Dearest Blog, by my count there were no less than seven movies
opening this weekend.
Four of them looked pretty good, and the other
three are playing at my local cinemas. So...to the cable box we go for
Backstreet Boys: Show 'Em What You're Made Of and Wild Card.
Okay,
dear reader(s), if we're being honest, and fair to my local cinemas
(even the gross one), it would have taken a helluva movie to compete
with folks as near to my heart as BSB and Jason Statham.
Were The Hobbit
still in play, I'd almost certainly have paired one of the stinkers
with another Hobbit screening, but no Bilbo meant a weekend of "home
cinema" for yours truly.
Spoiler level here will be mild, I guess. Is it even possible to spoil a documentary?
Anyway...first
on my agenda: Backstreet Boys: Show 'Em What You're Made Of, a
behind-the-scenes look at the ups, downs, and enduring popularity of
BSB.
Show 'Em What You're Made Of is an honest and heartfelt
documentary. The peaks and valleys of fame, and of essentially living in
each other's back pockets for two decades, are on full display, and the
group members often bicker like old married people.
The conflict and
raw emotion make for some hard viewing when you're a fan! (I'm scarred
for life by watching Beatles yell at each other in Let It Be, and never
did get all the way through Some Kind of Monster.) Still, it's clear
Howie, Brian, Kevin, AJ, and Nick love one another like brothers, and it
seems no dispute is significant enough to derail the BSB train for
long.
The movie touches on the group's legal dispute with former manager
Lou Pearlman (currently serving prison time for perpetrating one of the
world's largest Ponzi schemes) but is mostly filled with clips of new
and old videos, live performances, and behind-the-scenes goings-on,
bringing back great memories and making some new ones. And of course
there are the songs...oh, the songs! The voices! Backstreet Boys are as
fine a vocal group as ever there was, and it's terrific to see how
they've stood the test of time and outlived their "boy band"
designation.
Backstreet Boys: Show 'Em What You're Made Of runs
101 minutes and is unrated. If you're considering age-appropriateness,
there are a number of F-words and the usual adult themes you'd expect
for this sort of thing.
I suppose I'm not the only one itching to
say "Backstreet's Back" while writing about this movie, but it's clear
that Backstreet was never gone. 20 years later, I'm still proud to be a
fan.
Of a possible nine Weasleys, Backstreet Boys: Show 'Em What You're Made Of gets seven.
Next up was Wild Card.
Jason Statham stars as a Las Vegas bodyguard who lands on the wrong side of some very dangerous people.
Ahhhh...Jason
Statham...a name that sends me to the cinema on opening day every time.
Of Statham's three most recent "starring" vehicles, this is the second
to go straight to VOD, so I had to assume it was, perhaps, not his best
work. While that proved a correct assumption, it wasn't quite as bad as
Redemption, so I'm counting it as a win.
Statham is great as
always in the kind of role he could play in his sleep, and, if it's
nothing new, it's still fun to watch. Unfortunately, Wild Card has
little else to recommend it. It's only about an hour and a half, yet it
drags along, never really getting anywhere.
The generally-likable Milo
Ventimiglia is awful in such an awful role that it's hard to even look
at him. Most characters are so poorly developed that you just aren't
interested, and it's impossible to like/sympathize with the one person
with whom you're probably supposed to like and sympathize.
If you look
at the cast list and see a name you like, but that name's not "Statham,"
well...don't waste your time. The handful of other notable cast members
probably don't have ten minutes' combined screen time. There is a bit
of classic Statham action, but not nearly enough to keep Wild Card from
being something of a snoozefest.
Wild Card clocks in at 92 minutes and is rated R for "strong violence, language, and some sexuality/nudity."
My love for Jason Statham is undiminished, but if I'm looking for a fix I'm probably gonna go dig out Death Race again.
Of a possible nine Weasleys, Wild Card gets four.
Until next time...
*squee*
