REVIEW: “Out of Death” (2021)

August 11, 2021 by Keith Garlington

It’s funny, we talk a lot about Nicolas Cage and the sheer volume of mostly straight-to-video movies he puts out. In fact, you could say Cage has earned a certain reputation for it. You may not realize it, but Bruce Willis isn’t far behind him. Here in the twilight of his movie career, the 66-year-old Willis has found a home popping out VOD action thrillers by the gross. He’s set to appear in SIX movies in 2021 alone. He already has four set for next year with several others in post-production.

His latest, the oddly titled “Out of Death”, fits the model of many of these Willis movies – meager budget, middling-to-bad material, and a quick paycheck for a couple days work. But the ever-likable Willis still brings a good presence to the screen and the sentimental side of me still enjoys seeing him, even when he’s sleepwalking through a role like he is in “Out of Death”. From his very first scene Willis looks tired and detached, a clear sign for how audiences can expect to feel.

**Image Courtesy of Vertical Entertainment**

The film begins with Shannon (Jaime King) arriving in the mountains to spread the ashes of her recently deceased father. While hiking to her dad’s favorite spot she inadvertently walks up on a drug transaction between an astonishingly dumb dope dealer named Jimmy (Oliver Trevena) and a crooked sheriff’s deputy named Billie (Lala Kent). The swap quickly sours ending with Billie gunning down Jimmy as he’s running away. Shannon witnesses it all and even takes a few shots with her camera before being noticed.

Shannon takes off running while the potty-mouthed Billie radios her equally corrupt boss, Sheriff Hank Rivers (Michael Sirow). In addition to running cocaine through the area, Rivers is also running for mayor of some town we never see. The last thing he needs is to get his hands dirty so close to election day. So he sends his chain-smoking older brother Tommy (Tyler Jon Olson) to help Billie clean up the mess.

Elsewhere in the woods, Jack Harris (Willis), a retired cop from Philly, just lost his wife of 32 years to cancer. He’s come to the mountains to stay a week at his niece’s lake house hoping that some quiet time alone will help him cope with his loss. While out for a stroll he stumbles upon a captured Shannon as she’s about to be executed by Billie and Tommy. Thankfully for our protagonists the two deputies are utterly incompetent leading to Jack rescuing Shannon and kicking off a slow and mostly uneventful game of cat-and-mouse.

First time director Mike Burns works from a script from first time screenwriter Bill Lawrence and both give an admirable effort. But the movie has too much working against it from the start. The budget constraints are pretty obvious although the movie works around it the best it can. Far more noticeable is the acting which, outside of King, is pretty bad. Even the usually reliable Willis struggles. Some of its due to the script which is plagued by some dopey dialogue that the performances can’t overcome. The story also puts its characters in some ludicrous positions and no level of acting talent can make these scenes anything but laughable.

Burns tries to add a few flourishes to his movie such as breaking the story up into chapters for no real reason whatsoever. And there’s a weird ‘25 minutes earlier’ clip near the end that is completely unnecessary. But those are small issues next to the film’s bigger problems. “Out of Death” is ultimately held down by its story that fizzles out before the halfway mark and several bland to bad performances that are too distracting to get past. And it doesn’t help that the film’s marquee name seems totally uninterested. Kinda like us for most of the 93-minute runtime. “Out of Death” is now streaming on VOD.

VERDICT – 1.5 STARS

First Glance: “Worth”

August 10, 2021 by Keith Garlington

Yesterday Netflix dropped the trailer for their upcoming biographical drama “Worth”. The film is directed by Sara Colangelo and debuted way back at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. It sports a compelling cast led by three Academy Award nominees – the always great Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, and Amy Ryan.

“Worth” tells the story of attorney Kenneth Feinberg (played by Keaton) who was assigned to head the Victim Compensation Fund following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Feinberg was tasked with making the decisions on how much each family of a 9/11 victim would receive. The drama unfolds as Feinberg puts together an imperfect formula to help figure benefits. But it quickly sparks the ire of families who see it as unfair and insulting. As movies like “Spotlight” and “The Founder” have shown, Keaton is a terrific fit for this kind of material. Adding Tucci and Ryan is icing on the cake.

“Worth” drops on Netflix September 3rd. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

REVIEW: “The Last Letter From Your Lover” (2021)

August 10, 2021 by Keith Garlington

The new Netflix romantic drama “The Last Letter From Your Lover” strolls across three(ish) timelines to tell the story of two lovers who embark on one illicit love affair during the summer of 1965. Bouncing back and forth between the then and now, “The Last Letter” sets out to capture the look and feel of a classic Hollywood romance while at the same time contrasting it with a budding modern love story. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but there’s just enough spark to keep us caring.

Directed by Augustine Frizzell and written by Nick Payne and Esta Spalding, the film is an adaptation of a 2012 novel of the same name by Jojo Moyes. The time-hopping narrative begins in 1965 London. Jenny (Shailene Woodley) sits in the car gazing out the window with a look of poorly veiled apprehension and uncertainty. A scar on the left side of her face runs from the corner of her eye to mid-cheek, hinting at the story we’re about to be told. “Everything’s going to be fine darling” says her seemingly concerned husband Larry (Joe Alwyn).

We learn Jenny is returning home from the hospital following a serious car accident. In addition the the scar, the wreck also left her with short-term memory loss. But when she stumbles upon a letter tucked away in a book, pieces of her memory slowly start falling back into place. She begins to recall details of a romantic relationship she had with a young writer named Anthony (Callum Turner). Soon she’s searching everywhere for more letters that can help her remember this man and what he meant to her.

Jump ahead to current day. Ellie Haworth (Felicity Jones) is a features writer for the London Chronicle who comes across an old love letter while researching for another story. It’s addressed to someone called “J” from someone going by “Boot”. Captivated, Ellie begins looking for more letters, enlisting the help of the company’s jittery archivist Rory (played with just the right amount of humor and warmth by Nabhaan Rizwan).

Now stay with me, Jenny in 1965 and Ellie in the present day begin pasting together the romance behind the letters. The movie hops back six months prior to Jenny’s car accident when she and Larry are in the French Riviera. There she meets Anthony O’Hare who’s in town to write a piece on her husband. Hurt by her husband’s belittlement and neglect, Jenny sees the opposite in Anthony and soon the two are engaged in a whirlwind affair across the beautiful French countryside.

As you can probably guess (or if you saw the trailer) all of storylines eventually converge with various degrees of success. For the most part Frizzell holds it all together (the time-jumping is a little clunky but never becomes convoluted or overbearing). And while the story has its share of contrivances, Frizzell maintains a good sense of pacing so we never get stuck in one place very long. Also, I wouldn’t call the film visually flavorful, but Frizzell and DP George Steel do give us several scenes, almost exclusively in the 1965 setting, that crackle with old Hollywood style.

The movie’s biggest issue comes with the current day storyline where Ellie begins a romance of her own with Rory; one that never gets above room temperature. Not enough time is given to building the connection between them and their relationship feels like an awkward inevitability, existing strictly because it’s in the script. The movie could lose the entire angle and never miss a beat.

In a very real way I’m glad “The Last Letter From Your Lover” exists. It’s extremely rare to get a true romance these days, not a romcom or a teeny flick, but a straight-up old-school romance soaked with longing and full of heart-pumping desire. They don’t come along very often. Today’s filmmakers have no interest in them and studios seem happy to leave them for the Hallmark Channel made-for-television assembly line. But there is something robustly cinematic about a well-made romance. “The Last Letter From Your Lover” isn’t the movie to usher in a new wave of romance films, but it does give a little taste of what the genre can be. I just wish it was a more filling meal. “The Last Letter From Your Lover” is now streaming on Netflix.

VERDICT – 3 STARS

First Glance: “Cry Macho”

August 9, 2021 by Keith Garlington

Clint Eastwood is more than an on-screen legend. He’s also a prolific filmmaker who still steps in front and behind the camera even at 91-years-old. His latest film is “Cry Macho”, an adaptation of N. Richard Nash’s 1975 novel of the same name. It’s the 40th film Eastwood has directed and his first since 2019’s “Richard Jewell”. The first trailer reveals what looks like a heartfelt redemption story set around the United States/Mexico border.

Eastwood plays a former rodeo star and washed-up horse breeder who is approached by his old boss (Dwight Yoakam) to go into Mexico and bring back the man’s son. The dangerous job turns into a trip of reflection and mentoring as Eastwood’s character forms an unexpected bond with the youth. Eduardo Minett and Fernanda Urrejola also star. I’m anxious to see where Eastwood goes with this and whether he can capture this material in a fresh and compelling way.

“Cry Macho” premieres September 17th in theaters and on HBO Max. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

REVIEW: “Beckett” (2021)

August 9, 2021 by Keith Garlington

The Luca Guadagnino produced “Beckett” has flown under many radars, but after opening the 74th Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, the Netflix acquired political thriller is set for release on the streaming platform this weekend. The film is directed by Ferdinando Cito Filomarino who worked with Guadagnino on “Call Me By Your Name” and “Suspiria”. With “Beckett” they offer up a much different kind of genre fare that engages its audience on a more unconventional level.

John David Washington plays the title character Beckett, an American tourist vacationing in Greece with his girlfriend April (Oscar winner Alicia Vikander). The first 15 minutes or so is spent listening to the couple’s inconsequential lovebird banter as they visit ancient ruins and play footsy under a cafe table. But these aren’t throwaway scenes. Within them are small nuggets of information, not hints of some vast political conspiracy (that seeps into the story later), but subtle character details that help us better understand Beckett and the transformation he endures.

After getting word of massive political protests planned in Athens, Beckett and April skip their trip to the city and set out across the rural countryside instead. While driving late at night Beckett falls asleep at the wheel sending their car careening off the road, down a hill, and through the stone wall of an old rundown house. Still within the wreckage, a shaken Beckett looks around and gets a glimpse a woman and a red-headed boy who quickly vanish into the shadows. Then he spots April, ejected from the car and laying dead on the house’s concrete floor.

A heartbroken and guilt-ridden Beckett gets patched up at a nearby hospital and files a report with a local police chief (Panos Koronis). Afterwards he wanders back to the scene of the accident where he sits next to a dried pool of April’s blood and has a private moment of mourning. Then in a terrific deep focus shot, a woman appears in the background and begins shooting. This launches “Beckett” into a man-on-the-run thriller similar to a slow-burning version of “The Fugitive”.

Filomarino crafts his lead character’s journey in a way that resembles a traditional genre movie but with the patience of an art house film. Several story beats ring familiar – a protagonist lost in a foreign country, a series of near-miss escapes, and the timely help from benevolent locals including a political activist played by a really good Vicky Krieps.

Yet through it all Filomarino’s focus remains firmly on Beckett and his fraying psychology. The character maneuvers through the machinations of a mainstream thriller, but at the film’s core is a story of a man unable to forgive himself or see himself worthy of redemption. Filomarino doesn’t spell it out, but it’s there and the grounded authenticity in Washington’s performance helps convey it.

The “Tenet” star ensures that Beckett isn’t cast in the normal action hero mold. His frantic decisions, his slow reflexes, his willingness to trust strangers on the spot – it all makes sense once we accept that Beckett isn’t a superhero. He isn’t ex-military. He doesn’t have Washington’s football background. He’s a scared tourist and an emotional wreck. He may end up in a different place than where he begins, but there’s no neat and tidy ending for him either psychologically and emotionally.

In addition to his terrific use of locations, Filomarino and his DP Sayombhu Mukdeeprom meld some jaw-dropping scenery into their action set pieces. My favorite is a dizzying overhead camera shot of Beckett high on a cliff, crooked cops closing in behind him and only one way to escape. As he peers into the chasm below the camera hovers above with a slight disorienting sway, looking down on both Beckett and the deep gorge. It’s one of several great shots that (along with composer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s elusively ominous score) creates a nice amount of tension and paranoia.

It’ll be interesting to see how Netflix viewers respond to “Beckett”. If they only stick to a simple surface reading you may see it dismissed as just another manhunt movie. That would be a shame. Filomarino’s film begs for a deeper consideration and asks its audience to look beyond its genre exterior. Its story may be simple to a fault and its themes too subtle for their own good. But there’s more meat on the movie’s bones that it may first appear. It just takes a little effort to get to it. “Beckett” opens this Friday (August 13th) on Netflix.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

REVIEW: “The Suicide Squad” (2021)

August 6, 2021 by Keith Garlington

James Gunn’s road to “The Suicide Squad” was a bumpy one starting with his temporary firing by Disney in 2018 after some pretty vile and bone-headed tweets from years earlier resurfaced. Within three months after his dismissal from the House of Mouse he was hired by Warner Bros. to makes a DCEU movie. For some reason the studio wanted him to do a Superman movie, but he (thankfully) turned it down. When asked what DC property he would like to adapt, his choice was (obviously) Suicide Squad.

Warner Bros. had already taken a shot at a Suicide Squad film with their 2016 David Ayer and Will Smith debacle. The universally panned disaster really only got high marks for one thing – Margot Robbie’s delightfully psychotic portrayal of Harley Quinn. But now we get Gunn’s film, a brazenly R-rated big-budget do-over that seeks to set itself apart by going the “Deadpool” route. And if there’s one thing those oddly beloved Ryan Reynolds flicks have shown us, it’s that sometimes all you need is blood, boobs and a boatload of f-bombs to get an audience.

But there’s a little something more to James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad” that the “Deadpool” movies didn’t have. Yes, it fully embraces the same delusion that soaking a superhero movie in profanity somehow makes it cooler and edgier. And yes, sometimes it uses its graphic violence as an attention-getting crutch. And Gunn (who serves as writer and director) turns too many of his characters into nothing more than walking punchlines. Yet among all the violence and laughs (and there are many) is and actual heart. It’s often dark and twisted and sometimes hard to find, but it’s heart nonetheless.

Gunn straddles a fine line with “The Suicide Squad”, not always perfectly but well enough to get by. Too often you can see him actively working for his R-rating. Other times he gets too caught up in the whole “from the horribly beautiful mind of James Gunn” persona. On the other hand, Gunn’s love for his large batch of characters is evident from the start and even the smallest villain-turned-antihero gets a cool action beat or funny gag all to themselves. And while the violence is graphic (heads blow up, limbs are sliced off, throats are slit, torsos are ripped in half), so much of it is over-the-top and played for laughs. And in a weird (but undeniably entertaining) way, the blood-n-gore helps define this wacky little pocket of the DCEU where a movie like this can exist.

The story is pretty basic – assemble a team of imprisoned supervillains and send them on an extremely dangerous yet critically important mission for the US government. It’s unlikely that the violent cons will survive, but if they do they get ten years knocked off their sentence. That’s the gist of it. There’s some international conspiracy mumbo-jumbo with some base-level foreign policy critique that pops up later. But mostly it’s Gunn letting his ragtag band of homicidal screw-ups off their leashes and then running them through the meat grinder.

Under the stone-faced supervision of the ever-grumpy government liaison Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), Task Force X (because the murderous yet sensitive team considers the name Suicide Squad “degrading”) is sent to the South American island nation of Corto Maltese. There, a violent military coup has overthrown one hostile government and replaced it with a more subtly megalomaniacal one led by President Silvio Luna (Juan Diego Botto). But the American government’s real target is the island’s scientific research facility named Jotunheim. It houses something known only as Project Starfish, a potentially cataclysmic weapon believed to be extraterrestrial in origin. The squad’s mission is to land undetected on the island, infiltrate the facility and destroy every trace of Project Starfish.

The movie opens with a jolt and instantly lets us know that no one in Gunn’s world is sacred. Colonel Rick Flagg (a returning Joel Kinnaman) is the poor sap assigned to lead Team One while Bloodsport (Idris Elba) heads Team Two. Filling out this unsavory lot is Harley Quinn (an also returning Margot Robbie), the freedom loving buffoon Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark – a hulking talking shark in swim trunks wonderfully voiced by Sylvester Stallone, Ratcatcher II (an endearing Daniela Melchior) who can summon an army of rats (where they all come from and how they get there so fast are questions better left unasked), and the somber forlorn Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian).

Numerous other recognizable faces liven up the squad including Jai Courtney returning as Boomerang, Nathan Fillion, Michael Rooker, Pete Davidson, Sean Gunn, and Flula Borg. It’s ultimately this collage of characters mixed with Gunn’s free-wheeling irreverence that drives the movie. The performances are top-to-bottom terrific with Elba, Robbie, Stallone, and Dastmalchian as the standouts. Kinnaman plays a good straight man while Gunn gives Cena a role that perfectly utilizes his limitations. Everyone seems to be in on the joke and (more importantly) onboard with Gunn’s gleefully scuzzy vision.

The movie also looks amazing and you can see every bit of the film’s $185 million budget on screen. This is especially true in the rousing final act that takes the genre’s traditional CGI blowout ending and goes nuts with it. Gunn, his DP Henry Braham, and an insanely talented digital effects team make sure the film finishes on a wildly absurd and visually glorious note. It’s a gonzo finale that will leave audiences laughing and in utter awe.

“The Suicide Squad”, warts and all, is one crazy concoction. In one sense it’s an overly indulgent exercise in style-over-substance. It’s hardly the most seamless story and some of its character bits are too flimsy to resonate (a prime example is a woefully undercooked side-story about Bloodsport and his teenage daughter). But even with its flaws, the film has this uniquely raucous and chaotic pulse and once you get in sync with it you can’t help but have a good time. It had me constantly thinking back to “The Dirty Dozen”, “The Wild Bunch”, “The Expendables” and even the Borg Cubes from “Star Trek”. And that’s the kind of movie James Gunn has made. Not some superhero reheat, but an original spin on the genre that calls back to numerous works while still being unlike anything we’ve seen before.