The HAPPYTIME MURDERS 1.5***

     Rated R for strong crude sexual content and language throughout, and some drug material.

I’m putting the “R” rating first because this is NOT a children’s movie !!! In  fact many adults will or should forego this movie because the simulated sex going on with the puppets is so graphic and crude that many will be offended. You ask how can that be with puppets, well they figured it out.

The story:  Puppets live in L.A. along with humans, but only as second-class residents. The puppet hero is Phil, a down-and-out private detective, salvaging a meager living after being booted from the  LA police force for an unfortunate incident. He's a classic example of a film-noir PI, complete with a dumpy office in a seedy area, and a devoted ditzy secretary (Maya Rudolph). When the puppets who starred in an old sitcom called the Happytime Gang start getting bumped off, his efforts to solve the crimes  lead to his reluctantly reuniting with his former LA police partner (McCarthy).   Enter Melissa McCarthy in her normal foul-mouthed role. She swears in direct proportion to how un-funny her role is; as if doing that will make up for a really bad script. In this she doesn't need to swear too much but she does anyway.  

It gets very weird. This is what happens when sexually repressed puppeteers have to do nice, fluffy kiddie films for fifty years. When they finally get a chance let go: they really let go. Including bad language, graphic simulated puppet sex (including Phil having hot and heavy sex with another puppet and shooting a ton of silly string all over his office  but not with his gun),  and cow-milking with extreme prejudice. I think the Director wanted to embarrass the audience and succeeded quite well. Although indulging in a lot of tastelessly vulgar stuff may have been meant to provide humor, it actually proves to be quite off-putting and more offensive than funny.  

On one positive note, I will say the puppetry is excellent. The puppeteers and technical wizardry behind making these puppets characters as convincing and believable as they are is an achievement. But all the negatives of the movie far offset the fine puppetry.

MAMA MIA: Here We Go Again  3.0***

  

         In a world that has gone crazy, it was so nice just to sit back with my wife, Sara, for 114 minutes and forget about real life. Transport yourself back to a simpler time and of course to the wonderful music of ABBA. Throughout the movie you go through all the emotions yet once it’s over you just want to sit back and relish the good feelings. The whole cast looked like they had as much fun making it as we did watching it. Everyone did their bit although Lily James was outstanding as the young Donna. It's one of those rare films where you leave the theater and re-enter the real world with a big smile. 

The movie is a sequel as well as a prequel, showing us Donna's life before Sophie was born, and Sophie's life after her mother has passed on. The young versions of Sam, Bill, and Harry were recognizable and resemble the adult characters. Lily James as young Donna was perfect! We heard the story of the three dads in the first movie, but now we are able to see how it could have happened. And then there was Cher. She was excellent, and there was just enough of her.

I was curious about which, if any, of the musical numbers in the 1^st movie would appear in the sequel. Well a number of them were performed but with a more spirited presentation  ("Super Trouper", “Mama Mia”, and "Dancing Queen" especially) . Then regarding the other numbers, i.e. the added songs, were well picked and gracefully, as well energetically, performed.  

The back-and-forth narrative with the present flashbacking to the past has a nice balance that actually parallels until both timelines reach their climax in one beautiful number before the celebrative finale  

Credit goes to the large cast for making the words, both in the narrative and songs, more fun and lively. The dynamic of the returning cast from the first film is like a typical reunion while putting more sizzle into their performances. But the cast that stands out are those playing the younger version of their older counterparts with a fresh charm, particularly Lily James being a younger Meryl Streep.

I'm not going to  say that these Mamma Mia films great , but they are well done and the main thing is they are fun and I really enjoyed them. There's just something special about a group of actors, not normally seen in these cheesy films, having the time of their life singing incredibly catchy pop songs and dancing their butts off.

BLACKkKLANSMAN  4.0***

     For starters, this is a great movie that reminds us that nothing much has changed in the good old USA when it comes to race relations. Director Spike Lee and crew do a fabulous job bringing a story to life with an up-to-date ending that should affect any decent human being. The movie chronicles a stranger-than-fiction true tale of a black rookie police officer, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington, son of Denzel Washington), and his personal awakening to "white hate". His on-the-job experience leads him to involvement with two extremist groups, Black Power activists and the Knights of Ku Klux Klan. Going undercover with the black group is no problem for Ron, but he must enlist the aid of a white Jewish officer (Adam Driver), to impersonate him and infiltrate  the white supremist group. All this leads up to an amazing meeting with Grand Wizard David Dukes (Topher Grace) and exposing these hate-mongers and their terrorism. 

Spike Lee's films are always concerned with righting wrongs. Unafraid to call out racial prejudice and anti-Semitism, among others, his cinematic statements deal with current issues and our continued repeating of past mistakes. This is grandiose filmmaking, ambitious in its epic undertaking and layered with multiple storylines and stark imagery.  The tone of the film dramatically shifts  in its mood swings from heavy drama into  dark satire and humor to convey the irony and cruelty of the human condition.  

There are major set pieces that are quite impressive. Very notable is Lee’s crosscutting of contrasting scenes with the Klansmen and their families viewing D.H. Griffith’s  film: “A Birth of a Nation” ( considered very racist in its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan and its brutal images of blacks) in rapturous attention and chanting "white power" while in another part of the city, black college students listen in awe to a lecture about the senseless murder of an innocent black man as they shout "black power". The variance between the two groups is startling. Never one to shy away from making a political statement or two, Mr. Lee uses intense documentary imagery in the film including an ending holding our current President personally responsible for the polarized climate in our splintered nation.

John David Washington gives an interesting and quirky performance that nails his role perfectly, and Adam Driver, is excellent as the white undercover cop who handles the person to person meetings with the Klansmen with  some really great moments. The supporting cast does a great job especially Topher Grace as David Duke, the Grand Wizard of the KKK, who delivers an insanely fine performance.  

Rated R for language throughout, including racial epithets, and for disturbing/violent material

THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME  2.0***

    The buddy action/comedy has long been a staple of Hollywood films. In the 80s it became common in the buddy Cop format after the success of "Lethal Weapon" amongst others. In the new film "The Spy Who Dumped Me"; audiences are introduced to Audrey (Mila Kunis), and her friend Morgan (Kate McKinnon) two thirty-year-old best friends in Los Angeles, who are thrust unexpectedly into an international conspiracy when Audrey's ex-boyfriend shows up at their apartment with a team of deadly assassins on his trail. Surprising even themselves, the duo jump into action, on the run throughout Europe from assassins and a suspicious-but-charming British agent, as they hatch a plan to save the world.

This might have been a stylish little spy movie.  But the movie isn't a spy movie—not really. There are no exciting secret-agents on display, and no detestable lunatic villain either. And the plot, involving yet another world threat from yet another hazy terrorist organization, is uninteresting. All of which is supposed to be okay, I guess, because this isn't a straight-up spy flick—it's a female buddy spy comedy. Okay. But then shouldn't it be funny—or at least funnier than what we have here?  

The central problem here is that the two leads, Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon, never mesh. There are times when they don't even seem to be in the same movie.  I love McKinnon, but she's over-equipped with one-liners here, and it's a glaring problem. Whenever there's a lull in the attempted zaniness, you know she's going unleash some kooky joke, and then she does, and then you give a sigh of amusement and wait for her to do it again. It's a comic strategy of diminishing returns, and it tends to leave Kunis looking sidelined. Neither actress is well-served by the poop gags, and the movie itself is undermined by its determination to blend comedy with bloody, limb-severing violence.

It’s the kind of movie that contains within it what could’ve been a 7 out of 10 as an action movie and a 7 out of 10 as a comedy, but when smashed together, it’s more like a 3.5 out of 10. That’s because the comedy serves mainly to puncture the realism of the action and the action renders the jokes irrelevant. It’s no wonder the movie ends up being kind of forgettable — it’s devouring itself while we watch.

Rated R for heavy violence and foul language throughout, with some crude sexual material and graphic nudity |

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT  4.0*** 

  Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt returns once again with his crew but this time three nuclear plutonium cores have been stolen and Hunt must  retrieve them to avoid a nuclear holocost. .  He’s joined by his reliable crew of Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames along at times with Alec Baldwin and they're joined by Henry Cavill as a no-nonsense CIA operative and Rebecca Ferguson as a British MI6 spy. 

This movie has rejuvenated what had been a mostly weak summer of action-blockbusters. Sure there have been a couple of sort of good movies but thankfully this film is so far better. Actually, it's excellent. 

Its excellence comes from a commitment to the craft. Normally, three months of intensive training are required for someone to qualify for a helicopter pilot's license. Tom Cruise, in preparation for this film, did it in half that time. How? By training 16 hours a day, seven days a week. He did all this for one action sequence. The same dedicated training went into his training for the parachute drop from the rear of a cargo plane. That’s the level of commitment to the craft that went into this movie. 

Each grand set piece (all of which are glorious) fills the frame just right. Very little CGI is used, which makes everything look real because it is real. We aren't watching a contrived creation of what is supposed to look like Tom Cruise zipping through town on a motorcycle-he's actually zipping through town on a motorcycle, and he’s actually parachuting from a high altitude plane and piloting a helicopter. All of that pays off in a big way. It delivered what are some of the best, most intense action sequences in years. 

Each scene flows smoothly into the next, rarely pausing to catch its breath. It brings to mind memories of 'Mad Max: Fury Road,' which featured a similarly breakneck pace and continuous propulsion.  

Rated PG-13 for violence and intense sequences of action, and for brief strong language 

THE  FIRST PURGE   0.0***

         This has to be one of the worst, most divisive, race-baiting films I've had the misfortune of watching.  I have never given a movie a “0”***. Well never say never… this one earned that distinction easily.

I have seen all 3 of the prior “Purge” movies none of which was very good but at least they stuck to the general theme of what a purge was about. That being that American values had deteriorated  to the point where a very radical far far right President was elected who espoused the idea that a purge was good for the nation. That once a year on a given date  from 7pm to 7am the laws were suspended and anybody could kill or maim or rape anybody else without any consequence. It was helter-skelter for 12 hours once a year. In truth the plan of the President and his followers  was that the purge was a good way to get rid of thousands of the poor and downtrodden (primarily non-whites) and thus save billions of dollars in social aid. However this movie, as a prequel to the other 3 comes up with a ludicrous story to explain how it all started.

 The movie targets Staten Island, New York as the place where the first purge takes place. The movie then falsely shows that every single person on the island is of a different ethnic background and are either poor, a gang member, mentally unstable, or drug dealers. As the movie progresses you find out that this new government fearing that a real purge would not happen has hired mercenaries to infiltrate Staten Island and start killing any and every minority that they come across. Yes, you guessed it, every single one of these mercenaries is white and is dressed in either Klu Klux Klan garb, nazi-esque outfits, or as police officers. When one of the people working with the government  finds out about the ruse, the main baddie white guy explains that America needs to purge the minorities and lower class people from the country, because they bring nothing to society of any value.  

I cringed with disgust as I saw where the movie was going and the disgust grew.  The only good thing about it was that it was only 97 minutes long… it could not get over too soon.

A BIG shock was Marisa Tomie ( an Oscar winning actress) was in this trash of a movie although it was interesting that her name was not listed in the post movie credits as being in the cast. I don’t blame her.

Rated R for strong disturbing  violence throughout, pervasive BAD language, some sexuality and drug use .|

      IN BRUGES  3.5***

Two Irish hit-men Ken (Brendan Gleeson) and Ray (Colin Farrell) are sent by their London mobster Harry (Ralph Fiennes) to Bruges, a medieval Belgium city, around Christmas time for a 2 week R&R  after a botched job in London. Ray, in his first assignment, was sent to murder a priest in a church but he  also accidentally shot  a boy. While Ken enjoys touring the historic city, Ray, who is struggling with an inner conflict over the death of the boy, feels completely bored .Then Ray meet a sexy smalltime drug-dealer Chloë  who sells drugs to the cast and crew of a movie that is being filmed.

“In Bruges" is a dramatic and violent dark comedy. The flawed characters are charming but weird: two hit-men, one of them experiencing an emotional crisis and the other being an eager tourist; a mobster kingpin with a code of principles; a sexy drug-dealer and an American dwarf starring in an Euro-trash movie. These are the lead components of a unique  story highlighted by witty dialog, surprising irony, and unforeseen and quite surprising plot twists including one of the bloodiest and most ethical shootouts ever in  a movie (during last 20 to 30 minutes).

In Bruges is a surprisingly good film with great performances by the two leads and the supporting cast. Colin Farrell manages to be as sympathetic in the dramatic parts as he is charmingly sarcastic in the comedic parts. Brendan Gleeson gives a nicely refined portrayal as Farrell's mentor and friend. Meanwhile, Ralph Fiennes channels his scary-as-hell energy into a role  that is frighteningly fun to watch.  

Rated R for strong bloody violence, pervasive language and some drug use.