MOVIE REVIEW: SATURDAY NIGHT

 

Tensions run high as producer Lorne Michaels and a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers prepare for the first broadcast of "Saturday Night Live" on Oct. 11, 1975.

Director: Jason Reitman

Cast: Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O'Brien, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman, Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber, Tommy Dewey, Willem Dafoe, Matthew Rhys, J. K. Simmons

Release Date: October 11, 2024

Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama, History

Rated R for language throughout, sexual references, some drug use and brief graphic nudity.

Runtime: 1h 49m

Review:

Jason Reitman's manic Saturday Night captures the frenetic vibe that must have permeated that first show told in a manner that feels more like mythmaking than actual reality.  Reitman manages to create a pulsating energy from the start as we get a sense of how much of a highwire act the entire process of putting on a live show especially doing it for the first time.  Sure the story weaves together a rather convenient series of events and encounters that may or may have not happened as presented but for the film it works to recreate the feel of that faithful night.  The ensemble cast lead by Gabriel LaBelle's anxiety ridden, endlessly stressed out Lorne Michaels is a joy to watch from start to finish.  LaBelle's performance is the film's beating heart as he rushes from one crisis to another with a dogged determination that's easy to root for.  He's surrounded by a collection of strong supporting performances that do an impressive job of emulating their real life counterparts.  Cory Michael Smith gets the biggest spotlight as a young Chevy Chase and he delivers a fascinating performance that captures his comedic timing and brimming sense of ego and self importance.  Smith is always the most interesting performer onscreen particularly when J. K. Simmons' Milton Berle dresses him down in a particularly effective scene.  Ella Hunt gets less screentime but she does the most with her time as she gives Gilda Radner a soulful, live in the moment appreciation that feels like a tribute to the late comedian.  Lamorne Morris isn't quite as lucky with Garrett Morris who's underserved by the script which has him questioning why he was cast while never delving into the possible reasons with any seriousness.   Matt Wood, Emily Fairn, Dylan O'Brien, Kim Matula all get small spots to deliver spot on turns as John Belushi, Laraine Newman, Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin.  They are small but impactful moments with O'Brien's Aykroyd screaming for more screentime just like Matthew Rhys all to brief appearance as George Carlin.  Nicholas Braun pulls double duty as Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson but much like his costars the movie doesn't give them enough time to really settle in as little more than glorified caricatures.  Rachel Sennott's Rosie Shuster, Michael's ex wife, also begs for a bit more fleshing out but the film moves at a frenetic pace that you get the sense large chucks were excised like many a skit from the show's master wall.  That doesn't lessen Saturday Night's impressive cinematic energy that's sure to please long time fans of the show.

B+

MOVIE REVIEW: BUMBLEBEE

On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee the Autobot seeks refuge in a junkyard in a small California beach town. Charlie, on the brink of turning 18 years old and trying to find her place in the world, soon discovers the battle-scarred and broken Bumblebee. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns that this is no ordinary yellow Volkswagen.

Director: Travis Knight

Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., John Ortiz, Jason Drucker, Pamela Adlon,  Dylan O'Brien

Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action violence

Genres: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Runtime: 1h 53min

Review:

The Transformers movie series was in need of jump start since The Last Knight was easily the worst of the Michael Bay’s run.  Travis Knight takes the helm for this prequel/reboot and he does so with gusto.  Knight clearly knows the 80s cartoon and finally delivers the kind of Transformers film that we fans have been asking for all along.  Knight and his team redesign the Transformers removing a lot of the more insect like look of the Bay era with designs that look much closer to the original cartoon design.  It’s a simple change but one that makes longtime hearts feel all warm and fuzzy.  There is quite a bit of nostalgia mining going on but in doing so Knight never loses focus of what really matters, the actual characters.  Bumblebee is front and center with Hailee Steinfeld making for a likable lead.  At its base it’s a simpler story, one that isn’t overly busy which is a welcome change of pace from the hectic Bayhem we’ve come to expect from these films.  The story shares a lot with The Iron Giant which is a good thing.  The villains of the pieces are slightly underwhelming since they’re fairly non descript and unmemorable.  It’s a shame since they cast Angela Bassett and Justin Theroux.  Still, this film is just what the franchise needed in order to make fans happy, hopefully it’s a sign of better films to come.

B+

Cindy Prascik's Reviews of Hostiles & Maze Runner: The Death Cure

Dearest Blog: Yesterday it was off to Marquee Cinemas for another uninspiring pair of January releases: Hostiles and Maze Runner: The Death Cure.

Spoiler level here will be mild, but I'd hazard a guess, dear reader(s), that you won't much care either way.

First on the agenda: Hostiles.

Nearing retirement, an Army captain is coerced into one final official chore: escorting a dying Cheyenne Chief and his family back to their home.

Hostiles is is blessed with a great cast, intriguing characters, and a multi-layered story, so after seeing it I can only ask: How can it be SO bad?

We'll start with the obvious. Hostiles wants you to understand from the outset that it is a Very Serious Movie. As such, everything Very Serious about it is overdone to the point of being comical. The opening scene is brutal, yet its outcome is hilariously improbable. Christian Bale throws down two hours of his best Ennis Del Mar impersonation, mumbling and maintaining such a persistent scowl I'd be surprised if his face didn't stick that way. (Everyone's mother said it would, right?!) As characters suffer terrible losses, the camera lingers on their fabricated grief so long the faces become caricatures. There are many (many, many) panoramic shots of the parade of horses on their journey...across the plains, over the mountains, through the forest. WE GET IT, YOU'RE GOING SOMEPLACE! The film overuses every tired Cowboys-and-Indians trope to such a degree your brain will become convinced the picture hasn't just borrowed the overused cliches, but rather that you've seen this actual movie somewhere before. Hostiles tries to show each side of every situation as both the good and the bad guys, but--rather than weaving thoughtful complexities--it is contrived and impossible to believe that some of the characters could have gotten from Point A to Point B over the film's duration. Its messages are many and mixed; your moral compass won't know where to aim. Finally, and most egregiously, Hostiles is a criminal waste of the extraordinary Ben Foster, who doesn't have more than 15 minutes total screen time.

Hostiles runs 134 minutes and is rated R for "strong violence and language." (Trigger warning: Though it's not in the official MPAA warning, the film does allude to a rape that is not depicted onscreen.)

Its trailers made Hostiles seem a surefire awards darling, but, sadly, it's an exercise in frustration that will leave you wondering how it could fail so spectacularly with the tools at its disposal.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, Hostiles gets three.

Up next, the final (?) installment in the Maze Runner series, The Death Cure.

The kids from the Maze aren't in the Maze anymore. Now it's like the Walking Dead, but younger and less sweaty.

Confession time: I can't remember much of anything about the first two Maze Runner movies. I don't remember how these people got out of the Maze, or how they got into the Maze in the first place, or if the Maze even has anything to do with where they find themselves in Installment #3. I didn't care enough to refresh before seeing the movie, and I definitely wasn't interested enough to try filling in the gaps after. That being said, thanks mostly to an engaging cast, I didn't hate The Death Cure. (I don't think I hated the middle one either, though I'm pretty sure I hated the first one. Nah...not worth looking THAT up, either.)

As any Young Adult series will tell you, when the world is falling apart, it's up to young heroes to save it. The Maze Runner series filmed quickly, compared with some other YA sets, yet it's hard not to feel the leads have aged out of their roles a bit. Still, Dylan O'Brien effectively sells it one last time, Thomas Brodie-Sangster is always a delight, and the older cast is more than capable. (Is there anything that can't be improved by the presence of Walton Goggins? I think not.) The film kicks off with an exciting sequence straight out of The A-Team, and from there it seldom lets up, a wise choice given its excessive length and lack of real substance. Effects are solid, tension is pretty amped up at times, and the picture does have a few small surprises up its grungy sleeve, tying things up in a satisfying, if predictable, bow at the end.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure clocks in at a bloated 141 minutes and is rated PG13 for "intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, language, and some thematic elements."

Maze Runner: The Death Cure doesn't reinvent the wheel, but, compared to some of January's other offerings, it doesn't seem so bad.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, Maze Runner: The Death Cure gets four.

Fangirl points: Giancarlo Esposito! Aidan Gillen!

Until next time...