Thoroughbreds

First Hit: The oddity of the characters and the quirky story and acting worked for me.

Two wealthy girls living in a wealthy Connecticut neighborhood, have lost touch since grade school when they use to also ride horses together.

Amanda (Olivia Cooke) was a loner, especially after she killed her ill horse with a knife. She was seen by people as a sociopath. As we are introduced to her she is dropped off at Lily’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) mansion and while the maid is finding Lily, she’s exploring the rooms.

Amanda is there to get tutoring from Lily, and quickly figures out that Lily is being paid to be her friend by Amanda's mom.  They start talking why they're ostracized in school.

Amanda begins to tell her tale and it begins with that she has no feelings and cannot ever recall having them. This makes for a weird sort of story because I spent time trying to see Amanda have feelings.

Lily’s father died some years earlier and now her mom, Karen (Kaili Vernoff) is married to a man named Mark (Paul Sparks) who is a real jerk.

Lily wants Mark dead, Amanda killed her horse, they are troubled girls who are planning something together. They bring in Tim (Anton Yelchin) who is a small-time drug dealer who thinks he’s going to be the premier drug dealer on the east coast, but we all know this isn’t going to happen.

Hatching a plot to kill Mark, this whole thing goes haywire and we watch as Lily becomes the new cold girl in town.

The scenes of the girls talking, or attempting to cry on cue were fun, but for me the odd sparse musical accompaniments to certain scenes added to the overall quirkiness of this film.

Cooke was oddly engaging and grabbed the screen with her role. Taylor-Joy was very effective as someone who wanted to stretch her boundaries and find a new way of living. Vernoff and Sparks were strong as Lily’s mom and step dad. His attempts to be perfect were well represented. Yelchin was great as the wanna be drug dealer. Cory Finley wrote and directed this oddly interesting story.

Overall:  I liked this more than I thought I would.

A Wrinkle in Time

First Hit:  I love the concepts in the film but the execution was generally very poor.

I wanted to like this film more than I did.  Almost from the beginning, there was something not quite right about this film. When Mr. Murry (Chris Pine) is teaching his daughter Meg (Storm Reid) about how vibrations can affect sand on a flat plate, there was a clunky sense to their interaction.

There was little sense or buildup as to why her peers were giving her a hard time. We slowly find out that she misses her dad, who disappeared some 4 years earlier. He just disappeared and the kids made fun of her because of this? Didn’t make sense and didn’t stick with me, given Meg’s attitude and personality on the screen.

Her adopted brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) is a genius and pushes the envelope at their mutual school. He calls people out on their stupidity and Meg has to break up the fight.

Regardless, Charles Wallace believes that their father slipped through a wrinkle in time and traveled to another galaxy (I interpreted this as a different dimension). He finally convinces Meg that something like this happened and introduces her to Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon) who is a quirky and a renegade spiritual human presence and form of light.

Meg and Charles Wallace are join by a classmate Calvin (Levi Miller), who says he got “a call” to join them. He struggles at home because his father beats him even though he’s a great student. This part of the film is poorly done and doesn’t work well.

The three kids meet up in Meg’s backyard and Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) and Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey) take them through a wrinkle in time and end up on a new planet (new dimension).

The place is made of light as are the three Mrs. However, when they fly on Mrs. Whatsit’s back and encounter The It (the dark forces), the light bearers say that the kids might not find Mr. Murry.

The concepts of light and dark are great to express in written form and in film, but here the direction and substance of this story fails to make this journey compelling.

Pine was good as the scientist first guy, setting aside his family for the sake of science. Gugu Mbatha-Raw was good as Mrs. Murry, there was a sweet genuineness to her. Reid was very strong as Meg. Her passion and intelligence came through. McCabe was excellent as young Charles Wallace. He did a great job of being a smart kid and one that was taken over by the dark side (The It). Witherspoon was funny as Mrs. Whatsit. She brought humor but her character was also inconsistent. How can you be new as a light being and run out of energy so quickly. Kaling was OK as a seer, but I just didn’t buy the role. Winfrey was Winfrey. The extra-large size physical presence might have been more about inflating that it was Oprah than the role. It made little sense and adding the stiff gown she was fit into made her performance stiff. Miller was OK, but I struggled as to why he was part of the journey, the case wasn’t well made. Jennifer Lee and Jeff Stockwell wrote a mediocre script when it could have been great. Ava DuVernay’s direction was poor. But some of this is based on the poorly created script. However, I think she could have made better choices about the story’s direction and how it was constructed.

Overall:  This film falls flat when it comes to telling a strong story, but it does have a strong point to make if the audience sees through the uneven film.

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.