Category Archives: Uncategorized

Regretting You

The new family drama film Regretting You has some of the hallmarks, um, characteristics of a Hallmark Channel movie. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing.

A young, attractive cast. Small town setting. Much communication via text messages. Wine drinking. Plus a widow.

And, like many Hallmark films, once the scene is set, you pretty much know where the story is going to go. Getting there is what makes such a film work. Or not. (That, too, is not necessarily a bad thing. I mean… you knew the boat was gonna sink but you watched all three hours of Titanic anyway, right?)

Unlike Hallmark films, Regretting You has sex (but no nudity), drug use and some kissing that’s hotter than what you’ll encounter in Hallmark land. It’s rated PG-13.

Morgan (Allison Williams, daughter of TV newsman Brian) is a thirty-something mom of a 17-year-old daughter Clara (McKenna Grace). Morgan became pregnant with Clara when she was Clara’s age, so she’s overly protective.

Morgan’s life is hit with a double whammy when her husband Chris (Scott Eastwood, Clint’s son) and her sister Willa (Jenny Davidson) die in a car crash. That shock is followed by a life-altering revelation. An old platonic friend of Morgan’s, Jonah (Dave Franco), was involved with sister Willa and he begins showing up often at Morgan’s house.

Meanwhile young Clara is hot to trot and begins a flirtation with fellow high school student Miller (Mason Thames). So mom Morgan has to deal with her own issues and keep a watchful eye on daughter.

The great actor Clancy Brown has a small role in the film. He was a prison guard in The Shawshank Redemption. He supervised the duel at the end of John Wick 4. And, of course, he’s the voice of Mr. Krabs on SpongeBob SquarePants. Always good to see him AND to hear his amazing voice.

Regretting You is based on a book by the prolific best-selling author Colleen Hoover. Unlike the previous Hoover movie It Ends With Us, this new film will hopefully remain free of the bad vibes, controversy and litigation that followed in the wake of its production and release.

A spicier Hallmark sort of movie is how I’d describe Regretting You. If that sounds like something you’d like, check it out.

Leave a comment

Good Fortune

Cute, sweet, charming. Words to describe Good Fortune, the new film from Aziz Ansari. He wrote it, directed it and co-stars. Funny? Yes, occasionally.

Good Fortune is a fantasy. A light trifle, but amusing. 

Arj (Ansari) is a gig worker in L.A. He works at a Home Depot type store but also does food delivery and other tasks. He sleeps in his car.

Jeff (Seth Rogen) is a wealthy tech bro who lives in a cool house on a hill. After hiring Arj to clean his garage, he makes Arj his assistant. When Arj uses Jeff’s credit card for an expensive restaurant meal, Jeff fires him.

Gabriel (Keanu Reeves) is an angel. His area of concern is driving and texting and he saves many distracted drivers from danger. But he’s ambitious and oversteps his authorized duty. He arranges for Arj and Jeff to trade places and their respective lifestyles.

Gabriel’s goal is to show Arj that wealth is not that important to one’s happiness but, of course, that backfires and Arj does not want to swap back. After his misstep, Gabriel’s angel boss Martha (Sandra Oh) demotes him to human status, leading to the movie’s funniest scenes.

Keke Palmer is appealing as Arj’s co-worker and romantic interest Elena. 

Reeves and Rogen are talented comic actors whose performances here are spot on. Ansari, whose talents are immense, is not quite the experienced actor as those two guys. But he gives it his best effort and is a likable fellow and in a film like this one, likability goes a long way.

As a director and writer, Ansari could’ve used a real angel on his shoulder to coax him into tightening up the movie a bit and offering a few more funny lines here and there. 

Does Good Fortune offer a real message about economic inequities? Mainly it just reiterates what most of us already know. But if, after seeing this film, you might be likely to tip your DoorDash delivery person or Uber driver more generously, then Ansari will have made his point.

Good Fortune is rated R, mainly for language. Runs just over 90 minutes.

Leave a comment

After The Hunt

After The Hunt is worthy of your attention because it stars Julia Roberts. She is, to use a Ron Burgundy term, kind of a big deal. And her performance in this new film is worthy of your attention because it’s pretty darn good!

Alma (Roberts) is a philosophy professor at Yale. There’s tension in her life as she waits to find out if she will get tenure. Her husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is supportive even though he’s aware of her catting around with fellow instructor Hank (Andrew Garfield). 

After a party at her home, grad student Maggie (Ayo Edibri from The Bear) walks home with Hank and later accuses him of sexual assault. Which puts in motion all the film’s drama. At the party, there had been a discovery that sets up a question that needs answering, lending suspense to the story. Hmmm. A mystery!

Alma’s relationships with Frederik, Hank, and friend and associate Kim (Chloe Sevigny) are examined but After The Hunt’s most interesting personal relationship is between Alma and Maggie. Their dynamic changes throughout the film… sometimes warm, sometimes not. The film touches on racial and gender issues. And on the way victims of sexual predators are treated. And, briefly, the topic of plagiarism in higher education. 

After The Hunt is more talk than action. Such movies are sometimes tedious but director Luca Guadagnino and writer Nora Garrett keep the pace moving. Audio from a metronome kicks off the movie and is used a few more times along with an often quirky music soundtrack from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. 

After The Hunt is not a “crowd pleaser” type of movie and not even a “must see.” UNLESS you are a fan of Julia Roberts and her wide-ranging body of work. She’s strong in this meaty role and, along with a good supporting cast, her work here is  among her best efforts.

After The Hunt is rated R. It clocks in at 2:19.

Leave a comment

The Smashing Machine

I’m not a fan of boxing but I have enjoyed a few great boxing MOVIES. I have a strong dislike for MMA fighting and wondered if I might be able to enjoy the new movie The Smashing Machine. I was NOT able to enjoy it.

It’s not that The Smashing Machine is necessarily a bad movie. It’s just that the depiction of the the “sport” of Mixed Marshall Arts is gruesome and, for me, off-putting. Seeing a man on top of another man, repeatedly punching the guy in his already bloody face is disgusting and cringey.

If you like that kind of thing, well, then, director/writer Benny Safdie has constructed a stylish film with several shots from a handheld camera and with an ethereal instrumental jazz audio track. And he and his crew deserve credit for making the fights seem realistic.

Dwayne Johnson (nee The Rock) has bravely stepped into a more serious role as Mark Kerr, a real-life MMA fighter who becomes addicted to pain meds, goes through rehab and tries to make a comeback. Yep, that old sports movie redemption cliché. Johnson’s look is different too. His hair makes him look a bit like André the Giant.

Kerr’s girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt) has issues, too. Her support for Kerr is inconsistent. She wants to occasionally be a party girl while he tries to stay clean. Trouble ensues.

Fellow MMA fighter Mark Coleman (Ryan Bader) is effective as Kerr’s buddy and friendly competitor. 

The Smashing Machine received a 15-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival a few weeks back. And the superlative accolades for the film and especially Johnson’s performance from early reviewers have been splashed all over the TV and print advertisements for the movie. Is he award-worthy? To be determined.

The box office appeal of Dwayne “Don’t Call Me ‘The Rock’” Johnson will sell a bunch of tickets during TSM’s opening weekend. But will it have “legs?” That, too, is to be determined.

The Smashing Machine is rated R. There’s some language and, did I mention, the fighting is rather violent.

Leave a comment

Eleanor The Great

Can a lie ever be… the truth? Or maybe a version of the truth?

Like TV’s Dr. House says, “everybody lies.” You do. I do. Little lies. Big lies. In the new movie Eleanor The Great, Eleanor (June Squibb) unleashes a whopper that just keeps growing and growing. 

Eleanor had shared an apartment in Florida for several years with a lifelong friend (Rita Zohar), a fellow widow. When the friend dies, Eleanor, a spry 90-something, moves back to New York to live with her daughter (Jessica Hecht) and grandson (Will Price). When daughter sends mom to the neighborhood Jewish Community Center to make new friends, Eleanor stumbles into a Holocaust Survivors support group. 

The story she tells gets a strong response from the group AND from an NYU student, Nina (Erin Kellyman) who is observing. Nina interviews Eleanor, brings her into her classroom and soon becomes a chum. When Nina’s dad, a TV newsman (Chiwetel Ejiofor) begins to record a video with Eleanor, the truth comes out. But there’s more to be told beyond Eleanor’s simply being caught sharing a lie.

Eleanor The Great is not, in fact, great but it is good. It’s the directorial debut of Scarlett Johansson. It has the feel of many indie films with shots of subjects having pensive moments while quiet piano music plays. ScarJo, whose Jewish heritage was explored recently on PBS’s Finding Your Roots, and screenwriter Tory Kamen lean into Eleanor’s Jewishness to a degree one doesn’t often see in popular films. But you don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy this film.

The real charm here is June Squibb who turns 96 is just a few weeks. Her energy and good nature are irresistible. She was a true delight in last year’s movie Thelma and while this new film doesn’t require as much physical effort as that one did, she’s just a pleasure to watch. Speaking as a mid-century boomer, I hope I’m as eager to embrace an active life when I’m her age as she appears to be.

Eleanor The Great is rated PG-13.

Leave a comment

Materialists

Tell me what you’re looking for in a ROM-COM. Let’s see if we can find a match! Romance? Comedy? Yes, of course. Those are non-negotiables!

Attractive stars playing cool characters? How about Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pescal and Chris Evans? (As Lucy, a professional matchmaker;  Harry, a financier; and John, a struggling actor, respectively.)

A “meet cute”? For sure. At a wedding reception, no less!

A reunion with a lost love? Yep! At that same wedding reception.

A damsel in distress? Well, one of Lucy’s clients, Sophie (Zoe Winters.)

A clever script with memorable declarations and observations about love and dating and marriage and money? We may have a match here!

Are you willing to overlook a horrible title and occasionally slow pacing? Materialists? Really? Couldn’t writer/director Celine Song have come up with a catchier title for her movie than that? Hey, you can’t have everything!

Surprises? Shhhhh! No spoilers!

Sexual content? A smidge. No nudity. Mostly post-coital chat and some F-bombs. Ergo, an R rating.

Seriously, Materialists is several notches above the average ROM-COM. 

The film has fun presenting a few of the candidates for matchmaking and their very specific qualifications about whom they’d consider for dating. 

Dakota Johnson is excellent as a 30-something woman who is smart and successful in her work matching up couples but has low self esteem regarding her own value as a mate.

The characters that Pascal and Evans portray are both honorable, likable men. Neither is the “bad guy” or the less-than-adequate guy who often appears in ROM-COMs to add to the tension.

Would Materialists be a good date film? I say yes. It would likely generate conversation for couples who are either casually dating or getting serious. 

The final shot of Materialists is pure genius. It comes as the end credits roll and the new Japanese Breakfast theme song My Baby (Got Nothing At All) plays. Followed by the hilarious John Prine and Iris DeMent duet In Spite of Ourselves.

Materialists runs just under two hours.

Leave a comment

Karate Kid Legends

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting, as the song goes. But Li Fong (Ben Wang) needs to learn Karate. And that calls for, yes, THE Karate Kid (Ralph Macchio) who points out that Karate and Kung Fu are “two branches, one tree.”

Karate Kid Legends has plenty of karate and kung fu (plus a bit of boxing) but also has family drama, budding romance and the classic face off between good and evil. And there’s the old “fish out of water” element of teenager Li moving with his doctor mom (Ming-Na Wen) from Beijing to New York City. 

Shortly after his arrival in NYC, Li meets a girl, Mia (Sadie Stanley) whose Dad Victor (Joshua Jackson) runs a pizza parlor. Mia’s ex-boyfriend is local karate expert Conor (Aramis Knight) who keeps encountering Li. Conor is the bad guy in this story, the evil to Li’s good. Although Li has promised his mom that he will avoid fighting in his new country, the inevitable occurs.

Of course it’s great to see Daniel LaRusso (Macchio) looking good and agile at age 63. And the all-time great Asian actor Jackie Chan also moving pretty good at age 71. Chan is Mr. Han, a Beijing kung fu coach who suddenly appears in New York to encourage Li to enter the 5 Boroughs karate tournament. 

And, surprise, the final match of that event features Li Fong versus his nemesis Conor. By this time, his mom is fully supportive.

Karate Kid Legends has Gen-X appeal for those who saw the first movie back in the 80s and maybe can even remember some of its lines. And Joshua Jackson was part of the Dawson’s Creek cast back in the 90s. With its robust action, teen angst and energetic music track—though no Carl Douglas—Karate Kid Legends is a fun, fast-paced movie. A tasty treat! Rated PG-13. 

Leave a comment

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning

Reviewing Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (MI:TFR) via some Q & A…

Does Tom Cruise do his own stunts? 

Yes. So we are told. The new film’s money shot is an aerial chase involving century old technology… biplanes, like the one Lindy flew to Paris 98 years ago. My concern while watching the scene was not the welfare of Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) but instead… how did they do it? How much time was spent digitally erasing the tethers? Where were the cameras placed on the planes and copters and drones? Did Tom realize he looked like Moe Howard when the wind pushed his hair down over his face?

Is it necessary to have seen 2023’s Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (Part One) (MI:DR) to enjoy the new movie? 

No. There’s a voice over at the beginning of MI:TFR that goes over much of the activity and set up from the earlier film. And MI:DR is available for streaming on Prime Video if you’re interested. Watching it can help provide context for the new film. (My review of MI:DR from July 2023: https://davidcraigmovies.com/2023/07/11/mission-impossible-dead-reckoning-part-one/)

Are there other amazing stunts beside the biplane chase? 

Oh, yes! The submarine dive which comes in the middle of the movie offers big thrills and tension as Ethan goes into the sunken Russian sub to retrieve a vital element of “the entity.” His ingenuity as he escapes via a torpedo tube and the clever way the scene is resolved are true highlights of MI:TFR.

What is “the entity?” 

It’s a rogue software program that threatens to destroy everything that is online throughout the world. Or selectively, if a person or a nation has control of the entity. MI:DR’s plot was pursuing the two pieces of a key that can unlock the entity. MI:TFR’s plot is gaining access to the other elements that can enable or disable the entity.

Is there actually a server farm that contains all of humanity’s knowledge hidden deep underground somewhere? 

Who knows? But the image of the one seen is MI:TFR may provide a clue to digital storage capabilities that Amazon and Microsoft (and others in foreign lands) have now and are constantly expanding to accommodate AI.

Could a woman be our president? A Black woman? 

Well, maybe. (One such real life person did get 75 million votes last November.) Angela Bassett brings an even-tempered level of gravitas to her role as POTUS in MI:TFR. 

Can Nick Offerman play a heavy? 

Yes. He’s a general, one of the president’s key advisers. The question of destroying a U.S. city in a weird defensive strategy is debated among the POTUS and her inner circle. 

Do the other members of the Impossible Mission Force play important roles in aiding Ethan in his mission? 

You betcha! Benji (Simon Pegg) and Luther (Ving Rames) provide the hacking and other assistance needed at key junctures. The newest member of the IMF, Grace (Hayley Atwell), demonstrates physical abilities beyond picking pockets in a violent fight scene early in the film.

Is Gabriel (Esai Morales) a capable villain? 

Yes, if you like your villains handsome and swarthy with a bit of charm. 

Anybody else of note in the cast? 

Yes. Henry Czerny is back as CIA chief Kittridge. Also supporting are Hannah Waddington, Janet McTier and, as the curious character Paris, Pom Klementieff.

Is MI:TFR too long? 

No. Not at all. Except for a few sections of exposition, the film moves quickly from locale to locale, from task to task, from peril to peril. Just under two hours and fifty minutes.

Should I get the large popcorn? 

Absolutely, yes. The mondo bucket size.

When will Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning be available on streaming platforms?

In a few months. But do yourself a favor and see this one in a theater. IMAX if you can swing it.

Leave a comment

Warfare

IF YOU LIKE WAR MOVIES… you might enjoy Warfare.

IF YOU WERE OKAY WITH THE REALISTIC GORE OF SAVING PRIVATE RYAN… you might enjoy Warfare.

IF YOU APPROVE OF AMERICA’S INVOLVEMENT IN IRAQ IN THIS CENTURY… you might enjoy Warfare.

The true events depicted in Warfare occurred on November 19, 2006. American Navy seals were sent into a neighborhood of Ramadi, Iraq to quell an assemblage of jihadists. They took over a residence. They engaged the enemy. 

A missle hit resulted in injuries to troops who were outside the residence. Efforts were made to address those grisly wounds. A pair of tanks were dispatched to ferry the troops out of the danger zone.

Did this action have a significant effect on the U.S, war effort in Iraq? Hard to say. As one of the Iraqi family members whose home was taken over by the Americans pleads near the movie’s end, “Why?” 

The moviemaking craft employed here is laudable. Despite being filmed primarily in Britain, the moviemakers (co-directors/writers Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza) do a superb job of recreating the Iraqi home and its environs. Aerial surveillance images add to the storytelling of the mission.

Warfare shows the teamwork and commitment these men—real life individuals—put into the U.S. military efforts in Iraq. Only a few of these men have their real names and photos shown in the film’s end credits—most are given aliases and their faces are blurred.

Warfare is intense. Not an easy film to watch. Once was enough for me. Rated R.

Leave a comment

Drop

A suspense thriller has to be intense. Enough to make a filmgoer a tad uncomfortable but not so much as to be off-putting. Drop is just intense enough without going over the line. It’s rated PG-13, not R.

Violet (Meghann Fahy) is a widow with a 5-year-old son. She’s finally ready to date again. She agrees to meet Henry (Brandon Sklenar) for dinner. When she arrives at the restaurant she has quick encounters with a few staff members and patrons.

After Henry arrives, she begins getting threatening messages on her phone and wonders what’s going on. As the tension builds, it also occasionally ebbs throughout the ordeal via Henry’s gentle demeanor and a comic-relief goofy server.

As relatable as a constantly pinging cellphone can be, and as annoying as text messages from unknown sources can be, coupled with the awareness that we are often being surveilled, Drop takes our modern tech and the constant attachment we have to our cellphones to a different level. 

As Meghann monitors camera shots from her home and considers the potential peril her son Toby and her babysitting sister Jen (Violett Beane) may face, she wonders who is behind all this troubling harassment. Another restaurant customer? The piano player? The goofy server?

During their conversation, Meghann reveals to Henry that she is a survivor of domestic abuse. Interestingly, Brandon Sklenar played a key character in last year’s It Ends With Us, another film involving an abuse survivor. 

Director Christopher Landon and writers Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach have crafted a film that feels very “of today” with its focus on phone messages delivered via Air Drop. Still, Drop seems like a rather generic title. 

Drop clocks in just under an hour-and-a-half, so the suspense which some filmmakers stretch to ridiculous limits, is kept to a reasonable extent. Like the film’s intensity level, it’s not too much. Just enough.

Leave a comment