Cars 3

I was hesitant going in to this viewing. After watching the first two in this series, I was ready to pump the brakes, if you will. Mostly, I pressed play to get the movie out of the way and off my to-be-watched list. And early returns—the first hour or so of the story—were not promising, offering only what seemed to be a litany of sports show cliches about the veteran player on the verge of being washed up. And then...something unexpected happened: a payoff came at the climax that was surprising and turned the story into something fresh and, dare I say it, downright noble. Part of the early hang-up comes from the movie’s focus, which is much more tightly fixed upon the milieu of stock car racing in this outing versus the previous installments. That’s not my territory, personally, so the start can be a bit boring here; it gets a little too deep into the weeds, as it were. Speaking of weeds, that is actually another of this film’s strengths: the visuals are beautifully rendered, right down to the blades of grass during Lightning’s backwoods training sequences. The world of the cars has never seemed more real than in the minute details that are shown here. And while the adversaries in this plot are not especially memorable, the characters on the protagonist side are exceptionally well played, including the memories of the late Paul Newman (who voiced Lightning's mentor Doc Hudson) and Chris Cooper filling a similar role as Smokey. It’s hardly perfect, but the ending feels so right that you can’t help but appreciate it. Not exactly an epic trip, but not a wrong turn, either.

The Suicide Squad

This one is very slick and stylish. Also, it's funny and violent and gory. What it isn’t is riveting all the way through. The movie comes across more a series of set pieces and setups and punchlines rather than a fully-realized and well-told narrative. Director James Gunn--he's getting the lion's share of the credit for this flick, whatever it may be--pays a lot of attention to "don’t this look cool?" but not as much to "does any of this make much sense?" Viewed on its own terms, the film is entertaining to a point, funny to a point, and worth a watch, if you're the kind of viewer who likes this sort of thing. That there is the rub: is this your kind of movie, and are you this kind of movie's audience. It's a question that's more fraught than you might think. It's hard to deny, from a rational and (ironically) bloodless point of view, that a movie like this is, in certain respects the sign of a sick society. It’s too casually bloodstained and crude to be anything you’d consider quality entertainment. And if you’re someone who is entertained by this flick--and many will fall into that category, perhaps even me--then you should probably start asking some questions about yourself, if not the society as a whole. That's all a little bit deep for a movie that clearly does not aim to be deep itself, but sometimes the big questions arise from the minor matters. From a pure filmgoer's standpoint, this one is probably a near-miss--and if that dooms any potential sequels, maybe that's not a bad thing.

Much Ado About Nothing (2012)

There’s a hoot to be had here, to be sure, if you’re a Joss Whedon fan from way back. And yet, there’s also the undeniable brilliance of Shakespeare at work in this piece, showing yet again that the genius shines through no matter how much any producer or director or cast seeks to cloak the bard’s work in his/her/their own personal style. Shakespeare wrote for the ages, and the power of both his words and his sense of story takes what might have been one Hollywood clique’s mere vanity project and elevates it into a truly delightful experience. Hey--how's that for some nonny nonny?

Serenity

Flawed but entertaining, much like its television predecessor Firefly. The biggest flaw: sometimes the main plot feels less interesting than the secondary shenanigans--the action, the wit, the developed character interactions--but the overall story works, and is never so subordinate as to ground the whole flight. And when this ship soars, it soars. I'd be on board for more movies with this crew.