SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (2019) ***

Spider-Man:  Far from Home is in the proud tradition of sequels like National Lampoon’s European Vacation, The Karate Kid 2, or The Bad News Bears Go to Japan in that the same stuff that happened in the first movie happens again, except this time it happens in a different country.  Not only does it suffer from some major deja vu, it’s also saddled with one of the lamest villains in the history of Spider-Man comics.  Your mileage may vary of course, but I always thought Mysterio was a stupid adversary, and the movie does little to sway me.  Not only was his costume, a green cape with a fishbowl for a helmet, dumb, his powers of illusion have always been cheesy as Hell. 

Jake Gylllenhaal isn’t bad as old Fishbowl Face.  He’s engaging, charming, and full of megalomaniacal glee when his character finally goes off the rails.  It’s just painfully  obvious what his intentions are from the get-go.  The plot has him teaming up with Spider-Man (Tom Holland) to battle some “elemental” monsters that are tearing their way across Europe.  I mean, sure.  You can trust a guy named “Mysterio”, right?  Because of that, the plot contains virtually no surprises (well, until the awesome post-credits scene, that is).

The way the filmmakers updated Mysterio to make him fit in with the established MCU will make you roll your eyes too. The finale is also pretty weak.  Having Spider-Man fight an army of drones comes as anticlimactic, especially compared to the high-stakes ending of Endgame (not to mention the previous Spider-Man movies).   There is at least one visually striking sequence where Mysterio’s illusions mess with Spidey’s mind, although that’s as close as the filmmakers come to making him an effective villain. 

The plot is painfully predictable and the fight scenes may be largely uninspired, but everything in between bristles with fun. The character work is particularly endearing as the scenes involving Peter Parker’s high school pals are delightful.  In fact, the supporting characters shine brightly and virtually steal the movie out from Holland.  Angourie Rice and Jacob Batalon get a lot of laughs as the fledgling lovebirds Betty Brandt and Ned.  Zendaya is equally impressive as Peter’s crush MJ who steals every scene she’s in.  Martin Starr and JB Smoove are also fun as Peter’s harried teachers.  It’s also a blast seeing Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) bossing Spider-Man around and saying things like “Bitch, please!”  Holland is game, gets plenty of laughs (especially when he dons his black suit), and holds the often messy movie together with his winning charm. 

Some of the best moments deal with how the world has adjusted to the fallout of “The Snap”.  The loss of Tony Stark hangs heavy not only on Peter, but the movie as well.  Because of that, and the slight narrative, Far from Home often feels like a placeholder for something bigger.  That eventually comes during the jaw-dropping post-credits (which I wouldn’t dream of spoiling).  It offers great tease to what the future has in store for everyone’s favorite web-slinger.  It’s just that getting there is kind of a slog. 

Marvel Cinematic Universe Scorecard: 

Avengers:  Age of Ultron:  ****
The Incredible Hulk:  ****
Iron Man:  ****
Thor:  Ragnarok:  ****
Ant-Man and the Wasp:  ****
Spider-Man:  Homecoming:  ****
Iron Man 3:  ****
Captain America:  Civil War:  *** ½
Ant-Man:  *** ½
Guardians of the Galaxy:  *** ½
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2:  *** ½ 
Avengers:  Infinity War:  *** ½
Black Panther:  *** ½ 
The Avengers:  ***
Captain America:  The First Avenger:  ***
Captain America:  The Winter Soldier:  ***
Captain Marvel:  ***
Spider-Man:  Far from Home:  ***
Thor:  ***
Thor:  The Dark World:  ***
Iron Man 2:  ***
Doctor Strange:  ** ½ 

2019 Superhero Scorecard: 
Avengers:  Endgame:  ****
Alita:  Battle Angel:  ***
Captain Marvel:  ***
Shazam!:  ***
Spider-Man:  Far from Home:  ***

Dark Phoenix:  ***

STAR HUNTER (1998) * ½

Fred Olen Ray co-directed this boring, no-budget mash-up of Predator and The Most Dangerous Game that blatantly recycles footage from Roger Corman movies in lieu of special effects.  An alien hunter comes to the hood to stalk humans for sport.  A handful of third-string high school football players (along with their vice principal, played by Stella Stevens) are stranded when their bus breaks down.  A seemingly kind old blind man (Roddy McDowall) offers them shelter, but it’s obvious (to the audience anyway) he’s not of this earth.

Man, if you thought Roddy hit career nadir with Laserblast, wait till you see him in this flick.  Dressed like an extra from V and constantly wearing sunglasses to hide his shame, poor Roddy was in “Strictly for the Paycheck” mode here.  It makes Laserblast look like Star Wars by comparison.

The repetitive shots of our heroes running past the same warehouse and alleyway sets will get on your nerves real quick.  The script tries to explain it by saying that they’re trapped under an invisible force field, but that doesn’t mean it works.  Sometimes it looks like they’re obviously indoors when they’re supposed to be outside and vice versa.  

Also, why would an alien hunter spend its time stalking third-string high school football players anyway?  Wouldn’t it want a challenge?  Sure, maybe Schwarzenegger or even Danny Glover might be too tough to hunt and kill, but anyone would’ve been better than these dopes.  Even by The Most Dangerous Game standards, Van Damme or Ice-T would’ve been worthier adversaries.  It doesn’t help that the alien looks less like the Predator and more like Twiki on steroids. 

The good news?  The ever-lovely Wendy (Fugitive Rage) Schumacher has a brief topless sex scene, which is the highlight of an otherwise dreary movie.  Other that that, the only thing dangerous about this game is how deadly dull it is.

KILLING AMERICAN STYLE (1988) **

Killing American Style is the unmistakable work of Amir Shervan, director of Samurai Cop and Young Rebels.  It features all his trademarks:  Cheap action scenes, gratuitous nudity, and Robert Z’Dar acting like a madman.  As a bonus, we have none other than Jim Brown as the detective out to bust Z’Dar.

Hardened criminal Z’Dar is on a bus bound for prison.  His buddies try to bust him out, and during the escape, one of his crew is shot.  Z’Dar breaks into a house and forces the bikini-clad inhabitants to call for a doctor.  When the kickboxing man of the house (Harold Diamond) comes home early, he must find a way to save his family.  

The opening holds a lot of promise.  There’s a long scene where bad guy John Lynch auditions some prospective dancers. After a lot of spandex-clad gyrating, Delia Sheppard (also in Young Rebels) gets the job when she balls him in the bathroom.  A Chorus Line eat your heart out! 

For a little while, it’s your typical Shervan tits-and-action romp.  The fun pretty much dries up though once Z’Dar and his goons take control of the house.  It’s here where the film devolves into a kind of half-assed Desperate Hours.  The home invasion scenes are sluggishly paced and become quickly monotonous due to their repetitive nature.  Seeing Jim Brown trying to maintain his dignity in such schlocky surroundings certainly is worthy of a few chuckles, but not nearly enough to put Killing American Style into the win column.

SHAFT (2019) ****

When Richard Roundtree sauntered through the streets of New York in 1971’s Shaft, it announced not only the arrival of an iconic African-American action hero, but the arrival of an entire genre of Blaxploitation action films.  In 2000, Samuel L. Jackson took up the mantle as Shaft’s nephew, made the character his own, and brought the concept into the 21^st century.  Now it’s Jessie T. Usher’s turn to portray the next generation of bad mother... I’ll shut my mouth.  

I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone that Usher has some very large shoes to fill.  The fact that the filmmakers tackle this subject head-on is the key to enjoying Shaft.  His Shaft is a computer-savvy millennial sorely lacking the masculinity of a bygone era.  When his friend is murdered, he is left with no choice but to turn to his estranged father, Shaft (Jackson) for help.  While attempting to solve the case, they try to reconcile their differences while Shaft tries to impart manly wisdom and badass hard knocks street smarts to his gun-shy son.

If you want an updated, modernized take on a Blaxploitation classic, stay far away from Shaft.  Watch last year’s sadly neglected Superfly remake instead. If you want a hilarious Buddy Cop action comedy that’s more of a throwback to the action flicks of the ‘80s than a love letter to the ‘70s, then the new Shaft is where it’s at. It also happens to be the most entertaining movie of the year.  In fact, this Shaft is the best Shaft that’s ever Shafted.  

(Oh, and for the record, actual the on-screen title of Shaft (2019) is Shaft (c) MCMLXXI, which is pretty cool.)

I can understand why some reviewers were put off by the tone of Shaft.  The original films were gritty, hardnosed, and badass.  This one plays more like a Lethal Weapon sequel.  There is nothing wrong with that either.  It acknowledges that Shaft’s methods, while they still work, have gone the way of the dinosaur.  While he constantly verbally dunks on the perpetually in-over-his-head Shaft Jr., the son continually proves that he can hold his own against his own man.  Sure, he may be a little prim and proper, but when the shit hits the fan, he proves to have enough of the old Shaft magic in him to be worthy of the name. 

The generation gap comedy is the most entertaining portion of the film.  The plot is rather predictable and bare-bones, which is fine, seeing as the plot is straight out of your standard detective movie.  Infusing humor and heart to a traditionally gritty franchise was a bold move, but director Tim Story pays it off in surprising and often hilarious ways.

I can understand why many will be dismayed.  Shaft repeatedly tells his son to rally against “The Man” while the film simultaneously is a product of said Man.  It’s (slightly) homogenized and lacks the aggressive swagger of the original.  However, it pays tribute to every incarnation of the character, embraces it, but sends it kicking and screaming into the future.  It’s about family, fathers and sons, and kicking lots of ass along the way.  I’m a sucker for shit like this.

It’s also Jackson’s best post-Snakes on a Plane performance, which automatically kind of makes it a must-see.  

Roundtree eventually gets in on the fun during the finale.  It’s truly a blast seeing three generations coming together to battle the bad guys, and it makes for a fist-pumping good time.  There’s even a moment that directly references an iconic scene from the original that subverts your expectations and also happens to be one of the funniest things you’ll see all year.

Even though Jackson gets most of the laughs, it’s Usher who gets the best line of the movie.  When his vengeance-seeking father sets out to get payback on the man who mistreated his son, Shaft Jr. asks, “Can’t we just send him a tersely-worded text?”

MERCENARY (1997) ** ½

John Ritter is a millionaire CEO whose wife is killed in a terrorist attack by Martin Kove. The government won’t do anything about it, so he hires mercenary Olivier Gruner to retaliate against the terrorists.  There’s just one catch:  Ritter wants to be the one who pulls the trigger.  That presents a problem since he’s a businessman and not a hardened soldier.  Gruner then must put him through a crash course boot camp before they drop in behind enemy lines and go after Kove.

Directed by Avi (Doppelganger) Nesher, Mercenary kicks off with a fun opening “How Badass is He?” scene where we see Gruner kill a gang of kidnappers using only a pen and a credit card.  Nesher films the action scenes competently and offers up interesting variations on the usual formula such as the addition of hang gliders and go-karts to the action.  It’s probably a bit long and drawn out, and suffers from a lackluster finale, but there are plenty of shootouts and explosions to be had.

The fun cast also helps keep you engaged.  This is probably Gruner’s best performance.  He’s a tight-lipped no-nonsense kind of guy, but his sense of honor and heart of gold makes him more endearing than most of the characters he’s played.  His interactions with Robert Culp (great as always), who plays his handler, are surprisingly moving.  Culp only has a few months to live and the way Gruner watches over him offer some of the best moments in the movie.  

It’s also amusing seeing the usually mild-mannered Ritter dropping F-Bombs and trying to act tough.  The fact that he starred in this and Sling Blade back-to-back really shows the extent of his range.  Kove makes for an ideal villain although he disappears from the action much too soon.  At least the always reliable Ed (Death Wish 3) Lauter is around to pick up the villainy baton about halfway through.  

DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE (2019) *** ½

With Bone Tomahawk and Brawl in Cell Block 99, writer/director S. Craig Zahler has proved to be one of the most interesting voices in film today.  No one has combined hardboiled narratives, pitch black humor, and quirky characters like this since Tarantino.  Dragged Across Concrete is further proof that Zahler has the goods.

Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn are two cops who’ve just been suspended for roughing up a suspect.  Tory Kittles is a convict freshly out of jail who teams up with his pal Michael Jai White and a team of trigger-happy killers to pull off a daring heist.  Faced with an uncertain retirement plan and needing to set their families up with some semblance of stability, Gibson and Vaughn trail the criminals, hoping to cut themselves in on the loot.  Things quickly go south, and a bloodbath ensues.  

Zahler writes full-blooded characters that sizzle and pop.  They’re full of flaws, broken dreams, and unscrupulous aspirations.  He still wants you to root for them, despite all that, and it’s almost impossible not to.  These guys have been beaten up by life, especially Gibson’s character who readily admits his inability to change has caused him to be stuck in a rut.  Tired of a vocation that requires him to round up “imbeciles”, pulling this job is his only chance to provide for his family.  Likewise, Vaughn is fascinating to watch.  He’s flashy and funny, and seemingly has everything going for him, although he has his own set of very different problems.  He’s relatively young and wants to propose to his girlfriend, so maybe grabbing some quick cash now will allow him to sidestep the very same mistakes Gibson’s made.  Kittles’ character has his own noble intentions about the money, which makes him not too different from the corrupt cops.  Like them, he only wants to provide for his family.  They just so happen to be on opposite sides of the coin.  And the law.  

Much has been made about the movie’s length.  Zahler is a novelist, so he approaches each scene almost as if it were a chapter in a book.  Not only does each scene have a distinct beginning, middle, and end, they also have their own rhythm too.  Sometimes, he wants you to really feel the length (like the overlong stakeout sequence), if only to give you an opportunity to swim inside the characters’ skin for a bit.  My favorite moment doesn’t even involve the main characters.  It’s a long scene focusing on a seemingly inconsequential character that almost feels like it’s from another movie.  Don't worry, its payoff provides one of the biggest gasps of the entire movie.

It lacks the gut-punch intensity of Brawl in Cell Block 99, and some of the points Zahler makes is a tad too on-the-nose, but Dragged Across Concrete remains a fine companion piece, nonetheless.  Many of the same major players appear.  It’s fun seeing Jennifer Carpenter, Don Johnson, and Udo Kier popping up and making the most of their smallish roles.  I especially liked Johnson as Gibson’s boss who tells him he’s about to be fired because the media has acquired footage of him behaving badly.  Gibson is particularly excellent in this scene, possibly owing to the fact that he knows a thing or two about having a bad news day.  

DARK PHOENIX (2019) ***

Dark Phoenix isn’t the final X-Men movie (unless The New Mutants gets shelved permanently), but it kind of feels like it (and I’m not saying that just because it was a box office dud either).  Set in 1992, eight years before the original film, it brings the series full circle.  After the last few big budget spectacles, this one returns to the dark, low-tech vibe of the first film.  Instead of the bright costumes of the past few sequels, we’re back to tattooed mutants wearing biker and S & M gear.  I kinda liked that.  The lower budget (at least it looks lower budgeted) does help make it look like it logistically was made BEFORE the original.  Major fight scenes occur in a deserted small town, a cordoned off block of city street, and on a train.  It definitely feels like something out of a ‘90s flick.  

Critics savaged it, but Dark Phoenix isn’t nearly as a bad as they’d lead you to believe.  I’ll admit, it’s far from perfect.  It suffers from serious déjà vu from X-Men 3 as Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) causes another death of a major character with her out-of-control mutant powers.  I guess it’s residual ripple effect from Wolverine going back in time in Days of Future Past.  Stuff that happened before is happening again, albeit in a slightly modified form.  I can concede that first-time director Simon Kinberg (who’s been a producer on the series for years) brings little of the pizazz that Bryan Singer and Brett Ratner gave their X-Men entries.  

Still, there are enough interesting bits here to keep it all from feeling stale.  I liked how Jean’s rampage causes the X-Men to become divided.  Professor X (James McAvoy) is too full of hubris to admit he made a mistake with Jean.  Magneto (Michael Fassbender) certainly has a point as he rallies his Brotherhood (and X-Men alike) to take Jean down.  It’s been a theme throughout the series that Professor X and Magneto want the same goal, just go about it in different ways.  Dark Phoenix gives their relationship an interesting wrinkle in that Magneto is in the right and he just goes about it in the wrong way while Professor X is revealed to be a less than perfect father figure (although he was only doing what he thought was best), and yet he still tries to do the right thing by Jean. 

We also have the subtext of men constantly telling a woman to control her emotions until she finally snaps and lays waste to everything around her.  Professor X thought he was helping Jean by holding her back, while in hindsight, he should’ve been nurturing her.  The fact that the Professor is too proud to admit he was wrong gives him a unique character flaw that allows him to feel fresh.  You can see why Magneto and Jean would rebel against him, even if he was only trying to save the world from Jean’s awesome powers. 

The casting of Jessica Chastain as the villain had promise.  Too bad the execution is kind of disappointing.  She’s a great actress and tries her best, but she isn’t given much to work with.  (Her character supposedly received a major overhaul in post-production.)  Turner is good, although she pales next to Famke Janssen‘s portrayal of Jean in the original trilogy.  As much as I loved seeing Evan Peters once again as Quicksilver, unfortunately he gets sidelined for much of the film. 

On the plus side, the rapport between Fassbender and McAvoy is as good as ever.  Their scenes give the film the juice needed to propel it along. Nicholas Hoult also manages to find some new ways to inject life into the character of Beast.  (Oh, and there’s at least one great cameo in there that I wouldn’t dream of spoiling.)  If this is indeed the last film with this cast, it will be a shame.  However, it ends on a nice enough note and serves as a decent send-off to our beloved characters.

X-MEN MOVIE SCORECARD:

X-Men: Apocalypse: ****

Deadpool: ****
X-Men: Days of Future Past: ****
X-Men 2: X-Men United: ****
X-Men: ****
X-Men 3: The Last Stand: ****
Logan:  ****
X-Men: First Class: *** ½
Deadpool 2: *** ½
X-Men: Origins: Wolverine: *** ½
Dark Phoenix: ***
The Wolverine: ***

2019 Comic Book Movie Scorecard:
Avengers:  Endgame:  ****
Alita:  Battle Angel:  ***
Captain Marvel:  ***
Shazam!:  ***
Dark Phoenix:  ***