Movie Review Last Flag Flying

Last Flag Flying (2017) 

Directed by Richard Linklater

Written by Richard Linklater, Danny Ponicsan

Starring Steve Carell, Laurence Fishburne, Bryan Cranston

Release Date November 3rd, 2017

Last Flag Flying is a rare movie. It’s a daring depiction of the aftermath of death in a modern war. It’s an exploration of the hearts and minds of the people left behind. It’s also a movie that feels at times as if it isn’t going particularly anywhere and manages past fits and starts to reach a deeply affecting end. It’s the kind of mainstream drama that you expect Richard Linklater’s idiosyncratic style might render inert in the same neutered manner of his mainstream take on The Bad News Bears.

At times early on in Last Flag Flying, I found myself miffed at the trite nature of the characters. The ways in which Steve Carell’s sadsack Doc, Bryan Cranston’s obnoxious Sal, and Laurence Fishburne’s cranky priest Mueller fall so easily into sitcom type characters got on my nerves very early in the film and I prepared myself to write a review of the film that was not going to be fun to write. Then something began to change. Slowly but surely, the film began reeling me in and when it reached the end, I was a little teary-eyed as Bob Dylan’s warm tones flowed over the end credits.

Last Flag Flying tells the story of Doc, who attempts to reunite with his friends, Sal and Mueller. The three fought in Vietnam together and while Sal and Mueller remember taking on the much younger Doc, they also consider it a stretch of the term to call the kid a friend. Something happened near the end of the war that sent Doc to a military prison and prematurely ended their friendship, but Doc never forgot about his buddies. Now that he is facing the biggest crisis of his life with no family at home, his thoughts go back to his only friends.

For his part, Sal has been drinking away the memories of Vietnam for more than 30 years. Doc finds him at a bar in Virginia that he owns and somehow operates through his various stupors. Doc had already found Mueller and collects Sal to take him to see the sight of their formerly hellraising friend, now a Baptist Preacher. Doc soon after explains why he’s tracked down his army pals. His son was killed in action in Iraq, and he wants his only friends on hand to help him lay Larry Jr. to rest.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. 

Movie Review Argylle

Argylle (2024) 

Directed by Matthew Vaughn 

Written by Jason Fuchs 

Starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Henry Cavill, Bryan Cranston, John Cena, Ariana Debose, Dua Lipa, Samuel L. Jackson, Catherine O'Hara

Release Date February 2nd, 2024

Published February 1st, 2024

The high concept premise of Argylle is relatively simple: what would happen if the spy novels written by an unassuming, shut-in, bestselling author, became a reality that forces the writer into the real life world of espionage, violence, and betrayal. Bryce Dallas Howard stars as the hapless best selling author Elly Conway. Elly's high flying spy adventure Argylle has become a worldwide phenomenon all while Elly lives a peaceful, slightly lonely, existence at a lakeside home far from the crowds of admiring readers. Elly's idyllic life of writing and spending time with her beloved cat, Alfie, is upended when she can't think of a final chapter for her fifth book in the Argylle series. 

Suffering from severe writer's block, Elly boards an Amtrak train headed to see her mother, Ruth (Catherine O'Hara) who she hopes will help her snap back into writing mode. Unfortunately, Elly is not going to make it home to mom. On her train ride, Elly finds herself in the company of Aiden (Sam Rockwell), a real life spy who saves Elly's life from a series of attempted assassinations aboard this moving train. Bodies pile up fast as Aiden whipsaws about the train snapping necks and shooting baddies right in the heart while he saves Elly and Alfie from assassination. 

As Aiden will eventually explain, Elly's books are somehow mirroring real world, geo-political situations in which a rogue spy agency is trying outwit a group of good guy spies working to protect the world. Caught in the middle, Elly doesn't know who to trust, Aiden and his CIA pal, played  by Samuel L. Jackson, or the head of a rival group of spies who Elly may or may not already be familiar with. It's a terrific premise and it's all building to a pretty nifty twist until director Matthew Vaughn twists us one too many times leading to a flat finish for an otherwise fleet footed action flick. 

Click here for my review 

Movie Review: The Upside

The Upside (2019) 

Directed by Neil Burger 

Written by John Hartmere 

Starring Kevin Hart, Bryan Cranston, Nicole Kidman 

Release Date January 11th, 2019

Published January 10th, 2019

The Upside stars Bryan Cranston as Phillip, a billionaire who suffered a tragic accident that left him paralyzed below the neck. The bigger tragedy for Phillip though, was the loss of his wife who died from cancer not long after Phillip’s accident. Phillip’s top executive, Yvonne (Nicole Kidman) has just retrieved him from the hospital after he nearly died from what was implied as an attempt to end his life. 

Coming home, Phillip needs a ‘life auxillary,’ someone to feed him, bathe him, change his catheter, and drive him around. He doesn’t want the help but Yvonne insists. In the process of interviewing qualified candidates, Phillip meets Del (Kevin Hart) who has come to the interview just to get a signature on a form to show his parole officer that he’s been looking for a job. Del is the first applicant to treat Phillip like a human being, even if it just means that Del is rude to him. 

Over Yvonne’s stern objections, Phillip insists on hiring Del despite his complete lack of experience. This is a dark and grave decision as the implication is that Phillip hired him in hopes of Del’s incompetence and lack of care will end Phillip’s life. Del even goes as far as verbalizing this very point in a moment that actually really connected me with the movie. The honesty of this moment breaks the potential mawkishness of the film. 

The Upside could be an overwrought melodrama about overcoming the odds and a magical person who enters the life of someone in need and saves them. That’s still part of the narrative but it is rendered novel and entertaining by the dynamic between the characters and between the leads, Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston. Hart and Cranston are terrific together as mismatched friends with Cranston seeming genuinely delighted by Hart and Hart dedicated to being Cranston’s friend. 

Director Neil Burger hasn’t had much luck in the feature film arena. His most well known movie, The Illusionist starring Edward Norton, was completely overshadowed the year it was released by Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige. Both were films about magicians. His other claim to big screen fame was part of the flailing and failing Divergent franchise. That said, he’s always shown glimmers of talent and The Upside indicates he has a talent for character pieces. 

The embattled Kevin Hart doesn’t do himself any favors with the level of gay panic he brings to The Upside. The gay panic gags that caused an uproar on twitter and caused him to leave the gig as Oscar host, gets a big set piece in the film when Del has to change Phillip’s catheter and can’t get over having to touch Phillip’s privates. It’s not a particularly funny gag and I’m not sure why it had to be in the film. That said, the audience I watched with found this set-piece hilarious. 

One unnecessary scene however, doesn’t dampen my enjoyment of the movie. Do I wish Kevin Hart would grow up a little? Yes, it would help this movie a little for him to improve himself and grow up but as for Del in The Upside, it’s a solid performance. The dynamic between Cranston and Hart is one I cannot deny. The film is quite funny at times even as the gags are very familiar. Smoking weed, hitting on women, prostitutes, cliches but Cranston and Hart’s genuine delight in each other is enough for me to put that stuff aside. 

I am most assuredly going easy on The Upside. The film likely doesn’t deserve my kindness but it gets it because I did have fun. The film has its heart in the right place. It has uplift and laughs and pathos. I may have been too familiar with the comic premises but I never stopped smiling because Hart and Cranston are so very good with each other. These two characters, based on a real life pair from France who were previously brought to the screen in the similarly feel-good, The Intouchables, are just really good characters. 

Hart and Cranston have a huge emotional and comedic field to play from dark humor to lighthearted fun. Director Burger then grounds the story with Kidman’s more serious performance and with Del’s redemption story from criminal deadbeat to a guy on the right path. Sure, he won the equivalent of a life lottery but I bought it. I bought Del and I bought Phillip and I cared about them. I laughed with them and that’s just enough for me to recommend The Upside. 

Movie Review Power Rangers

Power Rangers (2017) 

Directed by Dean Israelite 

Written by John Gatins 

Starring Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Becky G, Bill Hader, Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Banks

Release Date March 24th, 2017

Published March 24th, 2017 

The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was a goofy live action cartoon that was never intended to be taken seriously. Even as the franchise became a marketing powerhouse and made the leap to the big screen in the late 90's, it was still just a doofy kids show with silly costumes and plushy, oversized villains. The new-fangled Power Rangers on the other hand are still silly but with an ever so slight edge. 

The Power Rangers have been the protectors of Earth for thousands of years, having sacrificed themselves to stop the Earth from being destroyed. The part of the Power Rangers that lived on are in the form of colored power coins which, when discovered by a disparate band of teens, kick off a new age of the Power Rangers and set the stage for an all new battle to save the Earth. 

Jason (Dacre Montgomery) is the leader of the group, a former Big Man on Campus turned teen criminal. Jason meets Billy (R.J Cyler) and Kimberly (Naomi Scott) during detention at Angel Grove High School and the three wind up together at a local quarry where Billy is sure he is going to discover an ancient artifact. Indeed, Billy does discover something quite remarkable when he accidentally blows up part of the mine, something that draws the immediate attention of Trini ( Becky G) and Zack (Ludi Lin) who happen to be nearby. 

What the five discover are the legendary Power Coins and the coins give them superpowers, strength, speed, and intelligence. This also leads to the discovery of an underground spaceship, home to the last of the original Power Rangers, Zordon (Bryan Cranston) who is trapped between the world of the living and the world of the dead, and his assistant, a robot named Alpha (Bill Hader). 

With the guidance of Zordon the Power Rangers are fitted for battle against Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks), a former Power Ranger turned villain who has returned to life and seeks to raise a dire monster called Goldar by stealing gold anywhere she can find it. With the aid of Goldar, Rita will battle the Power Rangers with designs on destroying the world on her way to conquest of the Universe. 

Yes, it's all very silly, especially Elizabeth Banks' wonderfully silly performance as Rita. The strength of this iteration of Power Rangers is that it has zero pretensions. The film owns its goofball past and simply improves on it with a more modern style of both action and storytelling. The film retains the doofy spirit of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, especially its goony villains but isn't imprisoned by the past. 

Each of the young actors cast as Power Rangers is able to make a good enough impression here that we care about them in the big fight. My favorite is Billy, who's last name "Cranston" is an homage to his co-star Bryan Cranston who has a past connection to the Power Rangers having voiced characters on the original show. R.J Cyler plays Billy as Autistic and while there is danger of slipping over into uncomfortable stereotypes, the young actor soft plays the character tics and delivers a lovable performance. 

This movie was not made with critics in mind, in the end this is a film for very young children. What I admire about Power Rangers is that it never feels limited by being 'just a kids film.' The story has brave and bold elements to it, a very, very very slight edge to it. The film is silly and playful but has just enough weight to it that I kind of cheered at the end and I wasn't ashamed of it. 

It seems impossible to believe it myself, but I actually recommend Power Rangers. It has a positive message, solid thrills and a story that is safe enough for kids without having to pander, a rather remarkable feat for a film based on a series that was almost entirely pandering in its heyday, as much marketing machine as it was a TV series.

Movie Review: Drive

Drive (2011) 

Directed by Nicholas Winding Refn

Written by Nicholas Winding Refn 

Starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac, Albert Brooks, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks

Release Date September 16th, 2011

Published September 15th, 2011

Ryan Gosling is arguably the best actor working today. His performances in the last year in a diverse slate from the romantic comedy "Crazy, Stupid, Love" to the thriller "All Good Things" to the romantic tragedy "Blue Valentine," have demonstrated Gosling's chameleon-like ability to melt into any role and give life to a variety of fascinating characters.

Gosling's latest performance is arguably his best. "Drive" Stars Ryan Gosling as The Driver. We never learn his name, nor do his unique clients. The Driver spends his days as a Hollywood stunt driver and his nights as a wheelman for high paying criminals. The Driver gives the criminals a five minute window to commit their crime. Within that window he will drive them anywhere and keep them from the cops.

The Driver lives a quiet and very private life making certain not to form relationships or attachments that could imperil his objectivity. Naturally, we know that will change and he does, slowly but surely when he meets Irene (Carey Mulligan). Irene is his neighbor and has a small child that The Driver strikes an immediate friendship with.

The budding romance is cut short with the revelation that Irene's husband/baby daddy Standard (Oscar Isaac) is getting out of prison and coming home. Here, director Nicholas Winding Refn twists our expectations by playing the predictable showdown between The Driver and Standard quietly and thoughtfully.

Gosling betrays The Driver's true feelings for Irene with his eyes but his actions are a different matter. In a departure from his code of non-involvement, The Driver comes to Standard's aid and attempts to get him out from under a debt to criminals who had protected him in prison. This departure by The Driver will prove costly and the rest of plot unfolds from there with an unexpectedly violent flourish. Drive is stunning in its violence, evoking the calculating yet gory viscera of David Cronenberg's "A History of Violence" and "Eastern Promises."

The influences exhibited in "Drive" don't end with Cronenberg. The look and sound of "Drive" evokes the work of writer-director Paul Schrader on "American Gigolo." The neon font of the film titles, the synth soundtrack and the over the shoulder camera position in the driving scenes all evoke Gigolo. Why "American Gigolo?" You'd have to ask director Refn about that; on the surface the two films share little more than the Refn's choice of homage.

Though the influences are obvious "Drive" is far from derivative. The ideas in the film are its own and they are executed with gripping efficiency. Ryan Gosling's acting choices carry weight and intrigue and you can't help but be fascinated by what he will do next. Gosling holds you in thrall as The Driver drifts  further and further into danger.

Gosling is equaled in very different ways by the work of Albert Brooks and Carey Mulligan. You've never thought of Albert Brooks as menacing but you will believe him menacing wielding a knife with fierce efficiency. Carey Mulligan meanwhile, matches the intensity and dangerous charisma of Gosling and Brooks with fragility, beauty and empathy.

"Drive" is a remarkable film, artful, intelligent and gripping. The cast is extraordinary and the direction by Nicholas Winding Refn is superb.

Movie Review Larry Crowne

Larry Crowne (2011) 

Directed by Tom Hanks 

Written by Tom Hanks, Nia Vardalos 

Starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Bryan Cranston, Gugu Mbatha Raw, Taraji P Henson

Release Date July 1st, 2011 

Published June 30th, 2011 

"Larry Crowne" is a disappointment on multiple levels. First, and most important, is how truly awful a movie "Larry Crowne" is. Boring, banal, pointless and at times bordering on amateurish. Then there is the fact that the film stars two of the biggest stars of the past 25 years of film, Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks.

And finally, there is the fact that Tom Hanks co-wrote and directed this failure of sub-sitcom humor and cloying romance. Tom Hanks had shown so much promise as the director of the charming period rock n' roll movie "That Thing You Do." To see him deliver something as charm-free and banal as "Larry Crowne" is just sad.

Tom Hanks stars in the title role of Larry Crowne. Larry is maybe the nicest, sweetest guy you would ever want Tom Hanks to play; he's Forrest Gump minus most of the mental handicaps. Larry was in the Navy for more than 20 years but when asked about it he's quick with a humble smile and an admittance that he was just a cook. Awww.

Larry's wife divorced him several years ago, before they could have kids but after they had bought their suburban dream home. Since then, Larry has thrown himself into his work, taking great pride in being an eight time employee of the month at U-Mart, a Wal-Mart/Target Superstore clone.

Unfortunately for Larry, he never went to college. At UMart you can only move up to management if you have a degree and without one, Larry can't move up so he must move on. Fired from his beloved retail job, Larry finds the job market unwelcoming. Lucky for him, his neighbor has an idea, Community College.

If Larry can get a degree maybe he can get his job back or an even better job. Is the movie over? No, it has only begun as Larry returns to school and immediately acquires a new best friend, a perfect pixie named Talia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who immediately sets about changing Larry's life around; new clothes, new haircut, new friends and boom, slightly new Larry. She's a manic pixie dream-best friend. 

Meanwhile, in another movie, Julia Roberts plays a slightly alcoholic Community College professor who happens to have Larry Crowne in one of her classes. From time to time the camera ditches Larry to follow the professor into her sad life with her porn addicted, unemployed husband, Dean (Bryan Cranston).

Oh if only she could get a little Larry time; his cuddliness and good humor would without a doubt brighten her day and solve all of troubles. Oops. I maybe should have offered a spoiler alert there. Then again, did you think "Larry Crowne" was going to star Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts and they weren't going to be matched up?

The fact is, romantic comedies aren't about suspenseful plotting, they're about setting believable, interesting, roadblocks between potential love mates and watching them humorously negotiate said roadblocks on their way to a chirpy happy ending. Rom-coms are about the journey and in the case of "Larry Crowne," it's not a great journey.

Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts demonstrate a stunning lack of chemistry in "Larry Crowne." In fact, Hanks has a great deal more chemistry with young Gugu Mbatha-Raw than with Julia Roberts. That however, would be a different, possibly more interesting movie. That movie would at least have the tension of a cross-racial May-December romance.

"Larry Crowne," on the other hand, has no tension whatsoever. As Roger Ebert points out perfectly in his review, Larry Crowne begins as a good guy and progresses through the movie as a good guy before ending as a good guy. There is no arc to "Larry Crowne." We know where the movie is going and it gets there with a minimum of humor and zero tension, as if complicating the plot might make the audience uncomfortable.

Oh, but there is the porn addict husband, right? He's a source of tension isn't he? He's played by Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston. That must be contentious? But it's not, the script deals the husband out of the story with such simplicity as to have simply forgotten he was even there.

It's shocking and sad just how bad "Larry Crowne" is. I am a huge Tom Hanks fan but I cannot deny just how banal the whole thing is. The humor is amateurish, the romance is lifeless and perfunctory and the movie just sort of stands around smiling pleasantly and hoping that all of the Tom Petty songs on the soundtrack, there are like a dozen of them, will be entertaining enough to distract from the dullness of what little story there is.

Movie Review Why Him?

Why Him? (2016) 

Directed by John Hamburg 

Written by John Hamburg, Ian Helfer 

Starring James Franco, Bryan Cranston, Megan Mullally, Zoey Deutsch, Griffin Gluck 

Release Date December 23rd, 2016 

Published December 22nd, 2016

Why Him(?) is an ungainly, awkward, mess of a movie. The film stars James Franco as one of the most off-putting characters ever brought to the screen, a tech billionaire named Laird who has no concept of how normal people interact. This could be a funny idea, the super-rich can tend to lose connection to the concerns and proprieties of the common man, but, Franco's performance isn’t merely that of a charmingly out of touch kook, but rather a genuinely out of sorts sociopath played as a comic creation.

Bryan Cranston co-stars with Franco in Why Him(?) and is apparently trying to create a character just as annoying as his co-star. Cranston is Ned Fleming, the father of Stephanie (Zoey Deutsch) who has gone off to college in Silicon Valley and fallen madly in love with Laird. Stephanie has invited the whole family, including her mother, Barb (Megan Mullally), and brother Scottie (Griffin Gluck), to fly to California from their home in Michigan to spend the holidays with her and Laird who they will meet for the very first time.

Laird's shtick is that he says everything that comes into his head with no filter. He curses to a degree that would shame Melissa McCarthy and is so incredibly disconnected from everyday small talk that he has no problem discussing sex with his clearly offended future in-laws. Even as everyone around him is clearly offended and uncomfortable with Laird's behavior he is completely oblivious and somehow this is supposed to be funny. It's not, it's just hard to watch.

For his part, Cranston plays Ned as a joyless crank. He’s miserable from the moment he arrives in California from Michigan and remains miserable through the films forced and predictable finale. So, Ned is a miserable character with no sense of humor, no jokes to leaven his miserable premise and the most that Cranston can seem to do with the character is physical shtick that is more like watching someone amid a mental breakdown than someone attempting physical humor. Cranston gesticulates and tenses every muscle and spits every line of dialogue and never once does something funny.

The supporting players in Why Him(?) come away far better off than the leads. Megan Mullally, a veteran of TV sitcoms, seems to know just where to pick her spots for her few jokes, while poor Zoey Deutsch spends most of her time trying to dodge the two leads whose gesticulations as they strain for every joke had to be rather dangerous for any co-star who wandered too closely. Keegan Michael Key, playing Franco's oddball, German accented, assistant Gustav, at the very least could fight back. His running gag is randomly attacking Laird as a way of developing his self-defense, a joke that falls flat, especially once Cranston begins trying to explain it.

Why Him(?) is completely derailed by a pair of lead performances that could not possibly be less appealing. The fact that both Cranston and Franco are former Academy Award nominees only compounds the problem. We know these two actors are better than this awful material and watching them act down to this garbage idea is just depressing.

I blame Director John Hamburg for most of the problems with Why Him(?). Having allowed his actors to do a great deal of improvisation, at least I assume that was improv, otherwise there is an editor who needs to find a new profession, Hamburg created the sloppy, slapdash environment that lead to this mess. Even worse, Hamburg fills out the awfulness by relying on bathroom humor with toilets and urine playing significant roles in the film.

What is it with John Hamburg and bathrooms? Bathroom issues have figured prominently in his humor in most of his movies from the cat that could flush a toilet in Meet the Parents to Ben Stiller's irritable bowels in Along Comes Polly to the fart jokes of Hamburg's one good movie, I Love You Man, Hamburg seems either obsessed with bathrooms or he's merely childish and lazy. Toilets figure prominently throughout Why Him(?) which ends with a post-credits scene all about toilets with pictures of people using the toilet. Ewww. 

At the very least toilets are an apt metaphor for Why Him(?). This movie needs to be flushed.