Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali deliver virtuoso performances in “Green Book,” one of the year’s best films that’s bound to be a major contender during this year’s movie awards season.
Inspired by a true story, Mortensen plays Tony Vallelonga, a tough, Italian-American bouncer at the Copa in New York City in 1962 who finds himself out of work for a couple of months when the club shuts down for repairs. Despite his own prejudices, Tony takes a job driving a Dr. Don Shirley, an African-American concert pianist on a tour that eventually winds into the Deep South, where they’ll confront the worst kind of racism.
Channeling what feels like a character straight out of “Goodfellas,” Mortensen delivers a career performance as Tony while Ali is great as usual as Don in a pair of complex performances that should easily warrant both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations and other industry/critics accolades in the coming months.
The film’s biggest surprise, though, is the direction of Peter Farrelly — one half the Farrelly brothers comedic filmmaking duo — who takes his immense talents into the dramatic realm and creates an incredibly emotional film across the board. As a result, “Green Book” will not only anger you and break your heart, it will make you make you smile, laugh and cry on its way to being an inspiring tale of hope. It’s a brilliant movie.
Lammometer: 9.5 (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.
“Ralph Breaks the Internet” directors/writers Phil Johnston & Rich Moore and talks about Johnston’s Minneapolis ties, former KARE anchor Diana Pierce joins Tim to review “Ralph Breaks the Internet” as does Mike Bryant to review “Creed II.” Tim also opens his interview vault to a 2012 conversation with Sarah Silverman for “Wreck-It Ralph.”
“Wreck-It Ralph” filmmakers Rich Moore and Phil Johnston” take the beloved 8-bit video characters to the dazzling new heights of life in cyberspace in “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” a spectacular sequel to the 2012 Best Animated Feature Oscar nominee. Completely avoiding the trappings that plague most sequels, Moore (director of “Wreck-It Ralph”) and Johnston (co-writer of the 2012 blockbuster) team for writing and directorial duties here – and take the premise above and beyond the arcade that housed the ingenious original film.
In “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” Wreck-It Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) and Vanellope von Schweet (Sarah Silverman) start the movie in the 8-bit video game arcade from the first movie, until a crucial component breaks on Vanellope’s “Sugar Rush” game. With the game console at risk of being junked and leaving Vanellope without a home or purpose, the spunky race car driver and her best pal Ralph travel through the internet to eBay, where the rare replacement part for “Sugar Rush” is waiting to be purchased. But since neither really realize how dramatically different the 8-bit video game world and the information superhighway are, Ralph and Vanellope quickly find themselves on a very bumpy ride.
“Ralph Breaks the Internet” has everything fans could have hoped for as Moore and Johnston masterfully envision the inner-working of the internet, from its vibrant, jaw-dropping animation, clever story twists and turns, astute interpretations of the websites and applications that populate the internet, and hilarious visual gags and dialogue. The movie isn’t all fun and games, though, as Moore and Johnston in a non-preaching way expose the vitriol that has been polluting social media in terms that both kids and adults can understand. As a result, “Ralph Breaks the Internet” is every bit as entertaining as it is poignant, especially in an age where the world needs to get keep its civility and sense of common decency in check.
As far as the voice cast is concerned, Reilly and Silverman bring just as much joy to their voice roles as the original, and their work is enhanced by the additions of Taraji P. Henson and Gal Gadot to the cast. Perhaps the biggest thing that takes “Ralph Breaks the Internet” to the next level though, is the ingenious addition of Disney’s iconic princesses to the story, where many of the voice stars of the original films including “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Frozen,” “The Princess and the Frog” and “Moana” lend dialogue to their iconic characters.
Be sure to stick around through the end credits as Moore and Johnston incorporate a rip-rollicking ending that could only take place on that crazy place known as the internet.
“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” (PG-13)
After a wild and entertaining start to author-turned-screenwriter J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” prequel “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise has tamed considerably with “The Crimes of Grindelwald,” a lukewarm follow-up to the 2016 blockbuster.
Eddie Redmayne is back as magizoologist New Scamander, whose new mission is to track down a gifted wizard Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller, in a surprisingly muted turn) and save him from the grasps of the evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) who is hell-bent on recruiting other magic folks to rule to the world.
Depp, who was introduced in the last scene of “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” is not the only notable face to join franchise. Looking to establish back stories for some of her Harry Potter favorites in an effort to keep her Wizarding World empire alive, Rowling decided to employ the talents of the always-great Jude Law to play the young Albus Dumbledore in “The Crimes of Grindelwald,” a move that might have work had she featured him more.
Instead, the movie spreads the narrative way too thin by employing one-off stories for each Newt, Dumbledore, Grindelwald, Credence, Queenie (Allison Sudol) and Jacob (Dan Folger – who stole the first movie and only has a handful of bright moments here), Queenie’s sister, Tina (Katherine Waterston – whose role is greatly diminished from the first film) and Leta Lestrange (Zoe Kravitz), who has role that most closely resembles a lead. The problem is, the more spread out the narrative of “The Crimes of Grindelwald” becomes, the more confusing the movie gets.
After a spectacular opening sequence where Grindelwald escapes from confinement, the new “Fantastic Beasts” movie surprisingly shows franchise fatigue early on, even to the point of boredom. Only in the second half does the movie come alive thanks to some whiz-bang visual effects and Depp’s commanding performance as the title character. Despite having that opportunity to showcase his talents in the film’s most pivotal scene, Depp isn’t featured nearly as much as he should be in “The Crimes of Grindelwald,” and Law appears even less. It just seems like a tremendous waste of an opportunity, especially for a movie that’s 2 hours and 14 minutes long.
Naturally “The Crimes of Grindelwald” sets up another “Fantastic Beasts” chapter, trying somehow to capture the cliffhanger feeling established by such film classics like “The Empire Strikes Back.” Perhaps the biggest issue plaguing the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise is unlike the “Harry Potter” movies, it doesn’t have the benefit of sourcing worldwide best-selling novels to draw inspiration from.
And even though Rowling wrote the screenplays for the “Fantastic Beasts” movies, she is no doubt finding huge limitations to create original works for the film medium. As far as “The Crimes of Grindelwald” is concerned, it simply lacks the wondrous magic of the eight-film series that created the chance for it to be made in the first place.
Lammometer: 5 (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.
