“Blade Runner 2049” (Science-Fiction: 2 hours, 43 minutes)

Starring: Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas and Jared Leto

Director: Denis Villeneuve, nudity and profanity

Rated: R (Violence, some sexuality, nudity and profanity)

 

Movie Review: “Blade Runner” (Director Ridley Scott, 1982) is still a good staple of modern cinemas. The iconic film was a new kind of science-fiction movie based on Philip K. Dick’s novel, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”

“Blade Runner 2049” is fine cinema and continues the legacy of its predecessor.

California, 2049, is the setting for this futuristic tale. Gosling plays Officer KD6-3.7. He is a young blade runner and replicant, a human android, tasked with terminating older model replicants for the Los Angeles Police Department. KD6’s latest case leads to amazing discoveries, including his own origin and meeting former blade runner Rick Deckard (Ford).

“Blade Runner 2049” has all of the nostalgia of the 1982 feature. This is a worthy sequel. The acting is good. The visual effects are topnotch without overshadowing the characters and story and the engaging plot is a slow-moving mystery that one must solve along with Gosling’s KD6.

It boasts good characters rendered by a talented cast. Gosling plays a cybernetic being superbly. His character has no facial expressions. Gosling must rely on pure skills to convey emotion and intention. Ford offers a nice return as Deckard. Although he has aged, Ford still plays this role well, and he fits the part as if no time has passed. Leto is keen as blind industrialist.

The screenplay offers the future in a nice manner. Often overdone visual effects and action stunts are more prominent than characters. This is not the case in “2049.” The characters and their evolution remain the focal point. The story has plenty and it expands the mystery originated by its prequel.

French-Canadian Denis Villeneuve directed movies such as “Sicario” (2015) and “Arrival” (2016). He knows how to develop the story. Like films of yesteryear, he does not rush the story. Instead, he keeps a nice pace towards his targeted goal. Villeneuve does not try to outdo the original “Blade Runner.” He just creates its next chapter brilliantly.

Hats off to Villeneuve, writers Michael Green and Hampton Fancher, cinematographer Roger Deakins and others for making science fiction splendid again.

“Blade Runner 2049” magnifies Philip K. Dick’s world beyond the 1982 prequel. Simultaneously, it is impressive filmmaking delivering an intelligent story and grand visuals.

Grade: A- (Run to see it if you like science fiction.)

“Battle of the Sexes” (Biography/Drama: 2 hours, 1 minutes)

Starring: Emma Stone, Steve Carell, Andrea Riseborough, Elisabeth Shue and Sarah Silverman

Directors: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

Rated: PG-13 (Sexuality and brief nudity)

 

Movie Review: “Battles of the Sexes” is a telling of the 1973 tennis match between the number one ranked Billie Jean King and former champion and gambling hustler Bobby Riggs.

The movie spends more time on developing the character’s backgrounds than their iconic match but that is an agreeable idea, considering their lives are intriguingly engrossing.

Th women’s movement is on the rise in 1973. Billie Jean King (Stone) and several other women tennis players protest male tennis players acquiring more money for matches than they do. They fight for equal pay on the tennis court.

Enter chauvinist Bobby Riggs (Carell), a middle-aged man working at his father-in-law’s business. Riggs is a gambler, which causes friction between him and his wife, Priscilla (Shue). Riggs believes women are inferior to men on the tennis court. Meanwhile, a married King begins an exploration of sexuality via an affair with Marilyn Barnett (Riseborough). Despite their personal issues, King and Riggs prepare for their upcoming match against each other, a battle of the sexes.

Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris last directed “Ruby Sparks” (2012). They also gave audiences the acclaimed “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006). They are also a husband-wife team. In “Battle of the Sexes,” their grouping is a good one for producing a movie about attitudes and actions towards the opposite sex.

Riggs and King’s match was a spectacle, man versus woman. Riggs made the event a clownish moment, while King was treating it as a serious venture. King had a point to prove; she wanted to show women are as valuable as men. She has a mission and Riggs was there to make a statement.

Riggs was comical, so talented funnyman Carell works well in this role. Riggs is a complex character. Carell humorously plays the commercial scheming sexist nicely.

Stone is at her best. The role fits her personality. She has this spunky energy that enchants. Her portrayal of tennis great Billie Jean King is agreeable on multiple levels.

King and Riggs are multifaceted people as portrayed here. Their characters make the movie. The movie is as much about their personal lives as their skills on the tennis court. This is what drives the movie when its story hits a few lackluster moments.

Grade: B (An interesting battle on and off the tennis court …)

“The Mountain Between Us” (Drama/Romance: 1 hour, 52 minutes)

Starring: Idris Elba, Kate Winslet, Dermot Mulroney and Beau Bridges

Director: Hany Abu-Assad

Rated: R (Scene of sexuality, peril, injury images and strong language.)

 

Movie Review: After great survival movies such as “Cast Away” (Director Robert Zemeckis, 2000) and the more recent “The Revenant” (Director Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2015), “The Mountain Between Us” is lackluster in comparison.

It features a wayward story that lacks plausibility because of the forced nature in which the two main characters meet.

Neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Bass (Elba), cultured photojournalist Alex Martin (Winslet) and a dog are the only plane crash survivors. They are strangers who must work together to survive a snowy, remote mountain during late December. Their journey out of the wilderness is a perilous one, yet Bass and Martin must survive their environment and each other.

Based on the book by Alex Martin, characters played by Academy Award recipient Kate Winslet and the talented Idris Elba meet in a forced manner. The circumstances appear just correct to get them on the same ill-fated airplane. Their rendezvous appears awkwardly staged. This unnatural meeting starts the screenplay’s downward trek to a romance that feels even more circumstantial.

Elba and Winslet are capable but they have little chemistry. It would take a major leap to make the movie work, especially as a romance. Their situation goes from dire consequences of surviving to a cheesy romance. The fault lies within the story, a poorly penned screenplay.

Hany Abu-Assad received two Academy Award nominations for foreign language films “Paradise Now” (2006) and “Omar” (2013). The Israeli director appears talented with foreign photoplays, yet something must have gotten lost in translation with “The Mountain Between Us.”

Grade: D+ (Too much space between them.)

“My Little Pony: The Movie” (Animation/Adventure: 1 hour, 39 minutes)

Starring Voices: Tara Strong, Ashleigh Ball and Emily Blunt

Director: Jayson Thiessen

Rated: PG (Violence)

 

Movie Review: Based on the television series “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic,” the animated movie is for devotees of the Hasbro toyline franchise. It is charming but the magical ponies are upstaged by non-magical ponies. A better title for the movie is “My Little Ponies and Their Amazing Friends.”

After the dark forces of the Storm King (Liev Schreiber), led by Cmdr. Tempest Shadow (Blunt), arrive at Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle (Strong), her dragon assistant Spike the Dragon (Cathy Weseluck) and five ponies ride into the sunset to find help.

The ponies are cute protagonists and work for younger audiences. However, other audience members may appreciate other characters who steal the show. The ponies’ foes, Tempest Shadow, Storm King and Grubber (Michael Peña), a wisecracking hedgehog creature who loves food, are dynamic. They and Capper (Taye Diggs), a humanoid cat who is a cunning, compassionate con artist, are the more intriguing characters. The movie is easily theirs during their scenes.

Parents of small fries will find their children entertained. The movie has a hodgepodge of multiple characters, adventure and bright colors to keep children amused. Moreover, plenty comical bits exist too that keep older audiences’ attention from drifting. These diversions exist despite a dismal narrative.

Grade: C+ (For fans and its younger audiences, it is a giddyup, but it may not be for others)

 

“American Made” (Biography/Comedy: 1 hour, 55 minutes)

Starring: Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson and Sarah Wright

Director: Doug Liman

Rated: R (Profanity, violence, nudity and sexual content)

 

Movie Review: “American Made” is an interesting take on a true story during the 1980s. Cruise is exceptional as Barry Seal, a pilot.

The CIA uses Seal to take surveillance photographs. Seal picks up another job, too. He begins running drugs for a major cartel in South America. The government allows Seal’s illegal activities as long as he keeps obtaining information about the reach of Russian c ommunism.

The screenplay moves its story along with a nice pace. Director Liman (“The Bourne Identity,” 2002; “The Wall,” 2017) and writer Gary Spinelli keep the retelling of Seal’s life intriguing. Although a true story, the addition of comedy helps facilitate the plot. The comedy works because the story, farfetched as it seems, is an unusual relationship between the United States government, drug runners, crime syndicates and South American freedom fighters.

Liman and Cruise make a good team. They last teamed up for “Edge of Tomorrow” (2014). They make a better team here. They create a good movie that works as a sequential narrative with good characterizations.

Cruise’s cocky charm works as Barry Seal. Cruise delivers the character as a charismatic pilot and businessman. 

“American Made” has a nice start. Its story is an attention-getting one throughout. The end is not as well done as the first three-fourths, but the movie manages to present Barry Seal’s adventurous life as an engaging biography.

Grade: B (Definitely, the American way)

“Flatliners” (Horror/Science-Fiction: 1 hour, 49 minutes)

Starring: Ellen Page, Diego Luna, Nina Dobrev, James Norton and Kiersey Clemons

Director: Niels Arden Oplev

Rated: R (Violence, sexual content, profanity and thematic material)

 

Movie Review: “Flatliners” is an adaptation of the 1990 movie directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Kevin Bacon, Julia Roberts and Kiefer Sutherland, who stars in this remake also. The movie is intriguing just like the first one but it is not convincing.

Five medical students, led by Courtney Holmes (Page), execute experiments with near-death experiences. After four of them venture to the other side via near-death experiences, some parts of the nightmarish other side return with them.

Niels Arden Oplev (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” 2009) directs this mild movie. He allows this to be one of grand special effects and few scares, but he and writers forget to make it an investment for audiences. Care for these characters is unnecessary; they are not the innocent people one thinks.

Grade: C- (Indeed, it flatlines.)

“A Question of Faith” (Religious Drama: 1 hour, 44 minutes)

Starring: Richard T. Jones, Kim Fields, C. Thomas Howell and Gregory Alan Williams

Director: Kevan Otto

Rated: PG (Thematic elements)

 

Movie Review: Faith-based films are getting better, although the cookie-cutter stories and character inconsistencies remain. This one involves another tragedy, the death of a child, where three families must deal with the fallout. Their paths become emotional crises that rock their faith.

Pastor David Newman (Jones), his wife, Theresa (Fields), and their sons are the ideal family. Their lives change when Eric (Caleb T. Thomas), the youngest member of the family, is killed in an auto accident by driver Maria Hernandez (Karen Valero).

Meanwhile, Michelle Danielson (Amber Thompson) lies in the same hospital where Eric’s body remains. Danielson needs a heart transplant. Eric’s untimely death is a blessing for the Danielson family and a major heartache for the Newmans. Their lives collide when they all find faith.

The movie feels like a sermon. Characters constantly quote from the Bible. While the message is good, the lines feel too forced. The characters presented appear robotic in the manner they deliver words. Nearly every scene is a moment to quote scripture, as if Christians do this constantly to others throughout the day, each hour every day.

Formulaic writing is the reason for the mechanical nature of the cast. The intent is to deliver a message of salvation. The problem is the message appears staged as presented here.

The flaw of modern religious movies is their inability to present a story without over exaggerating their message. The characters always appear to find their true faith through tragic events. This precludes the idea one could not find faith through minor hardships, such as needing a power company to turn on the electricity or simply needing a job.

Grade: C (The formulaic story requires faith.)

“Till Death Do Us Part” (Thriller: 1 hour, 41 minutes)

Starring: Annie Ilonzeh; Stephen Bishop, Taye Diggs

Director: Chris Stokes

Rated: PG-13 (Thematic elements involving domestic abuse, violence, sexuality and profanity)

 

Movie Review: This is another movie that should have gone straight to the Lifetime Channel. It is uninspiring writing. The development of characters is poor. The story is not convincing, even if it has an ordinary feeling.

Newlyweds Michael (Stephen Bishop) and Madison Roland (Annie Ilonzeh) have an ideal marriage. Shortly after their vows, a controlling Michael begins to abuse Madison. The only escape for the beautiful wife is death.

Another husband beats his wife is the premise of this movie. These movies are formulaic. Plots present one man as abusive and another as angelic. A woman moves from loving the abusive man to find a new love with the good guy. This happens about a dozen times in movies every year.

Producers could at least try this plot in reverse. Perhaps, have a woman that is the abuser, and the significant other as the victim. Apparently, originality is a fleeting variable of moviemaking.

Grade: D+ (Do not wait for death; divorce this movie now.)