Shorts from The Screening Room – May 2020

From the Video Store Shelf:

Doctor Sleep (2019 / DVD) – A sequel to “The Shining”? You don’t say. It’s true, author Stephen King actually had the audacity to ask and answer the question, “Whatever happened to Danny Torrance after he left the Overlook Hotel?”

Adapted and Directed by Mike Flanagan (the man behind “Hush”, NETFLIX’s “The Haunting of Hill House” series, and the 2017 adaptation of Stephen King’s “Gerald’s Game”), “Doctor Sleep” is an interesting and occasionally creepy follow up to the famed original work. Not nearly as frightening as Kubrick’s “The Shining” but, in Flanagan’s hands, it’s more effectively scary than King’s 2013 novel.

“Doctor Sleep” is not perfect, nor is it a perfectly faithful adaptation, but at 152 minutes (2 hours and 32 minutes) the film manages to get at the heart of the tale by eliminating some characters and story lines, while still adding some arguably critical nostalgia. I even think King himself would be pleasantly surprised by the outcome.

My Admission - $7.00
One Line Review – “Whatever Happened to Little Danny Torrance?”
MPAA Rating – R for disturbing and violent content, some bloody images, language, nudity and drug use

Dolittle (2020 / DVD) – This limitedly interesting take on the classic literary character is fully geared for a younger audience and is appreciable enough as such. It’s not grand, emotional, or touching in ways that appeal to anyone older than maybe 12, but as a weekend afternoon or early evening watch with the kids, it’s simple, juvenile and fitting.

Also, in its favor are the absolutely stellar live-action and voice casts that include, Antonio Banderas, Michael Sheen, Jim Broadbent, Jessie Buckley, Emma Thompson, Rami Malek, Ralph Finnes, John Cena, Kumail Nanjiani, Octavia Spencer, Tom Holland, Craig Robinson, Selena Gomez, Marion Cotillard, Frances de la Tour, and Jason Mantzoukas

My Admission - $4.50
One Line Review – “Simple Simon Met an Iron Man”
MPAA Rating – PG for some action, rude humor and brief language.

Extraction (2020 / NETFLIX) – The feature-length debut from stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave, concerns the extraction (rescue and escape) of a kidnapped youth, by a black-market mercenary, from the hands of a nefarious drug lord in the city streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The film is fast, vicious, and thoroughly entertaining.

This medium-handed action film is in many ways a wonderfully veiled throwback to the action films of the 1980s. Okay, so it lacks the smarmy one-liners, but the film is awash is gun-toting characters who easily, and sometimes grandstanding-ly, dispatch every form of threat on the screen. It suffers simple exposition and single note characters in favor of well-staged and ferociously effective action sequences, including an eleven+ minute shot that’s brilliantly staged and photographed to give the illusion that it was performed in a single take.

For all the film’s simplicity, Chris Hemsworth’s acting ability is never in question and works to elevate the overall film. Regardless of what the audience believes, which is considerable, and regardless what the screenwriter’s put into his mouth, Hemsworth convincingly believes and sells it all.

My Admission - $7.00
One Line Review – “A New-Retro Action Movie”
MPAA Rating – R for strong bloody violence throughout, language and brief drug use

The Good Liar (2019) – Ian McKellan and Hellen Mirren costar as aging seniors who meet via an online dating app. It’s sweet that the two get on rather well but, as the title suggest, the audience knows that somebody’s not telling the truth. What keeps the game interesting is the unwrapping of the film’s who’s, what’s, and why’s as things begin to get rather grift-y and quite dark.

As an actor’s piece, the performances are what draw and keep audiences enthralled as the story takes its odd, and not whole-heartedly welcomed, turns. Don’t get me too wrong, the film is engaging and entertaining, and some of its twists are impactful, while others aren’t quite as smooth or readily received.

My Admission - $6.00
One Line Review – “A Game Is Afoot”
MPAA Rating – R for some strong violence, and for language and brief nudity

The Grudge (2020 / DVD) – Not frightening, not scary, and not set in Japan, this steaming pile of a remake from writer/director Nicolas Pesce is a total waste of time. The roughly simple setup sees an American home grudged. The residence then runs through by a series of owners, real estate agents, and police officers; each of which must face the supposed terror. I don’t know about you, but this one, being so Americanized as to completely excludes dead Japanese girls from the film, had me blowing raspberries at the screen. #DumbDumbDumb

Note: Famed comedy/horror actress Lin Shaye (“There’s Something About Mary”, “Insidious”) has a bit part, and she delivers as expected. Actually, she probably deserves both of the dollars this film is worth.

My Admission - $2.00
One Line Review – “Almost As Bad As the Child’s Play Remake”
MPAA Rating – R for disturbing violence and bloody images, terror and some language

Mystify: Michael Hutchence (2020 / AMAZON) – Told almost entirely through home movies and audio interviews, this documentary examines the life, internal struggles, and ultimate tragedy of the Australian singer and his relationships with himself, his family, his band, and his lovers.

The documentary is profoundly effective, intimately lingering in moments that stretch the film out in a way that makes the experience feel longer than the film’s actual runtime. That’s a great thing though, as it leaves the audience with a sense of having spent an evening with the man rather than feeling as though they’ve just spent 90+ minutes pilfering through the high and low points of his career.

My Admission - $8.00
One Line Review – “It’s Moves Are So Raw”
MPAA Rating – NR but displays smoking, alcohol and drug use, language, sexuality and brief nudity, and discussions of mental health issues and suicide

Side Effects (2013 / DVD) – This fair to mid-land thriller from Steven Soderbergh (“The Limey”, “Traffic”) sees a woman suffering from depression who’s prescribed a semi-experimental drug that has deadly side effects. Overall, it’s a bit more intriguing than I thought it would be, while still being a bit too simple and terrestrial to buy as a great piece of work when stacked up against films of its ilk. The performances are good but the music’s a little drab, and the editing, I think, that buggers this one; making much of the film seem a bit too clean and creating no sense of time for the audience.

My Admission - $4.50
One Line Review – “It Works, But It’s Not the Most Effective Pill”
MPAA Rating – R for sexuality, nudity, violence and language

The Wrong Missy (2020 / NETFLIX) – David Spade stars as a man on the rebound. A man who’s set up on a blind date that proves to be a colossal disaster. Soon after, he meets a woman who he has a genuine connection with, but things go from bad to nightmarish when he attempts to invite the genuine connection, but accidentally invites the colossal disaster, on a working-holiday in Hawaii.

It’s a pretty standard set up and delivery for a Happy Madison production, but this one plays out like a lower-end entry in the “Friends of Adam Sandler” genre. The film is ridiculous to begin with, hits the plot-point numbers generically, and ultimately fails to create a single character that’s even remotely datable; including Spade himself. Will you laugh, a few times probably, but not really hard and not memorably.

Note: I wanna give some credit to Lauren Lapkus for going a mile too far as the wrong Missy, she’s a committer, Yo!

My Admission - $3.00
One Line Review – “It’s ‘The Wrong Movie’, Actually”
MPAA Rating – TV-MA

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