Lethal Weapon (1987) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Richard Donner

Starring:  Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Steve Kahan, Tom Atkins, Traci Wolfe, Mitchell Ryan

This is the first in the Lethal Weapon series pairing the unlikely duo of Roger Murtaugh (Glover), a cop with a nice family who just turned fifty, and suicidal cop Martin Riggs (Gibson), whose wife was recently killed in a car accident.   Riggs' devil-may-care attitude doesn't mesh with play-it-safe Murtaugh, who isn't exactly short timing, but is looking forward to retirement one day.   As the two men wade deeper into investigating a drug distribution and prostitution ring, they begin to connect.   Glover and Gibson have impeccable chemistry which carried them through four films.   

Murtaugh has a nice home in the Los Angeles suburbs and a loving family.   He finds "he's getting too old for this shit" when he is assigned Riggs as his new partner.   A Vietnam buddy (Atkins) calls Murtaugh for a favor:  To investigate the death of his prostitute daughter who was seemingly pushed from a penthouse balcony.    There is more to the story, including the drug ring run by The General (Ryan), who dispatches his second-in-command Joshua (Busey) to coldly and ruthlessly kill whomever gets in their way.   Busey is an effective villain because he doesn't overact or froth at the mouth.   His viciousness is coiled up inside him and hidden by faux civility.   When he engages in fisticuffs with Riggs in the finale, we can believe it's a fair fight.

We are introduced to Riggs working undercover as a drug buyer.   He engages in the first movie fight I can recall which invoked The Three Stooges.   At home alone, though, the depressed, grieving Riggs' life takes on a more dangerous tone as he sticks a gun in his mouth while nearly pulling the trigger.   He displays further suicidal tendencies in his dealings with a man who threatens to jump off the roof of a tall building.   The payoff is funny and unexpected.   

Like numerous action films, Lethal Weapon is heavy on chases and gunfights, but these are done with style.   The three sequels take on a more comic tone, while this film has a darker feel to it while still managing to be fun.  

The Meyerowitz Stories: New and Selected (2017) * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Noah Baumbach

Starring:  Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Elizabeth Marvel, Emma Thompson, Grace Van Patten, Candice Bergen, Rebecca Miller, Adam Driver, Judd Hirsch 

The Meyerowitz Stories is a painful look at an aging artist patriarch who has fostered dysfunction in his family for years.   He is soon hospitalized and slips into a coma due to brain bleeding, leading to speculation that he will soon die.   His children now have to pick up the pieces and reconcile their own issues with each other and their father.    When I say painful, I mean it's painful for the viewer.   

Writer/director Noah Baumbach has created some interesting, semi-autobiographical work about the family dynamic over the years, ranging from The Squid and the Whale (2005), to While We're Young (2015), and 2019's Marriage Story.   The Meyerowitz Stories are the types of stories you zone out listening to.  They may be of interest to the speaker, but the listener has to endure them with a pained, forced smile and an eye on the exit.   This is quite an assembled cast for such a dull film.   The actors do what they can, but their characters are motormouths talking about things we couldn't care less about.  Baumbach seemingly wrote the dialogue as if he were being paid by the word.

We first meet Danny Meyerowitz (Sandler) driving his daughter Eliza (Van Patten) around New York trying in vain to find a parking spot in Manhattan.   Possibly causing extra tension is that Danny will soon be staying with his father Harold (Hoffman) while Eliza spends the night before attending film school.  The dailies Eliza sends to her family are practically porn.   Harold is an artist who feels he never got his due in the art world and seemingly takes it out on others.   Danny has felt the brunt of it, while resenting his half-brother Matthew (Stiller) whom he thinks was Dad's favorite.   We learn Matthew, a successful accountant, has his own list of resentments against his father, as does their sister Jean (Marvel).   

We learn what the resentments are and watch it all play out while checking our cell phones to see how much longer we have to endure this gab-a-thon.   I'm certain every family has its share of issues similar to the Meyerowitzes.   It doesn't mean these issues have to be filmed.   Of course, the family isn't played by the likes of Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Dustin Hoffman either.   This is a colossal disappointment.  

Nobody (2021) * * *

 

Directed by:  Ilya Naishuller

Starring:  Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, Michael Ironside, Aleksey Serebryakov, Christopher Lloyd, RZA, Gage Munroe

Bob Odenkirk provides a steady center in the chaos of Nobody.   You wouldn't think of Odenkirk in a John Wick-like role where he thrashes bad guys with glee, but he pulls it off with utter conviction.  Nobody doesn't break new ground, but it's entertaining and tightly paced.   You would not be watching the right movie if you didn't pause to ask yourself how certain action sequences don't violate the laws of physics or common sense.   Spoiler alert:  They do, but that's par for the course.

The "Nobody" of the title is Hutch Mansell (Odenkirk), who lives a mundane life in which the days all blend together.   Hutch takes the bus to work at his father-in-law's business working as an unassuming accountant.   He misses the trash truck by about ten seconds on trash day and is gently reminded by his wife Becca (Nielsen) that he missed the truck again.   Then, the weeks roll over again.   Because we've seen the trailers, we know Hutch used to be an "auditor" for an unnamed government agency, but not the kind of who looks at the books.   If an auditor shows up at your door, it means your ass. 

One night, the sameness of daily suburban life is broken when two home invaders break in to Hutch's house, steal a few dollars, and strike Hutch's oldest son (Munroe).   Hutch gets the drop on one of them and could've smashed in her skull with a golf club, but he stops himself.   He tells police he wanted to keep the damage to a minimum.   We later find out what he means.   Hutch is willing to swallow his pride and move on until his daughter reports her bracelet missing.   This won't do, and Hutch springs into action to track down the invaders and get the bracelet back.   This stirs his lust for violence and Hutch is soon confronting Russian thugs on the bus.   He either kills or hospitalizes five men, while taking a bit of a beating himself.  

When one of the thugs dies, Russian night club owner/money launderer Yulian Kuznetsov (Serebryakov) vows revenge.   He sends his henchmen to Hutch's home, which ends badly for the baddies and for Hutch's home.   One refreshing aspect of Nobody is we are spared the obligatory scene in which Hutch's wife discovers his past and scolds him for being a liar.   It is clear Becca knows full well about Hutch's life prior to meeting him.   Maybe she even understands why he needs to return to his former life.

Part of the equation are Hutch's father David (Lloyd), a retired FBI man living in a nursing home who isn't as helpless as one would think.   Hutch's brother Harry (RZA) is in hiding, but keeps in contact through Hutch's old-fashioned stereo system.   If you think they won't get in on the fun at some point, you're attending the wrong movie.   The fight and gun sequences play like John Wick, where Hutch creatively kills many villains at once.   He rigs a building with booby traps a la John Rambo, although it is quite a stroke of luck that the thugs are standing in just the right place for the traps to work.

Regardless, Nobody stays grounded due to Odenkirk's performance.   The action is sometimes crazy, but never insanely over the top.   Unlike John Wick, Hutch doesn't seemingly kill half of the human population.   Maybe they're saving that for the sequel. 

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) * * *

 

Directed by:  Colin Trevorrow

Starring:  Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Kristen Bell, Karan Soni, Jenica Bergere

WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.

This is a classified ad taken out in a Seattle newspaper which launches an investigation.   Is whomever placed this ad insane or is he or she the real deal?   A reporter named Jeff (Johnson) and his interns Darius (Plaza) and Arnau (Soni) take a trip to a small Washington town and find the man who placed the ad fairly quickly.   He is Kenneth (Duplass), a loner who insists he has time traveled and has government agents following him.   Darius poses as an interested candidate to accompany Kenneth on his journey, but soon not only believes him but falls for him.   Kenneth seems to like Darius too and trusts her.  

This is the setup of Safety Not Guaranteed, but what is at its heart is Kenneth's earnestness and Darius lowering her guard to let Kenneth (or anyone else) in.   Both are wounded souls who believe time travel will heal them as well as change things.   Why else would Kenneth want a companion on his adventure if he wasn't a lonely man looking to share his gift?   Of course, questions nag at us like:  Is Kenneth insane?   Is he setting Darius up?  Are people following him for the reasons he suspects?   Is Kenneth being truthful?   We learn the answers.   Kenneth may be a bit off, but there is something about the way he discusses time travel that makes us believe.

Safety Not Guaranteed works because we care.   The movie could have veered off into strange directions, but it maintains its comic edge even though at its core it is not comedy.   Jeff isn't simply left hanging in the wind.   He wants to change his present by looking up an old flame named Liz (Bergere) and trying to spark things up again.   He is trying to do what Kenneth wants to do with a time machine:  Change things for the better for himself.   The more Kenneth and Darius connect, the more we understand their hurt.  

Running at a taut 85 minutes, Safety Not Guaranteed examines the time travel concept and understands it is likely done for selfish reasons and not to benefit humankind.   If our actions change the world for the better, then that's all gravy.   Not that there's anything wrong with that.   Plaza and Duplass make a believable pair because they see that while the idea of time travel is absurd, it also is possible thanks to machines, science, research, and the will to do it.  Of those four necessities, the will may wind up being the most important of all.   I was floored by how much I was involved in Kenneth's story by the end, and how I knew I was right about him.  

Two Weeks Notice (2002) * * *

 

Directed by:  Marc Lawrence

Starring:  Hugh Grant, Sandra Bullock, Alicia Witt, Robert Klein

Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock have charm and likability to spare.   They carry Two Weeks Notice past expectations and give it an edge.   Grant doesn't play the stumbling, stuttering romantic lead, but a real estate mogul named George Wade whose arrogance and wealth lead him to believe he can treat women and buildings any way he wishes.    You could say he was modeled after Donald Trump, but Trump himself appears in the movie in a cameo.   Grant isn't a bad man, just one whose life of privilege has kept him aloof and out of touch with others' feelings.   The person to help him get in touch with reality:  Attorney Lucy Kelson (Bullock), who has forsaken personal gain for pro bono work and causes such as protesting the demolition of buildings by George, who would love to build new shopping centers over cultural landmarks.   

Then, one day, George offers Lucy a job as his chief counsel.   With the big paycheck and perks staring her in the face, she takes the job with George's promise not to demolish a recreation center in her native Brooklyn.   Lucy quickly regrets the decision, especially when George treats her more like his personal assistant than an attorney.   Soon enough, Lucy hands in her two weeks notice.  

We forgive George his trespasses and we know he and Lucy will soon fall for each other.   Two Weeks Notice pushes the formula conventions, including the late introduction of a rival (Witt) who will be Lucy's replacement in the workplace and possibly in George's heart.   We know George will have one change of heart than another about the promise he made to Lucy.   Even when Lucy is frustrated with George's lack of boundaries, she cares for him even though she fights admitting it every step of the way.   There is a telling scene in which the two have lunch and order salads.   Watch how they instinctively know what the other won't like on the salads and remove the unwanted items from the other's salad.    We sense their growing comfort with each other through entirely non-verbal gestures.

The early scenes of Two Weeks Notice crackle with energy and wit.   As the romantic comedy tropes take root, things slow up a bit, but we never lose our adoration for Grant and Bullock.   Lesser comic actors might not have been able to keep a hold of us.  

The Age of Adaline (2015) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Lee Toland Krieger

Starring:  Blake Lively, Harrison Ford, Kathy Baker, Ellen Burstyn, Michiel Huisman

The opening scene sets up the premise which captures your attention:   A young woman and old woman meet in a restaurant.  We suspect they are mother and daughter, but when the old woman whispers in the young woman's ear, "Happy Birthday Mom," we are flabbergasted.   Then we learn with a flashback and narration that the young woman named Adaline (Lively) is really about ninety years old, but thanks to some scientific mumbo-jumbo involving a car crash into a lake and lightning, she has not aged since the 1940's.   This is not as fun as one would think.   She is unable to settle down with anyone and frequently changes identities and addresses in order to keep her secret intact.   She fell in love a few times, but turns down marriage proposals and vanishes from the poor men's lives.   I'd say the beginning of The Age of Adaline is very good, the middle sags considerably, and the final act involving Harrison Ford nearly puts things on the right track again.   

Adaline, who in the present day goes by Jenny, does her best to avoid attaching herself to anyone or anything.   She made that mistake before, and winds up hurting the ones she loves.   One such man was William Jones (Ford), who in the late 1960's sat on a park bench waiting to propose to Adaline.   Adaline sees him sitting on the bench with a ring in his hand, but then leaves without ever speaking to the heartbroken William again.   Fast forward to present, Adaline/Jenny now catches the attention of a handsome young man named Ellis.   He asks her out, she resists, but soon they connect and he brings her along to meet his parents.   His father is, well, William, who is astonished to see a woman in front of him who looks just like his lost love from nearly fifty years ago.   Jenny says Adaline was her mother, but William doesn't buy it.   It is here where The Age of Adaline finds its heart.

The relationship between Ellis and Adaline/Jenny isn't exactly crackling with chemistry.   She has more with William, who is happily married now but Adaline's reappearance disrupts things for a bit.   Ford and Kathy Baker give us a portrait of a long married couple who can withstand even this swerve.   How does William tell the Mrs. that their son's lover is actually his lover from years ago?   Very carefully I would assume.   Lively is capable and brings as much sympathy as she can to the role, but do we really buy that she would change her life and finally reveal her secret over this lightweight Ellis guy?  No fault to Huisman, who plays the role as written, but there just isn't much there.   The movie explains how Adaline's condition is a curse, but we don't believe Ellis is the person to help her lift it.  

The Courier (2021) * * *

 

Directed by:  Dominic Cooke

Starring:  Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel Brosnahan, Jessie Buckley, Merab Ninidze, Angus Wright

Even though the Cold War ended over thirty years ago, the era can still churn out some solid spy thrillers.  The Courier is among them, in which an ordinary English businessman (Cumberbatch) is recruited by MI6 and the CIA to act as a courier for a Russian spy (Ninidze) passing Soviet secrets to the West.   The businessman, Greville Wynne, seems excited to be part of the Cold War effort, but the job soon takes a toll on he and his family.   He can't tell his wife Sheila (Buckley) what he's really doing in Moscow, but since he once had an affair, it is natural for Sheila to suspect he is having another one.   Add all that into the mix and you get both internal and external tension for Greville.

On that level, The Courier works.   We've seen the spy stuff before, but The Courier captures the look and feel of early 1960's England.   A friendship also grows between the spy, a high-ranking Soviet official named Oleg who is frightened of his nation's desire to move towards nuclear war, and Greville.   Oleg, like Greville, is a family man who fears for his wife and daughter.   They find they have more in common than they suspected.   The friendship between Oleg and Greville adds a moving dimension to The Courier.

It's easy to look at the Cold War in hindsight as one big muscle flexing between the United States and Soviet Union.   The threat of nuclear war, however, was very real even if it made zero sense to engage in one.   Within hours, both sides will be devastated and no one would win.   Each nation tread carefully.  They would push, but only so far.   The Courier understands that.   The performances play this out, even though at least twice I expected Rachel Brosnahan (as CIA Operative Emily Donovan) to break out into a Marvelous Mrs. Maisel act.   

2021 Academy Awards Picks

It's that time of year again, albeit later than usual due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.   The Oscars ceremony will be held on April 25, 2021 this year.   Normally they are held some time in February.  This is obviously a crazy year for movies just like anything else.   Some of the nominated movies and performances never saw the big screen.   The Academy allowed for movies to be eligible which were only shown on streaming services.   Is this a trend that's here to stay?   We will find out.

Here are my picks for the major awards.   

Actor in a Leading Role:

Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal)

Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)

Anthony Hopkins (The Father)

Gary Oldman (Mank)

Steven Yeun (Minari)

Prediction:  Chadwick Boseman.   There are excellent performances up and down this category, but Boseman will win.    As close to a lock as you can get. 

Actor in a Supporting Role

Sacha Baron Cohen (The Trial of the Chicago 7)

Daniel Kaluuya (Judas and the Black Messiah)

Leslie Odom, Jr. (One Night in Miami)

Paul Raci (Sound of Metal)

Lakeith Stanfield (Judas and the Black Messiah)

Prediction:  Daniel Kaluuya.   I've heard of category fraud, where a basically leading role is nominated in a supporting category to increase chances of awards success, but both Kaluuya and Stanfield were both leads in Judas and the Black Messiah.   If not, which lead were they supporting?   Kaluuya has swept awards so far, so I don't anticipate a change here.

Actress in a Leading Role

Viola Davis (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)

Andra Day (The United States vs. Billie Holiday)

Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of a Woman)

Frances McDormand (Nomadland)

Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman)

Prediction:  Carey Mulligan.  Andra Day scored a deserved nomination in a bad movie, so that may decrease her chances despite a Golden Globe.  Mullian won the Critics' Choice award.   With SAG awards still pending, I'll go with Mulligan.   McDormand has two Best Actress awards under her belt already.   I don't predict a third.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Maria Bakalova (Borat: Subsequent Movie Film)

Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy)

Olivia Colman (The Father)

Amanda Seyfried (Mank)

Yuh-Jung Youn (Minari)

Prediction:  My instinct is to go with Close, who was nominated seven previous times without a win.  2018's The Wife seemed like a lock, but Olivia Colman won the prize.  I don't anticipate history will repeat itself.   I am far from confident, but I will go with Close. 

Directing

Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round) 

David Fincher (Mank)

Lee Isaac Chung (Minari)

Chloe Zhao (Nomadland)

Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman)

Prediction:  Chloe Zhao.  The first time more than one woman is nominated in this category.  Zhao is the front runner.  

Best Picture 

The Father

Judas and the Black Messiah

Mank

Minari

Nomadland

Promising Young Woman

Sound of Metal

The Trial of the Chicago 7

Prediction:  Nomadland.  Has won the Golden Globe and Producer's Guild Awards.  This doesn't always translate to an Oscar win.   Last year, Parasite won Best Picture without winning either of the previous two big prizes.   But I feel safe with a Nomadland pick.  

Writing-Original Screenplay

Judas and the Black Messiah

Minari

Promising Young Woman

Sound of Metal

The Trial of the Chicago 7

Prediction:  A tough category, but Promising Young Woman.  Its themes in the age of #MeToo will resonate.   

Writing-Adapted Screenplay

Borat: Subsequent Movie Film

The Father

Nomadland

One Night in Miami

The White Tiger

Prediction:  One Night in Miami.   Its themes on race, celebrity, and civil rights are timely...especially today.   

The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021) * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Lee Daniels

Starring:  Andra Day, Garrett Hedlund, Trevante Rhodes, Natasha Lyonne, Leslie Jordan, Evan Ross, Rob Morgan

The United States vs. Billie Holiday has a very good performance at its center searching for a movie worthy of it.   The film is a slog punctuated by Andra Day's renditions of some of Holiday's signature songs.   A singer herself, Day has cited Holiday as a major influence.   She was born to play Lady Day and has been justly rewarded with an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.   

The story focuses on FBI Narcotics Chief Harry Anslinger's (Hedlund) attempts to throw Holiday in prison following her singing of the controversial song Strange Fruit, which depicted lynchings and racial intolerance.   Anslinger targeted Holiday for her widely known battles with drugs, even assigning Black FBI agents to ingratiate themselves to her.   One such agent is Jimmy Fletcher (Rhodes), who at first poses as an adoring fan before setting her up for a sting.   However, Fletcher stays in the picture anyway by falling in love with Holiday.   Like many of the men in The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Fletcher appears and disappears so often we aren't sure what his relationship is with her at any given time.   

Holiday's relationships with other men are also not clearly defined.   One who was a boyfriend in the beginning vanishes for a stretch before reemerging as her husband.   Actress Tallulah Bankhead (Lyonne) also appears as Holiday's hinted-at lover, but Lyonne only appears in a few scenes before leaving the movie for good.   In the middle of the relationship nonsense are gratuitous scenes of heroin use with blood spurting out of the vein for good measure.   

Andra Day plays Holiday with a hopeful, trusting spirit.   She isn't a diva.   She craves love almost as much as she loves drugs.   She uses the drugs as an attempt to fill of loveless void inside of her which will never go away.   Day gives us as intimate a portrait as she can under the weight of the excess she is surrounded by.    Characters move in and out of Holiday's life with such fluidity we can't keep track.  The pacing is sloooow.   The pall of drug use is interrupted by Day belting out Holiday songs in their entirety.   The movie soon goes like this:  Song, drug use, prison, song, drug use, and so on.   It's all so boring.   There isn't much more we learn about Billie Holiday than we knew going in. 

Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011) * * *

 

Directed by:  John Requa and Glenn Ficarra

Starring:  Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Carroll Lynch, Beth Littleford, Jonah Bobo, Kevin Bacon, Analeigh Tipton, Josh Groban 

The heart of Crazy, Stupid, Love. is what pulls it through even through some of the crazy, stupid parts.  The multi-person fight at the end reeks of unnecessary, desperate slapstick which was seemingly transported in from another romantic comedy.   Later, one of the characters makes a speech at a graduation ceremony which could only take place in the movies.   With those quibbles out of the way, I can now concentrate on the rest of the movie, which is warm, sweet, and sometimes surprising even though you know how it will all turn out. 

The opening dinner scene contains the first surprise.  A longtime married couple named Cal (Carell) and Emily (Moore) are deciding what they want for dessert.   You can tell by body language they have settled into a routine.   Emily says she wants a divorce, which floors Cal so much he jumps out of their moving car on the way home.   Emily slept with David Lindehagen (Bacon), an oily charmer from work who we can tell isn't husband number two material.   Cal moves into an apartment but still stops home to tend to his backyard garden and see his kids.   His son Robbie (Bobo) has a hopeless and hopeful crush on his 17-year-old babysitter Jessica (Tipton), who in turn has a crush on Cal.   This subplot leads to Jessica taking pictures she shouldn't have taken which wind up in the wrong hands.   Assumptions fly and lead to the aforementioned fight.   Come to think of it, this situation treads on ickiness as well.

Cal soon frequents the local bar which looks very, very stylish and has hot women hanging around everywhere.   In other words, it's a bar you find in the movies only.   While Cal nurses his drink and complains about David stealing his wife, the resident pickup artist Jacob (Gosling) who takes a different woman home every night, takes pity on Cal and makes him his project.   He will transform Cal from a frumpish complainer to a stud who can pick up women with the ease Jacob does, or at least close.   Cal picks up Kate (Tomei), who likes Cal until they find out the truth about each other in a funny scene where Cal tries to weasel out of an obvious lie.

We also meet Hannah (Stone), who is the only woman in the movie who finds Jacob an easy temptation to resist at first.   She is about to pass the bar, but her lawyer boyfriend (Groban) who her friend calls "Human Valium" just doesn't want to commit, so she seeks out Jacob to take her home.  What happens is tender and unexpected.   Jacob does what he is not programmed to do: he falls in love with Hannah.  They share the bed but wind up talking all night.   It's what Jacob didn't realize he needed.   Stone and Gosling make a cute couple, further evidenced in 2016's La La Land.   

Emily takes a liking to Cal's transformation.   She wonders why Cal didn't do it before.   It is suggested complacency took hold in their marriage, causing Emily to look outside the marriage for a little excitement.   Even David isn't too bad a guy.   He just doesn't deceive himself.   Carell and Moore can do lovable with the best of them.   We know about Stone and Gosling already.   Crazy, Stupid, Love. breezes through with enough charm to overcome some of the slippery moments.   It doesn't aim to elevate the romantic comedy, but wants to work well within the genre, which it does. 

The Father (2021) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Florian Zeller

Starring:  Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Rufus Sewell, Olivia Williams, Imogen Poots

The Father tells the story of a man named Anthony (Hopkins) who is either losing his grasp on reality to dementia or has already lost it.   The Father is not a morose film, but one in which the players seem to change and we spend our time trying to connect who is really whom and what is real versus what is imaginary.   In other words, it allows us to experience the same illness Anthony suffers from daily.   The Father distracts from its terrible sadness by emphasizing the mystery which is now Anthony's life.   We know only one thing for sure:  He has a loving, doting daughter named Anne (Colman).   Everything else is subject for debate.

Anne returns home one day to a London flat which may be hers or may be Anthony's still.   She tells her father she is moving to Paris with her new boyfriend and can no longer care for him.   Anthony is indignant.   He is not leaving his flat!!  Future incidents suggest Anne may have already left for Paris, may not leave for Paris after all, or that Anthony has already left his flat.   Anne has a husband named Paul (Sewell) who understands his wife's dilemma to a point, but grows resentful of this old man whose declining health is forcing him to cancel vacations with Anne.   Or does she have a husband named Paul?  Or does Anne even have a husband anymore?   

There is also mention of Anthony's other daughter Lucy, whom he hasn't seen in a while.   Anthony wonders why Lucy hasn't been around.   We suspect the reason even if Anthony doesn't.   He is also introduced to his new in-home caregiver (Poots) who reminds him of Lucy and takes to her immediately.  It seems Anthony has chased other caregivers away with his crankiness, but this new one might be a keeper.   No points for assuming the new girl may not be real either, or may be all too real.  At times, some of the characters look like someone else.   We know what Anthony looks like, but everyone else may or not be who they seem.   

It is a testament to writer-director Zeller that he keeps us in suspense while we trying to figure out how the pieces of this puzzle fit, if they even do.   You're bound to be confused at times, but that's likely the point.   Imagine how Anthony must feel.  He has to live this nightmare every day.   By focusing on Anthony's point of view, our sympathies are engaged.   That doesn't mean we don't feel for Anne, whose life is in a holding pattern as she tends to her father the best she can.   The strain on her is ever-present.   

Hopkins is a treasure.   His final scenes especially ring so true they bring tears to your eyes.   In any other year, Hopkins would likely be a shoo-in for an Oscar for Best Actor, but this will be Chadwick Boseman's year (more on my Oscar picks in another post).   Olivia Colman is Hopkins' match, sometimes sparring with him, sometimes trying in vain to reach him, and we feel what she must be feeling having to watch her father slip away before her eyes.   The Father takes on a subject we all must eventually face and shakes it up with some sleight-of-hand storytelling which takes the edge off while still hitting the point home.    

Crisis (2021) * *

Directed by: Nicholas Jarecki 

Starring: Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer, Evangeline Lilly, Greg Kinnear, Lily-Rose Depp

Based on its generic title alone, Crisis is destined to be lost in the Redbox and VOD shuffle as another movie you can't quite recall if it played in theaters.   The subject matter is worthy of examination and the cast is top-notch, but Crisis lacks juice.   It feels warmed over when it should be scorching.  Characters plead their cases about the state of the opioid epidemic and how the wonder drugs being developed only feed addiction further.   This is potentially powerful material which inspires a meh response from the viewer. 

Crisis tells three interlocking stories centering around addiction and drug trafficking.   Dr. Tyrone Brower (Oldman) is under a deadline from a pharmaceutical company to rush clinical trials through for fast FDA approval on its anti-addiction drug.   The trouble is:  The drug actually spurs addiction instead of inhibiting it and is possibly fatal.   Dr. Brower is mortified that the pharma company still wants to push forward despite the risks and blows the whistle.    DEA undercover agent Jake (Hammer) is setting up a big sting of a drug cartel north of the border, but also deals with his own sister's heroin addiction.  Recovering addict Claire (Lilly) suffers through the death of her son to drugs and goes looking for answers she may not want to find.    The situations and arguments made are similar to the superior Traffic (2000) which covered a lot of the same ground with more grit and intensity.

The performances only take Crisis so far.   There are plenty of reasons to care, yet I found myself at a distance.   Crisis has a straight-to-VOD feel to it in every fiber of its being, which you wouldn't expect with this type of cast and this subject matter.   I admit I saw this movie roughly two weeks ago and am only getting to write a review now (sorry), but I have trouble recalling the details except for the basic outlines.   Perhaps this quandary is helping me write my review for me.   

Chaos Walking (2021) * *

 

Directed by:  Doug Liman

Starring:  Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley, Mads Mikkelsen, Demian Bechir, Cynthia Erivo

Chaos Walking takes place on a distant planet in the distant future in which men's thoughts can be heard by others and materialize as multi-colored smoke above their heads.   Some men have learned to control this, while others like teenager Todd Hewitt (Holland) still have work to do.   Todd lives in a village populated only by men.   Why?  According to the town leader David Prentiss (Mikkelsen), all of the women were wiped out in a war with aliens.    We know this is likely not the case.   Todd doesn't remember his mother and hasn't set eyes on a woman.   That changes when an alien spacecraft crashes on the planet and survivor Viola (Ridley) crosses paths with Todd in her quest to contact her family to return and rescue her.

The Noise, the name given to the phenomenon described earlier, is distracting and gimmicky.  It plays a role in the events of the past and explains one character's villainous motives, but I grew weary of Todd's attempts to suppress his thoughts from being heard.   The thoughts only seem to be audible when the plot or situation requires them.   Holland and Ridley do their best with vanilla characters, but those thinking Todd and Viola will morph into Spider Man and Rey from Star Wars will be vastly disappointed.  

Chaos Walking settles into a typical action plot with few surprises and a peculiar blandness.   It isn't poorly made, it's just "there". Director Liman has made superior action films in the past, so we know he can make a fun movie with the right material.    Chaos Walking doesn't give he or anyone else much to work with.   I recall my reviews of The Hunger Games movies in which I lamented the characters having bizarre names on a futuristic Earth.   It was as if the names Shawn, John, etc. were phased out over the generations.   At least the characters in Chaos Walking don't have names like "Peeta".  It has that going for it. 

Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Richard Donner

Starring:  Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joss Ackland, Derrick O' Connor, Joe Pesci, Patsy Kensit, Steve Kahan, Darlene Love

Lethal Weapon 2 begins smack dab in the middle of a frenetic car chase and never takes its foot off the gas.    It is the best in the Lethal Weapon series, which sparked a whole generation of cop/buddy movies.  The odd couple of Sgt. Roger Murtaugh (Glover) and Sgt. Martin Riggs (Gibson) return as the mismatched pair who by now have eased into a comfortable chemistry.   A third party is added to their mix in the form of hyper accountant Leo Getz (Pesci in one of his most memorable roles), who ripped off South African drug dealers and is now a federal witness...if Riggs and Murtaugh can keep him alive long enough to testify.

The South African drug dealers are led by the ruthless, unsmiling Rudd (Ackland), a South African diplomat stationed in Los Angeles who hides behind diplomatic immunity to avoid prosecution.   That doesn't stop Riggs and Murtaugh from harassing him and his underlings.   One of Rudd's crew is the particularly menacing Vorstedt (O'Connor) who we find has a past role in the events which changed Riggs' life.    The villains in Lethal Weapon 2 are ones we can't wait to see get theirs.    The way Rudd arrogantly flaunts his immunity as he is shooting someone makes you want to change the international diplomacy laws.   You also must take into account the movie was released in 1989, when apartheid was still in full swing in South Africa, adding an extra level of malevolence.  

Most of all, Lethal Weapon 2 is fun.   The actors can barely conceal their glee.   The action scenes aren't by rote, but contain high energy and creativity.   It's the first chase I can recall in which a surfboard plays a part in someone's demise.   The heart of Lethal Weapon 2 isn't the action, but the ever-growing relationship between Riggs and Murtaugh.   Lethal Weapon 2 doesn't simply recycle the first film, but finds ways to let Riggs and Murtaugh's friendship evolve.   It's also touching the way Leo fights his way into Riggs and Murtaugh's hearts, one "okay, okay" at a time. 

Coming 2 America (2021) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Craig Brewer

Starring:  Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Jermaine Fowler, Wesley Snipes, Shari Headley, James Earl Jones, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, Teyana Taylor, Nomzamo Mbatha, John Amos, Louie Anderson

There is plenty of nostalgia to be had in Coming 2 America, the sequel released thirty-three years after the original which itself has been years in the making.   It's fun to see Eddie Murphy back in one of his signature roles as Prince Akeem, who in the original film traveled to Queens to find love and escape an arranged marriage.   Murphy also returns in his other characters from the first film, as does Arsenio Hall, and at times director Craig Brewer must've felt like a traffic cop trying to ensure the returning characters, plus the new ones, get their moments in the sun.    I also could've done without the dance numbers which seem to be shoehorned in from nowhere, but in the end Coming 2 America has enough heart and enough nostalgic quality to be at least worthwhile for Coming to America fans.

Coming 2 America begins thirty years after the original in the fictional African land of Zamunda (a likely neighbor of Wakanda).  Prince Akeem is still a prince as his father King Jaffe Joffer (James Earl Jones) still rules, but is now on his deathbed.   The king laments that Akeem is soft and spoiled.   "You will be assassinated in a week," the king states, likely by General Izzi (Snipes) of neighboring Nextdoria (funny name) and leaving Zamunda ripe for a takeover.   Izzi busts Akeem's balls about not having a male heir, but in a plot development which strains the limits of credulity, the king reveals that Akeem indeed has a thirty-year old son living in Queens.   Akeem's trusted manservant and best friend Semmi (Hall) knows more than the flabbergasted Akeem about the night of the son's conception and I'll leave it at that.  

Because Zamunda's throne ascendency laws still require passage of the crown to a male heir down the line, Akeem and Semmi travel to Queens to seek out his son Lavelle (Fowler), who was raised by his mother Mary (Jones) and Uncle Reem (Morgan).   We reconnect with the regulars at the My-T-Sharp barber shop, still owned by the wisecracking Clarence (Murphy) and his posse of old Jewish man Saul (Murphy again) and Arsenio Hall and Clint Smith recreating their roles as well.   The jokes they throw at us still have the same rhythm and delivery, but are updated to reflect the passage of years. 

Lavelle is a nice, dull guy with few prospects who leaps at the chance to go to Zamunda to assume his place as Akeem's royal heir, supplanting Akeem's oldest daughter who has been training for the role her entire life and now has to grit her teeth as the newcomer usurps her place in line.   General Izzi proposes a marriage between his daughter (Taylor) and Lavelle to unite the nations and bloodlines, but Lavelle soon falls for common woman Mirembe (Mbatha) and we can figure out what happens from there.   Akeem seems to forget he defied his father's wishes and married Lisa (Headley) all those years ago while forbidding his son from doing the same.  

Because Coming 2 America spends so much time and energy ensuring most of the living characters from the first film receive at least a walk-on, Akeem seems almost like an afterthought.   Snipes is maliciously funny as General Izzi, but his subplot feels like one subplot too many.   There is even a cameo of the elephant Akeem petted in the first film while strolling on the palace grounds with his dad.  He's bigger and older now of course, but it seems like Murphy and company didn't want to leave anyone or anything out.  

I didn't expect Coming 2 America to be on par with the original film, which was a comic masterpiece, but it actually approaches being a worthy sequel due to some big laughs and a sense of its own history.  The costumes by Oscar-winner Ruth Carter (Black Panther) and set designs make Zamunda a colorful and vibrant place we would want to visit.   It's a near-miss though, mostly because Coming 2 America feels too convoluted for its own good.    By the end, it's a free-for-all.   Maybe with some tightening up, the two-and-a-half stars could have been three.