Vic’s Flix Movie Review: Crawl

“Aaaah.”

“Nuhhh.”

“Gguh.”

“Ernnn.”

If you can hear above the sound of your own groans, these are among the distracting litany of sounds the star of Crawl can be heard making repeatedly throughout the endless alligator attacks in this fairly short, action-packed movie.

I credit the Director, Alexandre Aja (Pirahna 3D, The Hills Have Eyes), with some jump-out-of-your-seat scares along the way, much like the scene in which the shark in Jaws prompts Roy Scheider to utter the famous line, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat!”

Heading into this film, I thought it was about one crazy alligator. But no, it’s about an entire swarm of them! They’re all huge and intent on killing humans trapped in a decrepit house somewhere along the Southwest Gulf Coast of Florida, in a fictional town where a hurricane is about to burst a levee. There’s one problem. I’m only aware of one levee in the entirety of this region. All the rest are on the east coast or elsewhere. Minor detail.

Early in the film, a billboard along a highway packed with evacuees advertises “Alligator Farm.” Perhaps this is where the gators lived prior to escape. They seem pissed, and before long they’ve eaten two police officers and three locals trying to loot a store. There’s a lot of red water in each case.

So, a category 5 hurricane is bearing down on our heroine Haley (Kaya Scodelario) and her dad (Barry Pepper), who is familiar mostly from parts in Saving Private Ryan and Flags of our Fathers. He’s trying to save his daughter and not doing a very good job of it. In a mere ninety minutes he manages to have his arm bitten off, drown (Haley saves her dad with mouth-to-mouth and a couple of hard chest blows) and he is probably the source of the movie’s name, since a hideous compound fractured leg causes him to crawl at all times. Here we have a case study in the number of tourniquets that one person can self-administer and still survive.

            “Named him after a man of the cloth…called him Amos Moses. Left arm gone clean up to the elbow…”I apologize, but Jerry Reed’s concept song from 1970 got stuck in my head about half way through the movie.

Kaya Scodelario got her acting start in three seasons of the reality TV series Skins, a show that hired teens with no acting experience. She later landed a part in Moon with Sam Rockwell, and has been building her resume with a trilogy of Maze films that sound suspiciously like Hunger Games in a variant of that post-apocalyptic genre. (Author’s note: I’ve never seen any of them.) In Crawl, she spends most of the movie wet and swimming through disgusting water. She is chomped on several times, once on the leg, once on the arm, and a third time in a death roll alligators are so notoriously fond of. Each instance would finish off a normal mortal. But Haley is a competitive swimmer with a relentlessly pushy father/coach who motivates her by suggesting she’s an alpha predator. A couple of corny exchanges ensue between father and daughter as they make amends while nicely animated alligators (actual alpha predators) are resting for their next scene.

In fairness, I must mention that I live along the Southwest Gulf Coast of Florida. It was kind of fun when US 75 was mentioned, since we take that highway most places. And having been through Hurricane Irma in 2017, I can say that the portrayal of hurricane conditions is pretty realistic, right down to the tree branch that comes crashing through a kitchen window. It doesn’t matter that I’m telling you this. It’ll still make you jump. And our stars being trapped in a basement full of other yucky stuff adds a creep factor in itself. One other point – houses in Florida generally don’t have basements.

We are also quite well acquainted with alligators down here. They frequent the canal behind our house, and during mating season they get a little weird, wandering down the middle of a street where I ride my bicycle. You get used to them.

But the reality is that gators are essentially afraid of humans. They are terrible chewers, preferring to attack small, bite-sized prey. So the scaly crew in this film is seriously demented. And that’s what makes this movie scary. They are survivors from a prehistoric age populated with monsters that eat living creatures. So our species has a genetic memory of these things always having been present. Good casting!

In summary, Crawl is scary, gory and pretty effective overall. But it is also a ludicrous survival story, periodically corny and loaded with distractingly dramatic music and less than stellar acting. Trust me, you won’t want to go swimming in Florida after you see this film, but I’d be more concerned about the shark problem in New Smyrna Beach.

Crawl (2019) runs one hour 27 minutes and is rated R.

Should I see this movie?  

Vic’s Flix Movie Review: Stuber

I’m going to say that this is the funniest movie I’ve seen since 2018’s unexpectedly hilarious Game Night, and then I’ll think about that some more and circle back. 

Perhaps the woman in front of us at the ticket counter set the mood before the show even began. She simply said, “Two for Stubber please.” Revealing her complete ignorance of the concept and the associated pun was good for a laugh when we got far enough away to avoid being heard.

Previews for Stuber got our attention recently, and we chose to go see it despite mediocre early reviews from Rotten Tomatoes. Ok, so this is not an art film, but I suspect ratings will improve as more people see it. Fearful that all of the funniest scenes had been thrown at the trailer, expectations were not high, and the movie is short at just over an hour and a half. In a clever move, several very funny trailer sequences landed on the cutting room floor. They were no longer a factor. Could they fill the other eighty-five minutes with equally good bits?

Well, they did, and I believe we’re going to be seeing lots more from both Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani. It’s not like they both haven’t been extremely busy with lengthy portfolios of TV and film work. But they have now costarred in a cop/buddy comedy with tons of antagonistic chemistry similar to DeNiro and Stiller in Meet The Parents,only ramped way up to another level (or maybe down.) 

For those who haven’t been paying attention, Bautista is one of those insanely muscled professional wrestling stars like The Rock and other brethren in the current generation of Schwarzenegger-type heroes that seem to relish comic roles when not dominating the action/adventure genre. Bautista was barely recognizable as Drax in the two Guardians of the Galaxy films. As that shirtless and heavily tattooed alien he also managed to very competently deliver some extremely funny lines, all the while being much too intimidating a presence to be informed that the jokes were on him.

In Stuber, Bautista is once again the hero and the joke. But in this outing, he is relentlessly and boldly made aware of his failings by Stu, the meek and soft-spoken Uber driver played by Kumail Nanjiani. whose recent voiceover of “Pawny” in Men In Black International pretty much stole the show. And here we have him in human form wanting nothing more than to receive a 5-star rating while playing mellow 70s songs like “I’m not in Love” by 10CC on his vintage iPod. It’s going to be a challenge with his latest Uber passenger, Vic Manning, an aggressive cop partially blinded by recent Lasik surgery.

The plot, villains and outcome don’t really matter in hindsight. It’s the journey, the Uber ride and the outrageous bantering that carry the film. There are a couple of tangents to the Uber through-line involving Stu’s love interest and Vic’s daughter that provide the potential for redemptive sub-plots, but the evolution of Stu from hapless hostage to willing hero is the real five star ride here. There are lessons for Vic as well, but I won’t give those away.

Karen Gillan (Dr. Who, Jumanji) makes a brief appearance in Stuber. She has now worked alongside Dwayne Johnson and Dave Bautista. Is a pattern emerging?

Electric cars take a not so subtle hit when, (predictably) at the moment they most need it to perform, the battery quits and demands recharging. This is a primary fear of potential EV buyers, a sign of our times, and an effective plot device that we will hopefully someday look back upon, laugh and say, “remember that?”

And in a nicely handled race commentary, Stu candidly comments that being taken captive by Vic wouldn’t look great, “A white cop holding a brown guy against his will.”

Vic responds, “I’m not white.”

Stu begins to guess, “Black? Mexican? Jamaican, Columbian, Chinese, no not Chinese.”

We never find out what racial mix produced Vic Manning, but in Stu’s angry estimation, “It was all the ugliest people from all the races that got together and made you.” Only he says it more crudely.

So, getting back to the funniest recent films, I looked them up. There were some cute and funny movies in the past year, but Stuber has better comic writing, superbly delivered, especially by Kamail Nanjiani. And it was a pretty good action movie too.

There is lots of graphic violence, profanity and brief graphic nudity. Not for the kiddies.

Stuber (2019) runs one hour, 33 minutes and is rated R.

Should I see this movie? 

Vic’s Flix Movie Review: Midsommar

I’m going to keep this review short. I feel that the two and a half hours I spent watching the movie shouldn’t lead to more time wasted. And I plan to spoil the entire movie here, so if you think you may want to waste YOUR time, stop reading.

Full disclosure: I am part Swedish. I even said Skol (skål) at the conclusion of the father-of-the-bride’s toast for my daughter’s wedding. So I was a bit excited to see a movie set in Sweden. About what, I wasn’t sure, but I love surprises.

Surprise! This movie sucks. And that was after a fairly promising start. The opening scene presents us with the view of a serene forest in winter overlaid with the sound of Kulning, or melodic Swedish yodeling. Cut to a telephone ringing, and the rest gets really weird.

The main characters, Dani and her boyfriend of four years, Christian are on the verge of breaking up, only she doesn’t realize it. Still, she confides to a friend that she’s afraid she may be driving him away with her neediness and anxiety. Shortly after Christian is counseled by his friends to end the relationship, Dani’s bipolar sister kills herself and her parents with an elaborate auto exhaust pipeline from the family’s garage to their upstairs bedrooms. Christian is now powerless to leave the devastated Dani. So instead, he takes her on a trip to Sweden with his buddies to visit his friend’s communal “family” during a nine-day summer festival. It turns out to be the first major festival in ninety years. Uh oh.

Their arrival in Sweden got me thinking of the 1973 movie The Wicker Man, also filled with pagan ritual sacrifice in a foreign locale. We immediately realize that this is not “family” – it’s a commune, a cult, and they have some bizarre ideas about the cycle of life (after four eighteen year cycles, you jump off a cliff) that include kidnapping strangers to maintain the diversity of their DNA. Of course, they periodically engage in deliberate incest to produce special “open” beings to generate books of cryptic symbols interpreted by the elders for posterity.

Drugs play an important role in the ongoing shenanigans. And the lack of cell phone service prevents any of the visitors from calling for help. So, one by one, the guests begin to disappear while Dani gets recruited for a dance contest around a Maypole of sorts. She is crowned May Queen, drugged and forced to select the ninth in a group of human sacrifices from either a randomly selected member of the commune or her own boyfriend. Well, she just witnessed a drugged Christian impregnating an eager young maiden in a barn, surrounded by a variety of naked, chanting townswomen. So, bye bye, Christian. But seriously, being burned alive inside a gutted bear seems a bit harsh.

There is no happy ending, no rescue, escape or even redemption here. The final image is of Dani, in a full body flower costume, grinning vacantly, having either become transformed into a willing cult member or perhaps having lost her mind. Who cares at this point? Groans were audible from the audience as we all crawled out of the theater during the closing credits.

Ari Aster directed Midsommar. His only other feature film credit is 2018’s Hereditary, another recent movie I warned friends not to see. I generally like films that have newcomers and unknowns. There were lots of very authentic sounding Swedish names in the cast list for this movie. The only recognizable face was that of William Jackson Harper, who we know as “Chidi” in the TV series The Good Place. The cinematography was lovely and the actors all did fine jobs, but the story was pointless and grotesque. As a thriller, it generated some ongoing suspense, but not to the level of horror. The graphic violence was all so matter-of-fact as to be a perverse medical documentary.

Sadly, human beings have engaged in some horrific rituals and practices through the ages, but I really don’t care to witness them. Knowing they exist is bad enough.

Midsommar (2019) runs 2 hours, 27 minutes and is rated R.

Should I see this movie?  

Vic’s Flix Movie Review: Yesterday

We’ve been looking forward to this movie since first seeing the trailer several months ago. The premise is enticing and creative. Unfortunately, previews now give so much away there’s always the risk of seeing a film and then feeling as if the trailer would have sufficed.

While there’s an element of that at play here, I can say that enough surprises, twists and tangential plot lines are carefully woven in along the way to make this a thoroughly enjoyable ride. And then there’s the music. If you don’t like the Beatles, don’t read further, don’t see the movie, and please don’t tell me. I don’t want to know that about you.

Out of respect for my daughter (the ultimate Beatles fan), I will not spoil or reveal much at all about the content of Yesterday. Also for the sake of the twenty or so people who may read this review.

I have written about the Beatles before:
http://viclarson.blogspot.com/2017/09/i-should-have-known-better.html

The band’s impact on popular music and our culture are dreamlike, and Yesterday does a good job of recreating that evolution from the inside out, through the eyes and experiences of Jack Malik, played by Himesh Patel. There was no need to explain how Malik, upon being struck by a bus during a mysterious twelve second global power outage, became the only person on Earth to remember the Beatles. As a failing musician, his struggle becomes choosing to reconstruct and play the band’s extensive portfolio of hits as his own. Or not.

And I will say that I feared before viewing the film that it would be revealed at the end of the story that it all happened in a dream or a coma. That would not only be disappointingly lame, but incredibly weak screenwriting. They did much better.

Ultimately this becomes a love story. Jack’s manager and long time friend Ellie (Lily James) have become so mired in their respective “columns” through the years that there seems no way to cross boundaries. Complicate this with Jack’s sudden fame and departure from their tiny English seaside town and we have a second through-line that periodically intersects Jack’s journey.

Ed Sheeran plays a significant role as himself throughout the film. This lends a current musical sounding board to the script along with observations like, why would a modern musician write a song about the USSR? And who the heck is “Jude?”

 Danny Boyle (127 Hours and Slumdog Millionaire) is the director of this charming, feel good movie.

The casting of Kate McKinnon as a predatory L.A. manager was a distraction. Just about anyone could have played this role. Her association with Saturday Night Live pulled me out of the film and into a lengthy comic sketch. Other than that, she did a fine job with the part.

If you want to see this movie, go quickly, before someone tells you “just one thing” that you’ll otherwise receive as a gift on your own. And in case you find yourself wondering, the surviving Beatles have embraced and approve of the film.

Yesterday runs 1 hour, 56 minutes and is rated PG13.

Should I see this movie?  

Vic’s Flix Movie Review: Shaft

“You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother (Shut your mouth!)”

We all remember that iconic line from the Oscar winning Theme From Shaft by Isaac Hayes in 1971. And it is repeated in the latest Shaft movie, with less polite editing. Whether you like the original Shaft movie or character, the song is unique, powerful and playful. It evokes imagery of the time, Afro-style.

If you’re looking for polite, this film is quite the opposite. It is loaded from curb to gutter with N-words, F-words, M-words, C-words, B-words and whatever other letter-word you can imagine. Even John Shaft’s Millennial son John Shaft Junior is offended, and asks his dad to stop using the N-word.

Junior also apologizes for Dad’s behavior, “He thinks he’s the black James Bond.” Dad responds, “If that dude was real, he’d wanna be me.”

What is it about Samuel L. Jackson that’s so fun to watch? He’s become a virtual parody of himself. His badass self. You expect him to be foul, fierce and forgiveable, and he always delivers.

But wait, you say, Richard Roundtree played Shaft in the original movie. Did he get too old to reprise the role in 2019? Heck no, he’s just Grandpa Shaft now at age 76, a dapper, fine looking fellow who keeps an arsenal in a secret closet in his apartment. Interesting, since Jackson is 70, but a young 70 who can pull off the generational divide.

The story is fairly ludicrous, and is thus considered an action crime comedy. You know those bad guys who can’t seem to hit the broad side of a barn – in the barn? They unload hundreds of rounds to Shafts single clip, and he decimates entire gangs. You realize you just need to duck when a machine gun is being unloaded into your car? Shaft knows. Right on! Oh, and Junior can shoot, he just hates guns.

So John Shaft Junior (Jessie T. Usher) seeks his Dad’s help solving the murder of his best friend. This leads into a world of alleged Muslim terrorists, drug dealers and dance clubs. Yes, to Dad’s surprise, Junior knows the art of Brazilian dance-fighting. That gets him out of one scrape, and then he throws up on two hookers. Dad just roles his eyes and continues to mentor him in the ways of street violence and sex. After all, he thinks Junior’s mama raised him to be a white boy. He’ll have none of that.

Tim Story is in the Director’s chair for this, the 5th film in the Shaft series. About the only credit attributed to him that I recognize is Fantastic Four in 2005. Other than that, he’s done mostly TV work.

By the end of the movie, the three generations of Shaft men are seen striding through the streets of Harlem in matching shades and burgundy suede dusters, ready for the sixth film in the series.

I need to say at this point, do not bring your kids to this movie. Recently I saw two parents taking their perhaps 6 and 8 year old daughters to see John Wick III. Come on people!

Shaft (2019) runs 1 hour and 51 minutes and is rated R.

Should I see this movie? 

Vic’s Flix Movie Review: Men In Black International

So, what’s different about Men In Black International from its predecessors and why doesn’t it work? A number of things, actually. The MIB franchise, parts I, II and III were all directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. They all starred Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. And rather than produce Men In Black IV, faced with declining box office revenue, even when adjusted for increasing ticket prices, they chose to stop while they were ahead. So is this a reboot or simply a fourth chapter?

Calling this film Men In Black IV would have been a disservice to the original triad, which struggled even with the on screen charisma of Smith and Jones to maintain audience interest and compelling stories. Granted, Liam Neeson has a very particular set of skills, as we now understand, but as the head of the London MIB organization, “Agent High T” lacks resolve and caves under pressure from his subordinates. And there’s a reason for that, as we discover later.

There’s some cool tech in this outing. Weapons that are magically extracted from the trim of a flying BMW and a proprietary super-fast subway system transports agents under the ocean to London by way of the Thames (which would actually be the long way around) in…well, they don’t actually say how long, but it’s fast. There are lots of floating displays and holographic projections that have become so ubiquitous in science fiction films that it seems like we should be using them in the real world by now. And of course, the infamous “neuralizer” is used frequently to cover tracks with induced memory lapses and planted suggestions throughout the movie.

Chris Hemsworth, looking lean and unlike Thor in a suit and tie, plays Agent H, reluctantly alongside partner Agent M (Tessa Thompson), a newbie who talked her way into the MIB organization after succeeding in a lifelong quest to find their headquarters. Oh, and she’s a girl! So, we have a couple of obligatory nods to feminine power that come off as patronizing. “I had that conversation,” quips Chief Agent O, the steely Emma Thomson, about the team’s “Men” moniker. And Agent H credits his partner by stating, “We’re the Men…and woman…In Black.” Wink, wink, meet you for a drink later babe. “Who is that guy?” M asks a colorful female, time-shifting alien. “I don’t know but he’s yummy!”

He may be yummy, but he’s no Thor. He’s kind of lost his mojo on the team, but in a fun nod to the Thor character, and as an Easter egg for Marvel fans, he desperately reaches for a one pound sledgehammer during a fight, skidding along the floor as if it might jump into his grasp, but alas, has to pick it up like a mere mortal and toss it ineffectively at a battling alien.

The star of this film is a non-human animated chess piece named “Pawny.” He’s got Baby Groot cuteness and most of the funny lines in the film. I’d pay to see a Baby Masters of the Universe starring these two animated characters. And ultimately Pawny literally saves the world, which goes pretty much unnoticed by the insecure human agents. He is voiced by Kumail Nanjiani, with a subtle Indian accent that makes him sound vaguely like a young computer help desk specialist or Uber driver (which he actually plays in the upcoming Stuber.)

The film seems to lose its footing, heading off on a tangent to an evil ex girlfriend of Agent H named Riza (Rebecca Ferguson.) The most interesting thing about her is a third arm, which she uses to great effect in a fight scene with Agent M. But she really doesn’t seem all that evil, and is defeated far too easily.

Aliens abound in Men In Black International. This has always been a hallmark of the franchise. But minus Tommy Lee Jones’ deadpan demeanor and Will Smith’s naïve enthusiasm, the chemistry of the first three films was entirely lacking. F. Gary Gray, a director with a meager film repertoire and mostly music videos in his portfolio, is a puzzling choice to take the lead on this film. Box office take during its first weekend was respectable but not impressive. It remains to be seen how long it stays in theaters.

Kids might like this, but after spending $20 on tickets and an equivalent amount on snacks, I would have appreciated being shot with a neuralizer on the way out of the theater.

Men In Black International runs 1 hour, 54 minutes and is rated PG-13

Should I see this movie? 

Vic’s Flix Movie Review: Rocketman

On October 12, 1986 we saw Elton John at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, a mere five miles from the legendary Troubadour music venue where he exploded onto the scene on August 25, 1970. By this time, his greatest hits, those from his classic period between 1970 and 1976 were all part of the set list. It’s one of those shows you pull out of your portfolio when comparing concerts with friends. Yeah, I saw Elton John in L.A.

And that said, I don’t consider myself a huge fan, although the song Rocketman is one of my all time favorites. I think we have a greatest hits cassette somewhere, but the Elton John I experienced when I was coming of age in the early 70s was as an inescapable, integral fabric in the soundtrack tapestry that soothed our journey from the late 60s into a fabulous and turbulent decade. 

His songs evoke that “where were you when you first heard…” visceral reaction. He was always on the radio (remember radio?) with a range of tunes that spanned from the beautiful Your Song to the raucous Crocodile Rock. Pick your mood, he and lyricist Bernie Taupin captured raw emotion in music and words. I was washing windows at my first job when the haunting, synthesized strains embedded in the song Rocketman, like fuel expending on ascent, sealed an association within me of flashback proportions. That the song was inspired by the amazing science fiction writer Ray Bradbury of suburban Waukegan Illinois, for me lays another piece of rebar in the concrete of this musical creation. It also harkens back to David Bowie’s Space Oddity, another of my favorites. 

But this is not a music review, so now lets talk about the film that attempts to capture this amazing life and talent.

Like so many other rock ‘n roll biopics, most recently Bohemian Rhapsody, Elton John’s life seems to have followed a script: child prodigy struggles for acceptance and recognition, spends time supporting other musicians, bursts onto the scene, is taken advantage of by producers and adoring fans, copes with drugs and alcohol, and if not dead by 27 from drugs or AIDS, winds up in rehab hoping for a second act.

The movie Rocketman dutifully captures each of these phases, playing alongside a through-line of parental disdain, neglect and emotional abuse. Perhaps the phases in John’s life are segmented in this way, but you can almost hear the pages of the storyboard turning – ok, now the Troubadour segment – like a series of music videos, at times awkwardly strung together.

A youthful 29-year-old Taron Egerton, known from the Kingsmen films, plays Elton John (born Reginald Dwight) as an adult throughout most of the film. His John pales by comparison to Rami Malek’s Freddy Mercury. Other sequences rely on child actors (Matthew Illesley and Kit Connor) to portray his formative, restrictive upbringing as a musical prodigy. Bryce Howard is very un-Jurassic World in her portrayal of his cold-hearted mother. Given John’s full participation in the film, with a nothing-is-off-limits carte blanche to director Dexter Fletcher, the severity of interactions with his parents was apparently represented with full approval. It leaves you feeling very sorry for him, despite his phenomenal transformation and success.

Probably the most powerful sequence in the film, an awe-inspiring debut performance at the Troubadour, is enhanced to fantasy proportions by having John literally float away from his piano, the audience defying gravity and likewise floating upward from the floor of the small club. Those in attendance have bragging rights over a legendary moment in pop music history. In the audience sat Neil Diamond, Stephen Stills and Leon Russell.

When I saw this in the preview I came to expect a more fantasy-like treatment throughout the film. A couple of other fantasy sequences were injected during songs that needed visual embellishment. And how do you tell the story of Elton John without a Grease-like story through song? But the songs were retrofitted to fit the story elements, not originally inspired by them. 

To say that the film was more ordinary than fantastic is unfair. But when a biographical film is more mundane than its subject, it leaves you wondering if it could have been better made in someone else’s hands. In fact, Dexter Fletcher was called in to finish Bohemian Rhapsody when its director was fired for bad behavior. The two films have a similar feel.

Interviews with the cast reveal the general feeling that John is a very nice man. You get this sense in the film as well. He can’t even yell at Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell) without immediately apologizing.

During the summer of 1976, the song Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, a duet with Kiki Dee seemed to be played every 30 minutes on top-40 radio. Dee is faithfully played here by Rachel Muldoon, complete with auburn bangs and jumper straight out of the music video. It was an enjoyable scene that was sadly cut short by the entrance of John’s lover/nemesis John Reid (Richard Madden), who came to dominate and control John during his most productive period. So, add him to the list of people you come to hate while learning about Elton.

I always thought (and so did many others) that Bernie Taupin was Elton’s partner. The film straightens that out. They were like brothers, and this is repeated several times. But they were the Lennon and McCartney of early 70s pop music, a partnership so effective they became a single entity.

Like other true-life films with living subjects, a few photos and credits at the end reveal a happy ending. Elton has been sober for 28 years and is married to David Furnish. He has stopped touring to focus on raising their two adopted children.

Rocketman (2019) runs 2 hours 1 minute and is rated R.

Should I see this movie? 

Vic’s Flix Movie Review: Ma

We all enter the crucible of terror known as high school and emerge after four years ready for adulthood. Correct that. We emerge ready for another four years that change us forever. But some never recover from the trauma suffered between ages 13 and 17. Some are kind and some are cruel. And cruelty plays a significant role in the film Ma.

Octavia Spencer is one of those actresses you just want to hug. Thus, she is perfectly cast as Sue Ann (nicknamed Ma), the cuddly adult willing to buy booze for a car full of partying teens. Or the hostess who offers her home as a safe place to drink, “to keep you off the road” she pleads. Who would suspect she’s a psychopath?

Spencer is an academy award winner we all remember from The Help and Hidden Figures. But she has had an extremely busy career, frequently playing nurses on TV and in film. She turns the mood from laughter to horror on a dime in Ma, manipulating the impressionable teen victims she befriends outside a liquor store.

And then it quickly gets creepy.

This is a tale of a deeply traumatized young girl seeking revenge on those who abused her decades earlier. Now, the classmates who bullied her have teens of their own. And did they learn anything along the way? Seems not. So they are ripe for revenge, and temptation is being fostered at every turn. Just DO NOT go upstairs!

From the onset, you find yourself glad to have survived this period of your life, glad that your own kids made it through, and worried about the grandkids’ turn if you are so blessed.

The stomach churning tension experienced during the recent film Greta ( reviewed previously) or Get Out, build analogously toward the evening that Carrie went to the prom, complete with flames and destruction. Unfortunately they skip the “Carrie effect” once the psychopathic main character has gotten her come-uppance. It somewhat disappointingly ends there, minus the nerve jangling, jolting reappearance of the monster who most certainly was destroyed a few moments earlier.

Diana Silvers, whose short career is off to a great start, plays Maggie, the new girl in town whose random act of kindness plays a pivotal role late in the film. Other than that, no bad deed goes unpunished in Ma, and Ma is doing all the punishing.

Director Tate Taylor, who also directed The Help, has directed three actresses to Oscar nominations. He frequently casts Octavia Spencer in his films.

Oral sex, violence and language earn this film its R rating. Its not one for the kiddies, unless you care to do a lot of explaining.

Ma runs 1 hour 39 minutes and is rated R

Should I see this movie?   

Vic’s Flix Movie Review: Aladdin

Here comes “The Summer of Disney” - but we have to wonder, with recent acquisitions, isn’t it all-Disney all the time?

The animated Aladdin was a fun family favorite in 1993. And the new live action release is no less engaging. But I have to get this out of the way up front and then move on: I miss Robin Williams. He brought his trademark energy and humor to the Genie character and was clearly the star of the show. Genie is Robin. Robin is Genie. A tough act to follow, and no doubt to cast.

Enter Will Smith and his computer enhanced blue muscles to do an admirable job in the central role, singing and seeming to really enjoy himself in an updated portrayal of Genie. As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, the popular particle-smoke effect is used throughout the film when letting the Genie out of the bottle or putting him back in place. Many other transformative moments benefit from this multimedia effect.

This is a colorful romp through Agrabah, a product of a Middle Eastern folk tale that featured Aladdin in the One Thousand and One (Arabian) Nights. Directed by Guy Ritchie (Madonna’s ex), whose most noteworthy successes cast Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes (2009) and a sequel two years later. Perhaps this is another attempt by Disney to develop a relevant base of directors in the wide net they’re casting. Or maybe they’re just spread too thin.

Whomever is in the Director’s chair, Disney films remain solidly Disney-esque. Villains are over the top evil and ultimately defeated. Boys get girls, lose girls, save girls, all while said girls are expressing their fierce and feminist natures. With a bit of courage, Disney could have named this film Jasmine. She’s the pivotal character, aspiring to be the first female Sultan of Agrabah, but she has to be literally swept off her feat on a magic carpet, convince Daddy and marry Aladdin to make it happen. The music has been nicely updated and a few new songs added.

The non-human characters deserve a mention. Abu is adorable, a typically wide-eyed Disney creature. The equally amazing animated parrot, Iago, is presented here minus the voice of Gilbert Godfried, which was core to the bird’s minion nature. Now he’s just a big-mouthed ordinary red parrot.

Marwan Kenzari plays Jafar, the power hungry Grand Vizier to the Sultan. Unfortunately his voice is an octave too high and makes him sound less evil than he should.

The sets of this movie are wonderfully over-stuffed Disney prop explosions that lead to a Bollywood dance sequence as the final credits roll. Fast motion was used during chase and dance scenes. Humans can’t move fast enough to keep up with the musical back beat. The colors are vivid, pervasive and a treat for the eyes. But I couldn’t help but feel that the designers were building sets that could easily be transformed into the next DisneyWorld ride. And of course there will be tons of merchandise.

Aladdin is played by Mena Massoud, an Egyptian who grew up in Canada. Handmaid Dalia is played by Nasim Pedrad, an Iranian born Muslim and a face familiar to Saturday Night Live fans during the years 2009 to 2014.

Frankly, Erin Moran and Scott Baio could have spun Joannie and Chachi into a Jasmine and Aladdin production. But the new stars are loaded with talent, particularly Naomi Scott, who sings up a storm while those around her are simply competent. She has an Indian mother and British father, a plate full of work and a long future ahead of her.

And then there’s Will Smith, known as the most powerful actor in Hollywood, among other titles. His is a long multidisciplinary career full of blockbuster performances and record box office grosses, awards upon awards and the ability to seemingly do anything. This was clearly a fun project for him.

Definitely see this on a big screen. Although a bit long, it’s a fun adventure for the whole family. Wholesome entertainment from the masters of wholesome entertainment.

Aladdin (2019) runs 2 hours, 8 minutes and is rated PG

Should I see this movie? 

Vic’s Flix Movie Review: Long Shot

I’ve never been a fan of Seth Rogan, but I seem to like his films. His first major role in Knocked Up was as the stoner “Ben” who against all odds manages a one-night stand with the beautiful Katherine Heigl. While her career seems to have slowed, Rogan’s has somewhat surprisingly taken off with tons of voice work and a steady stream of TV and film appearances. Knocked Up is a Judd Apatow film, which, like Superbad and Bridesmaids is loaded to the rafters with vulgarity, profanity and crude humor. You know, kind of the norm anymore, and Rogan is perfectly suited for this genre. His writing for Sausage Party is straight out of this playbook.

Not to mess with success, Rogan has replicated Apatow’s formula and managed to costar on this outing with Charlize Theron in another unlikely pairing. This time he and Theron share Producer credits with about ten others and one wonders if Charlize is demonstrating yet another layer to her acting portfolio, or was just paid tons of bucks to have a little fun and fulfill Rogan’s casting fantasy.

He’s one of those actors like Zach Galifianakis, John Belushi, Chris Farley, Will Ferrell or Jonah Hill who can cause you to laugh just by walking on screen based on their track record and physical appearance. It also results in some cases (not Belushi, Ferrell or Farley) in a compensatory attempt by the actor to separate their on screen persona from that which brought them recognition. Imagine Will Ferrell slicking back his hair, wearing stylish suits and NOT being a parody of himself. Rogan and Hill are guilty of this split personality. Mountains of cash aren’t enough? But that doesn’t really matter. I just find it annoying.

The plot of Long Shot is purely ludicrous. Theron plays Secretary of State, Charlotte Field, who is positioning herself for a run at the Presidency. The current President, everyone's favorite Bob Odenkirk, has decided to leave office and pursue a career in films. Unlike Madeleine Albright or Hilary Clinton – VERY unlike either of them – she is model beautiful and has poor taste in men. Oh wait, maybe not entirely unlike… 

Rogan is Fred Flarsky, a comical name in itself, a talented but snarky journalist with self-destructively high principles who quits his job rather than work for a media mogul with enormous political clout. Where have we seen that before? Other blatant political statements permeate the film. Did we know that a seemingly liberal black man can be a member of “the GOP and the GOD?” Fred’s longtime best friend Lance, played by O’Shea Jackson Jr. enlightens Fred with that stunner.

A series of unlikely events results in the two main characters reminiscing about the night young Fred kissed babysitter Charlotte and became vividly and embarrassingly aroused. Apparently this was such an endearing memory that the Secretary of State decides to hire an out of work journalist to help “punch up” her speeches, and drags him around the world at her side to the great dismay of her entourage.

Sometimes a movie works despite itself. My favorite scene in Long Shot is an unexpected running face-plant pratfall down a long flight of stairs, ending in a skidding stop at the feet of numerous dignitaries. Lots of other physical comedy helps Long Shot not take itself too seriously. And then there’s THAT scene. You know, the bodily fluid one we haven’t seen to my knowledge since There’s Something About Mary in 1998 when Rogan was just 16 years old. Perhaps it influenced his sense of humor and writing. But that was yet another film about an unlikely second chance relationship – that worked.

If you can suspend disbelief, need something that doesn’t require much thought and would like to see a movie that has almost no violence, you can do worse than seeing Long Shot. Just don’t bring the kids. Sure, it’s rated R, but I’ve seen parents bring youngsters to some truly appalling movies recently.

Long Shot runs 2 hours, 5minutes and is rated R.

Should I see this movie?  

Vic’s Flix Movie Review: Avengers: Endgame

Thor is fat. That much must be stated before I begin a review of what may become the top grossing film of all time. I say again, Thor is fat.

I am not one of those people who must see a new release the moment it is available. The downside is that I risk hearing spoilers, having my expectations unrealistically raised, or in the case of Avengers: Endgame, heading to the theater with the foreknowledge that you’re about to see the most successful box office opening of all time. Its receipts have already topped Titanic, and are second only to Avatar (in a quarter of the time). Oh, and you’re about to spend three hours in a moderately uncomfortable chair.

It’s a shame Stan Lee is no longer with us to enjoy the success of this final chapter in the Avengers story line. And it’s amazing that his creations, teaming with illustrator Jack Kirby, date back to the late 50s and early 60s. The depth of the Lee/Kirby partnership was evident in the creation of the Avengers title in 1963. They were the Lennon/McCartney of the comic world, each drawing strength from the other greater than the sum of their individual talents, which were considerable. And in a 2017 Disney company dinner hosted by Bob Iger, the two were awarded the honorarium titles of Disney Legends. Both of their estates were voted generous remuneration in recognition of their contributions to the Disney Company legacy.

Hundreds of millions of copies of comic books featuring characters that the current generation of fans is just getting to know have been around for decades. And 21 increasingly popular films have led to this epic finale. So why end there? I think it’s a good choice, like Michael Jordan retiring at the top of his game. How long can compelling stories be produced before burnout sets in? And there are so many other story lines to pursue.

Just about every Marvel character is in this film. I tried to come up with an analogy, but nothing works. If you imagine the characters from all of the Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movies being cast in a single intersecting and overlapping film, perhaps the level of anticipation and excitement can be imagined.

But I love that Thor is fat, as we discover early in the film.

When we walked out of the theater in 2018, having viewed Avengers: Infinity War, it was following a depressing final few moments in which half of all living creatures in the universe ceased to exist, thanks to Thanos, an alien being with “cosmic power,” a god or devil depending on how you think about him. So we are left with half of the Avengers dissolving on screen into the smoke and dust of non-existence.

The character of Thanos was created by writer/illustrator Jim Starlin in 1973, then incorporated into Marvel’s portfolio, where he was encouraged to “beef him up.” The young Starlin eagerly complied. Thus the Thanos we see in the films is something we would expect to see from a being born in a place called Titan. 

Thanos is a being so powerful that he can create or destroy a universe. Who does that sound like? He appears in multiple Marvel story lines, with Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Black Panther, Dr. Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, and eventually the Avengers, battling him unsuccessfully multiple times, and eventually failing to defeat him. A five-year period of guilt, regret and mourning follow.

It occurred to me that Thanos has two daughters, Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillan – Amy Pond of the Dr. Who series), so there must be a Mrs. Thanos. In fact, he sired many children whom he later destroyed. Was Mistress Death’s rejection the motivating force behind his desire to scale back the universe and give it a second chance to grow? He did this to impress a girl?

That concept makes little logical sense, as any half-competent gardener knows. You don’t pull out half of your plants in hopes that the garden will fill in with better selections. Pruning is a slow, deliberate process. Thanos has the maniacal impatience that comes with great power, and is using it irresponsibly.

Thanos is a complex character with a deep history in the Marvel Universe. A computer generated Josh Brolin is the latest rendition. Born on Saturn’s moon, Titan, his mother tried to kill him. Here’s where Marvel is treading through biblical waters. Circuitous questions about the origin of life result. Does God in fact play dice with the universe? And the devil is in the details, but all he caused was five years of great and widespread pain.

And that’s the half-decade Thor spent drinking beer and playing video games. Who would have expected the Asgardian God of Thunder to wallow in self-pity and Cheetos? The writers mixed lots of fun moments like this throughout an otherwise intense story. Young Peter Parker and Ant-Man provide consistent and much needed comic relief.

I was struck by the ongoing level of grief the superheroes carry and share with each other. Perhaps their feelings of responsibility for the state of the universe kept it fresh. But out of great sadness comes great innovation. And despite himself, Iron Man goes into his lab and invents time travel. Ok, we knew it was coming. They couldn’t let all these great characters just go way and not come back, could they? And this becomes the vehicle for Tony Stark’s eventual path to heroism, not just snarky, self-indulgent capitalism.

Prior to Tony Stark’s discovery, the team enlists the aid of the newly hybridized Dr. David Banner/Hulk. Recalling his inability to “hulk up” in Avengers: Infinity War, he finally comes to grips with his conflicted inner struggle by literally meeting himself halfway. The result is a highly animated but comical sweater and glasses wearing Hulk who looks like Banner and takes selfies with adoring kids.

He explains the quantum state time travel that resulted in Ant-Man’s escape from annihilation. "If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future and your former present becomes the past which can't now be changed by your new future." Huh? What?

In an ode to time travel movies and a need to understand the potential paradoxes presented by the various creative methods employed to experience temporal displacement, Ant-Man delivers an incredulous soliloquy of every major time travel movie ever made, including Hot Tub Time Machine, and sums it up in disbelief: “So Back to the Future is a bunch of Bullshit!?”

There are many special moments in this movie. Tony Stark exposes his soft gooey center in his relations with his wife and daughter, Captain America and Peter Parker. His trip through time brings him face to face with his father, whom he hugs and thanks without revealing his identity. His ultimate sacrifice proves him to be the hero he mocks in ever-optimistic and stoic Captain America. Have his sarcastic, cynical comments just been a defense mechanism all along?

Captain America becomes worthy of carrying Thor’s hammer, to Thor’s delight, then proceeds down his own path to the past to live out his life with Agent Peggy Carter. Thor’s ongoing anxiety attacks lead to a tearful reunion with his long dead mother, whose only concern is for her son’s future self. He must walk away knowing that she dies on the day he arrived. He must not interfere with events of the past.

The final battle scene is reminiscent of those from Lord of the Rings. All-out battlefield-filling chaos, with flying ships and techno-creatures, aliens, force fields and even a phalanx of all Marvel female superheroes as they rush together into battle. Black Panther arrives, and eventually Captain Marvel stops by on a break from the other “thousands of planets” that need her help. Helpful as she is, it’s not quite enough to take on Thanos. This is Iron Man’s moment, using Thanos’s own technology against him. Thanos accepts defeat and fades from existence himself.

There is a lot of jumping back and forth through time that becomes a bit confusing. Just don’t think about it too hard. If future Nebula kills past Nebula, shouldn’t future Nebula cease to exist? And how are they both together in the same scene? Lots of paradoxes that other films would have just avoided.

We missed baby Groot, who is now five years older (sapling Groot?) He was a highlight of Guardians of the Galaxy 2. But the Guardian team is intact and the sexual chemistry between Quill and Gamora has been reset. And everyone knows who’s really in charge…right?

Three hours passed quickly. This epic film has a few slow spots but is so Shakespearean in its tragic and comedic interplay, that there was not a moment I questioned as unnecessary or stupid. There are lots of repurposed scenes from previous films that experienced followers will appreciate, and the newbies will take at face value. And this also becomes Stan Lee’s opportunity for a quick post-mortem cameo. Even Stan benefits from a bit of time travel.

Don’t wait for a trailer or teaser at the end of this Marvel spectacle. The screen goes black and stays that way. The story has concluded.

Avengers: Endgame runs 3 hours, 1 minute and is rated PG-13

Should I see this movie? 

Vic’s Flix Movie Review: The Best of Enemies

I’m not sure how long it took for me to wonder, “Where have I seen this before?” Then it occurred to me – it was the recently viewed movie BlacKkKlansman. Here we have another story based on true events about racism in America that took place several decades ago. Both films end with video clips of the actual people represented in the film. And that’s the point at which you sit back in your seat and realize that people in real life can be actually genuinely awful – and sometimes capable of great personal growth. If by now we don’t realize that we are tribal creatures, fearful of what we don’t understand, and hateful toward what we fear, then this movie is evidence that there can be hope in the least likely of times and places.

It seems like every time we go to the theater lately there are one or more films starring Sam Rockwell and/or Taraji P. Henson. They both have that familiar yet malleable presence on screen that augments their versatility and popularity.

Rockwell is coming off of his recent Oscar for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri. He’s been in six films in the last two years, plus shorts, TV appearances and lots of voice work. He’s carved out a personal niche as a southern badass, or just a plain lunatic as in his memorable and utterly disturbing Green Mile role.

So it’s not surprising that in The Best of Enemies, Rockwell plays the well known president of a Durham North Carolina KKK chapter in 1971. Yes, that’s right, the Klan was out in the open in a way that’s hard to imagine, until recently events brought them to the surface once more. I mean, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made all that go away, right? Not even close.

My one problem with Rockwell’s portrayal of the Klan’s Exaltant Cyclops C.P. Ellis was his overly affected John Wayne-like swagger that also reminded me of Johnny Depp’s imitation of Keith Richards as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. Instead of “Circle the wagons, Pilgrim” or “Avas ye mateys, yo ho” he cocks his head to the side, saunters across the screen and spews any number of “nigger” this or thats until we realize just how racist a character we’re watching.

Taraji P. Henson, as Ann Atwater, the Durham African American community’s voice has been no less busy during the past two years. She’s starred in four films, shorts, has also done voice work, and was front and center in the popular TV series Empire. (see my review of What Men Want, posted previously.”

For The Best of Enemies, Taraji dons a fat suit and a strong southern accent as she is reluctantly teamed with Rockwell as leaders in a conflict resolution protocol led by an outside consultant. The “charette” as it is called, is facilitated by Babou Ceesay as Bill Ridick, with the goal of involving numerous participants from each side of a debate over school integration.

It’s hard to fault the scriptwriters when a film documents actual people and events. This story builds to a predictable and inevitable vote that results in Ellis casting a vote for integration to an incredulous audience of townspeople. It was an unbelievable act of courage that results in a gas pump at Ellis’s service station being set ablaze, and a period of harassment and threats. But he lived to tell the story and be interviewed on film, alongside his unlikely new friend, Ann Atwater.

If you like true tales of enlightenment and redemption, you’ll find this film worth watching as a history lesson and for its educational value. It is competently filmed and acted, and our audience applauded when the final credits began to roll.

The Best of Enemies (2019) runs 2 hours, 13 minutes and is rated PG-13.

Should I see this movie? 

Vic Flix Movie Review: Shazam!

We enter the latest DC Comics origin story with young Thaddeus Sivana in the back seat of a car, speeding through a dark and stormy night in the year 1974. His abusive older brother and father are in the front seat, proving how abusive they can be, when Thad’s Magic 8-Ball (remember those?) starts flashing mysterious symbols and messages, ultimately causing Thad to experience a hallucination. Emerging from a mental trip to a wizard’s lair, he freaks out, startling his father, who freaks out even more and crashes the car. Thrown from the car and face down in a pool of blood, is the elder Sivana dead?  Signs point to yes.

Flash forward to adult Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), who has spent his entire life searching for instances of similar, let’s call them abductions, and occurrences of the seven mysterious symbols throughout the world. We quickly come to understand that he has become evil. Much like wealthy Bruce Wayne, he runs a shadow organization that covers for his secret identity.

There are two responses to abuse. One is to pay it forward, becoming an abuser oneself. The other is to learn from the experience and make sure no one ever suffers the same treatment, at least at one’s own hands. Would Dr. Sivana have become evil if he embodied kindness? Don’t count on it.

Meanwhile, Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is on a quest to find the mother who lost him in a crowd at an amusement park when he was a toddler. He has bounced around the foster system, too much to handle for all placements to date. He winds up at a group home that is incredibly diverse and loving, and also the home to Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), the lightly handicapped superhero fan who has some of the best lines in the film. Upon first meeting Billy he warns, “Don’t believe everything you hear, it gets really Game of Thrones around here.” He then admits he’s messing with Billy and then brags, “I’m a handicapped foster kid – I have everything in the world going for me!”

A lunchtime conversation focuses on Freddie’s obsession with all things superhero. He asks Billy which superpower he’d prefer – flying or invisibility, and then proceeds to dismantle the traditional answers and shine the light of truth on them. He shows Billy his guaranteed authentic bullet that bounced off of Superman, a prelude to a later scene, and our first hint that we are in the DC Universe, where superheroes are real. Ultimately Freddie becomes Billy’s advocate and sidekick following Billy’s transformation.

What transformation, you ask? Well, concentrate and ask again. Billy experiences a similar visit to the Wizard’s lair, this time by subway train, flashing symbols similar to the 8-Ball earlier in the film. This is where Billy, a young Scott Baio lookalike, first demonstrates his sense of humor and extreme confidence. The Wizard is so overly dramatic, with his loud commands and hyperbolic pronouncements, Billy chuckles and says, “Seriously?” It’s an endearing moment that ends when the wizard scares him into taking the whole wizard thing seriously. By grasping the Wizard’s staff (yeah, weird) and saying “Shazam!” he instantly becomes a huge, muscle-bound superhero version of himself at about age 30-something (Zachary Levi, from the series Chuck.)

The Wizard’s lair is also home to seven demon statues, representing the seven deadly sins, frozen solid and under the wizard’s control, until…

…Dr. Sivana enters, snags a glowing orb that enters his bald skull as a glowing blue eye, and empowers him with the spirits of the statues. Of course, they come to life and do his bidding, all with the greatly overused particle smoke effect that video effects designers have mastered in the past year or so. Yay computing power!

There’s a lot of fun along the way as Freddie and Billy/Shazam set out to discover what powers Billy has become endowed with. This is honestly the best part of the movie, reminiscent of Tom Hanks, in Big, trying out his new body with the silly humor and innocence of a fourteen year old.

Meanwhile, old blue eye, who come to think of it rather resembles a glowing Magic 8-Ball, sets out upon a new quest – to capture Shazam and absorb his power into his own. And that quest takes up the remainder of the movie, which at over two hours seems much too long.

Will there be a sequel to Shazam? Signs point to yes. Drawing on the success of Aquaman and Wonder Woman, DC is on a roll, albeit pale by comparison to Marvel. Mixed results from their portfolio that includes Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, Justice League and Suicide Squad, and with a timeline of sequels planned, the DC Extended Universe has become the 8^thhighest grossing franchise to date. Still, can Shazam ever be taken seriously now that the fun is gone? Cannot predict now.

A note to parents: some scenes featuring the animated statues are intense. Being eaten or thrown out a skyscraper window is definitely not for the kiddies.

Shazam! (2019) runs 2 hours,12 minutes and is rated PG-13

Should I see this movie?

   Your choice.