Okay, I was never a huge fan of Jackass, but that show is considerably more preferable than this mess.

The stunts carried out by the Jackass crew have basically been replaced with some people falling down.  Then, some other people fall down.  And then someone gets hit in the nuts…and fall down.

Get it?

Add to that the fact that they tried to add in a story and wanted the Jackass crew to be actors.  Who thought that would go over well?

Johnny Knoxville played D.C., whom we first meet as an older grandfather babysitting his granddaughter and telling her stories about his time running an amusement park called Action Point.  At Action Point, there were no rules and the park allowed the constantly drunk patrons to do whatever they wanted, putting themselves and others into danger.

Fun, huh?

Then, D.C.’s daughter came to stay with him for the summer and they have problems. There are some problems that are talked about by the daughter involving her mother’s boyfriend wanting to become her guardian, but that was all we got out of that storyline…talk.  We never met the mother or the boyfriend and we barely get any development on that story.

We actually have more development on the desire to go to a Clash concert.

The acting is atrocious.  The dialogue is ridiculous.  and all of that could be excused if the film was funny, but… people fall down.  Ha Ha Ha?

Plus, our heroes are shown stealing lumber from another amusement park, drinking and doing drugs, getting cocaine in the cotton candy and it is all meant to be laughed off.  None of it was funny.  It was actually sad that anyone believed that it was funny.

There was a beer drinking bear, though.  Why?  Not sure.

This was a terrible movie and a new contender for worst film of 2018.  It’s still early folks, but I’m willing to bet that Action Point will find a place of (dis)honor on the list of worst of the year.

0.63 stars

Another reason why I will never be in this situation.  Adrift on the ocean is something that I will never have happen to me, because I will be landlocked as much as possible.

Adrift is based on a true story of Richard Sharp (Sam Claflin) and Tami Oldham (Shailene Woodley), a recently united couple who were to sail a friend’s ship back to San Diego for them but, along the way, they encounter a hurricane which wrecks the boat and puts them in jeopardy.  At this point, the film becomes about survival.

The story is told by interspersing flashbacks to see how the two main characters get together and how they fall in love with the present survival tale on the remains of the boat.

How effective this movie will be depends solely on how much you connect to the two characters.  If you do not buy their relationship, then the movie will certainly sink for you.  I enjoyed the relationship between them and I thought both Woodley and Claflin did a solid job creating a reason for me to care about them.  That was hurdle number one.

Hurdle number two is to make sure that the scenes that they flash back to in the narrative are as enjoyable and as important as the life and death scenes from the boat.  I would say that this was a hit and miss.  At times, the scenes from the flashbacks were not as impactful or as engaging as the scenes on the boat, and, a few times, when the film went to the flashback, it slowed its pacing down too much.  There are certainly strong flashback scenes as well that were very effective in telling the narrative.

Hurdle number three is how do you make this kind of film, a story that we have seen many times, different than all the others and worthy of its place in the genre.  This is another area that this film struggles in until the very end, where a very effective and emotional plot point occurs that changes everything that you have seen up until that moment.  I will not spoil it because I really appreciated the aspect and I hope you all go in to the story without the spoiler.

That would mean that you would have to avoid the true story that this film is based on, but it is worth it if you can do it.

The film looks wonderful, with the expansive blues of the water, the sunsets of “red” and the dramatic dangers of the hurricane. There are some excellent shots portraying each of these and helps to elevate the film beyond just another lost at sea film.

This is one of Shailene Woodley’s best performances, certainly better than anything we saw in the Divergent trilogy.  She brings the goods here and the chemistry between her and Claflin makes them easy to root for and to fear for.

The film may have dragged a bit too long in the middle or some of the flashback sequences could have been edited down, but otherwise, Adrift is a solid movie with an exceptional ending and decent performances among its leads.

3.3 stars

Who knew a documentary about Ruth Bader Ginsburg would be so darn entertaining?

RBG is a documentary focusing on the life and career of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, showing the 84 year old woman in a light you might not have expected.

Quiet and serious, Ginsburg has become a champion of women’s rights, anti-bigotry in all of its shades, gender discrimination and a dissenting opinion on a Supreme Court that has moved in a much more conservative direction since her nomination by President Bill Clinton.

And yet, she has also become a pop culture icon as the Notorious RBG, with t-shirts and tattoos displaying her likeness while Kate McKinnon portrays her on SNL.

By the way, easily my favorite part of this entire documentary was when they showed Ginsburg the clips of McKinnon at the Weekend Update desk portraying Ginsburg and given another “Gins-BURN!”  There was just something epic about Ruth Bader Ginsburg laughing and giggling at the clip.  Each time they showed her laughing, I got a big smile on my face.  She found the imitation funny, though RBG admitted that McKinnon’s impersonation was nothing like her.

The documentary also told a great story about RBG’s husband, Martin Ginsburg, and placed him as the most supportive husband ever.  Everything that had to do with Ruth and Martin was just tremendously awesome and loving.  I could have heard much more about them together.  It is great that these people who seem to be opposites in many way were able to find one another and to have such a happy life.

And such an inspiring story.  When I saw her working out, doing things that I am not sure I could do any more, I have to say I was amazed.  She was doing those planks like a damn pro.  The film does a great job of showing us the glimpse inside the icon, and showing us what is inside the woman who is such a force on the bench.

I was surprised how much I truly enjoyed this movie.  I thought it might be a little dull, but I never once felt that I wasn’t completely engaged and drawn into the story being presented of a woman about whom I knew very little.

4 stars

I have been dealing with a nagging cough, and, unfortunately, that might have colored my thoughts on the new science fiction film, Upgrade.  It was okay, but I had heard a lot of real positives about the film and it felt like a B-grade sci-fi film with a very good ending.

In a near future world, Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) winds up paralyzed after a mugging where his wife winds up murdered.  However, Grey had just met a man named Eron (Harrison Gilbertson) who has a piece of technology called Stem that would allow Grey to walk again.  What Grey did not know was that Stem (voiced by Simon Maiden) would begin talking to him inside his head and was able to get Grey to do things he could not do before.

This revenge movie is pretty typical of the genre.  Grey, with his new skills and abilities, takes off to find and kill the people who were responsible for the murder of his wife.  None of that is new.  The technology in his head talking to him reminds one of Jarvis from the Iron Man movies.  Stem being able to control his arms is similar to Hardcore Henry.  As I said, there is not a ton of new here.

Yet, Logan Marshall-Green does a very good job as Grey, the angry man who struggles with his conscience for the violence against these people and the questionable manner in which he and Stem go about their mission.  There was some real emotional depth to the violence, which was brutal at times, in the scenes.

Without spoiling it, I did enjoy the very end scene.  I had not seen it coming and I liked where it was going to take the film. It was an ending that then made you reconsider what you had seen up to it, and that kind of situation is always welcomed.

However, up to that point, much of the film felt predictable and even a little dull.  It did feel long, despite it only being in the 96 minute range, but that could be because of the cough that I was struggling with.  I would not be opposed to seeing Upgrade again when I was in a more healthy state.  For now, it was a decent B-movie feeling flick with a solid performance and some distinctly horror-like images.  The ending was very strong and helped reinvigorate the film from a fairly run of the mill beginning.

3.2 stars