The Sisters Brothers

I seldom let a chance to watch a Western movie pass me by, so when I saw the previews for the film, “The Sisters Brothers,” I set out for the theater.  This movie, produced by actor John C. Reilly in conjunction with a French production company and directed by French director, Jacques Audiard, takes place  in the West of the 1850, in  the Pacific Northwest.

The story is simple: A big shot named The Commodor (Rutger Hauer who barely utters a line in the entire film),  wants a foreign outsider prospector by the name of Hermann Kermit Warm (Riz Ahmed, the first time I have seen a Mid Eastern actor in a Western) to be killed for stealing.   The “stealing” is actually a secret formula of Warm’s own creation  for divining gold from streams.  To this end he engages a sibling assassin team by the  name of Eli and Charlie Sisters (Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix).

Alert to the danger, Warm takes on protection in the form of lawman/detective John Morris (Jake Gyllenhal), setting off a pursuit of untold miles and time. This set-up naturally provides excuses to cover vast tracts of unspoiled land, just what any Western needs, as the tale moves from heavily wooded Oregon down along the California coast to San Francisco during the gold rush.

Reilly really shines in this film.  He fleshes out his charter and is able to instill compassion and even poetry into a hired killer.  Phoenix’ character is a sadistic drunk, but finds some redemption by films’ end.  And, if you have read any of my past reviews you know of the esteem in which I hold Gyllenhaal, one of the very best and most under rated actors working today.

The Sisters Brothers is labeled a dark comedy.  Perhaps.  It is most unusual for a western; both gritty and sensitive.  (Animal lovers – Reilly’s horse dies and it affects him deeply and he is able to show a different side to his character).  I don’t understand why this film is doing so poorly at the box office.  I recommend it and give it an 8 out of 10.

Sicario: Day of the Soldado

Movie Review Alert!  Checking my movie blog site I noticed the last movie I reviewed was “Blade Runner 2019” in October of 2017.  Shortly thereafter two things occurred: 1) I purchased a jail broke Amazon Fire stick and started watching movies in the comfort of my living room, and 2) we were hit by a plethora of Super Hero movies at the theater.  In the first instance I felt a little “dishonest” about reviewing movies that I had watched at home, (notice I didn’t say I felt bad about the way I had watched them), and in the second instance, I just wasn’t interested in a lot of those films.  I was interested in “Sicario: Day of the Soldado, and had planned on seeing it from the moment that it was announced that there would be a sequel to “Sicario,” which I reviewed in March of 2016 and gave a 9.5 out of 10.  Although Sicario only earned  about 50 million domestically, someone was smart enough to realize that the public needs movies like this.  For the realism; for the connectivity to a very real problem that we are facing in our country today, and of course, for the great acting.  Many of the key actors from the first film return, (sans Emily Blunt);  but most importantly, back are  Josh Brolin as Matt Graver and Benicio Del Toro as the Columbian assassin, Alejandro Gillick.  After a terrorist attack in Kansas City, the U.S. government suspects the bombers entered the United States from the Mexican border In response, the U.S. government adds the Mexican cartels to their terrorist watch list and attempts to destabilize the cartels’ smuggling enterprise by secretly trying to start a war between them all. Matt Graver, (Brolin), brings in his old friend Alejandro Gillick, (Del Toro) to kidnap the cartel head’s young daughter, then frame another cartel for it. Things are going according to plan until it’s discovered that the terrorists were all born in New Jersey, so the Mexican cartel plan is scraped, leaving Alejandro on his own with the girl he kidnapped – with orders to kill her.  The story screenplay is by   Taylor Sheridan, who also penned the first Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River, all excellent.

This time around, “Day of the Soldado,” has a change of Directors, from Denis Villeneuveto to Stefano Sollima, who lost none of the feeling , pace, cinematography, or sound of the first film.

Sicario: Day of the Soldado is an intense, at times morally ambiguous, and gritty thriller that will leave you wanting more. And, now, Benicio del Toro finally has a franchise of his own.  There will be more sequels and since little is known of the Gillick character’s past, I predict a prequel, with a younger actor playing that part.    Another 9.5 out of 10.

 

 

 

 

 

Blade Runner 2049

 

 

There are only three questions to be answered regarding this incredible, visually stunning film: 1) what happened to the dog?  and, 2) Isn’t that “Peter and the Wolf” on K’s ringtone? and 3) Why aren’t more people going to see it?  Seriously, even if you aren’t a ScFi fan, take the time to do your homework, view or re-watch the original Blade Runner, (so you won’t go into the film completely lost), and then sit back and enjoy one of the best films of the year.  If this is the future, I want no part of it, but it is incredibly realistic.  Quite a bit of the film was shot in Budapest, but you won’t recognize it.    Ryan Gosling, (K),  continues to prove his diversity in roles – think of “LaLa Land” and then watch him in this film; but also in “Drive”, “Fracture,” “The Ides of March,” “The Place Beyond the Pines,” and “The Big Short.”  Harrison Ford and James Olmos repeat their characters from the original 1982 film, (and Ford manages to keep his ego in check), and Sylvia Hoeks makes for  one bad-ass villain.  Perhaps creepy is a better description.  The plot is full of surprises, (including a futuristic look at Las Vegas),  and will keep you on the edge of your seat until the credits roll.  There will be no sequel folks; you heard it here.  This wraps it up.   It stands up equally to the original, some might say it even surpasses it.  Go see this movie.

Wonder Woman

 

 

 

 

I was hyped before seeing this film, not because it the first major female superhero film, nor because it was directed by a female, but just because I was hoping that DC could pull “their fat from the fire,” and finally establish a viable film with franchise potential.  They can and they did!  The film introduces Wonder Woman-to-be Diana, (Israeli model Gal Gadot), daughter of the queen of Themyscira, a secret island given by the gods to female warriors the Amazons.  Some time is spent showing her development and training as a warrior.   Enter Steve Trevor, (Chris Pine from Star Trek), as a WWI American Spy.  Naturally, Steve and Diana fall in love.  Naturally, they leave the safe haven of the island of Themyscira, naturally to stop WWI.

Steve and Diana’s stop-off in London, to introduce comic side kick Etta, (Lucy Davis), and peace loving politician, (the Harry Potterfranchise’s David Thewlis).   We are introduced to Steve’s “Gang”( smugglers, thieves, and snipers who can’t shoot) which for the life of me, seem only to exist to stretch the film and lighten the film carrying  load on Gadot.

Though the action – which climaxes with a CG-heavy set piece pitting Wonder Woman against Ares – sometimes has a slightly distracting video game feel, it’s often stirring stuff, and it’s skillfully integrated into the developing relationship between the title character and her mortal man.

The chemistry between Gadot and Pine is one of the film’s primary pleasures. But Gadot (best known to movie audiences up to now for her small roles in several The Fast and the Furious films) has a considerable presence in her own right, a quality that will stand her in good stead if, as the film’s brief present-day introductory sequence seems to hint will be the case, Wonder Woman has further big screen adventures.

John Wick Chapter II

 

Dumb.  I mean, really dumb.  But, making tons of money.  Go figure.  Chinese production that feels like a 1990s shooter’s video game, Wolfenstein, or Doom.  Ridiculous premise.  And then Keanu Reeves, who graduated from the Christopher Walken school of acting and got his PhD from studying with William Shatner as lead.    There had to be at least 150 people killed, mostly by gunshot in this movie.  It is gore, from start to finish, and they are not finished.  The whole movie was a set-up for a sequel. Chapter III?  In one scene about 50 assassins chase Wick down a dark tunnel in Rome.  Everyone of the assassins is carrying a flashlight.   It was like killing fireflies.  You do get to see Neo reunite with Morpheus, but that is hardly worth the price of a ticket.  Escapism at it’s dumbest.  I give it a 2 out of 10 and they will count money all the way to the bank.

Gold

 

Nice little film, carried well by Matthew McConaughey, whom you will have trouble recognizing as a balding, paunchy, gold prospector, who runs life’s gamut from up to down and then up again, or is he?  Based upon true events, (always suspicious of that disclaimer), Gold is a story about prospecting in  the uncharted jungle of Indonesia, making friends you can really trust, and those you can’t.  To say it reminds me of Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a little bit of a stretch, but it is as close as I can come. You learn a little about gold prospecting and a lot about people’s characters.  I imagine this film will make it’s original investment back, just.  No Oscars predicted, but a nice film.  I give it a 7 out of 10.  What do you think?

La la Land

Go see this movie for the bright Cinemascope photography.  Go see this movie for the wonderful snappy dialog between the two main characters.  Go see this movie if you loved the Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly movies of the  1950s.  The traffic jam number at the beginning of the film is alone worth the price of admission.  This is La La Land, (Los Angeles),  where everyone’s in show business and the merry-go-round always brings us back around to each other.  Classic line from the movie, “This is Los Angeles, where they worship everything and value nothing.”  This movie is a love letter to the Hollywood musical; I couldn’t stop thinking about West Side Story while watching it.  Emma Stone continues to prove herself a great actress, albeit a mediocre singer, and Ryan Gosling, modest star, (an almost unheard of quality in Hollywood), proves he can easily carry a film.  Great date film, great original music, great acting, a script that makes you think about how they used to make movies, and although a bittersweet ending, still a film that is a joy to watch.  I give it 10 out of 10.  What do you think?

Passengers

 

Wow!  With an original  and creative idea like this,  (a passenger on a massive interstellar spaceship with 5,000 other passengers and hundreds of crew,  all dead asleep in stasis pods due to the journey between Earth and a new planet taking 110 years, with everyone supposed to wake up a few months before they land and get to party it up and mingle before landing and populating the new world. Unfortunately, one man, Pratt, is unpredictably awaken, setting him up for a “last man on earth scenario”), can go wrong, but it does, and quickly.   Maybe the film “turns South” when Pratt’s character, Jim, notices the beautiful young, Aurora, (Lawrence), asleep in a pod and decides to become a stalker and figure out a way to awaken her, I don’t know, I guess because he is horny.  But rather than admit his horniness to her, he pleads ignorance, and they develop a relationship.  Unfortunately big mouth Michael Sheen, a robot bartender, spills the beans to Aurora and the rest of the film is a “Please forgive me for being horny” screenplay.  Unusual to see a Lawrence film bomb, but this one did.  I give it 4 out of 10 and that’s just for the special effects.  What do you think?

Nocturnal Animals

 

Folks, this is one creepy film, and I guarantee it will have you on the edge of your seat, indenting the arm rests with your fingernails as you watch this, “novel within a movie,” thriller.  Amy Adams, (is there an award for being in every movie made the last three years?  I think Adams would win.  Does she sleep?)  is a spoiled and privileged Los Angeles art gallery owner named Susan.   Her husband, (Armie Hammer), has fallen out of love with her,  and her daughter is far away at school. Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal), her ex husband sends her a preview of a novel he is about to publish.  The move then slips into a narrative of the story within the story as Adams reads the novel, (horrifying – about a gang of murderous serial killers, a carjacking, gang rape and murder on a lonely Texas road), and told in interstitials.  What this all has to do with Susan’s life now or her marriage to Edward isn’t immediately — or really ever — clarified, though it does allow for vivid turns by Aaron Taylor-Johnson (as the gang’s drawling, dead-eyed leader), (he got a Golden Globe for his acting), and Michael Shannon, whom I have appreciated since “Boardwalk Empire.”  This movie has a lot of Brian DePalma, Alfred Hitchcock, and a smattering of David Lynch.  There are no conclusions.  You are left to make those yourself.  That is always somewhat disappointing, but you will not be disappointed in this film.  I give it a 9 out of 10.  What do you think?

 

Rouge One: A Star Wars Story

There is literally nothing new in the universe, nor evidently in the minds of scriptwriters in Hollywood.  This is simply Deja vu all over again.  Lets see: orphaned, well almost orphaned young person, raised on a remote, desolate planet, attracted to the rebel forces, who are trying to destroy a death star before it destroys them.  This is of course the prequel to “A New Hope,” but just as easily could have been titled, “Hit the Cash Register up Another Time.”  The only creativity I saw in the movie was superimposing youthful faces on the long deceased Peter Cushing CGI character, and the recently deceased Carrie Fisher character, kind of like those George Patton/John Wayne beer commercials.  Seriously Disney, Star Wars is getting as boring as Fan Boy Marvel movies.  I give it a 5 out of 10, what do you think?