FILM REVIEW OF ''JOHN WICK: CHAPTER TWO" (2017)

Hollywood makes out two types of sequels.  First, those sequels that aren’t as good as their forerunners.  Second, those sequels that surpass their predecessors. Basically, sequels are either better or worse than what spawned them.  “John Wick: Chapter 2” (***1/2 OUT OF ****) belongs to the second category.   Stunt double Chad Stahelski and scenarist Derek Kolstad respectively return as director and writer for the bullet-riddled bloodbath “John Wick 2,” and Keanu Reeves reprises his role as the invincible, sharp-shooting assassin who doesn’t aim to please.  No, Wick’s new pet pooch doesn’t die in this installment.  Moreover, no other animals are harmed.  Anybody who saw the original “John Wick” knows the villains spoke in awe about John Wick’s lethal use of pencils.  Appropriately enough, Stahelski stages a pencil scene for the sequel, and you will have an entirely new respect for yellow number two pencils.  We’ll have to see if something like this doesn’t ultimately winds up as merchandise to advertise the franchise.  This unbreakable pencil preserves its point throughout a slam-bang combat encounter that would shatter a regular pencil.  Audaciously preposterous, hopelessly predictable, but thoroughly captivating nonsense, “John Wick 2” pushes everything to the limit except the number of lines uttered by Keanu Reeves.  Tired of gun shy, shoot’em ups that confine their mortality rates to single digits? “John Wick 2” boasts a triple-digit body count with an alarming number of head shots.  Typically, our bruised and battered hero pumps two slugs into an adversary’s torso and then polishes them off with one in the noggin.  When he exhausts his ammo, he resorts to battlefield salvage and appropriates another man’s weapon so he can keep on killing. Meaning, if you require discretion in the depiction of violence, you may have complaints about this exciting, atmospheric, and elegantly lensed action thriller with lots of colorfully illuminated settings.  Incidentally, “John Wick 2” reunites Reeves and “Matrix” co-star Laurence Fishburne for a couple of scenes. Were it little more than the original, “John Wick 2” wouldn’t be as memorable, but it is something more with some imaginative tweaks that its predecessor lacked.

“John Wick: Chapter 2” picks up where the previous epic ended.  Since Wick has acquired a new dog, he searches now for the car that his enemies stole, and the film opens with an over-the-top, car-smashing, body-crashing encounter in a rival mobster’s garage with our hero relying on wits, fists, and martial arts.  Like a respectable sequel, “John Wick 2” reminds us what was at stake in the first film as well as the character of our hero.  A relative of the mobsters who shot Wick’s puppy dog and then beat him senseless, Abram (Peter Stormare of “22 Jump Street”) is preparing to clear out since he fears Wick is coming after him next.  While Wick dispatches Abram’s army of thugs and mechanics, Abram’s eyes bulge with abject terror, and Stormare gives a great performance by his reactions to the arrival of his adversary.  When they finally meet after our hero has cleared a gauntlet of killers, Wick pours Abram a drink and proposes peace with a toast.  The two gulp their liquor and forge an armistice.  Abram bids Wick a happy retirement.  Naturally, however, nothing of the sort is going to happen either for Wick or the audience.  In a bit of backstory, we learn that John Wick indebted himself to a treacherous, high-ranking mobster, Santino D'Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio of “Loose Cannons”), with a blood oath marker so he could retire and live peacefully with his wife Helen.  Now, after wrapping up his revenge, Wick discovers to his chagrin that Santino is calling in that marker!  Although Wick is in no position to refuse an assignment from Santino, he refuses to accommodate Santino because he is weary of all the shooting and killing.  A disappointed Santino leaves Wick’s house and then shoulders an awesome incendiary weapon and fire-bombs our hero’s house, blasting Wick off the premises but not killing his dog.  Resigned to his fate, Wick sits down with Santino and agrees to carry out one final mission.  The evil Santino wants the seat on an international crime council that his late father willed to his older sister, Gianna D'Antonio (Claudia Gerini of “Deceit”), and he stipulates that our hero must ice her.  Off to Rome flies Wick where he acquires an arsenal that James Bond would envy, a dark tailor-made, bullet-proof suit, and the blueprints to infiltrate Gianna’s inner sanctum and surprise her.  What Wick doesn’t plan for adequately is Gianna’s steadfast bodyguard Cassian (Common of “American Gangster”), and these two titans tangle in a blood and guts tango that ends abruptly after they crash into the sacred Continental Hotel in Rome, run by Julius (Franco Nero of “Django”), where mobsters must cease and desist because it represents the equivalent of a gangland church that grants amnesty.  At this point, Wick realizes that the scheming Santino has double-crossed him.  Santino points out he wouldn’t be much of a brother if he didn’t avenge the murder of his sister.  When his own gunmen cannot liquidate Wick, Santino offers a $7-million-dollar bounty, and hitmen from every corner of the globe swarm after our resilient hero.

Aside from Keanu Reeves’ typically stoic performance, “John Wick: Chapter Two” features a sturdy cast, with Ian McShane reprising his role as Winston, the manager of the New York City Continental Hotel--where mobsters are prohibited from fighting with their adversaries, and Lance Reddick as the accommodating desk clerk Charon.  John Leguizamo appears briefly as the body shop repairman who helped Wick locate his Mustang, and Bridget Moynahan appears in a flashback as Wick’s late wife Helen.  Director Chad Stahelski, who once earned his living as Keanu Reeve’s stunt double, need never look back.  Slated to helm the new “Highlander” reboot, Stahelski keeps things thumping throughout this two-hour plus neo-noir thriller.  The hall of mirrors scene where Wick stalks Santino rivals the original scene in Orson Welles’ iconic thriller “The Lady from Shanghai” (1947).  

FILM REVIEW OF ''BAD SANTA 2" (2016)

If you thought “Bad Santa” (2003) was a hoot, you’ll holler at “Bad Santa 2.”  Like its vulgar, politically-incorrect predecessor, this rude, crude, lowest common denominator, gross-out sequel scrapes the bottom of the toilet for bowel humor that may make you gag.  Oscar-winning Billy Bob Thornton of “Sling Blade” reprises his role as lascivious, blasphemous, alcoholic, safecracker Willy Soke, who masquerades as Santa Claus and listens to children’s gift requests on his lap.  Nevertheless, despite its contrived, often predictable, by-the-numbers monkeyshines, “Bad Santa 2” (**** OUT OF ****) is an audaciously sidesplitting saga, with corrosive dialogue that may either incinerate your soul or prompt you to laugh with such vigor that you will cough at the same time.  After a thirteen-year hiatus, not only has Thornton shown up for the sequel, but also teensy Tony Cox and chubby Brent Kelly have also returned respectively as Marcus and Thurman.  Lest we forget, Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer of “The Help” appears briefly again as Opal the prostitute from the original. The latest character to wade into this cesspool of hilarity is Willy’s low-class, repugnant mother.  Kathy Bates never stops surprising us as Sunny Soke, a sleazy, silver-tongued, ex-con wreathed with biker tattoos who wants to steal thousands of dollars.  Sadly, Sunny has grown so decrepit she cannot control her Parkinson’s and requires somebody with steady fingers to crack a safe.  Bates could easily have stolen “Bad Santa 2” with her outlandish portrayal.  Instead, Brent Kelly steals the show as simple-minded moron Thurman Merman who keeps on obliviously weathering Willy’s vile torrents of profanity about his shortcomings.  Miraculously, Kelly maintains a look of deadpan stupefaction throughout these rants that would have reduced a less disciplined actor to ripples of belly laughter.  Indeed, “Mean Girls” director Mark Waters and freshman scenarist Johnny Rosenthal with “Whip It” writer Shauna Cross spurn good taste repeatedly.

“Bad Santa 2” opens with Willy (Billy Bob Thornton of “Fargo”) admitting that his life has been a travesty.  He never succeeds for one reason or another with his suicide attempts.  He is dangling from a ceiling lighting fixture when Thurman, the grown-up kid from the original movie (Brett Kelly of “Unaccompanied Minors”), strolls into his apartment and cannot fathom what Willy is doing.  Eventually, Willy abandons all efforts to hang himself, chiefly after Thurman empties a bag of money onto his table.  As it turns out Willy’s treacherous, accomplice from the first film, the vertically-challenged Marcus Skidmore (Tony Cox of “Beetlejuice”), has invited Willy to join him at a local restaurant so they can discuss business.  Of course, Willy doesn’t trust Markus because the latter tried to murder him in the original.  Marcus hasn’t been out of prison long, and he needs the money.  He explains that Willy’s mom has a plan to rob a high-profile, Chicago-headquartered charity that will bulge their pockets with loot.  Eventually, Willy meets his estranged mother, Sunny (Kathy Bates of “Misery”), again.  She briefs him about the heist.  You’d think any reunion between mother and son would be a joyous, sentimental occasion, but it is far from it.  Willy has no fond memories of his mom.  We learn during one of their conversations that Willy took a fall for her at age eleven and did time for Sunny’s crime.  She confirms in her own words what an unfit mom she was.  Sunny cherishes the memory of Willy’s birth: “Hell, I didn’t even know I’d given birth until I’d tripped over him.”  Willy sidesteps old animosities and pitches in with them to rip off the children’s charity.  As it turns out, a well-to-do married couple who are for all practical purposes estranged conduct the charity.  The charity resembles the Salvation Army.  Diane Hastings (Christina Hendricks of “Drive”) and her husband Regent (Ryan Hansen of “G.I. Joe: Retaliation”) make it easy to contribute to the cause.  You can text your donation to it!  What Diane doesn’t realize is Regent is cheating on her with another employee.  Initially, Willy is not pleased that he must don a Santa Claus suit and solicit donations on the street.  At one point, he clashes with another Santa who claims that Willy has stolen his spot.  The two tangle on the curb, and Willy lands in jail.  Diane has the police release him and she allows Willy to keep his Santa gig if he will accompany her to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.  Reluctantly, for the sake of Sunny and Marcus, Willy follows her, and the two become sexually involved with each other.  Meantime, Willy doesn’t entirely trust his murderous, old nemesis Marcus.  Remember, Marcus tried to kill Willy in the original “Bad Santa.”  Sunny convinces Willy to let bygones be bygones.  If things weren’t tense enough for Willy, he discovers that Thurman has embarked on a journey to search for and surprise him.  Now, Willy must contend with this clueless klutz who wants nothing more than to make him sandwiches. He arranges for Thurman to lose his virginity to Olivia. Before she can accommodate him, Thurman flees in abject terror.

Basically, “Bad Santa 2” regurgitates the same essential plot of the original, but it delivers greater volumes of profanity and sexuality than the former.  The F-word is used 180 times here rather than 130 in the original.  Meaning, the raunchy “Bad Santa 2” lives up to its R-rating “for crude sexual content and language throughout, and some graphic nudity.”  Waters and his two writers have exercised such an extreme lack of good taste that “Bad Santa 2” qualifies as a guilty pleasure. Incidentally, the filmmakers do refrain from depicting murder this time around. You may cringe in retrospect that you sank to such shallow depths of the sake of rib tickling glee.  Some of Sunny’s lines will keep you to cackling. If you indulge in this nonsense, your demented soul will crave the prank in the end credits. Unlike any other movies showing now, “Bad Santa 2” may provide you with some desperate relief from all the Yuletide cheer.

FILM REVIEW OF ''RED DAWN' (2012)

Although I ranked the original “Red Dawn” (1984) as a vintage Reagan-era action opus, freshman director Don Bradley’s supercharged, high-octane, remake starring Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, and Josh Hutcherson surpasses its predecessor on several counts.  The first “Red Dawn” depicted a Soviet invasion of a small Colorado town and the scrappy squad of high school teens who eventually ousted them with their hit-and-run guerrilla warfare.  Patrick Swayze starred in the original, and Charlie Sheen made his cinematic debut.  Anti-Communist, Cold War movies enjoyed a brief renaissance when “Red Dawn” came out.  Clint Eastwood’s “Firefox” (1982) about a washed-up Vietnam pilot who stole a top-secret Soviet stealth jet fighter represented a standard example of these films.  Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky IV” (1985) appeared a year after “Red Dawn” with the Italian Stallion swapping blows with a gigantic Soviet pugilist.  Meanwhile, James Bond had tangled with cunning Soviets in both “For Your Eyes Only” (1981) and “Octopussy” (1983).  The Soviets qualified as despicable B-movie villains, but the Americans defeated them despite any handicaps.  The last gasp of this sub-genre occurred during the 1980s, particularly after the bottom dropped out of the Evil Empire in 1989.  Comparatively, while Milius’ “Red Dawn” unfolded largely in a rural setting, the agile remake occurs in the urban setting of Spokane, Washington.  Bradley and scenarists Carl Ellsworth of “Disturbia” and Jeremy Passmore of “Special” haven’t departed drastically from the original screenplay that Kevin Reynolds of “Waterworld” and John Milius of “Flight of the Intruder” penned.  Whereas the original concluded with the defeat of the enemy and the end of World War III, the “Red Dawn” (***1/2 OUT OF ****) remake leaves the outcome of the action up in the air.  This remake is not as enigmatic about the fate of its protagonist as its predecessor was.  

Chris Hemsworth of "Thor" plays battle seasoned Marine Jed Eckert who comes home to Spokane after his tour of duty.  It seems Jed ran out not only on his father, Spokane Police Sergeant Tom Eckert (Brent Cullen), but also his impressionable younger brother Matt (Josh Peck of “Drillbit Taylor”) and left no messages.  Not long after Jed arrives home, the unexpected happens.  Enemy cargo planes crowd the sky, and paratroopers appear like a blizzard of snowflakes.  Jed, Matt, and their friend Robert (Josh Hutcherson of “The Hunger Games”) scramble for the safety of the family cabin in the woods.  Along the way, they pick up several others as they flee from the besieged city during a harrowing auto chase with the North Koreans in furious pursuit.  Eventually, Jed trains these teens from the bootstraps up into a lethal band of guerrillas.  Soon they become the bane of the North Koreans.  Everywhere our heroes go and devastate the North Koreans, they spray-paint wolverines on the walls.  Wolverines are the name of their high school football team.  No matter how fiercely North Korean District Leader Captain Cho (Will Yun Lee of “Die Another Day”) pursues them, Jed and company elude him at every turn.  One day our heroes join forces with three Marines dispatched to contact them.  Helicopter pilot Colonel Andy Tanner (Jeffrey Dean Morgan of “The Losers”) and his two men explain they have been ordered to retrieve a top-secret communications unit that the enemy uses to safeguard its chain of command.  Jed and Matt clash when Matt takes advantage of an opportunity to rescue his girlfriend, Erica Martin (Isabel Lucas of “Immortals”), from a prison bus during a major tactical exercise. One of them dies because Matt goes rogue on the Wolverines.  Before long the North Korean bring in an imposing Russian military adviser who devises a way to track the Wolverines back to their lair.  Jed and Matt square off against each other about Matt’s irresponsible attitude.  Eventually, the two reach reconciliation before the North Koreans descend on them without warning.

One of the biggest criticisms about “Red Dawn” (1984) was its far-fetched premise.  A Soviet airborne invasion seemed dubious initially, and it seems even more implausible in the remake.  The Soviet Union emerged as our chief nemesis from the end of World War II and remained so until 1989.  Pitting a faction of fresh-faced kids against the Soviets isn’t nearly as improbable as pitting them against the North Koreans.  Mind you, nobody considers the North Koreans a serious threat compared with either Russia or China.  One of the strengths of the “Red Dawn” remake, however, is the way it makes the events that precipitate World War III seem credible.  Nevertheless, casting the North Koreans as our adversary remains lamentable.  Originally, the filmmakers cast the Red Chinese as our adversary.  Afterward, the studio changed their minds because China imports Hollywood’s product.  Consequently, the studio kept “Red Dawn” on the shelf for three years while they digitally altered the uniforms, insignia, and identity of the invading army.  Bradley and his writers make us abhor the North Koreans and cheer for the underdog heroes.  Freshman director Don Bradley, who supervised the stunts on “The Bourne” movies as well as “Spider-man 2” and “Spider-man 3,”stages the combat sequences with vigorous aplomb.  The teens look credible enough wielding some impressive firepower. Bradley doesn’t waste time either.  This “Red Dawn” clocks in considerably shorter than the Milius original. Some of the dialogue sounds quotable, particularly the remark about Marines regrouping in Hell.  Altogether, “Red Dawn” qualifies as another of those few remakes that overshadows the original.