Action

Incredibles 2

Keith YoungLeave a comment

The long-awaited sequel of the wildly successful 2004 animated superhero movie The Incredibles, Incredibles 2 is yet another excellent Pixar Disney movie that comes close to the original with its unique retro style and family-friendly fun. Set shortly after the first movie, the story follows the Parr family in which each family member has a superpower but have not been able to publicly remain superheroes since they have recently been outlawed. In a publicity ploy to help legalize superheroes by the wealthy tech entrepreneur Winston Deavor, voiced by Emmy winner Bob Odenkirk, along with his brilliant sister Evelyn, voiced by Oscar nominee Catherine Keener, Helen who is the superhero Elastigirl, voiced by Oscar winner Holly Hunter, is recruited to serve as a positive image of a superhero saving lives. Her husband Bob who is the superhero Mr. Incredible, voiced by Emmy winner Craig T. Nelson, begrudgingly becomes a stay-at-home dad and is unable to use his superhuman strength in public because it is deemed too destructive. He is depicted as a stereotypical father who is in over-his-head while also dealing with three kids who happen to have superpowers. Violet, voiced by comedian and writer Sarah Vowell, is your typical teenage daughter with the exception that she can become invisible and project a protective force field. The middle son nicknamed Dash is a rebellious middle schooler who has superhuman speed. The most entertaining and funny moments occur with the baby Jack-Jack who we find out has some fairly unusual superpowers that are both cute and dangerous. Eventually, Elastigirl heroically fights off a new supervillain named Screenslaver who is hypnotizing citizens and ultimately other superheroes to commit crimes. Towards the end of the movie, we discover that the true villain is actually somebody completely unexpected. Overall, I found it to be a highly entertaining computer animated family movie that appeals to both kids and adults alike as a result of its exciting and sometimes funny action coupled with creative writing and look.

Ocean’s 8

Keith YoungLeave a comment

A spin-off of the Ocean’s 11 trilogy first released in 2001, Ocean’s 8 is an entertaining heist movie that follows the formula of the first films but with the unique twist of having an all-female cast. The movie involves the planned robbery at the highly fashionable Met Gala in which a 15 million dollar diamond necklace is to be stolen from a pretentious actress named Daphne, played by Oscar winner Anne Hathaway. The elaborate heist is devised by the sister of Danny Ocean, played by George Clooney in the trilogy, Debbie, played by Oscar winner Sandra Bullock, who was just released from prison after 5 years. Like almost all heist movies, the beginning introduces the audience to the cast of characters making up the team: Oscar winner Cate Blanchett plays Debbie’s former partner-in-crime Lou, Emmy winner Mindy Kaling plays the jeweler Amita, Golden Globe winner Sarah Paulson plays the surburban mom and stolen goods salesperson Tammy, Oscar nominee Helena Bonham Carter plays the disgraced fashion designer Rose, Grammy winner Rihanna plays the hacker Nine Ball, and Awkwafina plays the pickpocket Constance. The rest of the movie follows the group as they get ready for the heist that involves penetrating the high security surrounding the extremely valuable Cartier diamond necklace and the Metropolitan Museum of Art on its most glamorous and exclusive night. The film is a fairly rudimentary heist movie complete with unexpected events that could derail a successful operation and surprise twists of who else is involved. What sets it apart is its female focus by having the protagonists be highly capable women who target an over-the-top high fashion event full of self-absorbed socialites and actresses. Overall, I found it to be an enjoyable cinematic experience that provides mindless entertainment, but it falls short of the original Ocean’s 11 and its sequels that helped redefine the heist narrative.

Hotel Artemis

Keith YoungLeave a comment

Written and directed by Drew Pearce who was one of the writers for 2013’s Iron Man 3 and 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Hotel Artemis is an entertaining and stylish action thriller with the hallmarks of a midnight B movie and a surprising all-star cast. Set in dystopian Los Angeles in the near future, the story revolves around a secret hospital for criminals that becomes the refuge for outlaws from the intense violent riots enveloping the entire city. The hospital, which is located on the top floor of a vintage old world hotel, is run by a rules-bound and efficient nurse, played by Oscar winner Jodie Foster in her first role since 2013. A large muscular orderly nicknamed Everest, played by Dave Bautista, is the only other person working at the futuristic hospital, and he is sometimes enlisted as the enforcer. On a particularly busy night, the Artemis is filled with a variety of dangerous criminals who only behave because of the rules enforced while in the hospital. It begins with a pair of bank robbers, one played by Emmy Award-winning actor Sterling K. Brown, who escaped a botched robbery while being pursued by the police. The other patients include a world-class assassin, played by Sofia Boutella, and a wisecracking criminal, played by Charlie Day. Things get increasingly complicated and violent with the arrival of the so-called Wolf King, played by Jeff Goldblum, who is the criminal overlord of Los Angeles and is accompanied by his obsequious son, played by Zachary Quinto. Foster’s character is trying to keep everyone happy and allow Hotel Artemis to continue running smoothly while she also has to deal with her anxiety deriving from the traumatic memory of losing her son. Overall, I found it to be an exciting and fun action flick that is notable for its unique vision of a dystopian future in which medical technology advances, but society as a whole collapses.

Adrift

Keith YoungLeave a comment

Based on a remarkable true story, Adrift is a fairly typical survival movie that is enhanced by terrific acting performances and realistic and beautiful cinematography. The film follows the 23-year-old Tami Oldham, played by Golden Globe nominee Shailene Woodley, who travels the world away from her hometown of San Diego and finds herself on the island of Tahiti where she meets the handsome 34-year-old British sailor Richard Sharp, played by Sam Claflin. Through a series of flashbacks, they fall in love and enjoy sailing around the South Pacific Islands on his small sailboat that he built himself. Eventually, a couple who are friends with Richard ask Richard and Tami to take their 44-foot sailboat over 4,000 miles back to San Diego. They set out for their journey in October 1983, but tragedy strikes when their boat is heavily damaged by an unexpected Category 4 hurricane in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Richard is severely injured so Tami must take on the duties to try and survive with the sailboat missing its sails and all navigation and radio equipment inoperable. As the days progress, Tami is in an increasingly dire situation as food begins to run low and the boat is many miles away from land. She decides that the best hope for survival is to head for Hawai’i and must navigate only using the primitive tools of the sextant and following the stars. At some point, the audience realizes the extent that her mental state and hallucinations impact her ability to think properly and ultimately survive the ordeal. Overall, I found it to be a somewhat compelling survival adventure movie that differentiates itself from the rather generic formula of the genre by having a dynamic and raw performance from the talented young actress Shailene Woodley.

Upgrade

Keith YoungLeave a comment

Produced by Jason Blum who is best known for horror films and the Academy Award-nominated Whiplash released in 2014 and Get Out released in 2017, Upgrade is a surprisingly fun and exhilarating low-budget sci-fi film that has a uniquely creative script filled with tongue-in-cheek humor and gruesomely violent action sequences. Played by television actor Logan Marshall-Green, Grey Trace is living a peaceful life as a stay-at-home husband who enjoys working on classic cars and is happily married to the beautiful Asha until tragedy strikes after he and his wife are viciously attacked, which leaves him paralyzed. Depressed over his condition and the loss of his wife, Grey agrees to participate in a secret futuristic experiment offered by tech mogul Eron Keen, played by the creepy Australian actor Harrison Gilbertson, that has the ability to restore his body functions to normal. Eron has developed a technological device called STEM that when implanted gives the person super strength and increased awareness by bridging its advanced technology with the human body. Grey uses his new abilities to track down and brutally hunt those responsible for his wife’s death after the police investigation led by Detective Cortez, played by Betty Gabriel best known for her role in Get Out, appears to go nowhere. Eventually, he learns that STEM can talk to him and ultimately take complete control of his body even against his will. Reminiscent of the filmmaker’s other work, especially the Saw film series first released in 2004, the fight scenes are extremely graphic but are choreographed like some sort of robotic dance in which Grey is viciously able to dispatch his opponents. As the body count rises, he discovers that there is a dark and mysterious conspiracy that motivated the initial attack that left him paralyzed. Furthermore, the twist ending makes for even more of a thrill ride that was unexpected from the beginning. Overall, I found it to be a thoroughly entertaining action sci-fi flick that feels like a midnight B movie while also being a smart movie that explores the implications of technology and surveillance.

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Keith YoungLeave a comment

15271994927256606803560990010701.jpgDirected by critically acclaimed filmmaker Ron Howard who won the Academy Award for 2002’s A Beautiful Mind, Solo: A Star Wars Story is an entertaining movie in the Star Wars saga with plenty of adventure and CGI-enhanced action sequences but underwhelms compared to the original and most recent installments. As the second standalone anthology film in the series, the movie is more of a origin story that follows the early exploits of Han Solo, played by the up-and-coming charismatic Alden Ehrenreich, and how he evolved into the famous character portrayed by Harrison Ford in the original trilogy. We first meet Han trying to escape a criminal organization with his girlfriend Qi’ra, played by Emilia Clarke of Game of Thrones fame, and travel to another planet where he can pursue his dream of becoming a pilot. For a time, he is a soldier for the Empire, but he eventually becomes a deserter to join forces with a group of criminals led by Tobias Beckett, played by Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson. He also meets his future famous copilot Chewbacca, and they enter in their friendly rapport with humorous back-and-forth as depicted in the first movies. The rest of the movie follows the formula of a heist film in which Han and his new outlaw friends must steal the valuable so-called hyperfuel coaxium for yet another criminal syndicate known as the Crimson Dawn led by Dryden Vos, played by Paul Bettany. Things get increasingly complicated for Han, and he must team up with the notorious smuggler Lando Calrissian, played by Emmy winner Donald Glover, who provides him the means of piloting the well-known Millennium Falcon spaceship. Towards the end of the film, there are a few plot twists and not all of the characters are as they appeared in the beginning. The story appeases Star Wars fans with the appearance of characters and new details that refer to the nine other installments and may not have as much significance for general audiences. Overall, I found it to be a satisfying cinematic experience that had enough excitement to make up for the shortcomings of being sometimes too formulaic and not adding much depth to the already complex Star Wars franchise.

Deadpool 2

Keith YoungLeave a comment

The sequel to the widely successful 2016 original Deadpool and the eleventh installment in the X-Men movie franchise first released in 2000, Deadpool 2 is a very unconventional comic book superhero movie that is filled to the brim with self-referential and irreverent humor and is brought to life by the charismatic performance of Ryan Reynolds. Taking place several years after the first film, Deadpool whose real name is Wade Wilson, played by the hilarious Ryan Reynolds, suffers a personal tragedy at the beginning and is in a very low place. After an attempted suicide, his superhero friend Colossus helps to bring him back to life and takes him to the X-Men mansion to recover. Eventually, he confronts a time-traveling cybernetic solider named Cable, played by Oscar nominee Josh Brolin, who wants to kill the young mutant Firefist whose real name is Russell Collins, played by the terrific young actor Julian Dennison who is best known for his outstanding role in 2016’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Deadpool decides to protect the seemingly innocent Collins from Cable whose intentions are at first mysterious to the audience. In one of many references to X-Men, Deadpool forms the team X-Force in which several of the members suffer ridiculously bad luck, and he uses them to prevent a deadly clash between Collins and Cable. Although it sounds like a rather straightforward comic book story, the film takes a much less serious approach with Deadpool constantly making fun of X-Men and Marvel Comics in quite hilarious and silly ways and often breaking the fourth wall by directly addressing the audience. A majority of the humor is comprised of inside jokes in which the audience really needs to be somewhat familiar with superhero characters and the previous comic book movies. There are also even references to Barbra Streisand movies as well as other rather cheesy elements of pop culture. Finally, it is very much an R-rated experience as a result of the gratuitous amount of violence and gore and the overabundance of vulgar comedy. Overall, I found it be an extremely entertaining movie as good as the original because of its creative and zany antics and dazzling array of meta humor; however, it is definitely not for all tastes as a result of its lewdness.

Avengers: Infinity War

Keith YoungLeave a comment

The nineteenth installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that started with 2008’s Iron Man and the third film in The Avengers franchise since 2012, Avengers: Infinity War is an entertaining comic book superhero movie whose title is particularly apt as a result of the seemingly infinite number of Marvel characters all appearing in their greatest war yet. The plot revolves around the appearance of the most threatening villain Thanos, played by Josh Brolin, and his quest to capture all six Infinity Stones, mystical stones imbued with great magical powers, in order to control the universe and remake his own planet. Practically all of the superheroes who have had their own Marvel film seek to prevent the god-like Thanos from destroying half of humanity in his ploy to solve overpopulation. The ensemble cast is jam-packed and features Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk, Chris Evans as Captain America, Tom Holland as Spider-Man, Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther, Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, and Chris Pratt as Star-Lord. Although the plethora of superheroes and storylines is at times over-the-top and complicated to a casual viewer, the filmmakers are able to present a somewhat surprising cohesive story by having several of the characters grouped together and involved in separate parts of the film. When the superheroes do all come together, the audience is in for spectacular CGI-enhanced action sequences that can be best described as comic book porn. The movie also has aspects of a drama in which the powerful protagonists display raw human emotions, including grief over fallen comrades. However, there are several moments of trademark tongue-in-cheek humor for a comic book movie, especially when it comes to the characters from the more comedic Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. Overall, I was impressed by the sheer amount of superheroes assembled for a motion picture and found it to be a largely enjoyable experience despite probably jamming a little too much into one bloated comic book lovefest.

Rampage

Keith YoungLeave a comment

Loosely based on the widely popular 1986 arcade video game of the same name, Rampage is nothing more than your basic Hollywood blockbuster full of cheap thrills and elaborate CGI action sequences with a story that does not really matter. Starring Dwayne Johnson as primatologist Davis Okoye, the flimsy plot revolves around genetically engineered animals who become destructive monsters after being exposed to a genetic experiment created in the labs of an absurdly villainous corporation. Working for a wildlife sanctuary in San Diego after serving in the military and an anti-poaching squad, Davis discovers that something is terribly wrong with his favorite gorilla named George after the animal becomes bigger and stronger overnight. Eventually, he teams up with Dr. Kate Caldwell, played by Naomie Harris, who used to work as a geneticist with the Energyne Corporation owned and operated by two malevolent siblings who are secretly trying to develop biological weapons of mass destruction. The United States government and military led by the mysterious and extremely exaggerated cowboy-like Agent Harvey Russell, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, becomes involved after George exhibits aggressive behavior and goes on a rampage indiscriminately destroying all sorts of buildings. As George becomes increasingly dangerous, the already ridiculous plot thickens with the appearance of a oversized wolf and crocodile also infected with the pathogen. The trio of fearsome monsters ultimately descend on downtown Chicago where Davis and Dr. Caldwell search for the antidote so that the animals are not killed by the gung-ho armed forces. Similar to the video game in which tanks and other war machinery are used to try and destroy the Godzilla-like creatures, much of the film is comprised of overwhelming action sequences intensified by CGI eye candy in which the animals are bombarded with all types of weapons to no avail. Overall, I found it to be exactly what I expected from a movie based on a retro arcade game and led by action superstar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson; it was a rather dumb story that was a vehicle for over-the-top mayhem perfect for a popcorn flick.

Ready Player One

Keith YoungLeave a comment

ready_player_one_ver2_xlgBased on the best-selling 2011 novel of the same name written by Ernest Cline, Ready Player One is entertaining science fiction fantasy that effectively recreates the video game experience with its frenetic pace and overabundance of CGI. The plot revolves around Wade Watts, played by Tye Sheridan, who lives in a futuristic Columbus, Ohio in 2045 and finds himself on an adventure in the so-called OASIS, a virtual reality world that most people tap into to escape their dystopian real lives. Wade whose avatar is named Parzival is what is known as a Gunter and searches for the Easter eggs that the creator James Halliday, played by Oscar winner Mark Rylance, hid within OASIS after his death. The person that discovers the three keys will become the sole owner and operator of the massive virtual world in addition to receiving $500 billion from Halliday’s estate. With the possibility of such immense power, the villainous CEO of the video game corporation IOI Nolan Sorrento, played by Emmy winner Ben Mendelsohn, enlists an army of indebted OASIS users to discover the clues left behind in order to take control. Wade races to discover all of the Easter eggs before Sorrento and eventually teams up with a group of other avatars known as the “High Five,” including the young and beautiful Art3mis whose real name is Samantha Cook, played by Olivia Cook, and Wade’s virtual best friend Aech, played by Lena Waithe who is best-known for her role in the Netflix series Master of None. The movie feels very much like the audience is alongside Wade as he battles through what is essentially an elaborate video game, with the telltale graphics of a modern first-person shooter and the presence of avatars and Easter eggs. Besides the spectacular and almost seizure-inducing special effects and action sequences, the film is remarkable for its nostalgia and homage to vintage and contemporary video gaming as well as past pop culture, in particular the 1980s and even to the director Steven Spielberg’s earlier movies. Overall, I found it to be a unique and creative cinematic experience that, for better or worse, feels like a video game nerd’s fever dream brimming with so much insider geeky knowledge to be almost too overwhelming for general audiences.