The Half of It is a witty romance story with a lot of heart and plenty of drama involving high schoolers trying to figure out the messy art of love. (See the movie trailer below.)
In it, Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) is a loner expatriate from China who helps her disenfranchised single father pay the bills by writing class assignments for other students. Along comes tongue-tied footballer Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer), who wants Ellie to help him write love notes to popular art student Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire). If you think this sounds a lot like Cyrano de Bergerac, you're right, except that it's been modernized and set in flyover America.
There are all kinds of complications in the story. Ellie doesn't want to write love letters initially but Ellie's electrical power is about to be shut off and Paul offers to pay substantially more. Paul becomes impatient with making progress and wants to move ahead with Aster. Aster is dating with the football team's quarterback who is sure they will be married one day and her father is pretty happy about the pairing. And no one knows that Ellie and Aster are secretly in love with each other, complicating everyone else's relationships.
This story occurring in flyover country, where no one knows much about the world at large, makes the obvious that much less obvious. And it all makes this a cute, adorable yet painful story about youth in unattainable love.
The Half of It move trailer through YouTube available here:
I saw The Verdict in theaters in 1982 and it was one of the best dramas I had ever seen. Recently I listened to a film podcast by Full Cast and Crew that focused on the brilliant performance of lead actor Paul Newman and it brought back all the memories of this exceptional film. So I watched it again on HBO/Max and it hasn't lost any of its dramatic power, so many years later. (See official movie trailer below.)
What the podcaster says is, this film contains brilliant performances by all the actors, indeed by everyone on the cast and crew. It's one of those perfect films. So if you get a chance to see The Verdict, see it. The only thing that doesn't age well in this film are the vehicles filmed naturally in the streets of Boston and New York City. But that would be true in any film. Everything else holds up.
Paul Newman plays Frank Galvin, an "outcast, alcoholic Boston lawyer" as imDb.com describes him, who "sees the chance to salvage his career and self-respect by taking a medical malpractice case to trial rather than settle." Of course, it's more than that. Way more than that. As is often the case, what Galvin seeks is redemption. Throughout the story, he comes to pit the outcome of the trial first against how much he is likely to earn in a quick settlement and then in what he can win in redemption of his soul as a human being.
At his side is perennial character actor Jack Warden as Mickey, another lawyer who at first brings Galvin the case to "throw him a bone," then helps him litigate when Galvin finds the going getting tough. They find themselves at odds with sinister forces who just want to settle the case and move on, including the Archdiocese of Boston in the person of Bishop Brophy (Edward Binns), the opposing counsel who represents the Archdiocese, Ed Concannon (James Mason), and a judge who often sides with defense to the point of favoritism, Judge Hoyle (Milo O'Shea). All these are fine veteran actors at the top of their game.
Not all is as it seems in this case. A patient now lives in a vegetable state with no friends, little family, and no advocates for her future. Her sister and her boyfriend just want to settle the case and move on, too. The doctors who led to her state care more to move on than explore justice. And opposing counsel is known for pulling questionable tactics to win their cases. And Galvin isn't in top form as an attorney.
Galvin turns down the settlement. He thinks he can win the case. But things keep getting in the way, by hook or by crook. You feel for this poor man, for so long destitute professionally and personally, at the end of his rope and yet just within reach of redemption. You pull for him, even as despicable as he sometimes seems.
The rest of this supporting cast play critical roles, too. Sally Doneghy (Roxanne Hart), the patient's sister, so insecure and yet hopeful. Laura Fischer (Charlotte Rampling), a mysterious woman always asking questions but at Galvin's side at critical moments. Maureen Rooney (Julie Bovasso), an attending nurse who refuses to testify but knows an important secret. And Kaitlin Costello (Lindsay Crouse), the admitting nurse who can't be found.
If you want a riveting drama, if you want acting at the top of its game, if you want a story you won't guess the outcome of till the very end, see The Verdict.
Think Momma Mia 2 without the music, without the Mediterranean, without the glamour, and without the fun. Ticket to Paradise is about a divorced, fighting couple who travel to Bali in the Pacific near Malaysia to try to stop their daughter from marrying the man of her dream in the locale of her dreams. (See the movie trailer below.)
The production spent their budget on dream-location shooting and two of the biggest names in Hollywood, casting George Clooney and Julia Roberts, then added a decent but predictable script. It's okay, if you're Clooney and Roberts fans. It's okay, if you're wasting-your-vaca-time-on-a-resort-island-locale okay. And maybe right now, in the record heat of this summer, commisserating with the cast and crew who shot the film in the tropics.
Okay, not everything about this film was bad. You can dream about your own South Pacific vacation and maybe running into George Clooney and Julia Roberts. Maybe even run into a lush marriage ceremony while you're there and chuckle about the cultural disconnects. And watch as many planned events go awry. That's the fun of watching Ticket to Paradise, as you sympathize with the engaged couple. Actually, it's a pretty good story if limited in scope and setting. You could do worse.
Or ... maybe you're tired of blockbuster films that aren't making it this year and you want something simple with some laughs. Ticket to Paradise just might be the summer flick for you.
Dennis Quaid leads this preachy real-life drama about a Southern family whose faith is tested by death and calamity. (See movie trailer below.)
After attending his brother's unexpected funeral, Doug White (Dennis Quaid) and this family catch a private flight back home. But not long after takeoff, the elderly pilot dies, leaving Doug to fly and land the twin-engine plane he's never flown. In fact, he's only ever flown one plane before, a single-engine Cesna, and barely landed it safely, with instructors onboard. Now he has only his own wits, the help of his wife Terri (Heather Graham), and the devotion of two teenage daughters Bailey (Abigail Rhyne) and Maggie (Jessi Case) to drive him.
On the ground guiding Doug are the Miami and local flight controllers and the one pilot who once faced the same circumstances years ago, Kari Sorenson (Jesse Metcalfe). Film is heavy on dramatic scenes as well.
Getting through the ordeal requires Doug and his family to dig deep into their personal faith and family relationships, themes which the film explores throughout.
The Quiet Girl is a charming Irish film about a young girl sent to spend the summer with childless relatives in Rural Ireland. It's a rocky relationship at first, with the father figure (Seán) unresponsive to her and the mother figure (Eibhlin) doting but insecure. The rule of the house is, there will be no secrets, but little Cáit will come to find out the house is ruled by a very big secret, a big secret that once it's out will bring them all closer. (See movie trailer below.)
Cáit (Catherine Clinch) has lived a simple but deprived life with her poor family, and Eibhlin (Carrie Crowley) slowly begins to fill it with the gifts of love, care, respect, and upbringing. At first she gives Cáit boy's cloths they have on hand, and then she begins to dote on Cáit with food and as Seán (Andrew Bennett) warms to her they buy clothing of her own, treating her like their own daughter. They begin to trust her with little chores, watching her closely and seeing that she doesn't get into trouble. She's invited to help Seán around the farm with chores, and they take her to Mass with them and to the market where they buy her little things. She's like their child.
By the end, Cáit has become a fixture of the family and Seán and Eibhlin have become endeared to her, used to her. It's nearly time to return Cáit to her own family when the big secret comes bounding out. The scene is a heartstopper.
This story is heavy on character. The setting, cold and chilling at the beginning, becomes bucolic and warm and comfortable. It's a great summer or early autumn afternoon view for everyone in your family. It will find a place in your heart. Winner of the 2023 Oscar for Best International Feature Film.
In this suspenseful bank-heist movie, Inside Man pits Denzel Washington as a skilled police detective against Clive Owen as a well-planned bank robber and Jodie Foster as a highly motivated negotiator for Christopher Plummer, the man with something to hide. Call it a high-stakes game of chess for everyone. (See the movie trailer below.)
It seems like an ordinary day at this mid-city bank, when a van load of "painters" arrives. But all hell breaks loose when they exchange paint cans for machine guns and start yelling commands and firing shots. Everything goes into lockdown as bank employees and customers are ordered to strip down to their underwear and put on matching painter outfits, caps, and masks. They become hostages, herded into small groups and sequestered on the floor in separate rooms. Anyone who doesn't follow orders is slapped around, beaten, and threatened within an inch of their lives.
Police get a hint there's a problem and arrive. Communications is set up with the robbers, but nothing is quite as it seems. It's up to police to figure out who the robbers are, what they want, and how to shut down the steal. But the robbers aren't playing by the usual rules.
The founder of the bank steps in to offer police any help, but he's shoved aside. He contacts a high-power broker he's used before to speak with the robbers. There's a certain box in the bank he doesn't want anyone to see, which otherwise could be ruinous to his business. She must see to its security at all costs. A high-dollar payoff to the thieves is considered.
Things seem to be going just as the thieves planned, but the police detective just can't let it go. Does it matter? The movie title matters. You'll have to watch it to get it—but careful, it's not what you think.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is one of the campier superhero movies of the Marvel Universe, and it's played with honest, fun humor by Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man and a stellar supporting cast. This includes Evangaline Lilly as the Wasp, Michael Douglas as Dr. Hank Pym, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet Van Dyne. Kathryn Newton plays Ant-Man's daughter, Cassie. They all get sucked by a vortex into the Quantum Realm in this latest episode of this, for my money, silly tale. (See the movie trailer below.)
The story represents a revisit to the realm for Janet, who re-tangles with old adversaries. Solving old rivalries and their searches for vengeance is the key to everyone returning home. This episode features lots of squirmy quantum-size creatures brought to life size for our heroes to battle and tight squeezes to work their way out of. Naturally, Ant-Man and the Wasp, with the help of Cassie, must save the day.
It's impossible not to enjoy Ant-Man for his likeable, self-deprecating style and whimsical humor. Everyone gels as characters in this story, and maybe this is what makes the campiness work so well. If nothing else, you'll enjoy watching everyone work awkwardly wholesomely good relationships to save the day.
My wife loves everything superhero, and she loved it. My daughter is so-so on superhero stories and she loved it, too. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania seems good for just about any audience. Give it a try!
Here is the Ant-Man and the Wasp trailer through YouTube:
Here's a great movie for escaping the summer heat: Extraction 2. It pits Chris Hemsworth as Tyler Rake, an Aussie special forces specialist extraordinaire, against Tornike Gorgrichiani as Zurab Rudiani, an operative of the Georgian military underworld. This film is full of action and extreme stunts and special effects with the intensity of a John Wick flick. (See movie trailer below.)
Extraction 2 picks up where the original Extraction leaves off. He's put back together and left to recover in a remote site then invited by Idris Elba to do a mission only he can accomplish: Rescue the sister and her family of Rake's estranged wife, who is the wife of Rudiani's brother. Rudiani lives in a maximum security prison in the country of Georgia, under the protection of the Ngazi, a paramilitary group. His family lives with him in this bleak, heavily defended facility.
To break in, to escape, to getaway and live, it's one long, massive fight and gun battle scene in the prison, on a train trip through desolate mountains, on a helicopter trip to Geneva, in a tall skyscraper in Geneva, and on and on. Guns blazing, grenades popping, bombs exploding, glass shattering, furniture disintegrating, pipes maiming, hatchets chopping, knives stabbing, mayhem chasing--you name it, you'll see it. And to top it off, the wife's husband (Rudiani's brother) has been killed and her teen son wants revenge, in addition to Rudiani. It's a long, hard-fought battle to the end. Boom! You won't even notice the heat anymore.
There are lots of feel-good movies about beleaguered sports teams with the guts and will to win amazing seasons. None are as thrilling as 12 Mighty Orphans. (See movie trailer below.)
That said...
Bittersweet is the film 12 Mighty Orphans, a true story of 12 orphans in pre-Great Depression Texas who play heroic, sport-changing high school football. They beat all but one team till the championship game at the end. Then they hold that team to one goal. With seconds to go...
Orphans also have one goal but no extra point, and they have the ball within scoring range as the clock ticks down to zero. It's a dramatic finish. No spoiler here, you have to see the film to learn the result. I will say my jaw dropped about a foot when I saw it. That's all I'll say.
It was a great film. It had a lot of heart. It was well told. The characters were wonderful—even the really, really, really bad guy, Frank Wynn (played by perennial character actor Wayne Knight) was a delight to watch be full-out evil. Luke Wilson is tremendous as the head coach, Rusty Russell. Martin Sheen is a memorable defensive coach and team doctor, Doc Hall. Good stuff!
What those kids had to put up with in real life was despicable. Rusty Russel, Doc Hall, and their fans lifted their lives. And those kids went on to do great things. All the elements of this true story make this a very watchable film, a remarkable story, a resoundingly great feel-good story. Till the end. Maybe you'll find a reason to like the end better than I did. Maybe it will be the wrap-up titles at the end telling what happens to many of the characters in their later lives.
Compartment Number 6 is a "road movie" that actually takes place on a Russian compartment train. It follows the travel of two strangers--a student (Laura, a Finn played by Seidi Haarla) and a miner (Ljoha, a Russian played by Yuriy Borisov) traveling to the Arctic Circle. (See official movie trailer below, released after it was Grand Award Winner at Cannes in 2021.)
Laura wants to study petroglyphs for her archeology studies. Ljoha wants to get to work, he says to earn money to build a business. They share the small compartment with only a language in common between them. At first Ljoha is brash and clumsy with Laura and she attempts to leave the train at the first stop. But with few resources to help her get along on her own, she returns. He softens his approach to her and they become closer.
As they learn more about each other, learn to trust each other, learn to like each other, a relationship develops. They become companions, united by their common ground rather than divided by what is different. They help each other. The train stops overnight in a small town and Ljoha takes Laura to meet his mother. It's time to move and when they arrive in Murmansk and her long mission to see the petroglyphs falls apart, she goes to the mine to see him. He comes to her aid.
This isn't your typical romance film, but it has those overtones by the end and it loses its claustrophobic feel once Laura is free to be herself in Ljoha's presence and even more so when they become physically and emotionally closer as a couple.
The ending is ambiguous. That's where the film faults and you're left feeling unfulfilled. That's why I gave it a thumbs down. It could have been so much more. You're left to wonder at too many unspoken, unexplained and undeveloped questions. This film could have been so much more. They raised the story to a climax and then let it drop.
Don Winslow is a best-selling storyteller. I found out how much while reading his six-story collection in Broken. Winslow's beat here is crime fiction, not usually my forte, but this is so well written I couldn't take my eyes off it. About 40 or so pages a story. So easy to get involved in the characters and their stories.
The feast before my eyes is six short stories, each an entirely separate, unique story, though they share some characters and some settings. It's not necessary to know that because they stories aren't connected. Each has its unique twist on crime with its own viewpoint and its own narrative thread.
"Broken" takes place in New Orleans. It's a gritty, heart-pounding crime tale about one brother seeking vengeance for the heartless murder of his kid-brother cop. "Crime 101" isn't about one place but about a string of places: the Pacific Coast Highway, and tracking down a thief about to hit a jewelry store--which one and by whom? "The San Diego Zoo" starts off hilarious, but soon melds into something more serious--how did a chimp get a gun? And there is the whodunit tale. "Sunset", "Paradise", and "The Last Ride" are equally different stories of crime and the pursuit of justice by well-defined characters you just have to know more about and you just have to stick with till the end of their story. And Winslow is such a good storyteller you're glad you're there to hear his story. "The Last Ride" has a very different kind of ending, an unsettling ending for sure. It was unexpected.
Winslow is such a good writer I'm eager to begin a reading journey in another of his books, Force. Let's see if it's as good as Broken. I'll bet it is.
Movie Review: The Truffle Hunters (2020) on Hulu and Starz 👍
The Truffle Hunters is a documentary style foreign film with subtitles that explores the lifestyles of the 70- and 80-year-old men of Piedmont, Italy, who hunt the rare and expensive white Alba truffle with their close friends, family dogs. (See the movie trailer below.)
Film follows the day and night exploits of several experienced scavengers. Shows the love and frustrations of supplying the cultural and epicurean interests of this delicacy. Features an interesting assortment of colorful local and regional characters fighting the battle to protect personal property rights and hunting sites from those who invade them for community and profit. You'll see why truffles are so expensive.
Offers good insight into one of Europe's finer gourmet food delicacies and the hunt to preserve their heritage. Highly recommended view.
Julian Stockin's 25th in the Thomas Kydd series, Yankee Mission, is another in the brilliant historical fiction age-of-sail adventure series.
There's not a bad moment in this narrative, which begins with a battle in the North American seas to save the British Navy's reputation against America's increasingly successful frigate campaigns versus the far more seasoned English. Captain Sir Thomas Kydd rejoins the Tyger crew, but he's wounded in battle and must convalesce back at home. There, the Admiralty finds him work proofing untested new technology for the British Navy, and he tries to learn a new lifestyle away from life at sea to which he's become accustomed. You'd be surprised what we take for granted today that needed to be concept tested before adoption in Kydd's day.
Then the Americans come after British merchant ships along native ports and once Kydd has restored his good health, he joins another fighting British frigate to chase down the mischief makers. But the chasing takes them across the Atlantic, south to the bitter cold waters of the Antarctic, and then up into the Pacific tracking down the enemy. There he finds a former American ally as a formidable foe and crew that will test his own considerable skills. The journey and battle is great storytelling, as always.
All of Stockwin's books are well researched, adding authenticity to his exciting tales. Available as hardcover, Kindle, or audiobook.
Movie Review: The Estate (2022) on Hulu and Prime Video 👎
I find The Estate, rated R, gross humor with explicit sexual situations and rampant foul language. Definitely not for the whole family. (See movie trailer below.)
Two sisters with a failing low-end restaurant on the wrong side of the tracks (it literally sits on the dilapidated side of the railroad tracks) rush to the side of their dying aunt's side in the hope of earning the inheritance of her estate. However, they find when they get there they aren't the only ones vying for the huge prize. Everyone has something at stake and no one is about to give up as the battle to win as the aunt's favorite relative heats up. Cast of very strange characters, none in the family with socially redeeming qualities.
Not a bad cast, but it seems like a waste of their talents. Some laughs, if you can get past the awkwardness of some of the situations and the language. I'm not a prude, but this goes overboard.
Not surprising, The Estate grossed very poorly worldwide, according to IMDb.com. I'd skip it.
Are superhero sports heroes your thing? Maybe you prefer an everyday anti-hero who rises to the occasion despite his shortcomings to succeed beyond his wildest dreams. That's the story behind The Phantom of the Open. (See the movie trailer below.)
The Phantom of the Open is based on a true story. Maurice Flitcroft (Mark Rylance) is a British crane operator about to lose his job to nationalization. When teased about transitioning to his dream job, all he can think of is winning the British Open Championship, although he's never played golf in his life. Still, the alure of living the lavish lifestyle seems dreamy and it becomes his obsession.
Everyone in the family is smitten with his obsession, too. His wife Jean (Academy Award Winner Sally Hawkins) helps him send in the qualification round forms. Step son Michael (Jake Davies), who is part of the management team negotiating nationalizing the company, helps his step dad get the equipment, clothes, and sponsorships befitting his entry. And twin sons Gene (Christian Lees) and James (Jonah Lees) volunteer to be his caddies. Everything feeds his obsession and his self-overconfidence heading into the championship.
Mark Rylance often plays self-deprecating characters and Maurice Flitcroft fits this role perfectly. Although he falsely poses as a professional player it is out of ignorance, and he displays no false sense of acumen. From the first shot to the last, he gives each his best shot. It's not long before everyone around him realizes he's not a golf pro and he hasn't qualified.
But that's not the finish of Maurice's dream. Although he's been banned from the British Open Championship forever and from joining any clubs, he keeps trying, thinking surely with enough practice he will get better. Wearing disguises he re-applies each year to try once again.
Just when he's about to give up, he receives good news from an entirely unexpected place. A golf club in the United States is so inspired by his high score that first year and his perseverance, they offer to pay all expenses for his whole family to visit so they can celebrate him. (I had never heard of this before, but this was in my own backyard! It took me watching this film to find out. What a great suprise!)
The family and community had practically disowned Maurice after his disgraceful performance, but this celebration helped them see Maurice in an entirely new light. The uplifting end and humor in this story make it a great family film with a good message and good feels.
Movie Review: The Duke (2022) on Apple TV and Prime Video 👌
The Duke (2022), is a quirky yet charming British film with an interesting cast headed by veteran actors Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren. They make this film. (See trailer below.)
Mirren is Dorothy, the forbearing wife always at odds with Broadbent. Broadbent is Kempton, the never-produced script writer who fills his time barking at street corners for personal rights, when he stumbles into possession of a government work of art. Suddenly he's focused on how to make something of his possession without getting into trouble, with Dorothy (who doesn't know he has it) and the bumbling government (who thinks professional art thieves have it).
And when things get too hot around the house, where he's hidden it just under Dorothy's nose, Kempton decides it's best to simply return the work to the government. And that's where things actually turn interesting. He gets his opportunity to bark for personal rights in court, and he gets to charm the pants off the jury with his humor and common sense, when sage and wisdom will do his self most good. Broadbent shines here.
The Duke is based on a true story. It would have been interesting to see it play out in real life.
Eyes on the Blue Star is one of the best dystopian novels I've read. Blue Stars are people living in a dystopian American future who still kindle a hope for lives of peace and security in a time of division and war in the homeland. It features complex characters marking a journey across dangerous lands, wary of untrustworthy opponents, never sure who is ally or foe. Danger lurks everywhere and refuge doesn't last long. Authoritarian powers control the population centers and the outlands are ghosted by gangs and beasts. Our heroes just want to escape the worst of them and reach the imagined tranquil life, as they travel their eyes always on the Blue Star.
Dewi Hargreaves is the author and an illustrator, a graphics artist who draws maps for works of the imagination like Eyes on the Blue Star. He is gifted as a cartographer and an illustrator, and he has included a map of his envisioned dystopic America at the front of Eyes on the Blue Star, giving you a graphic overview of the world his mind's eye sees. From there, he lets his words do his magical world building. His writing is as gifted as are his artist's pen and brush.
I found myself becoming engrossed not just in the story, but also in the storytelling—the agile descriptions of characters and their emotions and driving forces, as well as the telling details on the settings and actions. Yet Hargreaves is a sparse writer, telling you what you need to know without volumes more, and that's great writing. His prose wraps you in the scene around the personalities and their surroundings to help you understand their cares and their predicaments, then lets you wander with them as they wind their way through the story. There are many elegantly written chapters that are a pure pleasure to read.
So I recommend Eyes on the Blue Star for your consideration, rating it A++ (a 5 on the Amazon scale) for A Great Read—one of the best in the dystopian genre.
I'm grateful some of the Academy Award-nominated films this year are available to stream online or through cable TV systems. Tar is one of them, with six Oscar nominations.
Tar stars Cate Blanchett, brilliant as Lydia Tar, one of the greatest living composer-conductors and the first female director of a major German orchestra. She dominates the screen with her performance as a domineering force of nature in the world of Western classical music. The story focuses on her professional life, but it also veers through the controversies of her personal life, in which she is accused of favoring young women whom it is rumored she romances with advances in their professional careers. This threatens to plunge her own career into chaos, just at the height of her success.
There is much to love in the film, with its focus on musical theory and technique. Likely you will learn a lot about how composers and conductors and major orchestras work. But the music is electric and the cinematography is exceptional and the settings in New York City and Berlin and elsewhere are gorgeous. But the magic on the screen is in Blanchett's performance. It's no wonder she is nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role.
If I have any problems with the film, it is with the opening. There is a brief scene with Blanchette that goes no where, some texting, then black screen with opening credits that lasts way too long. And then there's the ending that isn't really an ending. Every story needs a beginning, a middle, and an ending, and while this film has a magnificent middle, it definitely lacks viable open and close (beginning and ending).
Tar is also nominated for Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing. I hope it earns multiple awards.
For these reasons, I would rate Tar a B++ for Blanchett, Screenplay, and Cinematography.
To say it's suspenseful is to downplay it. To say it's a thriller is to come up short. To say it shocks is to give it short shrift. The Menu is many things, but as a film it is a mind-blowing mystery that never fails to surprise and keep you wondering what could possibly happen next.
Cast, timing, and the element of surprise is what make this film work.
Ralph Fiennes is Chef. He is ego personified, chief among all those of the guests invited to marvel at his exclusive restaurant on an island far removed from the drudgery of civilization. Anya Taylor-Joy is Margot, seemingly the alter-ego, the least polished of the posh guests on the list. She is companion to Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), who is most eager of the guests to be impressed and most eager to impress Chef. John Leguizamo is a movie star most eager to make appearances. And so the list goes on of the rich and pompous for whom Chef has prepared a multi-course lavish meal for which he is famous.
Timing is everything. As Chef prepares each course for serving, he chaps his hands and the cook/servers yell, "Chef!" and guests come to attention. As a viewer, you come to attention, too. And like an illusionist about to perform the next extreme feat of magic, you prepare to be surprised. First, by the elegant culinary delivery. Then by the...
...the excellent element of surprise. After a bit of discourse on the meal, or the food, or some bit of history, Chef slaps you to attention with a dramatic twist.
Some of it is shocking. And you wonder--what in the hell! How did he do that? Is this real? Some of it is genius. All of it just leads you into the next course, wondering but not ready for the next slap. And then it comes.
The Menu is an odd title. This isn't about the menu. It's about The Delivery, the Final Delivery. Don't dare bow out early. Stay to the end. You really must. You won't believe it.
And so, I rate The Menu an A+ for Amazing. The food looks amazing, the presentation is amazing, the casting is amazing--everything is wonderful. If it just weren't so shocking! No, that was amazing, too, in retrospect.
Finally, the antihero joins the leagues of mighty superheroes seeking justice for mankind. This in the skin-tight uniform of 5,000-year-old Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson), who is revived in modern day society seeking vengeance against anyone who opposes him.
He isn't your typical superhero, saving the day. No, he's hellbent on destroying everything in his path, whoever is in his path. And it isn't until the very end that he sees a place for himself in the pantheon of goodness that is the Superhero Universe. But he has plenty of good guys on his side trying to persuade him there's a place for him.
Everyone likes a story of redemption and this is the ultimate bad guy leading to good guy tale. And who represents the good guy story better than Dwayne Johnson? He also makes a very good antihero. Bring those two together and Black Adam makes for an amazing on-screen performance.
I don't think this film has gotten the credit it deserves for storytelling and character development. And with some post-release development, I'm not sure there's much place for the character to grow beyond here, but for all the right reasons, Black Adam is a great film with a good script, good acting, good effects, and great directing. I'd rate it B++ for Blockbuster effort. Definitely deserves your attention.
Movie Review: Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (2022) on Amazon Prime
Ever think you'd watch a singing crocodile in a musical? I didn't think so. Then I set aside my preconceptions and watched Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile—and loved it!
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile is the the popular children's book brought to life on live action film with a bit of CGI animation and a whole lot of heart. It's the story of Hector, the washed up stage performer, who discovers Lyle, a talented singing crocodile in the back storage room of a dilapidated New York City exotic-animal shop. Hector adopts Lyle and prepares him to perform live on stage in a bid to revive his dying career, only Lyle isn't a performing crocodile, just a singing crocodile.
And so, smothered in debt and with his hopes smothered, Hector leaves town with, leaving Lyle alone in his big city brownstone attic.
Newly arriving are the Primm family, Mr. Primm, Mrs. Primm, and son Josh, novices to the big city life. They certainly never dreamed of the possibility of a singing crocodile living upstairs of them. Nor of a Mr. Grump, who occupies the basement apartment below them and is a stickler for the rules, especially quiet.
For most of the film you are treated to the Primms coming to terms with big city life, discovering Lyle and the consequences of having a singing but not talking crocodile in your life, and keeping this secret from the "monster" downstairs. This is the dreary, ho-hum part of the film, necessary to create conflict and set up the climax at the end, but really, if you need to get up to go to the bathroom or refresh your stacks, this is the part in which to do it.
The opening sequences of the film, then the latter parts, all with Lyle and Hector (played brilliantly by Javier Bardem) are the most entertaining parts of the film. It's here that you get the most bang for your buck, as the saying goes. Bardem is a master performer meant to sing and dance and bring out the best in a singing crocodile. The Primms are just set pieces.
Also, Mr. Grump has a cat that is fun to watch.
Lyle, Lyle Crocodile is great entertainment for the whole family. Stick around for the big finale, it's worth it. I rate this film A for All Right!
