We are now in September, and it’s the beginning of Festival Season. Telluride is currently running until tomorrow, and Venice is going on until Saturday. There are quite a lot of films premiering at those two festivals that I am looking forward to, but most of those won’t get to Michigan for a few months. My hope and expectation is that I might catch a couple of them next month when I go back to Chicago for the third year in a row. Before then though there are a few films this months I have high hopes for. If I’m lucky, I will get to watch both The Weight and The Uprising next week. More importantly, Resident Evil is in two weeks, and Primetime is in three. Those are two films that have been on my radar for months, and I’m glad the wait is almost over for them. On to the review.
A former soldier and his unlikely partner become the targets of a ruthless cartel while racing to complete a critical medical delivery and save the life of a little girl.
I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. I have been a fan of Alan Ritchson for a bit now, and Owen Wilson usually works for me, but I had issues with both. Wilson’s Ben is more annoying than he is funny or interesting, and there was a point I was with Ritchson’s Hank wanting him to just be quiet. As for Ritchson, I feel he needs to find projects outside of the ones he is choosing. He seems to just keep playing variations of the same Reacher-like character. It works for the most part, but eventually it will run thin. The plot wants to be more puzzling to figure out where it is going, but I don’t think Angel Studios is going to put out a film where the little girl does not get the transplant that will save her. So, this film is more about the journey, not the destination, and I needed more. Rodrigo Santoro plays the cartel leader after our duo, and while they do give his character a “good” reason for his actions, it falls apart in the final minutes of the film. The drama at the hospital is a little overplayed too, and takes hit out of the momentum at points. This wasn’t awful, but maybe with a few adjustments, it could be a stronger film than what we have now.
When a rogue squad of genetically engineered super soldiers break loose in the desert, a badass Army sniper must unleash hell to protect her young daughter.
When I tried to tell someone what this film was about, they immediately told me that was Universal Soldier. That is partly correct, but this film has a few wrinkles that make this something of its own. Our three super soldiers are the product of a Nazi scientist (played by Dan Stevens having quite the time) who is in hiding after being part of Project Paper Clip. They obviously get loose and start to kill every single person they come across. This leads them to the trailer park run by Celeste (Adria Arjona). Celeste is a former Army sniper who has chosen seclusion, and after her ex drops off their daughter unplanned, she is informed that her time with her daughter could be reaching an end. This issue is there in her mind as the super trio arrives. Now she has to keep not just herself, but also her daughter alive. Arjona is really good here (I’m not sure I’m capable of saying anything bad about here), but other than Reginald Veljohnson, we don’t get any other meaningful characters. So, whaa at this film turns into is a countdown until Celeste and the soldiers meet. It is comical how easily the soldiers take out all the other red shirts before they get to the trailer park. The only character that I think has no purpose here is Drew Starkey’s Cyrus. We don’t really see him do anything, and while they hint at who he works for, it never comes close to revealing anything about him. This is just a violent, dumb hour and a half, and I didn’t hate it. One other note: Wingard has said recently that he considers his previous films You’re Next and The Guest are joined by Onslaught as part of a trilogy in the same continuity. Having seen all three of these films, I’m not quite sure where the continuity is. Well, other than Stevens, but he was only in two of the three.
Lieutenant Troy Brennan’s reconnaissance mission over Soviet territory goes awry, forcing him to crash-land and survive in Russian wilderness while evading capture or rescue.
This was so much better than I was afraid it would be. What I thought this would be is Ryan Reynolds heavy comedy that would wear thin pretty soon. However, I was so happy to be wrong. The film instead is a two-hander between Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh, with I think most of the humor coming from Branagh’s Nikolai. The nice thing about this film is we don’t have a fish out of water storyline as part of it. The humor is more natural than that. Well, kind of. There is a humorous sequence of Troy and Nikolai steal a mobile nuclear launcher during a military parade to try and get to the airport to escape Russia. Apple Films has had a shaky track record, but this one is one of my favorites that the studio has released. There isn’t a whole lot of plot to go through on this, and we don’t get very many twists. It’s good then that the characters work as much as they do to make this a very fun watch.
A notorious mafia hitman and a young Black FBI agent team up to investigate the murders of civil rights leaders in 1966 Mississippi.
How do I talk about this that that plot line above doesn’t really say. Well, Yahya Abdul Mateen II and Mark Wahlberg are pretty good as FBI agent Wayne Strider and mob enforcer Greg Scarpa, respectively. Their chemistry is iffy at times, but that works to the films benefit when in needs to. Over the course of the film, we follow those two as they try to take down the Klu Klux Klan members responsible for murdering Vernon Dahmer (Giancarlo Esposito) among many others. Also here is Ethan Embry as Sam Bowers, and it is weird to hear Embry say some of things he says here. My 90s brain is still sticking him in That Thing You Do and Can’t Hardly Wait. What is the interesting thing with this film is the Strider character is loosely based on real life FBI agent Lindley DeVecchio, who had the connection with Scarpa in real life. So by taking that real connection and turning it into a civil rights justice storyline is an interesting change. As a narrative choice, knowing what we know about that time period, it does give the film a good storyline to work with.
Grieving her sister Shiloh’s death, Jax Hunter bonds with Shiloh’s bold friend Luce. Together they tackle dangerous Mount Kwan in Thailand. When a rockslide traps them on a narrow plank 4,000 feet up, Jax must face her fears to survive.
When 2022’s Fall came out, I thought two things. First, it was a pretty good film. There was some good tension and reveals. It also had a sense of realism to it, as climbing up a broadcasting tower for the views on social media is still something that would happen. Secondly, I never thought it woukd get a sequel. While it got a 62 on Metacritic, it only brought in $22 million on a budget of $3 million. Those numbers don’t really scream “second installment”, but here we are. Not only that, but a third installment is planned. Before that, we have Deadpoint. Rejoining the story presumably recently after the 2022 film, we follow Shiloh’s little sister Jax (Harriet Slater) as she is convinced by one of Shiloh’s friends, Luce (Arsema Thomas), to take on another of Shiloh’s quests. That brings them to Thailand to take on the (illegal) plank walk on Mount Kwan. Using a code word Shiloh apparently knew, they hire Jon (Tom Brittney) to be their guide. As one would presume given this is a sequel to a film where people are trapped, our pair find themselves trapped on planks on the side of the mountain. That in itself makes this film a little more fantastical than the original. What makes this a weaker sequel in my opinion is that the film felt it needed more than that to be successful. It doesn’t spoil the third act to say they make it off the side of the mountain. The moment they do is where I think this film loses its way, but I wonder if that is how others feel with that. The film also teases that third installment at the end that I’m not sure what the plan is for it. That is a problem for 2029 or so probably.
Spider-Man’s six weekend run on top of the box office should end next weekend. Practical Magic 2 is tracking for $45 million, and that should easily win the weekend.
- Practical Magic 2
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day
- Runner
- The Odyssey
- By Any Means
This week is another full one. There is a Screen Unseen tomorrow night, and of my two guesses for that one, the plan is to watch the one it isn’t on Saturday. The Thursday film this week is Hope, and that should be a fun time. Closing out the week is a rare Sunday Screen Unseen.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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