Dearest Blog: Yesterday it was off to Flashback Cinema at Marquee Cinemas to revist the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker classic Airplane! on the big screen.
Here there be spoilers.
It's been 37 years since Airplane! originally blazed its hilarious trail through the cinema. If you're thinking surely I can't be serious, well, I am serious...and don't call me Shirley. That line is one of dozens of iconic Airplane! bits that have become so ubiquitous one might be forgiven for failing to credit the picture for its many contributions to our everyday lexicon. In 1980, the brilliant writing/directing team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker birthed a comedy masterpiece that was like nothing anyone had ever seen before. Well-regarded dramatic actors play it straight with silly dialogue and ridiculous scenarios. Leslie Nielson, for whom Airplane! launched a second career as a comedy staple, delivers deceptively postive updates deadpan, with a Pinocchio-style growing nose. Our leading man, the handsome Robert Hays, has a "drinking problem" that consists entirely of his wearing the contents of his glass. In a genius piece of casting, Barbara Billingsly (a.k.a. June Cleaver) translates "jive" for a stewardess having difficulty communicating with a pair of travelers. In these more aware times, there are a couple small things that feel a bit tone deaf, but even today that's a small quibble with a groundbreaking comedy that remains one of the funniest movies ever made.
Airplane clocks in at 88 minutes and is rated PG for some language, comic violence, and brief nudity.
My common complaint with comedies, and the reason I seldom pay to see them at the cinema, is that you sit through a two hour movie only to realize you've already seen all the funny parts in a two-minute trailer. Nearly four decades later, Airplane! proves the exception to that rule, a picture that is laugh-out-loud funny from beginning to end, no matter how many times you've seen it.
Of a possible nine Weasleys, Airplane! gets nine. It's an all-time classic.
West Virginia family man Jimmy Logan teams up with his one-armed
brother Clyde and sister Mellie to steal money from the Charlotte
Motor Speedway in North
Carolina.
Jimmy also recruits demolition expert Joe Bang to help them break into the
track's underground system. Complications arise when a mix-up forces the crew
to pull off the heist during a popular NASCAR race while also trying to dodge a
relentless FBI agent. Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel
Craig, Katie Holmes, Riley Keough
Release Date: Aug 18, 2017
Genres: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Rated PG-13 for language and some crude
comments
Review:
Logan Lucky is a fun energetic return for Steven
Soderbergh after a 4 year “retirement.”This heist caper is like a Dixie styled
Ocean’s 11 with a good sense of fun.It
never takes itself too serious and knows how to keep the audiences attention
from waning.Soderbergh’s direction is
slick as always, resulting in a breezy film that never really feels long or
hits many dips in energy.The cast is
all fully committed with each member giving a fun if occasionally understated
performances, except for Daniel Craig who’s clearly having a ball.Most of the characters are broadly drawn but
they do their job in service of the
story.Only a handful of them feel out
of place like Seth McFarland over the top Nascar owner and Hilary Swank’s under
baked FBI agent who shows up far to late in the game to be taken seriously.Still, Logan Lucky a welcome return for
Soderbergh and his film making style.
Dearest Blog: Yesterday it was off to Marquee Cinemas for the promising pair of The Hitman's Bodyguard and Logan Lucky.
Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers.
First up: The Hitman's Bodyguard.
When a former assassin's testimony is needed at the International Criminal Court, it's up to a disgraced personal security expert to get him there safely.
The Hitman's Bodyguard is exactly as advertised, a thrilling and wildly funny action-comedy. Co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson have as much chemistry as the best buddy-comedy pairs, easily playing off one another in hilarious fashion. Gary Oldman digs his cartoonish bad-guy schtick out of storage for a broad, accented turn reminiscent of his mid-90s meat and potatoes. He's not really in the movie as much as I'd have liked, but, as always, he puts his screen time to good use. Action is almost non-stop, though the story beneath never feels underdone. Pretty European locales and a multi-cultural cast give the film a nice international flavor. Only the final chase scene seems to drag on just a bit too long; otherwise, the movie is a perfect balance of well-crafted action and foul-mouthed comedy.
The Hitman's Bodyguard clocks in at 118 minutes and is rated R for "strong violence and language throughout."
The Hitman's Bodyguard is a rollicking end-of-summer blast. Of a possible nine Weasleys, The Hitman's Bodyguard gets eight.
Fangirl points: GARY! (Duh.)
Next on the docket: Logan Lucky.
A pair of small-town brothers attempts to rob Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Dear reader(s), I'll consider it more a warning than a spoiler to tell you one thing about Logan Lucky that you probably didn't guess from the trailer: It's not really a comedy. It's amusing at times, and the overall tone certainly isn't heavy, but it is not the laugh-riot promised by the trailer.
Logan Lucky IS a clever, well-acted yarn about a down-on-his-luck West Virginia boy (Channing Tatum) who conscripts his brother (Adam Driver) into a wild plot to rob Charlotte Motor Speedway. The brothers enlist an "in-car-cer-rated" felon (Daniel Craig, playing delightfully against type) to assist with the scheme, which obviously doesn't go entirely as planned, or there'd be no movie. The terrific cast is rounded out by Katie Holmes, Riley Keough, Seth McFarlane, Katherine Waterston, Dwight Yoakam, and Sebastian Stan in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it turn. When Logan Lucky is funny, it's really funny, but unfortunately you've already seen most of what's really funny in the trailer. The twists and turns along our would-be robbers' path are well-plotted and certainly not boring, but the movie is so unlike its advertising that the whole can't help feeling kinda dull.
Logan Lucky runs 119 minutes and is rated PG13 for "language and some crude comments."
Logan Lucky is a smartly-crafted heist picture whose impact is sadly diminished by misleading advertising.
Of a possible nine Weasleys, Logan Lucky gets six.
Fangirl points: Sebastian Stan!
Also, however much it may have been intended to make fun of us, a roomful of people singing Country Roads will always put a teardrop in my eye.
A couple still grieving the death of their
daughter take in children from a local orphanage, but the family are soon
terrorized by a demented doll known as Annabelle. Anthony LaPaglia, Miranda
Otto, Stephanie Sigman, Talitha Bateman, and Lulu Wilson star in this horror
sequel from director David F. Sandberg (David F. Sandberg). ~ Jack Rodgers,
Rovi
Director: David F. Sandberg
Cast: Lulu Wilson, Grace Fulton, Anthony LaPaglia, Miranda Otto
Release Date: Aug 11, 2017
Genres: Horror, Suspense/Thriller
Rated R for horror violence and terror
Review:
Annabelle: Creation is a better film than it
deserves to be.Horror clichés run amok
in a script that seem more interested in moving from set up to set up than
telling a coherent story.Director David
F. Sandberg doesn’t seem to know the meaning of efficiency as his movie is a
bloated overlong hodgepodge of things we’ve seen before.Again, it’s a decent horror film, there are
far worse films in the genre that’s for sure, but it’s slightly frustrating
because it feels like there is a better film in there somewhere.The decision to cast Anthony LaPaglia & Miranda Otto seemed like it’d
give the film a bit of credibility but the script moves them to the sidelines
and barely uses them at all.What we’re
left with is an ensemble film with kid actors who do the best they can but it’s
never terribly interesting or engaging.Annabelle: Creation is the very definition of a wait for cable type of
film.
A police raid in Detroit in 1967 results in one of the largest RACE riots in United States history. The story is centered around the Algiers
Motel incident, which occurred in Detroit, Michigan on July 25, 1967, during the racially charged 12th Street Riot. It involves the death of three black men and
the brutal beatings of nine other people: seven black men and two white women.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Cast: John Boyega, Will Poulter, Anthony
Mackie, John Krasinski, Jack Reynor, Jason Mitchell, Hanna Murray
Release Date: Aug 42017
Genres: Crime, Drama, History
Rated R for strong violence and pervasive
language
Review:
Detroit is a tense, uncomfortable and incredibly timely
film.Kathryn Bigelow’s style of
filmmaking is perfectly suited for the story being told.Bigelow’s immersive style leaves like a fly
on the wall during the entire ordeal.It’s an intense film that’s anchored by a strong ensemble cast.John Boyega and Will Poulter really shine
throughout the film, with some of the films best moments are watching their
character’s process and think through situations.Poulter though is the real surprise here
since he’s been mostly a comedic actor.Poulter provides the character an unsettling detachment and coldness
that’s deeply unsettling.The film loses
a little steam after it moves on to the aftermath with the court proceedings
and post event stories.I was personally
more interested in what happened to John Boyega’s character but the film chose
a different direction.It’s a small
issue on an otherwise strong film that really shines a light on a dark portion
of American history.
Dearest Blog: Yesterday it was off to Marquee Cinemas for Detroit and The Dark Tower.
Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers or the news.
First on the docket, Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit.
During the Detroit Rebellion of 1967, a handful of city cops terrorize young people staying at the Algiers Hotel.
Dear reader(s), you know when I call a movie "must-see," it's usually gonna be some big, dumb actioner with a current obsession not *quite* getting enough screen time for my liking. Evidence: that latest Transformers movie that everybody hates? Yeah, that'll be skirting my Top Ten come year's end. However, here I must break with tradition to suggest emphatically that everyone get out and see Detroit. It is a very, very important movie and a timely reminder of what happens when we allow some people to be treated as less than others.
Detroit opens with a clever sequence that brings viewers who might not be familiar with this event up to speed, and from there it's a slow burn into chaos. The movie is never in a hurry to get where it's going, yet there are millions of things happening all at once. Point of view is personal rather than general, with dialogue so natural as to seem unscripted. I'm no fan of Bigelow's jiggly camera work, but I couldn't look away from the terrifying events playing out onscreen. There is no sugar-coating, there are no cookie-cutter characters, and the performances are uniformly extraordinary. Of special note, as usual, is John Boyega in a smart, sympathetic turn. The violence and torment are up close and personal, at times nearly impossible to watch. The movie builds to its unsettling climax with such tension you might not even realize you're holding your breath. This is no fun summer flick; it's challenging and exhausting. (For the record, I ran straight to the ladies' room and threw up when it ended, and it's had me in tears more than a few times since.) Detroit is smart enough not to leave it to viewers to distinguish between "based on a true story" and "inspired by actual events;" it freely acknowledges that its account relies on the recollections of people who were under not-a-little duress during these events. No fun summer movie, Detroit will stay on your mind long after you exit the theatre.
Detroit clocks in at 143 minutes and is rated R for "strong violence and pervasive language."
A headline I saw earlier this morning said, "Detroit is going to hurt, but it's worth it," and that's about the best way to sum up this brilliant but difficult movie.
Of a possible nine Weasleys, Detroit gets eight.
Fangirl points: Not to take away from the seriousness of this picture, but I can't imagine a more beautiful human than Anthony Mackie exists anywhere in the universe. *le sigh*
Next on my agenda was the first big-screen shot at Stephen King's Dark Tower series.
The Last Gunslinger hopes to stop the Man in Black from toppling the Dark Tower, which protects the world from evil...or something like that. (I'm pretty close, right?)
Not having read this book series from Stephen King, and having heard nothing good about this adaptation prior to seeing it, I was prepared to state that--while I understood it might not meet the expectations of book fans--the movie is perfectly passable entertainment for the rest of us.
Sadly, after nearly nodding off twice in just an hour and a half, I had to rethink that opening.
The Dark Tower is just a bad movie, and that's without even being able to speak to its failings by comparison to the books. It feels like, at some point very early in its making, all the Stephen King forces in the universe decided to focus their positive energy on the remake of It and deserted this entirely. (I guess the good news is my pretty busy cinema seemed to soil its collective drawers at the It trailer that preceded Dark Tower, so King may be redeemed rather quickly.) The Dark Tower's characters are so broadly drawn you'll only care what happens to any of them if you have a vested interest in the actor(s). Shallow storytelling provides very few answers, but leaves lots of question marks, for anyone unfamiliar with the source material. Clearly this was meant to set up a franchise, but if it's to do so with any success it'll need serious retooling. Man in Black Matthew McConaughey is as bland as ever (can't spell "McConaughey" without "ugh!") as a paper-doll baddie who's about as menacing as my little Cockapoo. Idris Elba is smokin'--and I mean SMOKIN'--hot as the Gunslinger, but the role is so poorly fleshed out it scarcely taxes his ability or charisma. Effects are pedestrian at best, and the action (such as it is) is accented by a comically-melodramatic score.
The Dark Tower runs the slowest 95 minutes ev-ah and is rated PG13 for "thematic material, including sequences of gun violence and action."
I truly had hoped to buck the trend and declare the Dark Tower passable entertainment for a summer afternoon, but, sadly, it can't meet even that low bar. Of a possible nine Weasleys, the Dark Tower gets two.
Fangirl points: OMG you guys...Idris Elba! (Teeny-weeny spoiler alert: When a boy says to the Gunslinger, "I dreamt about you!" I'm pretty sure I said out loud to the screen, "Me too!")
