Fifty Shades Darker

First Hit:  Only at the very end did I sense/feel an actual connection between Anastasia and Christian, which told me that this film does not work.

There is a distance between Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) and Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) which might be reflective of “steel gray” or “gray steel”; they go together but one doesn’t necessarily mean the other and they aren’t necessarily connected.

Anyway, the set up of Grey isn't strong enough to make him realistic or believable. I didn't buy any of this characters strengths (smart and rich) and flaws (can’t touch his chest). This isn’t how one would act with his issues – it is too fabricated. However, the story wants us to believe that the superiorly damaged rich boy can’t have a relationship without out being sadist (his words not mine – “I’m not a dominate, I’m a sadist”).

One would think that this rich smart aware boy (and he’s more like a boy than a man) would seek out additional help to have him work through his maladjustment relationships with women. However, to make the film work, we are back for more of Steele’s naked body along with some submissive stuff and we're suppose to believe that she wants him, and wants to be the girl that saves him from himself.

This, of course, pisses off the woman who “taught him to fuck”, Elena Lincoln (Kim Basinger) and past submissive Leila (Bella Heathcote). In fact, the scenes with these two characters are supposed to be very telling, but that don’t really add up to much. When Leila gets on her knees when ordered by Grey, like a dog, it is pathetic for both. When Steele has one-on-ones with Lincoln, they don’t work and I never felt the feeling or intensity of a deep desire or love as required by the script. Both characters, mostly Grey, were lifeless.

Lastly, there isn’t enough information or interest about each of the characters to care much. There are attempts to flesh-out Steele, but they mostly fall flat as there isn’t enough depth to her. The only scene that was really strong was her confrontation with her boss Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson – no relation to Dakota) who is seen at the end of the film signaling at least one more “Shades” film to come.

Johnson was the best part of this overall very weak film. She didn’t add much depth, but any and all the depth in this film comes from her. Dornan is lifeless for the most part. He’s not believable and lands on me the same way that Robert Pattinson lands on me; blank, with little emotion, and little projection of a real fully fleshed character. Basinger is horrible in this film. It is like the producers are using her sexuality from the long past 9 ½ weeks film to validate Grey’s weirdness. Heathcote is OK as the spurned sexual dilettante. Eric Johnson is OK as the jerk boss who uses his authority to get his way with staff at the publishing company. Niall Leonard wrote an OK screenplay but it was director James Foley and the actors’ execution that made this film lifeless and hard to watch, until the last 10 minutes, which was actually fairly good.

Overall:  Don’t know if I’ll be able to stomach the next one in this series.

Fist Fight

First Hit:  Had an interesting start, faded quickly, and tried to redeem itself at the end.

I admit that I like Ice Cube’s intensity and he shows this part off in this film, however I must also admit that I’m so far away from what it might be like in a high school these days that I was taken aback by the way the kids interacted and the lack of respect they had toward school. Granted this was the last day of school and seniors tend to act poorly believing they are justified by acting stupid. But jeez, making the school out to be this way actually made the film worse.

The plot is that Andy Campbell (Charlie Day) and Strickland (Ice Cube) work at Roosevelt High School which we assume is the worst school in this LA suburb. Strickland barks at his students and is oppressive while Campbell tries to coax his students into learning. There is something wrong with a VHS machine in Strickland’s room and he asks Campbell to help him fix it. When Campbell figures out that it’s a student who is causing the issue, Strickland goes ballistic and takes an axe to the student’s desk.

Called into the Principal’s office, they are supposed to uphold the teachers code and vow to have each other’s back by not telling the truth about the classroom event. However, Campbell falters on the teacher’s code to keep his job and tells the Principal the truth about the axe incident. Strickland gets fired and vows to beat Campbell up after school. The proposed fight has the entire school body in a twitter with excitement.

There are other subplots in this film, including Campbell singing a song with his daughter Ally (Alexa Nisenson), the school being in a financial crisis has to fire a lot of teachers, the guidance counselor Holly (Jillian Bell) uses meth, is oversexed and wants to have sex with students, and Coach Crawford (Tracy Morgan) has a losing team and is sort of a joke in the school.

The only subplot that is interesting is the one with Campbell and his daughter Ally although her song in the end is a little over the top for grade school but was done for a point.

The middle of the film is a bunch of wasted motion of trying to have Campbell find a way to get out of the fist fight. Unfortunately, little of this film seems plausible and in the end when the fight does come to fruition the film pulls back together just a bit, but not enough to make sitting through the whole film interesting.

Day is OK. His voice grated on me because it seemed overdone. It was so wimpy and whiny that it didn’t work. Ice Cube is intense through most of the film but shows some humanity in the end. He does a good job of staying himself and somewhat unattached to this poor film. Bell’s character was an unneeded distraction and not needed. Morgan was more of the same, unneeded distraction. Both were in roles that does nothing to assist them in their careers except financially. Nisenson was the best of the lot. I liked her ability to be afraid of being seen as a wimp and a nobody and then powerfully doing her inappropriate song. Van Robichaux and Evan Susser wrote a very weak screenplay. It’s use of distracting characters to keep the film moving compounded its weakness. Although Director Richie Keen had a poor screenplay to work with, he did, from time to time, make a few scenes work.

Overall:  This film was poorly conceived and the execution did nothing to make it any better.

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.