Terminator Dark Fate

Actors: Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, Gabriel Luna

Rating: 8 out of 10, A very good reboot of the iconic movie franchise. Both Linda Hamilton and the Governator return in age appropriate roles. They were the best part of the original two movies and Hamilton is outstanding continuing her kick ass mentality well into her senior years. The script does a very good job of weaving the plot into the original mythology and tells the same type of story although the John Conner role is assumed by a feisty Mexican gal. Her savior from the future isn’t a terminator but an enhanced human warrior, also female. You do not want to piss these women off. They’re pursued by yet another upgraded terminator who combines the scariest aspects of all prior incarnations. The action is almost non-stop but there’s a liberal amount of sly humor injected, especially when Arnold shows up as a drape salesman. Yep. I also loved the small tributes to the original movies liberally laced throughout. I thought the franchise was dead but like the damned terminators themselves, there is life yet. I loved it.

MVP: Schwarzenegger reprising his role as a T-800

Zombieland 2

Actors: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin, Emma Stone, Rosario Dawson, Zoey Deutch, Avan Jogia, Luke Wilson, Thomas Middleditch

Rating: 9 out of 10, This retains the very fun attitude of the original. Our Oscar nominated crew of zombie killers have taken up residence in the ruins of the White House which lends itself to some serious gags. I missed Woody’s obsession with Twinkies but it’s been replaced with an Elvis mania which leads him to Rosario Dawson – never a bad thing. It’s all escapist fun despite the constant zombie attacks with some really funny zingers aimed at millennials. I know critics who take themselves way too seriously will be upset with actors of this caliber taking up this kind of fare but it is pure unadulterated fun and would have been really silly (alright more silly) with lesser actors. Make sure to stay for all of the credits for your Bill Murray fix, who re-appears despite the hole blown in his chest in the first movie.

MVP: Eisenberg as the geeky but effective Columbus

Gemini Man

Actors: Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, Benedict Wong

Rating: 7 out of 10, I know this isn’t getting a lot of love from the critics. Ang Lee does get carried away with trying to be too cute with his camera angles, action flicks may not be his best outlet. We get a whole lot of Will Smith, obviously since it stars both his current self and a computer generated younger version as well, which is never a bad thing. It seemed the computer generated younger version was limited in facial expression because he had none of Smith’s usual charisma. The older version more than picked up the slack though. Smith plays a world class assassin who tries to retire (never a cinematically easy task) and finds himself hunted by his much younger clone. There are plot holes galore but that comes with the territory and the action scenes were excellent. There was a tendency to come to screeching halts for a little too much naval contemplation but Smith is good enough to carry you through that. He’s ably assisted by Mary Elizabeth Winstead who kicks some serious ass on her own. This is well worth the watch despite what you’re hearing from the critics.

MVP: Winstead as Danny, the more than capable assistant

Joker

Actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Bill Camp, Shea Whigham, Marc Maron

Rating: 10 out of 10, There is something about the character of Batman’s Joker that brings out extraordinary performances but Joaquin Phoenix has outdone all predecessors. He totally inhabits the role and it was mesmerizing to behold. This is an origin story but it doesn’t involve a descent because he’s already psychotic when we first meet him. He plays an unsuccessful clown/comedian in a crumbling Gotham City. You can almost root for him as his desperately lonely life dissolves into chaos. Phoenix’s performance lends the perfect amount of unease to the audience as we watch the train wreck that his mind is unfold in slow motion. The sudden violence is unvarnished and pointed straight at those who would lionize the comic criminality the Joker is usually surrounded by. This is a very bad man; despite the challenges society and his warped life have thrown at him. I’ve always thought Joaquin Phoenix was kind of an acquired taste but you can see the pain and madness permeating his character and it’s impossible to look away. One of the best movies I’ve seen in a while but don’t go if you’re not ready to be figuratively smacked in the mouth.

MVP: Phoenix mesmerizes as the Gotham City’s preeminent bad guy

Bad Times at the El Royale

Actors: Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman, Chris Hemsworth

Rating: 9 out of 10, I’m not sure what I expected but this was something new and very interesting. The film involves a series of characters who in the late 1960s check into a kitschy hotel that straddles the Nevada-California border. The various back stories are told by room number and eventually they all come together for a vibrating finale with a completely unexpected hero emerging. The cast is uniformly strong with Cynthia Erivo as an aspiring lounge singer and Jeff Bridges as a priest/felon particularly standing out. I think many younger viewers will miss some of the pop culture references from that period of time but that was one of the most interesting aspects for me. There are times when the pace may seem to crawl but that’s an illusion and necessary to get you to the “sit up moments” and the dizzying finale. Great flick.

MVP: Cynthia Erivo as Darlene Sweet the singer/conscience of the group

Creed 2

Actors: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Dolph Lundgren, Florian Munteanu, Wood Harris, Phylicia Rashad

Rating: 8 out of 10, Michel B. Jordan has so much screen presence that you almost don’t notice the presence of Stallone in this Rocky generated sequel. Creed is a compelling character as he struggles to forge his own way through the same challenges that cost his father his life. The Russian superman Drago from Rocky 3 has raised a son who is every bit as damaged as a Rocky themed movie opponent is required to be. This wasn’t the formulaic fight picture as there is real depth to all the main characters but this movie truly belongs to Jordan. I’m excited to think about the future of this young actor – he’s really that good. The final fight was everything you’d expect and hope for in a Rocky film but it still somehow entertained.

MVP: Jordan continues to be automatic as Adonis Creed

It Chapter 2

Actors: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Andy Bean, Bill Skarsgård

Rating: 7 out of 10, A very long movie but you almost don’t notice it as it careens from scare to scare. There’s plenty of that as the grown up versions of the kids from Chapter 1 return to battle Pennywise again. There’s some real texture as each must combat childhood issues that have been suppressed after leaving Derry, Steven King’s orifice of evil. The Master himself shows up for a very cool cameo as an antique dealer. I thought Chapter 1 was scarier because Pennywise wasn’t so omnipresent and when he did appear it packed a gut punch. The filmmakers went a little overboard with the CGI which cartoonized the evil clown a little too much. The final revelation that helps the Losers in their climatic battle is also garbled instead of highlighted. Maybe they realized just how long the film was at that point. Some great performances by both the young and grown up versions of the characters which kept me fully invested. I do wish they’d made more of a hero out of the lone Loser to remain in town to confront the evil when it reappeared. A fitting end to one of the Master’s best efforts.

MVP: Jessica Chastain as Beverley the soul of the losers club

Ad Astra

Actors: Starring Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, and Donald Sutherland

Rating: 9 out of 10, This is a very interesting take on science fiction. Brad Pitt, who towers in this, plays an astronaut in the near future whose father may or may not be sending deadly waves of energy from across the solar system after being considered dead for many years. Pitt is charged with journeying to Mars to make radio contact with him. Along the way he runs across pirates on the moon and Norwegian space baboons. This sounds like an action packed sci fi frolic but it was anything but that. It was an intensely personal and uniformly bleak journey for Pitts character to rediscover his humanity. It’s easy to forget just how good an actor Pitt can be until you see him in something like this. He has to be that good because the movie is so personal despite the breathtaking scenery he journeys through. Too many sci fi films focus on the scenery and forget about the story. This was so good and features the first ever climatic scenes in the rings of the planet Neptune (didn’t even know they had em). This movie is completely in Pitt’s hands and he delivers. Some viewers may be put off by the austere pace and settings but the movie inexorably hits all the right marks on Pitt’s journey.

MVP: Brad Pitt as Roy McBride saving the world while confronting daddy issues

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood

Actors: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley, Timothy Olyphant, Julia Butters, Austin Butler, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Mike Moh, Luke Perry, Damian Lewis, Al Pacino  

Rating: 10 out of 10, This is a very long, heartfelt tribute to the late 1960s and Hollywood. Tarantino excels at creating memorable characters and does so again with Pitt and Decaprio. Pitt, as Decaprio’s stunt man, steals the movie and plays the everyman part saying what most of us are thinking when confronted by the perpetual self-importance Hollywood likes to immerse itself in. This is a very long movie but I truly enjoyed the trip back to my earlier days and the inevitable, what were we thinking? expositions. Decaprio, a has-been TV actor, happens to be live next door to Sharon Tate in 1969 and everything that means. Pitt runs across the denizens of the Spann Ranch in his travels which made for some really eerie scenes. Tarantino has always felt free to re-write history the way it should have happened and that makes for a truly sizzling climax. I haven’t always been a huge Brad Pitt fan but he is perfect in this part and well worth the very long wait to get to the fun stuff.

MVP: Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth, stunt man extraordinaire

Shampoo

Actors: stars Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant, Jack Warden, Tony Bill, 

Carrie Fisher

Rating: 8 out of 10, This movie has aged very well and provides an hysterical look back into the late 1960s. It’s also a scathing comment on the insular nature of the rich and the L.A. elite as well. Beatty as George, at the height of his fame, plays basically himself, a hairdresser lothario that women cannot get enough of. He’s hapless in the face of his life crumbling around him as his various conquests come together to confront him and causes him to lose the one special one. This all happens on the night Nixon was elected. The climax takes place at two separate parties one establishment and the other counter-culture. Neither comes across as redeeming and I guess that was the point. It was fascinating to see the younger versions of Hawn, Grant, Fisher, and Christie. I’d forgotten how drop dead gorgeous and talented each was.

MVP: Lee Grant as Felicia, wife and one of George’s paramours