Stupid people doing stupid things.

That was my thoughts after seeing this fairly familiar story of a woman who becomes obsessed with a married man.  The twist… this time, the woman is a baby surrogate for the married couple.

John and Laura Taylor (Morris Chestnut and Regina Hall) want to have a baby, but they have failed at several attempts.  They have moved on to surrogacy in an attempt to have a baby, but they are down to their final viable embryo.  So when they discover this young, attractive girl who is willing to be their surrogate, they are extremely pleased.  Despite the fact that the young girl, Anna Walsh (Jaz Sinclair), had an abusive boyfriend (Theo Rossi), the Taylors found Anna to be perfect for their needs.

Of course, she becomes queen psycho once she is implanted with the embryo.  Anna falls in love with John and goes full Glenn Close on them.

There are decent things that happen in the movie, but nothing new.  There were entertaining moments during When the Bow Breaks, but there is not enough to overcome all of the stupid things that happen.  For example, when John is growing suspicious of Anna, he gets his friend Roland (Michael K. Williams) to investigate the boyfriend.  He found little about him, but he went ahead and looked into Anna, discovering a bunch of problems from her past, including a murder.  John is a big-time lawyer… why wouldn’t he have this same background check done on Anna before they implanted her with their last embryo?  It did not seem like it took Roland long to find this damning info.

John did so many dumb things throughout this film that, despite being likeable, you just wonder what he is thinking.

Not that Laura is immune to the stupidity bug that plagues the film.  She is completely oblivious to the machinations of the woman carrying her baby, but worse yet…when she finds out, she comes up with the brilliant idea that John should pretend to leave her and convince Anna that he wanted to be with her instead.  Nothing going to go wrong with that idea.  She told John that he had to do whatever he had to in order to convince her.

Then, for some reason, John and Laura decide to lie to John’s law firm about who Anna is, calling her John’s cousin.  I’m not sure why they couldn’t have just told them that she was having their baby, but that lie would, of course, come back and bite them.

When John started seeing the fact that Anna was bat shit crazy, he kept it to himself.  Eventually he tells Laura that he didn’t want to ruin the process for her.  I guess her thought the craziness wouldn’t have ruined the process…let alone the shotgun.   Somebody should send him a copy of Fatal Attraction, The Hand that Rocked the Cradle,  or the Perfect Guy (which, BTW, Morris Chestnut starred in as well.  Is this typecasting?)

I’m afraid that the dialogue was also pretty poor.  There were a few times when I was laughing to myself about what these characters were saying.  They did not talk like real people.

The finale is just dumb, but it is somewhat surprisingly satisfying.  Prior to that though was the proper use of a car in this situation.  SPOILER.  Laura and John are in a car with baby in backseat, and Anna has a shotgun and shooting directly at them.  Laura does exactly what she should have done.  She accelerated and ran smack dab into the crazy bitch.  I almost cheered.  I said out loud… “now back up”.  She didn’t.  It was like a double tap.  Always do that.  Of course, then the final scene was as dumb as the rest of the film, leaving everything up in the air.

If this film were playing on Lifetime, it might be worth a watch.  It is certainly fun and dumb.  You can wonder why these people are doing what they are doing and laugh at them.

2.1 stars

An amazing true story of an amazing moment in the history of New York and of air travel.  The “Miracle of the Hudson” is a story that everyone knew about, but this movie focused on something that I was unaware of.

Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger became a media darling after his monumental decision to land the airplane full of passengers he was piloting in the Hudson River after a bird strike on January 15, 2009.  Little did I know that the investigation into the decision to land on the water could have ruined Sully’s career and created a sense of uncertainty within the American hero.

The film started off with the aftermath of the landing, as Sully (Tom Hanks) was dealing with the barrage of media as well as the investigation.  Co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) was supportive of his co-worker and friend.  As the investigation continued, Sully was feeling the pressure, reliving the potential disaster in dreams, not sleeping much, and worried that this could cost him everything.  The movie only shows phone conversations between Sully and his wife Lorraine (Laura Linney), but I thought these were very effective showing how isolated Sully felt during this time and how his life affected his family.

Tom Hanks was exceptional in this real life role.  I have to say that I never thought of him as Tom Hanks and he just seemed natural with his grey hair and mustache.  Hanks as Sully is the everyman, and he pulled it off perfectly.  He showed the stress that was building on the pilot as he began to doubt that he had made the correct choice.

Aaron Eckhart was also very solid in his supporting role.  Honestly, Sully and Jeff were the only two characters who were developed to a large extent, but their camaraderie really helped this film.  I was very glad that we did not see the typical “co-worker doubt the other worker” trope that happens all the time.  Despite Sully’s own self-doubt, Jeff never once questioned whether or not Sully had made the right decision.  I expected Eckhart to be on the opposite side of the fence, but I am definitely glad that was not the case.

The scenes of the airplane landing and the response of the air traffic controllers and the first responders was just unbelievably brilliant.    I did see the film in IMAX and I was very glad that I did that.  These crash scenes were so tense and realistic that they could take away your breath.  The scenes of the response of all the people who helped save these 155 passengers was not only heroic, but downright moving.  None of these characters were developed, but that did not take away from my feeling of pride as they were helping protect these passengers.  When the person jumped from the helicopter to help save the woman in the water, it stirred some happiness inside me.

The film did drag at times before the film flashed back to the moments before the plane took off.  These flashbacks are as good as it gets.  The film is also pretty short, coming in at just around 96 minutes, however, since the actual event took about 202 seconds, the 90 minutes was a successful run time.

I enjoyed this movie a lot.  Tom Hanks has another memorable performance and the scenes of the plane going down are as good as they get.  Director Clint Eastwood has returned to form after a couple of weaker films as he shows the American hero who was Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger in the bright light of American pride.  Sully is a great film.

4 stars

This time of the year, we begin to see movies that are hopeful to earn some Oscar nominations as well as some that I would consider Oscar bait.

This is one of those.

The Light Between Oceans is a movie with a ton of melodrama and a lot of sentimentality, targeting the kind of stuff that the Oscars love to reward.  However, this felt very manipulative and intentional in its attempt for an award which makes it considerably less appealing.

Tom (Michael Fassbender) was back from World War I after years of dealing with many horrible things (or so we are told) and he is taking a job as a lighthouse keeper on an isolated island to remove himself from society and isolate himself to think.  However, he meets the lovely Isabel (Alicia Vikander) and soon his thoughts turned away from the darkness and toward fancy.  After a marriage, Tom and Isabel started their lives alone on the island.

Everything was not perfect though as the couple suffered two miscarriages and their hopes of being parents seemed to be ending.

Then, the first of many, many coincidences jump to the front and center as a small boat came drifting toward the island containing a dead body and a very live baby girl.  Isabel convinces Tom to skip the part about reporting the dead body and the baby so they could keep the baby themselves.

Problem.  During a christening, Tom runs across a grieving woman in front of a tombstone.  On the tombstone, Tom reads that it is for a German man who was lost at sea with his baby for big coincidence number two.  Tom begins to feel guilty about stealing this woman’s child so he leaves a note saying that the baby was alive and being cared for and loved.

Huh?

The guilt of Tom was one of the least believable aspects of this film.  If he truly was feeling guilty, did he really think that telling this grieving woman that her baby was alive and out in the world, but she wouldn’t see her again would be a better thing?  Then they spend about three years raising the child, letting the woman wonder.

And, of course, they run into her again, this time while holding “Lucy” in their arms.

None of these people are worth anything.  Each one, including Hannah the real mother (Rachel Weisz), only care about themselves.  None of them cared about the little girl Lucy/Grace.

At least Tom wanted to protect Isabel from the authorities after he gave a distinct rattle as a clue to Hannah, knowing it would lead the authorities to the island.  He never discusses it with his wife, though, choosing instead to surprise her.

Then poor Lucy/Grace wound up being pulled between the two moms for a good chunk of the end of this movie.

Listen, Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander are very good in these roles.  The fact that I had any emotional connection to these rotten people are based solely on how talented those two actors are.  But this is nothing more than a grab for nominations, and really not a very good one.  The story betrays this film much sooner than Tom betrays Isabel and vice versa.

The one area where this film may secure an Oscar nom is in the area of cinematography.  There are amazing shots of the ocean and the sunsets and the storms that are sweeping in nature and absolutely spectacular to view.  Adam Arkapaw does a brilliant job with the shots throughout the entire movie.

I didn’t quite hate this as much as it sounds, but the emotional manipulation and contrived coincidences were a lot to take.  There were some good performances, despite characters doing stupid things, and it is certainly a beautiful to watch film.  Unfortunately, the story just could not see the light.

2.4 stars

One of the greatest boxers to put on a pair of gloves was Panamanian welterweight Roberto Duran, a man who became WBC champion only to have everything collapse around him when he famously stopped a rematch vs. Sugar Ray Leonard in mid match with his infamous “No mas” statement.

Duran was also trained by legendary trainer Ray Arcel, another great boxer until a mob hit that went astray cost him his boxing career.

Two extremely fascinating real life characters… unfortunately, this movie does not work well filling in the story of either.  In fact, the film felt more like a series of unconnected scenes instead of a tightly told narrative.

Robert DeNiro played Ray Arcel and Edgar Ramirez played Roberto Duran.  Both men do a reasonable job with what this film gives them to do.  With DeNiro’s background in boxing movies, I immediately buy him as an old-time, knowledgeable trainer.  Ramirez commits completely to the arrogant and brash Duran, whose excesses threatened to derail his career.

Duran was not a very likeable character here though.  I found myself rooting for Sugar Ray Leonard (Usher Raymond) in both of the fights.  I found little redeeming about Duran, which, as I have said many times, really makes it hard for me to cheer for a protagonist.  There had to be more of a balance between the unlikable aspect of Roberto Duran and what we saw in this film.

But the biggest issue of Hands of Stone was the feeling that so many scenes were disjointed.  We would get certain scenes that really had nothing to do with the story that was being told that it was jarring at times.  There was one sex scene involving Sugar Ray Leonard and his wife that sole purpose was to show off Usher’s ass, I think.

There was also way too much being shoved into this film that a lot of the plot lines only received a tertiary glance.  Good example was the story involving the New York mob, led by Frankie Carbo (John Turturro) and Ray Arcel.  Every time Turturro came on screen, I was interested (that may be because I just got done watching Turturro in the wonderful HBO series The Night Of).  I would have loved more of that plot instead of the issues over the Panama Canal.

That whole political aspect was  weird.  I supposed Duran cared about it, but it did not seem to fit with the story.  There were also several flashbacks to Duran as a child steal mangoes for everyone that just felt tacked on and did nothing for the overall plot.

The boxing scenes themselves were adequate, but they could not compare to the amazing scenes from last year’s Creed.  I never really felt like I was in that ring with these boxers and that could have helped the film.

I am not sure how many times that I was watching Hands of Stone and I wondered why a certain scene was included here or why they were showing me things.  The film was in desperate need for more of a tight edit than it received.  DeNiro was solid, but Hands of Stone needed to say no mas much earlier.

2.6 stars

There have been a lot of really solid to great smaller movies this year (Sing Street, Hell or High Water, Swiss Army Man), whereas the big blockbusters have been lacking.  Captain Fantastic, starring Viggo Mortensen and directed by Matt Ross is another example of this trend.

Mortensen played Ben, the father of six children of varying age, who had taken them with his wife and went into the wilderness to live away from the capitalistic society.  However, the wife suffered from a disease that required hospitalization. leaving him alone to tend the kids.  When she died, the family heads off to her funeral, against the wishes of her father (Frank Langella).

This is really a road trip movie, following the kids and Ben on their trip to see their mother’s funeral.  Having seen the trailers, I think they kind of made this look like a different film.  The last half hour or so is what the trailers made me believe that the film would be about, but the bulk of the movie takes place either in the woods of the Pacific Northwest or on the trip to the funeral.

I really liked the first part of the film, and I found the relationships between Ben and his kids to be both sweet and original.  Ben would not lie to his kids, bluntly answering any questions they may have had or giving exact information to them.  As a survivalist family, Ben is gifting the kids big knives and bows and arrows, taking them hunting and rock climbing, and forcing them to be able to take care of themselves.  He was also home schooling the kids, providing a solid background of knowledge and forcing them to analyze what they read.

I especially liked the relationship between Ben and son Rellian (Nicolas Hamilton) because the film teased tension between the pair throughout.  You could tell that something was going on and young Hamilton does a very good job opposite Mortensen of showing the rage that had been building inside of him.  Unfortunately, the pay off of that storyline just seemed to fall a bit flat for me.

That is also the biggest issue I have with the film.  The ending of this really felt forced and did not feel earned.  This flipped too quickly for it to be believable and the end became a sugary-saccharine sweet ending that went against the gritty and intelligent feel of the rest of the movie.  From the point after Viggo shaved off his beard, Captain Fantastic turned into a basic, happy-go-lucky film with typical results and events that did not make much sense in the overall arc of the narrative.

And there was little typical about these characters or this story until that point.  The first 2/3 of Captain Fantastic was just that…fantastic.  It was riveting, original and bold.  There were genuine laughter and really unexpected moments between a group of characters who loved one another and were thriving in their situation.  Viggo Mortensen was just exceptional throughout the film, and he had great chemistry with all of the young actors playing his children.

There was a danger of the film becoming too preachy about its anti-consumerism message, as well as messages against education, police, society and politics.  However, the film does a solid job of tiptoeing the line without ever actually crossing over into preachiness.

Captain Fantastic is fun and witty, very funny and mostly charming.  It features some really strong performances, particularly from Viggo Mortensen.  It just seemed that the ending of the film did not reach the heights set in the films first two acts.  Even still, Captain Fantastic is an extremely enjoyable family road movie.

3.9 stars

Director Luke Scott, son of Ridley Scott, makes his directorial feature film debut with a new sci-fi, futuristic film called Morgan, that takes several ideas that have been seen before and blends them into a film that is a decent time, albeit a familiar time.

Morgan seemingly borrows concepts from films such as Ex Machina, Blade Runner and many horror films for this film. I have to say I also had a Stranger Things vibe from Morgan (who reminded me a lot of Eleven from that Netflix series.)

Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy) is an artificial creation of a agency looking to create a human/humanoid for…you know…reasons.  There is a corporation behind the group and they send a risk-management consultant named Lee Weathers (Kate Mara) to investigate Morgan attacking and injuring one of the team members.  Lee’s job is to decide whether Morgan deserves to continue or should be terminated.

When Lee arrives at the compound, she discovers the staff of the science organization had grown close to Morgan, seeing her more as a little girl than a thing.  The staff kept referring to Morgan with the feminine pronoun “she” instead of the non-gender word “it.”

Meanwhile, it is clear that something was bothering Morgan, as she was uncertain as to why she had assaulted Kathy (Jennifer Jason Leigh).  Lee, very closed down and emotionless, is there to do a job without any feeling or doubt.  Head scientist Dr. Ziegler (Toby Jones) clearly supported Morgan and wanted the girl to continue to live at the compound. They brought in a psychiatrist (Paul Giamatti) to do a psyche evaluation.  When that goes south, all hell breaks loose.

There are some very good moments in this film.  The aforementioned psyche evaluation was extremely tense and compelling, despite the fact that I questioned the techniques of Giamatti’s character.  The scene itself had me on the edge of my seat.

Anya Taylor-Joy was very good as Morgan and so was Kate Mara as Lee.  These two characters would be vitally important to this movie and if they were not handled properly, this would devolve into crap quickly.  Fortunately, that did not happen.

The story is serviceable but predictable.  There is nothing really new that this film brought to the science fiction genre.  And even though I thought of the ending twist earlier in the film, Morgan does a good job of making you unsure if the film was really going to go there.

The film raises some interesting questions early in the story, but the pay off was really just an action fest.  Now, the action was very solid, and Luke Scott looks to be a very good action director, but the ending just does not seem to fit with the beginning.  It is like two different movies.

Despite some flaws in the story telling and a lack of anything new, Morgan does hit most of its beats fairly well, making it an entertaining film.  It is short and quick, never dawdling on any moment too long and they used a couple of flashbacks that, although kind of heavy handed, helped give us some important details for the characters.  Add to that the solid performances and Morgan turns out to be a better film than anticipated.

3.1 stars

I really don’t know what has gotten into Kevin Smith.

The fan favorite director who manned such films as Clerks, Chasing Amy and Dogma has taken the film community into a stranger and more bizarre place than he did with Tusk.    And that was a movie about a man who turned into a walrus.

Yet, I cannot say that there wasn’t a perverse amount of enjoyment to be had in the world of cartoon Canada, where mini, one-foot tall Nazi made out of bratwurst (aka Bratzis) who had sauerkraut for blood ran around killing people for… you know…reasons.

The film was pretty stupid.  Still, I found it fun.  Kind of like the fun of watching a ten car pile up on I-80.  You just can’t look away.

Kevin Smith took two characters from the film Tusk and spun them off into their own film.  He further connected Yoga Hosers to Tusk by returning Guy Lapointe (Johnny Depp) to appear in the film once again.

Colleen C (Lily-Rose Depp) and Colleen M (Harley Quinn Smith) are 15-year old girls who are always on their phone and work, begrudgingly, at the Eh-2-Zed convenience store in Manitoba, Canada.  They are all “aboot” their own lives and can barely be considered clerks.  When they are invited to a senior party, they are out of their minds, until they get stuck working.  Unfortunately for them, the Bratzis have awakened and are ready to re-establish the Nazi Party in Canada.

There is just no way around it.  This movie is a full-on, ridiculous B movie in the spirit of Plan 9 from Outer Space or Piranha.  It is the kind of film that would be a perfect fit for the Rifftrax boys.  Still, there is some kind of joy here, maybe because Kevin Smith is so in on it.  He full admits that this film may not be for everyone, and that he made it because he thought it was funny.  It is a passion project for Smith that is unceasingly brave in taking that next ridiculous step.

Lily-Rose Depp and Harley Quinn Smith, daughters of Johnny Depp and Kevin Smith respectfully, are actually quite good in this.  They are real life friends and that camaraderie plays through with the two Colleens.  They feel natural (to borrow a line from Smith).   They are very lovely and command attention on screen.  Yes, the material around them is strange and, conceivably, dumb, but they go past it.

Now, some of this movie does seem amateurish.  The music sometimes is too loud to hear dialogue (especially Harley Quinn Smith, who is too soft spoken at times) and some of the shots are very weird.  Since Kevin Smith has been a successful director before, I suspect that some of this manner of creating film was intentional.  I think he intentionally made a film that would be seen as a low-level B film (if not even lower) and embraced the quirks of it.  If he purposefully made a movie bad, does that make it a better movie?

I was able to see this on a special premiere night as a Fathom Event and that meant that Kevin Smith introduced the film.  When Kevin Smith introduces something, that means he is going to talk.  Kevin Smith is known for being a talker, and I think he is legitimately one of the best storytellers that we have today.  The 20 minutes or so that Kevin Smith talked about the making of Tusk and, eventually, the spin off of Yoga Hosers, really helped the film take on a new life for me.  I do not know what I would have thought if I did not have that initial story surrounding how the two daughters ended up in Tusk, how Johnny Depp wound up with a “dick” on his nose and working on Tusk, how Depp loved the Guy accent despite everyone in his life hating it, and how Yoga Hosers came about because Kevin Smith felt bad for taking his daughter to all of these male dominated super hero movies.  The introduction by Kevin Smith really put me in a proper mindset and I do not know what I would have thought of Yoga Hosers without it.  I have a feeling that I would not have as much of a positive feeling as I do without it.

The movie is not good, and there is no denying that.  But I found myself entertained by the sheer brazen silliness and outright camp of the film.  I had fun that night, even though I could barely believe what I was seeing.  I have always been a fan of Kevin Smith so I probably came in with a predisposition toward liking Yoga Hosers.   That helped.

Kevin Smith said he made this a child’s movie even though the target audience wouldn’t be able to see it.  I commend him for doing something so out there that I had a lot of trouble deciding what I thought of it afterwards.  I wasn’t sure how I was to score this film.  I did have a lot of fun, but the film was not a good one.  Smith even admits that.  So in the end, as a critic, I am giving Yoga Hosers a….

2.7 stars

However, if you are in the proper mood, and don’t mind some seriously weird and warped storytelling, including a bizarre performance from Johnny Depp, then maybe you should check out this movie.  If you approach it with the proper mindset, you may even laugh a few times.

This one was really good.

Hell or High Water is the new film written by Taylor Sheridan (who wrote Sicario) and starred Chris Pine, Ben Foster and Jeff Bridges.  It is a Western film placed in present day.

Howard Brothers Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner (Ben Foster) are working together to rob banks in Texas.  They are very smart about it, because they are only robbing the drawers and not going for the piles, avoiding the security measures the banks had put in place.   Tanner has been just out of jail, but it was Toby who asked for his help robbing these banks.

The bank holds a lien on Toby’s ranch and he is desperate to pay it off before they foreclose.  Because the robberies were all on the low side, the FBI was not interested so the case falls into the lap of Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges), who is near retirement and looking for one final adventure.

This is such a smart and fun action-thriller.  The characters are well-developed and real.  Their motivations are clear and easily understood, and you could even connect with the criminals because of how charming they are, plus how much they mean to one another.  And yes, we have seen this type of character from Jeff Bridges before, but I would argue that we haven’t seen him this good in a long time.  The relationship between Ranger Marcus and his partner Alberto (Gil Birmingham) is every bit as wonderful as the brothers Howard.

I would go as far as saying that I loved Jeff Bridges in this film.  His folksy charm was on full display and he was outrageously funny with his down south witticisms.

Plus, the state of Texas itself is a huge character in this film.  The way the brothers had to avoid robbing a bank at day because they never knew who might be packing a gun was hilarious.  They got shot at several times by bystanders who just happen to be sporting their rifles.

Chris Pine and Ben Foster are both excellent.  Pine shows his concern and his uncertainty well as Foster is uproariously off-the-charts as his risk taking brother with the cache of weapons in the trunk.  Foster brilliantly portrays a character who seems to understand that his days are numbered and his hope to be able to help his brother save the family ranch is a goal to end on.

The locations are beautifully shot and so rustic that it creates an atmosphere that engulfs you into this world fully.  There is a feel to the look of Hell or High Water that is full of texture.

Hell or High Water is an amazing movie, well done and highly entertaining.  Jeff Bridges is fantastic in a role that, while familiar, raises above everyone else in the film.  Don’t miss this one.

4.6 stars

Southside With You details the daylong first “date” (depending on whom you ask) between Michelle Robinson and Barack Obama.

Spoiler alert:  they wind up getting married.

However, the film does not dive into the relationship past that first date, a fact that seemingly bothered some of the audience members that were in my theater.  I don’t know if they expected the film to play through the White House years or what, but this was simply Barack-Michelle Day One.

Simply is not the right term either as the date, which Michelle insisted was not a date for much of the day, ranged all over Chicago, from the Art Institute of Chicago to a meeting where Obama was speaking to the movies to see Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.

Michelle was played by Tika Sumpter and Barack Obama was played by Parker Sawyers and these two actors do a really nice job showing the burgeoning love of the couple who would storm the White House in 2008.  This, however, was 1989 and you could see how these two people were different.  Michelle was concerned with the perception of her spending time with the young law associate from her law firm.  Barack was angry over the relationship with his departed father and he smoked like a sieve.

There was a lot of charm to this movie.  The dialogue was excellent and the story took its time to develop.  It felt like we were on the day-long date right along with the eventual Obamas.  These two slowly were getting to know each other, with Barack confident and smooth and Michelle determined and strong.  There was a lot of chemistry with the actors and you can see how these two were slowly connecting.

The film is a little too slow at times, which can make it somewhat dull.  The romantic aspect of Southside with You was in full effect which is fine, but never my favorite type of film.

The film was interesting, if not too slow.  Good performances all around.  A nice goodbye to the first family.

3.5 stars

To this point, 2016 has been a great year in horror movies.

I was not looking forward to this film from the trailers.  I thought that I would not have any characters to root for, to care for, because the characters felt like they were just rotten people.

Surprise.  I found myself caring for the kids.  Who knew?

Rocky (Jane Levy), her boyfriend Money (Daniel Zovatto) and her friend Alex (Dylan Minnette) are low-level robbers who decide to try to hit the big score so they could leave Detroit and move to California.  They hear that there is an old blind man (Steven Lang) who had received a large settlement from his daughter’s accidental death, and they decided that this would be an easy way to score big.

They were so wrong.

The Blind Man turns out to be a former soldier who was deadly and dangerous.  He turned the tables on the intruders quickly, putting these kids’ lives on the line.

Don’t Breathe is an apt title for this film, because there were many times throughout this film where I, as an audience member, found myself holding my breath right along with the characters.  There was so much suspense and tension built in this movie that you cannot avoid having a physical reaction.  That is a really fun feat to accomplish.

As I said earlier, I really thought that I would not like these characters because they were not likeable people, but, with the exception of the character Money, I found myself rooting for Rocky and Alex.  Money was displayed as a rotten person, a real a-hole, so when he dies (as shown in the trailer… a mistake) there is little connection to him.  But the other two are well developed and I can understand why they are doing what they are doing.

Steven Lang is wonderful as The Blind Man.  He creates a character who is both relatable and just downright evil.  He has been pushed to levels that makes you want to wiggle uncomfortably in your seat.  He is one of the best horror villains in a long time mainly because he is so real and believable.

The film avoids the typical horror movie cliches as well.  Every jump scare feels like it is earned and the characters do things that make sense.  Every decision has a support behind it.  The film itself takes the home invasion trope and flips it over.  It makes the intruders into the house the victims instead of vice versa.  Such a simple, but dramatically successful twist.

The movie is quick paced.  With its 90 minute run time, Don’t Breathe still accomplishes a lot.  There is a minimal amount of dialogue (especially for Lang, who does so much more acting via the body language) and what dialogue there is is not wasted.

There was so much good in Don’t Breathe that it became one of the most visceral movie going experiences of the year.  Yes, it had a very simple story, but that was a part of its charm.  It was a load of fun.

4.4 stars

I have never been a big fan of Jonah Hill’s movies.  Add to that the fact that I disliked the look of the trailers for Hill’s latest film, War Dogs, you could say that I was not anticipating this film.

And yet, I came out of it really entertained.

WarDogs is the true story of David Packouz  (Miles Teller) and Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill), former junior high friends who found each other later in life.  David was a down on his luck masseuse trying to sell bed linen and Efraim was an arms dealer filling small weapon deals for the US government.  Efraim offered David a job working together and soon, the company AEY was flying high.

After a harrowing experience moving guns through the Triangle of Terror in Iraq, David and Efraim focused on winning a huge contract with the US government that would lead to them arming the Afghan military.  In order to fulfill the contract, which included providing 100 million ammo, Efraim and David had to make a deal with international arms dealer Henry Gerard (Bradley Cooper).

The film is very much based on the two main leads, and their chemistry really carry the film.  Jonah Hill and Miles Teller are excellent together and you can see them as old friends going through this together.  But you can also see how damaged Efraim is and how the paranoia of success and his uncertainty of believe in the human spirit led to the end of the pair.  Efraim is tainted and it was just a matter of time until he brought everything crashing down.

David has a second relationship in the film, this one with his wife Iz (Ana de Armas).  Iz was beautiful and was so willing to accept David for what he was, but she could not stand the lies.  We see how the relationship between this couple was damaged and then grew stronger as David realized that he was heading down a path that was only going to lead to loss.

The movie had some good comedic moments, but the drama of the two characters was the most important aspect.  There was a lot of deplorable people on display here and how David fits into the narrative is an important through line.  David even brought his personal code of honor to his work.  Efraim was the opposite, seeing the debauchery instead.

I enjoyed War Dogs through the entire run of the film.  The pacing was solid.  The performances of Hill and Teller were exceptional.  The story was unbelievable despite being a true story.  The film really showed how lowlife manipulators took advantage of the Iraq War during the early 2000’s and how easy the government of the US made it for these scumbags.  It also looked at the life of one of those scumbags that was not quite as crooked as the others.

I did not look forward to War Dogs, but, looking back, I surely enjoyed it.

3.8 stars

Laika Entertainment has done some really great animation including Para-Norman, The Boxtrolls and Coraline.  Kubo and the Two Strings joins this impressive list.

Kubo (Art Parkinson) is a young boy whose mother is in a haze and whose father is gone.  Kubo makes money by going to the town square and telling stories, playing his guitar, and making magic.

Yes, Kubo has magical abilities that make paper fly around him and form objects, much like origami, when he plays his instrument.  Kubo tells stories of his father’s heroic adventures, but the young boy can never end them.

One of the reasons he cannot is because his mother has told him that he must never be out past dark because his grandfather Moon King and his evil daughters would find Kubo and take his other eye.  Of course, Kubo winds up out one night and one of his aunts did indeed attack him, killing his mother in the process.  With her last bit of magical power, Kubo’s mother brings to life a monkey idol Kubo carried and entrusted Monkey (Charlize Theron) with her son’s protection.

They decide to set off for the armor that Kubo’s father had searched for, in order to stop the Moon King.  Along the way, they meet up with Beetle (Matthew McConaughey) who is a dedicated samurai, albeit a beetle, to Kubo’s father.

The best part of this film is easily the animation.  The stop-motion animation that Laika typically employs in their films is never better than here.  It is a masterful achievement in visuals, character design, imagery and creativity.  The dedication and intricate work that has gone into this film is apparent in the final version and the loving work cannot be underestimated.  It is an artistic feat unlike any animation for the year.

The story has its share of surprising moments, but the narrative itself is a little lackluster.  There are some moments where it moves too slowly and I do not think younger kids will appreciate it as much as they will some other animated films this year.

There is a really nice connection between Kubo, Monkey and Beetle at the heart of the film.  The scenes with these characters are the cleverest and most entertaining of the film.  That comes from both the character traits and excellent voice work.  You never hear McConaughey and Theron in these characters.  They are simply Monkey and Beetle.  That is a credit to these two powerhouse actors.

The hero’s journey is in full display here as we follow along with Kubo discovering what he is capable of doing with his magic.  Add to that breath taking animation, and Kubo and the Two Strings delivers a beautiful and emotional epic in animation.

4 stars

We have the latest “Why Hollywood, Why?” situation as we see the unnecessarily needed remake of one of the greatest classics of all-time.

Ben-Hur has been remade multiple times over the years, though the 1959 Ben-Hur version starring Charlton Heston is considered an epic classic.  This version will not be considered in the same vein at any point in the future.

Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston) is a prince in Jerusalem.  His family adopted a young orphaned Roman boy Messala (Toby Kebbell) and the two become as close as brothers.  However, when Messala felt the need to leave the home to find his own way in the world, he joined up with the Roman Army. Messala became a leader within the Army and one of the most important figures.

So when Pontius Pilate (Pilou Asbæk) is planning on moving through Jerusalem,  Messala returned to his brother to see if he could make sure that none of the insurgents would attack Pilate.  Unfortunately, Judah cannot prevent an assassination attempt and winds up being blamed for it.  He is convicted and sent to spend years as a slave on a slave ship.

After escaping the slave ship. Judah returned to Jerusalem to search for revenge against his brother.

Jack Huston and Toby Kebbell are decent in their roles.  Clearly there is no Charlton Heston in this pair, but they did not embarrass themselves either.  I could see a connection between the brothers and I could understand why these characters felt what they felt.  That is a very important detail if you are hoping to base the story of a betrayal between the brothers as you main drive behind the conflict.

The first two thirds of the film was not bad.  It was a little plodding at times with some of its pacing, but I was reasonably engaged at the start.  The arrival of Morgan Freeman as Ilderim started to pull me out of the movie, mainly because it was Morgan Freeman.  Still, I could even ignore that aspect of the film.

The ending was just horrible.  It was so over-the-top, message-laden, clap trap that it waste any goodwill that the film might have had up until that point.  Everything turned out so perfect that it felt like I was watching a sitcom that had to wrap up in 22 minutes.

Rodrigo Santoro played Jesus in this version, and he was solid, but I have to say that I, once again, realized who he was and could not get past the fact that he was Paulo from LOST.  I know that was not fair, but all I could think was how weird it was that Paulo was now Jesus.

I was not overly impressed with the chariot race at the end either.  I thought the CGI in this scene left a lot to be desired, and there was little tension in the scene because it was apparent what was going to happen.  Ilderim basically told Judah what to expect and the script hit it exactly step by step.

I will admit that I really was not anticipating this film, but I found it better than I thought.  It just was not good.  However, it was not the steaming pile that I thought it was going to be after seeing the trailers.  There were parts of the film that were very entertaining and worthwhile.  There just is no real reason to have this be in existence.  Ben-Hur is a very average film.

 2.4 stars