Bohemian Rhapsody

image source

Bohemian Rhapsody had a troubled production, to say the least. The idea for this movie started surfacing around 2010 and Freddie Mercury was to be played by Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen abandoned the film in 2013. In November 2016, Rami Malek was cast in the role. The movie went into production in September 2017, with Bryan Singer set to direct. Singer was ultimately fired and replaced by Dexter Fletcher. While I am happy that the movie we got wasn’t a complete disaster, I couldn’t help but find it kind of generic. Don’t get me wrong, there is some really good stuff in it. And this isn’t a bad or awful film by any means, but I don’t know if I can say it lives up to its full potential. Full disclosure, this is a movie I really wanted to love since Queen is one of my favorite bands of all time. This movie has been criticized for historical inaccuracies. I will be the first to admit that I don’t really know that much about the band’s behind the scenes history. The film is also a touch long, and the slower pace can make this movie show its teeth at times. Rami Malek practically embodies Freddie Mercury. It never really feels like I’m watching somebody play Mercury, so much as watching Mercury himself. Nowhere is this better showcased than in the film’s amazing concert sequences, especially the incredible Live Aid scene. For some, it might be distracting that they feel more like music videos. For me, that look and feel just sort of enhanced them In some respects, I wish there was more of them. There’s a point where a music executive for EMI says to something to the effect of: “Kids want a song they can turn up the volume with and bang their heads to. Bohemian Rhapsody is not that song.” When you realize the character who says that is played by Mike Myers, it just feels a little bit on the nose, and probably didn’t need to be in the movie at all. Some of Mercury’s personal life feels a little bit downplayed. Lucy Boynton is a talented actress, but she kind of feels wasted as Mercury’s girlfriend, and doesn’t really seem like she has anything to do. The movie doesn’t really do a whole lot to explore Mercury’s sexuality. My thoughts on Aiden Gillan as John Reid were fairly similar to my thoughts on Boynton’s performance. The man is a good actor, and does good with what he’s given, but he felt kind of wasted. Bohemian Rhapsody has probably been one of the most divisive movies of the year. The opinions seem to be all over the place, I fall somewhere in the middle. I don’t think it’s great, nor do I think it’s awful. 

5 / 10   

Death Wish

image source

A break in leaves Dr. Paul Kersey’s (played by Bruce Willis) wife dead and his daughter in a coma. When the police investigation seems to be going nowhere, Paul decides to take the law into his own hands. This is a familiar story, but it’s one I typically enjoy. Now, I will admit that I haven’t seen the original Death Wish yet. But, I am very much so familiar with the vigilante revenge story. I am somebody who will admit to liking Peppermint, Death Sentence, and the 2004 Punisher film. As you can imagine, I liked this film too. Part of it could be the fact that the Eli Roth-isms—everybody has to be an unlikable dick—is very minimal. There’s one guy near the beginning of the film that sort of resembles this. One of the biggest disappointments I had with this movie was the fact that this character that Paul had issues with never came back into play at all. All it told me was that this character truly served no purpose whatsoever. On the other hand, it makes sense to me when Roth has the villains act like this. The villains come off as though they are designed to be hated. Beau Knapp as Knox (the leader of the gang that killed Kersey’s wife) has just the right level of sleaze and menace in his delivery. This is done to a point where I kind of wish he was the main villain for the movie’s entire running time instead of the film’s last half hour. In the very beginning of the film, I was worried about Bruce Willis’s performance in the film. Initially, it seemed like this would be another paycheck role for him where he was just going to sleep through the whole thing. Thankfully, the whole movie wasn’t like that. He does manage to give some emotion to his performance when he absolutely needs to. While I don’t mind the action scenes in this movie, many of them feel sort of standard—to a point where I didn’t have that much of a reaction to the visceral feeling the violence was clearly going for. Overall, I really enjoyed Death Wish as a good enough vigilante action movie. I can’t say it’s the absolute best example of the genre, nor can I say it’s the absolute worst. 

6 / 10 

Pacific Rim: Uprising

image source

Ten years after the events of the first film, Jake Pentecost (played by John Boyega) is tasked with rejoining the Jaeger program to train the program’s cadets. The program is still in tact despite the war seemingly being over in the event of the kaiju returning. My thoughts on this film kind of reflect my thoughts on the first film. Where it truly shines are through its effects and its action scenes. These moments are a ton of fun—sort of like playing with action figures in the best way possible. The characters aren’t the absolute greatest. Many of them don’t really have a lot of development, and feel like stereotypes. Our primary hero is the charming rogue who’s taking his shot purely to avoid his other option (prison). The other main hero is a street-smart orphan with some attitude. Both of these are archetypes you have seen a hundred times before this movie. Jake is even something of a carbon copy of Raleigh Beckett from the first Pacific Rim That said, the strength in these characters comes from the actors portraying them. John Boyega as the lead is a major step up from Charlie Hunnam in terms of sheer screen presence alone. I also fully buy the chemistry he has with everybody he’s onscreen with, especially co-stars Scott Eastwood and Cailee Spaeny. There is a plot twist involving Charlie Day’s character. If I’m being honest, it was something I was just kind of indifferent towards. It personally didn’t affect me one way or the other. Director Steven S. DeKnight does a decent enough job making it feel like this sequel belongs in the same world as Guillermo del Toro’s original film. The humor can be hit and miss. Some of it lands. Sometimes, it just sort of falls flat. Overall, Pacific Rim: Uprising served its purpose as guilty pleasure popcorn flick for me. If you enjoyed the first film, you might enjoy this well enough. If you were not a fan of the original film, then it would be best to avoid this film. 

6 / 10  

Peppermint

image source

When her husband and daughter are killed in a drive-by shooting, Riley North (played by Jennifer Garner) seeks vengeance against her family’s killers after she sees the corruption of the justice system. I can’t help but feel that the use of flashbacks was pointless. A good chuck of the first act of the film is told through flashback, while the film’s opening scene is in the present. It isn’t something I found particularly awful, but it I just found it unnecessary. The film is directed by Pierre Morel (the same man who directed Taken and The Gunman). Some of Morel’s direction in the film can be distracting. It almost comes off as though he’s trying to be edgy. Riley herself is probably the only character who feels like she’s got some development to her. The lack of development feels especially noticeable when it comes to the movie’s villains. They are just evil for the sake of being evil. I don’t really have much of a problem with this, but still think it is worth addressing. It also kind of bugged me that there was never really a moment where Riley wasn’t on top of things. I bring this up because it can be hard to feel invested if you never really fear for the protagonist’s safety. And yet, for all this movie’s problems (and believe me, this movie has a lot of problems) I still kind of dug it. The first thing I really want to compliment is the performances in the movie. First, there’s John Gallagher, Jr. He plays a cop who is on the Riley North case. It helps that the movie establishes that Gallagher’s character is actually the one who approached Riley North to potentially be an eyewitness. However, it really is Jennifer Garner herself that proves to be the film’s standout. I buy pretty much every aspect of her performance, whether it’s the badass vigilante or the grieving mother. The action scenes are decent. The actual action never really has a chance to get super creative, nor do the locations of the action sequences. However, they are handled well-enough. The movie was also well-paced. This flick clocks in at around an hour and 40 minutes, and never has a moment that drags. I didn’t expect a masterpiece out of Peppermint, but I was kind of surprised that I got a solid-enough action movie out of my time. I can say that this is not a movie that everybody is going to like, but I had some fun with it.

6 / 10   

Chokehold

image source

I didn’t know that Chokehold was a movie that existed until I randomly found it online. It follows a woman named Zoey (played by MMA fighter Melissa Croden) who seeks revenge on the Russian Mob following the death of her father (played by Casper Van Dien). I don’t think it’s much of a surprise that this a bad movie. On the other hand, I can’t say it was unwatchable. There are things the filmmakers show some semblance of understanding towards (if very few). I actually don’t mind the action scenes. They aren’t anything groundbreaking, but I don’t think they are all that bad. As forced as it came off as, I am glad they established that the movie’s villain had some martial arts skill. Otherwise, there would have been no stakes whatsoever when the final fight happened. I’ll give some credit that the climax didn’t go exactly as I expected it to. I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t find it a little bit underwhelming. I didn’t really hate Croden’s performance, but that didn’t make any less obvious that this was the woman’s first acting job. All I really needed from her was to see her punch people in the face, and that’s what I got. In many ways, she reminded me of people like Steven Seagal or Jean-Claude Van Damme. It feels fitting for me to mention Van-Damme, as he was one of the biggest guys known for the type of movie that Chokehold is, a tournament movie. You know the type. The hero fights and claws their way to the top in order to fight the antagonist one-on-one. They weren’t really known for being good actors, but their movies were some fun guilty pleasures. That is what I got out of this film, a guilty pleasure movie headed by an MMA fighter with no previous acting experience. The music often comes off as emotionally manipulative, almost as though they are ploying for emotional responses. The characters are paper thin. The development of the characters is surface-level. Overall, this is a movie that worked for me more than I ever expected it to. I saw a random movie and just decided to watch, expecting it to be atrocious. While I didn’t a good movie, I got some dumb, cheap fun. 

5 / 10    

Bumblebee

image source

The autobot Bumblebee is sent to Earth by Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) to set up a base for the autobots to regroup. An attack on Earth by a decepticon leaves him with no voice and no memory. He befriends a teenage girl named Charlie (played by Hailee Steinfeld). This movie is the typical “kid and their pet” type of story. In this case, it’s a girl and her car. I know this isn’t the most original story, but if I’m being honest, I don’t really care. It’s a story that almost always works when it’s told. This is a film that Steven Spielberg himself probably would have made in the 1980s (which makes sense considering he’s been a producer on all of the Transformers movies). Director Travis Knight gives this movie some legitimate emotion and heart. You really understand the relationship between Steinfeld and the CGI robot. This is something that I have seen go right and go very wrong. I love how this movie manages to breath and take its time when it absolutely needs to. As usual, the slower pace won’t attract everybody. It didn’t really bother me in this case. One of the biggest things that helped this movie’s case was the fact that it was under two hours for once. John Cena is fun as the semi-villainous Agent Burns. This is a role that he could have gone way too far over the top with. But, he doesn’t really do that. Instead, he kind of tows the line. His best scene is easily his first where he really gets to show off his comedic chops. The film’s visual effects are outstanding. When I was watching this film, I never felt distracted. Maybe it was because I was able to suspend my disbelief, but I genuinely bought that Bumblebee was there the entire time (possibly moreso than in any of the other movies in the Transformers franchise). I also have to give props to this movie's amazing opening scene. Fans of both the movies and the original cartoon have been waiting to see the fall of Cybertron on a phenomenal cinematic scale. Bumblebee is the movie that truly delivers this. This is something I find interesting because, in many respects, this movie feels much smaller in scale compared to the rest of the franchise. I have loved all of the Transformers movies on something of a guilty pleasure level. So, I am honestly happy to say that I just enjoyed this a legitimately good movie. If you get the chance to see this movie, then I really do have to recommend it.

9 / 10

A Star Is Born

Add caption

A Star Is Born seemed like it had everything going against it. The movie is directed by Bradley Cooper (who has never directed a movie before this film). It’s the third or fourth adaptation of A Star Is Born. For further proof of how easily these kinds of movies can fail, see 2005’s House of Wax, 2017’s The Mummy, 2016’s Ben-Hur, and 2011’s The Thing. But, against all odds, this movie seems to succeed. Singer Jackson Maine (played by Cooper himself) discovers an unknown singer named Ally (played by Lady Gaga). Ally herself is a struggling artist. Before long, the two begin to fall in love with each other. First off, Cooper gives an excellent performance as a musician struggling with his alcoholism and all of his other demons. He has fantastic chemistry with leading lady Lady Gaga. I knew Gaga could act thanks to her stint as the Countess on American Horror Story. But, I didn’t know she had this in her. The biggest surprise about her performance his the fact that I never actually saw Lady Gaga. All I saw was Ally. One of the things about all of the performances in this film (not just Cooper and Lady Gaga) is the fact that everybody actually feels like real people. The relationships Ally shares with both Jackson and her father (played by Andrew Dice Clay enjoying something of a career resurgence between this and Blue Jasmine) are genuine. Clay was something of a surprise to me given the negative stigma around the man and his career. Cooper really does understand what he’s doing behind the camera. Much of his direction feels raw. It doesn’t feel overly showy. He seems more interested in just telling the story of Jack and Ally. I love the way he lights some of the characters (Ally in particular). There are a lot of cliches that this movie could have easily fallen into that it manages to avoid, even if it doesn’t avoid all of them. They could have easily shown that Jackson was jealous of Ally in the very beginning. Instead, he’s actually supportive of her growing as a star. I also like that while Ally wants to do what’s best for her, that doesn’t necessarily make her selfish. She does admit to worrying about the man she loves. It took me a couple of seconds to recognize Dave Chapelle (the man gives a fairly restrained performance given what he’s know for). For as much as I really liked this movie, I did have some issues with it. I don’t think the movie needed to be 135 minutes. There’s a scene where Jackson talks to Ally’s manager, and I don’t see the purpose it had on the story. I feel torn about the Saturday Night Live scene. I get why it’s there, but I kind of didn’t like it at the same time. Overall, A Star Is Born isn’t perfect, but it truly is emotionally powerful. 

8 / 10