The Back to the Future trilogy is great. I’m not breaking any news there. However, one question has survived in the 35 years since Part III in 1990: When are we getting Part IV. The simple answer is we aren’t getting one, but has that stopped Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis from having to hear that question over and over again? No. That brings us to the finale of Cobra Kai where a BTTF series was teased by characters on the show. This led People Magazine to reach out to Gale to ask if this was a clue. From the People article: “I mean, it’s like they know in every interview people say, ‘Oh Bob, when is there going to be a Back to the Future 4?’ Never,” he continued. “‘When is there going to be a prequel?’ Never. ‘When is there going to be a spinoff?’ Never. It’s just fine the way it is. It’s not perfect, but as Bob Zemeckis used to say, ‘It’s perfect enough.’” So, no, it isn’t happening, but let’s just imagine if it did. We have seen so many legacy sequels that didn’t need to exist, and BTTF III ended the franchise so perfectly. Whatever we would have gotten in Part IV would have been most likely terrible, especially if they brought the band back together. The BTTF trilogy is something many people find special. Can we just leave it at that? On to the reviews!
Havoc has had an interesting path to it’s release. Gareth Evans was attached to direct the film in February of 2021. The cast was put together, and filming wrapped in October of that same year. However, reshoots, editing, and the strikes caused the production to be delayed for years. So, 4 years later, it has finally showed up on Netflix. In the film, Tom Hardy plays a corrupt cop named Patrick Walker. He is in debt to a powerful politician, and when that person’s son is in trouble after a drug heist went bad, it is up to Walker to being the son back. For this coming from the direct of The Raid, I was expecting some cool action sequences. I think we only got one, but that one was pretty great in the middle of the film set in a night club where nearly all the characters show up in waves over the sequence. It was a fight that had different waves, and it really worked. Hardy is ok as Walker, but he is really the only character that left any mark for me, and it was barely that. This is also a pretty violent film. When characters die (and most of them do) it is like an entire clip is unloaded into each person. Overkill is the name of the game, and after awhile it became humorous and I don’t think that was Evans’s plan. I think this film cooked a little too long, and what we got was a crazy shoot em up, that only really killed time I could spent some other way.
When A Simple Favor came out in 2018, it was fine. I never really thought we would get a sequel to it, but here we are. Paul Feig is back to direct, and Lively, Kendrick, and Golding are all back too. The sequel takes place 5 years after the events in the original, and we find Emily has been released early for the double murder she was convicted for. She tracks down Samantha at a singing of a book she wrote about Emily. Emily then invites/blackmails Samantha to become her maid of honor in a wedding located in Italy. So, away we go to an Italian wedding, where Samantha discovers the groom is a member of the mob. Once people start dying, Samantha has to unravel yet another murder plot. This wasn’t as fun as the first one, and that could be the mystery is gone. The plot twists this time just come off as soap opera like, and silly. Kendrick is her usual self here, but it’s Lively that has more to do, take it or leave it. I will say there something happens that involves Lively’s character that won’t make those thinking she is an egomaniac any quieter. This wasn’t fine, and it is appropriately a streaming movie. It just looks like a film with a limited budget, and most of that went to Lively’s wardrobe probably.
In just over four months, Jack Quaid has starred in three films, while this wasn’t terrible, it was my least favorite of the three. The story follows Simon (Jack Quaid), a paranoid schizophrenic, who thinks he witnesses a woman being assaulted and abducted. When the police think he is just imagining it after discovering his previous violent episodes his issues caused, he turns to his neighbor Ed (Jefferey Dean Morgan). Ed is a “retired” security guard, and reluctantly helps Simon track down the woman. Nothing about this film is fun, and shouldn’t have been, but at a certain point it just becomes a slog. The pair work as well as they possibly could, and Quaid is good as Simon. He plays the character as a tortured person who sees hallucinations and hears the disembodied voice of his abusive, dead father, who continually degrades and belittles him. I think the film wanting to end on a happy note, but that wasn’t how I read things. I’m also not sure how something worse didn’t happen to one of the characters. This was an interesting one that in the end, wore out my patience.
Next week doesn’t have any real threats to take the top spot, so it appears it will be another weekend battle between the MCU and vampires. Does Thunderbolts* see a huge drop off next week? Does Sinners continue to have limited drops, and retake the top spot? I don’t think so.
- Thunderbolts*
- Sinners
- Clown in a Cornfield
- A Minecraft Movie
- Fight or Flight
If you were looking for Thunderbolts*, it will have its own post in the coming hours. It will be the first of my longer reviews that I will do from time to time. On the film front this next week, it’s a mystery movie tomorrow, and early showing of Watch the Skies on Wednesday, and a couple other movies later on. Finally on Wednesday, I have something interesting planned. That is all I will say.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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