Cape Fear (2026-TV Series) * *

 

Starring:  Amy Adams, Javier Bardem, Patrick Wilson, Lily Collias, Juliette Lewis, Ron Perlman, CCH Pounder, Joe Anders

Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991) like the 1962 movie before it, focuses on ex-con Max Cady's desire for revenge against the attorneys who caused him to spend years in prison.  In 1962, Cape Fear was mroe straightforward, with Robert Mitchum's Cady tormenting the prosecutor (Gregory Peck) who put him in prison.  In 1991, Robert DeNiro gave among his best performances as Cady sought vengeance against his defense attorney (Nick Nolte) who he believes correctly hid crucial evidence that might've secured a not-guilty verdict.  The 2026 series on Apple TV features Cady (Bardem) seeking revenge against both his defense attorney Anna Bowden (Adams) and prosecutor Tom Bowden (Wilson), who are now married and live affluently in Savannah, Georgia.  

Cady's former girlfriend commits suicide and leaves behind a note exonerating Cady.  He is freed with help of the non-profit law service run by Anna and Noa (Pounder), and Cady serves as positive press for the foundation.  However, is Cady truly innocent?  And while he verbally expresses holding no animosity towards the Bowdens, we know better.  He also suffered a devastating head injury in prison after a fight with a gang and with Anna's help, plans to settle for millions which will essentially finance his revenge campaign.

The show covers ten episodes, with Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg serving as executive producers.  Because it has to cover ten episodes, it has to introduce numerous characters and subplots which are soon hard to keep track of.  I won't get into too many of them so as not to spoil them for you, but soon character allegiances, motives, alliances, and backstories become so convoluted that you lose focus and interest.  I've never seen a show where questions are asked, and characters provide only half-truths or veiled answers and by the end, we don't know fully what happened.  The Bowdens themselves are presented as both victim and perpetrator, and the show itself seems to think they're the heroes when they are clearly not.  This grows frustrating.  

Nonetheless, Bardem, who is no stranger to playing psychopaths, is one here that possesses a certain charm and charisma while barely concealing smoldering resentments (some of which are surely understandable).  Adams and Wilson are strong enough actors to be able to handle their characters' plot swings although why they simply don't just kill Cady when they have the chance, which would justifiable under the circumstances, is a mystery.  They should know darn well that sending him back to prison won't be the end of this ordeal, and that will likely lead us run into an unnecessary season two. 

Motor City (2026) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by: Potsy Ponciroli

Starring:  Alan Ritchson, Shailene Woodley, Ben Foster, Ben McKenzie, Pablo Schreiber, Lionel Boyce, Amar Chadha-Patel

Motor City reminds me of John Woo's Silent Night, a revenge picture with no audible dialogue.  I recall giving that movie a negative review because the concept distracted from the overall story.  The movie contrived various ways to avoid spoken dialogue.  Motor City works in much the same capacity, although there are snippets of audible dialogue every now and then to let us know that these people actually know how to speak and don't need to pantomime everything.

Once you get past the whole no talking thing, Motor City gains a rhythm and begins to move along as an involving action thriller.  The plot feels like a retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, with the innocent man framed and sent to prison because his fiancee is coveted by another.  In Motor City, the action begins in 1977 with working man John Miller (Ritchson), an ex-con and Vietnam veteran, turning his life around.  His probation is soon to be commuted and he proposes to his longtime girlfriend Sophia (Woodley), who works as a waitress after leaving behind a previous life as a criminal kingpin's girlfriend.  Moments after John proposes, his home is invaded by cops and he is framed with kilos of heroin found in the trunk of his car.  A slick, leather trench coat-wearing cop (Schreiber) is behind the frameup, and the man pulling his strings is Reynolds (Foster), who wants Sophia back.  We see a flashback to the night John and Sophia meet, with Reynolds trying to intervene and John kicking the crap out of him in the process. 

Sophia believes that John is a drug pusher and throws the engagement ring at him while he's behind the glass at the police station.  Reynolds then suavely seduces Sophia into being his girl again, and he's such a snake that he sends photos of the eventual wedding to him in prison, taunting John and fanning the flames of revenge.  John's Vietnam buddies (Boyce and Chadha-Patel) formulate a plan to break John out of prison and seek vengeance, with tragic consequences for Sophia when John tries to rescue her from Reynolds' fortress.  Rescue is an apt word considering Reynolds has hooked her on heroin to keep her from leaving him.

John is already a hulking mass of seething rage and after Sophia's death, he turns up the jets to 200 in his quest to kill Reynolds and anyone who stands in his way.  It's difficult not to mention Ritchson without using the word "hulk" or some variance of it.  He is a massive physical presence, and in Motor City, he uses nonverbal skills to show his vulnerability and sadness.  He speaks only three words in the movie and those are in the final scene and they carry resonance, as do the ones spoken by his nemesis he has spent years tracking.  Since Motor City is not a movie of dialogue, but of action and emotions conveyed nonverbally, any words that are spoken carry a heavier emotional weight.  The actors are more than up to the challenging task, although why filmmakers choose this route of storytelling is anyone's guess.  I gave up trying to figure out the reason and found myself swept away by this tale.  

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) * *

 

Directed by: Destin Daniel Cretton

Starring:  Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Marisa Tomei, Sadie Sink, Mark Ruffalo, Tramell Tillman

Marvel movies have lost their appeal.  There isn't much left to do that hasn't already been done.  In Spider Man's case, if we've seen him fly through downtown Manhattan once, we've seen it one thousand times.  The action scenes are a blur and are quickly forgotten, so it comes down to story, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day's plot revolves around psychic mutant Jean Grey (Sink) wanting to infiltrate Damage Control, which I think was introduced in a previous Marvel movie but I'll be damned if I remember which one.  Marvel movies start to blend together after a while.  

The entire Marvel franchise reeks of trying to regain relevance following Avengers: Endgame.  We've had Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, and even Thunderbolts (aka The New Avengers), all of which were forgettable.  One of the Thunderbolts shows up in a cameo here in a Russian bathhouse.  To recap:  Spider-Man: Brand New Day picks up long after the ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home, in which Doctor Strange created a universe in which MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Batalon), Peter Parker's best friends, no longer remember that he existed.   I can't recall why this had to be, but much of the first half-hour of the bloated Spider-Man: Brand New Day is Peter following his friends and their journey through college on TikTok and Instagram and longing to be with them.  That sentiment works but Spider Man has to get down to the business of crimefighting and immerses himself in it. 

Then the whole Damage Control business happens and Jean Grey takes center stage.  She is at first seen as a nefarious presence, but we learn there is More To The Story and it involves Damage Control kidnapping Jean's psychic sister and how her soul (I suppose) can jump from one person to another (as long as they stay within 33 feet).  Once the sister is kidnapped, Jean goes on a mission to find her, and we find ourselves checking our watches frequently to see if the time has moved along any faster.  

This installment of the new Spider-Man series features Frank Castle aka The Punisher (Bernthal) and he's able to inject some life into his scenes as Spidey's newest ally.  Tom Holland is asked to shoulder quite a burden as the superhero who must sacrifice being Peter Parker in order to be Spider-Man.  Thinking back to the first Spider-Man (2002), Tobey Maguire had to more or less deal with the same conflict, and all of these years later, it still sucks to be superhero, but the CGI has improved if that helps. 

Morning Glory (2010) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Roger Michell

Starring:  Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Jeff Goldblum, Patrick Wilson, Ty Burrell, Matt Malloy, John Pankow

Becky Fuller (McAdams) is an Energizer bunny of a morning show producer hired by a network to save its drowning morning show "Daybreak".  Daybreak is anchored by the ever-smiling Colleen Peck (Keaton), who laughs so that she may not cry, and Paul McVee (Burrell), a lecherous HR nightmare waiting to happen.  Becky fires Paul, revamps the show, and hires the very reluctant news legend Mike Pomeroy (Ford) to co-anchor.  Mike has two years left on his contract and isn't doing much of anything except occasional "hard news" stories, so he's obligated to join Daybreak and acts like it's a career killer every step of the way.  

Mike laments the loss of television journalism for the fluff that is Daybreak, and he lets the world know it.  Becky tries to plead and reason with Mike, whom she admires, but soon even she has enough of his attitude.  We know how their professional relationship trajectory will go:  They will have a frosty start, followed by detente, and then Mike thaws and accepts Becky.  They don't have a romantic involvement.  Adam Bennett (Wilson), Mike's former producer, is on hand to be Becky's boyfriend, but this reeks of an unneeded subplot.  

Daybreak starts to rise in the ratings and Becky is soon being wooed for a major network show gig, but does she want to leave behind the group she now regards as family?  The answer will surprise you only if you've never seen a movie before.  McAdams is full of energy, while Ford matches that energy with the temperamental opposite approach, with Keaton in the middle sometimes refereeing.  Morning Glory is innocuous stuff which never extends into greatness.  We like the people here, we're sort of happy when they're happy, and then we move on with our lives.  It's that type of movie. 

Wolfs (2024) * *

 

Directed by:  Jon Watts

Starring:  George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, Poorna Jagannathan, Zlatko Buric

Wolfs begins promisingly with George Clooney and Brad Pitt reuniting for the first time onscreen since the end of the Ocean's Eleven series.  This time they play rival cleaners who are both called to a hotel room to dispose of a seemingly overdosed young man.  Margaret (Ryan), a politico who doesn't want to be linked to a scandal such as a dead guy in her hotel room following a tryst, calls Clooney.  Another party calls Pitt, and the two bicker about how to get rid of the supposedly dead man.

Clooney's and Pitt's characters are not named, which I find annoying, but I suppose it adds to the mystery of the characters.  Clooney is billed as Margaret's Man, while Pitt is billed as Pam's Man, so let's go with that.  The overdosed man is called "Kid".  Coming up with character names must be nerve-wracking business.  About thirty minutes in, Kid is actually alive and Clooney and Pitt also come across bricks of heroin among the Kid's possessions.  Who is the heroin meant for?  Is Kid a drug dealer?  If so, who is he working for?  Kid drones on with a long story about how he was helping out a friend and we realize Wolfs is now a mundane action flick with shootouts, chases, and its stars playing it perpetually cool.  

It's fun to see Clooney and Pitt in action.  They could play cool and charming in their sleep, and there are fun allusions to their ages, but their charisma can only take Wolfs so far.  They're called upon to carry Wolfs and they do for a while, but then the movie drifts into the typical and the initial goodwill of seeing Clooney and Pitt together on the same screen evaporates.  

The Odyssey (2026) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Christopher Nolan

Starring:  Matt Damon, Tom Holland, John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel, Elliot Page, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Jon Bernthal, Lupita Nyong'o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, Charlize Theron

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey naturally runs nearly three hours because the movie is of course about an odyssey, but it is staged as an epic adventure with horror elements and healthy moments of divine intervention on behalf of its hero Odysseus (Damon).  Damon convincingly assumes the role and is a sturdy, resourceful protagonist who is on a journey home following the Trojan War which is sidetracked by battles with mythical monsters, witches, and the wrath of the gods.  Odysseus is gone from his home island of Ithaca for twenty years.  In the meantime, Odysseus' palace is overrun by would-be suitors for Odysseus' wife Penelope (Hathaway), who remains steadfastly faithful to her absent husband.  The most persistent of the suitors is the scheming, devious Antinous (Patterson) who thinks he has the inside track to the throne.

Odysseus' son Telemachus (Holland) decides to leave Ithaca to search for his father and determine whether he is alive which will not only bring he and his mother peace, but will shape the future of the kingdom.  However, having a stepfather like Antinous is hardly a positive.  The previous Nolan films from Interstellar on to his Best Picture-winning Oppenheimer (2023) were artistic triumphs but lacked in the story department.  The Odyssey, based on the epic poem by Homer, is more plot-driven and chock full of Nolan's famed superior production values.  It looks gorgeous and while not as taut as Clash of the Titans, it covers the same ground successfully.  

Among the standout sequences involve a witch on a remote island who turns Odysseus' crew into swine and watching how Odysseus pieces together these bizarre events.  The Odyssey is gargantuan in scope and moves through many characters and worlds seamlessly without boring us.  There are times having such a distinguished cast would feel like a movie hedging its bets, but Nolan doesn't mind going for broke and being bold, even with movies like Tenet which was released during the pandemic but was hardly the movie to break the movie business out of its doldrums.  

Little Brother (2026) * * *

 

Directed by:  Matt Spicer

Starring:  John Cena, Eric Andre, Michelle Monaghan, Christopher Meloni, Sherry Cola

Little Brother is raunchy, yes, but not overly so and it has a heart.  I'm not familiar with Eric Andre, but from what I've gathered he specializes in raunch.  In Little Brother, he leans on that while also creating a sympathetic foil to John Cena's Rudd Landy, a famed realtor to the stars who envies his older brother Josh (Meloni) and wants to crank up his fame level to 11.  As he's plotting this, his "little brother" Marcus (Andre), after reading an email supposedly sent by Rudd, decides to escape from rehab to travel to New York to support Rudd.  

Well, things don't go that smoothly.  Years ago, Rudd enrolled in a Big Brothers program in an attempt to ingratiate himself to colleges.  One day, he abandons poor Marcus on the basketball part after promising they would always be brothers.  Marcus took the offhand statement to heart.  Rudd pretty much forgot about him until they reunite when Marcus is hospitalized.  Rudd is guilted into allowing Marcus to stay with him.  Marcus tries to be a help to Rudd, but those efforts usually go south.  Despite it all, Marcus remains true to his pledge to help Rudd, even as Rudd stars in a reality show and Marcus becomes a television star as Rudd's sidekick. 

It turns out Rudd never communicated with Marcus, but all correspondence was sent by Rudd's loyal assistant (Cola), who feels sorry for Marcus.  Cena, a gifted comic actor, is the straight man while Andre infuses Marcus with touching vulnerability even as his attempts to reunite with Rudd go haywire.  Little Brother could do without some of the gross-out slapstick, but it never loses its center, which is the idea that these two men needed each other more than they ever could've imagined.  The results, while of course predictable, are touching.