Movie Reviews

Film audiences are sure to recognize the name of one of the main characters in “The Shift.”  It is Neal McDonough who had a major role in Season 2 of television’s “Yellowstone.”  McDonough is one of the leads in this film by Brock Heasley, that tries to bring together religion and science fiction. Kristoffer Polaha is the other lead in “The Shift,” that of Kevin, who has quite a journey to make in the storyline. Supposedly, this story could be akin to Job of the Old Testament, but it misses the mark there.  Instead, it is science fiction with a villain, time warp and reminiscence  of television’s “Quantum Leap.”

The word “hayseed” has come to mean someone who is out of their element, usually in a small community. The stranger---the traveler---the visitor---are classified in one word that means “out of place.”  This is what happens to Leo Hobbins (Bill Sage), an insurance investigator who is called into action when one of the policy holders is found deceased.  The dead person is a pastor and found  in a pool on parish grounds. Accident, thought at first, but then, the word “doubt” comes into play and the search begins, The setting is Emmaus, Mich. and the name “Emmasus” will be familiar from the New Testament

here is a family with three children or more, the middle child is expected to be the problem child. Older sibling is the pride and joy, second child the unexpected and the third child, an after-thought. In “Sisters” Director/Scriptwriter Linda Olte gives us the viewpoint of a middle child in a trio of girls. The setting is Latvia and begins with children, for one reason or another, given by their parents to the state. There, they are provided with food, clothing, schooling, but eventually, they must leave. The center piece in this film is Anastasia (a thoughfully acted Emma Skirmante) who is thirteen years old, and doesn’t know how to live her life yet. This is no purpose as she can see, and poverty is always in the background.

Small villages in parts of Russia were called “shtetls” (village) and people who lived there were Shtetlers.  A mix of Christianity and Judaism lived side by side in harmony. On Sunday morning, a Jewish woman may help her Christian neighbors by milking their family cow while that family was in church, and then on Saturday, the Christian woman would milk the Jewish family’s cow while they were at the synagogue. If one had a torn coat, the other had needle and thread and would mend it. Side by side without animosity as opposed to what is happening in Israel right now. This documentary by filmmaker Katya Ustinova details life in several shtetls as she accompanies people with their memories who used to live there.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” is an exotic title for a book. However, these killers were on American soil and the subject of a 2017 book (non-fiction) by David Grann. It was a hit book and now progressing into the “hit film” stage as it opens around the country. Director Martin Scorsese (known especially for “Goodfellas”), now into his eighties, and with Eric Roth, adapted the book into a screenplay that runs four hours. No break here as in epics of the past such as “Ben-Hur." You sit all the way through. What is the subject that intrigues everyone so? The systematic killing of Oklahoma’s Osage Indians to gain control of the oil found on their properties. In other words, greed is the name of the game, and it is brutal, indeed. The main characters are Robert De Niro and Leonardo Di Caprio, who have worked with Martin Scorsese before. De Niro is William King Hale, who owns much land in Oklahoma and wants more in whatever way he can. Leonard Di Caprio as Hale’s nephew, who isn’t the brightest bulb in the box and does what he is told like a robot. Then there is Mollie, an Osage Indian woman and is played eloquently by Lily Gladstone, who becomes Leo’s wife and the word “love” is in question. Around these characters flows black gold and those eager for more of it, no matter what.

against mankind. This topic is becoming commonplace now and the film, “The Creator” is another film with that topic. Oh, special effects are fine and you can coast along on that for an hour or so, but beyond, the storyline is rather confusing, and at the end is a thud. John David Washington (“Tenet”) has the lead role of Joshua, a government agent. In Biblical times, Joshua was a leader who fought with unusual tactics, and this future is unusual

Several years ago, I saw a Hercule Poirot mystery on PBS television. Poirot was played by the excellent David Suchet who has portrayed Poirot the longest. He has the acting down pat and the moustache, also. This production was entitled “Halloween” and about a young woman, in England, who said she had witnessed a murder years before as a child. The scene was an apple-bobbing party and the next day, the young woman was found dead. Fast Forward and today we have “A Haunting in Venice” with the same theme, except the location. Kenneth Branagh, who directed the last two “Hercule Poirot” films (“Murder on the Orient Express” and “Death On The Nile”) also directs “A Haunting in Venice,” plus playing Hercule Poirot, Unfortunately, Branagh’s moustache in this movie takes over every scene and sometimes enters the room before he does. As with Agatha Christie mysteries, there is evil afoot and Hercule Poirot, master detective, is on the prowl. Christie also wrote about an inquisitive elderly lady, Miss Marple, who managed to solve crimes literally from her back yard. Margaret Rutherford played Miss Marple then.

The Expendables are mercenaries who have their own plane and go to far off places helping those in need. Each member has a specialty from technical to fire arms to body defense to explosives to whatever is needed at the time. There is a leader and here it is Sylvester Stallone (“Tulsa King”) who plays Barney Ross. If this group of films will continue, this is Stallone’s last film as “Barney,”

Director Ridley Scott has quite a background in films with battle scenes and heroes who dominate the screen. Favorites of mine are “Gladiator,” “Blackhawk Down,” “Blade Runner,” “Alien,” “Black Rain” and” Someone To Watch Over Me.” The list goes back quite a way. This year. Scott shows the audience a view of the French past with “Napoleon” and Joaquin Phoenix as the Emperor. Phoenix was also one of the stars of “Gladiator.” The script by David Scarpa focuses on Napoleon going up the French military ladder to become Emperor, with his marriage to Josephine (Vanessa Kirby) included, plus the exiles.

Actor Jason Statham (“Meg 2: The Trench”) is an action hero in the group such as Liam Neeson and Bruce Willis. Though, unfortunately, because of health reason, Willis is no longer acting. These men took on the bad guys and disposed of them in various ways, to the delight of audiences who, sometimes, would want to do the same thing. Their action films come out at a regular basis and so we have “The Beekeeper,” that centers on revenge. This time is it something that happens to a friend of Statham’s, whose name in the film is Clay. Director David Ayer (The Tax Collector”) knows how to stage a good fight and away we go. “The Beekeeper” debuted in Europe first and was a hit at the box-office there. Now, it is in the U.S.