Race

First Hit:  What a wonderful story of a man whose greatness and perseverance had him rise above and over race and discrimination.

Jesse Owens (Stephen James) was one of the greatest Olympic track and field athletes the United States has ever had.

Raised when racial discrimination was still a huge issue in the US, learning to ignore the external noise, and do what he did best made this story even more phenomenal.

The story follows Jesse, his depressed father, supportive mother and Ruth Solomon (Shanice Banton) his girlfriend and mother of his daughter, as he finds is way through all the external noise to greatness. Guiding him along the way was his Ohio State University coach Larry Snyder (Jason Sudeikis).

One of the most powerful lesson delivering scenes was when the track team was in the locker room when the OSU football team comes in and demands that the track team leave, especially because of Jesse and other blacks on the track team. While the football coach is yelling at Larry and the football team yelling at the track team to leave, Larry is speaking about how concentration and listening to one voice, his voice, is how Jesse will be able to persevere against all the racial noise he’s going to get as he races.

During all the yelling, all of a sudden you hear the coaches voice say to Jesse, do you understand? Do you hear me? And the noise drops away from Jesse and hearing his coaches voice above the loud arguing, he says “Yes, I hear you coach.”. It is a wonderful scene and serves Jesse well especially when he goes to the 1936 Olympics and 110,000 people are yelling at him.

As he shows his greatness, the crowd becomes unified with him. It is a great story.

James is outstanding as Jesse. He plays him with humble awareness of doing well and honoring himself as a person. Sudeikis was great as the occasionally sarcastic, caring, and wonderful coach. Banton was wonderful as Jesse’s fiancé and then wife, making sure Jesse makes his own choices. Jeremy Irons was fantastic as the inimitable Avery Brundage. David Kross as Jesse’s Olympic long jump German rival Carl ‘Luz’ Long was great. Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse wrote a wonderfully engaging script. Stephen Hopkins did a wonderful job of directing this film and the shots of Jesse entering the Olympic stadium for the first time were especially effective.

Overall:  This was a wonderful biography of a man who stood heads above the fray of racial injustice.

The Finest Hours

First Hit:  This long film attempted to highlight an amazing true story about a rescue made by the Coast Guard.

This is based on the true 1952 story where two oil tankers broke apart off of Cape Code in a huge storm.

Chris Pine, as Bernie Webber, is a follow the rules member of the Coast Guard. He’s quiet and introspective. He’s lacks outward confidence as shown in the first scene where he meets Miriam (Holliday Grainger) a woman he’s only written and spoken to.

Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck) is the engine room seaman on one of the oil tankers. He does not get much respect from the rest of the crew because he is so focused on the ship. However, they end up turning to him for survival after the ship breaks up.

The film very slowly unwinds with the group of seasoned Coast Guard team has little confidence that Bernie is a good enough captain. No one makes it “over the bar” in heavy stormy seas, yet Bernie attempts and makes it.

The tanker crew turns to Sybert because he’s the only one committed to saving them all as a group. The film is about the rescue, about self-belief, confidence and romance.

Pine played this part in such a way that I did not find him very interesting or compelling. I did find Grainger’s character interesting and driven. Affleck was far more compelling in his role and I was engaged watching his role play out. Rachel Brosnahan as Bea Hansen a fisherman’s wife to also be very engaging. Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy wrote this adequate screenplay. I’m not sure whether is was the screenplay, actors or direction of Craig Gillespie that was the cause of this film dragging, although once the rescue actually begins, it gets better.

Overall:  Unfortunately I’m not sure the compelling real story came through in this film.

Hail, Ceasar!

First Hit:  An odd film and despite the star power, lacks being interesting let alone good.

You’ve got Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Ralph Fiennes, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Channing Tatum, and Jonah Hill, yet the only part that stood out for me was Jonah Hill as Joseph Silverman, the finance guy.

Brolin as Eddie Mannix runs a Hollywood studio and is in the middle of a career crisis. Clooney is the bankable star who gets kidnapped for money. Fiennes plays a highly respected and temperamental film director. Johansson plays a single pregnant star who does swimming films (think Esther Williams). Tilda Swinton plays two roles, twin opposing gossip columnists Thora and Thessaly Thacker. Frances McDormand as film editor extraordinary. Tatum was a dancing (think Astaire or Kelly) actor. The story is about the trials of running a studio, the communist edge of the 50’s, the behind the scenes stories about actors. There were some funny parts (Hill and Johansson).

Brolin was OK as the studio head, who had no time for his family. Clooney was fair as the kidnapped star who was highly influenced by his kidnappers. Fiennes was very good and the director stuck with an actor who couldn’t act. Johansson was mediocre as the swimming star. Swinton was good in her two roles. Tatum was OK as the dancing communist. Hill, in his minor role, was for me, the best part of the film. Joel and Ethan Coen both wrote and directed this film and I’m sure it sounded better as a discussion than written or filmed.

Overall:  Mediocre film through and through.

Deadpool

First Hit:  I enjoyed this tongue-in-cheek somewhat bizarre film.

I know that most of the reviews of this film where not positive, however I was amused and enjoyed the quirkiness of this story and film.

Was this story improbable? Yes, and so what. Most films are improbable. But what works for this film was that Ryan Reynolds was a perfect fit as Wade/Deadpool. As Wade, he’s sort of an enforcer of wrongs done by people and he gets paid for it. He's funny and serious at the same time.

The film does not do a good job giving the audience a background of where these jobs come from nor does it do well in setting the whole group of people who do this sort of work. However, get past this and enjoy. They gather in this bar run by Weasel (T.J. Miller).

Here Wade meets Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), and falls in love. They totally “get” each other and it changes his life for the better. He then finds out he has cancer and is going to die. He takes one final chance to heal himself by an evil scientist, Ajax (Ed Skrein) who promises that he will alter his DNA to heal him of his disease. However, there will be unknown side effects and in the case of Wade, now "Deadpool", it is that he cannot be killed and his skin becomes disfigured.

He doesn’t believe Vanessa will love him with his new look so he’s bound and determined to get back at Ajax. This is the story:  How does he let his love know he’s still alive? How does he get revenge on Ajax? And finally how does he live the rest of his life?

This film uses special effects to its advantage and the best part is Reynolds. He’s self-effacing, brash, and funny.

Reynolds is really good and I cannot think of another actor that would have been able to pull this off as well as Reynolds. Miller was great as the bar owner. He is great as Reynolds friend and confidant. Baccarin was perfect as Reynolds lover and wife. She’s just as quirky and strong and holds up her end of their relationship seamlessly. Skrein was strong as the evil doer. He carries this persona with clarity. Brianna Hildebrand as the Negasonic Teenage Warhead was good. Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick wrote a quirky odd story that, for me, worked. Tim Miller did a wonderful job of getting the most out of this odd story through his direction.

Overall:  I liked and enjoyed the oddities of this film.

Ride Along 2

First Hit:  Not much of a film and felt forced in all ways.

The upside was seeing Olivia Munn although I sensed she knew this was a stinker of a film.

This retread of a film came off as a throwaway. Kevin Hart as a newly minted, on probation, police officer Ben Barber who is engaged to Angela Payton (Tika Sumpter) that happens to be Detective and fellow officer James Payton’s (Ice Cube) sister.

James doesn’t think much of Barber’s unqualified police and detective skills. Barber doesn’t help his case much because he’s always talking. He is incessantly chattering away about something or nothing.

Not sure if the script had it this way or they just let him loose but it was tiring. With all the noise he was creating it was extremely difficult to hear any good stuff that would make the film funny.

Together Barber and James are off to find a guy who is a drug supplier to a dealer they tried to bust. The investigation takes them to Miami where they meet Munn (as Maya) a detective with the Miami Police Department.

The villain is Antonio Pope (Benjamin Bratt) who is half wise guy and half stupid. His scripted toughness lacked an intelligent storyline for his obvious success.

Therefore, we end up with a stupid insipid story bouncing along hoping that Hart’s jokes and banter will make this film interesting or funny; it was neither.

Hart’s role was one of constant needless jabber. It was almost as if the director and producers hoped he'd talk so much that it would make this film funny or interesting. It didn't. Hart needs to take on roles that have some depth and story behind them and use his quick wordiness more sparingly. In other words quit throwing shit on the wall hoping some sticks. Ice Cube:  I’m always so surprised that I see him in something like this. This was the guy who came Straight Outta Compton? Really, you’re doing mindless drivel like this. Where did your soul go? Sumpter is OK as the engaged girlfriend of Barber’s. She barely rose above the level of the film. Munn was fun to see and she did her best to keep the role focused and on target. The scriptwriters and director let her down. Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi wrote this stupid script that had little direction or focus. As director, Tim Story, never told one.

Overall:  This film was really a follow-up to the first one and showed NO originality or reason for existing.