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Ome excellent casting and the work of a quirky comedic writer lift up what might have otherwise been a formulaic family sports drama in "Fighting with My Family" -and body slam it. Stephen Merchant, British actor, writer of the U.K. "The Office" and creator/producer of the U.S. version, offers the right kind of snark that a story like this desperately needs.

"Fighting with My Family" centers on a working-class family of World Wrestling Entertainment fanatics who run an amateur league and wrestling gym in England. Siblings Zak (Jack Lowden) and Saraya (Florence Pugh) have dreams of the WWE, and their parents (Nick Frost and Lena Headey) push them for reasons both good and selfish. When they both get a tryout to join the WWE's NXT training program in Miami, it's the opportunity of a lifetime.

Lining up smart British talent (and comedic sensibility) alongside supporting actors like Vince Vaughn and Dwayne Johnson (as himself) creates a film in the mold of traditional Hollywood fare, but with more of an indie flavor. Fans of the latter will be more surprised by this, but there's common ground to be found in this movie between audiences who would choose different films at a movie theater 49 times out of 50.

Narratively, Merchant tells a story that ping-pongs between formula and freshness. The freshness comes largely from the humor it keeps about it and the talent on screen. Frost and Headey are two tremendous talents operating in what are usually just stock parent roles in these types of films. They are also not written to just be any parents, but from the getgo, they give the story a bit of an edge as it unfolds true to form. As for Pugh, the film is lucky to have her before she becomes a major commodity. She embodies the rather straightforward sports drama struggle in a way that's compelling-she generates serious empathy and sympathy for a character who doesn't always deserve it.

Clearly a fan, or at least an admirer of professional entertainment wrestling, Merchant neither glorifies the "sport" nor puts it under a microscope. He's interested in its truths, but also in subverting some assumptions that might be out there about it-that, like anything, it requires hard work and dedication, and a lot of subjective luck. Both the aesthetic and the message should connect with hardcore WWE fans as well as the less indoctrinated.

"Fighting with My Family" doesn't subvert the sports drama or family comedy, but it presents it with enough of a twist and the right talent. Merchant isn't a Hollywood guy, but he's making a Hollywood film, and consequently his movie both succumbs to and overcomes those tropes and pitfalls throughout. In that battle, the character development wins out, keeping our interest in the outcome while supplying a strong amount of entertainment.

~Steven C

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"Ad absurdum" would best characterize the state of Eon Productions' "James Bond" franchise by this point in the mid-'80s. Sir Roger Moore, at age 57, has nothing more to give to 007. He, director John Glen, writers Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson, and even Albert R. Broccoli (though probably unaware of it at age 75 or so) are going through the motions in "A View to a Kill." They just do everything they can to make the same formulaic story look and feel new.

This was also the state of things in 1983's "Octopussy," but the difference is that film embraced its wild, colorful absurdity; there's a chunk of "A View to a Kill" that wants to be a serious action film. Another way of looking at it: the ability of this film to balance humor and wit with espionage is seriously dysfunctional.

The story tries to bring Bond into the technology era with a plot involving a microchip that leads to the second-half action taking place in San Francisco. Although that may be future-minded, Glen's direction continues to feel dated. The amount of implied brutal violence gets taken up a notch, perhaps in recognition of the kinds of action films being made at this time, but there lots of '60s-style fist fights, bad Foley sound and all. "A View to a Kill" has no identity in this sense, offering a stunning Eiffel Tower chase and jump in one scene, and a goofy firetruck getaway in another. Both show an effort to be inventive, but they land so differently.

Moore doesn't phone it in here, but he's got no chemistry with Tanya Roberts, whose character is so unbelievable even if it weren't matched by her terrible performance. One of the underrated choices of "Octopussy" was to cast a female lead in Maud Adams that was at least close to Moore's age (17 years younger) and whose character had some experience. This compares to Roberts (27 years younger), Fiona Fullerton (28 years younger) and Alison Doody (38 years younger). Timothy Dalton should've just been Bond at this point.

Casting an Oscar winner in Christopher Walken as the villain might've gone over well had the character not been all over the map. He's got the personality of every Bond villain rolled into one, with an extra dose of crazy. The script tries to paint him as terrifying because he's unpredictable, but doesn't give him enough to work with. May Day (Grace Jones) is by far the most creative and risky of all the evil sidekicks cast in the series over the years, and she's exciting to watch, but ultimately she's just a henchwoman in a "Bond" movie-the formula doesn't allow that much wiggle room.

"A View to a Kill" stands out among the "Bond" library for a number of its choices. The Zorin blimp, Christopher Walken, May Day, the Golden Gate Bridge, horseracing-the distinctive features are abundant. Maibaum and Wilson have good ideas, they just keep applying them to the same story structure-probably because that's what they were paid to do. Perhaps out of chronological context, it's no better or worse than most of the Moore era, but watching them chronologically, there's undeniable fatigue. Add that to a film with humor and high stakes that take to each other like oil and water, and there's little arguing that "A View to a Kill" is one of the franchise's biggest misses.

~Steven C

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The title alone says a lot about the 13th entry in Eon Productions' "James Bond" franchise. "Octopussy" leans into the camp and silliness that had become associated with the "Bond" brand in the Roger Moore era. It's one of the most colorful and inventive films in the series, brandishing a certain audacity that's as endearing as it might be eyeroll-worthy.

After a clever pre-title sequence sees Bond flying a Acrostar mini jet, 007's latest mission goes into motion due to a fake Fabrege egg and the death of a fellow 00 agent. The trail leads Bond to India, a private island home to a female cult leader named Octopussy (Maud Adams) and even a circus in West Berlin.

Most of the movie takes place in India, allowing the film to include a number of places and people that teeter on the line of offensive these days, but it does achieve the desired effect of imbuing "Octopussy" with its own flair. Compared to 1981's "For Your Eyes Only," which borrowed a lot of concepts from previous "Bond" films and failed to stand out, "Octopussy" offers a lot more visually engaging material, even if both films feel obligated to formula.

"Octopussy" stretches to offer something completely different from past "Bonds" in the form of circus acts, elephant hunts, yo-yo buzz saws, death-defying train and plane chases and even a woman in a position of power. The movie even stoops to dressing Moore in a sad clown outfit. Regular writers Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson (with George MacDonald Fraser), whether under strict orders of Albert Broccoli or of their own volition, craft the story and events in such a way that it's so obvious what parts of a "Bond" movie are immutable versus where fanciful, creative liberties can be taken. For example, every dashing Bond villain (Louis Jordan) needs a physically imposing or otherwise memorable henchman (Kabir Bedi)-this one has a turban and a curved sword.

There is plenty to groan about in "Octopussy," but it's rarely boring. Even director John Glen steps up his game in this his second "Bond" outing, getting tons of shots that drive home the magnitude of the stunt work and even some first-person perspective. These "wow" moments help to justify the simplistic motivation behind them (let's have Bond hold on to a plane in midair!")

"Octopussy" exposes in a new way the fine line Bond has always walked between clever and cheesy, inventive and outrageous - and in this particular instance, he manages to keep his balance. That said, there's a sense upon finishing this film that there couldn't be much room left for Bond to grow given these formulaic restrictions. Moore is a fabulous Bond, but six films into his tenure (and 55 years old, to boot), perhaps his hanging on was restricting Broccoli and Wilson's vision of what else Bond could be, and that the trajectory that nearly ended cinema's greatest character by the end of this decade had already been set in motion.

~Steven C

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