Alan Rapp

Hawaii Five-0 – I Ka Wa Ma Mua, I Ka Wa Ma Hope

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Hawaii Five-0 – I Ka Wa Ma Mua, I Ka Wa Ma Hope
  • wiki: link

Hawaii Five-0 - I Ka Wa Ma Mua, I Ka Wa Ma Hope TV review

Picking up the loose thread of the previous episode in which most members of Five-0 were exposed to a dangerous bioweapon, “I Ka Wa Ma Mua, I Ka Wa Ma Hope” opens with McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin), Danny (Scott Caan), Junior (Beulah Koale), and Tani (Meaghan Rath) still stuck in the hospital’s isolation ward. When a suicidal gunman arrives to place a bomb on the door, before shooting Danny and then himself, Five-0 will work swiftly to save Danny’s life while Grover (Chi McBride) and the bomb squad will work to find a safe way into the room before the detective’s time runs out.

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52nd Annual James Loutzenhiser Awards

/ / Announcements

Get Out Blu-ray review

Get Out was the big winner for the Kansas City Film Critics Circle’s 52nd Annual James Loutzenhiser Awards taking home the Vince Koehler Award for Best Sci-fi, Fantasy, or Horror Film along with Best Original Screenplay and the big prize of Best Picture. Call Me By Your Name also took home three awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor, and became the second winner of the Tom Poe Award for Best LGBTQ Film. You can find a list of all the winners inside.

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Beauty and the Creature from the Black Lagoon

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Shape of Water
  • IMDb: link

The Shape of Water movie reviewGuillermo del Toro puts his own spin on the Beauty and the Beast tale in The Shape of Water which stars Sally Hawkins as a mute janitor at the the Occam Aerospace Research Center who discovers just what the scientists and military men are studying. Doug Jones, who worked with del Toro before in the Hellboy films and Pan’s Labyrinth, is transformed by practical and CGI effects into a creature who is part Abe Sapien and part the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Never given a name, nor able to speak (just like the woman who falls for him), the design of “the asset” is terrific.

The story is pretty standard. Girl meets boy from the wrong side of the tracks, they fall in love, and all hell breaks loose. The talent both in front and behind the camera elevates the words on the printed page into a magical fairy tale which is joyful to watch. The setting of the 1960s, Elisa’s (Hawkins) inability to speak, Richard Jenkins as her confidant, and Michael Shannon as the brutal colonel in control of the experiment, all add interesting pieces to the puzzle making The Shape of Water more than the sum of its parts. Supporting performances from Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Lauren Lee Smith all bring something to add and help flesh out the world.

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Wonder Wheel

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Wonder Wheel
  • IMDb: link

Wonder Wheel movie reviewFalling neither at the top nor bottom of the Woody Allen scale, the writer/director’s latest fits somewhere in the middle. Set in Coney Island during the 1950s, Wonder Wheel tells the story of a distraught waitress (Kate Winslet) cheating on her husband (Jim Belushi) with a lifeguard (Justin Timberlake) with delusions of becoming a great writer. Matters are complicated by the arrival of her husband’s daughter (Juno Temple) from a previous marriage, on-the-run from her gangster husband, who also catches the lifeguard’s eye, and our waitress’ arson-loving preteen son (Jack Gore) setting fire to everything he can find.

Winslet is the ensemble stand-out of the piece as a middle-aged woman determined that her affair lead her out of the mess her life has become. Other than the fact that he’s the outsider to the family, Timberlake turns out to be an odd choice for narrator. Winslet, Temple, or even Belushi (who is almost too convincing as the prototypical bad drunk with a temper) would seem to offer a better insight into the story. In the end, Winslet’s perfomance and the setting of a 50s Coney Island help make up for some of the film’s shortcomings (including an opening act better suited to a stage performance).

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Ferdinand

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Ferdinand
  • IMDb: link

Ferdinand movie review2017 wasn’t the best year for animation. Although there are several solid films, including two from Disney/Pixar, there was no clear standout. Based on the 1938 children’s story, Ferdinand is another solid animated feature which is surprisingly moving coming from Blue Sky Studios (best known for the more comedic Ice Age franchise) as the combination of six writers work to build out the simple story of a bull who would rather smell the flowers than fight, into a feature film. The result is a funny, but also unexpectedly clever (including the best possible bull in a China shop joke) and heartfelt, film.

Opening with early scenes to showcase how unusual Ferdinand is from other young bulls, the film fast-forwards through a montage to a grown-up Ferdinand (John Cena) forced to leave his peaceful life in the country, and the little girl who loves him (Lily Day), and rejoin the life he previously escaped. Wrestler John Cena may seem an unusual choice for the lead, but the larger-than-life character (who likely knows something about being a bit too large for the world around him) proves to add just the right touch to the character of a ginormous bull with a peaceful spirit.

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