Month: November 2017

“Daddys Home 2” (** out of four) was a tired sequel to the very funny 2015 original about the holiday misadventures of the father (Will Ferrell) and stepfather (Mark Wahlberg) who have to deal with their own intrusive dads (John Lithgow and Mel Gibson) who visit for Christmas. Great cast works well together and squeezes all the humor they can out of a paper-thin script without much of a story which becomes detrimental especially in the second half. Finale in which the cast all rejoice in singing “Do They Know It’s Christmas” really needs to be seen to be believed. More-or-less what you would expect but has enough smiles to make it watchable.

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“Murder On The Orient Express” (** out of four) was a sputtering remake of the Agatha Christie story about an investigator (Kenneth Branagh who also directed) trying to unravel a murder on a train ride with 13 strangers (Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Willem Dafoe, and others) and soon no one knows who to trust. Visually lush and well-cast but story isn’t funny enough, suspenseful enough, or simply entertaining enough to come together and make this material worth revisiting. Branagh does a serviceable job on both sides of the camera but is stalled by stale material.

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“Gold Star” (** out of four) was a languid drama of a young music-school dropout (Victoria Negri who also wrote and directed) whose life is thrown a curveball when her father (Robert Vaughn) has a stroke and she finds herself caring for him and at the same time questioning her aim and purpose in her own life. Well-meaning story plays out like a made-for-tv movie and isn’t all that moving or involving. Vaughn’s final film although it gives him nothing to do.

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“Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You” (** out of four) was a pleasant but forgettable animated trifle about a young girl named Mariah (voiced by both Breanna Yde and Mariah Carey) who dreams of buying a dog for Christmas after seeing a local puppy named Princess at the local pet store and she is then tasked with dog-sitting her uncle’s crazy dog Jack to see if she is ready for the responsibility. Die-hard Mariah Carey fans and very young kids may like this but it’s mediocre at best. This is obviously made as a holiday cash-in on Mariah Carey’s Christmas themed song but other Carey song titles “Languishing”, “The Impossible”, and “Faded” are more apt descriptions of your probable response to this movie.

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“Singularity” (*1/2 out of four) was a singularly awful futuristic thriller about a megalomaniacal CEO (John Cusack) who engineers a new robotic program CRONOS to end all wars but this soon leads to robots killing all of mankind; 97 years later, two survivors (Julian Schaffner and Jennine Wackner) band together to stay alive and defeat CRONOS and make it to a new world which may or may not exist. Promising beginning soon goes astray, as film becomes obvious and boring and turns into one more rip-off of “Blade Runner”. Some impressive visual effects and Tobias Enhus and Scott Kirkland’s lyrical score are undeniable standouts.

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“Barracuda” (*1/2 out of four) was a rambling story of a drifting young woman (Sophie Reid) who comes to Texas to meet her half-sister (Allison Tolman) for the first time and to try and stake a claim to their family musical legacy and meet the family members she never knew she had but is she really who she says? Or do we care? Attempt at a family reconciliation drama, a thriller melodrama, and a story on musical powers and redemption comes up pretty flat on all counts. Jobeth Williams has a small but key role as a family member and looks great at nearly 70 years old.

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“November Criminals” (*1/2 out of four) was a turgid story about two teenagers (Ansel Elgort and Chloe Grace Moretz) in Washington D.C. who are deeply shaken upon learning about the death of a schoolmate and set out to solve his murder. Illogical story never makes you really understand or care why the two teenagers are so determined to find his killer in the first place. What’s really criminal is wasting the terrific Moretz in more direct-to-Redbox drivel like this. Both her and Elgort previously starred in the remake of “Carrie.”

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“Patti Cakes” (*1/2 out of four) was a sour melodrama about an aspiring rapper named Patti Cakes (Danielle Macdonald) who struggles to achieve her quest for glory and stardom in her rundown home in New Jersey but finds that her continued family problems and ties in her community keep holding her down. Unfortunately, the character Patti Cakes isn’t really that special a rapper and Macdonald isn’t all that great of a lead actress which makes this a lumpy mix at best. Works best in the scenes between her and her mom but many supporting characters are unpleasant and film bogs down at nearly 2 hours.

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“Flint” (*** out of four) was a searing true story about the Flint water crisis in 2014 and how numerous townspeople (Queen Latifah, Betsy Brandt, Jill Scott) had to band together to persuade the city’s big business and political administrations to finally recognize the effects of the city’s toxic water and how it was gradually poisoning and killing thousands. A disturbing look at political and business coverups and the numerous hurdles a town had to go through to get their voices heard. Director Bruce Beresford tells his story simply and eloquently in one of his best dramas in a while.

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“Sex Guaranteed” (*1/2 out of four) was a terrible movie, guaranteed, about a loser named Kevin (Grey Damon) who swears off sex to win back his fiancee but happens to meet a beautiful escort (Bella Dayne) at the party of an eccentric millionaire (Stephen Dorff) and realizes she may have the spark he needs to turn his life around. Dorff’s amusing performance is the only salvation for this moronic and contrived story. Won’t someone please rescue him from this direct-to-DVD junk?

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