Archive for August, 2019

Movie Mayhem – August Movie Roundup

Clockwise from top left: Ready or Not, Scary Stories To Tell In the Dark, Blinded by the Light, Good Boys, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, The Kitchen, and Overcomer

For three weeks at the end of July/early August, there were a whopping three (count them – 3!) wide releases in theaters. How do the studios make up for that? Release 13 films over the next three weeks! To honor the glut of riches at the movieplexes, here are some quick reviews for all of the films I’ve seen in the last two weeks. Enjoy!

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Movie Mayhem – Brian Banks

Brian Banks — 2019; Directed by Tom Shadyac; Starring Aldis Hodge, Greg Kinnear, Melanie Liburd, Sherri Shepherd and Morgan Freeman

All you can control in life is how you respond to life.

Jerome Johnson (Morgan Freeman), from the film Brian Banks

The quote isn’t just a powerful message for the new inspirational sports drama, Brian Banks, but relates, on a much smaller scale, very well to this very review. Upon finishing my first draft, something happened and the entire review was wiped from existence. Like anyone else, I was angry at myself for not saving, and was angry at WordPress for not auto-saving and acting weird. The easy thing to do would have been to give up on the review altogether. Instead, I took a deep breath, recollected my thoughts and started anew. This has nothing on the major incidents of the film itself, however, it’s still relevant to the importance this movie’s overall message means for true happiness in life.

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Movie Mayhem – Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw — 2019; Directed by David Leitch; Starring Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Cliff Curtis and Helen Mirren

You can parachute cars out of a plane; you can have a chase sequence between a slew of supercharged cars and a submarine in an icy tundra; you can jump a sports car from one hundred-story tower to another; you can have a guy rip the cast off his arm with his bare hand; heck, you can even defy gravity to save someone’s life and no one would expect anything less. But introduce your audience to a transforming, self-driving motorcycle and you’ve suddenly gone too far.

Suspension of disbelief is a tricky thing. There are certain expectations that come along with being able to set reality aside and enjoy whatever is being thrown at you. Ever since The Fast and the Furious franchise veered off from centering around fast cars and hot women to becoming what amounts to an international spy series, you’d think the whole thing would have broke down on the side of the highway. Fact is, the franchise only became better as it became more and more absurd.

It only makes sense, then, that as the franchise grows more popular, producers would want to milk it for all its worth. Best way to do that? Spin characters off into their own wild and crazy franchises. The first choice, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, is the smartest choice, as it highlights two very bankable stars (and fan favorites since their respective introductions into the franchise) in an effort to see if this type of offshoot will work.

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