Aug 27 2021

Black Widow

Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), AKA Black Widow, is forced to confront her past as a network of super killers with ties to her own origin is exposed. Now, it will take more than her own wit and strength to take down the mastermind behind the plan, Dreykov (Ray Winstone), it’ll take family, meaning, Red Guardian (David Harbour), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz). Directed by Cate Shortland and Written by Eric Pearson, Jac Schaeffer and Ned Benson this clashing mix of Red Scare vs. Red White and Blue makes for an imbalanced mix of comedy and Marvel badassery, unclear in tonality and underserving as an origin story for one of the more interesting and enigmatic characters in the Marvel Universe. While action set pieces roll out as expected, which is notable, the plot driving dialogue on the other hand rolls out flat with sophomoric attempts at humor and poor Russian accent to boot, seriously, where were the dialect coaches on this one? Bottom line at two hours and 14 minutes of runtime, one would have really hoped for a significantly more substantial amount of detail as to Natasha’s beguiling and wily ways, she, Black Widow, deserves better, which ironically can also be said for the release and pay scheme Disney has put into effect for the Star and Executive producer behind the project itself, tsk tsk. Black Widow is rated PG-13.


Aug 20 2021

Reminiscence

Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman), is a private investigator of the future trained in the art and science of recalling memories for his clients. But, when the alluring and mysterious, Mae (Rebecca Ferguson), enters his world, Nick’s personal apple cart is overturned leading to an unhealthy obsession. In search of lost love and resolved dissonance, where memory takes us, can be a dark but also wonderful place. Written and Directed by Lisa Joy, one of the creative minds behind HBO’s Westworld, it should come as no surprise that much of the cast and crew of Reminiscence comes directly from the same wellspring, but lets put fears of that redundancy to rest, even though much of the DNA between the two projects is shared, the two aptly and nicely stand in their respective sci-fi corners. That being said, the influences and echos of countless other sci-fi brain exploration flicks do come to mind, which on the larger scale still makes Reminiscence rather reminiscent of many other works and therefor not entirely the freshest idea out of the box. However, on the level it stands, points can be awarded to the leads Jackman, Ferguson along with Thandiwe Newton for holding their own and with Westworld regulars Howard Cummings on Production Design, Paul Cameron on Cinematography, and Ramin Djawadi on Music the recipe is strong enough to make for an enjoyable watch as a matinee or perhaps in the home theatre as the release is also concurrently available on HBO. Reminiscence runs just shy of two hours and is rated PG-13.


Aug 13 2021

Free Guy

Guy (Ryan Reynolds) is a background character living a nondescript ordinary life as a bank teller in an open-world video game, until Millie (Jodie Comer), a gamer and programmer with an agenda of her own walks into his life. Awoken with a new raison d’etre, Guy’s purpose begins to change, shifting the game’s entire dynamic, much to the chagrin of owner and developer Antoine (Taika Waititi). Will Guy’s desire for freewill overpower Antoine’s desire for bigger revenues, the game is afoot!Free Guy PosterDirected by Shawn Levy and Written by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn this August release of a popcorn chomper arrives as advertised, big, bold, and loud, but lacking hefty substance. Heavy hands on the CGI and distinctly duller scripting cripples what could have been a pithy and acerbic display of what Reynolds does best, but instead leaves this light PG-13 rated flick feeling particularly flat. Meanwhile, this extension of the Truman Show and Ready Player One offers little to the imagination despite the comedic power the cast is packing, whiz bang ho hum. Next!