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Showing posts with label Ryan Fleck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ryan Fleck. Show all posts

Sunday, March 10, 2019

MOVIE REVIEW: CAPTAIN MARVEL







































Captain Marvel is an extraterrestrial Kree warrior who finds herself caught in the middle of an intergalactic battle between her people and the Skrulls. Living on Earth in 1995, she keeps having recurring memories of another life as U.S. Air Force pilot Carol Danvers. With help from Nick Fury, Captain Marvel tries to uncover the secrets of her past while harnessing her special superpowers to end the war with the evil Skrulls.


Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
  
Cast: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Annette Bening, Clark Gregg,  Jude Law
  
Release Date: March 8, 2019
  
Genres: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
  
Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and brief suggestive language
  
Runtime: 2h 4 min
  
Review:

Captain Marvel is a solid if bland origin story.  That's not to say that there isn't fun to be had but the plot does telegraph some of the biggest reveals.  At the center of the film is Brie Larson who is typically a strong performer.  Here though, she's mostly wooden and she never really gives her character much personality.  As such, the titular character and star isn't all that interesting for the majority of the film.  Thankfully the supporting characters give the film a lot more life.  Sam Jackson finally gets his proper due in the MCU by giving us a look at Nick Fury as a young SHEILD agent.  The film is at its best when it pairs Larson and Jackson in a sort of buddy comedy, which really gives the film some life.  The real surprise though is a Ben Mendelsohn who brings a lot more to the table than you'd expect.  His character looks like a standard baddie but there's much more depth at play than at first glance.  Throw in a scene stealing cat and you get film that's better in it's final act than it was in the previous two portions.  The soundtrack is bound to make certain people nostalgic even if it plays like a copy of "Now that's what I call Music 90s."  Ultimately the film does a workman like job of checking all the boxes on a origin film but with a clever feminist twist even if it's not a natural or organic as say Wonder Woman.

B- 

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Cindy Prascik's Review of Mississippi Grind

 

 
 
Dearest Blog: This week, Wednesday brought me a new flick in the form of Mississippi Grind, thus managing to achieve something besides being not-as-horrible-as-Monday-but-not-as-awesome-as-Friday.
 
Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the...erm...has anyone even *seen* a trailer for this? I haven't. Okay, I'll try not to give away anything of consequence.
 
A gambling addict hits the road with a newfound friend, in search of a big score or redemption or maybe just something new.
 
Dear reader(s), you know me. I like actors. I like a LOT of actors a LOT, but far greater in number than those obsessions who sometimes grace my Instagram are those who simply delight me when they turn up in a movie or show, even if I have no idea of their birthdays or favorite colors. One such actor is Australian Ben Mendelsohn. 
 
When I heard there was some Oscar buzz around his Mississippi Grind performance, it didn't take more than that to sell me on the movie.
 
Mississippi Grind is a downbeat portrait of addiction. It's occasionally humorous and sometimes even a bit sexy, but it's mostly a realistic depiction of desperation, a person who just can't stop what he's doing, however harmful it is to himself or to those around him. Mendelsohn is breathtaking, probably no greater than he's been a dozen times before, but for some reason people are noticing this time. Ably playing opposite is the constantly maligned Ryan Reynolds. 
 
For my money, Reynolds is always solid, however bad the project. He'll surely lose his reputation as box-office poison with next year's Deadpool, but, for now, give him full marks for holding his own opposite a performance that's being called Oscar-worthy. Verbal exchanges between the two leads, as the new friends try to get a read on one another, are the clear highlight of a movie that's otherwise somewhat slow and unremarkable.
 
Mississippi Grind clocks in at 108 minutes and is rated R for language.
 
It won't brighten your day, but Mississippi Grind is a decent drama made worthwhile by stellar performances. 
 
Of a possible nine Weasleys, Mississippi Grind gets five.
 
Until next time...


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