Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

21 Bridges

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What makes this police action thriller rise above the usual ‘cop out for vengance’ movie is the performance of Chadwick Boseman.  I wasn’t sure about another action oriented cop drama.  But I loved him as Jackie Robinson in ’42’ and as T’Challa in ‘Black Panther,’ and so I was willing to give his latest a go.  In this movie, he takes on a role that Denzel Washington might have played back in the day.  The plot is simple.  Two young men are interrupted in the middle of a robbery by some policmen.  When the dust and bullets finally clear,  seven officers are dead.  Precinct Captain McKenna (J.K. Simmons) is out for vengeance for his men, and feels that rogue detective, Andre Davis (Chadwick Boseman) – who has used his weapon to kill 8 suspects in as many years – is the only person who can make this right.  Davis is saddled with a with a tough partner in Narcotics agent Frankie Burns (Sienna Miller).  She seems to know her stuff, but is that all she knows? The perps are caught on a traffic camera, and identified.  Andre is able to deduce that they are probably still in Manhatten.  In a somewhat unlikely plot device, all 21 bridges that lead into Manhattan are blocked off so that no one can get in or out, including the killers.  As Davis gets closer to the perps, he begins to suspect that not all is as it seems.  The resolution is tense and action packed, if not totally believable.  But, if you like action thrillers, there is nothing here that will disappoint you.

Angel Has Fallen

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Here’s a simplistic assessment of a very simplistic movie. It’s awful! Gerard Butler plays a not very convincing Secret Service agent named Mike Banning.  His latest assignment is to protect the President while he is fishing. Morgan Freeman plays President Trumbull. He is way more believable in that role.  Some very bad people try to assassinate the president with hundreds of tiny drones, but although they wipe out virtually the entire protection force, luckily he is saved by Banning.  But, the President is in a coma and Banning is seriously injured.  Instead of congratulations, the FBI accuses him of attempted murder on ludicrous, planted evidence that even the most incompetent police, much less the FBI, Secret Service and DC Metro Police, would not fall for.  But as in many of these stories, cinematic or televised, the bad guys have all the best tech, weapons, tactics and performance, while the good guys are easily fooled, arrogant, presumpuous dupes. Banning must now escape the hospital and figure out who set him up (this is no mystery, you will know who it is in the first 15 minutes).  The rest of the movie is just plain silly and full of cliche after cliche.  You could drive a truck through the plot holes. The action is inconsistent, contrived and pays little inclination towards sensibility-even allowing for the suspension of disbelief movies like this require. It’s just shoot ’em up, nothing more.  It’s tired movie making, and has little inspiration or creativity. Nick Nolte shows up as Banning’s estranged  dad, a grizzled old Vietnam tunnel rat who is living off the grid with more explosive weaponry than a good sized National Guard armory.  He puts a little life into his role, but there really isn’t much to go on.  I  expected a movie in the vein of “The Fugitive”, “Minority Report”, “Shooter” or even the Jason Bourne movies.  The hero accused of a crime he/she didn’t commit has been a staple of Hollywood since “The 39 Steps”came out in 1935!  This movie, however, may kill the entire genre.  I really can’t recommend this one, but if you do go, wait until a few of the credits have passed for a little post-credit scene – it is the only part of the movie that I hope you get a chance to see.

Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw

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I have never seen any of the Fast and Furious movies so I really have nothing to compare this movie to.  Still, it’s not hard to guess that this is your typical summer  popcorn movie fluff.  That isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Sometimes all you want in a movie is predictable action, a few chuckles and a happy ending.  And this has action by the bucketful and plenty of humorous interplay between the stars, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Stratham. They talk smack about each other while defending the world against Idris Elba, who is a cyber enhanced anarchist who wants to release a deadly virus to weed out the sick and the weak.  They are ably assisted by Vanessa Kirby as Jason’s tough as nails sister. It is all rather silly, but fun too.  I suppose if you want to be mindlessly entertained, you should look no further, but why not give it a try?

Spiderman: Far From Home

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The Avengers Universe movies set the bar really high for Super Hero movies.  The newest Spiderman (played again by the likable Tom Holland) movie doesn’t reach the bar; but it is amiable enough to be a good, but not great, summer action movie.  First of all, this movie does a good job in capturing teenage angst and the ups and downs of high school life.  However, the stereotypical terrible teacher roles ( played by J.B. Smoove and Martin Starr) made me cringe.  No teacher would do the irresponsible things on a field trip that these educators did!  I also wasn’t impressed with the villain in this one.  Jake Gyllenhaal plays Mysterio almost as a kindly mentor so his menace, once finally revealed, is not that believable to me.  There is a lot of humor though, and beautiful scenery from several European cities, including Venice.  I loved some of the supporting cast performances especially those of Zendaya and Jon Favreau.  There is a lot of action and a little romance to go along with the humor – so I guess it all adds up to a fun, popcorn movie that the whole family can find something to enjoy.

The Girl in the Spider’s Web

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I was very disappointed in this movie.  I read the original book trilogy by Stieg Larsson and enjoyed the Swedish movies with Noomi Rapace immensely.  I even enjoyed David Lagercrantz’s reboot of the books, although they are not as gritty and intense as the original series.  So I am very perplexed by this movie.  It took some of the most intriguing parts of the book and threw them out the window.  The aspects of the story not in the book that were added are boring and bring nothing to the story beyond the conventional.  Claire Foy is the latest actress to play Lisbeth Salander. She does a decent job, but in the end her portrayal falls flat.  In a nutshell, Lisbeth is approached by Dr. Frans Balder (Stephan Merchant in a brief and ineffectual role), who wants her to hack into the NSA and steal a missile progam he created.  Frans has an autistic son, August, who in the book doesn’t speak and whose drawings contain a clue to a killer.  In the movie version, his son speaks and seems perfectly normal except for his almost savant facility with numbers.  Why change this interesting and compelling character and turn him into a normal kid?  Anyway, Lisbeth discovers her twisted sister, Camilla, who everyone had assumed was dead is, yes, you guessed it – alive.  It is Camilla who is out to steal the program, sell it and destroy her sister in the process.  Camilla’s character is never fully developed so you only begin to really understand why she hates her sister so much through some quick exposition.  The last chestnut is the addition of an American NSA agent, who comes to Lisbeth’s aid, and fortunately is also a sniper with access to a .50 caliber sniper rifle, supported by the incredible computer wizardry of Salander’s hacker friend from the series, Plague. Anyway, instead of watching this one, I would watch the American “Girl with the Dragon Tatoo” starring Rooney Mara or better still, the original Swedish version that starred Noomi Rapace.  Skip this one, you will be glad you did!