There have been a few times where a celebrity death has affected me strongly. I mean, I am always sad for the loss or for their family, but very few have been a reaction for me.  Robin Williams’ death was like a kick in the gut.

I remember where I was when I learned of the death of this iconic man.  I was at the movie theater in the Quad Cities (now it is called Cinemark, but it may have been something else at the time) waiting to watch a Fathom Events special premiere of The Giver and I had checked Twitter.  I could not believe it.  The film had a pre-show live event and they spoke about him on it as well.  They interviewed Jeff Bridges who was clearly in shock over the news.  It was a surreal night.

I loved Robin Williams and that loved dated back to his days as Mork, first on Happy Days and then on Mork and Mindy.  He was larger than life and I had never seen anything like him.

You get that feeling again in the HBO documentary, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind.  It is a marvel that someone like Robin Williams was able to be shared with us for such a short time that you never really believe how lucky we were.

The documentary tells Robin’s whole life, touching on his childhood, but focusing much more on his rise to fame and his effect on people around him.  We hear from his famous friends such as Billy Crystal, Bobcat Goldthwait, Pam Dawber and his family members too.  The documentary does not shy away from the drugs and alcohol which was a constant struggle for the comedian, though it only touches upon the depression over a diagnosis of Parkinson’s late in his life,

The main component of the doc though is to show just how remarkable the man was.  They shared stories about Robin, highlighted with clips from movies, stand up specials and other events that clearly established how incredibly quick witted and explosively funny Robin was.

There were a lot of videos that I had not expected to see, including Robin in an improv class among others.

And I laughed hard at several of the scenes.

2018 has been a great year for documentaries as this is the fifth exceptional one I have seen so far.  With RBG, Three Identical Strangers, the Andre the Giant one, and Mr. Rogers, the Robin Williams doc is in great company.  If you are a fan of Robin Williams, you need to see this movie.

4.3 stars

I saw a special preview of The Spy That Dumped Me tonight and it was probably not a good idea to see this movie so close to Mission Impossible: Fallout because there was no way to think about this as a spy movie after seeing that other one.

Audrey (Mila Kunis) had been dumped by her boyfriend Drew (Justin Theroux) and she, with the help of her best friend Morgan (Kate McKinnon), was trying to get over it.  However, she found out that Drew was actually a CIA agent and he gave her a package that needed to be delivered to Europe.  Suddenly, Audrey and Morgan are swept up in a convoluted story of international espionage and treason.

I’ll start with the positives, which this film did have.  I really enjoyed the chemistry on screen between Kunis and McKinnon.  They played best friends and they seemed to be that very way.  I bought the relationship between them and that is important since that is the true relationship driving the film.

There were some great actors and actresses appearing in the film beside them:  Paul Reiser, Jane Curtain, Gillian Anderson, and Hasan Minhaj.  Unfortunately, a lot of these actors had little to do in the story and were there for basic cameos.

We also see some growth in Kunis’ character as she goes from having a lack of confidence to being strong enough to become a kick ass spy.

Now, Kate McKinnon was hit and miss.  Her character was so over-the-top throughout the movie that at times she became annoying.  Other times, when she was downplaying her weirdness, the character was considerably more entertaining.  The dialogue between Kunis and McKinnon ranged from funny and witty to nothing but low brow jokes.  The inconsistencies hurt the film.  Then, if you really sat down and look at the plot, some of the twists make no sense and really screw up the narrative the film had been building.

The film also tried to be smarter than it is with a series of obvious twists that you could see coming a mile away.

There were moments in the movie where I found myself laughing, but it was never a lot of laughing.

I feel as if this movie had a chance to be better than it turned out and could have done with some rewriting to focus more on the characters and less on the events.  Though it was not as bad as I thought it could have been, The Spy Who Dumped Me was at best, average.  It certainly was not the best spy movie of the weekend.

2.5 stars

There has been some really good documentaries this year and Three Identical Strangers is yet another one.  It is a story that is so unbelievable that your jaw will drop and you will shake your head.

In 1980. three men, triplets, who were separated at birth and all adopted by different parents, found each other in an amazing coincidences.  The story of the 19-year olds became a huge nationwide story and they became famous.  However, questions about what exactly happened bugged the boys and they wanted to find out the answers.

I don’t want to spoil anything here because part of the amazement of Three Identical Strangers was that I did not know anything about the story going in.  It really is a shocking story with a dark turn that is extremely emotional.

The film focuses on the nature vs. nurture argument that has been debated for years.  Director Tim Wardle reveals his story beautifully, slowly pacing the tale to the point where you can hardly believe this isn’t a made up story.

I can’t really go into anything else without revealing anything so I am going to cut the review short.  See the movie.

4.5 stars

Whoa.

The latest film in the Mission Impossible franchise, Fallout is one freaking white-knuckle thrill ride with insanity ruling the day and action everywhere.

Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt, leading his IMF team on a mission to recover three plutonium cores that they had lost in a failed mission.  The government is having trouble trusting Hunt so they send CIA Agent August Walker (Henry Cavill) to keep an eye on him.

Fallout is a true sequel to Rogue Nation, the fifth film in the franchise, and it would be a wise choice to have seen that movie to understand what is going on here.  Most of the Mission Impossible films have been basically stand alone/self-contained stories of the same group of characters, but this definitely feels like the second part of Rogue Nation.  That is not a complaint, mind you, but if you have not seen Rogue nation, there are some characters and situations that you may have a difficult time understanding.

The remainder of the time is Tom Cruise doing insane stunts and providing unreal action set pieces.  There is a lot of Tom Cruise running in Fallout so if you love that trope, this will please you.  There is a chance involving motorcycles and one with cars and one on foot and one in helicopters and… man, there is a ton of exciting stunt work.

Famously, Tom Cruise injured himself doing one of the stunts (which was left in the film) and you cannot help but be impressed with the level of commitment from one of the most successful actors in history.  There is no reason why we need Tom Cruise to hang off of a helicopter or learn how to fly a helicopter himself, but he does it anyway and that should be respected.

To its credit, the film does not just settle for mind-blowing action scenes.  There are several real moments of characterization and growth within here as well.  Everybody does a great job with their performances. Ving Rhames has a couple of specifically great scenes here.  Simon Pegg provides just the right amount of humor without pushing it.  Rebecca Ferguson returns and provides a wonderful counter balance to Ethan Hawk.

Henry Cavill is fine here (I am trying to avoid making a comment on the mustache) but I am not sure if the twist involving him was meant to be a twist at all.  If it was meant to be a surprise, the film does a poor job of keeping it.  Personally, I think the film lets the audience in on the twist early and kept it from Ethan and his crew.

It is 147 minutes long, but it did not feel that way.  It was so packed full that I never once felt bored or as if something wasn’t welcome.

My only criticism is that there are a couple of moments where what happened was so over the top that it stretched my willingness to believe (in particular, a scene with a metal hook and the helicopter).

Mission Impossible: Fallout is a fantastic movie with thrills from start to finish.  It has Tom Cruise at the top of his game and takes solid use of the remarkable cast around him.

Choose to accept this mission… you won’t regret it.

4.85 stars

I can easily understand why a fan of DC Comics and their characters may hate Teen Titans Go.  The program takes a serious team of heroes and makes them childish and immature.  I mean…one of these characters is Robin, one of the oldest and most important characters if the DC Universe.  Teen Titans Go is directed toward a very youthful audience and I know there are comic fans who think that is insulting.

And while most of the Teen Titans Go series is not very easy to watch as a comic fan, Teen Titans Go to the Movies is extremely clever, funny and just a lot of fun.  Who’da thunk it?

That does not mean that there are not sections of this movie that are stupid and resorts to fart jokes, poop jokes and other low brow humor for their jokes.  These sections are still dumb and a weakness of this film.

However, the funny and surprisingly well-written parts of the film outweighs the limited amount of poop jokes here.

The Teen Titans, featuring Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire and Raven, are having trouble finding respect among the super hero community because of their immaturity and their likeliness to break into song.  Meanwhile, it seems like every super hero around is having a movie made about them.  Robin desperately wants to have a movie based on himself and he and the team think that if they can find an arch-nemesis, they would be taken more seriously.

That arch-nemesis would turn out to be Slade (Will Arnett), who has started a plan by stealing a specific gem from Star Labs and he uses his mental manipulation to fool the Titans.

The strength and the friendship of the Teen Titans must overcome their own ego and the strain it might put on the team in order to save the world from Slade’s evil plan.

Teen Titans Go to the Movie was quite a surprise.  It was way better than it had a right to be and I found myself laughing and smiling at most of it.

There were so many DC Comic characters in the movie that I had a heck of a good time just looking at the crowd in the film’s movie theater and trying to name everyone.  Never would you see such characters as The Spectre, Deadman, Ms. Martian, Shazam, Booster Gold, Zatanna, Plastic Man, Elongated Man, Jonah Hex, Swamp Thing in the same scene with Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Flash.  It was amazing to see the artists’ rendition of these comic book characters that many of the audience members (certainly not the children in attendance) would have no idea who they were.

But even more than that was the fact that Teen Titans Go to the Movies is really a satire of the comic book movie genre and provides some really funny self-deprecating humor on the subject.  Comic book movies are not the only genre the film targets as it has a remarkably clever Back to the Future section of the film, a series of strangely catchy musical numbers and meta/fourth wall breaking moments.

And there are two specific Stan Lee cameos (voiced by Stan the Man himself) and a pre-credit scene that might make the haters smile just a little.

While I have never been a fan of the show, this film was way better than I ever imagined and I found myself laughing throughout.  I was constantly amazed at what I was seeing on screen (I am not sure, but I think I saw a movie poster in the background featuring Superman with a mustache…hey there Justice League).  As a comic book fan, I saw Easter eggs galore in almost every scene and I was astounded by what they got away with.  The whole Batman origin joke made me laugh out loud (not sure anyone else understood it in my theater).

This was really good and, while I could use less fart/poop jokes, I understand why they are here.  I also think something like Teen Titans Go to the Movies could help the comics. How many people might wonder about characters they see here only to find that they are real DC characters?

4 stars

Mind… blown.

Boots Riley is the writer/director of this movie and it is his first feature film.  Riley is a rapper/activist who apparently has some serious opinions to share.  You can tell because he spares no topic in the satire called Sorry To Bother You.

The film stars Lakeith Stanfield as Cassius Green who is in desperate need for a job so he applies at a telemarketing company.  He struggles with the job until co-worker Danny Glover drops a hint for him.  He says to use his “white voice.”  The white voice was something that Cassius could do tremendously well and it made him unbelievably successful at the company.  In fact, he is promoted to the position of “powercaller” upstairs.  His new massive success gets him invited to a high brow party thrown by CEO Steve Lift (Armie Hammer) where everything explodes.

That’s about all I can tell you because if I were to spoil this movie, you would not believe me.  The film was rocking along until that party and then EVERYTHING WENT NUTS!  And that is in a good way.

This film is satirizing all kinds of topics from the world today:  racial tensions, unions, fake celebrities, Americans’ viewing habits, large companies, SPIN controlling the thoughts of people, Capitalism,  art, relationships, the news media… there is probably more here, but it is all just blasting at you that it is hard to remember them all.  That might be a bit of a problem for the film where if they had focused on one or two, the message might have been clearer.

However, the presentation of this was just so amazingly provided that I almost wouldn’t want it any different.  I heard a lot of critics compare this to the film Swiss Army Man, and that tone/feeling of this movie does bring that to mind.  I loved Swiss Army Man, by the way so that is a huge compliment from me.  However, I know that Swiss Army Man was and I would expect Sorry to Bother You will be polarizing for the public because the ideas are presented in a manner in which they are not expecting.  I found it remarkably original and courageous, but many may find it pretentious.

Tessa Thompson is here as well, playing Cassius’s girlfriend, Detroit.  She is a great character as well, who takes a stand for the working people, though may not necessarily be as much of a supporter as she thinks she is.

There are scenes in this movie that you will not believe that you are seeing in a regular film.  It is so over-the-top that I left the theater with the letters WTF stuck in my head.  I loved a movie was able to create that uncertainty in me and do it with a creative manner than I had never seen before.  Honest to God, the film started in one path and suddenly changed paths midway through.  I did not see it coming and it was wonderful.  There were scenes that I could not believe I was laughing at.

Great performances from all the cast, including some great cameos and voice overs, unbelievable twists and turns, and a satire over just about everything that can be satirized.  Sorry To Bother You is a great film that takes HUGE risks and I hope it pays off.

4.8 stars

This was the third sequel of the day, and actually, probably the best movie that I saw today.  Still, Unfriended: Dark Web left me feeling unsatisfied and a little unhappy.

Mathias (Colin Woodell) had found a laptop at a cafe in the lost and found and, since it was a better version than his own, he took it.  He had been working on a new app to help with sign language so he could communicate better online with his deaf girlfriend Amaya (Stephanie Nogueras).  He gets online with a bunch of his friends for their “game night” and soon strange things begin to happen and, before long, everyone is in danger from the mysterious original owner of the laptop.

I have to say that the set up of this film was excellent.  The use of the online tools such as Facebook messaging to create tension and fear are used brilliantly.  The technological aspects of the story really add to the confusion and uncertainty of the situation.  Who hasn’t been online when something strange was going on that you couldn’t explain.

And I really liked the characters here.  Sure they are basic stereotypes, but each actor involved does a decent job of working with what they have been given.  There is enough character development for each person that it matters to you when they are placed in jeopardy… at least most of them.  Each performance was adequate and did not draw away from the story.

The villains are mysterious and are not supernatural in nature, which is a good choice.  Unfortunately, there is not enough about them and they end up being more of a plot point than characters.  The effects they have when they are seen on camera is fun.

I just did not like the situation these characters were placed in and I was not happy with the resolution of the movie.  The ending did seem to take a smaller, tighter story and blow it up to an illogical conclusion.

There was a style to the set up of the film and the execution of the online aspects of Unfriended: Dark Web, but the story seemed to become too large and all encompassing.  It worked considerably better when the threats seemed more personal, more directed.  As he film grew in improbability, the less it worked as a narrative.

2.8 stars

Denzel Washington had never done a sequel before.  That is an amazing fact in the world that we live in.  It seems as if everything is a sequel these days.  Well, that streak was broken with The Equalizer 2, which does not live up to the original film.

Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) is one of those guys who just is out to help people.  And he does it in a real bad ass way.  Denzel is really good in this role and it is cool seeing him being the warrior that this character is.

Unfortunately, the story is scattered too much and the first hour or so of The Equalizer 2 is deadly dull.  Then it seemed as if the second half of the film tried to make up for the boredom by going way over the top in violence and stupid action movie cliches and situations.

McCall has a friend (Melissa Leo) who winds up a victim of a violent death (although my favorite part of the beginning of the movie was when she was being attacked and she was fighting back.  She was a force of nature).  This send McCall out for not only justice but revenge.

There were too many sub plots in this movie and I did not care much about them.  The best one involved a young kid (Ashton Sanders) and his painting, but he becomes way too involved in the silly third act battle.

In that third act, I thought the villains did so many stupid things that they deserved what was coming to them.

Director Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington have worked together several other times (4, I believe) but this is not the strongest of the occasions.  Again, it is not terrible overall, but it is not that good either.  Certainly not in Denzel Washington level.

2.6 stars

So saccharine sweet that I may have a toothache.

I watched the original Mamma Mia about a month or so ago because I knew this was coming out and I was not overly impressed.  I liked some of the music, but the film itself was not anything that appealed to me.

I had wondered how they were going to do the sequel since they used all of ABBA’s hits in the original.  Was it just going to be a rehash of the same songs?  Well, there were only a few of the songs from the first film used again (Dancing Queen, Fernando, Mamma Mia) and they used a bunch of lower tiered ABBA songs.  The problem with that is the lower tiered ABBA songs were not very good.  I would go as far as to say that several of the songs involved in Here We Go Again were cringe-worthy.

The best moments were certainly the big productions, which were the songs that had been done before.  The Dancing Queen sequence was excellent.  Mamma Mia was done very well.

The story had two parts to it.  Donna’s (Meryl Streep) daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) has taken over the hotel on the island and is planning a huge reopening party.  The second part is the origin story of how young Donna (Lily James) found the island and how she became pregnant with Sophie.

The film cast thee young versions (Jeremy Irvine, Josh Dylan, Hugh Skinner) of the three fathers (Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård, Colin Firth) to tell the story of how Donna met each man.

I will say that I think Lily James is a star.  There is something about her that is undeniably watchable and her very screen presence helps the film’s early story tremendously.  She has that “it” factor.  Unfortunately, the material here does not give her much to do.

There is absolutely zero stakes for the movie.  There is almost no conflict there either.  A rainstorm causes some of the most trouble for the movie, but it is resolved easily.

I also enjoyed the younger versions of Tanya (Jessica Keenan Wynn) and Rosie (Alexa Davies) who do a great job of capturing young versions of Christine Baranski and Julie Walters.

It’s not as if the movie was dreadful, because it is not.  It just seemed to be pretty unnecessary and lacking in anything that would be considered deep. The music was not as good as the first time (thankfully, Pierce Brosnan was kept to minimal singing) and the only parts that stood out was when they did the music from the first.  Cher’s appearance was short and predictable.  You saw just about everything from Cher in the trailers (except for a couple of songs she sang).

Deep cut ABBA fans might really enjoy this, but a causal ABBA fan will find most of these songs lacking and there is not much more to the film besides the music.

2.5 stars

Okay, I love “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson.

But seeing the trailers for the new film Skyscraper had me making the jokes, like everyone else, that a better title for this would be Sky Hard… or maybe Die-Scraper.  To say that this film may share an idea or two with Die Hard is not stretching credibility at all.

For the record, Skyscraper does not come anywhere close to the brilliance that was Die Hard.

That said, I had a lot of fun with the movie.

Yes, there are things that happen that defy physics or logic, but I was able to not think about those things much and just enjoy the Rock kicking butt and being all heroic.

Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson) is a former FBI agent who had to turn to private security after a tense standoff resulted in his loss of a leg.  A buddy got Sawyer a job checking security for the newest tallest building in the world (3X the Empire State Building) found in Hong Kong.  Unfortunately, terrorists are targeting the building for their own purposes and they set the building on fire, trapping Sawyer’s family above the flames.

Johnson is great in the role.  Sure there is not a ton that is demanded of him, but I truly believe that Johnson has that performance in him if someone gives him a chance.  Neve Campbell as Sawyer’s wife Susan is also great here, harking back to the days when Neve Campbell was a kick ass in movies.

The action scenes are really tight and cool, filled with excitement…especially those that play off the height of the building. I have heard of people who were scare of heights really being affected by some of the scenes.  I was fine myself, but I can understand the thought process.

The villain of this movie was a major step down.  The terrorists here are just the bland, villainous type.  Certainly no one anywhere near the level of Hans Gruber from Die Hard shows up in Skyscraper and is one reason why this movie, while it may aspire to be Die Hard, falls way short.

It looked really good, with the special effects and the fire and such.  The Rock’s scenes always worked in appearance and never did I get the feeling that they were on a green screen.

Though the film is not this generation’s Die Hard, Skyscraper is fun and exciting.  Unless you get hung up on some of the improbability of the situations, you should have a good time with The Rock saving his family.

3.4 stars