Starting tomorrow, my 10th tournament will begin over on Instagram. This tournament will be the 2nd Annual Box Office Classic. Last year, for the inaugural Classic, I decided who won each matchup. It was fun for me, but between people not agreeing with my choices, and it just being more fun to open it up to everyone, I have made this 2nd Classic an open voting tournament like the recent tournaments. Who will you choose as the best movie between 1994 and 1997? We will find out over the next few weeks. On to the reviews!
I wanted this to be better than it really was. The premise is interesting. In a post-apocalyptic world that wiped out 95% of the population, the survivors have to stay above 8,000 feet above sea level since the creatures that did the attack can’t go above that mark. In the film we follow Will, played by Anthony Mackie. Will has a son with a lung disease and is running out of oxygen filters. So, that means Will needs to travel to Boulder, Colorado to obtain more. He is joined by Nina (Morena Baccarin), who was a scientist in the before times, and Katie (Maddie Hasson). Their travels puts them in the danger zone multiple times and they are constantly attacked. The creature design was kind of bland, and when you discover where they came from, it is kind of dumb. Whatever tension there is in the movie is barely there as you know at least Mackie has plot armor. Mackie is good here, but this isn’t the starring role that will make people forget he is Captain America/Falcon. This is just a sometimes loud hour and a half that just kind of happens.
From what I read about this one, i was ready for a Daisy Ridley Die Hard clone. That would have been interesting. This is not that. Ridley plays a window cleaner named Joey. She works at a the building of an energy company, and also has an older brother on the spectrum that is now under her watch. What makes this Die Hard is an eco-terrorist group takes over a gala held by the energy company. What doesn’t make it Die Hard is what the eco-group does, and Ridley’s character doesn’t get to do an action scene until it seemed like the third act. Part of makes this interesting is the twists along the way and how they build on each other, so I won’t get into those here. For me, while it zigged where i thought it was zag, it just didn’t work for me. We switch antagonists, the police trying to stop the proceedings are baffling stupid at times. Ridley was ok in the action scenes, but the script doesn’t give her lot to do for long stretches. For this being an “action thriller” is questionable at least for me. There were quite a few disappointed last week for the 2/17 Screen Unseen when My Dead Friend Zoe played instead of Cleaner. Having now seen both those films, those disappointed were saved an evening by not having to watch this.
To set the parameters of this, Last Breath is a true story that is a feature film remake of a 2019 documentary, and both this and the doc are directed by the same person (Alex Parkinson). So, you should probably know how this movie ends when you walk into the theater. Our subject is Chris Lemons, part of a diver team in the North Sea who makes repairs to pipelines 100 meters under the sea. On one of these jobs, there was an incident where the support ship on the surface lost control and in the chaos, Chris was cut off from the ship, leaving him stranded with no heat or power, and with 10 minutes on a backup breathable gas tank. After the ship is fixed and back in position for a rescue, Chis had been without oxygen for 30 minutes. Miraculously, he lived with no lasting issues. Watching the film, you see this unfold and think this is a little fantastical. Then you remember this is based on doc, and that 30 minute window was real. That level of tension leading up to the rescue is definitely there, but my issue with the film is we spent too much time in the first act leading up to the main plot. Chris (played by Finn Cole) is joined on his team by Duncan Allocock (Woody Harrelson) and David Yuasa (Simu Liu), and the casting of the team is fine. Overall, this an interesting film, but really, why not watch the actual documentary instead? With these being so close to each other, and filmed by the same director, it might be better to watch the version using real footage instead of the feature film version.
About 10 minutes into this one, I began to question my life choices. This was painful to sit through. There would be a nice moment, then the film would try to be funny and ruin everything. The plot is pretty simple: Amy Schumer pretends to be pregnant for attention. I should have known going into this what I was in for. One of the only saving graces in this for me is I’ll watch Will Forte in anything. Thankfully, he was playing the straight man in most of his scenes he was in. Unfortunately, he isn’t around too much. There are so many scenes where there are heartfelt moments, only to be ruined by the “humor”. The premise is just a narcissistic ploy that I don’t think could ever be funny no matter who attempt it. Schumer certainly isn’t the one to pull it off as only one of her films has worked (Trainwreck). I’m sure there is an audience for this though, or Netflix wouldn’t have greenlit it. Looking on Letterboxd, I’m not sure who that audience is.
Well, only one new release this week and it’s Last Breath. I don’t really see it making a lot, but it should take that much to win the weekend in the soft period we are currently in before March takes over.
- Captain America: Brave New World
- The Monkey
- Paddington in Peru
- Last Breath
- Dog Man
Tomorrow will be the third straight week of Screen Unseens, so I start March on a question mark. What I am really looking forward to is Mickey 17 being released finally. Time to see how Bong Joon-ho follows up Parasite. Also, I have a double feature including a early screening of Novocaine on Saturday.
Mitten Film Nerd 
Leave a comment