White Boy Rick Movie Review

“White Boy Rick” must be the most truthful movie title yet. The main character is white, and yes, he is basically a boy. Oh, and his name is Rick. This is based on a true story. It tells a complex drama of what becomes of a lower middle-class family from Detroit. This is set back in the mid 1980’s, when the American Dream turns into a virtual nightmare for many inner-city people. Many jobs dried up in the city. Yet – guns flowed into the streets, along with crack cocaine. And that result was the set up for this story.

Richard Wershe, Sr. (Matthew McConaughey) lives in a very run-down section of Detroit. His daughter Dawn (Bel Powley) is living with drug addiction. His son Richard Wershe, Jr. (Richie Merritt) is 14 years old, and he works with his dad. Rich (the Senior) does gun sales to make money for the family. Rick (the Junior) goes with him to gun shows. Ricky sometime takes this merchandise to the local black street gang to sell the illegal small arms. The black gang takes a liking to ‘White Boy Rick’, since he has the guts to approach the gang. He becomes an accepted and trusted member.

But there are FBI agents on the horizon (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rory Cochrane, and Brian Tyree Henry). They force Ricky to act as undercover informant to the street gang. It is either that or the Feds will shut down Rich (the Senior) and his semi-legal weapons operation. They also get Ricky into setting up a small side-deal business of distributing crack cocaine. That way, Rickey can get information on the street level dealers, who can lead the FBI up to the top-level distributors. Ricky is in with the gang, he is running his own drug operation and he is still getting orders from the Feds.

But after the big parties and trips to Vegas, there is an incident that comes to a head. The main gang leader (Jonathan Majors) believes that Ricky is really a rat, and he orders up a hit on the young boy. When the bad things all go down, it goes down hard. Ricky survives, and Rich and Ricky have to start over. They also get his sister Dawn out of a drug flophouse and work to get her off the crack. Rich (the Senior) also has his parents who live across the street (Bruce Dern and Piper Laurie). They help out with Dawn and get her back to normal life. Ricky also finds out that he has a new-born daughter.

Ricky feels the need to get back into the drug trade, so he can get some cash flow back into the family. He gets approval from his dad and the rest of the family. Ricky is still only 17, and he has become a big shot in the underground crime network. The FBI comes back to visit, and they are not too happy. Ricky is forced to (again) go undercover and try to get the goods on some of his cocaine contacts. But if he does not help them, he and his family will all face charges. The outcome for ‘White Boy Rick’ does not look good at this time. At his age (17) – he could be sent to prison for life. That would be a lo-o-ong time.

“White Boy Rick” is a thoughtful retelling of Ricky’s true life adventure into the seedy side of life. Matthew McConaughey nails it as a caring father with great intentions and horrible execution. Richie Merritt is very new actor, and he holds his own in the midst of some very talented co-stars. Bel Powley has a very difficult character, but she makes Dawn’s pain and struggle with addiction a real thing. Bruce Dern and Piper Laurie are both good, but wasted in such minor roles.

 

This movie has something to say, but it has trouble picking a single topic. Drugs are bad, no wait, so is inequality in criminal sentencing for blacks versus whites. Guns are trouble for the neighborhood, but crime is commonplace and violent crime is on the rise. The Feds are smart to set up a young white kid as an informant, but no – there is so much police corruption and dirty cops are everywhere. To reduce crime, get tough on criminals, but wait – mandatory sentencing is bad…

So the acting is superb, but the story bobs and weaves and never chooses a single lane.

 

The Nun Movie Review

I’ll say it right here. James Wan, director, and creator of the original ‘Saw’ film knows a hit series when he sees it but needs to learn when to let it go. In fact, he has a number of record-setting credits under his belt and is best at taking something that previously worked and keeping it going but he so far lacks the awareness of when to let something die; literally and figuratively. In ‘The Nun,’ the horror-fest that started from ‘The Conjuring’ series, he takes us into the world of the frightening character that was the evil presence in ‘The Conjuring 2.’ She was magnificently terrifying and ultimately what made the film but in this new narrative, one in which you’d expect great things based on what you had previously witnessed, she’s not all that terrifying but instead, rather anemic. In this film, what should have been its strengths seemed little trusted and scarcely used.

 

When the story begins it’s 1952. We’re in an abbey in Romania and are witness to a tantalizing introduction. From the start, there’s hope that ‘The Nun’ is going to be the noteworthy horror film we’ve been waiting for. Something purely evil needs a vessel to continue to survive so a nun sacrifices herself to stop it from using hers by hanging herself. Her body is discovered dangling from the window of the church. The Vatican is notified, and they send a priest by the name of Father Burke (Bichir) and a young nun, Sister Irene (Farmiga), who is about to take her final vows, to check it out. With the help of Frenchie (Bloquet) the very nervous man who found the Sister’s body, they root around in the Abbey and discover quickly that it’s an unholy place. Frenchie believes the crosses surrounding the place are there to keep evil in rather than out. It seems there’s little to prove otherwise.

 

After Father Burke is haunted by very real demons of his own, demons who wake the audience from a slow start, he and Sister Irene discover that Valak, the defiler and the profane, built a gateway to hell on the grounds so the wicked could walk amongst the living, but the church secretly sealed it hoping to keep Valak at bay. However, as evil usually does, it manages to, quite predictable, escape. 

‘The Nuns’ downfall is that there’s very little about it that’s unique and try I did but I found little of the acting remarkable, as well. Having been scared frozen by her character in ‘Conjuring 2,’ I assumed I’d get much more from her yet was largely disappointed. If you’re a fan of the franchise I’d say you will most likely enjoy parts of the film, especially its ending… except the part that suggests there’s a way they could continue the storyline further. Quite frankly, after seeing this, I’d like them to bury any idea they have of doing such a thing. 

We the Animals Movie Review

“We the Animals” is an independent film that shares some of the goals and ideas from other indies, like “Moonlight” and “The Florida Project”. It also shares a similar feel to the films of Terrence Malick, having a very slow-paced and almost documentary feel to it. Some parts of the movie are contemplative and other parts use an alternative fantasy sequence to show the characters inner-most thoughts. It is entirely dependent on having three young actors play the main parts, three brothers living with difficult circumstances. But the young actors overcome whatever issues that can sometime sink an otherwise worthy production.

Jonah (Evan Rosado) is the youngest of three brothers, at age nine. Joel (Josiah Gabriel) and the oldest Manny (Isaiah Kristian) are normally found with all three of them together. It does not matter, as they run around the semi-rural area in upstate New York where they live. They have a dad, Paps (Raúl Castillo) who is Puerto Rican, and Ma (Sheila Vand) who is white. The three boys are olive-skinned and have close cropped hair. They are all younger than twelve or so. But they are bursting out with energy and vitality. These three are never shown attending any school, but they are being taught every day.

They are mostly taught by example from Paps and Ma, but usually not very good examples. Paps struggles to keeps a late-night shift job, and when he is upset about something, he will take it out (and beat up) on Ma. She also struggles to keeps a job, and she struggles to keep any self-respect. Ma knows that Paps loves her and the boys but wishes he would not be so brutal. Paps is angry that he had to marry Ma when they were both teens, and she was pregnant. Jonah is very observant and keeps a private journal about all that he sees.

Jonah has very mixed inner feelings, and he tries to express them in writing. He also draws a lot in his journal and sometimes he imagines that the images on the paper come to life and explain what he thinks. Sometimes he thinks in an alternative fantasy sequence that shows some of Jonah’s deepest feelings. There is a repeated idea of everything and everyone being underwater. There is a repeated idea of Jonah being lifted up off the ground to fly. Or, maybe, at least to float in the air. There are confused and mixed images of sexuality, and these might be indicating that he is internally gay. But he is way too young to express anything like that.

There is not much in the way to story movement. It slowly meanders back and forth to the three boys and what they are doing. Sometimes the focus is on Paps, and how he has trouble staying with the family, and trouble staying with a job. Ma wants to run away from the stress, but she is unable to decide what she should do. She looks to the boys to tell her what her next move should be. Joel and Manny do not know about Jonah’s secret journal, but when they find it, they feel they cannot trust him anymore.

 

“We the Animals” will not be a movie for everybody, but there some very moving performances from the trio of young actors. Given the subject matter, it might be difficult to watch. Jonah is just around ten years old, yet the story strays into his questioning feelings about other boys and men. The other odd part is the fantasy style sequences that do not mesh up all that well with the rest of the ‘documentary’ and ‘hard reality’ style of most of the other scenes. Also, Jonah’s journal creeps me out. The small writing filling up the entire page, plus the wild cartoonish drawings resemble something that serial killer might keep…

For More Info:

Official Website
https://www.wetheanimals.film/

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/WeTheAnimalsFilm

Twitter
https://twitter.com/TheAnimalsFilm

In the Phoenix area, opens exclusively at the Harkins Scottsdale Camelview

Peppermint Movie Review

Director Pierre Morel is known for the movie “Taken” which made Liam Neeson famous again, and revenge murder cool again. Since then, the movie “John Wick” showed that revenge murder could be an artistic ballet of bullets and bodies. So now with an added healthy dose of “Death Wish”, which is the old-school revenge murder original, he has a new movie. “Peppermint”, and you might want to call it — “Taken by a Death Wish with Jane Wick”. Revenge has never tasted so minty…

Riley North (Jennifer Garner) is a loving wife to her hard-working husband and mother to her precious daughter. But there is a local Los Angeles drug kingpin named Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba) who is pissed that her husband ALMOST was part of a plot to rip off a Garcia drug house. Her husband called and backed out, but that did not stop Garcia to put out a hit on the whole family. In a hail of bullets, the North family was torn to pieces, with only Riley barely hanging on. The police were attempting to talk her out of being an eyewitness and giving testimony. She thought that she needed to get that scum off the street.

Riley worked with Det. Moises (John Ortiz) and Det. Carmichael (John Gallagher Jr.) from the LAPD to ID the perps. Then the slimly defense lawyer for Diego Garcia visits Riley and attempts to buy her silence, or at least threaten her safety. The three gang members get off — due to the bribes and payoffs to dirty judges and dirty Assistant District Attorneys and dirty police officials. Riley is going to be taken to mental hospital, but she escapes — and is not heard from until five years later. And she comes back with a vengeance!

Five years of martial arts training and firearms training have made Riley a well-oiled revenge murder machine. She comes back to LA and hides out in the Skid Row area, becoming a local ‘avenging angel’. But on the five-year anniversary of her tragedy, Riley sets out to take on Diego Garcia and his minions, and will not let any LAPD or FBI official stand in her way. She makes quick work of the three main perps, the corrupt judge, the dirty D.A. and most any other people who were involved. There are still some bad cops out there, and the main bad guy Diego Garcia. There are quite a few hard targets that Riley will use for her next practice.

Riley takes out Garcia’s drug house and his main drug warehouse, and they she goes after the fortified Garcia mansion. Det. Carmichael has an idea about where Riley might be staying, and the FBI also on to her location. Det. Moises is wondering if there is information getting from the police to the Garcia organization. Riley takes a beating over and over again, but she still has the juice to go after anyone who is working with Garcia’s gang. When the media starts to track Riley in real-time, the social media goes nuts to support her. It does not matter how many people Riley has killed…

“Peppermint” is a hot mess of female revenge fantasy and weapon worship. There are huge gaps, like the five-year disappearance of Riley North, that go unexplained. Where did she go? Where did she get the training, and where did she get the money to live on for all those years? They explain something about how she took money from the bank where she worked before she left, but – come on! That will last for five years?  There were times in the screening that brought (unintentional) laughter. Not good for an action flick.

This “Peppermint” shtick is weak attempt to turn Jennifer Garner into an action hereo, making Riley North into a new ‘Jason Bourne’ or ‘John Wick’. Nah, that’s not in the cards. But if you team her up with ‘The Atomic Blond’…

God Bless the Broken Road Movie Review

“God Bless the Broken Road” is an odd-ball combination. There is a Christian view on life that goes from being overly preachy to almost an afterthought. There is a main plot of a woman recently widowed, who gets a treatment straight out of the Book of Job. After her husband dies in Afghanistan, all sorts of tribulations befall her. She doubts her faith, and loses her house and even her young daughter turns against her. Yet at the same time, there is a sub-plot that is straight out of the movie “Cars”. A hot-shot driver meets up with an old-timey mentor who can teach him out to ‘correctly take the turns’, both on the track and in real life.

Amber Hill (Lindsay Pulsipher) lives is an ideal little town located in the heart of Kentucky. Everything is perfect, with all of her friends at the local church. She is a choir leader and she loves her husband, who is off in a war overseas. She loves her little daughter Bree (Makenzie Moss) who spouts off some cute biblical sayings when times are tough. Her friends at church are Karena (Robin Givens) and her daughter Bridgette (Jordin Sparks). The church is led by Pastor Williams (LaDainian Tomlinson) who is a linebacker-size preacher.

But after Amber’s husband is killed in battle, everything falls apart. Two years later, she has not recovered from the shock and the grief. She stops going to church and she works a lot more hours at the diner. Many more things are working against her, including a mother-in-law Patti (Kim Delaney) who always seems to criticize her. Bree is getting worried that her mom is giving up on her life. Amber is missing payments on the house, so the bank is getting ready to foreclose. Her van is held together with duct tape and bungee cords.

But a super-cool NASCAR driver named Cody Jackson (Andrew W. Walker) comes to town to work with a guy named Joe Carter (Gary Grubbs). Joe is master mechanic and a NASCAR driving coach. Cody is having problems with the turns and he only has the need for speed. He is being sent down to the minors for a while to pick up tips from Joe on how to drive fast, but still make the corners without spinning out. Cody meets Bree at the church, where he get ‘volunteered’ by Joe. There is a go-kart club that they start up for the youth group. Cody feels an attraction to Amber, and tings might get serious.

If this sounds like it is meandering and unfocused, then I have correctly described the plot. Just think of Amber as a Biblical version of Job, and think of Cody as Lightning McQueen. Amber’s life continues to crumble around her. She is a widow with very little money, the house is taken away, Bree runs away and then decides that staying with her Grandma Patti is better then her own mom, Amber.

The acting is stiff and wooden, except for Gary Grubbs (as Joe). The whole story-line is strained and fuzzy. The child actors are not up to today’s excellent standards. The melding of small-town religion and NASCAR idolatry seems to be forced. The movie shares only the (extended) name in common with a Rascal Flatts country song (“Bless the Broken Road”).

“God Bless the Broken Road” is a poor attempt to make an uplifting, spiritually strong movie. It’s in not even clear if that was the intention of this production.  This might be a re-envisioning of “Talladega Nights”, for all I know. Know that this movie was better as a song.

God may bless this “Broken Road” – but sure as the devil, you don’t need to sit through it.

Searching Movie Review

“Searching” is a new movie about a missing person and the resulting search, and it portrays it in a unique way. Only a few other movies have used the idea that a window into the modern world can be done with various screens. That is, computer screens, laptop screens, iPhone screens, security monitor screens, TV screens, etc. — you get the idea.  The movie “Unfriended” does a similar thing, but only with computer screens. With “Searching”, the idea is opened up a little more, and the resulting movie draws you into the mystery. By examining social media and other online posts and Internet trails, the mystery deepens and is becomes a compelling look into current life online – and how the surface image can hide much different truths.

David Kim (John Cho) is introduced as a happily married man. With his wife Pam (Sara Sohn) they have a little girl. Margot is first a small baby, and then young girl and then a high school teenager. All of this unfolds with fifteen-year old technology, think Windows XP, AOL Mail and Messenger and the like. But the happy family has a breakdown when Pam develops cancer, and it relapses, and it then returns with fatal results. This is all done in the first few minutes of the movie, and it outlines the personal tragic story of this family. In some ways it is emotionally similar to the beginning of the movie “Up”, with a twist on the way that the audience learns the various details of the family story.

With the wife and mother gone, both David and Margot (Michelle La) have been dealing with the loss in very different ways. David becomes very busy with work, and every time he talks with Margot it is a reminder of his late wife. So, he tends to communicate more and more via technology, with iPhone calls, and FaceTime and instant messages. Margot is having a rough time with the death of her mother, but she knows that her Dad is feeling very fragile right now. She tries not to bother him about little things. So she does not tell him everything. David has a brother named Peter (Joseph Lee) who is much closer to Margot than David knows.

Then one night, David insists that Margot do some chores at the house when she gets home from a study group. She calls and tells him she will be home much later than usual. David sleeps, and as he does there are two phone calls from Margot, plus a FaceTime request, deep in the middle of the night. He misses them and does not know that she never came home. It does not register that she did not come home until David gets back from work the next evening. He sees that Margot did not take out the trash when she got home. But she also did not take her laptop. Why would she go to a school study group without her laptop? He also realizes that he does not know any of the people that Margot would know.

He gets into the old laptop and finds Pam’s notes and records and contact lists. He makes many phone calls to find out there was a ‘ditch day’ and camping up in the mountains. He is sure that Margot will call when she gets back from camping. Until he finds out that Margot did not go with that group. He calls 911 to report Margot as missing. Detective Vick (Debra Messing) shows up and tells him that she is assigned to case and not to worry. They will go over all the details that David has found and contact many of the people that he feels might know Margot’s whereabouts. David searches further and finds an online personal streaming site that Margot had used to post quite a few videos. Margot has also been taking money meant for piano lessons and putting into a private PayPal account. Until she withdrew $2,500 a few days before she disappeared.

David is going crazy in his mind, with all the possible thoughts of what might have happened. There are some online posts that allude to Margot and her online activities. David finds someone who has been posting to Margot about her online videos, but the person appears to be miles away in another state. But could someone be ‘catfishing’, making a fake fictitious online presence to pretend to be somebody else? There are more clues, and David takes off to a nearby lake, where a car is found underwater. It belongs to Margot, but she is not in the car. What has happened? Could the person involved in the disappearance be somebody very close to Margot? Could it be a random stranger, recently released from parole? How can David be sure what is the truth, when everything online can be changed and adapted and modified?

“Searching” does take a very specific approach to the technology that has become an everyday part of our life. It uses that tech to both tantalize and torture the main character by showing him various version of what might be the truth. John Cho is superb as the grieving husband who cannot stand another loss in his life and is determined to figure out the puzzle. The clues and red herrings are everywhere, and the use of modern social media tools to explain the recent past show the real limitations of those online systems.

 

The movie goes about displaying the entire story as if it were unfolding on the devices that we use every day. This brings a closed-in, claustrophobic feel to the overall movie, but also gives it a larger sense of urgency. David is not the only one who is feverishly finding and mentally processing the clues. So is the audience.

 

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Operation Finale Movie Review

‘Operation Finale’ is the true story of an operation that gave the people of Israel peace from something terrible they had suffered through. Interestingly enough, this film couldn’t be coming out at a more perfect time in the history of our own country. I’m not suggesting that we can compare our situation in the slightest but our national discord and division, at the moment, is felt in a few moments of ‘Operation Finale,’ especially when you realize how easy it is to influence others and turn a country completely around.

Writer Matthew Orton used as his subject matter the fascinating account of when Israel gets a chance for the first time ever to try, in open court, one of the evilest men ever to walk the earth. ‘For the first time, we’ll judge our executioner.’ Other Nazi’s, most famously Hitler, who were responsible for the atrocities of World War II, killed themselves before they could be captured but Adolph Eichmann (Kingsley), the architect of the ‘Final Solution,’ (the Nazis plan to annihilate the Jewish people), got away and lived a full life. By 1960 he had faded into the past and was forgotten by most of the world but not by Israel. They wanted them all to pay for what they had done.

Many of Hitler’s top officers fled to Argentina which is where our story starts.  Eichmann’s son Klaus (Joe Alwyn), unbeknownst to him, begins dating a Jewish girl, Sylvia (Haley Lu Richardson) whose family is hiding as German immigrants. He brings her to a Nazi rally and terrified at what she sees, she abruptly leaves. She passes what she witnessed along to her father, Lothar Hermann (Strauss), who then passes word to Isser Harel (Raz) whose skeptical at first but when given photographic proof, immediately pulls together a team to try and pick up Eichmann. Argentina will never give him up so capturing him alive isn’t the safest or smartest way to go but it would mean so much to bring him in alive and make him pay, once and for all, for what he had done. Can they pull this off? They have a simple plan that becomes quite complicated, which is what works to give the audience moments of tension, otherwise, you’re watching the story play out very heavy on the drama with little action. They capture Eichmann, not in a graceful way, but they do succeed and they hold him in a safe house until their plane is ready to go. Nervous already, as there are many sympathizers looking for them not to mention they’ll be in prison themselves if discovered, they learn not only has the plane been delayed but that the airline that agreed to help the mission gets wind of its true purpose and doesn’t want any part of it. Before they’ll agree to let them board, they insist Eichmann give them a signed letter stating that he is going willingly to stand trial.

Israeli operative Peter Malkin (Isaac), after losing a sister and her family to the Nazi’s, takes it upon himself to be the one to do whatever it takes, even to befriend the beast, to get the signature. Instructed not to speak to Eichmann because he, ‘convinced Rabbis to fill the trains himself.’ The leader of the team will try but warns there’s no getting through to someone who has little humanity. Malkin gives it his best. This is when Kingsley goes from one spectrum to the other, appealing to his captors’ good senses and eventually using them against him. Isaac and Kingsley have wonderful chemistry and their scenes alone makes the film worth a watch.

A drama such as this can be somewhat slow but ‘Operation Finale’ keeps you engrossed with not only good dialogue, the issue and the acting but the assignment itself. They show enough of what the Jewish people truly went through, something the world at the time didn’t believe was happening, that at the end, learning of Eichmann’s fate, it made you want to stand up and applaud the team that made it all come together. Hearing Eichmann say, ‘You and your lying press will just try who you think I am.’ Was a bit too close to home but hopefully, people do learn from history and no other country will allow something like this to ever happen again. See the film. It’s powerful and it’s also important that you do.

The Happytime Murders Movie Review

With this film, director Brian Henson, son of Jim Henson, is definitely leaving his mark. Not unlike the way a dog covers what the last one left behind, it’s as if he wants you to know that these aren’t your father’s Muppets… definitely not his. Some might not care for how he brazenly bastardizes his families legacy but for those of you who saw the Red Band trailer and liked the idea of raunchy puppets cursing at one another, watching porn and having sex, this most likely won’t be an issue. ‘The Happytime Murders’ would have been a really fun short film. Stretching it into a feature was reaching too far but it doesn’t mean you won’t have some laughs; it’s just ego on Henson’s part to believe adults will be so enraptured by foulmouthed puppets to bear with the time it takes to watch all the way through.

 

One could argue that there’s something twisted and devious about Henson using the puppets in this manner when his father, much to the delight of millions of people all over the world, utilized them to educate young children and entertain families but depending on how you look at it, Brian Henson is very much entertaining a specific audience, as well… just not the same one and not in as artful a way. Essentially, many of you won’t appreciate this type of crude humor and that’s okay. This film wasn’t designed for you and it seems Henson is okay with that because it doesn’t make it any less funny to those he created it for.

 

‘The Happytime Murders’ brings together a detective named Edwards (McCarthy) and former detective turned private investigator, Phil Phillips (voice of Bill Barretta) when members of The Happytime Gang (an old puppet television show) are murdered one by one. Phil’s brother Larry, who was ‘police officer Shenanigans’ on the show (which brought up thoughts of ‘Super Troopers’) is one of the victims. Edwards and Phillips were once partners in the department until an incident occurred that caused Phil to be released and excommunicate from the department. The tensions are high between these two but they’re both on the right side of the law and with only one goal in mind, they agree to work together. To bring some mystery in a caper that has little of it, Phil, who we know is a good guy, gets fingered for the killings and it’s up to Edwards, with help from Phil’s secretary Bubbles (Rudolph), to clear his name and find the real killer.

McCarthy is believable in her character to the degree I honestly don’t believe anyone, but she could have pulled this off. It’s time someone gives her a role in something other than a comedy, but she makes Edwards and all her animosity toward her old partner believable and thus more palatable when the jokes wear thin.

 

What I liked very much but think may have been largely missed because of the sexual perversions that you end up surprised with, was the discrimination by humans toward the puppets, who now must live among us. It seems they still ‘sing and dance for the man,’ even though they don’t want to… but how will they be taken seriously when they’re just colored felt and fluff? Even animals attack them on a daily basis, dogs especially, as they’re seen as nothing but a plaything. One of my favorite scenes is of two smalls dogs barking at a puppet while he screams at them that he isn’t a squeaky toy. Pay attention closely because there are several gems like that hidden in the background.

 

It isn’t difficult to shock people using sex, but it is challenging to keep the interest of an audience for over an hour using nothing but dirty jokes. I can’t say this is worth seeing at the theatre unless you’re paying matinee price but for those curious enough to see it, as you may have been with seeing ‘Sausage Party’ and ‘Team America,’ please know what you’re getting into. It’s going to be naughty but just have fun. And be sure to stay during some of the credits to watch a little of how they made this world come to life.

Papillon Movie Review

“Papillon” is a story of survival. It is the story of the unbreakable spirit in a man named Henri Charrière. He was a safecracker in Paris in the early 1930’s. His nickname was “Papillon” for the tattoo of a butterfly on his chest (it is French for butterfly). He worked with a low-rent crime boss, and earned enough to impress his girlfriend. But when he failed to impress the crime boss, he was framed for murder and sent to French Guiana. That island off of the coast of South America was home to a horrible prison camp. He was sent there and never was expected to return.

Papillon (Charlie Hunnam) is a talented thief, and he is a ladies man. He has a sweetheart named Nenette (Eve Hewson) who wants to sell the diamonds that he just robbed go to live in the country. The trouble is, the merciless crime boss wanted to have all the diamonds that Papi stole, but Papi kept a few for himself. Big Mistake. Next thing Papi knows is that he is charged with murder and sentenced to serve at the penal colony at Devil’s Island in French Guiana. On the ship sending the convict to the prison island, Papi meets Louis Dega (Rami Malek). Dega is an artist and a forgery expert, who was extremely wealthy. Dega was able to carry quite a bit of cash in — ahem — Deadpool 2 would call it a “Prison Wallet”.

Papillon was big and strong and willing to fight off any goons who attempted to kill Dega. So Papi agreed to protect Dega, as long as Dega would finance any escape attempt for Papillon. The protection and the financing parts worked out fine. The escaping part did not. Papi was able to try and escape, but when he did make it out the front gate, he did not make it very far. Papillon was sentenced to internal solitary confinement for two years.

Part of that time, Dega was able to pay off a trustee to deliver a hidden coconut to Papillon in his isolated cell. When the warden found out, he demanded that Papi tell him who paid for the coconut. But Papi was loyal, and silent. There where other escape attempts, and soon Papi was spending more time in solitary than in general population. Louis Dega could not make it through confinement, but the warden trusted Dega to handle the prison financial books. He was able to be a position of security. More escapes were planned, and with some assistance they made it off the island and landed in Colombia. But the long French arm of the law found them again. Dega was sent to Devil’s Island, and Papi (again) to solitary confinement. He was there for such a long time that he hallucinated most of the time. Then he was sent to join Dega at Devil’s Island.

At the Island, there was no method to escape. There were impossible cliffs around the deadly jagged rocks at the base, where the waves would crash violently into the Island. But past the base, there was a gentle tide, and tide pulled out into the sea — and off to a current that lead to the mainland. If only Papillon could devise a way to get past the danger zone, he could float gently out to freedom. Dega would not dream of leaving the Island, even if it meant dying there. However, Papi — he could not live the rest of his life in captivity. He would finally escape, or he would die trying…

Charlie Hunnam is well cast and has a physical appearance that resembles Steve McQueen. McQueen played Papi in the original movie adaptation. Hunnan plays Papi as strong and shows a brutal willingness to do anything, just to survive. Rami Malek plays Degas with an air of sophistication that is above an ordinary convict. The way that all of the historical places are recreated is excellent. At the end of the movie there are black-and-white photos of the actual prison. They have been able to capture that quite well.

The reason that a remake of “Papillon” was required to be made now is unclear. But the effort that is made to make this movie will not make you think of trying to escape the theater.

The Coolest Guy Movie Ever Movie Review

Back in 1963, “The Great Escape” was a smash hit with audiences around the world. It was a hit because of the major acting talent that director John Sturges brought together for the film. Tough manly guys like Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, David McCallum plus many others played the roles of prisoners in a German POW camp. Their only goal was to escape.

Based on true events, the movie was a dramatic reenactment of the meticulous planning that went into the escape. The movie was filmed in Germany, and many scenes were shot in small villages and towns in Bavaria. Hollywood stars and local German townsfolk, farmers and villagers would meet and become friends. Now there is a documentary that shows the lengths to which the movie production went for an accurate and scenic movie.

Christophe Espenan has put together an extensive (if short – it runs about an hour long) listing of iconic scenes from the movie. Then he revisits that same area today, over fifty years later, to show that the movie locations are still around. There are some major differences, of course. The POW camp was placed just north of a studio sound stage. There was an agreement with the German government that the production company could tear down a section of trees to construct a camp for the movie. But when they were finished, they were required to plant two trees for each single tree that they removed.

Many places and streets in and around the small Bavarian town of Füssen are compared to the original movie. Many scenes match up today, even after a generation has passed. They find the place where a majority of the actors stayed during the six weeks of filming. They interview many local people, or sons and daughters of local people who remembered the making of “The Great Escape”. The plot of the movie is that all the prisoners will break out of the POW camp and escape into the nearby town. That takes the action right here, into the countryside.

Back when the main stars were the biggest names in Hollywood, this movie became known as ‘The Greatest Guy Movie Ever’. Getting Steve McQueen to ride a motorcycle and jump a barbwire fence was very exciting. Perhaps his stunt double Bud Ekins should be famous for performing the jump. But McQueen did a huge amount of riding on the bike, and he even dressed up as a German soldier so he could ride again and chase himself!

Lawrence Montaigne narrates the documentary, and he actually had a part in the move, so many years ago. Even though his role was not a major part in the movie, he still says that just being part of that movie had opened up many doors for him.

“The Great Escape” was a film based on a true event. It also did not gloss over the fact that after the men escaped from the POW camp, almost all of them were recaptured. All but a few of the men were soon killed, for trying to escape. Only three men made it out to freedom. But since this documentary is only about an hour log, it does not attempt to get into any depth as to what the film actually accomplished.

From filmmaker and film historian Chris Espenan comes The Coolest Guy Movie Ever — a fascinating forensic documentary about the making of the classic World War II adventure film The Great Escape — to DVD and digital HD from Virgil Films on August 21, 2018, after a special screening earlier this year at Marché du film in Cannes.