Bohica

Directed by: Ridley Scott

Starring:  Josh Hartnett, Sam Shepard, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Ewan MacGregor, Eric Bana

Maybe I'm missing the point of Black Hawk Down.  Ridley Scott's war film documents the failed Mogadishu raid of October 1993 in which U.S. forces, expecting a cakewalk operation, descended upon a meeting of a warlord's lieutenants and met heavy resistance causing numerous casualties.  Many American soldiers were killed and a helicopter was shot down.  Black Hawk Down's technical prowess is not in question, but after a while, the movie is all shooting, blood, and soldiers' body parts being shot off.  It gets boring, and we grow numb to it.

Released three years after Saving Private Ryan broke the mold with its realistic battle sequences, Black Hawk Down upped the ante with little else but all battle sequences.  Saving Private Ryan's opening D-Day battles were shocking and visceral, but then the story took over and there were calms before the storms.  We saw what the story evolved into:  A tale of sacrifice and what it truly means to be the one whom others sacrificed their lives for.  "Earn this" became not just two words, but a challenge to the surviving Private James Francis Ryan.  Black Hawk Down has no such moments, in fact the soldiers themselves are hardly people at all, but simply cogs in a machine.  Maybe that's the point, but it doesn't make for a fully engaging experience.  In a footnote, both movies feature Tom Sizemore.  

Yes, there are breaks in the action where soldiers retreat to base to reload and rethink their strategy, but it's all confusing anyway.  Characters discuss their plan, which goes awry, and then soon after we see a soldier lying dead with his innards exposed for the world to see.  We don't have a point of view where any of this makes sense.  Without the stakes, Black Hawk Down becomes war porn.  (I think I just made that term up). 

Directed by:  Garry Marshall

Starring:  Hilary Swank, Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert DeNiro, Halle Berry, Katherine Heigl, Jon Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Sophia Vergara, Josh Duhamel, Hector Elizondo, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michele, Ryan Seacrest, Larry Miller, Matthew Broderick, Cherry Jones, John Lithgow

It may take be longer to list the cast of New Year's Eve than it will to write the actual review.  New Year's Eve is the second of Garry Marshall's obscure holiday films (the first was 2010's Valentine's Day) in which a large cast of stars are thrown into a mix of intersecting plots all paying homage to the magic of the holiday.  New Year's Eve's cast includes multiple Oscar winners and nominees, so this isn't a group without talent.  The movie is slight and wants to be loved, but soon there isn't enough room or time for all of these stories competing for the same screen.  Nor do we care enough.

The movie's bloated running time is reflective of having so many A-listers, most involving stories of romance or family love.  Swank is at the center as the boss of the Times Square ball drop with a crisis on her hands:  There is a mechanical issue with the ball and it may not be able to drop in time for midnight.  That and she also has to meet someone before midnight, regardless of whether it costs her this job.  There is also an executive whose car breaks down in Connecticut and needs to get to Manhattan in time for... And a New Year's Eve scrooge who doesn't believe in the power of the New Year, and a harried record company secretary who quits her job and has a courier lead her on a tour of the city, etc., etc.  Oh, and let's not forget the rock star who wants to reconcile with the former girlfriend he jilted last New Year's Eve.  

I could go on and successfully recap the subplots but to what end?  The movie itself is only sporadically intriguing and New Year's Day itself is kind of already over once the clock strikes midnight and the confetti falls over Times Square.  At least on the East Coast.  The actors themselves deserve a celebration by taking this stuff seriously.  

Directed by:  Tom Gormican

Starring:  Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton, Daniela Melchior

Call Anaconda a reboot, a remake, or a reboot within a remake, but don't call me if they make Anaconda 2.  It's not that Anaconda is terrible.  It's simply routine and uninspired despite Jack Black's and Paul Rudd's best efforts.  I don't recall any groundswell for an Anaconda remake, etc. but here it is anyway.  

Anaconda stars Black and Rudd as Doug and Griff, lifelong friends from Buffalo who team up to reboot Anaconda "indie-style" in the jungles of the Amazon.  Doug films wedding videos but storyboards them as if he were shooting a horror film and Griff is a struggling actor who scores bit parts on TV shows.  Griff tells Doug and his other friends Kenny (Zahn) and Claire (Newton) that he owns the rights to Anaconda, which they believe and start going to work.  

One mistake of Anaconda is how the movie Doug and Griff are making doesn't seem indie at all.  I reflected on Dolemite Is My Name (2019), in which Ray Ray Moore (played by Eddie Murphy) decides to make a low-budget film which was poor quality, but teemed with the energy of a man trying to reverse his fortunes.  Any positives that can be gained from Anaconda is that we're rooting for this group to change their own lives, but the movie they're filming should've been Ed Wood-light.  The process should've been the story, but instead we're treated to boring subplots involving illegal gold miners and a massive snake which terrorizes the region.  I wanted to tell these tangents that they're in the wrong movie and belong in a different one.

There is one funny line in which Kenny discusses being "Buffalo Sober", which means that he sticks to beer and wine only, with occasional forays into "not hard" liquors.  The movie doesn't build on that, but instead relegates the funny Zahn to a footnote.  

Directed by: Josh Safdie

Starring:  Timothee Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin O'Leary, Fran Drescher, Odessa A'Zion, Tyler Okonma, Sandra Bernhard

Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme is a story of a cocky ping-pong player circa 1952 who is convinced so thoroughly of his greatness that he forgets to win the tournament he's competing in.  He's too busy trying to woo actress Kay Stone (Paltrow) and enter into a business deal with her husband Milton Rockwell (O'Leary), who sees the overbearing Marty Mauser (Chalamet) as a way for him to sell pens in Japan.  Marty thinks performing in halftime shows at Harlem Globetrotter games is beneath him, but he has to find a way to earn a living in between tournaments, especially after being waxed by a Japanese player who uses a different type of paddle.

Safdie's movie is one of relentless motion.  Marty is forever looking for the next scheme or angle to make some money he didn't earn, with the promise that his future winnings will more than pay for the investment in him.  He also tries to avoid Rachel (A'Zion), with whom he was having a fling and is now eight months pregnant with Marty's child.  Marty denies this, of course, because she's married and it's probably her husband's...or so he hopes.  His next obsession is to travel to Japan to take on Endo, the now national hero who is the pride of Japan after decimating Marty in London.  Marty's post-match (and frankly pre-match) behavior has enraged tournament organizers to the point that he's banned from the Japanese tourney.  

The escalating series of adventures, some of which are deadly, Marty finds himself in is at the heart of Marty Supreme.  We question how Marty doesn't just collapse under the pressure he's putting on himself to live up to his self-billing, and how Rachel can still love him even though he's mostly unlovable.  Timothee Chalamet, very likely to nab a third Oscar nomination for Best Actor here, goes all-in and isn't afraid to be unlikable while still being fascinating at the same time.  We can't stop watching him, and we may even feel sorry for him if he lets us.  The supporting cast also doesn't just sit back and allow Marty to run all over them.  Kay is surely attracted to Marty, but doesn't see him as a suitable replacement for her prick of a husband.  Paltrow finds herself in a pickle of her own choosing, while O'Leary maintains a commanding screen presence as a character not a million miles removed from his Shark Tank persona.

I don't know how much I buy Marty's turnaround in the final twenty minutes.  The ending feels forced, as if a happy ending was needed to make the journey worth it.  But for most of Marty Supreme, the best moments are when Marty acts as the scheming, conniving jerk who is always looking for the next sucker to help enrich him.  

Directed by:  Paul Feig

Starring:  Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, Elizabeth Perkins, Indiana Elle, Michele Morrone

The Housemaid's trailer may remind viewers of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), in which a sinister housemaid infiltrates a suburban family for her own nefarious reasons.  Not to spoil anything, but this is thankfully not the case, and in fact Millie (Sweeney) accepts the live-in housemaid position for a wealthy Long Island family because she lives in her car and needs a job and residence in order to stay on parole.  She spends a good portion of the movie trying to go with the flow while dealing with the temperamental Nina (Seyfried), who abuses and gaslights Millie because she's rumored to have spent time in a mental institution.  We see this is likely true, but then The Housemaid flips the switch and makes the villain someone else entirely, although not exactly surprisingly.

The poor guy who referees the tug-of-war between Nina and Millie is Nina's husband Andrew (Sklenar), who is saintly in his dealings with his erratic wife.  He's perfect in every way, but we know someone like him is too good to be true.  No one can be this patient and forgiving unless he's hiding a darker side.  The Housemaid's structure and lengthy running time allow us to deduce that all is not well with either Nina or Andrew.  Their perfect home is just the setting for turmoil which Millie finds herself in the middle of.  But Millie is not immune to troubles either, as we learn.

Most of the fun we relish in The Housemaid is contained in its changing viewpoint and the suspense in building to the inevitable outcome.  Sweeney is deferential and quiet because she needs the job and Nina knows it; allowing her to use Millie to her advantage.  What is Nina's endgame?  Or Andrew's, aside from becoming intimate with the help?  Millie goes along to get along until she is placed in a deadly situation in which she has to revert to her violent past.  Is the ending too neat and frankly unbelievable?  Yes, but part of the fun of Paul Feig's The Housemaid is getting to that point.  By then, we're invested and we can forgive it its trespasses. 

Directed by: Noah Baumbach

Starring:  George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Riley Keough, Stacy Keach, Jim Broadbent, Patrick Wilson, Billy Crudup, Grace Edwards

Jay Kelly (Clooney) is played by George Clooney as an aging movie star who begins to question whether fame was worth the price he's paid in his personal life.  He's an amiable person, but his pursuit of glory comes at a price to himself, his family, and those who work for him like his loyal manager Ronnie (Sandler) and publicist Liz (Dern).  Even they start questioning how much more they can sacrifice for the man who pays their bills.  Noah Baumbach's movie doesn't necessarily cover new ground, but it approaches the topic with sensitivity and with the understanding that 99.9 % of the world's actors wish they had Jay Kelly's problems. 

Jay finished wrapping a movie when he learns the director who discovered him, Peter Schneider (Broadbent) has died.  Jay then feels pangs of guilt when he recalls a conversation six months earlier when Peter begged him to assist in his comeback film which Jay declined.  Peter cast Jay in his first movie after Jay accompanied his friend Tim (Crudup) to an audition and was asked to read.  This caused years of pent-up bitterness in Tim which manifests itself during a get-together with Jay at a Hollywood bar.  Their conversation is civil and reminiscent, but we sense Tim resents Jay and later he admits to hating him.  "You stole my life," Tim says before starting a fistfight which may or may not cause Jay publicity headaches down the road. 

Jay wants to spend time with his daughter Daisy (Edwards), who intends to travel around Europe during the summer before freshman year of college.  She says she wants to see the world, but we know she doesn't want to see her father.  Jay's oldest daughter Jessica (Keough) has already become estranged from her dad.  Jay decides to follow Daisy to Italy, where he will reluctantly participate in a lifetime tribute orchestrated by Ronnie.  Ronnie is having problems at home, but it is apparent he has had many such problems over the years which he pushed aside for Jay's needs.  How much more will Ronnie continue to put his client's needs over his own?  Liz decides she's had enough and her exit scene is one in which she literally and figuratively gets off the train as far as Jay is concerned.

Jay is not an overbearing jerk, just someone who doesn't realize his own selfishness until it's staring him in the face.  He's aloof to the damage he has caused to those who love him.  He justifies it in a confessional phone call to Jessica, who has long since estranged herself from him because she knows him so well, maybe even too well.  Clooney gives us a Jay Kelly who is of course good-looking and suave, but also one capable of introspection and emotional intelligence.   The issue becomes whether such traits have come too late to allow for reconciliation.  The conclusion of Jay Kelly takes place at the tribute to Kelly where he asks himself whether he can do a retake, almost as if he wanted to reshoot a scene which wasn't perfect.  Then he realizes he cannot and no reboots are possible, even in Hollywood.  

Directed by: Rian Johnson

Starring:  Daniel Craig, Josh O'Connor, Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Thomas Haden Church, Josh Brolin, Andrew Scott, Jeffrey Wright, Mila Kunis, Daryl McCormack, Cailee Spaeny

Wake Up Dead Man isn't simply a murder mystery, which would be compelling enough, but delves into spirituality and morality in the wake of modern politics.  What's the Catholic Church's place in all of this?  Wake Up Dead Man, in the best Agatha Christie tradition, rounds up a stellar cast and has them all appear guilty and motivated in the murder of rabid Monsignor Wicks (Brolin), who is found stabbed to death in his church.  Detective Benoit Blanc (Craig) is on the case and is soon interrogating everyone while navigating the story's twists and turns, of which there are many as per usual in this genre.

Craig approaches Blanc with more of a playfulness than in the previous two Knives Out iterations.  O'Connor's Father Jud does more of the heavy lifting as he assists Blanc in the investigation.  There is no shortage of suspects among the church's dwindling parishioners including Wicks' lifelong, loyal secretary Martha (Close), a controversial town doctor (Renner), the quiet groundskeeper (Church), an author looking for inspiration for his next novel (Scott), another woman who believes Wicks can cure her constant pain (Spaeny), and the list goes on.  

Then about halfway through, Wake Up Dead Man throws a curveball which I won't reveal but makes a certain amount of sense considering Wicks is murdered on Good Friday.  This crime seems to be the most puzzling to Blanc and may contain spiritual or miraculous elements.   Is what happens a true miracle or another plot?  No matter what, Wake Up Dead Man, even with its length which could've been trimmed by about fifteen minutes, continues the Knives Out tradition faithfully. 

Directed by:  James L. Brooks

Starring:  Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Woody Harrelson, Albert Brooks, Rebecca Hall, Jack Lowden, Spike Fearn, Ayo Edeberi

Ella McCay takes place in 2008 and feels like a throwback not just to a calmer (sort of) political environment but to feel-good romantic comedies from the 1980's.  James L. Brooks wrote and directed Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets, all three films featured harried characters who can't find time for love because life is getting in the way.  

But Ella McCay lacks the life of Brooks' earlier comedies.  He tries to recreate the formula and stocks it full of accomplished actors and an upbeat score by Hans Zimmer, but it's only successful in spurts while creating a villain in Ella's husband out of nowhere.  With the exception of the husband and Ella's father (Harrelson), most of the people in this movie are kind and helpful.  Even in 2008, the political climate wasn't this tame.  

Ella (Mackey) is an idealistic woman whose family falls apart while she's in her teens.  Her father is a serial cheater while her mother (Hall) stands by him even though he hurts her.  Aunt Helen (Curtis) is in the picture as a loving, supportive guardian with whom Ella lives through high school and college.  Ella soon marries Ryan (Lowden), who at first lives to make Ella happy, but soon as Ella ascends in her political career (more on that in a moment), he feels left out and insecure while turning into a selfish jerk who threatens to derail her career.  It's a wonder Jack Lowden, who capably handles the extreme swings, doesn't get whiplash.  

Ella is the lieutenant governor of New York under "Governor Bill" (Brooks), who accepts a cabinet position and thus making Ella the governor while trying to ensure her troubled younger brother (Fearn) is okay as he navigates his own life.  Fearn's subplot trying to reconnect with a lost love (Edeberi) feels forced and dropped in from a nearby movie.  The rest of the movie feels like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington only Emma Mackey plays Mrs. Smith.  Or Albany.  

Directed by:  Hikari

Starring:  Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Akira Emoto

Phillip (Fraser) is a struggling American actor living in Japan.  He starred in a popular television commercial there seven years ago and has been working trying to recapture that level of fame ever since.  Rental Family isn't Lost in Translation, in which Bill Murray played a famous actor on the downside of his career visiting Japan.  Phillip isn't a has-been, he's a never-was.  

He's a kind, but lonely soul who lives alone and his only companionship is with a steady prostitute.  He also towers over anyone who stands next to him.  One day, Phillip's agent calls with a new job.  He is to attend a "funeral" in which the "deceased" lies in a casket, but isn't dead.  He holds the ceremony to see how many people would pay their respects.  The arranger of the funeral is Rental Family Inc., run by Shinji (Hira) who wants Phillip to work for him.  What does Rental Family Inc. do?  Their clients hire actors like Phillip for a variety of reasons.  In Phillip's case, he is hired by the daughter of a famed, but forgotten actor (Emoto) to portray a magazine writer doing a story on him.  The family wants the actor to feel better as he slips into dementia.  Phillip is also hired by a mother with a young daughter wanting to gain admission to a prestigious school.  The mom wants Phillip to pose as the child's long-lost father in hopes that it will make her happy enough to pass the tests for admission.  Then, Phillip is expected to walk away and never see the clients again.

This is a dicey business and the clients are lying to or playing tricks on their loved ones for temporary comfort, but it is natural for Phillip to develop a friendship with the old man or the young girl that makes them more difficult to walk away from.  That part is predictable, but Fraser makes it work with his sweetness and tenderness.  Because he's lonely himself, he finds these interactions help him as well. The other employees of Rental Family, Inc. take on tasks of their own, including a woman who poses as a man's mistress to take the heat when the wife ultimately finds out.  A company like Rental Family Inc. pushes the boundaries of legality and morality, not to mention taking an emotional toll on the actors.  

It's a shame that Rental Family isn't better than it is.  It takes a while to get going and it only covers the situations on a superficial level.  I enjoyed it in parts rather than as a whole.  I don't know if such a company exists.  In a sense, they are not much different than being prostitutes, except no sex is involved.  But for the right price, would that change?  

Directed by:  Jim O'Hanlon

Starring:  Thomasin McKenzie, Tom Felton, Damian Lewis, Katherine Waterston, Ben Radcliffe, Emma Laird

The rigid social etiquette of Downton Abbey and similar movies depicting the wealthy and powerful British society of the 1930's is skewered in Fackham Hall (get it? Sounds like Fuck 'Em All).  Like any movie with an Airplane! or Naked Gun style of comedy in which gags of all sorts are hurled at the viewer with varying degrees of success.  Fackham Hall has some jokes that land and others which cause the audience to groan, but there are worse things you can do with roughly ninety minutes of your time.

The Davenports live in Fackham Hall, but times are tough.  They may lose the property due to financial woes, but once their younger daughter Poppy (Laird) is married off to her first cousin Archibald (Felton), then all be right with the world...legalities be damned.  But Poppy chooses to abandon Archibald at the altar to marry a low-class manure salesman and now the family is pressuring Rose (McKenzie) to marry Archibald even though she doesn't love him.  She instead falls for a new servant (Radcliffe) who was sent there by his orphanage to deliver a letter for patriarch Humphrey Davenport (Lewis) but instead is hired mistakenly to be a member of the staff.

The plot is not as important in these types of spoofs as the jokes themselves.  The actors deliver the straight lines and the gags in the same manner.  It is better that they are not in on the joke or act as if they are.  They need to stay above the ridiculousness while being part of it at the same time.  Leslie Nielsen was a master at this, and these actors are all good enough to understand their assignment and make Fackham Hall operate as well as can be expected.  Movies like this are hit-and-miss anyway.  It's difficult to recreate Airplane! because that was groundbreaking in the world of movie comedy, but Fackham Hall does its best.  

Directed by:  David Freyne

Starring:  Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Olga Merediz, John Early

The afterlife of Eternity is depressing if you think about it, but Eternity exists in the emotion of the moment and as a romantic comedy of sorts.  Thank goodness the filmmakers decided to give Eternity a lighter tone because this stuff could get heavy.  In Eternity, a recently departed person arrives at a way station and has seven days to choose how he or she would like to spend eternity.  The place operates like a bazaar in which salespeople are pitching their eternity packages (Studio 54, suburbia, etc.)  Afterlife Coordinators are assigned to help them acclimate to the process and the people stay in a nice hotel room while deciding their fate.  

The catch is:  You can only choose one and you can't change your mind.  This becomes a bigger issue for Joan (Olsen) who arrives days after the death of her husband of 65 years, Larry (Teller), and finds her first husband Luke (who died in the Korean War) has been waiting for Joan to arrive so he could spend forever with her.  Does Joan choose Larry, with whom she had built a happy life and family, or Luke, who represents what could have been?  Not an easy decision, and the fact that Larry and Luke are both good people makes it harder for her.  She could always choose an afterlife without either person, but we know that isn't in the cards.

Joan's dilemma is the hook for Eternity, and it helps move it along.  Teller, Olsen, and Turner all play kind, likable people who understandably want what's best for themselves.  After all, we're talking forever and that's a mighty long time.  Luke and Larry know what they want.  Joan is more hesitant, and the pressure is unduly placed on the poor woman.  Even if one chooses with certainty, they are unable to opt out of their choice if they grow bored with the scenario after a few years.  They can try to escape their fate, but then they are tracked down by the afterlife police and tossed into "the void", which I guess is a version of hell.  Then again, having to choose only one eternity sounds like hell in and of itself.  I told you this stuff could get sad, but Eternity walks the tightrope between comedy and tearjerking very well.  Some people might have an issue with some of the romantic comedy aspects of Eternity, but to me it's better to laugh so you may not cry. 

Directed by:  Richard Fleischer

Starring:  Charles Bronson, Al Lettieri, Lee Purcell, Paul Koslo, Linda Cristal

Vince Majestyk (Bronson) is a Colorado farmer who only wants to have his melons picked and make a living.  One morning, he finds himself in the middle of more controversy than he's used to.  Normally, he picks a group of hard-working Mexicans to pick his crop, but that morning he finds a troublemaker (Koslo) replaced his crew with an all-white crew.  Vince wants the group he picked and soon beats the hell out of the goon and is booked on assault charges.  He's a progressive kind of guy.  

That would be enough for one movie, but while Vince is being transported to jail, he runs afoul of a mobster (Lettieri) who is on the same bus.  The mobster's cronies shoot up the bus in an attempt to free him, but Vince takes him off the bus to safety.  The mobster strikes a deal with Vince to free him, which Vince reluctantly accepts because he doesn't trust him.  He instinctively believes the mobster will have him killed, so he makes a deal with the local DA to turn in the mobster.  Got that?  It'll all be on the quiz. 

Mr. Majestyk isn't about plot anyway.  It is a showcase for Charles Bronson's unique brand of violence and sly humor.  Mr. Majestyk maybe contain the most one-liners of Bronson's career.  He's having fun here and that makes a traditional action movie more entertaining.  Mr. Majestyk isn't intended to raise the genre to any new heights.  It's full of action and it works.  Sometimes that's all that is needed. 

Directed by:  Michael Apted

Starring:  Richard Pryor, Rachel Ticotin, Ruben Blades, Joe Mantegna, Bob Dishy, Bob Saget

Critical Condition is all over the map.  It wants to be a thoughtful satire, madcap comedy of errors, and an action picture all in one movie.  The tone continually shifts until we get whiplashed with Richard Pryor trying his mightiest to keep it all together.  There is an able supporting cast to back up Pryor, but even they seem overwhelmed.

Pryor is conman Kevin Lenahan, who is framed in a jewel robbery, but due to his track record he doesn't expect to be exonerated at trial.  Instead, he fakes insanity and finds himself soon pretending to be a doctor at a local hospital on a dark and stormy night where the power goes out.  Kevin (or Dr. Eddie Slattery as he calls himself when making the rounds), desperately attempts to conceal his identity while planning his escape.  He finds himself giving medical advice and leading around an intern (Saget) and a veteran doctor (Dishy) who is terrified of lawsuits, all the while assisting the beleaguered chief administrator (Ticotin) who is doing her best under the circumstances.

I recall first seeing the movie when it was first released in 1987.  I was a high school student then and I declared it one of the worst movies I had ever seen.  Upon second viewing, I certainly don't feel that way now.  It's not a good movie, just one that is at war with its motives and its methods.  It wants to be all things to the audience, but it doesn't work out that way.  It is also sad to know that Pryor began his battle with MS at the time of this movie's release and putting forth the energy must have been tough on him.  I give him and the movie credit for attempting what it wants to do, but there is too much ground to cover.  

Directed by:  Ruben Fleischer

Starring:  Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher, Dominic Sessa, Rosamund Pike, Morgan Freeman, Ariana Greenblatt, Justice Smith, Lizzy Caplan

Now You See Me: Now You Don't is the third installment of the successful series following the exploits of The Four Horsemen, four magicians who ply their trade on amoral billionaires and relieve them of their riches.  They're Robin Hoods of the 21st century, but when you take into account the amount of money and planning it takes to finance these schemes, where is the break-even point?  Is it even worth it financially, or are they in it for the pleasure of watching the rich become poor or go to prison?

Now You See Me: Now You Don't begins, however, with a trio of the next generation of Horsemen publicly hacking a corrupt crypto jerk and distributing his ill-gotten gains amongst the poor and getting him arrested for his shady business practices.  This catches the attention of Daniel Atlas (Eisenberg), who recruits them for another mission:  To expose billionaire diamond mogul Veronkia Vandenberg (Pike-and I love her accent she employs for the movie) and steal the world's most valuable diamond from her.  That part is done rather easily.  It's when she sends her goons to kill everyone that things get dicey, and rather boring. 

It seems the Horsemen broke up due to personal squabbles since Now You See Me 2, but they reunite with just some minor bickering going on.  Their sleight-of-hand tricks in which they and the newbies show each other in games of one-upmanship are not really possible in the physical world we occupy, to paraphrase a line from Ocean's Twelve.  They look impressive, but we know they aren't really happening unless the Horsemen have become The Avengers.  

The Now You See Me doesn't live in the world of realism and doesn't need to.  The series is mostly forgettable and is a swerve fest. The actors are having a good time, but the plot twists and turns are so ludicrous they defy any suspension of disbelief.  There's suspension, and then whatever the Now You See Me series asks of its audience. 

Directed by: Angus Wall

Featuring:  Eddie Murphy, Charlie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Pete Davidson, John Landis, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Hart, Val Young

You can forgive Being Eddie for being borderline hagiography because it's pieced together nicely, showing us the mostly positive parts of Eddie Murphy's life and career.  Vampire in Brooklyn is noted as a career low point, but mostly the interviewees give us positive takes on Murphy with Murphy himself providing a more in-depth review of his life than we've ever seen before.  

Murphy seems at peace with himself, living in a posh California mansion and maintaining a loving relationship with his wife and ten children.  The children range in age from early 40's to toddlers, and Murphy lovingly describes them as his rock.  When Murphy discusses something funny, his laugh is different than the one we saw in his earlier movies.  What is still the same is his confidence and his comic ability.  He isn't boring, and the final scenes showing him playing with Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby puppets (harkening back to an early childhood memory), are very funny.  The Richard Pryor puppet itself is a howl.  

Murphy grew up on Roosevelt, Long Island and predicted he would be a star by the time he reached eighteen.   He was off by one year.  He joined SNL when he was 19 during the much-maligned 1980 season which was the first during Lorne Michaels' hiatus from the show.  Due to underwhelming ratings and unfavorable comparisons to the original Not Ready for Primetime Players who departed the show the previous year, all of the cast members except Murphy and Joe Piscopo were fired.  SNL was where some of Murphy's greatest characters like Mr. Robinson, Gumby, and Velvet Jones were formed, plus his spot-on celebrity impressions made him a household name before he ventured into the movies.  

48 Hrs. (1982) was his feature-film debut and what a start.  The scene in the redneck bar where Murphy's Reggie Hammond takes control of a roomful of people who hate him made him a star.  Then, we have Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop, which shot Murphy into orbit as one of the biggest box-office draws of the 80's.  Movies like Best Defense and The Golden Child aren't mentioned, although I found The Golden Child to be an amusing action adventure with Murphy playing against type.  The late 80's and early 90's brought about some flops, some of which aren't brought up, but then Murphy found himself on an upward career trajectory again after The Nutty Professor and a series of family-friendly hits like Daddy Day Care.  Dreamgirls pushed Murphy into awards consideration for the first time in his career.  He won a Golden Globe and SAG Award for Best Supporting Actor but lost out on the Oscar to Alan Arkin in what was a definite upset.  

The documentary then focuses on Murphy's return to host SNL in the late 2010's.  He had not been on the show in any capacity since the David Spade "a falling star" joke about Murphy which hurt Murphy to his core.  He wasn't angry with Spade for telling the joke as much as he believed he was betrayed by SNL for allowing the joke to air.  Was Murphy a mite too sensitive?  Possibly, but he's honest about himself and why he stayed away from SNL for years until hosting.  It represented a full-circle moment for him and Being Eddie makes the same conclusion.  

Being Eddie isn't perfect, but it moves along briskly and allows for Murphy to present an openness we haven't really seen.  He lived a mostly non-controversial life, but the movie is about the gift that keeps on giving: Murphy's comedy and his stand-up.  Being Eddie broaches the subject as to when Murphy will ever return to stand-up after stepping away from it in the late 1980's, and Murphy is coy with his response, but that would be quite a return.  

Directed by:  James Vanderbilt

Starring:  Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, John Slattery, Michael Shannon, Richard E. Grant, Andreas Pietchsmann, Colin Hanks, Leo Woodall

One of the strengths of Nuremberg is how Hermann Goring (Crowe) is depicted not as a raging lunatic, but as someone with charm and manipulative skill.  Crowe is at-home and confident as Goring, showing him as the type of evil hidden behind a smile and a whole lot of girth rather than shouting and frothing at the mouth with villainous hatred. 

Nuremberg is a movie I wanted to like more than I did.  The subject of the perils of postwar Germany and trying war criminals without precedent is tricky and fascinating material, but Nuremberg meanders its way to the showdown between U.S. Justice Robert H. Jackson (Shannon) and Goring as he takes the stand in his defense.  Other than Goring's testimony, Nuremberg doesn't spend much time in the courtroom.  It assembles the first 22 members of the Nazi high command indicted for war crimes and other crimes against humanity and places them in a nearby makeshift prison with Col. Burton Andrus (Slattery) as the warden.  Andrus tells Jackson that if the trials don't go well against the first 22 defendants, then the trials will be scrapped, and the Allies will look ridiculous on the world stage.

However, Nuremberg focuses on psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Malek), who is brought in to examine the defendants and determine if they are mentally fit to stand trial.  Kelley is sharp and competent, determining early on the traits of the members of the high command, including Goring.  Kelley, however, wishes to turn his meetings into a best-selling book, so his motives aren't strictly professional.  Kelley falls under the spell of Goring, even going so far as to act as courier delivering letters to Goring's wife and child who are in hiding.  Kelley's ethical boundaries are fluid, until he witnesses the horrors of the concentration camps on film which Goring claims to know nothing about.  I also liked Malek here, especially as he transitions from early cockiness to later insecurity and ethical confusion.  

But Nuremberg meanders on its way to the main event.  The undercard consists of unnecessary attention to Goring's family and uneven pacing.  I found myself checking my watch more than being engrossed, which is the last thing I expected from such riveting subject matter.  Instead, the effect is curiously diluted.  

Directed by:  Edgar Wright

Starring:  Glen Powell, Jayme Lawson, Josh Brolin, Lee Pace, Colman Domingo, Michael Cera, Daniel Ezra, William H. Macy, Amelia Jones

The Running Man suffers in comparison to the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle.  Is it more faithful to Stephen King's novel?  It may be, but it is a slog to get through, even from the early moments.  Glen Powell assumes the Schwarzenegger role but not the charisma to carry it.  At a bloated 2:13 running time, The Running Man asks a lot of any actor to carry.  

Powell is Ben Richards, an angry, out-of-work factory worker in a dystopian future blackballed from work by the state for whistleblowing about unsafe conditions.  His baby daughter is suffering from medical issues, his wife works at a gentleman's club presumably dancing, and Ben decides to travel down to the state TV network to try out for one of their game shows.  After a physical and psychological test, Ben is chosen to participate in The Running Man, the most watched show on the network in which contestants have to avoid being killed by "Hunters" as a rabid public is encouraged to report the contestants' whereabouts for lucrative rewards.   The contestant must survive for thirty days.  I liked the 1987 version in which Ben and his friends would have to only live through one night and four different bad guys harnessing various weapons such as a flamethrower or a chainsaw would stalk them.  This version also requires the contestants to send out a video each day to ensure the public and network he or she is still alive.  Does this create opportunities for doctored footage which turns people against Ben?  What do you think?

The show is run by oily network honcho Dan Killian (Brolin), who believes Ben could possibly be the first winner of The Running Man.   The show is hosted by the Jerry Springer-inspired Bobby T. (Domingo), who enthusiastically eggs on the proceedings like a modern-day P.T. Barnum.  Sure, these guys are bad, but at least they're fun to watch.  Powell looks the part of action hero, but he has only one dimension (angry), and the entire movie grows tiresome quickly as Ben travels from place to place encountering those willing to help him and those who can't wait to turn him in.  

Dragging out the action over thirty days is tedious and soon we find ourselves checking our watches more than getting involved in the action.  The Running Man feels as long as the thirty days in which the action is supposed to take place.  

Directed by:  Jean-Francois Poisson

Featuring interviews with:  Felipe Alou, David Samson, Larry Walker, Pedro Martinez, Vladimir Guerrero, Claude Brochu

The Montreal Expos last played in Montreal in September 2004 before moving to Washington DC and becoming the Washington Nationals.  Like the Brooklyn Dodgers moving west to Los Angeles in the late 1950's, the Expos' move created a civic pain which lingers to this day.  Walter O'Malley, the Dodgers owner who packed up and moved west, was so hated in Brooklyn that the following joke became prevalent:  If you have Hitler, Stalin, and Walter O'Malley in a room and you have a gun with two bullets, who do you shoot?  Answer: Walter O'Malley twice.  Only, I'm not sure how much jocularity is involved in that hypothetical. 

The closest thing to a Walter O'Malley in Expos lore is Jeffrey Loria, who bought the team in 1999, sold the team in 2002 to Major League Baseball, and went on to own the Florida Marlins.  His stepson David Samson was brought in to be the general manager, and the gregarious, vociferous Samson is by far the most entertaining interview subject.  Expos fans blame Loria and Samson for purposely running the team into the ground and selling, while previous Expos executives like Claude Brochu say that one person did not kill the Expos, but the economy, the inability to raise money for a new ballpark, and the 1994 season ending in a players' strike.  

The 1994 Expos were well on their way to the playoffs and the belief they could win a World Series.  The dream ended when the players struck in September, cancelling the remainder of the season including the playoffs.  Could they have gone all the way to a championship?  We'll never know, but that doesn't stop the living players from reuniting at events and declaring themselves the 1994 World Champions.  Maybe that's in jest, but it also may be a lament.  However, once the players returned from strike in 1995, baseball suffered and the Expos in particular sustained a loss of fan interest.  The fact that they played in Olympic Stadium which was crumbling and leaking like a sieve didn't help matters.  It was the only roofed ballpark where rainouts occurred because the roof had so many holes in it.  

Brochu is correct that there is no one person or event which caused the Expos to relocate to Washington DC in 2005.  As badly as Montreal's baseball fans would like to blame someone, and Loria and Samson are the biggest targets on the fans' dartboards, the truth is the Toronto Blue Jays have thrived and were involved in a seven-game classic World Series last month.  The Expos did not, and what frustrates fans most of all is how most of the reasons why the Expos are gone didn't involve anything that occurred on the field.  

Directed by:  Denzel Washington

Starring:  Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Denzel Whitaker, Nate Parker, John Heard, Jurnee Smollett, Kimberly Elise, Jermaine Williams

The Great Debaters is an underdog sports tale in which the underdogs are not athletes, but the debate team at small Wiley College in Texas during the 1930's.  Their coach Mel Tolson (Washington) is firm, committed, and believes they can win enough debates to soon face off against the best debate teams in the country, including Harvard.  Mel, however, also attempts to unionize the local sharecroppers which doesn't sit well with the local sheriff (Heard) and other farmers.  There is discrimination, racism, and the threat of violence against black people all around, which makes Mel push his team harder not just to be great debaters, but to secure their futures in a hostile world. 

Washington's directorial debut was Antwone Fisher (2004), which I saw a long time ago and would like to revisit.  In that movie and this one, Washington directs and takes on a supporting role, allowing his younger cast to shine.  The actors are very good, with veteran Forest Whitaker as the college president and father of one of the debaters offering steady support as well.  The debating scenes are not as stirring as Washington would like them to be, mostly because debating is not as cinematic as running with a football or hitting a game-winning home run.  

In the end, Wiley College takes on Harvard (who are seen as the best in the world at debating), although in real life Wiley took on USC, but I suppose Harvard has more prestige than USC.  Mel's team gets their moment in the sun, and when we realize the hard decades which lie ahead, it's moving to see it happen.  Washington can move a scene along and his presence as an actor is always helpful.  The Great Debaters is tricky ground, but Washington can handle it. 

Directed by:  Colin Hanks

Featuring interviews with:  Tom Hanks, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Martin Short, Catherine O'Hara, Dan Aykroyd, Rose Candy, Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Macaulay Culkin, Andrea Martin, John Candy (archive footage), Chris Columbus, John Hughes (archive footage), Mel Brooks

John Candy was a naturally funny man.  His first appearance onscreen usually results in a chuckle or laugh.  He was full of warmth, good humor, charm, ability, and unfortunately weight and health problems which caused his death from a heart attack at 43 in 1994.  One thing Candy wasn't was controversial.  He was a beloved actor, other actors and crew members loved working with him, and no one had a bad thing to say about him.  Bill Murray, in the opening moments of John Candy: I Like Me, amusingly points out that he can't think of anything negative to say about Candy.  The documentary, while borderline hagiography, is still compelling because we still miss the guy 30-plus years after his death.  

It isn't the movie's problem that Candy was a sweetheart of a guy who carried the psychic weight of this father dying on his fifth birthday and while battling his weight demons was still outwardly cheerful.  However, if the interviewer brings up his girth, he is visibly uncomfortable but always played the good sport.  It would be wrong to try and create controversy where none existed, so we can still enjoy John Candy: I Like Me on its own terms.  The most sadness you will find is how insecure Candy was despite his great achievements. 

Tracing his early showbiz days with Second City and soon SCTV, his co-stars spoke glowingly about his talent and the person he was.  He married and had two children, and from all accounts, was a present and loving husband and dad.  He liked to party and hang out at the bar socializing with friends, and was reluctant to give up his vices.  When doctors advised him to lose weight and cut out drinking and smoking, he would simply find another doctor who would tell him what he wanted to hear.  His friends suggested he learned to eat and drink his feelings from an early age.  By the time he died from a heart attack while filming Wagons East! in Mexico, he had to have been close to 400 pounds.  

The best parts of John Candy: I Like Me involve behind-the-scenes stories of some of his most memorable films, including Stripes, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Spaceballs, JFK, Home Alone etc.  The movies like Nothing but Trouble were filed under the "doing a friend a favor" movies which were box office bombs, but still benefited from Candy's talent.  I never saw Wagons East! and many others can claim the same thing, but watching it would invoke sadness because we knew he died during its filming.  The driving force behind John Candy: I Like Me is knowing that we will reach the sad time where Candy was taken from the world and his family at far too young an age.  He left behind quite a filmography, but there could've been so much more. 

Directed by:  Yorgos Lanthimos

Starring:  Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias

I wasn't a fan of The Favourite or Poor Things, which were both beautiful to look at and unpleasant to endure.  Bugonia, even with its pessimistic or sometimes downright nihilistic approach, is a better, more involving movie than the previous Yorgos Lanthimos efforts mentioned.  And this is a film about a conspiracy theorist wounded by life who kidnaps a CEO because he believes she's part of an alien race sent to destroy all of humanity.  

Bugonia isn't the most fun movie to watch, but it's still engrossing because Michelle Fuller (Stone), the sleek CEO of a biomedical company spends the movie with a shaved head (the kidnappers believe she transmits messages to the mother ship through her hair) and trying to reason with the two men named Teddy and Donny (Plemons and Delbis) who are convinced of her alien origins.  Michelle of course believes they're insane, and there are issues below the surface which suggest that Teddy and Donny were damaged long before they ever set eyes on Michelle.  

Michelle's life as a CEO is far from glamourous.  She lives alone in a modest mansion in the middle of nowhere.  She awakes at 4:30am, undergoes a vigorous exercise routine, and then drives into the office where she tells her subordinates they are free to leave at 5:30pm unless they have work that needs to get done.  We have quotas after all.   A funny scene involves Michelle recording a company announcement discussing diversity and the speech uses the word "diverse" every other sentence.  "You need to diversify your language," she tells her speechwriter.  

Michelle is a cold CEO who just seems out of touch with humanity, which is something CEO's of often accused of.  She doesn't scream or cry or beg her captors to appeal to their emotions.  She approaches it coldly and logically, like Spock would.  She's very calm, and you wonder why.  Teddy is easy to dismiss as a nutcase, and when he and Donny chemically castrate themselves in order to lessen the distractions to their cause, then it's hard to argue that point.  But when the local sheriff (Halkias) tells Teddy he's sorry for what happened when he was Teddy's babysitter and that "I never did that with anyone else" as if that's supposed to comfort Teddy, we see the deep wounds which drive him.  We also learn of Teddy's drug-addicted mother who was made comatose by Michelle's company's experimental treatments, so we question whether his crimes against Michelle aren't personal too.  

Bugonia, like other Lanthimos' efforts, holds us outside with people who seem cut off from ordinary cheer.  The actors capably keep this tone up through the violence and plot twists which aren't all that surprising but are still chilling.  This movie wasn't made to please audiences, but it's still satisfying on its own terms.  

Starring:  Bradley Cooper, Robert DeNiro, Abbie Cornish, Andrew Howard

The hero of Limitless is Eddie Morra (Cooper), a New York writer with writer's block and unfulfilled potential.  From his narration, he is intelligent, but is still stuck in a rut after his girlfriend leaves him and his publisher is looking for pages from here or they'll ask for a refund on the advance.  Eddie is going nowhere, until a chance meeting with his former brother-in-law on the street.  The brother-in-law provides Eddie with a special pill called NZT.  The user takes it and suddenly his brain power spikes to near 100%.  Eddie finishes his novel in four days and then becomes a financial wizard whose acuity catches the eye of Carl Van Loon (DeNiro), a billionaire financier who thinks Eddie is the next big thing on Wall Street.

The trouble is, and there is plenty, Eddie's intelligence dwindles when the NZT wears off, and he's also into a Russian mobster for lots of money who instead settles for a supply of the pills.  When he runs out, Eddie has to score more for himself and the mobster and is entangled in a deadly web where Eddie fears being discovered and his secret weapon exposed.  On a thriller level, Limitless is pretty good.  Cooper is a sturdy hero with understandable motivations and of course a touch of selfishness.  Who wouldn't want to be one of the smartest people on the planet and make zillions in the process?  Eddie finds he can live with the withdrawal and the complications which ensue, morality be damned.

Limitless wisely chooses to make the villains far more despicable than the hero.  Eddie wants to better himself and win his girlfriend back.  The rest don't mind blackmailing or resorting to violence and perhaps killing Eddie if need be, so Eddie wins by default and Cooper's effortless charm doesn't hurt. Eddie is a man who only wants to better himself and finds a miraculous way to do so.  Who can blame him?  That's the hook of Limitless.  

Starring:  Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez, Michael Cyril Creighton, Meryl Streep, Christoph Waltz, Logan Lerman, Renee Zellweger, Keegan Michael Key, Dianne Weist, Tea Leoni, Bobby Cannavale, Da'vine Joy Randolph

Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building ended with the death of Lester, the head doorman at the Arconia building, following Oliver's wedding.  The death was originally ruled accidental, but Charles, Oliver, and Mabel have different ideas.  They have a podcast, an insatiable love for being detectives, and apparently unlimited amounts of money and time to spend because they don't have jobs and can devote their energies full-time to solving murders.  Even the NYPD defers to them.  

I've stated in previous seasons that any tenant with any sense would move out of the Arconia because four previous murders occurred there.  They don't need a doorman; they need a SWAT team on the premises.  Nonetheless, Martin, Short, and Gomez attack the task at hand with glee and energy, while the supporting players and guest stars especially Waltz and Zellweger are having the time of their lives as zillionaires who manipulate the proceedings from the sidelines and trick the trio into not being able to discuss them on their podcast in a brilliant way.  That won't stop them from trying to solve the murder before Zellweger's Camila White buys the Arconia and turns it into New York City's first casino.  

Season 5 is an improvement over the past couple of seasons of the show, with some of the twists and turns being fun, but the show has not been able to recapture the magic of the first season.  It's my understanding that next season will bring the trio to London.  Good.  Give the Arconia a break.  They've been through enough.  

Directed by:  Scott Cooper

Starring:  Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, David Krumholz, Stephen Graham, Gaby Hoffman, Matthew Anthony Pelicano, Odessa Young, Paul Walter Hauser

Deliver Me from Nowhere takes a curious but fascinating approach to a biopic about Bruce Springsteen.  It covers a dark period between 1981 and 1982 in which Bruce, fresh off his most successful tour and first top 10 hit, retreats to a secluded New Jersey home and records songs which would wind up as the basis for Nebraska.  Nebraska, despite not have any singles, videos, or even much press coverage at Bruce's demand from his record label, was still a top 10 album, but the record label didn't have songs like Atlantic City in mind when they wanted a follow-up to The River.  The record company wanted hits and singles to strike while the iron was hot.  Bruce defiantly gave them Nebraska. 

Springsteen was coming face to face with his inner demons, which his father Douglas "Dutch" Springsteen (Graham) battled when Bruce was a child.  Dutch wasn't outwardly abusive, but he drank and the threat of violence seemed to hover over the household.   Bruce finds inspiration in watching Terence Malick's Badlands and visiting his abandoned childhood home, but not relief from his own depression.  His manager Jon Landau (Strong) doesn't see Bruce as a meal ticket, but someone he cares deeply about and someone he has to talk off the ledge more than once.  Jon doesn't quite understand Bruce's need to write such melancholy songs, but he adheres to Bruce's vision and even tells CBS records that it's either Nebraska or nothing.  

Bruce also wrote and recorded songs for Born in the USA, the album which made him a global phenomenon, but shelved them in favor of the non-commercial elements of Nebraska, even to the point of transferring his home recordings to vinyl to retain the darkened, weary soul of those songs.  Bruce also begins a relationship with a single mom/waitress named Faye (Young), who of course falls for Bruce quickly and he finds he can't reciprocate, although he wishes he could.  Throughout all of this, Jeremy Allen White, the last actor you would suspect could recreate Springsteen's aura and moves, is more than up to the task of providing us with a sympathetic Springsteen with warts and all.  However, I think Strong's performance will generate the most awards buzz, as Strong gives us almost the anti-Roy Cohn (his Oscar-nominated role in last year's The Apprentice) in Landau, whose fierce loyalty and friendship to Bruce is touching.

We know that Bruce Springsteen became immortalized after Born in the USA, but Deliver Me from Nowhere shows us that Born in the USA wouldn't have possible without the downward spiral which produced Nebraska.  The movie, written and directed by Scott Cooper, gives us Springsteen's fall and winter before he emerges with a glorious spring and summer in both his career and his personal life.  Many battle depression silently and without the outlet and resources of a Bruce Springsteen.  Could you imagine if he was unable to express himself through music?  It's horrible to think about. 

Directed by: Sean Penn

Starring:  Jack Nicholson, Anjelica Huston, David Morse, Robin Wright, Piper Laurie, Richard Bradford, Robbie Robertson, Kari Wuhrer

The Crossing Guard contains moments of pure power and emotion which resonate with anyone who has lost a child.  The Crossing Guard is not merely a tale of a father seeking revenge on the drunk driver who killed his daughter, but it muddies the waters by making Freddy Gale (Nicholson) an alcoholic himself and by having John Booth (Morse), the drunk driver be sympathetic and trying to redeem himself.  Does it have lapses?  Yes, but none that are unforgivable, mostly because the underlying story is compelling enough.  

The Crossing Guard takes place roughly seven years after John killed Freddy's seven-year-old daughter Emily in a drunk driving accident.   John is released from prison, and Freddy informs his ex-wife (and Emily's mother) Mary (Huston) that he intends to kill John on the day of his release, which is met with horror from Mary.  As the onion layers are peeled back, we learn Freddy has never visited Emily's gravesite and his inability to heal and move on as best he can have been drowned in drink and nuzzling with strippers.  Is he going to kill John for revenge or to impress his ex-wife?  

John, meanwhile, takes up residence in a trailer behind his parents' home.  Freddy greets him with a gun and finds that John barely seems surprised.  When Freddy's gun jams, John asks for three days to tie up loose ends and to experience a bit of freedom before dying.  Freddy grants him the three days and marks the days on the calendar to when he can find John again and finish the job.  This tangent is not entirely convincing, and the movie veers off course as John meets a potential future girlfriend in Jojo (Wright), who realizes John's guilt may be too much for an obstacle to overcome.  But John, after some soul searching, decides that Jojo may be someone worth living for, while Freddy finds himself in the midst of drunken stupors and unhappiness. 

The final thirty minutes contain an angry heart-to-heart between Freddy and Mary which ends on a sour note and a long chase on foot in which John isn't running away from Freddy as much as leading him somewhere.  The payoff is worthy of the sometimes-uneven execution, with Nicholson's and Morse's performances providing the emotional resonance to propel the story forward, even if it seems at times, it seems stuck.  The final shots show us a moment in which John and Freddy can truly find the strength to heal together, although in such a scenario, you are never fully healed.  

Directed by:  Scott Derrickson

Starring:  Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Ethan Hawke, Demian Bichir, Arianna Rivas, Jeremy Davies, Miguel Mora

The Grabber (Hawke) was killed at the conclusion of The Black Phone (2022), so what do we do for a sequel?  Since The Grabber's previous victims managed to contact Finney from beyond the grave via the black phone in Grabber's basement, then The Grabber can play by the same rules.  What we have is Black Phone 2, which continues the story in a suspenseful, hellish way and further illuminates the pure evil of The Grabber.  He is beyond redemption or any semblance of humanity.  

There is no question Black Phone 2 borrows its plotline from Nightmare on Elm Street as The Grabber terrorizes Finney and his clairvoyant sister Gwen (McGraw) from the depths of hell.  "Hell isn't flames.  It's ice," says The Grabber.  Gwen is tormented by dreams of a secluded camp in Colorado where it turns out her late mother worked years ago.  Why is she dreaming of the camp?  Why is she receiving calls on a black phone in her dream from her deceased mother?  Gwen is determined to find out and travel to the camp in the middle of a blizzard.   

Black Phone 2 takes place in 1982, four years after the original, and Finney is a lost soul suffering from PTSD who takes his anger out on weaker kids at school and smokes weed to self-medicate.  He goes along to help Gwen and soon finds himself answering a black pay phone at the camp which hasn't been operative for a decade.  Who is on the other end?  Well, The Grabber of course, while Gwen is dealing with visions of three missing kids from the camp who were The Grabber's first victims.  If the group can find their remains, then The Grabber's power from the beyond will be reduced or eliminated.  

Come to think of it, how was it that the remains WEREN'T found over the course of 15 years considering the location of their bodies?   Instead of quibbling over such logistics, I instead found Black Phone 2 to be a worthy sequel to the original, which was itself riveting.  This installment provides us with an icy, snowy hell and an aura which operates as one long nightmare.   It isn't just a slasher film with buckets of blood, but it was made with great care with Ethan Hawke again giving us a villain as evil as the nights are long. 

Directed by:  Aziz Ansari

Starring:  Seth Rogen, Aziz Ansari, Keanu Reeves, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh

Good Fortune begins with a lone angel named Gabriel (Reeves) standing on a high-above building overlooking vast Los Angeles.  This isn't City of Angels, although Gabriel, a "low level" angel who is in charge of preventing people from texting and driving, wants to do more to help humanity.  He focuses his energies on Arj (Ansari), a college graduate and out-of-work documentary editor who holds multiple demeaning jobs and lives in his car whose life feels meaningless to him.  Gabriel wants to show Arj that his life is meaningful.  How?  By having him switch lives with his former boss, tech bro Jeff (Rogen), who fired him as his assistant for using the company credit card to buy his date dinner.  

The plan backfires when Arj learns that money buys happiness for him, and Jeff doesn't seem to mind being Arj's assistant all that much.   In the meantime, Gabriel loses his wings and is forced to become human, where he holds multiple jobs and becomes a chain smoker.  The goal is to restore Jeff to his former life, have Arj understand that his life is worth something, and have Gabriel regain his wings.  This is It's a Wonderful Life with one additional character.  It would be like George Bailey switching places with Mr. Potter.  Do these things happen?  Of course, but it happens in a series of awkward transitions where the screenplay kicks in because it's getting late in the picture.

Good Fortune is sweet and has a heart, and the three leads are likable.  One fault is that Jeff, even though he's rich and has a penchant for switching between saunas and plunges in ice-water bathtubs to improve circulation, is generally a nice guy.  Yes, he gets to see how the other 98% of people live, but does he deserve it?  One improvement would have been to make him an insufferable prick.  I liked Ansari, who wrote and directed, as a down-on-his-luck guy who just can't get ahead.  We sympathize with him, and then there's Reeves, whose character oozes sincerity and kindness.   We enjoy their company, though the movie they're in is uneven.  

Directed by:  Justin Tipping

Starring:  Tyriq Withers, Marlon Wayans, Julia Fox

HIM is incoherent and utterly lost.  It is Whiplash but inexplicably given the horror treatment.  There are demonic visions and hallucinations, gore, blood spurting everywhere, and a half-assed ending which is supposed to tie everything together but results in even more confusion.  If HIM would've treated its material with even a Jacob's Ladder explanation, that would've made at least some sense.

But alas, HIM tells the story of Cameron Cade (Withers), a college quarterback standout who is in line to be drafted by his hometown San Antonio Saviors pro football team, whose current quarterback Isaiah White (Wayans) has won eight championships and is considered the GOAT (Greatest of All Time).  Cameron will have big shoes to fill, and even more so after he is attacked at practice and suffers a horrific head injury which threatens to derail his career before it even starts.

Cameron is invited by Isaiah to train with him for one week in a compound in the middle of the desert.  This is no ordinary compound, and the training takes on gory and violent dimensions as Isaiah determines whether Cameron has what it takes to succeed him.   But there are creepy vibes and goings-on which should have alerted Cameron to head for the exit and hitchhike home, but then we wouldn't have a movie, and this case that's just fine.  HIM soon degenerates into a sloppy mess in which we give up even attempting to figure out what's going on, and we find we don't care that much anyway.  

Cameron is a blank slate with little appeal.  Isaiah is a merciless taskmaster, and one question (among many) is how the Saviors, last year's champions, are able to draft number one overall and snatch Cade.  Maybe they're trading up and found a real sucker as a trade partner.  The movie never explains, not that it has much practice at that.  The ending is a gore fest and then cuts to a black screen where the credits begin rolling.  What the hell just happened?  I assume the movie is saying you have to sell your soul to Satan to be the GOAT.  I suggest that anyone wanting to be the GOAT at anything should be subjected to watch HIM.  If you can stomach that, then that's sufficient. 

Directed by:  Craig Mazin

Starring:  Drake Bell, Christopher McDonald, Sara Paxton, Leslie Nielsen, Marion Ross, Robert Hays, Kevin Hart, Miles Fisher

Superhero Movie is a laffaminit spoof on the tail end of the Scary Movie parodies of the 2000's.  Is it worse than the recent Marvel movie slate?  No.  In some ways, it's 75-minute running time is a relief.  Movies like Thunderbolts are only halfway over at that time.  At least Superhero movie knows when to exit gracefully, or exit in any respect. 

The plot covers your average superhero movie with awkward teen Rick Riker (Bell), who pines for the comely Jill Johnson (Paxton) at his high school and is bit by a radiation-altered dragonfly on a school trip.  He then develops superpowers (except for the ability to fly) and fights crime while trying to battle the evil Lou Landers aka Hourglass (McDonald), who is terminally ill and injects himself with chemicals from his company and develops an insatiable appetite to kill.  So far, it's Spider-Man with the infusion of nonstop sight and verbal gags being hurled at the viewer relentlessly.  Some of the gags stick, most flop, and then we're left with a parody that doesn't much feel differently from the real thing.

Superhero Movie throws its jokes at us in Airplane! style, and it's worth noting that two of that movie's stars, Leslie Nielsen and Robert Hays, both appear in this movie.  They have no scenes together, but I think their off-screen reunion was probably more engaging than Superhero Movie.  Oh, and yes the Miles Fisher impression of Tom Cruise is spot-on, leading to a fun payoff in a movie where such gags that land are few and far between.  

Directed by:  Derek Cianfrance

Starring:  Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Peter Dinklage, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple

Roofman is a wild true story about Jeff Manchester (Tatum), a former Army ranger who fell on hard financial times in the late 1990's and resorted to robbing 45 McDonald's franchises in the Charlotte, North Carolina area.  He then attracts attention with his sudden upward mobility and buying the sort of items Jimmy Conway warned against after the Lufthansa heist in Goodfellas.  He's not your typical armed robber, though.  He has a heart, demonstrated when he locks one McDonald's staff in a refrigerator and gives his coat to the manager who didn't have one.  The judge doesn't see this mitigating factor and sentences him to 45 years in prison.  

Jeff, however, finds a way to escape from prison and live on the lam for many months hiding out in a North Carolina Toys R'Us circa 2004.  However, he falls for Leigh (Dunst), a recently divorced mom of two who has to deal with the prickly store manager Mitch (Dinklage), whose tactlessness and lack of sympathy is mistaken for good management skills.   Jeff manages to create a relationship with Leigh while living in the Toys R'Us where she works (unbeknownst to everyone) and evading capture, although it is telling that the manhunt for him tends to go away long enough for this story to be told.

Tatum is endlessly charming as our nice-guy hero.  There is also a sad element in which Jeff loses contact with his three children from his first marriage after going to prison, and he almost adopts Leigh's children as substitutes.  Dunst is effortlessly appealing.  But, the story itself suffers from its own limitations.  It can't end happily or in any other fashion than how it concludes.  How else would you make a movie based on this story?  Is he suddenly pardoned or does he escape capture by fleeing to another country?  Roofman is all setup and carries itself for a little while, but then we realize we aren't really going anywhere satisfactorily with this story.  

Directed by: Benny Safdie

Starring:  Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten

The Smashing Machine is the story of MMA pioneer Mark Kerr (Johnson), who came on to the scene in the late 1990's as the next big thing, and for a while he was until steroids and losing matches in Japan began to wear on him and his girlfriend Dawn (Blunt), who has substance abuse issues of her own.  The movie is well-crafted, an insider's movie that still manages to keep you somewhat outside, with Johnson transformed into Kerr courtesy of a jet black wig and makeup.  He looks like The Hulk minus the green body paint, but he has dimensions and an outwardly charming appeal.  But once the steroids and drugs take hold, they have the effect on him as gamma radiation did on The Hulk.

Johnson is up to the task of playing the affable Kerr, who goes out of his way to show love and respect to his fans and opponents, but his relationship with Dawn remains rocky.  The pre-release hype penciled in Johnson for a surefire Oscar nomination, but I think that may be hyperbole.  It's an effective, quirky performance in an effective, quirky movie.  The Smashing Machine isn't a typical sports biopic.  There is a "big match" at the end, but the match ends on a sour note and not with heroism or swelling music.  We see the real Kerr circa early 2025, and he's still living in the Phoenix area with a smile for everyone and a gait which suggest years of physical scars from the battles in the ring.

So that leaves us with the question:  Why make a movie about Mark Kerr?  Most people, with the exception of MMA insiders and hardcore fans, would know who he is.  The movie doesn't follow the traditional sports biopic arc of success, then failure, then a rebirth after dealing with the setbacks.  The movie doesn't conclude with Mark getting his hand raised in victory, but a a subtle laugh while taking a shower following another heartbreaking defeat.  The Smashing Machine isn't moving necessarily, but it is mostly involving enough to make it worth your while.  

Directed by:  Mercedes Bryce Morgan

Starring:  Maddie Hasson, Marco Pigossi, Alex Roe, Andra Nechita

Airbnb rentals are becoming the new stage for horror (see Barbarian, or at least the first thirty minutes).  There is always the possibility of a double booking in error going horribly wrong.  Bone Lake is a movie covering that ground which plays deftly as a tense psychological thriller involving two couples with one terrorizing the other over a weekend in a small mansion overlooking a serene lake.  

Bone Lake begins with a naked couple being hunted by an unseen assassin wielding a crossbow.  The arrow pierces the man's nether regions before switching over to the present day, where long-time couple Diego (Pigossi) and Sage (Hasson) are traveling to the lake in hopes of a quiet weekend away from the world's (and their own) troubles.  That ends quickly with the arrival of Will (Roe) and Cin (Nechita-short for Cinnamon and not Cindy), who also booked the home for the same weekend.  Rather than getting a refund, Diego and Sage decide to let Will and Cin stay.  At first, Will and Cin are overly friendly and ask a lot of personal questions before it becomes apparent to us, if not Sage and Diego, that Will and Cin are subtly and then overtly attempting to seduce Diego and Cin and make them question their love for each other.

That would be creepy enough, but there are sinister motives afoot and revelations about Will and Cin which play a role in the proceedings.  I didn't know what to expect from Bone Lake.  I'm glad there are no ghosts or supernatural forces at play, and the movie stays grounded in suspense rather than gore (until the end when comeuppances occur), in which case the blood spurts.  But Bone Lake is well-acted by four appealing actors who know their roles well.  Diego and Sage are sympathetic, while Will and Cin are quietly menacing.  We know they're up to something, but aren't sure what.  Bone Lake patiently plays out without dragging out, and that's saying something.