The story follows Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), a struggling musician who is hit by a bus during a global blackout.
When he wakes up from the injury, he discovers he is the only person in the world who remembers the Beatles (while playing the song “Yesterday” at a “welcome home” party). It’s as if the band never existed in Malik’s new reality.
The struggling musician goes from obscurity to stardom when he plays — and eventually records — the greatest hits from the Beatles catalog as his own original work.
The entire set of events appears to create an existential crisis in Jack — something akin to the existential crisis faced by Phil Connors in familiar/unfamiliar surroundings in 1993’s “Groundhog Day.”
There is little doubt the movie will be schmaltzy and sweet. We need more of that at the box office.
The lovely Lily James (“Baby Driver”) plays Ellie, Malik’s down-to-earth gal pal. She’s wearing a denim dress in the trailer, so it’s assured that the two will end up together at the end of the movie.
The entire vibe of the trailer is terrific. Check it out:
We’ve had a lot of snow the past month here in Omaha.
If you’re feeling adventurous, you might want to try some homemade ice cream made with snow.
First of all, I recommend putting a bowl or container of some sort outside to collect fresh snow as it falls. (We use a stainless steel mixing bowl.)
I suppose if you’re feeling more “adventurous,” you could try and find a clean patch of already-fallen snow in your yard and scoop up some of the white stuff to make ice cream.
Here are the instructions for making snow ice cream (courtesy of Paula Deen via The Food Network).
Ingredients: 8 cups of snow, or shaved ice One 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Pour condensed milk over snow (or shaved ice). Add vanilla. Mix to combine. Serve immediately in bowls. If desired, add sprinkles.
I’ve mentioned many times on this blog my fondness for the novels of Tom Clancy. I was introduced to the books in high school in my sophomore Literary Masterpieces class.
When the movie adaptation of “The Hunt For Red October” was released March 2, 1990, I absolutely loved it, and went on to see it three times in the theater.
(Movie buffs might remember when the movie was first released on home video that the VHS cassette was red.)
Gerard Butler entered the fray last fall with his pet project “Hunter Killer.” I recently purchased it on Blu-ray (I missed the movie during its theatrical run, but thought the trailers looked cool).
There was apparently a large span of time where "Hunter Killer" sat dormant. It is based on the 2012 novel “Firing Point” by Don Keith and George Wallace.
“This is a movie that is begging to be made and to reinvent,” Butler says on the disc’s special features. “We re-create the submarine genre as well, which I hadn’t seen one of those in a while.”
Here is the setup for “Hunter Killer”:
When the USS Tampa Bay disappears (while tracking a Russian Akula-class sub in the Arctic Ocean), Rear Admiral John Fisk (played by musician Common) dispatches the USS Arkansas (a Virginia-class submarine) from a naval base in Scotland to investigate.
Commander Joe Glass (Butler) is the newly-minted honcho on the Arkansas.
In a parallel storyline, a Navy SEAL team led by Lieutenant Bill Beaman (Toby Stephens from Netflix’s “Lost In Space”) HALO jumps into Russia to conduct surveillance on a naval base located at Polyarny. Defense minister Dmitry Dubrovnik (Mikhail Gorevoy) is planning a coup and takes visiting Russian President Nikolai Zakarin (Alexander Dyachenko) prisoner.
Before long, the Arkansas discovers the missing U.S. submarine, but is attacked by a Russian sub lurking under a nearby iceberg.
The alternating threads in the movie are reminiscent of a Clancy novel. In addition to the “submarine,” “SEAL,” and “military coup” storylines, there is also a thread following the command decisions being made at The Pentagon (Gary Oldman has some key scenes as Admiral Charles Donnegan).
As the pieces move on the foreign policy chess board, Glass & Co. are doing everything in their power to avoid starting World War III.
I won’t go any further into the plot because I don’t want to give anything away.
The movie itself flopped at the box office and received mediocre reviews (I believe it has a 37% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes). As a result, I was expecting the worst when I sat down and popped the "Hunter Killer" disc into my player.
I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed “Hunter Killer.”
By no means is it the perfect submarine thriller, but I like how it recalls the “Clancy-esque” thrillers of the 1990s.
There were certain sequences where I wondered how “credible” some of the technical aspects of the submarine procedures were. I figured some creative license was taken for dramatic effect.
In the film’s commentary track, director Donovan Marsh talks about how they spent time on an actual military submarine (based at Pearl Harbor) and went out to sea for a day testing the combat scenarios seen in “Hunter Killer.” It sounds like the filmmakers had the cooperation of the U.S. Navy, and every effort was made to bring authenticity to the movie.
“Hunter Killer” does its due diligence as a “techno-thriller.” The film didn’t have the budget many tentpole action movies possess. As a result, certain visual effects aren't as polished as they could be, and some of the green screen work feels awkward, but it is still a handsome production overall.
Gerard Butler is one of my favorite action stars. His film “Olympus Has Fallen” is a terrific action movie (definitely owes a debt to Vince Flynn’s first Mitch Rapp novel “Transfer of Power”).
I get the sense Butler enjoys the breed of thriller novel I grew up reading. “Hunter Killer” was a movie he’d spent a number of years trying to bring to the big screen. I'm glad it finally made it to screen.
I’ll admit that I’m pretty easily amused when it comes to movies. I really enjoyed “Hunter Killer.”
It might not be the perfect military thriller, but it is highly entertaining.
The Dwayne Johnson action movie about former FBI Hostage Rescue specialist Will Sawyer — an ex-Marine who has to save his family from the world’s tallest skyscraper (a fictional 225-story structure called “The Pearl” in Hong Kong) — was an entertaining ride.
The film is a throwback to action movies of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The stories feature simple plots and simple protagonists, fighting simple villains for simple reasons.
The movies of that era had heroes who felt “real” — not the endless supply of caped crusaders with special powers and body armor made of some secret element that doesn’t even exist.
Director Rawson Marshall Thurber mentions in the Blu-ray’s commentary track that he revisited the movies of Sylvester Stallone around the time he penned “Skyscraper.”
Thurber was born in 1975 (a few years after I was born). His love for the macho action movies that kids of our generation grew up on is evident when you watch “Skyscraper.”
I also tend to enjoy Dwayne Johnson movies.
Will Sawyer (Johnson’s character in the movie) is injured in a explosion in the movie’s prologue sequence. As a result, his left leg has been amputated when we see him several years later reviewing the security procedures and protocols in “The Pearl.”
In the commentary track, Thurber mentions the prologue of “Skyscraper” was inspired by the prologue of 1993’s “Cliffhanger” — where mountain ranger Gabe Walker (Stallone) drops his buddy’s girlfriend (causing her to fall to her death) during a rescue attempt in the Rocky Mountains.
Thurber liked the idea of tough, brawny heroes facing adversity at the beginning of a movie like “Cliffhanger,” and thought it would add an interesting element to “Skyscraper.”
Sawyer is in Hong Kong with his wife Sarah (played by “Party of Five’s” Neve Campbell) and kids, Georgia and Henry (McKenna Roberts and Noah Cottrell).
He is given an iPad that gives him access to the building. The iPad is stolen offsite.
There are bad guys trying to infiltrate the skyscraper. They start a fire on the 96th floor. Did I mention they’re bad? Because that’s pretty much all you need to know about them.
Will Sawyer’s family is trapped in the building due to the fire. As a result, he must rescue them.
Through sheer will (no pun intended), and with the aid of a couple rolls of duct tape, Sawyer sets out to rescue his family...and kick the crap out of the villains.
“If you can’t fix it with duct tape, then you ain’t using enough duct tape,” says Sawyer at one point during the movie’s explosions, gun play, and fisticuffs.
I’ll be the first to say that “Skyscraper” is by no means a “great” movie. It’s silly and ridiculous. I’m just getting fatigued on comic book heroes saving the universe every three months at the local multiplex.
It’s nice to see an “old fashioned” action movie that hearkens back to the movies I loved in my teens and twenties.
I had been looking forward to the new Liam Neeson movie “Cold Pursuit” since seeing trailers for it last year.
I find that Neeson’s movies tend to be pretty entertaining. They aren’t necessarily the greatest action movies in the genre, but they tend to be a good way to spend a couple of hours.
“Cold Pursuit” was something of a surprise to me.
I didn’t read any of the reviews going in. Other than the trailer, I didn’t really have a read on what the movie was about, or what the tone of it might be.
It’s definitely not an action movie.
It is a plodding crime drama that offers dark humor in the tradition of the Coen Brothers (think “Fargo” in this instance).
It is based on a 2014 Norwegian film called “In Order of Disappearance” (“Kraftidioten”) — about a snowplow driver who embarks on a journey of revenge when his son is killed by a local drug kingpin.
Both movies were directed by Hans Peter Moland.
My reaction to “Cold Pursuit” was pretty lukewarm. Neeson plays Nelson Coxman, the aforementioned snowplow driver who does his work in the Colorado resort town of Kehoe.
His life is disrupted when his son is found dead (authorities believe he overdosed on heroin).
Coxman’s wife (Laura Dern) soon leaves him, and he is on the verge of suicide when he learns his son was murdered by drug dealers. Before we know it, Coxman has turned vigilante and he works his way up the chain to Trevor “Viking” Calcote (Tom Bateman) — leader of the drug operation that is based in Denver.
Calcote’s operation has been in competition in Denver with a rival drug operation comprised of members of the Ute tribe. As a result, Calcote suspects they are to blame for the deaths of his employees.
First and foremost, I’m not sure how wise it was to set a movie about drug dealers in Colorado — a state where marijuana has been legalized. I guess it was the only realistic location to have a snowplow driver be the protagonist.
Another ancillary aspect of “Cold Pursuit” that bugged me was that the Denver scenes and sequences looked like they were filmed in spring. There were green leaves on the trees and green grass — and it looked like the set decorators added snow (with some help from the CG folks in post).
As luck would have it, the original Norwegian film “In Order of Appearance” is currently showing on Netflix (if you watch it, turn off the English dub and listen to it in its original Norwegian with subtitles).
The plot is basically identical between the two movies, but the execution (no pun intended), pacing, and humor just feel better in the Norwegian version.
It also seemed more realistic having a Norwegian crime operation going toe-to-toe with Serbian gangsters in “In Order of Disappearance.”
In my opinion, trying to shoehorn the Euro gangster film into a United States setting made absolutely no sense. There was definitely something lost in translation.
(Yeah, it snows in the Rocky Mountains, but the vibe is just different compared to a country like Norway.)
I tend to like these sorts of movies and the mood they imbue (which owe a debt to the crime novels of Elmore Leonard). That said, something felt off about “Cold Pursuit.”
I didn’t particularily “love” either the Norwegian or U.S. production. But they were both fairly interesting diversions.
If I had to make a recommendation between the two, I’d probably suggest you fire up Netflix and watch the original Norwegian movie. Stellan Skarsgard (“Mamma Mia”) is far more compelling as the snowplow driver than is Neeson in the "Americanized" version (this material isn’t really suited to Neeson’s talents).
In my opinion, "Cold Pursuit" probably would have been a better movie if they'd shed the "black humor" trappings and played it straight with the script.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect going into “Alita: Battle Angel.”
The sci-fi movie was originally supposed to drop in theaters last Christmas, but was moved to 2019 due to a glut of releases on the original opening date (including “Aquaman”).
The film is based on a Japanese manga series by Yukito Kishiro.
The biggest selling point of the movie is the fact that the screenplay was written by James Cameron (he also produced the movie).
As is the case with anything Cameron has his fingerprints on, the movie took years to get made. Robert Rodriguez (“Desperado”) was brought in to direct.
The plot, in its most “non-spoilery” form, is about a cyborg named Alita. It is the 26th century (pay particular attention to the “26th Century Fox” logo at the beginning of the movie). A brutal war known as “The Fall” left Earth ravaged in 2563.
The main narrative of “Alita: Battle Angel” takes place in Iron City (an Earth-bound metropolis). Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) is a top-notch scientist in the city — sort of a techno surgeon who builds/repairs cyborgs, and those with mechanical appendages.
During a trip to the junkyard to scavenge parts, Ido finds the remnants of a female cyborg with an intact human brain. He rebuilds the girl and names her “Alita” (after his deceased daughter).
She can’t remember who she is, and part of the structure of “Alita: Battle Angel” is her journey to find a sense of self.
Alita has penetrating, almond-shaped eyes. Her face is basically a permanent Snapchat filter.
A lot of the movie is spent doing sci-fi “world building” and doling out extraneous “info dumps” to get the audience up to speed. It’s an entertaining film, but sometimes feels uneven.
Alita befriends a teenage human named Hugo, who has dreams of moving to a city floating above Iron City called Zalem — home to a god-like figure known as Nova.
Hugo introduces Alita to a sport called “Motorball” (basically a high-tech — and deadly — form of roller derby).
Alita eventually discovers that her “father figure” Ido is a “Hunter-Warrior” — a bounty hunter who assassinates evil cyborgs. It is during a particularly harried sequence (when Alita is secretly following Ido) where she learns she has savage skills and has been trained in the ancient fighting style known as “Panzer Kunst.”
Before long, Alita is being hunted by evil-doers (led by an entrepreneur played by Mahershala Ali), evil cyborgs, and all manner of miscreants. She is also dealing with feelings of love for Hugo.
There is a lot to process in “Alita: Battle Angel.” The movie “almost” achieves greatness, but falls a tad bit short.
The visual effects are interesting and appealing. That is something you’d expect from a film produced by James Cameron. The craftsmanship of the film is top notch.
I give the filmmakers credit for a creating a motion-capture CG character who was compelling. That is easier said than done, and I really liked the Alita character in the movie.
I’m not sure the “fusion” of Cameron and Rodriguez quite works. I’ve enjoyed a number of Robert Rodriguez’s films over the years (like the “Desperado” and “Spy Kids” franchises), but sometimes there is a “too weird” aspect to what he does.
What would have been a “bloated masterpiece” under Cameron’s direction sort of fell flat with Rodriguez at the helm (in my opinion).
Part of that is due to the fact that the “world building” aspects in the first act took time to set up (and were among the most interesting aspects of the movie). The third act (in particular) felt rushed and the various elements seemed a bit disconnected.
The ending of “Alita: Battle Angel” also left something to be desired.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a number of entertaining sequences in “Alita: Battle Angel.” It kept my attention throughout, never got boring, and the visuals are really beautiful.
This fall will mark the fifth anniversary of the release of the first “Frozen” (a movie Bridget and I went to see opening night with our friends Mike and Lindsay — and saw a total of three times in the theater).
While “Disney Princess” films aren’t “gritty” like many of the movies, books and TV shows I review on the blog, “Tangled,”“Moana,” and “Frozen” rank among my favorite animated films (and I love the soundtracks to each of those movies).
I must admit I’ve been somewhat skeptical about the upcoming sequel to “Frozen.” I wasn’t really sure that we needed to return to the frosty Nordic environs of Arendelle again.
But the new teaser trailer for “Frozen 2” (which dropped online Feb. 13) is kind of epic. It definitely wasn’t the happy-dancing-cherubs trailer I was expecting them to dole out.
The teaser starts out with Elsa (the “Snow Princess” from Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale) standing on a beach against a dark cliff (on volcanic rock that makes it look like it could be Iceland). She is determined to run across raging waters.
Despite her best efforts, the Arendelle princess falters when she encounters a particularly large wave.
This isn’t terribly different than the opening scene in the teaser trailer for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” that dropped on April 14, 2017:
In that trailer, we see Rey struggling with something along the darkened cliffs of Ahch-To.
As I’m writing this post, and comparing both trailers, they are oddly similar in theme and structure.
That said, we probably shouldn’t “deep dive” into the concept that Disney ripped off their teaser trailer for “The Last Jedi” when they made the teaser for “Frozen 2” (even though the vibe is similar).
Back to the “Frozen II” teaser...
After the opening scenes of Elsa trying to “walk across water,” we see an enigmatic shot of Anna on a castle balcony looking at floating, diamond-shaped ice crystals:
This bit (without dialogue) has a similar feel to a shot of Princess Leia in “The Last Jedi” teaser where she is looking at a hologram of a star map:
Okay... I said I wasn’t going to keep comparing this thing to “The Last Jedi” teaser. Ugh. I need to stop doing that.
The “Frozen 2” trailer then moves to a scene of Kristoff riding his trusty reindeer Sven among a pack of reindeer:
This is similar to the scene in “The Last Jedi” teaser where Finn is shown riding in a speeder among other speeders on on Crait:
Then in the “Frozen 2” teaser, we have a scene of Anna running and leaping across a stone outcropping:
This is followed by Anna and snowman sidekick Olaf surrounded by a flaming ice fire of some sort:
So... it’s sort of like the segment of “The Last Jedi” teaser where Poe Dameron and BB-8 (who could be Olaf’s mechanical cousin) are running through the hallway on the Resistance ship:
Followed by the two of them nearly engulfed in a flaming X-Wing explosion:
Remember when I said I was going to stop comparing the new “Frozen 2” teaser with “The Last Jedi” teaser? Yeah, I remember that, too. Since I’ve decided to jump down that rabbit hole, I might as well go all in...
Then in the “Frozen 2” trailer, we have a scene — amongst fallen autumn leaves — with a young girl (maybe it’s Anna, but the hair is different so it is either a “young” Anna, or someone else entirely) and a blonde hair guy floating out of the leaves:
There isn’t an exact example of this in “The Last Jedi” trailer. Except maybe this scene of Luke (in the past) surrounded by floating embers:
The music then swells in both trailers as we near the end of the scene montages. In the “Frozen 2” teaser our heroes are standing on a cliff, looking out over autumn foliage:
We don’t have an epic wide-shot to end “The Last Jedi” trailer, but we do have Luke — mere steps from a cliff — saying it is “time for the Jedi” to end:
In both trailers, the music reaches a crescendo. The “Frozen 2” teaser shows a floating maple leaf (does this thing take place in Canada?) before showing the title graphic:
In the “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” teaser, the title graphic comes on screen:
I know what’s going to happen. I’m going to have to deal with a bunch of people who “@” me suggesting that the trailers aren’t similar at all.
Fine, whatever. I might be looking for a connection that isn’t there. But before you all tell me to “Let It Go,” just humor me folks. After all, both properties are owned by Disney.
The “Frozen 2” trailer ends with this post-title shot of Anna grabbing a sword of Kristoff’s belt and wielding it savagely at an unknown foe:
I don’t care what any of you say, that feels like a very “Rey-like” move to me...
