FILM REVIEW OF ''MARSHALL" (2017)

Before he played the lead in Marvel Studios’ superhero sage “Black Panther,” actor Chadwick Boseman played a genuine African-American hero in “Boomerang” director Reginald Hudlin’s “Marshall,” a sterling biographical courtroom yarn about civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall.  As it turns out, this is the same individual who argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court and then later donned the robes as the first African-American to sit on the highest federal court of the United States.  It doesn’t hurt matters that seasoned civil rights advocate Michael Koskoff and his son Jacob penned the screenplay.  Interestingly, the elder Koskoff still serves as an attorney in Connecticut, where the trial took place in 1941, so he would know something about the hurdles that Marshall had to negotiate. At this point in his life, Marshall worked as the sole legal counsel for the NAACP, and his NAACP superior Walter White (Roger Guenveur Smith of “Eve’s Bayou”) dispatches him to all parts of the country to defend poor African-Americans who cannot afford an attorney.  

“Marshall” (***1/2 OUT OF ****) depicts the eponymous character as a sharp, savvy, sartorially elegant attorney who refuses to be intimidated by anybody.  Boseman has a field day incarnating this historical personage.  Neither Hudlin nor the Koskoffs reveal a great deal about Thurgood Marshall beyond his dedication to the rights of African-Americans in a legal system skewered heavily against them.  Indeed, we do learn about the problems that Marshall and his wife Vivien "Buster" Burey (Keesha Sharp of “Malibu's Most Wanted”) encountered in their repeated but futile efforts to get pregnant.  Eventually, she does have a baby.  Nevertheless, Hudlin and the Koskoffs don’t let Marshall’s own life history interfere with the trial at hand.  Mind you, “Marshall” clocks in two minutes short of two hours, but Hudlin doesn’t malinger.  The trial in question takes place in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The authorities have arrested a middle-aged, African-American chauffeur, Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown of “Brown Sugar”), for allegedly raping an affluent Greenwich socialite, Mrs. Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson of “Deepwater Horizon”), and then throwing her into a reservoir late one evening.  According to Koskoff, when the press broke the story, one newspaper touted it as “the sex trial of the century.” When Marshall visits Spell in his jail cell, the attorney explains that the NAACP represents only innocent blacks. Spell assures Marshall that he did not rape Strubing.  Furthermore, he has an alibi for his whereabouts when the crime occurred, and the witness in question turns out to be a white policeman. 

As the case unfolds, Marshall realizes that he lacks the appropriate credentials to practice law in Connecticut, so he finds a gullible but willing Jewish insurance attorney, Sam Friedman (Josh Gad of “Pixels”), to help him represent Spell.  Friedman constantly has second thoughts about the trial and the dire publicity that may irreparably damage his budding civil practice.  Nevertheless, he agrees to serve as Spell’s mouthpiece.  Meantime, the abrasive Judge Foster (James Cromwell of “L.A. Confidential”) refuses to let Marshall utter a syllable during the trial and threatens to hold him in contempt if he does.  

Throughout the trial, Marshall must coach Friedman because the latter hasn’t argued a criminal case.  If these two strikes against our sympathetic, but snappy hero aren’t enough, Marshall discovers about half-way through the case that Spell has been lying to them.  Indeed, Spell didn’t rape Strubing!  Instead, he had intimate consensual relations with her, because her abusive, bad-tempered husband, John Strubing (Jeremy Bobb of “Boy Wonder”), often left her alone at night.  Naturally, Friedman struggles to improvise, but he falls into too many traps laid by prosecuting attorney Loren Willis (Dan Stevens of “The Guest”), who is supremely confident that he will triumph in the end with a conviction. Of course, the racist citizens of Bridgeport aren’t happy with both Marshall and Friedman, and they go after them with fists.  Friedman suffers the worst, getting beaten to his knees, and walking away with minor facial scars.  Marshall grins at him and points out that the local press lumped him with Marshall as a crusading NAACP lawyer.

“Marshall” qualifies as a well-made but routine courtroom drama bolstered by terrific performances and historical accuracy.

FILM REVIEW OF ''PACIFIC RIM UPRISING" (2018)

Mind-numbing nonsense from fade-in to fadeout, “Pacific Rim Uprising”  

(** OUT OF ****) lacks the stellar cast and the suspenseful Armageddon melodrama of its outlandish but entertaining predecessor.  Idris Elba as Stacker Pentecost and Charlie Hunnam as Raleigh Becket made “Pacific Rim” more than just a juvenile diversion in collateral damage

 and urban renewal. Comparatively, neither John Boyega nor Scott Eastwood musters enough magnetism in “Pacific Rim Uprising” to overshadow our heroic memories of Stacker and 

Raleigh. Everybody knows Stacker died in the original, so he was never coming back.  Becket’s absence is never adequately explained, though he might reappear in a later sequel.  Meantime, “Pacific Rim Uprising” violates the first rule of all good sequels.  Never should a heretofore 

untold character related to a franchise hero be invented to replace him.  Meantime, everybody 

should recognize Boyega from his two recent “Star Wars” spectacles, while Clint Eastwood’s 

son Scott has acquitted himself more than satisfactorily with supporting roles in “Fury” and “Suicide Squad.”  Boyega and Eastwood represent Hollywood’s new blood.  Sadly, they are hamstrung playing superficial characters with scarcely any complexity or charisma.  The same shortcoming applies to the new breed of Jaeger pilots who comprise a politically-correct, 

multi-cultural coalition. Unknown actors and actresses all, they constitute a bland bunch 

with their petty rivalries.  Boyega and Eastwood must whip these recruits into shape, so they 

can maneuver skyscraper-sized Jaegers on a dime.  “Pacific Rim” came out in 2013, and five 

years would slip away before “Pacific Rim Uprising” emerged.  Despite the gap in time 

between the original’s release and its uninspired sequel, you’d think the filmmakers could 

have conjured up something with more imaginative than a lame imitation of “Ender’s Game” (2013).  Basically, all director Steven S. DeKnight of Netflix’s “Daredevil,” freshman scenarists Emily Carmichael and Kira Snyder, and “Maze Runner” writer T.S. Nowlin do is grant the 

Kaiju a rematch.  Along the way, they disperse the returning original characters, and the last-minute showdown never attains the impressive proportions of “Pacific Rim.” 

This formulaic follow-up takes place in 2030, ten years after the Kaiju defeat at the Battle of the Breach.  Not only has peace and prosperity been restored during the intervening decade, but scientists have also converted the rock ’em, sock ’em Jaegers so they can be deployed like drones.  DeKnight and his writers introduce Stacker Pentecost’s insubordinate son, Jake (John Boyega of “Attack the Block”), but the son is nothing like his sire.  Since the end of the Kaiju wars, dismantled Jaegers have been rusting away in scrap heaps. Some skeptics insist on being prepared for the return of the Kaiju.  Thieves have catered to their paranoia by stealing Jaeger parts and selling them to these superstitious souls.  Jake acquires his cash from pilfering these parts. Little does he know his principal competitor is an audacious, 15-year old orphan, Amara Namani (newcomer Cailee Spaeny), and she is beating him to those parts.  Amara is assembling her own micro-sized Jaeger when Jake catches up with her.  No sooner have they met than a real Jaeger thwarts her plans. Cutting a deal, Jake winds up back where he started before the Kaiju wars instead of behind bars.  Former Jaeger copilot and old friend Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood of “Diablo”) needs Jake to help train the new Jaegar pilots.  Instead of calling it “Pacific Rim Uprising,” producer Guillermo del Toro and DeKnight should have named it “Pacific Rim: The Next Generation.”  Since she proved herself a decent pilot, Namani lands in the new cadet class, but not everyone likes her. According to Lambert, teens make better Jaeger pilots. Their youth, it seems, enables them ‘to drift’ better as co-pilots.  If you haven’t seen “Pacific Rim,” the mind-melding ability to drift is indispensable for pilots to operate these gigantic robots in combat against the supernatural “Godzilla” lizards from another dimension.  Drifting might also apply to the audiences’ willing suspension of disbelief in matters of such caprice.

Meantime, Dr. Hermann Gottieb (Burn Gorman) and Dr. Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day), who enlivened the original with their feverish comic relief antics, are no longer friendly.  Newt now works for the domineering Liwen Shao (Jing Tian of "The Great Wall") of the Shao Corporation, where he serves as her co-chief of the drone development program.  The change in the relationship between Hermann and Newt provides the sole surprise in this mediocre sequel.  Remember, these two nerds saved the day for Stacker and Raleigh in “Pacific Rim” because they drifted with a hideous Kaiju’s mind.  Hermann still suffers nightmares from the ordeal, while nitwit Newt has discovered the love of his life.  Yes, he keeps a Kaiju brain preserved in a glass tank at his apartment, refers to her as Alice, and maintains what might be described as a Platonic relationship with it!  Preposterous as this all seems, it might have been less bizarre if the filmmakers had brought back Ron Perlman’s sinister Kaiju collector Hannibal Chau from the first film whose presence is sorely missed. Newt’s infatuation with Alice, and the profit-motive resolve of Liwen Shao to implement drones over drift pilots makes her seem shady when a rogue Jaeger storms out of the ocean and annihilates Sidney, Australia.  Apart from Hermann and Newt, the only other returning “Pacific Rim” character is Rinko Kikuchi’s Mako Mori.  Sadly, Mako has been demoted from piloting Jaegers and is sidelined to the status of a pencil-pushing administrator.  Mako must approve Shao’s drone pilot proposal before the Pan Pacific Defense Corps (PPDC) will institute it. Meaning, Mori doesn’t survive long enough to make a difference.  

Predictably, the fearsome alien Kaiju monsters arrive in the second hour to challenge the green Jaeger recruits.  DeKnight orchestrates this last minute apocalyptic battle in Tokyo, with the usual collateral damage, while “Terminator Genisys” composer Lorne Balfe’s bombastic score does more to heighten this slam-bang smackdown than its staging.  Not even an intriguing cliffhanger ending is enough to make “Pacific Rim Uprising” seem more than a ‘downsizing’ of its far superior predecessor.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE STRANGERS: PREY FOR NIGHT" (2018)

Indeed, “The Strangers: Prey for Night” (** OUT OF ****) arrives ten years later as a belated sequel to writer & director Bryan Bertino’s 2008 horror chiller “The Strangers.”  Although Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) survived in the original “Strangers,” she doesn’t show up for the sequel.  While Bertino received first credit for writing this follow-up film, “Forrest of the Damned” director Johannes Roberts has taken over the helm, and “30 Days of Night: Dark Days” scribe Ben Ketai has contributed to the screenplay.  Mind you, “The Strangers: Prey for Night” lacks the nihilistic artistry of “The Strangers.” Nevertheless, the sequel proves far more satisfying in terms of dramatic closure.  Whereas only Liv Tyler lived in “The Strangers,” two characters escape the knives, ax, and vehicular mayhem in “Prey for Night.”  No, you don’t need to watch “The Strangers” again to appreciate its tardy sequel.  If you do, you may notice certain scenes are replicated here for greater impact.  One of the things that made “The Strangers” such a startling exercise in terror was its violence.  At one point, Kristen’s terrified boyfriend, James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) found a shotgun.  Unfortunately, when he wielded it, Hoyt accidentally killed Mike (Glenn Howerton), his best friend.  Since the front door stood ajar, Mike had blundered into the house, and Hoyt mistook Mike for one of the three foes.  Nobody perishes from friendly fire in “Prey at Night.”  The two films share some similarities, but they remain largely different based on their respective settings.  “The Strangers” emphasized claustrophobia because the bedlam occurred in a ranch house in the woods.  The hysterics in “Prey at Night” are not confined to one house.  Instead, the pandemonium rages within an isolated trailer park where only the manager and his wife remain during the off-season.  Ostensibly, the two movies take place after dark, and the predators eventually sabotage all means of communication.  As slick as Johannes Roberts’ direction is, “Prey for Night” amounts to a lukewarm, standard-issue, 1980s slasher saga.  Bits and pieces of the storyline—not the body parts of its slain victims—have been tweaked sufficiently to make it its 85-minute running time tolerable.

In “The “Strangers,” Kristen and James had just gotten home after attending a wedding.  Clearly, they were amorous couple, but they had not set a date for their own wedding.  “The Strangers: Prey at Night” deals with a family in turmoil.  Cindy (Christina Hendricks of “The Neon Demon”) and her husband Mike (Martin Henderson of “Windtalkers”) are driving their problem child daughter, Kinsey (Bailee Madison of “Just Go with It”), to a boarding school.  Kinsey has a rebellious streak a mile wide.  She wears Goth girl make-up and smokes cigarettes without inhaling them.  All of Kinsey’s girlfriends skip school and participate in activities just as onerous as she did, but their parents haven’t punished them.  Cindy tells her defiant daughter she wishes that her mother could have confronted her problem as she has Kinsey’s.  Mike loads up the mini-van, and they pick up Kinsey’s older brother, Luke (Lewis Pullman of “Battle of the Sexes”), who has been playing baseball with his pals. Naturally, Kinsey and Mike annoy each other during the journey.  Although the family fell behind their scheduled departure, Cindy has left a telephone message for Uncle Marvin at Gatlin Lake Trailer Park that they will be arriving late.  We the audience already suspect this family is headed for an ill-fated rendezvous because the three murderers —the Man in Burlap Mask (Damian Maffei of “Nikos the Impaler,” Dollface (newcomer Emma Bellomy), and Pin-Up Girl (newcomer Lea Enslin)—have broken in on Uncle Marvin and Aunt Sheryl and relieved them off all their worldly anxieties.  Interestingly, this older couple slept with a dog between them, but the canine cowered rather than attacked.

Predictably, Cindy and family don’t have a clue about their impending doom.  They arrive after dark, and Cindy picks up their trailer key from main office.  Of course, nobody greets her.  No sooner have they settled in than somebody knocked at the door.  The knocking itself sound ominous.  Cindy opens it to find a girl standing in darkness on the porch.  The outside light is not shining, so Cindy cannot see the girl’s face.  The girl asks her if Tamara is home.  Cindy disappoints her, and she watches the girl leave.  Stubborn Kinsey refuses to play cards with Cindy and Mike, and she storms out of the trailer to smoke.  Cindy sends Luke after Kinsey.  After the sinister prologue, director Johannes Roberts devotes about thirty minutes acquainting audiences with the family.  They appear average.  The parents are struggling to raise their two children, but one has run off the rails.  If a message lurks in “The Strangers: Prey for Night,” could it be: “think twice about sending your daughters to boarding school?”  Otherwise, Cindy and Mike seem like a model couple with few flaws.

“The Strangers: Prey for Night” differs from its predecessor because its victims enjoy a greater chance of survival. Meantime, the filmmakers have scrupulously observed the rules of the slasher fest.  The masked villains are virtually indestructible.  Some can recover from the worst injuries.  An older man wearing a burlap bag drives them around in a battered Ford pick-up.  He is dressed in a suit and tie.  He favors an ax.  Something about the way an ax sounds as it is dragged across concrete appeals to him.  The two girls prefer kitchen knives.  They display no emotions whatsoever when they maim or slaughter their victims.  The masked dastards in “The Strangers” behaved in similar fashion.  One of Cindy’s family asks her assailant why she is trying to kill her.  “Why not?” the girl utters with a dreamy gaze.  Not surprisingly, when the stabbing starts, the family goes berserk.  They do the usual, foolhardy things victims do.  Everything about “The Strangers: Prey for Night” is hackneyed, but the film adheres to the slasher formula with enough style to make it adequate for a rental.