Wake Up Dead Man

Word of warning: don’t watch this movie if you’re sleepy. I did, and wound up dozing off about 45 minutes in. Is that a commentary on the quality of the film, or just a product of circumstance? Maybe a bit of both. For sure, this story takes its time getting to the heart of the proceedings. That leisurely pace gives the movie a sense of being—somewhat appropriate for a murder mystery—rather lifeless. The film does eventually get going, and in doing so presents an interesting aspect of the script: some intriguing ruminations on faith and the church and their value and meaning. Plus you get to watch more of Daniel Craig inhabiting the character of Benoit Blanc, which is good entertainment. Still, I can’t help but think that this entry in Rian Johnson’s series is a touch below the previous outings. Whether that marks a death knell for the franchise or represents just a momentary dip remains at this point a question still to be answered. Not dead yet, perhaps, but in need of a little more energy—something you can say about your correspondent as well. 

Glass Onion

A few years ago, it seemed like Daniel Craig was certain to be remembered as a guy who played James Bond. Maybe that still holds, but a couple more of these films—we're at three as of this writing—and it may no longer be a sure thing. His Benoit Blanc is arguably a more memorable character, and you can’t deny that it is a persona that is truly Craig’s own, rather than a borrowed or inherited legacy. It helps, too, that these Knives Out movies are good, entertaining, fun and funny, and blessed with a lot of current (at least) cultural currency. In this edition, the story works well, and the cast and setting have plenty of interesting facets (though here the collected characters border on caricature). The fly in this ointment lies in the focus on—and critique of—the ultra rich and their natures. The view has merit and the parody pulls few punches, but it means spending a lot of time with some really unpleasant characters, even if just representations thereof. That aspect of the story does get a bit distracting, one might say…though one can argue the critique is not so much a distraction as the point of the presentation in the first place. I guess it depends on how much you care about the mystery aspect of a mystery, versus character, setting and mood. Me, I’m not so much on the whodunnit angle, so my viewing mind tends to shift towards the other story elements. It works here, though I’m not sure it would in every story. As it is, you can just focus on Craig and let him be your guide to a decent way to kill a couple of hours. I guess this movie doesn’t exactly shatter any expectations, but the fact that it works overall is crystal clear. 

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

Sic transit gloria cinema. If this really is the end, that is. What was in many ways the most unlikely of top-level movie franchises—in story, in execution, in star power, in sheer quality of execution—has apparently reached its denouement with an outing that is, perhaps, not the best of the series, but one that is representative and certainly full of entertainment value. You don’t really need to fret too much about the story here; this installment is continuing a thread that has been building for around three episodes now (and arguably grew out of the details of the entire series, as the movie makes clear with numerous self-referential flashback montages)--and all that really takes a back seat to the typically audacious stunt sequences anywat. Tom Cruise is very much his usual self here: strong, on-point, and totally in control of his character and environment (and he is deserving of accolades for clearly being a driving force in making this franchise what it became, which is a film series that far exceeded any reasonable expectations). The supporting cast does good work, too, including fine goodbyes to stalwarts Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg in their definitive roles, as well as solid performances from the rest of the crew--including Pom Klementieff in a role where, oddly, she speaks only French but apparently understands English in amazing detail. But hey, we’re not here to quibble; this stuff is all about a fun times at the movies, and this flick mostly pays that off, without ever descending into self-destruction. That’s a good mission to complete successfully—and here’s the proof. 

Robot Dreams

Alternately sweet and brutal. But mostly brutal. Frankly, I’m not quite sure what to make of this movie. Generally, I like my movies—including my animated movies—to come with a healthy dose of snappy dialogue, so this mostly wordless work operates at a disadvantage right there. The story of friendship found and then lost and then (kinda sorta) found again has its effective moments, but most of those are the joyful instances when the main characters are building their relationship. When things go south, that’s when the brutal comes in, and it is difficult to accept the notion that the sorrows are ever truly overcome, despite an ultimately upbeat denouement. Upbeat is a good term here, considering that music plays a major role in telling the tale—somewhat naturally, given the lack of spoken language; the filmmakers, to their credit, have some excellent taste in tunes, and that helps a lot of this flick to go down a bit easier. Still, one cannot help but see the sorrowful side ultimately winning out; perhaps it’s my own lived experience speaking, but I think the biggest takeaway from this film is that, even in their dreams, losers are losers, and thus they just simply lose. That’s a hard nut to crack. Beyond story basics, the movie presents some good animation, with very representative depictions of ‘80s New York City (except for having a Mets game at Yankee Stadium, for some reason), with the old cityscape beautifully rendered in many scenes, as well as offering a wide range of literally well-drawn animal characters throughout (the better to doll up the story’s harder edges). Certainly, this is a well crafted work and deserving of attention—I just can’t escape the feeling that it ultimately comes across as a bit of a downer. And, the lack of dialogue is probably why the film seems longer than it is; not that the story drags, but it begins to feel drawn out after a point. So watching this movie presents some challenges as well as rewards. give it a look, but don’t expect a standard animated laugh riot. 

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

Late on a Saturday night. I was just looking for some mindless entertainment…and boy did I find it. I don’t know if this flick was meant to be in 3D, but Angelina Jolie’s character certainly was: 3D x 2, to be precise. Lara’s enhanced physique is so prevalent throughout the show that it is almost like a running—and occasionally bouncing and bobbing—joke, which is ironic since one of the key missing elements of this movie is actual humor, as in humor that is a) intentional and b) something you would actually laugh at. Further conceptual follies are found in the story’s half-assed attempts at being vaguely scientific, via some humbug about a planetary alignment, not to mention various other plot missteps. Even the raw action sequences come across as bland and not particularly inventive (a real black mark considering this film was made contemporaneously with the Matrix trilogy). If I had to point to some good aspects of this work, I suppose I could say that Jolie’s performance is decent, and she gets acceptable support from a pre-Bond Daniel Craig, plus the story does provide a bare minimum of entertainment despite its many flaws. Still, you can’t be too generous towards a dunce work like this one. Instead of pulling things out of a tomb, a better idea would probably be to bury this flick in one, and leave it there for a bad long time. 

Charade

It’s like a sophistication overdose: Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant, in Paris no less. Grant may have been showing his age a bit here in the early ‘60s—the very sly, witty script even jokes about it repeatedly—but he still brings plenty of suave to this offering, a charm offensive that perfectly complements Hepburn’s own considerable charisma in this ever-so-urbane yet never stuffy romantic whodunnit thriller. The City of Light setting helps pump up the cultivated atmosphere, providing a context that magnifies the stars’ natural qualities. The supporting cast of later well-known but then still-developing actors does excellent work in giving the top-billed characters strong but never overshadowing support. And that script really shines, with its steady peppering of snappy lines to go with its smart but not distractingly overdone story twists. Really enjoyable stuff that should receive any true movie buff’s stamp of approval. 

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

This movie requires you to cast a spell of your own: [waves wand] “Explainitous!” Really, it’s hard to know what is going on in much of the first quarter to a third of this movie. The production seems to rely on the audience being so deeply invested in the wizarding world that they will instantly know who everyone is and what they are doing without any particular explanation. Alas, some of us actually have lives, and have not seen the previous installment in a few years, so a lot of the early scenes inspire head-scratching by the rest of us. The story improves in the clarity department as it unfolds, but it does not necessarily do so in terms of being interesting or clever. The overall tale is a muddle, and that’s not helped by a quantity of ham-handed metaphors for real life situations both historical and present day. Some of the magical effects are clever and entertaining, but there are also scenes where the viewer anticipates certain visuals that never come to fruition. Imagination is supposed to be the core quality of this franchise, so it’s not a good sign when the audience is out-imagining the filmmakers. I was overly harsh about the original series and its installments, so I feel uncertain about truly laying into this outing in the franchise’s adjunct storyline. Maybe I just don’t get it, or I’m too old, or who knows? But I can’t bring myself to recommend a movie that comes across as so disjointed, and poorly conceived, and—and this is the same complaint I have about the later outings in the core story—just not all that much fun. Come on, people—enough is enough.