I’m torn on this one.

Grace (Samara Weaving) is marrying into one of the richest, most successful families around.  Alex (Mark O’Brien) had been estranged from his family for some time, but he knew that Grace wished for a family that had always eluded her as a child.  So, he brought her back to get married with her family.

However, there was more to this family than what met the eye.  On the wedding night, the family gets together with the new family member and that person draws a card of a game that they will play to induct that person into the family.  All the games are passive unless the person unluckily draws “Hide and Seek.”  Then the family has until dawn to find the person and kill him/her.  Grace, unfortunately, does exactly that.

I would have liked to have come into the movie without knowing exactly what was going to happen, but this is one of those movies that showed me too much in the trailer.  I can’t imagine that there is not a way to avoid the whole family is out to kill me angle of the movie and that could have been a great reveal.

I was not feeling this movie much.  It started trying to be mysterious, but I already knew what was going to happen (because of the trailers) so much of the first act was wasted for me.  There was a ton of exposition in the film and it was really noticeable.

The characters of this family were nothing more than cartoon characters.  I had a hard time buying almost any of them as real people.

The one exception was Alex’s brother Daniel (Adam Brody) who was an alcoholic who did not give two craps about anyone here, except his brother Alex.  Daniel was clearly conflicted and his internal struggle was one of the most fascinating parts of the first half of the movie.

Andy MacDowell, who played Alex and Daniel’s mother, said she was conflicted.  She claimed to like Grace, but I never believe that once.  The rest of the family members were complete caricature.

I did not find the humor to work much in that early part of the movie so these other family members really fell flat for me.

Then something strange happened.  I started to pull for Grace.  The more crazy things got, the more I wanted her to escape and save herself.  I think a big part of that is the actress playing Grace, Samara Weaving, does a great job of making this ridiculous setting work, showing the horror of the moment without underplaying it.  She was easy to root for.  Sure, she did some stupid things, but you could almost forgive her.

And the third act gets so bat-shit crazy that it caught me off guard and turned the movie around.  The strong finish helped wipe away a lot of the concerns I had earlier in the movie.

The movie has plenty to say about the rich and what they will do to maintain their grasp on their position.  Since this is similar to the ideas of “The Most Dangerous Game,” one wonders why this has not been pulled like “The Hunt” was.  Maybe the insistence of old time weapons is what keeps the plug from being poor.  It can’t be because, unlike The Hunt, the rich people in Ready or Not are the ones doing the hunting.  That would be very hypocritical, wouldn’t it?

Avoiding the controversy, Ready or Not was a slow start that I was really starting to dislike until it picked up the pace in the second act and knocked it out of the park with an explosive (and bloody) third act.  Since the ending is what sticks with me the most, I will give this a positive score.

3.5 stars

While I am, at best, someone who does not mind the music of Bruce Springsteen, I loved the new movie Blinded by the Light, directed by Gurinder Chadha.  Inspired by a true story, this movie is part musical, part rock anthem, part family drama and part coming of age movie all blended together into an engaging mash up of genres.

Javed (Viveik Kalra) is a teen in 1987 England, hoping some day to be a writer, but dragged down by the life around him.  He has a family dominated by a father whose old school ideas come straight from Pakistan.  He has a country that is chanting “Send them back” to Pakistani-English citizens.  The country is in the midst of a terrible job shortage, causing trouble among the people.  This leads to self-doubt, bordering on depression, for Javed.

However, Javed’s life takes a turn when a friend named Roops (Aaron Phagura) introduced him to the music of “The Boss” Bruce Springsteen.  Javed felt as if the lyrics of the songs were speaking directly to him, putting into words the pain and frustrations that he felt as a teen in this world.  The music of Springsteen inspired Javed to look to change his life, despite the push back he received from his father Malik (Kulvinder Ghir).

Malik lost his job and the family had to struggle mightily just to find enough money to pay the bills.  Meanwhile, Javed’s teacher Ms. Clay (Haley Atwell) is continuing to encourage Javed to keep writing, to find his own voice.

Blinded by the Light is a wonderful movie filled with hope, energy and a story of inspiration.  Fact is that the movie is not about Bruce Springsteen.  It is about finding that thing/person who can inspire you to make the change you want in your life.  It is also about the ties of the family and how they can make you who you are, even if that is not who you want to be.  The use of Bruce Springsteen is simply because that was the musician who inspired the real life Javed.

The film uses the music in some exceptional ways.  Many times the songs that Javed are listening to on his Walkman have the lyrics plastered across the screen.  These are moments when the lyrics of these songs echo the situation that Javed found himself in.  Other times, Javed would start to sing along with the cassette tape and suddenly we have a flash mob type situation where the crowd around are getting involved as well. This is when the film transcends into a rock fantasy/rock anthem movie-almost dreamlike, and these times all work.  I sat there watching these scenes with a big smile on my face.

The relationship between Javed and Malik was key to the film too and I had tears in my eyes during the third act when this relationship took front and center.  Add to the normal parent/son troubles with the culture of the Pakistani people and there are fireworks just waiting to explode between them.  Javed’s monologue in the third act is an absolute tear-jerker.

Viveik Kalra was remarkably charming and easy to root for, making Blinded by the Light a joyous film.  Eliza (Nell Williams) was Javed’s love interest in this movie and they had lots of chemistry and the film told a sweet love story for these two.

It might have been a touch too long in certain sections, but, other than that, there really are not much that I can criticize about this movie.

The movie focuses on Javed.  This is not the story of Bruce Springsteen and his music, but the story of Javed and how that music inspired him to be more than what he thought he could be.  The music and the lyrics gave him the belief in himself to face his life straight on and to make the changes he needed to make.  Blinded by the Light is a wonderful movie that I enjoyed thoroughly.

4.75 stars 

What happens when you are a grounded, low key super powers movie released limited one week before the biggest, most massive super hero film of all time gets released?  Yes, you get lost in the shuffle.

So it was gone from theaters super quick.

However, I heard Marc Bernardin, writer and podcaster, speak about the movie on Fatman Beyond, the podcast that he does with Kevin Smith, and he raved about it.  I remember hearing him back when it first came out too, singing Fast Color’s praises.  He called it the best “X-Men movie that you have never seen.”  It intrigued me, so I went to Vudu and looked for it, and, lo and behold, there it was.  So I rented it and got to it tonight.

He was right.  The movie is excellent.

In a world where water has become a scarcity, there was a young woman Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who had discovered that she has some powers.  However, she had trouble controlling them, leading her to leave her mother Bo (Lorraine Toussaint) and father Ellis (David Strathairn).  She turned to drugs and alcohol, but nothing helped.  When she gave birth to her daughter, she returned and left the child with her mother to raise.

Pursued by government officials who intend on examining her, Ruth returned to her mother’s farmhouse, sober, and tried to repair the relationship with her and with her daughter Lila (Saniyya Sidney).

There is a lot of under the surface things happening here as well.  The film examines the bloodline of this family of females and how these powers wind up being passed along through the generations.  It looks at family and at the relationships and choices people make.

There are some great performances by all actors involved and each one makes their character their own.  Gugu Mbatha-Raw is a total standout and could easily find a role in a big time franchise.  She carries herself like a star and it will be just a matter of time before she is in something massive.

Saniyya Sidney is exceptional as well.  She brings hope and emotion to the young girl. She hopes that her mother is here for good.  The actress carries a big chunk of the film.  And Lorraine Toussaint (who was Vee in Orange is the New Black) was a powerhouse as Ruth’s mother.

Films like this can be lost in the shuffle against the juggernauts like major studio franchise films so it is important to remember them when they show up on these services.  Or even better, see them in the theater.

4.3 stars

Sorry my friend (you know who you are)…

The new film Good Boys has been causing a stir across social media and other platforms because they have placed three kids into an R rated, raunchy movie with lots of swearing and sex.  I even read an article online that said that the new movie was sexualizing children and some have even gone as far as to use the “P” word to describe the creators or the potential fans of the movie.  The faux rage from people who had not yet seen the movie, going only by the trailers, has been consistent with other films that seemingly have caused divisiveness in the audience.

As a middle school teacher, I will tell you that the language of these kids in the movie are very much the language of middle schoolers today.  They use curse words and they think and talk about inappropriate topics all the time.  While I would not necessarily claim that Good Boys is a realistic portrayal of pre-teens, the language and thoughts are not far from the truth.  The kids from the movie It spoke like kids speak.

Maybe you are someone who just does not want to hear kids using swear words or talking about sex, and that is perfectly fine.  Maybe you are someone who does not like the type of raunchy movie genre that this film would fall into and that, as well, is fine.  Honestly, I have my moments where I am not a huge fan of raunchy jokes in a movie.  Something like Sausage Party is funny to a point, but gets tiring after a while.  I do not dispute anyone’s right to not watch what they want.

However, you do not have the right to criticize something you have not seen.  You do not have to watch it, but you can’t then form an opinion on the overall movie because you chose to not watch it.  There are many Adam Sandler movies that I chose to skip because I do not like his brand of movies, but I cannot critique, say, his Netflix film with Jennifer Aniston, Murder Mystery, because I have not watched it.  Same thing happens here.

Because I will tell you that the raunchiness of Good Boys is countered with the fact that these three actors (Jacob Trembley, Keith L. Williams, and Brady Noon) are wonderful here and bring a balance of innocence to the proceedings that, while they say these things, make you understand that they do not really understand what is going on.

One of the examples for the sexualizing children crowd was the scene from the trailers with the boys in the sex swing.  This scene is so not sexual in nature and is counterbalanced with how much the boys really did not know that it turns out to be charming.  I wish they had left that out of the trailer because that would have been a big laugh if it was unfamiliar.

Truthfully, the film is not about sex, but, actually, it is about friendship and how some childhood friendships change over the years.  Some friendships grow apart as the kids inside them find that they are becoming different people.  I know this happened to me as a kid.  I had two very close friends through elementary school and we grew apart into junior high and high school while I got another group of friends with more things in common with me.  It did not mean that I did not like my elementary friends any more.  I was just not as close with them as I was before.  Good Boys is more about that than anything else.

Yes, there were several parts that did not work for me.  The whole drug aspect of the film was hard to buy, but it did lead to a ridiculous, but very funny, scene with the boys and a group of college drug suppliers.  The boys’ adventure meant that you had to stretch credibility several times, but I have said before that if something is funny, you are more willing to give leeway than if it is not, and Good Boys is funny.

Honestly, there were a couple of scenes that I laughed really hard at that I felt a little dirty doing it, but it was funny.

The three boys are great.  Jacob Trembley is a fantastic actor and has another really strong performance.  Keith L. Williams, who plays Lucas, is constantly the funniest of the group.  His character is so sweet and heart-felt that you cannot help but like him.  Brady Noon’s Thor is the glue that holds them together.  All three boys are given worries and concerns from their home lives or from school that are realistic and impactful.  They turn these moments into comedic gold.

Some parts of the story were all over the place but the message in the film comes through strong in the end.  The three boys are wonderful and play with such heart.  These really are good boys.  There may be gross out moments in the film with a ton of cursing, but these boys’ goodness shines through.  And the film has a definite idea that it wants to cover about friendship.  The film is truly about more than just sixth graders saying the F-word or talking about sex.

If you are easily offended, you probably do not want to see Good Boys.  If this type of movie is something that you find crude and something that you do not want to see in a movie, that is fine.  That is your right.  I disagree with you, and that is my right.

4.1 stars

I have always enjoyed good shark movie and I might give a bad shark movie more leeway than other movies receive.  I did not like the original 47 Meters Down at all so this one already started off behind the eight ball.

47 Meters Down: Uncaged is better than the original.  There are still lots of issues with the movie, but, in the end, I had a decent time in the theater watching this one.

Step-sisters Sasha (Corinne Foxx) and Mia (Sophie Nélisse) go with some friends scuba diving into a pond that leads into an underground Mayan city.  While there, the girls find themselves cornered by a deadly species of Great White Shark and they struggle to survive and escape before they are eaten or their air runs out.

The best part of the film is the tension created by the sharks.  There are some very strong moments of anxiety built by the sharks.  The four girls are reasonably engaging.  Sasha is played by Jamie Foxx’s daughter Corinne and another of the girls is played by Sly Stallone’s daughter Sistine Rose Stallone.  Nia Long was the fourth of the girls involved.

John Corbett appears in the movie as Mia’s father, who is the head investigator on the underground city and how the girls knew about the city.

There were a couple of surprises too, which was nice for the film.  There were some deaths that I did not expect.

The sharks themselves looked pretty good, but the rest of the filming under the water was not great.  It was really dark and difficult to see anything that was happening.  With the girls in their scuba gear, it was very difficult to know who was in danger at any certain time.  The camera was not very steady either.  The visuals were very dark and unappealing.

And, of course, many of these characters do stupid things, which is a horror film trope that is very annoying.

The ending of the film is both ridiculous and, strangely, stupidly fun.  The film does not pretend to be anything more than this and it works for the most part.

3 stars