out, tearing it to shreds. Seems like old times. There are some ok action sequences, and Eddie
Murphy is still a great comic actor, and the gang is getting off some great
one-liners, but the first thing you acknowledge at that reunion is that we just
aren’t as spry as we used to be, and maybe we shouldn’t be doing this.
The Beekeeper – 4
One of those movies that should’ve lasted about 10 minutes, if
only somebody would have just shot Jason Statham from about 10 feet away,
instead of rushing him so he could beat up 50 Seal Team 6 members at once. Leaves you ashamed that you enjoyed some of
it. And those opening 10 minutes are
actually pretty good, as it starts the story with one of those shameful scams
where an old person loses their life savings over the phone. Mrs. Huxtable is so distraught she does the
unthinkable, and this puts the invincible Jason Statham into action. Justified, but ludicrous. I have to admit, I wish we could do this in
real life, beat up a few thousand scammers. Mindless, blurry action, if that’s
your thing.
Holidate – 6
A bonafide Hallmark movie that upgrades the acting talent from C-
to C+ with a story you’ve seen over and over.
One of the main characters is usually clueless and here it’s Emma
Roberts, who has no redeemable qualities as Sloane, but somehow has a pretty
likeable guy (Luke Bracy) falling for her as the make a pact to go to family
functions as a couple on holidays so as to not have to put up with the relatives’
“dating” questions. My suggestion is to
watch the trailer, which thoughtlessly has every funny scene in it. It took us 3 nights to get through this. A Three-Nighter.
On Body and Soul – 8
Of all things Forbes magazine cited a Hungarian movie on Netflix
as worthy, so we tried it on. A unique
movie with a neat premise. Two
co-workers in a slaughterhouse find that they are dreaming the same dream every
night. Beautiful dreams. How’s that for a launch of a relationship? Well, it’s a rocky launch and this isn’t for
everyone. But, as movies go in the 21st century it’s a love
story. Certainly not a Hallmark one.
STREAMING/BINGING and what’s left of Network Television
Tehran (Season 2) – 10
So Apple+ has a critically acclaimed drama with an authentic, unrecognizable cast and in an effort to boost profile, they decide to add an American star, Glenn Close. She’s a great actress, but she’s as out of place here as I would be at a Phish concert. Despite her unsettling and unnecessary presence, the storytelling is superb, and the momentum from the first season continues. This is a great demonstration of spycraft, and I look forward to the third season, when I understand they are adding Hugh Laurie, because I guess they need a cranky but brilliant doctor. Great conclusion to this season. Didn’t see it coming, and that’s rare.
The Outsider – 8
This is a 10-episode HBO series from 2022 based on a Stephen King novel. I’m not a King devotee. Don’t read his books, but I certainly admire
his volume. Unfortunately my love of the
supernatural faded about 30 years ago. I
read that this was one of his best series adaptations, so I thought I would
check it out. The first 3 episodes are
stellar, and boom I was hooked. Then we
dragged to the finish line. The drag
should have lasted about 6 episodes, but that’s not the way things work in the
world of streaming.
But, as these things go, pretty good.
Presumed Innocent – 7
Jake Gyllenhaal must work more than any other actor, although Glen Powell is nipping at his heels. He wandered into the streaming wars with the Road House update on Amazon Prime, although in fairness he thought it was good enough to get a theatrical release. (It wasn’t.) Now he takes on a mini-series with an unnecessary remake of the Scott Turow popular novel. In 1990 it was made into a hit movie with the legendary Harrison Ford as Rusty Sabich, (great name, right?) a Chicago prosecutor who investigates, and is later the prime suspect in the murder of fellow prosecutor, and lover Carolym Pohemus (another great name.)
Jake takes over the lead role in this series, which is just
as drawn out as you would expect. My pet
peeve are some minor, but horribly offensive baseball scenes. The courtroom drama is not that sharp legal
wrangling you’d like to see, it’s more personality driven, principally by Peter
Skaarsgard, who proves once again that no one can snivel like he can.
Ruth Negga plays Rusty’s wife, who despite the piling up of infidelity revelations is gamely trying to hold the Sabich family together. I guess the movie is largely forgotten, but there’s a critical casting issue in this version. In the movie Greta Scacchi plays the ravishing Pohemus and her charisma is evident. That’s the problem with this series. I’m sure Renate Reinsve is a fine actress, but as Pohemus she just doesn’t display that “it” that would drive a man to the crazy passion Sabich confesses. This should be a tour de force for Gyllenhaal, but while he’s intense, he’s too bland for the role, even when compared to Harrison Ford. But, by now, we know this all too well.
DOCUMENTARIES
Charlie Hustle and the Matter of Pete Rose – 8
As a Pirate fan, I hated Pete Rose. He beat you, and it just seemed like he
rubbed it in your face. My personal
opinion has always been that yes, he should be in the Hall of Fame (for his
play), but no, he should never be allowed anywhere near baseball (for his
betting while he was a manager.). You
may not know this, but when they put him on the ineligible list for betting on
baseball they changed the rules to make him also ineligible for the Hall of
Fame, which was previously just selected by the writers. Not particularly fair, but not the most
important decision ever made either.
Pete, now 83, knows he’s nearing the end and is making one more push to make it into the HOF before he croaks, and he’s found some willing allies at HBO who have produced an nice recap of his life, times, and arrogance. Nothing has changed. He’s his own worst enemy. Unfortunately at 4 episodes of just under an an hour each, the documentary is about 42% too long. There’s just so much one can take of Rose’s ego, narcissism, denial, selective memory, whining, and cries of “unfair.” We’ve never seen anything like it! All the sympathy I had for Rose going in was destroyed by the conclusion.
He still rubs it in people’s faces, and I can promise you
that if he ever makes it into the hall, it will be long after he’s gone, and
people are just looking at his records, and not having to deal with his
attitude. By the end of this thing, I
had no sympathy for him.
Here I am, a huge baseball fan, and the superstars of my lifetime of enjoyment, Rose, Bonds, ARod, Palmero, McGwire, Sosa, Clemens, and many more are not going to see the hallowed hall. But, last year Scott Rolen was elected. I can’t remember ever seeing him play. Where has baseball gone, Joe Dimaggio?
Stevie Van Zandt:
Disciple - 10
This HBO documentary is a revelation. Little Stevie has had a wondrous career. From Bruce Springsteen’s main man to Tony Soprano’s confidant – that’s the way most of us him know him. But there’s much more to his story. He’s been an influential proponent of keeping rock n roll alive (yes, I’ve added his Underground Garage Sirius channel to my rotation as a result of watching this) and been a prominent producer of other artists, and a leader of his own band.
What most of us don’t know is that he left the E Street Band just when Springsteen’s Born in the USA fame was about to kick in. He began an epic effort to attack apartheid in South Africa. This culminated in his We Are the World-like production of “Sun City,” an anthem that had enormous impact. It is this part of the movie that is the most “documentary” as I had no idea of his efforts and the effect they had.
I love Rock N Roll Documentaries (and concert films) and with the social changes music has generated in the last century or so, maybe that’s what we should be displaying in classrooms. I was reflecting on all the great music docs and here are some of my favorites (knowing I’ll leave some out):
There Will be Music
The Last Waltz (still the gold standard)
Monterey Pop
Get Back
WoodstocK
Amy
Stop Making Sense & American Utopia
Eight Days a Week
George Harrison:
Living in a Material World
Searching for Sugarman
I Am Celine Dion – 6
Prior to her epic comeback song at the Olympics I watched this Netflix
documentary that will make you cringe at the gruesomeness of the disease Stiff
Body Syndrome, that she now suffers with.
It is clearly stated that Celine was dedicated to her career and she
misses her abilities. This is as tough to watch as any horror movie or
political speech. I was convinced that we would never see her perform
again. I hope the film crew kept rolling
as I was stunned to see her sing again.
CLASSICS
Don’t Look Now – 5
For several years I’ve been trying to work my way through what are considered
the classics. Many of these movies have
not aged well and I’ve been disappointed. I’ve come to realize that it is
asking a lot for a film to age well.
They can’t all be Casablanca. Highly regarded foreign movies with subtitles
have been the majority of these. For
some reason, I just had never gotten around to the Donald Sutherland/Julie
Christie “classic,” but when Southerland recently passed away, it was back on
my radar.
There are several reasons the movie is famous. Most notorious is the stars’ sex scene which had long been alleged to be so realistic, that it was real. The editing is famous for it’s intercutting, and its examination of the grief of losing a child is at its core.
None of this holds up very well. There was no moment in the notorious sex scene that appeared at all real, which is what the stars have long said. The editing, particularly in the critical moments is so distracting as to cut the effectiveness of any tension in pieces. The story, which veers into the supernatural, unnecessarily, involves a lot of running around the streets of Venice in a disjointed way that makes you feel it’s a filler. Here’s my guess. In 1974 this may have worked. Today, it doesn’t hold the Venice canal water. A huge disappointment, and now I have no desire to go to Venice.
