New Releases for the Week of September 20, 2019

AD ASTRA

(20^th Century Fox) Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland, Loren Dean, LisaGay Hamilton. Directed by James Gray

An astronaut whose father disappeared on a mission thirty years before must travel to the edges of the solar system to confront the mystery of that disappearance and take on an event that threatens all life on our planet but may fundamentally change our understanding of our place in the scheme of things.

See the trailer, clips and a video featurette here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: Science Fiction
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG-13 (for some violence and bloody images, and for brief strong language)

Downton Abbey

(Focus) Hugh Bonneville, Matthew Goode, Maggie Smith, Tuppence Middleton. This Crawleys and their intrepid staff face a royal visit that will uncover scandal and intrigue in this motion picture continuation of the beloved PBS/BBC series.

See the trailer, clips and a video featurette here
For more on the movie this is the website  
Genre: Historical Drama
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG (for thematic elements, some suggestive material, and language)

Prassthanam

(Pack Your Bag) Sanjay Dutt, Manisha Koirala, Jackie Shroff, Chunky Pandey.. A Shakespearean tale of a politically connected family whose patriarch favors his stepson over his birth son which leads to a bitter rivalry between the two.

See the trailer here
For more on the movie this is the website  
Genre: Suspense
Now Playing: Touchstar Southchase
Rating: NR

Rambo: Last Blood

(Lionsgate) Sylvester Stallone, Paz Vega, Adrianna Barraza, Sergio Peris Mencheta. John Rambo must unearth his rusty combat skills and undertake one final mission in the last chapter of this action franchise.

See the trailer, interviews, clips and a video featurette here
For more on the movie this is the website  
Genre: Action
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for strong graphic violence, grisly images, drug use and language)

Villains

(Gunpowder & Sky) Bill Skarsgǻrd, Maika Monroe, Jeffrey Donovan, Kyra Sedgewick. A pair of amateur criminals attempt to rob a suburban home, only to discover that the house holds a much darker secret that the homeowners would do anything to keep that way.

See the trailer and a video featurette here
For more on the movie this is the website  
Genre: Dramedy
Now Playing: Regal Pointe Orlando, Regal The Loop, Regal Waterford Lakes, Regal Winter Park Village
Rating: R (for language throughout, some violence, drug use and sexual content)

The Wedding Year

(Entertainment Studios) Sarah Hyland, Tyler James Williams, Jenna Dewan, Anna Camp.  Mara and Jake have just started dating, but they seem to be behind the curve when it comes to their friends who are getting married left and right. All these weddings begin to put a strain on the nascent relationship.

See the trailer and clips here
For more on the movie this is the website  
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Now Playing: Touchstar Southchase
Rating: R (for language, some sexual content and drug/alcohol use)

ALSO OPENING IN ORLANDO/DAYTONA:

Bandobast
El Equipito
Kaapaan
Love, Action, Drama
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool
Promare
Running With the Devil
Trauma is a Time Machine
Valmiki

ALSO OPENING IN MIAMI/FT. LAUDERDALE/KEY WEST:

Bandobast
Bloodline
El Equipito
Kaapaan
Love, Action, Drama
Talk to Her
Under the Same Roof
Valmiki
The Zoya Factor

ALSO OPENING IN TAMPA/ST. PETERSBURG/SARASOTA:

Ambition
Love, Action, Drama
Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas
Promare
Running With the Devil’
Valmiki

ALSO OPENING IN JACKSONVILLE/ST. AUGUSTINE:

Bandobast
Kaapaan
Sword of Trust
Valmiki
The Zoya Factor

SCHEDULED FOR REVIEW:

Ad Astra
Downton Abbey
Miles Davis: The Birth of Cool
Rambo: Last Blood

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Sicario: Day of the Soldado

Hispanics with guns: Donald Trump’s nightmare.

(2018) Action (Columbia) Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Isabela Moner, Jeffrey Donovan, Manuel Garcia-Ruffo, Catherine Keener, Matthew Modine, Shea Whigham, Elijah Rodriguez, Howard Ferguson Jr., David Castañeda, Jacqueline Torres, Raoul Trujillo, Bruno Bichir, Jake Picking, Tenzin Marco-Taylor, Alfredo Quinoz, Nick Shakoour, Lourdes del Rio Garcia. Directed by Stefano Sollima

 

Our Southern border has been a hot button item for those on the left and on the right. Blue staters tend to look at the issue as a humanitarian crisis born largely of our own policies in Latin America while red staters see it as an invasion of criminals, layabouts and terrorists.

Following the destruction of a Kansas City big box store by suicide bombers, the U.S. Government has had more than enough. They bring in “consultant” Matt Graver (Brolin) and his nearly indestructible assassin Alejandro (del Toro) to ferment war among the Mexican cartels who were responsible for smuggling the bombers across the border. To do that, Alejandro kidnaps the daughter (Moner) of a particularly vicious cartel boss. This predictably stirs up a hornet’s nest and while it gets the desired results, the conscience of Alejandro – whose family was wiped out by drug lords like the girl’s father – doesn’t go unscathed.

The movie sorely misses Denis Villaneuve who directed the first one; his sure hand could have made this a better film. Italian television director Sollima, best known for the ultra-violent Gomorrah series, does pretty well with the action series and keeps the pacing of the film up to snuff. He has more trouble with character development as other than the three characters mentioned above, nearly all the characters get lost in the shuffle, including a young Mexican-American boy in McAllen, Texas played by Rodriguez who falls into working for the cartels and ends up in a violent confrontation with Alejandro. A little more depth of character there might have given the film some oomph.

Del Toro and Brolin are both outstanding and are the real reason to see the film. I understand that this is meant to be the middle chapter in a proposed trilogy and although the box office numbers don’t really seem to point the way for a third installment, I nonetheless wouldn’t mind seeing one.

Emily Blunt, who starred in the first film, is also sorely missed and while the filmmakers assert her story had gone full circle, it still leaves the film without much of a moral center and I suppose that is merely appropriate. When one considers that in many ways this movie is making the case for the right’s take on the border, it’s hard to justify it in the face of children who continue to be separated from their parents at the border. But then, that’s just my own personal bias rearing its head. I guess it is fairer to say that Sicario: Day of the Soldado is a solid action film that has political elements that makes it very relevant to what’s going on at our border. If you leave the theater chanting “Build that wall” though, it’s on you.

REASONS TO SEE: Brolin and del Toro make an excellent team.
REASONS TO AVOID: A little less focused and a little more cliché than the first film.
FAMILY VALUES: There is a surfeit of violence and profanity as well as some fairly bloody images.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Denis Villaneuve, who directed Sicario, was unable to commit to the sequel due to scheduling conflicts.
BEYOND THE THEATER: Amazon, Fandango Now, Google Play, iTunes, Starz, Vudu, YouTube
CRITICAL MASS: As of 8/20/19: Rotten Tomatoes: 63% positive reviews: Metacritic: 61/100.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Miss Bala
FINAL RATING: 6/10
NEXT: Tomorrow, Maybe?

New Releases for the Week of June 29, 2018

SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO

(Columbia) Josh Brolin, Benicio del Toro, Matthew Modine, Isabella Moner, Jeffrey Donovan, Catherine Keener, Shea Whigham. Directed by Stefano Sollima

The drug war on the Mexican border is escalating as the cartels grow more brazen and more violent in fighting American authorities. It is decided to go after the cartels directly – by any means necessary. That is however much easier said than done.

See the trailer here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Action
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for strong violence, bloody images, and language)

Sanju

(Fox Star) Ranbir Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Paresh Rawal, Vicky Kaushal. This is the story of Sanjay Dutt who overcame a checkered past and personal demons to become one of the biggest stars in Bollywood.

See the trailer, music videos and a featurette here.
For more on the movie this is the website
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Biographical Drama
Now Playing: AMC Universal Cineplex, AMC West Oaks, Touchstar Southchase
Rating: NR

Uncle Drew

(Summit) Kyrie Irving, Lil Rel Howery, Shaquille O’Neal, Tiffany Haddish. Harlem’s famed Rucker Tournament of street basketball teams will never be the same as a group of septuagenarians take the kids to school. This was originally a series of short films commissioned by Pepsi.

See the trailer, clips, interviews and a video featurette here.
For more on the movie this is the website
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Comedy
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG-13 (for suggestive material, language and brief nudity)

Woman Walks Ahead

(A24) Jessica Chastain, Sam Rockwell, Michael Greyeyes, Ciarán Hinds. A widowed artist sets out from New York to North Dakota in the 1880s to paint a portrait of Sitting Bill. Unexpectedly, the two become good friends and she becomes a fierce ally in the Native American battle for land rights. This is based on a true story.

See the trailer here.
For more on the movie this is the website
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Western
Now Playing: AMC Universal Cineplex
Rating: R (for brief violence and language)

ALSO OPENING IN ORLANDO/DAYTONA:

A Kid Like Jake
Abrahaminte Santhathikal
Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi

ALSO OPENING IN MIAMI/FT. LAUDERDALE:

Abrahaminte Santhathikal
Always at the Carlyle
Animal World
Damsel
The Domestics
Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi
El Inca

ALSO OPENING IN TAMPA/ST. PETERSBURG:

Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi
Godard Mon Amour

ALSO OPENING IN JACKSONVILLE/ST. AUGUSTINE:

Abrahaminte Santhathikal
Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi

SCHEDULED FOR REVIEW:

Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Uncle Drew

Sicario

Josh Brolin is just happy he’s not on Mt. Everest right now.

(2015) Drama (Lionsgate) Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benicio del Toro, Victor Garber, Jon Bernthal, Daniel Kaluuya, Jeffrey Donovan, Raoul Trujillo, Julio Cedillo, Hank Rogerson, Bernardo P. Saracino, Maximilliano Hernandez, Kevin Wiggins, Edgar Arreola, Kim Larrichio, Jesus Nevarez-Castillo, Dylan Kenin, John Trejo, Marty Lindsey, Alex Knight, Sarah Minnich. Directed by Denis Villeneuve

One of the casualties of any war is human decency and nowhere is that more apparent than in America’s war on drugs. Of course, the enemy that’s being battled – the Latin American drug cartels – are particularly vicious. How do you fight an enemy who will go to any lengths to win – beyond the pale of anything that could even be called human?

FBI agent Kate Macer (Blunt) leads a raid on a home that may be owned by a high ranking member of a Mexican cartel in Arizona. There she, her partner Reggie (Kaluuya) and her boss Dave Jennings (Garber) discover horrors that boggle the imagination, as well as a nasty surprise. Her work on this raid gets the attention of Matt Graver (Brolin), a breezy government agent theoretically with the Department of Justice but that part is pretty murky. He’s putting together a cross-organizational team to take down one of the cartels that’s been making lethal inroads to American cities and he wants Kate on it.

Also on the team is Alejandro (del Toro), a mysterious figure whose allegiance could be to anybody on either side of the conflict. In going after Manuel Diaz (Saracino) whose brother Silvio (Hernandez) runs the cartel, they’ll have to make a dangerous prisoner transfer from Mexico to the U.S. that will lead to a deadly shootout, traverse a drug runner tunnel with numerous gunmen guarding its secrets, and eventually lead to the discovery that neither side in this war has clean hands – and maybe that’s the only way to fight it.

Villeneuve, who is probably best known in this country for Prisoners (although Incendies is in my opinion a much better film) is enormously talented and has nearly unlimited potential. Every film he makes is at least interesting, and a few are stellar. This is one of the latter; he has an economy of camera movement as well as of image; everything is important and nothing goes to waste. He knows also how to use silence; some of the best moments in the film have little or no dialogue.

Blunt who has been on the radar since Edge of Tomorrow further cements her standing as the thinking person’s action star. She isn’t the invincible killing machine that is a Schwarzenegger or a side-of-the-mouth quipster that is a Willis; instead, she’s a little vulnerable (being nearly strangled by Jon Bernthal as a corrupt cop midway through the film) and a little fragile (there are times that she literally is shaking after things go south), yet she’s as tough as nails and at the end of the film has a moment in which she asserts that she does have control – and chooses to go her own way. It is one of those silent moments I spoke of earlier that is used to great effect.

Del Toro, who often gets slotted behind Javier Bardem when it comes to Latin actors, is magnificent here, a brooding presence whose gentle voice belies an inner rage which is kept under wraps until the very end. His motivations also remain murky until we discover what is driving him late in the film. Brolin, who has been appearing in supporting roles in some very good films lately, adds another solid performance to his resume.

This is one of the better-written films of the year, one in which Villeneuve is able to thrive with. He creates a tension that begins from the amazing and shocking opening sequence and never lets up until the final frames. Sicario defines intensity pretty much, from the actions of the onscreen characters to the offscreen political aspect.

The war on drugs continues apace in a non-fiction world where bad things happen to good people and those who dare to stand up to the cartels are made gruesome examples of – wee see some of that here. It is a world that those in the Southwest are terrified might make its way up into the Estados Unidos and with good reason. Walls may make it difficult for illegals to emigrate here but it won’t keep the cartels out.

This is part political thriller, part police procedural and part action movie. There is likely to be some Oscar consideration for it down the line but to what degree remains to be seen. It wouldn’t surprise me if it gets some Best Picture consideration come February. There are a lot of movies to come out before anyone hands out statuettes but one thing is for certain; this is a feature worthy of any serious filmgoers attention.

REASONS TO GO: Intense and riveting. Extremely well-written. Strong performances from Blunt, Brolin and del Toro.
REASONS TO STAY: The pacing feels a bit jumpy.
FAMILY VALUES: Plenty of violence, some fairly gruesome images and a whole lot of expletives.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The thermal vision scenes were actually shot with a thermal vision camera and the optics were not added in post-production.
CRITICAL MASS: As of 10/12/15: Rotten Tomatoes: 93% positive reviews. Metacritic: 81/100.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Traffic
FINAL RATING: 8/10
NEXT: He Named Me Malala