Tim joined Paul Douglas and Jordana Green Tuesday to review the new streaming series “Little Fires Everywhere” (Hulu) and “The Banker” (Apple TV+) on the “Paul and Jordana” show on WCCO-AM. Click to listen below. The segment is brought to you by Michael Bryant and Bradshaw & Bryant.
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for “The KQ92 Morning Show” on KQRS-FM, “Paul and Jordana” on WCCO Radio, “It Matters with Kelly Cordes” on WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere, and reviews streaming programming on WCCO Radio’s “Paul and Jordana” as well. On TV, Tim has made hundreds of guest appearances on “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC).
Click below to hear Tim’s reviews of the new Apple TV+ releases “The Morning Show” and “See” with Paul Douglas on WCCO-AM. The segment is brought to you by Michael Bryant and Bradshaw & Bryant. Segment begins at 10 minute mark.
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for “The KQ92 Morning Show” on KQRS-FM, “Paul and Jordana” on WCCO Radio, “It Matters with Kelly Cordes on WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere, and reviews streaming programming on WCCO Radio’s “Paul and Jordana” as well. On TV, Tim has made hundreds of guest appearances on “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC).
There’s a lot of plot that needs to be ironed out in Disney’s new big-budget adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic 1962 children’s novel “A Wrinkle in Time,” and despite the well-intentioned efforts of director Ava DuVernay, the film struggles to find a way to come together in a cohesive manner.
Storm Reid stars as Meg Murry, the young daughter of scientists Alex and Kate Murry (Chris Pine and Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who has clearly inherited her father’s expansive knowledge of astrophysics. Alex’s obsession, however, with the space-time continuum leads to his mysterious disappearance, plunging Meg into four-year funk that suddenly changes when three celestial beings, Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey), Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon) and Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) turn up in her backyard with the promising information about the location of her father.
Accompanied by her brother, Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) and friend Calvin (Levi Miller), Meg embarks with the otherworldly beings on fantastical trek that transcends the boundaries of space and time. The voyage leads them to different planets and ultimately, the dark world known as The It that is holding Alex captive, where she must use her mind to defeat evil if her father is ever to be freed.
There’s no question that “A Wrinkle in Time” is stunning piece of work from a visual standpoint, as DuVernay does her best to describe L’Engle’s intricately detailed source material. But where the visuals excel the narrative falters, where the discussion of tesseracts (“tessering” is the term they use for traveling) and quantum physics quickly becomes confused and offers no solutions to move the plot forward in meaningful and sensible way.
Instead, the film takes on bizarre if not creepy tones at times, and even without the weirdness, the film is way too cerebral for its intended kid audience (if not the adults accompanying them). The ambitious concept worked wonders for Christopher Nolan with “Interstellar,” but as for “A Wrinkle in Time,” DuVernay is lost in space.
Lammometer: 5 (out of 10)
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO-AM, WJON-AM, 103.7-FM The Loon, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.
The trail goes cold almost immediately for Sofia Vergara and Reese Witherspoon in “Hot Pursuit,” a dreadfully unfunny road comedy that’s every bit as bad as the film’s excruciating trailer suggested it would be. Following a clever opening title scene that shows younger versions of Witherspoon’s character literally being raised in the back of her policeman father’s squad car, the film takes an immediate nosedive once the actress herself appears on-screen, as she desperately attempts to force humor at every turn.
Witherspoon plays Rose Cooper, a straight-laced, strictly by-the-book Texas police officer inspired by years on the beat with her late father. Tasked with protecting Daniella Riva (Vergara) – the high-maintenance wife of a government informant set to testify against a vicious cartel boss at a Dallas court hearing – Cooper is willing to risk her life to protect the woman, even with would-be assassins and crooked cops only steps behind them.
Given their respective histories on film and television, there’s no question that Witherspoon and Vergara can act given the right material; it’s just that the regurgitated story in “Hot Pursuit” gives them no choice but to force out their lines in the hopes of eliciting a few laughs.
A somewhat baffling choice for a screwball comedy role, Witherspoon is totally out of her depth as the ever-perky Cooper, and comes off as hopelessly annoying as she rapidly rattles off her dialogue. Meanwhile, Vergara, who’s been quite funny on TV’s “Modern Family,” seems nothing but uncomfortable as she plays along with the story’s antics. At least her character is given a bit of a plot twist, but even as that is revealed, “Hot Pursuit” falls lock-step back into its march toward a predictable ending. Somebody needs to get on the case to investigate how such a disastrous project like “Hot Pursuit” got the greenlight in the first place.
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“The D Train” (R) 2 stars (out of four)
Board with caution “The D Train,” a dark comedy starring Jack Black and James Marsden that ultimately ends up feeling more creepy and awkward than funny. On one hand, it’s a relief that the film avoided the cliches and predictability of the class reunion comedy sub-genre; yet on the flip side, the film is hard to warm up to, since neither Black’s nor Marsden’s characters are particularly likeable.
Black stars as Dan Landsman, a socially-inept, lonesome loser on his high school class’ 20th reunion committee, who’s struggling to convince his old classmates to attend the bash in Pittsburgh. Dan’s luck appears to change, though, when he by chance spots Oliver Lawless (Marsden) – the most popular guy in his graduating class – on TV one night in a national television commercial.
Rationalizing that more alumni would attend the reunion if they knew Oliver would be there, Dan becomes obsessive about snagging the “big star” to return home. Fabricating a story for his boss (Jeffrey Tambor) to fund a trip to California to reacquaint himself with the “cool kid”-turned-actor, Dan’s lies begin to pile lies upon lies, and his new bromance with Oliver quickly begins to spin out of control with completely unexpected results.
Black and Marsden are great at bringing creepy and smarmy vibes, respectively, to “The D Train,” but the film will likely find audiences shifting in their seats rather than laughing out loud. There are funny moments in the movie to be sure, it’s just that without a clear protagonist in the piece, the film has a hard time gaining any momentum. We know something significant is bound to happen as Dan spins his yarns and Oliver plays along, and that unpredictability is part of the appeal. In the end, “The D Train” is a risky comedy that seems to have all the right elements, but just can’t find the right tone.
Tim Lammers is a veteran entertainment reporter and a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, and annually votes on the Critics Choice Movie Awards. Locally, he reviews films for “KARE 11 News at 11”and various Minnesota radio stations.
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