Red One (2024) * *

 

Directed by:  Jake Kasdan

Starring:  Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, JK Simmons, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju

Red One feels like Blue Christmas.  It has a gray pall hanging over it even in the scenes where the sun shines.  Dwayne Johnson plays Callum, Santa Claus' head of security who plans to leave his post after several hundred years of service to Saint Nick (JK Simmons).  Callum has lost faith in humanity as he realizes the naughty list seems to grow longer each year.  Santa asks for Callum to believe in people, but glum Callum insists on tapping out.  However, the night before Christmas Eve, Santa is kidnapped by a witch named Gryla (Shipka), who also believes humanity is irredeemable and wants to imprison every person on the naughty list.  She holds him hostage and slowly saps his strength, which is considerable if you take into account how he's able to deliver billions of presents in one night.  

Simmons gives us a buff Santa Claus who needs to stay in shape to complete his duty on Christmas Eve.  No plump Santa in this movie.  Johnson, however, plays Callum as taciturn and gloomy when he should be having more fun.  The movie itself sets the same tone.  The heavily CGI-laden action scenes take up several minutes at a time, but the stakes just aren't there.  When Callum recruits expert hacker Jack O'Malley (Evans), who unwittingly gave the coordinates of the North Pole compound to Gryla, they go through the cop-buddy movie routine of dislike turning into like.  Neither actor seems to be enjoying himself.  They're going through the motions. 

Red One is not going to establish itself as a holiday classic anytime soon.  It's an action comedy with emphasis on action and not comedy, but soon we grow tired of both.  I enjoyed Simmons playing Santa not as a world-weary man, but as an ambassador of hope who just keeps plugging away until people's better nature takes over.  The rest of the movie feels very much defeated.  

Heretic (2024) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Scott Beck and Bryan Woods

Starring:  Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East

The opening scenes of Heretic are riveting, but when the plot mechanics set in and the mystery lifts, Heretic morphs into an average thriller where characters miraculously survive lethal stab wounds.  Heretic takes place mostly within the home of Mr. Reed (Grant), a seemingly genial man who welcomes two Mormons who knock on his front door into his home.  The women are Sister Barnes (Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (East), who came to the house because Mr. Reed filled out a card expressing interest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  

Mr. Reed is welcoming, awkwardly charming, and is baking a blueberry pie, as the aroma of the house would indicate.  The sisters state a woman must be present, and Mr. Reed assures them his wife is in the other room but shy about coming out to the living room.  The sisters take that explanation at face value, but soon find Mr. Reed isn't what he seems.  He engages them in a conversation about religion, but he clearly has an issue with the concept of religion and faith.  He says he has found "the one true religion", which the women discover to their horror later.  

Hugh Grant began his career as a romantic lead, but he is also an expert cad and villain.  He gives a fascinating performance here as a man who is angered by the idea of believing in a God who would allow these kind women to be fed to wolves like him.  In his mind, God has abandoned us.  The women try not to believe that, but it's hard to doubt the mounting evidence.  No matter whether Sisters Barnes and Paxton agree with Mr. Reed or not, their fate is sealed.  East and Thatcher provide effective counterpoints as two young missionaries who are naive and entirely too polite to protest and try to escape when it's clear early that Mr. Reed is deranged.   

Heretic's setup is so effective that the payoff can't possibly match it.  The final act morphs into the typical, which is a pity because the early atmosphere is suspenseful and creepy.  Heretic is a movie which can't quite grab the greatness within its grasp. 

City of Lies (2021) * *

 

Directed by: Brad Furman

Starring:  Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker, Shea Whigham, Neil Brown, Jr., Dayton Callie

Brad Furman's City of Lies delves into the unsolved murder of Chris Wallace (aka The Notorious B.I.G.), the famous rapper shot and killed in the wee hours of the morning of March 9, 1997.  This was nearly six months after Tupac Shakur's slaying on the Las Vegas strip.  The media speculated an "East Coast/West Coast" feud between rivaling artists.  Detective Russell Poole (Depp) is assigned to the case and finds he is stonewalled because some LAPD cops moonlight for Death Row executive Marion "Suge" Knight and Notorious B.I.G.'s death opens a Pandora's Box of LAPD corruption.

City of Lies opens nearly twenty years after Wallace's shooting, with Poole still trying to piece together who shot Wallace.  He kept a promise to Wallace's mother Voletta (playing herself) to solve the murder, even after he was kicked off the case and forced to retire.  Poole teams up with journalist Jack Jackson (Whitaker), who is writing a historical article on Wallace and finds himself trying to solve the murder as well.   Was Poole ousted because he was coming too close to the truth which would blow the lid off of the department's corruption?  They've already taken a hit with Rodney King, OJ Simpson, and the Rampart investigations.  Being implicated in Wallace's death would be one more turn of the screw.

Despite the strong performance by Depp as a dogged, but world-weary former detective, and some solid supporting work, City of Lies buckles under its own weight.  It doesn't crackle with intensity like a superb police procedural should.  It never lifts off, even though the public remains interested in the high-profile unsolved murder.  How is it Wallace's killing is still not solved nearly thirty years later?  City of Lies believes it has the answer, but it scarcely brings those answers to life.  

Here (2024) * * *

 

Directed by:  Robert Zemeckis

Starring:  Tom Hanks, Paul Bettany, Robin Wright, Kelly Reilly

Robert Zemeckis' Here is an experiment in which a camera is planted in a spot and documents what happened in that spot throughout history.  The movie starts with the dinosaurs up to the present day, with multiple stories zig-zagging through time.  The bulk of Here takes place in a living room in a suburban Pennsylvania house.  Across the street is an old colonial home once owned by Benjamin Franklin, and the land on which these homes are built are ancient Native American tribal lands.  We meet the owners from the 1910's through the 2020 COVID pandemic.   My girlfriend told me that the movie reminded her of Disney World's Carousel of Progress only with sad parts.  It is an astute observation, and Here manages to be more than that.  Some parts are hokey, but others earn the audience's emotional response.

Here's main storyline focuses on the Young family, with WWII veteran Al Young (Bettany) and his wife Rose (Reilly) buying the home shortly after the end of the Second World War.  They settle into suburban life, raising three children with the oldest being Richard, who will grow up to be played by Tom Hanks.  Hanks is a gifted artist, but at eighteen knocks up his high-school sweetheart Margaret (Wright) and marries her.  Richard abandons his plans at an art career to raise his daughter in his father's home.  Meanwhile, Margaret laments the sacrifices she made for her family and verbalizes them at her 50th surprise birthday party. 

After a shaky start, I began to appreciate Here's sweep through time.  Zemeckis' style doesn't dominate the story and the characters.   Hanks and Wright, even de-aged, are still effective while harkening back to their pairing in Forrest Gump.  Could I have done without the time-jumping aspect?  Yes, a linear story framing would've worked well, but I was still moved by what's presented in the film.