Classic Movie Review Fatal Attraction

Fatal Attraction (1987) 

Directed by Adrian Lyne 

Written by James Dearden 

Starring Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Anne Archer 

Release Date September 18th, 1987 

Published September 17th, 2017 

Fatal Attraction stars Michael Douglas as a seemingly happy husband to Ann Archer and father to an adorable 6-year-old daughter. So why, if he’s so happy, does he decide to cheat on his wife? This questions comes to consume the mind of Alex (Glenn Close), the woman Douglas’ Dan decides to sleep with one night while his wife and daughter are away visiting family in the suburbs. Alex can’t understand why Dan would choose to sleep with her and then retreat back to his marriage.

That Alex is also mentally unbalanced does not help matters. Moments after Dan attempts to leave Alex for good and return to his normal upper middle-class life, Alex attempts to kill herself and Dan, not wanting anyone to find out about his fling, decides he needs to stay the night again to make sure Alex doesn’t die and thus potentially reveal his infidelity in the process. This is a decision he will come to regret as saving Alex’s life only furthers her obsession with him.

Will Dan get up the courage to tell his wife what he has done? Will he do it before Alex’s unhinged behavior becomes dangerous to Dan’s entire family? These are the questions of a very minor, very forgettable sub-genre of thrillers. And yet, somehow Fatal Attraction became a massive hit in 1987 and remains part of the cultural zeitgeist 30 years later. Actress Glenn Close as recently as the 25th Anniversary of the film’s release was still being told that she’d terrified men who saw the film.

Why? Why this movie? Why Fatal Attraction? What is it about this sleazy genre thriller that has lasted this long? What is it that keeps this film in our pop culture memory? It baffles me because I have seen knock off after knock off after knock off of the Fatal Attraction formula and none of them are any good. Certainly there is something to be said for being an original but shouldn’t the movie be better than this to last this long?

Fatal Attraction is a cheap, sleazy, silly thriller with over the top performances and capable but not outstanding direction. Adrian Lyne is a director obsessed with sexual politics but he doesn’t have much depth to his obsession. Lyne’s style is to ask big questions but not give the questions much weight beyond the plot in progress. The big question of Fatal Attraction is ‘What would you do if you were Dan?’ That’s not a very interesting question. Everything that happens to Dan is his own fault and while Lyne seems to want us to sympathize with him as Alex goes on the attack, it’s almost comical how unsympathetic Dan is.

Read my full length review in the Geeks Community at Vocal. 

Spoiler Alert: Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania What is Kang's Future in the MCU?

Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania (2023) 

Directed by Peyton Reed 

Written by Jeff Loveless

Starring Jonathan Majors, Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathryn Newton

Release Date February 17th, 2023 

Published February 20th, 2023 

This article carries with it spoilers for Ant-Man and The Wasp Quantumania, a decidedly mixed but not bad entry in the Marvel Canon. If you'd like to avoid spoilers, I suggest seeing the movie before coming back and reading this article. We are going to dig into the ending, specifically the mid and post credits sequences which set the table for the the latest reboot of the Marvel Cinematic Universe known as Phase 5. Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania is the kickoff for this new era of Marvel movies and you will want to see it before you read this thorough spoiler post. 

For those sticking around, welcome, let's talk about what should have been called Kang the Conqueror Quantumania because this was a Jonathan Majors movie far more than it was starring anyone else. Kang the Conqueror looms large over every aspect of Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania. He's the new Thanos and the movie does well to put over the idea of just how volatile and dangerous Kang truly is. Jonathan Majors does much of the heavy dramatic lifting in the movie and, for the most part, he's successful in establishing the next big bad of the Marvel Universe. 

Context: Ant-Man and the Wasp comes to a close with Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) seemingly sacrificing themselves to a life trapped in the Quantum Realm just so they can prevent Kang the Conqueror from escaping his Quantum Realm exile. Having shrank Kang even smaller than even they've gone, hurtling him into a seeming oblivion, Scott and Hope are then immediately rescued by Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), in an all too rushed and pat conclusion to what could have been a slightly more dramatic ending. 

Back home, Scott resumes his mundane, day to day existence as a pseudo-celebrity, walking down the streets of San Francisco smiling and waving like he was about to run for Mayor. This happy-go-lucky stroll is interrupted by a thought that nags at the back of Scott's mind. It's something that Kang said before he was sent into oblivion, that only he, Kang, could stop what is coming. Kang being a man who could control time would definitely know if something big, perhaps world-altering were coming down the pike. Did Scott just create this world-altering event by eliminating the one man who might be able to prevent it? 

And cut to credits. It's not a bad ending, but there are some things that could have improved it. That said, the intriguing question of what's next in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is established with this victory but at what cost ending. Kang the Conqueror may have been vanquished but Kang is not done trying to conquer the multiverse. For you see, dear reader, because of the Multiverse, there are millions of Kangs. Three of them seem to have risen to the top of the Kang Army but there are an unending number of variations and they've all just been given the greenlight to unleash multiversal chaos. 

Find my full length Spoiler Alert at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania

Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania 

Directed by Peyton Reed

Written by Jeff Loveness

Starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas, Jonathan Majors 

Release Date February 17th, 2023 

Published February 15th, 2023 

In the Quantum Realm Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) believed she would live out her days alone and lost. Then, a spaceship crashed in front of her. Inside was a man with no name, though she would eventually know him as Kang (Jonathan Majors). For a time, Janet and this nameless man worked together to try and escape from the Quantum Realm. That partnership ended when Janet found out who Kang really was, an entity, a being, a God, known as Kang The Conqueror. 

Kang once held a mastery over time. His God-like powers allowed him to travel the multiverse where he destroyed entire branch universes in order to consolidate his own power. Trapped in the Quantum Realm after Janet betrayed him, Kang built an empire and kept searching for a means to escape. That chance to escape comes after Janet has managed to escape, with the help of Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), aka Ant-Man. It takes a little time but when Cassie Lang built a machine that could map the Quantum Realm, it opened a portal that sucked in Cassie, her dad Scott, Janet, her husband, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and Janet's daughter, Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), aka The Wasp. 

Now trapped in the Quantum Realm and separated from each other, the family must find a way to reunite. All while being pursued by Kang who hopes to steal whatever means allowed Janet to escape from the Quantum Realm. That means being, Pym Particles, the creation that allows Ant-Man and The Wasp to shrink or grow in size and take advantage of the strength of ants. Kang believes that this technology could be used to restore the MacGuffin that gave power to the ship that stranded him in the Quantum Realm and allow him to travel to and conquer universes as he had done before he was exiled. 

And that's the plot of Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania. Can Scott Lang overcome the God-Like powers of Kang the Conqueror and keep him from destroying countless universes. It's a solid and relatively simple plot but one that lacks much in terms of depth. Scott Lang's character arc isn't much. He wishes he could go back to before The Snap and be with Cassie as she grows up. Kang, with his ability to manipulate time, might be able to give him that wish. However, though the trailer seems to indicate that Scott would be open to working with Kang, that doesn't happen in the movie. 

At no point is Scott not the Ant-Man we've always known, a slightly gawky devoted dad and practical screw-up. The movie doesn't change him much nor, does it appear that his experiences saving the world alongside the Avengers seem to have changed him much. He's perhaps become overly cautious when it comes to Cassie, urging her not to take risks or do anything that might risk her safety, even if said thing is the right thing to do. That's not really much of an arc but that's about all that we get in Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania. 

In terms of arcs, none of these characters seem to have much growth or change. Janet Van Dyne does open up to her family for the first time since she has been back in her own universe but that's only because of the dangerous circumstances at play and not due to any emotional growth on her part. As for Hank and Hope, they're mostly sidelined here. Hope especially, seems to have less dialogue and screen time than in the previous Ant-Man movies. Michael Douglas has a few moments where he looks cool but he's mostly superfluous to the plot. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Documentary Review Downwind

Downwind (2023) 

Directed by Douglas Brian Miller, Mark Shapiro 

Written by Documentary 

Starring Martin Sheen, Patrick Wayne, Michael Douglas 

Release Date January 23rd, 2023 

Published January 27th, 2023 

Downwind is a terrifying title. Being downwind simply is not a place you want to be in most, if not all contexts. That is especially true if you are downwind from sites where the American government was testing nuclear weapons. Between 1951 and 1992 the United States Military tested 928 Nuclear Weapons on a site in Mercury, Nevada. Despite promises of security and safety, those who lived downwind over Mercury, Nevada, to this day, die more frequently from cancer than anywhere in the country. That the community most affected by being downwind from Mercury, Nevada is a community of the Shoshone Indian Tribe only adds another layer of awful to this terrible story of misguided hubris and disregard of basic human decency. 

The documentary Downwind tells the story of the American nuclear project and the various effects testing nuclear weapons on American soil has had on the American people. The dropping of Atomic weapons on Japan in World War 2 touched off an arms race unlike any in the history of the world. Then, when nuclear weapons were developed, a whole new horror was brought to bear on mankind, one that brought the world to the brink of complete extinction. You see, the American government knew all along that the use of Nuclear weapons would lead to dangerous and deadly fallout but pushed forward with nuclear weapons anyway out of fear that Russia would develop the weapon first. 

In order to develop nuclear weapons, the American government needed to test those weapons. Needing a secure place to do the testing, away from the potential for foreign spies finding out about these developments, and not wanting to create fallout near population centers of the United States, the government settled on tiny Mercury, Nevada. Not so much a town, as a ghost town, Mercury was several miles from anywhere people were living. It would, perhaps, be the safest place this type of testing could be done if there were such a thing as safely testing nuclear weapons. 

Naturally, the desire to harness a new, more powerful weapon, overcame good sense and testing moved ahead despite the fact that everyone was aware of the possibility that anyone living 'downwind' of Mercury could be exposed to radiation fallout, a deadly result of the use of nuclear weapons. The reason nuclear weapons could cause mass extinction if ever used isn't because of the thousands of people who would die from a nuclear blast. Rather, the radiation fallout from the use of nuclear weapons on a global scale, such as the scenario of Russia and the United States firing weapons at each other, would poison the planet and hasten a relatively slow and painful end via disease, famine and drought. 

Find my full length review at Swamp.Media linked here. 

Movie Review: You Me and Dupree

You Me and Dupree (2006) 

Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo

Written by Michael Lesieur

Starring Owen Wilson, Matt Dillon Kate Hudson, Michael Douglas, Seth Rogen, Bill Hader

Release Date July 14th, 2006 

Published July 16th, 2006 

Owen Wilson's career is coming to a serious crossroads. The star of Wedding Crashers and charter member of Hollywood's so called frat pack, with his pals Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell; is reaching a tipping point with his good natured slacker persona. How much longer can Wilson continue to play the same relaxed slacker charmer and remain in the good graces of audiences? 

How much longer can Wilson play a variation on the laid back musing hippy that has made him a star. His latest effort, You, Me and Dupree co-starring Matt Dillon and Kate Hudson, gives us a glimpse of Wilson's coming crossroads crisis. Exhibiting the very limits of his appeal, Dupree is typical of the dazed and confused good natured stoner that Wilson has made his bread and butter, he is also however an example of how that laid back stoner can be as irksome as he is charming.

As we join the story of You, Me and Dupree, Carl (Matt Dillon) is in Hawaii preparing to marry his fiancee Molly when his best friend and best man Dupree turns up on the wrong island and needs to be flown in. Dupree has always been a drifting, lazy, slacker but his friends, Carl and Neil (Seth Rogan) have always loved him.

Now that Carl is getting married the whole dynamic of their friendship is changing. Faced with having to watch his friend really grow up, at 36 years old, Dupree finds himself once again in arrested development. Having been fired from his job for attending Carl's wedding without bothering to get time off from work, Dupree is homeless and sleeping on a cot in a bar.

Seeing Dupree's dire straits Carl, fresh from his honeymoon, invites Dupree to sleep on his couch for a few days much to the chagrin of Molly. Naturally, hi-junks ensue as Dupree makes his mark on his new territory. He floods the downstairs bathroom, eats all of the food and eventually nearly burns the house down while sharing intimate relations with a friend of Molly's.

All of Dupree's actions and his completely oblivious attitude make for one truly irritating character. And then the film takes a giant mid-point turn that those of you who are really sensitive to spoilers might want to skip until you have seen the film........

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After all of the horrible things that Dupree does the filmmakers Anthony and Joe Russo decide to try and turn Dupree into the good guy of the movie. It's really rather astonishing. To the half way point you are with Kate Hudson' Molly in wanting to strangle Dupree but then the movie tries to turn him into this slacker with a heart of gold with a philosophy that heals all and suddenly even Molly is on his side while Matt Dillon's Carl turns into the worst variation of a Ben Stiller Jovian afflicted fool. This may work for those in the audience willing to love Owen Wilson no matter what but if you aren't buying Wilson's usual charm as I wasn't the mid-point twist is nearly as irritating as Dupree himself.

The film is pretty well downhill from this point. Michael Douglas joins the fray as Molly's doting dad who happens to hate Carl. This plot line leads into one of my biggest movie pet peeves. The troubles of Carl could be solved completely with one open honest conversation but if he were to do the logical thing and have this conversation there would be no movie. Thus the plot requires Carl to be a fool. This further undermines Dillon who was already stuck with a role it is clear Ben Stiller turned down.

I cannot say that You, Me And Dupree is completely devoid of laughs. With a cast this talented and lovable laughs are going to come no matter how poor the plot or direction. Owen Wilson occasionally emerges from the Dupree character with this wonderful hangdog expression reminiscent of a loving puppy that messed on the floor but doesn't truly realize he's done anything wrong. It's undeniably charming and at times funny.

Kate Hudson is really spot on throughout. Had not the script and direction let her down at every turn her winning smile and ability to adapt to any comic situation could have turned the whole film around. Its unfortunate that she accepted a role in which her character subservient to the whims of her male counterparts. Though she is clearly the equal of her co-stars in terms of star power, the plot relegates her to a dull supporting role that she seems far to big for.

Matt Dillon never should have accepted this role. I'm sure the idea, which came from two of the minds behind TV's brilliant Arrested Development, seemed like a potentially fun idea but he had to have seen the writing on the wall that this was a role meant for the slow boil, comedy of humiliation that is the specialty of Ben Stiller. Dillon is never comfortable in this role which is neither deep enough for his terrific instinctual acting or loose enough for the kind of wild streak that he showed in There's Something About Mary.

In the end You, Me and Dupree turns on the likability and adaptability of Owen Wilson. Sadly he is not up to the task. Dupree exposes the limitations of Wilson as an actor and a persona. Dupree evokes the idea of a stand up comedy routine rather than a fully fleshed out film character. The Owen Wilson persona established in Wedding Crashers, Starsky and Hutch and Zoolander, keeps peeking out from behind the character to wink at the audience and undermine Dupree as a character. You are essentially watching Owen Wilson try out the material of a Dupree character rather than watching a real character develop.

The one word that kept popping into my head throughout You, Me and Dupree was irritating. Dupree as a character and as played by Owen Wilson is irritating. Kate Hudson forced to dial down her star wattage is irritating. Matt Dillon shoehorned into a Ben Stiller character is irritating. The toneless, rhythmless direction of Anthony and Joe Russo is irritating. And at 2 hours in length Me, You And Dupree like it's central houseguest from hell overstays it's welcome and that is truly irritating.

Movie Review: Wall Street Money Never Sleeps

Wall Street Money Never Sleeps (2010) 

Directed by Oliver Stone

Written by Allen Loeb, Stephen Schiff

Starring Michael Douglas, Carey Mulligan, Frank Langella, Shia LeBeouf

Release Date September 24th, 2010

Published September 23rd, 2010 

Director Oliver Stone has long been a fearsome critic of Wall Street greed. His Frankenstein character Gordon Gekko from 1987's “Wall Street” was meant as a stinging rebuke of Wall Street greed but became the progenitor of a new generation of real life Wall Street sharks who idolized Gekko's 'Greed is Good' philosophy.

More than 20 years later Stone looked set to take on Wall Street again as massive financial machines came crashing down before the government stepped in to save them. The financial meltdown seemed to provide the perfect background for the return of Gordon Gekko and an opportunity for Stone to provide the ultimate artistic polemic damning the Greed is Good generation. So what happened?

“Wall Street” Money Never Sleeps” stars Shia LeBeouf, picking up on the Wall Street wunderkind role essayed by Charlie Sheen in the original “Wall Street.” Shia is Jacob Moore, a 20 something who has risen fast at a powerful banking firm that stands on the verge of collapse. His mentor, the company CEO (Frank Langella), has leveraged the company on a lot of bad debt.

In a mirror image of Lehman Brothers, the company collapses and the rest of Wall Street rushes in to pick the bones. Soon, Jacob's mentor has taken his own life and Jacob is looking for revenge against the snake-like CEO of a rival company, Bretton James (Josh Brolin), who was responsible for his company’s downfall.

Jacob happens to have an unlikely ace in the hole; he's engaged to Winnie Gekko (Carey Mulligan), daughter of disgraced but re-emerging Wall Street titan Gordon Gekko. With a new book coming out and prison in his rearview mirror, Gekko too is in the revenge business, seeking the people who helped send him to prison. Seeing that he and Jacob may have a common enemy, Gekko offers sage advice and inside information all the while poking the kid to help repair Gekko's strained relationship with his daughter.

It is in the private lives of Jacob and Winnie where “Wall Street” Money Never Sleeps” goes awry. Carey Mulligan is a wonderful actress, always very compelling but here she is reduced to whiny caricature and plot creation. Winnie Gekko doesn't exist fully as a stand alone character and whenever she's onscreen you are left longing for what's happening in the boardrooms and backrooms where the billions of dollars are changing hand.

Director Oliver Stone, unfortunately, uses the relationship stuff as a place to hide from the Wall Street stuff. Where audiences come in expecting the controversial director to come out swinging against Wall Street greed monsters, we are shocked to find how often Stone turns tail and runs to the softer ground of father daughter and boyfriend girlfriend melodrama.

Yes, the relationship stuff does tie back to the main plot but it's more distracting than compelling. Josh Brolin and Frank Langella provide the film's best scenes as they battle for the soul of Wall Street and the politics of money within the walls of the Federal Reserve building. In Langella we see the failed dream of the honest man and in Brolin the mindless consumption that nearly drowned us all.

These scenes are achingly compelling and offer a glimpse of the Wall Street sequel many felt we would be getting. Sadly, it is only a glimpse as LeBoeuf's Jacob is never remotely compelling as Langella's sad mentor character. Once Langella is gone, Brolin and Douglas suck the air out and leave LeBeouf gasping in their wake, unable to support the edgy, critical side of Wall Street that we thought we were getting.

It's fair to theorize that LeBeoef's cypher like performance may be why Stone backed off on the more biting and dangerous critiques of modern day Wall Street. Lebeouf simply couldn't carry the weight. Stuck with him, Stone reverts to the romance and family plots, kicking in Susan Sarandon as Jacob's mom for extra help, and leaving “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” shockingly soporific.

As for the return of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko he is sadly trapped by director Oliver Stone's wimping out. Gekko could have been, should have been the ultimate rebuke, the hammer that came crashing down on modern Wall Street greed. Instead, Gordon Gekko is softened and chastened by the need for the love of his daughter. Stone does well to isolate Gekko into his own plot and evoke the things we remember from the original “Wall Street,” but I can't be the only one who was hoping for something more than mere nostalgia.

For whatever reason, Oliver Stone pulled up short in “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” either unwilling or unable to pull the trigger on the kind of crushing polemic that many had hoped the ultra-left wing director would deliver upon the criminals who robbed America and left the economy in tatters for their own gain.

Movie Review King of California

King of California (2007)

Directed by Mike Cahill

Written by Mike Cahill

Starring Michael Douglas, Evan Rachel Wood

Release Date September 14th, 2007

Published December 12th, 2007

So many movies look the same, act the same and tell us all the same things. Rare is the movie that truly walks to its own beat. That peculiar kind of movie that may not even be a great movie, is at the very least one that keeps its own beat and maintains its own peculiar rhythm. That is something the movie King of California does. Directed by first time filmmaker Mike Cahill, this modern treasure hunting tale stars Michael Douglas as a manic depressive jazz artist seeking lost gold beneath a Southern California chain store.

The description may actually be better than the film itself but what is terrific and recommendable about King of California is the film's unique energy, a nervy performance from young Rachel Evan Wood, and a willingness to walk to a beat that is far off the beaten path. A little bit of jazz tossed over the wall of mainstream pop filmmaking. A much needed change of pace.

Charlie (Michael Douglas) is the kind of unpredictable personality that makes life interesting, if nearly impossible. His flights of fancy from becoming a holistic healer to selling his possessions to retrieve his beloved stand up bass and continue his attempt at a career as a jazzman were what kept his daughter Miranda's life out of control for so many years. His commitment to a mental institution when she was 15 was really just the rest she needed. Scamming her parents and the department of child services, she has somehow managed life on her own for two years and when Charlie is released, she braces for having her newfound routine upended.

Seems Charlie has spent his commitment time reading about treasure and is now a committed treasure hunter. The gold of a Spanish priest is what he's after and he claims to know where to find it. This means late nights spent in forests with a metal detector and days with shovels and even a backhoe. It also means losing her car when Charlie can't find a way to pay for the backhoe. The strain of father and daughter's relationship gives juice to the early scenes of King of California but it is only when Charlie feels he has located the treasure, beneath a Costco in the valley, when things really get interesting.

Mike Cahill wrote and directed King of California under the guidance of producer Alexander Payne, among others, who is the mind behind some of the most unique and quirky films of the last decade. The influence can be felt in the film's unique rhythms and jazzy soundtrack. King of California is Cahill's vision, I have no doubt, but the filmmaking has a distinctly Payne-like feel, and that is not a bad thing. The feel of the film, the warm southern California visuals, are quite similar to the dusty sun drenched eves of Payne's masterpiece Sideways.

Then there is the mind freaked, tweaked performance of Michael Douglas. Buried beneath a bums beard and looking his age like never before, Douglas gives his all to this character and the effort shows. That is a double edged sword. At once, the character is entertaining and a little too much to take. The character edges toward crazy caricature a few times and it threatens to tip the delicate balance of this rhythmically odd little movie. He is leavened by the steady star performance of Evan Rachel Wood but Douglas would have been well advised to dial back the Don Quixote for a more natural kind of crazy.

That is a minor quibble however with what is a sweet, charming and slightly peculiar little movie, one that will delight renters for a night in front of the TV. Not life changing art by any stretch, King of California delivers just a nice change of pace from the typical. Like a night of jazz instead of your usual diet of predictable mainstream pop, King of California is the kind of movie we need once in a while to show us what else is out there. To show us that not every movie has to be factory made to entertain the masses. For that I say thank you.

Movie Review It Runs in the Family

It Runs in the Family (2003) 

Directed by Fred Schepisi

Written by Jesse Wigutow 

Starring Michael Douglas, Kirk Douglas, Cameron Douglas, Rory Culkin, Bernadette Peters

Release Date April 25th, 2003

Published April 25th, 2003 

Kirk and Michael Douglas have been searching for years for a project to do together. So what made them choose this film? According to the younger Douglas, the combination of his father's stroke and the tragedy of September 11th made them both realize time is short. Unfortunately, that may have rushed them a little too much in the reading of the script for It Runs In The Family. They saw a workable father-son dynamic, what they missed was the story that surrounded them, a collection of hackney one scenes that wouldn't make it on the worst of sitcoms.

Michael Douglas is Alex Gromberg, an unsatisfied, unhappy corporate lawyer who lives in the shadow of his father Mitchell (Kirk Douglas), the founder of the law firm. As intimated by his co-workers, Alex only remains with the firm to satisfy his father. Unfortunately that doesn't seem possible. As the Gromberg family including Alex's wife Rebecca (Bernadette Peters). His youngest son Eli (Rory Culkin), his mother (Diana Douglas) as well as his no-good oldest son Asher (Cameron Douglas) assemble for Passover; they prepare for yet another family sparring match between father and son over just about everything.

Alex has trouble piling up all around him. At work he has taken on a pro bono case against one of the firm’s own clients. At his volunteer job at a soup kitchen there’s a young woman who can't keep her hands off of him. And of course at home his wife is suspicious of his fidelity and his sons won't talk to him.

That is the setup, abridged by this reviewer to make it coherent. For the plot description it was necessary for me to cut to the chase because the film itself is a series of stops and starts. Annoyingly episodic takes that go absolutely nowhere. So disconnected are some scenes that they could have been reedited into the film in any order.

It's easy to see where this film went wrong, it was bad from its conception. It Runs In the Family is a vanity project and as most vanity projects it plays as everyone knows it's no good but hey, let's finish it anyway. It's nice that Michael and Kirk Douglas got to work together finally and that they could incorporate Michael's son Cameron and Michael's mom. Working with Kirk's ex wife Diana Douglas must have been a real treat for the family but it's not much for the audience.

Director Fred Schepisi is competent and confident in his direction but the film’s script by Jesse Wigutow short circuits anything Schepisi might have accomplished. I doubt it was Wigutow's fault entirely as the script seems unfinished and with this being a vanity project it was probably changed significantly to fit the cast.

It was very nice to see Michael and Kirk Douglas on screen together and it's nice to see how lively Kirk still is at his advanced age. This film is not the coda his career deserves, though this is not necessarily his last film, but there are moments when his class and dignity raises the level of the film. There aren’t many of those moments, but they are nice nevertheless.

Movie Review: Ant-Man and The Wasp

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) 

Directed by Peyton Reed 

Written by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Paul Rudd

Starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Walton Goggins, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judy Greer 

Release Date July 6th, 2018

Published July 5th, 2018 

Ant-Man and the Wasp is an absolute blast. The latest movie to shine in the Marvel Universe, this fast-paced, funny action flick more than lives up the superhero hype with a pair of delightful lead performances from Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly, as the titular duo, and an exceptional colorful supporting cast including Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Pena.

Ant-Man and The Wasp picks up the story of Scott Lang (Rudd) 2 years after the events of Captain America Civil War wherein Scott, as Ant-Man, took sides with Captain America (Chris Evans) and in doing so violated the Sokovia Accords. This led to a year in jail and another year in house arrest where, at the very least, he gets to spend time with his daughter when he isn’t learning sleight of hand magic or playing drums, in a video game.

The story really kicks in when Hope Van Dyne (Lilly) and her father, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), open a portal to the Quantum Realm where Scott was nearly lost forever in the last film and where Hope’s mother, Hank’s wife, Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) has been lost for decades. Opening the Quantum Realm reveals that Janet has created a way, via Scott, for her to communicate and perhaps escape her decades long exile.

Meanwhile, a baddie calling herself The Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) is trying to steal Hank’s lab to try and save her life. The less revealed about Ghost the better, the character has a fun secret that is revealed throughout the movie. The Ghost isn’t the only baddie however, as a shady arms dealer, played by Walton Goggins decides that he wants to steal Hank’s technology in order to sell it to the highest bidder.

That’s the set up for a  whole bunch of terrifically funny gags. Ant-Man and The Wasp is so much fun! Director Peyton Reed, much maligned for taking over the first Ant-Man after fan favorite Edgar Wright was dropped from the project, shows growth as a visual artist and in the confidence of a man with a vision. Reed appears to want Ant-Man to be the comic conscience of the Marvel Universe and two features in, he’s lived up to that title.

So how does Ant-Man and The Wasp fit into the narrative of the wider MCU? Well, I am not going to spoil that, you need to see this movie for that fun. I will say that the mid-credits scene is where the ongoing narrative is addressed and that there is no need to stay for the end credits scene which is merely the end of a running gag in Ant-Man and The Wasp and one of the few things in the movie that isn’t particularly funny.

Ant-Man and The Wasp is another triumph for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s a film that combines the best traits of the Marvel Universe from big laughs to big action to genuine drama. Michael Douglas adds genuine gravitas to Ant-Man and The Wasp and when he and Michelle Pfeiffer finally share the screen the scene is legitimately moving thanks to the wide-ranging talents of both actors and this super smart, funny script.

Ant-Man and The Wasp is one of my favorite movies of 2018.

Movie Review: The Sentinel

The Sentinel (2006) 

Directed by Clark Johnson 

Written by George Nolfi 

Starring Michael Douglas, Eva Longoria, Kiefer Sutherland, Kim Basinger 

Release Date April 21st, 2006 

Published April 20th, 2006

Michael Douglas projects an image of class. At sixty his stately handsomeness has an air of wisdom and strength. And yet, in his films Douglas rarely plays any character of true wisdom or class. In fact the word crass is a far better signifier of Douglas's characters than class. Look at his resume. From Fatal Attraction to Wall Street to Basic Instinct to Disclosure to his best film Wonder Boys and now his latest effort the action thriller, The Sentinel, Douglas has a penchant for characters whose penis functions ahead of his brain. It's a pattern that only grows creepier with age. When do Douglas characters start thinking with their heads instead of their pants, the guy is 60 for crying out loud.

In The Sentinel Douglas stars as Secret Service Agent Pete Garrison who once took a bullet for President Reagan. Pete has lived off this fading glory for years although it has done him little good in rising through the ranks of the service where he currently resides on the detail of the First Lady (Kim Basinger). Actually it's not a bad gig for Pete who happens to be boffing the first lady behind the Prez's back. Yeah! In a plot that makes Murder At 1600 look like Shakespeare, Douglas's secret service agent finds his affair with the first lady about to be exposed unless he can track down a terrorist group planning to assassinate the President (David Rasche).

Pete is being framed for the assassination plot by a mastermind so obvious that if you haven't identified him simply from the cast list you are not paying close enough attention. Here's a hint, it's not Kiefer Sutherland. He plays Secret Service Investigator Dave Breckinridge who is assigned to apprehend Pete Garrison after he is implicated in the assassination plot. Pete and Dave have history, Pete may or may not have been sleeping with Dave's wife. Thankfully Breckinridge is the extremely by the book type who does not allow such personal details to cloud his judgement. He also has the help of a new rookie partner, Jill Marin (Eva Longoria), who happens to have trained under Garrison.

Part Murder at 1600, part The Fugitive, and all ugh!!! The Sentinel is a creepy mess of crass commercial filmmaking from a director whose career is marked by some terrific work on the small screen and just awful work on the big screen. Clark Johnson started as an actor on TV's Homicide before moving behind the camera on that show and then on The West Wing, The Shield and Soul Food. His first big screen credit was the TV adaptation SWAT which was, at best, mainstream commercial schlock and at worst yet another dimwitted attempt to create a profitable franchise based on perceived nostalgia .

Johnson's work on The Sentinel is just utter nonsense. Johnson seems completely unaware of just how predictable his mystery is and just plows ahead with one lame action set piece after another on his way to a happy ending. Kiefer Sutherland, in his first major big screen role since he started on TV's best thriller 24, delivers a surprisingly strong performance given the circumstances. It helps that Breckinridge is not far removed from his Jack Bauer. That commanding presence and slight hint of crazy behind the eyes marks both Bauer and Breckinridge and who knows, may just be part of Kiefer the man.

As for Douglas, this aging lothario whose penis constantly leads him into trouble act is getting stale and creepy. How much longer are we to believe that every woman he has sex with is going to get him in serious trouble. He has an Oscar, lead actor in Wall Street, but unlike his father, Kirk Douglas, whose shadow has proven inescapable no matter how much money Michael makes, he's never had a "Lust For Life", a "Spartacus" or a "Bad and The Beautiful". Michael has never made an undeniable screen classic that will be remembered forever.

Would anyone really want to be remembered for Basic Instinct? And even that Oscar for Wall Street was more than a little shaky, it's not the lead performance in that movie and hindsight unkindly reflects how this was as much a win for the performance as for industry people liking Michael Douglas. Michael Douglas has many more films to make and plenty of time to find that timeless classic performance but until he does he is going to be the creepy old guy whose dick does all of his thinking for him. Not a great legacy.

Movie Review Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) 

Directed by Mark Waters 

Written by Jon Lucas, Scott Moore 

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Breckin Meyer, Lacey Chabert, Robert Forster, Emma Stone 

Release Date May 1st, 2009 

Published April 30th, 2009 

In this day and age of mass media marketing it is almost impossible for even the most objective of critics to not form some opinion of a movie before having seen it. Featurettes, commercials, and film trailers and posters are splattered over every inch of the internet and TV. Movie Stars appear on TV talk shows with clips and follow that with a podcast and an audio trailer.

Thus, I was exposed to the terrifically awful trailer for the Matthew McConaughey movie Ghosts of Girlfriends past more than 6 months ago and the stream of promotion has been unfailingly ever present  ever since. The subsequent clips, commercials and trailers have been as bad or worse than that first trailer and I must be honest and admit that I was bracing for a disaster when I finally saw the movie.

These many promotions for the film offer a seriously dopey series of rom-com clichés pitched to the plot of Dickens' A Christmas Carol and a super generic pop soundtrack. Matthew McConaughey's recent track record of bad movie after bad movie does the film's reputation no favors either. So, imagine my surprise when first I chuckled and then laughed out loud and was eventually kind of taken in by this admittedly cheesy but undeniably compelling romantic comedy. Don't get me wrong, this is not a really good movie but it succeeds for not being nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

Connor Mead (McConaughey) is a world famous photographer whose string of sexual encounters would cause Wilt Chamberlain to advise a nap. Having lost his parents when he was just 7 years old, Connor and his younger brother Paul (Breckin Meyer) were raised by their playboy uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas). It was Uncle Wayne who taught Connor to treat women as he does and it will be Uncle Wayne who will teach him the error of his ways.

Conor is attending Paul's wedding to Sandra (Lacey Chabert) where he encounters the one girl who really ever got to him, Jenny (Jennifer Garner). The encounter sends Connor on a bit of a binge and soon he is seeing ghosts. First, it's the ghost of his late Uncle who lays out the plot: Connor will be visited by three other ghosts, each representing the women who Connor's womanizing ways have victimized.

Say, doesn't that three ghosts thing sound familiar? Of course it does, it's Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Instead of the miserly money grubbing Scrooge we have the sex addicted misogynist Connor. In place of his late partner Marley and his rattling chains we have Connor's mentor Uncle Wayne with his glass of whiskey with ice clinking in the glass. The copied plot offers the opportunity for the film to be lazy and at times it is, especially when establishing a timeline for Connor's life. However, thanks to the committed and forthright performance of McConaughey, a lot of the film's troubles go by the wayside.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is a little coy about exploring what a bastard Connor truly is, the best and lamest example has him breaking up with three girls at once over a conference call while his next conquest watches from his bed. The scene is played for awkward laughs rather than an ominous sign of Connor's troubled soul and the conflict fails to develop. Much of the first act struggles this way but once Emma Stone arrives as the first of three ghosts and Connor is forced to see the wreckage of his life things take a surprisingly compelling turn. Also helping things along is the chemistry between McConaughey and Garner as the one woman who ever to called Connor on his garbage.

Romantic comedy convention will require Connor to be reformed and for he and Jenny to fall in love. What director Mark Waters does well is keep the typical roadblocks thrown in front of them believable enough to distract from the inevitability. Then it becomes the job of the actors to make us want to see them together and McConaughey and Garner pull that off splendidly. Garner's Jenny is just the kind of girl to make a bad dog go good and McConaughey's believable turn from scumbag to reformed good guy is shockingly plausible.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is a highly flawed film but, by the standard of your average romantic comedy, it's not that bad. Low expectations based on the awful marketing campaign have certainly helped me to this relatively positive conclusion, but nevertheless, I can't pretend I didn't enjoy Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.