Tag: film

Film Review: Ghosts On The Water

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Haunting of the Queen Mary has many elements I enjoy in a supernatural thriller, but this thing just turned into a confusing, gory mess of wasted potential. Gary Shore directed this piece which he also co-wrote the screen play with Stephen Oliver. Tom Vaughan shares the story credit as well. Alice Eve is in the lead as a young mother who wants to write a book and direct some virtual tours of the well-known, haunted luxury ship. The cast includes Joel Fry, Nell Hudson, Will Coban, and Lenny Rush.

The film starts off as a family aboard the Queen Mary in 1938 sneak into a rather posh party that has Fred Astaire in attendance along with many other celebrities of the time. There are some strange costumes and a disturbing confrontation between the disfigured father and a director. It actually looks to be an interesting party. The focus shifts to the present day to a couple with a young, disabled son who are also aboard the ship to make a film to be used as a virtual tour. The woman, played by Alice eve, wants to write a book. The two stories are unfolding at the same time. The 1938 timeline culminates in a brutal mass murder with an axe.

The cinematography is actually quite well done, but that’s the only element that is consistently worthwhile. The plot was confusing in both time settings. There is a pretty good dance sequence between this little girl and the actor portraying Astaire. That was kind of fun. The film looks gorgeous in many ways.

The story falls apart, and the gore that was displayed was just too distracting and unnecessary. I don’t normally mind occasional bloody scenes, but some of the violence just felt too gratuitous and distracting. The film would have been more impactful if the gore was merely implied.

There was what should have been interesting twist at the end, but I was too annoyed to understand or appreciate the cleverness the writers were attempting.

Haunted ships and past eras are kind of my bag these days, so I normally would enjoy a spooky ghost story on the high seas. Also, I am not terribly squeamish when it comes to movies of this sort, but there was still too much blood and dismembering even for my ghoulish tastes.

Film Review: No Running Or Dying Around The Pool

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Night Swim is a horror film written and directed by Bryce McGuire. He shares story credit with Rod Blackhurst. It is based on a short film they did recently. Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Amelie Hoeferle, and Gavin Warren star as the Waller family who are facing the troubles of a haunted swimming pool.

Ray Waller, a retired baseball player, and his family move into a new house and refurbish the swimming pool. Ray had to retire early due to being inflicted with degenerative musculature illness. After he and his family settle into their new home, he finds that the pool has properties that are more therapeutic than expected. Since this is a story of horror, his newfound physical improvement comes at a ghastly cost. There is an entity within the waters as well as a long history of previous residents disappearing into the shadows. The Waller family will be facing a potential heart-wrenching sacrifice to feed a dark presence.

I have noticed that this film has been pretty thoroughly panned by the professional critics. It’s no brilliant masterpiece of the genre, but it’s not that bad. There are some moments that did creep me out occasionally or came close enough to it for me to find some appreciation for the attempt. The performances were as believable as one could expect for a somewhat outlandish plot. My surface effort of research shows that Wyatt Russell is the progeny of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, and he is not without the ability to give an at least competent performance. His co-star, Kerry Conlon, was likeable enough as the mother who starts to piece the strangeness together.

The background of the unworldly menace is ridiculous, of course, but not worse than a lot of other unnatural evils depicted in this sort of film.

Overall, Night Swim functions as a reasonable cinematic diversion for those of us with a taste for the macabre. It’s not going to be remembered as a masterful display of creative genius, but I doubt that it will be considered to be the bottom of the scrap heap of horror films. One could see it with some expectation of receiving a chill or two to accompany the occasional sardonic smile of amusement that may twitch across mt face whenever I see a film of this sort.

Film Review: Some Retirements Don’t Go As Planned

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Retirement Plan is a comedy action film written and directed by Tim Brown. Nicholas Cage is in the lead role as a seemingly aging beach bum named Matt, who lives in the Cayman Islands. Other cast members include Ashley Greene as Matt’s estranged daughter, Ron Perlman, Jackie Earl Haley, Ernie Hudson, and Grace Byers. There’s a cute kid played by Thalia Campbell, who may actually be the best thing in this film.

Ashley and her husband run afoul of some ultra powerful crime syndicate, and she sends their daughter to the Cayman Islands to meet her grandfather for the first time. When Ashley is forced to take some of the bad guys to her father’s doorstep, she finds that he had a secret past that led to their rift. It seems Matt is not as inept as he first appears and was at one time a government assassin. When the granddaughter falls into the hands of one of the henchmen, Matt dusts off some of his old skills to make sure he does not lose another opportunity to reconnect with his family.

There are some actors that can make eccentric characters rather charming and fascinating. Cage didn’t hit that mark here. Matt just seems a little weird, although the fight scenes were pretty good. The film kept getting interrupted by this one second flash card effect every time a new character was introduced. The villains were more like caricatures. Byers had a couple of almost chilling moments as a crime boss lady named Hector. Haley and Perlman were the peculiar killers sort of in the lead of those actively hunting for this elusive hard drive with some unspecified important information that is supposed to change the world or upset lots of people. I sort of lost track of what was so significant about this thing.

Thalia Campbell plays the granddaughter who gets caught up in this caper involving her sketchy parents. Her scenes with were her newly met grandfather were kind of charming. Most of the film has her in the company of Ron Perlman, who plays the lead henchman who kind of kidnaps her. I think I would have preferred her to have more scenes with Cage.

Anyway, the film is pretty campy but falls short on overall charm. It was supposed to be somewhat comedic, but it was kind of dull. The dialogue wasn’t all that creative. The bungling antics of the bad guys were just a little too stupid for my liking. Somehow, Cage’s character, who could have been more interesting, just didn’t hold my attention.

Overall, there are a couple of very mild amusing scenes, however this is another exercise in relentless mediocrity. That really is a shame because there is some real talent here that ended up being wasted. Hopefully, Brown isn’t kicking around the idea for a sequel.

Film Review: It’s All About The Boat

~ Peter Kanelis ~ 1 Comment

The Boys in the Boat is a historical sports drama film directed by George Clooney. Mark L. Smith is the screenwriter whose script is on the book by Daniel James Brown. Joel Edgerton portrays Coach Al Ulbrickson with Callum Turner as Joe Rantz. Jack Mulhern, Alec Newman, Hadley Robinson, and Courtney Henggeler are included in the cast.

The film dramatizes the account of the 1936 American Olympic team who competed in the men’s eight not long before the Second World War broke out. This team were out of the University of Washington and found themselves competing in Berlin with a certain Adolf Hitler being one of the spectators. Much of the film was presented through the perspective of Joe Rantz, who was living out of his car while attending the university. He basically tried out for the rowing team as a sort of last resort. Ulbrickson has his own fight to assemble the right team together to compete in Berlin and get them to work as one.

The film ended up being more compelling than expected. There were characters with a certain mysterious stoicism who were more conflicted and challenged than they were willing to show. Edgerson ended up being more likeable as the story unfolded. There were a couple of stories going on that were interesting. Rantz is basically a loner who had to develop into more of a team player. He was not a hostile or unpleasant fellow, but he had to adjust to not having to rely on just himself as he had been for many years. The film does a good job of evoking sympathy for the intended characters and situations. The setting and period seemed to be represented well. Even the blossoming romance between Turner’s Joe Rantz and Hadley Robinson’s Joyce Simdars. Presumably they got married in real life. The film is framed as a reminiscence of Rantz’s many years after the events depicted.

The film is quite effective in presenting a fascinating piece of history and being entertaining as well as inspirational. I know there is a risk of the story dragging, but I thought there were moments where a little more exposition was needed. There were scenes where I was not sure why characters were upset, but that was likely due to me not having much insight into the sport of eight-man rowing. Also, there it may have been more helpful if the timeline leading up to the climactic Olympic moment was explained more clearly. I guess I like to see dates sometimes on the screen when watching movies of this sort.

I guess there is no perfect movie, in my estimation, however this one gets pretty close. The cast does a great job in that no one seems to be out of sync with their roles. I liked that I was not that familiar with most of these actors and could be surprised by effective and moving performances. It takes a bit for Edgerton’s character to tug on the heartstrings, but the interactions he has with his wife makes one realize that he is not as dictatorial or curmudgeonly as he first appears. Henggeler portrays Hazel Ulbrickson and is absolutely charming. She is quite instrumental in bringing out the humanity in her husband. It was a nice contrast to have the comfortably established and loving commitment between the Ulbrickson and the beginnings of that depicted between Joe and Joyce.

The comradery that developed between the team members was also pretty well done, but we didn’t get to know them as individuals equally, but I understand that was likely due to having to put some restraints on for the sake of a more precise plot development.

There are a few predictable tropes peppered throughout the film. Not a lot of new ground is broken in regard to how this type of story is told, but the story itself seems like it deserves a bit more notoriety given the period and the accomplishment of that particular crew. Clooney deserves quite a bit of applause for this one. The film comes across is a little old-fashioned in some ways, but it’s a fascinating story and the book on which it is based probably has a lot more to offer and fleshes out the relationships between the team members and the coach a lot more.

In spite of some elements that could use a little improvement, I do believe that this is one of the best films I have seen in some time. It still kept me engaged and captivated. I think Clooney pretty much hits the right emotional chords and evokes a curiosity within me concerning the rest of this story. The flaws are very minor when stacked up against all that went right in the composition of this piece.

This is a film that is, without question, worth the effort to see and very easy to enjoy.

Film Review: These Ladies Don’t Look Right

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Lady Ballers is a comedy film that is produced by The Daily Wire and is directed by Jeremy Boreing, who also co-wrote the script alongside Brain Hoffman and Nick Sheehan. Much of the cast and cameos consist of Daily Wire personalities such as Boreing himself, the guys from Crain & Company, Matt Walsh, Michael Knowles, and Brett Cooper. Other cast members include Tyler Fischer, Daniel Consadine, Billie Rae Brandt, and Lexie Contursi.

Boering is in the lead as a hapless basketball coach who was once quite successful and finds himself missing the days when he could have a reliably winning team. Coach Rob is fired for being too coaching his latest high school team too aggressively and has been unable to navigate some of the new inclusive expectations mandated by the school system. In other words, Coach Rob just isn’t “woke” enough. Rob ends up accidentally employed at a drag bar where he encounters a former star player, played by Consadine. Since the athletic administrations have broadened the qualifications for competing in women’s sports, Coach Rob convinces the perpetually puzzled Alex to proclaim himself to be transgender and compete in women’s track events. An unscrupulous reported named Gwen convinces Coach Rob to take this further, which leads to the reunion of his star basketball team from fifteen years prior. Then, the absurdity kicks into overdrive when the team members branch into other local women’s sports leagues while being lauded for their bravery as they stop their way through victory after victory.

So, the point of this film is to highlight and mock the absurdity of men competing in women’s sports, which at times gets a little too obvious. That means not all of the jokes land with pointed precision. That’s not the say that I never laughed out loud. The overall film is a little uneven at times, but The Daily Wire is still pretty new at this type of content, and I am in agreement with the intended message, so I am willing to view this with a little more forgiveness in my admittedly cold, biased heart.

In spite of some elements not quite working as smoothly as I would have wanted, some of the performances were surprisingly effective because much of the cast had no acting experience. Jake Crain, Blain Crain, and David Cone are The Daily Wire sports commentators in real life and have an onscreen chemistry that translated pretty effectively in this endeavor. The Crain brothers got a little too hammy at times, but that is probably to be expected considering the genre of this film. Matt Walsh, who played the very affectionate boyfriend of Coach Rob’s wife, actually was a little better than I expected. Now some of the praise he has received from colleagues and other viewers may be overselling it a little, but her did threaten to steal the scene a few times. Also, it almost never fails to have someone play a character who is well-known to be the polar opposite of tbe performer’s real persona. In short, Walsh pulls it off here.

Ben Shapiro as a very ambivalent and short-tempered referee was also pretty amusing. There quite a few inside Daily Wire jokes, but they knew this would not have a typical mass release, so most of those worked.

There were times when the film falls into the same trap as others trying to promote an obvious political or social agenda as in coming across as a little too heavy-handed at times. Also, the writers took some swipes at other social concerns The Daily Wire often comments on, and not all of those efforts fit easily into the film. They did sneak in an advertisement for a new line of women’s products from Jeremy’s Razors that was pretty funny.

Comedy is one of the most unreliably subjective things in human existence. There has to be an acceptance that any effort in this space is not going to appeal to everyone in spite of someone’s overall popularity. In a film, it can work almost all of the way through, have a few high notes, or just faceplant hard. In my not so humble opinion, Lady Ballers doesn’t work perfectly, but it also doesn’t fail miserably. In spite of some fairly glaring missteps, I did find some enjoyment in this film and applaud The Daily Wire for taking the risk in broaching this subject and giving the proponents of having men compete in women’s sports the mockery they so profoundly deserve.