Michael Douglas

Romancing the Stone

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  • Title: Romancing the Stone
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Romancing the Stone

When her sister (Mary Ellen Trainor) gets into trouble, reclusive romance novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) finds herself on the way to Colombia with a treasure map unaware of the adventure or dangers ahead in this fish-out-of-water tale that is as entertaining today as it was nearly 40 years ago. Trailed by the dangerous Deputy Commander of Colombia’s secret police (Manuel Ojeda), Joan’s life is saved in the middle of the jungle by a man straight out of one of her romance novels (even if she doesn’t recognize him at first).

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Black Rain

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  • Title: Black Rain
  • IMDb: link

Flashback Friday takes us back to 1989 and the story of an American cop stumbling into a gang war in Japan. Sitting in the middle of Michael Douglas‘ run as morally ambiguous protagonists, Black Rain casts Douglas as NYPD detective Nick Conklin under investigation from Internal Affairs who gets roped into a trip to Japan after witnessing the Yakuza gun down members of the Mafia in New York. Assigned with his partner Charlie (Andy Garcia) to escort the killer (Yûsaku Matsuda) back to Japan, only to lose him just after landing, the pair of detectives are forced to stay in the city with a chaperone (Ken Takakura) but no other help from the local police in finding the killer.

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Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum-meh-nia

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  • Title: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
  • IMDb: link

With several of the big Marvel heroes phased out, it falls on Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) to move from plucky comic relief to tentpole of the MCU. Rudd’s third Ant-Man film as a lead is his weakest, although he’s certainly not to blame. Scott Lang continues to be fun and charming as the script moves characters through brightly colored CGI-manufactured sets for both joke and sight gag payoffs. And while many of those do offer a chuckle, ultimately that’s not much more to the script as when screenwriter Jeff Loveness attempts to get serious your attention will shrink to quantum levels.

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Ant-Man and the Wasp

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  • Title: Ant-Man and the Wasp
  • IMDb: link

Ant-Man and the Wasp movie review

2015’s Ant-Man was a fun and lighthearted entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe that, while mostly enjoyable, would certainly rank among the weaker (and more forgettable) entries to the MCU. Ant-Man and the Wasp brings back former thief turned super-hero Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), the original Ant-Man Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly), and most of the supporting cast and characters from the first film including Scott’s former prison buddies and family. As in Ant-Man, several people are after Pym and his work. And given Scott’s improbable return from the Quantum Realm at the end of the first movie, Hank Pym plans of his own.

Although the plot of the film is a bit too convoluted for its own good as it continues to juggle multiple plots and characters (many of whom get far more screentime than necessary), I found the sequel more enjoyable than the original playing off established relationships and concepts introduced in Ant-Man. Following Avengers: Infinity War, smaller stakes (both literally and figuratively) also prove to be a nice change of pace from the universe threatening death dealer.

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Criminal

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  • Title: Criminal
  • IMDb: link

CriminalThe premise behind screenwriters Douglas Cook and David Weisberg‘s Criminal is fairly ridiculous, even for B-movie action flick. Sadly, it’s not nearly as entertaining as the pair’s 20 year-old collaboration – The Rock. Set in present day, the death of Agent Bill Pope (Ryan Reynolds), who alone has vital information to keep backdoor access into the missile command of the United States out of the hands of a terrorist (Jordi Mollà), causes the CIA to attempt an experimental procedure to implant Pope’s memories into a brain-damaged convict named Jericho (Kevin Costner).

Costner is an interesting choice for a remorseless cold-blooded killer forced to deal with unexpected feelings for a wife (Gal Gadot) and child (Lara Decaro) who are not his own and a mission he never signed-up for. His casting looks to be a huge misstep in the early scenes before Jericho’s operation, but the more conflicted the character becomes over the course of the film Costner’s performance begins to become one of the movie’s biggest strengths.

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