MOVIE REVIEW: FREAKY TALES

 

An NBA star, a corrupt cop, a female rap duo, teenage punks, neo-Nazis and a debt collector embark on a collision course in 1987 Oakland, Calif.

Director: Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden

Cast: Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, Jay Ellis, Normanit, Dominique Thorne, Jack Champion, Ji-young Yoo, Angus Cloud

Release Date: April 4, 2025

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Drama

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language throughout including slurs, sexual content and drug use.

Runtime: 1h 47m

Review:

Freaky Tales is a quirky, Interconnected Tarantinoesque anthology that delivers a hefty dose of 80's Bay area nostalgia with increasingly off the wall chapters that benefit from a strong vibe and cast.  Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden borrow elements from a variety of sources for the four chapters that make up the story with noticeable nods to Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill being readily evident and even some sprinkles of Scott Pilgrim in the opening.  The pairs deep love and affection for this time and space seeps through the screen as they touch on everything from the punk and hip-hop scene to dirty cops, Nazis and basketball ninjas.  Some chapters are far more grounded than others with the filmmakers asking you to roll with the punches especially as events get nuttier in the final act.  Like most anthologies, some chapters work better than others with the first two really nailing down the vibe of each setting before stalling out in a more straightforward crime drama with the Pedro Pascal focused third chapter.  That's not to say the third chapter is bad, it just marks a notice shift in the film's tone to establish the connective tissue that brings everything together in its final act.  It’s a minor hiccup but it does have a fun cameo that makes the tonal change easier to deal.  The ensemble cast turns in solid work across the board with Jack Champion and Ji-young Yoo sharing some believable romantic chemistry in the opening act with Normanit and Dominique Thorne bringing a similar authenticity to their friendship in the rap battle portion.  Pedro Pascal is given the least showy role in the whole thing but delivers a solid turn as usual.  Ben Mendelsohn and Jay Ellis are given more fun roles as a sleazy detective and rather lethal point guard.   It all makes Freaky Tales a rather unexpected surprise of a film that's sure to become a cult classic in the years to come.

B+

MOVIE REVIEW: A WORKING MAN

 

Levon Cade left behind a decorated military career in the black ops to live a simple life of working construction. However, when human traffickers kidnap his boss's daughter, his search to bring her home uncovers a world of corruption far greater than he ever could have imagined.

Director: David Ayer

Cast: Jason Statham, Michael Peña, David Harbour, Jason Flemyng, Arianna Rivas, Noemi Gonzalez

Release Date: March 28, 2025

Genre: Action, Thriller

Rated R for strong violence, language throughout, and drug content.

Runtime: 1h 56m

Review:

A Working Man, David Ayer's second collaboration with Jason Statham, is self-serious but entertainingly over the top at the same time which makes it feel like an old school, 80's actioneers likely due to the influence of Sylvester Stallone who co-wrote the script.  Ayer brings his usual grim style to the proceedings while lifting bits and pieces from the John Wick franchise in the form of garishly, cartoonish villains that populate the vast underworld that Statham is tasked with annihilating in steady succession.  The script does try to humanize Levon Cade with relationship to daughter, but it never lands the way it should since Cade is pretty much an invincible killing machine with a singular mission.  Statham has made a career of playing these sorts of characters with his steely gaze even as he unleashes increasingly violent and extreme forms of violence on whoever stands in his way.  Michael Peña and David Harbour have small supporting roles with each popping up sporadically throughout, but neither is given much to work with outside of the most generic characteristics.  Harbour's character in particular seems to be screaming for a bit more depth which the script never offers.  The villains are equally forgettable with each serving as paper thin versions of countless clichéd bad guys we've seen before.  The final act starts to border on Schwarzenegger's Commando territory without the one liner as we watch Statham's Cade mows down wave after wave of bad guys.  A Working Man will make people of certain age feel like they've been transported back to the 80's where action films weren't terribly concerned with logic as much as it was with kicking ass.  

C+