Mile 22

I am a huge fan of espionage thrillers so I have been looking forward to Mile 22 since I saw the first trailer a few months ago.  James Silva (Mark Wahlberg) is an extremely volatile member of a covert and elite paramilitary group within the CIA known as Overwatch.  When a deadly radioactive isotope capable of leveling several major cities goes missing, Silva's team is tasked with finding it.  One of their informants, Li Noor (Iko Uwais), brings a disk containing the locations of this isotope to the American embassy in Indonesia.  He will give them the password if they give him asylum in the U.S.  The team must transport him, you guessed it, 22 miles from the embassy to an airfield for extraction and it seams everyone, from Indonesian agents to a random group of Russians, wants him dead.  The action in this movie is amazing, particularly during a fight between Noor and two potential assassins in the embassy while the former is handcuffed to a bed, during a high-speed chase between cars and motorcycles through city streets, and during a shoot-out in an apartment building.  It is intense, incredibly violent, and graphic but it is also riveting.  However, the editing is very chaotic with cuts that sometimes last for mere seconds.  The story is a mess and half the time I didn't know what was going on.  I enjoyed it much more after they got through the exposition in the first act and settled into the mission of transporting Noor and I liked the twist at the end which did clear up some inconsistencies (although it has a very ambiguous ending to set up a possible sequel).  The dialogue consists mainly of characters spewing vitriol, peppered with profanity, as fast as they can and it gets really old.  Most of the characters are extremely unlikable, especially Silva.  At one point several characters speculate about what kind of psychological disorder Silva might have and one of them says that he is just an asshole.  That's basically how I felt about him as well.  Wahlberg mostly glowers at the camera but I did like John Malkovich as the team's handler and I think Lauren Cohan has a few affecting moments as a team member with family issues.  Ronda Rousey is surprisingly good as another team member.  My reaction to this movie is much like my reaction to American Assassin.  It is somewhat entertaining but there is nothing that we haven't seen done better in other espionage thrillers.  Hardcore fans of the genre will probably like it more than the casual movie-goer.

Slender Man

Horror movies are hit and miss with me.  I like to be genuinely scared but movies that can actually scare me are few and far between (go here and here).  However, the premise for Slender Man seemed pretty terrifying so I went to see it Saturday afternoon.  Four teens, Wren (Joey King), Hallie (Julia Goldani Telles), Chloe (Jaz Sinclair), and Katie (Annalise Basso), become fascinated by the urban legend of Slender Man and decide to watch a video that will summon him in order to disprove the myth.  When one of them disappears, the other three try to make contact with him and are subsequently terrorized.  Not only is this movie not scary but it is incredibly boring.  The filmmakers took a promising subject, a truly creepy internet meme with tragic real world repercussions, and, not knowing where to go with the story, incorporated every image from every horror film we've ever seen into a jumbled mess that went on and on...and on.  The only other person in my screening actually left half way through!  A derivative script might be forgiven but the execution is just as bad.  The lighting, or lack thereof, is terrible and makes it difficult to see what is happening (which is not much).  It is almost as if the filmmakers thought a spooky atmosphere would be an adequate substitute for a story.  The editing is haphazard at best and some scenes make absolutely no sense, particularly one in a science lab (I heard that this particular scene was edited from the original to get the PG-13 rating but it should have been cut altogether if that is the case). The acting is absolutely abysmal but you can't really fault these young actresses because their characters are so one-dimensional.  The most interesting character with an actual backstory is the first one to disappear.  This movie is an absolute mess and I definitely recommend giving it a miss.

BlacKkKlansman

It seems like I have been waiting forever to see BlacKkKlansman and I finally had the chance on Friday night.  I have to say right now that this is one of the best films of the year and I know that I am am going to be thinking about it for some time to come.  It tells the true story of how Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) joined the Colorado Springs Police Department as its first black officer and then infiltrated the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan with the help of a fellow officer, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver).  This film is incredibly powerful and, as I mentioned, thought-provoking.  I had an almost visceral reaction to some of what I saw on the screen but I also laughed out loud in many places.  Spike Lee does a masterful job in creating a film that is funny and entertaining but also has a definite message that is particularly salient for our times (but one that is not shoved down our throats).  I loved the juxtaposition of Klan meetings with meetings held by Stallworth's girlfriend Patrice (Laura Harrier) for Black Power.  While the Klan is definitely portrayed in a very negative light I found it eerie that both groups were basically shouting the same rhetoric.  Ron Stallworth is seemingly the voice of reason in both of these groups when he says that fighting hate needs to come from within rather than through violence and that is a message that is desperately needed right now.  I loved Washington's portrayal of Stallworth and I found him to be absolutely riveting.  There is a scene where he reacts to the targets used by the Klan for shooting practice that had me in tears.  I also enjoyed Driver's performance (I find him strangely appealing), particularly when he realizes that what he is doing is becoming personal.  This is an important film that I think everyone should see and I highly recommend it!

The Meg

I saw a Thursday preview of this summer's obligatory shark movie, The Meg, with a large and rowdy crowd and, surprisingly, I thought it was pretty good.  Jason Statham plays Jonas Taylor, a rescue diver who once abandoned a submarine when he saw a giant shark attacking it and is now in disgrace eking out a living in Thailand because no one believed him.  Off the coast of China five years later, a marine research station, financed by billionaire Jack Morris (Rainn Wilson), has sent a submersible below the Mariana Trench where it is attacked by a giant shark which they identify as a megalodon thought to be extinct.  The researchers convince Taylor to rescue the submersible because his ex-wife is on board which leads to a bit of vindication for Taylor (and a possible romance with one of the oceanographers played by Li Bingbing).  However, the rescue of the submersible has freed the megalodon from the Mariana Trench and it now threatens one of the most densely populated beaches in Asia.  Led by Taylor, our team of expendable researchers must try to kill it in some gravity-defying maneuvers.  The script is very derivative, some of the acting is stilted, much of the dialogue is cringe-worthy, and the CGI is messy at times but somehow this movie is still awesome!  Once it gets going, it is absolutely relentless and some of the action sequences are incredibly suspenseful.  The crowd at my screening gasped out loud during several tense moments.  If you are a fan of these action thrillers, I suspect you will like The Meg and I recommend seeing it on the biggest screen possible with as many people as possible.

Note:  Pippin steals the show!

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

A book club that I belonged to a number of years ago read The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows and I found it to be charming.  I've been waiting for this movie adaptation ever since I found out about it and I have to admit that I was a little bit sad to hear that it wasn't getting a theatrical release in the U.S.  However, I am glad that I got to watch it yesterday on Netflix because I really liked it.  During the German occupation of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands, Elizabeth McKenna (Jessica Brown Findlay) hosts a dinner for her friends Isola Pribby (Katherine Parkinson), Eben Ramsey (Tom Courtenay), Amelia Maugery (Penelope Wilton), and Dawsey Adams (Michiel Huisman).  Afterwards they are caught out after curfew by the Germans and hastily concoct the Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society as the reason for their meeting.  They are then obliged to keep meeting each week and find the solace they need to survive the war in books (and sustenance from the privations of war in Eben's potato peel pie).  After the war Dawsey begins a correspondence with Juliet Ashton (Lily James), a best-selling author in London, when he finds her name and address in a used book.  She decides to visit Guernsey with the hope of writing about their society, against the wishes of her publisher (Matthew Goode) and her fiance (Glen Powell), and gets caught up in an intrigue about a missing member and a possible romance with another member.  It is the kind of British period piece that I love with a gentle tone, beautiful locations, and a stellar cast.  The action unfolds very slowly as we get to know each member of the society as the mystery unravels and I was completely drawn in (it has been so long since I read the book that I forgot many of the details).  The theme of how books can bring people together is very heartwarming and the romance is sweet and old-fashioned.  While filming did not actually take place on Guernsey, the locations are simply gorgeous, particularly the rocky coastline and the cobblestone streets.  James is absolutely engaging as Juliet while Huisman is handsome and brooding as Dawsey.  The rest of the cast (almost like a Downton Abbey reunion) is also excellent with an affecting performance by Wilton and a delightful one by Parkinson as the eccentric Isola.  This is a perfect movie for a lazy afternoon and I highly recommend it, especially to fans of the novel.

Note:  Have fun figuring out the books they discuss during the credits!