The Weight (2026) * * *

 

Directed by:  Padraic McKinley

Starring:  Ethan Hawke, Russell Crowe, Austin Amelio, Avery Perry, Avi Nash, Julia Jones

The Weight is a movie about desperate Oregon Depression-era prisoners looking to secure their freedom by hiking gold bars through the wilderness which will enrich their warden and his cronies.  Sam Murphy (Hawke) is one month from losing his daughter (Perry) to the state adoption system unless he is freed from prison in time to regain custody of her.  Warden Clancy (Crowe), after witnessing Murphy solve a problem of moving an immovable rock during their road construction project, offers Murphy and four other prisoners a chance to win their freedom if they can move the gold successfully upriver.   Clancy is a charmer who sounds like he may be as good as his word, or too good to be true.  Murphy is willing to take that chance.

The Weight is an adventure with superior cinematography and a score that reminded me of the techno one featured in Oscar-winner All Quiet on the Western Front (2022).  I would not be surprised to see The Weight listed as one of the Oscar nominees for Best Cinematography coming Oscar time.  Hawke's performance carries the movie as a strong, determined man imprisoned for defending he and his daughter against cops looking to assault them.  He was just evicted from his apartment, but we learn he is intelligent and handy fixing almost anything.  This ingratiates him to Clancy when he is able to repair Clancy's car so it can run again.  

FDR wanted to take the country off the gold standard and centralize the gold into one location.  The miners in cahoots with Clancy want the gold not to find its way to where the government wants it.  Murphy and his crew, along with goons working with the miners, are tasked with moving the gold in backpacks across treacherous forests.  How heavy those must be after a few steps, let alone miles and miles per day.  They are joined by Anna (Jones), a Native American woman with skills of her own whose home as been wrecked by the mining company.  In another movie, she would be a romantic interest for Murphy, but thankfully not in this one.

The Weight's momentum ebbs and flows with each obstacle such as a raggedy bridge which surely can't sustain the weight of the prisoners and the gold, leaving Murphy to come up with an ingenious plan to move both without the bridge collapsing.  The scenes in which they camp for the night don't hold as much interest, and they feel like marking time until the next day's move.  The payoff for this entire enterprise, though, makes the movie more than worthwhile, involving an offer to Clancy that he would be stupid to refuse.  

Runner (2026) * * *

 

Directed by:  Scott Waugh

Starring:  Alan Ritchson, Owen Wilson, Leila George, Rodrigo Santoro

With this summer's Motor City and now Runner, Alan Ritchson has established himself as a formidable movie action star.   It's hard to describe Ritchson without using the word "hulk" and in Runner, he plays a hulking courier with a heart of gold and pain in his soul.  Runner takes place in Brisbane, Australia and I love movies where Americans occupy stories that take place in other countries and the characters give a lengthy explanation as to how they wound up in Australia, England, Ireland, etc.   We all know those nations must have given Hollywood very favorable tax breaks.  

In Runner, Ritchson plays Hank, a grieving father of a young daughter who recently died.  He also is still in love with his ex-wife, whose new beau has the annoying habit of being a terribly nice guy.  Today is Hank's one-year anniversary of sobriety and he has been tasked with picking up a liver which will be delivered to a hospital to be used for a dying seven-year-old girl's transplant.  Accompanying the liver is Ben Bishop (Wilson), who goes along for what is supposed to be a fifteen-minute ride to the hospital, but Hank's car is soon descended upon by thugs led by Damien (Santoro), who wants the liver for his own purposes.  Cue the car chases and the action scenes.  

However, the fight scenes have a Jackie Chan quality to them in which everything is used but the kitchen sink to subdue the opponent(s).  It takes the edge off of the blood and broken bones.  I admired the creativity which elevates what would be standard movie violence.  There are a few surprises in Runner, and I also couldn't help but think of Ritchson in Ordinary Angels, where he plays a father whose daughter needs a transplant or will die.  In Ordinary Angels, he was a hard-working family man of few words.  He speaks a few more in Runner, and throws many more punches.  Runner is surely not a movie in which the liver won't find its way to the little girl despite so many obstacles being thrown in Hank and Ben's way.  It's engaging and the fate of one of the main characters is something we don't see coming.  

By Any Means (2026) * * *

 

Directed by:  Elegance Bratton

Starring:  Mark Wahlberg, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, David Strathairn, Josh Lucas, Nicole Beharie, Giancarlo Esposito

By Any Means covers some of the ground as Mississippi Burning in the sense that the most effective way to gather information is to pound it out of the racist locals.  This happened in 1964, when By Any Means opens with New York mobster Gregory Scarpa Jr. (Wahlberg-doing his best goombah) is cracking skulls, knees, and anything else in order to obtain the whereabouts of three missing civil rights workers.  Cut to two years later, FBI agent Wayne Strider (Mateen II) moves from Chicago down to the rural Mississippi town where he grew up attempting to solve a series of race-related crimes.  The locals won't talk to the FBI and especially a black agent, so the FBI teams Strider up with Scarpa to get a little rough...off the record of course.

It turns out Scarpa turned state's evidence a while back and works for the FBI as an informant.  He does the dirty work, and the FBI keeps the mob off of Scarpa's back.  Strider wants to do things by the book, and we know what Scarpa is all about.  By Any Means is in a way a more violent version of Green Book, but it is a study of contrast in styles (old school vs. new school) more so than a study of race relations.  Will Scarpa learn to be kinder and gentler or will Strider decide to take the gloves off when his family is attacked and his best friend is burned to death when the KKK sets his house on fire?

We know how this will go, and while By Any Means isn't a deep movie, it's involving during its 105-minute running time.  It turns out to be fairly close to the truth, with the addition of some dramatic license taken to consolidate time, but as far as true stories go, it sticks close to what actually happened. 

I enjoyed the savage energy of Wahlberg, while Mateen II is a big guy trying to work within a system that simply won't allow cooperation.  By Any Means won't be an awards-season juggernaut, but it achieves its desired result and it works on its own oddball level.  

Coach Carter (2005) * * *

 

Directed by:  Thomas Carter

Starring:  Samuel L. Jackson, Channing Tatum, Ashanti, Ron Brown, Rick Gonzales

Ken Carter (Jackson) is a former star player at Los Angeles' Richmond High School who has assumed the thankless role of basketball coach.  Carter makes it clear at the outset he doesn't take guff and he is there not only to win games, but to mold his players into lives beyond basketball.  He demands his players sign contracts to attend classes and sit in the front row.  He expects teachers to provide him with progress reports on his players' attendance and grades.  When the players and teachers ignore him, he locks the players out of the gym and forfeits games, which brings national attention and community outrage.  

Coach Carter's message (both the movie and person) is simple:  Only a miniscule fraction of players ever reach the NBA.  It is wise to get an education and secure a better future than life on the streets where you'll more than likely be killed before your next birthday.  Coach Carter is kinder version of Joe Clark (from Lean on Me) but he's rigid in his standards.  Samuel L. Jackson commands the screen in his own inimitable way in Coach Carter.  He is someone who hasn't given up on his players even if the rest of the world has.

The players themselves aren't out of Welcome Back, Kotter, but each has their own story and all fall in line once they understand Coach Carter knows what he's talking about.  The scenes outside the school and basketball courts maintain a familiar rhythm, and of course there's The Big Game, which almost contrasts the point of the movie.  However, Coach Carter for the most part remains involving.  

Coyote vs. Acme (2026) * * *

 

Directed by:  David Green

Starring:  Will Forte, John Cena, Lana Condor

Coyote vs. Acme's production and release history overshadows the movie itself.  It was produced and then shelved and then bought out by another production company and is now in theaters.  It is a comedy in the spirit of Who Framed Roger Rabbit in which animation is successfully merged with live actors.  This time it's the beloved Looney Tunes characters with Wile E. Coyote taking center stage after years of fruitlessly chasing the Road Runner and continually coming up empty.  

Mr. Coyote uses Acme products and they all fail him.  He's flattened, crushed, exploded, and everything else that could befall a cartoon character, but he keeps plugging away and ordering more Acme products.  One day, in desperation, he sees an ad on television for Albuquerque attorney Kevin Avery of the firm Avery, Jones, and Maltese (a nod to the Looney Tunes creators) who sues Acme regularly and nets his clients tens of dollars.  Kevin settles quickly for little money and claims enough settlements to keep advertising to cartoon characters victimized by defective Acme products.   Wile E. Coyote hires Kevin, but doesn't want to settle for anything less than millions of dollars. 

This terrifies Kevin, who isn't used to big money trials and is even more afraid of his former friend and now Acme's lead attorney Buddy Crane (Cena), who uses his power to intimidate Kevin and continually remind him of past failures.  Kevin is aided by his niece assistant (Condor), who wants to help her uncle win and discover his true self.  Coyote vs. Acme isn't simply a courtroom comedy, but it has heart and a touching view into the nature of Wile E. Coyote's frenemy relationship with Road Runner.  The Looney Tunes carry a lot of goodwill with me.  (I even liked last year's The Day the Earth Blew Up) and it's great to see not just the Coyote and Road Runner, but Foghorn Leghorn as the blustering CEO of Acme and even Bugs Bunny.  There is even Peter Lorre as Dr. Lorre, who worked at Acme years ago and disappeared into a cartoon hole.  Coyote vs. Acme doesn't want to leave anything, or anyone out, and the results are surprisingly and genuinely heartfelt. 

John Q (2002) * *

 

Directed by:  Nick Cassavetes

Starring:  Denzel Washington, Anne Heche, James Woods, Shawn Hatosy, Kimberly Elise, Robert Duvall, Ray Liotta, Ethan Suplee, Daniel E. Smith, Kevin Connolly

John Q. Archibald (Washington) is a working man whose healthy pre-teen son collapses at a Little League game.  The doctors grimly tell John and his wife (Elise) that the boy's heart is three times too large and will need a transplant or die.  John's insurance at work changed and he has no way to pay out-of-pocket for the exorbitant costs.   John is soon fed up with the cold bureaucracy of insurance and the hospital and takes matters into his own hands by taking hostages at the hospital emergency room with one demand:  Put his son at the top of the list to receive a new heart.   

Robert Duvall plays the hostage negotiator caught between city politics and his desire to have John release the hostages unharmed.  Ray Liotta is the publicity-conscious police chief.  James Woods is the heart surgeon caught between insurance regulations and his Hippocratic oath.  Anne Heche is the cold hospital bureaucrat who keeps her eye on the bottom line.  This is quite a cast while the movie itself brings back memories of Dog Day Afternoon and The Negotiator, both of which were better than John Q. 

We know John's son won't die because that ending would simply be too sad.  John couldn't be allowed to walk free after taking hostages (if he avoids being shot).  There isn't a lot of suspense and the story can only end one day.  The ending is as happy as can be under the circumstances, and Washington does his best to infuse sympathy into John.  Many would surely understand the frustration with the health insurance and healthcare systems.  But John Q. never truly gains stream because its conclusion is inevitable and we witness A-list actors trudging through average material. 

Stone (2010) * *

 

Directed by:  John Curran

Starring:  Robert DeNiro, Edward Norton, Milla Jovovich, Frances Conroy

Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton were electric together in The Score (2001), but while it's initially fun to see them together again in Stone, the movie itself starts strongly and ends as confused and directionless as DeNiro's Jack Mabry.  Mabry is a parole officer on the verge of retirement when he meets Gerald "Stone" Creeson, who is itching to be paroled and tries any means (especially those which skirt protocol) to cajole Jack into writing a positive report for the parole board.  

Stone sets up as a tense psychological thriller, but dissolves into nothingness.  The opening scenes are promising, but don't develop into anything.  We meet a young Jack, whose religious, overly subservient wife Madylyn serves him whiskey as he stares blankly at the television.  When she threatens to leave him, Jack rushes upstairs and threatens to throw their newborn daughter out the window if she leaves.  Madylyn relents and years later we see Jack driving to work and scenes of their loveless marriage.  On the soundtrack is spiritual radio talk show chatter which sets the stage for some of the religious overtones the movie underlines.

Gerald is up for parole, and after an unsuccessful attempt to appeal to Jack's sympathetic nature (in which there really isn't one), then he sends his wife Lucetta (Jovovich) to seduce Jack.  Jack finds himself willing to be seduced and then manipulated into writing a recommendation that Gerald receive parole.  Gerald receives what he wants and Jack feels guilty about not doing right by his job.  This is hardly a gripping cinematic experience although the movie and Gerald hint at something more sinister at play.  Is Gerald enjoying bending Jack to his will?  What is the payoff to all of this?  The movie can't satisfactorily resolve the conflicts it starts, and in the end we're struggling to make sense of it all.  Stone plays like a movie that felt a DeNiro and Norton reunion was enough to make itself palatable.  These superb actors can only cover up so much.