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

Phenomenon (1996)

George Malley is an ordinary man.  He has a job as a mechanic and has trouble understanding how a rabbit keeps getting in his garden.  The night of his 37th birthday, George sees a bright light approach and engulf him.  He gets knocked to the ground, but appears unhurt.  In fact, he’s able to beat someone at chess.  That night, while lying awake, he figures out his rabbit problem.

George is able to read and retain increasing amounts of information.  He learns Spanish quickly, for instance.  He builds an engine that runs on (and smells of) manure.  He learns functional Portuguese in 20 minutes so he can help find a boy.  He even cracks a code used by the government, which gets him in trouble.  It comes at a terrible cost, though, and I’m not just talking about being ostracized.

The movie is a cross between Forrest Gump and The Twilight Zone.  It’s not too heavy on the science-fiction aspect.  It’s not really explained how he’s able to do stuff like telekinesis.   everyone attributes it to the aliens that George saw, but George insists that he never said anything about aliens.  Even with the learning, there’s not so much as a mention of the 10%-of-your-brain myth.  His abilities just grow.

Instead, the movie is more about the relationships.  His friend, Nate, is also interrogated when the FBI brings George in.  George’s cracking that code was impressive and the government wants to tap that ability, but George wants no part of it.  Instead, he wants to go home.   He wants to go back to his repair shop.  International espionage isn‘t really his thing.  When he gets back to the repair shop, George finds that Hell really is other people.  Since they won’t come by, he can only imagine what they must think of him.

This is one of those movies that I kind of forgot about after it first came out.  It’s not the kind of thing I would see on the basic-cable channels.  If it hadn’t come on Netflix, I might have gone anther ten or twenty years without watching it.  I think the problem is that it tries to appeal to two audiences without doing either really well.  It’s not pure science fiction and it’s not anywhere close to what I would expect with romance.

It almost seems like someone’s idea for a TV show that couldn’t quite make it a full season.  This is the kind of story I could see spending the pilot episode on George fixing up his farm.  We could have an episode or two dealing with the espionage angle.  We could have one about the earthquake.  Instead, the movie tries to pack all these amazing feats into a two-hour film.

It was entertaining the first time, but that was because you didn’t know what to expect.  Once the story has played out, there’s no replay value other than to pass the time.  I might watch it again in a decade or two, if we’re still using streaming.

IMDb page

Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993)

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

 

I had been meaning to see this movie ever since it came out. Way, way back in 1992, the movie was being filmed. Part of the movie was being filmed in Biscayne Park, Florida, not more than a few blocks from my house. I had actually wanted to go see it, but I had school on the days that the scenes were being filmed. Had it not been for that, you might have seen me in the stands watching the baseball games. However, I’m getting ahead of myself. Before I get to that, I should tell you a little about the movie.

The movie starts with Frank exercising in his apartment. It’s so hot that he’s exercising in the nude. (Don’t worry; you don’t see anything.) His landlady, who has a delivery for him, interrupts the workout. It’s a birthday present from his son, who’s supposed to take him to see the fireworks on the Fourth of July. (Frank’s birthday is on July third, so it works out pretty well.)

Unfortunately, Frank gets word that his son won’t be able to make it, as he supposedly has to work over the holiday weekend. Frank decides to go to the park rather that wait for his landlady to fix his air conditioner. Once there, he meets Walter, a retired barber from Cuba. Frank starts talking with Walter, despite the fact that Walter doesn’t seem too interested. He tells Walter about how he used to be a sea captain.

It’s a rough start, but the two become friends. They eventually learn to be a little more like each other; Walter loosens up while Frank learns to behave. It ends up being an odd-couple sort of friendship. The two even end up watching fireworks together, but it’s not quite what either of them had originally planned on.

I’m not giving away that much of the plot here. There’s a lot more to the movie, and I do recommend that you watch it. I have to admit that it’s not the kind of movie that you want to watch with your children. Frank curses like you’d expect a sailor to. There is nudity, although you don’t really see anything.

As I mentioned earlier, the movie was filmed in South Florida. Most of the movie was filmed in Broward. (The buses are Broward County buses with the “Broward” removed.) It’s odd to see so many familiar places in the movie. I had assumed (incorrectly) that there was only one little league game, but there were actually several throughout the movie. (It was really odd to see places so close to home.)

I give the movie four stars. Everything about this movie was great from the acting to the story. The only reason that I hadn’t rented it earlier is that it’s never been released on DVD. (I would have rented it from NetFlix by now if it had.) You’re going to have to find it on VHS. 

(Update: As of April 5th, 2015, Amazon has it on DVD, although it's manufactured on demand.  The link above is for streaming.)

IMDb page

THX 1138 (1971)

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

Imagine a world where love and sex are both crimes. Instead of names, people are assigned an alphanumeric designation. Deviation from the norm is either ‘cured’ or results in the abnormal person being isolated from society.

THX 1138 is an average ‘person’ in such a society. He works in a factory making robots. His roommate, LUH 3417, monitors things. He and she both lead the life that the state wants them to, for the most part, until LUH starts altering THX’s diet. He starts to notice a change. He goes to a cookie-cutter confessional, where an image resembling Christ lights up and a recorded confessor plays. It’s very generic; people don’t seem to notice that it’s the same thing every time. (“Yes…Yes…I see…Please explain…”)

Eventually, THX gets to a point where he’s able to love his roommate and even have sex with her. SEN 5241 knows what’s going on. He wants to be THX’s roommate, so he reassigns LUH and puts himself put in her place. (He’s not supposed to be able to do this, but he’s very good at hacking into the computers.) THX and SEN end up turning each other in; both end up separated from society with a group of people that are deemed incurable. (Basically, everyone is medicated. I assume that these are the people that have problems that can’t be medicated.)

SEN wants to lead the people back into society, or at least to establish himself as their leader. THX simply wants to get out. Anyone who wants to come along is more than welcome to follow so long as they don’t bother him. SEN and THX set off to find the way out. The trick is that their prison is pure white in every direction. You can’t even see where the floor meets the horizon. Eventually, they meet a hologram who is able to show them an exit. (I’ll explain about the hologram later.)

The three of them leave and find themselves in a busy walkway. SEN gets separated from the other two and manages to get as far away as possible. THX and the hologram go in another direction and find their own way somewhere else. I won’t tell you what happens because I don’t feel it’s necessary to do so in order to discuss the movie. (Why should I ruin it for you?)

The society that you see in THX 1138 is a cross between Gattaca and 1984. Everything is controlled by a government or authority. There’s little or no room for deviation. Those that have seen Gattaca will remember it as being a very dark, dismal portrayal of the future. THX 1138 is a very bright, well-lit portrayal of the future, but is still rigid. Everyone is bald. Almost everyone is white and wears white clothing. One exception is the previously mentioned hologram, who’s black. I don’t think that he’s an actual hologram, per say. Rather, he’s an actor on a program that’s projected as a hologram. (He’s being called by what he does rather than what he is.)

It’s a very sterile-looking society. Almost everyone looks the same with very little differentiation between the genders. One of the recurring lines throughout the movie is that consumption is being standardized. Everything is ordinary, down to what people eat and what people watch. (Well, ok. Entertainment does some variation, but there don’t seem to be too many choices.)

The special edition contains two discs. One has the movie and some commentary on the audio. The other has trailers and all sorts of commentary on the movie. I definitely recommend watching the commentary on both discs. When watching the movie, you’ll find no explanation provided as to where the society is or how it got that way. It’s simply presented to you. The viewer is left to interpret the society and figure everything out. The commentary goes into what the filmmakers wanted and how they were trying to present the movie to you. There’s also some history of the film company, American Zoetrope, and how THX 1138 came to be as a movie.

This isn’t a movie for children. There’s not much nudity and what nudity there is isn’t really that erotic. However, I don’t think that many children will be able to understand the movie. (It took me maybe about five or ten minutes to really start understanding what was going on.) Also, even though everything is bright, there is a depressing aspect to the movie. Much of the movie deals with wanting to break free, either in a literal or figurative sense. This society is controlled. There’s almost no room for individuality. People just eat, sleep and work. I really don’t think a child would be able to handle this.

Even among adults, I don’t think that this movie is for everyone. I’m actually going to recommend this movie to my brother, who I think will like this. However, most of the people that I know would probably wouldn’t really be able to fully appreciate it. 

Official Site

 THX 1138 (1971) - Original Trailer