“The Great Wall” (Action/Adventure: 1 hour, 43 minutes)

Starring: Matt Damon, Tian Jing, Pedro Pascal and Willem Dafoe

Director: Yimou Zhang

Rated: PG-13 (Violence and language)

 

Movie Review: The set designs and costumes are grand colorful sights. Too bad, the clichéd story is not up to par. The story is unique on the surface but uncreative otherwise.

Two mercenary warriors William (Damon) and Tovar (Pascal) become prisoners of a grand Chinese army stationed at the Great Wall. The men soon discover the mystery of the wall’s construction. 

Alien beasts lay siege to the massive wall, but the moment of battle turns Williams and Tovar into heroes alongside Chinese warriors led by Cmdr. Lin Mae (Jing).

Visually, “Great Wall” is masterful. The colors and costumes inspire.

Everything else is less than commonplace writing. The story merges passé themes. A Caucasian male becomes savior of another culture. A powerful queen rules extraterrestrial beasts and controls them through a telepathic link. The plot points happen too regularly in movies.

The acting is drab. The characters fall short of persuading audiences. Thus, this narrative is a lackluster attempt led by Director Yimou Zhang who has directed much better, such as “House of Flying Daggers,” 2004; “Curse of the Golden Flower,” 2006.

Grade: D+ (Not great.)

“Fist Fight” (Comedy: 1 hour, 31 minutes)

Starring: Ice Cube, Charlie Day and Tracy Morgan

Director: Richie Keen

Rated: R (Profanity and violence)

Movie Review: From the preview trailers alone, one could see this movie would be messy. The movie is stupid from the first scene. The plot is asinine and makes no sense for its setting, a high school.

Andy Campbell (Day) reveals information that results in his colleague, Mr. Strickland, getting fired. Strickland wants revenge and challenges Campbell to an after-school fight. News of their pending fistfight spreads quickly and Strickland is not taking no for an answer.

With any artistic endeavor such as a movie, one must often suspend real world rules to accommodate a plot. Even if this action is applied, “Fist Fight” still is unpersuasive.

The students are committing acts of vandalism among many other unlawful actions. The teachers curse and threaten students constantly, physically and verbally. The teachers appear as people with psychological issues and some are sexual perverts. 

Having worked as a teacher on all levels, an instructor on any level is tough occasionally. However, instructors cannot curse or assault students as portrayed here. The comedy removes its story far enough from the truth that it makes no rational sense.   

Granted, the movie is a comedy, the antics go too far. The faculty, administration and staff are all over-the-top personas. They are not appealing; they are stupidly behaving people. They are more childish than the young adults they teach. 

The comedy by television director Richie Keen (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” 2005) offers audiences merely colorful characters cursing and juvenile behavior. 

Grade: D- (Keep your money in clenched fists)

“A Cure for Wellness” (Mystery/Thriller: 2 hours, 26 minutes)

Starring: Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs and Mia Goth

Director: Gore Verbinski

Rated: R (Profanity, nudity, strong violence, sexual content including an assault and gore)

 

Movie Review: Director Gore Verbinski is no stranger to the horror-thriller. He dazzled and scared audiences with 2002’s “The Ring.” 

Here, he gives audiences a creepy, albeit common, narrative. “Wellness” is riveting as it is strangely incomplete. 

Lockhart is an ambitious young executive. His company’s executive board sends Lockhart to retrieve the company’s CEO from a secluded wellness center in the Swiss Alps. 

Lockhart finds the center’s miraculous treatments have certain side effects — the spa’s older wealthy residents appear to do the opposite of healing. Lockhart begins investigating, but his sanity becomes an issue when he becomes a patient at the wellness clinic. 

“Wellness” is intriguing as a screenplay. The setting, the characters and use of color captured by the cinematography is engaging, yet the plot has unexplainable gaps. 

Certain unknowns exist that may leave audiences asking multiple questions. The movie is a mystery, but it has too much compiled into one plot. The subplots, plus the strange behaviors of characters, detract. Even more, the concluding scenes just make the photoplay more baffling.

Grade: C- (Intriguing, but it needs a cure for the unwell parts.)