"Home Sweet Home Alone":
I watch the original Home Alone and Home Alone 2 every year with my wife and kids. We wind up watching the first more than once during the holidays. Home Alone one is a classic that I’m happy has been passed down to the next generation. I’m sure we can all agree on that. I despise the off shoots that have come after any Macaulay Culkin film in the franchise. So Home Sweet Home Alone was getting all the smoke if it was bad. Give me a second but get the smoke machine ready.
Writers Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell get tons of credit here. They understood the assignment and executed a screenplay that pays homage to the original, gives reasonable explanations for what’s happening, and tries to dig itself from under the mountains of nostalgic love for Home Alone. Emphasis on tries.
After randomly stopping into an open house to use the restroom, Carol (Aisling Bea) and Max Mercer (Archie Yates) talk with homeowner Jeff McKenzie(Rob Delaney) for a moment. Carol mentions to Jeff that the dolls he’s moving around happens to be a collectors item. Max, a somewhat ornery boy, seemingly takes an unusual doll to spite Jeff for not giving him a soda.
It’s revealed that Jeff and his wife Pam (Ellie Kemper) are selling their home because they can’t afford to live there anymore. With one salary, they need the money. Once Jeff finds out this ugly doll is worth $200,000 on Ebay, he and Pam set off to get the doll back.
This isn’t the set up that other films have tried to take with genuine burglars and bad guys. Instead, it’s two people trying to get back what’s theirs from the kid protecting what’s his. So the film takes a step away from what has been done and redone far too much. However, while the concept is grounded in reality, the antics and traps aren’t.
The majority of this films revolves around Jeff and Pam, as it should. Archie Yates is punching above his weight class. He lacks the charisma and charm that it takes to be the kid at home that we want to root for which brings the film down, but he’s noticeably not the centerpiece here. Instead, it’s Delaney and Kemper who do the heavy lifting. Their physical comedy and genuine relatability shines, making them burglars we can get behind.
Still, this is another Home Alone iteration that didn’t have to be made. My kids enjoyed laughing at the burglars getting hurt in traps and other shenanigans. There are some nice easter eggs that pay homage to the original. However, this is another film that will make you slap your face and scream!
Rating: D+
"The Vault" Review: A Subpar Heist Film w/ Lipstick
“The Vault” is every trope of a heist film that you’ve seen before rolled into one, beautifully shot, pretentious piece of work. I don’t think it’s worth watching because you can imagine everything that happens just from hearing the synopsis. Sometimes, I think Netflix should use its money to combat world hunger the way it wastes money picking up certain content.
If you read IMDB’s synopsis of the film it says the film “follows a genius engineering graduate who is interested in the Bank of Spain's safe.” That’s pretty lazy writing from someone who doesn’t care about the film. Maybe, one of the writers? The film is about Thom (Freddie Highmore), a Cambridge engineering student who solved some oil spill issue that gives us a montage of a bunch of oil companies coming after him to work with them. Thom isn’t interested in the money. Instead, he’s interested in Walter’s (Liam Cunningham) offer to crack the world’s most impenetrable safe in order to get back something that was stolen from Walter. You know, the one offer our hero gets after receiving an anonymous text, following instructions and winding up in a bar sitting across from the mature, seasoned actor who will give this thing some gravitas!
We already met Walter’s daughter (I think it’s his daughter, they elude to their closeness) Lorraine (Astrid Berges-Frisbey) in luring Thom to Walter. She’s the one who wears a wig, pick-pockets people and will likely be Thom’s love interest. So we need the rest of the gang of thieves: Klaus (Axel Stein) is the whitty, chip eating tech guy, Simon (Luis Tosar) is the gruff muscle, and James (Sam Riley) is the “don’t trust anyone” good at his job guy that probably likes Lorraine. Everybody here? Check! Getting into this vault is going to take some work.
First, we’ll have to do some reconnaissance! The type that’s never been done before, but wet behind the ears Thom will have to be on the ground to do something smart to build his character. With new information, we need to strike at an opportune time. How about during the World Cup Finals? Of course, great diversion and way to put a ticking clock in the film. I’m just sticking that in there in the same way writers…wait, I have to list five names!? Writer’s Rafa Martinez, Andres Koppel, Borja Santaolalla, Michel Gazambide, and Rowan Athale inserted the intense looking, smart but soon to be outsmarted Gustavo (Jose Coronado) as the head of security. However, with five writers on the job, it makes sense as to why this ensemble of characters lack depth.
The film has lots of great music. There is the music that we hear when someone is thinking through something, when danger or a near death experience is about to take place, and the absence of music when a joke is told to break the suspense of an intense moment. Ultimately, everything that makes this film tick, we’ve seen before. Thom isn’t really that smart, he just sees things that other people don’t, but likely would if they just thought a little bit more.
I can only imagine the money spent on the production design, location and cast for this film. It looks extravagant and like the best American heist films from the early 2000s. It even cuts together like one too. It has Freddie Highmore doing his best “if Dr. Shaun Murphy wasn’t autistic impression”. Unfortunately, it’s a pig with lipstick. I’d only recommend this if you’re extremely bored, have exhausted all of your streaming options and enjoy the rhythm of heist films.
Rating: D
"Bad Trip" Review: A Mixed Bag Of Hilarious & Familiar Bits
We could all use a good laugh these days. Netflix’s Bad Trip is a blend of scripted narrative with real pranks. For me, I’m not a huge fan of Jackass or Borat, but I get a huge kick out of people’s natural reactions to pranks on shows like Punk’d or IG channels. So if any combination of things I just listed appeals to you, this film will too!
The basic storyline of this film follows friends Chris (Eric Andre) and Bud (Lil Rel Howery), who take a cross country trip to unite Chris with a high school flame he thinks he has a shot with. Like, Dumb & Dumber, “so you’re saying there’s a chance” type deal! In order to get to New York, they decide to drive Bud’s sister Trina’s (Tiffany Haddish) Pepto Bismol colored car while she’s in jail. Only she’s not in jail, she just escaped, and she wants her car back!
With a thinly knit storyline, the entertainment is really in the various pranks along the way. Some are lighthearted, like Chris’ character breaking into song and dance about love in the middle of the mall. Others are extremely raunch like Chris being “violated” by a guerrilla at the zoo. With Trina hot on their tail, it’s funny to see the buddies enter a place and then her enter not to long after. What’s priceless are the faces and reactions of the bystanders at each of the prank locations that capture a slice of America from Florida to New York!
The film focuses on Eric Andre’s ability to be a shameless, mixed bag of emotion, hopeless romantic. While Andre is a “I’ve seen that guy before” actor that isn’t as famous as his co-stars, it also helps sell the story that he could go in to different places and get people to believe he’s an everyday individual. Lil Rel and Tiffany Haddish get makeup, different hairstyles and tattoos to help make them a little less recognizable. While Lil Rel plays the straight man in this comedy, Haddish is able to let loose with her character as she’s done in another movie with trip in the title, making for hilarious moments.
The blend between cinematic shots and reality tv setups can take you in and out of the film at times. It’s clear that in order to sell the prank, certain shots- like a drone flying over the main characters to capture him hanging over a building- would have to have been done at a separate time. However, if you just go with it, you’re guaranteed to laugh out loud more than a few times! The film ends showing the reveal of the pranks to the people involved, so stick around for the end credits.
Rating: B-
"Fatal Affair" Review: An Entertaining Entanglement That Never Was
Fatal Affair is the latest in a long line of supposed salacious, psychological thrillers. Unfortunately, this turns out to be a flaccid film that will leave you talking to the screen for all the wrong reasons. Nia Long and Omar Epps do their best phoned in performances to keep this afloat. So in a sense, Netflix did it again! It cranked out some get with your boo and laugh entertainment.
Let me catch you up quickly so I can get to the jokes. Ellie (Long) is a high powered attorney, and David (Epps) is the hacker companies call on when they need something to be found. After running into each other in a chance work encounter, after years of not seeing each other since college, David wants that old thing back! That old thing never was, but for a brief moment in a club, after drinks, lonely Ellie almost crosses the line of her marriage to Marcus (Stephen Bishop) and hooks up with David. That little taste of almost heaven sends David on a mission to make Ellie his.
That’s the set up for the movie. So you know how the rest of it goes. We slowly see David’s narcissism and anger come to the forefront over a series of multiple calls, texts, “chance” encounters and watching Ellie through windows that should have blinds drawn. David makes it clear that he and Ellie can work it out and Marcus doesn’t have to know. While Ellie refuses, David only amps up the possibility of bringing her marriage to an end.
This movie doesn’t provide anything new for the genre. Part of the problem is that the moments that actually make you start to engage with the film seriously, end almost as quickly as they begin. Moments of tension and suspense aren’t held out long enough, but they are sprinkled throughout the film. Nia Long attempts to bring some emotion to her role as Ellie. After all being an attorney who is successful enough to have a house on the beach and her own firm, but stupid enough to entertain a mad man takes skill! I did enjoy seeing Omar Epps do his best to channel Bishop! Having got the juice 28 years ago, I guess he finally decided to prove it.
It’s not that this movie is the worst of the genre. It’s just that Fatal Affair isn’t quite abysmal and it isn’t that good. So I highly suggest you grab your bae or some friends and some wine for this one! It will be entertaining. Here’s my rating and some extras for you.
Rating: C-
Top 8 things my wife and I said to the screen:
“This is stupid!”
“Why don’t you just tell your husband!?”
“Now if you know he’s a hacker, why would you send an email?”
“If he’s a hacker, why doesn’t he have a password on his phone?”
“Omar is trying!”
“Poor Stephen Bishop! He done got to’ up in this movie! “
“Stab him! Stab him! Awww, come on!”
“Get the gun!”
Twitter quips that had me rollin’:
"Guava Island": A Love Letter to Storytelling & Pushing Limits
Imagine the 48 hour period surrounding Selena, Sam Cooke, Tupac or John Lennon’s untimely death. All of the aforementioned names are music legends tragically cut down in their prime. This is Guava Island in a nutshell. The 55 minute film quietly released on Amazon Prime may be consumed by some as a music video, musical, video album hybrid but there’s a lot more to it than those boxes.
The film starts with a bed time story about two childhood sweethearts. The boy grew up to be a talented singer named Deni Maroon (Donald Glover) who sought to win the girl, Kofi Novia (Rihanna), by singing a new song every night to her until he created the perfect song. While Deni works in the factory on the island, he is also a free spirited crooner who wants to fight for the people of Guava by providing the soundtrack to mental freedom through his music. He plans to put on a music festival to give the island’s working class a chance to unwind, but that would be bad business for the island’s big boss, Red Cargo (Nonso Anozie), because people wouldn’t show up for work the next day after partying all night.
There comes a point where the central conflict of the film comes to a head and a decision must be made. Due to the length of the Guava Island, we don’t get to see the consequences of the decision that a 90 minute running time would display. So in many ways the fallout is even heavier. What happens to people who do the right thing in the face of greedy, self-serving people? Is doing the right thing worth it if you have to pay the ultimate price? The story and the answers to those questions are cut short just like the running time. Which ultimately allows for the viewer to ruminate on those questions and ideas.
Guava Island is a love letter to the power of storytelling. Its use of the animated bed time story in the beginning, Demi’s live action story, and the ending animation all serve a point to how we consume information through oral and visual storytelling. It’s how we elevate human beings to the heroic and legendary status of a Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X. While simultaneously mythologizing his brother’s art, writer Stephen Glover (Donald’s brother) taps into a story that we’ve seen far too many times in history. It’s the story of a talented individual who gives themselves to his or her people and the entities that want to snuff their light out. While they may be gone in the physical, there’s no doubt that their energy lives on through the work that they created and spirit they emoted.
With Nipsey Hussle’s untimely death, a film like this hits home even more for those who were fans (it even dropped on the day of his funeral). Why do the good ones go too soon? Why do we as a society of flawed human beings, hate on or take out the people trying to make a positive difference in our communities? Perhaps the answer can be found in the remixed “This is America” song and dance within the film. With factory workers dressed in red jumpsuits (coincidentally similar to those in Jordan Peele’s Us) and moving like zombies, could it be that like so many TV shows and movies featuring zombie hordes moving together in unison, when they hear a sound of something different or smell live flesh, they attack it, kill it, and then we’re left to celebrate its greatness after?
Ultimately, what Glover and frequent collaborator, director Hiro Murai, have given us is art. Art allows us to fill in the blanks with our own thoughts and starts conversations. It’s refreshing to see that with so many ways to get their art into the world through streaming distributors, artists are taking advantage of it and taking risks to express themselves outside of the traditional boxed narrative for their careers. Glover doesn’t have to just be an actor in big blockbuster movies, tv shows, or just a singer. He can combine it all in the story he wants to tell. He doesn’t have to be pinned down to society’s wishes, and perhaps that’s the main point of Guava Island.
Rating: B
"Triple Frontier" Review: Big Stars Take To The Small Screen Stream
Plenty of us love a good war or military strategy film. Not necessarily because we love the violence of war, but because it gives us a sense of what it’s like to be there without being there. The danger, heroism and moral dilemmas soldiers face in the field is incredible and in many ways can be a metaphor for the battle of every day life. Triple Frontier uses all the action sequences we are drawn to in those films to have a deeper conversation about the motivations of its characters to take on a deadly mission in hopes of a final payoff after years of service to their country.
The film starts out in typical narrative by giving us a glimpse at Santiago “Pope” Garcia’s (Oscar Isaac) current assignment chasing down a cartel leader in South America. Eluding him for years, Pope has an informant that not only knows where Lorea is, but that the multi-millions of dollars in cash that he has amassed is in the house with him. Director J.C. Chandor gives us the recruitment sequences but jumps to the parts we need to see and know. He doesn’t spend time showing Pope on a flight to the U.S. and looking through folders with files. Instead, Pope shows up in an ongoing chat that has been cut in between Pope’s backstory with William “Ironhead” Miller (Charlie Hunnam), who is now giving speeches to current soldiers transitioning to private sector life. He finds Ironhead’s brother, Ben Miller (Garrett Hedlund), at an MMA fight. The fight is a good excuse to round up the entire crew. Tom “Redfly” Davis (Ben Affleck) is the retired brains who understands how to carry out an attack to the minute, and Francisco “Catfish” Morales (Pedro Pascal) is their helicopter pilot.
Once the team is in place, the recon proves the mission could be more of a suicide attempt than they had expected. It’s after the action occurs (reminiscent of an 80’s Schwarzenegger or Chuck Norris flick) that we still have half of the running time left to go in the movie. It’s in the space of their retreat that they find themselves up against the wall with moral and survival dilemmas.
This film feels very old school in it’s handling of action, but new in the conversations it brings to the table. The toll of war is evident on each character’s face as well as in their decision making. Whether they make a decision to kill, compartmentalize what has been done due to the rationalization of the situation, or tuck the guilt in their pocket momentarily to push through, the weight is obvious. What is the impact of taking someone’s life? Does one life outweigh another? What do our veterans have to show for their efforts after years of service? These are questions that screenwriters J.C. Chandor and Mark Boal try to wrestle with throughout the film.
This is a solid tactical shoot ‘em up with just enough heart to make it stand out for a flick for the guys (it’s definitely a bro movie). Proving that direct to streaming is a viable option these days, Triple Frontier is a good watch for your Netflix perusing.
Rating: B
"Bird Box" Review: What Could Have Been vs. What Is
Bird Box is a hybrid of A Quiet Place and The Happening. So it’s not surprising that it lands in the middle of the two. It soars in its elements of suspense and perhaps the all too familiar, “what would you do in a post-apocalyptic setting?” theme! It also crashes in its pacing and character development. So the real question is, should you lift your blindfold and watch the movie? I think the gander won’t kill you!
The film starts out with Malorie (Sandra Bullock) giving life or death instructions to two little children she calls Girl (Vivien Lyra Blair) and Boy (Julian Edwards). She’s not just giving them instructions, she’s telling us the rules for the world they’re living in and the road we’re about to travel. It’s intense, it’s mysterious and it’s engaging. Then we’re thrust back in time, just five years prior, to a pregnant Malorie and a world in which things are starting to go awry.
A menacing force that turns people suicidal when they look at it has reached the United States. After joining a house full of survivors barricaded inside a home, Malorie and her companions spend time trying to understand what they’re up against and live to see another day. Perhaps that’s a poor choice of words as they have to stay blindfolded whenever they venture out, but you get what I mean.
Bird Box landed on Netflix at a perfect time. Released over the holidays, when people are home and looking to be entertained, the film does just that. At its core, the movie is a character study into who we are as human beings in the worst of times. Malorie is a mother willing to do anything to keep her children safe from harm. Braving scavenger runs into houses with people who have become the entity’s helpers due to their mental illness (which was a concept that could have been explored more) and blindly taking on river rapids, she’s the embodiment of perfect love driving out fear.
The issue with the film is that it spends less time developing its characters and more time introducing characters just enough to set up inevitable kills. Perhaps the film could have been better as a series, especially given the nature of the streaming distributor. With more time to let us sink into the world, it could have been a binge worthy series. I would have loved to explore Malorie and Tom’s (Trevante Rhodes) journey over the course of five years growing accustomed to the new normal while facing threats. The concept of the mentally ill hunting for people to expose to the outside dangerous entity is the things that "The Purge” is made of. Instead, it has to rush its pacing by nature of a two hour sci-fi drama and awkwardly jumps through time to tell the story.
With solid performances from Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich, Sara Paulson, and Lil Rel Howery, I think the disappointment is what the film could have been versus what it is. Still, it should be an entertaining watch for Netflix users! It’s not like you spent any extra money to see it and you’ve already paid for access to see it. So by all means, take the gander and come to your own conclusion!
Rating: C+
"The Christmas Chronicles" Review
As the holidays descend upon us, so do the holiday movies! Enter Netflix’s latest The Christmas Chronicles. “Who would have thought Kurt Russell would make such a great Santa Claus?” said someone who has never seen a Kurt Russell film!
Kate (Darby Camp) and Teddy Pierce (Judah Lewis) are siblings who have recently lost their father. They don’t spend much time together like they used to. Perhaps it’s because of their age difference, and likely the loss of their dad. So when Kate propositions Teddy to help her catch Santa (Kurt Russell) on video in exchange for not showing their mother (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) video evidence of Teddy’s grand theft auto, he agrees.
Not only do the two catch Santa in the act, they wind up going for a wild ride over an entertaining night with Santa Claus himself in an effort to save Christmas. Yes, it’s the sappy theme you’d expect, but with a modern edge that makes it fun for the entire family! Imagine all the great Kurt Russell quips that you’ve heard and swag you’ve seen in his work history applied to the role of Santa. He’s you’re cool grandpa that knows everyone he comes in contact with.
Part of what sells this version of celebrating the Christmas spirit is the look and wardrobe of Santa Claus. In fact, the running joke of the film is how he’s not a fat and jolly old man. Instead, his slimmer physique and Russell’s signature delivery with dialogue, makes for a believable, more youthful Claus. Claus’s suit is the red and white we’ve come to recognize, but has a brown tint in the white fur. It’s a befitting look for a unique Claus.
The visual effects team works magic in this film (minus the obviously CGI elves) as a floating sleigh looks authentic, Santa vanishing into mystical dust, and reindeer flying all look grounded in reality. Perhaps drawing on his animation experience and having director Clay Kaytis (his second time at the helms since 2016’s Angry Birds Movie) directing a film that relies on it’s visual effects and animation was a good move.
The Christmas Chronicles is a solid pick for family viewing this season. With solid performances from its cast, the intrinsic entertaining magic of the season is baked into the script from Matt Lieberman. Plus, finding out who Mrs. Claus is will be a treat for movie geeks. So grab the kids, some cookies and milk, and have a nice night on Netflix.
Rating: B