MRMOVIESETC
REVIEWS:
“Long Shot” (2019)
I’m not sure which part of this is stranger; the fact
that Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen play off each other much better than
expected, or that fact that Theron does well at all in this movie. Don’t get me
wrong, Theron is an outstanding actress, and yes, I know she’s been in comedies
before. Whether the directors in past efforts didn’t know what to do with her,
or she for some reason is naturally awkward in those situations, her
performances haven’t seemed to work very well when trying to be funny. Jonathan
Levine seems to have recognized this about her and tailored her arc to fit that
characteristic perfectly.
Sure, Rogen is still somewhat typecast as the goofball in
Fred Flarsky, but not nearly as much this time around as Fred tries to take his
professional life fairly seriously. Theron’s character of Charlotte Field isn’t
exactly stuffy, although, being hyper-focused on bidding to be the first female
President of the United States makes her enough of an opposite to Flarsky that
they mesh rather irresistibly throughout.
Interestingly enough, this film takes enough of an adult
drama approach that, at least for me, there weren’t any gut-busting laughs, per
se, but still enough comedy that really worked to keep me in a good mood. Also,
hey, it turns out you actually can make comedies silly and wholesome at the
same time without dick and vagina jokes. How bold!
I will conclude with, while I appreciated them, there
were some not-so-subtle jabs at Trump and FoxNews that were more eye-rolling
than successful. It’s kind of one of those things where you can’t out-stupid
the source material.
I’d say definitely give this one a shot, no pun intended.
There are worse ways to spend an evening.
“Long Shot”: 8/10
“The Curse of La
Llorona” (2019)
No.
Let me count to you the ways of NO:
The ghoul looks nothing other than the Nun had a
costume change.
The acting was okay, but with writing this lazy,
it doesn’t matter one iota.
The so called loop into the “Conjure-verse” was
cheap and tacky to the degree that I feel as though anybody that paid for a
theater ticket should get refunded for such a blatant bait-and-switch.
The only “scares” are jump scares, and you could
see every single one of the coming. And they all suck.
Did I mention lazy? Given the source material
that could have been taped in to, it makes this piece of shit even more of a
shell.
Fine; that one scene with the kids in the car
was kind of suspenseful. Almost as suspenseful as when it looks the vending
machine isn’t going to give you what you paid for. Almost.
No.
Just. No.
“The Curse of La Llorona”:
2/10
“POKEMON Detective
Pikachu” (2019)
To say I’ve been out of the Pokémon loop for a while, I
am talking clear back to the GAMEBOY days of “Ruby” and “Sapphire”. After that,
they started making Pokémon that were lampshades or something, and I decided I
had reached the end of my Pokémon ride. In all honesty, I cannot even remember
which GAMEBOY model those two versions came out on without looking it up. I
want to say it was the flip one that had the first built in lighting for
playing in the dark, but I could be really off.
Look, I know, I’m getting older! Damn it. It has gotten
to the point that I don’t even remember the original “Detective Pikachu” that
this film is supposed to be based on; should that help paint an impressively
more depressing picture.
Anyway, since I have been away from the scene for a
while, the first few looks of this film were interesting, but also beyond
bizarre. This is definitely one of those scenarios where it was either going to
go really right or really wrong, and considering the track record of video game
film adaptations, can one really fault anybody for being pessimistic?
Luckily, and perhaps surprisingly, I had a great time
with this one. I have no idea why or how Ryan Reynolds works as the token
cutest Pokémon, but he does, and he is easily the heart and soul of this movie.
Quickly hearkening back to what I was just saying about being older, there were
some Pokémon that I didn’t recognize at all and dismissed as easily, but seeing
old faces like Charizard, Bulbasaur, Meotwo, Ditto, and a host of others, took
me back to my GAMEBOY happy place.
The plot, as these things go, is a little thin despite
trying to have something deeper to say about different species living together
in harmony regardless of our differences (super subtle), yet I was absorbed up
enough in it that I completely missed the main twist that isn’t hard to spot
when paying close enough attention.
The CGI is pretty decent too, and the pacing stays nice
and crisp enough that the whole thing feels like a breeze by the time it’s
over. Other than some general silliness here and there that doesn’t contribute much,
this is likely one of the best video game films so far – keeping in mind how
low the bar was to begin with.
“POKEMON Detective Pikachu”: 8/10
“Wine Country”
(2019)
Eh, I’m not lying when I say this one let me down quite a
bit.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but “Wine
Country” brings an ensemble cast of comedy veterans/friends together for an
R-rated road trip story that is supposed to be a celebration of life as each
are advancing into middle age, but instead all goes to shit because each brings
some secret baggage along for the ride.
Truthfully, I am an easy lay when it comes to this, and
the draw of Maya Rudolph and Amy Poehler (also directing) was all I needed to
look forward to it. Sadly, the screenplay this time around is just not very
good, and I mean that as in it’s a tease. Some scenes are an absolute riot; the
most memorable one being the handing out of sex toys in a restaurant. That
being said, the lulls in-between offer hardly a hint of flavor that I know all
these actors are capable of killing without any effort. In fact, “Wine Country”
is mostly the opposite – the jokes are entirely too forced and you can see it
on the actors’ faces. Having that happen
once or twice is something that can be recovered from, but when it’s over and
over and over again, I was out of it with a good twenty-ish minutes left to
spare.
Poehler does show that she can be good behind the lens,
and while the writing didn’t support this debut, I certainly hope she keeps
going after it. Hollywood is in bad need for good comedy these days.
“Wine Country”: 4/10
“The Red Sea
Diving Resort” (2019)
White saviors, white saviors, white saviors.
Ok, I got it out early just in case, because god forbid
it doesn’t get mentioned.
Yes, there is no real way to spin this film away from the
fact that very Caucasian men, and woman, helped save thousands of Jewish
refugees from the Sudan. Yes, “Diving Resort” is an extremely loose telling
of the actual events that took place, including the location. Nevertheless, I
do have to exert some sarcastic retort to the lashings this film took early
from mainstream critics, because a lot of Israelites are light-skinned and the
real footage that played during the credits only proved that. Still, Chris
Evans playing the hero in a story like this is kind of funny in an “eek, that’s
severely Hollywood” way. But hey, he gets mostly nude a few times during the
film, so small victories if you’re into that.
Putting all of that business aside, looking at “Diving
Resort” strictly as it is, it’s a decently suspenseful thriller. It’s certainly
not the best of its kind; in fact, the farther along it went, the more it
morphed into the light beer version of “Argo”. The performances are good, and
Gideon Raff can keep the tension up enough that I didn’t have any worries about
seeing it through to the end and whether or not it would be worth it. That
being said, there’s not much going on beneath the surface. The film presents
itself exactly as it intends to be, and it never strays from that path.
Like I said, for all intents and purposes, it’s not bad.
Surely there will be plenty that will want to tear it apart for its
representation of various nationalities, and that’s their prerogative. As for
me, I enjoyed it, but I’ll watch “Argo” instead from here on out.
“The Red Sea Diving Resort”: 7/10
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