Movie Reviews | Jmunney's Blog

This Is a Movie Review: ‘Uncle Drew’ Shows the Youngbloods How It’s Done

June 28, 2018

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews Charles Stone III, Chris Webber, Erica Ash, JB Smoove, Kyrie Irving, Lil Rel Howery, Lisa Leslie, Mike Epps, Nate Robinson, Nick Kroll, Reggie Miller, Shaquille O’Neal, Tiffany Haddish, Uncle Drew Leave a comment

CREDIT: Quantrell D. Colbert/Lionsgate.

This review was originally posted on News Cult in June 2018.

Starring: Kyrie Irving, Lil Rel Howery, Erica Ash, Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber, Reggie Miller, Nate Robinson, Lisa Leslie, Nick Kroll, Tiffany Haddish, JB Smoove, Mike Epps

Director: Charles Stone III

Running Time: 103 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for General Shenanigans and a 7-Foot-Tall Man’s Bare Behind

Release Date: June 29, 2018

One of the joys of growing up in the 1990s was savoring the plethora of sports movies and athletes moonlighting as movie stars. It was something of a golden age, or at least that’s how it appeared to my impressionable mind. There were the minor, but era-defining hits like Rookie of the Year, Shaq was basically allowed to do whatever he wanted, even Dennis Rodman teamed up with Jean-Claude van Damme before he became buddies with Kim Jong Un. And of course there was the landmark success of Space Jam. This is all to say, movies like Uncle Drew, which stars NBA star Kyrie Irving as a character he originated for Pepsi Max, don’t really get made anymore. And while it certainly does not reinvent the sports flick or old-people-drag genres, it is heartening to know that something like this can still exist.

The title character, a Harlem streetball legend spoken about in mythical terms, certainly plays into a desire to return to past glories, as he chastises and schools young ballers on the right way to play the game. He is also prone to decry the “rappity-hippity-hop” music of today’s “youngbloods,” instead preferring to listen to hours-long funk jams on the eight-track player in his vintage van. But the film manages to avoid unhealthy nostalgia, as Drew’s version of the past is too goofy and demented to tempt anyone away from dismissing reality. The humor of this team of old farts, while certainly broadly drawn, is based on actual characterization instead of shallow punch lines. Actual NBA and WNBA stars like Reggie Miller, Nate Robinson, and Lisa Leslie have plenty of natural charisma. And there is just something inherently satisfying about dressing Shaq up like Wolverine’s grandfather and continuing to rib Chris Webber for one of the biggest mental lapses in basketball history.

What will make Uncle Drew a great choice over the coming years to watch for the hundredth time with friends is its fundamental niceness. We come to meet Drew via Dax (Lil Rel Howery), a streetball manager dedicated to the game but who gave up playing it years ago after a mortifying middle school defeat. Recently homeless, he is desperate to win the $100,000 grand prize at a high-profile Harlem tournament, thus why he turns to Drew and his band of old coots despite their clashing personalities and body temperatures. When the team finds out about Dax’s financial troubles, they feel a little betrayed upon discovering his true motivations, but they mostly encourage him to get back in touch with his love of the game. That ethos of bonhomie is matched by Uncle Drew‘s fundamentally welcome silliness and lovingly shot footage of between-the-legs dribbling, lights-out three pointers, and slam dunks.

Uncle Drew is Recommended If You Like: Space Jam, Coming to America, ESPN 30 for 30 documentaries

Grade: 3 out of 5 Boom Boom Rooms

This Is a Movie Review: Sicario: Day of the Soldado

June 28, 2018

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews Benicio del Toro, Catherine Keener, Elijah Rodriguez, Isabela Moner, Jeffrey Donovan, Josh Brolin, Matthew Modine, Sicario, Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Stefano Sollima Leave a comment

CREDIT: Richard Foreman, Jr./SMPSP

I give Sicario: Day of the Soldado 2.5 out of 5 False Flags: https://uinterview.com/reviews/movies/sicario-day-of-the-soldado-movie-review-cia-vs-drug-cartel-sequel-is-tense-and-well-crafted-but-shallow/

This Is a Movie Review: ‘Damsel’ is a Gonzo Western With an Important Message on Its Mind

June 21, 2018

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews Damsel, David Zellner, Joseph Billingiere, Mia Wasikowska, Nathan Zellner, Robert Forster, Robert Pattinson Leave a comment

CREDIT: Magnolia Pictures

This review was originally posted on News Cult in June 2018.

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, David Zellner, Nathan Zellner, Joseph Billingiere, Robert Forster

Directors: David Zellner and Nathan Zellner

Running Time: 113 Minutes

Rating: R for Sharpshooting Violence and Occasional Graphic Nudity, Often Mixed Together

Release Date: June 22, 2018 (Limited)

I would call Damsel a revisionist Western, except that the Western genre is not really popular enough anymore to really need revising. Nevertheless, co-directing brothers David and Nathan Zellner have plenty of revising on their minds, though their ideas do not apply exclusively to frontier America. Ultimately, I don’t how else to classify it, so let’s stick with “revisionist Western” and maybe throw in a “wacky” and “iconoclastic” in there for good measure.

Robert Pattinson strolls merrily into town as Samuel Alabaster, a man out of place and out of time. His stomach does not agree with the saloon he walks into (or any saloon really), his spirit is more poetic than cowboy, and his vocabulary is a bit too 21st Century, though it does not really fit in any era. Actually, none of the characters particularly speak they are from any recognizable time in American history. The Zellners have crafted a fantasy world that might be too bizarre for some audiences, but it is just delightful to my tastes, and Pattinson subsumes himself into this environment unforgettably.

There is one way that Samuel fits into the Wild West mold, and that is his instinct to rescue the damsel in distress. His beloved Penelope (Mia Wasikowska) has been kidnapped, and he is on his way to free her and make her his wife. But eventually it becomes clear that Samuel may not have the most trustworthy of perspectives and that Damsel is actually an indictment of a certain strain of toxic, entitled masculinity that is insidious in today’s society. It makes me wonder if willful misinterpretation regarding attempted romantic coercion was just as much of a problem hundreds of years ago as it is today. It certainly seems possible, as miscommunication has been causing conflicts throughout human history. Those struggles are not always as strange as the one portrayed in Damsel, but the stranger the example, the more memorable the movie.

Damsel is Recommended If You Like: Irreverent Westerns like Django Unchained, but with a defiantly feminist twist

Grade: 4 out of 5 Outhouse Explosions

This Is a Movie Review: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

June 21, 2018

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews B.D. Wong, Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Daniella Pineda, Geraldine Chaplin, Isabella Sermon, J.A. Bayona, James Cromwell, Jeff Goldblum, Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Justice Smith, Rafe Spall, Ted Levine, Toby Jones 1 Comment

CREDIT: Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment, Inc.
and Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC.

I give Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 3 out of 5 Eruptions: https://uinterview.com/reviews/movies/jurassic-world-fallen-kingdom-movie-review-dino-sequel-provides-action-with-surprising-drama/

This Is a Movie Review: ‘Incredibles 2’ Uses Its Period Setting and the Responsibility of Superpowers to Show How to Be an Adult

June 13, 2018

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews Bill Wise, Bob Odenkirk, Brad Bird, Catherine Keener, Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Huck Milner, Incredibles 2, Isabella Rossellini, John Ratzenberger, Jonathan Banks, Phil LaMarr, Pixar, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Vowell, Sophia Bush, The Incredibles Leave a comment

This review was originally published on News Cult in June 2018.

Starring: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Huck Milner, Samuel L. Jackson, Bob Odenkirk, Catherine Keener, Brad Bird, Jonathan Banks, Sophia Bush, Phil LaMarr, Isabella Rossellini, John Ratzenberger, Bill Wise

Director: Brad Bird

Running Time: 118 Minutes

Rating: PG for Action Sequences Involving Dangerously Heavy Structures

Release Date: June 15, 2018

The Incredibles films stick out among Pixar’s oeuvre for how much more adult they are than the rest of the animation brand’s features. That is not to say that everything else is merely kids’ stuff. Indeed, there is plenty for audiences of all ages to appreciate in the likes of Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, etc. The difference is that the typical Pixar offering features childlike wonder presented with unusually mature storytelling sophistication, whereas The Incredibles and Incredibles 2 are primarily concerned with the struggles of being a grown person: how to raise a family, how to earn a living, how to reconcile the way you live with the self-identity you perceive on the inside. With this focus along with its period trappings, Incredibles 2 continues asking its franchise’s fundamental question of whether or not we have shaped society as it ought to be.

Incredibles 2, like the original, is vague about its time period, but based on the outfits, manner of speaking, and predominant technology, it is easy to peg it as 1960s America. With that in mind, if The Incredibles were to exist as a TV series, it is not too hard to imagine it as the first animated example of AMC’s stable of period dramas. (The presence of two of the stars of Better Call Saul among the voice cast certainly bolsters this perception.) Incredibles 2 features more stable (though no less harried) domesticity than Mad Men, but the concerns of Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson) are not terribly different from those of Don Draper, while Helen Parr’s (Holly Hunter) career-minded focus in the face of skepticism is absolutely of a piece with that of Peggy Olson. Writer/director Brad Bird’s grounded approach to the existence of supers allows all viewers to consider that no matter what their own unique abilities are, they ought to make the best of them, for the world’s sake.

The reflectiveness and contextualization inherent to a period setting are key to getting the point across. This outing, in which Helen/Elastigirl is recruited for a PR campaign to make superpowers legal again while fighting a mysterious villain who uses screens to carry out mind control schemes, touches upon issues of media manipulation, trust (or lack thereof) in institutions, and the power and limits of basing a campaign around a single figurehead. Anyone paying attention to the political scene in 2018 will recognize similar disturbances in Incredibles 2. It is important to be reminded that these crises are not new and to know a big part of being an adult is responding to these challenges.

Bottom line: if you loved the kinetic action and family dynamics of the first Incredibles, you will probably love them all over again in Incredibles 2. If the prospect of a baby growing into his impressively wide-ranging superpowers has you excited, just wait until you see what Jack-Jack is up to. And rest assured, Edna Mode’s (Bird) scenes do not disappoint. This entry is not as mold-breaking as the original, but it is reliably entertaining and has plenty to say.

Incredibles 2 is Recommended If You Like: The Incredibles, AMC period dramas

Grade: 4 out of 5 Eye Lasers

This Is a Movie Review: Meet the ‘Ocean’s 8’ Heist, Same as the Old Heist

June 9, 2018

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews Anne Hathaway, Awkwafina, Cate Blanchett, Gary Ross, Helena Bonham Carter, James Corden, Mindy Kaling, Ocean's 8, Richard Armitage, Rihanna, Sandra Bullock, Sarah Paulson Leave a comment

CREDIT: Barry Wetcher/Warner Bros. Pictures/Village Roadshow Pictures

This review was originally posted on News Cult in June 2018.

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna, Richard Armitage, James Corden

Director: Gary Ross

Running Time: 110 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Indulgent Behavior That Might Be Incriminating

Release Date: June 8, 2018

I am always wary of crime flicks in which the criminals are the protagonists and get away with it. Sure, cinema can be escapist fantasy, and I trust that most audiences understand that the glorification of illegal behavior does not make it okay in real life. But there is a moral component to movies, so this genre needs to be careful about the messages it sends out. That is what most concerns me about Ocean’s 8, much more so than whether or not it is a good idea to have all-female spinoffs or if these ladies would be better off assembling for some original concept (it is at least theoretically possible to have both, after all). We can rest assured that Debbie Ocean’s (Sandra Bullock) heist is mostly a victimless crime, although maybe a few millionaires take a hit. There is no sense, though, that this is a matter of acting on behalf of the little guy to stick it to the 1%. The underlying message is basically that you do what you do because you’re good at it, and that cavalier attitude is not exactly ruinous, but it can be mighty discomforting if you think about it.

But if we can allow ourselves to revel in the fantasy for two hours, does Ocean’s 8 deliver the entertainment that it is designed to? It takes a while to get going, with a rather sluggish pace as Debbie assembles her crew. And it does not help that we have seen these character types before: the tech expert, the street scam artist, the suburbanite trying to hide her criminal past. But once the plan gets going, the pace clicks along nicely. The heist itself – get celebrity Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) to wear a famous necklace worth millions at the Met Gala, swipe it off her and replace it with a convincing facsimile – is adequately innovative. As everyone carries out their jobs, the cast comes alive, with Hathaway in particular having a blast. And it pulls off the third act moments that make you go, “They did it. Those magnificent bastards pulled it off!” There are the moments when we learn what really went down that we didn’t see at the time, and then here comes a new major character who helps the ladies wrap it all up in a bow. Nothing is getting reinvented, but the gears are still turning smoothly.

Less interesting, and much more perfunctory, are the connections to the Ocean’s franchise at large. A few vets of Eleven/Twelve/Thirteen pop in for cameos, which might spark thrills of recognition. Much is made of Debbie’s connection to her brother, the supposedly deceased Danny, that is meant to go beyond, “Hey, remember this character you already love?” There are some ideas about genetic destiny that are worth exploring more in depth, but Ocean’s 8 mostly plays these moments as just a toast to its forebears. Acknowledgement of one’s predecessors is generally a good idea, but you need to take it a step further if you want to truly slay.

Ocean’s 8 is Recommended If You Like: All the typical heist film beats, Suspending your moral compass for two hours

Grade: 3 out of 5 Blind Spots

This Is a Movie Review: Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons Make Fine Father-Daughter Music in ‘Hearts Beat Loud’

June 8, 2018

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews Blythe Danner, Brett Haley, Hearts Beat Loud, Kiersey Clemons, Nick Offerman, Sasha Lane, Ted Danson, Toni Collette Leave a comment

CREDIT: Gunpowder & Sky

This review was originally posted on News Cult in June 2018.

Starring: Nick Offerman, Kiersey Clemons, Toni Collette, Ted Danson, Sasha Lane, Blythe Danner

Director: Brett Haley

Running Time: 97 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for A Little Drinking Here, a Little Smooching There, and a Few Outbursts

Release Date: June 8, 2018 (Limited)

There is a certain strain of indie film of the past decade that has turned to stars of recent NBC comedies for its talent pool. I’m talking about flicks like The To Do List with Aubrey Plaza, or Sleeping With Other People with Alison Brie and Jason Sudeikis, or The Skeleton Twins with Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader, or Friends With Kids with Kristen Wiig and Adam Scott, or Girl Most Likely with Kristen Wiig (a mini Kristen Wiig subgenre has kind of emerged, in case you hadn’t noticed). These tend to be more low-key than the zippy antics on the likes of Parks & Rec, Community, and SNL, but the stars are talented actors who definitely have it in themselves to stretch and show off. But there is still often a sitcom-y hangout vibe at play that makes these parts not that big of a departure. The latest example, Hearts Beat Loud, certainly has that low-key style as well, but it transcends it a bit by starring Nick Offerman, one of the more idiosyncratic of the NBC comedy vets.

Offerman plays Frank Fisher, a sometime musician and owner of the struggling Red Hook Records. The resolutely hirsute Offerman has established himself as the man’s man of comedy, both in his work and personal life. He is known for his woodworking, and his most famous character, Parks and Rec’s Ron Swanson, is a staunch libertarian who has codified his rules for proper living. But his gruffness is usually tempered by a mischievous silliness. In Hearts Beat Loud, that takes the form of Frank not being the most diligent with his responsibilities and holding onto a dream of being a rock star. He tries to convince his daughter Sam (Kiersey Clemons) to spend more time making music with him and less time obsessing over preparing for her pre-med college regimen, while she wants him to do a better job of keeping the family’s finances in order.

After a few blowouts, Frank and Sam eventually come to a compromise in which they are able to live and revel in the moment of what is a major transitional time for both of them. They get a little taste of success that might lead to something further, but there is also a sense of accepting and holding onto what is definitely real. The biggest charm of Hearts Beat Loud is perhaps its lived-in quality in Red Hook, an old shipping neighborhood in Brooklyn that is not so easily accessible available by public transport. As such, it has an out-in-the-boondocks feel even though it is not too far from away from more bustling areas. That there-but-not-there geographical situation is fitting for Frank and Sam’s life situation, and accordingly, Hearts Beat Loud, is a comfortingly empathetic viewing experience for anyone reckoning with major scholarly or professional transitions themselves.

Hearts Beat Loud is Recommended If You Like: Parks and Recreation, Record Stores

Grade: 3 out of 5 SoundClouds