No Time to Die

Actors: Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Rory Kinnear, Ralph Fiennes, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Billy Magnussen, Ana de Armas, David Dencik, Dali Benssalah

Rating: 10 out of 10, Everyone knows this is Daniel Craig’s last foray as James Bond and it was a well-earned, epic send off. Craig’s Bond was always told on a more personal level and this final movie completes the arc that started with Casino Royale. Bond is led to question everyone in his life as he moves around the globe trying to unravel an insidious plot involving old friend Blofeld as well as his lady love. It is a very good story and I hardly noticed the nearly three hour running time because, in typical 007 fashion, you literally are only a heartbeat away from the next stunning action sequence. It does raise the interesting question about how many times a guy can get nearly blown up without becoming a vegetable. I know we’re talking James Bond here but it’s good this was his last movie because we’re talking mouth drooling PTSD if not. There are some kick ass ladies who no longer serve as just window dressing in Bond movies. They are led by Ana De Armas who’s only on screen for a short time but dominates. Every plot thread from Craig’s story line is neatly and usually fatally tied off and there are some genuinely poignant odes to earlier movies, including predating Craig’s tenure. The only downer and it wasn’t a big one was the villain. Rami Malek plays the reptilian megalomaniac with too much nuance, if that’s even possible. He gets kind of lost in the maelstrom of action and explosions as the movie careens towards the inevitable good bye. A great movie bringing all you expect from a Bond movie, raising the level and injecting more heart than has ever been permitted.

MVP: Craig in his swan song as 007, well done

Venom Let There be Carnage

Actors: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, Reid Scott, Stephen Graham, Woody Harrelson

Rating: 7 out of 10, I loved the first Venom movie so this was going to be a tough follow up but it manages to capture a lot of the fun from the original. This is a tribute to Tom Hardy who once again portrays the semi-hero occupied by a carnivorous alien. The funniest moments were the couples therapy the two go through as they adjust to life together. Woody Harrelson is his usual spooky self as the serial killer who gets his own alien occupier, setting up a huge climatic fight between the four of them. This wasn’t as good as the original but still plenty of fun and dare I say, carnage.

MVP: Hardy as both Eddie Brock and Venom – too funny/dangerous

Copshop

Actors: Gerard Butler, Frank Grillo, Alexis Louder

Rating: 8 out of 10, I wasn’t sure what to think about Copland before seeing the movie, obviously. I went to see it mainly because it starred Gerard Butler and Frank Grillo who are reliable action stars. I wasn’t prepared for a complete unknown (to me) to steal every scene she was in, including from the two main stars. Alexis Louder was the only remotely redeemable character in the entire movie. She plays a young African American sheriff’s deputy in rural Nevada. She arrests a mysterious, wounded man who punches her (Grillo) which sets off a serious assault on her isolated police department. Butler shows up as an infamous hitman sent to off Grillo before he can talk. They are soon besieged by an array of competing hitman and dirty cops. The banter, especially between Butler and Grillo, is worth the price of admission. Butler has the best lines, including, “Now that’s a psychopath”, when competing (and hilarious unhinged) hitman Toby Huss shows up. Again though, Louder more than holds her own against the heavyweights and you can’t help but rooting for her to survive against long odds. So, a real surprise and one of the better movies I’ve seen in a while.

MVP: Louder as Val, the seriously undergunned but resilient deputy

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Actors: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng'er Zhang, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh, Ben Kingsley, Tony Leung

Rating: 9 out of 10, I was a little leery going into this figuring it might be overly Asian-centric and overdoing political correctness. I shouldn’t have worried as this turned out to be the best movie I’ve seen so far this year, exceeding even Marvel’s usual lofty standards. A great deal of the credit goes to the cast who were prefect, charismatic and connective with the audience. The lead actor, Simu Liu, was very impressive both in the incredible physical requirements, which literally comes from nowhere, very suddenly, as well as the deep emotions the part required. Awkwafina is along bringing her usual quirky humor but she proves she can do so much more. It was an interesting, multilayered plot laden with Marvel’s usual state of the art special effects. A very complex family story where the two mildly super-human parents produce two very special children, a boy and a girl. The boy, as an adult, is hiding out in San Francisco, the very best place for a monumental car chase, which happens very early. He is drawn back to China for a confrontation with his father with the fate of the world in the balance (this is Marvel after all). I loved the movie and very early I forgot it was Asian focused, the story and the actors won me over utterly, much in the same fashion as Black Panther did for African-Americans. Good is good and this was better.

MVP: Liu as the title character, kicking ass and taking names