Tag: Bruce Greenwood

Twofer Review – ‘Doctor Sleep’ and ‘Midway’ – One Sings, the Other Doesn’t


*Note: The title is just a metaphor; neither of these films are musicals.

Written, Directed, and Edited by Mike Flanagan, based on the novel by Stephen King
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Carl Lumbly, Zahn McClarnon, Emily Alyn Lind, Bruce Greenwood, Jocelin Donahue, Alex Essoe, Roger Dale Floyd, Cliff Curtis, Zackary Momoh, Jacob Tremblay, Henry Thomas, Carel Struycken, Robert Longstreet, Catherine Parker, Met Clark, Selena Anduze, Danny Lloyd
Soundtrack: The Newton Brothers

I’ve said it before, and hopefully this is the last time I’ll feel compelled to mention it, but I’m not a big fan of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

Maybe that sounds crazy to you, but Stephen King isn’t a big fan either (to say the least), so I suppose I’m in decent company (not saying I’m right; it’s just my opinion, man).

Now we have Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep, which is based on the
2013 Stephen King novel of the same name, which itself is a sequel to King’s 1977 novel The Shining, but 2019’s film of Doctor Sleep is also a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film of The Shining.

So now that no one’s confused, let’s continue.

Doctor Sleep is one of the best films of 2019. Am I saying it’s an all-time great? No, but it’s plenty captivating, truly horrifying when called for, and overall it admirably juggles its multiple source materials.

The story is rather sprawling, and by that I mean it’s a movie that very much feels like it’s based on a novel; and if you’re totally unfamiliar with The Shining (which is hard to fathom given its cultural permeation) you may struggle to climb aboard, but, other than a touch of third act squiffiness, Doctor Sleep is a solid piece of intelligent entertainment from tape-to-tape.

If I have one substantial criticism (if you can even call it that), it’s that, I wouldn’t say anybody does a bad job in their performance, everybody is fine if not above average, but I didn’t feel like anyone in the cast was indispensable in their part. Perhaps it’s a huge credit to writer/director/editor Mike Flanagan, but I think he could have made this movie with a near-infinite combination of actors and we’d still have the same quality result.

If you’re a huge fan of Kubrick’s Shining, perhaps you won’t find Doctor Sleep to be up to the same standard that I do, but for me it’s very much a Blade Runner 2049 situation, where I respect the original but find the sequel more compelling.

Your mileage may vary, but I recommend it highly.

Rating: ★★★★☆



Directed by Roland Emmerich
Written by Wes Tooke
Cast: Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Luke Evans, Mandy Moore, Luke Kleintank, Dennis Quaid, Aaron Eckhart, Keean Johnson, Nick Jonas, Etsushi Toyokawa, Tadanobu Asano, Darren Criss, Brandon Sklenar, Jun Kunimura, Brennan Brown, Jake Weber, David Hewlett, Mark Rolston, Eric Davis, Peter Shinkoda, James Carpinello, Hiromoto Ida, Hiroaki Shintani, Russell Dennis Lewis, Geoffrey Blake
Soundtrack: Harald Kloser & Thomas Wanker

I probably should hate this movie.

Given that I was a history major, you might think that I should hate it, too.

For some reason though, I just can’t get that riled up about it. I think it’s because:

A. I had extremely low expectations going in (after all, it is a Roland Emmerich joint)
and
B. It might actually be more factually accurate than its 1976 predecessor (which is a fine film with a great cast, but I’m not going to pretend it’s some ultimate triumph of cinema, given how much footage it cribs from other sources), so, while I could quibble with the history of it, I always expect a certain amount of Hollywood exaggeration, so that’s not really what I take issue with.

The biggest problem is that I think the movie means to be taken seriously, but so much information is fed to my eyes and ears that is to the contrary that I can’t help but conclude that Midway is a $100 million cartoon.

Now, you read that and probably think I’m referring to the visual effects, which I am, but only partially. This movie could have been successful with the effects it has. What truly makes it cartoonish is a script with severely lacking dialogue, and a number of sub-par performances (Not to go full ‘Murica here, but can we get some Americans to play our American heroes!? Hugh Laurie playing Dr. House is the exception, not the rule).

Anyway, it’s not all terrible. Patrick Wilson in particular is extremely likable (as usual), and there are some sequences that are actually effective (there’s a submarine scene that might be the best set-piece in the film).

In the end though, Midway is essentially a big-budget Redbox movie. Not the worst thing ever made, but largely a waste.

Rating: ★★½ (out of five)

P.S.
I noticed as the film was starting that there were a couple of Chinese production companies with their names on Midway, and I wondered what impact that would have on the story told. Let’s just say they make sure the audience knows that 250,000 Chinese civilians were killed in Japanese reprisals for the Doolittle Raid. Sad? Yes. True? Yes. Did it need to be included in this film? Probably not.

Movie Review – ‘The Post’ – Truth and Consequences

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer

Cast: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, Bruce Greenwood, Matthew Rhys, Alison Brie, Carrie Coon, Jesse Plemons, David Cross, Zach Woods, Pat Healy, John Rue, Rick Holmes, Philip Casnoff, Jessie Mueller, Stark Sands, Michael Cyril Creighton, Will Denton, Deirdre Lovejoy, Jennifer Dundas, Austyn Johnson, Brent Langdon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Deborah Green, Gary Wilmes, Christopher Innvar, Justin Swain, Kenneth Tigar, David Aaron Baker, Gannon McHale, Dan Bucatinsky, David Costabile, Johanna Day, Annika Boras, Carolyn McCormick, Peter Van Wagner, Angus Hepburn, James Riordan, Kelly AuCoin, Cotter Smith, Ben Livingston, JaQwan J. Kelly, Shaun O’Hagan, Celeste Arias, Sonny Valicenti, Aaron Roman Weiner, Tom Bair, Mark Jacoby, Curzon Dobell, Neal Huff

Soundtrack: John Williams

Before Watergate.
Before Woodward and Bernstein.
There were The Pentagon Papers.
And thus began the rise of The Washington Post to national prominence, and the downfall of the presidency of one Richard Milhous Nixon.

I said this before when I reviewed Bridge of Spies, and I think it bears repeating.  It’s become somewhat popular to hate on Steven Spielberg, and I get it (I mean, I’m about as excited to see Ready Player One as I am to get food poisoning, or cancer), but the fact remains, he’s still Steven Spielberg.

I’m not going to tell you that The Post is “Classic Spielberg”, reminiscent of his heyday in the Seventies and Eighties, but it does at least hearken back to his run in the early Aughts, which isn’t so bad (Catch Me If You Can, anyone?).

On its face, The Post isn’t anything particularly special.  It’s nothing that hasn’t been done before, and none of the performances, even from the Oscar winners in the room, are really anything to write home about (though it is fun to see Bob and David in a Spielberg movie together).  Yet, somehow, I’m left feeling satisfied, which leads me to conclude that film is greater than the sum of its parts, and I believe that is largely due to that wily old veteran director, Steven Spielberg (and his near-constant collaborator, John Williams; who’s getting up there, kids, so maybe savor this one while we still have them to savor).

For all of his softening and head-scratching decisions over the past fifteen years, the man still knows how to bring a script to life and make it pop, and he still knows where to throw in his signature touches (like those little one-ers you don’t really notice, but your brain does).  Was he the absolute best choice to handle this particular material?  Maybe not, but they certainly could have done a lot worse.

Speaking of the material, kudos to first-time screenwriter Liz Hannah, who was the initial rolling snowball of this avalanche, and executive producer and writer Josh Singer (who, unsurprisingly, held the same positions on Spotlight), for putting together yet another intricate and no doubt incredibly well-researched period journalism piece (to have a script with roughly fifty real-life people portrayed by credited actors in a two-hour movie just goes to show how deep the dive was).  Much like Spotlight (and in contrast to All the President’s Men), The Post works whether you lived though the events or not.

However, I wouldn’t say The Post is all-in-all on the same level as Spotlight, which is to say I don’t think it’s Best Picture material, and the subtext of the film given the current climate is fairly obvious, but still, perhaps for reasons I can’t fully articulate, I have zero issue recommending it.

It’ll make you real depressed about the Vietnam War (but then what doesn’t?), but if you’re a fan of Spielberg, journalism, and/or the First Amendment, The Post‘ll be right up your alley.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Movie Review – ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ – Bigger and Bigger

Directed by Matthew Vaughn
Written by Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn, based on the comic book The Secret Service created by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons
Cast: Taron Egerton, Julianne Moore, Jeff Bridges, Halle Berry, Channing Tatum, Pedro Pascal, Mark Strong, Sophie Cookson, Colin Firth, Elton John, Hanna Alström, Edward Holcroft, Michael Gambon, Bruce Greenwood, Emily Watson, Mark Arnold, Tobi Bakare, Samantha Womack
Soundtrack: Henry Jackman & Matthew Margeson

Right, then; break’s over.

I suppose it’s fitting that, after a month’s hiatus, I’m doing something I’ve never done before, which is reviewing a sequel to a film that I reviewed at the time of its actual release.

Kingsman: The Secret Service was definitively my favorite spy movie in a year that was chock full of good ones (not that there weren’t disappointments).  It embraced the more outlandish and fun elements of the James Bond franchise (particularly attributable to the era of the now late, great Roger Moore) while putting its own harder-edged spin on things, and I expected nothing less from its sequel (if not…Moore?).

Kingsman: The Golden Circle is definitely bigger, but is it better?

I say no.  I think it’s a bit overstuffed and a bit long for what it is, but that’s not to say I wouldn’t recommend it theatrically (especially if you’re a fan of the first one).  It is absolutely worth your movie dollars, so much so that there’s extremely little I’m willing to give away, so this’ll be a short review.

First of all, as in the original, you’ve got a great top-to-bottom cast (though very few get all that much to do), and everyone is clearly having fun with what they’re doing; which is to say this movie is like Octopussy-on-steroids in terms of the camp factor, though I will say there were at least a couple of moments that actually made me emotional, which was a genuine surprise.

Speaking of genuine surprises, I couldn’t believe how many story elements I legitimately didn’t see coming.  Sure, the main plot is just a bit predictable, but don’t tell me you were able to guess everything from the marketing.

As for the action, Golden Circle is very much in the same style as Secret Service.  No single scene offers a one-to-one comparison to the famous church sequence from the original, but it’s all executed, shot, and edited very similarly, if not actually better.

All-in-all, Kingsman: The Golden Circle is pretty much exactly what I thought it would be: a fun romp that goes too far in a few places.  It’s bonkers and it knows it, it’s got fun nods (both with and without twists) to the first movie (and what I think is a super deep cut Bond reference), and it’s got a great, young, charismatic actor in the lead.

If you’re a fan of the first one, you’ll probably really enjoy this one, as I did.  If not, I doubt there’s anything here that’ll win you over.

Not much else I can say without spoiling anything, but I recommend it heartily.

Rating: ★★★★☆

P.S.
There’s no stinger of any kind, probably because this movie is long and they respect that people need to relieve themselves, so, once the credits roll, you’re…Golden?

P.P.S.
Naturally, and as usual, thanks to Alamo Drafthouse for going all-out with the delicious specials and incredible glassware.