Movie Sequels Coming in 2020 – 2021

Movie Sequels Coming in 2020 – 2021

Alien: Covenant 2 & 3 or Prometheus 3 & 4

After Alien: Covenant, there will be "another one and then another one which will gradually drive into the back entrance of the film in 1979," Ridley Scott was once quoted as saying. "The whole point of it is to explain the Alien franchise and to explain the how and why of the creation of the alien itself," he mentioned in a different interview.  

Avatar sequels 2 - 5

James Cameron is currently planning one massive shoot that will see four Avatar sequels filmed at the same time (filming has finally begun). Avatar 2 was once expected around Christmas 2018, with Avatar 3, Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 following on every second Christmas after that, but now it isn't. Avatar 2 (at least) is now finally finished filming, and the release date is currently slated for Dec 18, 2020. We also now know that the films are going to be called Avatar: The Way of Water, Avatar: The Seed Bearer, Avatar: The Tulkun Rider and Avatar: The Quest for Eywa.

Baby Driver 2

Edgar Wright looks set, for the first time, to make a direct sequel to one of his movies. He's putting together a deal with Sony Pictures that'd see him write and probably direct Baby Driver 2. Furthermore, he's looking to fast-track his next movie, and another Baby Driver adventure might be it.

Bad Boys For Life and Bad Boys 4

Sony’s planned Bad Boys sequel, Bad Boys for Life, looks like it could be emerging from its most recent coma. After the project lost director Joe Carnahan earlier this year, a November 2018 release date (the latest of many) looked in doubt... and for good reason as it turned out. But now with Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah on board to direct, the studio has announced a U.S. release date of Jan. 17, 2020. Whether the rumored Bad Boys 4 will follow surely depends on the success of part 3.

Beverly Hills Cop 4

Here's what we know so far. Eddie Murphy was keen to make another Beverly Hills Cop film. Brett Ratner was likely to reunite with him after Tower Heist to direct it. Jerry Bruckheimer was back as producer.However, the film had been tentatively earmarked for March 2016, but Paramount is believed to have put the movie on hold indefinitely. It's still likely to happen, just not yet. Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum have penned the script, which will see Axel Foley head back to his Detroit roots. Ratner also got ditched from every project in development, and Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah have been attached for about a year now, and names like Channing Tatum and Tom Hardy have even been floating about.

Bond 25

The 25th James Bond movie will get a release on Feb. 14 2020, five years after the release of Spectre. Long time Bond screenwriters Robert Wade and Neal Purvis, who have been involved with 007 since the Pierce Brosnan era, are back to write the next adventure. Daniel Craig will return, Cary Fukunaga is on board to direct (replacing Danny Boyle) and Saïd Taghmaoui has been linked to the villain role.

Coming to America 2

It had been suggested that Eddie Murphy is indeed in the early stages of putting a sequel to Coming to America together, titled Coming 2 America (do you see what they did there?), and in October 2017, we learned who was directing. Jonathan Levine has landed the job (Warm Bodies), with Kenya Barris writing the script. Eddie Murphy is involved in the film's development. Apparently, it will be about Murphy's now King Akeem having a son with oats to sow, so to America we go!

Crazy Rich Asians 2

As soon as the first film started breaking records, the sequel to Jon M. Chu's romcom was announced. There are already two more books in the Kevin Kwan series on which the film is based just waiting to be adapted, and the second is called China Rich Girlfriends--following Nick's cousin Astrid (Gemma Chan, in the film) as she reconnects with her first love Charlie Wu (Harry Shum Jr.).

Edge of Tomorrow 2

With the tentative working title listed as Live Die Repeat and Repeat, the sequel to the Tom Cruise-starring Edge of Tomorrow looks like a definite possibility. Director Doug Liman is attached to direct again, and Emily Blunt is keen to revisit her role as Rita Vrataski though she's been busy with A Quiet Place and Mary Poppins this year. Liman told IGN that the film will "revolutionize how people make sequels".

Gladiator 2

Ridley Scott confirmed to EW that as well as the possibility of more Alien sequels, he’s back on the Gladiator 2 case. “I know how to bring him back,” Scott said of Maximus. “I was having this talk with the studio, ‘but he’s dead.’ But there is a way of bringing him back. Whether it will happen, I don’t know. Gladiator was 2000, so Russell’s changed a little bit. He’s doing something right now but I’m trying to get him back down here."

Mad Max 5

During the delay in getting Mad Max: Fury Road made, director George Miller mapped out further follow-ups to the movie. Up to two more films are planned and following the ecstatic reaction to Mad Max: Fury Road, Warner Bros. is likely to allow Miller to make them. The fifth Mad Max movie is to go by the name of Mad Max: The Wasteland.

The Matrix

Although Warner Bros. have used the word reboot to describe their intentions with The Matrix franchise in a recent report, we're a little dubious. In our eyes, their plans may be more akin to sequels and expansions. To add fuel to the fire about this not really being a "reboot" but rather some kind of revisiting or continuation of the franchise, that same report indicates that within the last few months a Matrix TV series was floated and shot down, and that Warner Bros. thinks they can take a "Star Wars" approach to the franchise, by branching off and telling untold stories within the world.

The Passion Of The Christ 2 (aka The Resurrection)

Mel Gibson will return to his hugely popular film to check in with Jesus Christ after his death. For a spoiler-y explanation of how that could happen, pick up a Bible today! This is actively moving forward with Jim Caviezel reprising his role as the titular Christ.

A Quiet Place 2

THR has confirmed that Paramount is definitely moving forward with A Quiet Place 2. A lot of elements in A Quiet Place remain unexplored, like the origin of the creatures, how much of the rest of the Earth is affected by them and other such story points. John Krasinski teased in late 2018 how he was "Jedi mind tricked" by Paramount into writing the sequel and how he has become increasingly invested in it (although it is not clear if he will direct again). The idea does seem to be to focus on the family from the first film, which again includes Krasinski's real-life wife, Emily Blunt.

Riddick 4

The ever-busy Vin Diesel still has Riddick 4 to slot into his schedule somewhere. The success of Riddick 3 (aka Riddick) left both Diesel and Universal keen to make another--tentatively titled Furia it will explore what happens when Riddick finally finds his home planet. Vin's in demand though with multiple Fast & Furious sequels and that Dwyane Johnson feud to maintain so Riddick may end up taking a back seat. Last we heard there was also talk of turning it into a Riddick TV series.

Stargate 2 - 4

Nicolas Wright and James A. Woods are penning what's going to be the first in a new trilogy of Stargate movies. Effectively a franchise reboot, the new films involve original writer and director Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. It's unclear so far whether the new films will pick up from the original movie, the TV show, or be its own things. The new Stargates are likely to be far back in the queue.

Star Trek 4

Justin Lin's Star Trek Beyond did decent enough box office business. A fourth film in the rebooted franchise was in development and was set to return Chris Hemsworth's George Kirk to the fold in spite of dying in the first movie's prologue. S.J. Clarkson is supposed to direct the movie , which would make her the first female director in the movie franchise. BUT... with the news that Chris Pine might be stepping away from the captain's chair, the whole thing seems to have stalled at the moment.

 

Top Gun: Maverick

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and star Tom Cruise seem to remain committed to pressing ahead with Top Gun 2 in spite of the death of director Tony Scott back in 2012. The plot for the new film will center on whether drones have made pilots obsolete. You can pretty much guess the answer that the film will come up with. Joseph Kosinski reunites with Tom Cruise following Oblivion to direct. Miles Teller is also starring as Goose's son. Filming has now started on this and Val Kilmer is now confirmed to be returning as Iceman. It's due out in June 2020, after a pretty hefty delay.

Wedding Crashers 2

Evan Susser and Von Robichaux--who co-wrote the 2017 comedy Fist Fight and have worked on the planned Sonic The Hedgehog movie--have stepped in to pen a script for Wedding Crashers 2. David Dobkin is believed to be returning to the director's chair, and the studio very much want Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, and Isla Fisher to come back as well. They've not signed up yet, though, as far as we know.

VICE - Review

VICE

Academy award winner Christian Bale and Amy Adams, along with Director Adam McKay whose 2015 film “The Big short” smartly chronicled the events leading up to the 2008 housing crash and economic recession, dabbles again into the world of reality by telling the story of Dick Cheney. 

From his youthful ne'er-do-well days in Casper, WY noted with being arrested multiple times for drunk driving, perpetual drunkenness and flunking out of Yale University and working as a laborer power lineman to his eventual ascendancy to becoming President Gerald Ford’s Chief of Staff, Wyoming sole congressman for 10 years to becoming the most influential and powerful Vice President in US history in the film “VICE”.  A solid epic story about how a naïve unsophisticated intern evolved into the ultimate bureaucratic Washington insider reshaping the country bit by bit for over four decades and the globe in ways that we still feel today.

REVIEW: First, everyone should see this film. Whether your opinion of Dick Cheney as a patriot or a villain; famous or infamous, the story of his life is beyond anything imaginable if you did not know some of the events about the man already. And if that was enough to draw your appetite inward, I am here to bear full witness to one irrefutable fact. If the credits in the film had said at the end of “Vice” Dick Cheney played by Dick Cheney you would be hard pressed to think or say otherwise as Christian Bale’s performance was beyond brilliant. One of the five best performances I have seen in my entire life.

Bale’s doesn’t just inhabit Dick Cheney he snatches his skin, his soul and his mind to wearing it as the breathing incarnate of the former Vice President. He’s better at being Dick Cheney than the real one. And he does more than just sound like him, he walks like him, he sneers like him and he also even showed a loving and tender side of him in what I believe is probably true as the devoted husband to his wife Lynn (Adams) and two daughters Liz and Mary. But it is Bales extra effort to personalized the more secretive aspects of Cheney life (real or imagine) that makes the portrayal of him feel more fully realized. Bale’s puts a lot humanistic marrow in the man’s old bones than we have seen or read about given his real life reputation for privacy, coldness and aloofness.

“Vice” is a straight drama with small portions of satire and strategic moments of humor. But ultimately the film is a revisit chronologically of Cheney’s entire life from his early drinking days to his first’s serious attempt in 1969 at having a professional life as intern on Capitol Hill working in Congressman William A. Steiger during the Richard Nixon Administration. He then joined the staff of Donald Rumsfeld, who was then Director of the Nixon’s Office of Economic Opportunity from 1969 to 1970. It’s this early short window of his life where (if you believe the film) that Cheney discovered that politics was a necessary pathway means to power. Or as he believed in the “Unitary Executive Theory” aka a theory of American constitutional law holding that the President possesses the power to control everything in a Machiavellian way through any means sneakiness, cunning, and or lacking accepted standards of moral code.

Through all of his way too many heart attacks, his shooting a friend in the face, his designs on having a VP office in every Cabinet agency and even his eventual hearty transplant, what even more fascinating about Cheney's life in “Vice” was how many eventually famous people intersected in his early life as an intern from 1969 to 1974 that in large measure clearly shaped his designs on securing the power he later achieved and used from 2000 - 2008. 

Besides the random meeting of Donald Rumsfeld, there were chance meetings of eventual lifelong friend of a young lawyer named Antonin Scalia who later sat on the Supreme Court. A young lobbyist trying to change FCC laws who went on to create Fox news named Roger Ailes. A young wealthy set of brothers looking to use their new wealth in politics in David Koch and Charles Koch. A small but fast growing beer brewer entrepreneur named Adolph Coors Jr, and the seemingly always drunken oldest son of  the then Vice President in the 1980's named George W. Bush. 

The entire film is solid all around with some very fine supporting performances including Steve Carell as the mercurial Rumsfeld, Tyler Perry playing the cautious General Colin Powell and a lighthearted but effective portrayal of G.W. Bush by Sam Rockwell. But the real and only reason to see “Vice” is what Christian Bales delivers in his central character Cheney which occupies almost 100% of the 2:12 minutes running time. I am was left speechless to offering any additional superlatives about the idiosyncrasy of Bale’s work here. He should and will probably be nominated for Best Actor, but there is very little chance he will win given that most voters for the award in Hollywood probably have absolute contempt and incredulous disdain for the real life Cheney.

In the end while the story “Vice” is always thought provoking from beginning to end, the only thing that holds this film back from any serious Oscar consideration is the screenplay which gets clunky here and there in its execution. Still that’s no excuse or reason at all to take a pass on this truly fascinating film.

  

3.25 Stars

If Beale Street Could Talk - Review

If Beale Street Could Talk

Director Barry Jenkins who’s 2016 film “Moonlight” which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, enlists actress Regina King (films Jerry McGuire and Ray - television Southland and American Crime), along with actor Colman Domingo currently in the AMC’ Network’s “Fear the Walking Dead” to combining their talents to star in the ensemble story based on acclaimed author James Baldwin’s novel “If Beale Street Could Talk”. A sure fire contender for Oscar nominations in January.

Set in early-1970s Harlem, “If Beale Street Could Talk” is a moving love story of both a couple's unbreakable bond and the African-American family's empowering embrace, as told through the eyes of 19-year-old Tish Rivers (KiKi Layne). A daughter and wife-to-be, Tish vividly recalls the passion, respect and trust that have connected her and her artist fiancé Alonzo Hunt, who goes by the nickname Fonny (Stephan James). Friends since childhood, the devoted couple dream of a future together but their plans are derailed when Fonny is arrested for a crime he did not commit. Through the unique intimacy and power of cinema, “If Beale Street Could Talk” honors Baldwin’s prescient words and imagery, charting the emotional currents navigated in an unforgiving and racially biased world as the filmmaker poetically shows how love and humanity endure.

REVIEW: From my perspective “If Beale Street Could Talk” beckons back to a time when people actually fell in love with one another. Yeah I know, it’s a bit cynical for me as a lifelong bachelor to suggest I have some expertise on what love is really about. But I can certainly say I would hope, I would even dare to fantasize, maybe even dream away in my thoughts that more people felt like “Tish” and “Fonny” in love. The way they looked at each other. The way they held hands with each other. The way they comfort each other with words of love. Their love seemingly spirited them away as if they were the only two people in the world.

With some of the most imaginative delicate visceral displays of human emotion I have seen in a film “Beale Street” examines raw unwavering commitment. A commitment made even more compelling as we watch these two young lovers navigate the intimate dynamics of dysfunctional “in laws” and also through the more life changing dynamic of trying to survive racial bigotry and societal injustices. With scenes abound that were both endearingly subtle - tender and others bold - audacious we see Tish and Fonny manage all of these emotional landmines and gauntlets and yet manage to endure it all. In the end finding a way to prevail.

This is a dramatically intense film that is very patient in telling its tale. With scenes after scenes of eclectic beautiful colors, all the while seeing Director Jenkins create a generously vivid film of how that undefinable DNA bond we all seem to carry can mysteriously galvanize two strangers in life into becoming one.

Actress Regina King gives a strong performance as the mother "Sharon and the "center of gravity for all things good" in helping guide and support her daughter though her difficulties of Fonny's arrest. I have no doubt Miss King will hear her name as a nominee for Best Supporting Actress for her solid work here.  

But in the end its the overall film itself “If Beale Street Could Talk” that everyone must see. From its use of wonderful music that ranges from haunting to angelic, an amazing deeply personal screenplay and a richly luxurious cinematography, Director Jenkins and the entire cast combined their collective talents to creating a meticulously magical, beautiful and elegant story that will last through the test of time as one of the best films for 2018.

There are many captivating moment's in this film. Paraphrasing one in particular was when Tish was having some doubts about her relationship with Fonny. Sharon her mother seeing her daughter chest fallen reaches out to her daughter's face to assure her that everyone who has ever been born was born because they trusted someone to love.............."you have to trust love now".

I suggest if you love good films as I do then you need to "trust love" also and see “If Beale Street Could Talk”. 

4.00 Stars

Lester's Ten Must Absolute See Films for 2019

"Greyhound"

Release date: March 22, 2019 (USA)

During the early days of World War II, an international convoy of 37 Allied ships, led by Commander Ernest Krause (tom Hanks) crosses the treacherous North Atlantic while being hotly pursued by wolf packs of German U-boats. The film focuses on Krause, a career officer who was finally given command of a Navy destroyer Greyhound. Unlike the prototypical hero, he must battle his own self-doubts and personal demons to prove he belongs alongside the conflict with the enemy.

"Where’d You Go Bernadette?"

Release Date: March 22, 2019 (USA)

Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett) seems to have it all -- a beautiful home, a loving husband and a brilliant teenage daughter. When Bernadette suddenly disappears, her concerned family sets off on an exciting adventure to solve the mystery of where she might have gone. Based on novel of true story.

"Captive State"

Release date: March 29, 2019 (USA)

An extraterrestrial force occupies the world, enslaving humanity under the guise of peaceful unity. The film explores the lives of a Chicago neighborhood on both sides of the conflict: the collaborators and the dissidents. It involves themes such as oppressive government, the public being lied to, and the way some rise up against it. The film follows the life of Chicago Police Officer Mulligan (Goodman), who is tasked with uniting the world against the extra-terrestrial enemy. He recruits Gabriel (Sanders), the young son of a fallen soldier who joined a rebel group called Phoenix.

"Ad Astra"

Release date: May 24, 2019 (USA)

Brad Pitt launches into space in this sci-fi adventure from director James Gray, whose spectacular Lost City of Z was one of 2016’s best films. Pitt’s character is searching for his father (Tommy Lee Jones) who disappeared two decades before on a mission to Neptune. Surely the resemblance to the Dad-lost-in-the-cosmos plot of A Wrinkle in Time is coincidental. 

Ford vs. Ferrari

Release Date:  June 28, 2019 (USA)

Based on a true story, Director James Mangold's (3:10 to Yuma) film follows an eccentric, determined team of American engineers and designers, led by automotive visionary Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and his British driver, Ken Miles (Christian Bale), who are dispatched by Henry Ford II with the mission of building from scratch an entirely new automobile with the potential to finally defeat the perennially dominant Ferrari at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France.

"Once Upon A Time In Hollywood"

Release date: July 26th, 2019 (USA)

Quentin Tarantino’s first film based on a true story and original material with a double dose of movie stardom plus extra-chilling hints of raw violence. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the fading star of a television Western and Brad Pitt is his stunt double, in a story set in 1969, soon before the Manson murders. Margot Robbie plays soon-to-be- Manson victim, Sharon Tate. Al Pacino appears as the DiCaprio character’s agent. All those stars don’t come cheap: the film reportedly cost $95 million. With its allusion to the epic title of "Once Upon a Time in the West" one of Tarantino’s directing heroes aka Sergio Leone, this film clearly has big ambitions for the year 2019. 

"The Woman in the Window"

Release date: October 4, 2019 (USA)

J Finn’s bestselling novel was widely praised as Hitchockian, a thriller ready-made for the screen. Here it is, burnished with Oscar nominees and winners. Amy Adams is an agoraphobic psychologist who spies on her neighbors – played by Julianne Moore and Gary Oldman – then has to convince the world that she hasn’t imagined the crime that happened across the street. Or did she? The great Brian Tyree Henry (Widows) adds to his string of supporting roles as a detective. Director Joe Wright is known for prestige period pieces like Darkest Hour and Atonement, but he also made the underrated 2011 thriller Hanna, with Saoirse Ronan as a teenaged assassin, so he knows how to ratchet up suspense.

“Zombieland 2”

Release date: October 11, 2019 (USA)

Zombie slayers Tallahassee, Columbus, Wichita and Little Rock square off against the newly evolved undead. Woody Harrelson - Jesse Eisenberg - Abigail Breslin and Emma Stone in the sequel to the surprising 2009 mega hit.

"Midway"

Release date: November 8th, 2019 (USA)

Actor Roland Emmerich (FX The Americans) directs Woody Harrelson as Admiral Chester Nimitz and Luke Evans as Commander Wade McClusky in the WW2 Pacific story of the battle of Midway, told by the leaders and the soldiers who fought it.

"The Irishman"

Release Date:  TBD December (USA) 

Famed Great Director Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel tell the true story of Frank Sheeran who had a long standing ties with the Bufalino organize crime family and who also claims he was ordered to kill fellow Union Teamster Leader Jimmy Hoffa July of 1975.

Ben is Back - Review

Ben is Back

Academy Award winner Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich) and Tony Award winner Courtney Vance (The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story) play a nuclear family husband and wife, along Lucas Hedges as their son “Ben” and Kathryn Newton as their daughter in a story written and directed by Peter Hedges. Writer Hedges developed the screenplays to two of my favorite films all time in “What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)” and “About a Boy (2002)”. Now Director Hedges decides to take his writing skills to combine it with working behind the camera to deliver his first solo directing debut effort in the film called “Ben is Back”.

In what feels like a story spanning only 48 hours, we see early on a loving and abundantly happy “Holly” (Roberts) who is attending an evening church Christmas recital practice with her two adolescent children “Liam” and “Lacey” from her second marriage with “Neal” (Vance). Along with her teenaged daughter “Ivy (Newton) from her previous marriage they hurry home after practice to make ready for the big family event of Christmas morning.

But as they pull up to their home to “Holly’s surprise she sees her son “Ben” who is back from rehab. Emotionally thrilled as any mother would be to see her son his sister “Ivy” and step father ‘Neel” are far more skeptical on why he is back at all. It becomes quickly apparent from their less than warm response “Ben’s” has had a past that was a great source of family tension from his addition to drugs. Still “Holly” is the eternal optimist and emotionally jubilant at having her entire family together for Christmas.

But "Holly' is not naive and realizes she needs to take steps in keeping the peace for the collective household by taking the guarded steps of hiding all of the prescription drugs and verbally making it clear to “Ben” that he must adhere to her “watching him like a hawk” while he is at home. And while “Holly’s actions are mostly as an expression of tough love for "Ben" there is still a deep seeded maternal fear on her part of him possibly relapsing that could very well be deadly this time.

REVIEW: “Ben is Back” is about how a family tries to stay together when it is fractured by an event. And while most people have some knowledge of someone or have experienced directly for themselves an event that tests the strength of a family through divorce, abuse, financial difficulties and infidelity, this film takes on the insidious uncontrollable event of a family member being addicted. But when it comes to drug abuse – drug addiction it is always different in the way of having both an elephant and a poltergeist in the room. Always potentially equally wrecking and frightening the family from the not knowing from one moment of a love one being a source of immense joy and then without warning a source of deep mourning through their death.

“Ben is Back” brilliant captures the universal devastating dynamic of how many families struggle through the persistent balancing of the “not knowing” while on one hand giving love and the other hand fearing unsuspecting death. Its a fabulous engrossing gripping portrayal of this very struggle through superb writing, directing and acting from Vance, Hedges, Newton and Robert’s. together they make this film pop with mesmerizing entertainment. But above them all is Julia Roberts’s performance as the loving mother “Holly” who makes this film one of the five best films I have seen for 2018.

Roberts gives a powerhouse and sensational performance that feels real every single frame with her eyes, tears and smiles. She becomes the metaphoric and emblematic feeling of what heart pounding riveting absorbing worry looks like in a family when a child is in distress. Roberts transforms that worry into something authentically amazing with a compelling and intelligent range of human emotions from displays of genuine love and intimacy to gut wrenching - heartbreaking angst and anguish to authentic in your face tough love. She projects her "Holly' as a persevering life force of infinite optimistic with unbridled fearlessness nor matter the obstacle. Its a commanding Oscar caliber effort of human determination and human will in her case of keeping her flawed son alive.

Underneath theses amazing performances was the fascinating manner in which Director Hedges used his brilliant skills in the visual direction of the story to illustrate for drug addicts how almost anything in everyday life from the smell of exhaust fumes, seeing an old acquaintance, seeing a packet of salt or even a flickering flame on top of a candle can be the one slight fragile trigger for an addict to relapse and overdosing again. Hedges also through his writing showcases Robert’s acting talents as the symbolic embodiment of that irreplaceable DNA strand in all Mother’s that makes them so uniquely rare for enduring love for the family they have given life to regardless of their successes or failures. 

In the end Director Hedges "Ben is Back" allows Robert's to encapsulates every Mother there has ever been, every Mother there is and every Mother there ever will be as the one who is willing to protect and to love her family to their very last breath.

Please, please try to see “Ben is Back”. Julia Roberts gives a phenomenal performance that you will not likely to forget.

4.00 Stars

Mary Poppins Returns - Review

Mary Poppins Returns

Early this year Actress Emily Blunt played a futuristic woman named “Evelyn Abbott”, a loving wife and mother who was in a life and death struggle to remaining virtually mute; literally unable to making a solitary sound in the surprise hit “A Quiet Place”. Now at the end of the same we see year Blunt playing a woman from almost a century ago, filled with genuine audible exuberance, femininity and vibrancy though acting, singing, dancing in the sequel to Dame Julie Andrew's iconic role that she brought to original life some 54 years ago as the venerable Mary Poppins in the now titled “Mary Poppins Returns".

At the start the film story its about 25 years after the original version of “Mary Poppins” around the period of the 1930’s in London.  We see Michael Banks is not longer the we remember as he has grown up with three children of his own now. And while he has a stable job as a bank teller Michael has become a bit forgetful and absent minded when it comes to domestic matters of home, mostly due to the sudden passing of his loving wife. "She use to handle those matters" he states early on and because she did he discovered he has lapsed in making payments on a loan he took out  a year ago..

But the bank has not and when two lawyers come to his house to inform him they will repossess the home in five days unless he can pay back the entire loan  in full, Michael realizes his only hope is to find a missing certificate that shows proof of ownership of extremely valuable shares in bank stock his father left him before his passing. Unable to find the certificate and just when all seems to be lost, Michael and his sister receive the surprise of a lifetime when their Mary Poppins, the beloved nanny from their childhood, arrives to save the day from the sky with kite in hand to take the entire Banks family on a magical, fun-filled adventure through their seemingly dire times.

REVIEW: Sometimes a film is just about recapturing a bit of childlike - childhood nostalgia. Well this “Mary Poppins Returns” clearly falls into that category. Filled with more technological brilliant color and more efficient precision elements to look at (both animation and live action), this Mary Poppins gleefully takes the viewing audiences through 2:08 minutes of being just a delightful joy to watch. And while there is nothing particularly unique to recall about this film you will however remember how good, how hopeful and how much decency it exudes as a story about kindness towards others; a virtue seemingly there can never be enough in the world.

The 1964 film version had some of the most memorable songs ever developed for a film. So much so I can recall school kids seemingly everywhere singing “Super‐cali‐fragil‐istic‐expi‐ali‐docious” , “A Spoonful of Sugar” and “Chim Chim Cheree”. And while this 2018 version had no similar universally catchy songs to easily sing from quick memory, it does not mean that these new songs had no less positive charismatic affect. In their own artful way, they do help this sequel's story move along with the same feeling of heartfelt coziness, magic and warmth from the Disney original that I’m certain Director Rob Marshall was aiming to recapture in tone and style. 

But central to it all are the fine performances in the film starting with Emily Blunt, as the venerable Mary Poppins who projects her version of Mary with a tad more prickly “saltiness” (per se) and Lin Manuel-Miranda’s as the honest and effervescent Jack. Together they carry "MPR” with two wonderful performances through their combined singing, dancing and acting. 

In addition to some amazing costumes, exquisite set designs and imaginative equal parts animation and live action involving a very creative experience where a piece of pottery coming to life, we also see several solid, touching and sometimes funny cameo performances. Colin Firth as the villainous banker “Weatherall Wilkins”, Meryl Streep as the quirky repair shop owner “Topsy”, Dick Van Dyke as mysterious “Mr. Dawes”, Angela Lansbury as “Balloon Lady” and David Warner as retired "Admiral Boom" who is obsessed with the accurate hourly time on Big Ben. But it is Emily Blunt who has set herself apart as one of the best actresses working today. It seems as if everything she does now, everything she touches cinematically is flawlessly perfect................And yes, I am still smitten.

The 1964 Mary Poppins was a highly successful musical film. So, going in it would be foolish to think this 2018 effort could ever recapture fully its predecessor pure grandeur and beloved respect.  But if you let yourself completely go with the idea of simply wanting to see an old fashion fantasy with good music filled with humanity and goodness abound then you will find that this “Mary Poppins Returns” to be a very entertaining holiday experience filled with charm and warmth.

3.25 Stars

Mary Queen of Scots (2018) - Review

Mary Queen of Scots

In this 2018 adaptation of “Mary Queen of Scots" we see it starring two of Hollywood’s hottest actresses in Saoirse Ronan as Mary, Queen of Scots aka the Queen of Scotland and cousin to Elizabeth the I and Margot Robbie as Queen Elizabeth I and the Queen of England. It’s a virtual retelling of the of the same film from 1972 starring Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson.

In both films the story explores the turbulent life of the charismatic and more beautiful Mary Stuart (Ronan) the only surviving legitimate child of King James V who through marriage was also Queen of France at age 16 and widowed at 18. To maintain peace between the two countries Mary is urged to remarry again but defies the pressure to do so and instead returns to her native Scotland to reclaim her rightful throne as Queen of England and Scotland. But now Scotland and England have fall under the rule of the compelling Elizabeth I (Robbie). Each young Queen beholds the other in calculating fear through their respective male dominated counsels who are also rivals in their pursuits to maintaining their power.

Trapped in a web of love and deceit these two determined young female queens operate within a relentlessly masculine world with Mary specifically determined to rule much more than a figurehead by asserting her claim to the entire English throne. This decision by her begins a decade long threat to Elizabeth's sovereignty with episodes of betrayal, rebellion, and conspiracies that could imperil both queen thrones and, in the end, changing the course of history of the British Monarchy as we know it today.

REVIEW: I love historical dramas as they can be quite entertaining and fascinating when directed with clarity and honesty to all sides. And while director Josie Rourke makes every attempt to retelling this story fairly it only comes across after two hours as being more complicated than I remember the original. At times this 2018 version comes across maddeningly dull and uniquely generic in its execution for such a rich human story of intrigue.

Ronan and Robbie give fine performances here as the competing determined queens. They exude the full range of strength, sensuality and intellect to making their characters come truly alive. The story also offers up some rather impressive looking set designs, beautiful cinematography and hair, makeup and costume designs of which I am certain they will garner some serious Oscar consideration next January. The aesthetic beauty of this film really jumps off the screen.

But beauty is no substitute in its failed effort to giving the substantive parts of film its “raison d'etre”......its reason for its existence. All we are left with after watching two hours are way too many men perpetually looking out for their own interest. Two respective queen counsels doggedly pursuing absolute power with aloofness, secrecy and calculating deceit. So much so they became an indistinguishable blur as to who was on which queen’s side.

“Mary Queen of Scots” basically lacks solid directing and writing consistency. It leaps about and around key plot points leaving the viewer only to be more confused than before and in the end making this adaption more of an exercise of laborious painstaking patience to watch rather than something cinematically to thoroughly enjoy.

2.25 Stars

The Mule - Review

The Mule

Multi Oscar winner Clint Eastwood stars in the contemporary true story called “The Mule” about a 90-year-old horticulturist named Earl Stone who is financially broke, alone and is ostracized by his immediate family all the while facing foreclosure on his business and passion of growing flowers.

Early in the film we see Earl approached by a friend of his granddaughter and future husband at a family gathering about taking a job for some extra money by driving packages in his old Ford F-150 pick up to Chicago. When Earl asks what he has to do for the money he is told it was just matter of driving, parking his truck in a specific hotel parking lot and leaving the keys in the glove compartment with the promise of his payment inside the truck the next day. Feeling desperate he takes the job. But to his astonishment he discovers the next day after his first run he is paid in excess of $10K for the easy work. But what he doesn’t realize or wanted to know was he is driving drugs in his truck as a courier for the vicious Mexican cartel.

Initially deciding he wants no more of that kind of risk he quickly changes his mind when the amount of money goes up for an even larger shipment for real easy money to get out of his financial hole. But what he doesn’t know is a hot shot hard charging DEA Agent out of NY named Colin Bates (Bradley Cooper) has been reassigned to Illinois to break the flow of the drugs coming into the state that Earl is taking to Chicago.

Earl's soon realizes the stakes are now getting higher with each drug run he makes and it starts to weigh heavily on his conscience that he must decide whether to right those wrongs in his personal with his new found money before law enforcement catches him or run risking the wrath of the cartel thugs eventually wanting him killed for his unorthodox and unpredictable way of delivering the drugs on his time table.

REVIEW: “The Mule” has overall a compelling and entertaining story, but it is sure as hell not worth 2 hours of your time. For about 40 percent of the film we are watching essentially a documentary about Clint Eastwood's ability to drive a pick up truck and sing old tunes from the radio. And when he is not driving he is eating sandwiches on the side of the road engaging in meaningless banter and conversations with people he just met. And that is essentially the movie's story until the last 20 minutes when the story starts to have some real value.

Oh, it tries to have two thought provoking subplots. One being a family drama about making amends to people he has hurt in the past. And the other about the DEA Agent slowly and meticulously closing on the name and location of the mystery drug courier. But in both instances neither delivers the level of emotional “oomph” that is was trying to achieve. Mid way through the movie I hardly cared if he reconciled with his ex-wife and daughter at all.

Still, no one but Eastwood could have played “Earl” and he does it to great effect. He is excellent in playing this old “I don’t give a you know what” man. But for me, introspectively speaking his Earl felt way too familiar to the same grumpy angry old man in his previous film of ”Grand Torino”. In both instances Eastwood seems to saying – sending some message more about his own life. Specifically in that he has a problem about the ways things are happening today and has a nostalgic longing when he got to make up the rules and not a bunch of tattooed gun totting Mexican’s in garage with $5 million worth of cocaine to sell.

In the end, “The Mule” while clunky with some scenes and a screenplay that at times is very poorly written (especially a bed side scene) there is still enough of a drama with some appropriate humor for you to see it on a wintry snowy rental night.

3.00 Stars

Clint Eastwood – How Many Have You Seen?

Clint Eastwood – How Many Have You Seen?

The Mule (2018)

The 15:17 to Paris (2018)

Sully (2016)

American Sniper (2014) - Nominated Best Picture

Jersey Boys (2014)

Trouble with the Curve (2012)

J. Edgar (2011)

Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way (2010)

Hereafter (2010)

Invictus (2009)

Gran Torino (2008)

Changeling (2008)

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) - Nominated Best Picture & Best Director

Flags of Our Fathers (2006)

Million Dollar Baby (2004) - Won Best Picture & Best Director – Nominated Best Actor

Mystic River (2003) - Nominated Best Picture & Best Director

Blood Work (2002)

Space Cowboys (2000)

True Crime (1999)

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)

Absolute Power (1997)

The Bridges of Madison County (1995)

A Perfect World (1993)

In the Line of Fire (1993)

Unforgiven (1992) - Won Best Picture & Won Best Director – Nominated Best Actor

The Rookie (1990)

White Hunter, Black Heart (1990)

Pink Cadillac (1989)

Bird (1988)

The Dead Pool (1988)

Heartbreak Ridge (1986)

Pale Rider (1985)

Tightrope (1984)

City Heat (1984)

Sudden Impact (1983)

Honkytonk Man (1982)

Firefox (1982)

Any Which Way You Can (1980)

Bronco Billy (1980)

Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

Every Which Way But Loose (1978)

The Gauntlet (1977)

The Enforcer (1976)

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

The Eiger Sanction (1975)

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)

Magnum Force (1973)

Breezy (1973)

High Plains Drifter (1973)

Joe Kidd (1972)

Dirty Harry (1971)

Play Misty for Me (1971)

The Beguiled (1971)

Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)

Kelly's Heroes (1970)

Paint Your Wagon (1969)

Where Eagles Dare (1969)

Coogan's Bluff (1968)

Hang 'em High (1968)

The Witches (1966)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

For a Few Dollars More (1965)

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

Ambush at Cimarron Pass (1958)

Lafayette Escadrille (1958)

Escapade in Japan (1957)

The First Traveling Saleslady (1956)

Away All Boats (1956)

Star in the Dust (1956)

Never Say Goodbye (1956)

Tarantula (1955)

Lady Godiva (1955)

Francis in the Navy (1955)

Revenge of the Creature (1955)