November 2019

Klaus

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Klaus
  • IMDb: link

Klaus reviewKlaus offers a fun, if a bit predictable, holiday tale that explains various aspects of the Santa Claus mythology when a spoiled postman (Jason Schwartzman) is shipped off to the edge of the world and enlists the help of a hermit named Klaus (J.K. Simmons) to provide toys to the children of Smeerensburg where two rival families have been at odds for generations. While Jesper’s (Schwartzman) motives are originally selfish in terms of bumping up the post office’s numbers to earn a trip back home to the good life, his actions lead to a dramatic change in the town’s children, and eventually their parents.

The pair’s attempt to deliver presents sets the precedent of Santa coming through the chimney, lumps of coal, and a sleigh pulled by reindeer. Klaus works well as a holiday film where both our selfish protagonist and the bizarre city he finds himself exiled to discover the meaning of Christmas. Even the lonely Klaus is helped by Jesper’s schemes, although the story flounders a bit in the final act where Jesper’s motives behind the town’s changes are put into light prior to the inevitable conclusion to the story. Klaus is currently available on Netflix.

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A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
  • IMDb: link

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood movie reviewA Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood isn’t what I expected. Director Marielle Heller and screenwriters Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster choose not to not center the movie around Fred Rogers but on the friendship which was created when Rogers met a journalist doing a piece on him for Esquire magazine. The construction of the film arguably makes Fred Rogers a supporting player in his own movie, but it also tilts the focus not on how Fred Rogers came to create and host Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood but instead on what many agree is his most defining characteristic – his drive to help people.

Matthew Rhys stars as investigative journalist Lloyd Vogel who isn’t all that keen on the puff piece assignment of interviewing Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks) for the magazine’s hero issue. Lloyd is also dealing with some strain in his marriage to Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson) with a new baby and the unexpected return of an estranged father (Chris Cooper).

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Knives Out

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Knives Out
  • IMDb: link

Knives Out movie reviewRian Johnson delivers a devilishly good time in this fantastically entertaining whodunit set around the apparent suicide of the patriarch (Christopher Plummer) of a wealthy family. Set almost entirely in the Thrombey home, the writer/director makes excellent use of both setting and a talented cast featuring Daniel Craig as private investigator Benoit Blanc who has reason to believe murder has been committed. Part Hercule Poirot and part Columbo, Craig is in good form as the smartest man in the room.

The suspects include every member of the dysfunctional Thrombey family (Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Chris Evans, Don Johnson, Katherine Langford, Michael Shannon, Jaeden Martell, and Riki Lindhome) each of whom has motive for murder. To help unravel the family’s dysfunction, Blanc enlists the help of the deceased’s nurse (Ana de Armas). The large supporting cast offers opportunities for several of its stars to steal scenes including Evans playing a role as far removed as possible from Steve Rogers and Johnson as a perfect rich douchebag completely oblivious to his own behavior.

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Frozen II

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Frozen II
  • IMDb: link

Frozen II movie reviewDespite the original not leaving much to follow-up on, Frozen II hits theaters this holiday bringing back the core cast of the first film for what feels like a straight-to-video adventure with an expanded budget. The sequel opens in a flashback which will have ramifications to the sisters’ current dilemma as the nearby enchanted forest, cloaked in a heavy mist since their grandfather’s time, begins to awaken.

Along with Olaf (Josh Gad), Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), and Sven, Elsa (Idina Menzel) and Anna (Kristen Bell) will journey into the forest where they will discover secrets about their family’s past and the source of Elsa’s power. While reusing themes from the first film, the script by Jennifer Lee introduces familiar elemental forces executed at least as well by any number of films or TV shows.

Although it lacks anything as memorable as “Let it Go” (or even the cuteness of “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?“), the sequel does have some fun with Kristoff’s big solo framed in the form of a music video and the climactic “Into the Unknown” where Elsa finds some answers.

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21 Bridges

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: 21 Bridges
  • IMDb: link

21 Bridges movie review21 Bridges is an action film that thinks it’s a drama. The film from director Brian Kirk stars Chadwick Boseman as tough cop with a heart of gold Andre Davis. Adam Mervis and Matthew Michael Carnahan‘s script goes out of its way to tell us about Andre, including the opening funeral of his father years before (complete with narration talking more to the audience than the young boy who has lost his father) and 19 years later sticking up for himself to Internal Affairs. Davis is the latest in a long line of movie cops who get the job done, even if that means leaving a pile of bodies in his wake.

Our protagonist’s latest case involves an odd robbery by two former soldiers (Stephan James and Taylor Kitsch), a stash house full of too much cocaine, and several dead cops (who we see the soldiers shoot out with early in the film). It doesn’t take long for Davis to figure out something about the night’s events just doesn’t add up. Trapping the crooks in Manhattan, the city closes down the island (including all 21 bridges) as Davis hunts down the killers with the help of a narcotics officer (Sienna Miller) and a city full of trigger-happy cops.

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