Black Hawk Down (2001) * *

Directed by: Ridley Scott

Starring:  Josh Hartnett, Sam Shepard, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Ewan MacGregor, Eric Bana

Maybe I'm missing the point of Black Hawk Down.  Ridley Scott's war film documents the failed Mogadishu raid of October 1993 in which U.S. forces, expecting a cakewalk operation, descended upon a meeting of a warlord's lieutenants and met heavy resistance causing numerous casualties.  Many American soldiers were killed and a helicopter was shot down.  Black Hawk Down's technical prowess is not in question, but after a while, the movie is all shooting, blood, and soldiers' body parts being shot off.  It gets boring, and we grow numb to it.

Released three years after Saving Private Ryan broke the mold with its realistic battle sequences, Black Hawk Down upped the ante with little else but all battle sequences.  Saving Private Ryan's opening D-Day battles were shocking and visceral, but then the story took over and there were calms before the storms.  We saw what the story evolved into:  A tale of sacrifice and what it truly means to be the one whom others sacrificed their lives for.  "Earn this" became not just two words, but a challenge to the surviving Private James Francis Ryan.  Black Hawk Down has no such moments, in fact the soldiers themselves are hardly people at all, but simply cogs in a machine.  Maybe that's the point, but it doesn't make for a fully engaging experience.  In a footnote, both movies feature Tom Sizemore.  

Yes, there are breaks in the action where soldiers retreat to base to reload and rethink their strategy, but it's all confusing anyway.  Characters discuss their plan, which goes awry, and then soon after we see a soldier lying dead with his innards exposed for the world to see.  We don't have a point of view where any of this makes sense.  Without the stakes, Black Hawk Down becomes war porn.  (I think I just made that term up). 

New Year's Eve (2011) * *

 

 

Directed by:  Garry Marshall

Starring:  Hilary Swank, Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert DeNiro, Halle Berry, Katherine Heigl, Jon Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Sophia Vergara, Josh Duhamel, Hector Elizondo, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michele, Ryan Seacrest, Larry Miller, Matthew Broderick, Cherry Jones, John Lithgow

It may take be longer to list the cast of New Year's Eve than it will to write the actual review.  New Year's Eve is the second of Garry Marshall's obscure holiday films (the first was 2010's Valentine's Day) in which a large cast of stars are thrown into a mix of intersecting plots all paying homage to the magic of the holiday.  New Year's Eve's cast includes multiple Oscar winners and nominees, so this isn't a group without talent.  The movie is slight and wants to be loved, but soon there isn't enough room or time for all of these stories competing for the same screen.  Nor do we care enough.

The movie's bloated running time is reflective of having so many A-listers, most involving stories of romance or family love.  Swank is at the center as the boss of the Times Square ball drop with a crisis on her hands:  There is a mechanical issue with the ball and it may not be able to drop in time for midnight.  That and she also has to meet someone before midnight, regardless of whether it costs her this job.  There is also an executive whose car breaks down in Connecticut and needs to get to Manhattan in time for a party and a meeting with a special someone.  And a New Year's Eve scrooge who doesn't believe in the power of the New Year, and a harried record company secretary who quits her job and has a courier lead her on a tour of the city, etc., etc.  Oh, and let's not forget the rock star who wants to reconcile with the former girlfriend he jilted last New Year's Eve.  

I could go on and successfully recap the subplots but to what end?  The movie itself is only sporadically intriguing and New Year's Day itself is kind of already over once the clock strikes midnight and the confetti falls over Times Square.  At least on the East Coast.  The actors themselves deserve a celebration by taking this stuff seriously.  

Anaconda (2025) * *

Directed by:  Tom Gormican

Starring:  Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton, Daniela Melchior

Call Anaconda a reboot, a remake, or a reboot within a remake, but don't call me if they make Anaconda 2.  It's not that Anaconda is terrible.  It's simply routine and uninspired despite Jack Black's and Paul Rudd's best efforts.  I don't recall any groundswell for an Anaconda remake, etc. but here it is anyway.  

Anaconda stars Black and Rudd as Doug and Griff, lifelong friends from Buffalo who team up to reboot Anaconda "indie-style" in the jungles of the Amazon.  Doug films wedding videos but storyboards them as if he were shooting a horror film and Griff is a struggling actor who scores bit parts on TV shows.  Griff tells Doug and his other friends Kenny (Zahn) and Claire (Newton) that he owns the rights to Anaconda, which they believe and start going to work.  

One mistake of Anaconda is how the movie Doug and Griff are making doesn't seem indie at all.  I reflected on Dolemite Is My Name (2019), in which Ray Ray Moore (played by Eddie Murphy) decides to make a low-budget film which was poor quality, but teemed with the energy of a man trying to reverse his fortunes.  Any positives that can be gained from Anaconda is that we're rooting for this group to change their own lives, but the movie they're filming should've been Ed Wood-light.  The process should've been the story, but instead we're treated to boring subplots involving illegal gold miners and a massive snake which terrorizes the region.  I wanted to tell these tangents that they're in the wrong movie and belong in a different one.

There is one funny line in which Kenny discusses being "Buffalo Sober", which means that he sticks to beer and wine only, with occasional forays into "not hard" liquors.  The movie doesn't build on that, but instead relegates the funny Zahn to a footnote.  

 

Marty Supreme (2025) * * *

Directed by: Josh Safdie

Starring:  Timothee Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin O'Leary, Fran Drescher, Odessa A'Zion, Tyler Okonma, Sandra Bernhard

Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme is a story of a cocky ping-pong player circa 1952 who is convinced so thoroughly of his greatness that he forgets to win the tournament he's competing in.  He's too busy trying to woo actress Kay Stone (Paltrow) and enter into a business deal with her husband Milton Rockwell (O'Leary), who sees the overbearing Marty Mauser (Chalamet) as a way for him to sell pens in Japan.  Marty thinks performing in halftime shows at Harlem Globetrotter games is beneath him, but he has to find a way to earn a living in between tournaments, especially after being waxed by a Japanese player who uses a different type of paddle.

Safdie's movie is one of relentless motion.  Marty is forever looking for the next scheme or angle to make some money he didn't earn, with the promise that his future winnings will more than pay for the investment in him.  He also tries to avoid Rachel (A'Zion), with whom he was having a fling and is now eight months pregnant with Marty's child.  Marty denies this, of course, because she's married and it's probably her husband's...or so he hopes.  His next obsession is to travel to Japan to take on Endo, the now national hero who is the pride of Japan after decimating Marty in London.  Marty's post-match (and frankly pre-match) behavior has enraged tournament organizers to the point that he's banned from the Japanese tourney.  

The escalating series of adventures, some of which are deadly, Marty finds himself in is at the heart of Marty Supreme.  We question how Marty doesn't just collapse under the pressure he's putting on himself to live up to his self-billing, and how Rachel can still love him even though he's mostly unlovable.  Timothee Chalamet, very likely to nab a third Oscar nomination for Best Actor here, goes all-in and isn't afraid to be unlikable while still being fascinating at the same time.  We can't stop watching him, and we may even feel sorry for him if he lets us.  The supporting cast also doesn't just sit back and allow Marty to run all over them.  Kay is surely attracted to Marty, but doesn't see him as a suitable replacement for her prick of a husband.  Paltrow finds herself in a pickle of her own choosing, while O'Leary maintains a commanding screen presence as a character not a million miles removed from his Shark Tank persona.

I don't know how much I buy Marty's turnaround in the final twenty minutes.  The ending feels forced, as if a happy ending was needed to make the journey worth it.  But for most of Marty Supreme, the best moments are when Marty acts as the scheming, conniving jerk who is always looking for the next sucker to help enrich him.  

The Housemaid (2025) * * *

 

 

Directed by:  Paul Feig

Starring:  Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, Elizabeth Perkins, Indiana Elle, Michele Morrone

The Housemaid's trailer may remind viewers of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), in which a sinister housemaid infiltrates a suburban family for her own nefarious reasons.  Not to spoil anything, but this is thankfully not the case, and in fact Millie (Sweeney) accepts the live-in housemaid position for a wealthy Long Island family because she lives in her car and needs a job and residence in order to stay on parole.  She spends a good portion of the movie trying to go with the flow while dealing with the temperamental Nina (Seyfried), who abuses and gaslights Millie because she's rumored to have spent time in a mental institution.  We see this is likely true, but then The Housemaid flips the switch and makes the villain someone else entirely, although not exactly surprisingly.

The poor guy who referees the tug-of-war between Nina and Millie is Nina's husband Andrew (Sklenar), who is saintly in his dealings with his erratic wife.  He's perfect in every way, but we know someone like him is too good to be true.  No one can be this patient and forgiving unless he's hiding a darker side.  The Housemaid's structure and lengthy running time allow us to deduce that all is not well with either Nina or Andrew.  Their perfect home is just the setting for turmoil which Millie finds herself in the middle of.  But Millie is not immune to troubles either, as we learn.

Most of the fun we relish in The Housemaid is contained in its changing viewpoint and the suspense in building to the inevitable outcome.  Sweeney is deferential and quiet because she needs the job and Nina knows it; allowing her to use Millie to her advantage.  What is Nina's endgame?  Or Andrew's, aside from becoming intimate with the help?  Millie goes along to get along until she is placed in a deadly situation in which she has to revert to her violent past.  Is the ending too neat and frankly unbelievable?  Yes, but part of the fun of Paul Feig's The Housemaid is getting to that point.  By then, we're invested and we can forgive it its trespasses. 

Jay Kelly (2025) * * *

Directed by: Noah Baumbach

Starring:  George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Riley Keough, Stacy Keach, Jim Broadbent, Patrick Wilson, Billy Crudup, Grace Edwards

Jay Kelly (Clooney) is played by George Clooney as an aging movie star who begins to question whether fame was worth the price he's paid in his personal life.  He's an amiable person, but his pursuit of glory comes at a price to himself, his family, and those who work for him like his loyal manager Ronnie (Sandler) and publicist Liz (Dern).  Even they start questioning how much more they can sacrifice for the man who pays their bills.  Noah Baumbach's movie doesn't necessarily cover new ground, but it approaches the topic with sensitivity and with the understanding that 99.9 % of the world's actors wish they had Jay Kelly's problems. 

Jay finished wrapping a movie when he learns the director who discovered him, Peter Schneider (Broadbent) has died.  Jay then feels pangs of guilt when he recalls a conversation six months earlier when Peter begged him to assist in his comeback film which Jay declined.  Peter cast Jay in his first movie after Jay accompanied his friend Tim (Crudup) to an audition and was asked to read.  This caused years of pent-up bitterness in Tim which manifests itself during a get-together with Jay at a Hollywood bar.  Their conversation is civil and reminiscent, but we sense Tim resents Jay and later he admits to hating him.  "You stole my life," Tim says before starting a fistfight which may or may not cause Jay publicity headaches down the road. 

Jay wants to spend time with his daughter Daisy (Edwards), who intends to travel around Europe during the summer before freshman year of college.  She says she wants to see the world, but we know she doesn't want to see her father.  Jay's oldest daughter Jessica (Keough) has already become estranged from her dad.  Jay decides to follow Daisy to Italy, where he will reluctantly participate in a lifetime tribute orchestrated by Ronnie.  Ronnie is having problems at home, but it is apparent he has had many such problems over the years which he pushed aside for Jay's needs.  How much more will Ronnie continue to put his client's needs over his own?  Liz decides she's had enough and her exit scene is one in which she literally and figuratively gets off the train as far as Jay is concerned.

Jay is not an overbearing jerk, just someone who doesn't realize his own selfishness until it's staring him in the face.  He's aloof to the damage he has caused to those who love him.  He justifies it in a confessional phone call to Jessica, who has long since estranged herself from him because she knows him so well, maybe even too well.  Clooney gives us a Jay Kelly who is of course good-looking and suave, but also one capable of introspection and emotional intelligence.   The issue becomes whether such traits have come too late to allow for reconciliation.  The conclusion of Jay Kelly takes place at the tribute to Kelly where he asks himself whether he can do a retake, almost as if he wanted to reshoot a scene which wasn't perfect.  Then he realizes he cannot and no reboots are possible, even in Hollywood.  

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025) * * *

Directed by: Rian Johnson

Starring:  Daniel Craig, Josh O'Connor, Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Thomas Haden Church, Josh Brolin, Andrew Scott, Jeffrey Wright, Mila Kunis, Daryl McCormack, Cailee Spaeny

Wake Up Dead Man isn't simply a murder mystery, which would be compelling enough, but delves into spirituality and morality in the wake of modern politics.  What's the Catholic Church's place in all of this?  Wake Up Dead Man, in the best Agatha Christie tradition, rounds up a stellar cast and has them all appear guilty and motivated in the murder of rabid Monsignor Wicks (Brolin), who is found stabbed to death in his church.  Detective Benoit Blanc (Craig) is on the case and is soon interrogating everyone while navigating the story's twists and turns, of which there are many as per usual in this genre.

Craig approaches Blanc with more of a playfulness than in the previous two Knives Out iterations.  O'Connor's Father Jud does more of the heavy lifting as he assists Blanc in the investigation.  There is no shortage of suspects among the church's dwindling parishioners including Wicks' lifelong, loyal secretary Martha (Close), a controversial town doctor (Renner), the quiet groundskeeper (Church), an author looking for inspiration for his next novel (Scott), another woman who believes Wicks can cure her constant pain (Spaeny), and the list goes on.  

Then about halfway through, Wake Up Dead Man throws a curveball which I won't reveal but makes a certain amount of sense considering Wicks is murdered on Good Friday.  This crime seems to be the most puzzling to Blanc and may contain spiritual or miraculous elements.   Is what happens a true miracle or another plot?  No matter what, Wake Up Dead Man, even with its length which could've been trimmed by about fifteen minutes, continues the Knives Out tradition faithfully. 

Ella McCay (2025) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  James L. Brooks

Starring:  Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Woody Harrelson, Albert Brooks, Rebecca Hall, Jack Lowden, Spike Fearn, Ayo Edeberi

Ella McCay takes place in 2008 and feels like a throwback not just to a calmer (sort of) political environment but to feel-good romantic comedies from the 1980's.  James L. Brooks wrote and directed Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets, all three films featured harried characters who can't find time for love because life is getting in the way.  

But Ella McCay lacks the life of Brooks' earlier comedies.  He tries to recreate the formula and stocks it full of accomplished actors and an upbeat score by Hans Zimmer, but it's only successful in spurts while creating a villain in Ella's husband out of nowhere.  With the exception of the husband and Ella's father (Harrelson), most of the people in this movie are kind and helpful.  Even in 2008, the political climate wasn't this tame.  

Ella (Mackey) is an idealistic woman whose family falls apart while she's in her teens.  Her father is a serial cheater while her mother (Hall) stands by him even though he hurts her.  Aunt Helen (Curtis) is in the picture as a loving, supportive guardian with whom Ella lives through high school and college.  Ella soon marries Ryan (Lowden), who at first lives to make Ella happy, but soon as Ella ascends in her political career (more on that in a moment), he feels left out and insecure while turning into a selfish jerk who threatens to derail her career.  It's a wonder Jack Lowden, who capably handles the extreme swings, doesn't get whiplash.  

Ella is the lieutenant governor of New York under "Governor Bill" (Brooks), who accepts a cabinet position and thus making Ella the governor while trying to ensure her troubled younger brother (Fearn) is okay as he navigates his own life.  Fearn's subplot trying to reconnect with a lost love (Edeberi) feels forced and dropped in from a nearby movie.  The rest of the movie feels like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington only Emma Mackey plays Mrs. Smith.  Or Albany.  

Rental Family (2025) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Hikari

Starring:  Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Akira Emoto

Phillip (Fraser) is a struggling American actor living in Japan.  He starred in a popular television commercial there seven years ago and has been working trying to recapture that level of fame ever since.  Rental Family isn't Lost in Translation, in which Bill Murray played a famous actor on the downside of his career visiting Japan.  Phillip isn't a has-been, he's a never-was.  

He's a kind, but lonely soul who lives alone and his only companionship is with a steady prostitute.  He also towers over anyone who stands next to him.  One day, Phillip's agent calls with a new job.  He is to attend a "funeral" in which the "deceased" lies in a casket, but isn't dead.  He holds the ceremony to see how many people would pay their respects.  The arranger of the funeral is Rental Family Inc., run by Shinji (Hira) who wants Phillip to work for him.  What does Rental Family Inc. do?  Their clients hire actors like Phillip for a variety of reasons.  In Phillip's case, he is hired by the daughter of a famed, but forgotten actor (Emoto) to portray a magazine writer doing a story on him.  The family wants the actor to feel better as he slips into dementia.  Phillip is also hired by a mother with a young daughter wanting to gain admission to a prestigious school.  The mom wants Phillip to pose as the child's long-lost father in hopes that it will make her happy enough to pass the tests for admission.  Then, Phillip is expected to walk away and never see the clients again.

This is a dicey business and the clients are lying to or playing tricks on their loved ones for temporary comfort, but it is natural for Phillip to develop a friendship with the old man or the young girl that makes them more difficult to walk away from.  That part is predictable, but Fraser makes it work with his sweetness and tenderness.  Because he's lonely himself, he finds these interactions help him as well. The other employees of Rental Family, Inc. take on tasks of their own, including a woman who poses as a man's mistress to take the heat when the wife ultimately finds out.  A company like Rental Family Inc. pushes the boundaries of legality and morality, not to mention taking an emotional toll on the actors.  

It's a shame that Rental Family isn't better than it is.  It takes a while to get going and it only covers the situations on a superficial level.  I enjoyed it in parts rather than as a whole.  I don't know if such a company exists.  In a sense, they are not much different than being prostitutes, except no sex is involved.  But for the right price, would that change?  

Fackham Hall (2025) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Jim O'Hanlon

Starring:  Thomasin McKenzie, Tom Felton, Damian Lewis, Katherine Waterston, Ben Radcliffe, Emma Laird

The rigid social etiquette of Downton Abbey and similar movies depicting the wealthy and powerful British society of the 1930's is skewered in Fackham Hall (get it? Sounds like Fuck 'Em All).  Like any movie with an Airplane! or Naked Gun style of comedy in which gags of all sorts are hurled at the viewer with varying degrees of success.  Fackham Hall has some jokes that land and others which cause the audience to groan, but there are worse things you can do with roughly ninety minutes of your time.

The Davenports live in Fackham Hall, but times are tough.  They may lose the property due to financial woes, but once their younger daughter Poppy (Laird) is married off to her first cousin Archibald (Felton), then all be right with the world...legalities be damned.  But Poppy chooses to abandon Archibald at the altar to marry a low-class manure salesman and now the family is pressuring Rose (McKenzie) to marry Archibald even though she doesn't love him.  She instead falls for a new servant (Radcliffe) who was sent there by his orphanage to deliver a letter for patriarch Humphrey Davenport (Lewis) but instead is hired mistakenly to be a member of the staff.

The plot is not as important in these types of spoofs as the jokes themselves.  The actors deliver the straight lines and the gags in the same manner.  It is better that they are not in on the joke or act as if they are.  They need to stay above the ridiculousness while being part of it at the same time.  Leslie Nielsen was a master at this, and these actors are all good enough to understand their assignment and make Fackham Hall operate as well as can be expected.  Movies like this are hit-and-miss anyway.  It's difficult to recreate Airplane! because that was groundbreaking in the world of movie comedy, but Fackham Hall does its best.  

Eternity (2025) * * *

 

Directed by:  David Freyne

Starring:  Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Olga Merediz, John Early

The afterlife of Eternity is depressing if you think about it, but Eternity exists in the emotion of the moment and as a romantic comedy of sorts.  Thank goodness the filmmakers decided to give Eternity a lighter tone because this stuff could get heavy.  In Eternity, a recently departed person arrives at a way station and has seven days to choose how he or she would like to spend eternity.  The place operates like a bazaar in which salespeople are pitching their eternity packages (Studio 54, suburbia, etc.)  Afterlife Coordinators are assigned to help them acclimate to the process and the people stay in a nice hotel room while deciding their fate.  

The catch is:  You can only choose one and you can't change your mind.  This becomes a bigger issue for Joan (Olsen) who arrives days after the death of her husband of 65 years, Larry (Teller), and finds her first husband Luke (who died in the Korean War) has been waiting for Joan to arrive so he could spend forever with her.  Does Joan choose Larry, with whom she had built a happy life and family, or Luke, who represents what could have been?  Not an easy decision, and the fact that Larry and Luke are both good people makes it harder for her.  She could always choose an afterlife without either person, but we know that isn't in the cards.

Joan's dilemma is the hook for Eternity, and it helps move it along.  Teller, Olsen, and Turner all play kind, likable people who understandably want what's best for themselves.  After all, we're talking forever and that's a mighty long time.  Luke and Larry know what they want.  Joan is more hesitant, and the pressure is unduly placed on the poor woman.  Even if one chooses with certainty, they are unable to opt out of their choice if they grow bored with the scenario after a few years.  They can try to escape their fate, but then they are tracked down by the afterlife police and tossed into "the void", which I guess is a version of hell.  Then again, having to choose only one eternity sounds like hell in and of itself.  I told you this stuff could get sad, but Eternity walks the tightrope between comedy and tearjerking very well.  Some people might have an issue with some of the romantic comedy aspects of Eternity, but to me it's better to laugh so you may not cry. 

Mr. Majestyk (1974) * * *

 

Directed by:  Richard Fleischer

Starring:  Charles Bronson, Al Lettieri, Lee Purcell, Paul Koslo, Linda Cristal

Vince Majestyk (Bronson) is a Colorado farmer who only wants to have his melons picked and make a living.  One morning, he finds himself in the middle of more controversy than he's used to.  Normally, he picks a group of hard-working Mexicans to pick his crop, but that morning he finds a troublemaker (Koslo) replaced his crew with an all-white crew.  Vince wants the group he picked and soon beats the hell out of the goon and is booked on assault charges.  He's a progressive kind of guy.  

That would be enough for one movie, but while Vince is being transported to jail, he runs afoul of a mobster (Lettieri) who is on the same bus.  The mobster's cronies shoot up the bus in an attempt to free him, but Vince takes him off the bus to safety.  The mobster strikes a deal with Vince to free him, which Vince reluctantly accepts because he doesn't trust him.  He instinctively believes the mobster will have him killed, so he makes a deal with the local DA to turn in the mobster.  Got that?  It'll all be on the quiz. 

Mr. Majestyk isn't about plot anyway.  It is a showcase for Charles Bronson's unique brand of violence and sly humor.  Mr. Majestyk maybe contain the most one-liners of Bronson's career.  He's having fun here and that makes a traditional action movie more entertaining.  Mr. Majestyk isn't intended to raise the genre to any new heights.  It's full of action and it works.  Sometimes that's all that is needed.