GANG WAR (1958) **

Gang War gives Charles Bronson one of his earliest starring roles and plays kind of like a prototypical Bronson vehicle.  He stars as a meek schoolteacher who witnesses some gangsters kill a man.  When he reluctantly puts the finger on them, their boss (John Doucette) has his punch-drunk enforcer whack his pregnant wife.  This sends Chuck’s character, a Korean vet, on a quest for vengeance. 

All of this sounds like it can't miss, but it does.  It’s painfully slow moving and there’s not a whole lot of action.  Even though Bronson is top billed, he's not given much to do.  Mostly, it’s just scenes of Doucette sitting around and plotting.  

Director Gene Fowler, Jr. has a nice eye for detail.  He brings the same visual flair that he brought to I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Married a Monster from Outer Space as the film often looks like a ‘40s film noir.  Too bad the sluggish pacing, low budget, and flimsy script pretty much undoes all his hard work. 

Although Bronson kind of gets the short end of the stick, he does have at least one memorable badass moment.  After he learns his wife and unborn child have been killed, he breaks open his dead kid’s piggy back with a hammer and uses the money to buy a gun.  Too bad his eventual clash with the villains is so lackluster. 

SONG TO SONG (2017) **

I always find Terrence Malick’s movies fascinating, even if they do have a tendency to leave me cold.  He has always had an eye for capturing beautiful landscapes, but his best films, Badlands, The Tree of Life, and The Thin Red Line, work because we can connect emotionally to the characters too.  Song to Song is for me, his worst film because not only are none of the characters likeable, the world they inhabit is kind of drab.

That’s not entirely correct.  The film is set against the backdrop of the music industry and several musicians (from Johnny Rotten to Iggy Pop to Patti Smith) cameo playing themselves.  A great movie could have been made set in this world, but it’s clear from the outset that Malick isn’t very interested in the cameos, or the various love triangles, or much of anything.

The plot follows a handful of characters (Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman, etc.) who fall in and out of love while attending industry parties and hanging out backstage at concerts.  Malick uses the same kind of set-up he used for To the Wonder.  Most scenes are fragmented, contain dialogue that often feels improvised, and it hops around quite a bit.  This worked well in To the Wonder because it felt like memories of a loved one looking back to a simpler time.  This just feels like snippets of what people do before they hook up/cheat on/break up with their partners.

You know you’re getting bored by a movie when you start counting how many Batmans its director has worked with.  As dull as much of the film is, Val Kilmer has a great cameo as an erratic musician that goes nuts on stage.  Since Malick has worked with George Clooney in The Thin Red Line, Christian Bale in The New World, and Ben Affleck in To the Wonder, all he has to do is find a role for Michael Keaton in his next flick and he'll be five-for-five as far as Batmans go.

Overall, Song to Song isn’t very good, but if you ever wanted to see Magneto bone Thor’s girlfriend, I guess you might want to see it.

PATERSON (2016) ****

Adam Driver stars a bus driver named Paterson who lives in Paterson, New Jersey.  This seems like the premise for a really bad movie, but it’s actually one of the more quietly powerful films I’ve seen in a long time.  When he’s not driving the bus and eavesdropping on the strange conversations the commuters make, he’s writing poems in his “secret” notebook.  Paterson is also quite supportive of his girlfriend who is always busy making quaint art projects and baking cupcakes (not to mention those around him who create their own unique brands of artistic expression) while never really having the confidence to share his own work. 

Paterson is required viewing for anyone who juggles producing independent art with having a "real" job.  Since the character of Paterson is such a creature of habit, the first half of the film is a bit of a slog to get through.  That’s mostly because writer/director Jim Jarmusch does such an accurate job at portraying his boring, mundane everyday existence.  We need to experience the unchanging routine of Paterson’s life to fully appreciate him.  That way, when something outside of his routine happens, it feels almost catastrophic.  The last act of the picture may feel slight when compared to most films.  Since we’ve been so firmly placed in his shoes, we are devastated when something bad finally occurs.   

This is the kind of movie that flummoxes the Star Rating.  I was pretty bored with the deliberate first hour and actually turned the movie off halfway through because I started falling asleep.  I finished it the next day and was just about in tears by the end.  Despite the fact that I was bored by the first half, you really need that deliberate pace to sell the finale.  Without it, the ending doesn’t mean nearly as much.   

I watched this movie about a week ago and put off immediately writing about it.  I’m glad I did too because I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.  The more I think about it, the more it affects me on a deeper personal level.  I see a lot of myself in the main character and that is something that can often be hard to handle.  I have also dealt with setbacks similar to what he endures, which is both painful and exhilarating at the same time.  Paterson is a unique and haunting movie and one of Jarmusch’s best.

ATOMIC BLONDE (2017) **

Charlize Theron stars as a sexy British spy who beats the crap out of people in Berlin just before the fall of the Berlin Wall.  She’s great in it and she looks sexy as Hell while smashing, bashing, and Kung Fuing the bad guys.  Directed by David (John Wick) Leitch, the movie looks awesome.  The neon-lit atmosphere is cool and cinematography is crisp and eye-popping.  He also gives us a couple of inspired action sequences, including one that is done in a long continuous take (although the seams are easy enough to spot). 

So why does it all feel like such a dud?  Superficially, the movie works.  It’s just a shame that all the spy shit is so convoluted.  There are a lot of empty double, triple, and quadruple-crosses, but none of it really pulls you it or ultimately means very much.  Seriously, it’s hard to care when everything you just learned in the previous scene is immediately contradicted in the next. 

The ending(s) is the worst.  The script tries so damned hard to trick you that it eventually becomes annoying.  I know that movies like to try to pull the rug out from under you.  This one pulls the rug, the carpeting, and the floorboards.  By the time Theron has thrown her fourth agency under the bus, I was already looking for the exits.  Honestly, this might’ve gotten a ** ½ rating on style alone if it had ended four endings ago.  

Theron deserves better.  While she still gets to act like a badass and have a sexy Girl on Girl scene, the movie her character inhabits fails her at nearly every turn.  Leitch deserves better too.  Perhaps sensing the script’s shortcomings, he bombards you with his stylistic touches during the action while cranking the ‘80s music.  Unfortunately, all that does is turn most of the movie into one big music video.  If only they had a competent script at their disposal, Theron and Leitch could’ve made this one for the books.   

Sadly, Atomic Blonde never goes full blast.

THE DARK TOWER (2017) ***

I was a huge Stephen King fan growing up.  His novels instilled in me a love of reading that I still have to this day.  I pretty much stopped reading his books a decade or so ago, but that doesn’t stop me for seeing the new movies based on his work.  (Hell, I even liked Cell.)  The Dark Tower series, while not my favorites, have always been ripe with possibilities for a big screen adaptation.  The surprising thing is that this isn’t an adaptation.  It’s more of an extension/continuation of the novels, which to me is a much more interesting and unique approach.  Although the word of mouth was toxic, The Dark Tower has some cool stuff in it, features a couple of solid performances, and is a great deal of fun.   

He who thought this was bad has forgotten the face of his father.  

Now most King movies take a seven-page story and stretch it out to 90 minutes.  This one takes a seven-book series and puts it into 90 minutes.  Again, this isn’t a straight-up adaptation, but some of the stuff that happens will be familiar to King readers.   

I think people went into this one with a very clear idea of what a Dark Tower film should be.  You can’t review a movie that only exists in your head.  You can only react to what your eyes and ears give you.  While The Dark Tower itself isn’t perfect, the Stephen King fan in me was quite entertained. 

Matthew McConaughey radiates a quiet intensity as The Man in Black.  His steely gaze and nonchalant malevolence is a nice fit for the character.  If a big screen adaptation of The Stand ever happens, I hope he gets to play Flagg.   

Idris Elba also does a fine job as Roland the Gunslinger.  There’s one scene at a dinner table where he gives a speech that sort of nails who Roland is.  The world has moved on, and so has he.  Now all he has his quest for revenge.  However, his relationship with Jake (Tom Taylor) could be the thing that redeems him. 

Speaking of Jake, a lot of people seem to have a problem with him being the main character.  I actually thought it was a neat idea.  He mainly serves as the audience’s surrogate as he’s being introduced to this strange new world right along with you.  Some fans have balked at that, but it’s done rather well.  It’s hard to establish an entire mythology that consumed seven books in a 90-minute running time, so yes, some shortcuts have been made. 

I’m not going to lie, parts of the narrative feel rushed and some of the plot devices are a little clunky and/or too convenient.  Unlike most King works, there’s no filler and it has a definitive ending, so there's that.  Sure, some of the effects may look like they came out of a SYFY mini-series, but overall, The Dark Tower works.   

I can’t say this is a home run, but there were parts of it that crackled.  The end, where the Gunslinger makes his final stand while reciting the Gunslinger Oath was some powerful stuff.  I also enjoyed the nods to other King works that suggest there’s a bigger world at play here.  Whether the filmmakers ever get to explore that world remains to be seen.  All I know is that this is a solid King flick and I for one hope we get to see more of the universe soon.

THE ROOM (2003) ****

I’ve heard so much about Tommy Wiseau’s The Room over the years, but I never really had any desire to watch it.  With all the buzz that The Disaster Artist has been getting, I figured I might as well check it out to see what the fuss is all about.  As a die-hard fan of So Bad It’s Good movies, I had my doubts that this could actually live up to the hype.  Well, I finally get it now.  The Room richly deserves its cult classic status.  If The Disaster Artist is being hailed as the new Ed Wood, then The Room is definitely this generation’s Plan 9 from Outer Space. 

Part Skinamax movie, part bad off-Broadway play (make that high school play), part ego-stroking vanity piece for its director/star, The Room is a wonderfully inept, misguided, and yet strangely heartfelt experience.  Like Ed Wood before him, Wiseau clearly has a vision.  Like Ed Wood, his shortcomings as a director actually enhance the overall experience. 

I just re-read that paragraph and I saw that I called The Room an “experience” not once, but twice.  That’s fairly accurate.  This isn’t necessarily a movie per se, this is a glimpse into the mind of a one-of-a-kind visionary. 

What I love is the way that just about everyone in the movie, with the obvious exception of his cheating girlfriend, treats Wiseau’s character like gold.  Everyone from his barista to a flower shop worker compliments him and/or comments what a great guy he is.  He stacks the deck in his character’s favor in such a childishly positive way that it becomes quite endearing. 

Speaking of endearing, I can’t tell you how funny it is to see four guys in tuxedoes tossing a football around.  Forget that the odds of actually seeing this take place is astronomical.  The unbridled joy in which Wiseau films it is a sight to behold. 

Wiseau acting is another sight to behold.  Never mind the fact that it’s almost impossible to interpret what he’s saying because of his thick accent.  When his excessive emotional acting jags take off, it’s like a rollercoaster of amateurish bravado.  The fact that he gives himself several gratuitous nude and/or love scenes (five inside of the first half-hour) is amazing in and of itself.  In more competent hands, this would’ve come off as narcissistic.  In Wiseau’s hands, it’s a work of goddamned bad movie genius. 

Yes, The Room is a bad movie.  However, like the “best” bad movies, it wears its heart on its sleeve.  Like Ed Wood before him, Wiseau is sincere about his subject matter and his sincerity is as entertaining as his ineptitude.    

THE EMOJI MOVIE (2017) **

Did you know that the Emojis that live in your phone have to go around making that same stupid face they’re known for all the time?  It’s true.  One Emoji, Meh (T.J. Miller) bucks the trend and tries to show the world a range of emotions.  However, when he makes the wrong face in the text window of the phone, it causes his user to think the phone is broken.  He then goes to get the phone erased and Meh and his friend Hi-5 (James Corden) have to try to upload themselves to “The Cloud” before they are deleted for good. 

As far as movies based on smiley faces go, The Emoji Movie isn’t as bad as it could’ve been.  It takes a barely-there premise and serves up a couple of laugh-out-loud moments along the way.  I admit that some parts were cleverer than I expected.  Then again, my expectations were already pretty low to begin with.  In Emoji speak, it’s more “meh” than “poop”, but there’s not a lot of “heart”. 

Then again, it’s hard to completely hate any movie in which the always awesome Steven Wright is perfectly cast as Meh’s father.  I also got a kick out of seeing Patrick Stewart playing “Poop”.  Too bad they didn’t give him any “Number One” jokes. 

It’s Hi-5 though who gets the best line when he says, “This is like that time Peace Sign only gave me one finger!”