In my opinion, Clint Eastwood has not made a really good movie for awhile.  He made some okay ones (The Mule, Sully, American Sniper) and some really bad ones (The 15:17 to Paris, Jersey Boys, J. Edgar).  This time, with Richard Jewell, Eastwood feels as if he is back on track.

This is the true story of security guard Richard Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser) who was the person to discover the backpack that contained the bomb at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.  After a few days of calling him a hero, the FBI began looking at him as a suspect and the papers took that tidbit and ran with it.  Jewell had to face pressure on himself individually and with his mother Bobi (Kathy Bates) from the media constantly following him, camped outside their home and the perception of Richard as a bomber.

There are several strong performances in this movie that really help carry it.  The lead performance of Paul Walter Hauser is truly powerful.  He portrayed Richard as a man of principle and honor who had great respect for law enforcement until he could take it no longer.  His mother, played brilliantly by Kathy Bates, showed the pain and fear in every scene she was in.  Kathy Bates should really receive an Oscar nomination for this role.  Sam Rockwell was great as always as Richard’s lawyer, Watson Bryant, the eccentric lawyer who battled to give this man his life back.

There is a definite theme about the dangers of the media with how an untrue story can decimate a family, especially if the authority is not acting on facts.  The film also has some stings toward the FBI as well, as FBI agent Tom Shaw (Jon Hamm) tried several sneaky, underhanded tricks to try and get the naive Richard to implicate himself.  Shaw had formulated a theory and nothing was going to break him from that path.  Both of these can be plugged into today’s society easily.

The news media, in particular one journalist Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde) is portrayed in a very cartoonish light, which makes her very two-dimensional instead of the potentially fully filled out character she could have been.  It is interesting that Kathy Scruggs was a real person, but the FBI Agent Shaw is a fictionalized compilation of an agent.  Neither character gets much in way of development with Shaw never admitting that Jewell was not guilty.

I think an argument could be made about this film being too political and aspiring to present Eastwood’s side of thought, but, during the film, I did not feel as if it was tilted.  It was only after reading some background info on the situation that I thought there may be some fire to go with the smoke.

Either way, I did like this movie much more than Eastwood’s recent work and it does provide three top notch quality performances from three great actors.  If you keep it at that, Richard Jewell is an enjoyable watch.

3.7 stars 

I saw this on Netflix and I was intrigued.  I like Ryan Reynolds a lot.  Then I saw the director:  Michael Bay.

Now, I am not a Michael Bay hater, per se.  I mean, yes I hated the Transformers movies and there are other Bay movies that I disliked, but I also liked Pain & Gain, 13 Hours and The Rock.  So there is that.

6 Underground is THE MOST Michael Bay movie I have ever seen.  That may or may not be a good thing depending on who you are.  For me, it was definitely NOT a good thing..

What did it include?

Explosions ✔

Slow Motion ✔

Car Chases ✔

Explosions ✔

Montages with bad rock music ✔

Pop Culture references ✔

Explosions ✔

Needless shots of beautiful (usually scantily clad) women ✔

Explosions ✔

I checked out on this one very early.  I was bored.  Not even Ryan Reynolds’ charm could save this turd.

When it first came on screen, Reynolds said that he was a ghost and the ghost has one superpower, which was to haunt the living.  And I thought this was going to be the literal story.  I thought, “Hm, what a strange and intriguing idea.  Maybe RIPD with a better story or execution?”

Nope.  They meant “ghost” as a person who fakes their death to drop off the radar and then become a mercenary.  Suddenly much less interesting, but I gave it a chance.

The dialogue was terrible.  Nobody really talks like that.  None of the characters stood, with the possible exception of Corey Hawkins as Seven.  The rest are cliches and underwritten stereotypes.

I really should have watched The Mandalorian instead.  Michael Bay fans may love this.  I hope they do.

1 star

When Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle came out, I had very little interest (outside of Dwayne Johnson, whom I love).  The sequel had no business of being any good.  And yet, it crushed it, both critically and monetarily.

Could they do it again?  That was another point where I was just not sure and I was nervous about.

After seeing The Next Level, I have nothing to worry about.

Spencer (Alex Wolff) has been having problems since leaving the world of Jumanji.  It had become so bad that he decided to go back into the game for a chance to feel the power and confidence of Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson).  When his friends discovered that he had gone into Jumanji alone, they chose to follow him in to help him with his quest.

However, there were some switches of characters that were unexpected and brought a different set of challenges.  When you add Danny DeVito and Danny Glover into the mix, you amp up the comedy part of this comedy/adventure movie.

As with the previous movie, one of the best parts of The Next Level is the cast including Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, and Jack Black.  These four, especially Black and Hart, bring their A-game to this movie, providing an imitation of the actors/characters that is extremely well done.  Kevin Hart’s version of Danny Glover is spot on and never fails to be hilarious.

They also bring a plot point into the film as they near the third act that feels effective and helped to maintain the freshness of the performances, particularly Dwayne Johnson’s Danny DeVito imitation, which was threatening to run its course.  The plot point helped the movie dramatically.  It was also something that made sense in the world of video games.

There are similarities to Welcome to the Jungle, but I feel that they tweaked sections in different ways that really helped to provide the variety in the scenes.  Plus, it is just a fun and extremely funny movie with lots of adventure.

The CGI was very well done with all of the animals that the group had to face.  The herd of ostriches was especially great.

I thoroughly enjoyed the entire Jumanji: The Next Level.  The changes they made were refreshing and the adjustment through the movie made perfect sense in storytelling.  The cast is still the selling point of this movie as they are able to show their talents and knowledge of these characters, while clearly having fun making this movie.  A very worthy addition to the Jumanji franchise.

4.4 stars

I had never seen the previous versions of Black Christmas, the 1974 original, which horror aficionados consider a classic in the slasher genre, or the 2006 remake, so I was not weighed down by any previous feelings toward the film.

However, I had seen the trailer fro this new version, and I feel that, after viewing the trailer, I basically saw the film itself.  I was not sure why I needed to see this movie since they showed me so much in the trailer.  Film critic William Bibbiani tweeted that he thought so initially too, but that, after seeing it, the film held more back than he thought.  Okay, so I decided to give it a chance.

After seeing it, I do still think they gave way too much away in the trailer, but there are a few things that are left for discovery in the movie.  One of the biggest was actually one of the parts I liked the least.

I have heard a lot of negative reviews directed towards Black Christmas (2019) but I did not think it deserved as much vitriol as it has received.  It is fine.

A group of sorority sisters were being hunted by an underground cult/cabal from a misogynistic fraternity who were looking to force women in their proper place.  Riley (Imogen Poots) had a past experience with the fraternity that has informed her opinion and the opinions of the others in her sorority.

I was actually enjoying a good chunk of the opening hour or so of the film, but I thought the ending went fairly wanky and relied too much on exposition to reveal what the film needed us to know.  The last half hour or so weakened the film for me.

I also believe that Cary Elwes, who played Professor Gelson, was totally wasted here.  He had some early scenes that could have been creepy and mysterious had the trailer not spoiled it for me.

The message of this movie could have benefited from being more subtle than it was.  There is a clear and unmistakably apparent message that is drilled throughout the film and, while it is a very important message for today’s world, it was less effective with the preachy aspect of it.  The best horror films use symbolism to provide a message in the story, but it does not have to be as blatant as it is in Black Christmas.

The cast does a solid job of making me feel for the characters and to draw the contrast between them.  Each girl had a trait or quirk that made them individuals, something that a lot of these movies do not take the time to do.  A special shout out to Aleyse Shannon, who played Kris, who I thought was one of the most interesting actors in the ensemble.  You could see the spark while she was on screen.

I am torn about whether to recommend this film.  On one hand, I do think it is a better film than it is getting credit for, but it clearly has some major issues in storytelling and theme.  In the end, I walked out of the theater with the mindset that it was better than I expected and so, I will give it the slight recommendation.   And if you can go into Black Christmas without seeing the trailer, do it.

3 stars

This one felt strange to me.

First, I would state that the performances in Waves are top notch, especially from Taylor Russell as Emily and Kelvin Harrison Jr as Tyler.  Most of the film is shot beautifully and it does have some emotional wallop in the story.

However, it also feels as if the story itself was all over the place.  Overlong and erratic, Waves seemed to completely switch the story about two-thirds through the film where the main protagonist is changed and the focus on the film changes dramatically.  It was really a strange watch.

The film starts focusing on Tyler, a high school wrestler who seems to have everything, and we see how his life begins to unravel and how these stresses and problems take a toll on his life.  His slow descent into anger is difficult to watch as he continued to make poor decisions.  Those decisions were taking effects on the people in his life.  His overbearing and hard-nosed father Ronald (Sterling K. Brown) is pushing his son hard in every part of his life.

A shoulder injury threatened to end his wrestling.  His girlfriend Alexis (Alexa Demie) brings an unexpected problem and everything starts to weigh down Tyler.

There were amazing performances here and there were several real emotional moments.  They had some great shots and director Trey Edwards Shults does an admirable job doing things that are outside the box.

I was engaged until the strange shift in the narrative which felt so weird.  It dropped what was being a solid film into one where I still liked but found clunky.  After the switch, Taylor Russell was still exceptional (she brought a beautiful presence to the screen) and she has a bright future ahead of her.  She will be a star.  Lucas Hedges was really fantastic too.    The problem is theor parts just came out of nowhere.  The film never got its flow back after the flip.

3.3 stars