The Dictator

Sacha Baron Cohen's world absurdity tour continues, but with diminishing returns. It is instructive to do a compare and contrast with the auteurs most successful work, Borat. The earlier movie, made in faux documentary style, landed one uproarious laugh after another, while this effort, a more standard fictional comedic setup with Cohen playing African-Arab autocrat Aladeen, has its fine moments, but they come scattershot, mostly as jokes and one-liners that work in isolation. Clearly, the demands of a fictional narrative muted the impact of Cohen’s outrageous style of comedy. What you’re left with, then, is a film that represents probably the lower endpoint of this comedian's arc. It is no wonder that Cohen eventually moved away from this sort of movie and took on a number of smaller, often more serious roles in later years. As for this work, again, it has its moments, but given the expectations raised by the earlier efforts, it is difficult to view this entry as anything but a disappointment—and that verdict is rendered despite the presence of the normally reliable Anna Faris as Aladeen's foil/love interest. (The final joke, by the way, is fully telegraphed and comes as no surprise to anyone in the audience who has been paying the slightest attention.) Thankfully, those of us who do not live in Wadiya have the freedom to choose whether or not to watch this work. If you’re feeling as self-indulgent as your typical Middle Eastern dictator, perhaps you will wish to spend your time on this endeavor. Otherwise, you may seek the refuge of giving this one a pass.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

On its own terms, this is a pretty good action flick. It features all the requisite elements of such a piece of work: appealing leads (even Awkwafina, who till now has seemed mostly annoying), some truly audacious action and/or fight sequences (a staple of actual Chinese cinema for a long time), and a visual style that ranges from eye-catching in parts to down right gorgeous, even ethereal at times. I'm not nearly qualified to comment on its ethnic bona fides, but I doubt that's really the point of this movie anyway. (The point is to expand the MCU in new, money-making directions. Duh.) Simu Liu is good in the title role, everyone around him provides fine support (except perhaps Ben Kingsley, who takes his reprised role and runs with it...mostly into walls), and the effects provide some equally impressive creature partners. The ultimate judgement here lies in one simple aspect: does it work as an entertaining film? Sure does. At this point, this might be the best of the recent vintage Marvel movies--a low bar to leap, admittedly; it remains to be seen if there's enough life and freshness here to keep the ball rolling beyond today.

Ender’s Game

I guess some folks thought this was going to be really big. For that to happen, it would have had to have been really good--and it’s not. Which isn’t to say it’s bad; the movie works on its own level, it’s entertaining and well-paced, most of what you see is visually impressive. There’s just something missing, a deficit that keeps this flick from making that jump into the stratosphere of big-time sci-fi hit. Perhaps it's too intellectual at its core; that might work in a book--this film is famously based upon a book--but a blockbuster action movie needs a little more "duh" in it. Maybe. You can still get a couple of decent hours out of watching it; it's just not "all that."

Iron Man 3

There isn’t much new here, which makes sense as it’s the third in a series. Naturally, there’s a pretty good amount of popcorn fun in this tentpole production, and the principals have lost little of their charm in the course of the years. But some of the magic, the spark that made the original so enjoyable, is lacking here. Still, given the nature of the film, you have to say it achieves its goals, and ultimately that works to the audience’s advantage.

Sexy Beast

This one earns its wings mostly on the performance of Ben Kingsley; he's a riot. It's also fairly stylish, with the kind of flair that keeps you smiling most of the way through. Interesting sidebar: it's a movie about criminals, but there's barely any hint of finger-wagging at the characters' misdeeds. You're never led to think, "When are the cops going to bag these guys?" Is our society so inured against concepts of right and wrong? Something to ponder as you laugh at Kingsley's lunatic.