Here is an interesting article from http://www.debbieschlussel.com/ reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows this post about some of the movies from last week and THIS POST about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed! This all follows this post about guidelines to choosing good movies to watch yourself!
By
Debbie Schlussel
Well, the movies that opened in theaters for Thanksgiving are
slightly better than in weeks past, which means we’re getting close to
the end of the year “better” movies. I’ll post my belated movie reviews
for the past two weekends soon. (I didn’t get those up in time because
there were 13 movies I reviewed, and at 400+ words per review, it’s a
lot of time, work, and energy.)
* “
Creed” –
Rated PG-13: Read
my complete review
of this movie, which is basically “Rocky 7,” in which real Rocky passes
the torch to “Black Rocky.” I had very mixed feelings about this movie
and the Black Lives Matter propagandist who made the movie. Again,
read
my full review column.
TWO REAGANS PLUS TWO OBAMAS PLUS TWO MICHELLE LAVAUGHN ROBINSON HUSSEIN OBAMA IDI AMIN DADAS
* “
The Good Dinosaur” –
Rated PG:
Whether or not you have kids, you will enjoy this incredibly cute,
touching, and endearing Disney Pixar movie. But, especially if you have
young kids, you’ll enjoy this opportunity for wholesome entertainment
for your family, which also teaches your kids the value of hard work and
sticktuitiveness. On top of that, this is the first–and best–dinosaur
Western I’ve ever seen. It’s very fun. There are some points that
might be sad or scary for kids. The father dinosaur in the movie dies
in a flood while trying to save his son, but that’s necessary to drive
the plot along. And a character seems to die (or something like that)
in almost ever Disney Pixar film. Plus, didn’t that happen in Bambi?
Some of the dinosaurs (and a snake scene) are slightly scary, but I’ve
seen far worse in movies for kids, and I didn’t find it to be too
disturbing for kids.
The story: three dinosaurs are born to a couple of dinosaur farmers
in the West (the movie’s scenery is reportedly based on Montana). Two
of the dinosaurs, Libby and Buck, are normal-sized and they make their
mark. But Arlo, the main character of the movie, is a runt and a klutz.
Nothing ever seems to go right for him, and he desperately tries to
impress his parents so he can make his mark.
Soon, crops go missing from the storage silo, and the dinosaurs set a
trap. Arlo’s job is to watch the silo and catch the critter who is
stealing from them. He catches a cave boy, but lets him go free. So,
Arlo’s father requires Arlo to go with him to track the cave boy down a
ravine. Suddenly, though, there is a rainstorm, and a flood, and while
Arlo’s father rescues Arlo, the father dies in the flood.
Winter is coming, and Arlo must help his mother and siblings harvest
enough crops so they have food during the cold months. But, again, the
cave boy steals their food. Arlo chases after him into the ravine and
mountains and then gets lost. He becomes friends with the cave boy (who
is like his pet dog–yes, we humans are the pets in this alternative
timeline of evolution and history), and together they brave the land as
Arlo tries to find and make his way home. They encounter a snake,
various other wild and dangerous animals, another species of
dinosaurs–cowboys who protect them in exchange for help in rounding up
cattle, and so on.
The movie is cute, cuddly, and very entertaining.
THREE REAGANS
Watch the trailer . . .
.
* “
Victor Frankenstein” –
Rated PG-13:
I can’t say anything positive about this movie, other than that the
first five minutes of it were pretty good. Sadly, it all goes rapidly
downhill from there, and the movie is at once disgusting, stupid, and a
totally pointless bore. I struggled to stay awake, briefly lost that
battle, and missed nothing. It’s so bad that, while I never leave a
movie for a bathroom break lest I miss something good or some important
plot twist or dialogue, I didn’t hesitate to do so for this–I think I
did this only once before (if that) in my 11 years of reviewing movies.
And, still, I missed nothing. Yes, I repeat, it’s
that awful.
Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame is a hunchback clown who
performs in a traveling circus. He crawls on all fours to walk, and
when he’s not performing, he is kept prisoner in a cage and treated like
an animal. One night, the female trapeze artist in the circus falls
off of her swing and to the ground. Radcliffe can see in his mind that
her windpipe is blocked and he comes to her rescue, instructing others
what to do to save her. One of those others is a local doctor, Dr.
Victor Frankenstein (James McAvoy). Frankenstein tells Radcliffe that
Radcliffe is a genius doctor and shouldn’t be in the circus.
Frankenstein convinces Radcliffe to escape and helps him to do so. Once
at Frankenstein’s mansion and laboratory, Frankenstein tells Radcliffe
that he is not a hunchback but merely has a giant cyst on his back,
which Frankenstein drains. Then, Frankenstein enables Radcliffe to
stand upright with a brace, helps him to clean up, and teaches him how
to behave like a civilized man. Frankenstein tells Radcliffe that he is
now “Igor.”
Thereafter, Igor serves as Frankenstein’s aide and assistant, while
Frankenstein attempts to create a creature from various body parts he’s
picked up from various beings and assembled. Frankenstein uses electric
shock to bring the creature to life, but the creature is dangerous and
they must catch it and kill it. Frankenstein has various benefactors
who fund his “research” into creating and bringing to life various
creatures, and Igor, seeing how dangerous and unethical it is, begs him
to stop. Frankenstein is working on bringing to life a “human”
assembled from various body parts. Igor begs him profusely not to do it
and tracks Frankenstein to a seaside, creepy resort, where the
monster’s body has been assembled and displayed, ready to shock into
life.
Believe me, I’m making this dark, creepy bore sound better than it
is. It’s neither exciting, nor interesting, and not the least bit
suspenseful. While it somewhat tracks the traditional story of
Frankenstein, Igor, and Frankenstein’s monster, it manages to turn it
into a snoozer.
THREE MARXES
Watch the trailer . . .
* “
Legend” –
Rated R:
You couldn’t pay me enough to watch this incredibly violent, pointless
bore that unintentionally borders on (and then crosses over the border
to) comedic. Tom Hardy plays real-life identical twin brother gangsters
Ronnie and Reggie Kray who operated in East London in the 1960s. The
brothers were violent and they used the threat of violence to extort
successful businesses, including bars and nightclubs, from their owners.
They murdered people indiscriminately and otherwise engaged in acts of
violence against those in their criminal gang and against the innocent.
The movie is narrated by the voice of the actress (Emily Browning) who
plays Reggie Kray’s wife, Francis.
When they were very young, the Krays were arrested for beating and
trying to kill a police officer who tried to arrest them. Ronnie Kray
was declared mentally insane and sentenced to an insane asylum. But
when brother Reggie got out of prison, he and his henchman threatened
the psychiatrist in charge of treating him with death unless he declared
Ronnie Kray sane, which he did. Ronnie Kray is portrayed in the movie
as the more crazy of the two brothers and the one who instigates
violence at the drop of a hat. He is portrayed as the bigger problem of
the two. Reggie Kray is portrayed as calm and merely interested in
(illegal) business and blackmail. But, in real life, both brothers were
hotheads who were extremely violent and murderous. There is a scene in
which Reggie Kray stabs a man repeatedly to death. It’s horrible,
pointless, and I couldn’t watch.
Ronnie Kray, the insane one, is also very openly gay. He and his
brother blackmailed a conservative member of the English parliament by
setting up a gay porn and orgy party, taking photos, and sending it to
an English tabloid to publish.
The movie shows the partnership between the Krays and American
mobster Meyer Lansky, with several scenes of Lansky’s “representatives”
offering and shepherding the partnership in which the Krays manage
Lansky’s London operations. And the movie also shows the relationship
between Francis and Reggie and how it developed, with Francis’ mother
constantly warning and begging her not to date the mobster, telling her
it will only make her unhappy eventually and that it will end badly. Of
course, as in a zillion other gangster movies with women who want to
date organized crime figures, her mother was right. The audience knows
it, and it’s eventually confirmed in the movie.
The only redeeming thing about this two-hour and ten-minute bore is
that it doesn’t glamorize the life of mobsters. But that isn’t
redemption enough to make anyone sit through this painful torture.
FOUR MARXES PLUS TWO ISIS BEHEADINGS
Watch the trailer . . .
By
Debbie Schlussel
I was pleasantly surprised by “
Creed,” which is in theaters today for Thanksgiving. It’s essentially “Rocky 7” (with “Rocky 6” being
“Rocky Balboa”–read my review),
and it’s a much, much better movie than I expected. But, at the same
time, I have some very strong reservations about who is behind it and
what this is all about.
Overall, it’s a good, uplifting movie in the Rocky spirit, although I
have mixed feelings about what is pretty much the subliminal, somewhat
racist celebration of the transformation of everything White in America
to Black (when the reverse definitely would have been called out as
“racist”). This is the story of Rocky Balboa passing the baton to the
new Black Rocky, played by Michael B. Jordan.
When I first heard about this movie, I
denounced
it on this site as ridiculous and yet another promise Sylvester
Stallone made about the Rocky movies that he didn’t keep.
As I noted then, Stallone promised us that 2006’s “Rocky Balboa” would
be the last, last Rocky movie ever. That was after, years earlier, he
promised us 1990’s “Rocky V” was the end. I view Stallone’s promises
about the last, last, last, ever, ever, ever, final, final, final Rocky
movie like I view illegal amnesty pimps’ false promises that their
latest push for legalizing invading alien criminals will be the “last,
last, last” time. It never is the last time. They’ll always do it
again. There is too much in it for them not to keep doing it over and
over. And so it goes with the Rocky movies. There’s too much money in
it to stop . . . and Stallone has a model wife and several glammed-up
daughters to keep dressed in high style and bling.
Note, however, that last time, Stallone apparently intended to keep
his promise. This is the first Rocky movie that Stallone neither wrote
nor directed. Those duties are filled, this time, by Black director
Ryan Coogler, who approached a dubious and supposedly unwilling Stallone
and eventually convinced him to get involved in this production.
Coogler is something of a race merchant, and as I also noted when I first wrote about this movie, the original script was
even more politically correct and featured a vastly multicultural cast,
with only a lesbian Muslim vegan terrorist missing. Coogler’s first
hit movie was “Fruitvale Station,” a race-laden, completely fabricated,
anti-police movie that sharply contrasts with the facts of the real
story on which it is based. The movie glorified convicted criminal,
all-around low-life, and drug dealer Oscar Grant, a Black man who was
shot by a White police officer after Grant resisted arrest and the cop
thought he’d grabbed his taser instead of his gun. And since Hollywood
hates America and loves to ingratiate itself and pretend it’s “down wit
da struggle,” liberal movie critics gushed over the fictional
“Fruitvale” and it received much undue critical acclaim. So, as you
watch Creed–if you decide to spend money on seeing it–you must recognize
that its writer/director (who stands to earn gazillions from this) is
part of the Black Lives Matter movement of fictional narratives
glorifying criminals and attacking cops.
In this movie, Michael B. Jordan, who played Oscar Grant in
“Fruitvale,” is Adonis Creed, the illegitimate son of boxer Apollo
Creed, who died in “Rocky IV.” I know Hollywood doesn’t strictly adhere
to real timelines. But Rocky IV came out on November 27, 1985, almost
exactly 30 years ago. And, yet, in this movie, Adonis Creed, is about
22-years-old for the portion that takes place “today.” It would have
made more sense, as I originally thought–and had written on this
site–was going to be the plot of the movie, if Adonis Creed were Apollo
Creed’s grandson. But, that aside, the movie is a slightly ghetto-ized
version of the original Rocky story.
Creed is a parentless kid and troubled punk imprisoned in juvenile
detention. Adonis doesn’t know he’s Apollo Creed’s son. He knows only
that he never met his father, who was never in his life and left his
mother, and that his mother is a drug addict who is nowhere to be found.
He likes to fight and often gets in physical altercations there. But
one day, Mrs. Cosby, er . . . Mrs. Creed (Phylicia Rashad) tracks the
young Creed son to the juvie center where he’s housed and bails’ Adonis
out. Mrs. Creed explains to the young Adonis “Johnson” in semi-evasive
but understood terms that his father/her husband had an affair with
Adonis’ mother and he is the child of that relationship. She brings
Adonis home to live with her at the giant Creed estate, complete with
gargantuan mansion and fancy automatic gate with a “C” on it.
Mrs. Creed raises Adonis as her own son and he grows up to do desk
work at a bank. But, instead of taking a promotion, he quits to become a
full-time boxer, after having some success in small fights in Mexico.
But Adonis knows he needs something more to take him to the next level,
and, soon, he pays a visit to Rocky at his “Adrian’s” Italian restaurant
(where
amnesty-supporting Stallone’s Rocky happily employs illegal aliens).
This time around, not only is Adrian dead, but Paulie is, too. Rocky
regularly goes to their adjacent grave sites to read them the newspaper
and tell them what is going on in his life and the world.
Now, here’s what I liked about this movie. Despite the title and the
Black Rocky who is at the center of the movie, this is a Rocky movie.
Sylvester Stallone is the real star and he (and the usual Rocky
nostalgia we all have) carries this thing, down to the playing of the
Rocky theme, “Gonna Fly Now” and the traditional run up the steps of the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, this time with Adonis in tow. Without
Stallone as “Rocky,” this wouldn’t be worth seeing. In Germany, movie
posters for this, call it, “Creed: Rocky’s Legacy.” It’s Rocky’s
training and camaraderie with Adonis Creed–Adonis calls him “Unc,” short
for Uncle–that is the highlight of this movie. Rocky motivates Adonis
and turns him into a star. And he allows Adonis to move in with him,
despite some very rude, behind-Rocky’s-back, insults and derogatory
comments about him by Adonis. The two become like family, as Rocky’s
son moved away to Toronto long ago, in order to live his life away from
Rocky’s shadow. Rocky also faces a serious crisis in his life–and
Adonis plays the “magical Black friend” (
Black L.A. Times columnist David Ehrenstein first iterated the concept and calls it the “Magic Negro”) role in motivating Rocky to be tough and strong in the fight of his life.
Me with Sly Stallone @ Detroit “Rocky Balboa” Premiere
I found this movie enjoyable and entertaining, though there is
nothing new here. As I noted, it tracks the Rocky story with a little
ghetto-ization. For example, Creed is a rude house guest and has sex
with his girlfriend on Rocky’s couch. (Missing was any scene of Rocky
throwing the couch out.) There’s nothing objectionable about the movie
on its face. It’s just who’s behind it and the not-so-sub-rosa message
about what is going on here: the deliberate darkening of formerly-White
American pop culture icons as an in-your-face, lording-it-over-you
statement about who is now in control and who is no longer welcome,
except as the help.
This movie says all that without saying it. It’s not heavy-handed.
But sometimes, the lack of heavy-handedness is the most effective
on-screen messaging.
(Blacks may get mad at me for saying this, as many do if you say
James Bond isn’t Black–he isn’t, and he’s not blond either, a la Daniel
Craig. He’s a swarthy, dark-haired White guy. But, as dumb as the
“Shaft” movies were, I’m sure there would be “Black Movie Characters’
Lives Matter” riots in the streets, if they made a movie in which Shaft
is forced to retire and train a new, White Shaft before handing over the
keys to da crib.)
By the way, if Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Hussein Obama Idi Amin Dada
saw this, she’d probably declare that for the first time in her life
she’s proud to be a Rocky fan.
If you are a “Rocky” fan, as I am, you will like this, aside from the
race issues which aren’t spoken (but are quite evident). If skin
complexion weren’t such a major (though unspoken) factor in this movie
and driving motivation for the career of this movie’s creator, I would
probably give this THREE REAGANS. But given that it is, I downgrade and
give this one of my rare mixed movie ratings of . . .
TWO REAGANS PLUS TWO OBAMAS PLUS TWO MICHELLE LAVAUGHN ROBINSON HUSSEIN OBAMA IDI AMIN DADAS
Watch the trailer . . .
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