Nope (2022) *

 

Directed by:  Jordan Peele

Starring:  Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Keith David, Brandon Perea

Jordan Peele's Nope reminded me of M. Night Shyamalan's Signs (2002), another movie involving an imminent alien attack with a tedious, drawn-out buildup and a payoff that doesn't reward our patience.  Peele's feature directorial career started with Get Out (2017), a suspenseful thriller with race relations as its backdrop.   That movie won Peele a Best Original Screenplay Oscar and put him on the map.  Us (2019) was a bloody, far less successful follow-up which involved clones and Hands Across America, which you may or may not remember took place in the mid 1980's when musician charity functions were all the rage.   Now, we have Nope, Peele's second underwhelming film in a row.   His career pattern is starting to resemble Shyamalan's as well:  One great film followed by a series of substandard ones.  

Nope reteams Peele with his Get Out leading man Oscar-winner Daniel Kaluuya, who plays Hollywood horse trainer OJ Haywood (yes, comments are made about his being named OJ).  OJ's horses aren't acting right these days.   They run away, or seem attracted to something in the sky.   OJ and his more outgoing and outspoken sister Emerald (Palmer) discover a cloud which either doesn't move or moves when the others don't.   OJ and Emerald buy a security camera system from Fry's Electronics, in which the salesperson/installer Angel (Perea) becomes emotionally vested in the happenings at the Haywood Ranch.  Also on hand is cinematographer Antlers Holst (Wincott), who tells Emerald he uses two camera to shoot one film for himself and one for them.   

It turns out there is a UFO in the clouds which is actually a mean green mother from outer space that swallows the horses whole, as well as people.  The flying saucer is the monster's disguise.   A local car dealer (Yeun) who watched a monkey destroy the set and some people during a Saturday Night Live taping provides some off-kilter insight into what might be out there.   The setup here lacks energy and even Kaluuya can hardly roust himself out of a walking stupor.   He can hardly be bothered to raise his voice to the level of audible speech.   Palmer's Emerald is his opposite, and she at least tries to pump up the wattage, but to no avail.   These people find the alien has an aversion to a giant plastic horse found on the car dealer's lot and those swaying "skydancers or Tall Boys" which you see more and more outside local businesses these days.   If you think for one second that I looked up what the names of these things are, then you would be correct. 

Nope takes a strong cast and strands it in a quicksand plot.   Truth in reviewing:  I dozed off for a portion of Nope because it wasn't able to provide me an alternative to a nap in a theater recliner.   I awoke to find I didn't miss much, and that I understood everything there was to understand about Nope, which ultimately was a slog.  

 

Only Murders in the Building-Season 2 (2022) * * 1/2

 

(Streaming on Hulu) 

Starring:  Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez, Shirley MacLaine, Amy Schumer, Christine Ko, Nathan Lane, Cara Delevingne, Jayne Houdyshell, Amy Ryan

Through the first five episodes of season two of Only Murders in the Building, I find my attention wandering more often than it should.   At the conclusion of season one, Charles (Martin), Oliver (Short), and Mabel (Gomez) had just solved a murder in their New York apartment building before being arrested for the murder of Bunny (Houdyshell), the haughty, stubborn president of the building's board.   

After being released, the trio of crime solvers make it their mission to solve Bunny's murder and of course podcast it for the world to hear.   You would think two murders in the same building over the course of one year would be troubling news for the Arconia and result in highly negative publicity (or at least concern over building security).   Nope, the gang is back at it.   They clandestinely investigate suspects, trying to loosen them from their secrets (should they have any), and ultimately spend inordinate amounts of time attempting to solve a murder.   New York has police detectives who do this sort of thing.   I'm sure of it. 

It is not shocking that season two of a show like Only Murders in the Building would involve, well, another murder in the building.   The first season was fresh and funny, while this one feels like a retread.  There are even meta references to "season two", in which characters point out how the trio is running into difficulties in "season two".   While the show is referring to the podcast, we know it's a wink to the audience about how it sometimes hard to repeat the successful formula of any show's first season.  

Martin and Short remain a terrific comic team, while Gomez' deadpan delivery last season provided an adept counterpoint.   This season, I hope to see a little more out of Gomez than just the too cool for the room reciting of her lines, but I don't think it'll happen despite the introduction of a new love interest for Mabel.    The final episodes may reverse course and make Only Murders worthwhile.   My main thought remains:  Don't have a season three, unless Charles, Oliver, and Mable move to another building and someone is murdered there.  

Where the Crawdads Sing (2022) * * *

 

Directed by:  Olivia Newman

Starring:  Daisy Edgar-Jones, Harris Dickinson, Jojo Regina, Garret Dillahunt, Taylor John Smith, David Strathairn, Michael Hyatt, Sterling Macer, Jr.

Where the Crawdads Sing still works despite some of the misgivings I have about it.  The movie is about a "marsh girl", who fended for herself living alone in a North Carolina swamp after her family gradually left her.   You would think such a girl would have some city miles on her, be dirty, unkempt, and not look as if she emerged from a beauty shop.   Nonetheless, the girl named Kya (Edgar-Jones) is still someone we care about, especially after she is charged with the murder of a local man from a wealthy family.  

Kya's attorney Tom Milton (Strathairn), who came out of retirement to represent her, wants to know her story, which is told in flashbacks.  Folks in the town of Barkley Cove, North Carolina sneer at Kya when she's in town and the "marsh girl" moniker is not meant to be flattering.   You would think people would marvel at Kya's ability to take care of herself out in the marsh with seemingly no electricity or running water to her shack.  You would also think they would cheer her on as she becomes a published naturalist/author after sending drawings of local marsh wildlife to a publisher.   Nope, the only people sympathetic to her are the Black owners of the local general store (Hyatt, Macer, Jr.), who become surrogate parents to her, and local boy Tate (Smith), who teaches Kya how to read and soon they fall in love.   Their love doesn't last once Tate goes away to college, promises to visit her and to watch the fireworks on July 4, and then disappears from her life.   

Another young man named Chase (Dickinson) enters Kya's life and begins a relationship with her, although we sense he is likely hiding something.   He's just...off, but the lonely Kya still falls for him.  This proves to be mistake and leads to Chase winding up dead at the foot of a watch tower with Kya accused of pushing him to his death.   The case against her isn't strong, but the prosecutor is relying on the public's disdain for Kya to win him a conviction.   Again, why the townsfolk would be so hostile towards the sweet, quiet, angelic Kya is something which may be chalked up to contrived class warfare if little else. 

Even with these incredulous plot holes, Where the Crawdads Sing is still absorbing because Daisy Edgar-Jones plays a sympathetic protagonist who manages to make something of herself despite her harrowing upbringing with a family that leaves her one by one.  First her sisters leave, then her beloved brother, then her mother, then her father.   The sisters, brother, and mother leave to escape the alcoholic, abusive Pa (Dillahunt).   Pa leaves because he's a selfish dick who has no interest in raising Kya or kicking his alcoholism.    Where the Crawdads Sing also relies on the tried and true suspense of a murder trial, which is both safe but also effective.   

Where the Crawdads Sing is based on Delia Owens' best-selling novel which I read has sold over twelve million copies following Reese Witherspoon's endorsement in her Hello Sunshine book club.  (Witherspoon also serves as an executive producer).   I can't say how faithful the movie is to the book, but the Edgar-Jones performance breathes life into it.  She has an Anne Hathaway-type of beauty combined with intelligence and an ability to convey deep hurts while still seeming optimistic about the future.   I think she'll be going places.   The movie itself looks beautiful with a stirring Mychael Danna score, reminiscent of The Prince of Tides and even The Notebook.   Parts of Where the Crawdads Sing don't hold up under much scrutiny, but the experience as a whole is worthwhile. 

 

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Taika Waititi

Starring:  Chris Hemsworth, Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Russell Crowe, Taika Waititi, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Kieron Dyer

I lamented in my review of Thor: The Dark World (2013) that Thor was a humorless bore.  Thor: Ragnarok infused the God of Thunder with humor and one-liners and with Thor: Love and Thunder, the transformation is complete:  Thor is now a full-fledged clown.   He spouts one-liners now with the frequency of a Borscht-belt comedian; Henny Youngman with a hammer (or in this case axe, but more on that later.)   I should be careful what I wish for.  

Thor: Love and Thunder begins with promise, however, as Gorr (Bale), a man trying to survive on a desolate, dry planet with his sick daughter in tow.  He prays to the gods to spare his daughter, who eventually dies.   Gorr finds himself later in a forest oasis where he discovers the god he prays to cares not one lick about anyone or anything.   An enraged Gorr kills the god with the help of the Necrosword, which is used to slay gods.   Gorr's new mission in life is to kill the gods, making him an obvious threat to Thor in the near future.

However, Gorr spends so much time off-screen that we cease to care about him, or even recall that he's in the movie.   No, Thor is distracted by the sudden reemergence of his former love Dr. Jane Foster (Portman), who is battling stage 4 cancer, but somehow is able to wield control of Thor's hammer and helps Thor in his battles.   How Jane went from cancer sufferer to The Mighty Thor (as she's called) must've been left on the editing-room floor.   You have to wonder how capable a doctor Jane is when she's informed she has stage 4 cancer and asks, "Out of how many stages?"   Meanwhile, Thor's hammer has thrown Thor over for Jane, so he is relegated to commanding an axe.  

There is a catch.  The more Jane uses the hammer, the more life it sucks from her and her ability to battle cancer.   Then, Gorr kidnaps the children of New Asgard, where the tourists are treated to dinky plays featuring Matt Damon, Luke Hemsworth, Melissa McCarthy, and Sam Neill in uncredited roles as the actors playing Thor, Loki, etc.  This was first utilized in Thor: Ragnarok and it continues not to be funny.   New Asgard is ruled by King Valkyrie (Thompson), who is given little to do here except act as a quasi-mayor.   The Guardians of the Galaxy are also on hand, but they take off after the first thirty minutes never to be seen again.   Those expecting a full-movie Thor/Guardians collaboration will be sorely disappointed. 

This will not be the only thing which disappoints the audience.   Thor: Love and Thunder is chock full of 80's pop-cultural references, Guns N' Roses songs on the soundtrack, cheesy visual effects (by Marvel standards), an incomprehensible plot, and an underwhelming villain all blended into an ungainly film.   Thor: Love and Thunder is too proud of its cleverness and is always trying to be FUNNY.   Russell Crowe is on hand as Zeus, who wields a lightning bolt in the manner Thor (or Jane) uses the hammer.   Crowe has a deep, foreboding voice which would convey Zeus' authority.   Why is he playing Zeus with a Russian accent (or at least sounds Russian, although I read it is supposed to be Greek)?  Maybe Thor: Love and Thunder's goal is to reduce all of its characters to jokes.   If that's the case, it has succeeded brilliantly.  

Better Off Dead (1985) * * *

 

Directed by:  Savage Steve Holland

Starring:  John Cusack, Diane Franklin, Curtis Armstrong, Aaron Dozier, Amanda Pays, Dan Schneider, Kim Darby, David Ogden Stiers, Chuck Mitchell

Suicide is a touchy subject for a comedy, but Better Off Dead offers enough distractions to blunt high schooler Lane's (Cusack) attempts to off himself, which occur after he is dumped by his longtime girlfriend Beth (Pays) for the arrogant captain of the skiing team named Roy Stalin (Dozier).   I'm sure the last name Stalin is intentionally meant to invoke thoughts of the Soviet dictator.   Better Off Dead is at its heart a safe and mostly inoffensive teen romantic comedy with goofy subplots you likely will never see in a movie again.  

What subplots?  Lane is forever challenged to a drag race by two Japanese men who, according to Lane, "One speaks no English and the other learned English by watching Wide World of Sports,"  In other words, the guy sounds like Howard Cosell calling play-by-play.  Another is a paperboy chasing and terrorizing Lane all over town over $2.00 Lane owes him.   The kid is indefatigable, enduring being run over and even falling off the side of a mountain.   Don't worry, he survives to continue his quest.  From what I read, this is based on a real paperboy who pestered writer/director Savage Steve Holland over money owed to him, stretched out to maximum comic effect. 

We also have Lane's mother who makes Jell-O that slinks off the plate by itself and a pretty French foreign exchange student named Monique (Franklin), who lives across the street with the overbearing Ricky Smith (Schneider), a nerd who claims Monique as his girlfriend.   Will she perhaps become Lane's new love interest?  Does a bear crap in the woods?   Are there stars in the sky?  Franklin is fetching and more intriguing than the icy blonde Beth, who spends the rest of the movie as Roy's arm candy and maybe one line of dialogue.   Isn't the brunette always more interesting than the blonde in these types of comedies?   

Reading the trivia section for Better Off Dead on imdb.com, Holland included many of his own experiences into this film, including the suicide attempts.   Cusack is the perfect choice to play the sad-sack Lane, who I'm sure is based on Holland himself.   He was fresh off the success of The Sure Thing from the same year and was establishing himself as an up-and-comer.   Curtis Armstrong, fresh from Revenge of the Nerds (1984), plays Lane's ne'er-do-well best friend Charles, who snorts the snow from the top of a mountain peak and excitedly declares, "This is pure snow!!,"  He exhibits the same gross-out and funny type of performance we saw in Nerds.   

Better Off Dead combines the reliable standards of teen romantic comedies with inventive throw-ins which keep us from recognizing the other cliches.   Still, Better Off Dead has developed a following over the years and it maintains its charm.   Oh, and would you believe the movie ends with the villainous Roy getting his comeuppance in a big ski race?   Is the moon in the sky along with the stars? 

 

In Good Company (2005) * * *

 

Directed by:  Paul Weitz

Starring:  Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Scarlett Johannson, David Paymer, Philip Baker Hall, Marg Helgenberger, Malcolm McDowell, Clark Gregg

Carter Duryea (Grace) is promoted way over his head in In Good Company, in which he is installed as the head of sales and marketing for a sports magazine after a corporate takeover.   He replaces Dan Foreman (Quaid), a fiftyish family man who has led the department for years but is now playing "wingman" to Carter.   Since Carter doesn't know much about the magazine, but does know about marketing, or at least the metrics part of it, he allows Dan to be his guide and forges a tenuous friendship along the way.   A friendship, mind you, that will snap when Dan finds out Carter is also dating his college-age daughter Alex (Johannson).   

Carter, recently divorced and lonely, is career-obsessed because he doesn't have much else to be obsessed about.   Dan's wife Ann (Helgenberger) is also pregnant, a shock to Dan because he figured he was long past the age where he would have to change diapers again.   Alex is in college and with a baby on the way, Dan can't afford to lose his job, which includes having to mercilessly and coldly cut staff that has worked with him in simpatico for years.   One such cost-cutting victim is Morty (Paymer), who finds he is too old to start over and not cut out for anything else but sales.   In Good Company understands that the Carters of today will be the Mortys of tomorrow.   One day, Carter will wake up and he'll be fifty (to quote Good Will Hunting). 

Carter's boss is the smarmier Steckle (Gregg), an in-your-face boss who only thinks of the bottom line and kissing the ass of the conglomerate owner Teddy K (McDowell), who holds a company pow-wow to espouse on the virtues of synergy, in which some of his other companies could advertise in the magazine.   "Isn't that cheating?" asks Dan, who has the balls to call out Teddy K on his bullshit which enthralls his other underlings.   The result of his meeting is unlikely in any corporate world, but hey it's cool to dream of this outcome.  

Quaid and Grace play likable, universal men at the opposite ends of the corporate spectrum.   Carter eyes advancement while Dan is content with his position and only wants to keep it amid turmoil. Johannson (pre-Avengers) plays a college student who is perceptive well beyond her years and doesn't necessarily roll over and play dead for her boyfriend or her father.   What makes In Good Company charming and not a sitcom is its keen view of corporate America which in the past seventeen years really hasn't changed all that much.  

Shaft (2000) * * *

 

Directed by:  John Singleton

Starring:  Samuel L. Jackson, Vanessa Williams, Christian Bale, Jeffrey Wright, Richard Roundtree, Toni Collette, Lynne Thigpen, Busta Rhymes

Shaft reboots the 1971 film about the bad-ass cop turned private eye with Samuel L. Jackson assuming the role of John Shaft.   Richard Roundtree, who played Shaft in the original film, is on hand as Shaft's "uncle", later revealed to be his father in the 2019 reboot.   Don't ask why he was made the uncle in this version and his dad in the 2019 version because I wouldn't be able to give you a sensible answer. 

Shaft, in this 2000 version, is a cop on the trail of arrogant rich punk Walter Wade (Bale), who hides in his father's pocket and beat a man to death outside of a bar one night following a racially-charged confrontation.   A waitress (Collette) witnessed the murder, but is terrified to testify.   Wade threatens to kill her too before fleeing the country.   He returns two years later only to be allowed out on bail again.  It is then Shaft chucks his badge at a judge and declares himself retired, vowing to bring Wade to justice.

Jackson brings his trademark intensity to the role while amusing us with lines like, "It's my duty to please your booty,"   But Shaft is mostly about the job, with Bale and Wright playing slimy villains on Shaft's radar.   Bale's Wade is not a million miles removed from Patrick Bateman, whom he played in American Psycho the year Shaft was released, although Wade isn't a 24-hour psychopath like Bateman.  Or at least I think he isn't, although Wade has Bateman beat in the smugness department. 

Shaft more or less delivers what it promises:  Slick action with a tough, but vulnerable hero and villains we want to see receive a long-awaited comeuppance.   How Wade receives that comeuppance is something of a surprise in a movie which is content to be a straightforward reboot with a reliable cast.  

The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994) * * *

 

Directed by:  Peter Segal

Starring:  Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, Fred Ward, Anna Nicole Smith, O.J. Simpson, George Kennedy, Weird Al Yankovic, Raquel Welch, Kathleen Freeman

Movies like The Naked Gun series are almost immune to criticism because they aren't about plots, but laughs.   They throw plenty of gags at you and most are amusing enough to make the enterprise worthwhile.   The third installment of Naked Gun's running time is a mere eighty minutes, which these days would account for roughly half of many movies' run times.

Leslie Nielsen, who made an entire second career making parodies such as Airplane! and The Naked Gun trilogy, once again stars as Lt. Frank Drebin, who in this installment is married to his longtime love Jane (Presley) and retired from Police Squad.   His old pals Captain Ed Hocken (Kennedy) and Nordberg (Simpson) come knocking and entice Drebin into doing some undercover work at a local clinic.   Drebin goes to the clinic with a faux broken arm, but learns too late it is a fertility clinic.  That's the way the cookie crumbles for Drebin.   Nielsen, as well as the rest of the cast, understands the best way to approach this material is straight and unaware of the craziness surrounding everything.  

Soon, Drebin is on the trail of bomber Rocco (Ward), who is planning to blow up the Academy Awards.  Drebin infiltrates Rocco's gang by posing as a fellow prisoner while Rocco is in the slammer.  I recognize that I've already spent too much time recapping the plot, but we do need some context.   I enjoyed the movie's Academy Award parody in which Pia Zadora performs a musical number and Drebin poses as Phil Donahue while trying to discover the bomb's location.   This is the kind of movie where Mary Lou Retton wins an Oscar and that's not even the nuttiest thing in it.  And is this Oscar ceremony nuttier than the one in The Bodyguard?  It's a tight race, but the one in The Bodyguard was meant to be serious. 

The Nutty Professor (1996) * * *

 

Directed by:  Tom Shadyac

Starring:  Eddie Murphy, Jada Pinkett Smith, John Ales, Larry Miller, Dave Chappelle, James Coburn

Professor Sherman Klump (Murphy) is a 400-pound man trying so hard to lose weight he invents a potion which will cause transform him into a leaner guy.   The side effects:  His alter ego, Buddy Love (also Murphy) has adrenaline running through the roof and causes havoc for Sherman once the potion wears off and he returns to his obese self.   Sherman is a gentle man who pines for his assistant Carla (Pinkett-Smith), but lacks the confidence to declare his love.   Buddy is a mean egomaniac with a nasty streak.  The two cannot co-exist within the same body, with Sherman and Buddy attempting to permanently squelch the other.  

The Nutty Professor is a remake of the 1963 Jerry Lewis comedy, replacing awkward nerdiness with obesity as the issue the professor is trying to remedy.   Murphy not only plays Sherman and Buddy, but his father, mother, horny grandmother, older brother, and fitness guru Lance Perkins (a dead ringer for Richard Simmons).   In one scene, Sherman brings Carla home to dinner to meet his family and all of the Murphy characters are present in a seamless editing job.   Murphy's comic genius is on full display by imbuing each character with specific personalities.   It is sweet the way they support Sherman, and they aren't just Eddie Murphy behind a bunch of makeup.   

The Nutty Professor leans on occasional gross-out humor and bodily function jokes, including a dream in which a Godzilla-sized Sherman destroys a city with a fart.   What works most about The Nutty Professor is its underlying sweetness and Sherman's likability.   We miss him when the obnoxious Buddy is on screen and that's precisely the point.    Footnote:  There is a scene in which an insult comic (Chappelle) incessantly rags on Sherman and Carla.   Then, Carla later goes with Buddy (not knowing he's really the thinner, more aggressive Sherman) to see the same comic and Buddy beats him up.  If this isn't life imitating art then I don't know what is.  

End of Days (1999) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Peter Hyams

Starring:  Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Byrne, Robin Tunney, Kevin Pollak, Udo Kier, Miriam Margolyes, Rod Steiger

As plots go, End of Days is a doozy.  In 1979, a child is born in the presence of a satanic cult who, as was foretold centuries ago, in twenty years in the final hour of the millennium will be impregnated by Satan and the impending birth of Satan's spawn will bring about the end of days.   Until the child named Christine is ready to be served up to Satan, she is surrounded by Satan's minions posing as her stepmother, psychiatrist who tell her not to worry about having dreams in which a mysterious man is having sex with her.   Christine has no knowledge of her fate and it is astounding the news never leaked.   

Fast forward to late-December 1999, ex-cop turned private eye Jericho Cane (Schwarzenegger) is investigating a murder in which a priest whose tongue was removed is nonetheless able to speak a warning of impending doom and is later nailed to the ceiling of his hospital room crucifixion-style.  The hospital believes the guy did it to himself.   Jericho doubts that, as does his wisecracking partner Chicago (Pollak) who can't imagine what forces are at work here.   Meanwhile, Satan takes over the body of a well-dressed regular man (Byrne) who stalks New York looking for Christine.   Jericho is able to discern Christine's name and address in roughly thirty seconds using a DMV computer and arrives at her home just in time to thwart Catholic priests (not in Satan's employ) who are trying to kill Christine in order to prevent her from falling into Satan's hands.   Jericho, himself a non-believer with a grudge against God which started after his wife and daughter were killed in a home invasion, has taken it upon himself to protect Christine from the supernatural forces conspiring to make her Satan's broodmare.  

This is all heavy stuff and of course preposterous.   It is a fool's errand to attempt to instill logic in a movie such as End of Days, but I'll try.   My understanding is Satan himself created all of these rules involving the date and time in which the dirty deed must occur.   Why must it happen between 11pm and midnight on December 31, 1999?   Once midnight hits and Satan fails in his mission, does he have to wait another thousand years to try this again?   Satan is hamstringing himself with these limitations.  You would think the all-powerful Satan would find a way to impregnate Christine without borrowing a human male body to do the dirty work.   

According to Father Novak (Steiger), this all was foreseen by Gregorian monks hundreds of years ago who somehow worked out the details and also managed to invent the Gregorian calendar as a side benefit.  Now, the actual end of the millennium was December 31, 2000, but Father Novak is able to sidestep this by explaining that the number of the beast is not 666 as originally assumed, but if you invert the 666, it becomes 999.  Add a 1 and voila you have 1999.   For those who argue that December 31, 1999 was the end of the millennium and not December 31, 2000, there is a helpful DJ providing voiceover narration who states, "Tonight is the end of the first 2000 years".   However, the end of 1999 is only 1,999 years.   Take that!

So why do I give End of Days two-and-a-half stars and not fewer since I spent the first four paragraphs pointing out its faults?   Schwarzenegger delivers the action as only he can and the thought of Arnold defeating the Prince of Darkness is enticing.   It is compelling enough to keep the viewer invested in Christine's fate.   Think of End of Days as Rosemary's Baby: The Twentysomething Years. 

Slap Shot (1977) * * *

 

Directed by:  George Roy Hill

Starring:  Paul Newman, Strother Martin, Michael Ontkean, Lindsay Crouse, Jerry Houser, Andrew Duncan, Kathryn Walker, Steve Carlson, Jeff Carlson, David Hanson, Yvon Barrette

Slap Shot is sports satire, vulgarity run amok, and slapstick tied together in an energetic, ungainly package.   There are a large group of characters to account for, which Slap Shot is amazingly able to do.  This is a circus requiring a juggler willing to go above and beyond to keep everything in the air and in motion.  Does it work?  Mostly.   The movie ends with a "big game", but the payoff is unusual and doesn't quite fit the buildup which came before it.  

Slap Shot opens with the sad sack minor league hockey team Charlestown Chiefs, coached by the over-the-hill player/coach Reggie Dunlap (Newman), mired in a losing streak and barely drawing fans.  The ones who do show up shout obscenities at the team even during the national anthem.   There are rumors of the local mill closing, which will also force the Chiefs to fold.   In order to increase revenue and publicity, the team's players are forced into demeaning personal appearances such as a fashion show in which one of the players threatens to expose himself to the largely female audience.   The uncertainty surrounding the mill and the team do not sit well with anyone. 

Dunlap tries with no avail to coach some wins out of his team.   His star player Ned Braden (Ontkean) is the only one who is able to score any goals and largely ignores his alcoholic wife (Crouse), who suspects Ned is either gay or having an affair with another woman.   Manna from heaven falls from the sky in the form of the long-haired, bespectacled, nerdy Hanson Brothers, who play with toys and have a habit of roughing up opponents in ways which under normal circumstances would be considered assault and battery.   Reggie has a eureka moment:  Follow the Hansons' lead and play dirty in ways which would make the Broad Street Bullies blush.   This leads to a win streak, bigger crowds, and an enthusiastic booster club which follows the team on the road.   Reggie, however, still pines for his estranged wife who is moving to Long Island, and spends his time on the road bedding wives of opposing players.  

This is not the material you would expect to see directed by Oscar-winner George Roy Hill (The Sting) and starring Paul Newman, who starred in Hill's The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but Newman himself stated Slap Shot was the most fun he'd ever had filming a movie and remained his personal favorite.   Newman can barely contain his glee and performs with a grin throughout Slap Shot.  The cast matches his energy and jump into this lunacy zealously.   This allows Slap Shot to work better than you would expect.  

Elvis (2022) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Baz Luhrmann

Starring:  Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, David Wenham, Richard Roxburgh, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Helen Thomson, Olivia DeJonge, Kelvin Harrison, Jr.

Elvis has the flash and style befitting the King of Rock and Roll, but lacks in the substance department.  Baz Luhrmann's films have always been on style overload and Elvis is no exception.   At times, it creates a sustaining energy while at other times you wonder why hip-hop music is being played in 1950's Memphis.  The result of Elvis is an uneven mixed bag which overshadows its performances.

Austin Butler as Elvis and Tom Hanks as the enigmatic Col. Tom Parker are at the heart of Elvis, with the movie opening in 1997 Las Vegas as the elderly and obese Col. Parker hospitalized after collapsing in his home.  He tells the story of meeting Elvis Presley on the carnival circuit and realizing how special he was as his hips jiggled their way into the hearts of his fans.   Col. Parker, a self-proclaimed "snowman" who freely admits to snowing the public into believing what he wants them to believe, signs Presley to an exclusive contract and the Elvis story begins.

Familiar ground is covered:  Religious and government authorities in the 1950's South want to arrest Elvis on indecency charges for swiveling his hips in his concerts, Elvis' drafting into the Army (which the movie suggests may have been a Col. Parker maneuvering), his meeting and subsequent marriage to Priscilla, the comeback special, Elvis' descent into drug addiction, and Col, Parker managing by hook or by crook (mostly crook) to keep his claws in Elvis.   Col. Parker, who was born in the Netherlands and resided in the United States illegally, always managed to talk Elvis out of a world tour because of his own fear of being deported.   I don't know exactly if Hanks' accent sounds like the real Parker, but it creates an aura of a menacing warden or a shameless used car huckster who continually is able to convince Elvis to follow his career advice.   Sometimes, I assume Parker was both.

Butler (who co-starred memorably in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as the creepy Manson follower Tex) has Elvis' look and moves down pat.   Where the movie falters is not providing any further insight into Elvis than what we already know.   Butler inhabits the jumpsuits convincingly and can sing, but the sly joy of an Elvis show is missing.   Then, the movie does the ultimate disservice to Butler by sliding in footage of the real Elvis in his last concert belting the hell out of Unchained Melody despite barely being able to sit upright at the piano.   Butler is overshadowed by the real thing, which isn't his fault, because it is difficult to recreate the charisma and charm of the icon himself.   Butler tries his mightiest, and with Hanks nearly succeeds in pulling the overly long Elvis across the finish line.