Last Flag Flying (2017) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Richard Linklater

Starring:  Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell, Laurence Fishburne, Yul Vazquez, Cicely Tyson, J. Quinton Johnson

Last Flag Flying confronts the bitter feelings and ambivalence the Iraq War caused our nation.  With Donald Trump in office, suddenly George W. Bush's presidency seems competent by comparison. 
But, let's not forget the mess that was the Iraq War, in which a President endangered the lives of thousands, maybe even millions, based on a lie which served to further his political agenda.  Young men, like Larry Shepherd Jr, son of Larry "Doc" Shepherd (Carell) return home in a casket with hollow declarations of sorrow and heroism from a Marine Colonel who didn't even know the deceased soldier.  Why did he have to go to Iraq and die?   How did he die?    Is the truth much worse than the fictional story the Colonel concocted?    We learn soon enough and it only muddies the waters further.

There are no easy answers.   Doc was a Vietnam vet himself who spent two years in a military prison for reasons which are murky.    It involved the death of another soldier, for sure, but how and why is only partially explained.    Nonetheless, it causes great regret for Doc and his two military buddies Sal (Cranston) and Reverend Richard (Fishburne), who he asks to accompany him to New Hampshire to bury his son next to his recently deceased mother.    Doc has had an awful year, and spends a lot of his time in wordless silence which masks his pain.    Words may not have been invented yet to adequately describe his heartache. 

Last Flag Flying begins in late 2003, many months after Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" much, much too prematurely shortly after the Iraq War began.    Many more American soldiers perished years after this declaration, which was one of many empty promises declared by the Bush administration about Iraq.   Doc finds Sal owning a dive bar in the seedy section of Norfolk, Va.    It takes some time for Sal to recognize Doc, but he does and they spend the night drinking.    The next morning, still hung over, Doc and Sal take a ride to seek out their other old buddy Richard, who was once a party animal but now is a reverend and speaks at his own church.    He seemingly has left his Marine past behind, but once he gets on the road with Sal and Doc, we see traces of the old Richard emerge.

Sal is the most outspoken of the three, openly defying authority and Richard's religious beliefs.  Does he behave like this to mask his own inner demons, or is he trying to move on from them the best he can?   Maybe a little of both.   Oh, and he drinks a lot.    Richard at first is reluctant to go along for the ride, but after the urging of his loving wife, he realizes his preaching is meaningless if he doesn't help out a friend in his time of need.    Richard is a man at peace with himself, but hasn't forgotten his troubled past either.   Especially the one which got Doc thrown in the brig for two years.

We have three unique personalities played by three terrific actors who find the fine line between comedy and dramatic truth.    Cranston, Carell, and Fishburne are all wonderful in their performances here, giving us three dimensional people at odds with themselves, but never in a heavy-handed way.  With the exception of a few missteps, including inexplicably making the Colonel an unabashed heavy with a completely unconvincing speech to the soldier who will accompany Larry Jr's body to New Hampshire, Last Flag Flying understands human nature and how war upsets it and brings out the best and worst in it.

The final moments deliver an emotional payoff which makes the journey worthwhile.   It is puzzling to see how movies which deal honestly with the devastating effects of war like this film and Thank You for Your Service (2017) barely register at the box office, while American Sniper (2014) made over $200 million at the box office and was little more than a military propaganda piece about a controversial Iraq War soldier.  That movie lovingly portrayed the war sequences, while zipping by those scenes which depict the negative effects the war had on its protagonist. I'm guessing people would rather see war propagandized than dealt with brutal, painful honesty.  And that's a shame.

Chris Rock: Tamborine (2018) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Bo Burnham

Starring:  Chris Rock

Chris Rock is among the most brilliant stand-up comics ever.   Besides being really funny, he cuts to the chase with his laser-sharp perceptions on race, current events, and relationships.    Some of his humor is a bit more dour here, and like Richard Pryor's, more autobiographical.    His recent divorce plays a large part in his act, and we gain a sense of his personal pain.    With that being said, Rock's comedy here is uneven and we go long stretches without laughs, which is unusual for the comic who is usually so pointed with his material.

Rock presents us with quotable insights, including the silly counterarguments by those who oppose gun control.    ("If a man can stab 100 people to death at one time, 97 of them deserve to die,")   That may sound cruel, but it follows the common sense Rock employs mercilessly.    He tackles religion, and pokes fun at those who go to church every week, "I haven't been to church in ten years.   I'm the one who truly believes in God."   Rock is never afraid to tackle controversial material or call out people's bullshit, and he doesn't disappoint.  

His material on race falls flat, as does his views on Donald Trump which ends with a thud for a payoff.    ("Bush led us to Obama.   Trump will lead us to...Jesus,")   I expected better, especially with such lightning rod issues which Rock handled better in the past.    He speaks frankly about his divorce, but this feels more like an ode to Richard Pryor's cathartic style of humor than Rock's.   
At least Tamborine was filmed live on one stage at one time, while his previous special Kill The Messenger showed Rock intercutting between different shows, which was distracting.    One minute is wearing a black suit, the next purple.    It wasn't the best stylistic choice.  

Tamborine (yes that is how it is spelled for the special) contains a couple of memorable quotes, but overall isn't as strong as Rock's typical comedy.    We see a more mature, less fiery Rock, but not necessarily a better one. 

Life Is Beautiful (1998) * * *

Directed by:  Roberto Benigni

Starring:  Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Horst Buchholz, Giorgio Cantarini

It has been roughly twenty years between viewings of Life Is Beautiful.   I was much more taken with it the first time.   A recent viewing left me feeling uneven about it.    It contains moments of pure power, romance, and joy, while shoehorning in the Holocaust.    It feels like two different movies; with the first movie more successful than the second one. 

Life Is Beautiful stars (and is directed by) Roberto Benigni, whose most famous movie credit in America before this film was Son of the Pink Panther.   Benigni won a Best Actor Oscar for his role here as Guido, a Jewish waiter in pre-World War II Italy who wins the heart of his beloved from an ill-conceived engagement to a local fascist.    His career trajectory hasn't exactly pointed upward since his Oscar win, in which his acceptance speeches (he also won for Foreign Language Film) included Benigni standing on top of the theater seats.   His next film was a remake of Pinocchio roughly four years after Life Is Beautiful, and a prime example of someone who struck while the iron was cold.

The first half of the film is romantic whimsy meets slapstick and it works surprisingly well.    Benigni charms his way into Dora's (Braschi-Benigni's real life wife) heart and at the same time debunks the cruel beliefs of fascism.    Their marital bliss bears them a son named Joshua (Cantarini), but soon wedded bliss gives way to the reality of the Holocaust.   Guido and Joshua are taken from their home and put on the trains to a concentration camp.   Dora insists on being near her family and also boards the train. 

Joshua is at first frightened by the train, pointing out that it has no seats, but Guido quickly devises a lie to his son to protect him from the harsh reality.   He tells Joshua the entire trip is one big game and the winner will receive an actual tank.   Joshua believes him, while his father sizes up the gravity of their situation and the heartbreak of being so close to his wife and not being able to see her.  The trouble is, the concentration camp in Life Is Beautiful is rather sanitized as these things go.   It is more along the lines of the camp Hogan's Heroes took place in.   The atrocities are kept off screen, but that also robs Guido's actions of their gravitas.   Let's face it.  Guido is given an awful lot of leeway to scamper around the camp to do his thing, including using the camp loudspeaker to call out to his beloved Dora.  

Benigni is not interested in making a heavy Holocaust drama , but instead a tale of a clownish man who uses his sense of humor to deflect the truth from his son.    I enjoyed the cheerfulness of the first half so much that it was able to carry enough goodwill through the clunky second half.    Benigni is in his element here doing physical comedy.    There is always another story to be told about the Holocaust, and Benigni deserves praise for attempting to lighten it up somewhat, but maybe some subjects aren't necessarily able to be lightened. 

The Whole Nine Yards (2000) * * *

Directed by:  Jonathan Lynn

Starring:  Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry, Natasha Henstridge, Michael Clarke Duncan, Kevin Pollak, Amanda Peet, Harlan Williams, Rosanna Arquette

How exactly would you react when you learn a notorious hitman on the run from a Chicago gangster moves in next door?    Montreal dentist Oz Oseransky (Perry) is less than thrilled, yet somehow becomes entangled in a web of gangsters, hits, and general goofiness.    Material such as this succeeds as comedy because you wouldn't believe a drama would be this ridiculous.    That's a compliment, by the way.

Oz' new neighbor is Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski (Willis), who has an uncommon knack for sounding reassuring and menacing at the same time.    "I don't think about the people I've killed," he tells Oz, "I think more about how I treat the people who are still alive,"   The actors perform with a straight face, but we sense the fun they're having by their grins and their sheer enthusiasm.    Oz befriends Jimmy, but such a friendship isn't good if you have any interest in staying alive.    Jimmy may whack you, or maybe Janni Gogolak (Pollak), who is chasing Jimmy may whack you both.    Even Oz' dental assistant Jill (Peet) wants to get into the whacking business and takes on Jimmy as a mentor.

Oz learns to trust no one, but he can't help but fall for Jimmy's blonde, estranged wife Cynthia (Henstridge), which will surely whack Oz if the wrong people find out.   Oz' very unhappy wife (Arquette) starts off all of this by wishing Oz were dead so she could collect on his life insurance.    The rest of the twists and turns pop up later like the old Whack-a-Mole game in the arcade.   You hit one mole and another pops up out of another hole.    When Oz meets Cynthia, he says, "I've waited for seven years for something to happen to me, and here you are,"   I'm sure he wasn't waiting for the rest.

The Whole Nine Yards doesn't step into the black hole of farce where silly things happen for silliness' sake.    There is a logic which keeps things at least somewhat believable.   That is something of a comic masterstroke right there.    The last time I saw a mob comedy this funny was My Blue Heaven (1990), in which Steve Martin played a mobster in the Witness Relocation Program.    Steve Martin is the last actor you might think of to play an Italian-American hitman, but it made the movie inspired and funny.    The same adjectives can be used for The Whole Nine Yards. 

The Death of Stalin (2017) *

Directed by:  Armando Iannucci

Starring:  Steve Buscemi, Jeffrey Tambor, Jason Isaacs, Rupert Friend, Andrea Riseborough, Simon Russell Beale. Olga Kurylenko, Adrian McLoughlin, Paddy Considine

The only reason I'm giving this movie one star is it at least has the decency not to saddle its actors with tortured Russian accents.    We have either American or British, thank goodness.   The Death of Stalin is a muddled mess of a movie.    It is supposed to be a satirical look at the power struggle which ensued after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953.    But, what we really have on hand is a confusing movie in which characters shout at each other and behave even more stupidly than the Three Stooges.    Their names end in "ev" or "ov", and no character stands out.    Everyone is sucked into the abyss.  

The point, from director Armando Iannucci (who created HBO's Veep) is that all of these people are buffoons; so much so we can't believe any of them could ever run a vast, powerful nation.    I get the point, but it doesn't make The Death of Stalin any more tolerable.   The movie has five writers to its credit and feels like they were locked in separate rooms and not allowed to communicate.     The Death of Stalin is such a manic free-for-all it feels improvised.    If it wasn't improvised, then maybe it should've been.    The results couldn't be much worse.

The Death of Stalin begins promisingly.    Stalin is alive and well and listens to a Mozart concert on the radio.   He personally contacts Radio Moscow to obtain a recording of the concert.    The concert wasn't recorded, so the Radio Moscow producer (Considine) forces the musicians to play the concert again and keep what's left of the crowd in the building to recreate the event.    It's either that or face possible death just for disappointing Stalin.    These events really don't connect much to the rest of the movie, including the note sent to Stalin by the upset pianist whom Radio Moscow had to bribe to play the concert again.   

A short while later, Stalin falls ill from a cerebral hemorrhage and his underlings scramble to decide what to do next.    Calling a doctor is a challenge because all of the good ones have been executed or imprisoned by the paranoid Stalin, so a group of not-so-great doctors are gathered to break the bad news.    Stalin will die and he does shortly after collapsing on the floor in his office after reading the pianist's angry note.

Then, the backstabbing, power playing, and finagling begin between Stalin's remaining cabinet members.   I won't bore you with the details, nor would I suggest you see the movie to discover them.   Nikita Khrushchev (Buscemi) wishes to push post-Stalinist reforms, while the head of Stalin's security and Nikita's rival Beria (Beale), has ideas of his own.    Then, we have the Deputy Secretary to Stalin, Georgy Malenkov (Tambor), a dope who nonetheless succeeds Stalin because of his position.    The trouble is, each of the these folks is so dim-witted and villainous that we have no emotional stake in who should win out.    We see executions which are pretty bloody, as well as a body set on fire and even a shot inside Stalin's skull during the autopsy.    Lots of alcohol is consumed and people scrambling to ensure a relatively peaceful Stalin funeral.    After enduring all of this silliness, I wished a bomb would have dropped on the Kremlin and wiped everyone out. 

I Feel Pretty (2018) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein

Starring:  Amy Schumer, Michelle Williams, Lauren Hutton, Busy Phillips, Aidy Bryant, Tom Hopper, Adrian Martinez, Rory Scovel

I Feel Pretty falters in the third act.   Until that point, it was a charming comedy with something to say about self-esteem and how we allow others to shape it.    Then, it stumbles and crawls across the finish line.    What a pity.   This is Schumer's best starring performance by far, and she's assisted by some pretty terrific supporting work, especially by Michelle Williams.

Schumer stars as Renee Bennett, whose lack of confidence and self-esteem is painfully obvious in how she talks, walks, and interacts with others.    She is clearly ashamed to be in her own skin.    She is not a supermodel, but she is not unattractive either.    But, she continuously compares herself to other women and feels even more inadequate.    Such negative thinking allows her to be stuck working in a basement for the IT department of a glamorous fashion magazine run by Avery LeClaire (Williams) when she really wants to be a receptionist in the magazine's lobby.    Renee figures she won't apply because they wouldn't hire someone who looks like...her.

One day at a spin class, Renee slips off the exercise bike and suffers a concussion.   Renee awakes from the fall to find she is GORGEOUS.    Nothing has changed about her personal appearance, mind you, but Renee just looks in the mirror and sees awesomeness.    She now possesses the confidence she lacked before, which turns out to be a help for her in her career and dating life, while also causing alienation from her longtime friends who are turned off by her borderline arrogance.    Renee meets a nice guy named Ethan (Scovel), who thinks Renee is perfect the way she is and is kind of, sort of ashamed to admit he takes Zumba classes.

So far, so good.   I Feel Pretty hadn't gone for cheap laughs or slapstick.   We were fully engaged by Schumer and what was happening to her.    Then, we start to see the plot mechanics turn and not for the better.    It would have been more daring to have Renee learn to deal with the ups and downs of her newfound high self-esteem, but instead the movie takes what it thinks is the easy way out by having Renee bump her head again and wake up with the lack of self-worth she felt before.    This is where the movie loses its footing and its surety.    The final thirty minutes feel disconnected from the rest of the movie, and maybe a few scenes which would explain Renee's job situation were edited out.    I admit I was confused.    Did she still work for Avery LeClaire or not?  

It is difficult to review I Feel Pretty without addressing the controversy surrounding it, or at least some people's misunderstanding as to the movie's message.    Renee isn't fat shamed or openly mocked.    She is seen as ordinary and feels even less so.    The bump on the head magically awakens her inner "I Am Woman" vibe, and the movie follows this idea with a certain logic, until it wimps out by trying to shove a happy ending down our throats.    Still, I Feel Pretty gives us a more lovable Schumer who doesn't hide behind irony, but instead is allowed to be vulnerable, relatable, and touching.    And Williams takes a role we think we have wired and then instills it with some surprises of its own.   The movie follows suit, until it doesn't anymore. 

Nighthawks (1981) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Bruce Malmuth

Starring:  Sylvester Stallone, Billy Dee Williams, Rutger Hauer, Lindsay Wagner, Joe Spinell, Persis Khambatta, Nigel Davenport, Hilarie Thompson

Reading the trivia section for Nighthawks, it was a film besieged with issues; not the least of which was Sylvester Stallone's ego which caused friction between he and Rutger Hauer.    It seems Stallone was not thrilled that Hauer's role overshadowed his and he used his star power to edit many of Hauer's scenes.    I can't imagine why Stallone bothered.    Nighthawks is an efficient, taut thriller, with perceptive, lean performances by Stallone and Hauer as two psychologically wounded men on opposite sides of the law.    Stallone is a Vietnam vet turned NYPD detective, while Hauer is an internationally feared terrorist with many different methods of violence at his disposal.    Nighthawks presents their cat and mouse game with relentless precision.  

Stallone's Deke Da Silva is teamed with Matthew Fox (Williams), who are paired together posing as targets in Central Park to lure and arrest muggers.    Soon, the detectives are chosen to work on a task force to capture Wulfgar (Hauer), who has terrorized much of Western Europe with bombings and killings and comes to New York to further his agenda.    British investigator Hartman (Davenport) leads the task force in training on Wulfgar's tactics and methods.    Da Silva and Fox soon learn firsthand how ruthless Wulfgar is in achieving his terrorist goals.

Wulfgar's love of the nightlife and ability to woo women who will unwittingly help him hide out is a contrast to the closed off, quiet Da Silva, who has a Vietnam War past he would much rather forget about.    Hauer's good looks and sinister smile make him an arrogant, hateful villain and he plumbs Wulfgar for all of his wretched ruthlessness.    He is a compelling presence.    Nighthawks is one of Stallone's least flashy and most effective performances, before he became tied up in endless Rocky sequels, Rambo films, and other projects which didn't make the most of his skills.    We see the brooding, animalistic presence Stallone brought to Rocky (1976) and it is a shame we didn't see more of it. 

Williams makes the most of his charm and charisma as Da Silva's wisecracking partner, but Stallone and Hauer overshadow him.    This is their game and their film.    Keith Emerson provided a synthesizer-heavy score which dates the film, but the strength of Nighthawks lies in its efficiency and intelligence.   Because the hero and villain are complex opposites, we care about the outcome and the payoff at the end is inspired and follows a certain logic.    Nighthawks isn't just mindless violence, and that makes it all the more satisfying.      

  

Changing Lanes (2002) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Roger Michell

Starring:  Ben Affleck, Samuel L. Jackson, Sydney Pollack, Toni Collette, Kim Staunton, Amanda Peet, William Hurt

Both Gavin Banek (Affleck) and Doyle Gipson (Jackson) had their issues long before they have an accident on the FDR one rainy Friday morning.    But, thanks to the outcome of the accident, both men now have the chance to turn their inward anger outward towards the other.    It isn't a pretty sight, but it is illuminating to see these men actually learn something about themselves in the midst of such ugliness.    I recalled the trailers and posters marketing this film as something of a revenge drama, but Changing Lanes is much more than that.    It is more about how these men assess themselves after a watershed moment for both.     They realize they haven't been living their lives as they should, and then find the courage to change.   

Gavin is a partner at his father-in-law's (Pollack) law firm.    Pollack, besides being a great director, was always an intriguing actor.    He usually played outwardly nice people who concealed an inner sleaziness and ruthlessness which belied the exterior.    It was always a joy to seem him act as much as direct.    He is the same here.    He wants Gavin to deliver a file to a judge which will allow a sickly client to turn over control of a $3 million fund to the firm.    Of course, the client's signature was obtained under nefarious means, but for Pollack and Gavin, that keeps the coffers full.    When his car crashes into Doyle's, he is on the way to the court.  

Doyle is a recovering alcoholic whose wife and sons are about to move to Oregon.    Doyle wants to buy a home and save his family, and he was on his way to court to try and keep custody of his sons.    Because Gavin chooses to be a prick and leaves Doyle at the accident site, Doyle misses his court appearance and loses custody of his sons.     However, Gavin soon learns he left the file accidentally at the accident site and now Doyle has it.    It is suffice to say Doyle is not in the mood to be charitable with Gavin and give him the file back.

This begins an escalating battle between the two angry men, and the gloves come off quickly.    Gavin tries to reason with Doyle and even write a blank check to cover his vehicle damage, but Doyle says, "What you can't pay me for is my time.    Can you give me back twenty minutes?"    Twenty minutes is how late Doyle was to his court appearance which cost him the custody.    Gavin learns Doyle wants to buy the house and then uses a computer whiz associate to mess up Doyle's credit and cost him the house.    Things get nastier from there.    The day puts each man's limits to the test.   Doyle stops at a bar and has the bartender pour him a shot, but he stares at the glass without drinking it.  But as Doyle's sponsor and wife point out, his drug of choice isn't necessarily alcohol, but chaos. 

Gavin realizes his own moral limits, even after a pep talk from his rich wife (Peet), who more or less gives him permission to bend the law if it keeps her in the lifestyle she's accustomed to.    He finds there are boundaries he won't go beyond, and even experiences regret after having Doyle jailed on phony charges.    You would think there comes a point in which someone will whip out a gun and shoot someone, but Changing Lanes is more intelligent and perceptive than that.    It isn't interested in the what as much as the why when it comes to these characters.    The ending may be somewhat too tidy and feel good considering the harshness that preceded it, but maybe these guys finally do deserve a break after all.

Jack Frost (1998) * *

Directed by:  Trey Miller

Starring:  Michael Keaton, Joseph Cross, Kelly Preston, Henry Rollins, Mark Addy

Apparently, deceased loved ones return every day in the form of a snowman in the town where Charlie (Cross) and Gabby (Preston) live.    How else do you explain their relative aplomb when confronted with the fact that Jack Frost (Keaton), who died the previous Christmas Eve in a car accident, has been resurrected as a walking, talking snowman?    Oh sure, there are a couple of sniffles and a hug, but then the movie goes on to its business.    I wouldn't expect a family comedy like Jack Frost to drip with realism, but I would think such a revelation would be met with more emotion than it is.  

Jack is a struggling musician who spends a lot of time on the road and not enough time at home with his family.    He dies in the car accident mentioned previously and then returns one year later as a snowman on the Frost's front lawn.    The "snow" in this case is hilariously fake, but no matter.    Minutes after Charlie has finally accepted that the snowman is indeed his father, the two are engaged in a snowball fight and sled chase with the town bullies.    You would think Charlie, who wished to see his father again while playing a magical harmonica, would be thrilled to have his father back in any capacity and want to spend more time with him, but the movie is more interested in hockey games, snowball fights, and taking care of more pressing matters like the bullies.

Those expecting a payoff like Ghost would be sorely disappointed.    Those who love Michael Keaton will only get to see him in the flesh for about half of the movie.    The rest is just his voice.   Those who like snowmen would enjoy the CGI creation depicted here.   He seems big, jolly, and friendly enough, and I'd have to believe any allusion to Frosty the Snowman is not coincidence.

But, then, inexplicably, Jack/Snowman decides his widow and son must go on with their lives, which is now twice as difficult because it means they would have to lose him twice.   Why?   So, the movie could give us a tearjerker ending?    I would have preferred a movie in which the son, mother, and Jack discuss just what it's like to be dead and come back to life, even if it is as a CGI creation.    

A Quiet Place (2018) * *

Directed by:  John Krasinski

Starring:  John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Noah Jupe, Millicent Simmonds, Cade Woodward

John Krasinski directs A Quiet Place economically and efficiently.   The performances are spot on.  The story is one which calls for plenty of creativity in communication between the actors, since they must remain quiet in order not to be eaten by blind alien creatures with very large teeth.    But the hook of the story is also the downfall.    We really have just a high concept horror movie in which thingies jump out at the actors and other things go bump in the night. 

Krasinski and real-life wife Emily Blunt play parents to three children in the not-too-distant future in which the planet's human population is mostly devoured by the aliens.    We learn through New York Post newspaper headlines that the creatures are blind and use the sounds their prey makes to hunt.    If you make too much noise, then you will be tracked and eaten swiftly.    The couple loses its youngest child that way after he unwisely decides to play with a newfound toy while journeying back home on foot.   

The characters do not wear shoes, possibly because shoes will cause more noise, but it is a miracle the only time anyone suffers a foot injury is when the mother impales herself on a nail sticking out of a step.    She, of course, can not scream in agony because that will attract the creatures.   The mother also has the unfortunate luck of being pregnant and nearing the due date.    Babies cry and giving birth involves lots of noise, but they have a contingency to fool the creatures at least temporarily.   It is not advisable to conceive a child during these times, and one wonders how they managed to have sex without making any utterances.

For that matter, how did the newspapers produce copies without being engulfed by the aliens because printing presses make tons of racket?    I know I'm not supposed to ask such questions, but I can't help myself.    Call me a douche all you want, but this is not a plot which holds up well under scrutiny.    But, I admired Krasinski's ability to direct and work as well as he can within the story's limitations.    From my understanding, the parents don't seem to have names, but Richard Roeper in his Chicago Sun Times review listed them as Lee and Evelyn Abbott.    Maybe that was in the press material.     I will reiterate what I've said before:   Main characters should not be nameless.    I am aware the characters speak mostly through sign language, but there has to be signage for Lee and Evelyn.   I find it odd when a screenplay goes through the machinations not to reveal the first names of its lead characters, like the couple in Once.    At least Fight Club had a legit reason to not naming its narrator.  

 

Runaway Jury (2003) * * *

Directed by:  Gary Fleder

Starring:  John Cusack, Rachel Weisz, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Jeremy Piven, Cliff Curtis, Nora Dunn, Bruce McGill, Bruce Davison

With a trial at its core which still feels timely because, even fifteen years after Runaway Jury was made, we as a nation are still at a loss to deal with gun violence.    While Runaway Jury has something to say about gun violence liability, it has even more to say about jury tampering.    The villainous, slimy Rankin Fitch (Hackman) is hired by the defendant gun manufacturer to ensure a sympathetic jury which will find for the defense in an explosive civil trial.    He hires goons to intimidate jurors, blackmails, extorts, performs illegal surveillance, and charges $20 million for the expense of setting up his team in an abandoned clothing store with the latest computer and surveillance gadgets.   When told his $20 million price tag seems excessive, Fitch rationalizes his price tag in dollars and cents.    One verdict in favor of the plaintiff in such a trial will open the floodgates and cost billions in damages in future trials.  Fitch is very good at his job, which means those opposing him have to somehow be better.

His opposition is Wendell Rohr (Hoffman), the by-the-book defense attorney for a widow whose husband was killed in a mass shooting.   She is suing the gun manufacturer for negligence because the gun was bought illegally and without any safeguards preventing the product from falling into the wrong hands.    Rohr has no idea what he is up against.    His opponent, defense attorney Durwood Cable (Davison), has a camera installed on his briefcase so Fitch can keep tabs on the trial proceedings and, most importantly, jury selection.    You have to love the names like Rankin Fitch and Durwood Cable, which sound like they were lifted from an episode of Dynasty or Days of Our Lives.

The wild card in the trial is seemingly harmless juror Nicholas Easter (Cusack), who attempts to beg off the jury because he is involved in a Madden video game tournament and doesn't want to lose out on the grand prize.   This assures him a spot as Juror #9, and he is not the type of juror Fitch wants on his ideal jury.   Easter has a hidden agenda also, as does his girlfriend Marlee (Weisz), which is made known in short order.   Marlee and Easter offer both sides the opportunity to buy a favorable verdict for the bargain price of $10 million.    Easter will manipulate the jurors into siding with him and his side will be directly affected by whomever pays him.    What would they do if both sides agreed to the price?  This is not the type of movie where you ask that.

What are Nicholas and Marlee up to?   Are they simply opportunists or do they have a deeper agenda?  The movie wisely doesn't reveal the motives too quickly, so the events play out more or less logically.  I must grant you that their plot leaves an awful lot to chance, including ensuring that Nicholas finds his way onto the jury and whether he can seriously sway the jury with his charm and charisma.    These are things to think about before authorizing a wire transfer to the Cayman Islands.  For long stretches, we aren't sure we even have a rooting interest, but that only keeps us guessing and involved. 

I won't reveal much more, but Hoffman and Hackman have a fun scene which marks the first time this acting giants have ever been in a movie scene together, despite their decades-long friendship and being former roommates to boot.    Cusack relies on his everyman charm to conceal his hand, while Marlee also has to walk an emotional tightrope.    Runaway Jury is another of many film adaptations of a John Grisham novel.   Grisham, an attorney himself, takes his cynicism about the legal profession and extends it to absurd, but nevertheless entertaining lengths.    The Firm, A Time to Kill, and The Rainmaker are successful adaptations with perhaps happier endings than Grisham wrote in his novels, or at least endings which don't completely crap on the possibility of some humanity peeking through in the legal system.    I would put Runaway Jury in the middle of the better Grisham films, mostly because what happens isn't based on the law as much as personalities and the human element which makes up juries.    Is it any wonder that Fitch would declare, "Trials are too important to be left up to juries,"?   If verdicts in the O.J. Simpson trial and the police officers charged in the Rodney King beating are any indication, is he all that wrong?

Rampage (2018) * * *

Directed by:  Brad Peyton

Starring:  Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jake Lacy, Malin Akerman, Joe Manganiello

If you like CGI, gigantic, genetically mutated animals terrorizing people and whole cities, and plenty of Dwayne Johnson, then you'll enjoy Rampage.    I also enjoyed it because it is not afraid to have fun and tease itself.   Any movie containing one or all of the above elements is not going to win Oscars, but it does well enough as escapism.    And I liked George, the sweet albino gorilla who is turned into a one-gorilla wrecking crew at the hands of a genetic experiment gone completely berserk. 

There is nothing subtle about Rampage.   It wasn't built for subtlety, but as amusing B-movie entertainment with A-list visuals.    Because of Johnson's build and his action star charisma, we can halfway believe he can battle with the giant beasts and survive with just a few scratches.    Heck, he even gets shot in the abdomen and brushes it off.    Rampage is based on a video game and apparently Johnson must have had a few spare lives in him.

The film opens with research on a genetic mutation project in outer space going awry and a laboratory rat is soon morphed into a....bigger, scarier, and more aggressive rat that wipes out an entire scientist crew, but not before the serum itself finds its way back to Earth and crash lands in a few spots in the U.S., turning the unfortunate animals exposed to it into much larger, much badder, and much deadlier versions of themselves.    George, the aforementioned gorilla who is under the care of primate expert Davis Okoye (Johnson) at the San Diego Zoo, happens upon the serum and grows twice its size overnight, while exhibiting much more aggressive behavior than previously. 

George breaks loose from the zoo and goes into the wild.    The evil corporate officers of the company which financed the experiment hopes to lure the affected animals to their base in Chicago, kill them, and then sell their enhanced DNA on the black market.    How much would the black market pay for such DNA?   Who even knows?    But, apparently the black market will buy and sell anything.   A former doctor at the villainous company, Dr. Kate Caldwell (Harris) assists Davis in trying to recapture George before he kills someone or before he is killed himself.    An OGA (Other Government Agency) agent named Harvey Russell (Morgan) also interjects himself into the fray, but before you assume Russell is just another heartless suit, Morgan plays him with a Southern drawl dripping with bemusement and appropriate wry cynicism.    Can he be trusted to help?   Or is he part of a larger scheme?   Morgan has plenty of fun with his role. 

Johnson takes this material just seriously enough to involve us, while also playing for some laughs.  He is not afraid to laugh at himself, which served Arnold Schwarzenegger well back in the 80's and 90's, and he manages to narrowly avoid being upstaged by the monsters.    The beasts are all violent and destructive, but we learn of George's backstory as a young gorilla cub saved by Davis during of one of Davis' anti-poaching expeditions to Africa.   Would you be shocked to learn that Davis, who is by trade a San Diego Zoo primatologist, also has had Special Forces training?   Which 99% of all action heroes in the movies also seem to have?    This is just the type of movie to have such a hero. 

It is good to see George given a character to play and isn't just a mindless CGI effect.    He is so sympathetic that he deserves at least fourth billing in the credits.   While there is plenty of CGI to be sure, it doesn't overwhelm the action and we can more or less follow what's happening.   Rampage is the type of movie which isn't scared to be goofy and accomplishes its mission of allowing the audience to leave the theater with a grin.   

Beirut (2018) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Brad Anderson

Starring:  Jon Hamm, Rosamund Pike, Shea Whigham, Dean Norris, Mark Pellegrino, Idir Chender

Despite the strong acting and a potentially explosive conflict at the heart of Beirut, the spy thriller never fully lifts off.    The film lacks juice, even though it takes place during a tenuous period of early 1980s Lebanon, in which a cease-fire between the PLO, Israel, and various Lebanese forces was threatened to be broken at any time.    As Beirut opens, we meet diplomat Mason Skiles (Hamm), who lives quite comfortably in the hills of Lebanon with his loving wife and soon-to-be adopted young boy Karim.    He is working the room at a party, explaining Lebanon's situation to his guests.    He likens Lebanon to a hodgepodge of various cultures all tensely living together in an apartment, with the PLO acting as a potential threat knocking at the door wanting to get in.

Sad circumstances involving Karim's family cause at first personal strife with Mason, followed by a violent house invasion by gun-toting terrorists who kill Mason's wife and kidnap Karim.   His blissful life in Beirut quickly falls apart, and we fast forward to ten years later as alcoholic Mason works as a union negotiator in Boston and always has a drink either in hand or within reach.    A shadowy acquaintance from his government days offers him (or more or less enlists) Mason to make a trip to Beirut to ostensibly speak at a seminar, but we know there is a more pressing concern soon to be revealed.

Mason is asked upon his arrival in Beirut to act as a hostage negotiator after a former friend and fellow diplomat is kidnapped by local terrorists.    This turns out to be trickier dilemma than first anticipated, because the terrorist group is predictably led by the now-grown Karim, who wants Mason to facilitate a swap between the diplomat and Karim's brother who may have been captured by Israeli forces, or maybe not.    Mason's superiors are not opposed to allowing Israel to invade Lebanon, break the cease fire, and expel the PLO from the area.   

The Beirut of the early 1980's is but a shadow of what it was ten years prior.    Whole cities are reduced to shells of once tall buildings and rubble.    The aftermath of a long civil war was still being felt and Lebanon was a country in crisis and torn apart by forces from within and its Middle Eastern neighbors.    It was like a neutral field for the game between Israel and the PLO, with Mason and fellow like-minded agents dangerously negotiating the territory to free their fellow American. 

So, why did I not care more?   The elements were in place for a tense thriller, but Beirut never fully engages.   The film misses an opportunity to explore deeper into the relationship between Mason and Karim.    We see Karim look forlorn on occasion due to internal conflicts, but the movie doesn't delve further into these conflicts.    The performances are on the mark and set things up nicely for a knockout punch that never comes.   Maybe it's because the ending is preordained and, despite the backdrop, we don't sense the characters are in any serious danger even though they should be.   After everything plays out, the characters act glibly as if they had just skydived and not dealt with what could have been a disastrous international situation.   

Andre the Giant (2018) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Jason Hehir

Featuring:  Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Rob Reiner, Billy Crystal, Jerry Lawler, Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon, Tim White, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mean Gene Okerlund, Dave Meltzer

Andre the Giant was the largest, most recognizable figure in the sports world in the 1970's and 1980's.    This was both a glory and a burden for the over 7' tall, 500 lb. giant of a man, who lamented that, because of his size, he could not go anywhere and just be.    He couldn't put on a cap and glasses like others and just blend in with a crowd.    On 14-hour flights from New York to Japan, Hulk Hogan recalls Andre could not fit into the airplane's restroom, so he excreted into a large bucket which the flight staff had to then empty into the toilet.    Cars could not fit him.    His back, knees, and frame soon wilted from his sheer size, and surgeries only helped for a time.    Because he suffered from Acromegaly, he was told he would be fortunate to see 40.    He died of a heart attack in his sleep on January 27, 1993 in France at age 46.

Andre the Giant, the well-paced and touching documentary by Jason Hehir, documents the life of a French teen who at 15 began to grow and wouldn't stop growing.    He was destined for a life in the wrestling ring, where he threw opponents around with ease and attracted sellout crowds wherever he appeared.    He was so in-demand he would appear in virtually every wrestling territory and was welcomed with open arms by promoters.    He was never made a champion, because as Jerry Lawler put it, "Once we made him champion, how could we convincingly have him lose?"   Andre was a friendly giant who still had a mean streak against other wrestlers whom he took a disliking to.    According to Hulk Hogan, Randy "Macho Man" Savage particularly irked Andre and Andre took liberties with him in the ring.    And there wasn't much Savage could do about it.

Andre's partying was also the stuff of legend.    Because of his size, he consumed quantities of alcohol which would kill a lesser man.    "Women loved him," Hogan said, and based on the pictures of Andre with various beauties, we have to figure it's true.    Ric Flair, a legendary party animal himself, couldn't keep up with Andre, and Flair prided himself on being able to hold his liquor.    But soon, Andre's body began to break down.    By the time he appeared in The Princess Bride, he could barely move.    The Princess Bride's director Rob Reiner and cast explained how the fighting scenes, which most would assume would be simple for him given his background, were the hardest for Andre.    The cast and Reiner told their stories lovingly, and we feel their genuine affection for the man.

The apex of Andre's career was his match with Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania III in March 1987, which sold out the Pontiac Silverdome at over 93,000 plus in attendance.    Hogan and Andre met in the ring numerous times in the early 1980s, but those matches had faded from the public's memory, and by 1987 Hogan's popularity had eclipsed Andre's.    Andre, for the first time in his career, was a heel (bad guy) facing the world's most popular wrestler in Hogan.    The documentary painstakingly recreates the suspense and tension surrounding the match, since Andre the Giant waited until the last minute to decide what the outcome would be.   Hogan scripted the match, but the ending was up to Andre, who was so respected he was allowed to call the outcome.

"The match was booked on Andre's limitations," recalls one friend, and it was painful to watch Andre lumber around the ring in obvious pain.    Hogan won the match and he was stunned to hear Andre yell to him "Slam and leg drop" to orchestrate the famed finish of the match.    Hogan's admiration and love for Andre pours forth in every word.    It was Andre's final stamp of approval on the immortal career of Hulk Hogan.    We then see Andre plodding through later matches until his eventual retirement in 1991.    He could barely stand without holding on to something in the ring and his mobility was severely limited, but his love of the sport was such that he felt he wasn't anything if he wasn't Andre the Giant.

The most powerful moment in the film is Vince McMahon's final interview scene, in which he openly laments parting with Andre on bad terms in 1991 and never truly reconciling before Andre's death.    McMahon puts up a stone cold front, saying he has a mechanism for not dwelling on the negative, but when asked about whether he took Andre's death harder than most, we see the ice melting and Vince almost to the point of tears.    Based on McMahon's hard-ass business reputation, it is probably not often we see him in such an emotional state.    Andre the Giant convincingly portrays a man who was bigger than life and with a personality to match.    Even those who aren't wrestling fans will appreciate the giant's story and be moved by it. 

The Fate of the Furious (2017) * *

Directed by:  F. Gary Gray

Starring:  Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Charlize Theron, Kurt Russell, Scott Eastwood, Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson, Michelle Rodriguez, Nathalie Emmanuel, Helen Mirren, Ludacris

I saw the original The Fast and the Furious in 2001 and while I was less than enthusiastic about the movie, at least its stunts and cars didn't violate the laws of physics.    I haven't seen the other entries in the series, but I'm relieved to report that you don't need to.    We get the gist of the characters and we can follow along, because The Fate of the Furious, the eighth film in the endless series, isn't written for characterizations or memorable dialogue.    People see it in droves for the ludicrous action sequences which up the ante in sheer breaking of the laws of physics and gravity.  

Johnson's Luke Hobbs, a former government agent turned member of Dominic Toretto's (Diesel) merry band of racers/thieves/operatives, doesn't say anything more than colorful threats of kicking someone's ass or "Let's roll".    The rest of the group sticks with glib dialogue and one-liners, even in the midst of deadly attacks by tanks, guns, and at one point even cars whose computer chips are hacked and turned into deadly, driverless machines.     More on that later.

A villain is introduced in the cold person of Cipher (Theron), who is planning the theft of a nuclear device and blackmails Dominic into betraying his "family" and joining forces with her.     Why she would go through the headache of convincing Dominic to turn and then have to keep convincing him to stay on her side is something the movie fails to answer...among other things.    Were there no independent villains out there willing to help Cipher?   Ones with less baggage?   And Dominic's turn causes barely a ripple, even with his new wife Letty (Rodriguez), who can only look at Dominic with a wounded expression and tears in her eyes.    And the secret which causes Dominic to turn bad is one which wouldn't even cause a politician to resign from office these days.

When the action reaches New York, and Dominic is assigned the thankless task of securing nuclear launch codes from Russian diplomats, the action goes from ridiculous to an absolute howler.    This is when Cipher has a hacker break into the computer chips in what must be thousands of cars and orders the cars attack the limo carrying the Russians.    Talk about using a shotgun to kill a mosquito.    In a series which prides itself on over-the-top action, this has to be one which can't be topped in terms of sheer overkill.    If Cipher has that kind of dastardly weaponry at her fingertips, then who needs a wild card named Dominic?    The finale takes place in freezing Siberia, but not freezing enough for the heroes to wear hats or even warm clothing. 

The chemistry between enemies-turned-bros Hobbs and Deckard Shaw (Statham), the villain from the previous installment, is supposed to be a big deal here and enough to warrant a spinoff film.   But, the two have very few scenes together and their paths in the plot diverge.     The cast is chock full of action stars who can work through the material while having lots of fun and somehow stop themselves from breaking up in laughter.    They take it seriously.    Theron is a suitable villain and F. Gary Gray presents the action with slick professionalism.    The Fate of the Furious is a good-looking bad movie and I'm sure I would come to the same conclusion if I bothered to watch chapters 2-7, which I won't. 

Paterno (2018) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Barry Levinson

Starring:  Al Pacino, Kathy Baker, Riley Keough, Jim Johnson, Annie Parisse, Greg Gunberg, Benjamin Cook

You can't think of Joe Paterno without linking him to Jerry Sandusky.   Paterno coached 46 years at Penn State and won an NCAA record 409 games, but once the Jerry Sandusky scandal broke, Paterno's legacy was forever tarnished.    The questions still linger and will do so for a long time about how much he knew and whether he did enough to protect Sandusky's victims. 

Paterno, directed by Barry Levinson, believes Paterno knew more than he let on.   As reporter Sara Hanim (Keough), who won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking the Sandusky story, put it to her editor:  "You can't shit at Penn State without JoePa's say so,"   It is difficult for her to believe that Paterno's first and only encounter with Sandusky's crimes occurred in February 2001 when assistant Mike McQueary witnessed Sandusky assaulting a child in the shower in the Penn State locker room and told Paterno about it.   Why didn't anyone contact the police?   Not the campus police, the actual police?    Because in McQueary's mind, Paterno was bigger than the police.   Penn State administrators also told no one, and three were convicted of child endangerment years after Paterno's death from cancer in 2012.

We learn Paterno knew about a Sandusky incident in 1998 and as the movie ends, Hanim receives a tip from a victim who was told by Paterno in 1976 to drop his complaint against Sandusky.   Penn State has paid out insurance claims as far back as the 1970's due to Sandusky's conduct.    Why would Paterno knowingly risk children's lives and well-being?    As the movie and the Freeh report state, he was concerned first and foremost about his football program.    When the Sandusky scandal made headlines shortly after his 409th win, Paterno ignored the scuttlebutt and concentrated on the next big game against Nebraska.   "They're 7-1," he tells his family as he studies their game on TV, oblivious to the controversy surrounding him and his program.  

Al Pacino not only looks like Paterno, but captures his almost singular, obsessive focus to Penn State and football.    It is likely this myopia that caused such tragedy in the final months of his life.    We first see Paterno undergoing a CAT scan and he thinks about all that has happened in the month or so prior.   He once thought of Sandusky as a good man and a trusted friend, and probably still did even after hearing about his crimes against children at The Second Mile, Sandusky's charity ostensibly to aid troubled children, but was in fact more of a factory of potential victims for him.    He couldn't reconcile the man he knows with the monster who lived within him.    Each time we see Sandusky in the film, he wears a devious, evil smile of a man who has gotten away with something.   

Levinson's film wisely does not make Paterno out to be a martyr or a victim.  We see him as a man with endless power who did not wield that power enough to stop Sandusky.   Think about if Paterno acted correctly on the first incidents he knew about.    He would be a candidate for sainthood today.   But, for reasons only known to Paterno himself, he did not wield his authority properly.

Pacino is the standout here, but Keough also stands out as the determined reporter with ties to Penn State and a certain love for Paterno which is now checkered by the scandal.    We hear audio clips of national news coverage condemning Paterno and Penn State, and how could we not understand the outrage?    

Some of Paterno's best scenes involve Aaron (Cook), the first victim to come forward against Sandusky and suffered backlash at school on top of the injuries he's already endured.   His scenes take on a quiet power, but also demonstrate the belief that some people were angry at him and victims like him for coming forward and upsetting the Penn State apple cart.    It is sad and outrageous, but the truth is stranger than fiction.    If you don't believe me, read the op-ed pieces in the year or so following Sandusky's conviction.    People began to thaw towards Paterno and wondered when the NCAA sanctions would be lifted against Penn State and when Paterno would get the wins stripped from him back.   They were interested in making Paterno's legacy whole somehow, but not affording the same interest to Sandusky's victims.    This, like the movie Paterno, is sad, angering, and almost a microcosm of how sports-obsessed a culture we are. 

Chappaquiddick (2018) * * *

Directed by:  John Curran

Starring:  Jason Clarke, Kate Mara, Ed Helms, Bruce Dern, Clancy Brown, Jim Gaffigan, John Fiore, Taylor Nichols

If the events of July 18, 1969 happened to anyone without the power, wealth, and political influence of Sen. Ted Kennedy, that person would've been thrown in prison for twenty years without a second glance from the judge or prosecutor.   And it would have been the correct call.  Chappaquiddick coldly documents how a terrible accident resulting in the death of Mary Jo Copechne became a referendum to Massachusetts voters on Ted Kennedy's political future.   Kennedy and his damage control staff, all friends of Kennedy's father Joseph, managed to steer the narrative to the point that Copechne's death became a mere footnote in the scandal.    Yes, the incident torpedoed Kennedy's chance of ever becoming President, but he never served a day in jail for offenses which an average person would easily have been convicted.

Chappaquiddick's view is simple:  If you have the money and the resources, you can come out relatively unscathed on the other side of a terrible situation.    The movie, directed by John Curran, doesn't make the mistake of trying to make us sympathize with Kennedy.   It sees his actions, and his inactions, in stark terms.    The movie's moral center is Joe Gargan (Helms), Kennedy's cousin and lawyer whose advice for Kennedy to do the right thing is either shouted down or disregarded.    It is said before the closing credits that Gargan soon became estranged from the Kennedy family, and it is little wonder why. 

For those who don't know about the infamous scandal:  Sen. Ted Kennedy (Clarke) was involved in a car accident in the early morning hours of July 18, 1969 when his car flew off a bridge and crashed into a pond after overturning in mid-air.    Kennedy swam to safety while his passenger, 28-year-old campaign secretary Mary Jo Copechne (Mara), drowned.   Kennedy said in a carefully prepared statement later on that he attempted to save Mary Jo, but we can't necessarily believe that.   Maybe he did, maybe he didn't.   In any event, he left the scene, walked back to the party he left with Mary Jo, and only roughly 10 hours later, after a shower, nap, and breakfast, did Kennedy bother to report the accident to any authorities.    His report was actually a written statement which the local police chief accepted without further inquiry, which is also an example of what privilege can get you.   The chief, who had just spent hours at the crime scene diving into the muck to determine what happened, all but genuflected in Kennedy's presence. 

Kennedy's self-servitude controlled the spin and the media coverage from the outset, which benefited from the event's proximity to the Apollo 11 moon landing of July 20.    His father, bed-ridden and wheelchair-bound as the result of a stroke, musters out one word, "Alibi", when his son calls him shortly after the accident.    Favors are called in and within a week, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, but was not charged with anything else.    The whole matter was behind him in less than seven days.   No muss, no fuss for Kennedy, but meanwhile Mary Jo lay dead in a grave in North Jersey.    Oh, and then the matter of a self-serving, whoa is me, address to the nation shortly after, in which Kennedy, instead of resigning, decided to let Massachusetts voters determine whether he should remain a senator.    They determined yes and Kennedy went on to serve the fourth-longest term of any senator in U.S. history.    There was always the cloud of Chappaquiddick hanging over him, but it seemed to be a mere occasional nuisance than a crisis of guilt.

Chappaquiddick is not as much about the accident, but the aftermath, as we witness how Kennedy wormed his way out of any real trouble.    Jason Clarke gives us a nuanced performance of a man whose better instincts were overridden by the desire to maintain a political career, and if the movie is to be believed, was forever trying to prove his worth to his less-than-adoring father (Dern), who treats his son with scorn and shame.    These are not excuses or even justifications, but apparent facts, and it tempers one's enthusiasm for Kennedy's Senate career, which included many victories for liberal causes and important legislation.   But we can not embrace Ted Kennedy for his successes, because there is always the "but" in the form of Chappaquiddick, and more importantly the death of Mary Jo Copechne, which he never truly had to answer for and was barely acknowledged except in perfunctory expressions of sorrow and attending her funeral in a phony neck brace.    If you think somehow we've evolved from the idea of wealth, whiteness, and privilege not factoring in to how criminal suspects are treated, you need to look no further than the case of rapist Brock Turner, a 20-year-old white man whose rape of an unconscious girl on a college campus, drew a favorable, lenient sentence from a judge who didn't want to ruin Turner's life while in no way caring about how his victim's life was already ruined.

Blockers (2018) *

Directed by:  Kay Cannon

Starring:  John Cena, Leslie Mann, Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Newton, Geraldein Viswanathan, Gideon Adlon, Graham Phillips, Miles Robbins, Gary Cole, Gina Gershon

Vomiting is not funny.   Never has been and never will be.   It is a desperate attempt at a cheap laugh and sadly it usually gets one from the audience.    Blockers has such a scene and many others which strain hopelessly for a laugh.    The adults hold on to creepy double standards and antiquated views on teenage female sexuality as they team up to stalk their respective daughters on prom night in order to prevent a sex pact between three lifelong friends.   Each young woman wants to lose her virginity on prom night and, after stumbling across texts of the plot on a computer, the parents of each girl plot to stop them.    The parents are Mitch (Cena), Lisa (Mann), and Hunter (Barinholtz), three adept comic actors who aren't usually asked to play this dumb.    But, dumb they are, and make one mess after another while trying to stop their daughters from experiencing their first sexual experience.

Blockers doesn't know if it wants to be thoughtful or a gross-out sex comedy, so it tries both.   What an odd, humorless fit.    The parents come off as out-of-touch, unrealistic people stuck hopelessly in the 1950's.   The daughters are intelligent, happy, and well-adjusted, but don't let that stop the adults from not trusting them.    If the trio all had sons, would their attitudes change?   I would venture yes.   Blockers strikes the wrong tone from the start and never steers right.   I was reminded of a Tony Danza movie called "She's Out of Control", released in 1989 and has virtually the same plot, in which a father can't handle his teenage daughter's burgeoning sexuality so he makes a superhuman effort to stop the inevitable.    If a movie reminds me of She's Out of Control, then it is not on the right track.

Lisa's daughter Julie (Newton) has a boyfriend she loves and wants to lose her virginity to him on her prom night.    She also wants to go to UCLA, much to her mother's consternation.   Then again, her mother has consternation about virtually everything.   Mitch's daughter Kayla (Viswanathan) doesn't have a boyfriend, but wants to join Julie in solidarity and make it with her prom date, Connor (Robbins), who puts drugs in everything.    Sam (Adlon) is the third girl in the pact, but she is a closeted lesbian who brings a nerdy beard along as her prom date.

The girls aren't given much personality.   They are just pawns in the plot.   Blockers makes it all about the adults and their BB-brained antics.    We wind up with car chases, car crashes, a contest in which two men ingest alcohol through their anuses, drug use, and a kinky couple who like to chase either while blindfolded and naked.    And for good measure, we see a guy's junk, which for some reason drew laughs from the audience.    Maybe I'm the one out of touch or my sense of humor has become severely deadened.    To those who crack up when a bunch of teens puke all over a limo:  My hat's off to you. 

Velvet Goldmine (1998) * 1/2

Directed by:  Todd Haynes

Starring:  Jonathan Rhys-Myers, Christian Bale, Ewan McGregor, Toni Collete, Eddie Izzard

Todd Haynes made a film similar to Velvet Goldmine with 2007's I'm Not There, in which he had various actors portray Bob Dylan at different stages of his life and career.    Haynes mused on the ideas and perceptions of Dylan and does so here with his David Bowie-esque Brian Slade in this film.   Haynes really needs to stop musing.    Velvet Goldmine, like I'm Not There, is a disjointed and cluttered film which loses any grasp on what it wants to say about its subjects.   It is hard to follow, and soon we just give up trying to give a crap. 

The Bowieish Slade is played as a blank slate by Jonathan Rhys-Myers, an androgynous glam rock star in early 70's England who pushes the envelope with his music, outrageous costumes, and sexuality until one day he pushes too far.    He is seemingly shot to death on stage during a concert, but it is soon revealed the shooting was a hoax and Slade's audience and fame disappears.    He soon drops out of sight and years later, a Slade superfan turned journalist named Arthur Stuart (Bale) is assigned by his magazine to track down Slade's whereabouts.   Arthur, who worshiped Brian in more than just a fan way, interviews Slade's ex-wife Angie (Collette), former manager, and other persons who faded in and out of Slade's life and we find ourselves even more confused about him than we did going in. 

Another focal point is Curt Wild (McGregor), an American glam rocker who Slade idolizes and soon begins a romantic and professional partnership with.   Both Curt and Brian perform original songs and based on their performances, it is a wonder they achieved any sort of fame at all.   The songs are loud, shrill, and disengaging.    And Velvet Goldmine makes the grave mistake of playing a lot of them, along with accompanying video footage in which the art directors and costume designers ran amok.

The characters don't have the charisma to keep us involved, while Bale spends half the movie with his mouth agape at the sight of Slade, Wild, or both.    Velvet Goldmine flashes back between 1984 and the 1970's with an adequate feel for the period and the glam rock revolution, but then Haynes allows the movie to wander all over the place.    It feels like it is spinning out of control as much as Slade and Wild are.   The screws needed to be tightened big time.

Haynes has directed homages to 1950's melodramas with Far from Heaven (2002) and Carol (2015), both of which were superior films and had something to say about taboo relationships during a period in which they were less welcome than ever before.    Velvet Goldmine broaches the same ideas, but then it engulfs itself in overloaded excess, and any caring we have flies right out the window.    By the time Arthur figures everything out, we are so detached from the film that we forgot there was something to be figured out. 

The Thing (1982) * 1/2

Directed by:  John Carpenter

Starring:  Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, David Clennon, T.K. Carter

I don't know what exactly the folks in The Thing are researching in Antarctica, but thank goodness they stockpiled enough explosives, ammunition, and firearms to make David Koresh envious.    And flamethrowers.    Don't forget the flamethrowers, which they conveniently have handy in case a grotesque alien ever shows up, which it does.    The alien, an outer space parasite which eats its victims and then imitates them in order to grab more victims, wreaks havoc on the Antarctic ice station by plucking off the crew members one by one.    Mistrust grows amongst the group, because no one knows for sure whether someone is still human or just The Thing in disguise.  

John Carpenter created a horror masterpiece in Halloween (1978), which was more interested in suspense than gore.    His horror films since were the other way around, including this remake of the 1950's science fiction film which, coincidentally or not, was being watched on television in Halloween by the unsuspecting Jamie Lee Curtis and the kids she babysat.    Perhaps Carpenter was destined to remake The Thing after all.    Because of its remote setting and its somber tone, The Thing is not a suspenseful remake, but a depressing slog with some nifty makeup effects from Rob Bottin. 

We don't know exactly what the alien is, except that it arrived via a flying saucer and crashed in the middle of the Antarctic.    I would assume that was not its intended landing spot, because if its mission is to wipe out humanity by eating then cloning its victims, it is fighting an uphill battle because after the dozen or so are wiped out, who is left?    How would the alien find a way to civilization?    It left an awful lot to chance.  

The station in Antarctica is supposed to be a research station, but I didn't see any research going on and the characters don't come across as scientists, but grunts or prisoners.     I think Kurt Russell plays the crew's helicopter pilot, but soon becomes the de facto leader as the crew fights for its life against the alien.    Besides names, and not first names to boot, we know next to nothing about the people involved, so they don't serve much purpose except to be attacked and eaten.    Why should we care about them?    The Thing was so quick to get to the gore that it neglected everything else, including logic.  

The actors do what they can with what they're provided, but this is not a movie which showcases the humans, but the visual effects which make up the alien and the gore that follows.     We see the alien, with plenty of tentacles, burst from a man's stomach, turn into a spider-like thingy, swallow entire people whole, and gallons of blood.    The characters make foolish decisions, such as splitting up to perform various tasks which heightens their risk of being trapped alone by the alien and killed.   

The station itself seemingly contains as many rooms as the Pentagon, but only one helicopter, which is not ideal considering how the weather could easily cause a helicopter to malfunction.    Or perhaps have another character inexplicably destroy it in an attack of cabin fever, or is he really The Thing?   Carpenter's best directorial efforts are when he goes for suspense over surprise and gore.    And flamethrowers, which I still can't fathom why those requisitioning supplies for the station would possibly want with them, except in the event of penguins turning nasty.    I forever think of George Carlin's take on why flamethrowers were invented:

"I would love very much to set that man over there on fire, but I'm too far away to accomplish this goal.    If only I could invent something that would throw flame on him,"