Ticket to Paradise (2022) * *

 

Directed by:  Ol Parker

Starring:  George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Kaitlyn Dever, Billie Lourd, Maxime Bouttier, Lucas Bravo

Romantic comedies tend to fall into patterns which can either work smoothly or make events deadly predictable.   Ticket to Paradise has several romcom standards at play: (feuding ex-spouses, insults, deception, and of course the ex-spouses falling in love again).   None of these are surprises nor are they meant to be.   There is a comfort level in that, so it comes down to execution.   Ticket to Paradise is graced with two megastars in the title roles who could do this material in their sleep, but thankfully choose not to.

Clooney and Roberts are engaged and engaging as the feuding exes David and Georgia Cotton who can't stand to be in the same room together following their divorce years ago.   When they occupy the same vicinity, they exchange quips, putdowns, and battle in verbal volleyball.   They first are forced to sit next to each other during their daughter Lily's (Dever) graduation from law school.   Lily then takes a vacation with her best friend Wren (Lourd) in Bali, a tropical paradise where she meets and falls immediately in love with local boy Gede (Bouttier).   Thirty days later, Lily and Gede are engaged and Lily is looking to eschew a law career to seaweed farm in Bali with Gede.   David and Georgia are horrified.   After all, they just dropped a fortune on law school and now Lily doesn't even want to be a lawyer.   They travel to Bali, uniting forces to undermine Lily's upcoming wedding so she doesn't make the same mistake her parents did.   You know, getting married?

David and Georgia are intelligent people who resort to sophomoric behavior in order to cause Lily and Gede to doubt themselves and each other.   Even though they are rough on each other, we know David and Georgia will call a truce, talk, laugh, and fall in love again.   They will also think twice about trying to destroy their daughter's nuptials, which of course they do because they never come across as anything but mostly nice people.   The material is light and slight, to the point that we wonder why Clooney and Roberts needed to star in it.  Because it was filming in a tropical haven, maybe?   It is to Roberts' and Clooney's credit that they put as much energy into Ticket to Paradise as they do.  They could've just phoned it in.   Now my last question:  When you have a wedding in Bali, where do you go for a honeymoon?

Crimson Tide (1995) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Tony Scott

Starring:  Gene Hackman, Denzel Washington, James Gandolfini, Viggo Mortensen, Lillo Brancato, Jr., George Dzundza, Jason Robards, Matt Craven, Danny Nucci

Crimson Tide is a story of clashing ideals and old school vs. new school which permeates even the vast military-industrial complex.   Capt. Ramsey (Hackman) is in charge of the Alabama, a nuclear submarine bound for Russia on the eve of potential nuclear war with Russian rebels looking to start World War III.  His new executive officer Lt. Commander Hunter (Washington) joins the mission with an impeccable reputation and a lack of battle experience which concerns the outwardly polite and welcoming Ramsey.  

An undercurrent of tension infuses the opening moments of Crimson Tide and rarely defuses it.   The threat of war lingers over everything.   Ramsey and Hunter approach their jobs differently, which is evident when Ramsey decides to hold a launch drill while Hunter is helping to battle a galley fire which could endanger the sub.   Hunter expresses his disagreement with his captain for choosing to hold a drill during the emergency, but Ramsey explains that the Russians don't care if an American sub is battling a fire when it decides to launch missiles at the United States.   Another telling scene is when Ramsey and Hunter are sharing a meal with the other officers and their philosophies become crystal clear.   Ramsey was trained in a different Navy than Hunter.   "I was trained in the when and how, you were trained to ask why," says Ramsey.   He is correct and his disdain for the "new Navy" is palpable.

Neither Ramsey or Hunter is a villain, but at a crucial moment, their idealogies come full circle when, during a torpedo attack, the sub's communications system is compromised and an incomplete order comes through from the Pentagon.   Since moments before, a complete order to ready to launch the sub's missiles is authenticated, Ramsey assumes those to be the standing orders.   Hunter wants to authenticate the orders first, thinking they may contradict the initial orders.   Ramsey and Hunter vehemently argue, causing Hunter to seize control of the captaincy from Ramsey under Navy regulations.   Is it as easy to overthrow a captain as Crimson Tide makes it out to be?   I don't know, but it effectively sets up the crew taking sides with Ramsey or Hunter later.

As one character bluntly explains, "You are both right and you are both wrong,"   Such a sentiment underlines each disagreement Ramsey and Hunter have.   Hackman and Washington, of course, are superb, but Crimson Tide also foments excellent supporting work from Mortensen, Craven, and Dzundza, all of whom have their own opinions as to who is correct in this argument.   Because of the looming threat of nuclear holocaust, Crimson Tide becomes a movie that is relentless, tense, and efficient as the crew and officers try and determine where they stand and why their stance may either start a war or prevent it.   

Till (2022) * * *

Directed by:  Chinonye Chukwu

Starring:  Danielle Deadwyler, Jayln Hall, Whoopi Goldberg, Frankie Faison, Haley Bennett, Tosin Cole, Jayme Lawson, Sean Patrick Thomas

Till exists in the powerful moments its story must show us.  Emmett Till (Hall) was a fourteen-year-old brutally murdered in 1955 Mississippi.   The movie's opening scenes show Emmett as a loving boy with an affinity for music and dancing; a born entertainer.   His mother Mamie (Deadwyler) adores him and is terrified of his upcoming visit with family in Mississippi.   Emmett and his family live in Chicago, where Mamie holds down a good job with the Air Force and the threat of lynching isn't a way of life.   Emmett travels to Mississippi, encounters white shopowner Carolyn Bryant (Bennett) while buying candy in her store, and soon two white men (one of whom is Carolyn's husband) kidnap Emmett at gunpoint from his uncle's home in the middle of the night.   Emmett's crime?   Complimenting Mrs. Bryant and whistling at her.   

Mamie is alerted to the kidnapping and holds out hope, but reacts as any mother would when word of Emmett's murder makes it way to Chicago.   The local NAACP (and soon the national one) wants Mamie to utilize this opportunity to speak in favor of a federal anti-lynching law (which finally came to fruition in March 2022 under President Joe Biden).   Mamie, upon seeing Emmett's mutilated, almost unrecognizable body, tries to process her grief and anger while understanding she also must do right by others in hopes of them avoiding her son's fate.   Danielle Deadwyler's multi-faceted performance is one of sheer power and restraint.   Watch her as she answers questions in Emmett's murder trial, knowing that in a way she and Emmett are on trial as much as, or more so, than Emmett's accused killers.   Even if you don't know the eventual verdict, you sense the gears grinding in motion towards injustice. 

Some time later, following their acquittals, Emmett's killers admitted to their crimes in a magazine interview and received $4,000 for the story.   Meanwhile, Emmett's life was sadly snuffed out.   Upon leaving Till, I noticed the story didn't propel the outrage it should have, but then I reflected on its overall theme and placed things in perspective.   The story compels outrage, but it also seems to understand its people contemporaneously.   Mamie and the NAACP are resigned to the likelihood that Emmett's killer will go free and that Carolyn would not be punished for her part in the crime.   Till itself takes on the same feel, and in that manner it is effective, and it also baffles us how lynching only became a federal crime a mere seven months ago.   With Dr. Martin Luther King waiting in the wings, Emmett Till became a symbol of how civil rights legislation was not only essential, but inevitable.   

Halloween Ends (2022) * *

Directed by: David Gordon Green

Starring:  Jamie Lee Curtis, Rohan Campbell, Will Patton, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney

Michael Myers is barely seen for the first hour of Halloween Ends and I didn't miss him,  Over the course of forty-plus years and way too many sequels and reboots, Michael Myers has grown tiresome.   He is a killing machine who can't be killed himself no matter what you do to him.   If a guy can survive an incinerator with only a few small burns, then how would anyone reasonably expect to subdue him with a baseball bat?

The first hour of Halloween Ends, once you get past Laurie Strode's excessive voiceover narration of a book she is writing of her experiences with Myers, focuses mostly on the troubled Corey Cunningham (Campbell), who was accused of killing a young boy he was babysitting on Halloween night a few years ago.   The boy's death was indeed an accident, but that doesn't Corey from becoming a pariah in Haddonfield, Illinois, a town which should bypass Halloween or simply erase it from the calendar.   Corey makes for a sympathetic figure and this portion of Halloween Ends had me holding out hope for a new direction.   But it wasn't to be.  

Corey falls in love with Laurie's granddaughter Allyson (Matichak), who lives with Laurie and as they grieve the death of Allyson's mother from the previous film, Halloween Kills.   Corey is soon terrorized by a small group of bullies who throw him over a bridge and to the ground below.   Demonstrating recuperative powers rivaling Michael's, Corey recovers to find Michael hiding in a sewer pipe and soon becomes his apprentice in becoming a serial killer.   How did Michael survive in the pipe in the time since the last Halloween movie?   This isn't the movie where you should ask. 

Michael Myers is soon reintroduced and assists Corey in brutal murders which are par for this rebooted franchise.   The inevitable showdown which turns out to be underwhelming at best with Laurie Strode is still delivered on cue.   Laurie must have some of Michael Myers' genes in her, because she can take a beating and keep on coming.    By now, I'm Halloweened out.   Everything you can conceive happening to Michael Myers has come to fruition, and now it's high time to move on.  

Some Kind of Hero (1982) * * *

 

Directed by:  Michael Pressman

Starring:  Richard Pryor, Margot Kidder, Ray Sharkey, Lynne Moody, Ronny Cox, Paul Benjamin, Olivia Cole

Corporal Eddie Keller (Pryor) spent five years in a Vietnamese POW camp only to return home to be initially hailed as a hero, but then is screwed over by bureaucratic red tape and that he signed a "confession" to the Viet Cong in an attempt to save his cellmate's life.   Upon his return to the States, and all during his romantic reunion with his wife, Keller learns his wife has fallen in love with someone else, has a child he never met, his business is bankrupt, and his mother had a stroke and is about to thrown out of the assisted-living facility where she stays if her medical bills aren't paid within a week.

Keller is soon forgotten after the cameras stop documenting his return and now he must adjust to real life again.   He befriends and soon falls in love with an expensive Beverly Hills hooker (Kidder) and plots a robbery to pay off his mother's bills and get out from under.   Pryor is, of course, a legendary comedian, but his stand-up act which plays to his personal pain makes him a natural dramatic actor.   In Some Kind of Hero, he plays both comedy and drama with equal adeptness, which carries the movie and its frequent tone switches. 

Some Kind of Hero also captures an era in history in which Vietnam veterans weren't treated as heroes or even decently.   People tended to forget that most soldiers were drafted and did not ask to be part of such an unpopular war.   Eddie Keller sure didn't wish to be a POW and further didn't desire to be put into a position where he must to sign a confession denouncing his country.  Some Kind of Hero may not always see through, but it sees enough and understands what it's seeing, and it rings with a certain truth. 

Smile (2022) * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Parker Finn

Starring:  Sosie Bacon, Jessie T. Usher, Kal Penn, Robin Weigert, Gillian Zinzer, Caitlin Stasey

Any mystery Smile contains is soon wiped away in a depressing slog of a plot in which there is no villain or any tangible evil which can be defeated.   The antagonistic force which is causing people enormous trauma followed by a brief, malicious smile which is the precursor to their suicide is like a virus which feeds off of personal trauma and pain.  When it becomes obvious the force is unstoppable, then what is the point?  Smile crawls to its inevitable conclusion which doesn't thrill or shock, but simply reiterates what happened before to another poor victim.   

Smile takes place over the course of four gray days in the life of emergency trauma psychologist Dr. Rose Cotter (Bacon), who just finished working an overnight shift when a troubled young woman named Laura (Stasey) is referred to her.   Laura is in sheer terror when she confides in Rose about her professor who emitted a creepy smile shortly before committing suicide right in front of her eyes.  Moments later, Laura develops the same smile and cuts her own throat.   The shaken Rose now begins to hallucinate and drops not one but two glasses on her floor (on consecutive evenings) when something frightens her.   Her fiance is naturally concerned with Rose's behavior, especially when it seems she wrapped her dead cat as a birthday gift for her nephew and has no recollection of how it occurred.

Dr. Cotter is able to decipher what happened to Laura and why and there is mumbo-jumbo about Rose's own mother's suicide which somehow may be the key to avoiding Laura's fate.  This brings Rose to abandoned childhood home which is not only miraculously still standing, but still has the bed inside on which her mother died.   Plus, there are items in the garage as well.  I suppose the local authorities never condemned the property nor did any realtor have any interest in selling it.   I don't know.  The land looks pretty plentiful and a real estate agent could have made a pretty penny off of the sale.  Sure, you don't want to mention the suicide that happened there many years back, but you do what you must to make some money in this economy.  

Amsterdam (2022) * 1/2

 

Directed by:  David O. Russell

Starring: Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Robert De Niro, Michael Shannon, Taylor Swift, Mike Myers, Andrea Risborough, Rami Malek, Anya Taylor-Joy, Alessandro Nivola, Matthias Schoenaerts, Chris Rock

Amsterdam's cast is top-heavy with A-List and award-winning talent stuck in a story which doesn't deserve their talents.  The actors are to be credited for their efforts to make Amsterdam palatable, but they wind up just behaving bizarrely.  David O. Russell has, of course, made some great movies in the past with large casts, but the stories behind The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, and Joy were compelling.   Amsterdam begins as a murder mystery which veers into different waters when it introduces a conspiracy (based on fact...maybe) which resonates with today's political climate.   Russell himself introduces Amsterdam with the disclaimer: "Some of this actually happened", similar to American Hustle, a movie no one would confuse Amsterdam with.

Christian Bale stars as Dr. Burt Berendsen, who as the story opens in 1930's New York City works with wounded and maimed World War I veterans, mostly dispensing illegal drugs to ease their suffering.  Dr. Burt (a veteran himself) has a glass eye (which frequently pops out as a running gag), scars all over his body, and faints whenever administering new, homemade drugs on himself.   He is best friends since the war with attorney Harold Woodman (Washington), with whom he served.   Both were seriously wounded in battle and treated by Valerie Voze (Robbie) in Belgium.   The three form a friendship and move to Amsterdam following the war to live a bohemian lifestyle.   There is no menage-a-trois, however, as Harold and Valerie fall in love and Dr. Burt (a married man) longs to return to his wife in New York even though her family has disowned him.

Fast forward to the 1930's, as Burt and Harold are called in by the daughter of their commanding officer to investigate his suspicious death aboard a ship.   They discover he was poisoned, but soon are suspects in the death of the daughter and on the run.   They find themselves enveloped in a darker plot involving assassinating President Franklin D. Roosevelt and installing a military leader to run the country.   This is based in part on truth and links to January 6 are entirely intentional, but Amsterdam is paced oddly and erratically, with the actors trying to keep up in drawn-out scenes which we grow tired of quickly.  Entire monologues are dedicated to keeping us (and the other characters) up to date on what's happening, which slows things down even further.   

There are other characters involved in this messy film, all of which tie into the plot at different angles.  I'm generally suspicious of the quality of a movie needing this many top-notch actors to star in it.  With Amsterdam, I know why.  

Hostage (2005) * * *

 

Directed by:  Florent Emilio Siri

Starring:  Bruce Willis, Kevin Pollak, Ben Foster, Jonathan Tucker, Jimmy Bennett, Michelle Horn, Marshall Allman

Bruce Willis is more vulnerable in Hostage than in any movie he starred in previously.  Those expecting another Die Hard will be disappointed, or maybe pleasantly surprised by his role of a former hostage negotiator who finds himself in the middle of another hostage situation.   As Hostage opens, Jeff Talley (Willis) attempts to control a violent domestic in which a father is holding his wife and son prisoner in a barricaded house.   The father kills his family and himself.  Talley is devastated and one year later he is the chief of police in a small Northern California town in which crime is low and the only drama Talley faces is from his estranged wife and daughter.  

That changes when three criminals in a pickup truck target a fancy SUV driven by accountant Walter Smith (Pollak) to steal.  They follow the vehicle to his home in the hills, break in to the house, and soon take the family hostage.   Talley arrives at the scene, but after one of his deputies is killed, he turns the situation over to the country sheriff and washes his hands of the whole thing.   Not so fast.  Walter cooks the books and launders money for a criminal organization, keeping the records on DVD's.   A hooded man and his associates kidnap Jeff's family and force Jeff to enter the house and retrieve the disk or else.   Matters have just become doubly complicated. 

Jeff now has to take over the hostage negotiations as well as keep his real objective secret from everyone.  He receives assistance from Walter's son (Bennett), who is hiding in the house's roomy air ducts.  Are home air ducts usually wide enough to allow people to crawl through them or hole up in there as long as the plot requires?  In movies, yes.  Willis' John McClane can attest to that, but at least he was trapped in a high-rise office building's ventilation system.

What separates Hostage from other action movies of this type is Willis' vulnerability and allowing him to not have all the answers.   He is as uncertain and scared as others might be in his circumstances, which transforms Hostage into a movie with a mind.  

 

The Good House (2022) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Maya Forbes & Wallace Wolodarsky

Starring:  Sigourney Weaver, Kevin Kline, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Beverly D'Angelo, 
David Rasche, Rebecca Henderson, Molly Brown

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.  Such is the case with The Good House, a likable film which earns points strictly because no one is hacked to death in it.   I've grown weary of thrillers that don't thrill and horror films where the victims are killed in increasingly gruesome, bloody ways.  The movie landscape these days isn't providing us with much theatrical joy, so movies like The Good House stand out just by being simple family dramas.  

Sigourney Weaver is Hildy Good, once the most successful realtor in the seaside town of Wendover (in I think Massachusetts), but whose alcoholism has only grown more alarming and has caused a dip in her business.   She is losing top prospects to her former mentee turned rival and eighteen months ago, following a family intervention, Hildy reluctantly enters rehab and goes through the motions there.   She isn't the one with the problem, of course, all of her family and friends are to blame for noticing her increasing alcohol use and daring to care about her.   

Hildy was married once and has two grown daughters, but her husband (Rasche) left her for another man and remains a friend.  Other small-town business is at play, including Hildy's therapist friend fooling around with a pretty patient who is new in town (Baccarin-from Deadpool) and Hildy's one-time flame Frank Gechell (Kline) possibly re-entering her love life.   Frank is a gruff man with a perpetual stubble who owns many businesses but is referred to as "the contractor" or "the garbage man".  He is probably the richest man in town, but doesn't look or act the part.   Weaver and Kline starred together in Dave (1993) and The Ice Storm (1997) and just as in those films, they have a natural, unforced chemistry.  

The Good House perks up when Weaver and Kline take the screen together.   The rest of the time is spent with Hildy quietly breaking the fourth wall to introduce the players and deny her issues to us all and the soap opera which is Wendover.   The final act involves not one, but two missing townspeople, and one of which is an autistic child.   If you believe this story will end with the child dead in a forest somewhere, you are surely watching the wrong movie.   The subplots are tied up, if not necessarily neatly and Weaver delivers a cry for help which serves as a suitable, powerful payoff to her story arc. 

Samaritan (2022) * *

 

Directed by:  Julius Avery

Starring:  Sylvester Stallone, Javon Walton, Pilou Asbaek, Dascha Polanco, Martin Starr

I was late writing this review.   I saw it on the weekend it premiered on Amazon Prime (August 27 to be precise) and one month later I remember Samaritan faintly.   I recall how trashed Granite City, where the past and current action of the film takes place, looked.   I remember how sunny days were hard to come by and the grayness casts a pall over everything.   There is an origin story in which twins with superpowers Samaritan and Nemesis begin feuding and their fight escalates into a battle for control of the city.   Legend has it that Samaritan killed Nemesis during their epic confrontation and Samaritan hasn't been seen since.

A youngster named Sam (Walton) lives in a run-down apartment complex (well, what isn't run down in Granite City?) and discovers an older man in the same complex who he believes is Samaritan.   Joe Smith (Stallone) works as a garbage man, but after Joe dispatches the guys who are beating up on Sam (Karate Kid style), then Sam is utterly convinced that Joe is Samaritan.   "Samaritan is dead, kid," Joe tells Sam without equivocation.   Sam isn't buying it and begs Joe to come out of retirement and rid the world of Cyrus, who is attempting to resurrect Nemesis in spirit by forming a criminal organization.  

Samaritan is an anti-superhero story featuring a reluctant superhero played with a touch of melancholy by Stallone.   He has his reasons for being down in the dumps, which is revealed later at a crucial time.  The fight sequences featuring Stallone Joe, Nemesis, or Samaritan are hugely CGI-aided, but what isn't in superhero movies?   Samaritan, even when there is action on the screen, feels deflated and defeated.   It isn't terrible nor is it anything special, neither fish nor fowl.   Even the villain is one which we won't soon remember anytime soon. 

Barbarian (2022) * *

Directed by: Zach Cregger

Starring:  Georgina Thompson, Bill Skarsgard, Justin Long

The initial scenes of Barbarian inspire appropriate creepy dread.   Tess (Thompson) arrives at a house in a run-down, abandoned Detroit suburb she reserved on Airbnb only to find it double booked with a young man named Keith (Skarsgard) who seems understanding, caring, and friendly enough for Tess to feel comfortable enough to share the same place with until morning.   Because Keith is played by Bill Skarsgard, who was Pennywise in IT, we are never fully convinced that he is this nice of a guy, which I'm sure is the intent.   

Instead of a horror version of The Goodbye Girl, Barbarian devolves into typical gruesome business involving long dark hallways under the house which house disgusting secrets.   There are so many rooms, halls, and caverns below that you wonder how they were built without anyone knowing and certainly no construction permits.   Other than to be discovered later on and to provide enough darkness for someone to jump out at you and kill you or take you prisoner, why are these hallways even necessary?  

No matter.  Barbarian soon features a third character in the form of actor AJ Gilbride (Long), who is enjoying the good life in sunny California until he is accused of raping a former co-star and his career screeches to a halt.   Desperate to roust up cash for his legal defense, AJ returns to Detroit to stay in the very house where Tess and Keith once occupied.   He owns the place, you see, and discovers that all of the halls and space below equals more square footage which then equals more money when he sells the place.   AJ has such tunnel vision he doesn't see all of these unlit, cavernous halls as horrifying, but as dollars and cents when he cheerfully uses a tape measure and calculate the profits in his head.   

I won't reveal who or what lurks below the house except to say it is unworthy of the effective buildup to it.  Thompson and Skarsgard give us grounded characters caught in a terrifying nightmare, while Long teeters on the edge between selfishness and, gulp, morals with a character whose only purpose is to discover what happened to Tess and Keith.   Elements of #MeToo are introduced when Tess briefly escapes from the house only to find the local police don't believe her story of the murderous goings-on from which she fled.

The final act is an elongated chase scene featuring the standard Unkillable Killer and a backstory which makes you cringe.   When you take into account the quiet eeriness of the opening scenes, you come to realize Barbarian is two movies fighting for the same screen.