Predator Badlands

Actors: Elle Fanning as Thia/Tessa, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Reuben de Jong, Mike Homik

Rating: 9 out of 10, Only Hollywood would try to make one of the 1980s arch villains into a hero. Predators have always had a tinge of respectability because of the warrior ethos and they liked to kill aliens but this was a bona fide attempt to make a movie with one of the predators as the focus point and hero. Somehow it works. Really well. A smallish predator escapes his family, which is trying to kill him for his lack of stature, and tries to prove himself by going after an apex killer on the appropriately named Death Planet. There he runs into a crew of cyborgs, sent from the Weyland-Yutani Corporation (of Aliens infamy) who are after the same creature. Elle Fanning (always good) plays one of the cyborgs cut in half by the creature and teams up with the predator. The interaction between those two is worth the price of admission by itself. You add in the state-of-the-art CGI with non-stop action and you’ve got a pretty good flick. Go figure – rooting for a predator. Loved it.

MVP: Fanning in the dual role of Thia/Tessa, needed comic relief and deadly presence

Avatar Fire and Ash

Actors: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet,

Oona Chaplin, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore

Rating: 8 out of 10, The story picks up in the aftermath of the events of the second sequel to this matchless use of CGI. Cameron has created an amazing world that the viewer cannot help but be pulled into and forget that the spectacular views are all computer generated. Jake Sully and his family are still grieving their losses in the prior film with Mrs. Sully particularly and violently upset. It’s a tribute to Zoe Saldana as an actress that her pain and rage come through so clearly despite the computer imaging. Resident bad guy, the Colonel, is back and has hooked up with an equally unbalanced Na’vi lady who leads a tribe bent on killing everybody. I felt a little uncomfortable because I couldn’t help thinking the villainess was kind of hot, despite being eight foot tall and blue. This might be the best of the Avatar movies as Cameron has figured out we need a compelling story as we are now accustomed to the fabulous scenery. While each movie has a similar buildup to a final confrontation, each is eminently watchable. That is certainly the case here with some interesting elements and quandaries inserted. Cameron remains a master movie maker. My only gripe is the obvious setting up for additional sequels. He’s done Avatar, it’s time for him to branch out and break new ground in some other milieu. A truly great movie. MVP: Oona Chaplin sneaky hot as Varang, leader of the warmongering Mangkwan

Running Man

Actors: Glen Powell, William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Michael Cera, Emilia Jones, Daniel Ezra, Jayme Lawson, Sean Hayes, Colman Domingo, Josh Brolin.

Rating: 8 out of 10, The original Governator film was high camp but they play this newer one closer to a possible reality. That allowed some well thought out satire to inject itself into the plot. Glen Powell, once again, proves decisively that he has graduated from supporting roles. He plays an angry husband/father who enters the game to rescue his family, cue the evil corporation. Instead of a defined game arena, he must navigate through a future society where everyone, including a highly trained team of assassins, is scouring the info-nets to locate and kill him. This was a nice update to the concept and, again, Powell is a super-star on the cusp.

MVP: Powell as Ben Richards effortlessly carrying movie

Weapons

Actors: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Toby Huss, Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan

Rating: 9 out of 10, Weapons is awesome. A spooky premise of 17 elementary school classmates all disappearing on the same night, scarily all running with arms extended behind them towards an unknown location. The director takes an interesting route by exploring the disappearance from the viewpoints of several different characters including the teacher of the class where all but one student disappeared and also the parent of a missing child. The tension slowly builds as we learn more about the situation and it culminates with the final twenty minutes of absolute mayhem as the source of evil is revealed. It was a satisfying climax as all the loose threads were answered in a satisfying manner. There were also some needed light moments; the best being when Josh Brolin wakes from a scary dream and says the line every audience member is thinking. I’m usually not brave enough to see a horror movie by myself (pointed out to me by my son) but I’m glad I did, because Weapons is excellent.

MVP: Madigan as the wholly evil Aunt Gladys

Sisu Road to Revenge

Actors: Jorma Tommila, Richard Brake, Stephen Lang

Rating: 8 out of 10, An excellent follow up to the surprising first film. Our hero, once again, without saying a single word in the movie, plows his way through a horde of enemies trying to kill him. He sneaks into the Soviet Union in 1946 to visit his old homestead where his family was killed. He dismantles the house and attempts to sneak it back into Finland. The Soviets, a bit put out by the more than 300 Soviet soldiers he killed during early WW2, decide to send the man who killed his family after him. Big mistake. Jorma Tommila is truly a force of nature as the Soviets don’t do any better than the Nazis did in the first film. You have to suspend a lot of disbelief to make it work but this is an eminently watchable, non-stop action flick as he wades through the Russians. Stephen Lang is the head bad guy as he seems to have made a career out of scarily competent villains. The cinematography is fantastic as the filmmakers don’t depend, too much, on CGI. A great movie.

MVP: Who else could it be but Tommila reprising his role as Aatami Korpi

Ballerina From the World of John Wick

Actors: Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick, Norman Reedus, Ian McShane, Keanu Reeves

Rating: 9 out of 10, I was fully prepared to dislike this as a weak attempt to capture some Wickian magic. I was wrong. After a slow start this movie embraces the spirit of the Wick films and delivers. All credit deservedly goes to Ana de Armas who proves her 007 action cameo was no fluke, she is uniformly awesome as the main character/body-count-generator. She plays a student of that weird Belorussian dance studio that J.W. passed through. She’s on a revenge mission against a European cult that knocked off her parents. She kills her way to their home base and just when it looked like it couldn’t get any better, John Wick himself shows up, as this is set between earlier pictures, before his “demise”. I thought the dueling flamethrowers were especially poignant. This was a truly great movie, completely up to the high standards of the previous films. Thank you, Ms. Armas.

MVP: de Armas as gorgeous and deadly assassin Eve

Caught Stealing

Actors: Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D'Onofrio, Benito Martínez Ocasio, Griffin Dunne, Carol Kane

Rating: 9 out of 10, I truly enjoyed this flick as Darren Aronovsky abandoned his usual uber-serious tone with an attempt at an Americanized version of a Guy Ritchie-type gangster dark comedy. Austin Butler confirms his movie star status as he effortlessly carries the complex plot through. He plays a NYC bartender who’s next door neighbor/drug dealer leaves him with the keys to his apartment as well as making him a target for competing gangsters and corrupt cops. This is one of those movies where the hero just can’t buy a break and has to deal with the aftermath of the choices he’s confronted with. The rest of the cast is great, if extremely expendable to the plot twists. A fun movie to watch as you can’t help but root for Butler as he tries to survive.

MVP: Butler as the monumentally unlucky Hank

Jurassic World Rebirth

Actors: Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and Ed Skrein.

Rating: 7 out of 10, The rebirth, or should I say, revamping as this latest movie returns to what made the original movie so memorable – the dinosaurs instead of politics. Scarlett proves her Marvel action days were no fluke as she easily dominates in the lead role. She leads a team back to yet another island the original park used to breed the big guys. They’ve got to retrieve tissue samples from three of the largest dinosaurs. Surprisingly (😊), that’s not as easy as it sounds, as most of the team becomes menu items. There were some welcome surprises as one of the characters I predicted for an early demise survived while a lot of others did not. Not a lot of new terrain covered but a great summer epic walk with the dinosaurs again, ably helmed by the always watchable Ms. Johansson.

MVP: Johansson as the dangerous but beautiful Zora

The Amateur

Actors: Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitríona Balfe, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, Julianne Nicholson, Laurence Fishburne

Rating: 8 out of 10, While this is a bit of a formulaic spy thriller, I truly enjoyed it. Remi Malek is a compelling actor and perfectly cast as CIA nerd who is bound and determined to take out the terrorists who kill his wife. Everyone is convinced this frail guy is not up to the task, but he finds a way to get the training he needs and sets out for Europe with CIA assassins on his trail. I liked that the film didn’t automatically turn him into a super spy, and you could empathize with him as he struggles with his dark tasks. It puts out a very poignant message for today’s times, never underestimate the nerds. There is an excellent supporting cast with Lawrence Fishburne, in Morpheus mode, as the trainer, and Mrs. Maisel as the beloved wife. My only complaint might be the lack of screen time for Mrs. Maisel but that’s what gets the whole plot moving. A fun watch, really well done.

MVP: Malek as Charlie the dangerous geek

Nobody 2

Actors: Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, RZA, Colin Salmon, Gage Munroe, Paisley Cadorath, Christopher Lloyd, John Ortiz, Colin Hanks, Sharon Stone

Rating: 8 out of 10, I loved the first movie and was fully prepared to accept a watered down, money seeking sequel. I was therefore more than pleasantly surprised to find an awesome movie in its own right. Bob Odenkirk continues his role as the most unlikely of all action heroes as Hutch Mansell. He’s still dealing with the ramifications of the path he carved through the Russian mafia in the first flick and decides the family needs a vacation together. Of course, trouble ensues as he returns to a beloved amusement park of his youth which had not been updated since and conveniently supplies a full team of villains led by a deranged Sharon Stone. The entire cast that survived the first movie is back and, if possible, were even more fun this time around. I loved that they didn’t waste time trying to explain Mansell to the audience. Too many sequels assume the audience needs a re-introduction to the main characters. This movie takes for granted you’re watching it because you loved the first movie. I did and this one as well.

MVP: Odenkirk as Mansell, frumpy but deadly

Superman

Actors: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced

Rating: 9 out of 10, The new Superman movie is just flat awesome. There have been so many versions that I was skeptical about this one. I was totally blown away by the sheer entertainment this new sally forth of the man of steel. The cast delivers, especially the central couple of the title character and Lois Lane. I loved Mrs. Meisel so I wasn’t surprised she was so good in this, but David Corenswet is a revelation as Superman. He was everything you could hope for, injecting more personality than I’ve seen since Reeves. Nicholas Hoult, likewise, was the best Lex Luther ever. He played evil effortlessly along with a ferocious drive to best Superman. James Gunn injected a lot of his signature humor (most of it at the expense of the Green Lantern) which made this a very fun ride. There was a little too much at times, like saving a squirrel when buildings are falling all around but the levity was needed with the earth-endangered plot spinning along. A true summer epic and one of the best movies of the year.

MVP: Corenswet as Superman, living up to the role

Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning

Actors: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny, Angela Bassett.

Rating: 8 out of 10, If this truly is the last film in this series, it goes out with a bang. While that is predictable given the series DNA, somehow they’ve taken the stunts and sheer “impossibility” of some of Tom Cruise’s exploits to even higher levels. The run time is really, really long as they crammed as much as they possibly could into the nearly three hours. They spend a lot of time reconnecting to the prior movies, including an extremely cool reach back to one of the minor characters from the very first movie. They could have and probably should have trimmed some of the underwater work which dragged on way too long, stretching incredulity beyond even what a dedicated MI fan can accept. You have to go into these movies prepared to suspend disbelief but there were times I was just shaking my head as we left reality behind decisively. The final half of the movie, with the world on the brink of nuclear immolation (of course), makes anything leading up to it easy to forgive. A great, glossy, overblown, overlong, but completely entertaining epic, I loved it.

MVP: Cruise as Hunt (of course)

Working Man

Actors: Jason Statham, Michael Peña, David Harbour, Andrej Kaminsky, Jason Flemyng,  Ninidze

Rating: 8 out of 10, A Working Man is an excellent action flick with Statham’s once again playing the everyman blessed with a back story involving elite military skills. The bad guys, once again, fail to take that into account when they kidnap the daughter of a close family friend. The expected carnage follows but this is so well done and Statham is so believable in both his acting and his athleticism that it is a joy to sit through. You almost feel sorry for the bad guys as they make the mistakes leading to their eventual comeuppance and loss of body parts. David Harbour shines in a small role as a former military buddy. This is an excellent follow-up to last year’s Beekeeper and proves Statham is still at the top of his game.

MVP: Statham as Levon, lost nothing off his action creds

Fantastic 4 First Steps

Actors: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner, Sarah Niles, Mark Gatiss, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, Ralph Ineson

Rating: 9 out of 10, They finally got the Fantastic Four right. Although I liked the Jessica Alba version, this newest outing was, well, fantastic. They set up the four in one of Marvels’ endless alternate earths with a 1960’s flavor which didn’t distract but added to the story. The extremely strong cast was tone perfect; they faced a seemingly impossible task of beating a world eating alien bent on devouring earth. Pedro Pascal can do anything and Vanessa Kirby is more than his match as his wife. The other two of the four were both excellent as well. Marvel seems to have gotten back on track with this latest outing, once again creating characters we can invest in. Another great summer epic.

MVP: Kirby as Sue Storm, heart of the movie

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera

Actors: Gerard Butler, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Evin Ahmad, Salvatore Esposito, Meadow Williams, Swen Temmel

Rating: 8 out of 10, A predictably good action flick. Predictable because of the Gerard Butler O’Shea Jackson pairing. Butler plays a disgraced cop who joins up with an international criminal ring, led by Jackson, the only one who got away in the first film, to rob a diamond market. There are some huge plot holes, like why the organized criminals so readily accept a former cop into their team, but with action movies you forgive a lot. The two leads make a very good buddy pairing, from opposite ends of the law enforcement spectrum. This is a lot less gritty than the original, but the robbery was great cinema keeping the audience on the proverbial edge of the seat. A great addition to the action genre.

MVP: Butler owns action hero roles

Thunderbolts

Actors: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, Wendell Pierce, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Rating: 8 out of 10, This latest Marvel flick harkens back to their earlier films which were so entertaining. The blame for this return to quality lays squarely on Florence Pugh and David Harbour. They are standouts in a cast of misfits called upon to, you know, save the world. They’re not as well endowed with supe abilities as their preceding Avengers but they are a lot of fun, especially Pugh and Harbour who play a difunctional parent/daughter. The action is non-stop as is the lively dialogue. The only downside was the villain, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who’s only superpower was being obnoxious versus dangerous. Still, a welcome return to form for Marvel, a really enjoyable watch.

MVP: Pugh is heart of the movie as anguished anti-hero

Accountant 2

Actors: Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson and J. K. Simmons, Daniella Pineda

Rating: 8 out of 10, I loved the first Accountant movie with Affleck playing a lethal auditor operating at a high level of the autism scale. The lack of aspect the character requires leads perfectly into Affleck’s acting style an he delivers once again in this sequel. One of the best arts of the original was the relationship he had with his estranged brother, played by the latest Punisher, Jon Berthal, an assassin in his own right. Th filmmakers must have liked that also because the sequel is centered around that relationship. The very few moments bodies weren’t flying about were amply filled with the two reconnecting as brothers. The accountant is called in to identify a missing immigrant family which has also caught the attention of a dangerous female assassin. There are some neat twists at the end involving the climactic battle with the villains. They obviously set themselves up for another sequel which is welcome news. A great action flick with fully developed characters.

MVP: Affleck is perfect as the autistic assassin

Fight or Flight

Actors: Josh Hartnett, Charithra Chandran, Julian Kostov, Katee Sackhoff, Marko Zaror, Rebecka Johnston

Rating: 9 out of 10, This movie truly surprised me. It’s a goofy action comedy with Josh Hartnett starring as a disgraced secret service agent who’s coaxed back into the business to capture a wanted cyber terrorist on a flight from Bangkok to San Francisco. There are too many plot twists to describe other than to say Hartnett is awesome as he kills his way through the plane loaded with assassins. He’s ably assisted by Charithra Chandran as a spunky flight attendant; she manages to steal the majority of scenes that she’s in. I would hazard a guess that we’ll be hearing a lot more about this actress in the near future. She was great. As was the entire movie which had me laughing as well as cringing as the carnage unfolded. I texted my son as soon as I got home, telling him this was our kind of movie.

MVP: Hartnett as Reyes as an “excuse me” John Wick clone