Walt Disney Studios has released a collection of new character posters for their highly anticipated “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”. The film recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where it was met with mixed reviews from critics. But franchise fans remain excited for the long awaited return of everyone’s favorite treasure-hunting, tomb-raiding, Nazi-evading, archeologist.
Harrison Ford returns to one of his most iconic roles for one last adventure. Created by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman and brought to life by Ford, Indiana Jones is a character beloved by fans across the globe. This fifth and final installment of the franchise is directed by James Mangold and sees Indy meeting some old friends and facing several new enemies. He’s joined but a fun cast that includes Mads Mikkelsen, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Toby Jones, Shaunette Renee Wilson, Thomas Kretschmann, Boyd Holbrook, and more.
These all-new character posters look great and feature many of the characters. But any devoted Indy fan has to ask…Where’s Sallah????
With his new film “Blood & Gold” director Peter Thorwath walks the same path as features like Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” and even “Sisu” from earlier this year. He’s made a gritty, gory, no-holds-bar war movie that fully embraces its genre influences. Yet Thorwath (who also directed 2021’s “Blood Red Sky”) also shows he has a knack for characters. And there are many that help spin this twisted, violent, and at times darkly funny war-torn tale.
Greed is one of most lethal killers in “Blood & Gold” which is set in Germany during the waning days of World War II. Following some brief opening script that would have made Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone proud, we get a tone-setting first scene. In it we see a Germany SS unit led by the ruthless and disfigured Lieutenant Colonel Von Starnfeld (Alexander Scheer) chasing after a deserter named Heinrich (Robert Maaser). They eventually catch him and hang him from a nearby tree.
But as soon as the Nazi’s are out of sight a young woman named Elsa (a really good Marie Hacke) appears and frees the seriously injured Heinrich. She takes him to her small country farm where she and her Down syndrome brother Paule (Simon Rupp) nurse the soldier back to health.
Image Courtesy of Netflix
We learn Elsa has no love for the Nazis who killed her father and who would happily kill her brother simply because of his condition. A disillusioned Heinrich is fed up with the war. His pregnant wife and son were killed in a bombing raid, but his young daughter Lottchen survived and was taken in by some neighbors. Getting home to her is all he cares about.
Meanwhile Von Starnfeld and his unit roll into the village of Sonnenberg where they believe a stash of gold bars has been hidden in the rubble of a house once belonging to a Jewish resident named Johannes Löwenstein. The town’s sniveling mayor and Nazi panderer (Stephan Grossmann) welcomes the soldiers into his village. But he quickly learns his uninvited guests aren’t concerned with his hospitality.
Von Starnfeld claims the local inn as his headquarters and forces the townspeople to start sifting through what remains of the Löwenstein house. He then orders his brutal second-in-command, Sergeant Dörfler (Florian Schmidtke) to take some soldiers and steal provisions from neighboring farms. That brings them to Elsa’s doorstep where a violent encounter sets the main story in motion.
Image Courtesy of Netflix
Screenwriter Stefan Barth tosses several more characters into the mix. Most are townsfolk, many with their owns secrets, loyalties, and interests. They all fit nicely into what turns out to be a crazy web of war-scarred anger and unfettered greed. Barth’s script is sharp, shrewdly witty, and hard to predict. He pulls the rug out from under us more than once while delivering a rousing payoff that is a stealthy mix of comically violent and emotionally satisfying.
We also get some fantastic action scenes that range from intense shootouts to ferociously choreographed fight sequences. Thorwath has a good grasp of shooting and framing action. But what’s most fun is watching the different ways he uses it. Some scenes simply emphasize the sheer ferocity of war. Other scenes are straightforward genre movie joy.
With “Blood & Gold” you have a good story, good characters, and good action rolled up into something genre fans should have a blast with. All three can be thrilling, emotional, or sometimes all-out bonkers which is one of the movie‘a biggest strengths. “Blood & Gold” happily wears its influences on its sleeve yet it has its own distinct energy and flavor. And it comes in a tightly structured fast-moving 100-minute package. Yet another good international grab for Netflix.
I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face – one of the best things about Netflix is the international flavor they bring to their streaming library. New movies from nearly every corner of the world routinely premiere on their platform. Of course some of their choices are better than others. But they do provide an avenue to filmmakers from around the globe to get their movies to wider audiences. And that’s a kind of exposure the film industry has long needed.
A prime example is the gritty French-language action thriller “AKA”. It comes from director Morgan S. Dalibert who also co-writes the script alongside the film’s star Alban Lenoir. In the film Lenoir plays a lethal black ops asset named Adam Franco (at least that’s one of his many identities). He works on behalf of the French government, doing their dirtiest of jobs outside of the public’s eye (a terrifically shot opening sequence gives us a taste of the kind of work he does).
Adam is contacted by his government handler Kruger (Thibault de Montalembert) who briefs him on a deadly hotel bombing in Paris. It was carried out under the command of a Sudanese warlord and former French ally named Moktar Al Tayeb (Kevin Layne). The government has received intel that Al Tayeb he has an even bigger attack planned and they need Adam to help them stop it.
Image Courtesy of Netflix
Since they have no idea where Al Tayeb is, Kruger tasks Adam with infiltrating the operation of a powerful drug runner named Victor Pastore (Eric Cantona) who has a close relationship with the terrorist. The not-so-simple job consists of working his way up the ranks and earning Pastore’s trust so that he can find where Al Tayeb is hiding. It gets even more complicated after Adam takes a liking to Pastore’s neglected young son Jonathan (Noé Chabbat).
As the complications mount Dalibert does a good job of keeping the story focused and moving forward at a steady pace. What’s surprising is that he and Lenoir spend a lot of time developing their characters. It’s not especially deep, but we get a good sense of everyone’s position, perspective, and personality. And it all unfolds with a reasonably satisfying amount of suspense. We know Adam is going to make his way up the ladder and that he’ll eventually have to fight. But Dalibert builds and maintains some good tension.
Along the way things are spiced up with several well done action scenes that really lean on Lenoir’s tough-as-nails presence. His look, build, and pure physicality make him an easy sell. Yet there’s something about him that makes his character feel like more than just a meathead. Lenoir brings an internal complexity to Adam that I wish was explored more. Still I like what we get both with the character and the movie as a whole. It turns out to be yet another good international grab for Netflix. “AKA” is streaming now.
Here’s one of those cases where a film’s title really does say it all. The straightforwardly named “BlackBerry” from Canadian director Matt Johnson is a biographical dramedy based on the fascinating true story of the BlackBerry brand of smartphones. If you remember, the BlackBerry grew enormously popular during the 2000s and was often seen in the hands of such celebrities as Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and President Barack Obama.
The highly innovative BlackBerry line was perhaps best known for its unique physical keypad and the super satisfying clicks that accompanied each press (many found it so addictive they dubbed the device “Crackberry”). I never had one but I freely admit to being a little jealous of those I knew who did. But like much in the tech industry, BlackBerry eventually fell to the next big thing. In their case it was the introductions of Apple’s IPhone and Google’s Android.
“BlackBerry” pulls quite a bit from the true story of the company’s rise and fall. It’s loosely adapted from Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff’s book “Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry”. But what Johnson gives us is more of a mockumentary-styled satire of a tech industry on the eve of one of the biggest tech booms in history. It’s a funny yet insightful cautionary tale that hones in on the people at its center more than the product that would make them billionaires.
Image Courtesy of IFC Films
Co-written by Johnson and Matthew Miller, the story kicks off in 1996. In a role tailor-made for his awkward charm, Jay Baruchel plays Mike Lazaridis who back in 1984 co-founded Research In Motion with his longtime best friend Douglas Fregin (played by Johnson himself). In the movie their small Waterloo, Ontario based company consists of an easygoing pack of 14 fellow computer engineering nerds who spend as much time throwing LAN parties and watching movies as they do soldering circuit boards and writing code.
Elsewhere the temperamental and overly ambitious market strategist Jim Balsillie (a blustery Glenn Howerton) gets axed from his company for aggressively disobeying his boss (briefly played by the always good Martin Donovan). Smelling a potential fortune (and out of desperation), Jim bulls his way into a partnership with Mike. He puts down $20,000 and agrees to use his industry connections to market their exciting new product, the PocketLink (“a pager, a cell phone, and an e-mail machine all in one,” Doug proudly states). All Jim wants in return is fifty percent of their company and to be named CEO. Ouch.
They come to an agreement with Mike and Jim serving as co-CEOs. Mike will oversee product development while Jim hits the road to lure in potential investors. Of course as history informs us the PocketLink evolves into the BlackBerry and soon Research in Motion emerges as a market leader in wireless mobile devices.
As the popularity of their product grows so does the financial pressure. Mike, Doug, and their team scramble to innovate and keep up with the demand. But in true “The Social Network” style, success inevitably puts a strain on their relationship. It’s a friction you sense coming a mile away yet we still root for the pair as they struggle to maintain their friendship.
Image Courtesy of IFC Films
Meanwhile the shrewd and unscrupulous Jim is out in the field doing whatever it takes to grow and protect his investment. We see him illegally backdating stock options in order to lure away engineers from rivals Microsoft and Google. He’s also staving off a potential hostile takeover by PalmPilot head Carl Yankowski (a joyously despicable Cary Elwes). And all while he’s secretly trying to purchase his own NHL hockey franchise – a move driven by his own underhanded motivations.
It’s easy for us to see the writing on the wall and it doesn’t take long to tell that things aren’t going to end well. But Johnson keeps us invested. He moves things along at a crisp pace and the crackling dialogue has a Sorkin-esque edge as it chronicles the whirlwind corporate successes and missteps. Yet Johnson keeps things distinctly character-focused and never loses sight of the humanity at his story’s core. And all while being effortlessly funny in a subdued sharply witty way.
It’s also easy to fall in with Johnson’s verité filmmaking. From the frequently moving handheld cams to the strategic zooms which add as much to the humor as they do the drama. It’s a tricky directorial style that can often backfire. But here it actually works really well. And that’s true of “BlackBerry” as a whole – it works really well. It may lack the polish of similar 2023 corporate underdog movies like “Tetris” and “Air”, but Matt Johnson along with his game cast nail it where it counts.
The more I see of “Barbie” the more unsure I am about it. Based on the popular fashion dolls by Mattel, “Barbie” certainly seems to capture the goofy and playful spirit you might expect from such an undertaking. But with every new look we get I still find myself wondering if it’s going to be a bit too much. Like a sensory overload of bright pastels and overt silliness. The “main trailer” dropped today and it only cemented my feelings.
But as I’ve said before, in Greta I trust. Greta Gerwig is indeed directing from a script she co-wrote with Noah Baumbach. That alone is enough to get me onboard. The film’s star, Margot Robbie certainly looks, sounds, and acts the part of Barbie. The jury is still out of Ryan Gosling as Ken. Regardless there’s enough in the trailer to entice me to see it. Now here’s to hoping it delivers. We won’t have to wait long to find out.
“Barbie” hits theaters July 21st. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.
Well Go USA Entertainment has announced the release of “Sakra”, the wuxia action film directed by, produced by, and starring international fan favorite Donnie Yen. Based on Louis Cha’s classic novel “Demi-Gods and Semi-Gods”, the film sees Yen teaming up with co-stars Chen Yiqi, Cya Liu, Kara Wai, Wu Yue, Eddie Cheung, and Grace Wong. Fans of Yen and/or wuxia will love this action-packed, visually stunning, big-budget feature.
The new Blu-ray and DVD editions of “Sakra” hits shelves on June 13th, 2023. See below for a full synopsis and breakdown of the bonus features.
When a respected martial artist is accused of murder, he goes on the run in search of answers about his own mysterious origin story and the unknown enemies working to destroy him.
Action icon Donnie Yen returns to the director’s chair for the first time in nearly two decades, while also playing the lead role, in the martial arts wuxia adventure“SAKRA“, which debuts on Blu-ray™and DVD June 13 from Well Go USA Entertainment. The film is available on digital now. Based on the classic wuxia novel “Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils” by Louis Cha (known worldwide by his pen name Jin Yong), “SAKRA” stars Donnie Yen as Qiao Feng, respected leader of a roving band of martial artists called the Beggars’ Sect. After he is wrongfully accused of murder and subsequently exiled, Qiao Feng goes on the run in search of answers about his own mysterious origin story—and the unknown enemies working to destroy him from the shadows. With action direction by Kenji Tanigaki (Raging Fire, Enter the Fat Dragon, Snake Eyes), “SAKRA” also stars Yuqi Chen, Eddie Cheung, and Yase Liu.
Keith & the Movies 