Lucky Logan

First Hit:  Funny at times but lacked intrigue and substance.

Director Steven Soderbergh had previously indicated he’d quit making films.  I guess it wasn't true. Here he made a film that could be compared with his other action crime films, Oceans 11 through 13, although dumbed down. You'd think think he had the formula down, but he must not have, this one didn't work.

Maybe the mistake was thinking that making the same kind of robbery/crime film with people that aren’t very bright would be interesting or compelling. Unfortunately, it wasn't as it because the storyline didn't translate out of Las Vegas at all. Although he tried to reduce the complexity of the crime and dumb things down because of the characters, it didn’t work because the actual details to pull off this crime and the reveal at the end, weren’t believable.

Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) is a doting and wonderful father to Sadie (Farrah Mckenzie). His former wife, Bobbie Jo Chapman (Katie Holmes), is antagonistic towards him but she does see his love for their daughter. He gets fired from his job, through no real fault of his own, because of a old football injury. He does appear to have some smarts about him.

His brother Clyde (Adam Driver) is slow and not very bright. He lost his arm in the Iraq war and has a prosthetic that is somewhat useless to him as a bartender in a local dive. Jimmy also has a sister Mellie (Riley Keogh) who runs a small town beauty salon and knows a hell of a lot about cars.

The location is significant because it is near the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The Logan clan needs money, so the brothers decide to rob the speedway. Hatching a plan, they decide they need to blow up a safe and decide to hire an incarcerated Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), who is an expert at blowing up safes. Upon hearing the plan, Joe tells Jimmy and Clyde that he'll need his slow hick brothers Fish (Jack Quaid) and Sam (Brian Gleeson) to help him. He wants them to get the explosives and to break the raceway’s computer payment system. The brothers quote was priceless: “I knows all about them twitters and such”, this gives the audience an idea of their ilk.

This team does come up with an ingenious plan to get Joe out of prison without the prison knowing, rob the raceway, and take the heat off them after the robbery. However, the ending leaves a question as to whether they will get away with it as Special Agent Sarah Grayson (Hilary Swank), who seems to be the smartest person in the film, bellies up to the bar in the end and starts talking with Clyde.

Tatum was good, but I didn’t buy his perceived dumbness nor his smartness, and maybe that was the point. Driver was OK as a slow dedicated brother. He almost came across at too dumb. Keogh was fantastic as the smart as a whip sister that knew how to control what she needed to control. Mckenzie was excellent as Tatum’s and Holmes’ daughter. She was very engaging to watch. Holmes was OK as mother and former wife. Craig was odd in this role. There was something that didn’t work for me as him being a hick. However, he did create an over the top character. Quaid and Gleeson were very good in their dumb brother roles and it appears they’ve picked up the acting chops of their parents. Rebecca Blunt wrote the screenplay. What didn’t work was not making the characters believable. Their actions and a lack of character depth created too many questions about the story. Soderbergh made some of the comedy work, but the weakness, for me, lay in the believability of the characters and congruency of their actions.

Overall:  This film is funny at times, but fails where it really needs to be strong, pulling plausibility out of characters and their actions.

The Hitman's Bodyguard

First Hit:  This movie was, at times, very funny and the action scenes were very well-choreographed.

Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) is considered a “AAA” Bodyguard for high paying clients. He’s at the top of his game, making a lot of money and has his stuff together. He lives with his live-in girlfriend Amelia (Edolie Yung) who is an agent with Interpol security.

The film opens with him finishing a job for Mr. Kurosawa (Tsuwayuki Saotome), a wealthy client. While putting him on a plane, Mr. Kurosawa gets shot through the small window of his private jet. Bryce is dumbfounded, he did everything and now his client is dead. This completely changes his life, his attitude and he wrongfully thinks Amelia inadvertently leaked the news about his client's whereabouts thereby letting someone assassinate  Kurosawa.

Vladislav Dukhovich (Gary Oldman) is a ruthless dictator and is on trial in the International Court at The Hague. He's been accused of killing a village full of people in his country. There was a witness to all this and it was a professional hitman named Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson). However, he’s been jailed and must make a deal to get to the court to testify. The deal is that they will let his wife out of prison but he must stay incarcerated. He takes the deal.

As he’s being transferred from his English jail cell to The Hague, Russian operatives under the control of Dukhovich try to assassinate him. Because Amelia help set up the deal and is traveling with Kincaid, she almost dies in the assassination attempt as well. Kincaid gets free after the assassination attempt and Amelia desperately calls Michael to find and protect Darius from the Russians and get him to The Hague.

This is where the two, the hitman and the bodyguard, get together and the audience gets to go on a wild ride of adventure, protection, fun and extremely well-choreographed action scenes, gunfights and car chases.

Reynolds is fantastic as the bodyguard and his interaction with Jackson is wonderful. Jackson is outrageous, intense and exquisitely funny. Together these two are very entertaining and their back and forth dialogue was quite, laugh out-loud, amusing. Oldman is great as the evil Russian leader who despises that he's on trial. Yung is good as Reynolds love interest. Salma Hayek as Sonia Kincaid, Jackson’s wife, was over the top fun. With gusto she chewed up this role. Tom O’Connor wrote a funny and entertaining script. He conceived, and the director delivered on, each chase scene being interesting and wonderfully different. Patrick Hughes did an amazing job of making the scenes come alive.

Overall:  Although not Oscar worthy, this film was well worth the price of admission.

Wind River

First Hit:  Extremely well-acted character driven crime film in a stark cold setting.

Jeremy Renner is a fine actor and his turn in “The Hurt Locker” was amazing. In “Wind River” he gets an opportunity to shine once again. Here he plays Cory Lambert an agent with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Wyoming. He spends most his time alone in the wild hunting down animals that are killing local rancher’s animals. He's divorced, a father and haunted by loss.

He was married to Wilma (Julia Jones) a Native American. They had two children together, however the oldest, a daughter, was suspiciously killed one night while the couple were out together for much needed alone time. Their young son lives primarily with Wilma and she’s looking to move away for a new job.

While tracking mountain lions in the high country, he runs across a Natalie (Kelsey Asbille) who is frozen, dead and barefoot. He can tell she'd been running away from something horrible because of the tracks in the snow, wounds on her body and that the freezing cold air coagulated the blood in her lungs causing them to burst. Cory suspects she was also sexually assaulted because of the location of blood stains on her clothing. He contacts Sheriff Ben (Graham Green) who calls the FBI because they suspect it is a homicide and on government Native American land.

The FBI sends Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) to determine what happened and if a homicide, resolve the murder. Between Ben, Jane and Cory they figure out how Natalie was killed and who was responsible for her death.

The scenes and scenery were dramatically staged showing the wild, cold, wilderness of remote Wyoming. Camera shots were powerful and added to the suspense of the story. The scenes of Cory with Martin (Gil Birmingham), Natalie’s father are deeply moving as they share the experience of losing a daughter and having to deal with their respective losses.

Renner is amazing. He’s perfect for the role by being rugged, smart and sensitive. Jones is perfect as Cory’s divorced Native American wife who's looking to move on. She impeccably carries the sadness of losing her daughter and the status of her and Cory's relationship. Asbille is wonderful in her small, primary, yet pivotal role. Olsen is flawless as the FBI agent naïve in the ways of Wyoming reservation ways, but focused on getting the job done. Birmingham is priceless. I loved his reserved suffering ways and willingness to take another step. Greene is excellent as the Sheriff who bridges the gap between the native American and white man’s worlds. Taylor Sheridan wrote and directed this film. In both cases, he hit a home run. Some of the shots in the wild made me feel as if I was a voyeur and greatly added to the experience.

Overall:  This is a top-notch film because the story, acting and direction is sublime.

Brigsby Bear

First Hit:  A very creative interesting film about a young man coming to terms with his past.

The first thing about this film when watching the initial scenes are that James (Kyle Mooney), and his so called mom and dad, Ted and April Mitchum (Mark Hamill and Jane Adams respectively) are odd people. They live as a family in an underground bunker in the middle of nowhere (looks like a high-desert area in the southwest part of the United States).

James is obsessed with the "Brigsby Bear" videos he watches on an old VCR player. Afterwards, he writes up a synopsis of the video and posts the synopsis on a blog site using a very old, out of date, portable computer. He’s all alone except for his parents and never seems to go outside. Stealing away one night, with a gas mask on, he ventures outside. While watching the sky on top of the bunker’s concrete entrance, he sees the flashing lights of police cars in the distance. Panicking he goes back into the bunker to wake up his parents.

However, he's too late and the police are inside the bunker. He’s taken to a police station where Detective Vogel (Greg Kinnear) tells him he was abducted as a baby and that Ted and April aren't his real parents. He’s introduced to his real parents Greg and Louise Pope (Matt Walsh and Michaela Watkins respectively). He also has a sister Aubrey (Ryan Simpkins) who is very standoffish to James because she suddenly has an older brother who is weird and not cool. As a teenage girl, it is horrible to have a geeky strange older brother who's name is plastered all over the news.

Greg and Louise take James to see and work with a psychologist named Emily (Claire Danes) who insists that James must begin the process of forgetting about Brigsby Bear. Although he asks everyone else about Brigsby, he discovers that no one else has ever seen Brigsby Bear. Then he learns that his former Dad created all the Brigsby videos to teach him life lessons in addition to reading, math, and the importance of right and wrong.

James has grown up with Brigsby as his only touchstone to life outside of Ted and April, so he decides to do a film to help him understand it all. The film he hopes to make will complete the Brigsby Bear story. When he shares this idea with Aubrey’s friends they offer to help him make this film.

The rest of the film is about creating new friendships by creating this film together. Even Detective Vogel gets into the act. The way this unfolds is interesting and only until we get close to the end of the film do we really see how this is James’ way of saying "goodbye" to the life he once had and saying "hi" to the life he is entering.

The film’s creative naivete, as witnessed by the way both sets of parents are characterized, shows how James is a mirror of his parents and a reflection of the film he creates. This makes this movie captivatingly perfect.

Mooney was excellent as the partially blank tablet young man trying to find his way into a world he knows little about. Hamill was strong as the surrogate dad and the evil sun. Walsh was puzzlingly good. I was puzzled because he reflected a certain level of spacy-ness himself. There were times I thought he as putting on an act and other times I felt true and solid engagement to the role. Watkins was clearly less puzzling and good in this role. Simpkins was excellent. I thought she did an excellent job of being put off by James presence as well as embracing him as she learns more about him. Danes was solid as a therapist who lacked clear empathy towards James and his path to grow. Kinnear was excellent as the detective who began to see James and support his efforts to move his life forward his way. Jorge Lendeborg Jr. was fantastic as Aubrey’s friend who is the first to be open to James and his story. Their interactions while building the film and at the party were priceless. Alexa Demie as another one of Aubrey’s friends who takes James under her wings and was excellent. Kevin Costello and Kyle Mooney wrote this interesting script and Dave McCary’s direction gave it all life.

Overall:  I thought this was a very creative and bold film.

The Glass Castle

First Hit:  I cannot conceive of having a life like the one described in this film.

This is the story of how Jeannette Walls (Brie Larson, Ella Anderson, and Chandler Head) survived her upbringing by Rex (Woody Harrelson), an alcoholic father, and Rose Mary (Naomi Watts), an unconventional artist mother, to find her own truth and path through life.

Jeannette, her two sisters Lori (Sarah Snook, Sadie Sink, and Olivia Kate Rice), Maureen (Brigette Lundy-Paine, Shree Crooks, and Eden Grace Redfield), and brother Brian (Josh Caras, Charlie Shotwell, and Iain Armitage), never had much of a home as their father and mother spent all their time running from place to place. This dysfunctional family headed by two non-conformists had great dreams and never could put any of them into place.

“Glass Castle” refers to the all glass home Rex designed and never built. This one of thousands of ideas he had for his family. During non-drunk and lucid moments Rex could be an amazing father and mentor. I especially loved how he gave each of the kids the belief that they could pick a star as their own exclusive birthday present.

However when he was drunk or in a bipolar raging state, he was awful to everyone. Rose Mary did her best to temper his expressive raging, however she was an enabler of both the violent and homeless behavior.

After a failed attempt by Rex to get clean and hold a job, the children decided to raise themselves while staying clear of their parents' behavioral issues. This bond between the children was amazing and in the last scene of the film, a Thanksgiving dinner, it was clearly expressed.

I liked the way the scenes shifted from present day back to when the kids were growing up. The actors they chose to play the younger versions of the children were great.

Because the film rarely answered how and when did the family get food and clothing, I kept wondering about these primary subjects throughout the movie.

Harrelson is excellent as the bi-polar father who is an alcoholic, smart, and loved his "goat" Jeanette. His fits of rage as well as his lucid kind moments were well done. Watts is interesting as the mother. I struggled to buy her performance as being solid. At times she seemed disengaged from both the character and from the film. However, it could have been meant this way as well. Larson is very good as the grown daughter with a huge resistance to fully embrace her past. When she finally embraces her past, the shift in her character was perfectly done. Ella Anderson and Chandler Head were great as the younger Jeannette. Sarah Snook, Sadie Sink and Olivia Kate Rice, as Jeannette's older sister Lori, were wonderful. Brigette Lundy-Paine, Shree Crooks and Eden Grace Redfield as Maureen, Jeannettes' younger sister, were perfect. Finally, brother Brian as played by Josh Caras, Charlie Shotwell, and Iain Armitage; all were excellent and very engaging. Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Lanham wrote a strong script from Jeannette Wall’s own book and story. Cretton's direction did a good job of taking us through Jeanette’s story.

Overall:  This was an amazing story of persevering through a chaotic childhood.