Widows (2018)

There’s a scene in Ratatouille where Linguine tries to improve a soup by adding every ingredient within reach.  Fortunately, he had Remy to help correct this mistake.  When I saw Widows, it seemed like the writers were adding all manner of plot elements.  The movie starts with a robbery gone bad.  There are two candidates for alderman of Chicago’s 18th Ward, both corrupt in their own way, one of which was the victim of said robbery.  He compels the widow of the lead robber to steal his money back, leading to a group of novices trying to do a job of their own.  Add to this plot elements like racism, religion, grief, sexism, betrayal and loss and the movie seems like it’s trying to do too much.

I later found out that the movie is based on a British miniseries.  I think a better cooking analogy might be a reduction.  It looks like the movie is trying to retain as many elements from the source material as it can without sacrificing the basic story.  There’s just enough of each side story to get the idea.

This is one of those movies where the trailers don’t quite do the full film justice.  That can be forgiven, as there are several plot twists.  (No, I’m not going to give them away.)  the basic story is about what you would expect.    Harry Rawlings is the leader of the pro heist crew.  After they pull in to their hideout, the police shoot up their van, killing all four people.

Jamal Manning pays a visit to Harry’s widow, Veronica.  Jamal was Harry’s victim.  It turns out that the cash went up in flames when the van was destroyed.  That money was supposed to finance his campaign for alderman.  Jamal gives Veronica one month to get back his $2,000,000.

Apparently, selling assets isn’t as simple as Jamal would make it out to be.  Instead, she recruits two of the other widows to help her carry out what would have been Harry’s last job.  They have plans, but aren’t really clear on key details, like where the actual vault is.  They do have the resources to find out, though.  If successful, they would be able to repay Jamal and keep about a million each.

Of course, nothing ever goes exactly according to plan.  Veronica is the only one with any motivation, considering she’s the only one Jamal seems to know about.  She does have the ability to give him the names of the other two widows, which serves as leverage.  However, one of the other widows isn‘t too bright and the other has other obligations to worry about.  Veronica doesn’t have a crack team at her disposal.

I’m kind of on the fence about this movie.  I came out of the theater entertained, but it’s not a movie that has any nice people in it.  Both candidates for alderman are not in it for the people, despite appearances.  Jamal is a preacher who is in the race for the money.  When his brother points out that the church makes more money, Jamal tells his brother about all of the kickbacks he could get handing out lucrative projects.  Jack Mulligan, the other candidate, is already doing just that.  He has a project that ostensibly empowers minority women, but takes a cut of their business in return.

There were so many side stories going on that it seemed like the movie was trying to do too much.  There’s one thread about Harry and Veronica losing their son, which seemed unnecessary.  I can see where it would have been better in the miniseries, as it could have been explored in depth.  Here, it felt like it only served to add tension, which could have been done in less-conspicuous ways.  I think for a lot of people, this is going to be a movie to watch at home.

IMDb page

Daredevil (2003)

Note:   This review was originally posted to my Epionions account.

Movies and TV series based on comic books are nothing new.  There have been all sorts of animated features throughout the years.  It seems like over the past decade, there have been a few live-action big-budget movies made starring big names.  Many were good.  Some, not so much.

In 2003, Ben Affleck stared as Matt Murdock, a.k.a. Daredevil.  Matt’s story starts early; as a child, he was blinded by toxic waste.  The up side is that his other senses are heightened.   He can use his other senses to ‘see’ the world in a Matrix-style way.  He’s also able to leap off of tall buildings and land safely on the ground.  As an adult, Murdock serves as a defense lawyer during the day, helping those that need it most.  Daredevil comes out at night to fight crime in Hell’s Kitchen.  (He seems to pick criminals that the court system lets go.)

In the movie, Daredevil is trying to work against The Kingpin, who runs the area’s organized crime.  Enter Elektra Natchios, the daughter of Nikolas Natchios.  Unbeknownst to Matt, Nikolas has ties to The Kingpin.  Unbeknownst to Elektra, Matt is Daredevil.  Things get complicated when Nikolas wants out.  Enter Bullseye, who is hired by The Kingpin to kill Nikolas.

I don’t want to ruin the entire movie for you, so I’ll stop here.  I did have a few problems, all of which don’t require me to give anything else away.  First, it seemed like the movie went slow, then was rushed.  There were three main story lines to the movie.  One was Daredevil vs. The Kingpin.  Two was Daredevil vs. Bullseye.  Three was Matt becoming romantically involved with Elektra.

Daredevil vs. The Kingpin didn’t really seem that developed, mostly because Daredevil was fighting with Bullseye most of the time.  Both of these relationships seemed like something you’d use over the course of a TV series.  If there is a sequel, Kingpin will most likely be back.

However, Bullseye definitely seemed rushed.  Even though the pacing seemed appropriate, it seemed like Bullseye was used too much too quickly.  He seems like someone that would make a good archenemy.  Even the relationship between Daredevil and Elektra was rushed.  It’s almost like they weren’t planning on a sequel.

Overall, the movie was very dark.  Not only was much of it action, but much of it took place at night.  It seemed like the movie was driven by the fight scenes with the dialogue there only to string the fights together or give them context.  I think one of the overriding themes in the movie was revenge, which really adds to the darkness of the movie.  It’s definitely not something for small children to watch.  I don’t think they’d understand most of the themes.

I don’t read comic books, so I don’t know how the movie holds up to the source material.  However, it seemed like the movie relied on a superhero formula.  Give a hero strength (or at least ability) and give him a weakness.  Fill in the history as needed and you have a superhero.  In this case, Daredevil had most of his senses heightened, but was blind and could be incapacitated by loud noises.  Even Superman had his kryptonite.

What I remember, the coming attractions were a little misleading.  I thought that Elektra’s story would turn out much differently than it did.  It would be interesting to see how they pull one out of this, as most of Daredevil’s relationships in this movie could very well have come to an end.  (Actually, a few did.)  Overall, I really didn’t like Daredevil.  I think if this had been the first comic-book based movie I had seen, I probably wouldn’t have seen many others. 

IMDb page

Total Recall (2012)

I tend not to like remakes.  Rarely do they add anything except make it look modern.  In this case, we have two movies based on a short story.  (Both versions of Total Recall owe very basic elements to the story “We Can Remember it For You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick.)  The short story is about a man who comes to realize that there‘s more to his life than what he thinks he remembers.  That’s where the similarity ends.

Here, we have a dystopian future where most of the planet is uninhabitable.  The two remaining areas are the United Federation of Britain and The Colony.  (The Colony is actually just Australia.  Why they couldn’t just call it Australia, I don’t know.)   A man named Doug Quaid is thinking about going to Rekall.  Quaid is a lowly factory worker.  He can’t afford to go on vacation, so Rekall will “remember it for him” as their ad goes.  A coworker warns him not to do it; Rekall has a reputation for lobotomizing people.  Another coworker tells Quaid not to worry about it.  He even recommends one of the technicians.

Well, the implantation goes bad when a SWAT team breaks into the Rekall lab.  Amazingly, Quaid is able to escape.  It turns out that he’s not really Doug Quaid and his lovely wife of several years is actually his handler.  His memories were erased and he was given a new life.  He manages to find out that he was part of a resistance.  People in The Colony are the lower class while the UFB is basically the upper-class people.  The UFB has some nefarious plan that Quaid’s former self didn’t want to see come to fruition.  Or did he?  Either way, it’s up to Quaid to stop it unless he’s not going to, assuming that was the plan all along.  Or was it?

I think this is one of those cases where if you saw and liked the 1990 version, you’re probably not going to be thrilled with this one.  The 1990 version was much better.  We had the issue of identity, which is brought up briefly here.  There’s the issue of what’s real and what’s an illusion, which is mentioned only in passing.  (It comes across mostly as a reference to the 1990 version, but more on that later.)

I remember hearing about the remake and wanting to see it.  I knew I probably wasn’t going to like it as much, but I had to see if they could improve upon it.  Not only did they not improve upon it, I think they even took something away.  Instead of being based on the same source material, this is more of a flashy action remake.  We have the same corrupt leader.  We have the same wife that’s not a wife.  There’s even a three-breasted woman and a comment on the desire for a third hand.  What we don’t have is anything to make you think about the movie.

As I mentioned, there were a few scenes that were referencing the original movie.  Quaid uses the same technology to get to The Colony, which I think was only called The Colony because there was a Martian colony in the original movie.  (Look closely when Quaid arrives in the UFB.  Pay attention to the woman going through security.)  In another scene, Quaid’s coworker is trying to talk Quaid into shooting his fellow resistance member, saying that this is all a dream back at Rekall.  If you’re thinking of seeing Total Recall, I’d recommend skipping this one and just watching the Arnold Schwarzenegger version. 

Total Recall (1990)