Venom The Last Dance

Actors: Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Stephen Graham, Peggy Lu, Alanna Ubach

Rating: 8 out of 10, This is the final movie in Tom Hardy’s trilogy as Eddie Brock, host for the hilarious and deadly symbiont, Venom. The first movie will always be the best one in this series because it focused almost completely on the Hardy/Venom tandem. This movie is awesome as long as they were on screen. There are a couple sub-plots that bring the momentum and hilarity to a screeching halt. Juno Temple is wasted which should involve criminal charges against somebody. All that being said, it was a very fun ride, maybe the last with Hardy in this role and he dominates whenever he’s on the screen. The action for the final twenty minutes is non-stop and bewilderingly chaotic; but that’s what you get with Venom. A great last ride.

MVP: Hardy, of course, as the Eddie Brock/Venom tandem

Gladiator II

Actors: Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Connie Nielsen, Denzel Washington, Derek Jacobi

Rating: 8 out of 10, I loved this sequel to one of my favorite movies. They spend a lot of time and effort tying the characters back to Maximus, which I appreciated. The action was a lot more realistic due to the advances in CGI, but this let them wander into some silliness. I mean. Sharks in the Colosseum! Connie Neilson returns and lends appropriate gravity to the events along with Denzel, who, as always, steals every scene he’s in. The lead, Paul Mescal, is a revelation as the grown-up version of one of the original movie’s characters. He handles the action as well as the emotions almost as well as Crowe did. The film makers follow the same type plot line which again totally ignores the true history but this is Hollywood and they’ve delivered a great action movie again, almost on par with the original.

MVP: Denzel as the devious Macrinus

Red One

Actors: Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, J. K. Simmons, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Nick Kroll, Kristofer Hivju, Wesley Kimmel

Rating: 8 out of 10, Not as bad as you might be hearing from the critics. The cast is outstanding and the duo of the Rock and Captain America are perfect foils for each other. The Rock oversees security for Santa Claus and spends the movie trying to find him after a kidnapping, assisted by naughty lister Evans. I know, a silly premise but it works as they devote themselves to playing it straight, as if this could really happen. There’s also a less than subtle message about Christmas and family which is always welcome. I really enjoyed the movie and the action was credible, even when they’re fighting rogue snow men sent by the Christmas witch. I know. As I said, silly, but it works.

MVP: Evans as the naughty guy, Jack O’Malley

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Actors: Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Henry Golding, Alex Pettyfer

Rating: 8 out of 10, I’m a huge fan of Guy Ritchie films and he really delivers here. It’s loosely (very loosely) based on a real WW2 commando raid, Operation Postmaster. They really nailed the casting with Superman, Reacher, and the very hot gal from Ambulance leading. There was plenty of the understated British humor I love in Ritchie films. The action was expertly woven into the plot as the commandos have to fight both the Germans and the British high command who wants to surrender to Germany (remember, highly fictionalized). I loved this movie.

MVP: Cavill as the well bearded leader Gus March-Phillipps

The Killer’s Game

Actors: Dave Bautista, Sofia Boutella, Terry Crews, Scott Adkins, Pom Klementieff, Ben Kingsley

Rating: 7 out of 10, This was okay with some John Wickian type action and some funny moments as well. Strange to see Drax the Destroyer facing off against Mantis. Bautista plays a word class assassin (who, of course, only kills bad guys) who receives a mis-diagnosis that gives him only a few months to live. He takes out a contract to have himself killed. As luck would have it, he’s just fallen in love with a diminutive French dancer, played by the always watchable Sofia Boutella. After he learns he isn’t going to die, he now has to take on a bevy of fellow assassins while trying to protect his girlfriend. That very interesting concept is fully explored and this could have been a lot of fun if Bautista had taken it more seriously. He seems almost detached and just taking a payday while the rest of the cast is awesome. This surprised me as I’m a big fan of Bautista. Still, a nice, if very bloody, watch.

MVP: Boutella as the love interest Maize

Judgement at Nuremburg

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, William Shatner, Montgomery Clift

Rating: 9 out of 10, Couldn’t believe I had never seen this. A truly amazing collection of actors delivers a poignant message that feels all the more so nowadays with the travesties we see ongoing in Washington. The political ramifications with the cold war heating up at the time of the trials also had relevance to today’s justice system. It was strange to see the impossibly young Captain James T. Kirk and Colonel Klink in serious roles. The film is dominated by the amazing cast. Widmark is a little over the top, but Tracy is at his best serving as the chief judge of four German judges who enforced the Nazi regime’s inhuman justice system. Tracy’s judgement monologue should be required viewing.  I’m usually not that all in on a “message” film but this grabs you by the lapels and dares you to forget the atrocities. The value of a single human being!

MVP: Tracy as the head judge and conscience of the film

Furiosa A Mad Max Saga

Actors: Anya Taylor-Joy, Alyla Browne, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, John Howard, Nathan Jones, Angus Sampson

Rating: 8 out of 10, I really enjoyed this prequel of the amazing Fury Road. Anya Taylor-Jones is dynamite in the nearly non-stop action sequences which Miller does so well. My only problem was her lack of spoken lines. She only speaks occasionally while diving around her war rig, so it was hard to connect with her as a character. Chris Hemsworth speaks maybe a little too much as another in the long line of amazing Mad Max villains. This film tells the origin story of Imperator Furiosa and how she came to lose an arm and ended up hanging out with the war boys. It was always going to be tough to capture the magic of Fury Road and while they come close, they didn’t. Still, a very entertaining summer action movie worth seeing for Taylor-Jones and her duel with Hemsworth.

MVP: Anya Taylor-Jones is tone perfect as the iconic Furiosa