Spidey's European Vacation

The latest tent-pole blockbuster comic book superhero movie to hit megaplexes this year is ‘Spider-Man: Far from Home,’ the follow-up to 2017’s ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ starring Tom Holland as the third Spidey in the last 20 years and the first to be fully incorporated in the MCU.  Being part of the MCU is a big deal; Spider-Man likely would not be quite as commercially successful if it, like the X-Men until now, existed outside of Disney’s money-making machine.  Don’t believe me?  Just ask ‘Dark Phoenix’ and Andrew Garfield.

 

Although not nearly as “far from home” as he was in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ when he was stranded light years away from earth with his mentor (RIP) Tony Stark before becoming part of the unfortunate 50 percent of Thanos' snap, this latest installment is so-named because our young and friendly neighborhood Spider-Man “ghosts” SHIELD head honcho Nick Fury and goes on a much needed whirlwind vacation through Europe with a few of his high school class mates, including Mary Jane Watson (Zendaya) whom he crushes on like the lovelorn schoolboy that he is (aww!).  Of course, trouble has a way of following Spidey wherever he goes, in this case his classic comic book nemesis Mysterio portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal.

 

Technically, story-wise and artistically speaking, ‘Far from Home’ is yet another crowd-pleasing winner from Disney and Sony, as its 90 percent “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes and box office receipts would attest.  Tom Holland imparts his version of the web-slinger with a youthful exuberance and doe-eyed innocence that’s impossible not to like.  Alas, being the fourth Marvel superhero movie to come out this year (following ‘Captain Marvel,’ ‘Avengers: End Game’ and ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’) so far and the seventh if we throw ‘Shazam!’, ‘Hellboy’ and ‘Men in Black’ into the mix, I think I’m suffering from a mild case of comic book movie fatigue.

Grade: B+
 

A Midsommar Day's Nightmare

If you’re a horror-aficionado who’s seen Ari Aster’s deeply disturbing, totally terrifying and utterly unsettling breakthrough bombshell 'Hereditary' (enough wordplay with his name already), you will either be eagerly but anxiously awaiting his follow-up film (I said enough already) or have absolutely no desire to see it.  I am firmly in the former category but, if you’re of the latter persuasion, I can’t say that I blame you because thinking about that movie still makes my skin crawl.

 

The aforementioned “eagerly but anxiously awaited release” from Aster is called ‘Midsommar,’ a “Swedish Horror Story” centered on summer fun, I mean the celebration of summer solstice and the strange but fascinating pagan rituals associated with it.  A group of American college grad students, including the lone girl Dani (played by Florence Pugh whom we’ve last seen in 'Fighting with My Family'), travels to the central Swedish province of Hälsingland to live in a hippie-style commune for a couple of weeks so as to observe the locals' lifestyle and traditions first-hand.  Oh boy, just what could possibly go wrong in such a harmless endeavor?  While ‘Midsommar’ is decidedly brighter, funnier and less depressingly gloomy than ‘Hereditary,’ it is in many ways just as disturbing, unsettling and taboo-shattering.

 

‘Midsommar’ (spelled with an "o" and an “a” because that’s how the Swedes do it) bears obvious comparison to ‘The Wicker Man,’ the classic 1973 Brit flick starring Christopher Lee (later remade terribly in a movie starring Nicholas Cage, may he burn in peace), but it also brings to mind 'The Green Inferno,’ the 2013 Eli Roth film about naïve and well-meaning college students who traveled to the remote Amazon forests only to find themselves a food source of the natives.  We are often blinded to mortal danger by our innate curiosity and end up like cats.

Grade: A-

Jack's Magical Mystery Tour

‘Yesterday’ is the latest feature film from British director/screenwriter/producer Danny Boyle (‘Trainspotting,’ ’28 Days Later,’ ‘Sunshine,’ ‘Slumdog Millionaire’), a musical-fantasy rom-com that dares us to "imagine" (the Lennon song, get it?) a world that never knew the Beatles except for three individuals including its protagonist, a struggling singer-songwriter named Jack Malik played by Himesh Patel.

 

When I saw the trailer of ‘Yesterday,’ I was instantly intrigued by its premise of an unassuming  down‑on‑his‑luck coffeehouse acoustic singer and would-be songwriter who, after surviving being hit by a bus while riding his bike home during a blackout, discovered that nobody else in the world knows who the Beatles are (except for two others as he found out later).  Apparently the Fab Four wasn’t the only thing that never existed in this bizarre parallel universe; Coke (as in Coca-Cola) and Harry Potter are also conspicuously missing in Google searches as Jack found to his consternation. With the Beatles’ extensive catalog to mine from, Jack’s luck unsurprisingly took a turn for the better as he skyrocketed faster than the “Rocketman” to fame overnight.  How will Jack cope with becoming an instant sensation all the while knowing that he’s a fraud?  And more importantly, how will he juggle his newfound success with the yearning desire of his heart in the guise of his best friend and former manager Ellie (Lily James)?

 

While ‘Yesterday’ isn’t as deep or profound as what we’ve come to expect from Danny Boyle, it is nonetheless a fresh and unique crowd-pleaser and homage to the Beatles that’s undeniably entertaining in its own eccentric way, and the best part is that you don’t even have to be a Beatlemaniac to enjoy this delectable slice of musical heaven.

 

Grade: A 

Adventures in Babysitting

The latest movie in ‘The Conjuring’ universe inspired by the spooky but fascinating case files of real-life paranormal investigating celebrities-couple Ed and (RIP) Lorraine Warren, is also the third entry of a spin-off sub-franchise centered on their most popular and interesting artifact: an evil, demonically possessed doll with braided pigtails named Annabelle (take that, Chucky!).  With her creepy rictus grin, Annabelle is made from the stuff of nightmares, much scarier than the cute Raggedy Ann doll she’s based on: The "Real" Annabelle.

 

‘Annabelle Comes Home’ is set in 1972, four years after the Warrens brought Annabelle into their paranormal collection of curiosities and imprisoned her in a glass case so she wouldn’t cause any more spooky trouble.  Despite their unorthodox profession, the Warrens are just a normal “Brady Bunch” family with their young daughter Judy and, due to the fact that they travel all over “ghost-busting,” they regularly employ a babysitter to look after Judy when they’re not around the house for an extended period of time.  ‘Annabelle Comes Home’ is the story of how, on one such occasion, Annabelle “came out to play” when Judy, the babysitter and one of her friends got bored and needed a little more excitement on Judy’s birthday.  JK.

ACH is another solid – if less than frightening – entry in ‘The Conjuring’ universe, earning a respectable $83.6 million worldwide ($36.4 million domestic) on a budget of around $30 million.  What it lacked in genuine scares it made up for in its likeable young protagonists as they attempt to put Annabelle back where she belongs before mom and dad come home.

Grade: B 

Woody's Last Hurrah

Nine years after ‘Toy Story 3’ and nearly a quarter of a century after the original Disney/Pixar favorite from director John Lasseter, Toy Story is back in its fourth and perhaps final installment with ‘Toy Story 4,’ bringing back Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and the rest of the toy gang for yet another fun-filled toy adventure kids from 9 to 99 can enjoy.  Even after all this time, the TS franchise aged well and proved that it’s got legs, having raked in nearly $500 million worldwide to date.

 

Who says toys don’t last forever?  Andy’s gone off to college and donated his toys to Bonnie, a new kindergartener suffering from the usual childhood anxieties during the first day of school.  And like the movie westerns that inspired him, Woody the Cowboy Sheriff is becoming an anachronism and loses favor with Bonnie, who appointed a new sheriff in Jessie as a reflection of our times.  However, Woody is a throwback whose spirit can’t be broken and soon found his new purpose in chaperoning “Forky,” a monstrosity of an art project Bonnie created on her first day in class which helped her deal with her insecurities.  When Bonnie and her family go on vacation and “Forky” is kidnapped by a lonely Shirley Temple-esque doll named “Gabby Gabby” and her ventriloquist dummy minions at an antique shop,  Woody and friends (including his lost-love “Bo Peep”) must find a way to once again save the day.

 

TS4 is another Pixar-animated hit, an immensely fun and entertaining family romp that’s simply irresistible and impossible not to love.  As Woody’s final big adventure, it is also a little melancholy as he’s been the glue that holds the ‘Toy Story’ franchise together through all these years, and it would be interesting to see how the story continues sans Woody if the powers-that-be decide to further the series in the future because it will obviously continue to make a ton of money.

Grade: A
 

La Femme Anna

‘Anna’ is the latest film from French director, writer and producer Luc Besson, famous for his action-packed and stylish (though utterly disposable) action and sci-fi films.  I’m sure many of you know some of his work without introduction, and whether you like him or not we have to admit he’s one of the most prolific and successful genre filmmakers of our time.

 

My first introduction to Luc Besson was his breakthrough (La Femme) ‘Nikita’ way back in 1990 starring Anne Parillaud, about a delinquent teenage girl who’s “reformed” by the system to serve society by becoming a secret agent and assassin for the government.  So interesting was the concept of an easy-on-the-eyes kick-ass femme fatale at the time that the movie was remade for the American audience in Bridget Fonda’s ‘Point of No Return’ and adapted twice on TV (three if we count ‘Alias’).  It is perhaps unsurprising then that Besson returned to his roots in ‘Anna,’ his latest action-packed and twist-filled reboot of LFN starring Russian model-turned-actress Sasha Luss as a sleek and deadly Russian KGB wet work specialist who sought to work her way to freedom.

 

‘Anna’ proves once again that there is perhaps no better filmmaker working today (or ever, period) in objectifying, I mean depicting strong, sexy women who kick ass and look good while doing it.  The way Luss’s Anna swept through a restaurant full of macho men like a Victoria Secret angel (of death) is sheer balletic poetry in motion, even if the logical parts of our brains scream out at how unlikely it is that the willowy Anna can overcome men many times her weight in brutal, no-holds-barred hand-to-hand combat.

Grade: A

 

Evil Toy Story

One of the most enduring horror franchises which somehow managed to sneak under the radar of most horror junkies is ‘Child’s Play,’ centered on a “cute and cuddly” freckled red-haired boy doll that’s the embodiment of pure evil and murderous mayhem.  Since first appearing in 1988, Chucky has terrorized and – intentionally or not – made audiences laugh in equal measure over the course of six follow-on installments, though admittedly most of them were low-rent straight-to-DVD releases.

 

Though I’m not a big Chucky fan, I thought I’d give the new reboot/remake of ‘Child’s Play’ a look anyway to see what new spin or wrinkle the best-and-brightest of Hollywood can put on it, and also because I would watch almost anything with Aubrey Plaza in it for some unfathomable reason.  ‘Child’s Play 2019’ contemporizes Chucky by modernizing the doll with high tech computer chip and AI in our era of “Alexa” and “Siri.” Chucky isn’t supernaturally possessed by the spirit of a condemned executed serial killer this time.  Instead, his non-human harming safeguards (the “I, Robot” rules) were turned off by a disgruntled Vietnamese “sweat shop” employee who snapped and killed himself because he couldn’t put up with his overbearing asshole of a boss anymore.

 

Alas, ‘Chucky 2019’ lacked the novelty and bite of the original 1988 film.  It is perhaps only inevitable after seven films (each one more of a self-parody than the one before) which put Chucky in all sorts of situations including taking on a wife that we’re bound to see diminishing returns, and I’ve seen Chucky ply his homicidal trade with a kitchen knife too many times to count. 

Grade: C