NEW THIS WEEK February 22, 2024 (IN THEATERS AND ON HOME VIDEO)
ANYONE BUT YOU--After an extended foray into kid-friendly fare (Jamie Foxx's 2014 "Annie" reboot; the "Peter Rabbit" movies), director Will Gluck returns to his "R"-rated, "Easy A"/"Friends With Benefits" roots for a predictable, if fitfully amusing trifle. In rom-coms, casting and chemistry is everything, and Gluck is blessed with two of the most photogenic and appealing young actors working today. Ben (Glen Powell from "Top Gun: Maverick") and Bea ("White Lotus" breakout Sydney Sweeney) are exes who discover to their mutual horror that they're headed for the same destination (Australia, mate) wedding. To avoid embarrassing questions, they agree to pretend they're still a couple for the event. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or rom-com connoisseur to deduce that their play-acting will turn genuine before the flight home. Powell and Sydney strike bonafide comedic and romantic sparks. They're like a junior league Clooney and Roberts and single-handedly make this formulaic programmer (almost) worth leaving the house for. (C PLUS.) https://youtu.be/UtjH6Sk7Gxs?si=i3TF4ayE06CQote3
ARGYLLE--Matthew ("Kick-Ass") Vaughn directed this lumbering shaggy dog story about a mousy authoress (Bryce Dallas Howard's Elly Conway) whose spy novels suddenly turn very real when she's catapulted into a globe-hopping adventure. Fiction blurs with reality, and Elly is soon working side by side with her fictional protagonist/alter ego, Henry Cavill's Argylle. While Vaughn and screenwriter Jason Fuchs were clearly aiming for a riff on "Romancing the Stone" (or 2022's "Stone" homage "The Lost City"), their movie lacks the crackerjack pacing and screwball rhythms that made those hits click with audiences. Running a derriere-numbing 139 minutes--and saddled with leads who are either grating (Howard) or merely dull (Cavill)--it's left to the game supporting cast (including Sam Rockwell, Catherine O'Hara and Bryan Cranston) to provide the fleeting moments of amusement and/or pleasure. Vaughn was probably hoping this might lead to another tongue in cheek action franchise like his "Kingsman" trilogy. But since that's highly unlikely, he's best advised to return to the sort of idiosyncratic "small" films he cut his teeth on like 2004's "Layer Cake" which helped land Daniel Craig his 007 gig. (C MINUS.) https://youtu.be/7mgu9mNZ8Hk?si=0mNSU-YkitGPX435
THE BEEKEEPER--Decidedly not a film about apiaists, Jason Statham's latest starring vehicle--his fifth in the past year alone--is about an ex CIA operative (Statham's Adam Clay) who enacts scorched earth vengeance on weaselly miscreants behind an elaborate online phishing operation targeting senior citizens. (The title stems from the name of Kay's former covert paramilitary outfit.) Better than any January Jason Statham movie has a right to be, it was directed by masculinist auteur David ("Fury," "End of Watch") Ayer who knows his way around turbo-charged action setpieces. Costarring the always welcome Jeremy Irons and, as the designated Big Bad techie, Josh Hutcherson.(B MINUS.) https://youtu.be/SzINZZ6iqxY?si=GTOPdgOAWELrYwCj
BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE--Disappointingly boilerplate musical biopic about the late reggae superstar exists principally as a showcase for Kingsley Ben-Adir who's nearly as good here as he was playing Malcolm X in 2020's "One Night in Miami." Opening in 1976 Kingston, Jamaica where Bob and wife Rita (Lashana Lynch in a mostly thankless role) are nearly killed in an assassination attempt before segueing to his exile in the U.K., director Reinaldo Marcus Green's movie is essentially a highlight reel of Marley's tragically abbreviated life. (He died in 1981 after a freak soccer injury.) Ben-Adir really shines in the electrifying concert scenes, but too much of the film is content to serve up hackneyed "Great Man" biopic cliches. (C.)
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT--A pokily paced, dully earnest sports underdog movie whose real-life bona fides don't make it any less tedious to sit through. University of Washington engineering student Joe Rantz (Callum Turner) joins his school's 8-man rowing crew to help pay for tuition--he's currently living in Seattle's Hoovertown--and winds up competing in the 1936 Summer Olympics. (Yes, the same Olympics Games that were held in Hitler's Nazi Germany.) Director George Clooney, working from a by-the-numbers screenplay by "Revenant" scenarist Mark L. Smith, has made a slick, good-looking film that stubbornly fails to come to life. There's nice work from Turner, Joel Edgerton (coach Al Ulbrickson) and Hadley Robinson (Joe's debutante girlfriend), but to little avail. It's the sort of movie your grandparents might enjoy when they catch it on Amazon Prime in a few months. (C.)https://youtu.be/dfEA-udzjjQ?si=nJteQOx-7OOtkziG
DUNE: PART 2--Picking up where 2021's world-building "Dune" left off, returning director Denis Villeneuve amps up the groaning board of exposition and groovy mysticism to an "11." Having fled to the desert after the slaughter of the House of Atreides by Jabba the Hut prototype Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard), Paul (Timothee Chalamet) and his pregnant mother (Rebecca Ferguson) are given safe harbor with the Fremen tribe. Still rebelling against his mantle as "The Chosen One," Paul makes a love connection with Fremen warrior Chani (Zendaya) and learns to ride the planet's giant sandworms. (The worm's "spice" is much sought after by the ruling class because it gives them paranormal powers, the better to subjugate plebeians.) Among the new characters introduced are a crotchety Emperor (Christopher Walken), his ambassadorial daughter (Florence Pugh, very good) and sociopathtic Harkonnen heir-apparent Feyda Rautha (a virtually unrecognizable Austin Butler). The starry cast--including such heavy-hitters as Charlotte Rampling, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Lea Seydoux--remains an embarrassment of thesping riches, and Aussie cinematographer Greig ("The Batman," "Rogue One") bathes the whole thing in such a glossy, iridescent sheen that the film's state of the art CGI looks relatively seamless. While my favorite "Dune" still remains David Lynch's under-loved 1984 Frank Herbert adaptation, Villeneueve deserves major props for having crafted the most fully realized fantasy tentpoles since Peter Jackson discovered Middle Earth with his "LOTR" trilogy 20+ years ago. (A MINUS.) https://youtu.be/U2Qp5pL3ovA?si=NVisrWjqWuAw_iF8
DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS--After breaking up with her cop lover (Beanie Feldstein), Philly flibbertigibbet Jamie (Margaret Qualley) convinces strait-laced roommate Marion (Geraldine Viswanathan) to accompany her on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, Florida. Their getaway quickly hits the skids, though, when they get mixed up with the goons who stashed a decapitated head (!) and metal suitcase (?) in their car trunk. Not counting his 2023 music documentary "Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind," this is the first film directed/co-written by Ethan ("No Country for Old Men," "Fargo") Coen without brother Joel, and it's a rollicking good time. Qualley and Viswanathan make an improbable, but delightful buddy duo, and the supporting cast is stacked with scene-stealing aces like Pedro Pascal, Bill Camp and "Rustin" Oscar nominee Colman Domingo. Clocking in at a fat-free 84 minutes--including end credits--these "Dolls" offer more entertainment value than any movie released so far this year. (B.)
MADAME WEBB--The wonderful Dakota Johnson and current "It Girl" Sydney ("Anyone But You") Sweeney are the main draws of another B-list Marvel origin story. Johnson plays NYC paramedic Cassandra who becomes endowed with a super power that enables her to see into the future--and possibly change it. Since this is 2024, Madame Webb's girl-power posse is predictably box-checked with blonde Julia (Sweeney), African-American Mattie (Celeste O'Connor) and Latina Anya (former "Dora the Explorer" Isabela Merced). The excellent French-Algerin actor Tahar ("The Mauritanian," "Napoleon") Rahim is resident Big Bad Ezekiel Sims, and Adam Scott, Kerry Bishe, Zosia Mamet and Emma Roberts round out the supporting cast. In her feature debut, tube director S.J. Clarkson makes the generic comic book nonsense slightly more bearable than usual thanks to a relatively pacy 116-minute run time and some very good actors. While it's unlikely to launch another Marvel franchise--box office tracking hasn't been great--anyone hankering for a big screen super hero fix could do a lot worse. (C PLUS.) https://youtu.be/s_76M4c4LTo?si=jwJ96fO7W8LYWXpY
MEAN GIRLS--Angourie ("The Nice Guys," "Honor Society") Rice is the best reason to see this serviceable adaptation of the 2018 Broadway musicalization of Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams' 2004 sleeper. Stepping into the old Lohan role of Cady, the new girl at a clique-ruled high school who ingratiates herself with "The Plastics" (led by Renee Rapp's truly terrifying queen bee Regina) before taking them down with the help of a posse of misfits (Auli'i Cravalho and Jacquel Spivey), Rice is immensely winning. Tina Fey--who wrote the original movie, the stage version and this iteration--reprises her role as a teacher, and Jon Hamm, Jenna Fischer and Busy Phillips (all very good) play typically clueless grown-ups. None of the songs or production numbers are especially memorable, but tweeners are sure to eat it up. (B MINUS.) https://youtu.be/UpWhCU7C46I?si=leYDzcNLLxsmP8uK
MIGRATION--Benjamin Renner, director of the delightful Oscar-nominated 2012 animated feature "Ernest and Celestine," helmed this beguiling and (no pun intended) featherweight Illumination 'toon. There's very little "plot" to speak of, but this 80-minute divertissement provides intermittent delight thanks to some frequently gorgeous CGI animation and the pleasure of spending time with its flock of fine feathered friends voiced by the likes of Kumali Nanjioani, Awkwafina, Elizabeth Banks, Keegan-Michael Key and Danny DeVito. (B MINUS.)) https://youtu.be/cQfo0HJhCnE?si=FA1XHSHPWWwynhO8
ORDINARY ANGELS--Good time gal Kentucky hairdresser Sharon Stevens (two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank) comes to the aid of financially strapped widower Ed Schmitt (Alan Ritchsen) whose 5-year-old daughter (Emily Mitchell) needs a liver transplant. In his directorial debut, "Jesus Revolution" and "American Underdog" screenwriter Jon Gunn somehow manages to make this improbable-sounding (yet true-life story) not only compelling, but deeply moving. As a recovering alcoholic who turns her dissolute life around by learning to help others, Swank is a veritable force of nature, and an excellent Ritchsen matches her every step of the way. It's also a testament to the wonders that can be achieved through internet crowdsourcing. (B.) https://youtu.be/R1vn8kPgCYA?si=5CMsOfjP7Kow55lX
WONKA--Paul King, director of the delightful "Paddington" kidflicks, was the perfect choice to helm this fantastical origin story of iconic chocolatier Willy Wonka. A sumptuously-appointed sugarplum fantasy that's a glorious throwback to 1960's family musicals like "Mary Poppins" and "Dr. Dolittle," it stars the perfectly-cast Timothee Chalamet as a twentysomething Willy still attempting to forge his candy empire in Dickensian England. While housed in the prison-like boarding house of Miss Hannigan-ish landlady Mrs. Scrubitt (Oscar-winner Olivia Colman having a larf), Willy teams up with orphan Noodle (an appealing Calah Lane) to combat Big Bad Slugworth (Paterson Joseph) and the nefarious Chocolate Cartel who will do anything to foil the new kid on the candy block. The fact that the Police Chief (an amusing Keegan-Michael Key) is on the Cartel's payroll only makes Willy's task more Sisyphean. But spurred on by Noodle's nudging and the divine intervention of a persnickety Oompa Loompa (Hugh Grant in a scene-stealing performance), Willy and his heavenly confections ultimately reign supreme. Nathan Cowley's spectacular production design, Park Chan Wook mainstay Chung Chung-hoon's dreamy cinematography and six Leslie Bricusse-worthy songs by Neil Hannon are merely icing on King's supercalifragilistic cake. (A.)