Bad Boys for Life

First Hit: Funny at the right times, but confusing gun battles took away from the story.

Will Smith as Detective Mike Lowery and Martin Lawrence as Detective Marcus Burnett can be engagingly funny together. And in many scenes, they hit that sweet spot by bringing outright out-loud laughter from the audience.

The background of this story is that these two have worked together for twenty plus years and, during this time, created havoc in the Miami Police Department by being both hasty in their actions and unconventional in their investigative methods. The directors, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah put this right up front in the opening scenes when they have the detectives drive through Miami at recklessly high speeds in Lowery’s 911 Porsche.

Burnett wants to retire but gets yanked away from fulfilling this dream when Lowery gets riddled with five bullets from Armando (Jacob Scipio), an assassin riding a motorcycle down one of Miami’s boulevards. In another early scene, we see Armando breaking his mother Isabel Aretas (Kate del Castillo) out of prison.

Isabel is intent on revenging an old score which resulted in the death of her husband. She asks Armando to kill all that had to do with her former husband's death. One of the aspects of Isabel that the audience is made aware of early is that she sees herself as a witch of some sort.

Directing the detective’s work over the years was Captain Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano). After Lowery’s shooting, he brings on his newly formed AMMO (Advanced Miami Metro Operations) squad to solve the cases of all the current assassinations by using data and more conventional crime resolution techniques. This team is led by Lowery’s ex-girlfriend Rita (Paola Nunez).

Lowery won’t be held back and goes out to find his assassin and finally convinces Burnett to come out of retirement to help him one last time.

The rest of the film is about the slight conflicts between the AMMO squad and Lowery and Burnett’s tactics on finding and dealing with the assassins.

The AMMO team has some hilarious interactions with Lowery and Burnett, which helped set the stage. However, it is Marcu’s comments to Mike that gets the most laughs. One funny scene is when Mike names the color dye Mike uses to cover the gray in his goatee.

However, what didn’t work was the convoluted shootouts, two specifically, one in a warehouse garage and the other in an old hotel that was confusing. Just too much noise and shooting that didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Smith is his typical smart-alecky competent self. As such, he is perfect for this role. Lawrence is terrific as the sidekick attempting to bring some sanity to his partner’s life. Pantoliano is solid as a police captain. Nunez is good as Lowery’s former girlfriend and leader of AMMO. Castillo is okay as the woman looking for revenge. Vanessa Hudgens, as Burnett’s all-knowing supportive wife, is terrific. Chris Bremner, Peter Craig, and Joe Carnahan wrote the screenplay. Directors Arbi and Fallah did a good job of bringing both action and comedy to bear.

Overall: There was nothing memorable about his film or story, but it was a fun experience.

2019 Films

Films I saw in 2019 that rose above the fray.

Out of the nearly 110 movies I saw in 2019, the below are the ones I liked the most. Some of the early January films were released in 2018 and, therefore, not eligible for 2019 Awards. The links will take you to my full review of the film.

On the Basis of Sex - First Hit: Outstanding and moving film about one of the most inspirational women in United States history – ever.

Stan & Ollie - First Hit: This is an outstanding, beautiful, love story about how two men spent their lives together making audiences laugh.

Destroyer - First Hit: Powerfully acted by Nicole Kidman in a story that teeters on the edge of oblivion at every turn.

Capernaum (Chaos) - First Hit: This is an incredibly powerful film about the state of children and their survival in Beirut.

Free Solo (IMAX Version) - First Hit: This past year, there were two documentary films about climbing El Capitan, and this one, Free Solo, scared me more than the other movie, Dawn Wall, and both are worth a watch.

Apollo 11 - First Hit: Glorious masterpiece on this milestone achievement by human beings.

The Mustang - First Hit: The acting was excellent, and what still stays with me was the deep breathing of the horse and Roman as they dealt with their caged circumstances — powerful.

Booksmart - First Hit: A potent mixture of comedy and how high school can bring out the best and worst in kids.

The Last Black Man in San Francisco - First Hit: I was both enthralled and, at times, perplexed by this quirky powerfully acted story.

Maiden - First Hit: An extraordinary and heartrending film about women banding together to prove how amazingly powerful they are.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - First Hit: I was transported back in time and thoroughly enjoyed this film

Where’d You Go, Bernadette - First Hit: Not everyone will appreciate and engage with this film, and I did.

Aquarela - First Hit: One of the most cinematographically influential films I’ve ever seen.

Judy - First Hit: This film opened the door to possibly seeing a more in-depth and human Judy through her last year of life.

Joker - First Hit: Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker is powerfully twisted in overt and subtle ways.

August (Agosto) - First Hit: A beautiful intimate story about a young man coming into his own during the 1994 crisis in Cuba.

Parasite - First Hit: I really enjoyed this story as it dives from the hilarious into the absurd.

Jojo Rabbit - First Hit: A fantastic black comedy that digs deep at the idiocy of the Nazi movement.

Harriet - First Hit: Definitely an Oscar-contending performance by Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman.

Ford v Ferrari - First Hit: I love good car movies, and this one qualifies as one of the best.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - First Hit: I was deeply touched by this film about how kindness and forgiveness can move internal mountains.

Dark Waters - First Hit: An excellent portrayal of corporate malfeasance and arrogance, finally getting its comeuppance.

The Report - First Hit: A strong film shining a light on the United States of America’s illegal torture campaign.

Dolemite Is My Name - First Hit: At times, hilarious, but also a surprising true and touching story about the birth of rap by a man who just kept trying to be famous.

Waves - First Hit: I’m not always a fan of revolving cameras and frame sizing to create a feeling, but this time it worked.

Knives Out - First Hit: An enjoyable investigative romp with a group of very capable actors in an old fashion story.

Marriage Story - First Hit: Well-acted story about a challenging process that many people go through — divorce.

Richard Jewell - First Hit: Outstanding film and portrayal of a man who went through hell because of the FBI and the malfeasance of a newspaper reporter.

The Two Popes - First Hit: Very engaging film about the Catholic Church’s 2012 shift towards being more liberal.

Bombshell - First Hit: I thoroughly enjoyed the acting and how this story shines a light on a behavior that was kept under wraps for far too long.

Uncut Gems - First Hit: A wild ride with a Jewish, gem selling, obsessive gambler.

The Irishman (I Heard You Paint Houses)

First Hit: An in-depth introspective and a sliver of a story into the mob world’s connection to Jimmy Hoffa.

This was a historical storytelling film of the life of “The Irishman” Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro). Accordingly, the movie begins and ends with Frank sitting in an old folks home telling the story of his life.

The young Frank starts his tale when he has just returned from his WWII stint in Italy, and is now a truck driver delivering meat. He finds that he can skim some of the carcasses off and sell them for extra side money. In doing so, he slowly begins to sell to mobsters who appreciate a good deal. A chance meeting, followed by a more formal introduction with rising mobster Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) begins a lifelong friendship. Russell gets Frank odd jobs including painting houses (which is a mob euphemism for murder) as needed by the mob.

When the trucking company catches Frank as he arrives at a store that purchased the meat with an empty truck, wants to convict him for theft. What happened to the meat? Frank sold it to gangsters but acts as if he’s no idea what happened to the beef in the truck. It is one of the few amusing scenes in the film.

Frank knows the value of keeping his mouth shut, and this trait along with his support of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters run by Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) gets him a new job as Hoffa’s chief bodyguard.

The movie generously uses CGI to move these characters back and forth through at least 50 years of life, from young men in their 20s and 30s to old men in their 70s and 80s. For the most part, it works well.

We follow these three gentlemen through their lives, including mob family wars for power.

We watch them fight with the government about expanding to Cuba and the Castro regime. We watch them struggle with John F. Kennedy’s election and subsequent assassination. We see how Bobby Kennedy tried to bust up the unions and Hoffa in particular because of how Jimmy loaned the mob millions of dollars, interest-free, in union pension funds. In fact, the film makes a point of indicating that mob-controlled union pension funds built Las Vegas.

There are softer moments in the film like how Frank’s daughter Peggy (Anna Paquin as the older Peggy) visibly disliked Russell but liked Hoffa. The story also has a few tender scenes with Frank and his second wife, Irene (Stephanie Kurtzuba).

The scenes are shot with an authentic and matter of fact feel to them, not splashy. One-shot that stuck with me was when Russell takes Frank to a small airport to get on a plane to meet Hoffa in Detroit; the camera looks out the tiny private plane window to see Bufalino sitting in the Lincoln. Russell will wait in the car until Sheeran returns after meeting Hoffa. There was something about this shot that brought the craft of making even the small things to the forefront.

De Niro was excellent as the Irishman turned mob strong arm and Bufalino confidant. The scenes with the priest towards the end were powerful. De Niro skillfully expressed his character's refusal to deeply go into making amends. Pesci is terrific as mobster Bufalino. The scene which he and Frank are just getting to know each other, speaking Italian with Russell, and asking him how he learned to speak Italian is very engaging. Pacino as Hoffa was convincing. I’ve no idea who Hoffa is privately, but the way Pacino portrayed him here made it feel real. Paquin as Peggy is perfect. She knew deep inside who her father was and what he did, and her way of keeping her distance and her looks of disapproval are excellent. Harvey Keitel is sublime in his brief scenes as mobster kingpin, Angelo Bruno. Steven Zaillian wrote a strong and in-depth screenplay from the book “I Heard You Paint Houses.” Martin Scorsese showed his strength in using actors he knows and trusts to bring another compelling Italian mob film story to the screen.

Overall: Although very informational, it was a long film.

Just Mercy

First Hit: A compelling and moving story about overturning injustice.

This movie is based on the true-life story of Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan), who, after finishing law school at Harvard, moved to the deep south to help death-row prisoners in Alabama.

Although he was offered prestigious positions in other law firms, his mind was made up while during an internship, he interviewed death-row prisoners. He is deeply touched by these prisoner's stories and, after reviewing their files, learned that many of these men were unjustly accused and incarcerated.

Upon graduating from Harvard and passing the Alabama Bar, he moved to and opened a federally funded group to represent prisoners on death row. Arriving at their new offices, he is informed that he and his office manager Eva Ansley (Brie Larson), wouldn’t be able to rent the offices because of the type of work they were doing. Holing up in Eva and her husband’s home, they begin their quest to represent wrongfully convicted death-row inmates. The three touched upon in this film were different types of cases.

One of the stories is about Herbert Richardson (Rob Morgan), who was convicted of killing someone by a bomb he planted on the front porch of a house. Yes, he made the bomb, but what wasn’t taken into consideration was that Richardson had PTSD from his time in Vietnam and had struggled by being in and out of mental health facilities for over 30 years. His story is wonderfully mixed into the overall film by following his appeal process and subsequent death by electrocution. The latter is such a powerful scene, that it had our entire Saturday afternoon audience audibly crying.

The main story is about Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), a man convicted of killing a young 18-year-old girl. The fact was that at the time of the victim’s death, he was surrounded by his entire family preparing food for a local fish fry. The testimony that got him incarcerated was given by Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson), who was a convicted felon that made up the story to get off of death row. In other words, he made a deal to lie for the local police and DA so that he would have a more comfortable life in prison.

The storyline follows how Stevenson and Ansley, jump through enormous hoops put forth by the Alabama criminal justice system, to let the truth be known. The resistance was there in order to keep the criminal justice system from having to say it was criminally wrong and did not hand out justice to everyone equally under the law.

The film does a great job of mining the stories of the key players and how they ended up where they are. It also points out the discriminatory nature of many people and areas that still exist in the South.

This is a moving film, and I know that anyone seeing it will be impacted by the excellent acting and story behind the characters. The scene where Richarson is put to death is so powerfully well done even though you never see the actual execution. You’d be hard-pressed to not be affected by this scene.

Jordan was terrific as Stevenson. He plays this character with kindness and driven compassion which is outwardly kept under wraps. Larson is lovely as a mother and woman who is driven to do the right thing regardless of the impact on her family. Foxx was sublime. I loved the way he slowly let his guard down with Stevenson as time passed. It’s a powerful performance. Nelson, as Myers was terrific. His critical role in the story was only outshone by his ability to draw the audience into his persona and how he got to be the person he was. You cannot take your eyes off him when he’s on the screen. Morgan was phenomenal. I loved his character and maybe because I am also a Vietnam Veteran. I’ve met numerous street people who are vets that got lost along the way. His story touched me deeply. Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Lanham wrote an outstanding script and dug in where it needed to. Cretton got incredible performances from the entire cast and needs to be commended for bringing this subject to film.

Overall: A film worth seeing as the story it tells helps us learn who we are and what we need to change.

1917

First Hit: Although many of the camera angles and shots were engaging, the flaws in the storyline kept me out of entirely falling into this movie.

I do my best to ignore hoopla, reviews, and articles about films before seeing them. It causes and creates preconceived ideas that are rarely met, along with providing filters that have to be ignored.

Such was the case with this movie. So much noise about how great this film is.

Granted the effect given by the one-camera one-shot concept was good. This concept was ambitious, but the action wasn’t really shot with one camera and didn’t really happen during one long shot. Therefore, I found myself guessing which were the one-shot moments which were the ones they edited to make it look like one-shot one-camera.

If I’m watching a movie and my mind is dancing with these questions, it just means I’m not fully ensconced in the story and presentation, and that isn’t good.

Besides the camera stuff, the other aspects that didn’t work for me were: A scene when Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) gets shot at from the German sniper soldier in a building after he crossed a destroyed bridge. Why did they simultaneously shoot each other and Schofield fall back downstairs, as if he were hit, and end up with no injuries? The German, as we expected, was hit and died. Then, how did Schofield not get hit as he was chased through the burning buildings being pursued by multiple German soldiers shooting at him? How did the wounds he did received appear and disappear, yet the bandage on his right hand from a barbed wire wound early in the story consistently appear in later shots? How did Schofield and Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) not hear any of the trucks or men marching near the farmhouse where the plane crashed? One moment, the stillness and quiet of the farm are interrupted by a plane crash. Then Blake fights with the surviving German pilot, then within minutes, a whole battery of trucks and men are swarming on the same farm. Noise from the vehicles made in 1917 and the men of the advancing regiment, would have been heard long before the plane crash and certainly after it. However, here they are not heard. They just appear like ants scurrying around the farm.

When these many questions are running through my mind as I watch the scenes unfold, It’s hard for me to be a fully engaged fan of the film.

The movie’s story is about two men, Schofield and Blake, being ordered to locate and warn an English regiment that is pursuing the German Army that the Germans have set this pursuit up as a trap to destroy the following regiment. Blake is given this assignment because General Erinmore (Colin Firth) has learned that Blake’s brother is a lieutenant in the pursuing regiment. To me, this was a questionable motivational strategy by the General. Blake was asked to select another soldier to be his companion, and he chose Schofield because they were close friends. However, the overall goal and motivation to save some 1,600 men were not in question.

The difficulties that Schofield and Blake endured as they cross the previous battle lines are for the most part engaging. However, none of the scenes were pointedly unique when compared to scenes in other films, like Peter Jackson’s “They Shall Not Grow Old,” or Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan,” or Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk.” In fact, the section where they pass through the destroyed German Artillery appeared too staged.

MacKay was excellent as Blake’s reluctant partner. As we know he would, he showed up with strength and compassion when needed. Chapman was perfect as Blake, who was going to save his brother’s regiment no matter what happened. His scene after being stabbed by the German pilot he saved, was excellent. Sam Mendes and Kristy Wilson-Cairns wrote this interesting screenplay. Mendes did a terrific job of splicing together individually-shot scenes to create the exciting momentum of a single-shot movie.

Overall: Thought that I’ve seen better films are telling this sort of story.