Tag: mildly recommended

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Wicked: For Good

Wicked: For Good

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A year ago, I wondered how the sequel to Wicked would incorporate the source of its inspiration, The Wizard of Oz.  The answer arrives with Wicked: For Good, a noisy and unwieldy  contraption that sabotages much of the goodwill from the first movie while it furiously crams the classic movie into the plot.  Despite all of its clunky contrivances, the film is still modestly entertaining due to Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, who save the film from collapsing under its own weight.  If it weren’t for them, I would have prayed for flying monkeys to pluck me out of the theater and carry me to safety.

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Tron: Ares

Tron: Ares

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Tron: Ares isn’t a continuation of Tron and Tron: Legacy, but a spin-off.  It’s Tron-adjacent, set within the Tron universe with only the slightest connection to the previous films.  It’s the same approach behind this year’s Jurassic World: Rebirth, which was basically a CGI dinosaur movie  populated with entirely new characters.  This movie offers Tron-styled action and aesthetics with a completely different cast.  In both cases, branding propels the endeavor instead of storytelling continuity or narrative cohesion, with logic not entering into the equation.  On the plus side, members of the audience with minimal knowledge of what came before can still enjoy these films on the basis of the sheer spectacle they provide.  While that ultimately wasn’t enough in the case of Rebirth, it does make Tron: Legacy a very watchable experience.  It’s the most captivating screen saver ever created.

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Nobody 2

Nobody 2

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Back in 2021, Nobody introduced the novel concept of seeing Bob Odenkirk play a violent action hero.  That incongruity worked surprisingly well, so it’s no surprise that a sequel would be forthcoming.  Nobody 2 picks up where the last one left off, with Odenkirk’s Hutch trying to be a family man while simultaneously working off his debts by way of dangerous assignments from his government handler.  While the movie has the same violent action sequences that gave the first one such a kick, it lacks the angry verve that helped the original rise above similar punch-fests.

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Elio

Elio

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If science-fiction films have taught us anything, it’s that meeting aliens from another world should scare us.  Time and again, the aliens that show up just want to kill and eat us.  Films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., which depict aliens as being benevolent and even helpful towards humanity, are notable exceptions to the rule.  Elio joins that short list because the aliens the eponymous character meets are a very friendly group who actually need his help.  Unfortunately, Elio can’t make up its mind as to what story it wants to tell, forgoing adventure and excitement implied by its premise in search of emotional payoffs.  The resulting film is fine, but it could have been special.

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Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

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For the past several years, the message surrounding Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning was that it would mark Tom Cruise’s last go-around as IMF leader and indestructible hero Ethan Hunt.  Unfortunately, despite the craftsmanship and daredevil antics of Cruise, this movie isn’t as enjoyable as the previous entry, Dead Reckoning – Part One. Instead, writer-director Christopher McQuarrie and his filmmaking collaborator Tom Cruise have used the overriding sense of finality as justification for a slew of clumsy narrative choices that threaten to sink the film to the bottom of the ocean.  Although Final Reckoning is often exciting, it’s clumsy instead of nimble, tripping over its own feet while doing things that previous entries had wisely avoided.

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Drop

Drop

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For a movie that recalls suspense thrillers of yesteryear, it’s fitting that Drop begins with an eye-catching opening title credit sequence.  In it, a series of items slowly rotate against a black background, with the breakable ones shattering.  This sequence, a pun on the movie’s title, also hints at what’s in store for us.  (There’s a reason for the inclusion of a spinning chess piece and dice.)  It’s a nice touch, but unfortunately what follows never tops it.

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A Working Man

A Working Man

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Jason Statham: Monster Hunter.  That’s what stuck in my mind as I watched Statham do his punch-kick-shoot-stab thing in A Working Man, an entertaining movie that often feels generic and routine.  Although there are no literal monsters in this movie, the movie’s gothic touches and freakish villains imply what could have been, if the filmmakers had the nerve to take the story in the direction they apparently wanted to go.  Seeing Statham hunting and killing evil Russians is fine, but swap out those ordinary targets to vampires and werewolves and we’d be talking next-level badassery.

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Presence

Presence

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Presence is an atypical ghost story, in that it’s a first-person narrative told exclusively from the perspective of the ghost.  As such, the movie camera doubles as the ghost’s “eyes”, zooming around the suburban home setting like a hyperactive drone.  That’s because the camera actually is a drone, operated by Academy Award-winning director Stephen Soderbergh.

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