Recent theatrical viewings

[M.10rda]

JOHN WICK, CHAPTER 4 (2023): Legendary renegade hitman John Wick devises a plan to free himself from the bounty set on his head once and for all by killing a high-ranking official known as the Marquis, while a blind assassin and "Mr. Nobody" are on his tail. Basically, it's still just an excuse to shuffle John Wick from international set piece to international set piece so he can slaughter a bunch of extras, but there is a legitimate epic feel this time out, with echoes of Zatoichi and Sergio Leone. 4/5.

Agreed on all counts.

Fastest 2h49m of screentime I can recall. I did roll my eyes a couple of times after the fifteenth or sixteenth time John Wick bounces off a moving (or parked!) vehicle then shrugs off the impact within seconds. This gratuity notwithstanding, however, I really admire the film's economy when it comes to lore and exposition. Tarantino would've squandered 6 or 8 of those 169 minutes on, say, a static monologue establishing the backstory for Pyotr, the Roma godfather who's dead offscreen before John Wick ever shows up to meet him. Chad Stahelski dispenses w/ almost all set-up in the minimum necessary amount of dialogue or sometimes just in imagery, committing those extra 6-8 minutes to John killing another 50 assassins.

My single favorite moment is probably a close-up of braille on a card. A lot of restraint in that one moment. At least for a movie where a nightclub full of Germans don't bother to stop doing the frug until they've seen at least eight murders on the dancefloor.

4.5/5
Probably all the JOHN WICK I'll need, though. I'm satisfied.

Though it was nice to see Natalia Tena, carrying on the proud tradition of GoT cast in the JW films.

Okay, I'll see a CHAPTER 5 if John Wick teams up w/ Arya Stark.

[Rev. Powell]

I did roll my eyes a couple of times after the fifteenth or sixteenth time John Wick bounces off a moving (or parked!) vehicle then shrugs off the impact within seconds.
4.5/5
Probably all the JOHN WICK I'll need, though. I'm satisfied.

Agreed on both counts. It was the best JW I've seen, leave on a high note, please.

And now for something completely different:

A THOUSAND AND ONE (2023): After being released from prison, Inez kidnaps her child from foster care and raises him in Harlem. Urban drama about good-natured but flawed characters navigating difficult circumstances that eventually reaches a moving climax, but takes a long time to get there. 3/5.

[Rev. Powell]

AIR: Sonny Vaccaro bets his career on signing Michael Jordan (who was not even the top draft pick) to the biggest shoe contract Nike (then third place in the basketball market) had ever offered. I was reluctantly drawn into the most expensive Air Jordan commercial ever made, largely thanks to the right dose of self-deprecating humor at the expense of Nike execs played by Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, and Ben Affleck. 3/5.

[M.10rda]

I was reluctantly drawn into the most expensive Air Jordan commercial ever made, largely thanks to the right dose of self-deprecating humor at the expense of Nike execs played by Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, and Ben Affleck. 3/5.

When I first saw the trailer, I thought it must certainly be an archly earnest Funny-Or-Die type comedy bit, not an actual feature film. The whole 2h movie is exactly like that, right? 

[Rev. Powell]

I was reluctantly drawn into the most expensive Air Jordan commercial ever made, largely thanks to the right dose of self-deprecating humor at the expense of Nike execs played by Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, and Ben Affleck. 3/5.

When I first saw the trailer, I thought it must certainly be an archly earnest Funny-Or-Die type comedy bit, not an actual feature film. The whole 2h movie is exactly like that, right? 

Nah, it's seriously intended as an inspiring tale of marketing genius (basically the sports movie where the underdog wins the championship, only starring sneaker salesmen). But there is enough humor to make it work. Like I said, I was reluctantly drawn in: I didn't really like what they were aiming to do but I have to say they did it very well and kept me entertained. Like a well-written commercial.

[M.10rda]

Nah, it's seriously intended as an inspiring tale of marketing genius (basically the sports movie where the underdog wins the championship, only starring sneaker salesmen). But there is enough humor to make it work. Like I said, I was reluctantly drawn in: I didn't really like what they were aiming to do but I have to say they did it very well and kept me entertained. Like a well-written commercial.

Well that sounds fine. Some of Affleck's recent choices as director and/or screenwriter have perplexed me. Similar to how AIR's trailer came off as an arch comedy sketch, I was somehow confounded by the trailer for THE TENDER BAR, a film which appeared to celebrate the life-affirming virtues of one's neighborhood drinking hole, directly concurrent to Affleck's very public struggle w/ alcoholism. Then there was THE LAST DUEL, which... is one of the worst and most wrongheaded films I've seen in the past 2-3 years. 

I still root for him as an actor, though! Batffleck is my Batman, dammit... the one I grew up reading in comics from the 80s through today. Bale growls and Pattinson stares sullenly into space, yet only Batffleck actually marches bitterly through a humorless murder-campaign against all who would dare oppose him.  That's the Batman I know!

[M.10rda]

RENFIELD (2023):
For better or worse, this is just about exactly the movie I expected it to be (at least after the second trailer), no more and no less. A likable lead performance from Nicholas Hoult (on the heels of playing several creeps on film and TV), a fully committed performance from eyeball-popping professional set-muncher Nicolas Cage, and a lot of ridiculous but very wet splatter.

It doesn't ultimately amount to much more than that, yet two well-written scenes with Cage confronting Hoult - one in Hoult's pastel-colored apartment and one in a church - generate enough electricity to make one imagine that RENFIELD probably could've been an even better movie if the filmmakers invested a little more effort. Universal might be having similar misgivings after its limp opening weekend grosses. (A guy parked next to me at the drive-in loudly conducted a running commentary about how he hoped this would be a lot more like SHAUN OF THE DEAD.   )

But who knows in this very weird era of theatrical cinema? I feel like RENFIELD would've almost definitely been straight-to-streaming 2 years ago. Weirder and worse films have struck gold in theatrical releases as of late... namely COCAINE BEAR, which was the second-half of this double bill. We paid $24 for two tickets to two movies, and if we'd paid $24 just for RENFIELD, I would've driven home shrugging yet satisfied. If I think about spending even $6 a ticket on COCAINE BEAR, I feel pretty dumb. Ehh, what do I know.

3/5

[indianasmith]

BODIES BODIES BODIES (2023)

A group of thoroughly unlikeable twentysomethings meet up at a rich friend's house to have a "hurricane party" as a huge storm comes ashore.  After the usual amount of personal angst and bickering, they agree to play a murder game called "bodies bodies bodies!"  But when they split up to play, the rich friend winds up dead outside with his throat cut, and the evening descends into panic and paranoia as they turn on each other, not knowing who the killer is.  Then they start offing each other . . . despicable characters made this hard to enjoy in places, but the twist at the end was worth hanging around for. 3/5

[Rev. Powell]

BEAU IS AFRAID: Beau (Joaquin Phoenix), who lives with crippling anxiety (caused by his upbringing), stresses out in apocalyptic fashion when his scheduled trip to see his mother hits some snags. From his apartment menaced by homeless bath-salts zombies to a hallucinatory play staged by orphans in the remote woods to his final visit to confront his domestic demons, Ari Aster's horror/black comedy is end-to-end insanity; 3 hours of mania and a trembling Phoenix is, in fact, way, way too much, but the excess is part of the charm. 3.5/5.

[M.10rda]

BEAU IS AFRAID: Beau (Joaquin Phoenix), who lives with crippling anxiety (caused by his upbringing), stresses out in apocalyptic fashion when his scheduled trip to see his mother hits some snags. From his apartment menaced by homeless bath-salts zombies to a hallucinatory play staged by orphans in the remote woods to his final visit to confront his domestic demons, Ari Aster's horror/black comedy is end-to-end insanity; 3 hours of mania and a trembling Phoenix is, in fact, way, way too much, but the excess is part of the charm. 3.5/5.

Very excited for this, more now following your review.

Stephen McKinley Henderson (who plays Joaquin's therapist) has lived in Buffalo since the 80s and is a friend. I was thrilled when he told me he was in the new Ari Aster film starring Joaquin Phoenix, but I was thrilled about him working w/ Aster and Phoenix. As a lifetime theatre actor, Steve says he's most pleased about being in a movie w/ Patti LuPone!

[Rev. Powell]

BEAU IS AFRAID: Beau (Joaquin Phoenix), who lives with crippling anxiety (caused by his upbringing), stresses out in apocalyptic fashion when his scheduled trip to see his mother hits some snags. From his apartment menaced by homeless bath-salts zombies to a hallucinatory play staged by orphans in the remote woods to his final visit to confront his domestic demons, Ari Aster's horror/black comedy is end-to-end insanity; 3 hours of mania and a trembling Phoenix is, in fact, way, way too much, but the excess is part of the charm. 3.5/5.

Very excited for this, more now following your review.

Stephen McKinley Henderson (who plays Joaquin's therapist) has lived in Buffalo since the 80s and is a friend. I was thrilled when he told me he was in the new Ari Aster film starring Joaquin Phoenix, but I was thrilled about him working w/ Aster and Phoenix. As a lifetime theatre actor, Steve says he's most pleased about being in a movie w/ Patti LuPone!

Oh that's cool! He's excellent in it. (You can tell him I said that!) Just be prepared for the three hours of anxiety. Honestly, I think it could have been a masterpiece at 2 hours.

[M.10rda]

Eventually I will! I am down to about one meeting and an email or two a year. He's been in Tunisia off and on forever shooting the DUNEs and/or he's been on Broadway. I used to work with him... and, I am proud to say, I once filmed him performing an audition monologue for James Gray's AD ASTRA. Alas, they went w/ Donald Sutherland!    I'm grateful to have that story, though.

[M.10rda]

Posting this here, as the response in the dedicated thread  appears almost wholly positive and I don't want to seem openly combative, plus creating a (most appropriate) new thread in the "Bad Movies" board seems even more passive-aggressive... anyway, this was technically "recent theatrical" viewing for me:

COCAINE BEAR (2023):
There's a pleasing chunk of possibly as many as 35 minutes in the middle of this movie, but the first 30 and last 30 are as inept and thoughtless as anything I can remember seeing on a big screen in at least 5 years, maybe dating back to 2018's SLENDERMAN. Really the only humor or entertainment value to be had comes from the imaginatively staged and well-executed mayhem in the central third, from the time Jesse Taylor Ferguson gets treed through the end of the sequence w/ the cop on the roof of the gazebo... with the ambulance chase being the foremost highlight. Those scenes are worth checking out on Peacock (where COCAINE BEAR is already free to stream). However, I regret sitting through the long expository (and unfunny) opening in order to get to the good scenes. And after the action moves on from the gazebo, you might as well stop. The finale is embarrassing.

I admit I liked Elizabeth Banks' direction of PITCH PERFECT 2, easily the most watchable of that lame trilogy, and I've always liked her as a comedic actress. Maybe she was consciously going the Takashi Miike route and accepting the worst possible screenplay she could find and then trying to make something worthwhile out of it. Indeed, the script is clumsy, tone deaf, and almost entirely bereft of jokes - but as Banks didn't write it, I can't pin it on her. I can fault her for sub-Troma-caliber direction outside of the central scenes of gory mayhem. Her handling of the scenes in the bathroom, for example, suggest she was as bored and checked out of those scenes as I, the viewer, was. I've seen more competent direction in SOV flicks by high schoolers.

I might feel less antagonism towards COCAINE BEAR if its own disposition was sunnier or at least more consistent. But I'm rubbed the wrong way by the film's casual mutilation and murder of several likeable or innocent characters, while somehow the three most irritating characters (two drug dealers and a whiny punk w/ a weird Philly accent) are rewarded w/ their lives, a big duffle bag of cocaine, and/or a puppy. I probably stuck around the last half hour hoping to see those three jerks lose a jaw or get rent in two. What a waste.

I was glad to see GAME OF THRONES' Kristofer Hivju show up, but sad to see him so poorly utilized. Having Tormund Giantsbane go hand-to-hand w/ a rampaging bear would've seemed like a no-brainer, right? Apparently not. And need I mention that this is (until something, anything else surfaces) evidently the final film appearance of Ray Liotta... whose rich career included FIELD OF DREAMS, SOMETHING WILD, GOODFELLAS, COPLAND, a hilarious bit on THE UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT... and now wheezes to a halt in this sad affair. He's last seen kicking two baby bears before expiring in a watered down ripoff of the Rhodes vivisection from the end of Romero's DAY OF THE DEAD.

Ray Liotta deserved better, and so do audiences. Just stream GRIZZLY II instead - bigger name stars AND more laffs!

1.5/5

[Rev. Powell]

SUZUME: A chance encounter with a handsome stranger searching for a freestanding door leads high school orphan Suzume on a magical odyssey across Japan. The first half of the story, with its magical cats and whimsical transformations, is Makoto Shinkai's most Miyazakian stretch of writing; later, the mood becomes cosmic, psychological, and romantic. A good fantasy adventure for older kids (and adults). 3.5/5.

[M.10rda]

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES (2023):
This modest box office hit is overlong but not boring and mostly pleasant, which I suppose makes it ideal tentpole-fodder in the eyes of Hollywood. The cheeky ensemble cast and their humorous chemistry seems carefully modeled in the image of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (to the extent that one of that franchise's stars appears briefly) and they are all likely contracted for at least two sequels. I liked that the film refers to and/or takes place in Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, and the Underdark, all beloved destinations from my CRPG-playing days. I also admired the use of CGI to execute several imaginative long takes/tracking shots, including a highly impressive chase scene w/ Sophia Lillis that could never have been realized twenty years ago.

I do have two criticisms that I hope get addressed in future entries:
1.) The film is rated PG-13 but is entirely bloodless, w/ largely comical and non-fatal combat... quite a ways off from what PG-13 was introduced for (heart removal, exploding gremlins), quite a ways off from what James Gunn has gotten away w/ in the PG-13 rated GOTGs, and quite a ways off from my own experiences playing the BALDUR'S GATE and NEVERWINTER NIGHTS games. Of course D&D is now "Hasbro's Dungeons & Dragons", per the closing credits, but hey, Hasbro - don't forget about all the adult fans of sword-and-sorcery mayhem!
2.) The credited screenwriters include co-director John Francis Daley of FREAKS AND GEEKS and 3 or 4 other men, but no women... which might account for how most of the dense, mostly clever dialogue ends up in the mouths of Chris Pine, Hugh Grant, and the other male cast... while Lillis, Michelle Rodriguez, and the female bigbad are SEEN kicking a lot of ass (which is good) but have very little to say. (The  bigbad may deliver less than 40 WORDS of dialogue in the entire movie.) All jokes about D&D fans being freaks, geeks, and forty-year old virgins aside, in reality there are minimally thousands of female tabletop and computer D&D players in the world....... surely the producers could find ONE to add to their screenwriting team next time.

3/5