Tim joined Tom Barnard, Brittany Arneson and Rudy Pavich on the “Tom Barnard Morning Show Podcast,” Jordana Green on “Adam and Jordana” show on WCCO-AM, and Kelly Cordes on “It Matters with Kelly Cordes” Friday to review the new theatrical release “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” and the new Hulu original streaming movie release “The Boston Strangler.” Click to listen to below. All of Tim’s segments are brought to you by Michael Bryant, and Bradshaw and Bryant.
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for “Adam and Jordana” with Adam Carter and Jordana Green 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 “Adam and Jordana” as well. On radio, Tim previously made hundreds of appearances on “The KQ Morning Show” with Tom Barnard on KQRS-FM. On TV, Tim has made hundreds of guest appearances on NBC affiliate KARE on the news program “KARE 11 News at 11.”
With the “Fast & Furious” franchise seemingly in the rearview mirror, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham are off roaring to bigger and better things with “Hobbs & Shaw,” an outrageously entertaining spinoff movie featuring the friendly adversaries from the most recent chapters in the Vin Diesel film series.
“Hobbs & Shaw” gives the exact amount of time to Johnson’s Luke Hobbs and Statham’s Deckard Shaw to begin the film by inventively splitting the screen and their scenes in two, where they go about their morning routines, which wildly differ. Eventually, though, the lawman Hobbs’ and the reformed bad guy Shaw’s paths converge, as they’re both asked by their countries’ intelligence services to recover a programmable virus being carried by a lethal MI-6 agent. The stakes are raised when the MI-G agent turns out being Shaw’s estranged sister, Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), and her revelation that he had the virus – protected by capsules – injected into her bloodstream.
Making matters worse, a secret organization hell-bent on winnowing out the weaker of the human species on Earth sends the technologically enhanced super soldier Brixton (Idris Elba) to recover the virus, and Hobbs and Shaw quickly find out that there’s little they can do to stop him. That’s bad news if he gets his hands on the virus, since it will kill millions if it’s unleashed into the world.
AUDIO: Tim reviews “Hobbs and Shaw” with Tom Barnard on “The KQ Morning Show” on KQRS-FM. Segment brought to you by Michael Bryant and Bradshaw & Bryant.
Yes, “Hobbs and Shaw” is chockfull of the same over-the-top action and doomsday scenarios that turned the “Fast & Furious” movies into a multibillion franchise, but instead of being a big, loud and dumb movie franchise that’s lost its sense of humor with its last outing, “Hobbs & Shaw” captures perfectly the chemistry that was clearly evident between Johnson and Statham in the “The Fate of the Furious.” Plus, with “Deadpool 2” director David Leitch at the helm, the film finds a way to balance the excessive crash, boom, bang with several laugh-out-loud funny moments humor throughout, making “Hobbs & Shaw” big loud and smart, and even throwing in a bit of science fiction into the plot, to boot.
Even better, Leitch employed a couple brilliant big star cameos in the film to amp up the funny, even though the film, truthfully, already had enough star power with an impressive Kirby and charismatic Elba in sizable roles, and the always delightful Helen Mirren reprising her kick-ass role from “The Fate of the Furious” as the Shaw family matriarch.
Clearly the brightest stars in “Hobbs & Shaw,” though, are Johnson and Statham, who clearly having a ball throughout the movie (there were no reports of Johnson calling anybody in the film a “candyass,” err, Vin Diesel). Johnson is especially notable because it’s clear he’s in his element, a place he hasn’t been in the underwhelming action pictures “Rampage” and “Skyscraper.” It just goes to show that a performer, once again, is only as good as their script, and even more to their benefit, is a skilled filmmaker like Leitch and a buddy movie partner like Statham.
In comparison to any of the chapters in the franchise that launched it, because of the camaraderie of the cast and clockwork precision of Leitch and his crew of filmmakers, “Hobbs & Shaw” doesn’t even feel like a “Fast & Furious” film. That’s a good thing because honestly, the “Fast” films feel like they’ve become a game of one-upmanship between cast members, and the mandate has been put on the directors to come up with new and more ridiculous ways of topping the action of the film before it.
With “Hobbs & Shaw,” as Leitch has proven before – first as the co-director of “John Wick” and again on “Deadpool 2” – the goal of the movie is to make it as entertaining as possible without taking itself too seriously. And while we already know the characters (even though nothing is lost by not seeing the previous “Fast” movies), “Hobbs & Shaw” in an odd sort of way feels new, refreshing and fun – the way summer popcorn movies should be.
Lammometer: 9 (out of 10)
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for “The KQ92 Morning Show,” WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere. On TV, Tim has made hundreds of guest appearances on “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC).
While it’s not a total spinout, “The Fate of the Furious” – the eighth film in the seemingly endless “Fast and Furious” franchise – seems to have lost its way following the blockbuster worldwide success of “Furious 7.” After an entertaining 10-minute race scene to kick off the film, “The Fate of the Furious” quickly loses the type of self-aware sense of humor that made the last film such a joy; and remains stuck in neutral with a formulaic action movie plot until it miraculously pulls itself out a funk for the third act of the movie.
Diesel is back for his sixth “Furious” film as Dominic Toretto, the cocksure street racer who has evolved over the film series into the leader of a band of international mercenaries whose jobs often find them trying to save the world from disaster. But when Dom is coerced by notorious super hacker Cipher (Theron) to go rogue, he’s forced to turn against his crew in order to secure an EMP device that has the power to shut down a major city and turn the scene into complete chaos. And that’s not all …
Convinced that Dom is taking commands against his will, the crew (including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and Michelle Rodriguez – whose Letty is now married to Dominic) takes up an offer from government shade Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) and his new right hand, dubbed “Little Nobody” (Scott Eastwood, who appears to be filling the void left by late Paul Walker) to recover the EMP and other potential weapons of mass destruction to clean their crime-riddled slates.
While its far inferior to “Furious 7,” “The Fate of the Furious” isn’t a bad movie – the action in the final third alone will give audience members what they’re looking for with subplot that involved a Russian nuclear submarine. Thankfully stars like Johnson, Jason Statham, Russell and Helen Mirren (who sadly appears for about 5 minutes in a pair of scenes) didn’t wait that long to let you know they’re in the joke.
On the flip side, Vin Diesel and the film’s new villain, played by Charlize Theron, are trying to play it straight throughout the film; proving that even Oscar winners can’t act their way out of horrific dialogue.
Listen to Tim’s review of “The Fate of the Furious” with Tom Barnard on “The KQ Morning Show.”
A little sense of humor clearly would have gone a long way, and while Diesel attempts to charm his way through the opening scene, playing it straight for most of the way exposes all of the actor’s weaknesses (mainly, that he only knows how to play one type of character – a wiseass tough guy) and he hits a low point as he barely squeezes out a couple crocodile tears.
Theron’s turn is almost more painful to watch, though, as her over-the-top madwoman questing world domination borders on a mustache-twitching villain that revels in evil. Theron, like everybody else in “Furious 7” should have been reveling in the ridiculousness of what the franchise it has become. It’s too bad, because Theron has proven otherwise that she’s an extremely talented actress.
True, no amount of criticism will stop “The Fate of the Furious” from being another worldwide blockbuster (“Furious 7” grossed $1.5 billion worldwide two years ago) out of the gate, but the shift in gears to a semi-serious film (“The Fate of the Serious”?) will no doubt be a drag on the long term prospects of the box office and the films that come after it.
“The Divergent Series: Allegiant, Part 1” (PG-13) 1 1/2 stars (out of four)
A promising big screen adaptation of the “Divergent” book trilogy hits the wall full-force with “The Divergent Series: Allegiant – Part 1,” a dull and predictable first act in the four movie saga. A familiar-feeling tale akin to “The Hunger Games,” “Allegiant” appears to be heading to an even worse big-screen fate than its literary predecessor “Mockingjay.”
Shailene Woodley is back as Tris in the post-apocalyptic city of Chicago, where the city’s residents are no longer divided into five factions based on different virtues: Abnegation (those who are selfless), Amity (peaceful), Candor (honest), Dauntless (fearless) and Erudite (intelligent). The system was an devised to prevent anyone willfully acting out on their own and threatening the other residents of the city.
However, when an uprising against the system (detailed in the second film) yields unpredictable results, Tris and her Divergent companion, Four (Theo James), along with a small group escaped the towering walls of the city to discover high-tech facility housed at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, where they discover they’ve been part of an experiment – and it’s not over yet.
While the first “Divergent” posed an interesting premise and the sequel, “Insurgent,” maintained that promise, “Allegiant – Part 1” has just turned plain silly. Once gritty and engaging, the series makes a jarring shift into a sleek, plastic sci-fi film with the new film, where even the actors seem bored. The acting is terrible and even stalwarts like Jeff Daniels, the architect of the experiment, seems to be phoning in his performance. The filmmakers and actors for “Part 2” have some serious work cut out for them if they’re to salvage the series.
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“Eye in the Sky” (R) 3 1/2 stars (out of 4)
An intense debate over the costs of a deadly but necessary military action plays out in the deeply compelling “Eye in the Sky,” an expertly-directed war thriller by Oscar-winning filmmaker Gavin Hood. Helen Mirren is at her best as Katherine Powell, a no-nonsense British military colonel who after six years ferrets out a group of high-level Al Shabaab terrorists holed up in Kenya. But when the mission turns from capture to kill as it’s discovered two of the members are being prepared for a suicide bombing, a crisis of conscience arises as an innocent 9-year-old girl wanders into the kill zone to likely become a victim of collateral damage.
Aaron Paul also stars as an American drone pilot wrestling with dread as he prepares to pull the trigger on the mission; and Alan Rickman appears in his final big-screen role as decisive British general trying to get the go-ahead on the mission from a group of wishy-washy politicos.
Original Interviews, Reviews & More By Tim Lammers
