The King's Man (2021, Blu-ray) - 8.5 (spoilers)
As spy movies go, The Kingsman movies were some of the more enjoyable in the past decade or so (the original came out in 2014). The idea of a prequel didn't feel totally earned, though. We got plenty of backstory in the first two films, and there didn't seem to be any compelling reason to go backward instead of making a Kingsman 3.
Boy, am I glad I was wrong about that.
For some strange reason, I love historical fiction, especially when the stories attempt to provide different perspectives and context to well-known stories. The King's Man turns history about World War I on its head with hilarious, not-so-crazy interpretations of historical figures. The myth of Rasputin, for example, already involves his healing abilities and the ability to see into the future (talk about fiction!), but watching Rasputin's outlandish story integrate so well in the middle of a secret mission by the Kingsmen was hysterical. The dancing scene might be the best scene of any movie this entire year.
Learning that Rasputin was just one of many "villains" who met in secret as if they were members of the Legion of Doom was the cherry on top. The King's Man literally served as a launching point for a crazy alternate-history universe based loosely on real people and stories from history. The movie even had a Marvel-esque post-credit scene that introduced to a new character who may or may not become a key figure in a future movie: Adolf Hitler! Let the hilarity continue!
The Courier (2020, Amazon Prime) - 8.5
Another approach to historical fiction is telling the "untold" story of a lesser-known person who still played a key part in history. While some facts were tweaked, the core story of The Courier is centered around the real-life events of a business man named Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) and a Russian spy named Oleg Penkovsky. Greville somehow gets mixed up in a game of espionage during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
What was interesting about Greville was his commitment to doing something he felt was critically important in saving so many lives. Not only that, the story examines the effects his involvement has on his personal safety (he's always in danger) and his marriage (it gets pretty rocky, and who could blame his wife, especially because the guy cheated on her in the past). While Greville was committed to the greater good no matter the cost, Cumberbatch did a great job of portraying the internal conflict of the situation.
The truly gut-wrenching byproduct of his mission resulted from his dedication to protect Oleg. Greville eventually gets caught and is brutally tortured and imprisoned for treason, but all he had to do was give up his Russian source's name. His allegiance to one man whom he didn't know all that much (they become friends of sorts, but mostly because they are just two guys who understand the importance of their mission) is incredibly noble. Their mission was already successfully carried out, and there really was no advantage to be gained by discovering this Russian source, yet Greville still protected Oleg because he knew he wouldn't be able to live with himself if they found out. It reminded me a little of the movie Nothing but the Truth with Kate Beckinsale, who played the reporter who refused to give up her source that publicly revealed the name of a CIA agent involved in a classified mission (another great film, by the way).
The Courier told an incredible story that was carried by brilliant acting and great production design.
Uncharted (2022, theatres) - 8.0
Is there anything Tom Holland can't do? The young actor certainly isn't wasting his momentum, churning out blockbuster after blockbuster. After such a turbulent development cycle, Uncharted finally delivered on the promise of adapting the great PlayStation video game series (I've played and beaten all four of them) to the big screen. While I wasn't thrilled with many of the tweaks to the characters and their backstories, that didn't hinder my enjoyment of the entertaining action-packed adventure. It had heists, comedy, betrayals, puzzles, and tons of great action.
Holland was an okay choice as the main character, Nathan Drake, but making the Drake character younger to better suit Holland felt like a bigger compromise in execution than I thought it would. Sure, Holland can twirl a glass around while working as a bartender nicely (I read that Holland actually went to bartender school for this role), and he's no stranger to green-screen action scenes (more on those in a moment). But Holland really felt out of place when the character needed to be more serious and interact with other main characters in key moments. Granted, this is a silly action movie, and most people don't watch these movies to see good acting.
I didn't love Mark Wahlberg as Sully, either, mainly for the same reason; the video-game version of Sully was far older. For some reason, I'm a little more forgiving of that because I wished Sully was younger in the games, anyway. A surprise for me was Wahlberg. While his performance certainly won't garner any Oscar nominations, he actually didn't take me out of the moment at any point. That's saying a lot coming from me, because I normally can't stand Wahlberg.
The crazy action scenes were a little too ridiculous, even by video-game movie standards. Watching centuries-old ships fly around the way they did was just silly. The airplane scene that was key in the marketing of this movie also felt so fake. Having said that, it was cool to see a faithful adaption of the airplane scene because that was one of the coolest levels in the game.
In the end, I realize I'm griping and nitpicking about a Hollywood movie based on a cinema-quality video game. The movie was a blast to watch and proved that video-game adaptions absolutely can work. And they definitely left an opening for an Uncharted sequel!
The Weekend Away (2022, Netflix) - 6.5 (minor spoilers)
As far as guilty-pleasure mystery thrillers go, The Weekend Away actually kept my interest throughout the movie. Beth is a married woman with a newborn who takes a much-needed vacation to Croatia with her best friend Kate. But after a crazy girls night out, Kate goes missing. The problem is Beth doesn't remember much about their night (alcohol tends to do that, people), so she is forced to piece everything together herself. But she starts discovering some wild stuff about Kate, her ex-husband, and even her own husband, and a soap-opera drama develops right in the middle of this thrilling mystery.
My biggest qualm with the movie is the pathetic execution of the twists at the end. We're led to believe a certain person was responsible for Kate's disappearance, yet the police leave the case completely unresolved in the audience's eyes. A misdirect was so obviously imminent that the suspense was long gone by the time we find out the real truth. Seriously, the final act was handled so poorly that it dropped my rating of the movie by quite a decent amount.
Morbius (2022, theatres) - 6.0 (spoilers!)
I guess I'm going to be that guy who doesn't think Morbius is nearly as bad as the trash ratings critics have given the movie, but I do think the foundation was there to make a much better film. Morbius is the latest collaboration between Sony and Marvel that expands the "Sony-verse" in meaningful ways while telling a decent origin story to a character I knew nothing about going in.
Sure, there was some cringey acting at times. The cinematography felt too tight in some fast-paced action scenes and was overly creative in other scenes when it didn't need to be. While the visual effects of Morbius' sonic hearing and teleportation-like flight ability looked really cool, the CGI mostly was messy and further compounded by the darkness that vampire movies tend to have too much of already.
But those mostly weren't deal-breakers. The biggest problem with the movie was its aimless second act. The backstory of Dr. Michael Morbius and his best friend Milo felt genuine, though a bit rushed. Once Morbius performs his experiment on himself in an attempt to heal his blood disease (thanks to the DNA in bats, of course), the movie gets interesting. Morbius realizes he has become a danger to everyone around him, so he must figure out how to reverse engineer what he did before time runs out and he dies. When the movie really starts to crumble is when his friend Milo injects himself with the same DNA-altering anecdote that changes him into a vampire, too. Only Milo isn't interested in keeping others around him safe; rather, he turns the city into his own playground as he takes full advantage of his newfound life. What ensues is a pretty sloppy, generic clash between friends that is void of real stakes or emotional attachment that was sorely needed.
The ending was quite interesting, though. We see a flash in the sky that supposedly signifies the moment when Doctor Strange enacts his spell over Earth at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which makes everyone forget who Peter Parker is. We already saw one connection between the MCU and the Sony-verse at the end of No Way Home with the Venom reference. Now we see a continuation of that moment from the perspective of the Sony-verse. Apparently Vulture (played by Michael Keaton) makes a leap from the MCU's universe to the Sony-verse. Vulture and Morbius eventually meet up, and it seems they will team up to go after Spider-Man (though, this Spider-Man likely won't be the same Spider-Man we've seen in the MCU; it depends on whether Sony casts Tom Holland for the role once Holland's contract with Marvel is fulfilled). It's possible we're seeing the formation of the Sinister Six in the process (surely Venom will play a role in that, too). All of that to say, the connection to the larger universes going right now was pretty cool.
Kimi (HBO Max, 2022) - 5.5
Kimi had a decent cover-up conspiracy at the heart of its story, but it mostly felt like a generic, unoriginal telling of how modern technology can be used and misused by giant corporations. The Kimi device in question is basically a suped-up version of Alexa that can pull up video and voice recordings at a moment's notice. But who's monitoring the monitors of these Kimi devices (If you've never seen it, go watch Enemy of the State)? This story explores what happens when one employee, Angela, tries to do something right and expose the cover-up to a murder, a cover-up by the same company she works for. Kimi would be a far more forgettable movie if not for the strong performance by Zoe Kravitz (another one that has moved her up my list), who plays the rightfully paranoid Angela. Kravitz kicks butt in the action scenes, and she garners sympathy and likability in the day-to-day scenes, particularly when trying to move on from the pandemic life.
Last Night in Zoho (DVD, 2021) - 5.0
Anya Taylor-Joy was so good in Queen's Gambit that I had interest in Last Night in Zoho solely based on knowing she was in the movie. While she certainly was entertaining to watch, the movie was not. The focus of the movie starts on a young girl who breaks out on her own and tries to make a name for herself in the fashion industry; after living a sheltered life, she struggles to adapt to the big-city life. The movie takes a bizarre turn, though, when it turns into a psychological thriller involving ghosts of murder victims and horrifying mind games. While the mystery element kept me invested enough to see it through to the end, the completely unnecessary horror style was quite uncomfortable; no, it wasn't too scary, but it was just so awkward. Furthermore, the plot reveal regarding these ghosts made absolutely no sense within the context of the rest of the story.
Deep Water (Hulu, 2022) - 3.5
Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas play Vic and Melinda, a married couple that is going through a rough patch in the movie Deep Water. And by rough patch, I mean Vic allows Melinda to commit adultery all for the sake of their marriage, as if that's supposed to redirect her interest in him. Melinda is starving for more passion from Vic, but Vic is a measured man who isn't easily flustered, so Melinda will do whatever she can to stir up any feelings Vic may have towards her.
But just because he's measured doesn't mean he won't take action. No, Vic actually murders Melinda's other lovers. Vic can only cover up so much of his action as he eventually starts to feel the heat on him. The twist to all this, though, is incredibly smart. Turns out that Melinda knows what Vic is doing, and she likes it. Knowing her husband is killing her other lovers actually fosters the exact kind of passion this sick. demented wife is looking for. One intriguing little twist doesn't make up for such a morally grotesque concept.