The Kingsman: The Golden Circle

First Hit:  Terrible story with few bright spots.

What a waste of talent. How do Julianne Moore (Poppy), Taron Egerton (Eggsy), Colin Firth (Harry Hart – whose character died in previous film), Channing Tatum (Tequila), Halle Berry (Ginger), Jeff Bridges (Champ) and Elton John (as himself) all sign up for a story that has disaster written all over it? I don’t know. Maybe the Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn script read better than it worked out to be. Maybe it was Vaughn’s issue because he couldn't deliver what he envisioned in his mind.

I just don’t know, how this happened. Besides a couple reasonable fight scenes and a couple slightly amusing tongue-in-cheek scenes, the premise that Poppy was going to blackmail the President of the United States so that she could freely sell her drugs all over the world, was preposterous.

Maybe the film needed to be WAY over the top in the tongue-in-cheek category to work.

Hart died in the previous film, and to make-up a story that he miraculously survived the shooting by some someone using a FEDEX  or UPS looking plastic bubble wrap around his head and followed by an emotional shock to make him be the same person as before is ludicrous.

Anyway, the Kingsman, who have a limited crew, with Merlin (Mark Strong), Eggsy and the partially defective Hart, are trying to find and destroy Charlie (Edward Holcroft) who makes an attempt to kill Eggsy. Charlie blows-up the country mansion and the tailor shop in London and now want Eggsy. Charlie being a shunned former Kingsman, unbeknownst to Eggsy, is really working for Poppy. Poppy is running her drug trade in a lost city in a jungle. She’s turned it into a 1950’s style base of operations. Really? This is the setup. Really, I kid you not.

Then the writers add this: For help, The Kingsman team up with the Statesman, which is run by Champ. The Statesman is the US version of the Kingsman; an independent spy security agency. It is run out of a distillery, hence the names of their agents, Tequila and Whiskey (Pedro Pascal). Now this is exciting! But wait, there's more...

Not only does Poppy build robotic dogs to protect herself, she likes being entertained, so she has hired Elton John to play songs for her in an empty theater anytime she likes. Elton does have a couple other key momentary appearances, but he’s not an actor and it shows.

Egerton is, at times, fun to watch but the script is so disjointed and unfounded that it lets him and the role down. Moore’s role is hopeless. She attempts to be part tongue-in-cheek and part serious, but because the role is ill defined in an ill-defined movie, it falls flat. Firth seems so out of place in this role it just made me cringe. He needed to stay dead. Strong was one bright spot in the film and his centered acting made his role work. Berry was driven to be so much less than what she is by the role. She's made to be a girl Friday and I disliked her scenes completely. Bridges' role was insipid. That he chose to act in this film is disheartening. Holcroft was good as the maniac bionic armed villain. He made it work. Pascal didn’t fit in this film at all. He seemed out of place and it was clear from the beginning, he wasn’t on the side he said he was on. Tatum was fun at times and it seemed as though he was used in this film as eye candy for a female audience. He added little to the story. John can stay away from acting, even as himself. Goldman and Vaughn script was a mess from the beginning to the end. Vaughn had no vision as a director to deliver a story that would engage the audience. The film was thrown at the audience.

Overall:  Don’t waste your time for this insipid film.

Brad's Status

First Hit:  What I loved about this film was Brad’s (Ben Stiller) authentic realistic internal dialogue about comparing.

Although there were comedic moments, they are mostly situationally driven, this film is a strong film about learning to not compare yourself with others.

Brad is living with his wife Melanie (Jenna Fischer) and their son Troy (Austin Abrams) in Sacramento. Brad created a non-profit and has made a decent living from this and Melanie works for the government. Troy is a musician and has done well in school and is now ready to tour and interview colleges. Brad and Troy head back to Boston to visit Harvard and Tuffs Universities. Tuffs happens to be Brad’s alma mater.

However, this trip brings up Brad’s college friendships and how all of them have become wealthy. He lays awake at night thinking about his friend’s success and how he and Melanie will be able to afford Troy’s education. Brad becomes obsessed with his financial lot in life. Melanie tells him everything will be alright as they will figure it out as they’ve always have done. However, Brad’s obsession won’t stop.

All of this is shared with the audience with voice over as we watch Brad on a trip with Troy to visit these schools.

At Harvard, Troy mistakenly misses his interview day and Brad, after trying to brag to other waiting parents, is now upset at Troy. Being a protective and caring father, he loudly argues with the admissions staff, trying to find a way to make the interview happen and embarrasses Troy and himself.

He and Melanie remember that one of Brad’s famous rich college friends Craig Fisher (Michael Sheen) [as a visiting professor] teaches a government communications course at Harvard, and has some pull, being a well known author and former White House insider. Reluctantly, Brad calls him and discovers that their other two college friends all have been in communication with each other but have left him out. He thinks it is because he lives in Sacramento, has a non-profit, and makes very little money.

This is the theme of the film, looking at the past and comparing oneself with others. Meeting some of Troy’s musician friends, he gets re-reminded of his past idealistic view of the world and starts pushing his position on Troy’s friends. They show him how his comparing mind is his struggle, not the money he makes. The point is driven home when Ananya (Shazi Raja) tells him where she grew up, just having some food and water was a very rewarding thing and that his current lifestyle is the envy of millions in the world. She tries to put it into perspective for him.

The other aspect of the film I really liked is how parents can feel when their child does well in life by making good choices. The sweet and difficult conversations between Troy and Brad are very well done.

Stiller is strong as the self-critical, obsessive, and comparing father who wants to be seen as some of his friends are seen, rich and famous. Abrams was good as the son. He was appropriately embarrassed and concerned by his father’s behavior. I loved the scene of he and his father wrestling on the bed. Sheen was very good as the arrogant old college mate of Brad. Raja was great as the idealist and realistic Harvard College friend of Troy. Fischer was very good as Brad’s wife. Mike White both wrote and directed this film and I thought many of the insights about how the comparing mind can take one away from actually living life as it shows up to you based on your decisions.

Overall:  I think this film presented a fairly realistic view how comparing success in the business world with my one’s longtime friends can hamper accepting life as it is.

Polina

First Hit:  Wonderful dynamic film of a Russian girl coming into her own through dance.

I love the ballet and I like expressive modern dance, so I was looking forward to seeing this film.

That this film begins in Russia with a young girl, supported by her parents, learning to become classical ballerina and segues to her finding her muse as a modern choreographer and dancer in Antwerp was icing on the cake.

One of the early scenes that stayed with me until the end was, after going to a dance class and struggling to do everything perfect, she freeform dances in the snow in a way that only a child can do. And because she has had formal training, there is an exquisite beauty in her movements.

We follow Polina (Veronika Zhovnyska at 8 years old and Anastasia Shevtsova as an adult) from childhood into her early twenties. Through this path, we see her parents Anton (Miglen Mirtchev) and Natalia (Kseniya Kutepova) struggle to keep up the payments for the dance lessons. Her father’s dream is to have Polina dance with the Bolshoi Ballet. It is so much his dream, that he does illegal things to find money to pay for these lessons.

Polina struggles in her dance lessons to be a perfect dancer but we can see that when she dances there is something missing, her soul and spirit. And although she gets into the Bolshoi dance school, she sees a modern dance by a visiting French troupe and it touches her deeply and choses to leave Russia going to France to learn more about this modern dance.

Her teacher at this French school Liria Elsaj (Juliette Binoche) sees the abilities in Polina along with a lack of soul, spirit, and fire from within. She gets hurt, and ends of leaving the company because her boyfriend is being lured away by the person replacing her in a dance.

Going off alone she wanders western Europe trying to find dance work. She continues to discover that the dance company directors want to see what is inside Polina. Only after being hungry and having to live on the street, that she finds a street dancing group that dances through personal expression. Finding a job as a waitress in a bar, she spends more time with the leader of this street group and begins to learn what is inside her, by watching the actions and movement of others.

Eventually, she and leader of this group create their own choreography where her spirit and soul are revealed through the dance they create.

Zhovnyska was fantastic as the young Polina. I loved how her strict dance lessons also allowed her to dance through the snow joyously, one of my favorite scenes in the film. Shevtsova as the older Polina carried on the young Polina perfectly. I loved how she kept the stern outside look of her life on her mostly expressionless face, while her eyes were searching, always signaling that there was more inside. Her last dance brought the whole story together. Mirtchev was wonderful as her loving father who would do anything for his daughter and his dream for her. Kutepova was excellent as Polina’s mother. The scene when she empties Polina’s suit case was perfectly poignant. Binoche was sublime as the French dance instructor that pushed Polina to search within herself. When Polina spies Liria dancing alone in the studio, she begins to see what was meant by dancing from within. Valerie Muller wrote a great screenplay and her direction with Angelin Preljocaj was spot on. The music they used throughout the film enhanced the story while I think the choreography by Preljocaj was spot on exciting.

Overall:  I loved how this film comes together through dance.

American Assassin

First Hit:  Mildly entertaining.

The story begins with Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien) and Katrina (Charlotte Vega) frolicking in the water in an undisclosed foreign location. They are in love and, with his phone, he’s videotaping their time together which concludes with him asking her for her hand in marriage. She accepts and he goes to the beach bar to get them drinks to celebrate when a group of terrorists start shooting everyone on the beach. Mitch gets hit with two slugs and Katrina is shot dead.

The film moves forward eighteen months and Mitch has recovered and he’s clearly aiming for revenge because he’s taking mixed martial arts lessons, shooting lessons and has mastered Arabic because he’s communicating with ISIS operatives. He’s trying to get close to the people who killed his fiancé so that he can kill them, specifically Adnan Al-Mansur (Shahid Ahmed). He plans to infiltrate their organization by pretending to be a new western recruit, get close and kill him and everyone in that cell.

His plan gets foiled because he’s being watched by the CIA who find him fascinating and possibly someone they want on their team. Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) recruits him to be taught by a black ops trainer Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton).

Typical issues arise as the young guy with guts and a clear personal mission tries to learn and be better than the grizzled veteran. Some of these scenes are rather good. As Hurley gets Rapp ready to become an operative, Kennedy learns that an old CIA operative, who goes by the name Ghost (Taylor Kitsch), has a stolen a small atomic device. This part of the story is not very well done, because the story wants the audience to believe that it is radical Iranian’s who are going to get the bomb, but there are too many hints to the contrary.

Because Ghost felt that Hurley left him to die, he wants to get back at Hurley by blowing up the sixth fleet.

Some of the bomb effects were interesting, as were some of the close fighting action that the agents get into. However, the film was predictable.

O’Brien was strong enough to make his character work. He used his intensity well. Lathan was very good as the CIA Deputy Director. Keaton was both strong and mediocre. I think the mediocre part was more of a scripting issue than Keaton’s fault. Keaton can be an excellent antagonist and more could have been done with this role. Shiva Negar as the in-country Iranian CIA agent Annika, was excellent. Kitsch was solid as the vengeful rogue agent. Stephen Schiff, Michael Finch, Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz all participated in creating the screenplay. This might have been the problem, too many cooks. Michael Cuesta directed this and the strengths were the fight scenes, which were well choreographed along with the interaction between Annika and Rapp were great.

Overall:  This could have been more exciting with more clarity in the story and it wasn’t.

It

First Hit:  Although the characters were engaging and well defined, this film was uninteresting, long and lacked suspense.

It is sad when a film bills itself as horror and it doesn’t create any such feeling. Although the character “It” (AKA Pennywise) was appropriately evil looking, the jerky back and forth movement when it tried to be scary came off as pressed and silly.

As a set-up, the town of Derry, where the film takes place, has a history of young kids going missing and the town doesn't seem to concerned about this.

The kids in this film were distinctly defined. The tough bully kids, led by a policeman’s son named Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton), was sufficiently mean. His angst and bully ways came from the way his father treated him.

The group of nerds were perfectly developed with their own backgrounds and reasons for being part of the nerd group.

The story begins with a young boy Bill Denbrough (Jaeden Lieberher) folding a piece of paper to make a boat for his younger brother Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott) so that Georgie can float the boat down a rain filled street gutter. The boat gets sucked down the storm drain and this is when the audience gets introduced to ‘It’ aka: 'Pennywise' (Bill Skarsgard). Luring the boy to reach down and get his boat, the boy disappears down the drain.

At school Bill is consoled by his nerd friends Richie (Finn Wolfhard), Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer), and Stanley (Wyatt Oleff). They soon join forces with other nerds and outcasts Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor), Beverly (Sophia Lillis), and Mike (Chosen Jacobs) as they band together after having separate experiences with what scares each of them.

What ‘It’ does is that it finds out what scares each kid and presents it to them to lure them into the lair below the city streets in the sewers and old water system of Derry.

As expected, the kids band together and solve the issue of the missing children.

The wonderful interaction within the nerdy group of kids was excellent. They had their differences with each other but their deep friendship prevailed over everything.

The interaction between Henry and his father were appropriately intense and gave a solid base for Henry's bullying. Then there was Beverly’s relationship with her father, which was creepily perfect.

The bikes, the drugstore, library and town’s main street were well sourced and perfect for the era. The darkness of the haunted house and sewer system were good in their representation, however, I never felt any fear feeling during the film. I didn’t get afraid for the kids, nor did I sense enough suspense to make it a horror film.

Lieberher was excellent as the stuttering young boy who loved his brother and fell with great affection for Beverly. Hamilton was excellent as the bully who wanted to show his father that he was unafraid and tough. Scott was very good as the young boy who fell under It's spell. Skarsgard was good as Pennywise ‘It’. Taylor was fantastic as the overweight nerd who was enchanted by Beverly. Lillis was sublime as the only girl in the group. Her fearlessness was perfect. Wolfhard, Jacobs, Grazer and Oleff were very good. Chase Palmer and Cary Fukunaga wrote a mediocre screenplay in that the story lacked real engagement and was too long. Andy Muschietti was the director. Although the children’s performances were excellent, he didn’t create any real suspense and horror based fear. The film dragged on way too long.

Overall:  This was a disappointment because the characters were good but the story and interaction between the vehicle of fear and the kids was done mediocrely.