Baby Driver

First Hit:  Thoroughly enjoyable and fun to watch.

The music mood of the film begins right away. The music is critically important to Baby (Ansel Elgort) because he spends most of his time with his white earbuds in his ears to listen to music that the audience hears during critical moments and sometimes as background in other scenes.

Baby uses the music piped into his brain to drown out the constant noise due to tinnitus. It could be that one of the reasons I related well to this film. Because of the explosive noises I was subjected to in Vietnam and from the extra loud rock concerts I attended, I have a severe case of tinnitus which means I have a constant loud noise in my head all the time.

I find that when I write, especially the two books I’m currently writing, I do it with music headphones on or I use the background noise of a café because it helps me concentrate. That’s why Baby listens to music especially when he drives the getaway vehicles for robberies set up by Doc (Kevin Spacey).

Doc obtains information about banks, armored cars, or even the post office he thinks would make great targets for cash. Doc then gathers a crew of people to do the job and each crew is a cast of different characters for each job he does except Baby.

Doc caught Baby stealing his car once and the trunk contained bags of drugs. Although Baby didn’t know about the drugs, when he fenced the car the drugs were lost. Doc makes Baby drive for the robberies because he’s the best driver there is and Baby’s share of the jobs goes to Doc as repayment for the lost drugs.

The robbery teams include; Buddy (Jon Hamm) Griff, (Jon Bernthal), Darling (Eiza Gonzalez), and Bats (Jamie Foxx). Darling and Buddy are a couple and work together but their first time working with Bats is quite an experience.

When Baby meets a waitress, at a diner he frequents, he is immediately taken with her because she sings while she walks by. Debora (Lily James), is drifting like he is. Her singing reminds him of his mom who sang and also worked at the same diner before she died in a car accident when he was a little boy. He was in the car when his parents died and it was this event that gave him the tinnitus.

When she says to him, she just wants to get in a car and drive west to a new life, he completely falls for her. Baby decides that he’s going to do one last job for Doc, pay off his debt, and ask Debora to go west with him.

This is a great set up for the film because Bats is crazy as hell, Buddy and Darling are fully capable of mayhem, Doc is arrogantly mysterious and Baby is, well, incredibly focused and talks very little.

The only things that I didn’t like in the film was the opening scene which seemed to choreographed and a couple of the scenes when Baby is walking to and from a coffee house to bring the robbery teams coffee. They were a bit to staged as well. Else I loved the driving scenes, the music and the premise as it was unique.

Elgort was fantastic. His inner character is exemplified during the scenes where he's with his foster parent Joseph (CJ Jones). Now that Jones cannot care for himself alone, it is Baby who takes care of him. His boyish soft looks belied the intense driven young man inside. He was perfect for the part. Hamm was great as the intense man, feeding habits including his girlfriend, Darling. Gonzalez was wonderful as the intense woman who was loved by Buddy. Together they had matching intense, impulsive and wild natures. Foxx was off the charts crazy. He clearly made this role his own. Spacey was perfect as the guy with the mean sarcastic whit. He’s got a wonderful ability to make his character drip in a smarmy liquid way. Jones was strong as the deaf man who loved Baby and wanted only the best for him. James was beyond amazing. Her sweet strong personality was perfect for the part. She exuded this role completely. Edger Wright wrote and directed this unique film with deftness. I loved the choreographed driving scenes and my only criticism I’ve already shared. This is one of the best actions films of the year.

Overall:  This movie was a joy ride.

The Mummy

First Hit:  Starts off okay, but falls off quickly into a waste of film and time.

Tom Cruise (here as Nick Morton) gives his all in everything he does. In some films like Risky Business, Top Gun, and A Few Good Men, it is more than enough and strong but you still know it is Tom Cruise.

The difference between those films and this one is they had good and believable stories. This story fails early on. The idea that Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), an Egyptian princess, decided to embrace the dark side and be all powerful when her legacy is taken away from her because of the birth of a male child, was rather thin. Then to make the story interesting, because of her new-found power, she was killed and was buried in Mesopotamia. The fear of her power required that she be interned in a tomb filled with mercury to keep her powers deplete. This made the reach too far to be believable. In fact the finders of the tomb said it was far fetched that there was an Egyptian tomb in Mesopotamia.

The story has Nick and his side-kick Chris Vail (Jake Johnson) being artifact hunters who illegally sell what they find. Nick steals a map of an artifact site from Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) and accidently finds the sarcophagus with Ahmanet.

Until this point the film is tolerable. But after the plane, which is transporting the tomb to London, falls out of the sky and Nick survives without a scratch, the film really reaches into the bag of unbelievability.  And it's at this point we get that Nick is part of Ahmanet’s plan to destroy the world.

The visuals are good and there was no expense spared in making the visuals work, however, for me Ahmanet’s costume failed. She’s supposed to be wrapped in mummy cloth strips, but the outline of her underwear was too obvious. Additionally, I don’t think any of the body markings on her face or body added anything to her role.

Cruise, as I’ve said in other film reviews with Tom Cruise as the star, is simply Tom Cruise in a role. He never embodies a character and becomes the character, he is Tom Cruise as a character. Boutella was okay. I didn’t think the double eye irises added anything of interest. Of course, with four irises, I don’t know how she could see. Johnson was okay as the side kick, but as a zombie, it didn’t work. Wallis was the best part of the film. She came across as smart and in control of her role. David Koepp and Christopher McQuarrie wrote a far-fetched screenplay. Alex Kurtzman did an okay job of directing the actors. That the story was mediocre and that Cruise will go all out making sure we know it is Tom Cruise acting a role, made his job harder.

Overall: Another waste of time watching an expensive blockbuster.

Wonder Woman

First Hit: I was put off at the beginning and the movie didn’t get much better from there. Unfortunately, this spring there has been a lack of quality and interesting films. This film is another one of those failed films that attempted to make a point of some sort and fails to deliver. What I thought the points that this film wanted to make were: Women are powerful and that love is the only way we can all live in peace. To do this the movie spends its time in titanic wars between entities that are not real.

On the first point, yes it shows a woman as a physically strong woman, but I think Hidden Figures and Zero Dark Thirty model stronger women with mental fortitude in more realistic settings. On the second point, our history from WWI is self explanatory.

The odd thing about this film and an obvious failure, is that after Wonder Woman/Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) defeats Ares/Sir Patrick Morgan (David Thewlis) in a battle during WW I, which is suppose to bring peace to the world but doesn't because a few years later the world experiences WW II. So the point or mission of Wonder Woman to kill the God of Death, Ares, doesn't really do anything.

The early background scenes of the hidden island of Themyscira, which is home to the Amazon race and Diana Prince, were horrible. The waterfalls were obviously not real and against the live background really looked fake. Additionally the dialogue between Hippolyta (Connie Nelson) and Antiope (Robin Wright) was stilted and seemed forced. The other item that struck me as amateurish was the beginning voice overs telling us the story so that we would buy into the premise. I didn’t.

Although everyone who doesn't live on the hidden island is skeptical of a God of Death and War, Ares, Wonder Woman knows he exists and leaves the island to kill him and make the world safe for all. When a young spy accidentally travels through the hidden island’s cloak (not a very good cloak) she follows him back out of the cloaked island ready to find and kill Ares.

There are numerous scenes where Wonder Woman is an anomaly to this WWI story and that’s part of the point. However, the film does not do this well and therefore I ended up wondering if this was a poor action film or a very poor tongue-in-cheek comedy.

The fight scenes were attempting to be grand gestures, however it just seemed too fake. Wonder Woman rarely got dirty and the long slow buildup to the supreme war between her and Ares just wasn’t very good. It lacked excitement and well-designed choreography.

Gadot was okay as Wonder Woman, but the storyline and direction let her down. I think there is more to her than she was able to give us here. Thewlis was mediocre as Ares. Didn’t think the casting was right for this. Chris Pine as the spy Captain Steve Trevor was appropriately amusing if this film were more aimed to be a tongue-in-cheek comedy. There are a host of other people playing parts but I don’t think it is appropriate to review their performances. I disliked Allan Heinberg’s screenplay as I thought it was lost and without a clear genre. Patty Jenkins seemed as lost as the screenplay and if the point of this film was to make an impact, it failed.

Overall: Cannot recommend anyone sitting through over 140 minutes of this celluloid.

Snatched

First Hit:  The film never seemed to find its purpose and the pre-release hype of comedic fun was far more than the reality.

Emily (Amy Schumer) is an unhappy desperate woman. When she gets dumped by her up and coming rock and roller boyfriend Michael (Randall Park), she must find someone to go with her to Ecuador on a non-refundable vacation. None of her friends like her enough to go with her, so she asks her mom Linda (Goldie Hawn). Linda is very security oriented and is afraid of going but gets convinced to go.

One would think that two gifted comediennes together in a film could make the circumstances of being kidnapped funny, but they don’t. Yes, there are a few lighthearted and funny moments  and scenes, but mostly it is a poorly constructed action film with attempts to make it funny.

It just didn’t work and wasn’t believable in any way, shape or form. When they meet Ruth and Barb (Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack respectively) this film might have taken a more comedic turn, however the film only used them in the end.

The bits with Jeffery (Ike Barinholtz), who was Linda’s son, were supposed to be funny. But his house bound character was poorly constructed, not believable and insipid.

Schumer was not funny and certainly not very good as an action figure. Not sure if it was the script or direction but this film failed her, or she failed the film. Hawn was worse. I have watched Hawn from the mid 1960’s and I’ve never seen her more constrained and out of place. This was not the right role for her. Sykes was OK and did her best to bring some excitement and comedy to this film. Cusack was the best thing in the film. Barinholtz was very poor and did not make his role believable. Katie Dippold didn’t write a comedic film. It was a lost action film with comediennes in the lead roles. Jonathan Levine directed this mess and did it no favors by not driving this film to either action or comedy because this didn’t work this way.

Overall: This film is mostly a waste of time.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

First Hit:  At times funny, tongue in cheek and farfetched, but isn’t strong enough to make it memorable the next day.

The best parts of Volume 1, was the irreverent humor used to make the unbelievable story and places they visit, fun. Volume 2 does all this a little better.

Star-Lord AKA Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is with his compatriots; Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Baby Groot (Vin Diesel), and Rocket (Bradley Cooper), and they are off on another adventure. They saved the galaxy before now they're here to do it again.

Whom do they save it from? Peter's father Ego (Kurt Russell) and a reluctant Mantis (Pom Klementieff) who is the one person that can make Ego sleep and relax. Also, for different reasons, Yondu (Michael Rooker) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) want to hurt Peter and his crew as well.

After years of not knowing who his father was, all of sudden Peter is confronted with his father, Ego. Ego lives on planet Ego and is a God of sorts. He traveled to many planets to plant his lights, which he controls through his powers. He's looking for a progeny that can assist him in making the light devices to bloom and take over the worlds he’s planted these things on. Additionally, while on the planets planting his light plants, the story has Ego planting his seed in many women on these planets as well. One of them was Peter’s mom, Meredith (Laura Haddock). However out of all the progeny Ego tests to see who can help him activate the lights, Peter is the only one who shares, and has, Ego's super powers.

The problem is Peter’s eclectic family doesn’t buy the Ego’s premise about wanting to be a loving father and when Peter figures out that Ego is planning control and destruction, he knows he has to kill his father.

All through this, Nubula is trying to kill Yondu now that he’s teamed up with Peter and his team. Then there is Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stallone) who wants to kill Yondu as well.

In the end there is a life and death struggle for the galaxy and the team wins again and I know I’m letting the cat out of the bag, but we all knew the ending anyway.

Pratt is fun, on the edge of silly, but carries the ability to be both serious and irreverent all at the same time. Saldana is wonderful as the illusive Gamora. Bautista has some of the funniest lines and it’s fun to watch him. Diesel is funny and appropriately constrained as small Groot. Cooper as Rocket was fantastic. Klementieff was great as Mantis. I loved the way she danced between surety and lack of confidence. Russell was really engaged and full of life in this part. Gillan was strong as the golden leader of another planet’s race. Rooker was perfect as the guy who wanted to be good and support the team, but also live within the rules of his own clan. Stallone was OK as Ogord. James Gunn and Dan Abnett wrote a perfect irreverent script that held together through a highly improbable story. Gunn did a great job of providing the right level of effects and joyful fun scenes. Everyone got a chance to shine.

Overall:  This was as good and probably better than Volume 1.