Serenity

If you are a fan of the cult TV show “Firefly,”  I suggest that  you skip this movie, because you will be extremely disappointed by the title ( fellow nerds, you know what I’m talking about).  If you are not a fan of “Firefly,” I still suggest you that you skip this movie, because you are still going to be disappointed.  I expected way more from a movie starring Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey, who are both Oscar winning actors.  If you have seen trailers for “Serenity;” you will likely have been misdirected, as I was, because this movie is totally not what the trailer leads you to expect.  Matthew McConaughey stars as Baker Dill, an Iraq war veteran and fishing boat captain who spends every spare moment hunting a giant tuna called Justice.  His ex-wife, Karen, shows up with a story of being abused by her current millionaire husband (played unconvincingly and as a bland stereotype by Jason Clarke) and the bruises to prove it.  She wants him to take her husband out on a fishing trip and kill  him by throwing him overboard for the sharks.  She offers  ten million dollars in cold, hard cash.  Karen is played by Anne Hathaway with her hair dyed a perplexing and unflattering blond.  Diane Lane and DJimon Honshu are wasted in minor supporting roles, that frankly, don’t really servie to support anything! Up until this point, the action was slow, but the plot  seemed to be headed in the familiar territoy of suspense thriller.  Here is where the movie falls apart, and even gets silly.   I won’t give away the big plot “surprise,” although I feel I would be doing a public service if I did!  Anyway, think of a really bad rip off of Black Mirror’s ‘Bandersnatch,’ but without the myriad choices, and you will get the idea.  I read after the fact, that “Serenity” was scheduled to be released in September 2018, but was pulled and delayed until late January 2019.  It’s almost as if the distributors knew something, isn’t it?