Review: SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods" is Fun for the Entire Shazamily

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 14 of 2023 (No. 1903) by Leroy Douresseaux

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)

Running time:  130 minutes (2 hours, 10 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for sequences of action and violence, and language

DIRECTOR:  David F. Sandberg

WRITERS:  Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan (based on the DC Comics characters)

PRODUCER:  Peter Safran

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Gyula Pados

EDITOR:  Michel Aller 

COMPOSER:  Christophe Beck

SUPERHERO/FANTASY/ACTION/COMEDY

Starring:  Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Glazer, Adam Brody, Ross Butler, D.J Cotrona, Grace Caroline Currey, Meagan Good, Rachel Zegler, Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, Marta Milans, Cooper Andrews, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, and Djimon Hounsou with Gal Gadot

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a 2023 superhero and fantasy film from director David F. Sandberg.  The film is based on the DC Comics character now called “Shazam.”  Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a direct sequel to the 2019 film, Shazam! and is also the 12th installment in “DC Extended Universe” (DCEU).  Fury of the Gods continues the story of the teenage foster kid who becomes a superhero by uttering one magic word, “SHAZAM!”

Shazam! Fury of the Gods opens in Philadelphia two years after the events depicted in the first film.  Billy Batson (Asher Angel) can still transform into an adult hero, the champion who bears the name “Shazam” (Zachary Levi).  Billy will turn 18-year-old in a few months, which he believes means that he will loose his foster parents, Rosa (Marta Milans) and Victor Vásquez (Cooper Andrews).

Billy shared the power he got from “The Wizard” (Djimon Hounsou) with his five foster siblings.  He calls them the “Shazamily.”  His foster brother, Freddie Freeman (Jack Dylan Glazer), is an adult superhero who calls himself “Captain Everything” (Adam Brody).  His older foster sister, Mary Bromfield (Grace Caroline Currey) is trying to be an adult while also being a superhero.  The other foster kid/adult hero pairs are Eugene Choi (Ian Chen and Ross Butler), Pedro Peña (Jovan Armand and D.J. Cotrona), Darla Dudley (Faithe Herman and Meagan Good).  Billy/Shazam is desperate to keep his “Shazamily” together, but they are having a rough time being superheroes.  After doing a less than stellar job saving civilians from a collapsing bridge, Shazam and company discover that the local media refers to them as the “Philly Fiascoes.”

Bigger troubles are ahead, however.  “The Daughters of Atlas” have imprisoned The Wizard, and they want to regain the powers he stole from the gods, including their father, the Titan Atlas, and gave to his new champions – Billy and his Shazamily.  Can they survive the attack of the daughters:  Hespera (Helen Mirren), Kalypso (Lucy Liu), and the reluctant Anthea (Rachel Zegler), and save the world from destruction and from the fury of the gods?

In the first Shazam! film, the drama was driven by Billy Batson's internal conflict.  It was built around the tension between the foster family Bill could have and did not want and the biological family he wanted but could no longer have (if he ever really had it to begin with).  In Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Billy/Shazam fears losing the foster family that he eventually embraced, and with such a theme, he must inevitably learn that one should not hold onto things too tightly – even loved ones.  The Daughters of Atlas must learn the same, concerning the things to which they cling too tightly.  Billy/Shazam's dilemmas don't resonate this time around the way they did in the original film, and, at times, Billy and Shazam's obsession with holding onto the family seems forced.  But at least this film has the requisite drama.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods, like Shazam!, is a very entertaining film that is part energetic superhero movie, part charming comedy, and part heartwarming family film.  The superhero action is not as intense as that found in most superhero films, although Fury of the Gods' action is more intense than in the original.  Some of the villains' murderous intentions seem really murderous.

Except for the increase in intensity, everything about Fury of the Gods is a little down from the first film.  It is not as poignant, not quite as funny, and it seems too long, although it is a littler shorter than the original film.  Still, fans of Shazam! will likely enjoy Shazam! Fury of the Gods.  It even has a nice cameo appearance by another DC Comics superhero, and that cameo makes me wish that we could get more Shazam! Films.  It would be fun to see Billy Batson and Shazam team up with other DC  heroes and pitted against DC villains.  It is likely, however, that Shazam! Fury of the Gods is the final half of a truly unique pair of superhero movies.

6 of 10

B

★★★ out of 4 stars

Monday, March 20, 2023

NOTES:

Shazam! Fury of the Gods has one extra scene in the middle of the credits and one at the end of the credits.

The DC Comics character, Shazam, was the first comic book character to have the name “Captain Marvel.”  A boy named Billy Batson became Captain Marvel by uttering the word, “Shazam!”  Captain Marvel was created by comic book artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker.  He first appeared in Whiz Comics #2 (cover-dated:  February 1940) which was published by Fawcett Comics.  A legal dispute caused Fawcett to stop publishing Captain Marvel comic books in 1953.  DC Comics revived the character in 1972, but by then, Marvel Comics owned the trademark to the name “Captain Marvel.”  Thus, the original Captain Marvel is now called Shazam.

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Review: Wild, Uneven "BULLET TRAIN" Has a Killer Last Act

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 66 of 2022 (No. 1878) by Leroy Douresseaux

Bullet Train (2022)
Running time: 127 minutes (2 hours, 7 minutes)
MPA – R for strong and bloody violence, pervasive language, and brief sexuality
DIRECTOR:  David Leitch
WRITER:  Zak Olkewicz (based on the novel by Kotaro Isaka)
PRODUCERS:  Antoine Fuqua, David Leitch, and Kelly McCormick
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Jonathan Sela (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Elisabet Ronaldsdottir
COMPOSER:  Dominic Lewis

ACTION

Starring:  Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Sandra Bullock, Benito A Martinez Ocasio (Bad Bunny), Logan Lerman, Zazie Beetz, Masi Oka, Kevin Akiyoshi Ching, Johanna White, and Karen Fukuhara with Channing Tatum and Ryan Reynolds

Bullet Train is a 2022 action movie from director David Leitch.  The film is based on the 2010 novel from author Kōtarō Isaka, Maria Beetle (which was titled Bullet Train for its U.S. and U.K. Editions).  Bullet Train the movie takes place aboard a swiftly-moving bullet train where five assassins gradually discover that they have several things in common.

Bullet Train opens in Japan and introduces “Ladybug” (Brad Pitt), an assassin turned “snatch-and-grab man.”  In Tokyo, he enters a bullet train bound for Kyoto.  He is initially wary of accepting this job from his handler, Maria (Sandra Bullock), which involves him retrieving a briefcase that contains ten million dollars.  Also on the train is a young woman known as “Prince” (Joey King); the assassin brothers, “Lemon” (Brian Tyree Henry) and “Tangerine” (Aaron Taylor-Johnson); and the revenge-seeking Yuichi Kimura (Andrew Koji).

They are all passengers on this particular bullet train, directly and indirectly, because of “The Son” (Logan Lerman), the kidnapped son of the Russian-born Yakuza boss known as the “White Death” (Michael Shannon).  Ladybug, who is begrudgingly working this job, believes that it is bringing out the worst of the bad luck that he believes plagues him.  Gradually, he finds himself fighting off an ever-growing gathering of killers and miscreants.  And waiting for everyone at their final stop in Kyoto – at least for those that survive – is an ultimate showdown with the White Death and his hired killers.

Directly or indirectly, Bullet Train is a movie influenced by the films of Oscar-winning filmmaker, Quentin Tarantino.  The dialogue – full of chatter, threats, and banter – is supposed to come across as cool, but it is merely blather from a third or fourth or fifth generation take on a Tarantino screenplay.  The characters are also Tarantino retreads, and so are their actions and inaction.  Still, I must admit that I like some of them, especially Brad Pitt's Ladybug.

So is Bullet Train any good, you might ask?

Well, two-thirds of it is uneven and moves in fits and starts of violence and murder.  I was mostly uninterested, but there are some surprising cameos that captured my interest.  For instance, Zazie Beetz is the assassin, “The Hornet,” and recording artist, Bad Bunny, is the Mexican assassin, “The Wolf.”  Both, however, are barely in the film.  I think they would have improved Bullet Train a good bit had their roles been enlarged.

However, the first 80 or so mediocre minutes of this movie are worth it for the last 40 minutes.  It is as if Bullet Train suddenly explodes in its last act to reveal a much better movie that had been hiding inside the fairly awful movie.  Everything is better, even Brad Pitt, who keeps this movie from being an absolute disaster.  Sometimes, it is worth having a genuine movie star, like a Brad Pitt, star in a genre movie.  The first two-thirds of this movie deserves a grade of “C-” at best, but the last third deserves an “A.”  So I'll average that out to a “B,” and I will recommend Bullet Train because of its last act.  It really is spectacular, and it is a pay off for your patience.

6 out of 10
B
★★★ out of 4 stars

Saturday, October 29, 2022


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Review: Uneven, Bombastic "BLACK ADAM" is Strictly for Fans

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 63 of 2022 (No. 1875) by Leroy Douresseaux

Black Adam (2022)
Running time:  124 minutes (2 hours, 4 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, intense action and some language.
DIRECTOR:  Jaume Collet-Serra
WRITERS:  Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines, and Sohrab Noshirvani (based on characters created by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck)
PRODUCERS:  Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, and Beau Flynn
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Lawrence Sher (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  John Lee and Michael L. Sale
COMPOSER:  Lorne Balfe

SUPERHERO/FANTASY/ACTION

Starring:  Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Quintessa Swindell, Marwan Kenzari, Bodhi Sabongui, Mohammed Amer, Jalon Christian, Henry Winkler, and Djimon Hounsou with Viola Davis and Henry Cavill

Black Adam is a 2022 superhero and action-fantasy film from director Jaume Collet-Serra.  The film is based on characters created by writers Bill Parker and Otto Binder and artist C.C. Beck originally for defunct publisher, Fawcett Comics, and now owned by DC Comics.  Black Adam the movie focuses on a legendary hero who returns to life after nearly 5000 years, bringing his unique form of justice to his besieged homeland.

Black Adam opens in 2600 BC.  In the city of Kahndaq, there is a legend that the tyrannical king, Anh-Kot (Marwan Kenzari), intended to create an object of dark magic, the Crown of Sabbac, which is known to give the wearer great power.  He enslaves his own people and forces them to dig in the mountains for “Eternium,” the magical crystal Anh-Kot will use to make the crown.  A legendary hero, Teth-Adam (Dwayne Johnson), arises and kills Anh-Kot before the hero himself is buried somewhere in the ruins of the Anh-Kot's castle – so the legends say.

Present day Kahndaq is oppressed by members of the international crime syndicate known as “Intergang.”  They are searching for university professor and resistance fighter, Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi).  She is trying to locate the Crown of Sabbac, with the help of her brother, Karim (Mohammed Amer), and some of his colleagues.  Ambushed after finding the crown, Adrianna revives Teth-Adam, and although he kills her assailants, the risen hero proves to be something much less than a hero.

Meanwhile, from the United States, the superhero Hawkman/Carter Hall (Aldis Hodge) leads a group of heroes, the Justice Society:  Doctor Fate/Kent Nelson (Pierce Brosnan), Cyclone/Maxine Hunkel (Quintessa Swindell), and newcomer Atom Smasher/Albert “Al” Rothstein (Noah Centineo), into Kahndaq to take Teth-Adam into custody.  While Adrianna and her son, Amon (Bodhi Sabongui), watch, Teth-Adam battles the Justice Society throughout the city.  However, Teth-Adam will be forced to confront the truth about himself and about his past if he and the Justice Society are going to stop a great evil from ruling Kahndaq again.

In case you are wondering, Teth-Adam does not become “Black Adam” until the end of the film.  He is neither hero nor villain.  Black Adam, in the case of this film, is not so much an anti-hero as he is simply Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.  The movie only exists because Johnson willed it into existence.  Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Films' original plan was apparently to make Black Adam a supporting character/villain in the movie Shazam that was released in 2019.  Johnson wanted more for the character than to be a mere lackey, and truthfully, had he appeared in Shazam as Black Adam, Johnson, as an international movie star with a huge personality, would have dominated the film in ways that probably would have been bad for it.

In the case of Black Adam the movie, it is Johnson's will that holds this film together, otherwise, it would fall apart.  The screenplay is a disaster with a plot that is a patchwork of clumsy sub-plots.  The film's pace is uneven, being a mixture of tedious action sequences and unnecessary fighting.  The characters are either barely likable or are ridiculous.  The kid character, Amon Tomaz, is actually quite nice, but his mother, Adrianna, is really irritating.

Don't get me started on the Justice Society.  As Hawkman, actor Aldis Hodge is so intense that it makes a lot of his performance seem like overacting.  [Actor Michael B. Jordan also has a problem with being too intense.]  Pierce Brosnan is embarrassing as Doctor Fate, but Brosnan's problems could be a poorly written character and crappy dialogue.  The superhero Cyclone is … tragic.  So is Atom Smasher, but actor Noah Centineo delivers Smasher's bad dialogue in a way that sounds funny.

Twice while watching Black Adam, I wanted to walk out of the film, but I was seeing it with a friend.  Black Adam seems much longer than its 124-minute running time.  At one point, I thought the film was over, so I checked my phone and discovered that there was more than a half-hour left.  I can only recommend this films to die hard fans of superhero movies and to fans of Dwayne Johnson.  I could not recommend this film to anyone else.  I'm only giving this film a “C” grade because I am a fan of Johnson and an admirer of what he has built for himself; if not for him, I don't know how much lower I would go.  I am not sure that I could watch Black Adam again, even in bits and pieces when it becomes a cable TV staple.

4 of 10
C
★★ out of 4 stars

Friday, October 21, 2022


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: Steven Spielberg's THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS (Countdown to "The Fabelmans")

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 51 of 2022 (No. 1863) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Sugarland Express (1974)
Running time:  110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)
Rated – PG
DIRECTOR:  Steven Spielberg
WRITERS: Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins; from a story by Steven Spielberg and Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins
PRODUCERS:  David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Vilmos Zsigmond (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Edward M. Abroms and Verna Fields
COMPOSER:  John Williams

CRIME/DRAMA/ACTION

Starring:  Goldie Hawn, William Atherton, Ben Johnson, Michael Sacks, Gregory Walcott, Steve Kanaly, Louise Latham, Dean Smith, and Harrison Zanuck

The Sugarland Express is a 1974 crime drama, road movie, and action film directed by Steven Spielberg.  The film is Spielberg's directorial debut in theatrical films.  Based on a real life event, The Sugarland Express focuses on a young woman and her prison-escapee husband who go on the run in order to retrieve their toddler son from foster care.

The Sugarland Express opens in 1969 and introduces 25-year-old Lou Jean Sparrow Poplin (Goldie Hawn).  She visits her incarcerated husband, 25-year-old Clovis Michael Poplin (William Atherton), at the Beauford H. Jester Unit, a pre-release center of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.  Lou Jean wants to tell Clovis that their son, two-year-old Baby Langston (Harrison Zanuck), has been placed in foster care by the Child Welfare Board.

Lou Jean convinces Clovis that she is breaking him out of prison, although he only has a few months left in pre-release, so that they can retrieve their child.  After sneaking out of the prison, the couple ends up in a car crash.  They waylay a Texas Highway Patrolman, Trooper Maxwell Slide (Michael Sacks), and taking him hostage and taking possession of his patrol car.  Clovis and Lou Jean go on the run, headed for Sugarland, Texas, the home of Baby Langston's foster parents.  Meanwhile, Captain Tanner (Ben Johnson) of the Texas Highway Patrol, leads an ever-growing caravan of police cars in dogged pursuit of Lou Jean and Clovis.

In anticipation of Steven Spielberg's upcoming “semi-autobiographical film, The Fablemans, I am perusing his filmography.  I started with the television movie that first got him noticed, Duel (1971), and now I am at his first theatrical film.

The Sugarland Express is based on a real event that occurred in Texas in the spring of 1969.  The film's lead characters, Lou Jean and Clovis, are not so much likable as they are pitiable because they are so stupid.  Goldie Hawn gives a good performance as Lou Jean, but this isn't a “Goldie Hawn picture,” although her name is placed above the title on movie posters.  However, Trooper Slide and his boss, Captain Tanner (played by the great Ben Johnson), are quite likable or even lovable.  Still, this film is not so much about the characters as it is about the situation.

I think that what makes this film really work is how Steven Spielberg plays out the situation as a film narrative.  I've always said that he gets the best out of his cast, crew, and creatives.  The Sugarland Express is a slow-moving train wreck because the conductors, Lou Jean and Clovis, don't know what they are doing and do not really think out their decisions.  Yet, they are … pulling a train of cop cars, and Spielberg's attention to the thrilling and exciting aspects of this situation:  car chases and crashes, shoot-outs, colorful locales, etc. add some zing to this express to Sugarland.

He finds time to give us just enough of a taste of the Bonnie and Clyde-like Lou Jean and Clovis and of Captain Tanner and Slide to keep the audience interested in the fate of the characters, if not the well-being of all.  Even the Poplins' fans and admirers are a motley lot of lovable regular folks.

As the film races towards its end, Spielberg turns The Sugarland Express into a mesmerizing thriller.  Every performance, small and large, takes on dramatic heft, and the audience knows one thing – this shit is for real, now.  Seriously, it is in the last half-hour of The Sugarland Express that we can see the style and techniques that Spielberg used in his second film, Jaws, a legendary blockbuster movie and one of the most influential films of the last half-century.

7 of 10
B+
★★★½ out of 4 stars

Saturday, September 3, 2022


NOTES:
1974 Cannes Film Festival:  1 win: “Best Screenplay” (Hal Barwood, Matthew Robbins, and Steven Spielberg); 1 nominee” “Palme d'Or” (Steven Spielberg)


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "JURASSIC WORLD: Dominion" Ends Trilogy with its Best Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 50 of 2022 (No. 1862) by Leroy Douresseaux

Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
Running time: 147 minutes (2 hours, 27 minutes)
MPA – PG-13 for intense sequences of action, some violence and language
DIRECTOR:  Colin Trevorrow
WRITERS:  Colin Trevorrow and Emily Carmichael; from a story by Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly (based on characters created by Michael Crichton)
PRODUCERS:  Patrick Crowley and Frank Marshall
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  John Schwartzman (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Mark Sanger
COMPOSER:  Michael Giacchino

SCI-FI/ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLER

Starring:  Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, Isabella Sermon, Campbell Scott, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, Omar Sy, Scott Haze, Dichen Lachman, and B.D. Wong

Jurassic World: Dominion is a 2022 science fiction and action-adventure and dinosaur film from director Colin Trevorrow.  It is the direct sequel to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and the final film in a trilogy that began with the 2015 film, Jurassic World.  Dominion also ties up the story line that began with the 1993 film, Jurassic Park.  Dominion focuses on the heroes of two film trilogies as they try to stop a corporation's genetic experiments from endangering the world.

Jurassic World: Dominion opens three decades after the events depicted in Jurassic Park and four years after the cataclysmic volcanic eruption on Isla Nublar and the incidents at Lockwood Estate (as seen in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom).  Dinosaurs, no longer extinct, freely roam the Earth, causing ecological problems and the deaths of numerous humans – 37 in just the past year.  International corporation, Biosyn Genetics, has won the sole rights to collect dinosaurs, and it has created a dinosaur sanctuary in the Dolomite Mountains of Italy.

Meanwhile, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), former employees of the disastrous “Jurassic World” theme park, are still working to protect dinosaurs.  Claire works with a dinosaur protection organization and investigates illegal dinosaur breeding sites.  Owen works as a wrangler, relocating stray dinosaurs.  They live together in a remote cabin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains where they secretly raise 14-year-old Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), the granddaughter of the late Benjamin Lockwood and the granddaughter who turned out to a clone of Benjamin's late daughter, Charlotte Lockwood.  Living nearby is Blue, one of the Velociraptors (raptors) that Owen once trained at Jurassic World.  She is a mother, having given birth to a baby raptor that Owen named “Beta.”

It turns out that Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott), the CEO and owner of Biosyn, wants to possess both Maisie and Beta for the goldmine of information that their genes are.  Meanwhile, the original Jurassic heroes:  paleobotanist, Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern); paleontologist, Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill); and chaos theorist, Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), are also investigating Biosyn's dark plans.  But can they infiltrate Biosyn and avoid a hoard of hungry dinosaurs?

A few months ago, I read a review of Jurassic World: Dominion in which the reviewer said that the presence of the star trio of Jurassic Park:  Ellie, Alan, and Ian, diminished the presence of Jurassic World's star couple, Claire and Owen.  I disagree.  Actually, Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard make the most of every minute in which their characters are on screen.  In fact, I believe that the film is more about Claire and Owen than it is about Ellie, Alan, and Ian, although they are a huge part of the film's narrative.  I see the union of Jurassic Park's biggest characters and Jurassic World's biggest as the best of both worlds.  Frankly, this union should have happened in the first Jurassic World film.

In addition to the stars, Dominion sees the return of previous franchise supporting characters.  Omar Sy returns as Barry Sembene, Owen's fellow animal trainer from Jurassic World.  BD Wong's Dr. Henry Wu only appeared in the original Jurassic Park, but has appeared in all three Jurassic World films.  Dominion offers Henry a chance at redemption.  Dominion also offers two killer new characters, DeWanda Wise's Kayla Watts, a pilot who could be straight out of yesteryear's adventure serials – except Black women were not pulp fiction heroes.  Mamoudou Athie is espionage-cool as Ramsay Cole, the head of communications at Biosyn Genetics.

However, Jurassic World: Dominion is not really about stories or characters.  Yes, there is a lot going on; the movie is essentially a … park full of subplots, all around a basic (thin) plot – which is to stop Biosyn.  Dominion is really a science fiction action-adventure movie filled with action scenes.  There must be about twenty or so action set pieces:  a race to escape illegal breeders; a stop the poachers fight; run away from the giant, killer locusts; and running away from the dinosaurs in the forest, on a frozen pond, in plane, in a cave, etc.

And it all works.  The cast, director, writers, and crew of editors, sound, cameras, stunts, visual effects, assistants and everyone else.  They all come together to make a thrill machine of a movie with action scenes that keep the viewer too occupied to notice the lapses in logic and common sense.

In the first trilogy, the films that followed Jurassic Park were inferior to it.  In the Jurassic World trilogy, the final film is the best of the lot.  Bringing in so many characters from previous films is a good idea.  Putting them in a series of well-staged action scenes is another good idea.  Giving us a happy ending full of happy endings and heartwarming resolutions is an even better idea.  Jurassic World: Dominion is not a great film, but it is a very satisfying conclusion to what started back in 1993, when Jurassic Park made us believe that its dinosaurs were real.

7 of 10
B+
★★★½ out of 4 stars

Saturday, August 27, 2022


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Review: Steven Spielberg's "Duel" (Countdown to "The Fabelmans")

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 46 of 2022 (No. 1858) by Leroy Douresseaux

Duel (1971) – TV movie
Running time:  90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTOR:  Steven Spielberg
WRITER: Richard Matheson (based on his short story)
PRODUCER:  George Eckstein
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Jack a Marta (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Frank Morriss
COMPOSER:  Billy Goldenberg
Primetime Emmy Award winner

THRILLER/ACTION

Starring:  Dennis Weaver, Jacqueline Scott, Eddie Firestone, Lou Frizzell, Lucille Benson, and Carey Loftin

Duel is a 1971 action-thriller and television film directed by Steven Spielberg.  The film is based on the short story, “Duel,” which was first published in the April 1971 issue of Playboy Magazine.  It was written by Richard Matheson, who also wrote this film's teleplay (screenplay).  Duel the movie focuses on a business commuter pursued and terrorized by a driver in a massive tanker truck.

Duel was originally a “Movie of the Week” that was broadcast on ABC November 20, 1971.  Duel was the first film directed by Steven Spielberg, and it is considered to be the film that marked young Spielberg as an up and coming film director.  Following its successful air on television, Universal had Spielberg shoot new scenes for Duel in order to extend it from its original length of 74 minutes for TV to 90 minutes for a theatrical release.  This extended version of Duel was released to theaters internationally and also received a limited release in the United States.  The theatrical version is the subject of this review.

Duel focuses on David Mann (Dennis Weaver), a middle-aged salesman.  One morning, he leaves his suburban home to drive across California on a business trip.  Along the way, he encounters a dilapidated tanker truck that is driving too slow for David.  He drives his car past the tanker, but a short while later, the tanker speeds up and roars past David's car.  After David passes the tanker again, the truck driver blasts his horn.  That sets off a cat and mouse game in which the tanker's seemingly malevolent driver pursues David's car and terrorizes him.  And nothing David does can help him to escape the pursuit.

I think that the mark of a great film director is his or her ability to get the most out of his or her cast and creatives and a maximum effort from the film crew.  Duel is a display of excellent work on the stunt performers and drivers.  Together with the camera crew, sound technicians, and film editor, they deliver a small screen film that offers a big cinematic duel between a small car and relentless tanker truck.

Dennis Weaver delivers a performance in multiple layers as David Mann.  Weaver makes Mann seem like a real businessman type, a cog-in-the-machine and ordinary fellow just trying to make it in the world.  Weaver does not seem to be acting so much as he is living and fighting for survival.

Behind all this is the young maestro, Steven Spielberg.  It is not often that TV movies get the cinematic treatment, but I imagine that the original production company, Universal Television, was quite pleased when they first saw this film.  It is genuinely thrilling and unsettling, and the truck driver (played by stuntman Carey Loftin), who is unseen except for his forearm and waving hand and his jeans and cowboy boots, can unnerve like the best horror film slasher killers.  The way that dilapidated tanker truck moves makes me think that it was a precursor to the shark in Jaws, which would become Spielberg's first blockbuster theatrical film just a few years (1975) after the release of Duel.

Richard Matheson's script for the film seems to want to make the viewer really wonder about the driver.  Is he evil... or a maniac... or demented prankster?  Why does he focus on David Mann?  Has he done this before?  What is his endgame with David?  Does he want to kill him or just punish him.  Does he want to torment David before he crushes him and his car beneath his tanker truck's wheels?

Steven Spielberg brings those questions to fearsome life on the small screen and later big screen.  He makes Duel work both by scaring us and David with the big bad truck and by fascinating us with all these questions concerning the trucker's motivations and David's fate.  Hindsight is just as accurate as foresight in the case of Duel.  Steven Spielberg was great, practically from the beginning.

7 of 10
A-
★★★½ out of 4 stars

Friday, August 12, 2022


NOTES:
1972 Primetime Emmy Awards:  1 win: “Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Editing” (Jerry Christian, James Troutman, Ronald LaVine, Sid Lubowm Richard Raderman, Dale Johnston, Sam Caylor, John Stacy, and Jack Kirschner – sound editors); 1 nomination: “Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography for Entertainment Programming – For a Special or Feature Length Program Made for Television (Jack A. Marta)

1972 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination “Best Movie Made for TV”


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Review: "Everything Everywhere All at Once" is Action Movie T&A - Tedious and Amazing

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 45 of 2022 (No. 1857) by Leroy Douresseaux

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Running time: 139 minutes

MPA – R for some violence, sexual material and language

WRITERS/DIRECTORS:  Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
PRODUCERS:  Daniel Kwan, Mike Larocca , Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Daniel Scheinert, and Jonathan Wang
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Larkin Seiple (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Paul Rogers
COMPOSER:  Son Lux

SCI-FI/COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring:  Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, James Hong, Tallie Medel, and Jamie Lee Curtis and Randy Newman (voice)

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a 2022 science fiction and comedy-drama film written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.  The film focuses on an aging Chinese-American woman who discovers that she must save the universe by exploring all the other universes and connecting with the lives she could have, but never lived.

Everything Everywhere All at Once introduces Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), a Chinese-American wife and mother.  Evelyn and her husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), own a struggling laundromat.  Tensions are high because the laundromat is being audited by the IRS and because they are dealing with an intense, by-the-book, IRS inspector named Deirdre Beaubeirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis).  Waymond is trying to give Evelyn divorce papers, and her demanding and elderly father, Gong Gong (James Hong), has just recently arrived from Hong Kong.  Finally, Evelyn and Waymond's daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), has been trying to get her mother to accept her girlfriend, Becky (Tallie Medel).

During the meeting with Inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdre, Waymond's personality suddenly changes.  According to this new “personality,” known as “Alpha Waymond” (Ke Huy Quan), he is a version of Waymond from another universe, and he has taken over her Waymond's body.  Alpha Waymond says that he is from “Alphaverse,” one of many parallel universes (the “multiverse”).  He explains that “verse jumping” technology allows people to access the skills, memories, and bodies of their parallel universe counterparts.  He says that Evelyn must learn “verse jumping” because only she can save the multiverse from the threat of “Jobu Tupaki.”  The problem is that the Evelyn of this universe has never been good at much of anything.

Writer-directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as “Daniels”) are quite inventive and imaginative.  Everything Everywhere All at Once is filled with crazy ideas and crazier universes and the craziest characters.  Still, I find the mechanics of this film's concept of a multiverse and how one traverses it to be not that interesting.  Every time, Alpha Waymond started talking, I found myself bored and considered stopping the film.

Luckily, the Daniels created engaging and lovable characters for Everything Everywhere All at Once, and they are played by a very skilled cast.  First, I am always happy to see the legendary Chinese-American actor, James Hong, who plays “Gong Gong.” and in this film, he has an opportunity to show the breath of his abilities.  Secondly, I am a huge fan of Jamie Lee Curtis (A Fish Called Wanda), and she gives an electric performance as the tough-talking IRS inspector, Deirdre, but she also makes a poignant turn as the “hot dog wiener fingers” universe version of Deirdre.  Ke Huy Quan plays several versions of Waymond so well that you might believe he is the lead character.  Stephanie Hsu is crazy, sexy, cool, dangerous, and even world-weary in her multiple turns in this film.

But Michelle Yeoh (Memories of a Geisha, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) is the goddess here.  Apparently, the lead role in this film was originally written for Jackie Chan, who would have been magnificent in such a role in his younger days.  Circumstances, however, allowed Michelle Yeoh to show that she has the acting chops and the physicality to take on the kind of roles that have been afforded Jackie Chan for decades.  Yes, she is a great actress, and though Hong Kong and Chinese audiences have seen her range, I doubt many American moviegoers know that she could be so good in such a physically and emotionally challenging role as Evelyn Wang.

The influence of the Wachowski's groundbreaking 1999 film, The Matrix, on Everything Everywhere All at Once is obvious.  Ironically, Yeoh was one of the actresses considered to play “Trinity,” the lead female role in The Matrix.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a whole lotta sound and fury for a film that is ultimately about the conflicts that can define a mother-daughter relationship, as well as basic family dysfunction.  I also think that it could have done the same thing in a considerably shorter run time than two hours and 19 minutes.  Everything Everywhere All at Once is good, but not great, and any greatness that it does have, it has because of the all-time great, Michelle Yeoh.

6 of 10
B
★★★ out of 4 stars

Friday, July 29, 2022


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Review: "TOP GUN: Maverick" Surpasses the Original and is Hugely Entertaining

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 34 of 2022 (No. 1846) by Leroy Douresseaux

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Running time:  131 minutes (2 hours, 11 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of intense action, and some strong language
DIRECTOR:  Joseph Kosinski
WRITERS:  Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie; from a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks (based on characters created by Jim Cash & Jack Epps Jr.)
PRODUCERS:  Tom Cruise, Jerry Bruckheimer, David Ellison, and Christopher McQuarrie
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Claudio Miranda (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Eddie Hamilton
COMPOSERS:  Lorne Balfe, Lady Gaga, and Harold Faltermeyer

DRAMA/ACTION/MILITARY

Starring:  Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, Bashir Salahuddin, Jon Hamm, Charles Parnell, Monica Barbaro, Lewis Pullman, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Glen Powell, Jack Schumacher, Manny Jacinto, Kara Wang, Greg Tarzan Davis, Jake Picking, Raymond Lee, Jean Louisa Kelly, Lyliana Wray, Ed Harris, Chelsea Harris, and Val Kilmer

Top Gun: Maverick is a 2022 action and military drama film directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Tom Cruise.  The film is a direct sequel to the 1986 film, Top Gun.  Maverick focuses on a veteran U.S. Navy flight instructor ordered to transform a group of the Navy's top young aviators into a fighter squadron that can take on an impossible mission.

Top Gun: Maverick opens over three decades after the events of the first film.  Former “Top Gun” candidate, Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) currently serves as a U.S. Navy test pilot.  Over his 33 years of service, he has purposely dodged promotion in order to continue flying for the Navy.  A stunt with the “Darkstar scramjet” program looks as if it is going to be the thing that finally gets Maverick grounded.  However, Admiral Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer), commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, is Maverick's former rival and his friend.  Iceman saves Maverick from being grounded by giving him orders to return to where they first met, the United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program in San Diego, CA.

There, Maverick must train an elite group of 16 Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission – a dangerous and practically impossible mission.  However, there are plenty of ghosts from his past waiting for him there, including Penelope "Penny" Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly), Maverick's former lover, who is a single mother, a bar owner, and the daughter of a former admiral.

The most troubling ghost from Maverick's past, however, may be one of the young aviators he must train, Lieutenant Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller).  He is the son of Maverick's late best friend and RIO (Radar Intercept Officer), Nick “Goose” Bradshaw.  Maverick still blames himself for Goose's death during a training flight (as seen in Top Gun), and, in a way, so does Rooster, who also blames Maverick for hurting his career as an aviator.  As he pushes this elite group of aviators to test their limits and beyond, Maverick wonders if he may finally be grounded and fears that he may also end up causing the son's death as he believes he caused the father's death.

I don't like Top Gun.  I think that it is not a very well made film.  I love Top Gun: Maverick, which is a direct sequel to the original film and is intimately tied to it.  In a way, Maverick takes some of the best story elements of the first film and gives them dramatic heft, depth, weight, and a gravitas that they really did not have in the original.

Top Gun: Maverick is just all-around well made.  Joseph Kosinski does a much better job at directing the sequel than the late Tony Scott did with the original.  Maverick's screenplay, which like the original, is the result of several writers, nonetheless comes across like a seamless work produced by a single talented story mind.  The film editing is superb, so Maverick's editor, Eddie Hamilton, should also get an Oscar nomination next year, because the editors of the first film were Oscar-nominated for their … problematic work.  Even Maverick's musical score is better, although quite a bit of Harold Faltermeyer's music from the first film does make it into the sequel.

Top Gun: Maverick may also be Tom Cruise's best dramatic performance in over two decades.  Not only do his emotions seem genuine, but his emotional range is shocking.  Cruise has award-worthy moments in this film, especially a pivotal scene between Maverick and Iceman.  Cruise and Miles Teller also seem to work very well together, and Teller once again proves that he has some serious dramatic chops.  Jennifer Connelly, an Oscar-winner, as Penny, makes the most of what comes across as an extraneous token female character.  Actually, quite a few actors make the most of their roles and screen time in this surprisingly heartfelt and genuinely emotional film.

Top Gun: Maverick is, of course, an intense action-thriller with some amazing flight and combat scenes and sequences.  It kept me on the edge of my seat, worrying that one of the young pilots or Maverick would be killed in a crash or in combat.  And no, the filmmakers apparently did not use computer-generated effects for the flight scenes.  This is all advanced cameras, fighter planes, and human pilots, making the film a masterpiece of practical filmmaking and U.S. Navy flying.  Top Gun: Maverick surpasses Top Gun as a military-action film, and is something the first film was not, an emotionally resonate and real military drama.

Yes, it does seem to work a little too hard at pushing our buttons with dramatic conflict and melodrama.  But I honestly enjoyed the heck out of this film in a way that I did not expect – even after hearing so many good things before I saw it.  Top Gun: Maverick is … well, awesome, and this time, I really feel the need for speed and for more Top Gun.  And Tom Cruise still looks good on a motorcycle.

8 of 10
A
★★★★ out of 4 stars

Friday, May 27, 2022


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Review: Original "TOP GUN" is Still a Bad Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 33 of 2022 (No. 1845) by Leroy Douresseaux

Top Gun (1986)
Running time:  110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTOR:  Tony Scott
WRITERS:  Jim Cash & Jack Epps Jr. (based on the magazine article, “Top Guns,” by Ehud Yonay)
PRODUCERS:  Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Jeffrey Kimball (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Chris Lebenzon and Billy Weber
COMPOSER:  Harold Faltermeyer
Academy Award winner

DRAMA/ACTION

Starring:  Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt, Michael Ironside, Tim Robbins, John Stockwell, Barry Tubb, Rick Rossovich, Whip Hubley, James Tolkan, Adrian Pasdar, Meg Ryan, and Clarence Gilyard, Jr.

Top Gun is a 1986 action and drama film directed by Tony Scott and starring Tom Cruise.  The film was inspired by an article entitled, “Top Guns,” which was written by Ehud Yonay and published in the May 1983 issue of California Magazine.  Top Gun the film focuses on a daring young U.S. Navy pilot who is a student at an elite fighter weapons school where he competes with other students and learns a few things from a female instructor.

Top Gun opens on the Indian Ocean aboard the vessel, the “USS Enterprise.”  The story introduces United States Naval Aviator, Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise), and his RIO (Radar Intercept Officer), Lieutenant Junior Grade Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards).  While on a mission flying their fighter aircraft, Maverick and Goose have an encounter with a hostile aircraft.  As a result of the incident, Maverick and Goose are invited to the U.S. Navy “Fighter Weapons School” in Miramar, California (also known as “Fightertown U.S.A.”).  The top one percent of naval aviators (pilots) get to attend Fighter Weapons School, also known as “Top Gun” (or “TOPGUN”).

Naval aviators have to complete a five-week course of classroom studies and flight training (called a “hop”).  The top graduating aviator receives the “Top Gun” plaque.  Maverick's rival for Top Gun is top student, Lieutenant Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer), who considers Maverick's attitude foolish and his flying dangerous.  Maverick also becomes romantically involved with Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood (Kelly McGillis), an astrophysicist and civilian instructor, an unwise move for both.

Will Maverick earn the Top Gun trophy?  Or will his reckless ways and tendency to disobey orders endanger those around him and cost him his future.

Until recently, I had never watched Top Gun, not even a minute of it.  From the first time I saw a trailer for it, I thought Top Gun looked stupid, although I was a Tom Cruise fan at the time of its release (as I still am).  I only recently watched it in preparation for seeing the long-awaited sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, which has a good looking trailer and has received glowing early reviews.

But I was right.  Top Gun is stupid.  It is poorly written, especially on the character drama end.  Writers Jim Cash & Jack Epps Jr. are credited as the film's screenwriters.  The film's credited “Associate Producer,” the late Warren Skarren (1946-90), was a screenwriter known for rewriting the screenplays of big Hollywood projects (such as Beetlejuice and the 1989 Batman film).  Skarren apparently did some heavy rewriting for Top Gun's shooting script.  However, the film seems to be made from the parts of several screenplays that were combined to form a new script.  That especially shows during the character drama scenes, which are sometimes awkward, sometimes nonsensical, sometimes inauthentic, and sometimes all three at the same time.

To me, the film looks poorly edited (which was Oscar-nominated), once again, mainly on the drama scenes.  The film's musical score, composed by Harold Faltermeyer, is mostly atrocious.

However, the flight action sequences and the aerial stunts are quite good.  When the film is in the air with those fighter jets or when Maverick is riding his motorcycle, Top Gun can be entertaining and invigorating.  The drama is just so bad that it makes me forget the film's good stuff.

In 2015, Top Gun was added to the “National Film Registry” because it was considered “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”  For me, the only reason that would be true is because of its lead actor, Tom Cruise.  I think Top Gun is the film that made  Cruise a celluloid god.  He became his generation's biggest movie star and remains so.  Top Gun began a decade (1986-96) that gave us “peak” Tom Cruise.  Yes, he is still in his prime, but that was the decade that saw him give his most acclaimed and memorable performances, and in 1996, he began his most successful film franchise with the first Mission: Impossible.  Yes, Cruise has given other memorable and acclaimed performances, but never so many as in that time period of 1986 to 1996.

So Top Gun is significant because of Tom Cruise.  He is so handsome and fresh-faced here, and his youth, dynamism, and screen presence save this thoroughly mediocre film.  Even with the great action sequences, this film would have been at best a cult film had any actor or movie star other than Tom Cruise been the lead.

Yeah, I could talk about the other actors who were in Top Gun, but what they did could not rise above the mediocrity of this film's drama – both in screenwriting and in directing.  Tom Cruise – in a fighter or on a motorcycle – is Top Gun.  As much as I am a fan of his, however, I wouldn't watch this shit again.  But yes, I will see Top Gun: Maverick.

4 of 10
C
★★ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, May 25, 2022


1987 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best Music, Original Song” (Giorgio Moroder-music and Tom Whitlock-lyrics for the song “Take My Breath Away”); 3 nominations: “Best Sound” (Donald O. Mitchell, Kevin O'Connell, Rick Kline, and William B. Kaplan), “Best Film Editing” (Billy Weber and Chris Lebenzon), and “Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing” (Cecelia Hall and George Watters II)

1987 Golden Globes, USA:  1 win: “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Giorgio Moroder-music and Tom Whitlock-lyrics for the song “Take My Breath Away”); 1 nomination: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Harold Faltermeyer)

2015 National Film Preservation Board, USA:  National Film Registry


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Review: Super Sonic VFX and Humor Drive "SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 25 of 2022 (No. 1837) by Leroy Douresseaux

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)
Running time:  122 minutes (2 hours, 2 minutes)
MPAA – PG for action, some violence, rude humor, and mild language
DIRECTOR:  Jeff Fowler
WRITERS:  Pat Casey & Josh Miller and John Whittington; based on a story by Pat Casey & Josh Miller
PRODUCERS:  Toby Ascher, Neal H. Moritz, Toru Nakahara, and Hitoshi Okuno
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Brandon Trost (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Jim May
COMPOSER: Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL)

FANTASY/FAMILY/ACTION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY

Starring:  James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Natasha Rothwell, Adam Pally, Shemar Moore, Lee Majdoub, Tom Butler; Ben Schwartz, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Idris Elba, and Jim Carrey

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a 2022 action-adventure, fantasy and comedy film directed by Jeff Fowler.  The film is based on the Japanese video game series and media franchise that was created and is owned by the Sega Corporation and which began with the 1991 Sega Genesis game, Sonic the Hedgehog.  The film is also a direct sequel to the 2020 film, Sonic the Hedgehog.  Sonic the Hedgehog 2 pits the titular character and his archenemy in a race to obtain an all-powerful jewel.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 opens several months after the events depicted in Sonic the Hedgehog.  The mad scientist, Dr. Robotnik, also known as “Eggman” (Jim Carrey), is still trapped on the mushroom planet.  As luck would have it, his schemes to escape the planet draw the attention of Knuckles the Echidna (voice of Idris Elba), an anthropomorphic red echidna (a spiny anteater) warrior who possesses superhuman strength.

Meanwhile, Robotnik and Knuckles mutual adversary, Sonic the Hedgehog (voice of Ben Schwartz), is living in Seattle as the superhero, “Blue Justice.”  However, Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who can run at supersonic speeds, is not really good at being a superhero.  Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie Wachowski (Tika Sumpter) adopted Sonic as their son, and Tom, as his father, advises Sonic to remain patient for the day his power will be needed.  Then, he and Maddie leave for Hawaii for the wedding of Maddie's sister, Rachel (Natasha Rothwell).

That leaves Sonic home alone for some fun, and he is having fun until Robotnik and Knuckles arrive, with the latter immediately attacking him.  Knuckles turns out to be a formidable fighter, and he also desires to honor his extinct tribe.  To do so, he must find the legendary “Master Emerald,” an ancient relic that allows anyone who possesses it to bend reality to their will.  Knuckles not only believes that the emerald is on Earth, but also that Sonic knows its secret location.

Sonic is rescued by Miles “Tails” Prower (voice of Colleen O'Shaughnessey), an anthropomorphic, two-tailed, yellow fox who idolizes Sonic and came to warn him about Knuckles.  Tails can fly by spinning his tails like a helicopter's blades.  Now, Sonic and Tails are on a race to keep Robotnik and Knuckles from locating the Master Emerald.  But can Sonic keep his parents, Tom and Maddie, from getting involved, and is that the right thing to do?

I have not seen the first film, Sonic the Hedgehog, and I had no intentions of watching it.  So, I also had no plans on seeing Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but then, my niece asked to me to take her to the theater to see it, as she did not want to wait for it to stream on Paramount+.  Because she rarely asks me to take her to the movies and because she usually turns down my offers to take her when I'm going, I (reluctantly) agreed to see Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with her.

I must say that Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is much better than I thought it would be.  I must be honest and admit that early in the movie, I dozed off several times – because I was tired and it had already been a long day.  However, Sonic's second live-action film has many exciting scenes, and the special effects and CGI are really good.  Sonic the Hedgehog may be a kids' movie, but the visual effects (VFX) are as a good as most big event, tent pole movies made for adults.  Soon, I was into it, pretty much enthralled by the impressive VFX.

The character animation is top notch.  Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are obviously CGI and animated characters, but the character animation gives them personality and character.  They don't look like stuffed animals with weird eyes that have come to life.  The voice acting is quite good, with Colleen O'Shaughnessey making Tails see like a real hero-worshiping boy who finally meets his idol, and Idris Elba sounds all tough guy as Knuckles.  Ben Schwartz brings Sonic to life as a fully developed film character.  Schwartz makes Sonic's doubts and dilemmas seem genuine, and Sonic's exuberance and Schwartz's voice performance shine through the narrative.  Here, Sonic is more movie star than video game character.

As for Jim Carrey, he is what he usually is as an actor:  the good, the bad, and ugly of a performer in constant over-the-top mode.  The rest of the live-action cast makes the best of their roles with James Marsden and Tika Sumpter seeming like real parents in love with their alien child.  Natasha Rothwell, as Maddie's sister, Rachel, is quite good at stealing scenes.

So after saying all that, it is obvious that I like Sonic the Hedgehog 2.  But will I see the first film...?

6 of 10
B
★★★ out of 4 stars

Friday, April 22, 2022


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Review: "THE KING'S MAN" is the Best "Kingsman" Yet

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 23 of 2022 (No. 1835) by Leroy Douresseaux

The King's Man (2021)
Running time: 131 minutes (2 hours, 11 minutes)
MPA – R for sequences of strong/bloody violence, language, and some sexual material
DIRECTOR:  Matthew Vaughn
WRITERS:  Matthew Vaughn and Karl Gajdusek; from a story by Matthew Vaughn (based on on the comic book, The Secret Service, by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons)
PRODUCERS:  Adam Bohling, David Reid, and Matthew Vaughn
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Ben Davis (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Jason Ballantine and Rob Hall
COMPOSERS:  Dominic Lewis and Matthew Margeson

FANTASY/ACTION/SPY/WAR with some elements of comedy

Starring:  Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Djimon Hounsou, Rhys Ifans, Harris Dickinson, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Daniel Brühl, Charles Dance, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Stanley Tucci

The King's Man is a 2021 spy and action movie and war drama from director Matthew Vaughn.  It is the third film in the Kingsman film series, and it is a “prequel” to the previous two films, Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) and Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017).  All three films are based on characters and elements from the 2012 comic book miniseries, The Secret Service, by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons.  The King's Man focuses on an aristocrat and his spy network as they try to stop a plot to pit the British, German, and Russian empires against each other in a war that will wipe out millions of lives.

The King's Man introduces British aristocrat Orlando, Duke of Oxford (Ralph Fiennes).  In 1914, Orlando has formed a private spy network consisting of domestic servants employed by the world's most powerful dignitaries.  His own servants, his butler, Shola (Djimon Hounsou), and his maid/nanny, Polly Watkins (Gemma Arterton), are his closest aides and confidants.  The primary objective of Orlando's network is to protect the United Kingdom and the British Empire from the conflagration of the approaching “Great War.”

Orlando's only son, Conrad (Harris Dickinson), is eager to fight, but Orlando forbids him from joining the British Army and uses his connections to keep him from entering service.  Besides, there are other things to keep father, son, and the spy network busy.  Orlando's friend, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand (Ron Cook), and his wife are assassinated.  Orlando learns that the assassin is part of “The Flock,” a group plotting to pit the German, Russian, and British empires against each other in the Great War.

Orlando and his network then engage in a series of adventures to foil the Flock's plans, that includes killing Grigori Rasputin (Rhys Ifans), the priest and mystic who serves the Flock's mysterious leader, “The Shepherd.”  As his personal physician, Rasputin practically controls Tsar Nicholas (Tom Hollander) of Russia.  And if Nicholas does as Rasputin wants, Great Britain may be doomed.  Can Orlando and his network stop The Shepherd and save the British Empire?  And will Conrad remain with his father's network or will he force his way into military service in a war in which young men like him are dying by the thousands?

The King's Man is easily the best of the Kingsman series, thus far.  The villain, “The Shepherd,” is ridiculous, but his motivations will make more sense and is more likely to appeal to British audiences.  For me, The Shepherd is what keeps The King's Man from being a truly great film.

The film's remix of the history of the “Great War” (World War I) seems inappropriate, but the film's inclusion of WWI is what makes it stand out from other films based on comic books.  In fact, The King's Man is grounded in a darker take on that war than another comic book movie, Wonder Woman (2017), which is also largely set during the first World War.  In a way, The King's Man seems like a salute to the men who served and the ones who died in the muck and mud of Europe during “the war to end all wars.”

Ralph Fiennes brings a touch of class and some serious dramatic chops to this film.  It seems as if director Matthew Vaughn and his co-writer, Karl Gajdusek, take this film more seriously than Vaughn did with the previous two films, which were action-spy movies with a strong comic overtone.  The King's Man is a war drama, spy serial, and action-thriller, and Fiennes, as Orlando, the Duke of Oxford, sells this film's seriousness.

Gemma Arterton and Djimon Hounsou are also quite good as Orlando's top lieutenants, Polly and Shola, respectively.  As Rasputin, Rhys Ifans offers a performance that is off-beat, over-the-top, and colorful.  Tom Hollander, with the help of the make-up and hairstyling crew of The King's Man, is credible in three roles, but makes his most potent turn as Britain's King George.  Harris Dickinson as Orlando's son, Conrad, gives the film's most hot-blooded and nuanced performance.

The best way I can describe The King's Man is as being like a serial adventure.  The film's plot is comprised of multiple missions and subplots, which keeps the film's narrative hopping.  The film moves fast, fast enough to keep audiences from focusing on the film's inconsistencies and flaws in logic, but also fast enough to make the story seem like a non-stop, breathtaking adventure.  Like Matthew Vaughn himself, I want to see a fourth film in the series, one that focuses on the characters that make it to the end of this film and on their first decade as the “Kingsman.”  I highly recommend The King's Man to audiences that have watched either of the first two films or both.  They were really a build up to the best of their lot, The King's Man.

7 of 10
A-

Thursday, April 14, 2022


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Review: "MORBIUS" is Anemic, But Jared Leto is Hot Blooded

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 18 of 2022 (No. 1830) by Leroy Douresseaux

Morbius (2022)
Running time:  104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, some frightening images, and brief strong language
DIRECTOR:  Daniel Espinosa
WRITERS:  Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless; from a story by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (based on the Marvel Comics)
PRODUCERS:  Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Lucas Foster
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Oliver Wood
EDITOR:  Pietro Scalia
COMPOSER:  Joe Ekstrand

SUPERHERO/FANTASY/HORROR/ACTION

Starring:  Jared Leto, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Matt Smith, Al Madrigal, Charlie Shotwell, Joseph Esson, and Tyrese Harris and Michael Keaton

Morbius is a 2022 superhero fantasy-horror and action film directed by Daniel Espinosa.  The movie is based on the Marvel Comics character, “Morbius, the Living Vampire”/Dr. Michael Morbius, which was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 (cover dated: October 1971).  This is also the third film in “Sony's Spider-Man Universe” (SSU) series.  Morbius the film focuses on a scientist who tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease but instead turns himself into a new kind of vampire.

Morbius introduces Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto).  He is a genius, a scientist, and has a talent for fabricating technology.  He is also suffering from a rare blood disease and has spent his adult life looking for a cure to that disease which often kills those afflicted with it at a young age.  Michael is 35-years-old, and he recently refused a Nobel Prize.

Michael is currently engaged in illegal experiments involving vampire bats that he stole from a cave in Costa Rica.  Although she is critical of him for these experiments, Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona), Michael's fellow scientist and girlfriend, works with him.  Once he believes that he has finally created the cure for his rare blood disease, Michael injects himself with the formula.  Michael's body is transformed into that of an Olympic-level athlete, but the cure also turns him into a vampire – one with a powerful blood lust.  Now, the bodies of people with the blood drained from their bodies are being found all over the city.  Is Morbius the killer … or is Morbius responsible?

Morbius is about Morbius.  The only other character that this film allows any traction is Martine Bancroft.  It isn't that the screenplay is shallow; I find that it attempts a serious contemplation of both Dr. Michael Morbius' character and Morbius the vampire's dilemma.  I wish the film's story had taken more time with the two FBI agents hunting Morbius, comic relief Alberto “Al” Rodriguez (Al Madrigal) and the really serious Black man, Simon Stroud (Tyrese Gibson).

Morbius may be Jared Leto's best performance in a film in years.  I prefer Leto's Dr. Michael Morbius to “Rayon,” the drug addicted, HIV-positive trans woman he played in the 2013 film, Dallas Buyers Club.  Leto won a “Best Supporting Actor” Oscar for playing Rayon, a character I found shallow.  In Morbius, Leto's good looks, his vanity, his obvious acting talent, and his imaginative approach to fashioning characters and performances serve both him and film, quite well.  I found both Dr. Michael Morbius and Morbius the vampire to be endlessly fascinating characters and not at all shallow.

It feels weird for me to recommend this film for Jared Leto's performance, but I am.  Morbius is officially part of a superhero film universe.  Adrian Toomes/Vulture (Michael Keaton) from the 2017 film, Spider-Man: Homecoming, even makes an appearance in Morbius in order to solidify some connections between Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).  That connection thrills the fanboy in me.  I like Morbius, and I am giving it a higher grade than I probably would.  And that is because of Jared Leto's outstanding work in Morbius.

6 of 10
B

Friday, April 1, 2022


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "RESIDENT EVIL: Welcome to Raccoon City" is Scary as Hell

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 13 of 2022 (No. 1825) by Leroy Douresseaux

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada/Germany
Running time:  107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence and gore, and language throughout
DIRECTOR:  Johannes Roberts
WRITER:  Johannes Roberts (based upon the video game, Resident Evil)
PRODUCERS:  Hartley Gorenstein, James Harris, and Robert Kulzer
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Maxime Alexandre
EDITOR:  Dev Singh
COMPOSER:  Mark Korven

HORROR/SCI-FI/ACTION

Starring:  Kaya Scodelario, Robbie Amell, Hannah John-Kamen, Tom Hopper, Avan Jogia, Donal Logue, Neal McDonough, Marina Mazepa. Janet Porter, Holly De Barros, Chad Rook, Nathan Dales, Daxton Grey Gujral, and Lily Gail Reid

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is a 2021 science fiction, action, and horror film from writer-director Johannes Roberts.  It is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil film franchise and a reboot of the franchise, which is based upon the Capcom survival horror video game series, Resident Evil.  Welcome to Raccoon City is set in 1998 and focuses on a small group of people trying to survive a zombie outbreak in a small town.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City opens sometime in the 1980s in the small town of Raccoon City.  The Raccoon City Orphanage is the current home of orphaned siblings, Claire Redfield (Lily Gail Reid), and her brother, Chris (Daxton Grey Gujral).  The children are subject to being experimented on by Dr. William Birkin (Neal McDonough), an employee of the Umbrella Corporation, the world's largest pharmaceutical company.  Eventually, Claire manages to run away.

On the rainy night of September 30, 1998, an adult Claire (Kaya Scodelario) returns to Raccoon City.  She hopes to convince her estranged brother, Chris (Robbie Amell), who is now an officer of the Raccoon City Police Department (RPD), that Umbrella is experimenting on the people of the city.  However, Chris is not happy to see his sister, nor does he believe what she tells him about Umbrella's activities.

In fact, Umbrella Corp. has pulled out of Raccoon City, turning it into a ghost town.  The only people still in town are a skeleton crew of the corporation's last employees and those who are too poor to leave.  Before Claire can convince anyone of anything, Raccoon City's remaining citizens start getting sick and eventually, they begin turning into hungry zombies.  Soon, Claire and Chris are each leading a small group of police officers on a quest to escape the city with neither knowing that they are rapidly running out of time.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City was not a success at the box office, which is a shame.  As the first entry in a new series of films, it is superior to Resident Evil, the 2002 film that kicked off the franchise.  I will be honest.  The characters are shallow, but character development and motivation are not the most important things in Welcome to Raccoon City.  The scares are.

To that end, it is very successful.  Writer-director Johannes Roberts turns in a film that makes superb use of nighttime settings, shadows, darkness, and a rainy night.  With film editor, Dev Singh, Roberts strangles his audience with fearsome sequences of zombies and monsters jumping out of every darkness.  There is a scene in which Chris Redfield has to ward off zombies with very little light.  Every time, he fires his weapon, there is a flash that briefly illuminates an attacking zombie.  In fact, Welcome to Raccoon City's zombies may be twenty-first century's scariest.  I felt that with every bump and thump in the night my blood was freezing.

I hope that Johannes Roberts gets a shot at making a sequel to Welcome to Raccoon City.  Online and especially on social media, I have come across complaints about this film, but these complainers must be jaded.  In the blended genre of survival horror and zombie films, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is quite an achievement.

7 of 10
A-

Thursday, March 10, 2022


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint or syndication rights and fees.

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