Munich (2005) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Steven Spielberg

Starring:  Eric Bana, Geoffrey Rush, Ciaran Hinds, Daniel Craig, Lynn Cohen, Ayelet Zurer, Mathieu Almaric, Michael Lonsdale, Hanns Zischler

Munich's relevance is the same in 1972, when the PLO murdered eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, 2005 when the movie was released, and of course today when the war between Israel and Hamas rages on with no end in sight.  You could say that about the entire Israel/Palestine mess since its inception.  

Munich attempts to focus on the 1972 Olympics and the aftermath when Mossad assigned agents (off the record) to track down and kill those responsible for the deaths of the athletes.  Why does the Israeli government disavow the knowledge of the operation?  It's not clear.  You would think Israel would want the world to know publicly there would be retribution for killing its citizens.  However, Steven Spielberg has made a sluggish movie which should be crackling with intensity, but rarely does.  

Avner (Bana) is a former bodyguard to Golda Meir recruited to lead the missions to kill the terrorists.  With help from his crew, he carries out missions in which the killers are disposed of by shootings, bombings, stabbings, you name it.  Avner soon begins to question the viability of the operation.  One PLO member is killed, another more vicious person takes his place.  When Munich is over, we learn nine of the eleven members responsible for the Munich massacre were killed, but in the end it is a small victory for Israel.  Meanwhile, Bana suffers from PTSD and guilt.  He is not a killer by nature, but forced to be one on behalf of a government that does not acknowledge the operation and only communicates with him through a Swiss lockbox and a superior (Rush) who is caught in the middle. 

Only Avner is given any depth.  He is a father to a newborn who moves his family to New York to avoid having them killed.  The Israel/Palestine conflict is a cycle in which Munich is but another chapter.  Fifty-plus years later, the battle rages on.  Spielberg and writers Tony Kushner and Eric Roth understand that Israel's response to Munich did little to change anything, as did anything else before or since.  Spielberg tries to see both sides and that is noteworthy, but the movie itself despite a solid foundation is only a tepid near-miss.  

The Fabulous Four (2024) * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Jocelyn Moorhouse

Starring:  Susan Sarandon, Bette Midler, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Megan Mullally, Bruce Greenwood, Timothy V. Murphy, Michael Bolton

The Fabulous Four (not to be confused with The Beatles) features four great actors wasted in a forgettable comedy.  It is intended to be a romp in which three women of a certain age take a trip to Key West to act as a bridesmaid for their friend Marilyn (Midler), who is getting remarried six months after her husband's death.  Lou (Sarandon) is a heart surgeon who dotes on her cats and is still angry at Marilyn for stealing away her man and marrying him many years ago.   The other friends, cannabis farmer Kitty (Ralph) and horny, CBD gummy-popping singer Alice (Mullally), trick Lou into coming to Key West by promising she can adopt a six-toed cat from Hemingway House if she promises to go there in person.  

Lou is not thrilled to have been tricked into coming to Marilyn's, but she stays and stews in her anger.  Marilyn, meanwhile, has become addicted to Tik-Tok posting, which I suppose gives her something to do.  The only woman of the four to have any children is Kitty, whose daughter has become ultra-religious and forced her gay grandson out of the house.  How this story arc begins involves the man stripping for Marilyn at a makeshift bachelorette party.  Kitty doesn't recognize him until she spots a mark on his keister, which is one of many contrivances The Fabulous Four expects you to believe.

Lou, while walking along the main drag of Key West, accidentally walks into a bicyclist named Ted (Greenwood), who owns a local bar.  A thief tries to steal the bike, but Lou uses a sex toy as a slingshot and knocks the thief off of the bike.  It seems Ted and Lou are lovestruck, and later, Lou drops by the bar and tells Ted the whole story of Marilyn's treachery.  I don't know how she told the story without once mentioning Marilyn's name, as this will come into play later in a plot point you see coming from miles away.   How that mishap is explained away is another ridiculous development. 

The Fabulous Four contains numerous scenes of characters getting stoned on gummies and one of Michael Bolton appearing on stage at another bachelor party.  How much does it cost to book him?  I'd be more interested to find that out than anything else in The Fabulous Four.  The foursome does what they can with this material, but their efforts are all for naught.  You're most likely not going to recall much about the movie very soon.  

Deapool and Wolverine (2024) *

 

Directed by:  Shawn Levy

Starring:  Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackson, Emma Corrin, Matthew McFadyen, Morena Baccarin, Dafne Keen, Leslie Uggams, Rob Delaney

Even Deadpool in Deadpool and Wolverine states that the multiverse plot has seen better days, and this movie is irrefutable evidence.  Deadpool and Wolverine is over two hours of incomprehensible plot, lame self-mockery, meta awareness, abundant homoerotic jokes, and snark overkill.  No wonder Wolverine wants to punch Deadpool every chance he gets.  It is another lazy multiverse story where Logan/Wolverine, who died in the 2017 movie Logan, is now resurrected to team up with Deadpool to save the current universe from Professor Charles Xavier's sister (Corrin), who wants to destroy it.  If she could find a way to eradicate multiverses, we would really be on to something.  

Multiverse plots are free-for-alls whose purpose is to introduce past Marvel characters in uncredited cameos, eliciting applause from the audience.   Not much is done with the cameos once they're brought on to the scene.  It is not even clear why they're hanging around except to evoke nostalgia.  There are two famous Marvel characters who show up, fight in one of the movie's many, many bloody battles, and then aren't referred to again.  The villain has ten minutes of dialogue exposition to explain to Deadpool what his objective is, and we're still baffled.  

We're left with tiresome pokes at Disney, Marvel, etc. from Deadpool/Wade Wilson (Reynolds), whose character made headway in the far superior Deadpool 2 because he actually showed a caring side.  He wasn't simply a snarky antihero.  Deadpool and Wolverine forgets all that and presents us with an insufferable Deadpool and a Wolverine (Jackman) who wishes he were allowed to rest in peace.  Since Deadpool and Wolverine grossed over $200 million at the domestic box office this past weekend, it appears the Marvel Universe, which was on life support, is now back in full force.   

Have I lost my sense of humor, which is subjective anyway?  I think not.  I have nothing against vulgar humor.  Sometimes, the best laughs come from that material, if demonstrated correctly.  I have a hunch that if I asked anyone in one week or so what they found so hilarious about Deadpool and Wolverine, he or she would struggle to remember.  

The Dead Zone (1983) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  David Cronenberg

Starring:  Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Martin Sheen, Herbert Zom, Tom Skerritt, Anthony Zerbe

(spoilers present)

Johnny Smith awakes from a five-year coma after an auto accident and learns he can see a person's future by touching his or her hand.  Johnny doesn't want this responsibility, but finds he can't turn away from it, especially when he shakes hands with populist senatorial candidate Greg Stillson (Sheen), who Smith sees will one day be president and launch an unprovoked nuclear attack.  It is here where The Dead Zone weighs whether Johnny's powers are a gift or a curse.  

Johnny emerges from his coma to find his fiancee Sarah (Adams) left him to marry another man and having physical and emotional pain to contend with daily.  His doctor (Lom) is sympathetic to the point that Smith entrusts him with the information that he may need to kill Stillson in order to prevent his destiny from being carried out.   Sheen provides The Dead Zone with an amoral villain only interested in power who lets nothing or no one stand in his way.  We see that in his dealings with a local newspaper columnist who plans to publish a scathing editorial on him.  

This is one of Walken's best performances, a man whose powers haunt him and is wearing down from their moral implications.  Because he can see the future, how far will he go to alter it?  His doctor's response may surprise you and The Dead Zone deserves credit for following its story to a painful and not necessarily happy conclusion for its protagonist.  

In our present political climate, would Stillson holding up a baby to shield him from Johnny's bullets really be the end of his political career?  Would someone blame the baby?  Or the parent for having the baby on the stage (at Stillson's request)?  I'm being facetious...to a point.  

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Leonard Nimoy

Starring:  William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Catherine Hicks, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig

This is the best of the Star Trek film series.  It is goofy, unrestrained fun which gives the entire Enterprise crew a chance to steal some scenes and breathe life into their characters.  They aren't just sitting on the bridge following Kirk's orders.  

The plot, which is preposterous in the most entertaining way, involves a powerful alien probe which approaches Earth, rendering all power sources useless and wreaking havoc on the atmosphere.  The planet will be annihilated in a matter of minutes, unless there is some way to answer the probe's communication.  After some ingenious thinking from Spock (naturally), it is determined the probe is speaking in the language of the humpback whale, which has been extinct for hundreds of years.  The crew then time travels back to present-day Earth to retrieve two humpback whales and transport them to the 23rd century in hopes they can save all life on the planet.  

This mission is fraught with challenges, and not just because the crew are all fish out of water.  "Spread out, you look like a cadet review," Kirk tells the group when they arrive on the streets of San Francisco.  The ship (not the Enterprise thanks to the events of the third film) exhausted its power during the time warp and can only be energized using nuclear energy and then there is the logistical nightmare of beaming up two whales and accompanying water to the ship while Scotty has to construct a makeshift aquarium onboard.  

Kirk and Spock encounter sympathetic marine biologist Dr. Taylor (Hicks), who doesn't believe Kirk's story but at the same time distresses that the two whales at her institute will soon be released to the wild for budgetary reasons and thus in danger from whale hunters.   Her story arc doesn't result in a romantic relationship with Kirk, but follows its own logic.  If the whales make it to the 23rd century and can tell the probe to stand down, then Dr. Taylor would be the only expert on the planet with actual experience in working with these mammals.

There are further events which complicate the mission, naturally, but it isn't a spoiler alert to say everything turns out well in the end.   Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home doesn't get bogged down.  It is exciting and amusing, and after what Spock went through in the previous two installments, it is thrilling to see him fully recovered, living long, and prospering. 

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Nicholas Meyer

Starring:  William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Ricardo Montalban, Kirstie Alley, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, Paul Winfield, George Takei, Bibi Besch, Merritt Butrick

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan begins the trend of superior Star Trek entertainments.  I'm not a Trekkie by any stretch, but I know when a movie is clicking, and The Wrath of Khan gives us what we hope for when watching Star Trek; a sense of wonder mixed with good old-fashioned space dueling.  

Before the movie even introduces a weapon called Genesis, which can create life on a dead planet in a matter of hours, Star Trek II brings us Khan (Montalban), a vengeful megalomaniac whom Kirk exiled to a distant planet years ago and has been waiting for the opportunity to seek vengeance.  Khan gets hold of starship and tracks Kirk and the Enterprise while hoping to get a hold of Genesis.  Montalban plays a chilling villain, whose desire for revenge is seared into his body language and his very being.  Kirk, meanwhile, wants to protect Genesis (developed by his former lover Dr. Carol Marcus (Besch) and son David (Butrick), who is unaware that Kirk is his father) while trying to rid the universe of Khan.  Shatner's Kirk is steady and ready for anything, while the biggest changes occur in Spock (Nimoy).  

Spock is famous for telling anyone that he isn't human and not prone to human emotions, but he is loyal, brave, and sacrifices himself at a critical juncture of the movie when it looks like Enterprise has no chance of escaping destruction.  As Kirk puts it, "Of all of the souls I've encountered, his (Spock's) is the most...human,"  This adds a different dimension to Spock we haven't seen before, and presents us with a Vulcan at odds with his human self, or is he?   

Star Trek II is where the Star Trek movie series began to hit its stride.  Its characters are fleshed out, it has the best villain of the series, and a conclusion which keeps providing mixed emotions all the way until the closing credits.  That is a positive.  

Red Eye (2005) * * *

 

Directed by:  Wes Craven

Starring:  Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox, Jayma Mays, Robert Yeoman, Jack Scalia

The assassination the villains wish to pull off in Red Eye is needlessly complicated.  It involves firing a missile from a boat and blowing up the hotel room occupied by the Deputy Director of Homeland Security and his family.  But, that's not all.   It turns out the hotel manager Lisa Reisert (McAdams), who is taking a red eye back to Miami, is needed to authorize switching the director's normal room to one of the baddies' choosing to make it easier to launch the rocket.  A seemingly nice young man named Jack (Murphy), sitting next to Lisa on the flight, turns out to be the man tasked with ensuring Lisa makes the switch.  How?  By threatening to have an assassin murder her father.  This murder plot has as many moving parts as the JFK assassination, if you believe in such a conspiracy. 

While the plot of Red Eye is silly, the tension is not.  McAdams and Murphy play a cat and mouse game with McAdams having to essentially arrange for the death of one person to spare the life of another.  That's tough on one's conscience, but Lisa is determined to spare both if she can, which would not please Jack, whose last name is revealed to be Rippner.  This was surely done for a laugh, but Jack is menacingly and quietly played by Murphy, which makes him all the more scary.  No one goes over the top, not even when one of the characters is stabbed in the trachea with a pen.  The man would have a right to be livid, but he behaves reasonably under the circumstances. 

Red Eye is directed by Wes Craven, known primarily for the Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream series, but Red Eye is not a slasher film, but it's suspenseful and tautly brought in at just under eighty minutes.  There is little fat on it, and despite all of the extra moves the assassins make, Red Eye is still lean and effectively gets the job done.