Ruby Rose

Reviews of “The Meg” and “BlacKkKlansman”

BlacKkKlansman

In 1972, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) became the first black police officer in Colorado Springs, Colorado. After a short stint in the file room, Stallworth is moved to the intelligence division to spy on a speech by Stokley Carmichael, who took the African name Kwame Ture, hosted by the Black Student Union at the local college. He meets the president of the Black Student Union, Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier), at the speech and is smitten. His partner in the surveillance is Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver). While flipping through the newspaper at his desk, Stallworth sees an ad for the Ku Klux Klan with a phone number to get more information. He calls and is immediately called back by Walter Breachway (Ryan Eggold) and invited to meet the rest of the guys. Since Stallworth is black he convinces Zimmerman, a Jew, to meet with the Klan. He goes to a bar and is picked up by Felix Kendrickson (Jasper Paakkonen), who quickly impresses Zimmerman as a full-blown psychopath. Zimmerman, using Stallworth’s name, can’t participate in any Klan events, like cross burning, until he gets his official membership card. The real Stallworth calls Klan headquarters and speaks with the Grand Wizard and national director of the Klan David Duke (Topher Grace) who will be coming to Colorado Springs to give a speech and officially certify the local chapter. Kendrickson is suspicious of the man he knows as Stallworth while also coming up with a plan to make a very public and deadly statement about the presence of the Klan.

“BlacKkKlansman” is a Spike Lee joint. It is sprinkled with humor, anger, intelligence, ignorance and bliss. It is a damning indictment of America and how it deals with race in the past, present and sadly, the future. As a white man I cannot begin to understand what it’s like to be hated for the color of my skin and for just existing. Much of Lee’s obvious anger is difficult for me to comprehend as I have no basis for it in my life. What I do understand is the film will make thinking white people very uncomfortable as it possibly energizes a second Civil Rights movement that will make the people that like the way things are also very uncomfortable.

There are many uncomfortable moments in the film but there are also some tremendous performances. First and foremost is John David Washington as Ron Stallworth. His performance is nuanced and perfect. Stallworth is learning about himself and how he feels about and lives the life of a black man. He’s a cop which automatically makes him suspect in his community, tearing him between two worlds. He is challenged by everyone in both worlds for either what he is or what he does. The pressures must be tremendous on African-American police officers and that pressure is well represented in Washington’s performance. The conflict plays out across his face in certain scenes such as during the speech he’s sent to infiltrate. There’s guilt, recognition and acceptance playing across his face during this scene and the character is never the same after. Washington can also handle the lighter, more comedic moments as well such as during his calls with David Duke and some of the choices the character makes while backing up Zimmerman while he’s undercover. Washington, son of Denzel Washington, has the beginnings of a very good career under his belt with a regular role on the HBO series “Ballers” and he has a significant role in the last film of Robert Redford’s career coming out next month.

Adam Driver is better known for his role on HBO’s “Girls” and as Kylo Ren in the current “Star Wars” trilogy but he his a very versatile and talented actor. His work as Zimmerman shows that. He also is torn in dealing with his identity as a Jew. As the film says, he “passes” as white and he hasn’t given it much thought until the hatred of his religion and heritage is shoved in his face by interacting with the Klan. He also has an awakening that triggers guilt and anger. Driver’s performance is painful to watch but in a good way as he spews hate for minorities and homosexuals. The vitriol takes a personal toll on Zimmerman as his self-deception about his identity is presented front and center to him. Driver blossoms in the role and could be considered for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

It’s difficult to praise an actor’s performance when he’s playing such a despicable character but Jasper Paakkonen is frightening and brilliant as the deranged Felix Kendrickson. His hatred oozes from every oily pore as he gets wide-eyed, relishing every derogatory word. Felix is described as a general looking for an army and, if his passions were aimed in a positive direction, would be an effective leader of a group. Felix has a feeling of superiority over not only minorities but of his fellow Klansmen as well. He wants to lead them to earn the respect he feels he’s due. Paakkonen is possessed by the character and is a perfect villain on whom to focus all the audience’s rage.

Director Spike Lee’s direction is best described in this film as poetic. During the speech given by Carmichael there are individual shots of people enraptured by his words. Each is shot alone with a black background, isolating them from the group. Then Lee groups these faces in twos and threes making each unique face part of a tableau that adds to the power of the scene. Lee also pops back and forth between meetings of Klan members and a lecture being given by a black man that witnessed his friend lynched by a white crowd decades earlier. He also lets the hate run free and gives it lots of time to expose itself during planning sessions and get-togethers by Klansmen. These scenes are difficult to watch as the language of hate flows so thickly it nearly suffocates the viewer. That’s what Lee is trying to do: Bury the audience in the hate and make it so awful that it cannot be ignored. Lee is a master at rubbing our noses in societal hypocrisy. Maybe one day we’ll learn the lesson.

“BlacKkKlansman” is rated R for racial epithets, language throughout, disturbing/violent material and some sexual references. Horrendous racial epithets are common throughout the film. There is also homophobic language. Large photos of a lynched and burned man are shown. While these are grainy and it’s difficult to make out any details there is a graphic description of what was done. There’s a scene of police officers beating up a black man. A bomb explodes destroying a couple of cars. The sexual references are two men suggesting one wants to perform oral sex on the other. Foul language is common but not overwhelming.

Based on the book “Black Klansman” by the real Ron Stallworth, Spike Lee’s film messes with a few of the facts, adds a couple of characters and punches everyone that sees the film in the gut. Perhaps the hardest part to watch is the final few minutes that uses archive footage from a recent event to drive home to the point we have a long way to go. I feel certain the film will be in the running for the next Academy Awards in several categories and it will deserve to win them all. It is a powerful film that needs to be seen.

“BlacKkKlansman” gets five stars.

The Meg

Billionaire Jack Morris (Rainn Wilson) is funding an underwater research facility. It is doing cutting edge science and is about to possibly make a big discovery. The leaders of the facility are Dr. Minway Zhang (Winston Chao) and his daughter Suyin (Li Bingbing). The facility sends down a deep-water sub with a crew of three on board. They are investigating whether the bottom of the Marianas Trench is actually the bottom. Their theory is its a layer of gas and the trench is deeper. The sub breaks through the layer of gas and discovers the ocean floor is covered with hydrothermal vents called black smokers. There are many unique lifeforms that are unknown to science waiting to be discovered. Then, something rams their sub, disabling it. The subs pilot, Lori (Jessica McNamee) sends out a last desperate message saying, “Jonas was right!” Jonas is her ex-husband Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham), a former Navy rescue diver specializing in deep-water rescues. Five years earlier while on a rescue of crewmen from a nuclear submarine, something was ramming the sub, causing it to implode. Jonas decided to release his rescue vehicle from the sub, saving 11 men but leaving two of his own behind. In the investigation that followed Jonas was found to have panicked causing the deaths of two of his men. He was thrown out of the Navy and the stress led to his divorce from Lori. Now, Dr. Zhang and an old buddy, James “Mac” Mackreides (Cliff Curtis) who works for Dr. Zhang, approach Jonas to try a rescue of Lori’s sub. Jonas is reluctant, but he attempts the rescue. Once he’s on the bottom Jonas finally learns what damaged Lori’s sub and likely destroyed the nuclear vessel: A massive variety of shark thought to have been extinct for millions of years, a megalodon.

“The Meg” is a big, dumb action movie. It has no more value than to be a pleasant diversion from the doom and gloom of the real world. That isn’t a complaint as “The Meg” is one of the better diversions of the summer so far.

What struck me most about the film is the look. The technology on display is impressive even if it is all fake. The screens, the panels, the design of the subs are all futuristic and practical at the same time. It’s a triumph of production design that might get some attention come awards season.

There’s also the general impression of the script. While you won’t walk out of the theater feeling smarter, you might remember a couple of lines or how all the characters (with the exception of Rainn Wilson’s billionaire) sound intelligently written. Wilson’s Jack Morris is clearly intelligent but with an edge of arrogance and self-importance. The rest of the characters know their jobs and perform them efficiently. It’s only when things start to go sideways that their personalities are differentiated.

Jason Statham delivers his usual tough-guy character but with a touch of humanity. While he starts the film as a bit of a jackass and he’s the hero in almost every situation thereafter, the script gives his character a bit of warmth and charm that’s sometimes missing from his usual roles. He even gets the beginnings of a love story with one character, something you don’t always see in Statham-led films.

The rest of the cast is good but there is one standout: Sophia Shuya Cai as Meiying, the daughter of Suyin. This little firecracker has most of the best lines in the movie. She has surprisingly strong chemistry with Statham and holds her own with the adults in the cast. Anyone that’s in a movie with this young lady in the future had better bring their A game as she is as much a shark as the title monster.

“The Meg” is rated PG-13 for bloody images, action/peril and some language. We see a severed arm after a meg attack. There are also sea creatures that are bitten into (or in half). A diver in a shark cage is nearly swallowed cage and all by the meg. Another diver is chased as he’s being dragged through the water by a moving boat. Swimmers are attacked and eaten by the meg. Foul language is infrequent and mild.

“The Meg” has plenty of action and thrills, it looks great and the megalodon is a fearsome creature that I’m very happy is extinct. I’m not a huge fan of getting in the ocean anyway and if a 90-foot shark with a mouth that could open as much as 10 feet wide was still swimming around you couldn’t get me to stick my toes in the sand, much less the water. I don’t mind going to a theater to see the beast as there’s air conditioning and I won’t get any sand in places that don’t like it. What I’m saying is, it’s a fun movie.

“The Meg” gets five stars.

This week I’ll be reviewing “Mile 22” for WIMZ.com.

If there’s time I’ll review one of the following for this webpage:

Alpha—

Crazy Rich Asians—

Listen to The Fractured Frame for the latest in movie, streaming and TV news. It’s available wherever you get podcasts. Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman123@gmail.com.

Review of “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter”

Alice (Milla Jovovich) emerges from the bunker under the White House to a destroyed Washington D. C. Stumbling amongst the ruins, Alice hears a noise and follows it inside a building. There she finds a computer printer spitting out “Hello Alice” over and over again. The hologram of the Red Queen (Ever Gabo Anderson) appears and tells Alice the human race is down to less than 5,000 people after 10 years of the T-virus ravaging the population. In 48 hours the final enclaves of humanity will be overrun by the infected. There is an anti-virus in the Hive back in Raccoon City that if released in the air would kill any person infected with the T-virus, including Alice. Alice doubts the Red Queen’s word but the computer program tells her all will be revealed once she arrives at the Hive. Alice finds a car that runs and begins the nearly 500 mile journey back to Raccoon City but her car runs over a spike strip and crashes. She begins searching for another mode of transportation and sees an Umbrella Corporation motorcycle under an overpass. She assumes it’s a trap and she’s right as her foot is caught and she is hauled upside down and surrounded by Umbrella Corp. troops. After quickly dispatching the soldiers she hops on the motorcycle and is hit with an electric shock knocking her out. She awakens inside a large armored transport carrier and is met by Dr. Alexander Isaacs (Iain Glen) who she thought she had killed but it actually was a clone. Isaacs is also heading for Raccoon City with an army of the undead behind him. He plans on wiping out any remaining humans in the city. Alice manages to escape and steal another motorcycle and race ahead to Raccoon City. When she arrives she encounters a group of survivors including Claire Redfield (Ali Larter). Alice and the survivors defend Raccoon City from the hordes of undead but see two more groups headed there way. They head for the entrance to the Hive in hopes of releasing the anti-virus and stopping the end of humanity. Meanwhile Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts) is trying to keep Alice and her friends from reaching the cure and discovering the truth buried deep within the Hive.

“Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” is the seventh film in the franchise. Much like the other installments I’ve seen, this one is an incoherent mess filled with choppy action, a meaningless story and logic holes that, if thought about for a few seconds, would cause the entire franchise to collapse into a heap. In other words, the seventh in the “Resident Evil” series is just about as bad as it gets.

One of my consistent complaints about the franchise is the action scenes. The fights are shot with the camera practically between the combatants. This leads to a massive number of edits with individual shots often lasting less than a second. Add to that a camera that seems to be bolted to a paint can shaker and you have a nearly unwatchable and practically nausea-inducing fight scene. At first I thought his might be an effort to hide Milla Jovovich’s lack of fighting skills or bad CGI monsters. Now I believe it is just a preference by director Paul W.S. Anderson. Does he think it looks cool? Is he trying to give his editor a challenge? Is he hoping for some kind of technical award from the Oscars? I’m not sure what the reason is but it makes watching one of these action scenes nearly impossible.

Anderson also wrote the script which probably explains why the story is just as choppy as the action. I suppose with seven films worth of loose ends to tie up it only makes sense that some items get more screen time than others; but Anderson has also thrown in whole new aspects of the story including a twist or two that renders any other plot elements meaningless. Of course the story is the least important aspect of these films. It is after all based on a video game so the visuals, the monsters, the fantasy of it is far more important to get right. The story is merely a scaffold on which to hang the action set pieces. Sadly, as stated earlier, the action is difficult to watch and the story is just as bad.

There are also some major lapses of logic in the movie and the series as a whole. The entirety of human civilization has collapsed. As “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” opens it’s been 10 years since the outbreak of the virus. Despite all this time and the human population being down to 5,000 uninfected people, Alice is still able to randomly find not one but two vehicles that run and still have fuel. Where is this fuel coming from? Even if it somehow managed to be kept from evaporating (perhaps in underground tanks), how does it get pumped into the vehicles? Are there still people manning power stations? Batteries and generators would have long ago run out of charge and fuel but the electricity would need to come from somewhere. Anytime Alice or another character finds a gun, there is also ammo for it. Who’s making the ammo? Does the mysterious person working at the power station then also work in an ammunition plant? I realize I’m once again thinking too much about the minutiae but these things bothered me throughout the film. I suppose this is just a sign of how bad the movie is.

“Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” is rated R for violence throughout. I could spend hours describing all the ways people and the infected die in this film but here’s a short list: Gasoline explosion, decapitation, shooting, stabbing, eaten alive, chopped up by a massive exhaust fan, Claymore detonation, multiple bomb blasts, clone-on-clone attack and knife through the head to name just a few. Foul language is surprisingly minimal.

While the title “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” implies this is the last film in the series, I believe that is a lie…or a misdirection. Watching this abomination of a movie all the way through to its conclusion will show the viewer that more mayhem is likely on the way if the box office indicates enough interest. I personally would prefer a T-virus infection and mutation into one of the winged critters seen in the film. At least then I could fly away from the next catastrophe in this franchise to hit the big screen.

“Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” gets one star out of five.

This week another franchise gets something of a reboot and a love story that crosses from one planet to another arrives it your local multiplex. I’ll see at least one of the following:

Rings—

The Space Between Us—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.