Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

The King’ s Man

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“The King’s Man” is an origin story that comes before the two way more entertaining Kingsman films.  Did we really  need an origin story?  I say no, and I really didn’t care for this one. According to the misleading trailer, this looked very much in the vein of the first two which gave us a ton of intrigue, plus Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Samuel L. Jackson and even Elton John.  This one has Ralph Fiennes and Djmon Hounsou (whom I love) but doesn’t give him much to do.   The story starts with Ralph, as the Duke of Oxford, losing his wife as a civilian casualty of the Boer War. She dies in his arms before the eyes of their horrified small son. He vows to do everything necessary to keep his son safe, as it was her dying wish.  In the meantime, some of history’s most evil criminals plot to change events and exacerbate bad situations in World War I to ensure the British lose.  (Playing very fast and loose with history.  There are some plain silly scenes like the one where President Wilson is being blackmailed with a phony sexy film roll!) The worst was a complete waste of 20 minutes or more with Rhys Ifans playing a highly improbable and totally disgusting Rasputin. The real Rasputin, bad as he was, was a choir boy in comparison.  That whole part of the movie could have been edited out with no loss to the story (such as it is).  Most of the action takes place in the last twenty minutes and is fairly well done.  But, I was very disappointed in this one and didn’t feel it kept to the spirit of the first two.  If you must see it, wait until it is streaming, no use throwing your money away.

Shazam!

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I am always a little suspicious about a  movie that feels the need to add an exclamation point to its title.  That usually screams ‘we didn’t make a very good movie and we hope this exclamation mark will make you ignore the buzz and see it anyway.’  Well, I am  not exactly right, nor am I exactly wrong.  This is after all a DC Universe movie, and we all know they just aren’t as good (with few exceptions) as Marvel movies.  This one wasn’t bad though.  In fact, if you have kids, this is a decent super hero movie to get their nerdy juices flowing.  Shazam is an ancient wizard (Djimon Hounsou) who transfers his super powers to fourteen year old Billy Batson.  Unfortunately, it’s a desparation move, as he is dying, and just can’t find a better candidate.  Billy is nowhere prepared enough to fill a super hero role!  Equally unfortunate, Shazam doesn’t have time to tell Billy what kind of powers he has or even how to use them.  Billy pretty much accidentally discovers that whenever he says the word ‘Shazam,’ he turns into an adult ( Zachary Levi) , buff, version of himself, while still retaining his teen age mindset.  Billy’s foster brother, Freddie, becomes his enthusiastic sidekick.  A lot of the heart and humor has to do with Shazam trying to figure out his powers – whether he is bullet proof (he is) or has invisibility (he doesn’t) and so on. Of course, there is an evil villian (Mark  Strong),  controlled by the evil spirits of the Seven Deadly Sins, out to destroy the world and only Shazam can stop him.  Compared to some of the other super hero movies (most notably Hell Boy), the violence is comparartively tame.  There is also a strong message about family, and another that will resonate with many kids.  Billy and many of his friends are the victims of bullies.  Even the main villan was bullied as a child.  The positive message is a little obvious at the end, but who cares?  All in all this is a sweet super hero movie that you can take your whole family to see.