“Bumblebee” is a new prequel to the “Transformers” franchise that was helmed by Michael Bay.  Travis Knight directed this film which was scripted by Christina Hodson. Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena star in this film.

The film starts off with a battle on the home planet of the Transformers in which B-127 is sent to Earth to prepare the way for his fellow Autobots can arrive to regroup in their ongoing war with the Decepticons. Once B-127 arrives on Earth, he has a violent encounter with two Decepticons that leaves him mute and with amnesia.  Disguised as a dilapidated Volkswagen Beetle, he is found by a young girl grieving the loss of her father. Steinfeld plays the mechanically inclined Charlie Watson and is pretty good.  Two other Decepticons manage to find the hapless and damaged Autobot, tricking the US military into assisting them in their search.  John Cena is actually pretty entertaining as the headstrong colonel with a bit of unusual wit for this kind of role.

I had a trouble getting engaged in the first half of the film, but it does get better.  I admit that I never really watched the “Transformers” film series directed by Michael Bay.  I did end up enjoying this movie more than I expected though.  There were some great action sequences and visual effects. John Cena, who is probably not known to for his range of acting ability, was actually pretty good in this one. Steinfeld carried the movie well herself.

It has been noted that this film is likely the best installment in the “Transformers” franchise, and I suspect the consensus is likely correct there.

“Bird Box” is the latest film starring Sandra Bullock, which is directed by Susanne Bier.  Eric Heisserer wrote the screen play which is based on the novel by Josh Malerman. Sarah Paulson, John Malkovich, and Trevante Rhodes are also included in the cast.

This is one of those films that keeps shifting between the past and the present events. The planet has been invaded by some entities that cause insanity and overwhelming suicidal impulses when looked upon.  Birds seem able to detect their presence, fluttering and chirping insanely whenever these creatures are nearby.  Sandra Bullock plays a woman named Malorie who, then the film starts off, has care of two children. They are compelled to take a two day river trip in a canoe blindfolded to seek refuge from the malevolent entities that has been unleashed upon them.  During the perilous journey is where the flashbacks occur, depicting the previous five years that has led Malorie and the two young charges to their predicament.

The film has many familiar elements in somewhat post-apocalyptic scenarios.  There is a diverse group of people trapped in a confined area having to keep the windows covered.  Desperate people show up at times.  Supplies are dwindling. The usual challenges and obstacles for these types of situations.

Anyway, there is quite a bit of reliance of some extraordinary luck for the main characters to survive.  It is pretty hard to buy into at times, however I thought the performances were solid enough for the most part.  With actors such as Bullock and Malkovich, that sort of helps keep the interest engaged.

I admit I got intrigued by the trailers and was interested to see it.  Although I would not describe my reaction as disappointment, I doubt that I will go out of my way to see it again.  It was interesting for the most part but could get a bit too absurd at times, even for a film of this genre.

It’s a Netflix film exclusively, so either get a subscription or mooch off a friend’s like I did.

“The Green Train” is a thriller by Herbert Lieberman first published by Avon Books in 1986.  Just before crossing the border into Finland, the passengers aboard what is dubbed “The Green Train” are delayed when Russian soldiers surround them and keep them just a few miles from freedom as they search for some classified documents that were stolen.

This is a novel that drags a little at times, although I did find that Lieberman has an engaging prose style.  Some of the slowness is likely a consequence of having a pretty isolated setting.  There are some interesting encounters between some of the passengers and a Russian colonel determined to root out the suspected spies.

I picked this novel up in a used bookstore in Colorado.  I had never heard of Herbert Lieberman before, but I may be on the lookout for some of his other works.  I don’t think he was really all that known, but he seems to have had a steady career.  This just turned out to be a random discovery in the bookstore that was actually a bit more enjoyable than I anticipated.

I will next be reading another installment in the series featuring the shell-shocked yet persistent Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge in Charles Todd’s “The Gate Keeper”.

“Welcome to Marwen” is a film directed by the usually reliable and interesting Robert Zemeckis and stars Steve Carell, Leslie Mann, Diane Kruger, and Janelle Monae.  Zemeckis co-wrote this script with Caroline Thompson.

It’s a shame I did not enjoy this film more since I generally look forward to a Zemeckis project.  The film is based on the story of an artist named Mark Hogancamp who was attacked and beaten nearly to death by five men in an ill-advised run-in at a local bar. Instead of conventional PTSD therapy, Hogancamp creates a world made out of dollhouses and engages in fantasies with the use of various dolls as some escape into a fantasy world where he is a World War II fighter pilot aided by a group of women based on those Hogancamp knows in the real world.  The dolls seemingly take on a life of their own, and Hogancamp finds his fantasy world blurring and interfering with his real life. He makes his living photographing various scenes in this miniature village with the use of his village.  Of course, lots of symbolism keeps coming up.  To add to his troubles, the sentencing hearing for the attackers is coming up, and the prosecutor believes it to be imperative that Hogancamp provide his impact statement in order to help ensure a more appropriate sentence.  He also has an art showing to prepare for as well.  A pretty new neighbor moves across the street who could be a catalyst for Hogancamp to make strides in his recovery.

The basic idea for the story was interesting enough, but it was not executed all that well, with the exception of the visual effects.  The constant shift to the Marwen fantasy was at times intrusive, frustrating me when some interesting developments were starting to emerge in the real world events.  I also had some trouble buying in a prosecutor putting such weight on a victim of a violent crime as if an impact statement could really influence the severity of the sentence.  I am not sure that victim impact testimonies really have that much influence on the harshness of the sentence imposed as was suggested in this film.  It was not clear as if the bad guys lost at trial or entered some kind of plea deal.  If there was a trial, Hogancamp would have testified during that. It just didn’t make sense and troubled me more after I left the theater and ruminated on the nonsense of it all.

Carell is a fine actor and did his best here. I can’t really find much significant fault with the performances, but the writing and editing fall short.  The film does not flow very well and shifts between Marwen and the real world are pretty jarring.

Also, the attackers were represented as Nazi dolls, which is a little overused these days.  This film is said to have been based on a true story, but it is one of those where it is absurdly easy to sense that a boatload of creative license was utilized.

The overall talents of Robert Zemeckis and Steven Carell can be indisputable, however this particular offering turns out to not be a very example of those gifts for which both are known.

“The Mule” is the latest film directed by and starring Hollywood elder statesman Clint Eastwood and was scripted by Nick Schenk.  An impressive cast includes Bradley Cooper, Michael Pena, Laurence Fishburne, Dianne Wiest, and Andy Garcia.  Clint’s own daughter, Alison Eastwood, also does well as the embittered offspring of his character, Earl Stone.  The film draws its inspiration from the story of Leo Sharp who became a drug courier in his eighties.

A 90 year-old horticulturist is estranged from his family and is about to be in some serious financial trouble as he stumbles into a lucrative yet dangerous career of being a cartel drug courier.  Cooper and Pena play the DEA agencies who are on the hunt for the cartel members.

Eastwood still can be an engaging screen presence at 88 years of age.  I did notice there was a reliance on a somewhat standard schtick of his these days where he plays the old guy not quite up on the conventions of the day.  I did roll my eyes a bit when he once again used racial epithets that are no longer accepted or ignored as easily they were a few decades ago.  It just seems more noticeable in recent films and a little overdone by now.  I don’t think I found it offensive, but I just found that particular practice a bit too typical of Eastwood’s work lately and I am uncertain as to the purpose of him revisiting it.

The message of people needing to place more of a priority on the family over work was somewhat hammered a bit too hard at times, but I can’t necessarily argue with importance of it.  Eastwood isn’t known for his subtlety.

There are some great shots of the landscape during Earl’s road trips sometimes.  Eastwood is still a talented director and a compelling performer.  Although it is much easier to believe that he is approaching his ninth decade.   Strangely, I do still hope he is not ready to retire yet.

The performances from the main cast were good.  Some of the cartel thugs seemed a little stereotyped and cliché, but I am not sure there is a real good way to avoid that since most of them were not that consequential to the story.

This is still one of Eastwood’s strongest films in recent years.  The issues I have with it did not keep me from having some significant enjoyment.  It’s still fun to see a new Eastwood film.  He still seems able to draw out some engaging performances from the cast members.  He is still able to produce that unique, familiar charisma that only he can do.

“The Mule” is still a film worth watching and appreciating while hoping that Clint isn’t done just yet.

“Ben Is Back” is a drama film written and directed by Peter Hedges about a young man who has been in recovery from drug addiction suddenly returning home for Christmas much to the chagrin of his sister and step-father.  His mother is delighted to see him but is reminded of the caution she needs to have considering the heart-wrenching fallout from the kid’s misdeeds.

Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges, and Courtney B. Vance are at the head of this talented cast. Vance and Roberts play the suspicious step-father and doting mother, respectively.

I actually appreciated that this movie went in unexpected directions throughout.  I felt quite a bit of tension wondering if young Ben has already relapsed or was about to relapse.  Kudos to Peter Hedges for handling that quite masterfully.

There were a few peculiar writing decisions such as a snatched family pet becoming the catalyst for a quest embarked on by mother and son.  This where the mother gets more of an idea of what Ben was willing to do to get high and is quite appalled.

This probably goes without saying considering the reputation of the cast, but I will note it regardless.  The performances were quite strong. The actors playing Ben’s younger siblings also managed quite well.

There were some aspects of the film that didn’t seem all that credible, probably because there were certain sequences that felt a little rushed.

I did double-check this so it appears that Lucas Hedges is actually the son of the writer/director.  Sometimes nepotism is the right way to go.

I would have liked to have known a little more background of this family at times.  The ending was a little too abrupt for my liking, but that is all I will say about that.

It’s one of those films with a tough subject matter in exploring the chaos and heartbreak experienced by the family members of drug addicts.  Not every scene or syllable works in this movie, but most of it turns out well.  The movie does manage to avoid several predictable and cliched directions that many in this genre tend to take.

If one doesn’t mind a little more weight and emotional upheaval in their cinematic viewing, this is a pretty well done piece of work.

“Holmes & Watson” is a so-called comedic film satirizing the Sherlock Holmes series and stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly in the lead roles.  Ralph Fiennes, Rebecca Hall, and Hugh Laurie are included in the cast as well.  Etan Cohen is the writer and director of this mess.

There were a few moments that got a bark of laughter out of me occasionally, however most of it was rather dreadful.  It does not have a long running time, yet I was sort of chomping at the bit to see the ending credits, which is a shame.

I am a long-time fan of Sherlock Holmes, and I don’t mind the occasional satire of the franchise, but this one lacked any real cleverness.  Satire of this sort should have some affection for the source material as well, however I had no real sense that fans of the original canon were doing this.  Cohen did reference some of the initial quotes and stories, so maybe he has read some of it or about it.

The moments such as Holmes vomiting at the thought of actually seeing a corpse went on too long.

Even Fiennes seemed a little bored with it as Moriarty.  I have often criticized pastiche works such as other films and books for the overuse of Professor Moriarty, who was really only significant in one story of the original Doyle works.

There were a lot of digs at the present-day political climate which could have been amusing and yet missed the mark.  Once again, we were reminded at the inequality of treatment aimed at women.  Watson finds love with a female doctor played by Rebecca Hall.  The pairing of Hall with a rather unique looking actress named Lauren Lapkus was a bit more interesting than the lead duo. Describing Lapkus as unique is not meant to be critical.  She just seems to have a rather unusual features and expressions that seem to be naturally suited to comedic roles and may be the only redeeming aspect to this dreck of a movie.

It’s a shame this films didn’t really have much enjoyment for me because Ferrell and Reilly are not devoid of talent.  I have seen them in movies I rather liked, however when the two of them get together, it feels overly familiar.  It’s probably because I am not a huge fan of slapstick because Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon had a similar association, but they were so much better together where it was easier to look forward to their next schtick together even though they were also a bit repetitive in their performances as well.

Basically, there isn’t much worth seeing here. There is quite a bit one could do to satirize the Holmes series, however it does require familiarity and real affection for it to be effective, and I didn’t sense any of that here.

 

 

“The Paradise of Death” was a five-part Doctor Who radio play written by Barry Letts that was first broadcast by BBC Radio 5 in 1993.  Jon Pertwee had returned to the role of the Third Doctor with Nicholas Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen reprising their roles as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Sarah Jane Smith, respectively.  Richard Pearce joins the fray as Sarah Jane’s rather hapless colleague, Jeremy Fitzoliver.  Sarah wants to get in on a story of a startling death at a theme park known as Space World.  The Doctor is suspicious of an alien presence at the Parakon Corporation and ends up having to track down Sarah after she is kidnapped and whisked off across the galaxy.

I had some trouble with following this one.  It’s a bit of a mess as far as story goes, but it was great to hear the late Jon Pertwee in a performance I had yet to hear.  I read the novelization of this particular episode years ago, but this was my first time hearing it.

Pertwee did two radio plays playing the Third Doctor before his death in 1996. Hopefully I will one day be able to hear “The Ghosts of N-Space”.

This particular release is another that may just need another spin for me to follow it better, but I will probably still not count this as one of the better scripts.

“The Fourth Doctor Adventures Series 7 :Volume 1” is a Doctor Who audio boxset from Big Finish Productions reuniting Tom Baker and Louise Jameson. It was decided to release Fourth Doctor stories in boxsets, which is a little tough on the wallet but worth the price of admission.  There are four episodes to comment on, so I will get this party started.

“The Sons of Kaldor” by Andrew Smith has the Doctor and Leela encounter the Robots first seen in the television serial entitled “The Robots of Death”. Martha Cope, Oliver Dimsdale, and Toby Hadoke are the guest actors in this one with John Dorney giving voice to the Robots.  In my view, this is the strongest of the stories in this collection. Very few elements from “The Robots of Death” was touched on which I thought worked quite well.  I tend to be a little leery of too much revisiting of certain television stories, but this one worked quite well or me.

“The Crowmarsh Experiment” by David Llewellyn has the Doctor and Leela attacked by other robots on an alien world, however Leela regains consciousness to find that appears to be some scientist in 1978 London at the Crowmarsh Institute where she finds herself uncertain as to which life is reality.  This conundrum has been explored in the revived television series in recent years.  The talents of Dan Starkey, Cathy Tyson, and Julian Wadham are cast to add to the confusion.  The performances were fine, but I was not sure how this particular scenario and setting were chosen when the episode started off on another world.  I think it would have been stronger with a little better background explanation.  I may just have to pay closer attention to it when I listen to it again.

“The Mind Runners” by John Dorney is the beginning of a two-parter in which John Leeson joins the fun as K9.  Mind Running is the practice of entering the minds of strangers to experience their thoughts and actions, but there is a killer in the mix now. A legendary demon is about to emerge.  Robert Duncan and Josette Simon join the guest cast. There is a rather engaging new villain known as Mr. Shift played by Andy Secombe, who is a perfect foil or the often flippant Fourth Doctor.

Dorney concludes the story with “The Demon Rises”, which probably isn’t the most creative of titles.  There is a great contest of flippant threats between the Doctor and Mr. Shift which really was well performed by Tom Baker and Andy Secombe.  I am not sure how long it took them to record it since I can imagine the two actors cracking each other up.

Some moments are going to require closer attention when I listen to this particular collection again, but anyone who particularly enjoys the Tom Baker era should not be too put out with this release. I will be getting the second half of the seventh series of Fourth Doctor audio plays very soon.

“Second Act” is a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Lopez, Vanessa Hudgens, Leah Remini, Milo Ventimiglia, and Treat Williams.  Peter Segal directed this film which was written by Justin Zackham and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas.

Jennifer Lopez plays a woman who ends up being a consultant at what appears to be some kind of ad firm after they come across a rather misleading profile is created.  She also finds that she does have a talent for the job if not the credentials.  A painful decision she made many years before comes to light as a more profound second chance presents itself.

The movie manages to avoid being outright terrible but there is not a whole lot that has not been seen before.  I find Lopez to be a competent comedic actress.  There are a few emotional moments that she performs well enough.  Lopez handles herself well in these kind of films, but it seems a little overly familiar.

There is a chock full of unlikely coincidence that drives the story forward.  The performances are just solid enough for me to still find some enjoyment in this film, but it still fell short of keeping me interested consistently.

All of the usual cliché characters are present in the form of the pushy yet well-meaning best friend, the obnoxious yuppies, and the jealous rivals.  I was a little impressed that Larry Miller was in the cast as well considering he has had some major health issues in recent years.  I remember Miller as a fairly consistent character actor in these kinds of comedies for several years.  I am not necessarily a huge fan of his, but I somehow stumbled across the stories of his medical issues.  Since I have nothing against him, I was kind of glad that he seems to be back at work in front of the camera.  He was fairly amusing several years ago as the typical over-protective dad in “10 Things I Hate About You”.

The movie was fine generally, but it did get close to being obnoxiously cliché several times.