MOVIE REVIEW: BLACK WIDOW

 

Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy, and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.

Director: Cate Shortland

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, O-T Fagbenle, William Hurt, Ray Winstone, Rachel Weisz

Release Date: July 9, 2021 

Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence/action, some language and thematic material

Runtime: 2h 13min

Review:

Black Widow, directed with a meticulous hand by indie director Cate Shortland, is an engaging spy thriller/family drama that's far more grounded than most Marvel movies.  Scarlett Johansson's long overdue solo outing feels a bit like a film displaced in time, you get the strong sense this film should have come out much earlier.  Being sandwiched between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers Infinity War allows the stakes to less grand and more personal.  That being the case, the film is able to focus on her character and relationships on a more granular level while still delivering massive action set pieces.  This makes the film's first half feel more like a Mission Impossible/Bond mash up than a straight up superhero film.  It also benefits from more organic banter and interactions which is due in no larger part to the stellar cast assembled.  Johansson wears this character like a second skin at this point but she's able to bring some more nuance and vulnerability to her performance here.  It'd have been easy for her to phone in her performance, but you get the sense she really cares about this character and cares about her legacy in this universe.  Her costars deliver equally strong performances even if the script is clunky on more than a few occasions.  Florence Pugh delivers a fun and memorable turn as Natasha's "sister" Yelena Belova.  Pugh's wry wit and spunk really shines through her entire performance.  It's a perfect showcase for an immensely talented actress who looks to be taking over the mantel from Johansson.  Pugh and Johansson have natural chemistry together and they serve as the beating heart of the entire film.  David Harbour is perfectly cast as Russian super solider who's more brawn than brains.  Rachel Weisz is sadly underutilized but she makes the most of her scenes since she's clearly acting well above the material.  Ray Winstone's villain isn't asked to do much more than talk menacingly and look vaguely greasy which leaves the finale lacking the cathartic kick it's meant to have.  Instead, it does what most Marvel movies do, and become a long CGI action sequence which is well choregraphed but becomes mildly numbing by the end since we know how it'll all end.  There in is the main problem with the film, had Marvel made and released this film after Captain America: Civil War it would have amplified the emotional impact of the character's ultimate sacrifice in Avengers Endgame.  Ultimately, Black Widow is a well-made spy thriller that fleshes out her character on a personal level but still feels like a missed opportunity.  

B

Cindy Prascik's Review of Race

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dearest Blog, today it was off to Marquee Cinemas for the first of February's sports biopics, Race. Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers or from Googling Jesse Owens. 

 

Race is the story of legendary track and field star Owens, from his early days at Ohio State University through the controversial 1936 Olympic Games. There's no denying Race is little more than your run-of-the-mill Inspiring Sports Movie, but still-timely issues, nail-biting sports action, and some nice performances make it worth a look. Stephan James is a delight as Owens, earnest and sympathetic. 

 

The film boasts strong supporting turns by Jason Sudeikis, Shanice Banton, William Hurt, and David Kross. Characterizations are pretty broad--the city of Berlin even has its own super-villian-sounding musical cue--but if the storytelling is a bit hokey, it's easy enough to forgive in such a compelling tale. Race runs just a tad overlong and is by no means comfortable viewing. The issues it raises are too near for that, evidence the ugliness in my Facebook newsfeed during the Grammys, or the casual way acquaintances assume it's okay to drop racist comments around me because we both happen to be white. 

 

Race is a long overdue "thank you" to Jesse Owens for his courage, but also hopefully one small step towards a day when bigotry really is a thing of the past. Race clocks in at 134 minutes and is rated PG13 for "thematic elements and language." It's not the best sports movie you'll ever see--it might not even be the best sports movie you'll see this month--but Race has a story worth telling and a message worth hearing. 

 

Of a possible nine Weasleys, Race gets six and a half. 

 

Until next time...

Cindy Prascik’s reviews of The Host / G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Dearest Blog, on Good Friday I set out for the cinema, hoping religious observances coupled with a warm spring day would give me the place to myself.

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

Since we didn't get The Place Beyond the Pines, my leadoff batter on Friday was The Host.

Alien beings inhabit human bodies and take over the Earth, leaving only small pockets of human resistance.

The Host is a profoundly bad film. It's based on a novel by Stephanie Meyer, of Twilight fame, who writes at about a fifth-grade level. I never assumed this'd land among the alltime greats, but I hoped by this point filmmakers were pumping enough cash into her garbage to make it halfway tolerable. That hope was misplaced.

The premise of The Host is fine, if nothing new, but the execution is awful. The dialogue is painfully awkward, particularly exchanges between the lead girl and the alien that occupies her body. Poor writing doesn't help the young cast shine, but the actors have to shoulder some of the blame for their uninspired performances. Every turn is predictable, and, at a bloated two hours and five minutes, this disaster is easily 125...er...30 minutes longer than it should have been.

The Host runs 125 minutes and is rated PG13 for "some sensuality and violence." The whole thing plays like a bad (but overfunded!) film school project, and if I hated it less than Twilight, that's only because I don't love aliens like I love vampires. Of a possible nine Weasleys, The Host gets two.

Next on my agenda was G.I. Joe: Retaliation, admittedly one of my most-anticipated movies of the year. Go ahead, laugh!
Framed and branded as traitors, the G.I. Joes must save the world from destruction while restoring their good name.

Dear Blog, let me admit to you that I'm not well-versed in Joe Lore, and I did myself no favors by failing to re-watch the last G.I. Joe film before I saw this one. I spent a lot of time wondering, "Now what's this guy's deal again?" but that didn't dampen my enthusiasm for the movie one teensy bit.

Dwayne Johnson may never win an Academy Award, but he's certainly one of the more engaging leading men making movies today. After a more subtle turn in Snitch, G.I. Joe sees him back in full ass-kicking mode. The enjoyable supporting cast includes Channing Tatum, Jonathan Pryce, Ray Park, Byung-hun Lee, Adrianne Palicki, Joseph Mazello, and two folks who make me giddy whenever they turn up: Ray Stevenson and Walton Goggins. I found them a very likable group, with nice chemistry.

I did not see this in 3D, but I have no doubt the mountain scenes alone would be absolutely worth the upcharge and 3D-glasses headache.

As you'd expect, G.I. Joe: Retaliation is heavy on big action and light on pretty much everything else. It could fairly be compared to last summer's Battleship, but, unfortunately, G.I. Joe lacks that surprise bit of heart and sincerity that made Battleship more than it had to be.

Still, it's good, dumb fun, and no doubt will be counted among the summer's monster hits, even though we've barely made it to spring.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation clocks in at a fast-paced 110 minutes and is rated PG13 for "intense sequences of combat violence and martial arts action throughout, and for brief sensuality and language." I loved it every bit as much as I expected to. Of a possible nine Weasleys, G.I. Joe: Retaliation earns seven.

So, dearest Blog, that's about all the news that's fit to print for this lazy Sunday. Since I had my cinema fun on Friday, I guess that makes tomorrow closet-cleaning day. Ugh.

Until next time.......




*shameless fangirling*

Movie Reviews: THE INCREDIBLE HULK & THE HAPPENING

Sunday, June 15, 2008
Movie Reviews: THE INCREDIBLE HULK & THE HAPPENING
IN THEATERS





THE INCREDIBLE HULK

Still stuck with the ability to turn into a raging behemoth, Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) desperately searches for a cure that will rid him of his gamma-irradiated alter ego once and for all. However, he's barely given a chance to stop running from the obsessed General Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt), who will use the entire might of the U.S. military to find Banner and kill the Hulk. Meanwhile, Banner must also deal with his tortured relationship with Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), as well as contend with a new opponent, another gamma-created monstrosity called the Abomination (Tim Roth).

Cast Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, William Hurt (more)

Director(s) Louis Leterrier

Writer(s) Edward Norton, Zak Penn

Status In theaters (wide)

Genre(s) Action/Adventure

Release Date June 13, 2008

Running Time 114 minutes

MPAA Rating PG-13 - for sequences of intense action violence, some frightening sci-fi images, and brief suggestive content

Review:

Louis Leterrier's The Incredible Hulk supplies plenty of what most felt was missing from Ang Lee's much maligned Hulk, lots of crazy smashing and carnage. Gone is the Freudian mind trip and it's been replaced with a more straight forward comic book action movie. Personally, I have always thought Ang Lee's Hulk wasn't as horrible as most make it out to be, it's slow but thoughtful and really try to turn the genre into something artful, even with it's faults it was bold. That being said it didn't get the reception that most would have expected. Leterrier's straight forward action flick is pretty much bare bones in terms of story and heavy on the smashing. It knocks out the origin in the opening credits and immediately begins making visual connections to the 70's TV show, something that continues throughout the film. Edward Norton as Banner is good if not great. Norton isn't really given very much to work with as the script is clunky, filled with unnatural dialogue. Norton gives it his best try and makes Banner a brooding reluctant hero who hates his power. He's effective but I can't help but feel that with a better script he could have done so much more with the character. Liv Tyler has the thankless job of being the female lead and she's given even less meat to chew on and it shows. Her character is fairly one dimensional and in the end we know fairly little about her and Banner history. William Hurt gives General Ross a slightly harder edge but it veers terribly close to caricature which isn't helped by the fact that the character lacks depth. Tim Roth's character is the hidden gem here and at times I was more interested in his character than Banner's. Roth does a solid job here and actually brings a lot more to the table than the bigger names. Action wise Leterrier's keeps the carnage coming throughout, huge set pieces filled with Saturday morning comic book goodness. The final battle, which is nearly 20 minutes long, starts to feel a bit like a video game more than an actual movie, this is mainly because the CGI varies from very good to very bad. The mildly redesigned Hulk looks a tad less cartoon-ish equipped with more rippling sinewy muscles this time around. As a whole The Incredible Hulk delivers what you would have expected from this modern day Jekyll and Hyde action flick, lots of bashing mixed with a dash of anguish. Is it great? Not really. Is it fairly enjoyable, sure but its kind of forgettable as well.

C+


THE HAPPENING


When the entire fate of humanity is threatened, Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) takes his family and tries to avoid the impending apocalypse.

Cast Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Betty Buckley (more)

Director(s) M. Night Shyamalan

Writer(s) M. Night Shyamalan

Status In theaters (wide)

Genre(s) Action/Adventure

Release Date June 13, 2008

Running Time 91 minutes

MPAA Rating R - for violent and disturbing images

Review:

I had given up on M. Night Shyamalan films after The Village, his mock Hitchcock style had just grown old and his twist endings were becoming more and more tired. I skipped Lady in the Water entirely and from everything I've read and heard it was probably for the best. Still it was hard not to be intrigued by The Happening, it looked like it may have something worthwhile, it looked like it might be suspenseful. Sadly it's neither of those things. Shyamalan has been on a fairly steady decline since the oft overrated The Sixth Sense launched his career and now his craft is at such a level of degradation that one has to wonder if his first success was more dumb luck than actual talent. Not since George Lucus have I seen a director suck the life out his actors so completely. Mark Walburg is horribly miscast and has to utter some of the worst dialogue outside of an independent middle school stage production. Zooey Deschanel is completely wasted and is also given lines of lame of dialogue to utter. She's tasked only to occasionally react and move along a subplot that doesn't fit or really matter to the overall story. John Leguizamo is in the film for a quick moment and disappears from the story so quickly it makes you wonder why Shyamalan bothered to cast him in the first place. Slow, feeling hours longer than its actual running time, The Happening plods along like some lost troll on the road to no where. Shyamalan might tell you this film says something about man and his place on the earth and that conversation would probably be more compelling and suspenseful than this waste of celluloid.


D-