Men (and Women) in Black

If there’s anything as certain as death and taxes, it’s Hollywood’s propensity to reboot, remake or otherwise “update” past movie franchises that had enjoyed even a modicum of success.  So it is that the ‘Men in Black’ trilogy starring “fresh prince of Bel Air” Will Smith and fugitive-catching lawman Tommy Lee Jones gets a modern makeover in ‘Men in Black: International’ after a seven-year hiatus.  Alas, despite the fact that the original trilogy generated over $1.7 billion globally and made a healthy profit, this latest iteration sputtered badly at the box office on opening weekend with a domestic take of just under $40 million and $118 million worldwide on a budget of over $100 million, not including at least that much in marketing/advertising which makes it that much harder to break even.

 

‘MIB:International’ takes the highly secretive ”alien management” organization based on a lesser Marvel/Malibu Comics title to Europe, England and France to be specific.  Well, maybe it wasn’t so highly secretive after all considering how its newest recruit, Molly Wright (“Agent M” played by Tessa Thompson), discovered its existence and managed to blackmail her way into this exclusive “boy’s club.”  Tomfoolery and high-jinks in equal measure ensue as she and her partner, the dashing and cocky “Agent H” (Chris Hemsworth), embark on a globe-trotting adventure trying to save earth from the threat of “The Hive,” a sinister and parasitic alien race which infiltrates planets by combining with the DNA of native species.

 

While it retained the light-hearted “fun” of the original MIB trilogy, 'MIB:International' doesn’t really offer anything fresh or new despite Hemsworth’s and Thompson’s best efforts to infuse new life into the franchise.  I’m sure at the time the big-wigs in Hollywood thought they can’t go wrong by pairing two of Hollywood’s hottest young actors in this movie, the same ones who played Thor and Valkyrie in the MCU no less.  Sorry, but the audience didn’t bite this time. 

Grade: C+
 

The Living Dead Don't Die

Who knew?  Indie genre auteur Jim Jarmusch’s eagerly awaited 10th film is a quirky zom-com and homage to George A. Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead.’ If you’ve seen any of Jarmusch’s previous movies, you are no doubt familiar with his unique and eccentric style of storytelling and vision.  For the uninitiated, I would suggest ‘Dead Man’ starring Johnny Depp or ‘Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai’ starring Forrest Whitaker as a point of entry to his body of work, but now that I think of it his latest feature ‘The Dead Don’t Die’ would serve equally well in that regard.

 

'The Dead Don't Die' is yet another movie on the well-tread “zombie apocalypse’ we’ve all been preparing for, but seen through the eyes and experiences of a handful of denizens in a charming and sleepy little town called Centerville.  This cast of interesting characters includes the town sheriff (‘Zombieland’ vet Bill Murray), his two deputies (Adam Driver and Chloë Sevigny), a hermit named Bob (singer Tom Waits), a crusty old farmer (Steve Buscemi) and a weird zen master/undertaker (Tilda Swinton) among others, whether they’re local yokels like Danny Glover or city slickers passing through like Selena Gomez who (warning, spoiler a-head!) sadly gets her cute little head chopped off in this movie, albeit post-mortem.

 

TDDD is vintage Jim Jarmusch through and through, filled with a cast of colorful characters, deadpan humor and sardonic wit.  While the pacing may be as somnolent as Romero’s classic shambling zombies (runners are for pussies), the movie manages to hold our attention largely thanks to the characters, their seemingly unintentional funny interactions and even unexpected WTF???!!! moments such as the twist involving Swinton’s undertaker (no spoiler here, so go see it already) near the end of the movie.  And honestly I have never seen anyone in a zombie flick handle his hopeless predicament with such equanimity and resignation as "Kill the Head" Adam Driver’s even-keeled sheriff''s deputy who, in a wink-wink fourth-wall breaking moment, divulged to his boss (Murray, that is) how he knew all along “it would end badly” for them all.

Grade: A
 

The Corruption of Jean Grey

The long-running X-Men film franchise licensed by 20th Century Fox has been extremely successful and popular despite not being part of Disney’s vaunted MCU, having spawned seven movies in two distinct series and five spin-offs since the dawn of the new millennium: ‘X-Men,’ ‘X2: X-Men United,’ ‘X-Men: The Last Stand,’ ‘X-Men: First Class,’ ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past,’  ‘X-Men: Apocalypse,’ ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix,’ ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine,’ ‘The Wolverine,’ ‘Logan,’ ‘Deadpool’ and ‘Deadpool 2.’  As a diehard X-Men fan I enjoyed all of them more-or-less but, alas, all good things must come to an end as the juggernaut that is the Mouse House swallows up everything Marvel under its banner.

 

‘Dark Phoenix’ is the fourth and final film in the rebooted second series centering on a group of young X-Men led by Professor X (James McAvoy) and is adapted from the tragic story of a corrupted Jean Grey in Chris Claremont’s Dark Phoenix Saga spanning  “The Uncanny (indeed) X-Men” issues 129-138 back in 1980.  In ‘Dark Phoenix,’ Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) aka Marvel Girl/Phoenix is unwittingly and drastically transformed into the uber-powerful cosmic being “Dark Phoenix” in the wake of a space rescue mission and uncontrollably wreaks havoc among her team-mates, causing much strife and forcing her friends to decide whether she can be saved or have to die.  Not that the latter's going to be an easy undertaking considering how powerful she's become, of course.

 

While I can’t say that ‘Dark Phoenix’ is one of the best X-Men films compared to its predecessors, it’s not nearly as terrible as its overly harsh 23 percent rating on RT would indicate.  Rather, I find ‘Dark Phoenix’ to be an interesting if a bit underwhelming tale of a woman’s inner turmoil and struggle to suppress the demon within.  Don't blame its less than stellar box office numbers on its own merits or lack thereof; put it on "superhero movie fatigue" in a summer season that's already seen 'Captain Marvel,' 'Avengers: Endgame' and 'Shazam!'.

Grade: B

 

Just call her "Ma"

What is it about psycho-stalker movies that makes Hollywood love making them so much?  ‘Ma,’ the latest directorial feature from Tate Taylor (‘The Help,’ ‘The Girl on the Train’), is the third such movie so far this year following ‘Greta’ and ‘The Intruder.’  Oh, that’s right.  It’s because people like me keep going to see them regardless of how bad they may be.  Guilty as charged.

 

At least Taylor is well versed in suspense movies, having previously directed the slow-burning ‘The Girl on the Train’ starring Emily Blunt.  In ‘Ma,’ Taylor reunited with Octavia Spencer, who won an Oscar for her role in ‘The Help’ under the Best Supporting Actress category.  ‘Ma’ is a homely and unpretentious middle-aged African-American single-mom (hence "ma") who works as a veterinary assistant in a small town.  That is, until one day she was accosted by bored teenagers outside a grocery store to help them buy beer and gave in against her better judgment.  Being lonely and lacking friends, she decided to relive her high school days and befriend the teens by converting her basement into a rad party pad for them.  Then things get really interesting (and scary for the high schoolers) from there.

 

As unbelievable as this movie’s premise and story development may be, I have to admit it has a certain Je ne sais quoi that draws us to it and its inevitable, nihilistic conclusion.  The talented Octavia Spencer is an interesting if odd choice for a crazy psychotic woman, which makes ‘Ma’ that much more off-centered and unsettling. 

Grade: B

 

The Lizard King

The third film in WB/Legendary Entertainment’s cinematic “Monsterverse” (a shared film franchise between Japan’s giant lizard and King Kong) is ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters,’ the not-so-highly anticipated follow-up to 2014’s pretty good ‘Godzilla’ and 2017’s excellent ‘Kong: Skull Island.’  As if the other 33 Japanese and American-made Godzilla movies are afterthoughts.  Okay, maybe some were, like the ill-conceived 1998 Godzilla reboot starring Ferris Bueller in which the giant lizzie was given a raptor-like makeover a la’ ‘Jurassic Park.’

 

Before the big epic title fight between Ali and Frazier, I mean Godzilla and “King” Kong, Godzilla must first prove himself worthy by establishing without a doubt that he is also “King” of his own domain by defeating all comers, in this case the three-headed dragon kaiju Ghidorah, a well-known nemesis in the Godzilla canon.  As if two kaiju aren’t enough, we also have sidekicks in the guise of Mothra on Godzilla’s side saving humanity and Rodan on the other wreaking havoc with Ghidorah.  Like the geek from ‘Silicon Valley’ (Thomas Middleditch) testified before a congressional committee in the movie’s trailer, some of these titans are here to protect us while others are here to threaten us (we just don’t know which).  But what is the story, you ask?  Well, there isn’t really much of one to speak of, as the film’s paper-thin plot (including the much discussed “twist”) is messy throughout and utterly preposterous.  At the end of the movie, I literally laughed when the other kaiju bowed to Godzilla after he vanquished Ghidorah – as if there’s any doubt - like underlings to a liege.

 

Seriously, G:KOTM is so bad that it makes its 2014 predecessor look like a masterpiece.  I wasn’t expecting much from this movie, yet it still somehow managed to disappoint.  This is what happens when a film’s only raison d’être is to serve as shameless filler and set him up with some big hairy ape in the next main event.  YMMV.

Grade: C-

Rocketman and the Jets

It’s gratifying that musically inclined movies are making a comeback of sorts.  After a long dry spell, we’ve seen three commercially successful and well-received films in ‘A Star is Born,’ ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and the subject of this review, ‘Rocketman,’ the semi-biographical musical on the rise of Sir (yes, he’s knighted) Elton John, within the last nine months alone.  And a fourth one is coming soon in the form of the off-beat Beatles fantasy rom-com ‘Yesterday’ due out later this month.  Yeah, name that song ‘Hey Dude’ Ed Sheeran.

 

The job of portraying Elton Hercules John (which sounds so much less mundane than Reginald Kenneth Dwight) fell to “Kingsman” Taron Egerton, who rebounded from the disaster that was ‘Robin Hood’ with all the extravagant excess and style that playing the British piano-man required.  Not only can Egerton “carry a tune,” he displayed a certain showmanship and charisma that the titular Rocketman would certainly approve.  Not to mention he’s better looking than the real deal.  Unlike the excellent ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ however, ‘Rocketman’ recounts Elton’s life and success through some of his most popular and catchy hits (though my fav ‘Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding’ is noticeably absent probably due to its length), all in the backdrop of a group therapy session in which he’s dressed in a bright red Halloween devil costume.

 

‘Rocketman’ is a fantastical musical journey through the life of Elton John with entertaining song-and-dance numbers throughout that’s undeniably and infectiously fun, even if it ultimately lacked a certain gravity or substance.  But for one whose taste in music is by-and-large defined in the late 1970’s and throughout the 1980’s, it’s a nostalgic ride well worth embarking on. 

Grade: A-