Brightburn

In 2006 the skies over Brightburn, Kansas lit up red as an object fell from space and impacted the small town in what would be a large way. With this object falling from the heavens came bringing joy to a couple who wanted a child more than anything, also possibly the most dangerous thing known to this world. As seen in the trailers there’s something no quite normal about Brandon Breyer (Jackson A. Dunn).

David Denman and Elizabeth Banks play a couple that have struggled with infertility for years and both have a strong desire to be parents, lighting up the sky and landing in their backyard is a mysterious glowing object with a baby onboard. We then time jump to middle school where their son, Brandon, is starting to notice changes to himself as many kids do at this time in their lives except instead of puberty he’s developing powers. When mysterious gruesome deaths start happening in the small town the accidental death theories start to get replaced with thoughts that perhaps there is a serial killer in their midst possibly a particular boy, what they don’t know is that Brandon has more planned than just a few kills that are close to him. Jackson A. Dunn does a decent job at playing this troubled teen while being able to switch it back into the mommy’s boy who feels innocent and confused about who he is during this change in his life.

I saw somewhere the best analogy for this, if Superman was evil, it’s the same thing it truly is couple finds baby in space craft and raise it as their own, except Smallville it is Brightburn. This movie is a kind of horror/superhero film that will appeal to those that want a darker origin superhero story and those wanting some horror thrill, there is also some graphic attacks/deaths that those wanting some gruesome gore will be excited to see. This is good alternative programming right now for those that want an escape from the feel good heroes of Marvel, away from the family film area of Aladdin and those not phased about a giant lizard spurting fire against other big creatures. It is just over an hour and a half which feels right for it and Elizabeth Banks entering the scream queen arena worked for me, was this one of my better picks for the years, no, was I committed watching it through out, yes. The biggest downfall this movie has is there is not a lot to the character of Brandon they don’t explore this inner conflict we see of good/bad, I would have liked to have his character given more depth. Sadly I might have had a little bit of my Final Destination and Saw guilty pleasure of waiting to see the next graphic way that Brandon was going to hurt someone. C.

Overlord

Taking place during World War II on the eve of D-Day an army squad is being flown in with the mission to blow up a communication tower that is installed at a church in a small German occupied French town. Their plane is shot down and what few men are left will have to carry out the mission to severe the German communication to assist the beach landings. It will be up to the small group comprised of actors Wyatt Russell, Jovan Adepo, John Magaro, Ian De Caestecker and Dominic Applewhite to proceed forward under Corporal Ford’s (Wyatt Russell) command. Jovan Adepo plays Private Boyce our tether through this operation as we are with him from his jump to ground landing, being his first mission his is green and has empathy towards those being killed or whom he must kill. Soon after the jumpers find each other they encounter a girl in the woods named Chloe (Mathilde Olivier) who shows the way to the town and hides them in her home, explaining that the Germans constantly raid the homes and take the residents to the church where they don’t come back the same. Private Boyce is infuriated when a German officer who frequents Chloe’s home has come back to take advantage of her to protect her younger brother, Boyce’s feelings get the better of him leading to a change of plans when the officer is taken hostage. This will lead to Boyce having to retrieve two of his buddies who went out to a rendezvous point to see if any other soldiers made it, except things happen and Boyce ends up within the church itself and sees that there is a German doctor carrying out supernatural experiments, for Ford the mission is still blow up the tower and get out while Private Boyce wants to bury what he has seen being done.

This movie started out pretty well for me with the American ships and planes flying into France and the attack on the plane. Once on the ground I was sold on this war story having this small group of men who each one has a very distinctive personality all trying to survive together. Even once in the town the tension grows as Germans lurk around the corners and come knocking on doors. When the movie starts going full blown supernatural it started losing me, with Boyd lurking around the church having been accidentally taken inside and slowly uncovering secrets that was interesting. It was an okay war film with this subtle supernatural/science-fiction plot, then when we get the first super soldier I was like okay they went there why and then it becomes a monsters smash fest. I could have done with everything before that German decides to become a Hulk like monster, just the there’s something mysterious and unsettling about what they are doing that we need to blow this up before and they even acknowledge that Americans would want to know what they were doing and the atrocities that were going on no one needed to carry out the experiments. While it was enjoyable and I think a little higher than the talk I heard from others, I think if it would have kept more of a war feel through to the end with keeping the supernatural a little subtler I would have enjoyed more. This reminds me of another J.J. Abrams produced movie 10 Cloverfield Lane where the ending took away from the rest of the movie, for me I loved everything until she got out of the shelter and the aliens appeared before that it was a well built thriller and then it just went off the rails with the alien. Overlord it’s meh, I am glad I didn’t see it in theaters I think this worked well for my Netflix Blu-Ray rental, I think it deserves a little more recognition than streaming service. C.

Booksmart

Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein are long time best friends, Amy and Molly (respectively), who are on the eve of graduating high school together when they realize maybe they did high school all wrong. When they discover their peers that they saw as party people and goof-offs have also gotten into respected colleges as well, Amy and Molly question whether they wasted their time in libraries and studying instead of having fun too. They decide before they graduate to basically cram four nights or partying into one night to make up for lost time by attending the biggest graduation party being thrown. The only problem is they don’t know where the party is which sets them out on a one crazy night type movie adventure encountering different characters and situations until they can finally get to party the way they envision.

This is a pretty damn near perfect movie for the debut of Olivia Wilde as a director. The casting is spot on, everything is lighted well, the shots work, it is well paced and a solid script. This is already at the top of my favorites of the year list, will it stay at the top? Probably not but I see this staying in the top five I am pretty positive about that. I had more fun in this movie than I have had in a long time I found myself laughing consistently throughout to reoccurring gags that pay off there are setups and with follow throughs that work. Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein have tremendous onscreen chemistry together and the high school world we are presented feels lived in and alive. With having a high school teacher for a wife, I can definitely imagine her saying I have a kid just like each of the ones presented in this movie. The supporting cast all feel like well developed fleshed out characters and some come close to even stealing the scenes they are in. It is a little bit The Breakfast Club, a dash of Superbad and some Clueless all rolled into one. This is one that I would highly suggest seeing in theaters with an audience, I got to see this on opening night and the large audience helped to create an air of electricity in the room that heightened the overall experience. A truly wonderful debut from Olivia Wilde after the credits rolled I was reminded why I love movies the way Ido, that amidst
the remakes, sequels and franchises there is still amazing original stories that can find their way to the silver screen. A.

Wine Country

Wine Country is the directorial debut of Amy Poehler who also stars in the movie along with six other women (Rachel Dratch, Ana Gasteyer, Maya Rudolph, Tina Frey, Paula Pell, Emily Spivey) who are all connected via Saturday Night Live. The movie is about six older women who all come together to go on a wine country trip for their friend (Rachel Dratch) who is turning fifty years old. With this much talent from a comedy show like SNL you would expect it to be a pretty darn funny road tripesque journey through Napa. Nope, it’s about six women all going through some sort of depression or crisis and them trying to play it off until they all reach their breaking points. There are a couple of funny moments in the movie, but not anything laugh out loud funny and some I was probably laughing for the wrong reasons. Jason Schwartzman is this kinda house keeper / tour guide that comes with the house they rented who has nothing to do with anything really, he pops in here and there drives the bus and just feels there to give a little break up from the group of women, there’s a rolling gag involving him making a paella that you think its going to go somewhere and it doesn’t. Tina Fey plays the woman who is renting out her house to this group and is over doing it with the performance, feels out of place.With this much talent it falls short on the laughs and doesn’t let the dramatic parts expand, the other problem I had was there are some oddly framed shots in this especially when two people are talking that to me shows that Amy Poehler still has some practice to do directing before hitting the big leagues, I say skip Wine Country and revisit or discover Sideways. D.

John Wick: Chapter 3 Parabellum

Keanu Reeves is back in action as assassin John Wick who has just been marked Ex Communicado after the killing inside The Continental in Chapter two. He is now on the run and defense as every assassin is hunting him down for a chance at the very lucrative reward for his death. The tag line for the movie is its the world versus John Wick and its right there are a lot of assassins in this world as you saw at the end of Chapter 2. The movie is everythingyou would want from a John Wick movie by now a little bit of storyline and a whole bunch of wide shot fights. There are knife fights, fist fights, gun fights, fights on horse back and even dogs get in on the action this time. It’s very easy to tell Director Chad Stahelski has come from a stunt back ground as the sequences in this are well choreographed and he knows to pull back letting you see the action. What I enjoy more than anything in this trilogy has been the world building and characters we get a couple new ones that I enjoyed, one being Halle Berry’s character, Sofia, she brings the hits that can compete with Keanu, from what I understand one of the condition in taking a part in a John Wick film is doing your own stunt work. The other character I quite liked is The Adjudicator played by Asia Kate Dillon who has the perfect look and voice for this character who is kind of like the voice for the High Table of assassins, I would love to see Asia get more roles there’s a lot to their ability and I think this is the first chance to see the potential. I agree with what I have read from a lot of other critics that compare this to say a Fast and the furious or Mission: Impossible film that it’s more of an event that a story driven film, that you are going to this to see what crazy fight scene is going to go down. I did enjoy this installment more than Chapter 2, for me the first one is still my favorite. Is this movie for everyone of course not, there are going to be those that are opposed to the amount of violence that Wick carries out, then there are those that will come for the event focused on those acts of violence and then there’s me that likes being fed more of this world and how everything operates. B.

Also if your like me and have no clue what Parabellum stood for, I will save you the google search.
Parabellum ; noun ; a type of semiautomatic pistol or machine gun.

The Wandering Earth

The future, our sun is on the verge of dying and with that it will expand extinguishing all life on Earth. How will we preserve the future of Humanity? By building 10,000 Earth engines that will propel the planet on a 2,500 year journey through the universe to a new home. A space station will be built that will travel in front of the Earth providing communications, navigation and a plan B should The Wandering Earth project fail. Bringing everyone in the world together to build these giant engines and beneath underground cities that will shield people from the extreme surface temperature as the Earth wanders through the solar system. 

The plan to save Earth seems to be a success until the planet is scheduled to pass Jupiter. Off course the Earth is dangerously close to Jupiter’s gravitational pull, it has caused massive seismic activity on the Earth’s surface causing many engines to fail. Can the Earth escape from Jupiter’s grasp and continue wandering toward its new home. Below the planet surface are two young adults, a boy and girl the children of an astronaut flying ahead of the Earth on the space station. Wanting to see the view from the surface they have donned counterfeit thermal suits and stolen their uncles work ID to venture topside where they use their grandfathers ID to take a transport vehicle for a spin. These are large vehicles that haul excavated Earth to the engines where it is burned for fuel. While on the surface they are caught for stealing a transporter and their grandfather who tries to get them out of trouble is also arrested for not securing his ID. While in jail the earthquakes begin forcing them to the surface where they become part of a rescue team who have an ignitor cube that is needed to restart one of the failed engines. It’s a race to save all humanity of the surface of the planet while a HAL like computer on the space station forces their astronaut father to stop the computer from executing Plan B and abandoning the Earth.

If it sounds absolutely bonkers it is, the concept it pretty incredible, I would have liked a little less action, action, action and a little more in the beginning of how all this was built and the whole project of the Wandering Earth. This was the first major science fiction movie produced out of China and for a first it’s a little epic with a bit Armageddon and a little bit Europa Report in Mandarin.   Science Fiction fans will enjoy the look and feel of this, it lacks interesting characters and chunks of plot. Its  a large step into foreign science fiction though and for a first time sci-fi director it’s not half.C.

Touch of Evil

I am a member of the TCM Wine Club (www.tcmwineclub.com) which is a partnership between Turner Classic Movies and Laithewaites Wines. Every few months, a time frame that you specify, they send you a case of wine with some that are crafted specifically for film and some regular ones as well. You get a pairing card that talks about the wine, the region the wine is from, food that is recommended pairing and of course a movie to watch with the wine.

This month’s pairing was the “Borgo di Marte Appassimento 2016” with the 1958 crime noir classic Touch of Evil. The recommended food pairing with this wine was pork, stews or spicy sausage as some of the selections. I made what I called Touch of Spice Mac & Cheese which was Kraft White American with Bacon Mac & Cheese, I then added a top layer of Pepper Jack cheese, some Conecuh sausage, some caramelized French fried onions and lastly some red pepper flakes. This came out quite well and complimented well with the wine which also went very well with the movie, I have come to find red blends do very will with Noir films.

The film Touch of Evil stars Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh as a recently married couple that are honeymooning on the US/Mexico border she is from stateside and he is from Mexico giving them the best of both worlds basically. Enjoying the night together on the way to get a chocolate shake their honeymoon is abruptly ended when a car explodes putting Heston’s Detective Vargas into the investigation which is led by Police Captain Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles). Vargas is a narcotics detective who before his honeymoon was on the trail of a drug kingpin that takes advantage of this honeymoon with Vargas’ wife in town and attempts to scare her into calling her husband off the trail. While this is happening to Janet Leigh, Vargas is growing more and more concerned with the tactics of Captain Quinlan that maybe this cop has gotten to where he is not by the cleanest of methods. When the Captain who needs to solve this bomb case steeps to trying to pin a drug and murder charge on Heston’s wife it will lead to an undercover operation for the truth.

Directed by Orson Welles you can see the mastery that Welles had for setting a shot. The opening tracking shot I was astonished by and later learned this was one of the earliest tracking shots and lengthiest ones at three and a half minutes. There was a disclaimer that came up as the DVD started that said the studio (Universal) had cut this film themselves and upon viewing it Welles was not happy and sent a rather lengthy memo to the studio asking for them to make certain edits to the film before releasing. Well it turns out after the film was wrapped and shortly into the editing process, Orson took off to Mexico to film another movie forcing the studio to cut the movie themselves. Janet Leigh also needed to stay away from motels she had an unfortunate stay at the Bate’s Motel and in the one she experiences a scare tactic from the Mexican drug family that had me a little unnerved and tense as we see her terrified on the bed.

I am not a large fan of Noir films, this one though I quite enjoyed and not just cause I had a few glasses of wine in me. Sometimes I have found that Noir movies had this habit of trying to over complicate the crimes and stories making it difficult to follow where this one is pretty straight forward and simple. Heston, Leigh and Welles all give terrific performances that had me wanting to watch if not for what happened to them, but just for their scenes which show why each of them was a Hollywood legend in their own right. I definitely recommend a late night watch of Touch of Evil to me Noir feels right when its late and the lights are out with just the movie playing. B.