Movie Review: Widows (R – 129 minutes)

Let me start out by telling you that the dog is fine.  The dog makes it all the way through the movie just fine – and I really wish someone had told me that prior to seeing this movie. I spent a lot of unnecessary time worrying if the dog was going to make it.  She does.

Widows was originally a British TV series in 1983. Steve McQueen has wanted to remake it into a movie for some time.  He partnered with Gillian Flynn, the writer of Gone Girl, to polish up the screenplay.

The story begins with Veronica, who is married to Harry.  Veronica and Harry lost a son, but we don’t really know how long ago.  Harry is a criminal, but we don’t really know how much Veronica knows about that.  For some reason, Harry steals a bunch of money from Alderman-in-the-running Jamal Manning.  In the process, Harry and his three partners, Florek, Carlos, and Jimmy, all end up dead – caught by the cops as they were trying to escape with the money, which burns up in the subsequent explosion.  Well, burned up money does Jamal and his brother, Jatemme, no good, so Jamal promptly threatens Veronica.  He tells her to get him $2 million in four weeks. 

Veronica finds a key in Harry’s possessions that leads her to a notebook, which then leads her to Harry’s hideout and his next plan.  A plan to steal $5 million from Jamal’s opponent in the Adelman race, Jack Mulligan, ironically a previous friend of Harry’s.  Veronica gets together with the other widows left behind by the explosion – correction, she gets together with Florek’s widow (Alice), Carlos’s widow (Linda), and then Linda’s babysitter Belle.  Jimmy’s widow, Amanda, has some other stuff going on.  The four women set about taking on Harry’s next target in order to get the money to give to Jamal so he can use it to defeat Jack and hopefully leave them alone.

It’s a little difficult to describe this movie, or tell you which genre it best fits.  It’s not an action movie, despite what the trailers depicted.  There’s really only one and a half action sequences in the movie. It’s not quite a drama, because there are a lot of twists and turns.  I think ‘thriller’ comes closest, but it’s a little slow-moving for that description.  McQueen has done a wonderful job assembling some quality pieces and a really interesting story with multiple intertwining characters.  It feels slow at some points, but only to build the drama and the tension.  It is a complicated, layered story that is elevated by some excellent performances.

• It is absolutely Viola Davis’s movie and she owns the entire thing top to bottom. She’s incredible watchable, even when Veronica is at her weakest.  Pulling herself up, learning more about her husband than she bargained for, and begrudgingly stepping into his shoes even if she is not completely prepared gives this role a huge range of emotions and qualities, and I don’t know if any other actress could have pulled it off as well.  Because she is such a standout, the other three women didn’t get as much to do as I wanted.

• Elizabeth Debicki’s Alice gets some key scenes that define her relationship with Florek, and her complete unpreparedness for a life without a domineering husband.  In a way, Alice is the most interesting character because she changes the most throughout the story. 

• Michelle Rodriguez plays Linda Perelli, and she was running a quinceanera store which her husband seemed to take all the money from, so once he dies, she’s left with nothing. She does a good job of playing a woman who is focused on her kids, but also determined to ensure their comfort.  It’s a little one-note, and I wanted a little more for her to do, having been a fan of hers for so long.

• Cynthia Erivo plays Belle, who starts out as Linda’s babysitter, but then becomes the group’s driver and runner. She’s build like a 100 meter sprint specialist and spends a good deal of time running in the movie.  I particularly liked her introduction to Davis’s character and how they quickly went toe to toe.

• Carrie Coon plays Amanda, Jimmy’s widow who doesn’t get the first round of widow messages, and doesn’t join in on the escapades.  She has some other stuff happening.

• Bryan Tyree Henry continues his run of showing up in everything by playing Jamal Manning. He is both crime boss and aspiring politician, and seems to be not great at either. He is suitably terrifying when he shows up to ‘request’ the money from Veronica.

• Daniel Kaluuya plays Jatemme Manning, Jamal’s enforcer and is absolutely and completely terrifying.  He shoots a couple of dudes in the early part of the movie just to establish how violent he is, and then threatens some other folks all the way through. 

• Collin Farrell plays Jack Mulligan, a different crime boss and politician who doesn’t seem to want to be alderman but is running because his father and grandfather were both in the position before him. His father seems to be demanding he run. Farrell seeps into the role, creepy and racist.

• Liam Neeson plays Harry Rawlings, who at first glance seems like a loving husband and father. Until he gets blown up and Veronica keeps discovering things he had hidden.

• Jon Bernthal plays Florek Gunner, a scumbag sidekick to Harry who beats his wife and gets shot.

• Manuel Garcia-Rulfo plays Carlos Perelli, a scumbag who steals from his wife and works with Harry.
• Coburn Goss plays Jimmy Nunn, Harry’s other scumbag partner.
• Garret Dillahunt briefly shows up as Bash, Harry and Veronica’s former chauffeur. He’s there to give her some clues, and help establish how horrible Jatemme is.
• Jacki Weaver plays Alice’s horrible mother. She’s there to help explain why Alice is so damaged.
• Robert Duvall plays Tom Mulligan, the former alderman who had a heart attack in the position, forcing him to step down – which he clearly did not want to do – so he is forcing his son to run.

• Lukas Haas shows up as a real estate developer named David who Alice encounters after the death of her husband.  How did I get so old that 80s “it” kid Lukas Haas is now a grown man?  Time to watch Solarbabies again.

• Kevin J. O’Connor plays a former associate of Harry’s, who is there to just continue to establish how crappy Harry was, and how horrible Jatemme is

• The dog, Olivia, is played by the same dog from Game Night earlier this year. That dog is getting a lot of work.

Overall, the movie is excellent, but quieter than I expected, and slower than I expected.  I think I was counting on an action thriller – a sort of higher-level Set It Off - and instead it’s a drama thriller.  Still, very good and well worth a viewing. 

8 out of 10.

Bonus – in case you forgot about Set It Off.

Movie Review: Creed II (PG13 – 130 minutes)

We all have our favorite Rocky movie. Mine has always been Rocky IV from 1985.  Written and directed by Sylvester Stallone, it’s the one that featured the death of the very American Apollo Creed at the hands of Russian Ivan Drago, leading to Rocky having to go over to Moscow and face Drago behind the Iron Curtain. 

I really enjoyed the first Creed, directed by Ryan Coogler, capitalizing on his fantastic partnership with Michael B. Jordan. Jordan played Adonis Johnson (Creed) as he headed to Philadelphia to follow in his father’s footsteps by training with Rocky. Along the way he wooed music artist with hearing loss Bianca. 

In this second outing, Creed has won the heavyweight championship, and is contemplating his next move as he and now-fiancee Bianca move out to Los Angeles and learn she is pregnant.  Meanwhile, Ivan Drago seems to be working construction in the Ukraine, raising his son in anger and hate, and training him to box. Apparently his wife left him years ago, and he seems to be taking that out on his son, Viktor, who is a monster in the boxing ring.  After gaining some notoriety, and catching the eye of a promotor, Viktor starts calling out Creed, and the public gets all over the match of the sons, after one of the fathers killed the other (side note - there's no way these guys are in the same weight class). 

It’s no surprise that Creed heads off into the fight, ill-prepared and against the wishes of Rocky.  He loses, badly, and then has to go back to basics to regain his drive.  Finding a new desire and push after the birth of his daughter, he heads to Moscow to face off with Drago in a second battle. 

If you’re at all familiar with the plot of Rocky IV, nothing that happens in this movie is a surprise, but it is still really well crafted.  Directed by Steven Caple Jr., Creed II is predictable, in a good way, and well-acted.  There is just enough here and there to flesh out a straightforward story, and the performances pull you in.  I wanted a little bit more about what happened to Ivan Drago after he lost in 1985, and then the Soviet Union fell apart.  However, the story is not really about him, and enough is shown for the audience to infer that things have not gone well for him.  

• Michael B. Jordan plays Adonis Creed, now fully accepting of his role as his father’s son, and embracing his skill as a boxer. He does a great job in this movie as a young man, full of confidence, who then has to come back from having that confidence brutally ripped away. 

• Tessa Thompson plays Bianca, and her hearing loss is getting worse in this movie, but her music career is starting to pick up. She and Jordan have fantastic chemistry, and their reactions once their daughter is born are wonderful. Thompson manages to give Bianca more to do than the stereotypical ‘boxer’s girlfriend’ role.

• Sylvester Stallone plays Rocky Balboa, aging, lonely, and hopeful for Adonis. He wants what is best for him, but is also struggling to reach out to his own son.  His reaction to seeing Ivan Drago unexpectedly walk back into his life was underplayed, and completely believable.

• Phylicia Rashad plays Mary Anne Creed, Adonis’s mother, who is supportive of her son, and seems surprisingly supportive when he wants to step into the ring with the son of the man who killed his father.

• Dolph Lundgren returns as Ivan Drago, older and angrier. He seems to have lost everything since the last time we saw him. His wife left him when his son was very little, and he no longer has all the support and fancy equipment from the government.  His struggle as he begins to realize that he has forced his son to become a weapon to serve his own vengeance is apparent, but subtle, and very well done.

• Boxer Florian Munteanu plays Viktor Drago as an absolute mountain, built by his father to box and nothing else. As he starts to gain success, he begins to get noticed by the government, and finally by the mother who left him when he was very little. Munteanu does a wonderful job getting more and more perplexed as that goes on.

• Wood Harris plays Tony Burton, the son of Apollo's trainer, who steps in to help train Creed when Rocky refuses.  He has a calm supportive nature that works well in that role.

Overall, the movie is enjoyable, and definitely benefits from being seen in a full theater.  My theater was absolutely packed, and the audience reacted as if they were at a real boxing match, which is a testament to how well the fight scenes are filmed. 

8 out of 10, check it out with a crowd if possible. Also, I really enjoyed the score, which during training montages found a way to work in the iconic themes from the original – impressive.'

Bonus, what Tessa Thompson rose above - 

Movie Review: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

I will say the same thing about this movie that I said about its predecessor. The Fantastic Beasts themselves are lovely, and it’s amazing to see them on the big screen, as well as Eddie Redmayne’s fantastic performance as Newt Scamander.  Scamander loves these creatures, and operates better with them than he does with people.  As for the rest of the movie, it’s cluttered, choppy, complicated, and feels like a lot of filler between the first one and the next one.  Let’s see if I am capable of summing up the plot.

The Crimes of Grindelwald begin with Gellert Grindelwald in American wizard prison, after he turned out to not be Colin Farrell in the previous movie.  However, it seems he wasn’t in prison – or he was, but his henchman looked like him? In any case, he escapes during his transfer from America to England, and heads to Paris.  Meanwhile, Newt Scamander is hanging out in England, collecting and caring for Magical Creatures while writing a book on them.  His older brother Theseus is trying to get him to come work at the ministry with him so that he can get his travel ban lifted and they can go after Grindelwald in Paris. As much as Newt wants the travel ban lifted (he wants to meet back up with the lady he fell for in America, Tina), he won’t work for the ministry.  Theseus and his lady love Leta Lestrange, who is clearly more into Newt, are preparing for their mission while a young Albus Dumbledore, who is teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, meets up with Newt and begs him to go to Paris as well.

Apparently, Grindelwald is in Paris to get Credence Barebones, because his Obscurus parasite is super powerful and can kill Dumbledore, and Dumbledore is the only thing standing in Grindelwald’s way of ruling. At least, I think that’s his plan. He’s attempting to unite multiple people to his cause, and is being very successful, but believes only Dumbledore will stand in his way.  Dumbledore tells Newt pretty much the same thing, but admits he cannot do anything about it and it has to be Newt. It seems that when they were young, Grindelwald and Dumbledore were in love (this is not stated in the movie, it’s just strongly insinuated) and made an unbreakable vow that they would never fight each other.  So, Grindelwald needs Credence to defeat Dumbledore, and Dumbledore needs Newt to try to ‘save’ Credence. 

If this all seems very complicated, please bear in mind that I have not yet mentioned how Queenie enchanted Jacob, and is slowing getting entranced by Grindelwald’s message.  Leta is having some serious guilt issues because it’s hinted that Credence may actually be her long lost brother, even though she knows that is not possible. And her half-brother Yusuf Kama has vowed to kill Credence for destroying his family.  And, on top of that, there’s the introduction (or maybe re-introduction?) of Naigini and the surprise (spoiler) appearance of Nicolas Flamel.

Look, it’s all very ridiculous and you need some serious notepads to keep track of everything and everyone.  Again, the best parts are Newt interacting with creatures, and while there are quite a few (The Zouwu is amazing), there are not enough.  There is far too much standing around talking about bloodlines, families, and whether magic folks should be ruling non-magic folks.  David Yates has done multiple Harry Potter movies, and two of these, so he definitely has a feel for them. His Harry Potter movies always felt choppy to me, but I always assumed that was because he was visualizing a book, and so had to cut out a great deal.  Here, however, there’s no book – just original material written by J.K. Rowling.  The cast is certainly entertaining, and does their best with the material at hand.

• Eddie Redmayne is wonderful as the ‘better-with-animals’ Newt. He’s charming and pleasant, but also capable of action when needed. 

• Dan Fogler plays Jacob Kowalski, Newt’s buddy from America. After the events of the first movie, his memory was supposed to be wiped, but that didn’t take, so he’s now traveling with Alison Sudol’s Queenie.  

• Alison Sudol plays Queenie, and as she realizes her community won't let her be with Jacob, she gets more and more drawn in to Grindelwald - who is promising her she can be with whoever she wants. 

• Katherine Waterston plays Tina Goldstein. At this point she’s become an auror, and is traveling on mission. She mistakenly believes that Newt is engaged and is holding that against him. This introduces another entirely new subplot of Newt having to tell her what she means to him and also clarify that he is still single.

• Ezra Miller plays Credence Barebone who now has control over his Obscurus, and is single-mindedly pursuing the truth about his birth parents. This starts the subplot – or perhaps main plot – of his learning that his mother gave him up shortly after his birth and sent him to America to keep him safe. But who was she?

• Zoe Kravitz plays Leta Lestrange, who might win the subplot challenge. She has the clear subplot of being in love with Newt previously – and seemingly still is; as well as the subplot about her family, and if Credence is or is not her brother, and then a sub-subplot of what happened to her brother and what that had to do with her!

• Callum Turner plays Theseus Scamander. He’s part of the ministry, and genuinely wants to help his brother, even though he does not understand him. That could have been a subplot, but it’s not really dived into any deeper.

• Claudia Kim plays Nagini, a Maledictus, carrying a blood curse that will eventually turn her into a snake permanently, and have some dude stash part of his soul in her.

• Jude Law plays Albus Dumbledore, and you can see the twinkle in the eye that will be carried over into Michael Gambon’s version of the character. He’s clearly very strong, and determined, but also hampered by his previous affection for Grindelwald.

• Johnny Depp plays Gellert Grindelwald, and while I think we can all agree that we are suffering from the overexposure of Johnny Depp – he’s just fine in this. Grindelwald is supposed to be this incredibly powerful dark wizard, who is gifted with the ability to be a charismatic leader.  He can talk anyone into following him and appreciating his cause. If you were to ask me what that cause is in this movie, I’m not sure I could clearly articulate it. He seems to want magical folk to rule non-magical and stop living in hiding.  A little like Deacon Frost in the first Blade movie.

• Brontis Jodorowsky plays Nicholas Flamel. Incidentally, Flamel was a real person born in 1340 in France. He was quite an alchemist, and rumor had it, found the Philosopher’s Stone as was able to achieve immortality, even though he apparently died in 1418 (that’s only 78, not immortal).  His story is used as the background of the first Harry Potter story. 

• There’s a brief moment where Jamie Campbell Bower and Toby Regbo reprise their roles as young Grindelwald and Dumbledore, they were both in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1.

Overall, the movie is just fine, and for the fans who are absolutely entrenched in the Wizarding World – they know the families, the bloodlines, the items, the side characters, this movie will be perfection.  I found it to be a little cluttered and disjointed, but entertaining nonetheless.

6 out of 10.

I am looking forward to the inevitable showdown between Depp and Law - that could be very interesting.

Cast Interview Fun:

Movie review: Bohemian Rhapsody (PG13 – 134 minutes)

I first became aware of Queen when I fell in love with the 1986 movie Highlander. It has always been one of my favorites, and a lot of that is because of the music.  That carried over into the Highlander TV show.  

There have been a lot of rumors of a Queen or Freddie Mercury biopic for many years. Supposedly Sacha Baron Cohen was close to portraying Freddie Mercury, but left the project after clashing with the remaining members of the band about how certain aspects of his life should be depicted.  Cohen wanted to delve deep into Freddie’s sexual ambiguity, and the band wanted to focus on the music.  Ben Whishaw was also mentioned as a possibility, but finally Rami Malek took on the project, and Bryan Singer began the direction (he did not finish), and the movie approached the finish line.

Bohemian Rhapsody follows the story of Queen as they form in 1970 when Farrokh Bulsara joins the former members of Smile, Brian May and Roger Taylor to form a new group.  Together, they pick up bassist John Deacon, and start touring as Queen.  Forrokh changes his name to Freddie Mercury, and the band begins to pick up steam as tour and record, gaining popularity through their energetic live performances.  They create a lot of different sounds, making a point to try everything.  Eventually, Freddie develops some standard ‘front-man’ syndrome symptoms and they have a falling out.  Freddie gets caught up in his solo career, drugs and alcohol and a shady business manager.  Eventually, Bob Geldof wants Queen to come perform at Live Aid in 1985, Freddie gets a visit from his best friend Mary, and realizes it’s time to turn everything around.  He reconciles with the band, looks up his love Jim Hutton, comes out to and reconciles with his family – all just in time to perform an incredible set at Live Aid. 

Now, if you are a fan of Queen, there is no new information in this movie.  I did not have a problem with that, honestly, I was mostly there for the music.  Yes, it is definitely a bio-pic and not a documentary.  Certain timeline things are shifted around to provide for the most cinematic drama possible.  Freddie had already known the guys prior to joining the band, there was no meet-cute in the parking lot after one of their shows.  While the band bickered, they never fell apart like in the movie – in fact, they had been touring together up to two months prior to Live Aid.  And, apparently Freddie received his AIDS diagnosis years after Live Aid, not just before as the movie depicts.  I don’t really have an issue with those shifts, it is a movie, after all, and they help the flow. 

The movie is listed as being directed by Bryan Singer, however, he did not finish the movie. Apparently, he was late several times, sometimes not showing up at all.  He stated it was family health issues, but when Rami Malek took exception to it, they had several fights. Dexter Fletcher came in to finish the picture. Even with that, the movie is perfectly serviceable with a decent cast.

• Rami Malek does an incredible job of portraying Freddie Mercury. The swagger and stage presence is incredible, but even more incredible is the self-doubt and loneliness once he was off-stage. Malek is impressive, and while the fake teeth are a little difficult to deal with at first, you get used to them.

• Lucy Boynton plays the love of Freddie’s life, Mary Austin. While Freddie was far from straight, he genuinely loved Mary, and she stayed his close friend and confidant until the end of his life - apparently she is the only one who knows the location of his ashes.. Boynton does a good job of being enthralled, then supportive, then frustrated, and finally accepting.

• Gwilym Lee plays Dr. Brian May, (he does have his doctorate in astrophysics), the flip side to Freddie’s coin.  I loved his portrayal as mostly on board with Freddie’s crazy, sometimes perplexed, but mostly grateful.

• Ben Hardy plays drummer Roger Taylor. He is also wonderful as another member sometimes perplexed by Freddie.
• Joseph Mazzello (yes, the kid from the original Jurassic Park) plays bassist John Deacon. As with the other band members, he doesn’t get as much to do, but I really enjoyed the scene where he first plays the bassline to Another One Bites The Dust.

• Aidan Gillen shows up as John Reid, the band’s manager for a very long time. He does what he can to ensure their success until Freddie fires him.
• Allen Leech plays Paul Prenter, Freddie’s personal manager.  The movie portrays him as a man who fell in love with Freddie early on, and then resorted to various levels of villainy to keep him to himself.
• Tom Hollander plays Jim Beach, the band’s lawyer who steps in after Reid is fired.
• Mike Myers has a lovely cameo as a fictionalized record executive. He’s there to tell you that kids will never be able to bang their head while listening to Bohemian Rhapsody in their car.  Oh, the irony.

Some of the criticism of the movie is that it is a very ‘sanitized’ version of the story. Yes, Freddie’s rampant sexual history is touched on, but not deeply. The movie hints that he was into drugs, but that is never really shown.  Freddie died in 1991 of AIDS-related complications, and was the first major celebrity to die of the disease.  He kept his diagnosis secret for years, in fact only admitting publically the day before he died.  He never wanted to be ‘poster-child’ for the disease, he just wanted to keep making music.  I know the remaining members of the band are very careful to preserve Freddie’s legacy, and make it more about the music than the various levels of debauchery that were present. I did not have a problem with that, and did not mind this PG13 version of the story - also, I personally enjoyed the amount of attention paid to Freddie's cats.  Framing it around the performance at Live Aid was a good choice, and makes sense in the context of the story. 

If you like Queen, check it out. If you know nothing about Queen, know that this is a movie, not a documentary, but it is definitely enjoyable.

7 out of 10 – The music is fantastic. Also – keep an eye out for Adam Lambert’s cameo in the front as the flirty truck driver.

Curious how well Malek did?  Check it out - 

Movie Review: Venom (PG13 – 112 minutes)

Venom first appeared in Marvel comics in 1984, but he became one of my favorite characters during his appearance on the 90s animated Spider-Man cartoon.

In that version, astronauts accidentally dug up a gooey life form. Hitching a ride back to earth, the life form gets attached to Peter Parker’s Spider-Man, literally. The alien symbiote gives Peter some added strength, making Spider-Man stronger, but also encouraging some of his darker urges. After almost throwing a bad-guy off a roof, Spider-Man realizes the suit is dangerous, and figuring out that sonic vibrations harm it – uses sound to remove it.  At the same time, Peter Parker was going through some issues with rival reporter Eddie Brock. Because Peter helped expose Brock as a fraud, Brock loses his job and career.  He ends up trailing Spider-Man, and happens to be in the right place at the right time to pick up the symbiote.  Instantly bonding over the shared hatred – Eddie hates Peter because of losing his job, and the symbiote hates Spider-Man for rejecting it, the two become Venom, bonded and an enemy of everyone’s favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.  Eventually, Venom helps Spider-Man defeat Carnage and moves to San Francisco, becoming a bit of a dark, anti-hero type protector of the city.

This movie encountered some fan criticism early by stating there would be no Spider-Man. It’s really difficult to have a character like Venom who exists because of Spider-Man in a movie that has no Spider-Man.  Once you get past that issue (it’s a tough thing to get past for any fan), the movie is pretty entertaining!

This movie picks up with the genius billionaire Carlton Drake as he and his team watch their shuttle crash on its way back to earth with some “samples”.  One of the samples, which are symbiotes, gets loose and wanders around Malaysia for a bit, biting off eel heads. The others are collected by Drake’s Life Foundation.  Meanwhile, reporter Eddie Brock is enjoying doing his reporting TV show, or perhaps web-series? It’s not really clear. He’s living with his finance Ann Weying, a lawyer who is working with the Life Foundation to defend against some wrongful death suits. Eddie gets an assignment to go interview Drake and mentions the wrongful death suit that he found out about by breaking into Anne’s email, and promptly gets kicked out, and then fired, and then dumped, as Ann also lost her job.

Six months later, Drake has secretly started to try to bond symbiotes with homeless human ‘volunteers’, which is not going well.  Eddie has nothing going for him, but Ann has moved on with generically handsome doctor Dan.  One of Drake’s associates, Dr. Skirth, reaches out to Eddie for assistance when the ‘volunteers’ start dying.  When Eddie joins her on a midnight trip to the lab, he breaks out one of the ‘volunteers’ and promptly gets symbiote-d. 

Drake sends all sorts of disposable henchmen after Eddie to get back his symbiote, but Eddie starts talking with the symbiote, which introduces itself as Venom. They begin to bond to become a pretty good fighter. While Venom is bouncing around San Francisco eating heads and driving Eddie nuts, the wandering symbiote, Riot, arrives and bonds with Drake in an effort to finalize their mission of getting back on the rocket/shuttle, going to collect more of them, and coming back to invade earth.  After some initial difficulties, Eddie and Venom work together to stop Riot. 

The movie is directed by Rueben Fleischer, who previously did Zombieland and Gangster Squad.  The movie is a little choppy, but honestly, I enjoyed it so much more than I was expecting.  Again, getting past the lack of Spider-Man is a huge hurdle, but once done, the back and forth between Eddie and the symbiote is really what sucked me in. It’s much funnier than I was expecting, and I think the choice to go PG13 instead of R was actually a good move. They also reworked scenes so that the word symbiote is pronounced correctly according to Marvel.  Early trailers had it pronounced symb-eye-ote, as opposed to symb-ee-ote, which is the way it had traditionally been said. Kudos to the producers to listening to their focus groups and making that change. It’s small, but it matters to listen to the fans. There is a motorcycle chase sequence that goes on a bit too long, but aside from that, I really enjoyed the action – I particularly enjoyed seeing Venom in full-out Venom mode, gleefully jumping through the city and biting off heads.  Yes, the final battle is symbiote on symbiote, and is a bit of a giant CGI mess, but that’s to be expected, and didn’t bother me too much.  The cast was really enjoyable.

• I was prepared to not care for Tom Hardy in this role, but he really won me over. The addition of more humor than I was prepared for is what sold me. He also did well with conveying that Eddie was not the best guy before bonding. It’s hard to take a dude who is a bit of a jerk and sell a movie on him being the hero.

• Michelle Williams does a good job as Anne, not taking any of Eddie’s crap, and moving on without him. I also enjoy that she was there was he was clearly in pain, and how she kept trying to reason with the symbiote when it was harming him.  Again – surprised by how much I enjoyed her in this.

• Riz Ahmed plays Carlton Drake as completely and horrifically evil.  He thinks nothing of advancing his science at the expense of the humans around him. Once bonded with Riot, he’s even worse. He’s great as a villain, but honestly, could have chewed the scenery a little bit more.

• Reid Scott plays Dr. Dan, who is charming and pleasant as Anne’s new boyfriend. He does the best he can to help out Eddie, even though he accidentally pisses off Venom by giving him an MRI

• Jenny Slate plays Dr. Dora Skirth whose crisis of conscious brings Eddie into contact with the symbiote.

• Spoiler Alert from here down!

• While my fantasy casting for Cletus Kasady has always been Cillian Murphy, I have to admit, Woody Harrelson is a really interesting choice.  He doesn’t change into anything else in this and only shows up post credits – so slight spoiler that I am really looking forward to what he could do in a potential sequel.  I had no idea he was in this, and so was blown away by this post-credits bit, which is done almost exactly the way I would have done it.

Overall, I really was shocked by how much I enjoyed the movie.  I have always loved Venom, and the Spider-Man bits were a lot of what I loved. Honestly though, that storyline warrants an entire movie to tell correctly – so I much prefer that they simply omitted it, rather than half-assing it. 

8 out of 10 – I love the shots of Venom venoming: Bouncing around the city, climbing up buildings, biting off heads, and the hilarious back and forth between the symbiote and Eddie.  It’s definitely worth checking out for yourself.

Movie Review: Night School (PG13 – 111 minutes)

Kevin Hart has earned my loyalty.  What I mean by that is that I have found him hilarious in enough things that I will go see just about anything he’s in, regardless if it looks good.  Tiffany Haddish is also reliable, so I was definitely in for this movie.

Night School follows the story of Teddy Walker, who struggled through high school and walked out during a standardized test.  We catch up with him in present day, working as a salesman in a barbeque grill store, driving a car he can barely afford, living in an apartment he can barely afford, and about to propose to his girlfriend. He is basically broke because despite earning a decent living (he is a great salesman), he keeps living above his means, and insists on paying for everything with his girlfriend, even though she has a much better job and her own money.  A gas grill incident during his proposal results in the store being exploded and Teddy out of a job.  As a result, he gets offered a job by his buddy Marvin at his sales firm, but he needs to have a GED to get hired.

This leads to Teddy going back to his old high school to start taking night school courses in order to get his GED.  He runs into a little bit of difficulty with the principal, who is his old nemesis from high school.  During the course of the process, he bounds with his new classmates and teacher, who helps him realize he has some learning disabilities, and how to work with them.  Eventually, he gets the GED, and there’s a happy ending.

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee, who also did The Best Man, Undercover Brother, Roll Bounce, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, Soul Men, The Best Man Holiday, and Girls Trip, Night School tries to be a zany comedy with some heart, and but mostly ends up falling flat.  The cast is charming, and some of the bits are funny, but overall it feels like not quite enough.

• Kevin Hart plays Kevin Hart – listen, there’s no problem with being one note if that one note is great, and if you like Kevin Hart – you’ll like him as Teddy in this movie.  He’s a guy who is trying his best because he never knew why he couldn’t succeed in school, just that he couldn’t do it.  Yes, things would have been better for him had he just been honest with his girlfriend, but it’s a comedy, what do you want?

• Tiffany Haddish is also one note, but again, if you like Tiffany Haddish – you’ll like her in this. She’s very entertaining as the overwhelmed night school teacher, Carrie. She is doing her best to really help the students and make sure they pass the test.

• Taran Killam plays Stewart, Teddy’s old nemesis and current principal. He’s mean and twisted for very little reason, but it is a space Killam fills well.

• Romany Malco plays a little against type as a very strange conspiracy-nut night school student named Jaylen. 

• Ben Schwartz plays Teddy’s buddy Marvin, who is there to help give him advice that is never taken.
• Mary Lynn Rajskub plays Theresa, a woman who wants to get her GED to improve her life, because she is completely overwhelmed – even though she keeps ending statements with how blessed she is.
• Vixen number one from the Arrow-verse, Megalyn Echikunwoke plays Teddy’s girlfriend Lisa. She doesn’t have very much to do aside from being disappointed that Teddy felt he had to pay for everything (because she wouldn’t judge him for that, or need it, or expect it), and then shift to proud when he finally graduates.
• Keith David very briefly plays Teddy’s Dad.
• Rob Riggle plays night school classmate Mackenzie who wants to get his GED to convince his son to also graduate. He’s there to be big and dumb, something Riggle excels at.

• Fat Joe plays one of the night school students who Skypes in from prison.
• Al Madrigal plays one of the night school students who wants to further his career as a singer-songwriter.  He affects a ‘comical’ Hispanic accent that was played for laughs and therefore a little insulting.

Overall, the cast is good, and the premise had potential, but the material was not as strong as it should have been. It just should have been funnier. Everyone did what they could with what they were handed.  Also – why in the world did this not have outtakes over the end credits? This is a movie that really needed it.

5 out of 10 – it’s middle of the road, not terrible, but not great.