Before I get to the reviews this week, a short story on path to actually watch Furiosa on Friday. My original theater with a 6:30 showing was out of power when I got there. So I cancelled my reservation on A-List and tried the Dolby Cinema at another AMC here. The system refused to say I cancelled my ticket, so I couldn’t reserve a showing for the 8:45. I got to the other theater and spoke to Guest Services. There was nothing they could do with the App, so he tried to use a readmission pass. That didn’t work. He then just wrote it on a post-it and I was on my way. So, thanks to Tyler at the Great Lakes 25, there are 3 films to talk about again this week. On to the reviews!
I really wanted to like this more than I did. I think this movie wanted to be a father-son bonding road trip movie. At certain points though, it became obvious that while the movie is name after his autistic son Ezra, the main character is Bobby Cannavale’s Max. Max is a stand up comedian that isn’t that funny, and the movie doesn’t really show how he is going to make Ezra’s life better than what his mother wants to do for him. Also, how does Max and Ezra make it all the way to LA in a car with an Amber Alert out for him? Still, the kid who played Ezra was excellent, and De Niro was good as Ezra’s grandfather. I just wish this movie was more about Ezra, instead of his parents and their fighting.
This was one I was really looking forward to, and it didn’t let me down. Powell was great in this, and he should be up for awards for this too. He plays so many different identities as a fake hit man working for the New Orleans PD, and it is fun seeing play all of them. His chemistry with Arjona was electric, and it made the movie so better. This should be a big movie will it starts on Netflix on June 7th. It is a fun time that I am happy to go back to in a couple weeks.
I love Fury Road. It is 2 hours of awesome that is basically a wasteland version of Mario Kart with dudes playing guitars that shoot fire out of them. So, when Miller announced we were getting another entry in the Mad Max saga, I was already hyped. This one is a prequel telling Furiosa’s backstory. She isn’t played by Theron again, obviously, but she is played by Anya Taylor-Joy. With no Max in this one (kind of) Furiosa takes the Max role from Fury Road. What I mean by that is she is basically silent for the majority of the run time. It didn’t hurt Fury Road and it doesn’t hurt this one either.
While Furiosa might not have a lot to say in this one, Hemsworth’s Dementus sure does. He was so great as the bad guy in this one, and the movie really works when he is around. This one was a lot like Fury Road, and that is part of the problem. What made FR so great is we didn’t see anything like it really. Furiosa doesn’t have that though. It is just more of the same. That isn’t a bad thing, it just isn’t better. This was still an awesome time, and I’m ready for the next entry of the saga whenever that is.
Nothing really on the schedule for next week other than a couple limited releases, so I’m going to repeat my guesses from last week.
- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
- The Garfield Movie
- IF
- Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
- The Strangers: Chapter 1
One last week in May, and it’s a very different trio for me. Tomorrow is Garfield with the kids, then it’s a bloody horror movie on Thursday, followed by a sports movie to close out the month at 65 movies so far.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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