Scrooge (1970) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Ronald Neame

Starring:  Albert Finney, Michael Medwin, Dame Edith Evans, Alec Guinness, Laurence Naismith, Suzanne Neve, Kenneth More, David Collings

The Scrooge soundtrack and movie were staples at my house during the Christmas season.    It took me years to decipher the lyrics to "Thank You Very Much" due to the singers' Cockney accents.   But I did, by God.     One could easily assume a musical based on Dickens' A Christmas Carol would be a surefire disaster.     However, the songs are good and the actors play the material with spirit.    The rest takes care of itself.  

Scrooge's plot and themes are so universally known by now that I don't need to recap the finer plot points.    What a relief.    And if you do not know A Christmas Carol because you have been trapped in an underwater cave for most of your life, then read the book before reading one more sentence of this review.     Ebenezer Scrooge is played by Albert Finney, who is pictured above.    It is mind boggling to realize he was only about 35 when the movie was made.    His makeup and mannerisms ensure a convincing performance as the old, mean miser.    Alec Guinness is a Jacob Marley complete with very heavy looking chains and a load of regret in his soul.    I read on imdb.com the weight of the chains injured Guinness and forced him to undergo surgery.    I wasn't aware they were so authentic.

The songs by Leslie Bricusse are enjoyable.    "Thank You Very Much" is the highlight, but there are some nice quiet numbers underscoring Scrooge's regret (You, You) and even loud, bombastic celebrations (December the 25th).    They work well and they don't force you to fast forward to the scenes in which the characters aren't singing.     Not every musical can claim that.  

Scrooge is a faithful adaptation of the Dickens classic.    It does take liberties with the story by having Scrooge reveal exactly how much he donates to the charity he initially shunned and by identifying himself as the turkey donor to the Cratchits.     The scene in which Cratchit receives an unexpected raise the day after Christmas is gone too, mostly because Scrooge takes care of all of that business when he delivers the turkey.    This is a big-scale musical that succeeds. 

American Ultra (2015) * 1/2

Directed by:  Nima Nourizadeh

Starring:  Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace, Walton Goggins, Bill Pullman, Connie Britton

I do not know what audience American Ultra wanted to reach.    It is a relentless bloodbath with a comic tone, which means the tone is all screwed up.    Did the filmmakers think it was funny to have its stoner, slacker lead Mike Howell (Eisenberg) suddenly find himself as Rambo?    I'm at a loss.    Did they think people would appreciate the reteaming of Eisenberg and Stewart from 2009's Adventureland?    Do they think people even remember that movie?    I don't pretend to know what the purpose behind the making of American Ultra is, but I know the end result is a mess.

Mike and his girlfriend Phoebe (Stewart) live together in a quiet West Virginia town.    In between his shifts at the local convenience store, they smoke a lot of weed and Mike is unable to find the right time to propose to Phoebe.    Mike is unaware that he is in fact a sleeper CIA hitman whose skills can be summoned after he is activated by a CIA agent named Victoria (Britton) who wants to keep him alive.    It seems Mike was part of a now abandoned CIA program and the program leader Adrian Yates (Grace) wants all remaining operatives killed.    Victoria has a conscience and wants to stop him.    I am puzzled by Yates' endgame here.    After all of the loss of lives, property damage, and bloodshed, was it worth it to kill one man who was not even aware he was part of the program to begin with?    Wouldn't have been better to just let him be?    I suppose there would not have been a movie then, but that would have been fine by me.

Mike is attacked by two men outside of the convenience store and he kills them.    He will kill many more in brutal ways.    There is a lot of blood, bones breaking, and things blowing up.    There was once a time long, long, long ago where this may have been passable entertainment, but now I think I have seen every possible way someone can be shot or killed.    It is depressing to watch.    Simply lining up guys for Mike to mow down is boring, no matter how creatively it is framed.   

The nature of Mike and Phoebe's relationship changes amid plot twists and surprises.    It adds only minimal interest to them and the proceedings.     Eisenberg and Stewart do what they can, but there isn't a lot to work with here.    The other actors are skilled to be certain, but as much as they try, we simply do not care about them or anything else going on in American Ultra.   

I am about as tired of pot smoking in movies as I am of shoot 'em ups and relentless violence.    It seems to be a fallback personality trait anymore.    At least Cheech and Chong made funny faces when they inhaled.   

Ricki and the Flash (2015) * 1/2

Directed by:  Jonathan Demme

Starring:  Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Mamie Gummer, Rick Springfield, Sebastian Stan, Audra McDonald

Ricki and the Flash runs about 95 minutes and at least twenty of those minutes show Ricki (Streep) and her band performing cover songs.    Full songs.    The Springsteen number goes on forever.    The musical performances felt like filler for a movie that is ultimately thin.    There is a better film in here somewhere, I know it.     But Ricki and the Flash takes the easy way out in nearly every frame.    All of its conflicts are handled neatly and, wouldn't you know it, a couple songs at a wedding can make everything better.  

The Ricki of the title is played by Meryl Streep, who despite her decent singing voice is simply too old to play this part.    She was known in her previous life as Linda, a housewife who abandons her husband and three children to chase musical stardom in California.     It is said she had a hit, but her dreams stopped at a dingy club where she and her band The Flash play to small, but adoring audiences of barflies.    The songs, including American Girl by Tom Petty, Drift Away by Dobie Gray, etc. do not sound overproduced a la Purple Rain, which is refreshing.    The Flash's lead guitarist (and Ricki's love interest) is Greg, played by Rick Springfield.    Springfield handles himself with aplomb in his scenes with the iconic Streep.    He is tender and caring, with a touch of regret on how he handled his previous domestic life before playing nightly at this dive bar.

Ricki soon receives a disturbing phone call from her ex-husband Pete (Kline), who asks Ricki to come back to Indianapolis to help her daughter Julie (Gummer-Streep's real life daughter) with a heartbreaking divorce from her unfaithful husband.      "I think she needs her mother," Pete says, which is a refrain echoed at least one other time in the film.    Ricki hops on the next plane to Indy, but it isn't surprising that Julie is less than excited to see her.     Pete, who is remarried, forever plays the arbitrator trying to keep things on an even keel.    His house is really nice by the way.   

Poor Julie is heartbroken beyond words.   Ricki's initial attempts at comfort don't go over well.   ("Sometimes people have starter marriages.")    But after a day out in which Ricki takes Julie for a haircut and a mani-pedi, Julie starts to feel better about her mother.    Their initial conflicts over Ricki's leaving are glossed over once Ricki confronts Julie's shameless ex one night in a bar.    The payoff is not satisfying, but after the confrontation Julie's ex is never mentioned again.    It is on to bigger and better things.   All is well.

Ricki's presence proves to be a distraction that Pete's wife Maureen (McDonald) can no longer tolerate.    She asks Ricki to go back to California, but later does a 180 degree swerve and invites Ricki to her son Josh's (Stan) wedding.    She did more than just invite her and her plus-one, as you will read later.    The wedding itself is one of those movie weddings which takes place outdoors on perfectly manicured grounds that would shame Buckingham Palace.    There are only a few rows of guests at the wedding, so why do they need all of the extra space?   Yet there is an entire banquet hall full at the reception.    Who is paying for the wedding and how?   

In between Ricki's return flight home and the wedding, she and the Flash perform two full songs showcasing Streep's singing acumen.    She's pretty good.    The band sounds pretty good.    But is she truly happy knowing she left her family to become the lead singer in a dime-a-dozen cover band?    She also has a day job as a cashier in a supermarket.    This whole dream thing wasn't well thought out.   

Ricki and Greg attend the wedding, but in a surprise move, the wedding band is replaced by the Flash.    The other members and their equipment were flown in also.    I'm sure that wasn't cheap.   Ricki sings the aforementioned Springsteen song which has nearly everyone at the reception on the dance floor.   The dance floor is large enough to accommodate them, thank goodness.    Everyone is happy.   Life is good.   The movie is over.    Huh? 

The movie introduces numerous potential conflicts and tidies them up all within 95 minutes.   Ricki herself wears leather pants, stiletto boots, and braided hair extensions nearly everywhere she goes.    Add in the heavy makeup and you could easily mistake her for an aging prostitute.    Streep and company are to be credited here for their effort.    They make the most of things even though their isn't much to the film.     Ricki and the Flash begins as at least potentially juicy melodrama and forsakes it all for some cover songs.    Somehow a few songs will make everything better for everything involved.     If you consider the director is Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme and there are two Oscar winners in the cast, Ricki and the Flash could have been a gem, but it doesn't aspire to be anything more than a showcase for Streep's vocals.  

Death Sentence (2007) * 1/2

Directed by:  James Wan

Starring:  Kevin Bacon, Kelly Preston, John Goodman, Aisha Tyler, Garrett Hedlund, Matthew O'Leary, Stuart Lafferty

I wish Death Sentence delved deeper into the mindset of Nick Hume (Bacon), a well-off insurance executive whose life changes forever after his son is brutally slain by vicious thugs.    The killing was part of a gang initiation and Nick's son Brendan (Lafferty) was in the wrong place at the wrong time.    Nick witnesses the killing, but is unable to stop it.   

Sadly, Death Sentence is only interested in being a blood-soaked revenge fantasy.    It is a sad, dark, depressing film.    Body parts are blown off and others die in increasingly horrible ways.     There is no relief or insight.    It is all gloom.    The odd part is the final disposition of the main villain is kept off screen.     Did Death Sentence suddenly decide that showing the villain get his head blown off would be too gratuitous?     I suppose I will never know the answer to that question.

Death Sentence never convincingly traces Nick's path from grief-stricken father to a vigilante not a thousand miles removed from Charles Bronson.    The killer is caught, but the DA flippantly tells Nick that he would only be able to put him in jail for a few years.    "You stopped at the only gas station in America that didn't have a security camera,"  he tells Nick.    Nick recants his testimony that he was able to ID the killer and decides to take the law into his own hands.    He roots around his garage and finds a knife that would make Crocodile Dundee proud to begin his mission. 

Nick fails to realize that his killing of the punk would lead to an all-out war against the gang the kid belonged to.    He is identified quickly and soon enough he is being chased through a parking garage by tattooed creeps with automatic weapons.    The gang is led by Billy Darley (Hedlund), whose tattooed neck and trimmed goatee guarantee that he would not be able to find suitable employment in the private sector.    Darley is irredeemably hateful and cruel.     He and his crew are without a human bone in their bodies.    They are destined to be targets for Nick.  

Nick transforms from mild-mannered executive to an indestructible Rambo in the blink of an eye.    He can outrun the thugs and defeat them in hand-to-hand combat as if he were channeling James Bond.    Without any evidence that he has ever even held a gun, Nick can suddenly fire at the baddies with accuracy that would make a sniper envious.    Oh, and he survives bullets that would kill an ordinary man and falls from great heights without breaking any bones.    He is no longer Nick Hume; he is The Terminator.   

There is no point in discussing the film's performances or script.    The goal of Death Sentence is established early.    I will say John Goodman's turn as an uber-creepy arms dealer/father of Billy Darley is unique, but we don't see enough of him.    It is not clear why he decides to let Nick go at a crucial point in the movie.    Were more scenes with Goodman edited out?    Did director Wan decide there would be too much dialogue in between the bloodbaths to leave Goodman in the film more?  

Where are the cops in all of this, you ask?   A sympathetic detective (Tyler) issues hollow warnings to Nick about taking the law into his own hands, but generally stays on the sidelines to let Nick do his thing, even after two cops watching Nick's house have their throats slashed.     It is inconceivable that the police would not take the lead and go after the gang themselves, but Death Sentence is first and foremost a fantasy of one man taking on his son's killers alone.    The war escalates and more members of Nick's family are affected, but what happens to them becomes an afterthought that is explained away by throwaway dialogue at the end.

Death Sentence is likely to appeal to audiences that love their action bloody and brutal.    It is shown without any point of view or insight into human nature.    We get the sense that Nick always had it in him to become Rambo, but just needed a terrible thing like the murder of his son to bring it out.    We do not feel Nick's pain and how it transforms him.    His transformation happens quicker than you can say "Death Wish".     The film will likely act as propaganda for those who think everyone should be armed with guns because that would somehow reduce gun violence.    These people can not watch Death Sentence and agree this would be the case.  

The Karate Kid (1984) * * *

Directed by:  John G. Avildsen

Starring:  Ralph Macchio, Noriyuki "Pat" Morita, Elisabeth Shue, William Zabka, Martin Kove

The Karate Kid is a Rocky-type of movie with Rocky's director John G. Avildsen at the helm.   An underdog overcomes his enemies and wins out in the end, but it is also about the sweet friendship between the underdog and his karate teacher/apartment complex janitor, Mr. Miyagi (Morita- Oscar nominated for his work here).

The movie begins with Daniel LaRusso (Macchio) and his widowed mother moving from Newark, NJ to Los Angeles for a new job.    His mother is a nice lady with a big heart, but not equipped to handle it when Daniel soon finds himself being bullied by high school kids who look at least twenty and are black belts in karate.   Daniel begins dating the ex-girlfriend of Johnny (Zabka), the hateful leader of the teens.   He and his cohorts take out their displeasure on Daniel's face regularly.   After fighting off the teens during one particularly brutal attack, Miyagi, a karate expert himself, agrees to teach Daniel karate.   

Johnny is a California blonde with contempt oozing from every pore.   His cohorts follow him around and do his bidding, which usually involves tormenting Daniel in some way.    Their function is simply to receive their comeuppance in the end.    The black belts, who are students of the malicious Kreese (Kove) of the Cobra Kai dojo, are one-dimensional, but we don't mind seeing them get their butts kicked.   

The Karate Kid taps into the daily anguish of someone who is bullied on a daily basis.   Every day for Daniel becomes an exercise in eluding the Cobra Kai, until he learns karate and enters a local annual tournament which Johnny usually wins.   It is sad to see Daniel forced to dress as a shower stall (curtain and all- it's actually pretty inventive) to attend the Halloween dance with his girlfriend Ali (Shue) in order to avoid detection.   Ali is pretty, sweet, sincere, and rich.   Daniel is scorned by her parents because he is from the San Fernando Valley.    They seem to like Johnny, who must pull one heck of an acting job to even pass as approachable, let alone likable. 

Miyagi is a wise, elderly Japanese-American who can back up his talk.    His initial training includes Daniel sanding the floor, waxing the car, and painting the fence.   ("Wax on. Wax off")   Daniel feels like free labor until Miyagi reveals the method to his madness.    Morita brings warm humor to Miyagi and thus creates one of the most memorable characters in recent memory.    People respond to his strength and eternal goodness, which carried him through three other sequels.    His relationship with "Daniel-san" turns out to be exactly what the doctor ordered for each.

The fighting in the tournament is well choreographed and by now we know who wins.    Avildsen knows how to push the underdog angle without pushing too far.    It does not retain all of its original power, mostly because I am not fourteen anymore, but The Karate Kid is still a good entertainment which you can watch on cable and not feel like you just wasted two hours.  

Jarhead (2005) * * *

Directed by:  Sam Mendes

Starring:  Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Chris Cooper, Jamie Foxx, Dennis Haysbert

Jarhead is a war movie that follows Marine recruit Tony Swofford (Gyllenhaal) through the hell of basic training only to find him serving in a "war" that does not require him to use any of that training.    He is an expert sniper who never has the chance to fire his rifle at the enemy during the brief military exercise that was Operation Desert Storm.    "Four days, four hours, one minute.    That was my war," he narrates regretfully.     He arrived about a decade too early to be American Sniper.

I realized at the end of Jarhead that there was little payoff, but the movie isn't about a payoff.  It documents the mounting frustration of a Marine who is trained to kill and then is forced to wait on the sidelines for a war that was over before he knew what hit him.    Is this a bad thing?    To me, it wouldn't be, but for Tony it was.  

The dawn of Tony's military career wasn't promising.    He is screamed at by a drill instructor who sounds as if he studied and memorized Sgt. Hartman from Full Metal Jacket.     Then, he is hazed and branded by more veteran Marines including Troy (Sarsgaard), who would later become his best friend.    After serving time in sick bay, he falls under the tutelage of Staff Sgt. Sykes (Foxx), a career Marine who has not modeled his mannerisms after Sgt. Hartman.    But, Sykes is tough, assertive, and somewhat practical under the circumstances.    Tony soon falls in line and becomes a machine who can't wait to practice his skills on live targets.

It is Tony's misfortune to be deployed to Saudi Arabia during Iraq's occupation of Kuwait in late 1990.    He was part of Operation Desert Shield, which was a fancy name for soldiers standing around awaiting an eventual conflict.    Tony and his fellow Marines are stationary for months, trying in vain to relieve their daily boredom and avoid heatstroke.    When war finally does break out, the Marines find most of the battles involve air strikes on key targets with little to no ground battles.     One mission involves watching over oil fields that have been set on fire by Iraqis.    For Tony, his experience is one of mounting frustration and bottle-up aggression.    When Tony and Troy finally get their chance to use their sniping skills, they are ordered to stand down because the killing may blow the opportunity for an impending airstrike.     Troy is nearly court-martialed after his frustration boils over.    "Let him take the shot!," he screams to no avail.     In Tony and Troy's minds, why train them to be snipers only to never utilize their skills?

The focus of Jarhead is to depict the Marines' slow descent into madness caused by inaction.     They release their frustration with frequent parties and bouts of drinking.     Tony's long-distance relationship with his girlfriend hangs by a thread.    He learns of a potential rival through letters and there is little he can do to stop it.    Tony's time in Iraq is one giant exercise in futility.    He begins to regret not going to college instead. 

Men like Tony signed up for the Marines for reasons they can't even fully understand.    "They were the first to get me to sign a contract," he tells a television journalist.     He learns a skill and becomes an expert at it, but what a bummer to not be able to brag to the world that he killed someone.     For someone like Tony, the military was meant to serve as an ego trip.    He instead has four months of desert and little else.

Jarhead is unlike most military-themed movies I have seen because it does not end with a battle or extended gunplay.    It was refreshing.    I would like it if boxing movies did not always end with a big fight also.     The movie is geared towards seeing the bureaucracy of the military at work and men like Tony and Troy as simply tiny cogs in a very large machine.     They served their country, but in reality, they did not receive the opportunity to serve their egos.     This may be a blessing in disguise.    Most war movies are either patriotic propaganda or statements that "War is hell".    I have not seen a movie before in which was war is boring.  

Creed (2015) * *

Directed by:  Ryan Coogler

Starring:  Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Phylicia Rashad, Tessa Thompson, Tony Bellew, Graham McTavish

Creed reminds me of the plot of Rocky V (1990), in which Rocky laments the presence of a self-serving promoter trying any means necessary to lure Rocky back into the ring for one last fight.    Creed feels like one more attempt to have Rocky Balboa appear on movie screens yet again.    Why?   Rocky Balboa (2006) was pretty good, even though the climactic fight between 60ish Balboa and a heavyweight champion 30 years his junior was implausible at best.     The film tied up loose ends pretty nicely, so why drag Rocky out again?    Creed never fully answers the question.    It is serviceable, but Adonis Johnson (Jordan) is the surrogate Rocky.    The now-70ish Rocky can not plausibly step into the ring again, so Adonis does it for him.    Is there anything about Creed that convinces me that it needed to be made?    No.

The "Creed" of the title is Adonis, the illegitimate son of the late Apollo Creed, whose head was crushed by Ivan Drago in Rocky IV back in 1985.    This would make Adonis roughly 31, which is hardly a spring chicken in the fight game.    For those who don't know, Apollo was Rocky's opponent in the first two Rocky films.    They split the first two fights, which led to a private third fight at the end of Rocky III between the two in which the winner was never revealed.     It is here and I wouldn't dream of telling you who won.  

Adonis' life starts out as an orphan in a series of juvenile halls, but is soon adopted by Creed's widow Marianne (Rashad).    She raises him in comfort and wealth, but like his father he is attracted to boxing.    He fights in Mexico and then leaves a cushy corporate job to travel to Philly and seek out Rocky, who still runs his South Philly restaurant Adrian's and visits his deceased wife's grave and his best friend Paulie's grave almost weekly.    If you consider how much Paulie drank, it shocked me he lived as long as he did.  

Adonis convinces Rocky to train him, which Rocky does despite his advancing age and declining health.    It is refreshing to Sylvester Stallone is playing his age.    He reminds us that he still possesses the power and raw acting he displayed in the original Rocky.    In recent years, Stallone has been involved in vain action films which tried to distract from the fact that he is pushing 70.     It is honest to see him cop to his age and play it accordingly.     Jordan is an appealing actor who does what he can, but is his character interesting enough to carry a film without Rocky at his side?    His relationship with his neighbor Bianca (Thompson), a fledgling singer,  contains little sizzle.    It does not possess the awkward sweetness of Rocky courting Adrian.     Adonis himself is a man living personally and professionally in his father's shadow.    Rocky tells Adonis of his son's relocation to Vancouver to escape his father's shadow.    This provides context as to why Rocky agrees to train Adonis and sets up a quasi-father/son relationship.   

Creed, like all of the Rocky films, ends with a Big Fight.   In this case, Adonis' opponent is light-heavyweight champion "Pretty Boy" Ricky Conlan (Bellew), whose physique reminds me of the pot-bellied Damon Wayans in The Great White Hype.   ("I'm in shape.   I'm round.")   Bellew talks trash, but he is not the imposing physical presence of an Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang, or Ivan Drago, which detracts from the fight's credibility.    There is a back story of Conlan soon having to relinquish his title to serve a seven-year prison sentence, but this is unnecessary exposition.

It is difficult to justify why Creed needed to be made except to make a few more bucks for the Rocky franchise.    The ending of the film promises an eighth installment, but we have seen all of this before.   The training sequences which play like music videos (remember those?), the fights which do not at all resemble real boxing matches, and the usual trainer/fighter blowup and eventual reconciliation are all here.     There are echoes of scenes from Rocky II involving chasing a runaway chicken and running through the streets of Philly with admirers following not too far behind.    Most of Creed reminds you of things that were done better in previous Rocky films.