MOVIE REVIEW: TWISTERS

 

Haunted by a devastating encounter with a tornado, Kate Cooper gets lured back to the open plains by her friend, Javi, to test a groundbreaking new tracking system. She soon crosses paths with Tyler Owens, a charming but reckless social-media superstar who thrives on posting his storm-chasing adventures. As storm season intensifies, Kate, Tyler and their competing teams find themselves in a fight for their lives as multiple systems converge over central Oklahoma.

Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, Sasha Lane

Release Date: July 17, 2024

Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller

Rated PG-13 for intense action and peril, some language and injury images.

Runtime: 2h 2m

Review:

Lee Isaac Chung’s pseudo sequel to the 90's film, Twisters, brings all the large-scale spectacle and destruction promised to the big screen but even the best efforts of its good-looking leads can't keep it from feeling hollow and soulless.  Chung's film is a good looking blockbuster, taking full advantage of the wide open spaces and vistas as he sets up impressive action sequences.   The digital wizardry has improved by leaps and bounds in the twenty eight years since the original film hit the screens which makes the tornados much more visceral and impactful.  Chung is more conscience to go beyond the thrill ride aspect of the whole thing and take time to show the level of damage and carnage left in the wake of these all too real storms.  It adds some weight to the film that grounds the story in a more realistic way than the original film.  Sadly, the rest of the story is little more than a remix of the original film with it hitting a lot of the same story beats throughout.  There are a handful of callbacks to the original film scattered throughout such as recycled lines of dialogue or Daisy Edgar-Jones sporting an outfit identical to Helen Hunt's.  The appearance of "Dorothy" early on is the only direct connection to the original film although it’s never explained how that equipment made it into the crews hands.  Story wise there's plenty that feels familiar with the F/X and cast left to do the heavy lifting.  Glen Powell's natural screen charisma is used to maximum effect as he leans into his southern roots as the YouTube star storm chaser.   It’s a role that's perfectly suited to his talents and he gives his thrill seeking character an authentic confidence from the moment he hits the screen.  Daisy Edgar-Jones is just as believable as the haunted storm chaser, with her bringing a tangible sense of determination once she’s fully committed again.  The strange thing is Powell and Edgar-Jones just don't share much romantic chemistry together which isn't a huge issue since that angle is more subtle here but it’s still noticeable.  Anthony Ramos is given the thankless task of being the wanna be love interest who just ends up being supportive in the end which seems like a waste of such a talented actor.  There's another motley crew of characters assembled here but none of the corporate or rag tag groups are really given much time to leave an impression.  It’s an issue across the board with none of the characters, even the leads, feeling like three dimensional people.  That's not to say the original was some dramatic masterwork but at least you had a better sense of some of the characters.  Twisters ultimately proves to be a capable redux that delivers the sort of mindless summer blockbuster fun that will fade quickly after the film ends.

C+

MOVIE REVIEW: DUMB MONEY

 

Everyday people flip the script on Wall Street and get rich by turning GameStop into one of the world's hottest companies. In the middle of everything is Keith Gill, a regular guy who starts it all by sinking his life savings into the stock. When his social media posts start blowing up, so does his life and the lives of everyone following him. As a stock tip becomes a movement, everyone gets wealthy -- until the billionaires fight back and both sides find their worlds turned upside down.

Director: Craig Gillespie

Cast: Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Vincent D'Onofrio, America Ferrera, Nick Offerman, Anthony Ramos, Sebastian Stan, Shailene Woodley, Seth Rogen

Release Date: September 15, 2023 

Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama

Rated R for pervasive language, sexual material, and drug use

Runtime: 1h 44m

Craig Gillespie's Dumb Money takes the 2021 GameStop stock madness and breaks it down into an easily digestible and enjoyable annotated version of the true story.  He gives his film a chaotic energy which fits the subject matter perfectly even though the film describes the investing strategies at play.  The early exposition dump does a solid job of explaining the concepts in such a manner that any layman, myself included, can follow the ideas with general ease.  The story follows multiple angles of the story with the central focus being on Dano's Keith Gill who kick starts the events.  Additionally, we get moments with the hedge fund managers and retail investors as the stock situation explodes on the scene.  The ensemble does a solid job of making these moments engaging even if they don't offer the sort of depth that the main storyline is afforded.  Seth Rogen, Nick Offerman, Vincent D'Onofrio and Sebastian Stan make up the money side of the story with Rogen getting the most screen time and subsequently leaves the biggest impression. Offerman, D'Onofrio and Stan aren't asked to do much outside of looking smug or annoyed for a variety of reasons.   The rest of the ensemble played by familiar faces like America Ferrera and Anthony Ramos makes up the everyday retail investors who rally behind Gill's market play.  The characters themselves are composites of real people with the film content to use them to represent types of people as opposed to something a bit more nuanced and three dimensional.  Dano gets much more to work with his character getting more depth and texture throughout the film.  In turn he delivers a likeable, sincere performance that makes his character easy to root for from start to finish.  The film does gloss over some of the murkier details on the Reddit boards, other stocks that were part of situation and overall lasting effect of everything that went down.  There are plenty of documentaries that get into more the nitty gritty of what happened, but Dumb Money makes for a fascinating, well crafted cinematic retelling that captures the spirit of the moment.  

B+

MOVIE REVIEW: TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS

 

Optimus Prime and the Autobots take on their biggest challenge yet. When a new threat capable of destroying the entire planet emerges, they must team up with a powerful faction of Transformers known as the Maximals to save Earth.

Director: Steven Caple Jr.

Cast:  Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Peter Cullen, Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, Liza Koshy, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Pete Davidson, Peter Cullen, John DiMaggio, David Sobolov

Release Date: June 9, 2023

Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and language

Runtime: 2h 7m

Transformers: Rise of the Beast, the seventh installment in the franchise, is an admirable attempt to bring the original cartoon to life.  Its story is significantly larger in scope than 2018's Bumblebee which delivered a much-needed reset from Michael Bay's orgy of metallic explosions, undercooked characters and plots which rarely focused on the titular robots.  This film expands on the groundwork Bumblebee in just about every way and it gives some of the Transformers, Prime and Mirage in particular, real character arches to work with. Those story arches aren't incredibly nuanced, but they do give the characters even footing with their human counterparts something that Bay only gave passing consideration.  As a result, this is the first film that allows Peter Cullen's Optimus Prime to come to the screen with some noticeable depth.  Pete Davidson is surprisingly good as the voice of Mirage, who plays more like a hybrid of Jazz and Cliffjumper from the original series than his namesake aside from his ability to project holograms.  Davidson's performance is fun but also heartfelt in parts which makes the character more likable than if he was solely used for comic relief.  Michelle Yeoh manages to add some gravitas to her character even if it is a bit funny to hear her voice coming out of a giant robot hawk.  Sadly, the rest of voice cast isn't given much to do outside of deliver exposition.  

Ron Perlman and Peter Dinklage in particular get the short end of the stick with paper thin characters that could have been much more memorable.  Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback make up the human side of the cast with mixed results.  Ramos seems perfectly at ease working with the greenscreen madness as he's clearly having a ball throughout which makes him a likable lead.  Fishback on the other hand comes off a bit more lost and plays her character a bit too broad in spots.  That being said, they are fun together especially in a Peru set action set piece as they chase the movie's McGuffin which leads to the final act.  Steven Caple Jr. energetic direction keeps everything moving at a steady pace and delivers some well choregraphed and coherent action sequences even if they still rely on a bit too much slow motion for my taste. He smartly uses the 90's setting to his advantage with a fun soundtrack that sure to make people of a certain age smile.  The overall plot does set up a major villain and possible crossover which gives you the impression that this film is setting up an even larger follow up.  Transformers: Rise of the Beast does plenty right especially for people who grew up with the cartoon and it works well as a big budget blockbuster that the whole family can enjoy.

B

Cindy Prascik's Review of In the Heights

 

My dear reader(s)…if I have any left after my persistent absences: This past weekend I took the opportunity to check out the big-screen adaptation of Lin Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights.

Some ordinary - and not-so-ordinary - days in the lives of the residents of Washington Heights.

Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn’t know from the trailers.

For three days I’ve struggled to write something about In the Heights. It’s an upbeat show that is never weighed down by its more somber moments. In its costumes and choreography is a genuine feel for the community it honors. In its humor is the resilience of people accustomed to smiling in the face of life's challenges. In Anthony Ramos and Gregory Diaz, IV, it has revealed a couple potential superstars. In its tunes are the seeds of what would later become the once-in-a-generation show Hamilton. For all these reasons, it is a movie worth seeing, but…I didn’t love it. I wanted to love it. It feels almost mean not to have loved it. But I didn’t love it. I don’t think the show translated all that well from stage to screen. Some content hasn’t aged well, and not in the kitschy 80s way of Cats (the show, NOT the movie) but in a way that just makes it feel…off…in 2021. Where it attempts to connect to current events (the deportation of DREAMers), it feels contrived. Some of the casting misfires badly. (Has Jimmy Smits ever been this bad before?) There were too many exteriors that looked like low-budget green screen. Perhaps I'm being too hard on it. Perhaps I just miss Broadway too much to accept it on a screen anymore.  Perhaps I should have gotten out to see it in a cinema instead of settling for HBO Max on the biggest TV in my orbit. Perhaps all of the above kept me from getting lost in this movie as I needed to get lost in this movie, but...I didn't love it.

In the Heights clocks in at 143 minutes, and is rated PG13 for “some language and suggestive references.”

In the Heights is a positive, uplifting production. Given what the world has suffered in recent months, that should be enough, but somehow it isn’t. Of a possible nine Weasleys, In the Heights gets six and a half.

In the Heights is now playing in cinemas, and streaming on HBO Max.

Fangirl Points: Stephanie Beatriz! Patrick Page! (And, yes, Jimmy Smits, even though I thought he was terrible in this!)

Until next time…

MOVIE REVIEW: IN THE HEIGHTS

In Washington Heights, N.Y., the scent of warm coffee hangs in the air just outside of the 181st St. subway stop, where a kaleidoscope of dreams rallies a vibrant and tight-knit community. At the intersection of it all is a likable and magnetic bodega owner who hopes, imagines and sings about a better life.

Director: Jon M. Chu

Cast: Anthony Ramos, Corey Hawkins, Leslie Grace, Melissa Barrera, Olga Merediz, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Gregory Diaz IV, Jimmy Smits

Release Date: June 4, 2021

Genre:  Drama, Music, Musical 

Rated PG-13 for some language and suggestive references

Runtime: 2h 23min

Review:

In The Heights is rousing celebration of community heritage and striving for a better life.  Jon M. Chu's film is a vibrant wall to wall musical that's filled with easy to love musical numbers that'll elicit a wide range of emotions throughout its runtime.  The musical numbers written by Lin-Manuel Miranda have an energy to them that feels personal and heartfelt with numbers like 96,000, Paciencia y Fe and Carnaval del Barrio leaving a lasting impact.  Chu's direction takes full advantage of the spectacular choreography during some of the larger ensemble pieces and veers into fantasy in select spots without going full Baz Luhrmann.  The story itself is fairly straightforward but covers a broad array of topics from gentrification, cultural identity and self discovery. This broadness extends to the characters who play more as types than fully realized people.  As such, the characters relationships, especially the main love story, doesn't connect emotionally the way it should.  The impressive part about the film is that it overcomes this shortcoming thanks to it's engaging cast lead by Anthony Ramos who posses a natural performers charisma that shines through the screen.  The supporting cast is made up of an array of Hispanic Broadway actors or singers including Olga Merediz who reprises her role from Miranda's original stage play and shines in spotlight.  The rest of the ensemble are given their chance to shine throughout the film's extensive 2 hour plus run.  Throw in a few moments where you might experience a sensation of déjà vu with the film adaptation of Rent.  That being said, In The Heights feels like more complete adaption of its source material for the big screen. 

A-

MOVIE REVIEW: HONEST THIEF

 

Hoping to cut a deal, a professional bank robber agrees to return all the money he stole in exchange for a reduced sentence. But when two FBI agents set him up for murder, he must now go on the run to clear his name and bring them to justice.

Director: Mark Williams

Cast: Liam Neeson, Kate Walsh, Robert Patrick, Anthony Ramos, Jeffrey Donovan, Jai Courtney

Release Date: October 16, 2020

Genre: Action, Crime, Drama

Rated PG-13 for strong violence, crude references and brief strong language

Runtime: 1 h 39 min

Review:

Honest Thief serves as a fine encapsulation of Liam Neeson’s late career action star turn.  The main issue is this entry lacks any real flair or gusto, instead it all feels kind of perfunctory.  Mark Williams seems to come from the generic filmmaking school since the film is impressively bland and generic.  Liam Neeson goes through the motions while still trying to infuse some gravitas to the proceedings.  The main issue is that the characters are all so thinly written that there is only so much these actors can do with them.  Kate Walsh is given the thankless love interest role that seems to just go along with all the increasingly insane situations with nary a question or concern.  Jai Courtney character is so over the top that the only thing he’s missing is a villainous mustache to twirl throughout the film.  Those expecting some Taken style action to cover up the script’s failings will be left wanting since there’s not much to be found.  Honest Thief seems tailor made for that random mindless cable watching when you put zero effort into your entertainment choices.

C