Champions of Arena Rock

The story of the ever popular 1970’s British rock group ‘Queen’ is the fascinating subject of director Bryan Singer’s (‘The Usual Suspects,’ everything ‘X-Men’) latest biopic starring Rami Malek (‘Mr. Robot’) as its flamboyant and colorful frontman, Freddie Mercury.  Being a fan of Rock & Roll! during my youth (which includes now) as well as “musical” films in general, going to see a movie like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was never in doubt.

 

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ had all the familiar elements we would expect in a musical biopic.  Humble beginnings and early struggles, check.  Meteoric rise, check.  Friction and "fights" between the lead singer and his band mates, check.  Struggling with one's own identity, check.  Reconciliation and redemption, check.  We’ve seen it all before in various other movies – biopics and fiction alike – ranging from Val Kilmer’s ‘The Doors’ to Joaquin Phoenix’s ‘Walk the Line’ to Mark Wahlberg’s ‘Rockstar,’ so I can’t really imagine what the professional critics whose negative reviews contributed to the lukewarm 62 percent score BR earned on Rotten Tomatoes were expecting from a film that did everything right other than perhaps they’re just not much of a ‘Queen’ fan.

 

For those of us ‘Queen’ fans, BR has much to offer including many of the band’s greatest hits.  The song-by-song recreation of Queen’s 1985 Live Aid segment at the end of the movie alone is worth the price of admission.  Yes, the film only glosses over the “heavier” themes of Freddie’s loneliness/isolation and homosexuality, and yes, this movie is decidedly more style than substance, but we love ‘Queen’ precisely because their songs are catchy and theatrical, not because they’re deep or profound.

Grade: A
 

 

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Their husbands are all dead....

yet somehow that’s just the beginning of their troubles.  Such is the pitiable lot of the women in ‘Widows,’ the latest gritty and riveting heist thriller from Steve McQueen (not to be confused with the fast-and-furious ‘Bullitt’ actor), the Brit director/screenwriter who took Hollywood by storm with his 2013 Oscar-winning slavery drama ’12 Years a Slave.’  Based on a British TV show (which ran for all of 12 episodes) from the 1980’s and contemporized with a tightly plotted screenplay by McQueen and ‘Gone Girl’ writer Gillian Flynn, ‘Widows’ promises twists as well as thrills in this humdinger of  a movie.

 

Anchored by the strong and mesmerizing performance of the talented Viola Davis as a widow who exemplifies what it means to survive, as well as a solid supporting cast including Michelle Rodriguez (in her most dramatic role since ‘Girlfight’), Elizabeth Debicki and Cynthia Erivo (remember her from “Bad Times” at a certain strange hotel?), ‘Widows’ effortlessly weaves us through its sordid world of local politics, corruption and double crosses in modern-day Chicago.  Not so much a morality tale as an uncompromising urban portrait of desperation and despair, there are no black-and-white heroes and villains in this film, only various characters painted in shades-of-gray.

 

While I can’t say I loved this film largely because none of its characters (including its anti-heroines) are particularly likeable and its subject is rather dark, I have to acknowledge that it is a masterfully crafted thriller/drama from a purely academic standpoint.  It’s not the fun popcorn crowd-pleaser that the earlier all-female ensemble heist thriller released this year was (in case you’re wondering, I’m referring to ‘Ocean’s 8’), which may partly account for its lack of box office muscle, but why not give it a look anyway because what else are you gonna do on a cold day in December?

Grade: A-

 

Nazi Zombie Super-Soldiers

Yes, “Nazi Zombie Super-Soldiers.”  That’s what ‘Overlord,’ the latest WWII Action/Horror flick from Bad Robot, J.J. Abrams’ production company, should really be called.  We all know that, as the tide turned against Germany in WWII, Hitler increasingly pinned his hopes on game-changing technological “wonder weapons” to salvage his fading dreams of a “Thousand Year Reich.”  Notable among them are jets such as the ME-262 and ballistic missiles like the V-2 rocket.  There are virtually no shortage of speculation on what the “mentally unstable” Hitler had tried as the situation became more and more dire for the Fatherland; some even claimed that he dabbled in the occult.   The dark arts!  Can you imagine???!!!

Perhaps inspired by the horror stories coming out of the concentration camps and the exploits of infamous doctor Josef Mengele in the name of “science,” the idea of Nazi super soldiers, or even better yet, Nazi Zombie Super Soldiers (aka NZ2S,  the name of my new death metal band) have provided much fodder in the genre of science fiction and horror.  While ‘Overlord’ isn’t the first movie about some Nazi secret zombie soldier program, it is most definitely the most ambitious with a decent production budget ($30 million) and the creative talents behind it.  The movie takes place in the hours before D-Day and follows a small group of 101st Airborne “Screaming Eagles” pathfinders (why does Hollywood always seems to prefer the 101st over the equally illustrious 82nd Airborne?) tasked to take out a German radio tower.  They jump out of a stricken C-47 and find more (oh, so much more) than they bargained for.

With its ensemble cast of unknown actors, ‘Overlord’ nevertheless manages to be an immensely enjoyable pop-corn B-movie, an R-rated blood-soaked affair that revels gleefully in its own excess.  It is pulpy fun, a guilty pleasure through and through, and I simply can’t recommend it enough.

Grade: A

Saving Vladimir?

Banned in Russia and Ukraine for wholly different reasons, ‘Hunter Killer’ is the latest military undersea “techno-thriller” in the tradition of such previous films as ‘The Hunt for Red October’ and ‘Crimson Tide.’  Ever since reading Tom Clancy’s THFRO I’ve always been a bit of a sucker for claustrophobic, suspense-filled modern submarine yarns, so the question of whether I’m going to see this or not in the theaters was never in doubt regardless of what the critics thought of it.

Rugged Scottish action star Gerard Butler, perhaps best known for his roles as Spartan King and overall badass Leonidas in Zack Snyder’s stylishly kinetic adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel ‘300’ and “Die Hard” Secret Service Agent Mike Banning in ‘Olympus Has Fallen’ and its sequel, ‘London Has Fallen,’ plays Navy Commander Joe Glass, hot-shot maverick skipper of the state-of-the-art Virginia class Fast-Attack “Hunter Killer” submarine USS Arkansas on a mission to stave off World War III.  The global crisis was precipitated by a brazen coup when the Russian president (the “good” guy) was ousted during a visit at a remote naval base by his trusted defense minister, who turned out to be a power-hungry megalomaniac intent on precipitating a war with the United States.

As much as I wanted to like HK, it ultimately left me with a sinking feeling (pun intended) because it simply isn’t “real” in the sense of being even the least believable.  The geopolitics underpinning the whole exercise is laughable and could have very well been conceived by a 10 year old.  The poor excuse of a plot is weak and the action is uneven, again defying all belief.  While I probably held HK to a higher standard than the typical moviegoer because I’m a “military buff” who had read tons of techno-thriller novels, I can’t help who I am and that’s just the way it is.

Grade: C