Movie Review: Polite Society (PG13 – 103 minutes)

 

Every once in a while, I see a movie that I feel like has crept in under the radar and is cool, different, really entertaining and I hope more people get to see it. In April of 2022, it was Everything Everywhere All At Once, which ended up doing just fine.  This year in April I saw Polite Society and I feel the same way, hoping it gets more eyeballs as the year goes on. 

I had seen the trailer for this movie and knew it would be up my alley.  Ria is a young English woman growing up in a Pakistani home with conservative and traditional parents trying to navigate the social and economic circles of their friends and family.  Ria’s passion is martial arts and she eventually hopes to become a stunt woman like her idol, Eunice Huthart.  Her older sister Lena, an art school dropout, helps her make online videos practicing her moves while she writes to Eunice for advice and guidance while the girls’ parents are discouraging both of their dreams. 

At an Eid Mubarak party hosted by a suspiciously wealthy friend, Raheela, Ria grows suspicious of Raheela’s matchmaking attempts for her son, Salim – but Lena finds him charming and suddenly they are dating and then engaged.  Is Ria right to be suspicious?  Or is she overreacting?  To find out, Ria enlists her friends and frenemy to discover the truth about Salim and his mother and rescue her sister from what may or may not be an evil plot. 

The movie is directed by Nida Manzoor who also did the show We Are Lady Parts.  The scenes between the two sisters are wonderful with Priya Kansara as Ria and Ritu Arya as Lena. It is very easy to believe their relationship and how far Ria will go to protect Lena.  I absolutely loved the support they show for each other and even when they are fighting, it feels like a gut punch.  I also loved the relationships between Ria and her school friends.  They were there for her when she needed them, but also called her out when she was acting unhinged. While you may expect the family and relationship drama portions to be great, what surprised me was how fantastic and epic the action sequences are.  Just about everyone is a martial arts master for no reason whatsoever other than it makes the fight sequences absolutely cinematic. 

Overall, this movie is fun, action-packed, hilarious, and also warm and touching. It is a genuine joy to watch.  I really loved it, and I hope you check it out – you can currently catch it on Peacock Premium.

9 out of 10

Movie Review: Transformers Rise of the Beasts (PG13 – 127 minutes)

 

I really enjoy the first one Bayhem Transformers movie from 2007 where Shia LaBeouf meets BumbleBee and helps the Autobots hide the Allspark from the Decepticons.  Then there were a few others, and I enjoyed the prequel (?) BumbleBee movie.  This one seems to not pay any attention to any other story continuity.  You’re probably best off if you just go in considering it a stand alone story.  Likewise, I remember watching the Beast Wars cartoon a couple of times, but I do not remember any particular stories from that series. 

In this story, Unicron is a giant ball of anger that is cruising across the galaxy eating planets.  He has a dude working for him named Scourge who has stopped on a planet that may be in the distant future?  On the planet are the Maximals – living machines that transform to and from animal shapes. To save the planet, one of them stays behind and battles Scourge while several of the others take the key Scourge needs to give Unicron access and go into hiding.

Years later in 1994 we meet regular human Elena Wallace who is working in a museum and does some research on a statue that has come in, accidentally activating the key.  Noah Diaz who is living in New York with his little brother and mother. His little brother Kris is having some health issues, and so veteran Noah is trying to pick up a job to help out. Struggling to find work he decides to take a quick car thief job and attempts to steal Autobot in disguise as a Porsche, Mirage.  Mirage connects Noah with the other Autobots who are stranded on earth for some time and want the key to get home (despite having arrived on earth in the 2007 movie at that time – like I said, do not get caught up on the details).  Noah agrees to help them in exchange for money, and he and Elena just barely escape an encounter with Scourge.  At this point, the Autobots meet Air Razor who takes them to meet the rest of the maximals who have been in hiding in Peru, guarding the other key. As they prepare for the final battle, Optimus Prime has to learn to put others before himself, Mirage has to learn teamwork, Noah has to learn how to trust, and everyone works together to defeat Scourge, his team, and prevent Unicron from showing up and eating everything. 

Directed by Steven Caple Jr., the movie is fast paced, and like the other Transformers movies, looks great. The CGI is very impressive and while the story might not make a ton of sense, the action is entertaining. The big fight sequences set in the jungles in Peru were particularly striking.  While Noah and Elena are key to the story, the Transformers are the driving part of the story, which is nice because in some of the other movies, there are just too many humans.  All the voices for the transformers are great including the wonderful Peter Cullen and adding Liza Koshy, Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage, and Michelle Yeoh.  Also, Pete Davidson plays Mirage, and he’s still annoying, but since Mirage is supposed to be somewhat annoying – it works!

Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback are fun and do a great job of running and being terrified of giant robots until they need to step up and join the fight, then they are both great action leads as well. 

Overall, the movie is plenty of fun, just the right run time, and definitely worth a watch. Clearly Bumblebee is still everyone's favorite because he gets some truly fantastic moments even though Mirage is the 'lead' in this one.  Having graduated high school in 1994, let me tell you – easily my favorite part of this movie was the soundtrack – filled with a bunch of great songs that I haven’t heard in way too long. Supposedly this is the first in a new trilogy, and I’m excited to see what comes next.

7 out of 10