The Great Wall

First Hit:  Although visually arresting at times, there's nothing believable about this story.

The problem with fantasies are that if they aren’t done well, the audience slips out of the story and is left with just watching interesting pictures and waiting the next piece of action. That is what happens here.

It begins with a group of horsemen being chased by another group of horsemen in the middle of a desert. How did they get there, where did they come from, why are they there?

We don't get much background, but when William (Matt Damon), the main character, speaks, because of the film's time period, it is hard to buy his American accent and dialect because the English hadn't occupied the United States yet.

This isn't the only problem in this film, but it is one of the first the audience encounters. We learn that his band of marauders is in search of gunpowder as it has been rumored that the Chinese have discovered a black powder that can kill many people with one use. After the initial chase scene, the men are getting restless because they've not found the powder and they keep losing men. William's closest ally in this ever decreasing small group of men is Tovar (Pedro Pascal) who at least has an appropriate European accent.

While hiding in a cave from the latest group trying to kill them, they get attacked by some beasts. The beasts kill everyone except Tovar and William. On the run again, they ride into The Great Wall with warriors all around them and dressed in beautiful, colorful, and striking uniforms. It is a wonder of the world. The warriors are manning the wall because a 60 year cycle is complete and the beast are coming to kill them, get past the wall and head towards the capital of China.

The warriors on the wall have various skills and techniques to kill the beasts. Catapults that use large balls covered with oil and lit on fire. There are bow and arrow teams. There are spear teams and teams of women who jump off the wall tethered to the top of the wall and are pulled up once they throw their spears. The leader of this bungie team is Commander Lin Mae (Tian Jing) who is also in line to be a higher-level leader. She has learned English from a previously captured man named Ballard (Willem Dafoe).

When the beasts come, William shows his bravery and kills many beasts and earns the respect of the Chinese Army leaders.

The film goes on, and on, which is part of the problem because, nothing is explained or validated and the audience is supposed to just accept the premises and buy into the story. This is the failing of this film to me.

It seems as though this film was created to show something about the wall, the glory of big and beautiful sets, bravery of Chinese warriors, and that they alone invented gunpowder. I kept thinking why didn’t they use the gunpowder against the beasts at the beginning?  Why did they wait until near collapse of the capital? And even in the end, I kept asking where did William come from?

This question and many others kept coming up while watching the film and made the experience rather unfulfilling.

Damon was OK, but I never bought his accent or his story. Doing this may have been a good idea, but in the end I would sense that Damon would like to forget it. Jing was too beautifully made up in each of her close-ups to believe she was in a war for her life and the life of her country. Pascal’s was one of the best parts of the film. There was a level of irreverence in his character’s dialogue that made the film fun. Dafoe was wasted in this role. Seemed as though he was only there as a way for Mae to learn English so that she could speak to William. Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro wrote a skeptical screenplay. There was little to get the audience to buy into, engage with, or believe about the story. Director Yimou Zhang seemed far more interested in big picture beauty and chorography versus putting a story together that engages the audience.

Overall:  The pictures were pretty; the story flimsy and execution was mediocre.

Everybody Loves Somebody (Todos queremos a alguien)

First Hit:  There are genuinely funny moments and it also lags in the middle.

The opening holds promise as Clara (Karla Souza) an OB-GYN doctor in a Los Angeles Hospital as we watch her examine patients while the background monologue talks lovingly and sarcastically about the couples she sees. She says she can tell the people who ought to be together versus the couples that don’t seem to be in love any longer.

We then have scenes where she goes to bars, gets drunk and allows herself to be taken home by some guy whom she sleeps with then escapes before they wake up, often leaving her clothing behind for fear of waking up the guy. Her sister Abby (Tiare Scanda) is married, has a young boy with whom Clara has a great relationship, and is aware of her sister’s reckless and lonely lifestyle. The film more than sets up Clara’s inability to have a serious committed relationship.

Clara works with Dr. Asher Grace (Ben O’Toole) who is a very nice fluent Spanish speaking Australian. When he asks her to go out on a date, she avoids doing this using smart-alecky remarks and defensive comments. Having to go to her parents wedding, after they’ve lived together for 40 years, she decides to bring Asher as a date because he looks nice and can speak Spanish. Upon arriving at her parent’s Mexican beach hacienda, lo-and-behold her long lost young love, and longtime family favorite, Daniel (Jose Maria Yazpik) is there also. This sets up complications because Asher wants to create a relationship with Clara, Clara likes him but is unsure, her heart is still with Daniel, her family loves Daniel, and Clara’s long held feelings of love and hurt for Daniel are evident.

After the initial combustion between the two men, the film starts a slow decline into scenes of internal struggle and meanwhile the audience waits for Clara to get herself together and learn how to get clear about what it is she wants and how to love again.

Using a Lily (Ximena Romo) and Beto Alvarez (Harold Torres) patients of Clara’s as a vehicle, the director gets the film on track again and it expectantly ends is a sweet scene.

Souza was strong as a commitment phobic young professional person. I loved many of her expressions as they effectively conveyed her fears. O’Toole was wonderful and sweet. His strength and quick witted comebacks were great. Scanda is good as Clara’s sister who is wondering about her own relationship as well. Yazpik is perfect as the charming commitment phobic old boyfriend who is looking for another temporary place to land. Romo and Torres are sublime as Clara’s patients. Their fear and excitement of having their first baby is wonderful. Catalina Aguilar Mastretta’s script lagged in the middle and there was plenty (15 – 20 minutes) that could be cut out and not hurt this film. Mastretta also directed the film and many of the scenes were well done. However, a critical independent person helping her edit this film would have good.

Overall:  In the end the good outweighed the bad as the funny parts were funny and the story is realistic.

John Wick: Chapter 2

First Hit:  This movie had a very weak story, uninspired acting, and lots of shooting.

If you want to see someone shoot a lot of people, change a lot of clips in his guns, and act as if he doesn’t care if he’s in the film, watch Keanu Reeves as John Wick.

There were times in this film that I laughed out loud when it wasn’t supposed to be funny, it was just that stupid. I’m sure we’ll see a Chapter 3, because the ending scene has him running off with an hour time limit before the world of assassins are authorized to kill him.

In this film, he is goaded out of retirement because he is obligated to fulfill a marker held by Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio). Santino wants his sister Gianna (Claudia Gerini) killed so that he can take her “seat at the table”. What table this is we’re not given much information about but I guess must be important for Reeves to go ahead in fulfilling the marker.

Wick being an assassin has the skills for the job and this is mostly what we see in this film. Lots of killing. Wick runs through lots of tunnels, alley ways, streets, and buildings shooting nearly a hundred people in this 2-hour 2-minute escapade.

There are lots of other assassins in this film including: Ares (Ruby Rose), Cassian (Common), and Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) to name a few. The person who keeps track of the assassins’ jobs and markers is Winston (Ian McShane) who runs the “International” hotel which is holy ground and no one kills anyone on holy ground.

Reeves was like a zombie walking through his scenes. Although he moves well, shoots well, and his ability to kick people in the legs so that he can make his assailants lose their balance was impressive, his scenes with dialogue seemed lifeless. Scamarcio was OK as the marker holder, however, he could not meet the image of a big time heavy. Common was probably the best of the lot. His clarity and intensity were strong. Fishburne was mediocre as a pigeon attending assassin controlling a part of NCY using street bums as his eyes and ears. McShane was probably the second best character in the film as the Manager of the International. Derek Kolstad wrote a very week script. The storyline was just filled with fluff between gun fights. Chad Stahelski did an OK job of directing the fight scenes but the story film was too long and had no real point, except to set up the next film where Wick will “kill them all.”

Overall:  Without a real strong point and with minimal acting, especially by Reeves, this film fails on most counts.

I Am Not Your Negro

First Hit:  The most powerful film I’ve ever seen about racism in America.

I always pull four brown paper napkins from the dispenser in the lobby prior to taking my seat in the theater. Generally, I use one or two for something like wiping my mouth after eating a powerbar. However, for this film I needed to have taken many more because my heart cracked open so many times during this film that I had to reuse my usual lot over and over again to blow my nose and wipe away the tears that kept falling from my eyes.

All the dialogue in this film comes from James Baldwin. Some of it from his unfinished book “Remember This House” while other sections came from his other essays and published writings. Using clips from films referenced in his writings, television clips, interviews, quotes from letters he wrote and other Baldwin writings, we get an amazingly clear picture of his experience, reflections and thoughts about living in Harlem, Paris, and finally back in the United States.

Baldwin’s amazing articulation of his experience, the black experience, in America through his writings by questioning his inner self is sublime. His self-awareness and the ability to see, understand, and enunciate the differing paths of his close friends Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. was ethereal.

There are moments in this film where Baldwin’s statements of awareness speak to and through the existence of all of mankind. Of course, the most powerful scenes are the actual clips of James Baldwin speaking, but Samuel L. Jackson's voice for the remaining Baldwin dialogue was well chosen. Baldwin's intense intelligent eyes belie the pain of what he experienced and saw in our society.

Using photos, film, and television clips from the early 1920’s through 2014, Director Raoul Peck was able to create a mirror of America’s racism that is not only bold, but at the very heart and soul of our still troubled racist nation.

I think that everyone needs to see this film and check within themselves about their own tendencies and be willing to change our hearts and maybe our future actions. I know I am more acutely aware of this issue having seen this film.

Jackson lent his distinct voice to aid in this film’s impact. I cannot find words to express the amazingly persuasive fluent film that Peck created. How he was able to pull all these pieces together in such a powerful way was outstanding in every sense of the word.

Overall:  This film had more impact on me than any film in the last 20 years maybe longer.

The Comedian

First Hit:  A good story and look into the life of an older comedian whose had his day.

Being about the same age as the character Jackie Burke (Robert De Niro) it was an interesting story, look, and life of an older comedian. Jackie was once a television star and part of the issue is that people see him as this television character and not as himself, an insult comic that is just getting by.

Burke is a sarcastic man in both his communication with everyone he interacts with. Although he's not asked to perform when he goes into a comedy clubs, he is known, gets an occasional shout-out, and carefully watches the younger comedians to see what works, what's  funny.

One night, while performing in a small club owned by Jimmie “J.J.” Walker (yes Mr. Goodtimes), he’s harassed by a couple in the audience. She’s filming him as her husband shoots barbs at Burke. The husband gets under Burke’s skin so much that Jackie ends up hitting the husband with the microphone. The couple sues and also posts the fight they filmed on YouTube. While in court, Jackie refuses to apologize in an appropriate way and the judge gives him jail time. After getting out he starts community work at a homeless shelter which is where he meets Harmony Schitz (Leslie Mann).

She’s also doing community work at the same homeless shelter. They hit it off and spend time together by going to a comedy club, she joins him at a family wedding at the invitation of his brother Jimmy (Danny DeVito) and his wife Florence (Patti LuPone), and then he joins her at a dinner with her father Mac (Harvey Keitel).

In each of the interactions he does a routine, and each one is insult based which goes over in some audiences and not so much in others. He gets an opportunity to be part of the dais of a roast for a 90+ year old May Conner (Cloris Leachman) who ends up dying during his part of the roast.

His agent Miller (Edie Falco) tries to get him gigs, but it is hard because of his age, type of comedy he does and his past history. To juxtapose his past with his more successful peers, the storyline has him visiting the Friars Club in NYC where he talks with Charles Grodin, Billy Crystal, Brett Butler, and Gilbert Gottfried to name a few.

However, despite the star power and interactions with these comedians, the jabs aren't very funny. As it turns out, the funniest and most popular parts of his life are the mistakes he makes which are video taped and posted online.

I thought the jokes that Jackie had were good and De Niro’s delivery was very strong, it just isn’t the type of humor I'm attracted to. However there were moments of out loud laughter. I did like the film's more serious turn when Jackie finds himself wanting to spend more time with Harmony.

De Niro was solid as the old-time comedian and his comedic act was really good. I just didn’t connect with the jokes. Mann was superb. I loved her intensity and skittishness. She was one of the very best parts of the film. Keitel was strong as Mann’s controlling father. LuPone was really perfect as the sister-in-law who doesn’t like Burke. DeVito was wonderful as Jackie’s brother. Leachman was interesting as the 90+ year old honored comedienne. Falco as Jackie’s manager was very good. I liked her realistic engagement and devotion to Burke. The team of Art Linson, Jeffery Ross, Richard LaGravenese and Lewis Friedman wrote a good script that reflected the time of Jackie’s fame very well. I especially liked Harmony’s role and lines. Taylor Hackford did a great job of directing the main characters, but the script didn't use the other great comedians very effectively.

Overall:  Although I didn’t really like the humor in this film, I did think it was well done.