Cast: Rami Malek                              Freddie Mercury Lucy Boynton                            Mary Austin Gwilym Lee                               Brian May Ben Hardy                                Roger Taylor Jospeh Mazzello                        John Deacon Aidan Gillen                              John Read Tom Hollander                          Jim Beach I am still working through a stack of unwatched Blu-Rays that I had collected over the years, albeit with streaming services, the pandemic, and of course a reduced Hollywood production calendar, this stack is getting smaller every week. Grabbing the next disc, I was very glad to see that it was Bohemian Rhapsody, while I had bought this disc a year or so ago, I have just not gotten around to watching it. This movie struck a chord with my memories as a youth. Queen had an eclectic range of music that appealed to me and my friends. Songs like “We will rock you”, “Another one bites the Dust”, “Fat Bottomed Girls”, “We are the Champions” and of course the title song “Bohemian Rhapsody” were staples in our music library whenever my friends and I got together to have a party. Through the years, I have always smiled in remembrance whenever these songs come on the radio, while my music tastes may have changed over the years, my memories of Queen and their music were always enjoyable.  “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a Biopic or Docudrama if you will, of Freddie Mercury rise to stardom as an individual and also as a member of the iconic Rock band “Queen”. As with many films of late, Rhapsody, starts with the end, and then flips backwards to tell you of the journey of the key characters and how they got to that point. Once in the flashback, we find a young Freddie Mercury (Malek), before he changed his name, working at an airport as a baggage handler during the day, and frequenting the pub scene at night. While on only touching on his origins, this film does display the early struggles of Mercury as an immigrant from Zanzibar with Indian roots, trying to assimilate in London in the early 1970’s.  While touring the pubs and local music scenes, he meets up with Brian May (Lee) and Roger Taylor (Hardy), to join their band “Smile”, John Deacon (Mazzello) would join them in 1971. “Smile” would then be subsequently rebranded as Queen, just prior to their first album’s release.   “Bohemian Rhapsody” portrays the band’s early struggles, internal and external conflicts, creation of the hits, recording, and finally in concert. The film had a steady…

Cast: Gerard Butler                John Garrity Morena Baccarin           Allison Garrity Roger Dale Floyd           Nathan Garrity Scott Glenn                   Dale This week I decided to go back to Amazon Prime to see what I could find for a review. Lo and Behold, I came across Greenland as a new release and addition to the service. I watched the trailer, thought OK, a mild rip off of Deep Impact and Armageddon, with a hint of Geostorm and 2012. But, what the hell, will give it a try. Why not, it stars Butler and Baccarin, two actors that for the most part that I like their work. So, we queued up the film and settled in to be entertained.  Now for a quick synopsis on what Greenland is about. I will try and not to give out too many spoilers, but in a nutshell, Greenland tells the tale of a family who is trying to survive after a near Extinction Level Event. A meteor called “Clark” (I found out later, named after Arthur C Clarke, and most specifically his story “Hammer of the Gods”.) will be hitting the Earth and basically wiping out all of civilization. Now, at first the public is told that it will miss Earth (even though the Gov’t knows it won’t) and they will only really see a meteor shower to provide some stellar entertainment.  Enter our hero of the story, John Garrity (Butler), he is a structural engineer and architect with marital problems. Going home (and into the spare bedroom) so that he can join his estranged wife and son to celebrate the son’s birthday, Garrity (Butler) receives a text and Presidential alarm stating that he and his family have been chosen to go to the Government bunker to weather out the calamity. As this warning happens not only when he is shopping for last minute party supplies, but again when all their friends and neighbours are at the house it makes for a few awkward scenes between Butler and Baccarin, as well as their house guests. Packing up their things, while their neighbours start to panic, primarily as they were not called we are presented with a scene much like Deep Impact when the lucky few were taken away to safety. The Garrity’s pack up and head out to the designated pick up point, and we are informed that there is a bit of an issue with respect to the son’s insulin medicine. This…

Cast: Tom Holland                             Peter Parker/Spider-Man Samuel L. Jackson                     Nick Fury Jake Gyllenhaal                         Quentin Beck/Mysterio Marisa Tomei                            May Parker Jon Favreau                              Happy Hogan Zendaya                                   MJ Jacob Batalon                           Ned Leeds Even though we are living through another COVID lockdown, and every day seems to be another Groundhog Day, Friday came along, so it is another movie night in our household. For this week, we decided to revisit the Marvel Comics Universe again with the viewing of the latest Spider-Man film. “Spider-Man: Far From Home” is a light romp that takes place after Avengers: Endgame in the MCU timeline. With the movie selected, the bottle of Chardonnay opened and pop-corn popped we inserted the film to start the latest Spider-Man adventure. Spider-Man has always been one of my favourite characters in the MCU. I remember as a child watching the cheesy cartoons on Saturday mornings. Even as an adolescent, I could see how the same frames were always being used to demonstrate Spidey swinging through the streets, but it did not matter. I enjoyed the story-lines and re-watched the episodes’ time and time again on weekend mornings. Not only did the cartoon’s stick in my mind, but also the theme song “Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can”. Don’t tell me you didn’t sing along with lyrics; and you can thank me for the ear worm that you now have with the song resounding in your head for the rest of the day.  Don’t forget, I am old enough that I remember when these cartoons were “new” in the late 60’s as was our colour television! Not to mention, this was pre-cable era and we only had a few channels, so whatever was on tv was what we had to choose from, and there were only a half dozen channels! But, I have digressed, we are here to read about the “Far From Home” not my memories of a cheesy cartoon from the 60’s. “Spider-Man: Far From Home” stars Tom Holland in the title role. He is the 3rdSpider-Man in the MCU film adaptions, and for me, Holland actually embodies the Spider-Man of my young memories. The previous actors Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were valiant attempts to capture the essence and youthful exuberance of Spider-Man, but I personally found them lacking. Especially Maguire, Garfield was a bit better, and with Holland, they have truly found “Spider-Man”. To round out the cast, we have Zendaya (MJ), Jacob Batalon (Ned Leeds), Favreau…

Cast: Aml Ameen                               Remy Darbonne Rhea Seehorn                           Dr. Brynn Stewart Roxanne Mckee                        Ariella Barash Well it has been a few weeks since my last review, this delay is not caused by not wanting to write about a film or show that we have watched, but primarily because every weekend’s movie has been pretty dismal. First a few weeks ago we started with “Breaking In” starring Gabrielle Union, I usually enjoy all of her films but this movie was so bland and predictable that I could not even get the urge to use sarcasm in a review. Then we tried “Palm Springs” which is currently on Amazon. While not a fan of Andy Samberg’s humour, we gave it a try. Man, were we disappointed, a blatant rip-off of Ground hog day with not enough originality or comedy to make it remotely watchable. (Though we did watch to the end, good thing we had lots of wine) and to round up this trifecta of fecal matter we suffered through “Angel has Fallen” starring Morgan Freeman and Gerard Butler. You would think with these two powerhouses the film would have been great…but Nay Nay my friends, this film goes straight to the garage sale pile without stopping at go and collecting 200 dollars. It was just horrible, even with stars of this calibre. So what do we have left to watch this weekend you ask? Well since we were on a run of horrible films, we tried the sequel Inside Man: Most Wanted (2019). Again, we were disappointed. Not only was this an unwanted sequel to a fantastic film (Inside Man (2006) starring Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster and Clive Owen) but there was nothing and I mean nothing original about this follow-up film.  First, let me state that if you watched the original Inside Man or even Money Heist, you have the plot. It is identical with no surprises, and I mean no surprises. There were no twists, no turns, just a straight boring line of a plot. (well the original was good, but I watched that a long time ago.) Where can I start with this poor excuse of a film. It opens up in a scene during WW2, where an intrepid bunch of American soldiers find a cache of Nazi Gold and return it to the states. So, Ok, besides historical inaccuracies of an integrated unit fighting in WW2, I will continue watching the…

Cast: Woody Harrelson                      Tallahassee Jesse Eisenberg                         Columbus Emma Stone                             Wichita Abigail Breslin                           Little Rock Zoey Deutch                             Madison Avan Jogia                                Berkeley Rosario Dawson                        Nevada Luke Wilson                              Albuquerque Thomas Middleditch                 Flagstaff Christmas and New years are now in the past, and we were looking for something a little light to watch on a Friday night. Over the last few days we had tried several films to varying degrees of enjoyment for example, 3022 (2019) starring Kate Walsh and Omar Epps … well the movie felt it would last 3022 minutes, luckily we stopped it after 15 minutes…total garbage, don’t waste your time. We also tried the latest remake of “The Saint” (2017) starring Eliza Dushku and Adam Rayner, even though I was a fan of the original series starring Roger Moore, and even liked the first remake with Val Kilmer, this pile of fecal matter was 2 hours of my life that I will never get back. So when cruising by your selection on Netflix, keep going…! We then put on “Last Christmas” (2019) with Henry Golding, Emilia Clarke and Michelle Yeoh, while this movie was light, and actually entertaining, it is more of a seasonal film that will no doubt not last the time. It is now into 2021, and we have tried NETFLIX for the last few films, with no luck in choosing a film to review. I then decided to go back to our stack of unwatched films for the next review.  So, with that in mind, I selected “Zombieland: Double Tap” for our viewing pleasure. The first Zombieland (2009) was light, fresh, and had some up and coming actors in it, centering around Woody Harrelson as the main draw. While not heavy on a plot, besides surviving a Zombie apocalypse, it did provide an amusing way to kill a few hours. In the sequel “Double Tap” we find our 4 intrepid heroes living in Washington DC, in the White House no less, and really, why not, you are surviving a Zombie Apocalypse, so why not live like you are the leader of what is left of the sane world? Anyways, 10 years has past since the first film, the characters have all grown (ok, well sort of, they are all still immature and kind of goofy) and have adapted completely to life in the new world. Also, we are informed in the intro, that it seems that the zombies have also mutated over the years, becoming even…

Cast: Michael B. Jordan                     Adonis Johnson Sylvester Stallone                      Rocky Balboa Tessa Thompson                       Bianca Phylicia Rashad                         Mary Anne Creed Dolph Lundgren                        Ivan Drago Florian Munteanu                     Viktor Drago Russell Hornsby                        Buddy Marcelle Brigitte Nielsen                         Ludmilla Well it was Friday night and we were unsure of what to watch for this week’s entertainment and review. So, after perusing my stack of films that were still unwatched, I selected Creed II. Creed II is the latest in the long string of Rocky (or Rocky centric) films in the franchise. While these films are often predictable, they usually offer a great series of fight sequences to ensure that the viewer is entertained, even when the plot or dialogue may be weak. Creed II was really no change to the already proven Rocky formula, or even to be more specific “Rocky IV” script. The story lines were extremely similar, the set up as well as the finish, hell, even some of the concepts and sequences were (almost) replicas from the aforementioned film. So even with all that in mind, we did sit down to give it a watch.  For a quick synopsis of Creed II, (start with story from Rocky IV…. just kidding), Adonis Creed has become the Heavyweight Champion of the world in a title match in Vegas, life is going well for him and his girlfriend/wife Bianca, and the world is pretty much his oyster. Now, cut to the former Soviet Union where we find Ivan Drago living off of the success of his son Viktor, an up and comer in the Russian boxing circuit. This success brings Viktor (Munteau) to the attention of fight promoter, Buddy Marcelle (Hornsby). Marcelle sees huge dollar signs, now that Creed is the champ, and Drago is a boxing machine. Wanting to relive the previous glory fight between Drago (Lundgren) and Creed (Withers) Marcelle (Hornsby) the slimy promoter that he is, plays on the fall of Drago (Lundgren) and his emotions. Not just pulling on his heart strings and pride, he also goes after Adonis Creed’s (Jordan) insecurity in not being as great as his father. So with all this going on, Creed (Jordan) takes the challenge from Marcelle (Hornsby) and the Drago’s (Lundgren and Munteau) to recreate the past. Rocky (Stallone) not wanting to relive his previous agony and trauma, refuses to help him for this bout. Now, as we know the standard Rocky film formula, Creed (Jordan) gets his ass kicked so hard and…

Cast: Himesh Patel                            Jack Malik Lily James                                 Ellie Appleton Joel Fry                                     Rocky Kate McKinnon                         Debra Hammer Growing up I was never really a fan of the Beatles and their music. As I had stated in previous reviews, I was more of a Skynard, Clapton, ZZ-Top, Bob Seger fan, rather than the music of the Beatles and the Stones. However, when I came across this film in the local big box store, I thought I would give it a try.  If you have not watched this film yet, and have only read the previous paragraph, “Yesterday” is a film that highlights the music from the Beatles, but it highlights it in a very unique way. Unlike some of Hollywood’s musicals of late where the music library is incorporated into the story-line in impromptu song and dance to drive the film (i.e. Mama Mia, Rocketman), “Yesterday” takes the Beatles library in a different direction.  Jack Malik (Patel) is a struggling musician/songwriter who travels from one failed gig to another, while still maintaining his job at the UK version of a COSTCO. His music manager (and secret admirer) Ellie (James), is a school teacher who wants what is best for her friend and potential paramour. Returning home after another failed gig, Malik (Patel) crashes his bike when a worldwide blackout occurs. Waking up in a hospital, and suffering some minor contusions and broken teeth, Malik states a few phrases from modern pop culture, specifically about the Beatles, which no one seems to get. Returning home, he commences some google searches to discover that the Beatles could not be found on line anywhere, not to mention a few other items like Coca-cola etc. Continuing his life (and disbelief) he spends an afternoon with friends who are celebrating his recovery. First, receiving gag gifts which are typical from any group of close friends, he also gets a new guitar from Ellie (James). While giving his new gift a test run, he sings an epic Beatles song, which none of them had ever heard of before! He again searches on line for any reference of this iconic group to no avail. So, with this newfound knowledge in mind, he re-issues all of the Beatles library as his own. Not to give out any more spoilers, “his” newly released library of Beatles songs brings him fortune, fame, and a long inner journey to find out what really makes him happy.  That is…

Cast: Jason Clarke                  Louis Amy Seimetz                 Rachel John Lithgow                Jud Jete Laurence               Ellie Obssa Ahmed               Victor Pascow

Cast: Taron Egerton                           Elton John Jamie Bell                                 Bernie Taupin Richard Madden                       John Reid Bryce Dallas Howard                 Sheila Steven Mackintosh                    Stanley

Cast: Samuel L. Jackson                     John Shaft Jessie T. Usher                          JJ Shaft Richard Roundtree                    John Shaft Sr.  Regina Hall                               Maya Babanikos Alexandra Shipp                        Sasha Arias

Cast: Lupita Nyong’o                         Adelaide Wilson/Red Winston Duke                           Gabe Wilson/Abraham Elisabeth Moss                          Kitty Tyler/Dahlia Tim Heidecker                           Josh Tyler/Tex Shahadi Wright Joseph              Zora Wilson/Umbrae Evan Alex                                  Jason Wilson/Pluto

Cast: Jamie Foxx                    Art Joseph Gordon-Levitt    Frank Dominique Fishback      Robin

Cast: Elizabeth Banks                         Tori Breyer David Denman                          Kyle Breyer Jackson A. Dunn                        Brandon Breyer Matt Jones                                Noah McNichol Meredith Hagner                      Merilee McNichol

Cast: Kevin James                  Sam Larson/Mason Carver Kim Coates                   President Miguel Cueto Maurice Compte           Juan Zulay Henao                  Rosa Bolivar Andrew Howard            Anton Masovich Yul Vazquez                  General Javier Ruiz Andy Garcia                  El Toro Rob Riggle                    William Cobb Leonard Earl Howze      Micheal Cleveland Ron Rifkin                     Amos

Cast: Will Smith                                 Genie Mena Massoud                         Aladdin Naomi Scott                              Jasmine Marwan Kenzari                        Jafar Navid Negahban                       Sultan Nasim Pedrad                           Dalia

Cast: Michael Ealy                             Scott Joseph Sikora                            Mike Meagan Good                           Annie Alvina August                            Rachel Dennis Quaid                            Charlie Peck

Cast: Clint Eastwood                          Earl Stone Alison Eastwood                       Iris Dianne Wiest                            Mary Taissa Farmiga                          Ginny Laurence Fishburne                   Special Agent in Charge Bradley Cooper                         Agent Colin Bates Michael Pena                            Agent Trevino

Cast: James McAvoy              Patricia/Dennis/Hedwig/The Beast/Barry/Heinrich/Jade/Ian/Mary Reynolds/Norma/Jalin/Kat/B.T./Kevin Wendell Crumb/Mr. Pritchard/Felida/Luke/Goddard/Samuel/Polly/The Horde Bruce Willis                  David Dunn Samuel L. Jackson         Elijah Price/Mr. Glass Anya Taylor-Joy             Casey Cooke Sarah Paulson               Dr. Ellie Staple Spencer Treat Clark       Joseph Dunn Charlayne Woodard      Mrs. Price

Cast: Taron Egerton                                       Robin of Loxley Jamie Foxx                                            Yahya/John Ben Mendelsohn                                   Sheriff of Nottingham Eve Hewson                                          Marian Jamie Dornan                                        Will Tillman Tim Minchin                                         Friar Tuck Paul Anderson                                      Guy of Gisbourne F. Murray Abraham                               Cardinal

Cast: Charlie Hunnam                        Henri Charriere (Papillon) Rami Malek                              Louis Dega

Cast: Charlize Theron                         Andy Kiki Layne                                 Nile Matthias Schoenaerts               Booker Marwan Kenzari                        Joe Luca Marinelli                           Nicky Chiwetel Ejiofor                        Copely Harry Melling                            Merrick Van Veronica Ngo                     Quynh

Cast: Boyd Holbrook                          Quinn McKenna Trevante Rhodes                       Nebraska Williams Jacob Tremblay                         Rory McKenna Keegan-Michael Key                  Coyle Olivia Munn                              Casey Brackett Sterling K. Brown                      Traeger Thomas Jane                             Baxley Alfie Allen                                 Lynch Yvonne Strahovski                     Emily

Cast: Tom Hanks                   Captain Krause Elisabeth Shue              Evelyn Stephen Graham           Charlie Cole (XO)

Cast: Yvonne Strahovski                     Sofie Werner Jai Courtney                              Cam Sandford Asher Keddie                            Clare Kowitz Fayssal Bazzi                             Ameer Dominic West                           Gordon Masters Cate Blanchett                          Pat Masters

Cast: Penn Badgley                Joe Goldberg Ambry Childers             Candace Stone Victoria Pedretti            Love Quin Elizabeth Lail                 Guinevere Beck Luca Padovan                Paco Jenna Ortega                Ellie James Scully                  Forty Quin Carmela Zumbado         Delilah Alves Shay Mitchell                Peach Salinger John Stamos                 Dr. Nicky

Cast: Tom Hardy                                Eddie Brock/Venom Michelle Williams                      Anne Weying Riz Ahmed                                Carlton Drake/Riot Jenny Slate                               Dr. Dora Skirth

Cast: Amandla Stenberg                    Ruby Daly Mandy Moore                           Cate Harris Dickinson                        Liam Stewart Patrick Gibson                           Clancy Gray Skylan Brooks                           Chubs Miya Cech                                Zu Gwendoline Christie                  Lady Jane Wade Williams                          The Captain

Cast: Denzell Washington                  Robert McCall Pedro Pascal                             Dave York Ashton Sanders                         Miles Whittaker Orson Bean                               Sam Rubinstein Bill Pullman                              Brian Plummer Melissa Leo                               Susan Plummer  For this week’s selection, I decided to go the route of sequels, and after perusing my stack of unwatched films I selected “The Equalizer 2” as my next choice. Ok, for those few people who read this blog on a regular basis, it is not selected, it was just the next one in the pile. But I have digressed, The Equalizer 2 is the long awaited sequel to 2014s “The Equalizer”. Apparently called the “Sequalizer” by the cast when filming, this action picture stars Denzel Washington returning to the character of Robert McCall. Of note, according to the extra’s on the disc, this is the first time that Denzel Washington has reprised a character in his career of 50 plus films. Needless to say, we are huge fans of Denzel, loved the first movie, and were really looking forward to watching this one. So, after pouring another glass of wine for me, ice water for my wife, we put in the movie for a night’s entertainment.  What can I say about EQ2? Well, first, while it is an action film and stars one of the best actors of the generation, and, in my opinion, it is sadly not as good as the original. The original film was dark, action packed and almost visceral in its portrayal of Robert McCall, the retired CIA assassin who was just trying to rebuild his life while grieving for his late wife. In the first film, his moral responsibility to help people is his driving force for action and the tension builds and the action is non-stop. As you can tell, I just loved the first film in the franchise, however in this film, it appears like there are too many threads in the canvass, and you can get lost in unravelling them all. Yes, it has action, a few one liners, and a thin plot, but it does not deliver as much as it’s predecessor did.  What is the storyline you ask? EQ2 starts off on a train in Turkey and McCall (Washington) is dressed as an Iman. While entering the bar car, looking for some hot water for his tea, he spies his target, along with bodyguards. His target on this mission is a miscreant who kidnapped his own daughter from the mother for…

Cast: James McAvoy              Dennis/Jade/Patricia/Hedwig/The Beast/Kevin Crumb/Orwell/Barry Anya Taylor-Joy             Casey Cooke Betty Buckley                Dr. Karen Fletcher Haley Lu Richardson      Claire Benoit Jessica Sula                   Marcia We were quite busy this weekend, so we did not get a chance to watch our weekend film till Sunday Night. In this edition of “Were we Entertained”, we take a look at the 2016 movie “Split”. This film, written & directed by M. Night Shymalan is a welcome return to quality film-making after several of his duds. I have enjoyed Shymalan’s films a great deal in the past, i.e. The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs were all great films in my opinion. But he also made some serious dud’s i.e. The Village, The Happening, The Last Airbender and After Earth, all films with great potential but lacked the requisite spark to entertain you and make you think about the film. “Split” was a return to great film-making.  Not expecting a lot from this film when I picked it up, (Due to the previous movies mentioned), I had heard that this was actually a sort of sequel to “Unbreakable”, and a must watch if you were going to pursue the third film “Glass”, but I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was this film well directed, written and acted, it kept us glued to the screen. I will try and give a synopsis with out giving out too many of the plot points or surprises away.  The film commences at birthday party for a rather spoiled teenager at a restaurant/mall. The party is over, and she (with 2 friends) and her father are lugging a vast number of gifts and leftovers back to the car. As these kids are pretty much selfish and don’t really help the father, he is left to load the trunk with her spoils, while they proceed to wait in the car. However, the father becomes incapacitated, and a stranger (McAvoy) enters the car. Once inside he sprays the girls with a mist which knocks them all out.  They wake to find themselves in a cell and discover that they are being held prisoner by the same stranger (McAvoy). This stranger appears to have multiple personalities and memories and each personality displays various character traits, clothes and mannerisms to delineate them. All personalities threaten them with the arrival of the “Beast” who will kill them all horribly before moving on. However, it becomes clear that really only 3 personalities are…

Cast: Robbie Amell                            Nathan Brown Andy Allo                                  Nora Antony Zainab Johnson                         Aleesha Kevin Bigley                              Luke Allegra Edwards                        Ingrid Kannerman For this week’s entertainment, we decided to binge watch a new show that is on Amazon Prime. “Upload” is a new Amazon original starring Robbie Amell, Andy Allo and Allegra Edwards. It is a new and refreshing concept on the afterlife, with just enough social messages to keep it relevant to today’s society. Not only is this show a little stimulating and new, it has already been renewed for a second season, just one week after it’s initial release on Amazon Prime. So what is “Upload” about? It is the near future, and a technology has been developed that will allow your memories, personality, thoughts and dreams to be uploaded into a giant server just prior to your death. In this new version of “heaven” a person can live a new and full life while they are waiting for a new technology “Download” to be developed thus allowing people to be reborn in a new body with all the soul of the original, basically creating immortality. The series starts off lightly, with our intrepid hero, Nathan Brown (Amell) deciding to drive his autonomous car manually, however the car has other ideas and takes over. Needless to say, in short order the car’s Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) fails and it runs headlong into a massive truck, thus severely injuring Nathan (Amell). Once at the hospital, his fiancée, Ingrid (Edwards) implores the staff to have him uploaded into one of the upper class, post death, virtual worlds. Once uploaded, he awakes and finds himself in a nice suite, that resembles one of the posh resorts in upstate New York. He is surrounded by the avatar’s of other well to do people and starts to make friends. (In this world, I guess you really can take it with you when you die!). Nathan (Amell) soon discovers that everything that he wants to do costs money, not his, but that of his fiancée (Edwards) who is financing his death. These costs are in the form of in-app purchases, the first time I saw that happen I could not stop laughing as this what the real world is these days. Nothing is free, and everything costs money! In that light, Nathan (Amell) must keep his fiancée happy (Edwards) so that she keeps him funded and his electronic avatar alive. His Angel, (or…

Cast: Steve Carell                              General Mark R. Naird John Malkovich                         Dr. Adrian Mallory Ben Schwartz                            F. Tony Scarapiducci Diana Silvers                             Erin Naird Tawny Newsome                       Captain Angela Ali Jimmy O. Yang                          Dr. Chan Kaifang Don Lake                                  Brigadier General Brad Gregory Lisa Kudrow                              Maggie Naird Noah Emmerich                        General Kick Grabaston Over the last few weeks, my wife and I have watched the full premier season of Space Force on NETFLIX. Space Force, NETFLIX’s newest original comedy is about the creation and early days of the current American administration’s latest military arm or command if you will.  This little time-waster stars the comedic genius of Steve Carell and John Malkovich in the title role as the Commanding General and Chief Scientist of the newly minted Space Force. Steve Carell is General Mark R. Naird, long under the thumb of the current Chief of the Air Force, General Kick Grabaston (Noah Emmerich) is finally given his own branch of the Armed Forces, Space Force. He takes over this new command, much to his dismay, as he was desperately hoping to command the Air Force itself. In creating the new element of America’s fighting might, General Naird (Carell) must battle an inept administration, political sycophants, jealous colleagues on the Joint Chiefs, a staff that is either too stupid, too smart, too incompetent or just spies for a foreign power. On top of that, he has a failing marriage and must raise a rebellious teen age daughter.Not exactly a recipe for success for a professional or personal life.  For it’s premier season, the story arc consists of General Naird with the assistance of Dr. Mallory standing up the Space Force itself. Naird’s (Carrel) mission, besides standing up the force is to put “American Boots on the Moon!” Naturally, when Naird (Carell) makes his speech during the inauguration of the command, his explanation of “American boots on the Moon” has his own unique spin to it, that I am sure everyone will enjoy. From the creation of the Force, to the finale of landing on the Moon, Space Force is a light hearted romp. It is not always hilarious, though there are some scenes that are literally laugh out loud. It is amusing, sometimes very silly, and may not be for everyone. If you enjoy “The Office” or Steve Carell as an actor himself, you will enjoy this series. I also found that if you follow current politics in the United States, that there a number of…

Cast: Ryan Gosling                             Neil Armstrong Claire Foy                                 Janet Armstrong Jason Clarke                              Ed White Kyle Chandler                           Deke Slayton Corey Stoll                                Buzz Aldrin Ciaran Hinds                             Bob Gilruth Pablo Schreiber                         James Lovell Shea Whigham                          Gus Grissom Lukas Haas                                Mike Collins After having a busy week looking for a new vehicle, we finally got a chance to put in a movie on Saturday night. For this week’s selection, or ok, next in the pile… is “First Man”. This film is a biopic of the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong. “First Man” has a solid cast and tells the extraordinary journey of mankind’s foray into space, which culminated in the fantastic achievement of landing on the Moon. Ryan Gosling plays the title character (Neil Armstrong) and is supported by a great cast of actors/actresses.  Does “First Man” live up to the hype and billing as advertised? Yes, and no. My wife and I always enjoy films that are based on a true story, person, and/or event. Primarily, as we have found that Hollywood is continually churning out variations of the same plot all the time, and if it is a true story. We kinda know how it is going to end beforehand. We just want to see how the film will depict it, and if it was worthwhile to spend the 20 bucks for the ticket, or blu-ray. “First Man” while a good movie, about a historic event, is not a great movie if you know what I mean. The cinematography was excellent in the launch/space/flight scenes and at times almost took your breath away. The Director (Damien Chazelle) expertly interspersed file footage with film footage to make you feel like you were watching it for the first time! The scenery, props, costumes etc were first rate. Being a child of the 60’s I remember many of the items fondly and it brought me a back to a simpler time, where my only responsibility was to pick up the toys (If I got around to it) and make sure I finished my dinner. However, I have just digressed, the props and supporting materials were excellent and fit the scenes and era. I looked for some out of place technology while watching and could not find any. (Not saying that there wasn’t any in the film, just that if there was, I did not see it). However, I did find the characters to be wooden and unemotional for most part and lacked chemistry…

Cast: Jennifer Garner                         Riley North John Gallagher Jr                       Det. Stan Carmichael John Ortiz                                 Det. Moises Beltran Juan Pablo Raba                        Diego Garcia Annie Ilonzeh                            FBI Agent Lisa Inman Jeff Hephner                             Chris North Cailey Fleming                          Carly North Well, here we are again with a review for the Notinhalloffame.com website, blog section, “Was I entertained”. Even though, it is the end of May and spring is supposed to be here, back home in Canada, we had a cold snap over the weekend so it was time again to try a few different shows. After perusing NETFLIX for a bit and watching another episode of Wentworth (Great show), we decided to put in a film. So, after looking at the stack of unwatched Blu-Ray’s, I grabbed Peppermint (2018) to be the next movie to watch.  Peppermint stars Jennifer Garner and is Directed by the same director (Pierre Morel) who also was involved with the movie “Taken”. After watching Peppermint, this was really no surprise as the style, dialogue, etc was pretty much the same. Peppermint is a standard revenge flick. It adheres to the formula of likeminded films (i.e. Death Wish, Kill Bill) with no surprises, extremely predictable, and plot holes large enough to drive a Mack Truck through. However, it was still good enough to keep us entertained throughout the film. Peppermint starts off with a pitched battle in a car between Riley (Garner) and some thug. After getting wounded, she gets the upper hand and manages to dispatch this miscreant and leave the car and corpse behind. The next scene starts 5 years earlier where we find out that she is a young mother with a small child, about 10 years old. Rilery (Garner) and her husband are trying to make ends meet, as all young families do. She works in a bank, and he in garage. However, as tight as the money is they still want to have what’s best for their child. In that light, Chris (Hephner) is approached by a colleague at the garage to be a driver in a planned robbery against the local gang, which is led by Garcia (Raba). After a change of heart, Chris tells his colleague no, and goes out with his wife and child to celebrate the daughter’s birthday. This is especially important as a local PTA villainess has destroyed Carly’s (Fleming) birthday party as a revenge tactic for encroaching on her daughter’s turf for selling cookies at the local…

Cast: Taraji P. Henson                                    Mary Billy Brown                                           Tom Jahi Di’Allo Winston                              Danny Neal McDonough                                  Walter Xander Berkeley                                    Uncle Rade Serbedzija                                    Luka Danny Glover                                        Benny After a long chat with the “Chairman” (aka my brother) of the “Notinhalloffame.com” website, he said that he liked my contributions so much so that he vowed to give me a 50 percent increase in my salary. Well since he doesn’t give me anything for these, this vow was like a promise from a politician…full of excrement! Good thing he lives in the Caribbean and I am still in Canada! But anyways, I do enjoy this, and it gives me something to do in retirement. In that light, we can discuss this week’s foray in into Movieland. Of late, most of my reviews have not been of great or even mediocre films, sadly this week is no change. I really want to see a good movie, but unfortunately, some of the movies in the stack of unwatched films just don’t make the grade, or any grade for that matter.  We started on Friday with the “Longest Week”, starring Jason Bateman and Olivia Wilde. Unfortunately, or should I say fortunately for me, I stopped the film after 15 minutes as it was just too painful to watch. This is sad as I was looking forward to watching it as I like Bateman’s films for the most part, and am really enjoying his character in “Ozark”. But, that film, was just like my brother’s promise of a raise….” Just didn’t deliver!” We then tried something on Amazon Prime, and that was a comedy special by Steve Trevino, totally awesome, and highly recommend it. However, it was not suitable to write a review on a guy telling jokes, no matter how good they are.  Then came Saturday night, and the next movie in the pile was ‘Proud Mary” starring Tariji P. Henson in the title role. I have come to like Henson in the series “Person of Interest” and the co-stars, Neal Mcdonough, Xander Berkeley, Rade Serbedzija and Danny Glover are all very well known entities, and have played varying roles in movies that I really like. So, with that in mind, I was really looking forward to watching it.  However, like my brothers promises of a raise, it was disappointing ! What is Proud Mary about? Well, it started promising with the 1970’s Black exploitation movie vibe that used to be so entertaining. The initial music was…

Cast: Jason Statham              Jonas Taylor Bingbing Li                    Suyin Rainn Wilson                Morris Cliff Curtis                     Mac Winston Chao               Zhang Shuya Sophia Cai           Meiying Ruby Rose                    Jaxx Page Kennedy               DJ Robert Taylor                Heller Olafur Darri Olaffson     The Wall Jessica Mcnamee          Lori Masi Oka                      Toshi As we are all still locked down and there are limited choices of activity for us all due to the epidemic, my unwatched movie collection is starting to dwindle down. After having a dinner from a local take-out establishment (we do have to support local business’s at this time) I grabbed the next movie in the pile. This week, it happened to be “The Meg”. I had seen bits and pieces of this movie a few years ago when returning from a conference in Europe, but as with all trans-Atlantic flights you never really get to appreciate a film, or even watch it completely due to the many interruptions. Anyways, with a full belly, full glass of wine in hand, I put “The Meg” in the blu-ray player for this weekends entertainment.  What is “The Meg” about you ask? Well “The Meg” is a quasi action/horror/sci-fi/comedy film that rips-off or pays homage to (depending on your perspective) several movies in Hollywood history. In essence this film is a Shark flick, with a hint of Jaws (plus sequels), The Abyss, Leviathan, Deep Rising and Piranha. I saw elements of each film in this action/comedy/horror/sci-fi romp starring Jason Statham. Before I start outlining the good/bad of the film, I will give a bit of a plot summary. The film opens with a submarine that is disabled on the ocean floor and a rescue team and mini-submersible are on site trying to save everyone. The rescue team is led by a stone-faced Jason Statham, who instead of fighting a number of bad guys is now fighting the elements. During the rescue, we see a submarine that is taking on water and a hull that is crumpled up in sections (The Abyss?). This tension is further heightened (?) when the sub is shaken around a bit and a portion of the hull commences to be crushed in a way that resembles a large bite…hmm dramatic foreshadowing perhaps? Jonah (Statham) can’t save them all, so he releases the docking clamp and surfaces with only a portion of the crew, leaving a number to die to an unknown fate.  However, it appears that Jonah (Statham) is the only one who believes it is a sea creature and the…

Cast: Dwayne Johnson                       Will Sawyer Neve Campbell                         Sarah Sawyer Chin Han                                   Zhao Long Ji Roland Moller                           Kores Botha Noah Taylor                              Mr Pierce Byron Mann                              Inspector Wu Pablo Schreiber                         Ben Mckenna Roberts                      Georgia Sawyer Noah Cottrell                            Henry Sawyer Hannah Quinlivan                     Xia As the world and our nation is still under “quarantine” due to the COVID virus, we still look to films and tv’s for a chance to escape. For this week, we selected the blu-ray “Skyscraper” as our means of escape from the doldrums of confined life. Skyscraper stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Neve Campbell in the principal roles. This is the 3rdfilm that I have reviewed with “The Rock” as the lead, not that his films are the best in the industry, just that he makes a lot of films, and they are entertaining in almost every case. After watching the film, Skyscraper is probably on the lower end of the “The Rock” entertainment spectrum. It has loads of action, fantastic special effects, but a cast of characters that lacks chemistry and a plot with more holes and gaps then a brick of swiss cheese.  Speaking of the plot, what is Skyscraper about? In this film, The Rock is Will Sawyer, a Veteran and former Hostage Rescue team member who is now employed as a security consultant. His job is not really defined at this point (or really throughout the film). Is he a risk assessor, Rent-a-cop security, or in charge of a burgeoning security firm? It was kind of hard to pin down. However, his career choice is a result of a hostage negotiation/rescue gone wrong, where he and the team were either killed or wounded. In Sawyer’s case (Johnson), he lost a leg. As a Risk assessor or security specialist for his own company, his close friend and former team-mate Ben (Schreiber) sets him up with this lucrative job. In that light, Sawyer and family travel to Hong Kong to provide a security assessment of the tallest building in the world, and I think hired on as head of security (not really defined here). The Pearl, as the skyscraper is called, dwarfs anything else on the planet for it’s design, height and opulence.  Will (Johnson), his wife Sarah (Campbell) and children Georgia and Henry are also the first occupants of this monstrosity.  Will (Johnson) gives the Pearl a passing grade, the owner Long Ji (Han) is very happy and presents Will with a tablet that is keyed to…

Cast: Bruce Willis                              Paul Kersey Vincent D’Onofrio                     Frank Kersey Elisabeth Shue                          Lucy Kersey Camila Morrone                        Jordan Kersey Dean Norris                              Detective Kevin Raines Kimberly Elise                           Detective Leonore Jackson Beau Knapp                              Knox For this week, I decided to try a re-make from a classic that I watched in my childhood. In 1974, Charles Bronson was coming into his own as an action star, and the movie Death Wish was the vehicle that he used to achieve it. In a nut-shell, Death Wish tells a story of revenge. In the original, Charles Bronson, a successful architect has his life destroyed when a bunch of robbers break into his apartment, kill his wife and rape his daughter. In his grief, Kersey (Bronson) becomes a one-man vigilante squad and wreaks havoc on the underworld of New York, desperately seeking vengeance for the crimes that had befallen his family. Death Wish (1974) was a great movie for the day, it established Bronson as an action star and marketable in Hollywood films of the time. Sure, he had a few other successes as the lead prior to Death Wish, Mr. Majestyk and the Mechanic to name a few. However, he was seen more in ensemble movies (The Great Escape, Magnificent 7, The Dirty Dozen) as an added bonus to these action movies, where others had to carry the weight of the film. Death Wish started a franchise for Bronson that spanned 5 films and 2 decades.  As Death Wish (1974) was a classic, I can see where Hollywood would like to try and re-invigorate the franchise, especially as it seems that is all Hollywood can do at this time, revive ideas and scripts, dust them off and try to modernize them for a new generation. Death Wish (2018) is another example of the latest Hollywood fad of re-imagining classics.  The plot is almost identical to the original except it is now in Chicago vs New York, and Kersey (Willis) is an Emergency Room Surgeon vs architect. Other than those minor differences, the general idea and plot line is extremely similar. Kersey and his family (to include his brother, a new character compared to the original) go out for a family dinner. The Valet, hears a discussion that the family will all be out together the following week for Paul’s (Willis) Birthday and takes a photo of the on-board GPS family address when returning the car. Naturally, the valet is a bad guy, he gives…

Cast: Emily Blunt                               Evelyn Abbott John Krasinski                           Lee Abbott Millicent Simmonds                  Regan Abbott Noah Jupe                                Marcus Abbott For this week’s review, we decided to try a horror film. Ok, it was not a decision, it was just the next movie in the pile. Actually, “A Quiet Place” is not just horror, it is a little bit Sci-Fi and drama all rolled up into the same film. Overall we enjoyed the film, we were entertained and even in the most intense sequences we only jumped a little bit. Luckily not enough to spill any wine or snacks! Even though we enjoyed this film, there were several blatant plot holes or story inconsistencies that were hard to take, but if you overlook them, the story works out just fine.  So what is “A Quiet Place” about you say? Well, it is the near future and our family of hero’s are living in a post apocalyptic world. The film opens in a small town where you are introduced to the Abbott family. They are in typical “post apocalypse” clothes, with the striking difference that they are all barefoot. Rummaging in a pharmacy, it is clearly evident that they are trying to keep all sounds to a minimum, however the reason is not apparent yet. Everyone is using sign language to communicate, and we can see the hearing aid device on Regan (Simmonds) to help us understand why. After getting the required medicine, they make their way out of the store, unbeknownst to his parents, the youngest is carrying a toy Space Shuttle in hand. This toy was discovered in the store by the young fellow who just wanted to play with it, however, due to the fact that it made noise, his father, Lee (Krasinski) removed the batteries from it and set it down. However, as they were leaving the store, Regan (Simmonds) gave him the toy behind her father’s back, but did not see her brother grab the batteries. This proved to be his undoing as they made their way home, barefoot, walking on a sand path. On the way home, the little guy puts the batteries back in the toy, sparks it up, lights and sirens scream out from the toy, and then the little boy becomes lunch for an alien who is attracted to the sound. Meanwhile, the rest of the family looks on in horror, unable to scream/speak etc. as they too would…

Cast: Sylvester Stallone                      John Rambo Paz Vega                                   Carmen Sergio Peris-Mencheta              Hugo Martinez Oscar Jaenada                           Victor Martinez Yvette Monreal                         Gabrielle So Saturday night arrived, and instead of reaching into my stack of unwatched blu-ray movies, we decided to find something on one of the streaming services that we subscribe to. We started with Amazon Prime (their search engines are just as crappy as Netflix by the way), and I started scanning through what was new on Prime. Well lo and behold, I came across Rambo: Last Blood. I remember last year when it had a short stint in the theatres, and was surprised that it was already on the streaming services. Hell, I had not even seen it for sale on Amazon yet, so I was pleasantly surprised. Now, I loved First Blood, it was a fantastic film that set the tone for action movies of the era and really set Stallone’s career on the action trajectory after the fan base he created in the Rocky series. Not only was it a great movie, it was also a great book by David Morrell.  The original that started it all, had John Rambo (Stallone) a highly decorated Special Forces Vietnam Veteran come to small town USA to visit one of his Army buddies. Ushered out of town by the local Sherriff Teasel (Brian Dennehy) who took umbrage to Rambo (Stallone), with his long hair etc. This action set the scene for all of Rambo’s rage and frustration to be unleashed on the Sherriff and the unsuspecting town. Needless to say, Rambo was victorious over the Sherriff, he escaped and started a series of films in the Rambo universe (First Blood 2, Rambo 3, Rambo and now finally Rambo: Last Blood).  However, this review is not about previous Rambo movies, it is to discuss the latest one in the Stallone Franchise. Rambo: Last Blood has to be one of the worst pieces of fecal matter that Stallone has ever produced, and this is being generous. I watched the whole film, desperately looking for something to redeem it and make me like it. Unfortunately, I could not find any redeeming feature in this film, except maybe the gratuitous violence that was present in the action sequences.  Before I really start bashing this film, a small overview of the plot. It is 11 years after his last film and he is now living in Arizona on the family homestead with…

Cast: Ed Helms                      Hogan “Hoagie” Malloy Jon Hamm                    Bob Callahan Annabelle Wallis           Rebecca Crosby Jake Johnson                Randy “Chilli” Cilliano Isla Fisher                     Anna Malloy Hannibal Buress                        Kevin Sable Jeremy Renner              Jerry Pierce Leslie Bibb                    Susan Rollins Rashida Jones               Cheryl Deakins As mentioned previously in reviews, Friday and Saturday are the nights that we watch movies instead of the various series and programs that proliferate cable and streaming services. With COVID news dominating the television lately, we wanted to watch something that was silly and entertaining. A movie that would be fun enough to make us laugh and not think about the plot, characters, or “how did they do that”, just a film that we could laugh and enjoy. I looked through the stack of unwatched films, and saw TAG! I figured that this movie would fit the bill. What is TAG about? This comedy is loosely based on a true story of a bunch of men who had been playing the same game of TAG for 30 years. You would think that such a poor idea would not be well suited for a film, but alas, you would be wrong. This film centres on a group of middle age “adolescent” men who have been playing the same game of TAG for decades. For one month every year, the last person who was “IT” must search out his friends to TAG them. Nothing is sacred, and no plan is too lame for these men as they pursue each other. However, they have one mutual goal, that is to Tag Jerry Peirce (Renner). Jerry’s (Renner) claim to fame is that he has never been tagged in the history of their game. Jerry (Renner) is elusive, faster, agile, and more strategic than any of the other players, and has also taken great pride in the fact that he has never been IT!  To give the outline of the film, as well as an outline can be given in a film like this; Hoagie (Helms), opens the film as he plans a surprise Tag on his friend Bob Callahan (Hamm) at his company. Callahan (Hamm) is the CEO of his own company and is in the process of getting interviewed for a major magazine by Rebecca Crosby (Wallis), when a janitor enters the conference room and the mayhem begins. The janitor is Hoagie (Helms) and the game of Tag starts again for another season. In short order they gather the rest of the crew…

Cast: Chris Hemsworth                                  Capt Mitch Nelson Michael Shannon                                  Hal Spencer Michael Pena                                        Sam Diller Navid Negahban                                   Gen. Dostum Trevante Rhodes                                   Ben Milo Geoff Stults                                          Sean Coffers Rob Riggle                                            Lt Col Bowers William Fichtner                                    Colonel Mulholland As with many others at this time, we have increased our consumption of television as a result of staying home. However, in our home, we have reserved movies for the weekend. Even when every day feels like a weekend lately. For this Friday’s feature we selected 12 Strong (2018). Based on a true story, this film tells the tale of the first military incursion into Afghanistan after the attack on the twin towers on 9/11. What also intrigued me about this film was the fact that I had really enjoyed the book, Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton. My wife and I both enjoy movies that are based on fact, so in that light, we were both looking forward to this film. 12 Strong is about Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595 which was selected as the first Special Forces Unit to deploy into Afghanistan at the outset of the Greater War On Terror (GWOT). Once deployed into theatre, Capt Mitch Nelson and his 12-man A-Team must hook up with General Dostum and provide whatever assistance they can in these very early days. Not only does this team have to combat the Taliban, they also have to overcome cultural/language differences, long supply lines, and weather, but they also have to accomplish their mission before winter sets in and all activities would be curtailed. Their prime mission is to assist General Dostum’s forces in the capture of Mazar-i-Sharif. The liberation of Mazar-i-Sharif from the Taliban was the lynch-pin for the demise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and was an extremely important and strategic mission. The assistance provided by ODA 595 would primarily centre on the direction of air support and strikes on Taliban targets.  As this film is of real events, it is not really giving any spoilers when it is stated that this support provided in the early days were integral to the demise of the Taliban in Afghanistan.  Now, let us talk about the film’s main actors, their portrayal, and the scenery and cinematography.  Chris Hemsworth as Captain Mitch Nelson: The central figure in this film, Hemsworth did an admirable job portraying a Special Forces Officer. Not only can he look the part, but his attitude in getting the job done was portrayed in a…

Cast: Kevin Costner                           Frank Hamer Woody Harrelson                      Maney Gault Kathy Bates                              Ma Ferguson John Carroll Lynch                     Lee Simmons

Cast: Owen Wilson                            Jack Dwyer Lake Bell                                   Annie Dwyer Pierce Brosnan                          Hammond

Cast: Alek Skarlatos               Alek Anthony Sadler             Anthony Spencer Stone              Spencer Judy Greer                    Joyce Jenna Fischer                Heidi Thomas Lennon            Principal Michael Akers

Cast: Reese Witherspoon                               Alice Micheal Sheen                                      Austen Candice Bergen                                     Lillian Pico Alexander                                      Harry Jon Rudnitsky                                       George Nat Wolff                                              Teddy Lola Flanery                                          Isabel Eden Grace Redfield                              Rosie Lake Bell                                               Zoey Dolly Wells                                           Tracy

Cast: Anthony Hopkins          Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict Jonathan Pryce             Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio/Pope Francis 

Cast: Michael B. Jordan                     Guy Montag Michael Shannon                      Capt Beatty Sofia Boutella                           Clarisse McClellan

Main Cast Joaquin Phoenix                        Arthur Fleck/Joker Robert De Niro                          Murray Franklin Zazie Beetz                               Sophie Dumond Frances Conroy                         Penny Fleck Brett Cullen                              Thomas Wayne Shea Whigham                          Detective Burke Bill Camp                                  Detective Garrity

Cast: Claes Bang                                Dracula Dolly Wells                               Sister Agatha/Zoe Helsing Morfydd Clark                           Mina John Heffernan                         Jonathan Harker

Cast: Michelle Monaghan                  Eva Geller Mehdi Dehbi                             Al-Masih John Ortiz                                 Felix Tomer Sisley                             Aviram Dahan Melinda Hamilton                     Anna Iguero Stefania Owen                          Rebecca Iguero Sayyid El Alami                          Jibril Medina Fares Landoulsi                         Samir Philip Baker Hall                        Kelman Katz