Review: "GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS" Does Too Much

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 15 of 2024 (No. 1959) by Leroy Douresseaux

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

Running time: 132 minutes (2 hours, 12 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for sequences of monster action violence and destruction, and for some language

DIRECTOR:  Michael Dougherty

WRITERS:  Michael Dougherty and Zach Shields; from a story by Max Borenstein and Michael Dougherty and Zach Shields (based on characters owned by Toho Co., Ltd.)

PRODUCERS:  Jon Jashni, Alex Garcia, Mary Parent, Brian Rogers, and Thomas Tull

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Lawrence Sher (D.o.P.)

EDITORS:  Bob Ducsay, Roger Barton, and Richard Pearson

COMPOSER:  Bear McCreary

SCI-FI/ACTION/MILITARY

Starring:  Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Ken Watanabe, Ziyi Zhang, Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, Charles Dance, Thomas Middleditch, Aisha Hinds, O'Shea Jackson, Jr., David Strathairn, Anthony Ramos, Elizabeth Faith Ludlow, CCH Pounder, and Joe Morton

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a 2019 monster movie and action film directed by Michael Dougherty.  Produced by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, this film is the third entry in the “MonsterVerse” film series, which began with Godzilla (2014).  Godzilla: King of the Monsters pits the monster-monitoring agency, Monarch, against a legendary monster, and the only hope for the world is the missing Godzilla.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters opens five years after the events depicted in Godzilla (2014).  The world is now aware of the existence of giant monsters called “Titans.”  Monarch is the U.S. government agency that monitors and studies the Titans (which it once called “MUTOs” or “massive unidentified terrestrial organisms).  It has bases (bunkers) around the world where its scientists struggle to find a way in which humanity and the Titans can share the planet.

In a bunker located in the Rainforest of Xishuangbanna in China's Yunnan Province, Monarch scientist Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) has developed a device, called “ORCA,” that can emit frequencies that can attract Titans or alter their behavior.  However, her research has attracted the attention of Alan Jonah (Charles Dance), a former British military officer turned eco-terrorist, who wants control of ORCA.  He kidnaps Emma and her daughter, Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown).

Monarch scientists, Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins), approach Emma's estranged husband and Madison's father, Dr. Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler), to help track down Emma, Jonah, and ORCA.  However, Jonah has already forced Emma to use ORCA to awaken the legendary “Monster Zero,” the three-headed dragon known as King Ghidorah.  Now, Serizawa must convince the U.S. government and military that the only Titan capable of stopping Ghidorah is “Gojira,” a.k.a. “Godzilla.”  But where is Godzilla?  Also, where do newly awakened Titans, “Mothra” and “Rodan,” stand in this battle royale of monsters?

The “MonsterVerse” is an American multimedia franchise that includes movies; a streaming live-action television series (Apple TV+) and a streaming animated series (Netflix); books and comic books; and video games.  It is a shared fictional universe that includes the character, “Godzilla” and other characters owned and created by the Japanese entertainment company, Toho Co., Ltd.  The MonsterVerse is a reboot of Toho's Godzilla franchise.  It is also a reboot of the King Kong franchise, which is based on the character, “King Kong,” that was created by actor and filmmaker, Merian C. Cooper (1893-1973).

The fifth film in the MonsterVerse series, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, is due to be released sometime in March 2023, so I have decided to watch and review the previous four films:  Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters (which is the subject of this review), and Godzilla vs. Kong (2021).

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is the ultimate giant monster smack-down.  With the wizardry of digital VFX and supernatural CGI, King of the Monsters is a monster mash infused with visual splendor.  This movie is non-stop action, practically from the start.  It is so much an action movie that if you could cut it, King of the Monsters would bleed fire and brimstone.  To add the craziness, each new monster reveal is mind-blowing and even mind-bending...

...but after about 75 minutes, Godzilla: King of the Monsters wore me down.  The writers and actors have fashioned a cast that has almost twenty characters with dramatic potential.  The Russell family subplot about the loss the son, Andrew, is only used to sell dysfunctional family contrivances, which is a shame.  The monster movie theatrics get bigger and bigger with each minute of this story, but the drama and story shrink with each minute until they are flimsy like wet toilet paper.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is as exciting as any other blockbuster.  Few, if any, monster movies will ever be as epic as it is when it comes to big monster fights.  Few monster movies will ever be as gorgeous as it is in terms of cinematography, special effects, production values, and visuals.  This is “cinema of sensations” writ large and out of control, and that's a shame.  Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a monster of a movie, but I wish its human element was just as awesome.

[This film has one scene after the end credits.]

B

6 of 10

★★★ out of 4 stars

Thursday, March 21, 2024

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Review: "SCOOBY-DOO! Return to Zombie Island" Revisits Scooby-Doo History

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 62 of 2022 (No. 1874) by Leroy Douresseaux

Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island (2019) – Video
Running time:  77 minutes (1 hour, 17 minutes)
Rated TV-G
DIRECTORS:  Cecilia Aranovich Hamilton and Ethan Spaulding
WRITER: Jeremy Adams
PRODUCERS:  Amy McKenna and and Rick Morales
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Sam Register
EDITOR:  Robert Ehrenreich
COMPOSER:  Robert J. Kral
ANIMATION STUDIO:  Digital eMation

ANIMATION/FANTASY/FAMILY and ACTION/COMEDY/MYSTERY

Starring:  (voices) Frank Welker, Matthew Lillard, Grey Griffin, Kate Micucci, Janell Cox, David Herman, John Michael Higgins, Dave B. Mitchell, Cassandra Peterson, Roger Rose, and Travis Willingham

Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island is a 2019 straight-to-video, animated, comic mystery film.  It is the thirty-third entry in the Scooby-Doo straight-to-video series from Warner Bros. Animation, and it is a direct sequel to 1998's Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, the first movie in this series.  In Return to Zombie Island, the retired Mystery Inc. gang visits a remote, but familiar island with a dark secret.

Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island opens a few months after the events depicted in Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost.  The members of Mystery Inc.: Fred Jones (Frank Welker), Daphne Blake (Grey Griffin), Velma Dinkley (Kate Micucci), Shaggy Rogers (Matthew Lillard), and Scooby-Doo (Frank Welker), have retired, and Fred is still depressed about selling the Mystery Machine.

On her television show, legendary horror hostess, Elvira (Cassandra Peterson), announces that Shaggy has won a trip to a tropical island paradise.  Coincidentally, Shaggy is allowed to bring three friends and a dog along.  Because they are supposedly retired from mystery-solving, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo make Fred, Daphne, and Velma promise that they will not solve any more mysteries and will actually try to relax on this vacation.

As they sail on a ferry toward the island, Fred, Daphne, and Velma realize the surroundings are more swamp-like than tropical.  The ferry captain (Dave B. Mitchell) says that zombies inhabit the island, which reminds some of the gang of the last time, years ago, when they visited “Moonscar Island” a.k.a. “Zombie Island,” an island with zombies on it.

When they arrive on this supposed island paradise, two people greet them off the boat, but warn them to get out.  Also, once on the island, a mysterious dark cat creature stalks them.  Even the the hotel is coincidentally named “Moonstar Island Resort.”  Still, no matter how many times they run into something that reminds them of Zombie Island, Shaggy and Scooby make their friends stick to their promise not to try to solve mysteries.  But has that promise put them all in danger of suffering a fate from which they once only narrowly escaped?

Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island, like its predecessor, 1998's Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, has an strong premise, but clumsy execution delivers an inconsistent film.  Sometimes, the sequel is fun, fast-moving, and comically horrifying, in the tradition of Scooby-Doo TV series and films, but other times, Return to Zombie Island meanders, juggling multiple subplots.  One of those subplots pops up late in the film and involves a movie, “Zombie Teenagers and the Island of Doom.”  At this point, Return to Zombie Island loses credibility, although the film-within-a-film subplot introduces a fun character, the self-absorbed movie director, Alan Smithee, voiced by John Michael Higgins, who delivers a good performance.

Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island is a children's movie, but adults who are fans of this straight-to-video series will want to watch it.  Like me, they may even find some enjoyment in it.

6 of 10

B

★★★ out of 4 stars

Tuesday, October 5, 2022


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Review: First "DOWNTON ABBEY" Movie Brought Me a Little Happiness

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 32 of 2022 (No. 1844) by Leroy Douresseaux

Downton Abbey (2019)
Running time: 122 minutes (2 hours, 2 minutes)
MPAA – PG for thematic elements, some suggestive material, and language
DIRECTOR:  Michael Engler
WRITER: Julian Fellowes (based on the television series created by Julian Fellowes)
PRODUCERS:  Julian Fellowes, Gareth Neame, and Liz Trubridge
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Ben Smithard
EDITOR:  Mark Day
COMPOSER:  John Lunn

DRAMA/HISTORICAL

Starring:  Hugh Bonneville, Mark Addy, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Raquel Cassidy, Brendan Coyle, Michelle Dockery, Michael Fox, Matthew Goode, Geraldine James, Robert James-Collier, Simon Jones, Allen Leech, Elizabeth McGovern, Sophie McShera, Tuppence Middleton, Stephen Campbell Moore, Lesley Nicol, Maggie Smith, Imelda Staunton, and Penelope Wilton

Downton Abbey is a 2019 historical drama film directed by Michael Engler.  It is based on the British television series, “Downton Abbey” (ITV, 2010-15), which was created by Julian Fellowes, who also wrote the screenplay for this film.  Downton Abbey the movie continues the story of the Crawley family as they prepare the family estate for a royal visit.

Downton Abbey opens in 1927, eighteen months after the end of the television series.  Robert Crawley, Lord Grantham and 7th Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville), receives word that King George V (Simon Jones) and Queen Mary (Geraldine James) intend to visit Downton Abbey during their royal Yorkshire tour.  Downton is the Crawley family's large estate in the English countryside of Yorkshire (County of York).  Both the family and the staff of Downton Abbey are excited by the news.

Lord Grantham puts his daughter, Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery), in charge of the preparations for the visit.  Lady Mary feels that the current head butler, Thomas Barrow (Robert James-Collier), is ill-equipped to manage such an important event.  Thus, she recruits retired head butler, Charles Carson (Jim Carter), to briefly return from retirement in order to assist her, much to Barrow's chagrin.  However, once members of the royal staff begin to arrive at Downton in advance of the King and Queen themselves, they act rudely towards the Downton staff and make it clear that they will supplant them for the duration of the royal visit.

Meanwhile, a feud brews between Lord Grantham's mother, Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham (Maggie Smith), and Maud, Lady Bagshaw (Imelda Staunton), the Queen's lady-in-waiting and a relative of the Crawleys.  Lord Grantham is Maud's first cousin once removed, so he should inherit Maud's estate.  However, Maud has plans regarding her maid, Lucy Smith (Tuppence Middleton), who has a mysteriously close relationship with Maud.  Meanwhile, Tom Branson (Alan Leech) meets Lucy, and they strike up a friendship.

These are just a few of the dramas and melodramas, both large and small, that brew as a royal visit threatens to upend the lives of those upstairs and downstairs at Downton Abbey.

The original television series, Downton Abbey, began airing on the British television network, ITV, in 2010 and ended in 2015, after six seasons and 52 episodes.  It aired on the American broadcast network, PBS, as part of its “Masterpiece” series from 2011-20, before moving onto streaming services, Peacock and Netflix.  The final episode of “Downton Abbey” was set on New Year's Eve, 1925, and the movie is set 18 months after the TV series finale, according to an interview the writer and director gave to the Hollywood film site, The Wrap.  The King George V depicted in this film reigned from 1910 to 1936.  He was also the father of the next king, Edward VIII, who abdicated a few months into his reign.  Thus, George V's second son, Prince Albert, Duke of York, became King George VI, who was also the father of the current Queen Elizabeth II.

When I first heard of “Downton Abbey,” I mostly ignored it, although I watched a few minutes here and there.  One Sunday afternoon, however, while channel surfing, I came across the show and recognized an actor (maybe American actress Elizabeth McGovern).  I decided to see what she was doing on the show and within a few minutes I was hooked.  It wasn't until two hours later I realized that I still had chores to do, but it was hard to pull myself away from the TV.  I found myself in the thrall of “Downton Abbey's” hypnotic powers.

I also found Downton Abbey the movie hypnotic.  It offers many of the same ingredients of the television series that made it so popular and have since made it an enduring favorite.  The film both expands and extracts those elements, as needed, for the main plot – the royal visit.  Actually, creator Julian Fellowes' screenplay allows all the regular members of the TV cast to do what is expected of their respective characters, while allowing them to shine in the small moments of this film.  New characters, such as Imelda Staunton as Cousin Maud and Tuppence Middleton as her maid, Lucy, who shine in their respective supporting roles.

Some of the subplots here could work as story lines for an entire season of the television series.  That includes an assassination subplot and a first gay romantic experience, the former seeming forced and unauthentic and the latter being something beautiful, but woefully underdeveloped.

If you liked the television series, you will like this, to some degree, because it is more Downton Abbey.  Or you will be disappointed, to some degree, because it does not meet your expectations of what more Downton Abbey should be.  Honestly, I loved it, and I wanted more.  Downton Abbey the movie made me happy, and I look forward to the soon to be released sequel, Downton Abbey: A New Era.

8 of 10
A
★★★★ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, May 18, 2022


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: Strong Women Flow Through "WONDER WOMAN: Bloodlines"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 58 of 2021 (No. 1796) by Leroy Douresseaux

Wonder Woman: Bloodlines – video (2019)
Running time:  83 minutes (1 hour, 23 minutes)

MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of fantasy action and violence, and some bloody images
DIRECTORS:  Sam Liu and Justin Copeland
WRITER:  Mairghread Scott (based on characters appearing in DC Comics)
PRODUCERS: Amy McKenna and Sam Liu
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Sam Register and James Tucker
EDITOR:  Frederik Wiedmann
COMPOSERS:  Christopher D. Lozinski
ANIMATION STUDIO:  Digital eMation, Inc.

ANIMATION/SUPERHERO/ACTION/FANTASY

Starring:  (voices)  Rosario Dawson, Jeffrey Donovan, Marie Avgeropoulos, Kimberly Brooks, Michael Dorn, Mozhan Marnò, Adrienne C. Moore, Cree Summer, Courtenay Taylor, Nia Vardalos, Ray Chase, and Constance Zimmer

Wonder Woman: Bloodlines is a 2019 straight-to-video animated superhero film from Warner Bros. Animation and directors Sam Liu and Justin Copeland.  The film features classic DC Comics character, Wonder Woman, and is the 36th film in the “DC Universe Animated Original Movies” line.

Wonder Woman: Bloodlines opens several years in the past before the main story begins.  United States military pilot, Captain Steven “Steve” Trevor (Jeffery Donovan), is engaged in an aerial battle with Parademons.  He crash lands his fighter jet near Themyscira, the island home of the warrior race, the Amazons.  Princess Diana (Rosario Dawson), daughter of the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta (Cree Summer), rescues Trevor.  After he is healed, Trevor is taken prisoner because no men are allowed on Themyscira.  However, Diana sees Trevor's arrival as a sign that she needs to leave the island because it is her duty to protect man's world from a great evil she believes is coming.  This decision causes Hippolyta to disown her daughter.

In Washington D.C., Diana finds a place to stay in the home of geologist Julia Kapatelis (Nia Vardalos) and her daughter Vanessa (Marie Avgeropoulos).  Julia's hobby is the study of Amazons, so she is happy to have Diana live with them.  Vanessa, who already has issues with her mother, however, begins to resent Diana's presence in the home.

Five years later, in the present, Diana is the superhero, Wonder Woman.  Julia asks her help in finding Vanessa, who has stolen an artifact from Julia's employer, Veronica Cale (Constance Zimmer), of Cale Pharmaceuticals.  Vanessa has apparently fallen in with a cabal of villains lead by Dr. Cyber ( Mozhan Marnò) and Doctor Poison (Courtenay Taylor) and become part of their diabolical plot.  Now, Wonder Woman, Steve Trevor, and his friend, intelligence officer Etta Candy (Adrienne C. Moore), race to stop Cyber and Poison, but can Wonder Woman save Vanessa Kapatelis?

Wonder Woman: Bloodlines is standard DC Universe animated fare in terms of fights scenes, action, and animation.  In that, the film is entertaining enough.  Where it stands out is that writer Mairghread Scott offers a story that delves deeply into mother-daughter relationships – from love and war to rebellion and reconciliation.  At the point in which I finally realized that the strife between Julia Kapatelis and her daughter, Vanessa, mirrored the discord between Diana and Hippolyta, I suddenly became interested in a film that was, for the most part, boring me.

I also like the fact that the film is almost entirely driven by female leads and female supporting characters, with Etta Candy being most appealing to me.  Adrienne C. Moore delivers a standout voice performance as Etta, and I hope that Moore gets to reprise her performance if Etta appears in another DC Universe animated film.

Steve Trevor is good not great, which I can also say about Jeffrey Donovan's performance as Trevor.  On the other hand, Michael Dorn, best known as “Worf” on the the former television series, “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” makes the most of his small role as Ferdinand the Minotaur.

I heartily recommend Wonder Woman: Bloodlines to fans of Wonder Woman.  While it is not a great film, I think fans of animated films based on DC Comics characters will also like this.

7 of 10
B+

Tuesday, July 27, 2021


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum" Will Help You Get Your Keanu On

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 56 of 2021 (No. 1794) by Leroy Douresseaux

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)
Running time:  131 minutes (2 hours, 11 minutes)
MPAA – R for pervasive strong violence, and some language
DIRECTOR:  Chad Stahelski
WRITERS:  Derek Kolstad, Shay Hatten and Chris Collins & Marc Abrams; from a story by Derek Kolstad (based on characters created by Derek Kostad)
PRODUCERS:  Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Dan Lausten (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Evan Schiff
COMPOSERS:  Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard

ACTION/THRILLER

Starring:  Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, Lance Reddick, Mark Dacascos, Asia Kate Dillon, Anjelica Huston, Said Taghmaoui, Jerome Flynn, and Randall Duk Kim

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is a 2019 action and crime-thriller starring Keanu Reeves and directed by Chad Stahelski.  It is a direct sequel to 2017's John Wick: Chapter 2 and the third film in the John Wick film series.  Parabellum finds John Wick on the run with a price on his head and assassins everywhere looking to claim the reward for killing him.

As John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum opens, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) makes his way through Manhattan.  John is on the run because he is just about to be labeled “excommunicado.”  His crime was the unauthorized killing of “High Table” (the ruling entity of the assassin's guild) crime lord, Santino D'Antonio, on the grounds of the New York Continental Hotel, a “consecrated” space where killings are not allowed.  At 6 PM Eastern Standard Time, when John is officially “excommunicado,” there will be a 14 million dollar bounty on him, and hit men and hit women everywhere are going to target him.

John turns to a few old acquaintances for help on his way out the city.  He travels to Morocco where he hopes to find the “Elder,” the boss (more or less) of the High Table, whom John believes will restore his status.  In Casablanca, John seeks help from Sofia (Halle Berry), a former friend and manager of the Moroccan Continental, but an old grudge might stand in the way of her helping him.  Meanwhile, the High Table has sent an “Adjudicator” (Asia Kate Dillon) to deal with everyone who has helped John, including the Continental's manager, Winston (Ian McShane), and the crime lord, “The Bowery King” (Laurence Fishburne).

A few weeks ago, a cable television listing reminded me that I had not seen  John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, so I turned to “DVD Netflix” for help.  In my reviews of the earlier John Wick films, I wrote that I had been a fan of Keanu Reeves since I first encountered him the 1980s in films like Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and River's Edge (1986), although I am not a fan of his popular 80s film, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989).  I also wrote that I had never thought of Reeves as a great or even as a good actor; he is either way too stiff or too wooden as a performer.  Still I have enjoyed and even loved Reeves in films like the original Point Break (1991) and in The Matrix film trilogy.

Reeves' star had dimmed for several years, but the John Wick films' success and an appearance in Toy Story 4 saw people feeling that Keanu love again.  And we're supposed to get The Matrix: Resurrections in December 2021.  What can I say about John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum?  The truth is that if you enjoy Keanu Reeves' films, you will enjoy Parabellum.

I can't fake it and say that this is about the love of cinema.  I love seeing Keanu in this film's violent fight scenes and bloody shootouts, with their gunshots to the head and blood spurting and ejaculating from bodies and heads.  Parabellum gives us the added joy of marital arts sword play, with Mark Dacascos as the character “Zero.”  He is Japanese assassin leading a team of ninja-like assassins, slashing and stabbing many other characters, but their ultimate goal is John Wick.

Keanu Reeves is one of my favorite movie stars, and John Wick is one his roles that I love the most.  Yes, Parabellum's main ambition is to present itself as revenge-thriller with a little wit, a little more style, and even more stylized ultra-violence.  And I like John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum enough to give it a fairly high grade and to also eagerly await a fourth installment in this thrilling franchise.

7 of 10
B+

Thursday, September 16, 2021


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Review: "BATMAN: Hush" Film is as Mediocre as Its Source Material

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 55 of 2021 (No. 1793) by Leroy Douresseaux

Batman: Hush – video (2019)
Running time:  82 minutes (1 hour, 22 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for violence and action, suggestive material, and language
DIRECTOR:  Justin Copeland
WRITER:  Ernie Altbacker (based on characters appearing in DC Comics and on the story arc, “Batman: Hush”, by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee)
PRODUCER: Amy McKenna
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Sam Register and James Tucker and Benjamin Melniker & Michael Uslan
EDITOR:  Christopher D. Lozinski
COMPOSER:  Frederik Wiedmann  
ANIMATION STUDIO:  NE4U Inc.

ANIMATION/SUPERHERO/ACTION/FANTASY

Starring:  (voices) Jason O'Mara, Jennifer Morrison, Sean Maher, James Garrett, Bruce Thomas, Geoffrey Arend, Stuart Allan, Sachie Alessio, Chris Cox, Adam Gifford, Peyton R. List, Peyton List, Jerry O'Connell, Rebecca Romijn, Jason Spisak, Maury Sterling, Hynden Walch, Tara Strong, Vanessa Williams, and Rainn Wilson

Batman: Hush is a 2019 straight-to-video animated superhero film from Warner Bros. Animation and director Justin Copeland.  It is the thirty-fifth film in the “DC Universe Animated Original Movies” series.  It is also a loose adaptation of the Batman story arc, “Batman: Hush” (Batman #608-619; cover dated: October 2002 to September 2003), written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Jim Lee.  Batman: Hush the movie focuses on a mysterious villain intent on sabotaging Batman by using the Dark Knight's worst adversaries and some of his friends against him.

Batman: Hush opens with Batman (Jason O'Mara) rescuing an abducted child that the villain, Bane (Adam Gifford), was holding for ransom.  Shortly afterwards, Catwoman (Jennifer Morrison) steals the ransom.  While Batman is pursuing her, a masked vigilante shoots at him, severing the Bat-rope Batman was using to swing through the city.  Batman falls onto the sidewalk and cracks his skull.

Batgirl (Peyton R. List) takes Batman back to the Batcave where his butler, Alfred Pennyworth (James Garrett), and, his former ward and sidekick, Dick Grayson/Nightwing (Sean Maher), create an alibi that not Batman, but his secret identity, Bruce Wayne, suffered the injury.  Alfred contacts Bruce's childhood friend, Dr. Thomas Elliot (Maury Sterling), a renowned brain surgeon, to provide Bruce's medical care.

Back on his feet, Batman discovers that his conflict with Bane and Catwoman was just part of an elaborate scheme perpetrated against him by a mysterious villain known only as “Hush.”  It seems that Hush is willing to use every major figure in Batman's “rogues gallery” to bring the Bat down.  Hush seemingly even knows the people close to Bruce Wayne and is using them.  Further complicating Batman's investigation of Hush is the growing relationship between Bruce Wayne and Catwoman's alter-ego, Selina Kyle.

I have only read the Batman story line, “Batman: Hush,” once, and that was during its original publication.  I found it to be longer than it needed to be.  I am not really a fan of writer Jeph Loeb, although he has written some comic books that I have thoroughly enjoyed.  As a story, “Hush” felt like something Loeb padded with a bunch of appearances by all-star DC Comics characters.  As beautiful as Jim Lee's art for Hush was and still is, some of it came across as cold, as if it were drawn in a manner to make it attractive to collectors of comic book original art.  But at least I found “Hush” the comic book story to be enjoyable most of the time.

Batman: Hush the film is mostly dull.  The chase between Batman and Catwoman and the subsequent Catwoman-Batgirl fight are exciting.  The big battle at the end of the film is good, except when it seems to run too long – of course.  Catwoman is well-written in this film, and I like the way Alfred Pennyworth and Dick Grayson/Nightwing are presented in Batman: Hush.

The character designs are mostly good, except Batman, who looks awkwardly drawn in this film.  The animation is mediocre, except for a few action scenes when it looks like the people involved in this production suddenly felt energized.  I will only recommend this film to fans of the “DC Universe Animated Original Movies” line.  People who mostly know Batman from the modern Batman live-action films will likely not find much to like in Batman: Hush.

5 of 10
C+

Tuesday, July 13, 2021


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Review: "JUSTICE LEAGUE VS. THE FATAL FIVE" is Recalls a Classic Era

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 50 of 2021 (No. 1788) by Leroy Douresseaux

Justice League vs. the Fatal Five – video (2019)
Running time:  77 minutes (1 hour, 17 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence, some bloody images, language and partial nudity
DIRECTOR:  Sam Liu
WRITERS:  Jim Krieg, Eric Carrasco, and Alan Burnett; from a story by Eric Carrasco (based on characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics)
PRODUCERS:  Sam Liu and Amy McKenna
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Sam Register and Bruce Timm
EDITOR:  Christopher D. Lozinski
COMPOSERS:  Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion, and Lolita Ritmanis
ANIMATION STUDIO:  DR Movie

ANIMATION/SUPERHERO/ACTION/FANTASY

Starring:  (voices) Elyes Gabel, Diane Guerro, Kevin Conroy, Susan Eisenberg, George Newbern, Daniela Bobadilla, Kevin Michael Richardson, Noel Fisher, Peter Jessop, Tom Kenny, Matthew Yang King, Sumalee Montano, Philip Anthony-Rodriguez, Tara Strong, and Bruce Timm

Justice League vs. the Fatal Five is a 2019 straight-to-video animated superhero film from Warner Bros. Animation and director Sam Lui.  It is the thirty-fourth film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series.  The film is based on the classic DC Comics superhero team, the Justice League.  The story pits the Justice League and an amnesiac hero against a powerful group of villains from the future.

Justice League vs. the Fatal Five opens in the 31st century.  There, three members of the villainous “Fatal Five”:  Mano (Philip Anthony-Rodriguez), Tharok (Peter Jessop), and The Persuader (Matthew Yang King) attack the Legion of Super-Heroes' headquarters in order to steal the Legion's time sphere.  Legionnaires Star Boy (Elyes Bagel), Saturn Girl (Tara Strong), and Brainiac 5 (Noel Fisher) try to stop them, but fail.  Just as the villains activate the sphere, Star Boy leaps at sphere and is taken back into the 21st century with it.

In the 21st century, the members of the Justice League:  Superman (George Newbern), Wonder Woman (Susan Eisenberg), Batman (Kevin Conroy), and Mr. Terrific (Kevin Michael Richardson) are working on getting new members.  Batman is a mentor of sorts to Miss Martian (Daniela Bobadilla), and Wonder Woman is trying to recruit the new Green Lantern of Sector of 2814, Jessica Cruz (Diane Guerro), who is reluctant as she is still suffering from the trauma of a near-death experience.

Soon, the League finds itself in a battle with the trio of Mano, Tharok, and The Persuader, who turn out to be formidable foes.  They have some kind of connection to Star Boy, who has been suffering from memory loss sense he arrived on Earth and is currently a patient in Arkham Asylum.  Whatever these three members of the Fatal Five want, it involves Jessica Cruz, and if she resists their demands, it could lead to mass casualties across the world.

The “DC Animated Universe” (DCAU) is a shared universe of superhero-based animated television series that were produced by Warner Bros. Animation and was based on characters that appeared in DC Comics publications.  The first DCAU TV series was “Batman: The Animated” series, which debuted in September 1992, and the last was “Justice League Unlimited,” which aired its last new episode in May 2006.  Four animated feature films that fit into the DCAU were produced during that original 14-year time period.  Bruce Timm, a writer, producer, character designer, and director of films and animated television series, can be described as the chief architect of the DCAU.  He considers two other animated feature films to be part of the DCAU.  One is 2017's Batman and Harley Quinn, a continuation of the TV series, “Batman: The Animated Series” and its follow up, "The New Batman Adventures" (1997-99).

The other is Justice League vs. the Fatal Five, which is a continuation of the animated TV series, “Justice League (2001-04), and its follow-up, “Justice League Unlimited” (2004-06).  Like “Justice League Unlimited,” Justice League vs. the Fatal Five features a wide array of characters from the universe of DC Comics.  Also, the membership role of the Justice League features characters that don't usually appear as members of the League alongside stalwarts Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman.

Although I have not seen all of its films and TV series, I am a fan of the DCAU, so I was glad that both in the design of the animation and in the spirit of the narrative, Justice League vs. the Fatal Five seems like an extra-long episode of “Justice League Unlimited.”  Having DCAU voice cast regulars, Kevin Conroy (Batman), Susan Eisenberg (Wonder Woman), and George Newbern (Superman), reprise their roles is simply wonderful.  Having one of my favorite writers of animated films, Jim Krieg, work on this this film is a satisfying bonus.

I think Jessica Cruz's story arc and heroic journey make this film such a strong drama.  However, I think Star Boy's story arc is poorly developed; there are times in this film when the character is quite frankly extraneous, which makes his final sacrifice seem hollow in the narrative.  Strangely enough, I really like Elyes Gabel's voice performance as Star Boy.

I like all the voice performances in Justice League vs. the Fatal Five, and, for the most part, the actors make the characters' personalities, conflicts, and conniving seem genuine.  The action sequences are some of the best I've seen in a DC Universe Animated Original Movie.  I highly recommend Justice League vs. the Fatal Five to fans of these movies and especially to fans of the DCAU.  I could have watched another two hours of it.

8 of 10
A

Wednesday, June 16, 2021


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Review: "REIGN OF THE SUPERMEN" Does Not Reign

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 48 of 2021 (No. 1786) by Leroy Douresseaux

Reign of the Superman – video (2019)
Running time:  87 minutes
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of action violence
DIRECTORS:  Sam Liu
WRITERS:  Jim Krieg and Tim Sheridan (based on characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics)
PRODUCERS:  Sam Liu and Amy McKenna
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Sam Register and James Tucker
EDITOR:  Christopher D. Lozinski
COMPOSER:  Frederik Wiedmann  
ANIMATION STUDIO:  Maven Image Platform

ANIMATION/SUPERHERO/ACTION/FANTASY

Starring:  (voices) Jerry O'Connell, Rebecca Romijn, Rainn Wilson, Patrick Fabian, Cress Williams, Cameron Monaghan, Rosario Dawson, Nathan Fillion, Christopher Gorham, Matt Lanter, Shemar Moore, Nyambi Nyambi, Jason O'Mara, Jonathan Adams, Rocky Carroll, Trevor Devall, Paul Eiding, Jennifer Hale, Charles Halford, Erica Luttrell, Max Mittelman, Toks Olagundoye, and Tony Todd

Reign of the Supermen is a 2019 straight-to-video animated superhero film from Warner Bros. Animation and director Sam Liu.  It is the thirty-third film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series and is a direct sequel to the 2018 film, The Death of Superman.  The movie takes its story from “Reign of the Supermen!” a 1993 story arc that was part of “The Death of Superman” DC Comics story line and publishing event (1992-93).  In Reign of the Supermen, several new people present themselves as possible successors to Superman, in the wake of his death.

Reign of the Supermen opens six months following the death of Superman at the hands of Doomsday (as seen in The Death of Superman), and the rising crime rate in Metropolis has spread beyond the city.  Meanwhile, four new super-powered beings have emerged to take Superman's place.  Still grieving the loss of Superman and, by extension, his alter-ego, Clark Kent (Jerry O'Connell), reporter Lois Lane (Rebecca Romijn) of The Daily Planet has been investigating the new Supermen by gathering whatever information she can from different sources.

One Superman is a gold-visor wearing, energy blast-shooting vigilante called “The Eradicator.”  Another is “Steel,” the armored hero who is the identity of a young scientist, John Henry Irons (Cress Williams).  The third is a teen clone of Superman created by a scientist working for Lex Luthor (Rainn Wilson), and the public starts calling him “Superboy” (Cameron Monaghan).  The fourth, who seems the most like Superman, is part-man and part machine and is called “Cyborg Superman.”

The four “Supermen” are controversial and mysterious, and one of them is conspiring with Darkseid (Tony Todd) in the lord of Apokolips' plan to invade Earth.  Meanwhile, the Justice League:  Wonder Woman (Rosario Dawson), Batman (Jason O'Mara), Aquaman (Matt Lanter), Cyborg (Shemar Moore), Flash (Christopher Gorham), Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Hawkman, and Martian Manhunter (Nyambi Nyambi) have been sidelined.  Now, Lois and the three truly heroic Supermen must uncover the mystery of what actually happened to the real Superman if they are going to stop a plot to take over the world.

Some of the central conceits of superhero comic books and their media adaptations are that the superheroes will almost always win; the bad guys will lose; a superhero's death will ultimately not benefit the super-villain; and the villains will plot even in defeat, while the superheroes remain vigilante.  If you are never bored by this, you will generally always like or love superhero fiction.

In the case of Reign of the Supermen, the conceits are alive and well.  While the idea of Superman dying always causes the fanboy in me some internal discomfort, I found myself mostly bored by Reign of the Supermen.  I couldn't wait for this movie to end, but I wanted to finish it in order to write this review.  I did like the four “Supermen” and the drama in the film built around them.  Everything else only mildly interested me.

I found that the battle between Superman and Doomsday that made up the second half of The Death of Superman saved that movie.  The battle that dominates the last act of Reign of the Supermen only made me care about the movie a little more.  I really liked the Supermen of Reign of the Supermen, but not much else about this movie.

5 of 10
B-

Saturday, May 29, 2021


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Review: "Dark Phoenix" is a Failed X-Men Resurrection

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 33 of 2021 (No. 1771) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Dark Phoenix (2019)
Running time:  114 minutes (1 hour, 54 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action including some gun play, disturbing images, and brief strong language
DIRECTOR:  Simon Kinberg
WRITERS:  Simon Kinberg (based on Marvel Comics characters)
PRODUCERS:  Hutch Parker, Simon Kinberg, Lauren Shuler Donner, and Todd Hallowell
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Mauro Fiore
EDITORS:  Lee Smith
COMPOSER:  Hans Zimmer

SUPERHERO/SCI-FI/ACTION/DRAMA

Starring:  James McAvoy, Sophie Turner, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Evan Peters, Tye Sheridan, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alexandra Shipp, Summer Fontana, Scott Shepherd, Ato Essandoh, and Jessica Chastain

Dark Phoenix is a 2019 superhero movie from writer-director Simon Kinberg.  It is 20th Century Fox’s twelfth film based on Marvel Comics’ X-Men comic book franchise.  This movie is also a sequel to X-Men: Apocalypse (2016).  In Dark Phoenix (also known as X-Men: Dark Phoenix), one of the X-Men begins to develop incredible powers that will force the rest of the X-Men to decide if this one mutant's life is worth more than all of humanity.

Dark Phoenix opens in 1975 and introduces eight-year-old Jean Grey (Summer Fontana) and depicts the automobile accident that changes her life and brings Charles Xavier/Professor X (James McAvoy) into her life.  Then, the story moves to 1992 and to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.  There, Xavier has turned the X-Men into what some describe as a team of superheroes that steps in to protect and help mankind when no one else can.

The latest emergency involves a distress signal from a recently launched space shuttle, which has been critically damaged by a solar flare-like energy.  Xavier sends his strike team, “the X-Men”:  Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Scott Summers/Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and Ororo Munroe/Storm (Alexandra Shipp) to rescue the astronauts aboard the space shuttle.  Raven goes along on the mission, but she is furious that Xavier puts his students in danger for the rest of humanity, which she still regards with suspicion.

The X-Men arrive in their jet, the Blackbird, to find the situation rapidly deteriorating and the strange energy mass approaching the shuttle.  While saving the astronauts, Jean is struck by the energy and absorbs it into her body.  This apparently helps her to miraculously survive the blast of the shuttle explosion.  The X-Men and Xavier's other students start calling Jean “Phoenix” because of her miraculously survival.

However, the result of absorbing that energy causes Jean's psychic powers to be greatly amplified.  In turn, that causes her emotional state to begin to deteriorate, leading to tragedy.  Soon, the X-Men are hunting Jean Grey, and so are the X-Men's adversary/rival, Erik Lensherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender), and also the U.S. military.  Vuk, the leader of a shape-shifting alien race known as the D'Bari, is also searching for Jean, specifically for the power Jean harbors inside her.  Can Xavier and the X-Men save Phoenix, or will their act of salvation doom humanity?

Both film adaptations of the classic X-Men comic book story arc, “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand and 2019's Dark Phoenix, fail to approach the riveting melodrama and enthralling soap opera that readers found and continue to find in Marvel Comics's The X-Men #129-138 (publication cover dates:  January to October 1980).  The writers of both films alter the core original story – to the movies' detriment.

Writer-director Simon Kinberg apparently directed some of 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past and much or most of 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse, although Bryan Singer is credited as the director of both films.  I consider both films to be disappointments, one more than the other.  True to form, Simon Kinberg delivers in Dark Phoenix a film that is mostly a dud.

The storytelling feels contrived, and the screenwriting offers laughable concepts, especially the entire D'Bari alien subplot; that's just some stupid shit.  Dark Phoenix is one of two final films in 20th Century Fox's X-Men film franchise (the other being the long-delayed The New Mutants, which was finally released in 2020).  I say that Dark Phoenix is deeply disappointing, but honestly, I did not expect much of it, from the moment I first heard that it was going into production.  In fact, this film is a devolution from the franchise's peak, which was released 16 years prior to Dark Phoenix, the fantastic X2: X-Men United (2003).

Even the acting is bad.  Playing Vuk the alien is the lowest low point of Jessica Chastain's career, which includes two Academy Award nominations.  James McAvoy as Xavier, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, and Michael Fassbender as Erik are overwrought, and when they are trying to have serious conversations, they deliver hackneyed and derivative dialogue and unoriginal speeches.  Maybe their bad acting is a result of uninspired script writing.  However, I did find that Tye Sheridan as Scott, Kodi Smit-McPhee as Kurt, and Alexandra Shipp as Ororo made the most of their scenes, especially Sheridan.  If his Scott Summers/Cyclops were the center of Dark Phoenix, the film would be much better.  Because of him, I am giving this film a higher grade than I planned to do.

Dark Phoenix just doesn't work, and it rarely connected with me.  I don't think that it will connect with audiences the way some of the best and most popular X-Men films did.  Oh, well – let's hope that Marvel Studios does better with its planned X-Men films...

4 of 10
C

Thursday, March 25, 2020


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Review: UNCUT GEMS Offers Surprising Performances from Its Cast

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 28 of 2021 (No. 1766) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Uncut Gems (2019)
Running time:  135 minutes (2 hours, 15 minutes)
MPAA – R for pervasive strong language, violence, some sexual content and brief drug use
DIRECTORS:  Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie
WRITERS: Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie & Benny Safdie
PRODUCERS:  Sebastian Bear-McClard (p.g.a.), Eli Bush (p.g.a.), and Scott Rudin (p.g.a.)
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Darius Khondji (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Ronald Bronstein and Benny Safdie
COMPOSER:  Daniel Lopatin

DRAMA

Starring:  Adam Sandler, Lakeith Stanfield, Julia Fox, Kevin Garnett, Idina Menzel, Eric Bogosian, Judd Hirsch, Keith William Richards, Tommy Kominik, Jonathan Aranbayev, Noa Fisher, Jacob Igielski, and Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd)

Uncut Gems is a 2019 crime drama film from directors Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie.  Director Martin Scorsese is one of the film's executive producers.  Uncut Gems focuses on a fast-talking New York City jeweler and gambling addict who risks everything in hope of staying afloat and alive.

Uncut Gems opens in 2010 in the Welo mine in Ethiopia where Ethiopian Jewish miners retrieve a rare black opal from the mine.  The story moves to 2012 where we meet Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), who runs KMH, a jewelry store in New York City's Diamond District.  A fast-talking businessman, Howard is also a gambling addict, and he is struggling to pay off his gambling debts, which include the $100,000 he owes his brother-in-law, Arno Moradian (Eric Bogosian), a loan shark.

Howard's personal life is also in shambles, as he is estranged from his wife, Dinah Ratner (Idina Menzel).  Dinah insists on sticking to their plan of getting a divorce after Passover.  Meanwhile, Howard's relationship with his girlfriend, Julia De Fiore (Julia Fox), a KMH employee, is also up-and-down.  Still, Howard believes that all will be well when he gets that rare black opal that the Ethiopian miners found.

Things start to fall apart when Demany (Lakeith Stanfield), an intermediary who recruits clients for Howard, introduces him to NBA player, Kevin Garnett (Kevin Garnett), of the Boston Celtics.  Suddenly, holding onto and selling the opal takes on a life-or-death significance.

Audiences may pull for Adam Sandler's Howard Ratner and even root for him simply because he is the lead character in Uncut Jewels, but the truth is that Ratner is worthy of pity more than he is of sympathy.  He has a terrible case of “problem with immediate gratification.”  He is a gambling addict, and one gets the idea that he is addicted to seeking his own satisfaction.  He is vain, venal, narcissistic, and self-absorbed, and he tells lies the way people breathe air.  However, this all leads to a last act of the film when the pity that one might feel towards the pathetic Howard turns to sympathy.

Sandler gives one of the best performances of his career, and although many commentators thought that he deserved an Oscar nomination for his performance in Uncut Gems (which he did not get), he had a better character arc in 2005's The Longest Yard.  Still, Sandler proves in Uncut Gems that he can deliver a surprising performance that can even shock audiences.

However, I find the most fascinating character in this film to be Uncut Gem's version of the real-life former professional basketball player, Kevin Garnett.  Garnett fashions a version of himself that is more complex, darker, and more nuanced than the player people know from his long career in the National Basketball Association (NBA), which lasted 21 seasons from 1995 to 2016.  I could watch an entire film featuring this Garnett.

Overall, the Safdie Brothers deliver in Uncut Gems a crime drama like no other, and with screenwriter Ronald Bronstein, they offer a cast of interesting, even off-the-beaten path characters.  Actress Idina Menzel is known for her big smile and her ability to belt out a song, but here, she takes the script's Dinah Ratner and makes her a salty woman who is utterly disinterested in her wayward husband, Howard's conceited charisma.  Menzel's Dinah would set it off before she'd let it go.

The usual impeccable Lakeith Stanfield is impeccable – as usual, and I wish there was more of his Demany.  Abel Tesfaye, better known as the Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, The Weeknd, goes meta to turn in a delightfully edgy and smutty version of himself.

I don't know if I would recommend this film to fans of Adam Sandler's comedies, especially the raunchy and juvenile ones.  Still, the Safdies and Sandler create something so different that I think movie audiences that like to take a dare sometimes will find a dark jewel of a movie in Uncut Gems.

7 of 10
A-

Wednesday, March 17, 2021


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#28DaysofBlack Review: "HARRIET" and Cynthia Erivo Are Magnificent

[A powerful historical Black woman deserves to have her story told powerfully.  Harriet Tubman, the face of the Underground Railroad, gets that in director Kasi Lemmons' 2019 film, “Harriet.”]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 21 of 2021 (No. 1759) by Leroy Douresseaux

Harriet (2019)
Running time:  125 minutes (2 hours, 5 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for thematic content throughout, violent material and language including racial epithets
DIRECTOR:  Kasi Lemmons
WRITERS:  Gregory Allen Howard and Kasi Lemmons; based on a story by Gregory Allen Howard
PRODUCERS:  Debra Martin Chase, Gregory Allen Howard, and Daniela Taplin Lundberg
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  John Toll
EDITOR:  Wyatt Smith
COMPOSER:  Terence Blanchard
Academy Award nominee

BIOPIC/DRAMA/ACTION/HISTORICAL

Starring:  Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., Joe Alwyn, Clarke Peters, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Jennifer Nettles, Janelle Monáe, Omar Dorsey, Tim Guinee, Zackary Momoh, Henry Hunter Hall, Deborah Olayinka Ayorinde, and Rakeem Laws

Harriet is a 2019 biographical film and historical drama from director Kasi Lemmons.  The film is a fictional depiction of the life and work of Harriet Tubman (1822-1913), a black woman who was an American abolitionist, a suffragette, and the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad.  Harriet the movie tells the story of the runaway slave who transformed herself into one of America's greatest heroes by helping to free other slaves.

Harriet opens in Bucktown, Maryland, the year 1849.  A black female slave named Araminta “Minty” Ross (Cynthia Erivo) is newly married to a freedman, John Tubman (Zackary Momoh).  Minty is a slave on the farm of Edward Brodess, along with her mother, Rit (Vanessa Bell Calloway), and her sister, Rachel (Deborah Olayinka Ayorinde).  Minty's father, a freedman named Ben Ross (Clarke Peters), approaches Edward Brodess about gaining freedom for Rit and the children she bore based on an agreement made by Brodess' father, but Brodess rudely declines.

Shortly afterwards, Brodess dies, and his son, Gideon Brodess (Joe Alwyn), decides to sell Minty down the river, which mean down into the deep south, the worst place for a slave.  Minty suffers “spells” since being struck in the head as a child, but they are also visions from God.  The spell that Minty suffers after Gideon decides to sell her is the vision that Minty believes is telling her to run away before she is taken to the slave auction.

Fearing that she could endanger her husband and family, she leaves them behind and, after a long journey, makes her way to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  A year later, Minty has renamed herself Harriet Tubman and makes her first journey back to Maryland.  There, she will either take her first steps to free other slaves, or she will be returned to a cruel fate at the hands of an evil owner.

In Harriet, writers Gregory Allen Howard and Kasi Lemmons fashioned a story that captures the horrors of slavery in a manner similar to that of the 2013 film, 12 Years a Slave.  However, 12 Years a Slave is the tale of a free black man trapped in hell of chattel slavery who is determined to survive until a miracle arrives.  Harriet is the tale of a black woman born into slavery who takes her fate into her own hands and runs through a hell's gauntlet to find freedom.

To that end, Kasi Lemmons as director creates a film that moves that narrative via action and opportunity.  Characters take action and take advantage of the opportunity to gain freedom.  As Harriet says at one point in the film – “God was watching me but my feet were my own.”  Harriet's lead character is a pistol-packing, action movie heroine every bit as stalwart as Captain America and as ruthless as actor Clint Eastwood's most famous roles in Westerns.

Actress Cynthia Erivo, as Harriet Tubman, is the center of this film's holy trinity.  Erivo's Harriet is a force of nature and the wrath of God against slavery.  In the film's quiet moments, Erivo presents Harriet as thoughtful and contemplative, but she maintains the roiling storm within, the elemental forces that drive her to return to the land of slavery time and again to free other slaves.  Erivo seems to transform Harriet's spells and visions into a living thing that devours fear and cowardice and the evil that is slavery.  One can believe that this Harriet was the star of the Underground Railroad, the network of secret routes and safe houses in the United States used by enslaved black people to escape from slave states and into free states and Canada.

Erivo's almighty performance earned her an Oscar nomination for “Best Actress.”  It is a shame that she did not win, and it is a shame that Harriet did not receive more Academy Award nominations than it did.  This film has good supporting performances, an excellent musical score, and costume design that created costumes for the cast that look like the real deal.  However, it is Gregory Allen Howard, Kasi Lemmons, and Cynthia Erivo that drive Harriet into being what may be the best film of 2019.

10 of 10

Wednesday, February 24, 2021


NOTE:
2020 Academy Awards, USA:  2 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Cynthia Erivo) and “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Song” (Cynthia Erivo and Joshuah Brian Campbell for the song “Stand Up”)

2020 Golden Globes, USA:  2 nominations:  “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Cynthia Erivo) and “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Joshuah Brian Campbell music/lyrics and Cynthia Erivo-music/lyrics for the song “Stand Up”)

2020 Black Reel Awards:  6 nominations: “Outstanding Actress, Motion Picture” (Cynthia Erivo), “Outstanding Director, Motion Picture” (Kasi Lemmons), “Outstanding Supporting Actress, Motion Picture” (Janelle Monáe), “Outstanding Cinematography” (John Toll), “Outstanding Costume Design” (Paul Tazewell), and “Outstanding Production Design” (Warren Alan Young)

2020 Image Awards (NAACP):  7 nominations:  “Outstanding Motion Picture,” “Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture” (Cynthia Erivo), “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture” (Leslie Odom Jr.), “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture” (Janelle Monáe), “Outstanding Breakthrough Performance in a Motion Picture: (Cynthia Erivo), “Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture-Film” (Kasi Lemmons), and “Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture-Film” (Kasi Lemmons and Gregory Allen Howard)


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#28DaysofBlack Review: "A Madea Family Funeral"

[I could not imagine committing to a focus on black films and not offer at least one film from media mogul, Tyler Perry.  Within a decade, Perry became a successful performer and producer of stage plays.  He entered the film business with his 2005 film, “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” and owned a film production studio, Tyler Perry Studios, by 2006.  Perry's signature character, Mabel "Madea" Earlene Simmons, has played a significant part in Perry's rags to riches story, and he apparently brought the film saga of Madea to an end with “A Madea Family Funeral.”]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 13 of 2021 (No. 1751) by Leroy Douresseaux

A Madea Family Funeral (2019)
Running time:  109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for crude sexual content, language, and drug references throughout
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Tyler Perry
PRODUCERS:  Ozzie Areu, Will Areu, Tyler Perry, and Mark E. Swinton
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Richard Vialet (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Larry Sexton
COMPOSER:  Philip White

COMEDY

Starring:  Tyler Perry, Cassi Davis, Patrice Lovely, Jen Harper, Courtney Burrell, Ciera Payton, Rome Flynn, KJ Smith, Aeriél Miranda, David Otunga, Quin Walters, Ary Katz, and Derek Morgan

A Madea Family Funeral is a 2019 comedy-drama from writer-director Tyler Perry.  It is the eleventh and (supposedly) final film in the Madea film series.  A Madea Family Funeral focuses on an anniversary celebration that unexpectedly turns into a funeral that unveils unsavory family secrets.

A Madea Family Funeral opens in the home of Vianne (Jen Harper) and Anthony Thompson (Derek Morgan).  Their children are planning a surprise party to celebrate their parents' 40th wedding anniversary.  Sylvia (Ciera Payton) is with her husband, Will (David Otunga).  Carol (KJ Smith), who is married to older brother, A.J. (Courtney Burrell), is awaiting his arrival.  Younger brother, Jesse (Rome Flynn), is awaiting the arrival of his fiancé, Gia (Aeriél Miranda).

Meanwhile Mabel “Madea” Simmons (Tyler Perry), Uncle Joe (Tyler Perry), Betty Ann Murphy a.k.a. “Aunt Bam” (Cassi Davis), Hattie (Patrice Lovely), and Joe's son, Brian Simmons (Tyler Perry), are also traveling to the reunion.  Vianne and Anthony's family is also the family of Madea and Joe's brother, Heathrow (Tyler Perry), a lecherous, wheelchair bound Vietnam veteran.

Not long after Madea and company arrive at their hotel, they discover that A.J. is also there with Gia, with whom he is having an affair.  Even more shocking is that they discover that Anthony is in a room next to A.J. and Gia's and is engaged in kinky sex with Renee (Quin Walters), a friend of both Vianne and Anthony's.  Anthony suffers a heart attack from the sexual activity and is taken to a hospital where he dies.

Now, Madea is charged with planning Anthony's funeral, which Vianne wants to occur in two days.  In the meantime, Anthony's secret life and the secrets of his two sons threaten to spill over.

A Madea Family Funeral qualifies as a dramatic film because of the secrets and lies and melodrama that apparently have long been a part of Vianne and Anthony's family.  Writer-director Tyler Perry deals with this the way he normally does – with soap opera, gospel theatrics, and Christian philosophizing.  Still, this family drama is pretty dark, and I do credit Perry for once again telling a story about mothers who make tough choices in order to provide for, to protect, and to keep their families together.  What might seem like weakness and stupidity might actually be strength and practicality.

A Madea Family Funeral is a comedy because of … well, because of Madea, Joe, Aunt Bam, and Hattie.  I have to be honest; I think much of the humor in this film as being an inappropriate match for the dramatic side of this film.  Still, I found myself vigorously laughing through more than half this film.  In a way, Anthony's funeral becomes a hilarious nightmare, both because of the unsavory family secrets and because of Madea and company.  But, hell, sometimes laughter helps a family get through a funeral, especially a hot mess of a death and funeral like Anthony's.

If A Madea Family Funeral is indeed the final Madea film, I can say that it went out on a relatively high note.  Perry gives us his trademark Christian moralizing, and Madea gives us the shameless, shameful comedy.  Truthfully, only Tyler Perry could be Madea, so there can be no other true Madea films unless he makes them.  So I hope A Madea Family Funeral doesn't put the Madea film franchise to rest.

7 of 10
B+

Wednesday, February 10, 2021


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Review: "The Addams Family" Gives the Middle Finger to Assimilation

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 1 of 2021 (No. 1739) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

The Addams Family (2019)

Running time:  86 minutes (1 hour, 26 minutes)

MPAA – PG for macabre and suggestive humor, and some action.

DIRECTORS:  Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon

WRITERS:  Matt Lieberman; from a story by Matt Lieberman, Erica Rivinoja, and Conrad Vernon (based on the characters created by Charles Addams)

PRODUCERS:  Gail Berman, Alison O'Brien, Alex Schwartz, and Conrad Vernon

EDITORS:  Kevin Pavlovic and David Ian Salter

COMPOSERS: Jeff Danna and Mychael Danna

ANIMATION/FANTASY/COMEDY/FAMILY

Starring:  (voices) Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz, Finn Wolfhard, Nick Kroll, Snoop Dogg, Bette Midler, Allison Janney, Martin Short, Catherine O'Hara, Tituss Burgess, Jenifer Lewis, Elsie Fisher, Conrad Vernon, and Pom Klementieff

The Addams Family is a 2019 computer-animated comedy from directors Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan.  The film is based on the characters created by The New Yorker cartoonist, the late Charles Addams (1912-1988).  The Addams Family the movie focuses on an eccentrically macabre family and their interactions with the denizens of a colorful, but bland suburb.

The Addams Family opens as Gomez (Oscar Isaac) and Morticia (Charlize Theron) prepare to marry in front of their eccentric, odd, and weird family members.  However, the people of the local town despise the macabre nature of the happy couple and their family, and chase them away.  Luckily, the newlywed Morticia and Gomez and their companion, Thing (sentient hand), escape to New Jersey.  There, the trio finds two things.  The first is a home in an abandoned and decaying manor-style building that was once an asylum, and the second is a butler in the hulking Lurch (Conrad Vernon).

Thirteen years later, Morticia and Gomez have two children – a precocious and mordacious, Wednesday (Chloe Grace Moretz); and an explosives-loving son, Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard).  The family is in kind of a state of crisis.  Gomez struggles as he prepares Pugsley for his upcoming “Sabre Mazurka,” a rite of passage that every male Addams family member must pass.  Morticia struggles to keep Wednesday from wanting to experience the world outside the mansion, which includes the girl's desire to go to school.

Elsewhere, reality TV host, Margaux Needler (Allison Janney), is in the middle of building a perfect planned community that she is calling, “Assimilation.”  This is supposed to be the highlight of her television series' season finale.  However, when she discovers that the Addams' dilapidated home overlooks Assimilation, Margaux is determined to give their home an extreme makeover, whether they like it or not.  Meanwhile, many members of the Addams clan are gradually arriving in order to celebrate Pulley's big day.

I have been a fan of ABC's 1960s television series, “The Addams Family” (1964-66), since I was a child.  As a child, I was also a fan of NBC's Saturday morning cartoon series, “The Addams Family” (1973).  I have mixed feelings about Orion Pictures' two 1990s live-action films, The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993).  As an adult, I became a huge fan of the work of Charles Addams, especially of his delightfully macabre cartoons that featured the characters that would become known as “The Addams Family.”

The latest media iteration of these characters, the computer-animated The Addams Family, borrows elements from the Addams Family media that has come before it.  Here, the illustrative and graphic design of the characters and their world recall both Addams cartoons and the 1973 TV series, although I find the way this film's Morticia and Gomez look to be a little off-putting.  Overall, however, I find the look of this film visually appealing, and I think the Addams family's relatives are an interesting lot of inventively designed characters.

One thing that I think The Addams Family 2019 has over The Addams Family 1990s film franchise is that this animated film gets it right in the way it contrasts the Addams family against the outside world.  Charles Addams' best cartoons juxtaposed his creepy characters and their playfully insidious actions with the normal human world.  Much about the 1990s films was insular and did not send the family out into the normal world.  The second film did, at least, send Wednesday and Pugsley to summer camp, which is why I think the second film is much better than the first.

By sending the Addams down the mountain to meet their neighbors in this film, the filmmakers get to play with themes and ideas of individuality, conformity, acceptance, change, and family, which makes this movie more than just another cartoon romp featuring a bunch of strange characters.  Ultimately, The Addams Family 2019 emphasizes that a family can be made up of both different people and of people who live and act differently from the rest of the family.

This film's standout voice actor/character pairs are Chloe Grace Moretz as Wednesday and Allison Janney as Margaux Needler.  Nick Kroll delivers a killer turn as Uncle Fester, and Bette Midler takes what is a small role in Grandmama Addams and makes it feel like a major part.  Jenifer Lewis, with her commanding voice and delivery, turns Great Auntie Loom into a character that steals scenes.

The Addams Family 2019 is my favorite media adaptation of “The Addams Family” characters outside of the 1960s and 1970s.  I highly recommend this film to fans of the characters.  It does take a while for the film to get going – about 20 minutes into the story, but it manages to be sweet, charming, heartwarming, and, of course, macabre – the way it should be.

7 of 10
B+

Sunday, November 8, 2020


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: Excellent "The Dead Don't Die" Recalls George Romero "Dead" Movies

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 24 (of 2020) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

The Dead Don't Die (2019)
Running time:  104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – R for zombie violence/gore, and for language
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Jim Jarmusch
PRODUCERS:  Joshua Astrachan and Carter Logan
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Frederick Elmes
EDITOR:  Affonso Gonçalves
COMPOSER:  Sqürl

HORROR/COMEDY

Starring:  Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Chloë Sevigny,Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Selena Gomez, Austin Butler, Luka Sabbat, Rosie Perez, Iggy Pop, RZA, Carol Kane, Maya Delmont, Taliyah Whitaker,Jahi Winston, and Tom Waits

The Dead Don't Die is a 2019 zombie horror-comedy film from writer-director Jim Jarmusch.  The film features an ensemble cast and is set in the peaceful town of Centerville, which finds itself beset by a zombie horde after the recently dead start rising from their graves.

The Dead Don't Die opens in the town of Centerville, which has the motto, “A Real Nice Place,” emblazoned upon its welcome sign.  Strange things have been happening in the town, or so say Centerville Police Department Chief Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray) and Officer Ronald “Ronnie” Peterson (Adam Driver).  After answering a complaint one evening, these officers of the law notice that its 8 PM in the evening and it is still daylight.  Ronnie discovers that his watch and cell phone have stopped working.

There are news reports about pets behaving strangely, and Centerville's Farmer Miller (Steve Buscemi) has learned that his farm animals have disappeared.  According to a young inmate at a local juvenile facility, “polar fracking” has altered the Earth's rotation.  And the song, “The Dead Don't Die,” by country singer-songwriter, Sturgill Simpson, is always playing somewhere in town.  When night finally falls, the dead start to rise from their graves.  By the second evening, Centerville is experiencing a full-on zombie invasion, and, as Officer Ronnie already knows, all this will “end badly.”

I choose to interpret The Dead Don't Die as a remake and re-imagining of the classic 1968 horror movie, Night of the Living Dead, the forerunner of the modern zombie movie.  That film was co-written and directed by the late George A. Romero, the forefather of what is now known as the zombie apocalypse horror genre.  Obviously using Night of the Living Dead as a blueprint and using the cinematic language that Romero invented, writer-director Jim Jarmusch offers a deadpan ode to the seminal zombie movie.

In The Dead Don't Die, Jarmusch certainly has a better cast and better production resources than Romero had for Night of the Living Dead.  What Jarmusch maintains from the original film is its social commentary and satire and black humor, although Jarmusch gives his black comedy a spin of dry wit.  Jarmusch also breaks the fourth wall and throws in some out-of-this-world B-movie silliness, via the always brilliantly on-point Tilda Swinton as Centerville's newest resident, the Scottish mortician, Zelda Winston.  Swinton's short time on the screen alone is reason to see The Dead Don't Die.

Everyone in this delightfully diverse and eclectic ensemble cast makes the most of his or her onscreen time.  Some movie critics and reviewers have criticized The Dead Don't Die for being too dry and too deadpan.  Quite the contrary, I say.  I believe that this film's “dry” tone is a commentary on humanity's inescapable dark fate, the result of our childish desire for too many things that we really don't need.  Our hubris when it comes to the way we deal with the natural world and the natural order, and the insatiable greed that can never fill the hole in our metaphorical hearts could bring us a fate worse than death.  That is why I think that The Dead Don't Die is the smartest and purest zombie film since Romero's first three “Dead” films.

8 of 10
A

Saturday, October 31, 2020


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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