Thumbnails Nov 19

by Tony Medley

The Kingmaker (8/10): 100 minutes. NR. Imelda Marcos was a beautiful young woman when she married Ferdinand Marcos 11 days after they met. Eventually he became the President of The Philippines and it slowly morphed into a brutal, corrupt dictatorship that often resulted in the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of opponents and made the Marcos billionaires. This will be shocking to most Americans who don’t think or know much about The Philippines, especially what’s going on today. Especially egregious was how they decimated the few hundred peaceful inhabitants of Calauit Island by trying to turn the island into a preserve for African animals.

Gemini Man (7/10): 116 minutes. PG-13. The 3D in this movie is the best I’ve ever seen. Shot the film at 120 frames per second (standard is 24) and in 4K 3D, it’s far superior to other 3D films. However, the film is better than just the 3D. Will Smith is a U.S. government assassin who is targeted by his employers and by an assassin who anticipates his every move. While Smith gives a very good performance in a dual role, Mary Elizabeth Winstead gives a sterling performance as someone sent by his employers to track him down. The other notable supporting performance is by Clive Owen. I always thought he would make a perfect James Bond, a lot better than the guy they have now. I generally disdain the car and motorcycle chases that are de rigueur now in these types of movies. But the one in this film is eye-popping, mainly due to the exceptional 3D and cinéma vérité-style filming. Although it tends to drag at the end, this film is an entertaining treat.

Zombieland: Double Tap (7/10): 99 minutes. R. While this sequel is in the horror genre, it is totally played for laughs. The four humans trying to survive a zombie apocalypse, Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin, and Emma Stone, are living in the abandoned White House when Emma Stone gets freaked out by Jesse Eisenberg’s proposal of marriage and splits. Up until this point it has gone along without much involvement. But after Emma runs away, Zooey Deutch gets into the picture as another human trying to survive, and the film picks up from moderately entertaining to very funny. Whenever Deutch is onscreen, the film soars, especially when she’s with Stone. There is a clever plot twist pretty obviously borrowed from a Seinfeld episode when Luke Wilson appears on the screen. Don’t leave when you think the end credits are starting to roll because there is an epilogue that will be meaningful only if you saw the first one.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (7/10): 100 minutes. PG. Although fantasy, this is a cohesive tale that is gripping, aided by exquisite CIG that creates the characters and the magical land these characters occupy. The CIG alone is worth the price of admission. But the special effects, exceptional as they are, do not overwhelm the story, which is quite good, due in large part to the deliciously evil performance of Michelle Pfeiffer, not discounting the fine performances of Elle Fanning and Angelina Jolie.

Frankie (7/10): 100 minutes. PG-13. Highlighted by the gorgeous location of Sintra, Portugal, Frankie (Isabelle Huppert), an actress, gathers three generations of her family for a vacation. Throughout the day husbands, wives, parents, children, friends and lovers mingle and inspire emotions long hidden. With a fine supporting cast that includes Brendan Gleeson, Marisa Tomei (she doesn’t look like I remember her) and Greg Kinnear whose appearance is basically a cameo, for me the star was Sintra and the gorgeous locations and cinematography (Rui Poças). This is a lot of talk, so it’s not for everybody, but I enjoyed it.

The Terminator: Dark Fate (7/10): 128 minutes. R. It seems they can keep remaking this movie forever. It’s the same story and it still has Arnold and it still has the unexplainable bad machines that can be killed in any number of ways but keep coming back to life until the denouement. It’s entertaining enough, but my female assistant hated it, so it might be a male thing.

The Current War: Director’s Cut: (6/10) 113 minutes. PG-13. Telling the story of the development of electricity and the battle among Thomas Edison, Nicolas Tesla, and George Westinghouse, it certainly has a POV. It shows Edison as prickly and rigid in his defense of Direct Current (DC) vs. Tesla’s Alternating Current (AC). While educational, it is convoluted and necessarily superficial considering the topic. At no time do you really believe you are watching anything but a Hollywood movie.