The Mule

First Hit: Film lagged and spent too much time on an aging Clint Eastwood.

I was looking forward to seeing this film, but as it wound down, I realized that I simply was watching an old man be an old man making choices.

I like Eastwood and here as Earl Stone who is a horticulturist that’s running his own business, he’s good. However, as we begin to explore his life, we discover he was once married, didn’t show up to his daughter’s wedding, likes to be the life of the party, and he slowly becomes afraid of the internet because he knows it going to ruin his business.

As his flower business fails, he needs money, so he turns to driving drugs for a dealer. At first, it’s small quantities, which he does easily. Then he starts moving larger and larger amounts of cocaine.

Eventually, the head of the cartel becomes impressed with this old guy who seems to be able to easily move drugs around the country. After meeting the head, he moves the largest shipment ever moved to a mid-west city.

In the meantime, he’s being looked for by the DEA who need a bust to prove their worth. Leading the team of men is an outsider DEA Agent named Colin Bates (Bradley Cooper) and a local DEA Agent (Michael Pena).

However, the story seems to be focused on Earl, when we’ve got Pena, Cooper, and Laurence Fishburne (as a DEA Special Agent) who are great actors that have stories to tell the audience as well.

Additionally, the audience gets cheated on a background of Earl’s family with former wife Mary (Dianne Wiest), daughter Iris (Alison Eastwood), and granddaughter Ginny (Taissa Farmiga). It could have been compelling to share more about this. Why hire great actors if they only have small, almost meaningless roles?

To me this was the downfall of the film. We spent a lot of time with Earl driving down the highway when backstories of all these characters could have been brought forth for our enjoyment.

Eastwood was good, but he seems to either lack the fortitude to take on strong roles or he wanted it to be this fumblingly self-focused old man trying to make a living and be seen by others as king of the hill. Farmiga was strong as the granddaughter who believed in him. Wiest was great, but there was so little of her. Alison Eastwood was OK as Earl’s daughter. Cooper was OK in a limited but pivotal role. I think he needed to become more of the story. Pena was, as always, an excellent sidekick. Fishburne was strong as the leading Special Agent. Andy Garcia was excellent as the drug lord. Nick Schenk wrote this film from an New York Times article. Eastwood directed himself in this film and it appears he’s lost his touch.

Overall: This was a disappointing film, lacking in suspense as well as developing scenes.

Ant-Man and the Wasp

First Hit: It’s been a long time since a Marvel film brought joy, fun, and a story that worked—this one did.

I’ve really struggled watching Marvel films of comic book heroes. Most of the more recent Marvel films put these characters into today’s current world or some future world and they must fight some alien power to save the world, or some piece of it.

Here we have fun packed into an engaging story.

Scott Lang aka Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) is under house arrest. He’s got an ankle bracelet and agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) keeps coming over to check his ankle bracelet much to the amusement of Lang’s daughter Maggie (Judy Greer).

His former superhero mate Wasp / Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and her father Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) are attempting to build a machine that will allow them to find Janet Van Dyne / Wasp (Michelle Pfeiffer) who got stuck into a microscopic quantum realm.

Dr. Pym invented the ability to shrink and expand physical forms including people and that is how Ant-Man and Wasp were created. When Janet got lost in the realm, he believed she was still alive. In reaching out from her microscopic quantum realm, she contacts Lang.

Lang, Hope, and Dr. Pym believed they could rescue Janet, so the film is about how they find a way to finish a machine to make the rescue. However, there are opposing forces including Ava Starr / Ghost (Hannah John-Karmen) who needs Janet’s energy to unbecome a ghost. Ghost is supported by a former colleague of Pym, Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne). Another group trying to get control of the machine Pym is making is Sunny Burch (Walter Goggins), a low level criminal. However, helping Lang is his security firm CEO, Luis (Michael Pena).

Rudd is great in this role. He’s perfect at keeping the humor in this role, while having enough ability to make the role as Ant-Man realistic. Park is hilarious as the agent trying to catch Lang violating parole. Greer was wonderful as Lang’s daughter. Her precocious nature was perfect. Lilly was wonderful as Wasp, Pym’s daughter, and Lang’s old flame. Douglas was fun as Pym. He still carries a bravado that made his earlier films work. Pfeiffer was strong in this limited but pivotal role. John-Karmen was very good as Ghost and one trying to become whole. Fishburne was perfect as Foster. Goggins was good as the lower level mob guy thinking he could make a big score. Pena was fantastic. He carries the humor in this film perfectly. Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers wrote a wonderful film that captured humor, the spirit of superheroes, and had a storyline that was fun and worked. Peyton Reed did an excellent job of putting this story on the screen. I loved seeing San Francisco this way.

Overall: This was a fun film to watch and, in the end, thoroughly enjoyable.

12 Strong

First Hit:  Interesting story, good action, but I was left wondering how close to true it was.

Army action films can be full of rah rah and full of pro-American sentiment, or they can be about people who are engaged in the war. I don’t particularly like the pro-American films as I find that they are conceived with a miss-informed view of, what is. This film walks a fair line because it, ultimately brings it back to the people.

In this case the people are, Captain Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth), Hal Spencer (Michael Shannon) Sam Diller (Michael Pena) and General Abdul Rashid Dostum (David Negahban). Although these aren’t the only human stories in the film, they are the main ones.

The story is about Captain Nelson, sitting in his new home with his wife and daughter watching TV and seeing the planes fly into the World Trade Center buildings. He goes to his command station where he’s been assigned a desk job. However, he’s a warrior and wants his his commanding officer Lt. Colonel Bowers (Bob Riggle) to let him lead his men for a mission in Afghanistan. His right hand man, Spencer, rescinds his re-assignment papers and convinces Bowers to let Nelson lead him and his team of 12.

The team is a total of twelve men who are willing to follow Nelson anywhere despite his lack of combat duty. Once in Afghanistan, out of five other teams flown in, they get selected by Colonel Mulholland (William Fichtner) to be the first U.S. ground troops to fight Al Qaeda directly. The twelve are to fly deep into the Afghan mountains, meet up with General Dostum and provide air support for his troops who want to defeat Al Qaeda deep in the mountains.

The film denotes the cultural differences between the U.S. troops and the Afghans. It spends way too much time (at 2:10 running time) on waiting scenes and scenes that repeat already made points. I wouldn’t be surprised if a judicious editor could cut 20 – 30 minutes and make the film work better.

The scenes of the bombing and cheering of direct hits seemed very realistic. The interaction with Nelson and Dostum were surprisingly good and developed quite nicely. The terrain was represented well and made the difficulty of the mission realistic. I also liked how the horses were made to be an integral part of this story.

The downsides for me were a lack of backstory about Afghanistan's history of tribes and their in-fighting for territory between their factions. The running time also held back the crispness and clarity of the story.

Hemsworth was OK. The role seemed typical and there was little that made his role, or his performance, uniquely engaging. Pena was great. I enjoyed his counter balance and pointed sarcasm. Shannon’s performance seemed a step down from what he’s done recently but I’m fairly certain that it was the role and script versus him. Negahban was excellent and one of the best parts of the film for me. He carried strength and a slow opening to Nelson during the film. Riggle was good, nothing extraordinary and nothing that stood out. Ben Milo was very good as one of Nelson’s team and I loved how he bonded with his young Afghan protector. Fichtner was strong as the Colonel in charge of the American mission. Ted Tally and Peter Craig wrote a mediocre script. Nicolai Fuglsig didn’t seem to have a great command of what type of story he was telling and it ended up lacking real purpose.

Overall:  Although engaging at times, the length and lack of storyline focus made it seem all and more of its 2:10 running time.

Collateral Beauty

First Hit:  Wonderful concept, wonderful cast, mediocre execution.

The idea that someone could talk with Love, Time and Death is interesting. Having a cast with Will Smith (as Howard), Edward Norton (as Whit), Kate Winslet (as Claire), Michael Pena (as Simon), Helen Mirren (as Brigitte and Death), Keira Knightly (as Amy and Love), Jacob Latimore (as Raffi and Time), and Naomie Harris (as Madeleine) all in one film is amazing. However, there was something about the script and way it was directed that had this film fall short of its potential.

The title “Collateral Beauty” was also at fault in some ways. Normally when we hear the word “collateral” we hear it with the word “damage”. This term is used in the movie as a lesson or mantra that Madeleine hears after the loss of her child. When she was in the hospital, just prior to her daughter’s death, an old woman sitting next to her outside her dying child’s room said, do not be so taken by grief that you forget to see the collateral beauty. The movie does nothing to really show what this means.

The focus of the film is that Howard, who is a brilliant advertising creative executive, loses his young 6-year old daughter to a disease. The company he’s built with Whit, Claire and Simon begins to suffer and is now losing clients because of his disengagement with work. He spends his days building domino trails then knocking them down, or riding his bike at night through the streets of New York City. To save their company and investments Whit, Claire and Simon arrange to have Amy, Raffi and Brigitte pretend to be Love, Time and Death respectively in hopes of communicating with Howard to bring him out of his deep sorrow.

Although this is done with some seriousness, the constructs and building of the story is weak. When the words and concept of "Collateral Beauty" are passed from Madeleine to Howard, the failure to engage the audience and Howard are palpable. It is at this point I realized that this film, regardless of how it finishes, would be lack luster.

Smith was OK as the once engaging advertising company creator, leader and grieving father. Norton was slightly better as Howard’s business partner. Winslet was fine as the morally caring business partner. Pena was very good as the ill business executive who cares about his family. Knightly was good as Love. Mirren was very good as Death, her style brought strength to the film. Latimore was strong as Time. Harris was very strong as the grieving mother. Allan Loeb wrote a weak screenplay in that the characters lacked depth and the story never grew. Direction by David Frankel was weak in that he never saw the failings of the story to find ways to make it have more depth. The film never really shared the beauty of a child’s depth which, in this case, was supposed to be collateral.

Overall:  Although somewhat engaging at the beginning, it fails to fulfill any beauty collateral or not.

Ant-man

First Hit:  Very enjoyable film that works because it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

A fun filled adventure that definitely works because of the storyline, acting, and especially of the acting by Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-man. He approaches the role with intelligence, irreverence, and honesty.

His compatriots, outside of the ants, are Luis (Michael Pena), Dave (T.I.), and Kurt (David Dastmalchian). All together they help Ant-man suit inventor Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly), defeat Darren Cross / Yellowjacket (Corey Stoll) who is trying to re-create Dr. Pym’s technology for evil use.

The motivation for Scott is his daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson) whom he doesn’t see much because he’s been in prison. The scenes of Lang as Ant-man when he’s working with the ants is priceless. As an audience member, I knew it was fantasy, yet I bought the story and film because it was so well put together – with lightheartedness.

Rudd was perfect for the role. He’s so comfortable in his body and the script’s dialogue was perfect for him. He’s great. Pena is also fantastic. He’s talkative, yet there is an air of intelligence in his storying telling. Douglas is strong as the scientist. Lilly is wonderful to watch and her backing up her intelligence with physical abilities were excellent. Stoll was really good as the strength of evil doing and the antagonist. Fortson was enjoyable as Rudd’s daughter. Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish wrote a great script. Payton Reed had a great handle on how to execute this story.

Overall:  This is a really fun and enjoyable film.