Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

Cruella

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Apple Rating:

There has been a continuing trend these days in television and movies to make prequels. Cruella is the latest movie to take an old favorite, in this case, 101 Dalmatians, and attempt to give us the back story. I did not hold out high hopes for a live action prequel to one of the lesser Disney animated movies. So, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. Well done to all concerned! Emma Stone is excellent as Estella, a problem causing girl, who was born with two-toned hair and a rather dark side to her personality that she nicknames Cruella. She causes enough difficulties that she and her mother have to head for London – with a stop where her mother hopes for help from a mysterious potential benefactor. Estella manages to get into trouble – again!- and the dogs are set on her. She is eventually orphaned! The story follows Estella as she makes her way to London, where she is befriended by two lovable (and slightly clueless) street urchins a la Oliver Twist. Joel Fry and Paul Walter Hauser play these lovable petty criminals as a kind of Laurel and Hardy. After some clever and comic grifting, Emma, who with her friends is no longer a kid, moves on to pursue a career in fashion, something that was always in her dreams. Estella starts out as a janitor at an upscale clothiers, and is noticed by “THE Barroness,” a very haughty, influential clothing designer. She catches the Baroness’s eye, and favor, and works her way up to assistant before finally branching out to create her own designing company. And she’s ready to take on this Baroness. Enter Cruella! The duels between the two are lively and fierce. Emma Thompson has a field day playing the supremely arrogant and overbearing fashion designer Baroness; who eventually is revealed to be an individual much more cruel than Cruella herself as her rivalry with Estella intensifies. Rounding out the cast is Mark Strong who seems to be a henchman to the Baroness, but turns out to be something else. I wouldn’t be surprised if both Emmas were nominated for awards, their acting is just that good and so captivating! Throw in a great soundtrack, gorgeous costumes, bold effects, two cute dogs and some twists and turns and you have quite a thrilling ride. I strongly urge you to NOT watch this movie on Apple Plus. This is one of those movies that is too big for a mere TV screen. Do yoourself a favor and see this one on a big screen. You won’t be sorry.

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.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

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Colin Firth could read from a phonebook (do they even still have those?) and make it sound high class, but even he wasn’t quite enough to make the “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” a worthy sequel to the first movie, partly because he’s hardly in it in an effective way.  The Golden Circle misses out on being as entertaining as the first one for several reasons.  First of all, why put Jeff Bridges, Halle Berry (two Academy award winning actors), Michael Gambon and Channing Tatum in a movie and not give them much to do?  Their appearances were short lived and inconsequential.  That was very perplexing.  Also, I found Elton John’s story line (he has been kidnapped) rather sad and seedy instead of humorous and campy.  On a positive note, Pedro Pascal, a fan favorite from Game of Thrones, gets to ham it up as an American agent who uses a lasso instead of a gun.  Mark Strong returns and gives the the best performance as “Merlin.” He is the only surviving member (along with Eggsy played by Taron Egerton) of the Kingsman after their headquarters is blown up by  Julianne Moore in a rather unbelievable plot device.  She  is great, as the over-the-top villain named Poppy, an evil pharmaceutical maker (okay, that’s not a stretch)  who also makes a killer hamburger.  This is not a bad movie, in fact, if you loved the original Kingsman, I think you will like this one.   It does have a few laughs and the kind of over-the-top cartoonish violence that you would expect from such a movie.  if you go, you will be entertained, just not as much as you were with the first one!