This week on “Tim & Bob’s Excellent Movie Adventures,” Tim Lammers and Bob Sansevere talk about the controversy surrounding theaters inserting their own intermissions during the 3 hour, 26 minute “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Also, Tim pulls from his interview vault a 2007 conversation with Rob Reiner about the Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freedom comedy drama “The Bucket List.”
Tim reviews movies weekly for the “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 TV, Tim has made hundreds of guest appearances on NBC affiliate KARE on the news program “KARE 11 News at 11,.” On radio, Tim made hundreds of appearances on “The KQ Morning Show” with Tom Barnard on KQRS-FM.
Tim joined Tom Barnard and the Morning Show crew on the “The KQ Morning Show” on KQRS-FM Thursday to review the new video on demand releases “Vanquish” and “Senior Moment” On Friday, Tim reviewed the films with Paul Douglas and Jordana Green on the “Paul and Jordana” show on WCCO-AM. Click to listen to everything below, including Tim’s appearance to review the films Thursday on “The BS Show.” All of the segments are brought to you by Michael Bryant and Bradshaw & Bryant.
— Bob “The BS Show” Sansevere (@bobsansevere) April 29, 2021
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for “The KQ92 Morning Show” with Tom Barnard on KQRS-FM, “Paul and Jordana” with Paul Douglas and Jordana Green on WCCO Radio, “It Matters with Kelly Cordes” on WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “Let’s Talk Movies with Tim Lammers” with Tim Matthews on KRWC-AM, “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 NBC affiliate KARE on the news program “KARE 11 News at 11”.
Gerard Butler is back for a third and presumably final go-round as an Army ranger-turned-Secret Service superstar with a particular set of skills in “Angel Has Fallen.” It’s Butler’s third “Fallen” movie since 2013, beginning with “Olympus Has Fallen” where the president of the United States, played by Aaron Eckhart, came under attack by terrorists, followed by “London Has Fallen,” when the UK city came under siege by terrorists on a presidential visit.
AUDIO: Hear Tim’s review of “Angel Has Fallen” with Paul Douglas and Jordana Green on “Paul and Jordana” live from the Minnesota State Fair on WCCO-AM. Segment is brought to you by Michael Bryant and Bradshaw & Bryant.
“Angel Has Fallen” mixes up the formula a bit, where Bannon, code name “Angel” becomes the prime suspect in an assassination attempt on President Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), who assumed the Oval Office after playing speaker of the House in the first film and vice president in the second. The target of a drone attack that killed all of Trumbull’s Secret Service agents with the exception of Bannon, Trumbull becomes incapacitated and unable to defend his loyal bodyguard, who has been framed by ruthless defense contractors who are hoping to land a big payday and change the way things are done with private companies in Washington.
Directed by stuntman-turned-filmmaker Rick Roman Waugh, “Angel Has Fallen” feels distinctly like three films. It’s a combination of the first two films in its brutal, unrelenting violence as Bannon takes out the bad guys with extreme prejudice; and has heavy overtones of the Harrison Ford blockbuster “The Fugitive,” where an innocent man framed with a deadly crime is faced with the insurmountable task of proving his innocence.
Like all three of the aforementioned films, “Angel Has Fallen” delivers on thrills with intense action and a solid cast and will easily please fans of the “Fallen” movies and “The Fugitive.” Upping the appeal of the film is strong performance by Jada Pinkett Smith as an FBI agent on Bannon’s tail, and the grizzled but always great Nick Nolte as Bannon’s estranged father.
At this juncture, the only thing working against “Angel Has Fallen” is the predictability of the story line and basic framework of films that we already know too well. Thankfully, a solid veteran like Nolte was added to juice the film up with some welcome laughs. In the end, “Angel Has Fallen” is a good film but not a great one and will leave its fan base more than satisfied.
Lammometer: 7 (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).
Big screen legend Alan Arkin has without question been one of the hardest-working actors in Hollywood over the past 50 years, making indelible impressions in the mid-60s with such classic films as “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!” and “Wait Until Dark.” The films signaled an auspicious debut for Arkin in the film industry, paving the way to such hits over the years as “Catch 22,” “Freebie and the Bean,” “The In-Laws,” “The Rocketeer” and “Glengarry Glen Ross.”
Of course, Arkin’s career hit overdrive in 2007 with his Best Supporting Actor Oscar win for “Little Miss Sunshine,” which led to plum roles in such films as the 2012 Best Picture Oscar winner “Argo.” In short, Arkin has done it all — that is, with the exception of doing a movie with fellow iconic actors Morgan Freeman and Michael Change. But that’s all changed with “Going in Style,” a poignant comedy new in theaters.
In the film, Arkin, Freeman and Caine play Albert, Willie and Joe, respectively, a trio of lifelong friends who have toiled for decades at a steel mill. Trying their best to enjoy retirement, the friends are shocked to learn from the mill that all company pensions have been dissolved. All broke and with a mortgage foreclosure pending for one of them, Albert, Willie and Joe hatch a plan to rob the bank that’s involved in the pension fiasco to recoup what would be coming to them if they hadn’t been swindled by their company.
A remake of the 1979 comedy of the same name, director Zach Braff’s “Going in Style” is updated to reflect the financial crisis hitting seniors today. It’s a brutally honest reality to confront, but often times great comedy is rooted in truth, Arkin said in a recent phone conversation from New York.
“Even the most outrageous comedy has to be rooted, even subliminally, in some kind of truth or else it has no meaning,” Arkin said. “I was thinking about that connection with the Marx Brothers. Interestingly enough, people don’t analyze the statements — and I don’t mean messages — but emotional statements that exist in comedy. People think having a good time doesn’t warrant examination. But even with the Marx Brothers, even though it’s a much more stylized version of what we’re doing, it’s the same idea: Three kids from the Bowery on the lower east side stickin’ it to the man. That’s what most of the Marx Brothers’ material is about.”
Alan Arkin, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine in “Going in Style.”
“Going in Style” also stars screen great Ann-Margret as Annie, a fiery grocery store clerk who wants to develop a romantic relationship with Albert, a longtime musician who worked in the steel mill to support his passion for music. And while Annie wants to make a different kind of music with Albert, they do at one point in “Going in Style” take to the stage to sing some karaoke.
Funny enough, Arkin, whose first feature film appearance came as a singer and guitarist with his group The Tarriers in the 1957 film “Calypso Heat Wave,” was a bit anxious to take center stage again 60 years later.
“It was a little bit terrifying because we didn’t know what song we were going to sing until the night before we did the scene, and we had no rehearsal whatsoever,” Arkin said with slightly nervous laugh. “They threw us up in the bandstand and I was amazed that anything worked at all.”
And while some actors use fear as a motivating factor in prepping for a scene, the comedy great, 83, said he’d prefer to leave that method of working to somebody else.
“I’ve had enough of that,” Arkin deadpanned. “I prefer these days of not having fear being a motivation for anything.”
Arkin has earned a stellar reputation over the years of being such a natural, and you can definitely feel it through his relatable character in “Going in Style.” Part of the relatability no doubt stems from the actor’s natural gift of improvisation, which he’s used quite often over the years.
“I spent a long time in improvisational theater, so I know how to work with dialogue. When it’s not working, I spend a lot of time changing dialogue,” Arkin said. “If people don’t like it, they can hire somebody else. I don’t spring new dialogue on people, but I change stuff a lot – I’ve done that on at least half the films I’ve worked on. I’m very happy to comply with writing that has texture, dimension and depth.”
