Table 19

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: Jeffrey Blitz

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Lisa Kudrow, Craig Robinson, Tony Revolori, Stephen Merchant, June Squibb, Rya Meyers, Wyatt Russell and Andrew Daly. 

Rating: Poor.

Jeffrey Blitz, director of “Rocket Science” teams up with Jay and Mark Duplass with “Table 19”,  a romantic comedy that unfortunately didn´t deliver.

The movie centers in Eloise McGarry (Anna Kendrick) a former maid of honor who recently was dumped by via text message by the brother and men of honor of the wedding Teddy (Wyatt Russell).

Now an indecisive Eloise will now have to decide on going to the wedding or not. At the end she accepts on going in support of her friend.

When she arrives to the ballroom she is put in a table with complete strangers who have nothing in common besides the fact of being related to the bride.

Now Eloise will have a chance to appreciate and cherish this day and to be open of the fact of meeting new people and being more tolerant.

“Table 19” is a romantic comedy that had very good moments and funny skits but ultimately I saw a ripoff from a John Hughes movie.

I am surprised since the movie was written by both Mark and Jay Duplass who are really good in this genre and are very original and clever in their writing.  We saw it in the movie “Cyrus” which is a very sweet, tender and the comedy and the timing was really good.  

The characters of the film were too vague and at the same time I didn´t feel identified with them at all to the point that I considered them annoying.

I could tell the movie was very influenced by “The Breakfast Club” but honestly this wasn´t even close. You cannot make something similar to a movie that represented so much in the eighties without the audience noticing it.

I am also surprised of the cast they used since they have actors like Lisa Kudrow, Craig Robinson and June Squibb who I consider the best actors in comedy but here there wasn´t any and honestly I stopped caring about the characters and film  when the second act started.

I mentioned before that this genre is very generous since you can be predictable and still be very funny but there are limits and this movie pushed those boundaries excessively.

Anna Kendrick is also a very talented actress and funny but here my patience overstepped my limit and I just wanted the movie to be over.

I hope this is a learning experience not only for the Duplass brothers but for Jeffrey Blitz and the cast as well.

“Table 19” is one of the most weaker comedies I´ve seen in a while due to it´s poor directing and writing and I cannot recommend it.

The Shack

By Emilio F

Director: Stuart Hazeldine

Cast: Sam Worthington, Octavia Spencer, Tim McGraw, Radha Mitchell, Megan Charpentier, Gage Munroe, Amélie Eve, Avraham Aviv Alush, Sumire Matsubara, Alice Braga and Graham Greene.

Rating: Poor.

British director Stuart Hazeldine brings the drama “The Shack” and despite of having interesting moments it was not good enough for me.

Based on the novel by Wiliam P. Young, the movie is set in the Northwest and tells the story of Mack Phillips (Sam Worthington) a married man who suffered a tragedy of losing her daughter during a camping trip.

Mack is filled with bitterness and grudge to the fact that he blames himself for the lost of her daughter. One day he receives a mysterious message in his mailbox inviting him to go to the shack where the events of the tragedy happened.

He ends up going where he will have an encounter with Papa (Octavia Spencer) and his sons Jesus (Avraham Aviv Alush) and Sarayu (Sumire Matsubara).

This will represent an opportunity from Mack to finally forgive himself, to stop judging others and finally have a personal encounter with God that will transform his life radically.

The main problems I saw with “The Shack” was both the writing and the directing of the film.

The script by John Fusco, Andrew Lanham and Destin Daniel Cretton was lacking of compelling characters and the pacing was too slow. The use of the flashbacks was completely unnecessary and I felt that the writers were using it as a resource since they ran out of ideas.

The directing by Stuart Hazeldine was not precise and I think he cared more of the visuals instead of focusing in his cast.

Not even a talented actress like Octavia Spencer could save the film. Her character it was the most interesting in the whole film since the rest of them I couldn´t care of them.

Sam Worthington´s performance as Mack was not compelling and he has always had that same expression of loneliness in all his films. I haven´t seen a radical change in him as an actor and I am less convinced of him as a performer.

On a positive note I do believe the movie has a strong message that has to do with forgiveness and I was moved specially at the end of the second act.

Unfortunately the execution of the message was not good enough and the movie not only was too long but it was to slow.

I don´t mind slow films as long as it has a reason to be and I didn´t see that here.

The movie could have had a much shorter length and if more rewrites would have made it could have been an interesting film since it had potential.

“The Shack” is one of the most cheesy films that I´ve seen in this year and I cannot recommend it for it´s directing, writing and performances.

Get Out

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: Jordan Peele

Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Marcus Henderson, Betty Gabriel and Lilrel Howery.

Rating: Excellent.

Comedian Jordan Peele, makes his directorial debut with “Get Out” a thriller that I most say I was very impressed with the result.

The movie centers on Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) and his girlfriend Rose Armitage (Alisson Williams) who go on a weekend to visit Rose´s parents Dean (Bradley Whitford) and Misy (Catherine Keener).

During the weekend, Chris will discover the darksecrets in regards the Armitrage Family.

He will realize that his live it´s at stake and Rose´s as well. Now Chris will try to convince Rose to leave the house before it´s too late.

One of the things that I liked from “Get Out” was the story itself. Not only Jordan Peele directed a very good and frightening thriller but he wrote a very good screenplay as well.

I could see that Peele got into every single detail of this film and he crafted a very good screenplay and I am impressed of Jordan Peel´s directing in his debut feature film.

For a comedian to make a jump on directing a movie which is totally the opposite of what he does in his show “Key and Peele” it is really admirable that he took this risk but the result was very positive.

The acting of the film by the cast is really good and I liked the fact of how Jordan Peele knew how to manage the elements of surprise which a movie of this genre needs and he knew how to use those elements correctly.

I loved that the screenplay was not predictable and the fact that Peele used his reversals correctly was also a positive note.

Some of the dialogue on the script was on the nose but honestly it didn´t bother me that much.

There are moments of comedy that Peele used and worked effectively and the thriller elements were very well made and I do admit that I jumped out of my seat  many times.

The characters of the film are terrifying and I can see that Jordan Peele was influenced by movies from Alfred Hitchcock, John Carpenter, David Cronenberg and other directors since the previous mentioned ones manage very well those elements of surprise in their movies and I saw that here.

“Get Out” is a frightening thriller and at the same time a very entertaining one. I was very pleased and satisfied with this film and I hope that movies like this one continue to get made.

I also hope we can see another movie from Jordan Peele behind the camera and I hope the next movie he makes is even better.

“Get Out” is so far one of the revelationmovies of 2017 and I highly recommend it.

Rock Dog

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: Ash Brannon

Cast (Voice): Luke Wilson, Eddie Izzard, J.K. Simmons, Lewis Black, Kenan Thompson, Mae Whitman, Sam Elliott, Jorge García and Matt Dillon.

Rating: Poor.

Ash Brannon, director of “Surf´s Up” brings “Rock Dog”, his third animated feature film as a director and unfortunately the results were very poor.

The movie tells the story of Bodi (Luke Wilson) a Tibetan Mastiff who helps his father Khampa (J.K. Simmons) by guarding the village by wolves who threaten to eat the animals from the village.

One day Bodi´s life will change when a radio falls from the sky and begins to hear a song from rock star Angus Scattergood (Eddie Izzard).

Now Bodi will go out of the village, pursue his dream in meeting his idol and the goal of  become a rock star.

“Rock Dog” is a movie that had good moments and an interesting start but the major problem was the structure of the film itself.

The screenplay by Ash Brannon  was to predictable and the problem that I saw was that for being an animated movie the comedy and jokes were missing and you need those elements for a movie of this genre to succeed. Other thing that I noticed was that the movie was more focused on making it more for children than adults and you need both things to make a movie work.  

The movie was slow in terms of the pacing of the film and the quality of the animation was very poor in this occasion. One of the major rules of this genre is that the quality has to be very good so it can be attractive to any kind of audience.

I did laugh in some occasions of the film and I was moved but that wasn´t enough. Usually a movie from this genre has the tendency to succeed since the writers take good care of the story and the concept but this wasn´t the case and I felt the movie led to an ultimate downward spiral.

I was surprised by the cast of the film that features an Academy Award Winning Actor like J.K. Simmons and other names like Luke Wilson who tried their best efforts on bringing to life the characters on lending  their voices  but unfortunately the damage was already done at that point.

If the story and screenplay would have had some rewrites the movie could have had another result since it had potential on being a nice family movie.

With that being said “Rock Dog” is one of the weakest animated movies I have seen for a while and I cannot recommend it.

Analysis 89th Academy Awards

By Emilio Frenk. 

Last night The 89th Academy Awards were celebrated were “La La Land” and “Moonlight” become the biggest winners with 6 and 3 Oscars respectively.

The event hosted by Jimmy Kimmel started in a different way. The action was totally different and started with Justin Timberlake singing “Can´t Stop the Feeling” from the movie The Trolls, which was nominated today for Best Original Song. Later Timberlake introduced Jimmy Kimmel as the host of the event and started the monologue.

One of the things that I didn´t see this year compared to other years was that the event was not that political. Yes there were moments that Jimmy Kimmel was mocking the actual government specially when he was twitting to The President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

There were actors like Gael García Bernal who did express his believes about the difficult times the country is facing and after his speech before he presented the award for Best Animated Feature received an outstanding ovation from the audience.  

But without a doubt one of the biggest upsets was at the end of the event when both Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced the last award of the night and was announced “La La Land” as Best Picture but when one of  the producers of the musical realized that the award was not for them and happened to be for “Moonlight” it´s when the real heat became and it has been one of the biggest mistakes in Award history when the actors wrongfully announced the winners for Best Picture.

On the other hand movies like “Manchester By The Sea” scored two Academy Awards for Best Actor Casey Affleck and Best Original Screenplay by Kenneth Lonergan and I was very happy for this movie since it was one my favorites of this year.

I was happy that this awards finally was not obvious in the theme of racism which every year is a trending topic for this event and finally it didn´t happened here.

Jimmy Kimmel did an outstanding job as a host and had very funny moments. Although I felt that he went to far with Matt Damon who he has a history back in the day when Damon was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel´s late night show.

I am surprised of the ending and the big turn of events that happened when everybody myself included thought“La La Land” was going to win the big prize for Best Picture and it wasn´t the case.

Other note that I want to add is that I am very happy and pleased that Damien Chazelle won his Oscar for Best Director and I hope he continues doing this kind of movies. Ever since I saw “Whiplash” I saw a very talented Filmmaker and It was just a matter of time that he will get rewarded and that happened tonight and he became the youngest Director in Oscar history to win the award.

I think that the movies that won were good winners and I hope that this 2017 brings up memorable movies just like it happened in 2016.

The Great Wall

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: Zhang Yimou

Cast: Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Tian Jin, Andy Lau, Hanyu Zhang, Lu Han Eddie Peng, Kenny Lin and Willem Dafoe.

Rating: Average.

Zhang Yimou, director of movies like “Hero” and “House of Flying Daggers” brings “The Great Wall”, without a doubt his most ambitious project to this day,  but unfortunately the results didn´t paid off.

The movie tells the story of two mercenaries William (Matt Damon) and Tovar (Pedro Pascal) who are in the search for black powder and travel to China.

In their way they are both taken prisoners by Chinese Soldiers and are being sent to the Great Wall. In an attack both men try to fight against a group of alien monsters called the Tao Tei.

The Chinese army is impressed of their fighting skills and ask both of them to help them attack the monsters in order to protect the Wall.

Both men accept and will help the Chinese army against the monsters and save The Great Wall before it´s too late.

One of the things that I liked of “The Great Wall” was the visuals of the film. Zhang Yimou is known for making visual and compelling films and here was not the exception.

The major problem that I saw in “The Great Wall” was in terms of story that was very weak and honestly the characters were to vague that personally I never felt identified with them.

The screenplay written by Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro and Tony Gilroy, who is well know for the first three  “Bourne” films and “Michael Clayton” was more focused on the attacks that happened around the wall and honestly I didn´t see to much of story and it was more focused on the visuals.

The dialogue by moments was to on the nose and again the movie became to predictable. It was very obvious what was going to happen and in terms of narrative was to weak.

Visual wise it´s a great experience to watch. The fighting scenes are well choreographed and the monsters were scary and very well designed. 

I do have an enormous respect towards Zhang Yimou, since I loved “Hero” and “House of Flying Daggers” that not only both movies represent such a great visual experience but both of them you identify with the characters who have inner conflicts and both movies had heart.

As a movie that is visually striking “The Great Wall” works but in terms of narrative is weak and vague and that is the main reason I cannot recommend this film and put it as one of huge disappointment this year.

A Cure for Wellness

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: Gore Verbinski

Cast: Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs, Mia Goth, Ivo Nandi, Adrian Schiller, Celia Imrie, Harry Groener and Peter Benedict.

Rating: Average.

Academy Award Winning Director Gore Verbinski, is back after 4 years after “The Lone Ranger” and he does it with “A Cure for Wellness” and despite of having good moments the execution was poor.

The movie tells the story of Lockhart (Dane DeHaan) an ambitious young executive from New York who is asked to go to the Swiss Alps to rescue Pembroke, the CEO of the company that he works for, who is missing. 

Lockhart accepts and goes to Switzerland where he suffers a car accident and is hospitalized in a in a “Wellness Center” run by Dr. Heinrich Volmer  (Jason Isaacs).

In the Wellness Center, Lockhart will find out about the dark secrets of the wellnesse center and what they really do with their patients.

Now Lockhart will be in a race against time to not only rescue Pembroke but the get out of the center alive and sane before it´s too late.

Gore Verbinski is a director that is well known for doing impressive and striking visual films, making it one of his main trademarks and with “A Cure for Wellness” it´s not the exception.

The movie is beautifully by Bojan Bazelli and he achieved on capturing both contrasts of what happens when Dane DeHann´s character is in the institute and out of the facility.

The major problem that I saw in “ A Cure for Wellness” was the screenplay written by Justin Haythe, who wrote “The Lone Ranger” making his second collaboration with Verbinski and it had a lot of flaws.

The opening was very well made and it had an interesting first act but after that it went downhill and I saw a movie that was going nowhere.

I think that for moments became to predictable and was a rip off of other movies like “The Shining”, “Marathon Man” and “Shutter Island” to name a few.

The movie was to slow and for a movie of this genre the timing is crucial.

Gore Verbinski had one major flop recently with “The Lone Ranger” in 2013 and here I saw a movie that was too long and the length could have been shorter.

Verbinski has directed many good films like the first “Pirates of The Carribbean” film, “Rango” and “The Weather Man” which are very good films and I have to say memorable.

I do think here that Verbinski was more focused on the look of the film than the story itself, leading to his cast to perform poorly.

Dane DeHaan is really talented as an actor but I didn´t believe his character in this film and I did not  feel any sympathy for him either.

I hope this is a learning experience for Gore Verbinski which I have to say that I have enjoyed his movies in the past but this one I didn´t and the movie did lead to instant boredom.

With that being said “A Cure for Wellness” is a good visual experience but as a movie it didn´t deliver the goods and I cannot recommend it.

Fist Fight

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: Richie Keen

Cast: Charlie Day, Ice Cube, Tracy Morgan, Jillian Bell, Dean Norris, Kumail Nanjani, JoAnna García Swisher, Christina Hendricks, Alexa Nisenson and Dennis Hasybert.

Rating: Poor.

Charlie Day and Ice Cube star in a comedy directed by Richie Keen called “Fist Fight”, which makes Keen´s debut in feature film since he has directed episodes from “It´s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and the results are poor.

In the last day of school, English teacher Andy Campbell (Charlie Day) begins to have a very bad when he encounters with Mr. Strickland (Ice Cube) and he witnesses in one of Strickland´s rants how he destroyed a student´s desk with an axe.

Campbell rats him up which makes Strickland furious. Now Strickland wants to challenge Campbell to a fist fight after school at the parking lot.

Now Andy will be in a race against time to save his own life and avoid the fight at all costs before it´s too late.

“Fist Fight” is a comedy that could have had a better approach if several rewrites would have been involved. 

The script written by Evan Susser and Van Robichaux had very funny elements and some good jokes but at the end of the day I was looking at the same film as “Three O´ Clock High” of 1987 directed by Phil Joanou which was a huge hit in the eighties and of course it was much funnier.

 Nothing happened in the film and the climax it´s one of the most ridiculous that I have seen in a while and again it was a rip off from the movie that I previously mentioned.

Charlie Day is without a doubt one of the most funniest people in comedy right now and he had some good skits in this movie but that was it. I really enjoyed the Charlie Day from “Horrible Bosses” and “It´s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” but here he was to much of a wimp in this film.

The chemistry between Day and Ice Cube had funny bits and it could have been much better if there would have been a better screenplay, which was the main problem of this film.

Hopefully we can see another comedy from Charlie Day in the future since he is really talented and he is very funny but not on this film.

With that being said “Fist Fight” is one of the most stupid films I have seen in a while and I cannot recommend it.

John Wick: Chapter 2

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: Chad Stahelski

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, John Leguizamo, Bridget Moynahan, Claudia Gerini, Common, Ruby Rose, Franco Nero, Peter Stormare and Laurence Fishburne.

Rating: Very Good.

Keanu Reeves is back as the hitman John Wick in “John Wick: Chapter 2” and the results again were really good.

After finishing his vengeance against crime lords Viggo Tarasov and his son Iosef for stealing his car and killing his dog, John Wick decides to go for retirement again.

One day he receives the visit of Santino D´Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio) who asks for an assignment on killing his sister Gianna (Claudia Gerini) so Santino can have a bigger seat in the world of crime.

John declines the assignment which makes Santino furious and destroys John´s house. Now John will have no choice to accept the mission.

While he is in the mission, Santino decide to put a bounty for John´s life and he will be in the search of all the assassins of the world including Cassian (Common).

Now John will have a race against time to complete the mission, survive and confront Santino before it´s too late.

One of the things that I liked of this sequel of John Wick is the filmmaking itself. The story is very good but compared to the first one it´s a little bit weak.

The direction by Chad Stahelski, who directed the first “John Wick” lead to awesome action sequences that were really made and choreographed and made Keanu Reeves a badass for this role.

Other element that I loved in the story was the inner conflict that John Wick faces in the entire film and all the progressive complications he has to go in order to achieve his goal.

Also in this part we see that he is forced to go back to crime after he completed his goal in the first film. This is one of the elements that makes even more interesting.

Some of the fighting and sequences are over the top and a little bit ridiculous but still the movie complies and keeps the purpose of being entertaining.

I do think that Chad Stahelski revived the action genre with  “John Wick”  since we have only seen explosions all over the place and no story. Here it has story and the scene where both Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne are together is very well written and I felt that it was kind of a homage to “The Matrix” trilogy which became very successful.

I can´t  wait for John Wick 3 which is currently in talks and I give a high recommendation for this second part but it´s important to see the first film in order to understand this one.

The LEGO Batman Movie

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: Chris McKay

Cast (Voice): Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson, Ralph Fiennes, Zach Galifianakis, Jenny Slate, Jason Mantzoukas, Zoë Kravitz, Héctor Elizondo, Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum.

Rating: Very Good.  

Warner Bros Animation brings another movie of the LEGO toys and does it with “The LEGO Batman Movie” and the results are really fun and entertaining.

The movie centers on Bruce Wayne/Batman (Will Arnett) who one day has a confrontation with The Joker (Zach Galifianakis). In the confrontation Batman hurts the Joker´s feelings making him to seek revenge. 

Later in the story Batman will accidentally adopt an orphan boy named Dick Grayson (Michael Cera). Now Batman besides dealing with criminals and villains will have to learn about responsibility and is obligated by his butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) to raise the boy.

Now Batman will have to stop The Joker who has a plan of setting free the most dangerous criminals and destroy Gotham City once and for all unless Batman stops him with the help of his new sidekick Robin, Batgirl (Rosario Dawson) and Alfred who at all costs will stop The Joker´s plans before it´s too late.

One of the things that I really liked of “The LEGO Batman Movie” is beside of being entertaining from beginning to end it is very funny.

The animation of the film it´s really well done and the use of 3D imagery I was blown away and I even liked it a little bit more than “The LEGO Movie” that was released back in 2014 and it had very good results.

The script written by Seth Grahame-Smith, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Jared Stern and John Whittington was very well written.

I am surprised that  this movie despite of having to many writers the script really work, since like I have mentioned in this space previously that when you have to many writers in a project normally the movie can lead to a disaster but this time I was impressed and the result did pay off.

The writers knew how to use properly all the tools they had in their disposal. The comedy and the jokes were very well written and for a movie of this genre you need to very smart in using this elements correctly since it´s practically 50% percent of the movie while the other 50% is drama.

The direction by Chris McKay was really good and the animation of the film was very well made as well as the use of CGI in the film.

The voices by the cast specially by Will Arnett and Michael Cera were really good and both of them were hilarious in the roles of Batman and Robin in this film.

I liked the message on the film that is on giving second chances and do not be afraid on failure and learn how to work in team in order to succeed and reach your goals.

I really had a good time watching “The LEGO Batman Movie” and I give a huge recommendation to it and you will be leaving the theater with a big smile on your face once you finish watching this movie.

Fifty Shades Darker

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: James Foley

Cast: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Eric Johnson, Eloise Mumford, Bella Heathcote, Rita Ora, Bruce Altman, Marcia Gay Harden and Kim Basinger.

Rating: Poor.

James Foley, director of “Confidence”, “At Close Range” and “Glengarry Glen Ross” brings “Fifty Shades Darker”, the second installment of“Fifty Shades of Grey” and like it´s predecessor the results were poor.

Based on the trilogy written by E.L. James, “Fifty Shades Darker” tells the story of Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) who recently broke up his relationship with billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan).

Now Anastasia works now as an Assistant for an Editorial Publishing Company in Seattle, Washington finding her dream job.

One day in a exhibition, Anastasia encounters with Christian who invites her  to dinner and tries to convince Anastasia to start over their relantionship.

Anastasia at the beginning is reluctant about Christian´s proposal but at the end she accepts under the condition that there will be no rules and punishments  just like it was in before and Christian agrees.

While they are together again Christian will have to fight against his personal demons while Anastasia will have to confront the anger and envy of women who were in Christian´s past, specially Elena Lincoln (Kim Basinger) a woman in Christian´s life who introduced him to the Bondage, Discipline,Dominance and Submission, Sadomaschism world, also known as BDSM who will do anything to interfere in the relationship of Christian and Anastasia to win him over again.

Now both Anastasia and Christian will have to overcome their obstacles of their relationship in order to be happy.

Compared to the previous film of “Fifty Shades of Grey”, I was having sort of a slight hope that this second movie would show someimprovement since they brought a better director on board, but unfortunately this wasn´t the case.

The major problem was the screenplay which this time was written by Niall Leonard. The dialogue of the movie was to on the nose and the movie was predictable from the minute it started to the end.

There were things that didn´t make any sense and did not justify the story whatsoever. The acting on the film was to exaggerated and again I didn´t believe in any of the performances that I saw on the screen.

I do think that both Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan are really talented actors but they both need a proper guidance. Again both of them failed and the movie is a complete mess.

Honestly I didn´t feel any sympathy for neither of the characters of the film and it doesn´t work.

I understand the movie is directed towards a female audience but the filmmakers could have done a much better effort and at least made it more entertaining and less overacted.

James Foley is a great director and knows how to direct very good performances and yes some of it it´s his fault but the damage was already done when the screenplay was on board and the writer didn´t bother in doing any rewrites.

With that being said “Fifty Shades Darker” is one of the worst movies of 2017 and I cannot give it a recommendation.

The Comedian

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: Taylor Hackford

Cast: Robert De Niro, Leslie Mann, Danny De Vito, Edie Falco, Charles Grodin, Cloris Leachman, Patti LuPone, Gilbert Gottfried, Billy Crystal and Harvey Keitel.

Rating: Poor.

Academy Award Winner Taylor Hackford, joins forces with another Academy Award Winner Robert De Niro and a multitalented cast in “The Comedian” and this is indeed a huge disappointment.

The movie takes place in New York City in the life of Jackie Burke (Robert De Niro) a comic icon who was at the top of his game thanks to a character he played in his early career.

One day at a Comedy Club, Burke has an altercation with an audience member that costs him to go to prison.

After he is released he is forced to do community service where he will meet Harmony Schiltzstein (Leslie Mann) and his life will suffer a major turn leading to a friendship and romance.

“The Comedian” had everything to be a good movie. Like I mentioned before it has an A list cast and a remarkable director like Taylor Hackford but after the first act of the film everything went to a downward spiral.

The script written by Art Linson, Jeffrey Ross, Richard LaGravenese and Lewis Friedman was a complete mess when the Second Act of the film started. I was beginning to like the opening and I was seeing true potential.

The problem was after De Niro´s character has his first encounter with Danny De Vito´s character who plays his brother Jimmy. I could see here a man with a lot of conflict but at the same time the performances were over the top and the script had dialogue that was on the nose.

Taylor Hackford has directed memorables movie like “An Officer and a Gentleman”, “Dolores Claiborne” and “Ray” but here the main problem was that themovie  not only was too long,but it was very slow.

The problem when you have four writers on board of a project is that it seems that they don´t know what they want and they just throw stuff on the page.

I did like the premise on how they portrayed an artist that has been labeled for a role and tries to revive his career, but the execution was very poor.

The script had the tendency of over explaining every situation where De Niro´s character was involved.

This a huge example where it doesn´t matter if you have an A list cast. The most important is to have a solid script since the cast won´t save the movie.

“The Comedian” like I mentioned previously is a movie that could have delivered the goods but this wasn´t the case and it was movie that was everything but funny.

With that being said, “The Comedian” is one of the biggest dissapointments of this year and I cannot recommend it. 

The Space Between Us

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: Peter Chelsom

Cast: Asa Butterfield, Gary Oldman, Carla Gugino, Janet Montgomery, BD Wong, and Britt Robertson.

Rating: Poor.

Peter Chelsom, director of “Serendipity” and “Hector and the Pursuit of Happiness” brings the drama “The Space Between Us” and this is one of the most ridiculous films I´ve seen so far in 2017.

The movie tells the story of Gardner Elliot (Asa Butterfield) , the first human being born on mars after her mother and astronaut Sarah Elliot (Janet Montgomery) dies after giving birth.  

At 16 years old, Gardner is being raised by Kendra (Carla Gugino) and creates a distant friendship with a girl from Denver, Colorado called Tulsa (Britt Robertson).

Gardner receives the news that he is going to travel to earth where he will finally meet Tulsa and the chance of meeting his biological father. Tulsa will help him and together will do a road trip, while there on the pursuit of the former director of the launching program to Mars Nathaniel Shepherd (Gary Oldman).

The main problem begins when Gardner´s body begins to suffer changes when he is on earth and he´s stay in the planet is in jeopardy. Now he is in a race against time to find his own identity before it´s too late.

I felt this movie was a clear rip off of John Carpenter´s “Starman” released in 1984. The plot is very similar but honestly it didn´t work.

The writing by Allan Loeb, who wrote last year´s “Collateral Beauty” which became one of the major flops in box office, was written poorly.

The dialogue of the characters is on the nose and I have to say that movie had an interesting start but everything afterwards went down to the drain.

The movie goes to the point that becomes boring and honestly it lost me. 

The execution of  when Gardner arrives to earth could have been written in a better way with more progressive complications but I didn´t see that. I only saw pursuit against the kid all the time and the movie resulted on being to predictable.

The cast overacted so much and they were trying to make a huge effort to us to believe them but I was never convinced.

I do think “The Space Between Us” could have had potential but the moment I begin to see things that were having an exact resemblance to “Starman” that´s when I stopped caring.

Peter Chelsom´s directing was all over and he tried to focused only in the visuals and not the acting of the film.

Asa Butterfield and of course Gary Oldman who I´ve always enjoyed watching a movie that he´s in, but here both actors were not well directed. 

Peter Chelsom had very good elements of directing a good movie but this wasn´t the case and I hope this is a good learning experience for him.

The Space Between Us” is one the year´s  most dissapointing and I cannot recommend it.  

Gold

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: Stephen Gaghan

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Edgar Ramírez, Bryce Dallas Howard, Corey Stoll, Toby Kebbell, Timothy Simons, Adam LeFevre, Craig T. Nelson, Bruce Greenwood and Stacey Keach.

Rating: Average.

Stephen Gaghan, director of “Syriana” and Academy Award Winning Writer for “Traffic” brings “Gold” a drama that could have had a better execution but had some interesting moments and good performances.

Based on true events, “Gold” tells the story of Kenny Wells (Matthew McConaughey) an unlucky salesman who is passing through a tough break.

One day he has a dream that he must team up with Michael Acosta (Edgar Ramírez) an ambitious geologist who is based on Indonesia.

Wells decides to go to Indonesia and make a business deal with Acosta. They both form a partnership and they begin their search for gold  in the jungles and start digging for the precious metal.

Thanks to their success, they begin to draw the attention of Wall Street brokers, who want also a piece of it. Now both Wells and Acosta will try to protect their investment before it falls to the wrong hands.

Like I mentioned before, “Gold” is a movie that could have been much better executed since it had an interesting premise.

One of the reasons I mention this is that the major flaw of the movie was the screenplay written by Patrick Massett and John Zinman. The script was too repetitive and fall in the tendency of over explaining plot elements.

I believe if the movie would have written by Stephen Gaghan, since his approach would have been completely different and the characters would have been more real and compelling.

The movie could have been told in less than two hours and still would have worked.

The positive note that I do acknowledge was the performance by Matthew McConaughey, who literally transformed himself for this role. His massive gain weight was one the things that impressed me the most and he isa very talented actor as well as Edgar Ramírez who delivered a great performance and he´s considered one of the most important latino actors in Hollywood this day.

Even though the performances were good, the movie had many flaws like I mentioned before and if the script would have had more work I do think it would have been a contender for this Oscar season but this was not the case and the results speaks for itself.

The ending of the movie was very surprising and as a member of the audience when I saw I didn´t expect it since the character of Kenny Wells was most of the time in deep trouble and portrayed a man who for one mistake he did, he lost everything

For moments “Gold” delivered the goods but the results could have been much better but this was not the case.

With that being said  I cannot  “Gold” for the execution of the screenplay and a weak direction by Stephen Gaghan, although he made a huge effort in trying to get the best of his actors and both McConaughey and Ramírez brought decent performances. 

I invite you to leave your comments at emilio.frenk@gmail.com or my twitter at @FrenkEmilio. 

A Dog´s Purpose

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: Lasse Hallström

Cast: Josh Gad, Dennis Quaid, K.J. Apa,, Peggy Lipton, Britt Robertson, Logan Miller, Juliet  Rylance, Luke Kirby and John Ortiz.

Rating: Poor.

Academy Award Director Nominee Lasse Hallström bring another movie related with animals and does it with “A Dog´s Purpose” and unfortunately the results were very poor.

Based on the novel by W. Bruce Cameron, “A Dog´s Purpose” tells the story of a dog (Josh Gad) who is in a body of Golden Retriever who bonds with a boy named Ethan and names him “Bailey”.

The two become inseparable but eventually when Ethan grows into a teenager, Bailey grows old, gets ill and passes away.

The spirit of the dog reincarnates in different breeds of dogs and it will lead to a journey of self discovery and the purpose of life for the canine creature.

The major problem that I found in “ A Dog´s Purpose” overall was the screenplay. The screenplay written by Cathryn Michon, Audrey Wells, Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky  gave to much information, which also didn´t make sense and made thethe movie slow  to the point that led to boredom.

I stopped caring in the moment that the dog went to other breeds. I know that is the main plot of the film but I think it would have been a good movie if the writers would have stayed to how it started and be more focused in the relationship between the Golden Retriever and Ethan.

Yes, as a dog lover there were moments that I was touched and moved but overall the movie didn´t cause a huge impact to me.

This movie had everything to deliver the goods, but the execution of the script and a lame direction by Swedish director Lasse Hallström was the result of it.

I´m surprised about the direction of Lasse Hallstöm who knows how to direct this kind of movies. We saw it in “My Life as a Dog”, “What´s eating Gilbert Grape” and “The Cider House Rules” where he knew how to connect with the audience with true and deep characters and those stayed in our hearts and became memorable.

In this early 2017 my conclusion with “A Dog´s Purpose” is that is a huge disappointment and I cannot recommend it. 

I invite you to leave your comments at emilio.frenk@gmail.com or my twitter @FrenkEmilio.

Analysis 89th Academy Award Nominations

 By Emilio Frenk. 

This morning, at 5:18 AM the nominations for the 89th Academy Award Nominations were announced. There were many surprises but overall what I think is more relevant is that the nominations were fairrer than in any other time in recent history.  

Compared to other years that the nominations were announced at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, the nomination process was completely different and went through a live feed system that was seen in the website www.oscars.org.

Academy Award Winners like Actresses Brie Larson and Marcia Gay Harden, Jennifer Hudson  Writer Dustin Lance Black and Nominees like Directors Guillermo del Toro and  Jason Reitman, Actors Glenn Close, Gabourey Sidibe, Terrence Howard and Ken Watanabe.  All of them started with sharing their experiences when they got nominated and then they kicked off announcing the categories.

Last but not least the nominations for Best Picture were announced by The President of The Academy Award of Motion Picture and Sciences Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Academy Award Nominee Demián Bichir.

As expected “La La Land” scored 14 nominations and tied with “Titanic” in 1997 and “All About Eve” in 1950 with the same amount as well.

Both "Arrival" and “Moonlight” did very well and scored 8, “Hacksaw Ridge”,  “Manchester by the Sea" and "Lion"  with a total of 6 including Best Picture. “Hell or High Water” which was the movie that started the Oscar race this past summer scored 4 and  “Fences” scored the same number as well.

The biggest surprise was not seeing Tom Ford nominated for Best Director for “Nocturnal Animals” since he got nominated for the past Golden Globes and for The DGA Awards and Denis Villeneuve was not to be expected to be named in the list for Best Director Category and he did. 

The announcement of Rodrigo Prieto´s nomination for Best Cinematography in Martin Scorsese´s "Silence" was the only nominee for what I consider a film that could have received more candidates to win. 

Meryl Streep scored her 20th Nomination for “Florence Foster Jenkins” making her the actress with most nominations in Academy Award History.  

Compared to the previous years that African American Actors and Directors were literally ignored and generated controversy. This was not the case and movies like “Moonlight”, “Fences” and “Hidden Figures” were not ignored and get their respective recognitions.

On the announcement of this morning´s nominations I do think it was very even and fair for the movies and the people who got nominated who delivered amazing performances in a first semester that started very weak but had an interesting close. 

I am very happy that Writer/Director Damien Chazelle got his third nomination in history for “La La Land” since he was nominated previously for “Whiplash”. He could make history by being the youngest director in winning the Oscar for Best Director.

Before the Oscars I encourage you to stay tuned for other awards like the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG) , where they winners will be revealed this upcoming Sunday January 29th , The Directors Guild of America Awards (DGA) on February 4th, The British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) on February 12th, The Writers Guild of America Awards (WGA) on February 19th and the Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 25th.

The winners for the 89th Academy Award Nominations will be revealed on February 26th with host Jimmy Kimmel. 

For More information of all the movies that got nominated go to www.oscars.org.

Congratulations to all the nominees and may the best one win. 

I invite you to leave your comments at emilio.frenk@gmail.com or my twitter @FrenkEmilio.

The Founder

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: John Lee Hancock

Cast: Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, John Carroll Lynch, B.J. Novak, Kate Kneeland, Patrick Wilson, Linda Cardellini and Laura Dern.

Rating: Excellent.

John Lee Hancock, director of “The Blind Side” and “Saving Mr. Banks” brings “The Founder” and I have to say that not only I enjoyed this film but it´s a great one as well.

Based on true events, “The Founder” tells the story of Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) a milkshake salesman who one day see´s a fast food stand in San Bernardino, California by the name of “McDonald´s”.

He then meets both the brothers Dick McDonald (Nick Offerman) and Mac McDonald (John Carroll  Lynch). Kroc offers them to put franchises all over the country. At the beginning both the brothers are reluctant but at the end they accept Kroc´s idea.

Through a combination of ambition, persistence and ruthlessness, Ray Kroc built one of the world´s biggest and well known food chains: “McDonald´s”.

“The Founder” is a movie that tells the whole detailed story of how the empire of McDonald´s and the fast food business in America works.

The script by Robert D. Siegel, who wrote movies like “The Wrestler” and “Turbo” is written with so much detail and realism that you can tell that the movie took years on research of the origins of “McDonald´s” and it really paid off.

John Lee Hancock is a director who is well known of doing this type of films that involved iconic figures and real life characters did an amazing job with his cast and delivered full powerhouse performances.

Michael Keaton, who back in 2014 had his biggest comeback role with “Birdman: The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance” which led to him to an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor does it again in this movie and gives a solid and amazing performance.

The supporting roles by both Nick Offerman and John Carroll do an amazing job as well on portraying two brothers in pursuit of a dream.

This type of movies they have the tendency to over explain elements and get to much into detail which is fine as long as you have a solid story and screenplay. One of the beautiful things that “The Founder” has is the fact that tells only the necessary details of the film and makes you feel engaged with the characters.

At the same time you feel a certain admiration to a struggling businessman like Ray Kroc was but at the same time you despise him for the fact of how he took advantage of the situation. But thanks to that ruthlessness and ambition founded one of the biggest and well known  food chains around the world.

It´s a shame that “The Founder” is a movie that has not been considered for awards season since it had all the elements that qualify for a movie of this upcoming season.

Still “The Founder” is a must see and cannot miss this movie. It´s both well acted, well directed and beautifully written and I give it a huge recommendation. 

I invite you to leave your comments at emilio.frenk@gmail.com or my twitter @FrenkEmilio.

Split

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: M. Night Shyamalan.

Cast: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson, Sebastian Arcelus, Jessica Sula, Brad William Henke, Betty Buckley and Bruce Willis.

Rating: Excellent.

Academy Award director and writer Nominee M. Night Shyamalan and director of “The Sixth Sense”, “Unbreakable” and 2015´s “The Visit” makes another thriller and does it “Split” and again Mr. Shyamalan delivered amazing results.

Like most of M. Night Shyamalan´s movies, this one takes place in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania where three teenager friends Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), Claire (Haley Lu Richardson) and Marcia (Jessica Sula) are kidnapped by Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) who at that point was having the personality of Dennis. 

Now the three girls are been locked in a room with no windows and need to find one ofthe 23 personalities that Kevin has so they can be free before the 24th is loose which will take the form of a “Beast”.

The three girls need to stay together and survive before Kevin´s 24th personality is unleashed and can harm them.

M. Night Shyamalan´s career is been taking off again after a series of flops like “The Happening”, “The Last Airbender” and “Afterearth” and I can tell that he has learned from those movies that at some point put  his career in jeopardy.

Now he did it with “Split” and went back to his origins of movies like “The Sixth Sense” and “Unbreakable” and did a wonderful thriller and suspense film.

The script that was also written by Shyamalan is very well written and how he got into the mind of Kevin´s character and the psychological elements he added were very well used and Shyamalan did this in an effective way.

The performance by James McAvoy as Kevin with the 24 personalities is frightening and terrifying but as always is a pleasure seeing this magnificent actor portraying which I most say this is sor far the most challenging role of his career.

The only note that I have for “Split” is a I mentioned before the script was very well written but the movie could have been shorter in terms of length. There were flashbacks in the film that were not necessary to establish Anya Taylor-Joy´s character Casey. With one by the most two flashbacks would have been enough since we understood the nature her character.

Speaking of Anya Taylor-Joy´s career it really took off with 2016´s “The Witch” another fantastic thriller and horror film and I hope we can see good things on the future about this young actress.

The directing by Shyamalan and the technical choices he made were very good and accurate and as a member of the audience I was very surprised and I admit that I jumped out of my seat in the moments were tension was building up.

The score which by the way was not composed by James Newton Howard, who has collaborated with Shyamalan in his previous films was very effective and this time the turn was for West Dylan Thordson, who composed the scores for 2014´s “Foxcatcher” and 2015´s “Joy” was very engaging and he knew how to use those elements of surprise in this movie.

The ending of the film is one of the biggest surprises and once you leave the theater you will be answering yourself a lot of questions to it.

With that being said “Split” is one of the greatest thrillers of 2017 that recently started and I give it a huge recommendation for it´s directing, writing, acting and score. 

I invite you to leave your comments at emilio.frenk@gmail.com or my twitter @FrenkEmilio.

XXX: Return of Xander Cage

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: D.J. Caruso

Cast: Vin Diesel, Donnie Yen, Deepika Padukone, Kris Wu, Ruby Rose, Nina Dobrev, Tony Jaa, Rory McCann, Tony González, Michael Bisping, Ice Cube, Neymar Da Silva,  Toni Collette and Samuel L. Jackson.

Rating: Poor  

Vin Diesel returns as the extreme sports athlete and agent Xander Cage in “XXX: Return of Xander Cage”, the third installment of the franchise that started in 2002 and unfortunately the results are pretty much the same as the other two films.

The movie starts when  NSA Agent August Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) is recruiting the Brazilian footballer Neymar Da Silva as an agent; while this is happening a satellite crashes on them and kills them both.

Later in the story,  CIA Agent Jane Marke (Toni Collette) tracks former XXX agent Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) and asks his help to recover Pandora`s Box, which is the artefact that “killed” Gibbons and is capable of destroying an entire city.

Cage accepts and he recruits the following team: The composed sharpshooter Adele Wolff (Ruby Rose), The DJ Harvard “Nicks” Zhou (Kris Wu) and getaway driver Tennyson “The Torch” (Rory McCann). All of them will be aided by weapons specialist Becky Claridge (Nina Dobrev).

Xander Cage and his team will try to recover Pandora´s Box but first they will have to defeat a group of rogue agents led by Xiang (Donnie Yen) who want the box as well.

Now Cage is in a race against time to recover the artifact before it goes to the wrong hands and create a major destruction to the planet and humanity as we know it.

“XXX: Return of Xander Cage” has very good elements like the action sequences that work at all levels and the chases that occur in the movie are very well choreographed.

The main problem of the movie was the storyline that for moments it was confusing. The script written by F. Scott Frazier was not clear by moments and the movie had ridiculous moments that honestly I didn´t buy at all.

As an action movie it does deliver the goods and entertains. The major problem was both the directing and the writing of the film.

In a positive note, this third part of the franchise does surpass the original XXX and of course the second one, which was a major flop.

This third part could have been a better film if the storyline would have been more clear and engaging since it had very good elements of  an action/adventure film.

The ending of the film I didn´t buy it and part of the third of the film as well. The climax which happens in an airplane is very well made and choreographed but the transitions of some of the characters were all over the place.

As an action film “XXX: Return of Xander Cage” is entertaining and I do think fans of the original films they might enjoy it but unfortunately I cannot give it a recommendation for the screenplay and the directing of the film. 

I invite you to leave your comments at emilio.frenk@gmail.com or my twitter @FrenkEmilio.

Patriots Day

By Emilio Frenk. 

Director: Peter Berg

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, J.K. Simmons, Kevin Bacon, Michelle Monaghan, Jack Picking, Alex Wolff, Themo Melikidze and Melissa Benoist.

Rating: Excellent.

Peter Berg, director of “Lone Survivor” and “Deepwater Horizon” team up for the third time with Mark Wahlberg  and made his second movie of 2016. He brings “Patriots Day” and the movie brings fantastic results.

Based in real life events, “Patriots Day” tells the story of Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg) a Boston Police Sergeant who at April 15 of 2013 during the Boston Marathon, which takes place at the celebration of Patriots Day, witnesses a bombing that took place near the finish line at  Boylston Street in Boston Massachusetts. This event will be known in the world as The Boston Bombings.

Now he will work Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman) and Special Agent of the FBI Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon) in one of the largest manhunts in American History.

“Patriots Day” is a movie that is very well told and tells every single detail of the event and broke it into very wisely in three parts: previous of the marathon, during the marathon and afterwards.

The movie is being told by the Point of View of both the Law, The Terrorists and Victims during the attack despite the main character in this case is Tommy Saunders, played by Mark Wahlberg. Berg used very well this advantages and made the correct choices of this elements.

The script which also Berg wrote with Matt Cook and Joshua Zetumer is written with a lot of detail, precision and I was surprised of the amount of research that the filmmakers invested in the screenplay and the results indeed paid off.

Peter Berg’s directing is brilliant. Both the acting and technical sides he knew how to handle it perfectly and the cast delivered fantastic performances, including Mark Wahlberg who gave a remarkable one.

I can tell that “Patriots Day” is so far Peter Berg´s most challenging  film and the working collaboration between him and Wahlberg has given tremendous results. Since they worked together in 2013 with “Lone Survivor” have been very successful and I think they could be the next Scorsese/De Niro duo in Hollywood.

The score composed by Academy Award Winners: Lead Singer of Nine Inch Nails Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is a great piece of music.

The music cues that were used in the most important scenes of the movie worked and it’s both engaging and at the same time  takes you to the edge of your seat.

Peter Berg was really smart in combining both genres in “Patriots Day”. He is a director who knows how to play with the audience and he knew how to use those elements of surprise in this film.

Before you see “Patriots Day” I encourage you to be prepared and read more about the Boston Bombings since it´s a very interesting topic. It`s very violent and realistic and be open for that as well.

I consider “Patriots Day” Peter Berg´s most ambitious movie of his career and once again he is at his prime with this picture.

I consider “Patriot’s Day” one of the best films of 2016 and a highly recommend it. 

I invite you to leave your comments at emilio.frenk@gmail.com or my twitter @FrenkEmilio.