Miracle: The Boys of '80 (2026) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Jacob Rogal, Max Gershberg

It's impossible to reference the 1980 USA Men's Olympic Hockey team and not refer to the words "miracle" or "miraculous".  Those words will follow these players around for all time.  There are other movies about the team like Miracle (2004), Miracle on Ice (1981), and now Miracle: The Boys of '80 which focuses on the players, their stories, and their complicated relationship with their late head coach Herb Brooks.  The documentary reflects a time and place where the Olympics could be held in a quaint little town like Lake Placid, NY, where the opening ceremonies look like they were held on a local football field.  

February 1980 was the height of the Cold War between the USA and USSR, but the Soviet hockey team was head and shoulders above all of its competition.  They had won each four gold medals in a row and 1980's tournament was supposed to be merely a formality as they claim their fifth straight.  The American team was made of players in their late teens or early 20's, but the Soviets were veterans (some in their late 20's or early 30's) who were ostensibly professional players who skirted the then-Olympic amateur-only status by through "Red Army employment".  

Days before the Games, the USSR trounced the US in an exhibition at Madison Square Garden 10-3.  Their hopes of even competing for a medal, much less beating the unbeatable Soviets.  The USA managed a tie in the final minute of play in their first game vs. Sweden.  Had they lost that game, there would be no Miracle on Ice to document and sports history would've been drastically changed.  The economic and political climate in 1980 called for something to hope for and the US team provided that as they then tallied some unlikely wins.  Then, they drew the Soviets in the medal round and the rest is history.

The Boys of '80 is moving because of how it sees the players, their stories, and their lives.  Each played hard for Brooks, but they regret that they never got close to him.  Brooks wanted it that way, and the players' ambivalence towards him resonates to this day.  The players all sit in the arena where they upset the Soviets and ultimately claimed gold two days later, and we have to pinch ourselves that these men who captivated a nation were now older and histories of their own.  Many gave thanks to their supportive parents and still get emotional when discussing how they won the gold medal in their honor.  Each game is analyzed and the players themselves discuss what went through their minds especially in the final period of the win vs. the Soviets.  It was the longest ten minutes of their lives as they clung to a 4-3 lead.  

Then after the win, the team partied and basked in the glory, but Brooks, being who he was, said in harsher words that if they don't win the gold, all of this was for naught.  The win was so huge that people still forget that the win vs. the Soviets was only a semifinal game.  The Soviets likely came in overconfident after thrashing everyone in their path.  When the U.S. tied the game late in the first period, the Soviet coach responded by benching their world-class goaltender.  When the team trailed late, the coach didn't even pull the goalie to gain an extra attacker on the ice.  They were not used to being behind late in a game.  The players and Brooks were stunned, but they sure were not going to tell the Soviets.  

Miracle captures the essence of the Olympics in 1980 and how the win wasn't simply an upset, but a defining Olympic moment.  The players walk around Lake Placid today and many thank them.  Is this staged?  Possibly, but the sentiments are real.  This week, the gold medal winning Men's Hockey Team faced criticism for visiting the White House and the State of the Union address.  Years ago, such backlash wouldn't have existed.  America was proud of its champions.  They still are. 

day, only 

The Princess Bride (1987) * * *

 

Directed by:  Rob Reiner

Starring: Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Andre the Giant, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Billy Crystal, Carol Kane, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, Peter Falk, Fred Savage  

The Princess Bride was Rob Reiner's third feature film, and he showed he could handle tricky material.  He was not a director who simply made films in one genre, although his first three films before Misery (1990) were comedies.  He had a deft touch, and The Princess Bride displayed that.  It's an amusing movie which overloads with the cuteness often, but the cast is having a great time and Reiner clearly loves the material. 

Based on William Goldman's book, The Princess Bride begins with a grandfather (Falk) reading a story to his sick grandson (Savage) about a lowly farmhand named Westley (Elwes) who falls in love with Buttercup (Wright) but is soon kidnapped into piracy and feared dead.  Buttercup is then forced into an arranged marriage to Prince Humperdinck (Sarandon), who is itching to go to war with a neighboring nation and plans to murder Buttercup on his wedding night and blame it on his enemies.  This is heavy stuff for a grandpop to read to his grandson, but the kid grows interested after at first dismissing the story out of hand because of all the kissing.  

Westley soon returns to rescue Buttercup and encounters a vengeful Prince Humperdinck, Spanish swordsman (Patinkin) Inigo Montoya, who is seeking vengeance on the man who killed his father, a giant named Fezzik (Andre the Giant, who else?), and a devious genius (Shawn) who may outsmart himself at the worst possible time.  Then there's the six-fingered henchman (Guest) who carries out the prince's orders with glee.  These are colorful characters who try to show off too much color sometimes, but the actors are having a ball with this material.  Reiner expressed how much he loved the book and was stonewalled trying to adapt it into a movie because it doesn't follow traditional medieval story arcs.  The Princess Bride is anything but typical, and in most cases, that's a delightful attribute.     

Psycho Killer (2026) * * *

 

Directed by:  Gavin Polone

Starring:  Georgina Campbell, James Preston Rogers, Malcolm McDowell, Logan Miller, Grace Dove

The reviews are in!  Psycho Killer is reported to have a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score, meaning every critic who has reviewed it detested it.  I don't know.  Written by Seven and 8MM screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, Psycho Killer is a creepily effective thriller that sticks with you.  The Satanic Slasher (Rogers) is pure evil, and we root for his demise as Kansas State police officer Jane Archer (Campbell), whose trooper husband was killed by the slasher during a traffic stop, hunts him down.  The FBI is involved, sort of, but tries to warn Jane off the case.  We sense it may not just be jurisdictional. 

Jane, who is also pregnant, will not be deterred as she attempts to track and kill the slasher.  Who is he?  We hear his voice, which is very low-pitched and eerie, but we never see his face.  He wears an old-fashioned gas mask when committing his heinous crimes.  He calls himself Richard Reeves, a mass murderer who killed numerous churchgoers and attempted to blow up the church decades ago and was reported to have been killed in prison.  Is he imitating Reeves?  Idolizing him?  Paying tribute to him?  We don't know the full extent of Reeves' plan but it's awfully diabolical, as you would expect.  

Reeves is a pitiless hulk who consumes painkillers and psychotropic meds as he continues his spree.  He worships Satan and encounters like-minded Satan worshippers led by Malcolm McDowell, who uses his love of Satan to throw orgies, which offends Reeves and you know what happens when Reeves is offended.   Walker specializes in writing movies showing the dark, twisted underbelly of society.  Seven and 8MM were terrific movies partially because of the atmosphere they evoked.  Psycho Killer's atmosphere is decidedly dark and creepy, as you would expect in a movie where the Satanic Slasher is hacking victims from coast-to-coast.  I can't imagine what the critics saw.  Sure, the story is grotesquely gory in spots, but it's compelling and its effects linger.  

 

Cold Storage (2026) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Jonny Campbell

Starring:  Joe Keery, Georgina Campbell, Liam Neeson, Lesley Manville, Sosie Bacon, Vanessa Redgrave

Cold Storage is a version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, with the snatcher being a nasty green fungus which can penetrate just about anything to attach itself to its host.  As Cold Storage opens, a scientist (Bacon) and two military operatives (Neeson and Manville) travel to Australia to find this mysterious fungus which has killed numerous people and animals.  The fungus manages to invade the hazmat suit of the doctor and soon it takes over her body, causing her to explode.  The operatives escape with the sample of the fungus, which is kept in a government lab in the middle of nowhere.

The lab is abandoned sometime later, with the fungus still stored in a vault long forgotten and a storage facility built on top of it.  One night, two employees Travis (Keery) and Naomi (Campbell) encounter strange happenings, such as a deer entering the facility, attacking them, and soon exploding.  Naomi's boyfriend also shows up to confront her about Naomi dumping him and he soon begins acting weird.  Travis and Naomi's boss also comes by with his biker friends and you know the drill by now.

Neeson also reappears after being called into duty to destroy the goo and keep it contained.  Neeson has fun with the role with the other actors understanding that Cold Storage isn't meant to be taken too seriously.  The movie itself is occasionally amusing, with lots of green goo everywhere and all of the villains getting their comeuppance, but it doesn't reach past a certain level of inspiration.  It's ninety minutes that come and go, sometimes slowly, but for those who love this type of movie, you'll get what you came for.  

His & Hers (2026) * *

 

Starring:  Jon Bernthal, Tessa Thompson, Sunita Mani, Chris Bauer, Marin Ireland, Pablo Schreiber, Poppy Liu, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Crystal R. Fox

His & Hers meanders its way through its whodunit plot with sidebars on less interesting topics, such as the relationship between estranged spouses Detective Jack Harper (Bernthal) and Anna (Thompson), a TV news reporter covering a small-town murder of a woman both knew very well.  Jack was having sex with her on the night she was murdered, and Anna knew her from their private school days, although not in the biblical sense.  Jack, of course, would become a prime suspect if it were discovered that he knew the victim intimately.  Anna has demons of her own to deal with, including the death of hers and Jack's infant daughter which causes Anna to disappear from her husband's life for a year.  

There isn't much chemistry between Anna and Jack.  Anna's rival is Lexy (Rittenhouse), the young blonde who is a fast-rising star at Anna's Atlanta news program.  Anna is also sleeping with Lexy's cameraman husband Richard (Schreiber).  Anna also deals with her ailing mother who appears to be in the early stages of dementia, while Jack lives with his alcoholic sister and his niece.  The sister also has school ties to the victim, who of course wasn't an angel.  There is a plethora of characters and subplots which overstuffs the basic murder plot premise. 

Bernthal is normally among the most magnetic of actors, and here he tries a bit too hard to give us down-home folksiness and tends to end his sentences with "yeah?" often enough for it to be noticeable.  Tessa Thompson was never an actress who did it for me.  There is something bland about her which doesn't allow us inside.  I would say maybe it's just this character, but I've noticed that about many of her performances.  

The whodunit itself contains a twist I saw coming and another I didn't.  I suppose I cared just enough to watch for the outcome, but even with six episodes, it takes a long time to get to there.  Or it just feels that way. 

EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Baz Luhrmann

No, EPIC isn't a sequel to Baz Luhrmann's Elvis (2022), but instead of mixture of archive documentary and concert footage Luhrmann discovered during his research of Elvis.  The result reveals Elvis' love of performing and his approachability despite being the biggest musical star of his time (along with The Beatles).  Elvis wouldn't be one of those performers whose show starts at 8pm and he decides to wait until 11pm to stroll on stage.  He took performing seriously, and it showed with the energy he expended.  He wanted to show the audience something new every time.

EPIC's concert footage relies heavily on the Las Vegas shows that were the subject of the 1970 documentary: Elvis: That's the Way It Is.   We also see Elvis rehearsing the songs, giving us an intimate view of his performances.  He, his band, and backing vocalists have undeniable chemistry and they play off each other.  The epilogue tells us that Elvis performed 1,100 shows between 1969 and 1977, sometimes at three shows per day.  He missed live performances which he resumed soon after he was finished with his movie contract.  He didn't much like making movies, as we hear in archive voice footage.  They weren't the best use of his talent.  

EPIC works in the same fashion That's the Way It Is did.  It shows Elvis has an approachable, humble performer.  Did he have his moments where he was a prick?  I'm sure.  Who doesn't?  The drug abuse later took over and caused his untimely 1977 death at age 42, leaving behind a legacy that stands today as a performer who is inimitable, even though of course he has thousands of impersonators.  But there is only one true Elvis Presley.  EPIC gives us one more reason why this is correct and seeing him never gets old.  

Extract (2009) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Mike Judge

Starring:  Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck, Kristen Wiig, Clifton Collins, Jr. Mila Kunis, Dustin Milligan, David Koechner, Gene Simmons

Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butthead and terrific movie satires like Office Space, gives us an uneven and sometimes funny comedy about people who go out of their way to make things hard on themselves.  Our protagonist is the sexually frustrated owner of a bottling plant who finds himself in lust with new employee Cindy(Kunis) who is secretly involved with one of Joel's employees who was involved in a most-gruesome work-related injury.  Joel is married to Suzie (Wiig), and their marriage has devolved into routine dullness and not much sex.  

Joel's bartender friend Dean (Affleck) poses a solution to Joel's moral dilemma:  Joel doesn't want to outright cheat on Suzie, but if Suzie is seduced by a "gigolo" hired by Joel, then Joel will be free to pursue Cindy because Suzie already cheated.  It's Mike Judge-universe morality and logic writ large, with erratic results.  Joel is being wooed to sell his company, but the workers comp case may hinder that, especially with the employee's ambulance chaser attorney (Simmons) who suggests a bizarre way to have the case dropped.  It involves a door and Joel's testicles.  

Meanwhile, the gigolo posing as a pool boy indeed succeeds in seducing Suzie.  It would've been funnier if the gigolo only thinks he seduced Suzie but maybe seduced the neighbor.  Joel tries to call off the gigolo, who thinks he and Suzie are falling in love.  There are many moving parts in Extract, and the actors are up to the challenge, but the fault lies at the plot or screenplay level.  It's not as funny or stinging as it needs to be, but hey it's better than the overrated Idiocracy.