Tequila Sunrise (1988) * *

Directed by:  Robert Towne

Starring:  Mel Gibson, Kurt Russell, Michelle Pfeiffer, Raul Julia, J.T. Walsh, Arliss Howard, Arye Gross

Tequila Sunrise has a film noir feel without the noir.   The people in it, even the villains, are simply too darn good and nice for this silly drama to be happening to them.   Maybe Tequila Sunrise would've worked better if Kurt Russell played the former drug dealer trying to go straight and Mel Gibson played the cop friend conflicted about busting his buddy.   Russell would've brought an edge to the role and Gibson plays cops as well as anyone.    But as a drug dealer who works for the most ruthless drug lord in Mexico, or used to...nah, I just wasn't buying Gibson in the role. 

The characters in Tequila Sunrise are Conflicted indeed.   Even the drug lord, played by the late, great Raul Julia, comes across as too sweet a guy to be mixed up in this cocaine business.   If he's the most ruthless cartel leader in Mexico, then the rest must do buy one kilo, get one free promotions.   Dale (Gibson) is trying to leave his life of drug dealing behind and start a legitimate business, but the drug lord Carlos (Julia) wants to come to town to set up a big score and play ping pong with Dale.   Yes, you read that right.   It seems many years ago, Carlos saved Dale's life in a Mexican prison and now Dale feels obligated to help Carlos.   Nick (Russell) bends over backwards not to bust his lifelong buddy Dale, even with the DEA setting up shop in his office to take down Carlos. 

There is a woman in the middle of this war of morals and drugs, and that is Joanne (Pfeiffer), the obliging owner of an Italian restaurant frequented by Dale.   Nick tails Dale there one night and falls for Joanne, while Dale is secretly in love with Joanne already and dines at the restaurant nightly just to have a chance to interact with his beloved.   Nick decides to woo Joanne, partly because he likes her and partly because he thinks she could spy on Dale and provide much needed information about Nick.    What would Nick need to know that he doesn't already through surveillance and one hundred cops already on the case?   What kind of sauce Dale prefers with his ravioli?

If you think Dale will simply sit on the sidelines as Nick and Joanne do the rumpy-pumpy, then you're sorely mistaken.    Dale invites Joanne to his son's birthday party, and the sparks fly from there.    Joanne becomes entrapped in this world of drugs, secrets, and violence.    She should've found another guy and left these two in the dust.   Life would've been a lot less dramatic for her.

There isn't a lot of heat between Gibson and Pfeiffer or Russell and Pfeiffer.    The kisses and PG-rated sex scenes are accompanied by the cheesy saxophone-laden score which overwhelms the movie.    The sax is so loud it threatens to drown out some of the dialogue at times.   Writer-director Robert Towne, who wrote Chinatown (1974), tries to recreate the magic of that movie here, but you can see the twists coming from a mile away; twists which provide more questions than answers.

Some questions which popped into my head:  Why does the biggest drug lord in Mexico need to have a day job?   And a high profile one at that?   Isn't it a bigger headache to keep your moonlighting a secret?   Does he do it because the medical and dental benefits are really good?   Tequila Sunrise looks polished and slick, perhaps even as slick as Kurt Russell's hair, which doesn't seem to move even in the rain.   This is but one more reason Russell should've played Dale.  Put a mustache on him, and he would look like a silent movie villain.

Spenser Confidential (2020) * * (showing on Netflix)

Directed by:  Peter Berg

Starring:  Mark Wahlberg, Winston Duke, Alan Arkin, Bokeem Woodbine, Iliza Schlesinger, Marc Maron, Post Malone

Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg team up again with Spenser Confidential, a 2020 version of the Spenser character made famous by the late Robert Urich in the 1980's series Spenser: For Hire.   We weren't necessarily on the lookout for a 2020 Spenser update, but here it is anyway.   Spenser Confidential isn't a comedy, but I found it amusing how ordinary citizens can wreak such havoc and not be arrested, or in Spenser's case thrown back into prison.

Spenser (Wahlberg), whose first name isn't revealed, is a straight-arrow Boston cop sentenced to prison for pounding on his captain for beating on his wife and possibly burying a murder investigation of a local activist.    Spenser emerges from prison five years later, shortly after brawling with a few white supremacists, and reunites with old friend Henry (Arkin) who during Spenser's prison stretch rented out his room to the gargantuan Hawk (Duke), an aspiring MMA fighter. 

Spenser wants to move to Arizona and become a trucker.   He enrolls in trucking school and yearns to ride the sleek black truck owned by the school's curmudgeonly trainer.    Anyone want to bet on whether this truck will play a crucial part in the film's climactic fight scenes?   Spenser isn't thrilled with having to share his room with Hawk, but the two warm to each other and become partners in Spenser's battle against police corruption.    It seems the captain Spenser pounded five years ago was murdered and another straight-arrow cop was framed for it after he committed "suicide".   Knowing Spenser was out of prison, wouldn't the conspirators make it easier on themselves by framing Spenser, who already has a bad history with the captain?   They don't, and Spenser and Hawk make it their mission to clear the clean cop's name and find out what's what.

What's what is a mish-mosh of corruption, drugs, and local drug distributors opening a new casino at an abandoned dog racetrack.   I think there's a land deal in there somewhere, and fervent readers of mine know how I feel about those land deals in movies.   Are they really worth all the trouble and energy the bad guys have to expend to get them done?   Spenser is a felon, having pleaded guilty to assault, but he is able to not only work with the FBI to bring down the baddies, but to more or less call the shots.   Spenser and Hawk are involved in fights, car chases, and untold dollar amounts of property damage with connected cops, yet they are not called to account for the mayhem.   We know they are the good guys, but still.

Spenser Confidential doesn't much differentiate itself from other buddy action movies.    It runs 110 minutes, but feels longer because there is nothing special about it.   It isn't a terrible movie, just a blah one which will be forgotten not long after viewing.   I doubt there are many people who recall Spenser: For Hire which such clarity that they can cheerfully recognize any allusions to the show.
The actors don't seem particularly enthused about participating, with each playing stock characters he or she could play while asleep.    If you want to see a movie in which Mark Wahlberg plays a morally upright cop who can't stay out of other people's business, Alan Arkin play an irascible old man who kvetches, and Winston Duke as a hulking sidekick, then you should watch them in better movies than Spenser Confidential. 

I Still Believe (2020) * *

Directed by:  Jon Erwin and Andrew Erwin

Starring:  KJ Apa, Britt Robertson, Gary Sinise, Shania Twain, Nathan Dean

I Still Believe is a faith-based romance about Christian singer Jeremy Camp (Apa), who rose to fame after the death of his first wife from cancer.    I didn't give away a spoiler.   He meets the beautiful Melissa (Robertson) while as a roadie for Jean Luc (Dean), another rising Christian music star. 
Jeremy spots Melissa in the audience, and it's love at first sight.   Jeremy and Melissa are a good-looking couple and seem nice enough, but their conversations are either about God or the universe. 
They must get stuck when trying to discuss the weather.   The same goes for nearly everyone else in the movie.

The issue with certain faith-based movies I've seen is that the characters, even ones based on real people, are simply vessels for screenwriters Jon Erwin and Jon Gunn's awkward dialogue about faith and spirituality.    The people in I Still Believe don't discuss anything else; not the weather, not their individual likes or dislikes...nothing.   Surely, Christians talk about other things than their faith sometimes, no?

Apa and Robertson are appealing, and the people in I Still Believe don't have a mean bone in their bodies.   But they are not allowed to be human, unless their faith is tested because Jeremy's wife is stricken with cancer at age 20 and his younger brother was born with birth defects.    As pretty as Apa and Robertson are, they are not helped by being given such dullards to play.   When Melissa spouts off about God's plans for her and shining stars, I can't imagine Jeremy's eyes not glazing over.    Gary Sinise and Shania Twain are also featured in the cast, and maybe have ten lines between them.

Jeremy performs some songs, which don't really distinguish themselves much, but the epilogue states he's won awards and sold over five million albums in his career, so someone obviously liked them. 
The Erwins are not subtle in foreshadowing what will happen in a scene and thus robbing it of its power.    Late in the film, a distraught Jeremy enters his room and the lingering closeup on his guitar sitting on the floor lets us know it will likely be smashed to pieces.    Or later while Jeremy is performing, a pretty young lady is seen walking around and we know she will one day be Jeremy's new love interest.   

I've seen previous Erwin Brothers films such as Moms' Night Out and I Can Only Imagine.   Each film, including this one, is handled with the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face.    Is there a way to make a faith-based film that isn't treated with such heavy handedness?    Maybe there is.   I just have yet to witness it. 

The Hunt (2020) (zero stars)

Directed by:  Craig Zobel

Starring:  Hilary Swank, Betty Gilpin, Emma Roberts, Ike Barinholtz, Ethan Suplee, Amy Madigan

Look at the talent I've listed in starring roles in the reprehensible, paralyzingly dull, gory mess that is The Hunt.   Hilary Swank is a two-time Oscar winner for Best Actress, and now she is starring in The Hunt?    She and the others will likely recover from this movie and move on to brighter things.   Once I'm finished with this review, I will also have forgotten this dreadful flick...I hope.

The Hunt was supposed to be released last September but was delayed because of its controversial plot, which is giving the film too much credit by suggesting it has one.    The "plot" is simply what differentiates it from a snuff film.   Within the first few minutes, a man is stabbed in the neck with a piece of glass.   Blood gushes upward from his wound like oil was struck.  Then a woman finishes him off by planting the heel of her pump into his eye socket and pulling out the eye and its parts which connect it to the skull.   Fun times.   With each killing, it seems the filmmakers are only trying to outdo themselves by seeing how much blood and gore we can stand until we cry uncle.   I cried uncle early and often to no avail.

What is the so-called controversial subject matter of The Hunt?   Liberal elites kidnap "deplorables" and then hunt them, like The Most Dangerous Game.    The liberals spew their rhetoric in one-liners while taking a break from killing their prey.   The "deplorables" occasionally spout off about "crisis actors" and the Second Amendment before being laid to waste.    That is the extent to which these characters are seen.    Usually, a movie contains a plot and characters, otherwise it would be The Hunt, which is labeled as satire, but to me may as well be Halloween: Deplorables.    Satire requires examination and a humorous point of view.    If The Hunt is playing all of this for laughs, then it is even more deplorable than its characters or its violence, which is saying something.

The Hunt gives us nothing to care about or anyone to root for.   We do not care which side wins or loses, just that it will soon mercifully end.    I rarely give a zero star review.    The last one I think was the 1980 film Caligula, which was surely longer than The Hunt, but was equally as repugnant.   I take little joy in writing this scathing review, and the fact that I give the film zero stars probably has something to do with that.   The film should've stayed yanked from release and kept on the shelf.  But alas, in this period of movie history in which most major blockbusters are delaying their releases due to the COVID-19, theaters probably feel they have to show something on their screens in order to stay in business.   Better to have a closed theater than subject its patrons to The Hunt. 

The Way Back (2020) * * *

Directed by:  Gavin O' Connor

Starring:  Ben Affleck, Janina Gavankar, Brandon Wilson, Al Madrigal, Michaela Watkins

Watching the trailer, you assume you know the path The Way Back will take:   Alcoholic gets a shot at redemption by coaching an underachieving high school basketball team.    Hoosiers meets Any Movie About Alcoholics.   The coach will defeat alcoholism by leading his team of misfits to the state finals.   But thankfully, The Way Back is more perceptive than that.   For Jack Cunningham (Affleck), basketball can only take him so far in his quest.   Jack's battles with the bottle encompass far deeper issues, and a few wins by the Bishop Hayes basketball team won't fix them.

Jack could almost be Affleck's Chuckie from Good Will Hunting fast forwarded twenty years.   Remember when Chuckie said, "I'm going to wake up tomorrow morning and I'll be fifty,"?   Well, here it is, or darn close to it.    Jack is a construction worker by day and drinks himself into oblivion nightly at a local bar.    He is helped up the steps to his bed every night.   After a testy Thanksgiving dinner with his sister (Watkins), who worries about Jack's drinking and failed marriage, Jack is contacted by his former high school where he is a basketball legend.   Would he like to coach the team which hasn't been to the playoffs since his playing days?    After downing what looks like a case of beer from his fridge, Jack takes the job.  

His team isn't untalented, but needs a coach who can utilize their skillset to produce wins.   Jack finds the formula, and Bishop Hayes starts winning some games.    Jack even stops drinking for a bit, but as his sad past is slowly revealed, which includes the death of his eight-year-old son from cancer, we know as surely as night follows day that Jack's battles aren't over.   We wait for what will trigger him to start visiting the local bar again.   One night in particular has terrible consequences for him.

Until that point, The Way Back follows the sports formula successfully, while not being as emotionally satisfying as O' Connor's Miracle or Warrior.   The final thirty minutes takes us on an unexpected detour which flies in the face of convention.   It is difficult not to compare The Way Back to Affleck's real life troubles.   How closely Affleck mirrors Jack Cunningham is known only to Affleck himself and his loved ones, but the Affleck performance is courageous and all the more powerful because he holds everything close to the vest.   All of Jack's pain and anger is written on his face.   He's a ticking time bomb and the suspense lies on when, not if, it will explode.  

Those who walk into The Way Back expecting a Big Game finale which comes down to the final shot and swelling music accompaniment will be disappointed.    There is someone shooting a basketball in the movie's closing moments, but those shots mean so much more because we've taken the journey with the person who is draining threes.  

Emma. (2020) * *

Directed by:  Autumn de Wilde

Starring:  Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Bill Nighy, Mia Goth, Josh O'Connor, Callum Turner, Rupert Graves, Miranda Hart

When did the romance and passion leave Jane Austen's novel which was last adapted for the big screen in 1996 with Gwyneth Paltrow adorning the lead role?    Or even the good cheer of Clueless (1995), which was in itself a retelling of the tale in contemporary Beverly Hills?    This lifeless 2020 version doesn't add anything new, but the delight has been removed.    Anya Taylor-Joy does what she can, but her Emma isn't the Paltrow Emma, or even the Alicia Silverstone one.  

Emma Woodhouse is a twenty-one year old woman with means who spends her days matchmaking and doing quite well at it.    There isn't much else to do in the English countryside except visit friends, gossip, and sip tea.    The mansions are lovely and the wardrobes, impeccable, as you would expect from any adaptation of an Austen novel set in its normal era.    This is a movie in which names are bandied about as if we were somehow familiar with them.    It takes time to keep them all straight.  Perhaps a small card listing who's who when you enter the theater will help.

Try and keep this all straight, because it will be on the final exam:  Emma is trying to set up her plain orphaned friend Harriet (Goth) with Mr. Elton (O'Connor), the local vicar, even though Harriet is really in love with a local widowed farmer who proposes to her.    Emma slyly convinces Harriet to reject the farmer, but Mr. Elton is actually in love with Emma and thinks nothing of Harriet.    Meanwhile, Emma favors Frank Churchill (Turner), who seems to like Emma well enough, but maddeningly doesn't propose.   Emma's frenemy is Mr. Knightley (Flynn), who scolds Emma for being in love with a wanker like Churchill and for being cruel to her local poor friend Mrs. Bates (Hart), whose daughter Jane Fairfax plays a major role in all of this in secret.

I won't reveal who winds up with whom and I don't want to spoil the fun, but Emma. isn't much fun.  It is a passionless romantic comedy which even manages to fumble the finale in which Emma discovers who she truly loves.   In the 1996 version, there is a critical scene in which Emma is inconsolable because she believes the man she loves will marry someone else.    She laments her ways and vows to change if God answers her prayer that her love not marry another.    The payoff to this is immensely satisfying.   This version inexplicably leaves this out, and the ending in which Emma and her suitor declare their love for each other is stilted and awkward.    Maybe the 2020 adaptation of Emma was made for those who didn't remember this story was already made before, and much better.