Chaplin (1992) * * *

 

Directed by:  Richard Attenborough

Starring:  Robert Downey, Jr, Anthony Hopkins, Moira Kelly, Diane Lane, Kevin Kline, James Woods, Nancy Travis, Geraldine Chaplin, Kevin Dunn, Dan Aykroyd

Richard Attenborough's Chaplin tells Charlie Chaplin's story using a fictional writer (Hopkins) interviewing Chaplin at his Swiss mansion circa 1962.   Charlie Chaplin was the sad clown whose Little Tramp was beloved while the real Charlie's personal life was littered with ex-wives, controversy, an enemy in J. Edgar Hoover, and ultimately banishment from his adopted country to Switzerland.  He returned triumphantly in 1972 to accept a lifetime achievement Oscar and received the longest standing ovation in the history of the ceremony.

Robert Downey, Jr. plays Chaplin brilliantly in an Oscar-nominated performance.  He embodies the spirit of the man and the comedian obsessed with work and sex.  Brokenhearted by his mother's insanity and the death of his first love at a young age, Chaplin moved to Hollywood in the early days of cinema to work with celebrated comedy director Mack Sennett (Aykroyd).  He was a gifted physical comic who created the Little Tramp which became his signature character across four different decades, ending with The Great Dictator (1940), where Chaplin lampooned Hitler and Nazism and spoke onscreen for the first and last time.

Downey gives us the epitome of the man who laughs so that he may not cry.  Over 100 years after their creation, Chaplin's films are still beloved.   There were other silent film comedians like Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd, but Chaplin remains in pop culture memory the most.  Most people likely wouldn't know Keaton or Lloyd by sight even if they know the names.  Chaplin endures.  Attenborough's movie sometimes is overly concerned with Chaplin's personal escapades and less about the work which made him immortal, but thanks to the Downey performance and the film's sense of time and place, it gives us a pretty vivid portrait.  

Tarot (2024) *

 

Directed by:  Anna Helberg and Spenser Cohen

Starring:  Avantika Vandanapu, Jacob Batalon, Larsen Thompson

Tarot is a horror film which continues the trend of having almost everything shot in the dark, so it's nearly impossible to see what's happening.  The beginning takes place in a mansion where a group of friends are hanging out.  Or is it just a nice house?   Whatever it is, they proceed to the basement where one of them reads tarot cards predicting everyone else's future.  Within hours, the friends are knocked off one by one in grisly, bloody ways. 

How and why?  Those evil spirits are at it again.  Those pesky ghosts and phantoms from the past who just don't want anyone to have a good life.  Somehow, the tarot cards disrupted a group of evil folks from beyond the realm who were happy being miserable wherever they were.  There isn't anything exciting or scary that goes on in Tarot.  My amusement ended shortly after the opening scenes.  

Peter Jackson directed the Lord of the Rings trilogy simultaneously, with a complex series of camera setups, scenery, filming locations, actors, and a constantly evolving script.   He is one director.  Tarot is a 92-minute standalone horror film with two directors.  Jackson must bust a gut laughing when he sees that.  The two-director phenomenon is relatively new, not counting the Coen Brothers, who of course know how to make classic films.   Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins won the Oscar for Best Director for West Side Story, but it was hardly a collaboration.   And let's not forget Daniels.  However, we can forget Tarot and most likely already have. 

Road House (2024) * *

 

Directed by:  Doug Liman

Starring:  Jake Gyllenhaal, Conor McGregor, Billy Magnussen, Jessica Williams, Daniela Melchior, Lukas Gage, Joaquim de Almeida

The Patrick Swayze-starrer from 1989 wasn't begging for a remake, but we have one anyway.  The original movie wasn't a great film, but it had style and a detestable villain played by Ben Gazzara.  The idea of Gazzara shaking down the three or four businesses every week in a Missouri town doesn't make much financial sense for him, but we were pleased when Swayze kicked his ass.  Not much about was believable, but it didn't need to be.   It served its purpose.

The 2024 version doesn't have much of a purpose.  Its action scenes contain inexplicable and unnecessary CGI.  Billy Magnussen gives us a spoiled rich guy with a powerful, imprisoned father, but he doesn't hold a candle to the quietly menacing Gazzara.  Gyllenhaal has the body of a former MMA fighter turned professional bouncer hired to turn around a Florida bar being terrorized by Magnussen and his cronies so she would sell her property.  In movies about land deals, there is always one holdout.  Gyllenhaal protects it while still being a relatively nice guy.  He thrashes a group of thugs and then gives them a ride to the hospital.  What a dude!

Much criticism has been levied at Conor McGregor making his film debut as Knox, the beefy maniac who is hired to get rid of Gyllenhaal's Dalton (whose first name is Elwood).  Sure, McGregor gives an off-kilter, edgy performance that drifts occasionally into scenery chewing, but we respond to him.  He's more memorable than anyone else in the movie, so I don't see where the pans are warranted.  He could play wild-eyed, crazy villains in the future.   In Road House, we take satisfaction in seeing him get his clock cleaned.

Gyllenhaal is a skilled actor and he more or less does the job.  The movie itself is meh.  It may even tempt me to push the 1989 version to a three-star review.  I'm still debating that.  

The Fall Guy (2024) * *

 

Directed by:  David Leitch

Starring:  Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Teresa Palmer, Winston Duke, Stephanie Hsu, Hannah Waddingham

The Fall Guy is based partly on the 1980's Lee Majors series about a stuntman who moonlights as a bounty hunter.   The Colt Seavers (Gosling) of the 2024 movie is a stuntman who is tasked to pursue the missing star of the movie he's working on.  Bounty hunting isn't in the offing, unless it comes about in the sequel.   The movie is lots of stunts and action as promised, but the best scenes involve a will they or won't they romance featuring Colt and director Jody Moreno (Blunt), who is working on her first directorial effort and can't afford having its star Tom Ryder (Taylor-Johnson) go missing in action. 

The romance is soon consumed by the action, which like many in movies is overly long and uncompelling.   Gosling and Blunt are effortlessly likable, and a movie about them and the behind-the-scenes aspects of moviemaking would be perfect if The Fall Guy got out of its own way.  The movie begins with Colt, having a fling with then assistant director Jody, working as Ryder's personal stuntman and enjoying his work and life.  Then, he is nearly killed when a dangerous stunt goes awry and he retires from movies, instead working as a put-upon valet.

Jody will helm her first film and producer Gail Meyer (Waddingham), coaxes Colt into returning to the stunt game, albeit without Jody's knowledge.  This leads to banter and jokes between Colt and Jody on set, but then Colt is asked by Gail to find the AWOL Tom before the movie is kaput.  Colt, as amateur sleuth, is headed into different directions as he tries to find Tom.  Colt then becomes a murder suspect in the death of a fellow stuntman who was actually killed by Tom.  AI is introduced and places Colt's face on Tom's body when the video footage is released.  Now Colt has to prove his innocence by finding Tom. 

The Fall Guy sounds more exciting than it is.  What a missed opportunity.  Gosling and Blunt are gold, but the movie's plot doesn't play to their strengths.  Director Leitch is a former stuntman who lives to make movies like these.  The action sequences are slickly and professionally handled, but they don't stand out in the pantheon of historically great movie action.  The action has to include a plot and characters we care about.  The Fall Guy, unfortunately, doesn't deliver in that regard. 

Face/Off (1997) * * *

 

Directed by:  John Woo

Starring:  John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, Alessandro Nivola, Gina Gershon

The premise is fascinating, flawed, preposterous, and you just have to go with it.  The hero and villain of Face/Off have facial transplants performed on them and infiltrate unfamiliar worlds under their new identities.  FBI agent Sean Archer (Travolta) goes undercover as supervillain Castor Troy (Cage) by having the face of the comatose Castor transplanted onto him.  A few nips and tucks, followed by a vocal implant which allows Sean to sound like Castor.  There is a bomb set to go off in a few days somewhere in LA, so Sean wants to gain information from Castor's imprisoned brother Pollux (Nivola), who is suspicious of the idea that the comatose Castor is now 100% again.  This lends tension to the scenes between Sean and Pollux. 

Castor soon awakens from his coma, has the doctor transplant Sean's face onto him, and then poses as Archer in dismantling the bomb, becoming a hero, and then in the ultimate slap in the real Sean's face, beds Sean's wife Eve (Allen).  Why wouldn't she make love with the man who she thinks is her husband?  Face/Off adds other elements.  Castor is also responsible for Sean's son's death and this has caused Sean to jump into his work as a way of avoiding dealing with the pain.  Would you believe me if I said that Castor has a son also who looks exactly like Sean's deceased son?   In a movie like this, nothing is off-limits.  But there is poignancy when Sean (as Castor of course) begins to see that Castor's girlfriend (Gershon) is actually a good mother despite being a criminal.  He tells her:  "No matter what, Sean Archer is off your back for good."

Face/Off's action scenes are well choreographed and sometimes a bit too lengthy.  Everyone has stormtrooper's aim and can't hit anyone even with automatic weapons that fire off one hundred rounds in five seconds.  Woo is an action master, but the best parts of Face/Off exist when the bullets aren't flying and no one is killed.  Travolta and Cage relish that both get to play the hero and the villain all in the same movie!  Yes, it's insane, but it also operates successfully. 

  

Back to School (1986) * * *

 

Directed by: Alan Metter

Starring:  Rodney Dangerfield, Keith Gordon, Robert Downey, Jr., Burt Young, Sally Kellerman, Paxton Whitehead, William Zabka, Terry Farrell, Adrienne Barbeau, Sam Kinison, M. Emmet Walsh, Ned Beatty

While Back to School doesn't match Easy Money in sheer comic brilliance, it is funny and touching when it needs to be.  It's almost impossible to watch Rodney Dangerfield and not laugh, which I mean of course in the best possible way.  He not only doles out the jokes, but he's a ball of infectious nervous energy with the goofiest facial expressions.  Underneath it all, though, is a man who wants to be loved.  His character, multi-millionaire clothing store chain founder Thornton Melon, is a crude man who has money but doesn't behave well among the rich and snobby.   He is a widower with a gold-digging wife he can't wait to divorce who has been searching for another woman he loved as much as his first bride.  And he dearly loves his son, Jason (Gordon), who unhappily attends Grand Lakes University as an unpopular towel boy who can't make the swim team.  

Thornton feels so badly for Jason that he decides to enroll in the university to support him.   An endowment for a new business school greases the skids for someone who is "fifty years older than our average freshman".   Thornton throws money around, has his son's dorm room remodeled, and even helps Jason make the swim team.  Jason, however, seeks further into despair watching his father become the Big Man on Campus.   Thornton also initiates a romance with his English professor (Kellerman), while making an enemy of his economics professor (Whitehead), who loathes Thornton mostly because he likes Kellerman also. 

Like Easy Money, Back to School is full of good supporting performances, including Burt Young as Thornton's loyal driver Lou, Robert Downey, Jr. in an early role as Jason's rebellious best friend Derek, and Sam Kinison as a history professor who screams at his students (very much like his stand-up act).  There are subplots including Jason's love for a young lady who is dating the prick swim team captain, but they don't subtract from Dangerfield, who can carry subpar material with the sheer force of his humor and personality.   

Serpico (1973) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Sidney Lumet

Starring:  Al Pacino, Tony Roberts, John Randolph, Cornelia Sharpe, Jack Kehoe, James Tolkan, F. Murray Abraham

Frank Serpico's story, if put in the wrong hands, would be a one-dimensional story of one good cop fighting NYPD corruption.  Serpico would be a candidate for sainthood and that's that.  The 1973 movie based on his experience in the NYPD is more complex than that.  Serpico is a cop who refuses go on the take unlike so many others at the time.  He is personally and professionally offended by the idea of dirty cops, but he deals with it until he can no longer tolerate it.   He transfers to different precincts, only to encounter more of the same.  

There are other honest cops out there, and Serpico is fortunate to find them, such as Bob Blair (Roberts), but soon even he is alienated by Serpico because "he's not doing enough,"  Serpico then goes public with his story, which results in the citywide Knapp Investigation which cracks down on corruption, but puts a bullseye squarely on Serpico's back.  As the movie opens, Frank is being carried away after being shot in the face during a bust gone wrong.  He was likely set up by his partners, and the epilogue states that Serpico moved to Switzerland after testifying in the inquiries. 

Al Pacino plays Serpico as an idealist who soon turns his anger and despair on his wife (Sharpe) and the few friends he has.  Sidney Lumet's movie doesn't make the mistake of turning Serpico into the one who is always right.  He is sometimes unreasonable and hostile as he cracks under the pressure of maintaining his honesty.  His fellow officers try to convince him that taking some money does more good than harm.  It allows the others to rest easier knowing he is "one of them,"  Some are subtle, while others strongarm more intently.  We find ourselves not necessarily approving of the corrupt officers, but we understand why they feel the need to take bribes.  They have mortgages, kids going to college, car payments, alimony, and other emergencies that require money.  The bills won't pay themselves.  

Serpico doesn't want to accept their stories.  He lumps them all into the same pile, almost oblivious to the danger.  Pacino's performance is multi-faceted.  At times, we're with him.  At times, we think he's a blowhard spewing moral superiority while making his life and his wife's miserable.  What drives Frank Serpico?  Why doesn't he just leave the force?  Why did he have to flee to Switzerland in the name of standing up for his principles?  Because Serpico the movie has different dimensions and sees the flaws in humanity, we dare seek the answers to those questions.  Ones even Serpico himself might not know. 

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024) * * *

 

Directed by:  Guy Ritchie

Starring:  Henry Cavill, Cary Elwes, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Henry Golding, Eiza Gonzalez, Til Schweiger, Babs Olusanmokun, Freddie Fox

Truth in reviewing:  I spent about half of this movie enduring a toothache.  I crunched down on a tooth with a Tootsie Roll and ouch!  I didn't have Tylenol readily available and Orajel was still at the store, so I suffered a bit.  It probably muted my enjoyment of Guy Ritchie's latest actioner, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which is stylish and fun.  It's a World War II precursor to James Bond based on recently declassified war files.  It can't be a coincidence that one of the members of British Intelligence is Ian Fleming.

Circa early 1942, the British decide that, in order to coax the United States into the war, they must prove that the Germans are vulnerable.  History buffs will point out that Pearl Harbor occurred on December 7, 1941 and the U.S. declared war on Japan the next day and Germany declared war on the U.S. soon after.  But, let's forget that happened and continue with the plot.  Winston Churchill tasks the British military and intelligence with putting together a group of ragtag soldiers who care about one thing:  Winning at all costs.  

Gus March-Phillips (Cavill) is the leader of the group, which includes hulking Swede Anders Lassen (Ritchson), explosives expert Freddy Alvarez (Golding), and femme fatale in training Marjorie Stewart (Gonzalez), whose job it is to seduce a rich German national (Schweiger) and allow the group to gain access to a key European port.  I doubt I'll be able to describe any Alan Ritchson role in the near future without using the word "hulking".  

My memory of what happens grows hazy as my tooth pain takes hold.  Before that unfortunate turn of events, I found myself entertained by Ungentlemanly Warfare as almost a throwback action movie where the heroes bicker and spew one-liners without being bothered by explosions, gunfire, and fistfights.  Anyone who says they would've loved to live in the Old West or other times, I ask them:  Would you want to live in a world where there is no painless dentistry?  I know my answer is no. 

Challengers (2024) * * *

 

Directed by:  Luca Guadagnino

Starring:  Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O' Connor

Challengers is a time-bending sports drama about two male tennis players in love with the same woman, or each other, and for the most part it keeps us involved and it works.   The ending flies in the face of convention of your average sports movie which ends in "the big game" (maybe too much so), but overall Challengers provides us with some depth and unhappy characters trying to grasp on to elusive joy. 

The story is not told chronologically.  It jumps back and forth and fills in gaps which provide us with information we didn't know before.  It's an effective and strategic approach.  As Challengers opens, we meet Art (Faist), a multi-grand slam tennis champion on the downside of his career.  His wife, Tashi (Zendaya), wants him to regain his form by entering a warmup tournament weeks prior to the U.S. Open.  His finals opponent is Patrick (O'Connor), his former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend.  We learn in the interim how these events unfolded.   

Tashi was a superstar on the rise when a college match injury forced her to quit playing.   She becomes Art's coach and soon his wife, but only after a stretch as Patrick's girlfriend.  Both Art and Patrick fall in love with Tashi at first sight while all are playing at a U.S. Open junior event.  However, there are vibes that Art and Patrick are already in love...with each other.  When Tashi accepts their invite to come to their room after midnight, they drink, they talk, and Tashi openly suggests that Art and Patrick are into each other.  When an attempted threesome begins, Tashi winds up sitting back and watching Art and Patrick make out.  The smile of satisfaction on her face tells the story.  She is happier to be right.

Nonetheless, the triangle goes on for over a decade with each person not realizing there are other fish in the sea.  Tashi, after her career-ending injury, winds up with Art and marries him, but neither are particularly happy.  Tashi treats her marriage as a business, while Art is a tougher read.  His friendship with Patrick became estranged over the years, until both face each other in the finals of the tournament with the past rearing its head in flashbacks.   Challengers isn't as much a movie about a romantic love triangle as it is about three wounded people looking for happiness, whether professionally or personally, and not quite succeeding at either.  

Zendaya, Faist, and O'Connor flesh out characters who aren't necessarily likable and don't attempt to be.  But we care about them nonetheless, because they have a desire to win that encompasses everything else, including their own contentment.  The final scenes are ones that don't fit at first, but they do inspire thought, and we may finally glimpse how each of these three people can find a way to succeed at being happy.