The Coen Brothers are back with an exciting and enjoyable anthology film that features six short Western stories that perfectly encompasses their brand of humor, irony and storytelling.

As in most of the Coen Brothers’ work, there is a tremendous cast of actors appearing in the film.  James Franco, Clancy Brown, Stephen Root, Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, Tim Blake Nelson, Zoe Kazan, Tyne Daly and a group of other recognizable Western character actors.

Each of the six stories in this anthology have different styles of a Western, starting with the Gene Autry-style parody of the good guy cowboy and ending with a stagecoach ride that sums up the entire film featuring some serious performances from Tyne Daly, Jonjo O’Neill, Brendan Gleeson and Unforgiven’s Saul Rubinek.

I really enjoyed almost all of these Western shorts.  I will say that Zoe Kazan’s “The Gal Who Got Rattled” was my least favorite and was the one where my attention was diverted the most.  Not that it was a bad short, but I just was more engaged in the other stories.

I loved the “Ballad of Buster Scruggs” story that kicked off the film.  Tim Blake Nelson came singing into the town in his white, pristine cowboy outfit only to reveal himself as one of the worst killers you would find.  The contrast was fascinating and I was also surprised when it ended when it did.  Buster had been talking to the screen and breaking the fourth wall as he went along and he felt like someone who might continue through the movie.  Nope.

Irony plays a big part in these stories, as does death.  If there is a topic that carries through the entire film, it is death.  The old west was certainly shown to be a place of death and of danger for all by the Coens.  However, there is a distinct feeling of fancy in each of the stories, albeit at different levels.

Stephen Root’s bank teller character in “Near Algodones” is a real hoot.  You can see the reaction from James Franco at the ridiculousness of Root’s responses.  One of my favorite moments was when Root came running out from behind the bank.  It was just a laugh riot.

Tom Waits’ Old Prospector character in “All Gold Canyon” was another great story, this time nearly a one man’s journey, his obsessive battle against the land and his intense desire to find gold in whatever manner he could.  The Prospector’s dialogue is very funny as he talks to himself, grumbling about the success or lack thereof.

“Meal Ticket” features Liam Neeson who owns and runs a traveling show that featured a man who has had his arms and legs amputated.  This man would vocalize famous writings and speeches for the entertainment of the crowds.  At first, he was quite the novelty, but his originality began to waver and he would soon be surpassed by the next big thing.  I think if you really want to look for hidden meaning, this one is ripe with possibilities.

If you are a fan of Westerns, this is a must see.  If you love the Coen Brothers and their past films, this is a must see.  I am not especially a fan of either of those but I found this film to be funny, dramatic and full of wonderful irony and fun.

4.6 stars

This one is really great.

Green Book is the true story of an African-American pianist, Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) and his trio of musicians trip through the Deep South of the United States in the 1960s.  In order to make the trip, Shirley needed a driver/bodyguard, someone who knew how to get things done and not afraid to do what was needed.

Enter Italian bouncer Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) who was recommended to Shirley.  Tony was a tough guy and he was a world class bulls**tter.

Tony brought Shirley ( or Doc, as he called him) through each stop of the tour, seeing first hand the cruelty of racism, the unfair treatment Doc had to endure and the remarkable talent that the pianist displayed.

There are so many moments in this movie that, much like the recent The Hate U Give, are hard to watch or that we can believe could happen in America.  As a white man, I can just look at some of the ways these people treated Doc with shock and disappointment.

The relationship between Tony and Shirley is easily the key to the movie.  Seeing these two men develop and learn about each other and develop feelings of friendship toward one another as this tour continued is easily the highlight of the movie.  Both Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen are Oscar worthy in their work here and the way each man learns information about the other is a wonderful example to how we can cross race and differences with respect and honesty.

The film is not just a dramatic film though.  It actually is very funny as well.  The movie is brilliantly written and the humor comes organically with the dialogue and the situations these characters are placed in.  The moment where Tony is able to get Dr. Shirley to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken is one of the best scenes in the film.  Such a human moment that is just one example of great moments peppered throughout Green Book.

Linda Cardellini is Tony’s wife, Dolores, and, while she was not as important to the story as she could have been, her presence was absolutely felt and was a key reason the two men were able to be brought together as Shirley began helping Tony write the letters home to her.  Cardellini’s role was more than “just-the-wife” here and she does a great job.

I am sure that the movie could have been uglier as the time in the country was horrible for race relations and racism was just too prevalent, but the movie did its share to shine a light on how the tour was for these two men.  It also ended with such a strong and positive message that it shows that it is possible for racism to be overcome and to bring us together as a people.  If only there was more of that in the world, we would be so much better off.

Green Book was an outstanding time at the theater and I would recommend it to anyone.

4.75 stars

What would the world be like had Gary Hart not ruined his chance at being President in 1988?

How many dominoes would have fallen after that?  He was being perceived as the eventual winner of the election, so how would that have affected George HW Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W Bush, or Donald Trump.  How many of those would not have been President? Would the world have course corrected? How about major world events such as 9-11 or the wars in the Middle East?

That is an interesting story that I would love to speculate on and I’d love to see a movie that took that on as a topic, but The Front Runner is not that film.  It entails the true story about Gary Hart, Senator from Colorado, who was the Democratic front runner in 1988, but lost that spot when some of his extra-marital affairs came to light through the press.

Looking back at this story, it is amazing how different the political scene is in today’s world where we have a President who admitted to affairs and was even on tape claiming to grab women by the private parts.  That did not derail Trump’s campaign, but 1988 was a different time.

This story is told not only through the eyes of the Democratic Presidential candidate, but also through the eyes of the journalists in the press who struggled with the idea that they were breaking this information.  Again, in stark contrast to today’s news that exists on this type of sensationalism, these reporters debated about the use of this information and whether using it made them more on par with the National Enquirer, the world of tabloid journalism.

Hugh Jackman is good as Gary Hart, especially when the film shows Hart as if he were a deer in the headlights.  You can tell he never once considered the possibility that his behavior outside of his marriage and the political world would affect his race and he raged against the use of the material.  One wonders if he had raged against the reporters in the proper moments if he would have overcome the scandal. It is said in the film that the American public was behind him at the start.

Of course, now Gary Hart is a lesson for all politicians to learn from.  I’m sure that is not the legacy Hart would have preferred.

Vera Farmiga is one of the best and most under-appreciated actresses we have working today as she never seems to fail to bring her best.  I would have liked to see more of her here as Lee Hart, the put on wife of the adulterous Senator, but every scene that she appeared in was compelling.

I really believe this was a vital moment in the world of politics that changed the way things happened and that had this gone a different way, who knows what our lives would be like now.  We’ll never know for sure, but The Front Runner does an admirable job of providing the core of what politics would become.

3.2 stars

Disney has had quite the year.  With massive hits like Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, Incredibles 2, Christopher Robin and the upcoming Mary Poppins Returns, the company has had a ton of success in 2018.  You can toss the sequel to the hugely popular Wreck It Ralph animated film on the pile of money as well.

Not only is this film going to make a ton of money, it is a really quality movie as well.

We find Ralph (John C. Reilly) and his best friend Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) going through their days in their video games and spending time with each other.  However, Vanellope was beginning to become bored with her repetitive existence.  When her video game get broken and the replacement part unavailable, she faces the possibility of it being unplugged forever.

Not so fast.  There is a part available on the internet site Ebay, so Ralph recruits Vanellope to come with him into the internet to attempt to purchase the replacement part before it is too late.

The friendship between Ralph and Vanellope is front and center in this movie, actually focused on the side of Vanellope more than Ralph.  One could make the argument that this is Vanellope’s movie.  She and Ralph head into the Internet and find their way into a Grand Theft Auto type game where they meet Shank (Gal Gadot) and engage in an epic animated car chase with her.  Gal Gadot is not in the film that much, but she is great as Shank when she is.

There are a lot of very clever bits throughout the movie, using the internet and its sites as fodder for jokes and character development.  Of course, the idea was done by the Emoji Movie first, but this is WAY better in their use of the Internet than that movie was.  Yes, there is product placement, but I did not hate it near as much as I did when the Emoji Movie used it.  I think the fact that everything was used for character development made this a far superior flick.

Taraji P. Henson appears as a new character named Yesss, a head algorithm and the heart and soul of the trend-making site “BuzzzTube.”  Alan Tudyk is here voicing KnowsMore, an internet search engine who appreciates the politeness of people.

As with the original, the animation is great, full of life and bright colors.  The third act was quite scary in its own right and the movie deals with some real deep themes.  It is considerably more deep than animated films such as The Grinch.  There is plenty for both adults and kids in Ralph Breaks the Internet.

There is also a powerful scene dealing with online comments that I won’t spoil but is very well done.

The guest appearance of the Disney Princesses is a highlight of the film and really cries out to be developed into more than just a cameo.  And speaking of cameos… our dearly departed master of the cameo makes a fun appearance here too.

Ralph Breaks the Internet waited six years before releasing a sequel, and it was worth the wait.  With films like this joining that growing list of great Disney successes, the studio can absolutely ignore the less than successful films (Solo, A Wrinkle in Time).

4.2 stars

Michael B. Jordon returns to the ring as Adonis Creed, the son of legendary boxer Apollo Creed, in a film that sees him become involved with the son of the man who killed Apollo, Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu).

The sequel to the surprise hit Creed arrives in theaters this Thanksgiving with a solid, if not quite as spectacular, film in the Rocky franchise.

Sylvester Stallone returns to his iconic role of Rocky Balboa for this sequel that deals with the once powerful Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) and his son finding the perfect moment to launch an attack on the newly crowned world champion, Adonis Creed.

There are a lot of scenes that deal with the tragic events from Rocky IV back in the 1980s where Ivan Drago killed Apollo in a boxing match, a match where Rocky wanted to throw in the towel, but did not.  There are many good emotional beats coming from this event, in particular from Stallone, who had to deal with his choices for years.

We also find out that the years were not kind to Ivan Drago either as the Russian people treated him as an outcast, throwing him and his son, to the side after the crushing defeat at the hands of Balboa.

Creed II truly is what you get when you combine Rocky IV with Rocky III.  Not that combining those two films is a bad thing, but you clearly can see several of the beats of those Rocky movies in Creed II.  Some claim that the original Creed was really a remake of the first Rocky, but there were enough differences and originality that made it its own.  This one could have used a little more originality to help separate it from these past Rocky movies.

However, the film is very good anyway.  The boxing scenes at the end are excellent (though not near as great as the one shot match from Creed).  The scenes between Jordan and Stallone are some of the film’s best too.

The film goes heavily into the relationship between Creed and his wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and they have a great chemistry.  Their relationship is a major selling point for this movie as it is unlike most relationships in this type of movie.

I even really enjoyed the little bit of characterization that the film gave to the Dragos.  They provided just enough detail to make you see these two men as real people and not the mindless Russian monster, like Ivan Drago was portrayed as in Rocky IV.  I liked the stuff from their background.

I did find it very contrived with how the final match wound up occurring where it occurred.  I had a hard time believing that is what would actually happen and it pulled me out of the movie.  I found, as well, the final training montage to be uninspired and a basic throwback to the past Rocky movies.

However, the boxing match is outstanding, the relationships and the characters themselves are really great and every story gets wrapped up beautifully.  While this may not be quite an equal to the original Creed picture, the sequel is a fine movie in its own accord.

4.25 stars

This Thanksgiving break started today and I went to a Tuesday night opening.  With the available choices of Ralph Breaks the Internet and Creed 2, you may ask, “How did you wind up at Robin Hood?”  I was asking myself that question as well.

The real answer is scheduling.  I planned out the five or so movies I need to see this break and it worked best to see the new version of Robin Hood on the Tuesday night.

And I did go into the film with as much of an open mind as I could.  In fact, about ten minutes into the film, I am making cracks in my head, but I stopped and told myself… keep an open mind, Doc.

Unfortunately, that open mind did not make this a good movie.  I really tried.

Robin of Loxley (Taron Egerton) caught the thief Marion (Eve Hewson) stealing his horses and they began a whirlwind love affair.  Until Loxley was drafted into the Crusades and had to go to war.  While at war, he tried to prevent crazy military leader Gisborne (Paul Anderson) from beheading the son of Jamie Foxx.  He failed, and wound up being shot with an arrow.  As we find out, Robin, or Rob as everyone called him for some inane reason, seemed to be immune to being shot with an arrow.  Just pull it out.

Anyway, he was sent home and Jamie Foxx followed him somehow.  He apparently knew everything about Loxley and knew of his relationship with Marion, who had believed that Rob was dead.  She moved on with Will Scarlett (Jamie Dornan) making Rob sad.

By the way, there was a scene where Marion and Rob came face to face for the first time and I swear it was a scene right out of The Princess Bride.  Rob asked her why she did not wait for him and Marion responded that he was dead.  I immediately said to myself, “Death cannot stop true love.  All it can do is delay it for awhile.”  Classic.

Back to the “story,” Jamie Foxx wants to train Rob and make him into Batman and send him against the Sheriff of Nottingham (Ben Mendelsohn) to revenge his son’s death, despite the fact that the man who actually ordered his son’s beheading was also still out there.

So Rob got himself an Arrow from the CW costume and continued his training to become a comic book archer.

This thing was hilarious throughout the film, although it had not intended to be.  Some of the dialogue was just horrendous.  The acting was fine for what they were given, but the story was thin and ridiculous and the dialogue was worse yet.

And then there was Ben Mendelsohn.  Poor Ben was just as bad as I have seen.  He was so over-the-top with EVERY line that I wondered if he was being satirical (Hint-he wasn’t).  His performance was laughable and I found him to be a total waste of a character and an actor who has skills.  Just not sure what he was going for here.

The action was okay at times, but it really did not mean anything.  Rob Hood was shot a second time (or was it third?) in the third act and it barely slowed him down.  As soon as the arrow was pulled form his shoulder, he kept going as if nothing had happened at all.

Then, again in the third act, Egerton’s role as Batman Hood is confirmed as one of the characters suddenly becomes Two-Face.  Literally, it was a near exact way that Harvey Dent became Two-Face in The Dark Knight.

Did I mention that Jamie Foxx’s character’s real name translates into “John?”

Jamie Dornan’s character waffled drastically between positions and was never truly a well crafted and realistic person.  He was just written so poorly that Dornan had no chance even with a strong performance.  He was totally inconsistent with his ideas and what happens to him makes ZERO sense.

But sense was not the main component of this movie.  Instead it took the DNA of several more successful movies, including the Nolan Batman trilogy, Princess Bride, Tolkien stuff, and mixed them together hoping to find something that would make this iteration of Robin Hood a viable franchise.  They had a solid cast, but that cast could not escape the wholesale garbage given them to act.  Ben Mendelsohn chewed the scenery every moment he was on screen, only being topped by F. Murray Abraham, whose Cardinal character was so one-note that you could not believe that the writers couldn’t give him SOMETHING to work with.

Oh, and there were a couple of times where it sounded as Mendelsohn’s Sheriff was Donald Trump.  The film took maybe one or two moments where it felt like they were gearing up to set him up as a symbol for the current US President.  Then, the film completely abandoned the point.  They also tried to get Loxley to infiltrate the inner circle of the Sheriff and the Cardinal, which worked like a charm.  Problem was the film also immediately tossed this plot point aside as well.  There was no pay off for any of that in the story.

The only good thing I can say about Robin Hood is that it is now out of the way and I can, hopefully, prepare to see the considerably better movies during the remainder of break.

0.85 stars

I had seen trailers for this movie earlier this year, but it never found ts way to any theaters in my vicinity.  However, when I saw this on iTunes, I was excited about getting a chance to see it at home.

And it was a good film.

Annie Platt (Rose Byrne) was becoming tired of her boyfriend (Chris O’Dowd) and his obsession with long absent rocker Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke). So when an album of Tucker’s music is unearthed and released, Annie takes the chance to write a scathing review of it.

Her boyfriend Duncan was mad at her, but she received a unexpected response.  Tucker Crowe himself read the review and agreed with her.  They then began a correspondence via e-mail and on the phone.

When she discovered that Duncan had cheated on her, their relationship ended.  However, Tucker’s minor heart attack made things even more odd.

This film is a sweet romantic comedy with a group of solid performances and a well written script.  The story itself feels a bit slight, but I did like the relationship between Rose Byrne and Ethan Hawke.  Then, Chris O’Dowd is pretty funny as the obsessed fan who finds his hero in an unexpected place.

The story of Tucker and his gaggle of children that he did not know he had was interesting, but it seemed to be over too quickly.

This is deeper than most rom-coms but, even so, there is not a huge amount of plot.  Most of the film is resolved after the hour and a half.

Rose Byrne is great.  She brings a lot of charm to the movie and the little boy who plays Tucker’s son Jackson (Azhy Robertson) was a nice addition.

Juliet, Naked is a nice film to watch on an evening when you do not have anything else to do.  It might be a bit too slight, but that does not keep it from being a suitable watch.

3.3 stars