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Film, Movie Reviews

Movie review: ‘Pacific Rim: Uprising’ falls flat

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“Pacific Rim: Uprising” (PG-13)

A refreshing idea from five years ago is essentially turned into the latest chapter of the dreadful “Transformers” movie series in “Pacific Rim: Uprising,” an unnecessary sequel to writer-director Guillermo del Toro’s entertaining robots vs. monsters sci-fi action thriller from 2013. Boring and predictable, not even the franchise’s engaging new lead, “Star Wars” star John Boyega, can save this action movie mishmash from being a disappointing misfire.

Boyega stars as Jake Pentecost, the estranged son of the late Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), a dying hero who ultimately sacrificed himself to help save the day in the first movie. With the film’s other big hero, Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnam), noticeably out of the picture, Jake, a jaeger pilot who inherited the skills of maneuvering the giant robot like his father, is recruited to serve when a new threat emerges. It seems while the humans have been successfully able to keep the original film’s giant sea monsters (the kaiju) at bay, a shadowy villain has found a way to use the kaiju to turn the robots against one another.

Sadly, it shouldn’t take fans long to realize that “Pacific Rim,” del Toro’s story of monolithic sea creatures emerging from the Pacific Ocean (clearly the man has an affinity for the shape of water), has gone the “Transformers” route, a once-promising film series (the 2007 original was great) that quickly devolved into annoying exercises of crash-boom-bang filmmaking.

The low point for that series came with “Transformers: The Last Knight” last year, where a mechanically gifted streetwise orphan girl (Isabela Moner) enters the fray and joins forces with the film’s lead (Mark Wahlberg). Basically, with “Pacific Rim: Uprising,” the same thing happens, where a mechanically-gifted streetwise orphan girl (Cailee Spaeny) joins forces with Jake, leading to a predictable ending that becomes obvious 10 minutes into the movie. That’s not to say that aren’t impressive new kaiju creatures to marvel at; it’s just that it takes too long to get to them, and in-between, the film seems intent with trying to entertain its audience with a series of robot clashes.

Apart from retreaded plotlines, another huge factor that plagues “Pacific Rim: Uprising” is the film’s lack of interesting characters. True, unlike his turns in the “Star Wars” chapters “The Force Awakens” and “The Last Jedi,” Boyega gets to sport some of his natural charm (and his original British accent), but it’s not nearly enough to carry the film.

Ron Perlman, Elba and Hunnam gave the original quite a bit of weight with their charisma, as did Rinko Kikuchi (who only reprises her character for a few brief scenes), but in their stead, Scott Eastwood seems to have been given a mandate by director Stephen S. DeKnight to mimic his famous dad as much as possible. The always great Burn Gorman is about the only returning cast member who turns in an entertaining performance, while Charlie Day reprises his character with a twist, but is out of his depth considering the burden the sequel assigns his already quirky character. Unless somehow del Toro, Pearlman and Hunnam miraculously return to right the shit, it’s time to set “Pacific Rim” franchise adrift.

Lammometer: 4 (out of 10)

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.

Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com

Film, Movie Reviews

Movie review: ‘Tomb Raider’ feels familiar, but still entertains

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VIDEO: Watch Tim’s review of “Tomb Raider” with Adrienne Broaddus on KARE-TV.

“Tomb Raider” (PG-13)

Alicia Vikander establishes a winning presence right off the bat in “Tomb Raider,” a familiar-feeling yet entertaining action adventure that reboots the Lara Croft film series originated by Angelina Jolie in 2001. A prequel to the story of Lara Croft based on the hit video game series, “Tomb Raider,” while not groundbreaking, certainly shows promise as it lays a solid foundation for what promises to be more than a one-and-done movie franchise.

“The Danish Girl” Oscar winner Vikander stars as Lara Croft, the wayward daughter of Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West), a wealthy British businessman who vanished without a trace when Lara was a mid-teen. Even though she wants nothing to do with her inheritance, Lara is forced to reluctantly meet with her father’s business subordinates, who give her a puzzle box that contains a clue to the gateway of her father’s secret life as an archaeologist. It seems before he disappeared, Richard found the mystery location of an ancient tomb of a Japanese queen that possesses supernatural powers; and since she is born with the same sense of curiosity as her father, Lara uses his maps and research in hopes of finding him.

Related: Alicia Vikander talks ‘The Danish Girl’

While “Tomb Raider” plays out like an “Indiana Jones” movie, the narrative differs in that Lara isn’t in the game to seek treasure, but rather embarks on the adventure to find the person she treasures the most. That’s not to say the film avoids ancient tomb that Richard was seeking in the first place; because there’s another archaeologist, Mathias Vogel (the always great Walton Goggins) who is working for a mysterious conglomerate that aims to use the tomb’s powers for sinister purposes.

While the film is a bit slow out of the gate, “Tomb Raider” gets more engaging as it goes along and hits its strike in the latter half of the film when Lara reaches her island destination. It’s there were Vikander gets a workout in a variety of harrowing action scenes, proving that she has the wherewithal to succeed in any film genre. The great thing about the film is, while its based on a video game, it doesn’t feel like a video game. Grounded in memorable performances by Vikander, Goggins, West and the always wonderful Kristin Scott Thomas in a pivotal role, “Tomb Raider” has weight, which is essential should the film series evolve into the franchise that it aspires to be.


AUDIO: Hear Tim’s review of “Tomb Raider” with Tom Barnard on “The KQ92 Morning Show” (segment begins 3 minutes in).

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, 103.7-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.

Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com

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Film, Movie Reviews

Movie review: ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ lost in space

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“A Wrinkle in Time” (PG)

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.

Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com

Film, Movie Reviews

Oscar picks: ‘Shape’ to stay above water … barely

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The 90th annual Academy Awards ceremony is Sunday, and you can bet some people will be solely tuning in to see if there will be a screw-up as monumental as last year’s Best Picture envelope fiasco. That’s unlikely, but with any luck, host Jimmy Kimmel will have fun with the faux pas all night long. The show simply needs something out of the ordinary, because with the predictability of this year’s nominations, the show, barring a couple of potential upsets, is shaping up to be another 3 1/2-hour Academy borefest.

Despite the formulas pundits put into play to make their picks, predicting the winners of the Oscars doesn’t take much homework. Basically, ignore the awards handed out by the critics and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (the members of which hand out the Global Globes), because journalists don’t vote on the Oscars. Instead, the trends lie with industry awards – the Producers Guild of America, the Director’s Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television Awards – because some, but not all, are voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

With that, making this year’s picks quickly fell into place. Here are my predictions and some potential upsets.

Best Supporting Actor nominees:  Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”; Woody Harrelson, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”; Richard Jenkins, “The Shape of Water”; Christopher Plummer, “All the Money in the World”; Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Will win: Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Possible upset: Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”

MORE: Hear Tim’s Oscar picks on KQRS-FM, WCCO-AM and “The BS Show with Bob Sansevere.”

Best Supporting Actress nominees: Mary J. Blige, “Mudbound”; Allison Janney, “I, Tonya”; Lesley Manville, “Phantom Thread”; Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”; Octavia Spencer, “The Shape of Water”

Will win: Allison Janney

Possible upset: Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”

Best Actor nominees: Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”; Daniel Day-Lewis, “Phantom Thread”; Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”; Gary Oldman, “Darkest Hour”; Denzel Washington, “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”

Will win: Gary Oldman, “Darkest Hour”

Possible upset: Not a chance. Oldman is due for what is easily the best performance of the year.

Best Actress nominees: Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”; Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”; Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”; Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”; Meryl Streep, “The Post”

Will win: Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Possible upset: Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”

Best Picture nominees:

“Call Me by Your Name”; “Darkest Hour”; “Dunkirk”; “Get Out”; “Lady Bird”; “Phantom Thread”; “The Post”; “The Shape of Water”; “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Will win: “The Shape of Water”

Possible upset: “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” The recent claims that writer-director Guillermo del Toro lifting the story from the 1969 play “Let Me Hear You Whisper” (just in time for voting!) may come back to bite “The Shape of Water.” A harbinger of that will be if Christopher Nolan upsets del Toro for Best Director. Nolan winning wouldn’t be a huge shame. Nolan is way, way overdue and deserves the honor for the expert direction on “Dunkirk.”

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.

Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com