This one will stick with me for a while.

The story of the true life attack on the famous Taj Hotel in Mumbai, India from 2008, Hotel Mumbai spares no level of violence or terror in its attempt to show the story of the evil being wrought by the terrorists and the heroism of the staff of the hotel among others.

The day is like many others for hotel worker Arjen (Dev Patel), except he is running late for work.  Delivering his child into his pregnant wife’s arms took long than expected, and so he was in a rush.  So much so that he does not realize that he had dropped his work shoes, a problem that nearly got him sent home from work by head chef Oberoi (Anupam Kher).  Arjen talked his way out of being sent home.  Little did he know what was about to happen.

American David (Armie Hammer) and his Muslim wife Zahra (Nazanin Boniadi) arrive with their newborn baby and the nanny Sally (Tilda Cobhan-Hervey) for a visit at the Raj Hotel.

None of the guests or the staff knew that a small group of radical Muslim terrorists were preparing to strike across multiple targets around Mumbai, including the Taj.

This was very difficult to watch, because it was so realistic and so violent.  The brutality these men committed with little to no empathy was wrecking.  Without any previous knowledge of the event, I was grabbing onto certain characters that I wanted to survive the siege and the connection was tense.  I was on the edge of my seat the entire time with stress over what was happening.

Dev Patel was amazing.  I was not a huge fan of his in the film Lion, though everyone else seemed to love him there.  However, this was just unbelievable.  The heroism that this man showed int he face of such horrendous odds was inspiring.  My favorite scene of all of the film was when he approached a woman in the survivors who had expressed concerns over Arjen’s beard and head covering.  Instead of approaching the ignorance of the woman with anger and frustration, he came over to her, showed her pictures of his family and spoke kindly and straightforward to her.  After which he still offered to remove the head covering and beard if it would make her more comfortable.  She told him he did not have to and that she was just afraid.  This really showed how ignorance can be overcome with kindness and honesty.  It was a quiet scene in a very bombastic movie but it stood out more than any of the violence.

Armie Hammer was also great in this film.  We kept waiting for the tall, blonde American to step up and become that action hero that we are used to in the movies, and when that did not happen, I was not sure how to feel.  The tragic nature of the film really hit hard when Armie’s fate was revealed.  In fact, I kept looking for the big action hero to step up and do something and when it did not come, it challenged my idea of what the film would be.

Perhaps the terrorists were a bit underdeveloped here though the film did try to provide us with some motivation for them.  In particular, Imran (Amandeep Singh) was shown with a tad more depth than his co-terrorists.  I will admit, though, the attempt to humanize Imran and show why he was involved and to show how deep his religious beliefs were held did not work to keep me from wanting that guy to pay for his involvement.  I found his fate to be very satisfying.

There was such an intensity with this film that I was physically uncomfortable watching it and I desperately hoped for a positive result.  Though it may not have been a completely happy ending, Hotel Mumbai was a devastating film to watch.

4.75 stars

While there were sections of the new live-action Dumbo movie that were good, I have to say that it felt as if something was missing. I am not sure that the variable that is missing is anything intangible or if it is just lacking some magic.

Tim Burton directed the new take on the flying elephant and you can see those Burton-esque moments (especially in the second half of the film), but I have been having a difficult time putting my finger on why this movie just did not grab me the way I was hoping it would.

In the updated story, soldier Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) returned from war with a missing arm to find his two children Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins) who had just recently lost their mother to an influenza outbreak.  Circus folk, Holt was sad to see that the owner of the Medici Brothers Circus, Max (Danny DeVito) had sold the horses Holt used in his act to keep the doors of the circus open.  Holt was given the role of elephant wrangler, which included the soon-to-be-born baby.

When the baby was born and had gigantic ears, Max was angry and tried to make the best of the situation.  Milly and Joe took to the elephant quickly and discovered that the large ears gave the elephant a certain advantage… an advantage of flight.

When the elephant first started to fly, dubbed Dumbo, Max made a deal with entrepreneur V.A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) to partner with him in a new deal…a theme park called Wonderland, with Dumbo the flying elephant as the main attraction.  Soon, though, it is revealed that Vandevere does not have the best interest of the circus performers at heart.

I had heard the rumors before, but I could not believe it was the case, but, after seeing this, Dumbo is absolutely the story of Disney taking over 20th Century Fox and Michael Keaton and Disney is portrayed as the villain in the piece.  How subversive that is of Disney to put out a film that can be interpreted as painting them symbolically as the ruthless corporation that wants what it wants and discards the rest.  Dumbo represents the Fox intellectual properties here such as the X-Men, the Alien franchise, the Fantastic Four etc.  It was a weird feeling with this thinly veiled allegory happening.

The whole Wonderland = Disneyland narrative was the second half of the film, but I was having issues with the first part as well.  A lot of what happens in the first part of the story felt forced and did not make much sense.  The inclusion of a character named Rufus Sorghum (Phil Zimmerman) is part of the problem.  This character was so one note and villainous that I just could not believe it was a real person.  The character, which plays a big part in the original inciting incident, is just too much of a cartoon villain.  He may as well have been twirling his mustache.  So much of the initial set up was tough to accept and that made the whole movie a challenge.

I cannot believe I am going to write this, but I was so disappointed with the character played by Michael Keaton.  This character was so over the top that he was also hard to believe in.  Normally Michael Keaton is great in whatever he did, but this performance just seemed to stick out like a sore thumb and it was not good.

The rest of the cast was fine.  I’ve heard some negative comments about the kids’ performances, but I thought they were fine.  They did not have to carry the film and what they did was competent.  Colin Farrell was decent too.  I liked Eva Green’s performance as Colette and I thought she dominated every scene she was in.  While I did enjoy Green’s performance, I could have used some more interactions between Farrell and his kids over the loss of his wife/their mother.  Farrell seemed to be moving along fairly quickly.  There was one little scene near the end and I would have liked to examine that more.

Danny DeVito was the best of the live actors in this movie.  He was tremendous throughout as Max Medici.  DeVito was the best part of the first half of the movie and the most consistent part of the second.

The CGI of the film was great and Dumbo looked fantastic.  The flying scenes were all just wondrous and came the closest to capturing the emotion and the magic that you would expect from a Disney movie like this.  The first time we see Dumbo fly may be the best few minutes of the movie.

Unfortunately, most of the rest of the film fell pretty flat for me and failed to build on these amazing visuals of the movie.  There are scenes that were great in this film, but there just was not enough of them to make me feel the power that I thought it should have been.

2.8 stars

Mötley Crüe is the next band to receive the biopic treatment, this time on Netflix, and the film certainly highlights the band’s misbehavior over their long career in music.

The film did not shy away from the negative aspects of these men’s lives, as the drugs, the sex and the faltering relationships took center stage.  After watching this, it is amazing to know that Mötley Crüe was ever able to take the stage and perform on a nightly basis.

The film was narrated by the band itself, breaking the fourth wall several times to address the audience.  They also recorded voice overs for their individual sections.  I thought this technique worked effectively here.

The acting was solid.  Machine Gun Kelly was engaging as drummer Tommy Lee.  Daniel Webber stole the show as Vince Neil, especially in scenes with his little daughter.  Douglas Booth brought a humanity to Nikki Sixx that you did not think that he could have.

Having said this, these characters spend a lot of time in this movie being unlikable and downright jerks.   This is a true story, but it would have been nice to have a reason to cheer for them more than what the film gave me.  It also felt as if the movie brushed through the biggest parts of their lives to go back to showing the bad behavior.  It seemed as if they had more drama available to the filmmakers who passed it up for some more comedic scenes.

I could have lived my entire life without seeing the Ozzy Osbourne (Tony Cavalero) scene by the pool.

This is certainly an adult film.  There are a lot of scenes of sex and drug abuse that are detailed and disturbing.  Still, you get the feeling that this is exactly what the life was like for Mötley Crüe.

I was very interested in the story surrounding guitarist Mick Mars (Iwan Rheon) and the disease that he had that was leading to spinal problems.  I could have used more about that aspect of Mötley Crüe’s world, because watching him grimace throughout the film just made me wonder why he continued to rock on so hard.  The film touches on this theme, but does not dive into much depth.  It touched on it just so you know it is there, but not enough for you to understand what is driving the man.

The music is fun and rocks hard.  The rock star lifestyle is shown here, and we see some of the consequences of that choice, but perhaps not as much as we should have seen.

Still, as a Netflix film, this is a good watch and kept me entertained for the run time.  It even stirred some emotions watching it, in particular, near the end.  I was never a huge fan of Mötley Crüe, but you do not have to love them to enjoy this movie.

3.7 stars

I got the opportunity, thanks to Fandango, to see the new DC movie, Shazam two weeks prior to its release.  I was very excited about the later afternoon showing and I have been looking forward to it.  DC seems to be starting down this path as I also saw Aquaman early.

At this point, after only seeing Shazam once, I am preparing to make a serious claim.  That claim is that Shazam is my favorite DCEU movie to date, moving past Wonder Woman for the top spot.

Separated from his mother as a child, Billy Batson(Asher Angel) spent years in foster homes and running away from foster homes, still hoping to find his birth mother.  After a run in with the police, Billy wound up going to a new foster home with a large new foster family.  It was during this time when Billy was discovered by a wizard named Shazam (Djimon Hounsou), who gave Billy his powers so he could become his new champion.

Meanwhile, Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong) was desperately trying to find the wizard once again.  Sivana had met the wizard as a child, but failed to prove his worthiness to become his champion.  Driven by power and revenge, Sivana took in the power of the Seven Deadly Sins.  He wanted more power …he wanted the power of Shazam.  You can understand why Sivana does what he does after seeing his back story and this helped create a well rounded villain.

This movie is really fun, has an amazing sense of humor and has more heart than any DC film prior to it.  There is more happening here at a smaller level, a level of family, that we have not seen yet in a DC super hero movie.  There is not the large, grandiose must-save-the-world type situation in Shazam.  It is more of a personal, smaller story, though at times it felt like more than a character story.

Asher Angel was fantastic as Billy Batson, but the film was in danger of being stolen by Jack Dylan Grazer.  Grazer, who played Eddie in the remake of It, played Freddy, one of the foster kids at the new home, and he is tremendous.  Freddy is not only the comedic sidekick to the super hero, but he is also the voice of the audience.  He also has an extremely emotional arc all his own to handle during the movie.  Grazer delivers everything he is asked to do wonderfully and really shows that he is one of the most solid young actors working today.

The entire crew at the foster home were good.  It was cool to see Jerry from the Walking Dead, Cooper Andrews in the film as the “father” of the foster home. Marta Milans did great as Victor’s wife Rosa in a limited amount of screen time.  Faithe Herman was the other major standout in the foster kids as Darla, who you just love immediately.

So much of this movie really works as the “Big Red Cheese,” Shazam (played by Zachary Levi) goes about discovering what he can do and trying to wrap his head around what he has to face.  While Zachary Levi is in the super hero role, Asher Angel gets the bigger dramatic beats in the movie, especially the subplot with his mother.  Angel showed that he is another young star to keep an eye on.

The CGI was great as well.  The villains, which has derailed DC movies before (hello Steppenwolf), look great and have a distinct character about them.  They are frightening and look to really be a threat to our characters.  These are more than just the normal CGI from DC.  Aquaman’s CGI had made distinct improvement and Shazam seems to have taken it a step further.

It was also very funny to hear how the film bounced different names around for the character in the film. Obviously, he can not call himself Shazam, because if he does, he changes form.  They cannot call him Captain Marvel as they used to do so it became a running joke from everything from The Red Cyclone to Captain Sparkle Fingers.

My only gripe with the film is with Zachary Levi.  While parts of the time I liked him as Shazam, I did not like how he yelled all the time.  There are a lot of actors who seem to yell as a fall back point, and I did not like it here.  I would also say that in the Shazam form, Levi did not feel like he was the Billy Batson character in a larger body.  Billy (Asher Angel) seemed way more competent than Levi did.  They felt too different at times.

Other than that, I really enjoyed this movie.  I even enjoyed the third act, which is something that I have never liked in a DC movie.  Even Wonder Woman’s third act was a dramatic downgrade from the rest of the film.  Man of Steel’s third act tanked the whole movie for me.  Shazam, though, had a strong third act that even shook off many of the typical super hero genre cliches that you see in the final battle.  Everything here worked very well.

Shazam had a great deal of themes, but the theme of family was at front and center.  It was powerful to see how both Billy Batson and Thaddeus Sivana had parental issues (surprise, parental issues in a super hero) and how they each dealt with it.

There are several meta moments too, as Shazam exists in the world with other heroes but understands his place.  This is a movie where the kids are front and center and that brought an air of freshness to this film that was welcome.  There is a unbelievably funny homage to Tom Hanks’ movie Big as well that worked on all levels.

Shazam is a heck of a good time and I am excited to have a chance to see it once again.  It is over-the-top in every positive way and has more humor and heart than any DC Comics movie ever before.

4.75 stars 

Jordan Peele had a huge hit with 2017’s Get Out and Us has been the highly anticipated follow-up for the director.  Jordan Peele has become one of the top directors in Hollywood and the horror film Us cements that for him.

In Us, a family of four head to their summer home for a vacation.  Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o), her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) and their two children Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex) arrived at the house and Gabe wanted to go to the beach.  Adelaide was frightened about something that happened in her childhood when she got lost for 15 minutes and came across a girl in a fun house mirror who looked exactly like her.

Sure enough, after the trip to the beach, Adelaide was starting to freak out.  When a mysterious family showed up at their home at night, the family realized quickly that their was danger facing them.  And when they realized that this family was nearly exact copies of them, the weirdness leveled up.

Lupita Nyong’o was absolutely fantastic here, as she had to play the dual role of Adelaide and Red.  Both characters were the same, but also totally different.  Red’s voice was one of the creepier aspects of the movie.  The rest of the cast was great as well.  Shahadi Wright Joseph was amazing and was totally brutal throughout the movie.  Young Evan Alex had a seriously physically taxing role as Jason and Pluto.  And then there was M’Bako from Black Panther himself, Winston Duke, playing a character much different than the warrior from Wakanda.  The film intentionally creates Duke’s Gabe as a lesser physical threat despite the largeness of the actor.

I realized immediately that this family was very smart.  One of the worst parts of horror movies is how stupid people get as they are in danger.  Not this family.  As I am watching, I am thinking to myself what these characters should be doing and, more times than not, they did either what I was thinking or something that I thought was a great move.  For example, there was a scene with Zora and Jason walking through a house where there had just been a violent murder and she walked past an open door.  She stopped and, before she moved on, she shut the door.  I thought to myself, “That’s a good move.”

I was not as scared as I thought I might be from the film.  It was more of a uncomfortable feeling of tension as scenes developed.  They did not resort to the cheap jump scares.  When the jump scares appeared, they were earned.  The tone was brilliantly set with the darkness of the shots and the wonderful score that created such a nervous wonder.

The biggest problem with the film was the gigantic exposition drop in the third act.  Though delivered exceedingly creepily by Lupita Nyong’o, I feel like it derailed a lot of the suspense and the uncertainty of the plot.  I did not need to know all of these specific details of what was going on.  A little bit of mystery goes a long way.  I would have preferred them to leave a lot of what was included here to the imagination.  The scenes were still effective, but I think it hurt the film overall.

The direction of the movie was pitch perfect, though.  Shot after shot was so well developed and so perfectly placed that it is obvious that Jordan Peele has earned the glowing praise that is being heaped upon him.  This is less of a social commentary than Get Out (although there is a message here too) and more of a straight horror film, but he never loses the exceptional movie making to go for the easy bit.

Without spoiling, the twist at the end is a fascinating idea (that I did consider during the film’s run so the twist does not come out of nowhere) and it actually makes you reconsider some of what we know about the entire family at the center of the movie.

Are there some plot holes?  Sure, there always will be, but there is nothing glaring that will stop me from truly loving this movie.  I do wish they would have kept some of the answers to themselves, but the info is delivered so effectively by a superior actress that it only bothered me for a little bit.  It looks to me that Jordan Peele has another huge hit on his hands and that, if he wants to continue in the horror genre, he could really elevate it to another level.

4.25 stars