Death Wish

First Hit: Although not as impactful as the original film, this one was very good.

Charles Bronson was an amazing actor and in the original Death Wish, me, like the rest of the audience, rooted for him.

In this version, we have Bruce Willis playing Dr. Paul Kersey who, as he said himself, did everything right, was a responsible surgeon, happily married, and was raising an amazing daughter. Like the first film, we do root for the main character, but in a different way.

One night while he’s at the hospital, three thugs come to his house to rob it. Finding the wife and daughter home, the thieves kill his wife Lucy (Elisabeth Shue) and injure his daughter Jordan (Camila Morrone). Jordan falls into a coma while Paul slips into a deep depression.

His brother Frank (Vincent D’Onofrio) is supportive of his brother’s angst and helps by reading to Jordan while she’s in a coma. During his mourning, Paul gets the idea, by listening to his father-in-law, that he just might have to find his wife’s killers and kill them himself.

Finding a gun one day, he begins the process of making things right by becoming Chicago’s “Vigilante Killer.” In the television news, he becomes the white dude with a hoodie that is making things right.

We follow Paul as he makes his way through a criminal world to find his wife’s killers and make things right. All the while, the police do what they can to find the killers, but part of the film’s point is that there are so many killings in Chicago that they rarely solve any of the crimes.

Willis is good, and he’s got that typical Willis smirk working for him as well. Because he’s comfortable in his body, the skirmishes he’s in are believable. D’Onofrio is wonderful as his brother. The chemistry between the two was very brotherly like and worked well. Shue in her small role was strong and I enjoyed seeing her again on the big screen. Morrone as the daughter was good. Her openness in this role was perfect. Dean Norris as Detective Kevin Raines, the man in charge of the investigation, was sarcastically enjoyable. Joe Carnahan wrote an appropriate script for the times and I especially enjoyed the banter between Willis and D’Onofrio. Eli Roth was solid in directing this remake.

Overall: Bruce Willis gives his all in each role and he does this again here.

Red Sparrow

First Hit:  Although long at 2h 19min, it had enough twists, turns, and detail to keep me fully engaged.

Jennifer Lawrence (here as Dominika Egorova) is a strong actress and is able to project anger, sadness, and determination with only her eyes. It is this skill that sets her apart from many actresses.

As a Russian ballet dancer Dominika is revered more for her beauty than her dancing. However, she is good enough for the ballet company to give her an apartment and provide medical help for her sick mother. Her uncle Vanya Egorov (Matthias Schoenaerts) is part of Russian Intelligence and occasionally looks in on Dominika and her mom Nini (Joely Richardson).

When Dominika breaks her leg, Vanya recruits her to work for Russian Intelligence. He wants her because of her steely determination. He promises here that if she joins him, he’ll make arrangements for her mom to keep the apartment and her medical assistance.

Her first job is to seduce Dimitry Ustinov (Kristof Konrad). When he tries to rape Dominika, Russian Intelligence kills him while he’s on top of her. Because of her success she’s recruited to become a Sparrow. Sparrows use seduction and sex to get what they want from the people they seduce. They are trained in passionless seduction, hand to hand combat and how to use guns.

The Headmistress (Charlotte Rampling) of the Sparrow school is referred to as “Matron.” And it is her goal to make sure they become passionless seducers and combat ready spies.

Dominika is sent on a mission to Budapest to seduce American spy Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton). The goal is to find out the Russian Intelligence mole he was working with so that this mole can be destroyed.

Throughout the film, we see Dominika developing a path and plan to survive and persevere while keeping her mom’s health, safety, and welfare on her mind. However, as an audience member, we don’t always know what her plan is and how it will work out. That's the best part of this film. The unknowing, underscored with believing that Dominika will, in the end, get revenge, makes this story work.

Lawrence was excellent as the cold-hearted Sparrow who had a soul. I didn’t fully buy her being a premiere ballerina (jumps were barely 6 inches high), but this was completely overshadowed by her ability to embody the role as a spy. Rampling was perfect as the cold-hearted Matron of the Sparrow school. Edgerton was strong as the American spy who risked his life to keep his mole secret. Richardson was good as Dominika’s mom. Mary-Louise Parker (as Stephanie Boucher) was strong in her role as a US Senator’s Chief of Staff. Jeremy Irons (as General Vladimir Andreievich Korchnoi) was perfect. His cold intimidating voice and manner worked well. Justin Haythe wrote a good complicated screenplay. Director Francis Lawrence did a good of not tipping the story’s hand.

Overall:  I enjoyed the film’s puzzle and it was the acting that made it work.

Annihilation

First Hit: This film wasn’t suspenseful, interesting, or had characters the audience could care about.

It was hard for me to believe that a film with Natalie Portman (as Lena), Jennifer Jason Leigh (as Dr. Ventress), Oscar Isaac (Kane), and Gina Rodriguez (Anya) could not be full of drama and interest. However,  not being able to care about the characters, I was hoping to care about their predicament.

Lena is a teaching physician in biology medicine after having a seven-year career in the military. It was in the military where she met her husband Kane who is a special ops person in the military.

Kane gets assigned to be sent into “The Shimmer” which is overtaking a place on the east coast of the United States. He's suppose to help the government understand what this thing is. The Shimmer came as a result of a meteorite hitting a lighthouse. Every group that goes into The Shimmer never comes back and The Shimmer is expanding.

However, after a year Kane does return and is in a sealed room being watched by the government and scientists. To find out what caused her husband to be in this comatose state Lena goes in to The Shimmer with Anya, Dr. Ventress and two others.

Only Lena gets to the goal, the lighthouse where the meteor struck.

The Shimmer wasn’t very interesting to look at. The story line and what Lena finds at the lighthouse isn’t interesting. The worst thing is that the characters aren’t interesting at all.

Portman probably did as she was told by the director and read the lines, but there wasn’t any depth to her character and I’m not sure where to put this problem because Portman is a great actress and usually delivers a strong character. Leigh was intense and gritty but, as with Portman’s character, I didn’t care and didn’t want to know anything more about her. Rodriguez was the most volatile character but there wasn’t anything around her character to have me care either. Isaac was no better than the rest of the characters, non-interesting. Alex Garland wrote and directed this mess.

Overall: This film is not worth seeing even though the names associated with the film are held in high regard.

Game Night

First Hit: This film was funny from the get go and I laughed out loud all the way through.

I haven’t played games in years, so I didn’t relate to Max and Annie’s (Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams respectively) way of life.

Every week they hold game night with their friends Ryan (Billy Magnussen), Kevin (Lamorne Morris), and his wife Michelle (Kylie Bunbury). They meet up at Max and Annie's house to play all sorts of games.

Each week, Ryan would bring a different girl which was part of the joke with the group because they all must look the same and they aren’t very smart.

Annie and Max's neighbor Gary (Jesse Plemons) , who is a policeman with a very hardened personality. He and his wife participated in game nights but since they divorced, Max and Annie don’t invite him and find odd and funny excuses to not invite him to game night.

When Max’s brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) shows up, Brooks invites the group over to his house for game night. However, he has a plan that they are going to solve a kidnapping that is being put on by a company Brooks’ knows.

Unbeknownst to the group, Brooks has been a crook most his life and is wanted by The Bulgarian (Michael C. Hall). The Bulgarian’s men stage a kidnapping just before the fake kidnapping but the game night group doesn’t know the difference.

This mix up causes some very funny scenes and mix-ups which make this film work.

There is enough farce and realism in this film to make it work and I found that the funniest parts and segments had Rachel McAdams in them.

Bateman was excellent as the competitive husband Max. His reverence for the games and love for his wife Annie was well balanced. McAdams was the star of this film in that her quips and way of expressing her determination and fearlessness in an amusing way was perfect. Magnussen was very good as the guy who was mostly clueless to his women preferences. Sharon Horgan as Sarah, Ryan’s girlfriend for the big game night, was perfect. She was smart and showed determination to see the events through. Plemons was perfect as the really strange policeman neighbor who was pining for his wife. Chandler was strong as the jealous brother who over compensated by living large. Morris was great, especially when he was quizzing his wife about the movie star his wife slept with. Bunbury was excellent as Morris’ wife. She showed her strength and love in a very believable way. Hall was perfect as The Bulgarian. He was appropriately ruthless. Mark Perez wrote an excellent funny script. John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein did a good job of directing this ensemble cast to elicit a funny film.

Overall:  This film was definitely worth the price of admission.

Fifty Shades of Freed

First Hit:  Although not a good film, it was a good way to conclude the series.

I, for the most part, painfully waded through this series of films telling the story of sex, control and asking questions to discover what love is.

In this final of the trilogy, Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) accepts Christian Grey’s (Jamie Dornan) proposal for marriage. Marrying shortly thereafter they settle into a life together and when there is a discussion about children, Christian balks and states that he’s not willing to discuss it now.

Although they bring up Grey’s past upbringing and his being adopted, if you didn’t see the prior films, you won’t really understand the impact of this and why he’s not willing to discuss children.

As an audience member, this plot device is obvious that this is what is going to separate the couple and then bring them back together. There are no surprises in this film or story.

They add elements from previous films including Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson) who was Anastasia’s boss until he tried to make an unwanted move on her. We’re led to believe that he really wants Anastasia but the film attempts to make it deeper by showing us that he and Grey were in the same foster home and he’s jealous of who Grey got adopted by.

The sex and bondage sex scenes were not erotic. This might be because, as I noticed in all three films and it is more pronounced here, there is virtually no chemistry between Dakota and Jamie. I was also put off by the obvious product placements, especially Audi.

Johnson is OK as Anastasia. Dornan is a poor actor. I simply cannot buy his character as someone real and there’s little in this film to tell me anything different. Eric Johnson is one of the better parts of the film as he’s sufficiently a bad man. Niall Leonard wrote an OK final film screenplay to this series. James Foley directed this final film with some great scenery and a fun car chase.

Overall: This is a weak storyline but it doesn’t make a mockery of the film series and lets it conclude with some integrity.