Movie Review: Crazy Rich Asians (PG13 – 120 minutes)

The book Crazy Rich Asians was released in 2013 and led to two sequels – China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems.  In the book, the storyline is told from the point of view of several main characters.  This movie shifts the focus to Rachel Chu, which I think was a smart move to narrow the focus slightly.

Rachel is a professor of economics at NYU, and is dating Nick Young.  Nick suggests that since they’ve been together for a year, he would like her to come attend his cousin’s wedding in Singapore so that she can meet his family.  Because Nick is living fairly humbly in New York City, Rachel has no idea that not only does he come from money – he comes from a lot of money, and family is one of the wealthiest in Singapore.

Upon arrival in Singapore, Rachel and Nick are picked up by Colin and Araminta, the bride and groom-to-be and treated to an evening out that really shows off the city and the food.  The following day, Rachel goes to the family home of her college friend Peik Lin and meets her family. Together the family explains to Rachel exactly how rich and famous her boyfriend and his family are.  Peik Lin gives her a better gown and drives her to the engagement party at Nick’s grandmother’s house where Rachel finally gets to meet his mother. It goes fairly well, but over the course of the weekend, Rachel begins to see that she doesn’t quite fit in, and that Nick’s mother is doing what she can to ensure Rachel will not stay with Nick.

The movie is directed by Jon M. Chu, who previously did Step UP 2 and 3, G.I.Joe 2, Jem and the Holograms, and Now you See Me 2 (and the upcoming Now You See Me 3).  His music-video style actually fits this movie perfectly as it incorporates some of the more lovely parts of Sinapore as an additional character to the movie.  The scenes of the wedding are just breathtaking, and I never before realized that a nighttime pond-style wedding was a thing I might want.  

Yes, this is the first western-produced film with an exclusively Asian cast since the Joy Luck Club, which was twenty-five years ago, and this cast is exceptional, and multi-national.

• Constance Wu plays Rachel, and she is an American actress best known for the hilarious Fresh Off The Boat. She has an ease as Rachel as she shifts from madly in love, to questioning whether she is good enough, to finally realizing she’s beyond enough.  She carries this movie with a freshness that makes it look like she’s been making big-budget rom-coms for years.

• Henry Golding plays Nick, and he is originally from Malaysia, half Malaysian and half English, and this is his first western production. He was just fantastic in this, playing Nick as approachable and charming, regardless of how causally rich he is.  He’s also about to appear in a Simple Favor – so get ready for the rise of his star, and for some people saying he might make a good James Bond.  Me - I’m saying that.

• Michelle Yeoh plays Eleanor, Nick’s mother, and since I am so used to seeing her in action movies, it was quite a change to see her as the ice-queen matriarch of this family who believes she is just doing what is right for her son.

• British actress Gemma Chan plays Astrid, and she was ethereal and lovely as her world slowly fell apart around her. Astrid is a really interesting character, and yes, that was Glee’s Harry Shum Jr. who smiles at her at the end. He’s got a larger role in the book, and apparently their storyline is key to the potential sequel.

• Lisa Lu plays Henry’s grandmother who at first seems very pleasant, and perhaps the only one who is tolerating Rachel.  That is, until you get to know a little more about her.

• Awkwafina plays Peik Lin, and she and her family were there for some very serious comedy relief.  She’s great as the supportive friend who offers equal amounts smartass comments and exposition.

• Ken Jeong plays Peik Lin’s father, and he’s just as outrageous here as you would expect. Also – very funny.

• Sonoya Mizuno and Chris Pang play Araminta and Colin – the couple getting married, whose wedding is theeeee event of the year.  They are entertaining and lovely, especially the first night out when they take Nick and Rachel to eat, and then again at the wedding.  If Mizuno looks familiar to you, she was the robot in Ex Machina that danced with Oscar Isaac.

• Silicon Valley scene stealer Jimmy O. Yang plays one of Nick’s cousins, Bernard, who keeps insisting that the bachelor party and various other things are ‘not about him’, as he continues to make them about him. He is absolutely hilarious in this.

• Daily Show correspondent Ronny Cheing plays another cousin, Eddie Cheng, who is very, very, concerned with appearances, and getting his wife and kids to present just the right image.  Remy Hii plays his brother Alistair, who is working in the film industry and dating an actress.

• Superstore scene-stealer Nico Santos plays cousin Oliver T’sien, who is, as he puts it, the ‘rainbow colored’ black sheep of the family. He helps Rachel just when she needs it, and also seems to function as a bit of a ‘fixer’ for Eleanor.

Overall, by now, you should have seen this movie – not just because it’s important in terms of  representation (it is), but because it is a really good movie. It’s fun, it’s charming, it’s sweet, it’s hilarious, and it’s crafted well and shot beautifully.  Go check it out, you’ll love it.

9 out of 10 – the best rom-com of the year? Extra bonus points for the hilarious dress-trying-on-montage.  Spectacular!

TV Movie Review: Sharknado 6 (The Last Sharknado) – It’s About Time! (90 minutes)

The first Sharknado hit the airwaves in 2013, and caused an immediate internet reaction.  It literally was sharks, in a tornado, that hit Los Angeles.  It did have a bit of an environmental message in that the reason the sharks were all in one area was climate change – likewise the reason the storm was so bad was also climate change. 

Moving on to the other Sharknado movies, there was less reason and plot as the sharknadoes started appearing everywhere for almost no reason.  In Sharknado 2, they hit New York.  In Sharknado 3, they hit Orlando, introduced both Fin and April’s parents, moved up the eastern seaboard, and took our heroes to space where April gave birth to their baby in the belly of a space shark - still one of the best things ever. 

In Sharknado 4, they went global, and April was turned into a cyborg by her father Gary Busey, and then in Sharknado 5, they hinted that the sharknadoes had mystical teleportation powers, which of course leads to Sharknado 6 – in which there is now time travel.  Because, why not?

This movie finds our hero Fin Sheppard, after having been rescued by a future version of his son Gil, shot back in time to prehistoric days with only his android wife April’s severed head in a bag (don’t worry about it) and a message from his son to stop the first Sharknado, thereby stopping all the sharknadoes – the science is sound.  Fin realizes that his buddy Bryan (last seen getting eaten in Sharknado 2), his shark-hating bartender-turned shark warrior Nova, and the real version of April are all there waiting for him.  Apparently Gil was snatching people up through time just before they perished, and depositing them there to wait for Fin.  Together, they run from some dinosaurs, destroy a sharknado filled with Megalodons, then time travel on the back of a pterodactyl.  Look – don’t bother asking any of the why questions. It’s just not worth it.

They shoot forward to medieval England, where they encounter Merlin and Morgana.  They destroy a sharknado there, then jump forward to the American Revolution, where George Washington is having a bit of a debate with Benjamin Franklin and Hamilton.  They stop a sharknado there, and then jump forward to the old west, where they encounter Billy the Kid, as well as Fin’s buddy Skye, who also died in Sharknado 2. 

Then, they head to a beach party in the 60s in California, then the 90s in San Francisco –then back to just before the first sharknado hit – then to the distant future, and by distant, I mean 20013, where the planet is now just clones of April and robot sharks (just go with it).  Finally, after completely breaking time, and blowing up the last Sharknado – everything is set right, and the movie ends where the series began, with Fin in his bar, back with April, both their parents, and their original kids (which is impressive since they had gone through some casting changes), and their friends including bar patron George, played by John Heard (they use old footage, since he died two years ago).  Fin decides it’s time to move to the Midwest and take up farming. A happy ending for all!

Look, the movie is complete and utter nonsense, but it embraces it fully and does a great job of throwing all reason out the window, and having Fin literally hit by a kitchen sink. It’s very on the nose, there is no subtlety.   There are catchphrases and tongue-in-cheek ridiculousness, as well as celebrity cameos galore!  What’s not to love? This one is again directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, and yes, it does have its own theme song over hilariously animated credits.  The cast is wonderfully strange, and happily committed to the absurdity.

• Once again, I really have to commend Ian Ziering.  His ability to play Fin as completely genuine, no matter how insane the surroundings, is really what sells this franchise.  Ziering has had a blast doing this, and I will miss him. Also, credit to the writer who gave him the line “There’s no time to stop and think about the madness of it all!”  If that doesn’t sum up these movies, nothing does.

• Say what you will about Tara Reid, but she has continued to improve as these movies go on. Now, considering her performance in the first one. That's not saying much.  She was a bit zombie-like. Here, she seems to be enjoying herself plenty, playing regular April, head-in-a-bag April, and then the army of April clones.

• Cassandra Scerbo is back as Nova, who in this one just wants to change history to save her grandfather, which of course would change her entire being, since him getting eaten by sharks is what made her the shark-warrior she is.

• Judah Friedlander is back as Bryan, who in one timeline is played by MadTV alum Debra Wilson, for no reason whatsoever.
• Vivica A. Fox is back as Skye, and for some reason, she looks great in the old west gear.  Maybe she needs a western?

• From there on, you get more into the cameo range, and man, there were a lot of them.  My favorite was Neil deGrasse Tyson as Merlin, which was perfection.   I also enjoyed Darrell Hammond playing George Washington as Bill Clinton, and then Ben Stein playing Hamilton.  Absolute genius.

SyFy will be replaying the movie all week. If you have some time to kill, turn off your brain, grab some popcorn, and enjoy the silly.  It’s well worth it. 

10 out of 10 – complete perfect nonsense.  Thank you Anthony Ferrante and the rest of the Sharknado team.  You will be missed!

Also - copying my PSA from the Meg review:  I do love sharks - Sharks are key to ocean ecosystems and most are very endangered, due to climate change and poaching.  They are beautiful, amazing, fantastic creatures, and if you want to learn more, or help in conservation efforts, go to Sharks.org to visit the Shark Research Institute to see how you can help.

Movie Review: The Meg (PG13 – 113 minutes)

First off, I love sharks.  Sharks are key to ocean ecosystems and most are very endangered, due to climate change and poaching.  They are beautiful, amazing, fantastic creatures, and if you want to learn more, or help in conservation efforts, go to Sharks.org to visit the Shark Research Institute to see how you can help.

Now, there have been countless shark movies over the years, starting with Jaws, and continuing all the way through Sharknado and Deep Blue Sea (“deepest, bluest, my hat is like a shark fin!”).  In fact, Sharknado 6 will be on the SyFy network this coming Sunday night so they are running all kinds of crazy-shark nonsense movies all week (I haven’t watched Santa Jaws yet, but it is on my DVR). 

Side note - A megalodon (“big tooth”) is a prehistoric shark, currently extinct (or are they?!?).  Living 23 to 2.6 million years ago, Megs looked like a great white with a slightly blunter and wider jaw, but were much larger, getting near 60 feet long (double side note, the one in the movie is listed at 75 feet).

The Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror, was published in July 1997. I promptly bought it and read it, and have also read several others in the series (yes, there are seven books in the series).  In the book, paleontologist and marine biologist Jonas Taylor is working in the Mariana Trench with the navy, when he believes he sees a Meglalodon attack and kill a compatriot.  See, there’s a warm water layer way down in the depths of the trench, heated by volcanic vents where the Megs and other previously believed-to-be-extinct creatures can stay.  No one believes Jonas, and years later he teams with Masao Tanaka to go back, resulting in a Meg getting killed and dragged upwards, as a large pregnant female follows it up through the gap in the warm layer, protected by the blood streaming from the dead Meg.  Chaos ensues – including the Meg destroying a helicopter.

In this movie version, Jonas Taylor is a rescue diver, and opens the movie trying to save a group of scientists in a submarine.  He’s pulling out one of the men, while two of his crew are still trapped, something attacks the sub.  He makes the decision to save the 11 men he has, and leave behind the two others. Haunted by that decision, and branded a crazy man, he retires to drinking in Thailand.

Years later, billionaire Jack Morris goes to research stating Mana One so that Dr. Minway Zhang, his daughter Suyin, and their crew can show him their discovery that there is a gas cloud at the bottom of the Mariana Trench protecting a warm water layer and ecosystem at the bottom.  Sure enough, a sub with three of their researchers gets attacked and goes down.  Conveniently, the sub’s pilot is Jonas’s ex, so they are able to convince him to come go after them. He does rescue them, but not before everyone can confirm that there is, in fact, a Meg down there.  As they swiftly ascend, they burst through the barrier, allowing time for the shark to follow them through.  This allows for that shot you’ve seen in the trailer of the Meg sneaking up on the little girl in the station. Even though that was in every trailer, it was still thrilling in the movie. 

Chaos ensues, including the Meg not destroying a helicopter (how is there a helicopter in this movie and the Meg does not destroy it?), chasing beachgoers, Statham tagging it and narrowly getting eaten, and a tiny dog surviving (bonus points for the dog not getting eaten).

The movie is directed by Jon Turteltaub, who also did The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and both National Treasure movies, so I am a little surprised that Nicholas Cage is not in this movie, imagine if he had played the Jack Morris role! The movie is well-aware of what it is, and most of the cast is completely on-board for the type of movie they are making. Turteltaub is great at making action flicks, and the joint Chinese/American production benefits in terms of location and budget.  The shots along the beach and of boats racing through the ocean are beautiful. The cast is large and diverse.

• Jason Statham is wonderful in this, well aware of his role here. Personally, I love a Bacony-Jason Statham, and he’s at almost full Bacon here. He finally gets to use some of that Olympic-level diving skill as he is constantly diving into the water to save someone or get aggressive with the Meg.  Statham is exceptional at comedy-action (go watch Spy again), so he is perfect in this with the partial wink to the camera.  Also – bonus points for the gratuitous shirtless scene.

• Li Bingbing plays Suyin, and she was also great as the head scientist on Mana One. She knows a lot about sharks, and her first instinct is to find a non-lethal option for dealing with the Meg. Until, of course, the Meg starts eliminating her friends. Her chemistry with Statham was fantastic and their flirting scenes were fun. 

• Shuya Sophia Cai plays Suyin’s daughter Meiying, and she was surprisingly charming for a kid actor!  Her scenes with Statham were particularly entertaining.

• Rainn Wilson plays billionaire Morris, and while he was very annoying, he was effective. He’s there to make money by whatever means necessary.

• Cliff Curtis is underused in this, but at least he gets to use his own New Zealand accent, and seeing him joking around with Statham is so much better than watching him mope around on FearTWD.  He’s there to convince Statham to help, and to coordinate the team.  He gets to do a lot of looking at screens and yelling both orders and questions into headsets.

• Winston Chao plays Zhang the elder, happily running the station with both his daughter and granddaughter on board (why is your granddaughter on a station in the middle of the ocean? Surely that violates some safety rule).  He seems to be the one taking the movie a little too seriously.

• From that point on, the other crew members are less well-defined, and just work together to do various tasks.  Batwoman-to-be Ruby Rose plays Jaxx, who designed the station.  Page Kennedy plays DJ, Robert Taylor (Longmire) plays Doctor Heller (who has a past with Jonas), Olafur Darri Olafsson plays The Wall, Jessica McNamee plays Lori, and Masi Oka briefly shows up to save the cheerleader – I mean, the Wall and Lori.  They are a really wonderful, international group, so I do wish there was a little more character definition as to what each of them do.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie, it delivered exactly what it promised – but I wish it had actually gone a little further into the silly realm.  There was a scene that briefly commented on the brutality of shark finning and poaching – and that the Meg evened the score.  I wouldn’t have minded that message getting hammered home a little harder.  Shark conservation is getting more and more important, plus nothing makes me happier than seeing poachers get what they deserve.  The final sequence with all the swimmers on a very popular beach was just hilarious, and all the Chinese extras were amazing. Plus, the fact that various regular sized sharks got a hero moment was lovely.

7 out of 10 – perfectly acceptable summer fare, taking a big bite out of the weekend.  Lost a point for using “Fin” as the closing credit – very funny and a cute nod, but Sharknado already did that 6 years ago.

Movie Review: The Spy Who Dumped Me (R – 117 minutes)

It’s late summer, and that means a little bit of filler before you head into the October horror flicks, then the ‘holiday’ movies, then the year-end Oscar-bait. 

The Spy Who Dumped Me is a forgettable action comedy that begins with Audrey turning 30 having just been dumped via text message by her boyfriend Drew.  She is not thrilled with the current status of her life, aside from her amazing best friend, Morgan.  While at work one day, a handsome british dude gets her to walk him to his car, and swiftly abducts her, telling her that Drew is actually a spy for the CIA, and that he hid something everyone is now after.  Audrey and Morgan inexplicably end up on an international cross-department mission to find the package, deliver it to the buyer, figure out who is double-crossing who, and save the world. 

There’s not much else to say about the plot, the comedy comes from the situations of two regular L.A. type ladies thrust into insane spy sequences. This is director Susanna Fogel’s first major film as a director, and she does a fine job, the action scenes are pretty good, and the cast is good.  Perhaps my issue is with the writing? It’s just not as funny as it could be with a cast this talented.  

• Mila Kunis plays Audrey, and does a good job as a woman who feels stuck in life, and is not sure what to do next. An accidental superspy seems right up her alley.

• Kate McKinnon plays Morgan, and most of the actual laughs I had during the movie were because of her offhanded reactions or one-liners.

• Sam Heughan and his new haircut play Sebastian, the handsome MI6 agent who steps in to try to save Audrey and get her to do the right thing.

• Hasan Minhaj plays Agent Duffer, Sebastian’s CIA partner who is there to annoy everyone by constantly reminding everyone he went to Harvard.

• Justin Theroux plays Drew, and I don’t know what it is about him that I don’t like, but I can’t think of anything I’ve seen him in that I liked him in.

•  Ivanna Sakhno plays the hitwoman Nadedja, who seems to be questionable at her job. She definitely has an intimidating look.

• Gillian Anderson has a brief role as the MI6 boss who starts by being disappointed by Sebastian, then won over.

Overall, the movie isn’t terrible, and it has some laughs – but it is really uneven.  It seems to want to be both a crass comedy and an over-the-top action flick. I think it would have been better served to just focus on the buddy action beats and let the comedy come from the two leads, who are exceptional at it.  Kunis and McKinnon are really good together.

5 out of 10, don’t bother with it in the theater, but if it comes on TV, give it a watch.

Movie Review: Mission: Impossible – Fallout (PG13 – 147 minutes)

The first Mission: Impossible movie, based on the TV series of the same name, was released in 1996, and featured Tom Cruise playing Tom Cruise – but referred to as Ethan Hunt - as he and his IMF team hunted down Jon Voigt.  It was directed by Brian De Palma, and featured the impressive stunt sequence of Tom hanging from the ceiling by a wire as well as doing a lot of running.  MI2 followed in 2000, directed by John Woo, and featured some impressive rock climbing by Mr. Cruise, some running, and some trademark Woo double gun/dove work as he hunted down Dougray Scott.  MI3 in 2006 was directed by J.J. Abrams, and featured Mr. Cruise running for an extended time through Shanghai and breaking into the Vatican as he chased down Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

In 2011, Brad Bird stepped in as director, and we received Mission: Impossible, Ghost Protocol (MI4).  In this one, Mr. Cruise does some running, climbs the Burj Khalifa, as well as an extended underwater thieving sequence as he chases down Michael Nyqvist.   In 2015, Christopher McQuarrie directed Mr. Cruise as he did some extended running versus Rebecca Ferguson, rode the outside of a plane, and chased down Sean Harris.

In this new version, we get the first repeat director as Christopher McQuarrie directs Mission: Impossible Fallout.  Here, Cruise/Hunt reteams with Benji Dunn and Luther Stickell to try to find some plutonium that they had but lost.  The CIA is more than a bit upset that they lost the plutonium in the first place and hard-as-nails CIA boss Erica Sloan attaches agent August Walker (no seriously, August Walker), to team up with the IMF team as they go to Paris to attempt to broker with the White Widow, an arms dealer and international broker of sorts. Her contact’s price for the plutonium is to break Solomon Lane out of prison.  This proves awkward as Hunt is the one who captured him previously, but since he’s pretending to be ‘John Lark’, he can’t tell her that, so the team has to come up with a plan to break out Lane, but also prevent him from re-connecting to his disciples who just want to use the plutonium to create three bombs that they can set off at the same time in undisclosed locations, all while evading the real Lark who may or may not have other plans in place.  This will involve a H.A.L.O. (high-altitude, low-opening) jump from a plane, a motorcycle chase through Paris, an incredible helicopter chase, and because it’s Mr. Cruise – some extending running through London.

I was completely surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie.  To be fair, I should not be surprised. They seem to just be getting better as they progress, and keeping the same director from the previous movie paid off in this case. McQuarrie now has the perfect sense of how to work with Cruise to craft a decent story around incredible action and fantastic stunts.  The movie is too long, but there’s not much I would have recommended to cut.  The stunts are phenomenal, as you would expect, and the cast has finally reached a point where they are not rotating in and out as much, allowing for some real ‘gelling’ between teammates.

• Tom Cruise plays Tom Cruise as he jumps, rides, runs, and fights his way through the movie. Whatever your feelings on his personal life and craziness, he is a man who will give all he has to the audience. He continues to up the ante on the stunts.  While they are set pieces, they do help to enhance the story, so I will keep watching these as long as he keeps making them.

• Ving Rhames continues his record as the only other actor to be in all six of the MF movies to date. Luther is Ethan’s rock, and is there to make sure Ethan stays on path.  Luther actually gets some of the more heavy duty acting in this movie has he conveys to Julia how much Ethan blames himself for her situation.

• Simon Pegg plays Benji Dunn, and between he, Rhames, and Cruise – they have really started to form a tight-knit heart to these movies. Where Luther is Hunt’s grounding force, Benji is there to amp him up and push him forward. 

• Rebecca Ferguson returns as MI6 agent Ilsa Faust. She’s still after Lane, having been directed by her bosses to take him out. Since Hunt needs him to get the plutonium, this puts them at odds. Ferguson is fantastic in these movies, stunt capable and action ready – I really hope she officially joins the team for the next one.

• Alec Baldwin is back as Alan Hunley, the new director of the IMF team. He does what he can to help the team even as suspicious things come to light about Hunt’s actions.

• Angela Bassett plays CIA boss Erica Sloan. She has no time for any IMF nonsense, and is there just to get the plutonium.  Sending in Walker is her way to keep tabs on the situation. She’s fantastic, and is another one I hope returns in the next installment.

• Henry Cavill joins the fray as Walker, the CIA inserted assassin.  If Man from U.N.C.L.E. suggested he should be Bond, this convinced me. It seems that Idris Elba is focused on his music career now, so lets shift Cavill into position. Cavill spends most of the movie blending into the background, allowing the other, more charismatic, actors to shine, until he gets his moments to go toe-to-toe with Cruise.

• Sean Harris returns as Solomon Lane, and he’s equally as creepy, weird, and devious here as he was in the previous movie. He’s a worthy villain for the team to face.

• Vanessa Kirby steps in as the White Widow, who seems to be not all bad, and not all good – just there to facilitate whatever is needed.

• Michelle Monaghan returns as Julia, Ethan’s ex-wife. She’s currently working as an off-the-grid doctor, but not so off the grid that the bad guys can’t find her.  Wes Bentley briefly shows up as her new husband.

Overall, the movie really blew me away. The stunts are just great – that helicopter sequence is amazing, even more so because we know Cruise learned to fly for it. The practical shooting locations make a huge difference in grounding this fantastical international spy flick in some aspect of reality.  In particular, that motorcycle chase sequence in Paris had me out of breath. He rides the wrong way around the Arc de Triomphe – how is that even possible!?!  

The H.A.L.O. jump was cool, but unnecessary – so if I had to cut anything, it would have been that sequence.  Even with all those stunts, my favorite action sequence was the fight scene in the bathroom that you’ve seen in the trailers where Cavill reloads his ‘arm guns’.  The sequence was so well choreographed, brutal, big and small at the same time, and really exciting. 

9 out of 10 – Go see it. See it on the big screen, it’s absolutely worth it.  Also, the best Wolf Blitzer cameo ever.