Earlier this year I remember first seeing “The Expendables 4” on the list of upcoming 2023 movies. I hadn’t heard anything about it before reading the list and have heard nothing about it since. But is until yesterday when Lionsgate dropped the first trailer for the next installment in the previously dormant all-star action franchise. It’s the first Expendables film since 2014 and it’s said to have been given a $100 million budget. Wow!
“Expend4bles” brings back many familiar faces including Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, and Randy Couture. New to the series is Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Megan Fox, Eddie Hall, Andy Garcia, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, and more. The new trailer is full of the machismo-fueled action that has been a staple of the series. It’s said to be Stallone’s last turn as lead character Barney Ross with Statham taking the reins of any future movies. I enjoyed the first two films but didn’t care for the third. I’m curious to see how this one turns out.
“Expend4bles” hits theaters September 22nd. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.
Director Richard Donner (“Superman”, “Lethal Weapon”) and screenwriter Chris Columbus (“Gremlins”) came together in the early 1980s to put to screen a story conceived by Steven Spielberg. It was a youthful adventure comedy called “The Goonies”. It finished among the top ten highest grossing movies of 1985 and over time became a popular cult classic.
Produced by Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, “The Goonies” featured a collection of young soon-to-be stars including Josh Brolin, Sean Astin, Corey Feldman, Martha Plimpton, and recent Academy Award winner Ke Huy Quan. They come together in what was a spirited and nostalgic slice of 1980s cinema that is still a lot of fun after nearly 40 years.
While I’ve never held “The Goonies” in as high regard as its most ardent fans, there’s a certain ‘turn back the clock’ charm that makes it such a joy to revisit. You see it in the cast, the screenplay, the style of filmmaking, and even the little period details such as the pull-tab Pepsi cans, getting a high score on “Pole Position”, and of course the catchy chorus of Cyndi Lauper’s pop hit “Good Enough”. There’s a sentimental transporting effect it has that may make me sound like a sap but I really don’t care.
Image Courtesy of Warner Bros.
All the action, adventure, and humor is built upon a simple yet endearing narrative frame. In sleepy Astoria, Oregon four rambunctious boys who call themselves “the Goonies” gather for their last weekend together. The local bank is set to foreclose on their homes to make room for a new country club and golf course. For Mikey Walsh (Sean Astin) and his family that means packing up and moving away. But first he has a couple of days left to spend with his neighborhood friends, the fittingly named Mouth (Cory Feldman), the aspiring inventor Data (Ke Huy Quan), and the klutzy Chunk (Jeff Cohen).
While rummaging through the Walsh family’s attic the boys discover something unexpected among Mikey’s father’s things – a Spanish treasure map dating back to 1632 that is connected to a local pirate legend named One-Eyed Willy. That gives Mikey an idea. What better way to spend their last weekend together than on an adventure to find the dead pirate’s treasure? And who knows, if they do find Willy’s loot maybe Mikey can get the bank off his parents’ backs and save their home.
So the four pals give Mikey’s big brother Brand (Josh Brolin) the slip and follow the treasure map to an old abandoned restaurant on the coast just outside of town. But they quickly discover they aren’t the only ones at the ramshackle joint. It’s actually the hideout of the notorious Fratelli’s, a trio of wanted criminals consisting of the surly Mama Fratelli (Anne Ramsey) and her two nincompoop sons, Francis (Joe Pantoliano) and Jake (Robert Davi). There’s a third Fratelli son – the deformed and abused Sloth (John Matuszak) who’s kept shackled in a cell.
Image Courtesy of Warner Bros.
Before long Mikey, Data, Mouth, and Chunk are joined by Brand, a cheerleader named Andy (Kerri Green) who Brand has eyes for, and Andy’s best friend Stef (Martha Plimpton). Their search leads them deep below the old restaurant where all sorts of dangers await. Meanwhile hot on their heels are the Fratellis who take an even bigger interest in catching the Goonies once they hear that treasure is involved.
As you watch you can’t help but see Spielberg’s fingerprints all over the movie. Yet it’s Donner who holds it all together. The late director spoke candidly about the joys and challenges of working with so many high-energy child actors. And there are times where both overflow into the movie. But Donner does a good job corralling and getting the most out of his young yet rowdy talent.
After all these years there remains a time-tested appeal to “The Goonies”. This sassy and hyperactive romp can be a bit too loud and boisterous (something that has stood out more and more the older I get). But it’s hard not to respond to the heartfelt innocence and childlike charms that seep from nearly every pore of this beloved movie. And even if I don’t hold it in as high esteem as some, I can’t deny that it still brings a smile to my face every time I turn it out.
The rollercoaster ride that is the Transformers franchise is truly mind-boggling. It’s a series of surprising highs and aggravating lows. It’s a series that can deliver exactly what you want from big popcorn entertainment in one film and then turn around and repeat their earlier mistakes in the very next movie. Take 2014’s “Age of Extinction”, a terrific installment (despite a lot of jaded criticism) that dialed back a lot of the noise to tell a silly yet fun and action-packed story.
But then came “The Last Knight”, a box office disaster that lost over $100 million for Paramount Pictures. And it’s easy to see why. Unlike its immediate predecessor, “The Last Knight” is a confounding mess. It’s a movie plagued by so many bad choices in front of the camera but mostly behind it. The outcome was clearly unforeseen as the film ends with obvious aspirations for another sequel. As it stands Bay has stepped down from directing Transformers movies and it looks like Paramount may be abandoning this storyline and latching onto the “Bumblebee” arc instead.
The bulk of the film’s problems can be easily traced to the screenplay. Gone is Ehren Kruger who wrote the previous two films. This time writing duties are handed to the trio of Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, and Ken Nolan. Their biggest issue revolves around their desperate attempts at being funny. But rather than good humor, they gave us the same maddening banter that made 2009’s “Revenge of the Fallen” so hard to sit through. Here they cram in the juvenile and often potty-mouthed wisecracking which makes much of the film feel shallow, pubescent, and at times insufferable.
Image Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
Even if you can wade through the mind-melting bickering and brutally bad slapstick that’s mostly prevalent in the first half, it doesn’t get much better from there. The breakneck storytelling features one narrative shortcut after another. Even worse, the movie never slows down to breathe. It never stops to let the characters have actual meaningful moments. We’re just rushed from point to point as Bay and company drown us in nonsensical mythologizing that never reaches any kind of satisfying conclusion. It’s all excess and overload that quickly devolves into a grind.
Mark Wahlberg returns as Cade Yeager, a single father and inventor who helped Optimus Prime and the few remaining Autobots save the planet in the previous film. In “The Last Knight” he owns a massive junkyard which he secretly uses to hide Transformers from the still aggressive United States government. Cade encounters and takes in a young orphaned scavenger named Izabella (Isabela Moner in a paper-thin role). He also crosses paths with a dying Transformer who gives him a mysterious talisman that immediately connects to his body.
Elsewhere yet another government special ops unit pops up – this one called the Transformer Reaction Force. The group is ran by General Morshower (played by Glenn Morshower) and is reluctantly led in the field by Colonel William Lennox (a returning Josh Duhamel). The TRF (dumbly) joins forces with Megatron and his Decepticons upon learning that Cade has the potentially powerful talisman. As you can probably guess, a clash ensues.
Image Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
And even further elsewhere we meet an aging historian named Sir Edmund Burton (Anthony Hopkins – how they got him onboard is still a mystery to me). He’s the last living member of a secret society who has long protected the ancient history of the Transformers and their connections to earth. Burton sends his hopelessly annoying robot butler Cogman (Jim Carter) to bring Cade to his villa in England. He also brings in Oxford professor Viviane Wembly (Laura Haddock). Both are key to stopping a goddess (of sorts) from Cybertron named Quintessa (Gemma Chan) who has a convoluted master plan that involves (or course) destroying earth.
All of those things attempt to come together in the film’s draining 149 minutes but making sense of it proves to be a chore. Bay blitzes through from one exposition dump to the next at ridiculous speeds. The human characters monopolize most of the runtime with the Transformers often feeling like an afterthought. Meanwhile none of the human drama is that interesting and none of the characters earn our emotional investment. They’re never given time to. And all of it is peppered with this unfunny humor which the screenwriters eventually tone down but never fully put away.
To its credit the film does look good (as all of them do) thanks to Bay’s kinetic love-it-or-hate-it style and some top-tier digital effects. But that’s not enough to save the movie from its own self-inflicted wounds. “The Last Knight” simply tries to do too much. Some of it could’ve been interesting. Other things are just too goofy to take seriously. But all of it suffers due to the relentless attempts at humor, much of it being too crude for kids and too sophomoric for adults. It’s no wonder it underperformed at the box office.
The relationship between humanity and robots has always been strained in the Transformers movies. The same could be said about the relationship between certain audiences and franchise director Michael Bay. Film critics have been especially brutal to the five TF features Bay has helmed. I quite enjoyed the first film from 2007. But the follow-up two years later, “Revenge of the Fallen” was hard to endure.
For that reason it took some time before I was willing to watch another Transformers movie. Yet the series kept moving forward and making a lot of money. That is until 2017’s “The Last Knight” which saw record low box office numbers for the normally profitable big budget franchise. Bay has since left the director’s chair and the series has went in a (sorta) new direction starting with 2018’s well received “Bumblebee”.
In between all of the highs and lows is 2014’s “Age of Distinction”, the fourth film of the five that Michael Bay directed. The movie performed well at the box office making over $1.1 billion. But fellow critics had a much sharper opinion of the movie and the last time I checked it was sitting at an abysmal 17% on Rotten Tomatoes. But what can I say? I had a great time with “Age of Extinction”. And many of the issues brought up by others were never a problem for me.
Image Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
“Age of Extinction” may look like a reboot but it’s actually a direct sequel to 2011’s “Dark of the Moon”. But in an interesting shake-up, the story moved on to an entirely new human cast. Many of the same Transformers return, but Bay and screenwriter Ehren Kruger bring a new group of people into the mix. Most of the characters have pretty familiar angles but they service the movie well. And the performances are generally good and get the job done.
Despite the best efforts of the Autobots and their leader Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), the devastation left from the Battle of Chicago (see the last movie) has given rise to a strong anti-Transformer sentiment among many humans. This opened the door for Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer), a rogue CIA official who created and oversees Cemetery Wind, a black-ops unit with a goofy name whose prime objective is to eliminate all Transformers remaining on planet earth.
Leading Attinger’s field team is the ruthless Agent James Savoy (Titus Welliver). But Attinger has another card up his sleeve – a Cybertronian bounty hunter named Lockdown who has his own reasons for hunting down and killing other Transformers. It turns out that Lockdown has been sent by a mysterious alien group called “The Creators”. We learn they have a special interest in Optimus Prime and Lockdown is to bring him to them by any means necessary.
Image Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
Meanwhile a down-on-his-luck inventor named Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) is struggling to make ends meet. The bank is ready to foreclose on his Texas farm. And as a single dad he’s having a hard time making enough money to send his 17-year-old daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz) to college. Cade happens upon an old broken down semi-truck which he plans on stripping down to its parts. But wouldn’t you know, he quickly discovers his junky big-rig is actually Optimus Prime who has been in hiding.
Elsewhere a pompous and ambitious entrepreneur named Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci) owns a mega corporation called KSI Robotics. Due to some shady backroom dealings with Attinger, Joyce has secured a “government contract” that helps fund his own devious secret initiative to build his own Transformers. It doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to figure out it’s not the best idea.
Nothing about the story will surprise you. Cemetery Wind gets tipped off that Cade is harboring Optimus. Attinger’s connections with KSI come to light. Joyce’s greed-driven plan blows up in his face. And of course Optimus Prime and the few remaining Autobots find themselves once again protecting a humanity that doesn’t appreciate them. Buildings crumble, vehicles blow up, and we’re treated to countless scenes of metal-on-metal combat. In other words just what fans of the series are hungry for.
Image Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
I do get how some might find the action to be overwhelming, but it can also be exhilarating. As with every Transformer movie, it’s obvious that a ton of money went into the special effects. It’s also hard to miss the incredible detail that goes into each towering robot creation. And then you have Bay’s usual bag of visual tricks – the grainy saturated color palette, sweeping camera shots, slow motion, and explosions galore.
Occasional corny dialogue aside, Wahlberg and Tucci get the best human roles. Jack Reynor joins in as Tessa’s rally car driving boyfriend while Li Bingbing gets an utterly thankless role playing KSI’s representative in China. But the most fun performances comes through the great collection of voice work led by Cullen and including John Goodman, Ken Watanabe, John DiMaggio, Mark Ryan, Robert Foxworth, and Reno Wilson. They too sometimes find themselves handcuffed by bad dialogue yet they manage to overcome it.
But lets be honest, no one goes into a Transformers movie expecting an Oscar nomination for screenwriting. We just need the script to be functional – something that connects the dots, defines the characters, has at least some heart, and sets up the action-driven money scenes. “Age of Extinction” does that while also toning down a lot of the nonsense that can bring these movies down. It’s ultimately Bay realizing the promise that these movies have always had but didn’t always deliver. And it goes to show what a little focus and restraint (and I do emphasize “a little”) can do.
I won’t lie, I still feel a bit left out when it comes to 2018’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”. The animated superhero film from Sony Pictures Animation released to near universal acclaim with many immediately christening it as a modern day masterpiece. Me, I didn’t quite get it. In fairness I liked much of what the creators were going for. That is until its dizzying and indulgent second half kicked in.
“Into the Spider-verse” was a box office hit, earning over $380 million. Of course as with anything superhero related, that success has led to a second movie with more sequels and spin-offs already in the works (at least as long as the money keeps rolling in). That second movie is “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and it has received similar adoration with the ‘M’ word already floating around in ether.
For many it seems the Spider-Verse films have become the cool ‘anti-superhero movie’ movies. At least that’s what I get from much of the fan chatter. It’s kinda funny considering how much they pull from other superhero flicks. But to its credit the Spider-Verse has its own distinct style and flavor. And it has shown to have a broad appeal. Those who are all-in on it (as many people seem to be) have pretty much loved whatever the creators have thrown at the screen. But the first film wasn’t without its issues, and the same could be said for its sequel.
Image Courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing
“Across the Spider-Verse” clearly subscribes to the idea that more is better. It takes pretty much everything from the first film and goes further. It’s more ambitious and has a much bigger scope. Even the running time beefs up by an extra 20+ minutes. Unfortunately the filmmakers waste too much of that time self-admiring their work. Yet even at 140 minutes it doesn’t feel long. Instead the frustration is in the ending – a maddening cliffhanger to a story that could’ve possibly had a conclusion if they had cut back on the excess.
What excess you ask? Much of it comes in the film’s hyper-stylized animation. Let me be clear, much of the movie looks incredible and there’s a painterly quality to many of the images on screen. But some of the choices feel like attention grabs rather than bold creative strokes. And some are just straight-up distracting. Take the backgrounds which sometimes change depending on which “earth” we’re on. Sometimes they’re washed out like bad watercolor paintings. Other times they’re like looking at a fuzzy 3D screen without 3D glasses. Then you have the action scenes. Some are nothing short of spectacular. Others are chopped up and edited within an inch of their lives.
All of that said, Sony Animation deserves most of the praise they’ve been getting. As a whole “Across the Spider-Verse” is a visual stunner and there are so many cool eye-popping flourishes. And there are several clever touches that play like odes to classic comics. The film may be absorbed in its own style, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t extremely talented artists at work. They lay out a visual feast that is a major accomplishment within the realm of animation that people will be talking about for some time. The directing trio of Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson understand that and really lean into it.
Image Courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing
The story (written by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham) is a far cry from the simple, intimate tales of a neighborhood teen from New York City balancing his urge to be a kid with the greater responsibility of protecting his home city. Instead we live in the day of expanded universes, interconnected universes, variant universes, etc. etc. etc. Nearly everything in the superhero movie world has shifted towards something bigger and (because the business side is a real thing) more profitable. “Across the Spider-Verse” is no different.
Because of that we get a story inevitably seasoned with multiverse mumbo-jumbo and talk of inter-dimensional danger. But of all the multiversing going on in the genre today, here the writers have crafted something remarkably compelling. They do so through their intense focus on the personal stakes. The film is overstuffed with too many characters, some with storylines that do little more than fill space or check boxes. But it always finds it’s emotional center each time it gets back to 15-year-old Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore), Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), and one of the biggest surprises – Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) aka Spider-Man 2099.
As with the previous film, the best stuff in the sequel revolves around Miles and his parents (Bryan Tyree Henry and Lauren Vélez). There is so much genuine feeling in their scenes together. And watching Miles try to navigate his relationship with his parents in light of the superhero secret he’s keeping from them allows the filmmakers to explore some family dynamics that resonate today. Their relationships are very well developed and are a driving force behind much of the action that comes later.
Image Courtesy of Sony Pictures Relesing
It’s the same with Gwen but on a smaller scale. On her earth she was the one bitten by the radioactive spider therefore becoming Spider-Woman. But hiding her secret has made things difficult with her father (Shea Whigham). Much like Miles’ story, Gwen’s delves into issues of fatherhood, trust, and communication. Then you have Miguel. He comes from a darker earth which has left him cold and hardened. He’s the leader of an elite team of dimension-hopping spider people tasked with the difficult job of protecting the Spider-Verse. But his methods prove to be a little suspect.
There are a slew of other side characters introduced along the way. Some are interesting and leave you curious to know more about them (such as Issa Rae as Jessica Drew). Others, not so much (Daniel Kaluuya’s Spider-Punk got old fast). Jake Johnson returns to voice our earth’s Peter Parker. And Jason Schwartzman as the film’s unlikely villain The Spot is pretty great (the animators have a blast with him and arguably the very best action scene features him and Miles duking it out around Brooklyn).
In addition to the issues mentioned earlier, the film occasionally gets too carried away with fan service, logic sometimes gets tossed for other interests, and there’s some pretty on-the-nose messaging. Yet “Across the Spider-Verse” is a mesmerizing cinematic tapestry of imagery, character and story – one that is a bit jumbled and even messy in spots. Yet one with such artistic verve and heart that you can’t but help but be drawn into its weird yet endearing web. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is in theaters now.
Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges made for a snappy pair in 1974’s “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot”, an action comedy that blended the buddy road-trip movie with the suspenseful heist flick. At nearly 50-years-old, the movie still holds up in large part thanks to its two charismatic leads and the collection of top-form supporting characters that pop up along the way.
After reading the script Eastwood decided he wanted to direct. But he ended up handing the duties over to screenwriter Michael Cimino, giving the director his big break (Cimino’s very next film, “The Deer Hunter” won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director). But story has it Eastwood held a lot of influence over everything from shooting locations to the number of takes allowed per shot. Cimino often said he owed his career to Clint Eastwood.
Image Courtesy of United Artists
The brilliantly shot opening scene remains a favorite of mine. Nestled among wheat fields and dirt roads sits the small but quaint Spirit Lake Idaho Community Church. Inside, a country preacher named John Doherty (Eastwood) is preaching a message to his congregation as a car drives up and parks outside. A man gets out, checks the church sign, and then heads inside. After the man takes a few steps down the aisle he pulls out a gun and starts firing on the preacher. As the parishioners scurry for safety the clergyman tears through a side door and across a wheat field with the gunman in pursuit.
While that was going on an easy-going drifter named Lightfoot steals a white Pontiac Trans-Am and is barreling down the road when the preacher steps out in front of him. Lightfoot swerves, missing the preacher and plowing over the gunman. The preacher hops in and the two take off. And just like that an unusual friendship is born. As they cavort around Montana it’s revealed that the preacher is actually a wanted bank robber known as The Thunderbolt. And wouldn’t you know it, there are more people after him than just the cops.
It turns out that two of Thunderbolt’s former partners, the intense Red Leary (played by the great George Kennedy) and the easy-going Eddie Goody (Geoffrey Lewis) are on the hunt. They’re convinced Thunderbolt double-crossed them during a heist and they want some payback. It takes a pretty lengthy car chase, a little gunfire, and some fisticuffs before they iron out their differences and set their sites on a brand new heist.
Image Courtesy of United Artists
From there the road movie gives way to a straight-up heist film as Thunderbolt, Lightfoot, Red, and Eddie stake out a bank, organize the robbery, and plan their escape. Through it all Cimino hones in on and has a lot of fun with the group’s off-beat camaraderie. It helps to have four terrific actors working to bring out their characters’ very different personalities. And along the way we’re treated to some fun young faces. Catherine Bach (“The Dukes of Hazard”) has a quick scene as an alluring young woman named Melody. And Gary Busey makes a ‘blink or you’ll miss it’ appearance.
“Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” has a number of strengths. But it lives and breathes off the charisma and chemistry of Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges. They’re funny, relatable, and all-around entertaining whenever they’re sharing the screen. Despite its action-packed opening and a banger of a finish (involving a giant cannon no less), the story moves at a relatively leisurely pace. It has some good humor and a surprising amount of subtext about the shifting America of its day. It all comes together in one satisfying package that’s still a lot of fun today.
Keith & the Movies 