PREY (2022) ** ½

Prey is understandably low key next to its Predator predecessors since it takes place three hundred years before Arnold Schwarzenegger kicked extraterrestrial ass.  Still, it’s lacking a certain quality that makes the franchise so much fun.  (AVP:  Requiem notwithstanding.)  The most noticeable missing ingredient is the camaraderie between a ragtag group that fights the monster.  Here, we just get a Comanche woman named Naru (Amber Midthunder) trying to prove to her tribe she can be as good of a hunter as the men.  While she gives a strong performance, the supporting characters lack substance and pale in comparison to the rogues’ gallery typically found in the series.  

While the last entry, The Predator had definite peaks and valleys, it was at the very least a memorable (if a tad goofy) effort.  This one is more or less “not bad” all the way through.  On one hand, that’s a good thing when you’re watching it as you’re never really bored.  However, I can’t say I’ll be thinking about this one all that much in the near future.  I mean, no one will ever put Predators at the top of their Predator franchise ranking, but it at least had that badass samurai duel.  Prey, on the other hand, is relatively enjoyable.  It's just that it’s sorely lacking a big set piece like that one to put it over the top.  

It doesn’t help that the Predator design is piss-poor.  I’m not sure who came up with the idea to have his face look like an asshole, but it’s not intimidating or scary in the least.  Another debit is some of the shoddy CGI, especially for the animals.  There’s a scene where the Predator fights a bear that should’ve been a real crowd-pleaser, but it feels rushed and is hampered by crummy computer effects that make the bear look cheesy.  Give me the Lou Ferrigno/bear fight from Hercules any day.  

Still, as a stripped-down, three-chords, down-n’-dirty Predator flick, it almost, but not quite, gets the job done.  A lot of the stuff you’ve come to expect from the franchise is here (minus the machine guns, obviously) and done competently enough.  Midthunder carries the movie admirably and she clearly has what it takes to become a bona fide action star.  Maybe next time they can build a better movie around her.

LAST NIGHT IN SOHO (2021) *** ½

Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho is a nifty little change of pace for the director.  He trades in his typical comedic approach for a highly stylized horror-thriller that has echoes of many of the old masters.  There were moments here that reminded me of Argento, De Palma, Craven, Polanski, and even Kubrick, but they all feel like an organic aspect of the movie than a mere pastiche of inspirations.

A shy girl named Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) moves from her small English town to London to attend fashion school.  Longing to get away from her annoying roommate, she strikes out on her own and rents an apartment.  Soon, she begins dreaming of the beautiful tenant (Anya Taylor-Joy) who lived there in the ‘60s.  

To go into any more detail would be a disservice to potential viewers.  What makes the film so much fun is how Wright puts our heroine AND the audience squarely in Taylor-Joy’s shoes.  The way he subtly turns the screws to his characters (and us) is masterfully done, and eventually, we feel like we are in the grips of a nightmare we can’t wake from.

Wright slathers on the style too, which helps make the flashback scenes crackle.  The sequences where McKenzie follows Taylor-Joy down a rabbit hole of increasingly seedy predicaments are exhilarating and intoxicating.  He also gives us a gnarly murder sequence that would make any of the aforementioned filmmakers envious.  Wright’s use of nicely timed needle drops of ‘60s tunes also helps heighten the atmosphere.

McKenzie does a great job as the curious bystander who quickly gets thrown in the driver’s seat of terror.  She does some of the best terrified acting I’ve seen in a long time.  It’s Taylor-Joy though who steals the movie with her longing, hypnotic gazes at the camera.  She’s so mysterious and alluring that you can’t blame McKenzie for chasing after her, even after she knows it’s all leading to a tragic end.  

At a few minutes shy of two hours, Last Night in Soho is overlong to a fault.  Wright’s overreliance on CGI specters furthers hinders things.  I know there’s a “reason” why they look the way they do, but their appearances aren’t particularly effective.  These quibbles are relatively minor in the long run and don’t detract too much from the overall mood though.  For when Wright is cooking, the movie really sizzles.  It is certainly a Night to remember. 

GAME NIGHT (2018) ***

I’ve heard a lot of good things about Game Night recently, and as an avid boardgame fanatic, I figured I would roll the dice and check it out for myself.  It also helped that I was a big fan of directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s previous flick, Vacation.  While it’s not quite on the level of that classic, it’s still a lot of fun.  

Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams star as a couple who live for game night with their friends.  Bateman’s ultra-successful big brother (Kyle Chandler) crashes the festivities and tries to one-up his sibling’s quaint evening of fun by staging an elaborate murder-mystery dinner party-style game.  The premise is that one of the guests will be “abducted” and the rest of the party has to find them.  Naturally, Bateman’s brother gets kidnapped for real, which leads to several complications.  

Game Night is sort of like a reworking of The Man Who Knew Too Little as our heroes think they are taking part in an elaborate game, but they are actually in danger every step of the way.  Unlike that flick, the main characters here catch on to that the scenario is all too real about halfway in, which kind of takes some of the fun out of it.  There are also one or two totally unnecessary plot twists in the final reel, although nothing that threatens to derail the film’s momentum.  Despite those quibbles, Daley and Goldstein deliver plenty of memorable moments and funny sequences (like when McAdams is forced to perform an impromptu back-alley surgery on Bateman’s bullet wound) to make it worthwhile.  

It helps that the cast is strong all the way around.  Bateman is still playing yet another variation on his usual shtick, but he is nevertheless very funny.  His chemistry with McAdams is winning too, and if there isn’t a sequel in the cards (heh), then I hope they are at least paired together again real soon.  I also liked Jeffrey Wright’s intense bit as the hardboiled “detective” in the game as well as the cameo by the “big bad” in the finale.  It’s Jesse Plemons though who steals scene after scene as Bateman’s nosy cop neighbor.  

NATIONAL SECURITY (2003) **

Cop Steve Zahn is investigating the murder of his partner (Timothy Busfield).  Things get complicated when he is fired for using excessive force on a black motorist, played by Martin Lawrence.  Afterwards, the only job he can get is working as a security guard.  Naturally, he winds up being partnered with Lawrence, who reluctantly agrees to help him clear his name and find the murderer.

National Security is an odd duck.  The early scenes work well enough, especially the stuff where Zahn is accused of excessive force.  These scenes hit a little differently now than when the film was released, but they are still pretty funny.  The best sequence though details how Zahn is able to avoid being killed in prison.  I wouldn’t dream of spoiling it as it is easily the biggest laugh in the movie.  

Once Lawrence enters the fray, it kind of switches gears and becomes a Martin Lawrence action comedy.  His solo scenes aren’t bad or anything, but they certainly pale in comparison to something like Blue Streak or Black Knight.  At times, it almost seems like there were two scripts that became conjoined as the tone in Zahn’s scenes doesn’t quite gel with Lawrence’s stuff.  That probably wouldn’t matter much if the pair had any real chemistry to speak of.  

At least the supporting cast is interesting.  Colm Feore and Bill Duke are suitably intimidating as detectives, but it’s Eric Roberts who looks like he’s having the most fun as a white-haired assassin.  Sadly, like everything else in the movie, the script never quite figures out what to do with him.  

Another problem is Dennis Dugan’s direction.  His style might be perfectly suited for Adam Sandler movies, but he really isn’t the guy for the job when it comes to an action-comedy.  He also collaborated with Zahn for the much better Saving Silverman, which came out two years prior. 

BULLET TRAIN (2022) ***

I have no problem when an action movie cranks it up to 11.  The problem is when an action movie STARTS cranked up to 11 is that there’s nowhere for it to really go.  If the action lets up, the audience feels letdown, and if the action remains breakneck for too long, it can feel like a pain in the neck.  Luckily, director David Leitch keeps the momentum going at a zippy clip for much of the running time.  

Bullet Train feels like a throwback to those post-Tarantino post-Ritchie crime movies full of colorful hitmen who make pop culture references (mostly Thomas the Tank Engine), have lots of flashbacks, go by cheesy codenames (like “The Hornet”), and are introduced alongside an onscreen title card so you can try to keep up with all the assorted riffraff and miscreants that populate the film.  As far as these things go, it’s pretty entertaining, thanks in part to the wild action and bloody mayhem (most of which takes part inside the titular train).  

The biggest buoy that keeps things afloat is the game cast.  Aaron-Taylor Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry are fun as a team of brothers who go by fruity codenames.  Andrew Koji lends some dramatic depth to the proceedings as a father performing a hit in order to save his son.  Although most of the characters feel like they came out of entirely different films, any movie that features Michael Shannon as an insane Russian Mob boss/samurai is my kind of picture.  

It's Brad Pitt who holds it all together as the goofy, bumbling hitman, Ladybug.  With a film populated with so many eccentric oddballs, you need a character like this as a sort of palette cleanser.  He has a cool, laidback quality that may remind you of his roles in The Mexican and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and his Zen philosophy towards being a hitman often gets some of the biggest laughs.  There are also some great cameos along the way (which I wouldn’t dream of spoiling) that help keep the sometimes overly chaotic flick from flying off the tracks (literally and figuratively).

SWEDEN: HEAVEN AND HELL (1969) **

Sweden:  Heaven and Hell is an Italian Mondo movie about the sexually permissive Swedish lifestyle.  Droll narration (provided by Edmund Purdom, the star of Pieces) accompanies uneven scenes of mock titillation, pseudo-anthropology, and allegedly informative documentary sequences (like schoolgirls learning sex education and receiving contraceptives from the government).  Most of this stuff is rather ho-hum.

Naturally, the lurid scenes are the most entertaining.  One sequence involves a couple who learn they are brother and sister separated at birth and STILL decide to get married.  There’s also a quick trip to a nightclub where the headlining act is a topless rock band that I believe are The Ladybirds, the same group from The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield.  Other segments include a policewoman who moonlights as a photographer’s model, a club of beautiful women who go skinny-dipping in frozen lakes, a nightclub for women only, and Marie Liljedahl from Inga appears as a woman who is gang raped by bikers.  There are also sequences that focus on juvenile delinquents, alcoholics, and drug addicts.  If you can’t already guess, these interludes aren’t nearly as much fun as all the sexy stuff.  If they cut out all that hellish stuff and just called it Sweden:  Heaven and Heaven, it might’ve been a classic.  

Directed by Luigi Scattini, Sweden:  Heaven and Hell was one of the first wave of films that helped kick off the Swedish erotica craze here in America.  As such, it’s pretty tame, and doesn’t feature nearly as much nudity as you might expect.  (The most graphic sequence is probably the one that showcases the birth of a baby.)   The most memorable thing about the film is the soundtrack, which features the inescapable earworm “Mah-Na Mah-Na” which later was used on Sesame Street!  The rest of the incidental music is pretty good too.

Purdom also narrated Scattini’s next pseudo-documentary, Witchcraft ’70. 

AKA:  Sweden:  Heaven or Hell.

DC LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS (2022) ***

The animated DC superhero movies produced by Warner Animation Group are usually just as good, if not better than their live-action DC Extended Universe counterparts.  In fact, The LEGO Batman Movie is my favorite comic book flick of all time.  While DC League of Super-Pets never comes close to matching those heights, it remains a solidly enjoyable superhero romp for kids and adults alike.  

When Superman (voiced by John Krasinski) proposes to Lois Lane (voiced by Olivia Wilde), it creates a rift with his pet dog, Krypto (voiced by The Rock).  Meanwhile, a demented guinea pig named Lulu (voiced by Kate McKinnon) acquires superpowers from a chunk of orange Kryptonite and sets out to take over the world.  After dispensing of Superman and the Justice League, she zaps Krypto of his super-strength with some Kryptonite hidden inside a cheese wedge.  Krypto then turns to a ragtag group of superhero shelter animals led by Ace (voiced by Kevin Hart) to help save Metropolis.  

There are a few genuine laughs here, but not nearly as many as I had hoped for.  If you go in expecting the satire of The LEGO Batman Movie or Teen Titans GO! To The Movies, you might be a little disappointed.  While we do get a little of that here and there, this is more or less aimed squarely at kids.  It’s basically The Secret Life of Pets, except with capes and superpowers.  

If anything, the celebrity voices are perfectly cast.  In fact, you might find yourself wanting to see them appearing in a live-action movie all their own, minus the wisecracking canines.  Keanu Reeves steals the show as Batman.  I can only hope we see more of his version of the Caped Crusader in the near future because he’s far and away the best thing about the flick.  I also enjoyed hearing Marc Maron as Lex Luthor (although it might’ve been funnier if Maron had just been playing a thinly veiled version of himself).  It’s McKinnon though who gets the best line when she sees the League of Super-Pets assembled for the first time and quips, “What is this?  Paw Patrol?”