I may not be familiar with the Paul Gallico best-selling novel it’s based on, but I love nearly everything about the first trailer for the upcoming film “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris”. Directed by Anthony Fabian, this delightfully whimsical period drama feels plucked right out of the 1950s both in terms of setting and style. And casting the always wonderful Lesley Manville as your lead is icing on the proverbial cake.
Manville plays the titular Mrs. Harris, a widowed cleaning lady from London whose dream of owning her own Christian Dior gown takes her to the City of Lights for a truly life-changing adventure. And if Manville’s casting wasn’t exciting enough, the movie also features Isabelle Huppert, Jason Isaacs, and Lambert Wilson among others. I have no idea how it will turn out, but I love that movies like this are still being made. Now, hopefully it finds an audience.
“Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” opens in theaters July 15th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.
A few months ago we were given the teaser for the upcoming Blumhouse produced horror thriller “The Black Phone”. Yesterday Universal Pictures gave us another look at the film via its official trailer, and lets just say this thing hits all the right notes. The film is directed by Scott Derrickson and co-written by Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, the duo behind “Sinister” and “Doctor Strange”.
“The Black Phone” immediately grabbed my attention with its star, Ethan Hawke. He plays a truly creepy presence – a serial killer who begins swiping children in a small Colorado town. Set in 1978, the film has an intriguing period style, and the story concept itself breeds a particular sense of unsettling horror. But as the trailer shows, it’s Hawke who makes it utterly terrifying. And this is just a small taste. I can’t wait to see how far they go with this.
“The Black Phone” hits theaters June 24th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.
Easily one of the most anticipated movies of the year and one of the most sure-thing box office successes of 2022 is the upcoming MCU installment “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness”. While I admit that my fascination with the Marvel Cinematic Universe has waned a bit, this is one that I’ve been really excited about, mainly because of director Sam Raimi. But there’s also a lot of mystery surrounding what all we may see in this wild-looking adventure. To entice us even more, a new poster has popped up and I gotta say I love it. What say you?
DIRECTOR – Sam Raimi
WRITER – Michael Waldron
STARRING – Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Rachel McAdams, Michael Stuhlbarg, Xochitl Gomez
Life has a funny way of changing your plans on the fly. For that reason I was a little late getting to “The Lost City”, the star-studded action-adventure comedy from directors Adam and Aaron Nee. While I do try to see nearly every major release, I wasn’t that upset about missing this one. Sure, I liked the old 90’s throwback look to it and seeing Brad Pitt ham it up is a plus. But for some reason “The Lost City” wasn’t high on my priority list (perhaps seeing the trailer 100 times in the theater wore me out).
“The Lost City” turns out to be a fairly entertaining romp, driven by the charisma of its three big stars, Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, and Brad Pitt. The movie starts strong and by far its funniest moments are found in the first 30 minutes. After that the humor dries up as the script (written by Oren Uziel, Dana Fox, and the Nee Brothers) tries but can’t quite squeeze out the laughs. Thankfully there happens to be just enough of a “Romancing the Stone” vibe to keep things fun.
Image Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
Bullock plays Loretta Sage, a popular romance novelist who has closed herself off following the passing of her archeologist husband John. Despite struggling to find inspiration, the deadline for Loretta’s new book “The Lost City of D” is quickly approaching. It’s the highly anticipated final chapter in her hit series that follows the romantic adventures of lead characters Dr. Angela Lovemore and Dash McMahon. Her publicist and friend Beth (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) already has a book tour scheduled which thrusts a hesitant Loretta back into the public eye.
To promote the book, Loretta is asked to appear with Alan Caprison (Tatum), her dimwitted Fabio-esque cover model who portrays Dash from her books. To her chagrin, the enthusiastic crowd is far more excited about Alan (and the prospect of him taking off his shirt) than her or her writing. A perturbed Loretta storms out, but while waiting for her ride she’s kidnapped by some meatheaded goons working for Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe). He’s a weaselly billionaire with family issues who needs Loretta’s help finding a tomb containing a legendary relic called the Crown of Fire.
Fairfax zips Loretta away to a remote island in the Atlantic where he has discovered an ancient lost city at the base of a brewing volcano. After reading Loretta’s last book, he’s convinced that she can help him translate a parchment which will reveal the location of the tomb holding the Crown of Fire. But Alan proves himself to be a doofus with a heart. He hires former Navy Seal with weathermanly good looks, Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt) to help him rescue Loretta and prove to her that he’s more than a cover model. As you can guess, hijinks ensue.
Image Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
I won’t dare spoil things, but let’s just say the rescue doesn’t go exactly as planned. Loretta and Alan find themselves alone in the jungle with Farifax’s henchmen hot on their trail. Meanwhile there’s a not-so-funny side-story with Beth and a cargo pilot (Oscar Nunez) trying to find the island and help with the rescue. That’s not to say there aren’t some amusing moments scattered throughout the rest of the movie and Bullock and Tatum have decent chemistry. But the story kinda sits in one gear the rest of the way, and it doesn’t quite do enough to make it feel original.
In the end, “The Lost City” makes for a fairly entertaining way to spend 100 minutes. But though it starts really strong, the second half plays more like a copy-and-paste of past movies. Bullock is a solid anchor, Radcliffe gets a couple of humorous lines, and Tatum does his best. But it’s Pitt who steals the show. So much so that the drop-off is pretty significant whenever he’s not on screen. Still, there’s enough here to pass the time as long as you know what to expect. “The Lost City” is now playing in theaters.
A clear front-runner for the most self-aware movie of 2022 has to be the ridiculously (yet hilariously) titled “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent”. Perhaps best described as a Nicolas Cage satire starring Nicolas Cage, this unashamedly gonzo cocktail sees the 58-year-old Hollywood enigma having a field day poking fun at his own strange and impossible-to-define movie career. At least for the first half of the movie where it milks all it can out of its central conceit. After that we’re left with a pretty by-the-numbers second half. And ‘by-the-numbers’ was the last thing I expected from this movie.
You could say “Unbearable Weight” is the ultimate cash-in for an actor often cited for his many cash-in performances. But in many ways Nicolas Cage has transcended any and all labels. Sure he has starred in a ton of low budget, straight to VOD schlock. But then he’ll surprise us with an out-of-the-blue performance that reminds us that he’s an Academy Award winning actor. But what endears him most to audiences is how openly he embraces the mythos surrounding his four decade-long career. Nothing shows that clearer than this movie.
Image Courtesy of Lionsgate
The problem is “Unbearable Weight” expends all of its wacky creative energy in its first half. This is when the movie is at its funniest, lampooning Nicholas Cage’s peculiar claim to stardom. And Cage is 110% in on the joke which is what makes is so fun. But it reaches a point where the humor dries up and the semi-serious turn it takes in the second half just doesn’t have the pull or the allure of the earlier nuttiness.
Directed by Tom Gormican, the movie opens with Cage riding through Los Angeles in his classic black Ferrari with Credence blasting through his speakers. He looks on top of the world, but the truth is quite different. His obsession with his work has driven a wedge between him and his daughter Addy (Lily Sheen) and his ex-wife Olivia (Sharon Horgan) has had enough. To make matters worse, he’s lost out on the “role of a lifetime” and the only gig his agent (Neil Patrick Harris) can muster is an appearance at a birthday party for a billionaire superfan named Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal).
Despite its $1 million payout, Nic turns down the party to wait for more serious offers befitting a thespian of his ‘massive talent’. But he ends up accepting the gig after he’s locked out of his hotel suite for racking up a $600,000. Disgruntled and dejected, Nic vows to retire from acting once he’s back home.
He arrives at Javi’s mediterranean island villa and meets his host who is charming, a bit starstruck, and even a little creepy. It turns out he wants to make a movie with the legendary Nicolas Cage. Nic finds the whole thing a little weird, but he and Javi form a creative bond that neither was expecting. Before long Nic is second guessing his decision to quit acting. But those good vibes start to sour after Nic is secretly approached by two generic and consistently unfunny CIA operatives played by Ike Barinholtz and Tiffany Haddish. They claim Javi is the head of a global arms cartel and is responsible for kidnapping a Catalonian president’s daughter.
Image Courtesy of Lionsgate
Suddenly Nic Cage is caught in-between a dangerous crime family and the US government. It sounds like pure craziness, and to the film’s credit it starts that way. We get scenes playing off of that signature Cage madness. And the absurdity of Nic and Javi’s friendship (culminating in a pretty hilarious acid trip sequence) is just what is advertises. But then the movie becomes something I was never expecting – conventional. The last 30 minutes or so turns into a fairly flat buddy action movie with a little family drama thrown in on the side. It’s such a jarring departure from what made the first half entertaining.
So “Unbearable Weight” truly is a tale of two movies with one being significantly better than the other. There are good moments of unhinged zaniness, cool throwback mentions of past Cage movies like “Face/Off”, “Gone in 60 Seconds”, “National Treasure” and even “Guarding Tess”, and a really good meta performance of Cage playing Cage. But sadly it’s shortcomings even things out. The dialogue can be hysterical one minute and pointlessly crass the next. The entire CIA angle feels like a wasted opportunity. And in the final act things turn surprisingly dull. It’s unfortunate but also kinda fitting for a fascinating career that has quite literally been all over the map. “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Success” is out now in theaters.
If I’m honest, there was an almost natural pushback within me to the trailer for Amazon Studio’s romantic comedy “Book of Love”. The biggest reason was its remarkably hokey concept. Also, the film stars Sam Claflin. Now don’t get me wrong, I actually like Claflin quite a bit. But I’m not sure rom-coms are his cup of tea. The last time he tried one was 2020’s “Love Wedding Repeat”. Talk about an abysmal watch.
First and foremost, “Book of Love” isn’t “Love Wedding Repeat” level bad. Nowhere close really. But it is another movie that leans heavily on Claflin’s awkward charm which works well until the story spirals into full-blown Hallmark Channel schmaltz. By the end it’s just too ridiculous and glaringly conventional. It becomes hard to see it as anything other than a tired old rehash of countless other films.
Image Courtesy of Amazon Studios
Claflin plays a British author named Henry Copper. He just published his new book “The Sensible Heart”, but sales have been abysmal and he can’t even fill a few chairs at his free bookstore publicity readings. And it’s never good when your book winds up on a “Buy 1 Take 3” clearance only a few weeks after its release.
One day his London-based publisher, Jen Spencer (Lucy Punch) stuns Henry with news that “The Sensible Heart” is a #1 best seller……in Mexico. A bewildered and reluctant Henry is sent to Mexico to promote the book. There he meets the book’s translator Maria Rodríguez (Verónica Echegui). She’s a hardworking single mother with a deadbeat ex-husband (Horacio Garcia Rojas) who offers little to help take care of their young son Diego (Ruy Gaytan) and her 80-year-old grandfather (Fernando Becerril). Maria is an aspiring author, but neither her busy life or the patriarchal structure gives her much of a chance.
When Henry arrives, he shocked by the starstruck public who flock to see him. He meets Maria who agrees to translate for him during interviews. But over time he learns that Maria did more than just translate his book to Spanish. She rewrote it, turning “The Sensible Heart” into a steamy telenovela. For obvious reasons this sets off the more chaste-minded Henry. But his Mexican publisher (Horacio Villalobos) convinces him and Maria to carry on with the ruse. That way everyone can make some money rather than start a controversy that would see the book die a slow and unprofitable death.
Image Courtesy of Amazon Studios
And so begins their whistlestop tour across scenic Mexico. Henry and Maria start off at odds but with each stop grow a little closer (didn’t see that coming, did you?). There are obvious reasons for the two to part ways, but the story (written by David Quantick and Analeine Cal y Mayor) always finds ways to keep them together. Some you can buy; some are just too silly. And of course as the inevitable romance blooms, the deadbeat husband finds a way into the story leading to a big ending so incredibly dumb that it makes the early stuff seem smart and savvy by comparison.
There are hints of a more clever cross-culture rom-com in “Book of Love”, but they’re only hints. The movie starts with a goofy concept, sputters to make it interesting, stalls in building a good romance, and flies off the rails in its attempts at putting together a big ending. And while it’s not a particularly hard movie to sit through, it’s hard to imagine ever having the urge to sit through it again. “Book of Love” is streaming now on Amazon Prime.
Keith & the Movies 