Unfortunately, if you’re a fan of racing “GRAN TURISMO” from director Neill Blomkamp will probably not be your film as you can see the glaring holes in this too-good-to-be-true story of a gamer who becomes a race car driver overnight by winning a contest. Now I don’t mind liberties taken with films, but outright untruths are ridiculous. Things like no practice, no qualifying, how many clutch gear-changes were shown when these haven’t been used in race cars for decades! Again, don’t try to fool real race fans this badly.
The real Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), wasn’t from the first class of GT Academy SIM winners to have gone from gamer to actual racing and he was not part of the Nissan team to get a podium win. Lucas Ordóñez from Spain was – and he raced for Nissan in 2009, as well as secured a podium win on his first ever event competition. In reality – Mardenborough was one of the winners of the GT Academy competition in 2011 and that same year, became eligible to race on actual cars. He had already competed in seven professional events so by that time, so he joined the Nissan team in 2013. Essentially, the entire movie’s emphasis on raw talent making it big overnight makes you feel like some random kid can win a game and become a pro-race driver – something that takes years of hard work and yes, loads of time and money. But those are the pesky facts and the issue for me personally as a Formula 1 racing fan with the taking of such dramatic license is that the viewer shouldn’t be this mislead that a video game simulator player can just transition so quickly to real life racing when in factual life, it would be completely unsafe and unrealistic.
Now that that my pesky facts are out of the way, let’s get into the film itself. A lot of the action sequences in the first half were disappointingly brief. The entirety of the first act and parts of the second seemed somewhat disorganized, transitioning quickly from scene to scene, giving the impression that they were rushing through story elements, almost as if they were trying to quickly check off various plot points to hurry towards the uplifting part of the narrative. The racing was a mixed bag, at times absorbing you in how intense it was but often it felt like some races ended too abruptly. Of course, it’s impossible to show an entire race within a movie’s scope, yet for the pivotal races, the execution was still fairly good and it got better by the end. Once the movie finds its heart and essence, you’re drawn in more, not just the thrill of the action but also the emotional resonance. As for the CGI, the intention is clearly behind giving it a gaming vibe, but still a little unsure about it for the racing as other films have done it better.
David Harbour as Jack Salter brings to the table his best Christian Horner (Red Bull) & Toto Wolff (Mercedes Benz), impersonations here and delivers a fairly strong performance, with the interactions between him and Jann standing out more than the racing scenes in some parts. Although David’s acting was good throughout, Madewake was his best when they were sharing the screen at the middle point of the film – in the beginning, his gaming acting was on the cheesy, annoying side, but he picked it up as the character became more rounded out. Djimon Hounsou as Jann’s dad Steve Mardenborough is sadly lackluster throughout, but to be honest, he wasn’t given the proper material. The character of Danny Moore – team executive/recruiter is played by Orlando Bloom – and while Bloom has never been Oscar worthy, this performance is a new low and brings the film down another grade notch to film adding to a few other lackluster performances within it. A few of highlights were none other than Ginger Spice herself, Geri Halliwell aka Geri Horner – yes, that Christian Horner’s real-life wife and here she plays wife/mother Lesley Mardenborough. A few other notables supporting roles are Takehiro Hira, Darren Barnet, and Daniel Puig as Jann’s brother Colby.
Josha Stradowski as racing rival Nicholas Capa, was decent enough, seemingly tailor-made for the role of an egotistic douchebag. Apart from David Harbour, much of the cast seemed to be underused, particularly Bloom and Hounsou. Djimon, a good actor, could have been better utilized if the father character had been more effectively written, allowing for a deeper dive of the family dynamic. The film touches on a few things but only scratches the surface; like the beef with the rich guys portrayed as the story’s antagonists, although the film really wasn’t the kind of film that truly needed an outright villain so another failed dramatic license taken. Without all this, it could have freed up more time to concentrate on aspects like the father-son relationship, which had a pivotal moment that didn’t have the desired impact due to insufficient emotional buildup.
The movie as well, does take a while to establish its rhythm and pacing but once it finds its footing, it can be enjoyable at moments. Despite solid performances, the movie lacks conviction and feels like an overblown ad for PlayStation and/or Gran Turismo games It’s a shame the producers decided to also mish mash the true events and true racing talents to give us this composite. And yes, the film does feel a bit like a ‘Rocky-on-the-racetrack kinda movie – only ‘Rocky’ was Oscar worthy.
Grade: C-
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“GRAN TURISO” FROM SONY PICTURES IS OUT IN THEATERS FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 2023
Review Screening: Monday, August 7,2023 ~ Courtesy of Sony Pictures
Strays is everything you didn’t know you needed for a weekend film watch.
Coming out Friday, August 18th, 2023 from @universalpictures with a great cast including #WillFerrell #JamiFoxx #IslaFisher #RandallPark as the rauchiest pups in town. Yet so completely adorably sweet as well. #WillForte is the main ‘human’ here that you honestly just want to punch in the face..and well deserves his comeuppance here at the end – which you will never forget!
(from left) Maggie (Isla Fisher), Reggie (Will Ferrell), Bug (Jamie Foxx), and Hunter (Randall Park) in Strays, directed by Josh Greenbaum.
Is it a perfect comedy? no..as it has a few ‘yikes’ moments and let’s be real – a french Bulldog that’s worth around 3.5K is not ever going to be a stray..as well it’s full of raunch humour..but it’s raunch humour done right.
It also is completely adorable at times and has an definitive underlying sweetness that will touch you. But don’t do what I almost did and take the kid..because this is most definitely R-rated as was pointed out to my by said 10 yr old. “The “R” is right there in the dogs mouth on the poster” 😂
So my advice..skip the Marvel’ing and get some good animalistic humour with this one!
With Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s twelfth film, story-telling comes brilliantly alive as he triumphs here with a story exploring the actual prophets of science in the twentieth century with his aptly titled character study of the brilliant physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Nolan doesn’t just stop at the assembly and discovery of science though. He uncovers the consequences of Oppenheimer’s innovation and what some would call ‘genius insight’ into the man himself. There might be other words one could use to describe him as well – but for this film, Dr. Oppenheimer might have been the man who knew too much and arguably that cost him quite a bit personally. Additionally, the so-called lab rat of his atomic bomb, namely the planet Earth, suffered the expense of it at the time and of course we all know how troubling it all still is in present day with an unpredictable future as well.
But that’s another story, and the one here opens many years pre-detonation and several after, with timelines zoning back and forth without losing the audience in doing so. As much as the switch between black & white and colour shots. It’s done for relevance and tonal quality and works throughout. But what we see most apparent is the foreboding guilt of it all arises early as we watch a young Robert J. Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), leave a poisoned apple for a university professor, and we watch in almost horror as he almost wipes out the Nobel Prize winning physicist Niels Bohr (Kenneth Branagh). From here, we follow Oppenheimer’s rise to the upper echelons of contemporary theoretical physics, which he single-handedly introduces to an at-war America. When talk of the weaponization of nuclear power crosses the Atlantic from war torn Europe, it is to Oppenheimer that the US Army turn to and one man in particular who leads this charge, General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon). The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book ‘American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer’ by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin and learns much of its politics from within these pages. However not completely.
L to R: Matt Damon is Leslie Groves and Cillian Murphy is J. Robert Oppenheimer in OPPENHEIMER, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.
This movie seems to start right in the middle of its story and as a viewer you need to claw your way through the dense foliage to find its beginnings and what comes afterwards. The first two scenes of the movie are titled “Fission” and “Fusion.” And there are no time periods specified by the font caption however, the differences in various points in history are distinguished by where J. Robert Oppenheimer is located during select points in his life. For seconds at a time, the film will change its photography from vibrant color to black and white, for example. The characters will either look more aged with grey hair and older or at others, during a younger time in their lives. At one point Oppenheimer is being recruited by Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey, Jr), to head the department of a new kind of weapons development. There is another time period where he is being interrogated in a small room by a governmental suit and tie committee whose name is never mentioned. Another storyline has him in his classroom or debating and working with colleagues or yet another he is shown observing his progress with building the atomic bomb among a collection of other engineers and scientists in the desert town that was specifically built under his request – Los Alamos, New Mexico. The place that we now know housed the now infamous “Manhattan Project” under the order of Colonel Groves, to conduct his work and research while in plain sight.
The film also covers Oppenheimer’s association with possible suspects of the Communist Party during the stressful pre-cold war era of McCarthyism. Questions arise if his reliable brother Frank (Dylan Arnold), is a communist or even asking this of his mistress Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh), while begging the question of does that in turn make Oppenheimer a communist as well and possibly sharing top secret information with the Communist Party. Those are some of the many things explored in this film – yet instead of being all over the place and scattered – Nolan puts it together in a way we never lose track of who’s who. And there is a lot of moving parts here. Nolan’s film gets easier to watch as it moves along, but you either be familiar with or get used to his pattern of filmmaking as its fast-paced edits of different time periods and conversations must be followed closely to keep on top of the subject matter at hand. There is much information to decipher as well, there is a very large collection of welcome characters to sort through, who worked with or against Oppenheimer.
Robert Downey Jr is Lewis Strauss in OPPENHEIMER, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.
The quick edits while working beautifully against the soundtrack orchestrations of Ludwig Göransson, happen a mile a minute. Whether you appreciate this method or not, it does enhance the urgency of Dr. Oppenheimer in the eyes of the world, first as the ‘savior’ so to speak, of the united Allies against the last remaining superpower countries that the US is at war with after the Nazi’s have surrendered: Japan. While some have pointed out about how they know the ending to Oppenheimer. a.k.a. they drop the bomb – twice actually – it can be said they do not know the entire story adaptation that Christopher Nolan as director and screenwriter presents, though markedly it isn’t a completely factual turn either. So be sure to read your history books as well.
As with the military and scientific leaders who end up achieve the impossible, like splitting the atom, while also admiring peers and mentors like Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein (Tom Conti), essentially these men are interested only in what can be accomplished. The superpowers that fight in war though, are interested in how these accomplishments of modern science can be used to their advantage at a cost of collateral damage. It is these conflicts of interests that Nolan admirably demonstrates over the course of the film. A telling scene is when Robert Oppenheimer meets Harry Truman (Gary Oldman). As the physicist exits the Oval Office, having shared his concerns and scruples with the Commander in Chief, Nolan includes a throwaway line delivered by the President, that you don’t soon forget and it will not be spoiled here. Yet, the dialogue speaks volumes of what the United States held important regarding the servants who did the country’s bidding. The scene closes like a stab in the heart, and suddenly science is no longer just facts within our planet. Science is now questioned on whether it should ever be acted upon. Those questions certainly have remained even today and the blatantness of overlooking Hiroshima and Nagasaki were also irritating to watch happen. Questioning that is if men and women’s recklessness with science doesn’t destroy the Earth before then is one that should have been more at the forefront instead of just being tossed off to an once scene deal as at one point, Oppenheimer shares a small fraction of possibility for the end of the world when they activate and test their first atomic bomb as we watch as Colonel Groves’ asks for a reiteration of that observation.
OPPENHEIMER, written and directed by Christopher Nolan
Oppenheimer is a three-hour film, and it demands its running time. There are so many angles to the man that few really know about. Many know it was he who instrumentally built the atomic bomb that to date has only been used twice within a period of four days and thankfully never since. The emphasis of how unaware we are of how carefree the doctor’s government supervisors performed with the weapon he agreed to build. The scenes of “Don’t just drop the bomb once – send a message to Japan by dropping it twice” so they know to no longer engage in this ongoing war. Choose the area where an army/government official didn’t honeymoon though because it’s too beautiful a region. Tens of thousands of men, women and child civilians perished immediately following the strikes. Many others died weeks later following exposure to the nuclear effects that followed. All issued as a horrifying cost to end a war that was already being won now that Hitler was dead. All this just let us us know how callous war really is.
As for the acting, Oppenheimer marks Cillian Murphy’s sixth turn under Nolan’s direction, but only the first front where he is front and center. And yes, it has been worth the wait as simply put, Murphy has never been better. It’s an all-encompassing performance Murphy captures the mind, the thinker, the philanderer, the dreamer, the doom monger and so many more facets of Oppenheimer the man. There are many scenes to well showcase Murphy’s skill here but few hit home like that in which a moment of triumph is unsettled by existential self-questioning and the horrific realization of guilt. No man is an island, however, and Murphy’s film carrying is well met in an astonishingly starry ensemble. Robert Downey Jr. gifts Nolan his best performance in years telling us that he isn’t Iron Man anymore, he is the actor’s actor of decades past and my goodness, he’s still got it here as businessman Lewis Strauss, with Emily Blunt who does well with what she is given as Oppenheimer’s disparaging, lonely alcoholic wife Kitty. Her grand moment arrives during an interrogation scene close to the end of the film, and it was worth the wait though this is by far not Blunt’s best role, because it is rather limited within crux of the film. In more fleeting appearances, the likes of Florence Pugh, Benny Safdie, Rami Malek and Gary Oldman do much to prove indefinitely that there is no such thing as a small part. Josh Harnett startles us all putting juice into his role as Ernest Lawrence. Jason Clarke as suit & tie agent Roger Robb per earlier mentioned and his cohort Gordon Gray (Tony Goldwyn), are just a few of the big names and it is a testament to Nolan’s magnetism as a director that such talent can meld into a single film. Again, it can’t be said enough how Murphy is perfectly cast and has Oscar nomination written all over this role. Matt Damon might just be up against himself in the Best Actor/Best Supporting Actor categories now. But it would be remiss of me to let go by some also rather damaging notes of the film. My biggest beef with it and what brought this film down for me was the female characters. They were few and not fleshed out at all in the slightest of who they really were and meant in Oppenheimer’s life and to The Manhattan Project as a whole. Florence Pugh was just basically thrown in here as a sex object, when in real life, she almost derailed the entire thing. Emily Blunt does well with what she’s given – even if it was just scraps. But there were moments of watching where I was just angry at this. I realize this is a movie about Oppenheimer, but Nolan did the female characters dirty here. Not only were they integral, but there were many more of them there and the complete overlooking of this irked me while watching.
OPPENHEIMER, written and directed by Christopher Nolan
Oppenheimer is so dense in the scope of science and the scientist behind it. That’s a huge compliment. It’s an engaging film with much to tell, and a lot more to think about afterwards. It accomplishes what the best movies do. It leaves you thinking long after the film has ended. More importantly, it will leave you frightened for the future based on the behavior of this planet’s past. All in all, Oppenheimer was a master class of intrigue. Deft defying in its story, with tension building throughout with phenomenal sound and production. But some of it left me cold and a lot of it left me uneasy. Adding that to the scraps given to the female characters knocks it down some but not out.
Grade: B
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“OPPENHEIMER” FROM WARNER BROS. PICTURES IS OUT IN THEATERS FRIDAY, JULY 21, 2023
Review Screening: Tuesday, July 18, 2023 ~ Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
The plot of Disney’s latest foray into a ride re-do is “HAUNTED MANSION” featuring a single mom Gabbie (Rosario Dawson), and her young son Travis (Chase Dillon), who move into a new ‘old’ house in New Orleans. Once there, they hire grieving tour guide Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield), a dubious psychic Harriet (Tiffany Hadish), a shady priest Father Kent (Owen Wilson), and an unhinged historian Bruce Davis (Danny DeVito), to help exorcise her newly bought mansion after discovering it is inhabited by ghosts.
So, it goes with this new attempt at a movie based on a popular Disney ride. It’s chock-a-block full of inside jokes and references to the ride, some in plain sight, some tucked away in the corners of the screen. As a big fan of the ride, one can only enjoy the little Easter eggs presented throughout and enjoy them a lot. Big fun highlights were the chair shaped like a Doom Buggy; and the room that stretches; and the hitchhiking ghosts, and on and on. If you’ve been on it, you get it. While the film tries to utilize the setting of New Orleans in some decently authentic ways, the rest of the plot and character development is so generic that they fail to make viewers more engaged in the setting. The film’s attempts at both humor and scares fall flat, as the jokes are formulaic and corny while the attempts at more frightening moments fail to elicit any tension or suspense, and are quite repetitive and CGI-heavy.
But aside from all the cool references, there is not much else to recommend, especially not for those few poor souls who are not as thoroughly familiar with the Disney ride as I and many others are. There’s a heart-tugging sub-plot about the grieving tour guide, Ben and while it’s not meant to be comical, Stanfield’s wooden straight face playing the absurd material, trying to pull out the emotional stops for a touching moment as he describes his late wife, is almost painful to watch. It’s also one that pushes an absolute scene-stealing button from Danny DeVito. Then there is Travis, son of single mom Gabbie, who has problems with bullies at school, even when he isn’t troubled by the ghosts who have latched onto him like lice. Another is the issue of who all the resident ghosts are REALLY afraid of a big-bad ghost entity known only as the Hatbox ghost (Jared Leto). But we the audience are not. Jamie Lee Curtis steps in for a bit as Madame Leota, and she brings some decent comedic timing to this sorely lacking comedic film. Dan Levy is Vic – the new owner of the house and then there is a super surprise from Winona Ryder in a flash part as ghostly Pat. And one of my favourite little guest appearances is at the very beginning where Marilu Henner is part of a tour group. She is a wonderful flashback to the old Taxi days with DeVito.
Acting ranges from good all the way down to…well…lackluster. Most of the cast does an okay job with what they were given. The high-end example is Danny DeVito. The man never seems to put less than 110% into whatever he does. At the lows is Rosario Dawson, an otherwise fine actress who looks like she just doesn’t want to be in this particular film. She shows little to no emotion even as her world is falling apart. Who knows, maybe that’s a directorial decision. LaKeith is a wonderful drama actor, but is sorely mis-cast here as he lacks the most basic of comedic timing. Dawson saves a few of scenes with the two of them, even though you know where they are headed together as character. Haddish, well she does Haddish. Nothing more, nothing less…
The movie has all the requisite creepy hallways and creaking doors and one or two iffy jump-scares, but everything is done so tongue-and-cheek that it’s never truly horrifying…which is what can be confusing. Is this meant to be scary, funny or what was the aim of the filmmakers. Certainly, you don’t want to make a film, based on a jaunty fun theme park ride, as scary as The Exorcist. So, to that end, the filmmakers succeeded. The movie is harmless, even a little fun at times, Owen Wilson gets to deliver some of his trademark dry observations, and DeVito gets to play some notes that I haven’t seen him play in a very long time. If pressed, I would be forced to conclude that, for non-fans of the ride, this movie would most likely be a bit of a slog. At over two hours long, the film also runs for too long, especially given the plot has limited resolution or payoff – but again, it has it’s ‘cute moments,’ despite missing that one leg so to speak.
Grade: C-
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“HAUNTED MANSION” FROM WALT DISNEY PICTURES IS OUT IN THEATERS FRIDAY, JULY 28, 2023
Review Screening: Monday, July 24, 2023 ~ Courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures
So it was actually Tuesday night when I saw #JasonStatham be completely ridiculous in #TheMeg2 but honestly it is so bad..it might be good.
There is no acting here by anyone from #JingWu #CliffCurtis #SiennaGuillory and even the villain #SergioPerisMencheta is hilariously bad.. #ShuyaSophiaCai is the young teen star and it was a toss up between her and #PageKennedy – who thought he was in his own Fast n Furious sideshow film here (thx Kolby Mac for that comment), of whom annoyed me more and I wanted to see eaten first. And what is he doing back in a film..honestly. no.
This whole movie was a mess from start to finish and yet..I laughed and so did my theater..throughout it all. You can’t help yourself. Plus it was #indictmenttuesday so we all probably needed a break from the papa orange sideshow. So we laughed.
There are a lot creatures being thrown in besides the Megalodon or Megs as they are called, which was strange.and the complete rip-off #JAWS scenes were a bit much..but if you’re looking for something really dumb to just blow by two hours with and have seen everything else..have at it.
Grade: D+
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“THE MEG 2: THE TRENCH” FROM WARNER BROS. PICTURES IS OUT IN THEATERS FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 2023
Review Screening: Tueday, August 1, 2023 ~ Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Peggy at the Movies ~ Film Critic | Movie Maven | Reviews & More"
Peggy at the Movies 