Movie Review: Everything Everywhere All At Once (R – 139 minutes)

There was a Jet Li movie released in 2001 called The One where a Jet Li from one universe realized he could travel to other universes in the multiverse and kill other Jet Lis.  As he killed each one, he become stronger, seeking to eventually become The One Jet Li, with the most power. During the course of the movie he encountered multiple Carla Guginos as his wife as Delroy Lindo and Jason Statham chased him throughout verses.  It is a fun little action movie and worth a view if you haven’t seen it.

I bring it up because Everything Everywhere All At Once made me think of it. It is similar and  different.  Here, Evelyn Wang is a woman overwhelmed. She is overwhelmed by her husband, her daughter, her aging father, her business, and her taxes. She is pushing the ends of her limits and struggling to keep things together when suddenly a version of her husband from a different verse jumps into her husband and tells her only she can help save the multiverse from an encroaching evil.  

At first completely unwilling and unbelieving, she attempts to shrug off his warning. He eventually teachers her how to use something uncomfortable (with increasing levels of uncomfortableness) to tap into the skills and abilities from an Evelyn somewhere else in the multiverse which she can then use in this verse to combat the henchpeople of the big bad. 

Despite what sounds like a complicated premise, the movie manages to be a simple and beautiful story about the everyday struggles we all face against the constant feeling of daily pressures. Written and directed by Daniels (Kwan and Scheinert), the movie is exquisitely centered by the goddess Michelle Yeoh and I do not know that anyone else is capable of pulling off something this simple and outrageous.  Yeoh can shift from everyday to supernaturally glamorous to insanely weird quickly and expertly. The action sequences are brilliant, the fight scenes are fantastic, the comedic sequences are fun and nonsensical, and the dramatic moments are lovely and touching. 

Ke Huy Quan has mostly been working behind the scenes since his debut in Temple of Doom and Goonies.  He steps back in front of the camera here as various versions of Evelyn’s husband Waymond.  He has to shift from the everyday Waymond hesitantly pushing for divorce to the warrior from another verse looking for help.  Stephanie Hsu plays their daughter Joy and she gets to play even more versions of herself – each more outlandish and entertaining.

James Hong plays various versions of Evelyn’s father, shifting from old and doddering to resistance leader. Jamie Lee Curtis plays Deirdre, the tax lady and she is absolutely wonderful as varying levels of smarmy rule-following. 

 Overall, while the movie is fun and different, it is the cast that truly takes this movie over the top.  We’ve seen some multiverse fun stuff lately – No Where Home was exceptional – but this story manages to make the overwhelming idea of the multiverse a little more personal and really hammer home that it is the connections between all of us that matter the most, even throughout layers and layers of universes.  Also - there's a surprise Harry Shum Jr. appearance that I really cannot even begin to explain because it makes no sense but was really entertaining.

9 out of 10.  Go see it in the theater, get popcorn, not bagels.

Movie Review: Morbius (PG13 – 104 minutes)

 

It is never good when a movie gets delayed for years at a time, even if that was due to a pandemic. Unfortunately for Morbius, a lot of folks had cemented opinions prior to it being released.  And while it is not a great movie, it certainly isn’t the worst I have seen.

Morbius begins with introducing us to Dr. Michael Morbius, a doctor with a rare blood disorder. He is going to great lengths to try to cure himself and others who suffer from the disease, including studying vampire bats.  Well, sure enough, his experiments go wrong – or very right? – and he ends up with bat-like superpowers, but also the hunger for blood.  This is not the huge drawback it might be for another person as Dr. Morbius is already world-recognized for inventing artificial blood. We even get to see him turn down the Nobel prize for that invention. He may have a cure for his disease, but he feels the side effects are too great to bear. That doesn’t stop his friend and wealthy benefactor (who shares his disease) from stealing a dose of the cure, without the moral hangups of Morbius.

This movie benefits if you go in with either zero or below zero expectations.  I went in assuming it would be absolute trash and was pleasantly surprised. It is not great, and there are multiple issues but I found plenty of things to enjoy.  Director Daniel Espinosa kept it short and sweet with a couple of nonsense fight scenes that work pretty well.  The story is lackluster, and as much as I hate a ticking clock or rushed timeline troupe, this really needed some stakes that had to be done by a certain time. As it is – the story is simply two dudes fighting.  The one other person we see Dr. Morbius treating they put into a coma and seem to be fine waiting to determine if further testing will solve the issue.  I would have liked there to be some sort of ‘we need a cure by midnight tonight or we will lose all 30 of these patients’ while the ‘villain’ hounds Morbius for his own personal reasons.  Or even if the villain wanted the cure not only for himself, but for monetary reasons…as it is, there really isn’t any reason involved.  Even the two cops on the case are not that interested in pursuing much of anything.  The vampire effects and fights are campy fun, as well as Morbius’s overall look. Leto actually pushed to use CGI for the face instead of prosthetics – an unusual move for him – and I think that was the right call.  He and Matt Smith seem to be having a great time, and the rest of the cast is certainly game enough.

This may be the most Jared Leto character I have seen Jared Leto play – he feels like a rock star vampire and Leto is perfect at that. Instead of Depping into prosthetics, makeup, and costumes, Leto takes this opportunity to slink around and embrace the strangeness and sudden superhuman skills of Morbius. I enjoyed him discovering his powers, but that montage could have been a little more unified and tighter. 

Matt Smith also has fun as ‘Milo’, which is not his name but a nickname Morbius gives him when they are children. He has the same disease but is also super wealthy, so he funds Morbius’s research, getting very testy after seeing the positive effects on Michael and getting refused the same treatment.  Of course, he steals it and where Morbius sees the vampire side effects as a curse, Milo revels in them.  Like I said, I wanted more from the reasons he keeps chasing after him, but I guess ‘general bad guy reasons’ suffices for this movie.

Adria Arjona plays Dr. Martine Bancroft, who helps Morbius with his research, development, and shady international-waters human experimentation. Their relationship starts off as business and grows into flirty-ness just fast enough for her to get captured by the bad guy so Morbius has to rescue her.

Jared Harris plays Dr. Nicholas, who raised both Morbius and Milo in the orphanage for sick kids that he seems to run.  He keeps tabs on both of them as they get older, helping with research and treatments and really just hanging around so that Milo can kill him later to prove to Morbius he is beyond saving.

Tyrese Gibson plays Agent Stroud and Al Madrigal plays Agent Rodriguez and they seem to think they are in two different movies. Madrigal got it more right. He plays the camp and humor, bringing holy water to an interrogation of Morbius (I could have used a little more vampire-based snark and humor). Tyrese plays it far too straight for a movie this silly.

This movie also suffers from being released after No Way Home when it was probably originally intended to be released before.  It wants to shoehorn the cracked multiverse and sinister six tie-ins and really none of that is necessary. It would have been better served to function as a stand-alone origin story.  That way you can bring Morbius into other stories later on.  Also – please keep in mind that while Morbius is a Marvel character, this is not an MCU movie. This is a Sony movie set in the Venom-verse. Which means that any other character cross-over cameos should have been Venom and no one else, especially if you are trying to sell Morbius as a hero/anti-hero. 

Overall, the movie struggles on story, but is has some fun effects and performances.  It’s not great, and it’s not terrible. Honestly, I do want another one, because I really do want to see this Morbius encounter Tom Hardy’s Venom. And separate side-note – if Mahershala Ali is Blade in the MCU, why not let Wesley Snipes step back into Blade for this Sony verse?  Because obviously any living vampire is going to need to come up against Blade at some point.

5 out of 10

Movie Review: The Lost City (PG13 – 112 minutes)

 Romancing the Stone was released in 1984 and told the story of romance novelist Joan Wilder as she got caught up in a treasure hunt/rescue mission to save her sister, Elaine with the help of Jack Colton – a scoundrel. The movie is charming and fun with adventure layers on top of the standard romcom.  The Lost City feels built in the same mold with some shifts here and there.

Hugely successful romance novelist Loretta Sage has run into some writer’s block after the death of her husband, who had been an archaeologist and the inspiration for many of her plots.  Her publicist has her set up to push the release of her latest novel doing interviews and panels with her cover model, Alan, who has repeatedly portrayed her hero, Dash McMahon.  Because Loretta used a lot of her husband’s studies and research to inspire her books, wealthy treasure seeker Abigail Fairfax ‘requests’ her presence to help her find the Crown of Fire.  He believes she has the information necessary to solve the location of the burial chamber of a queen, who possessed the crown of jewels given to her by the king. Once Loretta is kidnapped, Alan sets off to rescue her despite have near zero qualifications to do so. Hijinks ensue.

This movie is straightforward and simple. It never pretends to be more than it is and I appreciate that. Directed by Aaron and Adam Nee, the comedy is charming, the characters are great, and the action is fun.  The jungle sequences look lovely due to being shot mostly in the Dominican Republic. The movie has the perfect run time for something in this vein and functions perfectly as a fun and dumb popcorn flick.  The cast is perfect and plays well together.

Sandra Bullock is always the perfect lead in a romcom (Rewatch Love Potion number 9 from 1992 if you have forgotten it). She manages to balance Loretta’s reaction to the absurdity of her situation with a genuine sadness while struggling to manage her grief over the loss of her husband.  Channing Tatum is a great pairing for her. Having not seen him in a while, I had forgotten how good he is.  Alan may seem like a dumb jock but he wants to be more and prove that he has more to offer. Tatum brings that across beautifully in a very touching way. 

Special mention to the hot pink sequin jumpsuit which really is nearly a character on its own. It is loud and bright and the worst possible thing to wear while kidnapped and having to escape into the jungle.

Daniel Radcliffe should clearly be playing villains more often and easily settles into the role of a guy so rich he is used to getting what he wants all the time.  Da’Vine Joy Randolph is wonderful as Beth, the publicist who will stop at nothing to motivate and save her friend/client.

I really wish the trailers had not spoiled the Brad Pitt cameo. Imagine how fun it would have been if you did not know he was in this and he shows up briefly as the type of hero that Alan is striving to be?  Oh well, he’s still great in this – any time he gets to mock himself, he does that well.

Overall, the movie is short and fun, requires nearly no brainpower, and leaves you feeling good.  What more can you ask?

8 out of 10

Also - special super bonus points to you if you caught (as I did) the Stephen Lang cameo.  The only reason I mention it is to once again reference this Fillion/Lang Uncharted fan film.