Two Villains and a Hero

Back in 2000, ‘The Sixth Sense’ director M. Night Shyamalan reinvented the superhero genre with ‘Unbreakable,’ about a down-to-earth everyman played by Bruce Willis who discovered that he has superpowers and decided to do good.  In an era of tights-wearing superheroes from the Marvel and DC universes with all their glitz and glamor, it is refreshing to see that a superhero can be “one of us,” a true blue normal working-class American.  This was further borne out by the popular NBC TV series ‘Heroes,’ which ran for four seasons from 2006-2010.  Then in 2016 Shyamalan expanded his so-called ‘Eastrail 177’ series with the creepy kidnapping suspense thriller ‘Split,’ centering on the villain Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), who “entertained” his kidnapped girls (including one played by Anya Taylor-Joy) with his many multiple personalities, including a really scary one with superhuman strength and wall-crawling ability called “The Beast.”  So when it became known that there is to be a third and final installment that serves as sequel to both ‘Unbreakable’ and ‘Split,’ I simply couldn’t wait.

 

'Glass,’ named after the arch-nemesis of David Dunn (Willis) played by Samuel L. Jackson because he, unlike Dunn, is anything but unbreakable, promises to bring the stories of these characters back full circle to a satisfying conclusion.  Tying them together is psychiatrist Doctor Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), who “believes” that their superpower manifestations are nothing more than delusions due to their damaged psyches and seeks to “cure” them.  Also reprising her role as Casey Cooke is Anya Taylor-Joy, who wants to help Crumb despite being terrorized by his many personalities in ‘Split.’

 

It goes without saying that you should only watch ‘Glass’ after seeing ‘Unbreakable’ and ‘Split.’  Having said that, I found ‘Glass’ to be entertaining enough and thought it was a fitting conclusion to the trilogy.  But is there the trademark Shyamalan twist, you ask?  There is in a manner of speaking, just not as WTF?! shocking as those in some of his earlier movies, for better or worse.  And what’s up with the fact that water happens to be Dunn’s kryptonite?  I mean, is he an alien from ‘Signs’ or something?

Grade: B+

 

Honey, I cloned the family

It can be said that, outside of the Matrix, Keanu Reeves’ forays into the sci-fi genre have all been disastrous, be it the critically panned remake of ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ or commercial flops like ‘Johnny Mnemonic,’ ‘Chain Reaction’ and the rotoscoped ‘A Scanner Darkly.’  Action/adventure has been somewhat gentler to the “wooden” actor, as ‘John Wick,’ ‘Speed’ and ‘Point Break’ were among his better and more successful movies.  It is therefore a bit surprising that his latest effort is the flat and lackluster sci-fi flick ‘Replicas,’ about a man who cloned his wife and oldest daughter after losing them in a car accident during a raging tropical storm.

 

So why did I waste nearly two hours on this Razzie finalist which only managed 10 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and earned a measly $7.6 million on a $30 million budget after two weeks of release and fading fast?  Because I’m an AMC Stubs A-List member and allowed an allotment of three movies a week, that’s why (after finally quitting my MoviePass membership because they suck).  In ‘Replicas,’ Reeves portrays a brilliant research scientist (dude!) working for an ethically dubious biomedical company to transplant the consciousness of deceased soldiers into robotic bodies, presumably to weaponize them.  After losing his family in the aforementioned tragic accident, a despondent Reeves brought them back via cloning (except he could only bring one of his daughters back because he didn’t have enough pods) behind the backs of his overbearing employers, who managed to find out anyway and immediately took action to terminate him and recover “their” property (i.e., his cloned wife and daughter) back.

 

‘Replicas’ is one of those half-baked and ill-conceived movies that may have seemed like a good idea during an alcohol-impaired pitch at a lunch break, but when finally realized you’d slap your head with the heel of your palm and say: “What on earth were we thinking?!”  Better suited for a straight-to-DVD movie or an episode of ‘Twilight Zone’ or ‘The Outer Limits,’ it is simply bad to the point of being a self-parody with little redeeming qualities whatsoever.  It says something about how bad it is when the best acting in the film arguably was from Reeves himself.

Grade: F 

Bloodied Mary (aka Game of Thrones 2)

As any historian of English history can attest, royal succession in Her Majesty’s Realm can be a bloody affair, often ending in civil war and severed heads before the matter is settled.  Such is the unfortunate fate of Mary Stuart, the subject of the period drama ‘Mary Queen of Scots’ starring Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, David Tennant and Guy Pierce (granted there are many others, but those are the only ones well known enough to this humble reviewer).  And it should come as little surprise that these violent power struggles were part of the larger religious conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism.

 

Based on John Guy’s biographical account "Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart," MQOS regales us with the tale of Mary (Ronan), who returns from France to claim her rightful place as Queen of Scotland upon the death of her husband King Francis II of France.  Political intrigue ensues as the protestant Queen of England, Elizabeth I, regards her as a potential threat to the throne.  Heeding her closest advisors, among them John Knox (Tennant) and William Cecil (Pierce), Elizabeth keeps an wary eye on her cousin with the ravages of Bloody Mary still fresh on her mind.

 

Harley Quinn, is that you?

MQOS plays it fairly straight and safe, contemporizing one of British history’s great rivalries without overdramatizing things (unlike ‘The Favourite’ for instance).  While effective in its own way,  it's also rather dry and makes for a languid viewing experience that tests your patience unless you have an interest in British monarchical history to begin with.  To me, it’s akin to a boring Shakespearean tragedy on Masterpiece Theater in pacing, style and production value, so if this sort of thing is your cup of tea you’ll probably enjoy it more than I did.

Grade: C

 

No Escape

If you've seen Geek and Sundry’s 'Escape!' web series or maybe even participated in the cooperative live-action “Escape Room” games, here is a movie for you.  ‘Escape Room’ (creative name, no?) is the latest movie filed under the “low budget horror/suspense” category to hit theatres, attempting to make a quick cash grab from the escape room craze that’s been sweeping the world this decade.  What???!!! You never heard about it?

 

Directed by the accomplished Adam Robitel, whose impressive directorial credits include the sixth (and thankfully final) installment of the ‘Paranormal Activity’ franchise and the fourth film of the ‘Insidious’ series, ‘Escape Room’ brings together six strangers from disparate backgrounds, puts them into various dangerous escape rooms (though some settings are outdoors), and challenges them to get out.  The prize if they successfully escape? One million, ahem, $10,000 dollars!  As you’re no doubt aware, people in escape room games must solve a series of puzzles and problems in a race against time in order to make good their escape, and in all cases success requires them to work together or they all fail as a group.  Except in this series of impossibly elaborate escape rooms, the price for failure is certain death.  Of course, our six unwary participants had little idea what they signed up for when they decided to play what they thought to be a harmless “game.”

 

A word of advice.  In order to fully appreciate ‘Escape Room,’ you must suspend all disbelief.  Do not ask any logical questions, don't overthink it, turn your skepticism switch off and, most importantly, munch on as much popcorn as possible.  There is simply no other way around it.  I’ve seen many such movies (e.g., ‘The Belko Experiment,’ ‘Saw,’ ‘Hostel,’ ‘Would You Rather,’ ‘The Tournament’ and ‘Operation: Endgame’) so knew exactly how to approach it beforehand.  And ‘Escape Room’ turned out to be as predictable and formulaic as I expected it to be, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it.

Grade: B
 

Game of Thrones

Yorgos Lanthimos, the 44-year old Greek director behind such eccentric and off-the-beaten-path arthouse (as in inaccessible) films as ‘Dogtooth,’ ‘The Lobster’ and ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer,’ goes mainstream for a change in his latest, the costume drama/period piece ‘The Favourite’ featuring Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman.  While ‘The Favourite’ isn’t as daringly subversive as his earlier movies, it is nevertheless unmistakably the work of the idiosyncratic indie auteur.

 

Set in the early 18th Century during the reign of Queen Anne (played by Colman) in England, ‘The Favourite’ is so named because it’s about two noblewomen (rather, one noblewoman and one aspiring noblewoman) who would do anything to ingratiate themselves with the queen-child and thus becoming her “Favourite.”  The film starts off with a clear and seemingly unassailable favourite, the Duchess of Marlborough Sarah Churchill (Weisz), who acts as regent to the frail queen in all affairs of state.  A power monger and hardliner, she advocates escalating the war with France over the vigorous protests of the overtaxed landed gentry -- surely, if today's wars are still financed by the one-percenters we would see far fewer of them -- represented by Nicholas Hoult’s powdered wig-wearing, rouge-cheeked Robert Harley, purportedly so that England can sue for peace from a position of strength.  Alas, she unwittingly planted the seeds of her own downfall when she took into the royal household her penniless and pitiable cousin, Abigail Hill (Stone), whose ambition is only matched by her Machiavellian machinations.

 

As a costume soap opera spiced with liberal doses of black humor, there is much to like in ‘The Favourite’ despite its snail-like pace.  Much of that is due to the fine performances of its trio of headstrong drama queens as well as Lanthimos’ portrayal of their often-times complex interrelationships.  If you decide to give this movie a chance, I think you’ll find ‘The Favourite’ to be the guilty pleasure that it is.

Grade: A

The Quiet Puppet Master

It is perhaps inevitable that, in our current fractured political landscape, a film like ‘Vice’ would emerge as cautionary political satire to further widen the divide.  Whether or not you like this unauthorized and unofficial biopic (in a manner of speaking) of Dick Cheney, former vice-president under the George W. Bush administration, will likely depend on your political leanings, but “preaching to the choir” has never stopped film makers before, be it Michael Moore or Oliver Stone on the left or Dinesh D'Souza and Clint Eastwood on the right.

 

Directed by Adam McKay (‘Anchorman,’ ‘The Other Guys,’ ‘The Big Short’), ‘Vice’ – as you’re no doubt aware – does not portray Cheney in a particularly favorable light.  Regardless, it does provide an interesting glimpse at how a mediocre politician of humble beginnings can rise to the top (or near it) in Washington.  We see how Cheney was a reluctant politician who wanted to lead a normal unassuming life, but his ambitious and ruthless wife (played by Amy Adams) would have none of that and endlessly pushed him to realize all that he can be and more.  The moral is that behind every great man is a great woman, because the great woman can never be a man.

 

Like McKay's ‘The Big Short,’ ‘Vice’ is a drama-comedy and pseudo-documentary rolled up in one, with quite a few self-referential wink-at-the-camera fourth wall-breaking moments.  Christian Bale was unrecognizable in the role of the soft-spoken Cheney, delivering a nuanced performance to further add to his list of varied roles.  Amy Adams was equally fine as his puppet-master (I mean, beloved wife) Lynne Cheney.  In fact, ‘Vice’ boasts a cast of talented actors and actresses including Steve Carell as his mentor Donald Rumsfeld, Sam Rockwell as “Hot Damn!” George W. Bush, Madea’s Tyler Perry as General Colin Powell (the resemblance is there) and Alison Pill as his daughter Mary Cheney, whom – despite his stance on gay marriage – he has a soft spot for despite her being gay.  If you can stomach the not-so-subtle message in ‘Vice’ (or even welcome it), it’s worth a watch.

Grade: B+

 

Spider-Man: The Next Generation

The latest Marvel movie to hit megaplexes is the family-friendly PG-rated animated feature ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.’  Just like the recent Spider-Man spin-off, ‘Venom,’ ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ takes the world of our friendly neighborhood web-slinger into new territory, proving once again that Marvel properties can be box office gold even beyond Disney’s lucrative cinematic universe.

 

‘Into the Spider-Verse’ isn’t your father’s Spider-Man as its central character is Miles Morales, the relatively new African‑American teen Spider-Man created by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli in 2011.  This isn’t to say that good old Peter Parker isn’t in the mix; he is, just as a dispirited and somewhat cynical Spider-Man who lost his mojo after being dealt a bad hand in life and splitting up with Mary Jane Watson.  But wait, there’s more Spider-Man variants/offshoots.  There’s Spider-Woman aka Gwen Stacy from an alternate parallel universe, Spider-Man Noir in the mold of Dick Tracy, a looney toons character known as Spider-Ham (aka Peter Porker) who would fit in perfectly next to Howard the Duck, and even an anime-inspired Japanese BESM schoolgirl named Peni Parker and her SPider (or SP//dr) robot.  This collection of disparate Spider-Folks from different Spider-Verses must band together to stop Kingpin and his minions (including the Prowler and Doc Ock) from restarting his particle accelerator and causing the multiple Spider-Verses to collide (just roll with it).

 

Whether you enjoy animated movies or not, ‘Into the Spider-Verse’ is an original, unique and refreshing take on one of Marvel’s most enduring and familiar superheroes.  Just keep an open mind and immerse yourself in the movie’s endless possibilities.  You’ll then find ‘Into the Spider-Verse’ to be entertaining and fun, and that the timeless motto of “with great power comes great responsibility” shines through regardless of the guise Spider-Man happens to be in.

Grade: A-