The Highwaymen - Netflix Original - Review

The Highwaymen

Netflix Original

Academy Award Winner Kevin Costner and Academy Award Nominated Woody Harrelson star in the NETFLIX Original film called ‘The Highwaymen”; a crime film directed by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) and written by John Fusco. The film follows Frank Hamer and Maney Gault (Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson), two Texas Rangers who attempt to track down and apprehend notorious criminals Bonnie and Clyde in the 1930s. When the full force of the FBI and their latest forensic technology aren't enough to capture the nation's most notorious criminals, these two Rangers rely on their gut instincts and old school skills to get the job done. Kathy Bates, John Carroll Lynch, Kim Dickens, Thomas Mann and William Sadler also star.

REVIEW: If you have seen the 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde” starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway which received nine Oscar nominations including “Best Picture”, than the general story of ‘The Highwaymen” is pretty easy to follow including its eventual outcome for these two national most wanted criminals – celebrities - cult figures. The significant difference in this effort is we get to see the entire story of the Bonnie & Clyde exploits uniquely from the two Texas Rangers perspective. Singularly, you never actually see Bonnie Parker or Clyde Barrow until the very end of the 2 hour running time. Exclusively Director Hancock focuses on Rangers Frank Hamer and Maney Gault tireless and focus pursuit of the young outlaw couple.

Stylistically, this NETFLIX effort has the look and emotional feel of Tom Hanks “Road to Perdition”. Substantively it has the same chrarcter comradery of the two Rangers in “Hell or High Water” played by Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham. And while this story has some dialogue kinks in it and other moments of slow and seemingly needless long winded banter of this factual story, it does have some clever dabs of light humorous relief delivered mostly by Harrelson. But unmistakenly the reason to see this film is Costner and Harrelson dynamic as they re-create this story with loads of authentic in the moment seriousness that makes the entire effort a highly respectful classic tale of right verses wrong.

There is no real high octane moments as one might expect about a tale of gangsters. But I was fine with that as the opposite case held my attention quite well watching the two Rangers move meticulously in their investigation with sober focus without any use of technology all the while being candid and decent to people they interact with. At the same time they were quick to respond to having no tolerance for those who were disrespectful either.

There are three moments in the film that are memorable. One is early on when Hamer team up with Gault after years of the Texas Rangers being disbanded in front of a gun store. The second is Frank Hamer meeting with Clyde’s Barrow’s father where they have a heartfelt conversation about destiny in life. And finally the final 15 minutes as we watch the tension build as we see Hamer and Gault wait in the weeds to ambush the two gangsters loves on the side of the road.

There no mistaking this films overall strength in telling the many times uniquely told the American story book tale of how good men, with straightforward depiction, who work in law enforcement go about doing the right thing to bring criminals to justice. But it also subtly reminds us that being in a profession where taking someone’s life as a necessary component to doing that job can be for some of the most harden professionals the single hardest and devastating thing to deal with in the moment and even decades later. As was the case in the Clint Eastwood film “Unforgiven” we saw his “William Munny” say after a ferocious shootout ………….  “It's a hell of a thing, ain't it, killing' a man....you take everything' he's got... and' everything' he's ever going to have”............ Rangers Frank Hamer and Maney Gault knew that, respected that and lived with that.

“The Highwaymen”, is my kind of film. It’s a very well-acted old fashion entertaining narrative about justice.

3.25 Stars

Gloria Bell - Review

Gloria Bell

Academy Award Winner Julianne Moore plays a modern day free-spirited divorcee who spends her nights on the dance floor, singing in her car and letting loose at clubs around Los Angeles. She soon finds herself thrust into an unexpected new romance, filled with the joys of budding love and the complications of dating.

REVIEW: The principle reason to see this film is and only is Julianne Moore. She elevates material that ordinarily would be just ordinary. But even as we watch Moore put a great and positive face on her new single life, nothing really happens new that you could not already imagine to someone who is middle aged single after years of marriage.

Everything she does feels awkward no matter how valiant she’s tries to put a positive foot forward spin on her new single life. So early on we see Moore’s character “Gloria” project a person far more vulnerable to lies and deception. Far more sentimental about token expressions of love and tenderness. Far too forgiving to rude behavior. And far too compromising just to “keep her new man”.

Running 1:42 minutes I became a little frustrated with “Gloria’s” unwavering and undauntable desire to do just about anything to keep her man “Arnold” (John Turturro) happy and in her arms. But just as I expected “Gloria” does find that her struggles are not with her man being such a weak kneed jerk. Instead her obstacle in life is of her own making by her unwillingness just to except herself. To come to peace at knowing that her life was not wasted on her youth but rather wasted on her refusing to see and except the remarkable person staring in the mirror.

In the opening of the film we see “Gloria Bell” dancing in a club, but she appears to be joylessly going through the paces and motions of projecting happiness while she moves and struts about the floor to 70’s music. But it's her facade and it’s a facade that carriers her through her early stages of being in relationship with the equally middle aged “Arnold” where she  (metaphorically speaking) is still dancing, not for her own enrichment but singularly to appease “Arnold's” selfish needs.

“Gloria Bell” is a not a great film but it is a solid film. A story that shows a woman slowly evolving through emotional tests into something entirely new and where her dancing now is reflective of a fully realized self-love and self-acceptance all the while being fully immersed into her middle aged life and feeling great about.

3.00 Stars

Shoplifters - Review

Shoplifters

“Shoplifters” starts in Tokyo where a group of people lived together on the poverty margins. Osamu is a day laborer who is forced to leave his job after twisting his ankle; his wife Nobuyo, who works for an industrial laundry service; Aki, who works at a hostess club; Shota, is a young boy; and Hatsue, an elderly woman who owns the home and supports the group with her deceased husband's pension.

Osamu and Shota routinely shoplift goods, using a system of hand signals to communicate. Osamu tells Shota it is fine to steal things that have not been sold, as they do not belong to anyone. One especially cold night, they see Yuri, a neighborhood girl they regularly observe locked out on an apartment balcony. They bring her to their home, intending to only have her stay for dinner, but choose not to return her after finding evidence of abuse.

Yuri bonds with her new family and is taught to shoplift by Osamu and Shota. Osamu urges Shota to see him as his father and Yuri as his sister, but Shota is reluctant to do so. The family learns on television that police are investigating Yuri's disappearance; the family cuts her hair, burns her old clothes, and gives her a new name Lin.

REVIEW:  The film is slow but beautiful in look and character; filed with an abundance of deep charm, reverence and love. It moves with a sense of quiet light hearted confidence to showcase these people exactly for who they are. They are professional “Shoplifters”, grifters and cons who really don’t mean anyone any real harm. They are neither vile nor ruthless criminals. Rather they are just a loving family doing what they must just to keep a roof over their heads, food in their stomachs and a constant smile on their faces. They are a hopeful people who do hopeless things but never allow their actions to make them feel hopeless in life. They persevere, they survive, they are happy.

The core plot and subplot of this film are intertwined through a single meditative ethical quandary. What constitutes a loving family? When they take young Yuri in to their home you the viewer must reconcile as they did that she is in far better off being with these petty shoplifting vagabonds of society to being comfortable in a home without any material need but is still abused.

“Shoplifters is a slow melodramatic executed film. But when the layers are slowly peeled back the film bathes over you as something natural and emotionally touching with genuine family warmth.

3.00 Stars

Julia Roberts – How Many Have You Seen?

Julia Roberts – How Many Have You Seen?

1987 Firehouse

1988 Satisfaction

1988 Mystic Pizza

1989 Steel Magnolias – Nom. Best Supporting Actress

1989 Blood Red

1990 Pretty Woman – Nominated Best Actress

1990 Flatliners

1991 Sleeping with the Enemy

1991 Hook

1991 Dying Young

1992 The Player

1993 The Pelican Brief

1994 Prêt-à-Porter

1994 I Love Trouble

1995 Something to Talk About

1996 Michael Collins

1996 Mary Reilly

1996 Everyone Says I Love You

1997 My Best Friend's Wedding

1997 Conspiracy Theory

1998 Stepmom

1999 Runaway Bride

1999 Notting Hill

2000 Erin Brockovich – Won Best Actress

2001 Ocean's Eleven

2001 The Mexican

2001 America's Sweethearts

2002 Grand Champion

2002 Full Frontal

2002 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

2003 Mona Lisa Smile

2004 Tell Them Who You Are

2004 Ocean's Twelve

2004 Closer

2006 Charlotte's Web

2006 The Ant Bully

2007 Charlie Wilson's War

2008 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

2008 Fireflies in the Garden

2009 Duplicity

2010 Valentine's Day

2010 Eat Pray Love

2011 Love, Wedding, Marriage

2011 Larry Crowne

2011 Jesus Henry Christ

2012 Mirror, Mirror

2013 August: Osage County – Nom. Best Supporting Actress

2015 Secret in Their Eyes

2016 Mother's Day

2016 Money Monster

2017 Wonder

2017 Smurfs: The Lost Village

2018 Ben Is Back

Harrison Ford – How Many Have You Seen?

Harrison Ford – How Many Have You Seen?

1966 Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round

1967 Luv

1967 A Time for Killing

1968 Journey to Shiloh

1970 Zabriskie Point

1970 Getting Straight

1973 American Graffiti

1974 The Conversation

1977 Star Wars

1977 Heroes

1978 Force 10 from Navarone

1979 Apocalypse Now

1979 Hanover Street

1979 The Frisco Kid

1979 More American Graffiti

1980 The Empire Strikes Back

1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark

1982 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

1982 Blade Runner

1983 Return of the Jedi

1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

1985 Witness – Nominated Best Actor

1986 The Mosquito Coast

1988 Frantic

1988 Working Girl

1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

1990 Presumed Innocent

1991 Regarding Henry

1992 Patriot Games

1993 The Fugitive

1994 Jimmy Hollywood

1994 Clear and Present Danger

1995 Sabrina

1997 The Devil's Own

1997 Air Force One

1998 Six Days, Seven Nights

1999 Random Hearts

2000 What Lies Beneath

2002 K-19: The Widowmaker

2003 Hollywood Homicide

2004 Water to Wine

2006 Firewall

2008 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

2008 Dalai Lama Renaissance

2009 Crossing Over

2009 Brüno

2010 Extraordinary Measures

2010 Morning Glory

2011 Cowboys & Aliens

2013 42

2013 Paranoia

2013 Ender's Game

2013 Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

2014 The Expendables 3

2014 Flying The Feathered Edge: The Bob Hoover Project

2015 The Age of Adaline

2015 Star Wars: The Force Awakens

2017 Blade Runner 2049

Us - Review

Us

Director Jordan Peele takes another stab “Literally and Figuratively” at another suspense thriller film in his sophomore effort simply called “Us”. A story of a mother – wife named  “Adelaide”, her husband, son and daughter going to the beachfront home where she grew up as a child.

Little does anyone know she is acutely haunted by a traumatic experience from her past as a small child. As “Adelaide grows increasingly concerned that something bad is going to happen to her again, her worst fears soon become a reality when four masked strangers descend upon the house, forcing the Wilsons into a fight for survival. When the masks come off, the family is horrified to learn that each attacker takes the appearance of one of them.

REVIEW. “Us” ………….Hmmmmmmmmmmm? Where do I begin. I did not care for it.

With any horror or suspenseful psychological thriller film, out of personal habit I immediately start looking for clues. Some are more blatantly obvious, and others are more surreptitious by design. It’s my auto reflective way of me trying to mentally discern what might be the big reveal at the end of the story.  “What will be the crescendo moment?” “What was the entire journey all about”? So, in the case of the film “Us” the first 30 + minutes were in fact rather intriguing and promising through its random use of biblical scripture quotes, the abundant use of red color, songs potentially offering hidden message clues and camera close ups at commercial products placement sitting randomly about. When you include the use of night time darkness, elongated shadows and the background sounds of foreboding thunder and lightning, people bumping into three way mirrors and strange people simply making quick strange glances at each other, at  the very minimum I thought I was pretty well loaded with just enough suggestive hints to eventually be able to reflect upon at the films conclusion.

In addition, Director Jordan Peele crafted an opening that was in fact brilliantly reminiscent to the style and look of two of my favorite directing greats in Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock. His effective use of minimalist conversational relevant dialog, some beautiful luxurious cinematography, very stylized camera work and long periods of suspenseful silence, the introduction to this suspense laden mystery was effectively framed early to put this viewer on his very suspicious toes.

But soon after the parents and kids arrive at their summer vacation home near the beach and the eventual red cladded doppelganger strangers do show up at their home at night (conveniently so) with their garden scissors in tow, the film became for me nothing more than an excessively way too long of an hour of endless displays of sporadic random ambiguous detached scenes one after another. Scenes ranging from some unconnected but effective humor to other scenes more suited for a terminally flat comedy like a “Madea” movie,  to others scenes that were an unexpectant exercise of excessive bloody violence that would go back to being even more confusing than a  minute before.

Oh, and least I forget the sound effects used in the film. Specifically, the strange voices and sounds that were emanating from mouths of theses mysterious doppelganger visitors or ghosts, or zombies or space aliens or whatever they were meant to be. They sounded less like fearful ominous figures and more like a bunch of Velociraptors from a Jurassic Park film whose eyes balls were bulging out of their heads because they forgot to take their thyroid medicine.  I was not sure if I was supposed to be frightened at that moment by their presence, amused by them, or both.  I can say I was occasionally amused by them, but more often than not (over time) I was more confused by them. Certainly, at no point was I ever frighten or fearful of them.

On a positive note, Lupita Nyong'o who played the mother “Adelaide Wilson,” the matriarch of the Wilson family and  Winston Duke who played the father “Gabriel Wilson”, the patriarch of the Wilson family, they seemed early on like on the surface like a genuine sincere loving family; very effective and believable as husband and wife casting goes. But soon after the chaos arrives the father - husband Duke “Gabe” character became so damn annoying to me by his overly “wimpy unmanliness manner” I was hoping some  harm would come to him. Hell, I wanted to stab his ass by the end of the movie, which I may add he almost disappears off the screen in the last 30 minutes. Strange. 

And I have not even mentioned the displays of poor parenting  skills on show case in the film where you see on two occasions the parents were just out right idiotically guilty of "will - nilly" letting their children wander off on their own and equally baffling by the parent tolerance of their kids basic modicum lack of respect towards their parents. Eventually I found the entire family as a group less and less empathetic.  

As an ardent film fan, I am a militant snob about this one fact. Regardless of the genre of a the story the loose ends in the beginning of that story should be working towards something meaningful and conclusive that ties up the whole story with some clarity. And even if you are going to making a story a bit weird, eccentric or off beat,  then make the weirdness or off beat-ness or eccentricity have a purpose. ‘Us” while very watchable for its 2 hours running time, the overall the entire arc still failed for me as a flawed structure of incoherent satire.  And while I know at times I may be guilty of having a case of the “Ole man-itis” when it comes to fully understanding this generation's ideas and stories of what is socially relevant to them,  I found the social conscious subplot aspects of this 1986 to present day connected story and its conclusions not compelling at all.  

Director Peele has lots of talent and I will truly be looking forward to his other works in the near future. But his ideas here of what was dramatic felt more like me listening to a biology science professor trying to explain to me while watching under a microscope an Ant taking a piss on cotton is important and intriguing. Just because he uses science as the backdrop for his reasoning its still an oversimplification of something totally irrelevant masquerading as  being sweeping and grand. The fact is for me, I found "Us" sweepingly dull, very repetitive, pointless, fragmented and just baffling to understand or care about.

 “Us” is a one time “WTF” watchable experience……………….But just once. Even if I wanted to ruin this movie for you, I cannot say with 100% certainty what this 2 hour journey was entirely about. 

I will assure you of one thing however, in about 18 months from now I will not be channel surfing on my basic cable to see this again.

2.75 Stars

Triple Frontier - NETFLIX Original - Review

Triple Frontier

NETFLIX Original

Actors Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac star in the NETLIX Original film called “Triple Frontier”. It’s an expression that refers to the border area where Argentina and Brazil and Paraguay all meet and is also an active South American center for contraband and drug trafficking and money laundering as well as a suspected locale for Islamic extremist groups. And such is the case of the premise and plot for this film where we see a collection of former US Special Forces operatives reunite to plan a heist in a sparsely populated multi-border zone of South America. For the first time in their prestigious careers, these unsung heroes undertake this dangerous mission for themselves instead of the country. But when events take an unexpected turn and threaten to spiral out of control, their skills, their loyalties, and their morals are pushed to a breaking point in an epic battle for survival.

REVIEW:  The old Hollywood adage goes something like this  …………….”Imitation is the highest form of flattery”. So with that in mind since the debut of the highly acclaimed “Sicario” hit the big screen in 2015, I had very little doubt directors and screenwriters would be chasing it’s clever noir in the moment action thrilling story line with their own brand of new plot ideas about powerful, murderous and menacing drug cartels operating beyond our southern borders.

And such is the case with this NETFLIX Original “Triple Frontier”. In the very first scene you will see almost identical the same sequencing of helicopters hovering about over some small Mexican town, black SUVS moving with great urgency in fast tandem to each other on narrow streets and mask wearing “Poloicia” escorts riding in and back of dark blue trucks with their assault weapons clearly in hand. Cleary, Director J. C. Chandor (formerly of “All is Lost”) wanted to capture that same dramatic in your face – fly on the wall magic of “Sicario” including some early appropriate and minimum use of displays of fire power to draw the viewer in to asking “what will happen next”.

But even with a reasonably good opening the rest of the story still manages to go a little flat as we watch the five well intended down on their luck skilled operatives go through the paces of initially having “family “ reservations about the dangerous mission to eventually being down right childlike giddy about  the prospects of ripping off  the drug cartel for hundreds of millions of dollars ……”Whaaaa, no problem – piece of cake”.  

While I like the vivid visual look and the “in the moment” action scenes, overall it does not have anywhere as much of the depth and intrigue of “Sicario”. Most of the characters out side of Affleck and Isaac are thinly developed and not worth remembering.

Still, if you like men moving cool through rainy jungle foliage with their guns, executing when needed some rather clever shoot outs under stressful conditions and managing to keep improvising of how they are going to sneak $400 Million out of Medellin drug cartel territory without anyone seeing them do it,  then “triple Frontier” might be worth a look.

3.00 Stars

George Clooney – How Many Have You Seen?

George Clooney – How Many Have You Seen?

1983 Grizzly II: The Predator

1986 Combat Academy

1987 Return to Horror High

1988 Return of the Killer Tomatoes

1989 Red Surf

1992 Unbecoming Age

1993 The Harvest

1996 From Dusk till Dawn

1996 One Fine Day

1997 Batman & Robin

1997 The Peacemaker

1998 Out of Sight

1998 The Thin Red Line

1998 Waiting for Woody

1999 South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

1999 The Book That Wrote Itself

1999 Three Kings

2000 O Brother, Where Art Thou?

2000 The Perfect Storm

2001 Ocean's Eleven

2001 Spy Kids

2002 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

2002 Solaris – Won Best Supporting Actor

2002 Welcome to Collinwood

2003 Intolerable Cruelty

2003 Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

2004 Ocean's Twelve

2005 Good Night, and Good Luck - Nominated Best Director 

2005 Syriana

2006 The Good German

2007 Darfur Now

2007 Michael Clayton - Nominated Best Actor

2007 Ocean's Thirteen

2007 Sand and Sorrow

2008 Burn After Reading

2008 Leatherheads

2009 Fantastic Mr. Fox

2009 The Men Who Stare at Goats

2009 Up in the Air - Nominated Best Actor

2010 The American

2011 The Descendants - Nominated Best Actor

2011 The Ides of March

2013 Gravity

2014 Annie

2014 The Monuments Men

2015 A Very Murray Christmas

2015 Tomorrowland

2016 Hail, Caesar!

2016 Money Monster

Captain Marvel - Review

Captain Marvel

Academy Award winner Brie Larson (“The Room”) and Samuel L. Jackson star in the next evolution in what appears to be an endless array American comic books published by Marvel Comics and created by Stan Lee. This latest effort called “Captain Marvel” (a female superhero for a change) is an extraterrestrial Kree warrior who finds herself caught in the middle of an intergalactic battle between her people and the Skrulls. Living on Earth in 1995, she keeps having recurring memories of another life as U.S. Air Force pilot Carol Danvers. With help from Nick Fury, Captain Marvel tries to uncover the secrets of her past while harnessing her special superpowers to end the war with the evil Skrulls.

REVIEW: Captain Marvel stands out for one important reason and that is given I had no peripheral prior knowledge of the character and her super powers I was indeed impressed with how the directors made her back story and the evolution of her super power rather easy to understand from the onset.

I am not a fan of comic books and I was worried I would be lost in the minutiae and nuance of some insider details - knowledge that only the true die hard comic book fans would have. But I soon realized in the film that this screen adaptation plot was going to be very struggle free viewing thanks to the effort of fuel Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck who moved the film along with good pace, lots of clarity and overall made it a solid coherent entertainment experience for all of its 2:05 minute running time.

Brie Larson and Sam Jackson have loads of on screen chemistry as we get to see how they work effectively in saving the universe together. We also see them delve separably into subplots of how her human character Carol Danvers struggled to reconcile her having mysterious flash backs of a previous life and how Jackson’s Nick Fury younger more mischievous light hearted side evolved into the more stoic serious minded black eye patch leather trench coat wearing icon. Jackson was especially effective playing the younger Fury with a performance that was kind of a hybrid form of both his “Die Hard with a Vengeance” character Zeus Carver and his “Pulp Fiction” Jules Winnfield. He was a great source of well-timed stinging dagger like humor and equally genuine self-deprecating comic relief. Actually the whole film had surprisingly far more humor that your typical comic book character driven film as the plot moved rather adroitly along from action to serious dramatic moments to action to rather cleaver moments to action to rather down right super funny moments.

This Marvel Comic Book Hero effort really doesn't break any new ground per-se, as there are plenty of the standard running, aerial chases, jumping, fighting, body slamming, humans flying and flashes of brilliant lights blowing stuff up. But in the aggregate this film has enough of the “right stuff” as a smart genuinely compelling stand-alone film that assuredly will be offering up many more sequels to come.

Captain Marvel is fun and well worth seeing. To be sure, have ”No Doubt”………..You  can take this pink ribbon off her eyes as she’s “not just a girl”.

3.50 Stars