Short Takes

A dramedy and a couple more horror flicks.  Yawn.

 

The Boy is Back

Despite largely negative reviews from the critics and lukewarm feedback from moviegoers, 2016’s boy-playing-with-doll horror flick ‘The Boy’ recouped its meager $10 million budget nearly seven-fold and earned a sequel (big surprise).  ‘Brahms: The Boy II’ picks up the story as an unwitting new family looking for some peace and quiet in the countryside after a traumatic event stumbled upon the creepy pale vintage porcelain doll, since repaired after it was “destroyed” in the original.  Alas, ‘Brahms’ is but the latest low-rent horror flick that failed to scare or interest us during these dog days of February.

Grade: D

 

Dark Fantasy Island 

While I probably watched more episodes of this soapy '80's TV show starring Ricardo Montalbán and (the plane, the plane!) Hervé Villechaize than I care to admit, Blumhouse Production’s horror spin on ‘Fantasy Island’ is an ill-conceived bloody mess of a movie.  The story follows five mostly good-looking young fantasy-seekers (Maggie Q being the oldest among them) as they live out their fantasies to the inevitable end, for better or worse, as Mr. Roarke (Michael Peña, who’s no Ricardo Montalbán) warns them upon their arrival.  All is well and good until things go horribly awry and the fantasies devolve into nightmares, culminating with a head-scratching twist at the end involving Lucy Hale's character that makes us want to pull our hair out and scream in helpless frustration.

 
Grade: D

Going ‘Downhill’

Love (or rather, marriage) is on the rocks (going downhill) in this quirky dramedy starring Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a middle-aged American couple on a ski trip in the Alps with their two kids, only to find their relationship sorely tested by an act of supreme cowardice on the part of Ferrell.  A remake of the 2014 Swedish film ‘Force Majeure’ (which I haven’t seen), ‘Downhill’ is a darkly funny yet somewhat uncomfortable viewing experience as we witness the gradual unraveling of a happy marriage amidst increasing doubt and awkwardness between Ferrell and Louis-Dreyfus (and Ferrell and his two kids), casting a dark cloud on the family’s  future.  I’m more generous here than most critics probably because, not having seen the Swedish original, I have no frame of reference for comparison.

Grade: B

A Fantabulous Valentine Movie

Margot Robbie’s crazy yet charismatic scene-stealing turn as psychologist-turned-Joker’s sidekick Harley Quinn was just about the only thing that elevated and made 2016’s 'Suicide Squad' even remotely watchable, so when a 'Suicide Squad' sequel-spinoff centering on its best character was announced I was intrigued to say the least.  The spinoff, colorfully titled ‘Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn’ (since rebranded simply as 'Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey') is nothing less than the playful anthem to kick-ass girl power we’ve all been waiting for.

‘Harley Quinn,' directed by first-time helmer Cathy Yan, follows our loveably kooky villain after she broke up with (okay, got unceremoniously dumped by) the Joker. Without the protection of the crown prince of madness, she’s now fair game for anyone who has grievances with her, which she lists extensively each time when faced with one of them, including the fact that she “voted for Bernie.”  Chief among them is Gotham crime lord Roman Sionis aka “Black Mask” (Ewan McGregor) and his sadistic right-hand man Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina), who’s after a diamond containing the bank accounts of the Bertinelli crime family (whom Sionis killed in a power grab) Harley gotten possession of from a wayward teen pick-pocket.  In order to survive, our pony-tailed protagonist must call on more than her wits, charm and nimble acrobatics alone, enlisting the aid of the "Birds of Prey," an ad-hoc group of female kick-assery including Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee-Smolett Bell) and disgraced GCPD detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez, I kid you not).

'Harley Quinn' is sassy and fun, largely thanks to yet another scene-stealing performance from the talented Aussie actress.  Robbie’s Harley Quinn is an eminently likeable caricature, a looney cartoonish odd-ball blend of Betty Boop, Jessica Rabbit and Marilyn Monroe.  Even in mortal peril, her Harley exudes playful innocence and a girl-just-wanna-have-fun insouciance that’s nigh irresistible.  Too bad the movie underperformed at the box office, because it really is both fantastic and fabulous.  Get it?

Grade: A

"Will you be my valentine?"

Out of Rhythm

Payback movies with strong female leads (e.g. ‘Kill Bill Vols 1 & 2,’ ‘Peppermint,’ the excellent French movie ‘Revenge’ starring Matilda Lutz) are among my favorite subgenres in cinema, so when I saw the trailer of ‘The Rhythm Section,’ Mrs. Reynolds’ (I mean Blake Lively’s) latest starring vehicle as a young woman who discovered from an investigative journalist that her family’s plane crash accident was not actually an accident and goes on a one-woman mission to make the shadowy perpetrators behind it pay the ultimate price, it unsurprisingly had me at “hello.”

 

Based on a novel by Mark Burnell (who also wrote the screenplay for this adaptation), ‘The Rhythm Section’ offers a different kind of revenge thriller for those of us familiar with ‘La Femme Nikita,’ ‘Atomic Blonde’ and ‘Salt.’  Unlike those other films, Lively’s anti-heroine isn’t a trained assassin skilled in the fine art of death dealing but a physical and emotional wreck, a normal “girl next door” devastated by personal loss and grief even three years after losing her loving parents and brother – we find out why in the movie and I’ll leave it at that.  It is also interesting to note that this movie’s produced by Barbara Brocolli’s EON Productions, well known for all the action-packed death defying 007 movies we love.

 

The calling card of ‘The Rhythm Section’ is gritty realism rather than fast-paced action, and it lives or dies (looks like the latter) by this artistic choice at the box office.  Though it’s been compared to the Jason Bourne movies, I find it more akin to slow-burners like ‘Red Sparrow’ and Steven Soderbergh’s underrated ‘Haywire.’  While ‘The Rhythm Section’ isn't a great movie, it’s not as bad as its 28 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes would suggest either.

 

Grade: B-

 

Up next….. something kooky and fantabulous.

 

Wicked Witch of the Woods

The popular Brothers Grimm fairy tale “Hansel & Gretel” has seen numerous cinematic treatments in various interpretations, from more-or-less faithful adaptations to portraying the pair of siblings as badass witch hunters.  So what more can Hollywood do to put a fresh spin on such a well-worn tale?   Relative unknown actor-turned-writer and director “Wizard of” Oz Perkins attempts to give us a version of H&G we’ve never seen before in ‘Gretel & Hansel,’ only his third directorial feature.

 

G&H, like most of its predecessors, is a more-or-less faithful adaptation of the timeless Grimm classic tale.  What’s different about it – other than putting Gretel before Hansel in the title appropriately enough – is how he chooses to tell a story we’ve heard so many times before.  Rather than regaling a familiar tale with new characters and only sprinkling in cosmetic changes, Oz placed the emphasis on atmosphere, mood and lingering cinematography to tell the story of how poor Gretel and Hansel (Sophia Lillis and Sam Leakey), cast out of the house by their uncaring mother to fend for themselves, venture into the woods and discover the warm and welcoming hearth of the seemingly kind and charitable Holda (Alice Krige), only to “stumble upon a nexus of terrifying evil.” 

 

Although G&H conveyed a bold new vision to the tale, many will undoubtedly find its slow-burning pace and tendency to dwell on quiet and picturesque still scenes of nature quite boring and even sleep-inducing.  In fact, this film reminds me of Robert Eggers’ 2015 movie ‘The VVitch,’ albeit not quite as daring or creepy. While I applaud Oz’s indie arthouse approach to this familiar tale, it’s just a bit too somnolent for my tastes.

 

Grade: C+